1890 King of Southeast Asia

Defeated, Duncan was defeated.

War was different from what they thought. These Australians who had just been transformed from farmers, miners, and idlers could not understand why the battlefield was different from what they had agreed in training?

In half an hour, the attacking team lost 700 to 800 people, and lost artillery support, and collapsed.

When they collapsed, this group of recruits had no organizational ability, and they could only run away, exposing their backs without any defense.

The Ottomans and their German instructors certainly would not show mercy. The Maxim heavy machine guns rattled, and hundreds of people fell down.

One thousand and eighteen people charged, and more than 500 returned. Duncan could still see that there were still many wounded people wailing on the way to the attack.

"Fuck! These bitches." Duncan gritted his teeth and stared at the mountain, looking like he wanted to eat the mountain alive.

"Report to the general and tell him that the enemy's artillery fire is very fierce and we need artillery support." Duncan looked at the fleeing soldiers and the already timid reserve troops, struggling unwillingly.

If he went back like this, he would never be a general in his life. A defeated general would definitely not be reused.

If it were normal times, he would have been timid, but this war was a good opportunity. For him, this was the most important opportunity in his life.

Anyway, he didn't have to charge himself.

"Yes..." The messenger nodded hesitantly and rode back without looking back.

Not long after the messenger left, the soldier sent by Duncan to scout came back with bad news.

"Report, there is an Ottoman army in the north moving towards here, it seems that there should be more than 2,000 people, Colonel, what should we do?" The scout asked breathlessly.

"So fast? How long will it take them to arrive?" Duncan was shocked and panicked.

The defending Ottomans did not launch a counterattack when they were scattered, which must be due to insufficient manpower, which was also the reason why Duncan stayed.

If there were pursuers, Duncan would have withdrawn his troops long ago. With such heavy casualties, what combat effectiveness would his army have?

Duncan's expectation was that they could calibrate the large-caliber guns of the navy directly on the front line, and the large-caliber shells could easily destroy the enemy's fortifications.

As long as the large-caliber naval guns of the navy were powerful, Duncan believed that they would be able to dispel the Ottomans' will to resist, so that he could "turn defeat into victory."

But the premise is that the enemy has no reinforcements to support it. No matter how fast the naval guns are, they still need time to communicate, and the enemy's reinforcements are about to arrive. They are a group of tired soldiers with low morale, and they may be wiped out.

"Arrange the team, retreat, send a company from the first battalion to block it, and then withdraw." Duncan hesitated for a while, his face turned black.

...

"Is that so? The enemy's offensive is very fierce..." Hamilton touched his head. Because Duncan embellished some reports, Hamilton did not punish him.

The current landing site is too chaotic. The expected landing of 11 divisions has already brought up more than 48,000 people.

But the outrageous thing is that no brigade has arrived in its entirety. More than 48,000 people belong to more than 20 of the 33 brigades of the 11 divisions.

Hamilton is still sorting out these troops and can't spare enough energy to deal with other problems.

"In this way, I will assign you three British and Indian battalions to obey your command. What you have to do is to build defenses in front of the landing site to block possible attacks."

"I will coordinate with the navy."

Hamilton thought for a long time and couldn't think of any solution.

Reorganization and temporary requisition are very difficult for the current British and French coalition forces because their military composition is very complicated.

Not only the problem of authentic London accent and New South Wales dialect, but also the problem of race, religious beliefs, communication habits and so on.

Even if two very familiar armies were reorganized, their combat effectiveness would decline, not to mention the armies that really came from different regions of the four oceans.

Only the British Indian Army, the thugs that the British often used, could give Hamilton a little comfort.

"Ian, I asked the 14th Division to come up first, why is there no result?" Hamilton asked his staff angrily after Duncan left.

"General, the water nearby is relatively shallow, and the ships are relatively dense, so it is not convenient to mobilize." Ian just called Carden.

"According to the original plan, they should be the first to land, but what about now? They only have less than a brigade of troops on the shore."

"We should have rushed up to occupy the commanding heights in one go, but now the fighter plane has disappeared. This is a betrayal of the British Empire. I..."

Hamilton was stuck here. He also wanted to do something, such as shooting one or two division commanders to let them know the consequences.

But he couldn't. The law does not punish the masses, and the British Empire has hundreds of years of history. Those who can become major generals have some background. He can only send people to court at most.

As a general, Hamilton knew very well what would happen to these people. They would be released in court, their status as generals would be restored, and they might even be promoted.

"General, with all due respect, we don't have the ability to continue the attack today." Ian said on the side.

If it was an infantry attack, then at the battalion level, they could still pull out more than 40 battalions, and some artillery.

However, the experience of the Russo-Japanese War and the European War has shown that if a battalion-level attack against fortifications is not supported by heavy firepower, it is just a gift of life.

If you want to carry out effective organization and dispatch, you can't do without an efficient command center, that is, a division-brigade command organization.

