Meanwhile the British admiralty, under the leadership of Mr. Winston Churchill, launched the attack on the Dardanelles, which began as a naval affair. The controversy respectuig this attack has engaged the pens of many critics, none of whom have so far been able to show that the step was wisely taken. Coatantinople is 175 miles from the Xgean Sea, approach being first by the DardaneIles, 50 Miles, thence across the Sea of Marmora, 115 miles, and thence up the Bosporus 10 miles. The first of these passages varies from three-quarters of a mile to five miles vride. The shores of the straits are generally high and forts and bat teries were placed at favorable points. The narrowest part, called the Narrows, is 14 miles from the entrance. The main defenses were here, although there were strong forts at the en trance. The current in this part of the straits was strong, reaching four knots an. hour when the wind favored, and it enabled the Turks to send down drifting mines with serious effects. For the military capacity of the Turks the Brit ish and French authorities had little respect, and the British thought in the autumn of 1914 that it would be easy to force the Dardanelles and hold the entire passage to the Black Sea. If that could be done the vast stores of grain in southem Russia would be delivered to the hungry Allied peoples, and the moral effect would be good upon Bulgaria, Rumania and Greece, who still hesitated between neutrality and actual support of Germany. The French and British did not take into account the great change the Germans had made in the Ottoman army. Under General Liman von Sanders it had been reorganized and drilled into an ex cellent defensive force with more than 200,000 tnen in the capital. German engineers had re paired the forts along the Dardanelles, mounted improved Krupp cannon and had trained men to serve them under the direction of German superior officers. More than this, an ample supply of munitions was accumulated m Con stantinople, carried thither by means of the railroad through Rumania and Bulg-aria. These forts, strongly held and defended, would have to be demolished before the Allied fleet could appear at Constantinople, where, it was be lieved, the terrified Turks would immerlig: sue for mercy. All this was to happen th the sole efforts of the wavy, without the co operation of even a moderate land force. The scheme seems to have originated with Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admirahy, who was sure of its feasibility. It appears, moreover, that no technical navy man ventured to point ont how difficult it was to destroy strong and well-defended land batteries with naval artillery.
The attack began on 19 Feb..1915, and lasted until the middle of April. It falb into three periods: first, the attacic on the outer forts, at the entrance of the straits; second, the attadc on the Narrows; and third, the period of desul tory fighting that followed bere the attack was renewed as a land attack with naval co operation. During the first phase affairs pro gressed favorably. It MIS opened 19 February by five British and three French battle.ships, covered by destroyers, the chief command being with Vice-Admiral Carden assisted by Rear Admiral Guil-pratte. After a day's bombardment the Turkish forts were still firing, but the work was renewed on the 25th, after an interval of bad weather. In this clay's business the British
used the super-dreadnought, Queen Elizabeth, just from the hands of the makers, whose eight 15-inch guns made her, with her four com panions of the same class, the most powerful fighting engines on the seas. The result was to prove eventually that she had her limitations when fighting against land defenses. But her service was good on the 25th and at the end of the day the outer defenses of the Dardanelles had been silenced. On the 26th the mine sweepers were sent into the straits and cleared the waters so that several of the attacking skips went in and bombarded the works along the banks and below the Narrows. • To die people at home it seemed that the task of forcing the straits had begun auspiciously; but the main Turkish defenses at the Narrows had not been reached. When the attacking battleships approached this position they were in a restricted channel and not able to lie dis persed as when they were on the ./Egean. They were also in the current, and thus huddled tog-ether invited attack by drifting mines. Oa 6 March the approach on the Narrows began, and in five days the fortifications just below them were reduced. On 18 March came the main assault. Sixteen battleships, one of them the Queen Elkabeth, were sent into the straits, and a concentrated fire was poured upon the forts on each side of the position. After an hour and a half these did not return the fire. It was concluded that they were destroyed, and a squadron was ordered forward, when all the forts reopened fire. At the same time it was discovered that the current was full of drifting mines, loosened by the Turks at this opportune time when they could hardly fail to find victims. First sunk was the French battleship Bouvet. An hour and a half later the British battleship Irresktibk was strucic by another mine and sank. Later on the Ocean, another British battleship, encountered a mine and sank in a few minutes. At sunset the commanders were forced to adrnit failure and withdrew from the strait& They did not renew the attempt in the same manner, but for a month kept up desultory attacks on such forts as were within range from the lEgean and the lower reaches vessel must not be sunk if the crew and passen gers. were not saved, since it would always be possible to save them on a cruiser. As regards the submarine the case was otherwise. It could not take such persons aboard, and in many cases the attack to succeed must be so quick that it would not be safe to wait while boats were being manned. In the absence of any rule on the subject Germany undertook to make her own rule, and it was wholly in her favor. She torpedoed. enemy merchantmen on sight, with out warrung or waiting to allow the lowering of boats. Declaring the British ports blocicaded by submarines, she claimed the right of sinking neutral ships found in the forbidden waters, without examining their papers to see whither they were bound or what they carried. The submarine was a new instrument in warfare, and it was to be expected that Germany would desire some lcind of a modification of the rules of naval warfare in regard to its use; but the position she took transcended the ordinary con cept of blocicade as much as it violated the sense of huma.nity which is fundamental to the prog ress of international law.