Sunday, March 22, 2015

Dardanelles and the Surrender of an Austrian Garrison

March 22,  1914

In the Dardanelles, a naval battle group led by a new superdreadnought battleship, the Queen Elizabeth, moves up the strait and begins shelling Turkish gun emplacements on shore.  While this is successful, secretly laid mines that had escaped detection result in heavy losses to the Allied force and the British commander, Admiral De Roebuck, is brought to the conclusion that a large ground force will be needed there.  Winston Churchill, with his unshakable faith in the navy, dissents, but seaborn operations come to a standstill.  German and Turkish defenders are surprised that the Allies don't follow up and force the strait. It is yet another missed opportunity for shortening the war.

In North Central Europe, with the failure of the Austrian offensive at the end of 1914 and attempts to relieve them in January, the Austrian base of operations in in Przemysl is behind enemy lines and surrenders.  120,000 Austrians fall into Russian hands.

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