th Sea
by Dover.

The narrow passage of water called the Dardanelles separates the
peninsula of Gallipoli and the Asiatic shore of Turkey. It connects
the AEgean Sea and the Sea of Marmora, which in turn, through the
Bosphorus, connects with the Black Sea. Curiously enough this
tremendously important waterway, the only warm sea outlet of Russia,
had been closed against that country by the action of the very powers
now fighting desperately to smash it open. The Black Sea was a Turkish
lake in the seventeenth century but in the century following the
growth of Russia in that part of Europe made the question of the
control of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles one of supreme importance
to her. Thus we find, in the so-called "will" of Peter the Great,
among other injunctions he lays upon his successors, an admonition
never to rest until Constantinople had been wrested from the Turk. But
whether this "will" is authentic or not, Russian policy has steadily
kept that object in view.

The Crimean War was an attempt by France and England to stem the
almost resistless tide of Russian expanse toward the southwest.
Russian control of Constantinople was regarded as the chief danger
that threatened the western powers and, in 1856, by the Treaty of
Paris, not only was the strength of the Russian Black Sea fleet
expressly limited, but the Dardanelles were closed against the
passage of Russia's warships into the Mediterranean. France and
England revived what they called "an ancient rule of the Ottoman
Empire, in virtue of which it has at all times been prohibited for
ships of war of foreign powers to enter the Straits of the Dardanelles
and of the Bosphorus."

Turkey was of no mind to leave the enforcement of this "ancient rule"
to the powers. She began the construction of more elaborate
fortifications commanding both the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.
German advice, especially after the Franco-Prussian War, was asked and
obtained and Krupp sent some of his gigantic pieces for the defense of
the narrow waters. This German cooperation with the Turks in the
strengthening of those positions through all the years that have
intervened is significant.

CHAPTER VI

FORTIFICATIONS AND STRENGTH--FIRST MOVEMENTS

Let us inspect the fortifications in the Dardanelles at the beginning
of the war in 1914. The Dardanelles, from end to end, have a length of
forty-seven miles. From the town of Gallipoli to the AEgean, however,
the full d