An official report from the Dardanelles,
Covered events of 25 April to 4 May
-
After talking of the British aspect,
To state French involvement in
Asiatic.
With British moved to their assigned
Landings, French, Marine and
Senegalese
Took to their small boats, led by
torpedo
Boats and trawlers to the Meander.
Their task, to touch ground and take
A foothold - on a place was a few
square
Yards below the Kum Kale fortress,
That bristled with machine and rifle
guns.
Placed upon a windmill, sat a
mitrailleuse
Prepared and ready to take fire.
Enemy
Preparations were waiting, to repel
A single invader onto Ottoman ground.
Yet they did not account for
determination
Of French. Below a sheath of
hurtling fire,
The first boats made way to the
ledge,
When a shell directly hit one of the
boats.
As a leading captain leapt over to
wade
Ashore, the Sengegal moved to the
ledge
With the Captain taking a shot to
the arm
He still moved on to scale
fortress walls.
The windmill gun joined in, as the
first
Shots clicked, a warship made a
direct
Aim destroying the spitting windmill
gun;
The Senegalese drove into the
fortress
They drive enemy back into their
village
As other detachments joined them -
Reforming a new line the Turks also
Gained renewed forces to join fighting.
Pushing through the day into night,
The Turks formed into four waves
Of attack - and four times breaking
Into a wall of Senegalese
bayonets.
Morning light broke across hundreds
Of dead bodies, across 400 metres -
The 26th
saw calmness as the enemy
Sat demoralised by night's attempts.
The Turkish line then rested back
Between Kum Kale and Yenishehr
To find themselves under fire from
Fire of battle ships and French
75's.
The effect was said to cause disarray
Amid the Turkish with them splitting
Moving back under French Shrapnel
As 500 waved white flags in
surrender.
With Turkish resistance apparently
broken
The French In completing their
mission
Were under General Commander-in-Chief
Orders given out for re-embarkation
With Kum Kale engaged on the Asiatic
Coast British set to opposite coastline
To win a line of hills of the
peninsula –
With British French Took to
Cape Helles
As they came to the line a
confrontation
Of Turkish counter attacks attempted
To push them back to the sea - 1 May
To 4 May regiments of Turks
appeared.
Day and night mowed they
charged
As other Turks came to face same
Fate - as the French kept their feet
On the peninsula with
fortifications
While positions were reinforced
Preparations set to overthrow inland
Defence so the allied fleet might
pass
Easily through the straits to
success.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. French Army at the Dardanelles -The Kum Kale
Feint - Official description. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 31 May. p.7.
Col.2. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11633912/Daily-Telegraph-May-31.html
[Accessed: 31 May 2015].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago -
Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 31
June 2015).
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