Gallipoli by Peter Fitzsimons

arriving in Turkey disguised as factory workers – and had begun work in the last week of August. 19 A large part of their focus is trying to modernise the defences on either side of the entrance to the Dardanelles and, more particularly, the many forts and batteries further north, which stand like ancient sentinels on either shore of the Narrows.
    There are two forts at this entrance to the Straits – Sedd-el-Bahr at Cape Helles, on the European shore, and Kum Kale, on the Asian shore opposite, just three miles from the ancient site of Troy. Kum Kale had been built in 1659 and, for most of that time, had had the same sets of cannon, but the Germans have recently been able to install artillery pieces, including several Krupp L/22 guns. Yes, they’re old, dating from the 1870s, but they’re also powerful. With an 11-inch calibre, they can hurl a 515-pound shell as far as 8500 yards, which is precisely the kind of thing needed to defend the Dardanelles.
    Together, the Germans and Turks set to with a will, and Admiral Souchon is soon able to report to the Kaiser, ‘The Turks and especially the Governor in the Dardanelles, Major-General Cevat, who speaks German, are most willing to be taught by us and to allow themselves to be helped.’ 20
    1–3 SEPTEMBER 1914, CHURCHILL CHEWS ON HIS CIGAR
    Just what are the Turks going to do? It is something that Winston Churchill has been pondering rather intensely of late, since the German battleships had escaped up the Dardanelles. He strongly suspects they will eventually side fully with Germany, and it is against that possibility that, on this first day of autumn, he writes a memo to General Douglas, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, to inform him that arrangements have been made with Lord Kitchener, the Secretary for War, for the War Office to ‘examine and work out a plan for the seizure, by means of a Greek Army of adequate strength, of the Gallipoli Peninsula, with a view to admitting a British fleet to the Sea of Marmara’. 21
    The memo is not well received. Major-General Charles Callwell, the Director of Military Operations and Intelligence at the War Office, estimates that the Ottoman garrison on the Peninsula is likely 27,000 strong, and clearly expresses his view in a memorandum of 3 September that ‘it ought to be clearly understood that an attack upon the Gallipoli Peninsula from the sea (outside the Straits) is likely to prove an extremely difficult operation of war’. 22 Referring to a discussion that had taken place in 1906–07, he argues that a successful operation would require at least 60,000 men, 30,000 of whom should be landed in the first instance. 23
    11–13 SEPTEMBER 1914, AUSTRALIA ON THE MOVE
    This, then, is even better than playing polo – just possibly even better than romancing a beautiful woman …
    This is life! This is death!
    This is being in command of a state-of-the-art Royal Australian Navy submarine going after Vice-Admiral Maximilian Reichsgraf von Spee’s German East Asia Cruiser Squadron – based at Tsingtao in China – that is said to be now lying in Rabaul’s German-occupied Simpsonhafen, Simpson Harbour, the ruling city of German New Guinea.
    Lieutenant-Commander Dacre Stoker is, of course, in command of the AE2 , while his superior officer, Lieutenant-Commander Thomas Besant, is in command of the AE1 , and they are in turn accompanied by HMAS Australia , Sydney , Encounter , Warrego , Yarra , Parramatta , a store ship, three colliers and Berrima .
    All together, the vessels are part of the first military expedition sent overseas by the newly formed country of Australia, and the 2000 volunteers are proudly titled the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force.

    Location of Rabaul in relation to Australia, by Jane Macaulay
    Alas, Simpson Harbour proves to be clear of German cruisers, meaning that Stoker and his men cannot go into action as they have long been