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Night falls, and darkness envelops the entire Turkish Empire. [][]. [].] In a luxurious villa outside Constantinople, but the lights were on. Enverpasha, the great dictator of the Young Turks, frowned and was discussing with the Minister of the Interior, Talat Pasha, the Minister of the Navy, and the Constantinople Police Chief, Gemar Pasha, about how to deal with the British fleet, and the three of them were ready to abandon Constantinople.

The head of the German military mission to Constantinople, Turkey, von Murphy. Sanders, who also attended this important meeting, expressed his disagreement with the Abandonment of Constantinople by the Turks so that the British and Russians could unite the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, which would be a disaster for the Central Powers.

Turkish Admiral Jemar Pasha said: "Now that the German High Seas Fleet has been blockaded by the British Navy, it is impossible to come to Turkey's aid, and to fight with the fleet of the British Royal Navy is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg." ”

Feng. Sanders said: "Although the German high seas fleet will not come, the German submarines will still come to the aid of the Turks." ”

Enver replied to von. Sanders said: "I absolutely believe in the power of German submarines. However, you know that the defense of the Dardanelles is very fragile, and the two arsenals along the coast of Turkey, near Constantinople, are exposed to the close-range flat fire of the battleships. If the British attacked, their fleet would be able to pass through the Dardanelles without difficulty, a successful landing at any point on the Gallipoli Peninsula would be possible, and it would be easier to capture the strait with land forces. ”

Feng. Sanders shook his head. "But we also have our advantages, the Gallipoli Peninsula is almost barren mountainous and there is only one dirt road running through the island," he said. Ridges and steep slopes overlooking the waterfront provide excellent defensive positions. And the Dardanelles never froze, its two-way currents, the direction of the winds and the fierce storms, coupled with the mines, made it difficult for the British fleet to sail. ”

Enver listens to von. Sanders had a point, but he really didn't have the courage to fight the British fleet, the army he commanded. Even the Italian and Tsarist armies could not fight, let alone the well-armed British and French ** teams. Enver still wanted to find some excuses, but von. Sanders said in a non-negotiable tone: "Constantinople was not just a military target. It was also the only access to the Russian Black Sea ports, and a convenient communication point with the British allies in the East. The Turkish army has already been defeated in the Caucasus, and if Constantinople is abandoned again, I think Turkey is really not qualified and worthy to be friends with the German Empire again. ”

Feng. In Sanders' words. Clearly threatening tone. As soon as Enver's Young Turks abandoned Constantinople, the German allies would abandon him. Now married to the Sultan's daughter, Enver lives with her every day in the luxurious Prime Minister's villa, playing all sorts of exciting Arab games, and he is terrified of losing everything he has. But Enville really didn't have the courage to lead his troops to fight the British and French fleets, so he made excuses and made an excuse to von . "I've been in bad health lately," Sanders said. If Germany feels it necessary to hold Constantinople, then all the Turkish people will be happy to serve you. ”

The Turkish people are a very vague word. Feng. When Sanders heard this, he asked, "What do you mean?" ”

"I mean the Turkish army," Enver said. It can be handed over to your command. ”

The Minister of the Interior, Talat Pasha, and the Minister of the Navy, Jemar Pasha, both found it inconceivable when they heard this. They objected, and Enver scolded, "Shut up, do you have a better way?" You have the ability to do it yourself! ”

Feng. Sanders also couldn't laugh or cry, Enver was willing to give up the command of the Turkish army for the sake of his position. But he's happy to take on the job. Because he was also suspicious of Enver's command ability. So, in 4 weeks, he formed a Dardanelles defense force of about 84,000 men in 6 Turkish divisions.

Fortunately, during this month, the Anglo-French fleet, commanded by Carden, the acting commander of the British Mediterranean detachment, did not attack Constantinople, although it had the new "Queen Elizabeth" equipped with fifteen-inch cannons. Because Carden believed that without the support of the army, a storming of the Dardanelles would be too costly.

At first, both Carden and Churchill thought that if the British and French fleets rushed into the Sea of Marmara, the fighting spirit of the Turkish army would disappear, and they would be frightened to surrender, but it was not until Carden suddenly fell ill and handed over command to the deputy commander of the fleet, John. Drobek, the Turks in the von Drobeck, the Turks in von. Under the command of Sanders, there was no sign of surrender. Moreover, the Turkish Navy has planted nine additional minefields in the waters off the Gallipoli peninsula.

