State Library of NSW
[Page 161]
mature consideration, changed his mind and decided that only a joint naval and military attack was practicable.The exact measure of responsibility which each party must bear in the tragedy of the Dardanelles cannot yet be settled. But the facts underlying the naval attack are simple and the merest tyro can understand them. We attempted a most difficult operation, as usual underestimating our opponents and without any adequate information on the essential points.
We persisted in our effort, even when none of the conditions precedent for forcing the Narrows - of which the experts based their consent - were fulfilled. In consequence, we got a fair and square beating at which we cannot complain. We went all out on March 18th. There were no half measures. How many Englishmen would have slept soundly in their beds that night had they known that our latest and greatest Dreadnought, the Queen Elizabeth, was a long way up the Straits throughout the whole of the 18th amongst drifting mines, one of which actually knocked out the Inflexible, of the same division, and on the same alignment off Aran Koi.
Yours faithfully,
E. Ashmead Bartlett
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