August 2 2, 19 1 8 
Land & Water 
VicA' of the Dardanelles 
The closing of this Strait in 1914 isolated Russia from her allies, led to the 
defeat of the Russian armies in 19 15, and ultimately caused the collapse of the 
Russian Empire and the strengthening of Germany on the Western front. 
orders for an attack on the Dardanelles. It is no longer a 
secret that there was no unanimous confidence in the success 
of such an undertaking. Admiral Garden recorded his 
belief that the Strait "coulcj not be rushed, but that extended 
operations with a large number of ships might succeed." 
The penalty of failure, he added, would be the great loss 
that England would suffer in prestige and influence in the 
East ; how true this prophecy proved I shall have occasion 
to show. Up to this time one of the fundamental and gen- 
erally accepted axioms of naval operations had been that war- 
ships should not attempt to attack fixed land fortifications. 
But the Germans had demonstrated the power of mobile guns 
against fortresses in their destruction of the emplacements 
at Li6ge and Namur, and there was a belief income quarters 
in England that these events had modified this naval principle. 
Mr. Churchill, at that time at the head of the Admiralty, 
placed great confidence in the destructive power of a nCw 
super-dreadnought which had just been finished^ — the 
Queen Elizabeth — and which was then on its way to join the 
Mediterranean Fleet. 
We in Constantinople knew nothing about these delibera- 
tions then, but' the result became apparent in the latter 
part of February. On the afternoon of the -nineteenth, 
Pallavicini, the Austrian Ambassador, came to me with 
important news. The Marquis was a man of great personal 
dignity, yet it was apparent that he was this day exceedingly 
nervous, and, indeed, he made no attempt to conceal his 
apprehension. The Allied Fleets, he said, had re-opened 
their attack on the Dardanelles, and this time their bom- 
bardment had been extremely ferocious. At that time 
things were going badly for the Austrjans; the Russiai* 
Armies were advancing victoriously ; Serbia hkd hurled 
the Austrians over the frontier, and the European Press 
was filled with prognostica- 
tions of the break-up of the 
Austrian EJmpire. Palla- 
vicini's attitude this after- 
noon was a perfect reflection 
of the dangers that were then 
encompassing his country. 
He was a sensitive and proud 
man ; proud of his Emperor 
and proud of what he re- 
farded as the great Austro- 
lungarian Empire ; and he 
now appeared to be overbur- 
dened by the fear that this 
extensive Hapsburg fabric, 
which had withstood the 
assaults of so many centuries, 
was rapidly being over- 
whelmed with ruin. Like 
most human beings, Palla- 
vicini yearned for sympathy ; 
he could obtain none from 
Wangenheim, who seldom 
took him into his confidence 
and consistently treated him 
as the representative of a. 
nation that was compelled to 
submit to the overlordship of 
Germany. Perhaps that was 
the reason why the Austrian 
Ambassador used to come so 
frequently and pour out his 
heart to me. And now this 
Allied bombardment of the 
Dardanelles came as the cul- 
mination of all his troubles. 
At this time the Central 
Powers believed that they 
had Russia bottled up ; that, 
because they had sealed the 
Dardanelles, she could neither 
get her wheat to market nor 
import the munitions needed 
for carrying on the war. 
Germany and Austria thus 
had a strangle hold on their 
gigantic foe, and, if this con- 
dition could be maintained 
iridefinitely, the collapse of 
Russia would be inevitable. 
At present, it is true, the 
Czar's forces were making a 
victorious campaign, and this 
in itself was sufficiently 
alarming to Austria; but 
their present supplies of war materials would ultimately be 
exhausted and then their great superiority in men would 
help them little and they would inevitably go to pieces. 
But should Russia get Constantinople, with the control of 
the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, she could obtain all the 
munitions needed for warfare on the largest scale, and the 
defeat of the Central Powers might immediately follow ; 
and such a defeat, Pallavicini well understood, would be far 
more serious for Austria than' for Germany. 
Wangenheim's existence was made miserable by this same 
haunting conviction. The forcing of the Strait would mean 
more than the transformation of Russia into a permanent and 
powerful participant in the war ; it meant — and this wasbyfno 
means an unimportant consideration with Wangenheim — the 
undoing of his great personal achievement. Yet Wangenheim 
showed his apprehensions quite differently from Pallavicini. 
He would sit in my office, puffing forth mighty clouds of smoke 
from his black German cigars, and tell me all the terrible 
things which he proposed to do to his enemy. The thing 
that particularly preyed upon Wangenheim's mind was the 
exposed position of the German Embassy. It stood on a 
high hill, one of the most conspicuous buildings in the town, 
a perfect target for the enterprising English Admiral. Almost 
the first object the British Fleet would sight, as it entered 
the Bosphorus, would be this yellow monument of the 
Hohenzollems and the temptation to shell it might prove 
irresistible. 
" Let them dare destroy that Embassy I " Wangenheim 
said. "I'll get even with them ! If they fire a single shot 
at it, we'll blow up the French aiid the English Embassies ! 
Go, tell the Admiral that, won't you ? Tell him also that 
we have the dynamite all ready to do it 1" 
{To be continued) 
Going into Action 
Some of the naval guns that were asked to open the passage to Constantinople. 
