THE SCENE IN THE STRAITS

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144671, 4 May 1915, Page 7

THE SCENE IN THE STRAITS

STORY OF AN EYE-WITNESS. TENEDOS (.EOF IN), March 18._ This is not so much an account of the five hours’ engagement between the Turkish forts and tho Allied ships which has heen fought actually within the Dardanelles to-day' as an impression of tho bombardment as seen at a distance, of 15 miles or so from the ton of a high, steep hill called Mount-St. Elias, at the northern end of Tcncdos.

Over the ridge of Kum Kale you plainly see. like a groat bine lake, the first roach of the Dardanelles up to tho narrow neck between Chanak and Kilid Ruhr. It was up and down in this stretch of water that the largest vessels of the Allied F'lect steamed to-day for over four hours, hurling, with sheets of orange flame from their heavy guns, a constant succession of shells on the forts that guard the Narrows at Ghaliak, while the Turkish batteries, with a frequency that lessened as the day wont cm, flashed back at them in reply, with the difference that, while the efforts of the Allies’ shells were continually manifest in tho columns of smoko and dust that were signs of the damage they had wrought, a great, number of tho enemy’s shots fell in the sea hundreds of yards from tho bombarding ships, sending torrents of water towering harmlessly into Die air. Not that tho successes of the day have been won without cost. I saw several ships, French and British, struck bv shells that raised volumes of white smoke, and onn of the French squadron is toiling r-lowlv home at this Inement down bv Iho head and with a list to port, while, so far as one could make out with a glass, several boatloads of men wore being, taken off her. The ships loft their stations between the Turkish and Asiatic coasts and Tenedos early this morning, and by II o'clock fhov were steaming in Tine up the Dardanelles. QUEEN ELIZABETH’S HIT. It was 11.45 when tbo first notable bit was made by an English ship. I could see eight vessels, apparently all battleships, lying in lino from the entrance up the Straits. The ship farthest up appeared to ho the Queen Elizabeth, and I think it was she that fired tho shot which exploded the powder magazine at Channk. A groat balloon of white smoke sprang up in the midst of the magazine which leapt out from a fierce red flame and reached a great height. When the flame had disappeared the dense smoko continued to. grow till it innst have been a column hundreds of feet high. In the five minutes that followed this shot three more shells from the Queen Elizabeth foil practically on the same snot, and two minutes later yet another bv the side of tho smoking ruins. 'There were now eight battleships, all pre-Drcaduougbts. left at Tenedos. and at noon six of them started off in a lino ahead towards the Straits. The English ships already within wore passing farther up and went out, of sight. The bombarding ships were steaming constantly nn and down, turning at each end'of the stretch, which is about a couple of miles long. A long thin veil of black smoke was drifting slowly westward from the fighting. At about 1.30 Ero.nkent Village, standing high on the Asiatic side, received a couple of shells. At 1.45 a division of night destroyers in line steamed into the entrance of the Straits, *and a little later the last two battleships from Tenedos joined, the Dublin patrolling outside. An hour later the most striking effect was produced by a shell falling on a fort at Kilid Bahr, which evidently exploded another magazine. A huge mass of heavy jet-black smoko gradually rose till it towered high above the cliffs on the European and Asiatic sides. It ballooned slowly out like a gigantic genie rising from a fisherman’s bottle. By now tho action was slackening, apd at 3.45 five ships were slowly steaming homeward from the entrance. At 4.30 there were still eight vessels in tho Straits, but the forts had practically ceased to fire. The action was over for had" heen the apparent silencing of several Turkish batteries and those terrific explosions at the_ forts at Channk and Kilid Bahr, the ultimate effect of which, remains to ho seen when tho attack is renewed to-night. Fort Chanak is burning.