At that time, the British ** ships were not capable of night warfare, and at night, all the warships had to retreat to safe waters and concentrate, and the Turkish army took the opportunity to re-lay mines. This led to a very comical scene on the battlefield: during the day, the British minesweepers had just swept out a clean water, and at night, the Turkish Navy secretly threw in a pile of "garbage cans" (at that time mines resembled garbage cans on the streets of the city). So, the advance of the British fleet was rather slow.

Churchill kept sending telegrams urging Carden to attack the Dardanelles. On 15 March, the British Admiralty telegraphed to Fleet Commander Carden that he must penetrate the depths of the Dardanelles in three days.

At this point, Carden felt that he could not take any chances, and he claimed that he was seriously ill and could not command the fleet. Churchill telegraphed a British warship to send Carden to Greece to recuperate, and handed over command of the fleet to Drobek, the deputy commander of the main fleet.

Drobek ordered the fleet to re-attack on 18 March. Previously, the Dardanelles Strait had been repeatedly swept by British minesweepers, and he believed that there were no mines within five miles of the strait.

However, Drobek did not know that in the middle of the night on March 7, a small Turkish steamboat "Nuslet" unwittingly dived into the waters where the British and French fleets had just stayed in the morning, dropped 26 mines into the sea, and then quietly left.

On the morning of March 18, the sun was shining in the Dardanelles, and the sea breeze blew away the weapons at sea. The offensive has begun! Sixteen British and French capital ships lined up and opened fire on Turkish fortifications on both sides of the strait.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

This formidable Anglo-French fleet bombarded the fortress of the Turkish shore artillery. In particular, the "Queen Elizabeth" Super Dreadnought-class battleship, armed with a fifteen-inch (about 381 mm) caliber cannon. All powered by oil-fired boilers, with a speed of more than 25 knots, the weight of shells fired in a salvo of 8 15-inch guns, and more than 10 13.5-inch guns. Moreover, the Queen Elizabeth has increased the elevation angle of the main gun to improve the firing range, and the firepower is large, with a muzzle velocity of 785 m/s, and a long firing range. The Turkish shore fortresses were bombarded to a pulp.

In the afternoon, the harsh sun covered the waters of the Dadar Strait, and the battlefield at sea gradually fell silent. The Anglo-French fleet dumbed out most of the shore artillery of the Turks.

The wind was calm, and a dozen ships of the fleet sailed towards Constantinople. Standing on the deck of the Super Dreadnought battleship "Queen Elizabeth", the pleasant sea breeze blowing, his mind was already imagining the scene of entering the palace of Constantinople. He was thinking. In the Turkish Imperial Palace, the Sultan's treasures must be no less than those in the Old Summer Palace.

Suddenly, the British battleship "Bowey" shook violently, and the bottom of the battleship cracked, spewing high columns of smoke and flames from the deck.

Colonel Calcy, the captain of the "Bowey", sent a signal to Drobeck: Report, the "Bowey" has been attacked! Two minutes later, it capsized as it continued to drive, sinking to the bottom of the sea with its captain and 639 navy men.

Drobeck is basking in the joy of victory. Not realizing that it was the Turks who had planted the mines, he immediately ordered the fleet to save them. On the one hand, it was strictly checked whether the "Bouvet was attacked by German submarines or Turkish artillery fire".

The few survivors who floated up were rescued. Observers from nearby warships believe that the Bouvet was hit by a Turkish shell; It is also believed that it hit a mine.

Drabeck was furious: "Didn't our minesweepers just sweep through this sea area?" ”

Believing that the remnants of Turkish artillery on the shore had done a good job, Drobek ordered the fleet, seeing the Turkish positions with flashes of artillery fire, to immediately replenish the shelling.

So the British and French battleships fired another round of heavy shelling, which lasted about two hours. By 4 p.m., all the artillery groups on the shore of the Turks were scorched and devoid of people. Drobeck ordered the fleet to move on, before the sun set over the sea, to the port of Constantinople.

While the fleet was moving, the British battleships "Irresistible" and "Ocean" were also damaged by mines, and the British battleships "Indomitable" and "Agamemnon" and the French battleship "Gaul" were also heavily damaged.

Drobeck ordered a search for German submarines in the nearby seas, but to no avail, only to realize that it was Turkish mines that were doing the bad. Fearing another mishap, he ordered all surviving ships to return to the Mediterranean. When the fleet crossed the exit of the Dardanelles, the hulls of the three British battleships were broken due to the explosion of mines, and they could only stagger away. It was a sad day for the British and French fleets, with 1,273 naval dead and 647 wounded.

