The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1915. THE DARDANELLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1915. THE DARDANELLES.

Up till yesterday we knew little or nothing of the most brilliant piece of work that has yet been carried out during the war. It was manifest from the v heavy casualty list, and the large number of officers included, therein, tliat an engagement of great importance had taken place, and this was confirmed by stray messages from Koine and other places. Yesterday's cable message contained a graphic and thrilling account by the London Daily Chronicle's Athens correspondent of the brilliant British coup effected at Suvla Bay, and of the supporting move by the New Zealamlers and Australians, who greatly increased the front held- by them. The=e operation? took place on August 7 and 8, the battle being the most stubborn and sanguinary that has yet been fought at the Dardanelles, and dwarfs into insignificance the struggle at (.'aba Tepe, the Turkish losses amounting to 27.P100. The object of this brilliant and daring exploit was certainly worthy of the grand and successful effort that was put forth as the first step towards its achievement. We are still in the dark as to the numbers of the British landing party at Suvla Bay, but we arc told that ultimately they had to face 70,000 Turks, who had an immensely superior force in point of numbers and the advantage of higher ground, yet such was the ferocious fire and stupendous courage of the British troops that the attacks of the enemy were all repulsed 'and the invading army iirmly established itself. To understand and appreciate this great coup it is necessary to bear in mind that at the north of (iuba Tepe is the hill of Sari Bair, which is just under a thousand feet high. It is higher than Aelii Baba, and its spurs trend north, south, and south-east. On its southern spurs are entrenched Australians and New Zealanders, but the summit is still in the hands of the Turks. The possession of this hill would ejvo the Allies the power of advancing down the spur which trends in a southeasterly direction for three miles towards the fort of Eski Keni, which, on the west shore of the Dardanelles, faces Nagara on the eastern side, and would give command of Maidos and the valley stretching east from the Australian position to Khelia Bay, less than two miles north of Maidos, and would alio give the Allies possession of the road between Gallipoli and the main Turkish position, thus cutting the enemy's landward communications. Willi Sari Bair in the hands of the Allies the Turkß at Krithia and Achi Baba would be cut .off from their supplies, and ultimately forced to surrender. The strategic importance of securing this key to success is therefore self-evident, and it was with the aim of capturing Sari Bair that the landing at Suvla was designed and carried out with a skill

and secrecy that completely surprised the enemy. When the Allied forces are linked up—a move that we may expect to shortly follow—the key of the situation will bn in their hands, and the command of the Narrows would speedily follow—and then Cotstantinople should he at the mercy of the fleet. The exploit was in every way worthy of the heat traditions of the British Army, and U will go down in history as one of the most memorable events of the campaign. To have effected a junction between the Australasian and British forces resulting in a twelve-mile continuous battlefront in face of the most strenuous opposition of a numerically superior force would naturally raako |he losses severe, but the accomplishment of the task will ever redound to the credit of the forces engaged, and well deserves the high eulogies the operations have elicited from those able to judge the effect of the superhuman efforts that were put forth with such conspicuous success.