SCENE OF THE FIGHTING

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4627, 7 May 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

SCENE OF THE FIGHTING

WHERE THE BRITISH AND FRENCH LANDED. Capo Holies is the extremity of the Gallipoli Peninsula on the north (European; side of the entrance to the Dardanelles. There was a battery on this point mounting two 9.2 in. guns, but it was destroyed by bombardment on November 3rd, Sed-el-Bahr is the fort on Cape Greco, close to Cape Helles. This fort mounted six 10.2 in. guns, and there was another battery close to it. The battery stood on the site of the old castle of Sed-el-Bahr, which like that of Kura Kaleh, on the Asiatic shore, was armed with guns throwing largo stone shot weighing, it is said, upwards of 8001 b. Sed-el-Bahr and Rum Kaleh were the points first attacked by the Allied fleet on February 17 and 18. They were heavily bombarded and finally silenced, and a few days later were demolished by landing parties from the ships. Just past Sed-el-Bahr is'a small bay which is bounded on its north-east side by a promontory on which stands Eski Hissarlik, a small village. From the official messages it is clear that the largest portion of the British troops landed at Sed-el-Bahr, probably in the little bay mentioned. The Turks had apparently placed barbed wire entanglements along the shore below high-water mark, and also for some distance inland, besides digging pits in which were placed sharp spikes. The troops made a successful landing and cleared the outer end of the peninsula to a lino extending from Eski Hissarlik across to the mouth .of a stream flowing into the bay on the other side.

Kum Kaleh, where the French troops landed, is on the south (Asiatic) side of the entrance to the Dardanelles. It stands on a point about a mile and a quarter north-east of Cape Yeni Shehr, the extreme end of the promontory on this side. It should be mentioned that Kaleh is in Turkish a castle, and Burnu (e.g. Helles Burnu) is a cape. In ancient times there was on the sandy point of Kum Kaleh a great castle mounting 200 guns, some of the ordnance firing stone shot. In the same position a modern fort was built some years ago, carrying four 10.2 in. and two 5.9 in. guns, these being nut out of action bv the Allied fleet in February. About 500 yards inside the point is the River Mendere, the bridge over which was destroyed in February, and near it is a small village. This river rises in Mount Ida'and crosses the plains of Troy, finvk Bay is on the north-west cor-

ner of the Gallipoli. teen miles npfth gf the entrance id 'the Dardanelles, and 22 miles west by south across the peninsula from Gallipoli, which is at the inner end of the Dardanelles. Cape Suvla forms the headland at the south-west approach to the Gulf of Saros. The bay is of crescent shape, with deep water fairly close inshore. It is protected on the north side by the hills of Kizlar Dagh, which runs out to Cape Suvla. The land on the south side of the bay is 115 feet in height and just inside the beach is a salt-water lagoon about one mile wide. . Several villages and some low hills lie between Suvla Bay and the main road through the Gallipoli Peninsula, from the mainland. The troops which disembarked in the Gulf of Saros doubtless landed in Yeni-Kioi Bay, on the northern side of the Gallipoli Peninsula, in a line with the city of Gallipoli, which is some ten miles distant, at the entrance to the Sea of Marmora.