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Show TURKS CLAIM TO HAVE DAMAGED THREE WARSHIPS CONSTANTINOPLE, Feb. 26, via London, 1:33 p. m. Three warships of the allies were damaged in the bombardment bombard-ment of the Dardanelles forts February 25, according to an announcement given out today at tho headquarters of the Turkish army here. Here is the text of the announcement: Ten big armored vessels on February Feb-ruary 2n again bombarded the Turkish Turk-ish forts at the Dardanelles for a period of seven and a half hours. At the conclusion of this operation they retired in the direction of the island of Tenedos. One ship of the Agamemnon type and two other armored vessels were damaged by the fire irom the forts on the Asiatic side of the straits. No Damage Admitted. It was announced from London last night that all the forts at the entrance of the Dardanelles had been reduced by the fleets of Great Britain and France, a naval force which has been estimated at something over thirty vessels. The English announcement made no mention of losses either to vessels or in men. It described the operations as successful suc-cessful and said they were continuing. The Dardanelles are the key to Constantinople, Con-stantinople, and the effort to force them has been going on since tho middle of December. In possession of this waterway, which is a strait about forty-five miles long and from one to three miles wide, between be-tween the sea of Marmora and the Mediterranean, Med-iterranean, the warships of the allies would not encounter any serious difficulty diffi-culty in making their way to Constantinople Constanti-nople and training their great guns on the Turkish capital. Relied Upon Forts. Turkey always has relied on the strength of the Dardanelles fortifications fortifica-tions for protection against attack by sea, as their defenses in the sea of Marmora Mar-mora and around Constantinople have been described as relatively unimportant. unim-portant. Ft has been declared that with Constantinople Con-stantinople in possession of the allies a vast amount of Russian wheat would come out from the Black sea and be distributed dis-tributed to ports in France and England. Eng-land. The possession of Constantinople also would have the effect of driving Turkish naval power and particularly the former German cruisers Goeben and Breslau into the Black sea where they would be without any port of refuge. While the efforts to force the Dardanelles Darda-nelles have been going on for over sixty days, the immediate operation, which, according to the British announcement has now resulted successfully, began about a weok ago. Aeroplanes are said to have rendered material assistance. The Dardanelles were forced in 1S07 by an English admiral, who made his way through the, sea of Marmora to Constantinople, but encountered much more difficulty in getting back through the narrow waterway t ban he had in going in. The Agamemnon type of British battleship bat-tleship is of 1G,o00 'tons displacement and 43o feet long, with a main battery of four twelve-inch guns. |