12 
LAND 6? WATER 
September 12, 1918 
The Dardanelles Bombardment 
By HENRY MORGENTHAU 
The only authentic Narrative of the Turkish Defence 
Wli sped along 
the military 
road to Dar- 
danos, pass- 
ing on the 
way the wreck of the 
MesudiS. The Dardanos 
battery was as completely 
Turkish as the Hamidie 
was German. The guns 
at Dardanos were some- 
what more modern than 
those at Hamidie — they 
The incidents and accidents of the first Dardanelles bom- 
bardment, from the point of view of the Turks and their 
German mentors, have received little or no attention save in 
this narrative of Mr. Morgenthau. In this story the actual 
effects of the French and British naval gimnery are shown, 
and attention is drawn to a point which is characteristic of all 
modern naval warfare — the extreme difficulties attendant on 
long-range gunnery, and the enormous expenditure of ammu- 
nition that is needed to deal effectively with an apparently 
easy target, even when effective co-unter-work is impossible. 
were the Krupp model of 
1905. Here also was stationed ' the only new battery 
which the Germans had estabhshed up to the time of 
my visit ; it consisted of several guns which they had 
taken from the German and Turkish warships then 
lying in the Bosphorus. A few days before our inspection, 
the Allied Fleet had entered the Bay of Erenkeui, and had 
submitted Dardanos to a terrific bombardment, the evidences 
of which I saw on every hand. The land for nearly half a 
mile about seemed to have been completely churned up; 
it looked like photographs I had seen of the battle-fields in 
France. The strange thing was that, despite all this punish- 
ment, the batteries themselves remained intact ; not a 
single gun, my guides told me, had been destroyed. 
"After the war is over," said General Mertens, "we are 
going to establish a big tourist resort here, build a hotel, 
and sell relics to you Americans. We shall not have to do 
much excavating to find them — the British Fleet is doing 
that for us now." 
This sounded like a passing joke ; yet the statement was 
literally true. Darda- 
nos, where this em- 
placement is located, 
was one of the famous 
cities of the ancient 
world ; in Homeric 
times it was part of the 
principality of Priam. 
Fragments of " capitals 
and columns are still 
visible. And the shells 
from the Allied Fleet 
were now ploughing up 
many relics which bad 
been buried for thou- 
sands of years. One of 
my friends picked up a 
water-jug which had 
perhaps been used in 
the days of Troy. The 
effectiveness of modern 
gunfire in excavating 
these evidences of a 
long lost civilisation was 
striking — though un- 
fortunately the relics 
did not always come to 
the surface intact. 
The Turkish generals 
were extremely proud of 
the fight which this Dar- 
danos battery had made 
against the British 
ships. They would lead 
me to the guns that had 
done particularly good 
service, and pat them 
affectionately. For my 
benefit, Djevad called 
out Lieutenant Hassan, 
the Turkish officer who 
had defended this posi- 
tion. He was a little 
fellow, with jet-black 
hair, black eyes, ex- 
tremely modest and 
almost shrinking in the 
H.M.S. « ALBION 
SHELLING 
INNER 
presence of these great 
generals. Djevad patted 
Hassan on both cheeks, 
while another high Turkish 
officer stroked his hair ; 
one would have thought 
that he was a faithful dog 
who had just performed 
some meritorious service. 
"It is men like you of 
whom great heroes are 
made," said General 
Djevad. He asked Hassan 
to describe the attack and 
the way it had been met. The embarrassed lieutenant 
quietly told his story, though he was moved almost to tears 
by the appreciation of his exalted cliiefs. 
"There is a great future for you in the army," said General 
Djevad, as we parted from this hero. , 
Poor Hassan's "future" came two days afterwards, when 
the Allied Fleet made its greatest attack. One of the shells 
struck his dug-out, which caved in, killing the boy. Yet his 
behaviour on the day I visited his battery showed that he 
regarded the praise of his general as sufficient compensation 
for all that he had suffered or all that he might suffer. 
I was much puzzled by the fact that the Allied' Fleet, 
despite its large expenditures of ammunition, had not been 
able to hit this Dardanos emplacement. I naturally thought 
at first that such a failure indicated poor marksmanship, 
but my German guides said that that was not the case. All 
this missfire merely illustrated once more the familiar fact 
that a rapidly manoeuvring battleship is under great dis- 
advantage in shooting at a fixed fortification. But there 
was another point in-' 
volved in the Dardanos 
battery. My hosts 
called my attention to 
its location ; it was 
perched on the top of 
the hill, in full view of 
the ships, forming itself 
a part of the skyline. 
Dardanos was merely 
five steel turrets, each 
with a gun, approached 
by a winding trench. 
"That," they said, 
"is the most difficult 
thing in the world to 
hit. It is so distinct 
that it looks easy ; but 
the whole thing is an 
illusion." 
I do not understand 
completely the optics of 
the situation ; but it 
seems that the skyline 
creates a kind of 
mirage, so that it is 
practically impossible to 
hit anything at that 
point, except by acci- 
dent. The gunner might 
get what was appar- 
ently a perfect sight, 
yet his shell would go 
wide. The record of 
Dardanos had been little 
short of marvellous. Up 
to March i8th, the ships 
had firtd at it about 
4,000 shells. One turret 
had been hit by a 
splinter, which had also 
scratched the paint ; 
another had been hit 
and slightly bent in ; 
and another had been 
hit near the base, and 
a piece about the size 
THE FORTIFICATIONS OF THE 
STRAIT 
During his tour ot Inspection Mr. Morgentliau had telescopic 
views ot the British and French fleet cleared (or action. 
