The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-07-07
British Lost $4,000 in the
First Ten Days of Fight
ing on Peninsula
SUPPLY SHORTAGE
STOPPED ENGLISH
Turks Considered Defenses Impregna-
BILE = Land Mines and Sea Mines
Everywhere and Hidden Guns Train
ed on Entanglements.

LONDON, July T." Throughout the
events L have chronicled the royal ma
w has been father and mother to the
army. Not one of us but realizes how
much he owes to Vice Admiral De Ro-
beck, to the warships, French and Brit
ish; to the destroyers, mine sweepers
and picket boats and to all their
dauntless crews, who took no thought of
themselves but risked everything to
give their soldier comrades a fair run
in at the enemy
Thus Gen. Sir Ian Hamilton, com
mander of the allied troops at the OAR
danelles, pays tribute to the navy at
the end of his first report describing
the purple days of the landing on the
Gallipoli Peninsula.
The commander-in-chief's despatch
to the war Office is of great length,
but most of the events had already
been chronicled in other official des-
patches from him Having reached
the conclusion, after witnessing the
50 stupendous battle between the war
ships and the land fortresses, that it
would require the whole of his
strength to enable the fleet effectively
to force the Dardanelles, Gen. Hamil-
ton prepared to fling all his troops
rapidly ashore, in the full knowledge
that an attempt to land on such a
welI-defended theater Of operation
!" involved difficulties for which there
is no precedent in military history, ex-
cept- possibly, in the sinister legends of
Xerxes.
Gen. Hamilton admits Fit was touch
and co. MANY times before the in.
vaders established a footing. In sew
eral instances half of the landing par
ties were killed or wounded before
they could reach even the slight shell
ter afforded by the sandy bank on the
upper part of the beaches. \ great
majority of the senior officers were
either killed or wounded.
The Turks had turned the landing
places into death traps. There were
wire entanglements the whole length
of the shore, with a supplementary
baFbed wire. network concealed be
meath the surface of the sea Land
mines and sea mines were everywhere
and machine guns, cunningly tucked
away in holes in the cliffs, were able
to converge their fire on the wire en-
tanglements.
SO strong, in fact, were the de
fenses,' says the general, Ethat tht
Turks may Wen have considered then
impregnable, and it is my firm eonvic
ton that no finer feat of arms ha:
ever been achieved by the British sol
dier or any other soldier than thu
storming of these trenches from oper
boats on the morning of April %.
Gen. Hamilton speaks of "lone
lines of men being moved down as by
scythe'' Of the endless chains OF
wire entanglements, he writes:
"Again the heroic wireeutters came
out. Through the glasses they could
be seen quietly shipping away under
the hellish fire, as if they We're prun
ing a vineyard.
Of the Australians he says: Like
lightning they leaped ashore and each
man that did so went straight as his
bayonet at the enemy. So vigorous
was the onslaught, the Turks made nc
attemps to withstand it, and fled from
ridge to ridge, pursued by the Aus
tralia infantry"
A shortage of ammunition prevented
the allies from gaining the hoped for
footing on Achi-Baba.
Had it been possible,' says Gen
Hamilton, "to push in reinforcemente
of men, artillery and munitions, Krith.
ia should have fallen and much subse
quent fighting for its capture would
have been avoided.
cup to May l." he continued, "the
net result of the operations was the
repulse of the Turks and the infection
upon them of very heavy losses. AT
first, we had them fairly on the run
and had it not been for these inven-