Item 02: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett articles on the Gallipoli campaign, 1915 - Page 148

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[Page 148]

and Gaulois, whilst the Vengeance, Cornwallis, Suffren and Charlemagne working in pairs were ordered to run in to 3000 yards range and engage the forts with their secondary armament, endeavouring to knock out the guns with direct hits. The Triumph and Albion also took part. The result of this bombardment was to silence all the Turkish forts at Helles, Seddul Bahr and Kume Kale. But when Marines were landed at Seddul Bahr on the following day the actual material damage was found to be extremely small. The interior of the works had hardly suffered and it was found necessary to blow up the guns with guncotton.

The attempted landing of Marines at Kume Kale for a similar purpose on March 4th was repulsed. The net result of these operations against the outer works was to prove this; that although these reinforced earthworks might be smothered by shell fire and the gunners driven to their bombproofs, under highly favourable conditions, yet the actual material damage inflicted by ships' shells was relatively unimportant unless a direct hit was scored on the gun. Thus up to this point there was nothing to encourage great hope for the future.

Now we come to the all important interval between the fall of the outer works on February 25th, and the great battle fought on March 18th, which resulted so disastrously for us. It would take up too much of your valuable space to describe all the operations during this period in detail, but certain events must be noted. The silencing and destruction of the outer works enabled minesweepers to enter the

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