The current situation is that the British troops who landed have temporarily lost their organization due to a very small mistake. Defense is okay, but don't think about attacking.

"We can't give the Ottomans time to react. If they are allowed to prepare slowly, it's unknown how long this war will last."

"I want to call General Carden." Hamilton stared at the map, frowned and thought for a long time.

Hamilton hoped to resolve the battle on the Gallipoli Peninsula as soon as possible, so that he could face Istanbul calmly.

Otherwise, if the Ottomans and the Allies were given time to react, a large number of obstacles and fortifications would be set up in the middle, or the war would simply evolve into a European model, then there would be a fight.

There was a telephone line directly connected to the battleship on the shore, so the two of them quickly got on the phone.

"Hamilton, how is the situation on land?" Carden asked with concern.

"It's not good. This group of recruits are running around like headless flies. I say, our landing site is too large, which is not a good thing." Hamilton sighed.

"It sounds worrying. What do you need me to do?" Carden's face also looked a little worse.

If the army's situation is good, it means that this battle will end soon and the Ottoman Empire will withdraw from the war soon. With great achievements, no one will care about the previous losses.

But if the battle is delayed, someone may come to settle accounts with him one day.

"The Ottomans are mobilizing. To prevent any eventuality, I need a fleet to feint to the north so that the Ottomans dare not withdraw personnel from the north."

"In addition, the east, Asia, also needs to move. It's best to send a few divisions to land there."

Hamilton's idea is to do more things to keep the Ottomans busy and not have enough time to think.

In this way, the Ottoman army needs to take care of more places. After all, the Ottoman Empire is fighting on two fronts and can't take care of it.

(The Ottoman Empire army was fighting with Tsarist Russia on the northern front. The Ottoman Empire had to defend both the Persian region and the Strait area.)

This plan was not brilliant, and was even a little too simple, but after this lesson, Hamilton understood the truth that simplicity is the best way to use it.

Considering the national strength of the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire, this way of directly crushing with national strength is the best strategy.

"I know, I will let the fleet act immediately and destroy Kumkale immediately." Carden nodded. Now his hope can only be placed on the army.

Kumkale is located at the tail of the Dardanelles Strait. On the Asian continent, it is a corner with a strong military city built on the corner.

"By the way, this time we must organize it well. We can't be like the troops that landed at Cape Gaba, which are sparse and can't organize an attack at all." Hamilton reminded specially.

To be honest, even Carden didn't expect so many people to be sent up in a short time.

According to the forecast, the Ottomans will organize resistance, which is extremely dangerous for the Marines with only light weapons.

So when the Marines landed, the nearby ships didn't care about anything and rushed to the shore. Many ships ran aground directly.

Only the British could be so careless and land in a saturation manner.

The soldiers on these ships were originally used to defend against the counterattack of the Ottomans, so of course they didn't care about the degree of organization. Anyway, they were on the shore and fought.

As a result, the Ottomans did not counterattack. The British punched cotton and disrupted their own organization, losing their offensive ability.

"I know, I remember that there is a division of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at the end of the fleet. Let them go. Before 3 pm, the fleet can complete all preparations, and before 5 pm, the army can land on Kumkale."

Carden didn't think there was any problem with this. He gave an order, and the warships that were originally dawdling at the entrance and exit of the Dardanelles began to bombard Kumkale.

At first, Kumkale still resisted with artillery fire. It was equipped with some coastal defense guns, but they were relatively old. Soon, as a 210mm coastal defense gun was directly hit and a huge firework was lit, Kumkale stopped resisting.

Then the army landed. The transport ship slowly approached the land and put down the small boat. It was not easy to land here, so the army could only take subjective initiative and find a way to rush up from the steep cliff.

This time it was still the Australian army. A battalion landed on Kumkale. The remaining defenders hastily fought back, but it was useless.

Soon, the Union Jack was raised on the shore.

Encouraged by this incident, the Australian army accelerated the pace of landing.

Just as the transport ship drove to the shore without any preparation, the soldiers on the shore heard a dull roar.

boom...

A steady stream of shells flew towards the transport ship. Three of the four transport ships parked near the coast caught fire on the spot, and the other one was soon riddled with holes.

"What's going on? Where is the attack?" Carden asked in surprise.

Hadn't the coastal defense batteries been destroyed by them? Why was there still artillery fire?

Just a few seconds after this doubt appeared, Carden reacted.

"It's the army. The Ottoman Empire is well prepared!" Carden patted the chair in frustration.

"General, the enemy is using six-inch howitzers, which should be the scale of an artillery regiment." The captain of the Invincible immediately judged the scale of the enemy.

"We must stop them immediately!" Carden looked at him.

"General, I'm sorry, we can't attack them for now. We can't observe where the enemy's artillery positions are." The gunner gave a quick reply.

In addition to being unable to observe, the gunner didn't say that the Ottomans were using howitzers.

The howitzer's trajectory is high and curved, while the cannon's trajectory is straight, which means that the howitzer can squat in a pit or behind a mountain, but the cannon can't.

