The Children's Story of the War Volume 4 (of 10): The Story of the Year 1915Parrott, Edward
History
The Children's Story of the War Volume 4 (of 10): The Story of the Year 1915
Parrott, Edward
World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile literature
You have already gathered that the peninsula is difficult to traverse
even in times of peace; the few dwellers on it make most of their
journeys from point to point by water. Except in a few valleys, there
are no cultivated fields; and save for a few cypress and olive groves,
the whole peninsula consists of bare or scrub-covered hills and ravines
filled with jungle. Amidst the rocks flourish many strange and beautiful
flowers. Water is scarce, and the villages and hamlets are few and far
between.
Look again at the map on page 168, and follow the track which runs from
Cape Helles northward through the village of Krithia and over the Achi
Baba ridge. A branch of this track leads, as you see, across the Kilid
Bahr plateau. On the western coast just north of Gaba Tepe you will
observe a track which meets the track from Krithia. General Ian Hamilton
proposed to land a force on the tip of the peninsula, and another force
near Gaba Tepe. These forces were to fight their way forward until the
left wing of the southern army came into touch with the right wing of
the northern army. Then the united armies would advance on to the Kilid
Bahr plateau, from which our big guns would be able to destroy the
European forts at the Narrows. When these were reduced we should be in a
position to attack the forts on the Asiatic side at short range, and if
all went well, our ships would be able to dash through and, in the
course of a day or two, train their guns on Constantinople.
The first business was to put our troops ashore. The line of high yellow
cliffs fringing the sea was carefully surveyed, and note was taken of
every place where a landing was possible. A glance at the bird's-eye
view shows you clearly that good beaches are rare. On the map (page 168)
you will see various spots marked by capital letters round the tip of
the peninsula. Just south of Cape Tekke, where you see the letter W,
there is a small sandy bay, and half a mile north of it a break in the
cliffs marked X. Three and a half miles further up the coast (Y) there
is a scrub-covered gully, and eastwards of W there is another sandy
beach (V), about three hundred yards across. Round the corner, still
further eastwards, is Morto Bay, with a small beach (S) commanded by the
guns of Kum Kale. On these beaches General Hamilton decided to land his
southern army. The northern army was to be put ashore to the north of
Gaba Tepe, where the sandstone cliffs recede a little from the water's
edge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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