The British and French navies lost four or five warships, more than a thousand naval casualties, and it was in the battle with the weakened Turkey that the news reached the British War Council. British Field Marshal Kitchener had doubts that Churchill's navy would be able to take Constantinople alone, when Drobeck also sent a telegram asking for support from the British Army.

Kitchener said: "Now I am more convinced of my idea that we should send the army to Constantinople. ”

Churchill did not admit defeat, he bit a nanmu pipe, insisted that the navy return to the battlefield, and immediately went back to attack Constantinople, he estimated that the Turkish army was running out of shells and mines. In fact, the same is true, in the entire theater of operations in the straits, the Turks have less than 30 armor-piercing shells left, and the mines are exhausted. Turkish Prime Minister Nver is ready to move.

However, British Field Marshal Kitchener and Prime Minister Asquith already did not trust Churchill's judgment. British Field Marshal Kitchener told Prime Minister Asquith: "I don't think we can support a plan that even the commander of the forward fleet finds difficult to execute." ”

"Churchill, if you insist on naval combat, I suggest that we attack both sea and land." Prime Minister Asquith said. He also felt that it was necessary to send the British Army, so he agreed with the members of the War Council present to change the original naval battle plan and send the army troops to land on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and the navy was relegated to a secondary position. During the Boer War, Ian Brown, who served as Chief of Staff to Lord Kitchener, was Chief of Staff of Lord Kitchener. General Hamilton was selected to command the British Army.

The War Council adopted the resolution by a show of hands by four votes to one, and Churchill had nothing to say.

The War Council did not draw up a specific battle plan, and Hamilton received only cursory instructions to land on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The Gallipoli Peninsula was sixty miles long and four to thirteen miles wide, almost entirely a barren and mountainous strip, and in 1909 there was only one dirt road running through the island, and the ridges and steep slopes overlooking the coast provided excellent defensive positions.

The British General Hamilton, who did not know what to do about where to land, knew nothing about the place, found a copy of the Turkish Army Drill Code, an incomplete map of the area of operations, and a Constantinople travel guide that he had bought at the last minute from the local bookstore, and left London.

Hamilton led an army of about 80,000 men, mainly Australian and New Zealand troops, as well as a French division and Indian troops. Troop and German von The 84,000-strong Turkish Fifth Army commanded by Sanders was about the same.

At this time, Turkey's old enemy, the neutral Greece (the dispute between Turkey and Greece, including the Cyprus question, continues to this day), learned of the British army's preparation to attack Constantinople, and was overjoyed, and volunteered to send three divisions to attack Gallipoli and attack Monarch Tancibo from the west.

Greece and Turkey are directly bordered, and the European part of Turkey is connected to the northeastern part of Greece. Once the Greeks sent troops, the Turks were defeated on many fronts. Moreover, after Greece sent troops, Italy may also join the Entente, after all, Italy has also coveted the territory of the Turks for a long time.

However, when Russia heard that Greece was going to send troops, it jumped out and vehemently opposed it, because according to the agreement between Russia and England and France, Constantinople was to be returned to Russia, and the Grand Duke of Russia sent a telegram to the British War Council: he would rather lose everything than risk Greece to get his hands on Turkish territory.

Britain also needed Russian cannon fodder to contain the German army on the Eastern Front, so it had to give up and order Hamilton to lead the army to act alone. However, Hamilton hastily accepted the order, and did not know whether Gallipoli had fresh water, so he ordered his soldiers to go to the markets of Alexandria and Cairo to collect empty oil drums, gasoline drums, skins, and any other containers, and to bring plenty of fresh water, for he had the impression that the island would be short of fresh water. Moreover, the army lacked weapons and tools for trench warfare, improvised military factories produced mortars, grenades, trenching tools, and periscopes, and there were almost no roads in the area, so the British Expeditionary Force had to requisition local donkey men and their livestock, and use donkey carts for transportation. And the Turkish army, during the 48-day respite after the retreat of the fleet, was led by the German von . General Sanders commanded and stationed at the predicted landing site of the British troops. Moreover, in the preparation for the war, a little-known figure in Turkey at that time, Mustafa . Kemal. Colonel Atatürk (the founding father of modern Turkey in history), helped Sanders command the Turkish army.

The British navy and army, which had absolute superiority in firepower, were slaughtering Turkey at the same time, and what would be the fate of the Turks, who had a huge disparity in strength? Will the Turkish Al-Shabaab Lose the Party and the Country? (To be continued......)