OCR Text |
Show DARDANELLES BOMBARDED BY ALLIEDFLEETS Forts on European Side Apparently Ap-parently Silenced; One on Asiatic Shore Still Firing Fir-ing When Night Came. BATTLE RESUMED THE NEXT MORNING Seaplanes and Aeroplanes Aid Warships; Turks Deny Any Damage Was Done. LONDON,' Feb. 2b, 3:52 p. in. The British and French fleets, it was officially offi-cially announced here today, bombarded the forts of the Dardanelles on Friday with considerable effect. The bombardment bom-bardment of the Dardanelles was renewed, re-newed, tho announcement added, with seaplanes and aeroplanes co-operating. The text of the official- announcement issued this afternoon by the British j ! admiralty says: j j Yesterday morning at 8 o'clock j i a fleet of British battleships and battle cruisers, accompanied by flotillas flo-tillas and aided by a strong French squadron, the whole under the command com-mand of Vice Admiral Garden, began be-gan an atta-ck upon the forts at the entrance to the Dardanelles. Long Range Fire. The forts at Cape Ilelles and Kum Kale were bombarded with a deliberate, long range fire. Con- j siderablo effect was produced on two of the forts. Two others were i frequently hit, but being- open ; earthworks it was difficult to estimate esti-mate the damage. The forts being outranged, were unable to reply to our fire. i At 2:45 o'clock in the afternoon a portion of the battleship force was ordered to close in and engage j the forts at closer range with their ! secondary armament. The forts on both sides of the entrance then opened fire and were engaged at moderate range by the Vengeance, Cornwallis, Triumph, Sufferen and Bouvet, supported by the Inflexible and the Agamemnon at long range. Forts Silenced. The forts on the European side were apparently silenced. One fort on the Asiatic side was still firing when the operations were suspended owing to tho failing light. No ships I of the allied fleet were hit. The action was renewed this, i morning after an aerial reconnais-i reconnais-i sance by British aeroplanes. The ship Ark Royal is in attendance with a number of seaplanes and aeroplanes of the naval wing. Will Humble Turkey. The bombardment must have been one of the most serious ever undertaken, in the opinion of naval experts, for no less than eight battleships and armored cruisers took part, these warships having hav-ing a total of thirty 12-inch and six 10-inch guns, which outranged the guns on the forts. Early Friday morning this fleet, including the British cruiser Inflexible, which had just returned from the Falkland islands, where, with other ships, she took part in the battle i in which Admiral Count von Spee's 'German squadron was destroyed, opened la long range bombardment on the forts i at Cape Helles and at Kum Kalesi at the entrance to the straits. When these forts bad been damaged the battleship force closed in and engaged the forts with their 6, 7 and 9-inch guns which, it is believed, must have poured an enormous rain of shells on the Turkish positions. Besides desiring to bring Turkey to her knees, the allies in their attempt ; to force the Dardanelles aim at au early ; release of the large stock of wheat i which is locked up in Russian warc-' warc-' houses, and which tho allies desire to I jjet out, both to relieve the markets and i to provide Russia with necessary credit to pay for war material bought abroad. ACCOUNT OF THE RECENT BATTLES BY EYEWITNESSES PARTS, Feb. 20. An official eyewitness account of the recent fighting in France and Belgium was given out today by the French war department. The writer says: "During the past ten days detestable wejiher. continuous rains In some parts and violent snow squalls in others, and a thick fog, have hindered the operations nearly everywhere on the western battle front". In spite of the conditions, this period has been favorable for us. Our artiiierv obtained very brilliant results and the enemy evidently was unable to equal our fire. The French superiority In ammunition and supplies is being more and more confirmed. "Our infantry showed an agtrre?sive spirit In the Artols, Champagne, Argonne and Alt ace regions, and their operations were crowned with success. We thus obtained appreelnble result. That the German Ger-man official communications, after having hav-ing flatlv denied, have now partially admitted ad-mitted that prisoners and materials have (Continued on Page Five.) GUSLLES FGRTS JEING BOH (Continued from Page One.) fallen into our hands, moreover, is the best, proof of our successes. " The account discuFSpR In detail the activity ac-tivity of the allied artillery in the ivgion from" the English channel to the. nivT Aisne. It t-peaks of the excellent work of tho Belgian batteries a rnl tho remarkable re-markable energy of the Hrinsh artillery, working in concert with the French puns. Shells, the writer says, were placed with remarkable accuracy, rendering: the; movements move-ments of he Germim troops in the rear of their trenches exceedingly difficult and often impossible. "At that moment when French Infantrymen In-fantrymen advanced to storm hostile works on the edge of the villa ye of Ca-rency, Ca-rency, the nisht of February 6-7." the statement continued, "sixty volunteer reservists, re-servists, with a squad of" sappers, brilliant!; bril-liant!; accomplished the destruction of a skilfully arranged tier man trench, which had been baptized 'the ambush.' Brilliant Charge. "We only lost three men killed. The Germans lost more than half a company. On a road leading from Bethune to La Basoe a mill which previously had been occupied by Germans was recaptured by a brilliant French etiarge on February a. "The operations to tho north of Arras were characterized by splendid bravery on the part of the Zouaves and African infantry, who charged German trenches, blew them up by mines, captured Lhe enemy's principal line and repulsed vigorous vig-orous counter attacks. "Between Soualn and Beausejour, where our lines were pushed lorward for more than a mile and a half in December, we a sain advanced on February 16 and 17, following a dozen successive attacks, and captured hiil No. 200, an important fortified forti-fied position, which we organized and defended de-fended against impetuous counter attacks. Unable to Reply. "On February 15, in tho same region, another brilliant action, prepared by our artillery, developed the fact that the enemy en-emy was unable to replv. ahol for shot, to our guns. To the north of Btausejour we captured two and three-fourths miles of tho enemy's en-emy's first line of trenches on the heights, taking -iOU prisoners, including many officers. of-ficers. "Pursuing this success on the next day, oui- troops brilliantly carried the enemy's second line over a front half a iniie In extent. In this engagement tvo took several hundred prisoners." |