there is no reason to suppose that the proportion
of casualties would have been less; and, if so, even had the second
attack succeeded, a very weak force would have been left for subsequent
naval operations."

Once decided upon, it was highly essential that the combined operation
should begin without further delay. But it was now found that the
army transports had been loaded, so to speak, up-side-down, with
guns and munitions buried under tents and supplies. Sending them
back to Alexandria for reloading involved a six weeks' delay, though
Lord Kitchener wired, "I think you had better know at once that
I regard such postponement as far too long." The landing on the
tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula, which was nearest the forts in
the Straits and said to be the only feasible place, actually began
on April 25, and was achieved under the guns of the fleet, and by
almost unexampled feats of heroism by boats' crews and the first
parties on shore.

Henceforth the navy played a subordinate though not insignificant
part in the campaign. "By our navy we went there and were kept
there," writes Mr. John Masefield in _Gallipoli_, "and by our navy
we came away. During the nine months of our hold on the peninsula
over 300,000 men were brought by the navy from places three, four,
or even six thousand miles away. During the operations some half
of these were removed by our navy, as sick and wounded, to ports
from 800 to 3000 miles away. Every day, for 11 months, ships of
our navy moved up and down the Gallipoli coast bombarding the Turk
positions. Every day during the operations our navy kept our armies
in food, drink and supplies. Every day, in all that time, if weather
permitted, ships of our navy cruised in the Narrows and off
Constantinople, and the seaplanes of our navy raided and scouted
within the Turk lines."

On May 12 the predreadnought _Goliath_ was torpedoed by a Turkish
destroyer; and on May 25-26 the German submarine _U 23_, which
had made the long voyage by way of Gibraltar, sank the _Triumph_
and the _Majestic_. It was upon a forewarning of this attack that
Admiral Fisher, according to his own statement, resigned as a protest
against the retention of the _Queen Elizabeth_ and other capital
units in this unpromising field. British and French submarines, on
the other hand, worked their way into the Sea of Marmora, entered
the harbor of Constantinople, and inflicted heavy losses, including
two Turkish battleships, 8 tra