Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918Callwell, C. E. (Charles Edward), Sir
History
Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918
Callwell, C. E. (Charles Edward), Sir
World War, 1914-1918 -- Great Britain
It was made plain to me when giving evidence before the Commission
that the Rt. Hon. A. Fisher and Sir T. Mackenzie, its members
representing the Antipodes, considered that there had been great
neglect on the part of the War Office in obtaining information with
regard to the environs of the Dardanelles in advance. But, quite
apart from the peculiar situation created by the decision of the
Committee of Imperial Defence, there must have been serious
difficulties in obtaining such information about the Gallipoli
Peninsula--only those who have had experience in such matters know how
great the difficulties are. Intelligence service in peace time is a
subject of which the average civilian does not understand the meaning
nor realize the dangers. The Commission, which included experts in
such matters in the shape of Admiral Sir W. May and Lord Nicholson,
made no comment on this point in its final Report, evidently taking
the broad view that the lack of information was, under all the
circumstances of the case, excusable. In his special Report, Sir T.
Mackenzie on the other hand blames the Imperial General Staff for
being "unprepared for operations against the Dardanelles and
Bosphorus," obviously having the question of information in his mind,
as he must be perfectly well aware that the planning of actual
operations was just as much a matter for the Admiralty as for the
General Staff, the whole problem being manifestly an amphibious one.
As a matter of fact, considering the kind of place that the Gallipoli
Peninsula was, and taking into consideration the extreme jealousy with
which the Turks, quite properly from their point of view, had always
regarded the appearance of strangers in that well-watched region, the
information contained in the secret official publications which the
Mediterranean Expeditionary Force took out with it was by no means to
be despised. All but one of the landing places actually utilized on
the famous 25th of April were, I think, designated in these booklets,
and that one was unsuitable for landing anything but infantry. A great
deal of the information proved to be perfectly correct, and a good
deal more of it might have proved to be correct had the Expeditionary
Force ever penetrated far enough into the interior of the Peninsula to
test it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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