Naval guns are cannons. It wasn't until the technology advanced and changed the elevation angle that the trajectory became higher, that is, when warships began to pay attention to the horizontal deck.

"Damn it, are we just going to watch? Fire in the direction of the shells!" Carden also thought of this, but the words were said.

"Let the transport ship withdraw first and establish communication with the shore." Carden quickly calmed down and said.

In the end, two of the four transport ships failed to hold on. One had an uncontrollable fire, and one was hit by too many shells and eventually sank.

Due to the threat of shore artillery, no ship came to salvage the people who fell into the water.

More than 2,000 people on the ship could only rely on their swimming ability and luck to swim to the shore several kilometers away.

As the ship's guns sounded, the Ottomans stopped firing, but did not relax their defense.

Some of the Ottomans organized street fighting in the city, while others retreated inland and organized multiple lines of defense in front of the artillery positions.

The Australian troops who landed gathered 2,000 people and launched an attack on the Ottomans with the support of a 100mm coastal defense gun removed from the coastal defense battery.

Then, they left behind a pile of corpses and wounded and withdrew to the British-controlled area in Kumkale.

The Ottomans fought the British headlessly and even gave up part of the entrance to the strait, which put the British in a dilemma.

"General, the minesweeper sent out was bombarded by the army's artillery and could not clear mines normally." The staff officer came to Carden worriedly.

"Why is this the case? Wars should not be fought like this." Carden held the telegram, looked at the map, and murmured softly.

"General, the news from the shore is that they need clothes, food and medicine, and they don't have much ammunition, so they also need supplies." The captain of the Invincible said again.

"Send the situation to Admiral Hamilton and ask him how to solve it." Carden didn't know what to do.

The artillery positions and mines on the shore are not eliminated, and the ships cannot get close, but if they don't get close, they can't provide supplies. Without supplies, how can the soldiers attack?

Moreover, there are more than 2,000 soldiers who fell into the water. If these soldiers climbed ashore, they would immediately face the biting cold sea breeze.

It was only the end of January, and even the Mediterranean coast was not warm enough to be fine without clothes.

...

"Why do the Ottomans have so many cannons? They have been prepared and well prepared." Hamilton was very angry holding the telegram.

He thought that there was a problem in London.

After all, the plan to attack the Dardanelles has always been a very vague term, and even Hamilton didn't understand it until he was transferred to take charge.

When Hamilton came, he only got the intelligence of the Turkish army in 1912, when the new army of the Ottoman Empire had not yet undergone the second round of reforms.

Not to mention the map. Hamilton's first map was a tourist map of Constantinople. As the name suggests, it was written by Europeans and was very imperfect.

As for the Gallipoli Peninsula, Hamilton didn't know what was on the island or how big it was. It was not until he got close to the peninsula that Hamilton finally determined the landing point.

Under such "secrecy", the Ottoman Empire's defense was still so strong, and it was difficult for Hamilton not to doubt it.

"I need more intelligence, at least I need to know how much preparation the Ottomans have made." Hamilton looked at the ridge in the distance, feeling helpless.

…………

Hamilton certainly didn't know that in front of him, the Ottomans had prepared two armies with a total of 170,000 people and strengthened an artillery division.

One and a half armies plus artillery divisions were on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and the other half of the army and all the artillery of the army were in the Asian part.

A week ago, the defense of the Gallipoli Peninsula was not like this, at least not so tight.

In fact, although there were heavy losses in the first naval attack, if Carden persisted, it would be possible to succeed.

At that time, the British and French fleets had completely suppressed the coastal defense batteries, and the artillery of the Turkish coastal defense batteries was relatively old, so the threat was not great.

The British and French fleets had entered the strait. In front of them, there were only two castrated Dahan-class battleships and mine defense lines.

These rearranged mines scared Carden, and the sinking of several warships made him panic, and finally ordered a retreat.

If Carden had ordered minesweepers and destroyers to open a path under the fire, he would have directly faced two warships of the Ottoman Navy.

At that time, the British and French fleets still had eight battleships, including new battleships and battlecruisers, and their combat effectiveness was very complete.

After defeating the Ottoman navy despite casualties, the fleet could advance straight into the Gallipoli Peninsula, which was only garrisoned by more than 10,000 people at the time, and would face the embarrassing situation of being surrounded by enemies on all sides.

Even without relying on the army, the navy could advance all the way to the Turkish Straits. Even if Istanbul continued to resist, subsequent army transportation could be directly transported to the heartland of the Ottoman Empire.

Unfortunately, Carden, frightened by the casualties, chose to retreat. In just eight days, the Ottoman Empire mobilized two armies to strengthen the defense.

After hearing the news, the Austro-Hungarian Empire sent several artillery regiments in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia to form an artillery division to assist the Ottoman Empire in defense.

When Hamilton began his attack, the Gallipoli Peninsula was already impregnable.