57 – The Appearance of Gallipoli (2)
The Allied fleet mobilized three battle cruisers, six dreadnoughts, and eleven pre-dreadnought battleships.
The fleet dropped anchor in Alexandria and reached the Dardanelles Strait in just eight days. Due to the slow-moving accompanying ships, the overall speed of the fleet slowed down, causing unavoidable delays.
On January 29th, when the expeditionary force revealed itself in the northwest of the Anatolian Peninsula, an alarm was also spread to the Gallipoli Peninsula.
And in just one day, the expeditionary fleet reached the entrance of their target, the Dardanelles Strait.
“They are the British bastards!”
“What, there are so many fleets?”
The overwhelming grandeur of the expeditionary fleet with its powerful combat power immediately struck fear into the hearts of the Ottoman soldiers. Behind the battleships that filled the horizon, there were destroyers, cruisers, transport ships, troll fishing boats, and supply ships following closely.
While the British celebrated their victory, they also worried about the absence of the army, fearing that it would increase the damage.
Admiral Sackville Carden, the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, personally directed the battle from the bridge of HMS Queen Elizabeth.
Leading the charge were the destroyers.
“Open fire!”
The Ottoman army opened their gunports towards the British destroyers that were conducting reconnaissance operations.
As heavy artillery shells poured down like hail, the destroyers immediately retreated.
Although two battleships bombarded the fortress from a distance, the results were insignificant.
“The accuracy is too low!”
After conducting the first reconnaissance mission to confirm the Ottoman army’s defensive posture, the combined fleet decided to deploy a number of battleships for bombardment.
“Commence fire from the first reconnaissance division!”
As the admiral’s order was issued, the leading battleships opened their main guns. The large ships equipped with heavy artillery fired relentlessly, subjecting the forts of Sedd-el-Bahr and Kum Kale to intense bombardment.
“Our cannons won’t do anything to them.”
The Ottoman artillery officers huddled, waiting for the enemy’s attack to pass, trying to avoid the British artillery fire.
There were sporadic counterattacks from some gun emplacements, but the resistance was futile.
When one shell came flying, dozens of heavy artillery shells flew back, reducing the gun emplacements to rubble.
As the expeditionary fleet neutralized the gun emplacements and moved forward, the Royal Marines landed and launched an assault on the forts.
“Long live the King!”
The British Royal Marines approached the coast with their vigorous formation.
On the hill, the Ottoman Army, led by General Osman, awaited the Chamsan ship.
“These crazy bastards. Where do they think they are?”
Nevertheless, the British Marines skillfully broke through the defensive line. It was thanks to the Ottoman soldiers taking advantage of the momentary panic caused by their artillery fire.
The Marines advanced straight to the Sedef El Bah Fortress and waved the Union Jack.
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While intense battles raged on land and sea, Admiral Roger Keyes commanded the pioneering fleet, conducting mine clearance operations.
The mine clearance unit, consisting of armed trawlers, boldly entered the strait and deployed their nets amidst the exchange of fire between the two forces.
“No room for mistakes in this operation. A single missed mine could sink an entire battleship. Search thoroughly, and search again.”
The Admiral shouted to the crew on the trawlers, standing tall and resolute.
The Ottoman Army couldn’t simply stand by and watch, but the overwhelming firepower of the expeditionary fleet posed a problem.
It took only a few minutes for the gun emplacements to be neutralized once the shelling began.
“More trivial than I thought. Perhaps the Army wasn’t even necessary, as the Minister said.”
It seemed unnecessary for the Marines to land at all.
Even the destroyers felt relaxed in such an easy fight.
“They said mines were scattered everywhere, but I don’t see a single damn thing.”
The first attack by the expeditionary fleet was satisfying in itself.
Upon receiving the report from the expeditionary force, Chil raised his fist and exclaimed.
“Look at this. Wasn’t I right?”
At the moment when Chil was celebrating with his comrades, the Ottoman Army took advantage of the confusion and prepared for battle.
“Keep attacking.”
The Ottoman Imperial Navy’s mine-laying ship, Nusrat, daringly approached the British forces and laid mines once again in the “cleared area.” The British, intoxicated by their victory, remained oblivious to this fact.
On land, the work of repairing damaged artillery positions was in full swing.
“Give them 6 hours for artillery preparation.”
The Ottoman soldiers sweated profusely as they repaired the crumbling fortifications. The shockwaves from the bombardment had caused significant damage to the sand fortifications, and in some areas, they had to use shovels to clear away the dirt.
The colonel anxiously looked at his watch.
“We must begin the attack before sunrise.”
Once dawn broke, it would be too late for everything.
As the colonel anxiously waited for the attack preparations, he received a report that the “work” was complete.
It was 4 o’clock in the morning.
“Not too late.”
The colonel wiped away his sweat and ordered the start of the attack.
Boom!
Suddenly, a 360mm heavy shell struck the battleship Invisible. This single blow was devastating for the relatively weakly defended battleship. The British admirals who witnessed this scene were astonished.
“Artillery fire? How did those heavy coastal guns survive?”
The British believed they had subdued all the coastal guns in the area beforehand.
It was a miscalculation.
A significant portion of the fortresses they believed they had destroyed was still intact within the sand fortifications.
The fleet turned into a field of destruction in an instant. The ships tried to avoid the bombardment by increasing the distance between them, but it was futile.
