ected a perfect
tornado of rifle, Maxim, and pompom fire on 200 men who made a dash down
the gangway. Only a few survived to gain shelter. All the others were
killed on the gangway. Disembarkation, therefore, which meant almost
certain death, was postponed until later in the morning, when another
attempt also failed.
Then, while the liner, carrying 2,000 men, packed in like sardines, with
the officers huddled on the protected bridge, lay all day on shore, with
a hail of bullets rattling against her protected sides, the battleships
Albion, Cornwallis, and Queen Elizabeth furiously bombarded Seddul Bahr
and the encircling hills. Meanwhile the Turks on the Asiatic side tried
to destroy the liner by howitzer fire, which was kept under only by the
bombardment from covering ships in the strait. In spite of this covering
fire, the vessel was pierced by four big shells, and it was decided to
postpone any further movement until night, when the troops got ashore
almost without the Turks firing a shot, as a result, perhaps, of troops
landed on other beaches having pushed along and destroyed some Turkish
positions.
END OF THE THIRD WEEK.
[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
IMBROS, (via Dedeaghatch, Turkey,) May 15, (Dispatch to The London Daily
Chronicle.)--Operations in the Dardanelles have now been in full swing
for just three weeks, and a glance from the mountaintop here at the
far-spread region over which the war has been and is being waged shows
instantly the material progress which has been made in that time.
When I first looked down on the fascinating and unique vision presented
to my eyes from this point of vantage it was a sight truly marvelous. A
fleet of transports stood at the entrance to the strait, and to the
north of Gaba Tepe the warships were hammering away at the mouth of the
Dardanelles, and at several points along the western coast of the
peninsula one could see at different points on the land that severe
battles were being fought. The heavy clouds of war hung over all, lit up
grimly by the vivid flashes of the guns. At times the din was tremendous
and went on night and day without cessation. Column after column of
dense smoke betokened the falling of forts, and gradually the white
puffs from our guns like long rollers on a broken coast advanced up the
peninsula from the south and inland from the Gaba Tepe region.
Aeroplanes and dirigibles were always busy. Destroyers and huge
transports churne
|