[Editor: This article, reporting on the comments of Lord Brassey regarding on the Dardanelles campaign, during the First World War (1914-1918), was published in The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.), 6 November 1915.]
Lord Beassey outspoken.
In an interview given by Lord Brassey, who has recently returned to England from a cruise in the Mediterranean and Ægean Seas, in his yacht Sunbeam, he made some striking comments on the Dardanelles campaign, and, declared that he had not met any officer, either naval and military, who was not of the opinion that the operations in the Dardanelles, when contemplated from every point of view, were a huge mistake.
“We were forced,” he went on, “to undertake the Dardanelles expedition on account of the pressure by Russia, and orders were accordingly given to the fleet to undertake the task. Having failed in the first attempt by naval means alone, it was decided, late in the day, to make a combined naval and military operation, but when the second attempt was ready, Gallipoli was a fortress of the first-class and magnitude. It was absolutely impregnable. General Sir Ian Hamilton was exceedingly anxious to carry out the utterly impossible task placed upon him by the Government. Attack after attack was made, hoping against hope”, and Lord Brassey considered that the Government should have realised the futility of the attack much earlier, and have stopped the useless losses.
Source:
The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.), 6 November 1915, p. 916 (40th page of that issue)
Also published (with some minor differences) in:
Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin, NT), 4 November 1915, p. 5 (see article “The Dardanelles: A huge mistake”)
Editor’s notes:
Although this article is not directly about Australia, it is relevant to the Dardanelles campaign, during which many Australians lost their lives whilst fighting at Gallipoli, during the First World War (1914-1918).
Dardanelles = (also known as the Strait of Gallipoli) the strait which connects the Sea of Marmara (north-west end of the strait) with the Aegean Sea (south-east end of the strait), the latter of which connects to the Mediterranean sea; it is bounded on its northern side by the Gallipoli peninsula and on its southern side by the mainland of Turkey; it is considered to be part of the continental boundary between Asia and Europe (thus separating Asian Turkey from European Turkey); it was the site of a military campaign during the First World War, when the Allied powers attacked the Gallipoli peninsula (part of Turkey) in 1915
Gallipoli = the Gallipoli peninsula (in western Turkey), which is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey; it was the scene of heavy fighting during the Gallipoli Campaign (February 1915 to January 1916), during the First World War (1914-1918); running along the eastern coast of the Gallipoli peninsula is the Strait of Gallipoli, also known as the Dardanelles (or, the Dardanelles strait)
Ian Hamilton = Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton (1853-1947), a British Army general, who served in various British military campaigns; he was the commander in chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in the Gallipoli Campaign (1915-1916), during the First World War (1914-1918); he was born on the island of Corfu, in the Ionian Islands (Greece) to British parents in 1853, and died in London (England) in 1947
See: 1) “Sir Ian Hamilton: British general”, Encyclopaedia Britannica
2) “Ian Hamilton (British Army officer)”, Wikipedia
Lord Brassey = Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey (1836-1918), a British Liberal Party politician, and Governor of Victoria (1895-1900); he was born in Stafford (England), and died in England in 1918
See: 1) B. R. Penny, “Brassey, Thomas (1836–1918)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey”, Wikipedia
[Editor: Added a double quotation mark after “hoping against hope”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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