Large searchlights on both sides of the strait illuminated the allied fleet so clearly that it seemed to set them on fire.
“Take out the lights first!”
Admiral Carden hastily decided to eliminate the lights. Although the Invisible had turned the tables with its own bombardment, the damage was not unbearable.
“Let the Dreadnoughts join the bombardment!”
Even the Dreadnoughts, who had been idling in the rear, received the order to fire, targeting Queen Elizabeth.
Due to the exchange of fire from both sides, the surroundings of the Gallipoli Peninsula would intermittently light up with flashes, despite the dimness of the early morning.
The bombardment from the expeditionary fleet was powerful, but unlike during the day, it lacked accuracy.
On the other hand, the Ottoman army, having pre-set coordinates, only needed to fire their cannons accordingly, so despite the disadvantage in firepower, they were not at all inferior.
As the artillery duel between the two sides reached its climax, the French battleship Suffren, which was attempting to change position to neutralize enemy batteries, came into contact with a mine.
Boom!
“We, we have contact with a mine! Estimated damage is severe!”
“What? A mine?”
Clearly, Admiral Carden felt bewildered when the battleship made contact with a mine in an area that had supposedly been cleared of mines.
The losses did not end with just the Suffren.
“Battleship Bouvet, contact with a mine!”
Of all things, the losses from the mines concentrated on the French battleships.
“Message from the French fleet. They will disregard the signal of ceasefire.”
“Damn frog bastards.”
The British Navy had nothing to say about the French decision to turn on searchlights and search for mine-laying vessels.
What good would searchlights do when the battleships were dying from mines?
When the French fleet turned on their searchlights, the accuracy of the bombardment became even higher. More ships than before were hit by shells and emitted black smoke. Since most of the battleships used coal as fuel, once they were hit, there was no way to avoid fires.
Admiral Carden, who belatedly realized that it was not easy to assess the situation in the darkness of dawn and the smoke emitted by the battleships, made a decision.
“Send a signal for the entire fleet to retreat. We will withdraw from the Dardanelles.”
“Yes? But, Your Highness, the superior’s instruction was to break through the strait.”
“The field commander is me! Not that fat pig.”
The admiral sent a signal flare ordering the entire fleet to retreat, annoyed.
Soon, the Anglo-French Allied Fleet began to withdraw, emitting black smoke and leading the heavily damaged battleships.
As the dawn mist brightened, the retreat of the expeditionary force became evident.
“We cannot hand over the Supré to the enemy. Dispose of it with torpedoes.”
“Yes? Are you referring to our allied ships?”
“So, are you determined to give the warships to those Ottoman bastards as a gift?”
The Anglo-French Allied Fleet tormented the unrecovered friendly combat ships with torpedoes, sinking them.
In the place where the Anglo-French fleet departed, the remnants of the battleships destroyed in the dawn battle and the unrecovered corpses floated abundantly.
Of course, the losses of the Ottoman Army were not insignificant either.
In just two artillery battles, more than a thousand casualties occurred.
Considering the fortified positions and favorable terrain, the damage inflicted on the Ottoman Army was not small.
After the battle ended, General Zanders came out to the scene to inspect the damage.
“We were lucky. It’s a good thing we managed to hold them off with this level of loss.”
“If it’s just once.”
“Do you think the British will give up Gallipoli with just this one defeat, Colonel?”
Zanders knew how persistent the British were.
Even in Afghanistan and Sudan, where thousands of British troops were killed by rebels, didn’t they continue their expeditions until they finally surrendered?
There was no surrender in the British dictionary. The British were the kind of people who were willing to endure any sacrifice to achieve their goals. That’s how they built the largest empire in the world.
“We won’t give up easily. But if we consider a confrontation with the German Empire, we need to minimize the loss of our main fleet, don’t we?”
It was a fact that Britain, like its biggest rival, the German Navy, needed to avoid losing its main fleet as long as it remained formidable.
The problem was that the British Navy had overwhelming superiority.
The British Navy maintained a larger force than the combined forces of the second-ranked German Navy and the third-ranked US Navy.
Taking into account the auxiliary fleet, the total tonnage of the British Navy was 2.2 times that of Germany. With such power, Britain had no reason to fear the loss of a few battleships.
“The British don’t operate that way. It was the same in the Boer War. Everyone thought that when Britain faced a setback, they would simply withdraw with some losses. But what were the results?”
To crush the 70,000 Boer troops, Britain deployed 450,000 troops. And that wasn’t enough—they forcibly interned all the Boer civilians.
In an unwinnable fight, Britain fights more fiercely than any other country.
This fight was one of those fights.
“Britain won’t abandon Russia. If they did, they would have to bear the burden up to the mainland.”
“Do you think they will definitely come back, General?”
“In a very short time.”
Zanders foresaw Britain’s counterattack.
“We’re going to get even busier for a while.”
“That’s right.”
Zanders and the Lieutenant Colonel looked down at the Dardanelles Strait where the expeditionary fleet had withdrawn.
Yesterday’s enemy was undoubtedly formidable, but the enemy that would come next would undoubtedly be even more formidable.
How many casualties would they have to suffer then?
One hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand?
It was an unknown matter.
But one thing was certain.
The Strait of Dardanelles would not be breached until the fall of the Russian Empire.