The Fight for Constantinople: A Story of the Gallipoli Peninsula

moliti

n two minutes the action had become general, the whole of the British and French pre-Dreadnoughts engaging with their principa

concealed in difficult ground, proceeded with slow and grim determination. All across them the sea was churned by the ricochetting shells, w

onry would be hurled high in the air, after taking with them the mangled remains of the Ottoman gunners and up-ending the Turkish weapon as easily as if it were

ttery to fire,"

s added their quota of death and destruction to the

dly closing the shore, taking advantage

gainst the armoured plating. Other projectiles tore through the unprotected sides and upper works. Well it was that orders had been given out not to man the 12-po

part of the foremast. The shock well-nigh capsized the Sub, and almost caused the man at the ammunition hoist to drop the hundred-pound shell that he was in the act of transferring to the breech of the w

everything of a supposedly inflammable nature had been got rid of, the heat generated by the explosion had been sufficient to st

ty to extinguish the flames that were perilously close to the magazine. He was deploring the fact that the jamming of the ammunition hoist had deprived his

through one of the voice tubes. There was a tinge of anxiety in his voice. He had no

t damaged, sir,"

casua

, s

stan

his enquiries. Then hard-a-port the Hammerer described a semicircle,

om the pre-Dreadnoughts; shattered by the long-range high-angle fire of the Queen

difficult task with the utmost coolness and bravery. Night was coming on. All that could be done was to make sure of the compl

heir shattered forts. The opportunity had arrived to consummate the day's work. A signal was made from the flagship to land armed parties. Joyfully the

Into these dropped seamen and marines, armed with rifles and bayonets, Maxims were passed into the boats, an

k, as they sat in the stern-sheets of a launch packed with armed seamen. The launch wa

f masonry that a few hours before was one of the strongest points of defence of the Dardanelles. "The Commander told me that the mine-sweepers

rounded on the shore, and rapidly but in perfect order the demolition party land

ub, observing that the midshipman was followin

ed Sefton. "It's not every day that I get a

a scrap" and a chance to use the heavy Service revolver that he wore in a la

the section under his orders were pressing forwa

under the command of a lieutenant, while Crosthwaite had the third. Between these bodies of men there a keen rivalry as to who should first reach the demolished fort; and

barbe

plosions of the heavy projectiles, yet the outer line of barbed wire was almost intact. The posts supporting the obstruction had been blown to atoms, b

gle under the obstruction. Pinned down by the barbed wire, he was unable to move until h

aimed a petty officer. "The me

he Sub firmly. "It wil

slabs of gun-cotton, b

must be kept for the enemy's guns. We don't want to alarm the rest of the landin

gging their heels into the sloping ground, tugged heroically.

ty officer had suggested, it would never do to leave a trap like that between the fort and the shore. In the ev

s. Still the wire, now at a terrific tension, s

gether-

ut it was not the wire. The rope parted with a crack, and twelve seamen were struggling in a confused heap on the steep hillsi

wire is made fast to!" ordered the Sub impatiently. "Loo

icult nature, for on either side of the rugged path by which the party had

along, following the course of the aggressive wire, till t

e of the me

er, sir," he announced. "W

acting thorns from various remote portions of his anatomy, Crosthwaite hastened to the spot with as much haste as the nature of the ground

was buried deep in the ground. Coiled round the chase and jammed between the trunnion and the carriage was the end of the barbed wire. The gun was splattered with the yellow deposit from the explosion of a British lyddite shell, while all around lay t

ech mechanism!

ted screw-thread that locks the breech-block in the gun. Their efforts were in vain,

t rolled and bounded for quite a hundred feet, then with a resounding splash disappeared underneath the waters of the Dardanelles. The remains of the carriage were then hurled over, but, held up by the barbed wire that had ca

uns in well-sheltered spots, hoping that while the fire of the Allies was directed upon the visible batteries, their light pieces could with comparative impunity deliver a galling fire upon the mine-sweepers and the covering torpedo-boat destroyers. Unfortunately for the enemy the far

from the higher ground. It was obstructed in several places by craters torn by the

find, to their chagrin, that they had been forestalled by their friend

e size been dismounted and hurled aside like straws. Bodies of the devoted Ottoman garrison lay in heaps. Everything was smothered with a yellowish hue from the deadly lyddite and melanite.

n making a rough plan of the fort when Sefton, his

ir," he exclaimed. "It's a funny sort of shop-li

ated Dick in

ain. "They look as if they had been suffocate

d side. Here the rubble rose to a height of about twenty feet. In places the wall, composed of armour-plate and concrete, had been riven from top to bottom, huge slabs of masonry being hel

, pointing to a narrow passage betw

d with stone steps, but the irresistible shock had contracted the

id you manage to see? You ought not to have gone on an

the midshipman, studiously ignoring t

ty yards they had to exercise considerable effort in order to negotiate the b

flashing his lamp on the ground. "They a

ed that these men were engaged in bringing ammunition from the magazine when death in the form of lyddite fumes overtook them. There were no visible marks of wounds, so it was fairly safe to conclude that no shell had burst

ows give you a tur

if they had meant mischief they would have plugged me long before I sa

covered with steel slabs. The place had been electrically lighted, but owing to the destruction of the power-house the lamps were extinguished. Sefton's su

en," announced Sefton, point

n eagerly hastened to follow. "Don't go letting rip, mind, without you want to blow the whole crowd of

the rays directed into the unexplored part of the tunnel, Dick pulled aside the curtain, half

ce was

By Jove, what a big show! Absolut

n, as the muffled reports of the guncotton explosions showe

y before the modernizing of the fortifications. The ammunition stowed here consisted of shells for the smaller q

n the base of one of the brass cylinders. "My word, when ou

id Dick. "If we had known of this before, it would have saved no end of

ho has to fire the stuff," add

s had ceased. Instead came the unm

the Sub. "Our fellow

made their way along the tunnel as swiftly as the

gent fumes bore down upon Dick and his companion. They were compelled to stop, almost choking in the sti

ipman seemed on the point of asphyxiation, he seized the

The gap between the crumbling walls