March 13, 1913. 
LAND AND SEAT ER 
THE WAR BY LAND. 
By HILAIRE BELLOG. 
NOTE.— TUi Artldt ku been inbiamei! to the Prsss Burean, wklch does not object to the pubUc«tl«n u eeoiered, aad fakes m 
responsibility lor the correctaess ot tile itatemeoU. 
la accordance witi tbe reqnirements o! the Press Bureaa, th e positions at troops oa Plans illnitratlgf! thU Article most ouJj b« 
rej^afded as approximate, and oa deflnite stren^tb at any point b indicated. 
iWiwuwMiMyi i jJ i muwm-Mi l i ' 
THE ATTACK ON THE DARDANELLES. 
AS the understanding of the attack upon 
the Dardanelles involves a little study 
of the conditions by land, both upon 
the European and upon the Asiatic 
side, I may perhaps be excused for attempting 
some analysis in this part of the paper of what 
is, in its main features, a naval operation. Who- 
ever designed the method of attack deserves well 
of Europe, and if, as was probably the case, that 
man was an Englishman, this country deserves 
well of Europe, too. For the method of attack is 
not only one that would have been impossible but 
for the recent development of naval gunnery, it is 
also one tliat shows peculiar originality, and its 
success, if it is attained, will largely depend upon 
the power which the latest British men-of-war 
have to attack the forts in the Narrows of the 
Strait by indirect fire from the open sea. 
Tlie Dardanelles are a passage of salt water 
thirty miles in length as the crow flies from their 
ientry to their exit, and somewhat more if the 
slight turnings of its channel be followed. It con- 
sists roughly of two parts, one a sort of funnel, 
reaching from the mouth, which is over four 
thousand yards across, to the Narrows, between 
Chanak and Kilidbahr, where there is less than 
two thousand yards between the Asiatic and the 
European shores, and these Narrows may be 
regarded as forming one continuous belt as far 
north as the lighthouse at Nagara Point. The 
distance to the Narrows from the mouth is just 
over t^^ elve sea miles, or rather more than thirteen 
and a half land miles, and the Narrows themselves, 
from their most restricted part opposite Chanak 
to Nagara, Point, are as near as possible three sea 
miles more; but, as will be seen from the accom- 
panying sketch map, there are in these Narrows 
but two critical points, that of the passage of 
Chanak and that of the passage opposite Nagara 
Point itself, which last is well over two thousand 
yards. Rather more than twenty miles beyond 
Nagara Point, opposite the town of Gallipoli, the! 
Straits broaden out into the Sea of Marmora. 
Upon the European side the Straits are covered 
by a peninsula of land known as the Gallipoli 
peninsula. Its conformation determines all these, 
operations. 
This peninsula is closed to the north by an 
isthmus, known as the Isthmus of Bulair, from the 
town lying immediately beyond it towards the 
mainland, and across this narrow neck of some 
three miles from A to B upon the plan have been 
constructed permanent works with the object of 
defending the peninsula from attack by land and 
from the north. Within the peninsula itself are 
a somewhat confused mass of heights, the higher 
summits upon which are to be found a range wnich 
follows the sea coast along the line C D. The peaks 
of this range at e e e are not far from a thousand 
feet. At / the culminating point is reached in a 
summit of between twelve and thirteen hundred 
feet. 
Of the remaining heights scattered every- 
where along that narrow belt of land I have chosen 
a few, merely as examples; g, for instance, ia 
over eight hundred feet, so is h; k and I are over 
nine hundred feet, and of such summits (varying 
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