ATTACK ON NARROWS FORTS BY LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15914, 11 May 1915, Page 8

ATTACK ON NARROWS FORTS BY LAND.

HEIGHTS DOMINATING KILID BAHR CAPTURED.

FIRE OF WARSHIPS CONCENTRATED AT NAGARA.

London, May G.

Reports from Athens state that the allied forces, after a fierce struggle, captured important heights commanding Kilid Bahr, on the European side of the Narrows, and that a furious battle continues. The capture of the remaining heights is expected to entail the surrender of the Turks in the vicinity. A message received in Athens from the Deputy-Governor of the island of Tenedos refers to the capture of heights dominating Kilid Bahr, and adds that it is reported that the allies have captured Atchi Baba and are threatening the forts in the rear. A Turkish aeroplane dropped bombs on a bivouac in Gallipoli and did some damage. The Governor also reports that the allies' warships are concentrating their fire on a single fort at Nagara, on'the Asiatic' side, north of She Narrows, all the others having been destroyed. A later message from Athens reports that the British superDreadnought .Queen Elizabeth brought down a German aeroplane to-day. . •-,* • ' If Advices from the Bulgarian port ol'Dedeagatch stata that the forts at Bulair, on the isthmus of the Gallipoli Peninsula, are firing vigorously to oppose ihfaatry landed at KaracKali, on the Turkish mainland, and a decisive engagement is proceeding. il— <-+*'&*'' .

Kilid Bahr is the site of the main Turkish defences on the European side

of the Narrows. Between Kilid Bahr and Chanak Kalessi, on the Asiatic side, i the Dardanelles is but a mile wide. The defences of Kilid Bahr were thus S described before the war:—" Kilid Bahr there is a point, and here there is Borne low ground between the water and the hill behind. On this low point are some batteries almost flush with the water. On these are about forty Krupp *: guns, some of them mounted on earthworks, others en barbette. The latter could not be worked when a fleet approached in fighting its way up the channel, as

the fire from the small arms and machine guns of the ships would sweep them. The guns in the earthworks arc better protected, though even these would probably be silenced by those of the fleet; but above, on the crest of the hill, some hundreds of feet above the water, are some very powerful batteries. They constitute. the • greatest danger to an advancing fleet, as from their elevation the projectiles from the ships' guns would pass over them, while they would be able .to play upon the enemy's decks, the most vital part of the modern

battleship."

Kilid Bahr is about fifteen miles along the coast from Sedd-el-Bahr, at the entrance to the Dardanelles.

Karachali is a email town on the northern coast of the Gulf of Saros. The distance across the gulf from the Bulair lines to Karachali is about ten miles.