PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 55, 6 March 1915, Page 7

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

PIERCING THE DARDANELLES EFFECT OF 15-INGII GUNS. IDLE TURKISH WARSHIPS. Heavy gnns are still battering the forts of the Dardanelles, and the Allies' warships are weaving away the coast defences still without interruption other J than that due to the- weather. Even ' those forts which are round points and ! out of direct view, and probably unable to direct fire upon the attacking ships, j are not safe, for the men-of-war have ! been emulating the howitzer of land warfare and dropping shells over intervening headlands. To-day's messages report the shelling of Kilid Bahr, Medjidieh, and iSagaita, guarding the Narrows; and indicate the completeness of the destruction which is being carried out. The great guns of the Queen Elizabeth, firing 15mch shells, each weighing 19001b, or nearly a ton, and each with enough energy to lift 70,000 or 80,000 tons a foot into the air. have caused terrific de,u^ l 0n ' and tliron ghoufc the operations the Turks have been compelled to watch their forts and guns being destroyed without the satisfaction of landing " a single really effective shot on the attacking ships. It is stated that some of the forts have, in addition to the guns, torpedo stations, from which ships' torpedoes can be fired. But as long as the warships can hammer the forts at long range, and occupy the battered strongholds with landing parties, it will not be possible for the Turks to use any of those weapons, which are far inferior in range to even small naval guns. A small Turkish squadron. - consisting the cruisers Breslau, Hamidich, and Medjidieh, and four destroyers, is reported to be anchored at Na'gara, under the Turks' German admiral. It is not likely to offel' any effective resistance to the Allies' ships j nor can it be expected to. Its biggest guns are the two 6-inch carried by the Medjidieh and the Hamidieh ; and if the cruisers dared to make a serious attack on the Allies' ships they would be almost certainly doomed to destruction. There is no mention of the Goeben ; and even she, with such of her 11-inch guns as are still in service, could dp little. ,It is probable, if she is active at all. that she is guarding the Black Sea coast against the Russian fleet. As a matter of fact, the Turkish Navy is perfectly helpless, and all the daring and initiative of a fighting genius could not make it effective. With, the exception of the few vessels already named, and a number

of torpedo craft, some of them good and fast boats, the Turkish fleet is really, by modern standards, bo much floating junk. The ships are old, slow, and poorly armed; and Turkey is reaping the results of an old policy, which not only neglected the navy, but delibeiately crushed it. There is no further news of the Expeditionary Force to invade Turkey ashore. THE ENEMY'S SUBMARINES. The failure of the German blockade continues. One of the submarines chased a British Red Cross steamer conveying wounded men across the Channel, which fortunately escaped. The steamer was probably easily identifiable by the customary display of the Red Cross and other marks, and there can be no excuse for the act. In order to stimulate the flagging results of the "blockade." one of the German admirals is reported to have offered handsome money prizes to the crews of submarines which succeed in sinking any shins. A flotilla of destroyers is officially announced to have sunk another German submarine, ÜB. The officers and crew were captured. Another merchant steamer claims to have sunk one of the enemy's underwater craft, and the claim is the subject of an official enquiry. Unfortunately it is impossible to say how many of these vessels the enemy have lost, because in several cases the reports have been indefinite and unconfirmed"; but since the begining of the war a considerable number of them j have been destroyed. A point which deserves attention is that up to the present every one of the submarines which have been identified is readily recognisable from the official descriptions which have been in circulation since the beginning of last' year ; that is to say, none of the much-vaunted great fleet of new vessels has yet been seen. Several that have been sunk or otherwise identified have been among the earliest types ; U8 was one of these, as can be judged from her number', the enemy's submarines being all numbered in the order in which they are built. It is not too much to assume that the naval engineering staffs have been far too busy helping to produce munitions for the army to have time for building submarines. Probably the German naval authorities had a good idea of the actual possibilities of the submarine blockade, and realised that imaginary boats, well advertised, would be almost as valuable as real ones. Count Reventlow, the noted German naval authority, has not hesitated to point out to the German people the feebleness of the German reply to the American Note, and plainly he advocates the pursuance of the piratical blockade as far as possible. AMERICA'S HELP TO THE ALLIES. In view of the report of the Washington correspondent of the London Times upon the attitude of the United States press- -which he says is almost wholly unfavourable to the Allies — regarding the British stopping of German i trade, it is well to realise what America is doing for the Allies. She is supplying England, France, and especially Russia, with huge quantities of equipment, munitions, and food, and by the measure of those supplies is relieving them of -part of the burden of producing them. It is probably true to say that Russia depends very largely indeed upon American (and Japanese) supplies for the equipment of her increasing armies. So great is the value of Ameiican help that the Allies are not likely to let any difficulty _of mere words, interfere with the cordiality existing betwepn the nations ; and on the other hand, the United States is hardly likely to prejudice bo great a trade for less than the most serious reasons. Commenting upon this subject, a leading article in Stead's Review of Reviewfc remarks Uiat a continued good understanding with the United States is worth a million men to the Allies, for without it the difficulties of equipping new forces would be increased to the extent suggested by that number. The same journal publishes an estimate of the quantities i of some war supplies which the United States is providing for the Allies : 2,000.000 pairs of boots for France alone, ana immense numbers for Russia; 20,000,000 cartridge cases, hundreds of thousands of rifles, 2,000,000 pairs of woollen gloves, and 4,000,000 paire of socks; 1,000,000 blankets, and almost 10,000,000 yards of khaki cloth, 250,000 complete suite of underwear, and sevpral million horseshoes. These are only a few of the items; a complete list would include raw materials of numerous kinds, locomotives, and wheat in huge quantities.