Chapter 274 Missed Opportunity

The city defense headquarters burst into laughter, and the staff even started a private bet. What they were betting on was not the victory or defeat of the fleet, but whether the fleet would break through the Dardanelles Strait and enter the Sea of ​​Marmara today or tomorrow.

Lieutenant Colonel Fernand asked Charles secretly: "Colonel, won't you participate?"

Ciel replied coldly: "What are the odds of failure?"

Lieutenant Colonel Fernando was stunned for a moment, then he laughed: "Failure? No one thinks that the fleet has failed. If so, I am willing to bet on him with odds of 1:100..."

"As you wish." Charles felt in his pocket and slapped all 11 francs in front of Lieutenant Colonel Fernand.

Lieutenant Colonel Fernand was stunned for a moment, hesitating as he looked at Ciel's determined look.

But when I think about it, this battle cannot be lost. There are 18 battleships, and there are only 17 in Germany. They are enough to destroy a country, not to mention the opponent is the Ottoman Empire.

Thinking about it, Lieutenant Colonel Fernand generously accepted Charles's 11 francs, and proudly flaunted it in front of Charles: "I will treat it as if you bought me a drink!"

However, at this moment, a signal soldier suddenly exclaimed: "General, the Bouvet has been sunk!"

Bouvet was one of four battleships sent by France to coordinate with the British fleet.

Perhaps due to pride, the French hoped that their battleships could achieve more dazzling military exploits than the British in this battle, so they all wanted to know about their situation and had high hopes. Unexpectedly, the first batch of battleships they received The piece of information turned out to be that it was sunk!

The headquarters fell into a dead silence for an instant. Everyone, including Gallieni, stopped what they were doing and looked at the signal soldier in shock.

Only Charles was sitting on a chair with a calm face, drinking apple juice, which was sold in the officers' club for 10 centimes a glass.

After a while, Lieutenant Colonel Fernand screamed: "No, this is impossible. How was it blown up?"

The signal soldier repeatedly confirmed the intelligence, but still did not dare to answer, and finally chose to hand the telegram directly to Gallieni.

Gallieni took a look and read out the content: "13:54..."

Gallieni took out his pocket watch and looked at it. It was already three o'clock in the afternoon, which meant that the incident happened an hour ago.

If it happened an hour ago, it would be basically correct. Because the information from the City Defense Headquarters comes from the General Headquarters, and the General Headquarters will confirm its authenticity.

Gallieni frowned and continued: "The Bouvet sank in an unknown explosion. It seemed that there was an explosion in the ammunition depot. The incident happened suddenly, and it only took 2 minutes and 35 seconds from the explosion to the sinking, which caused me It was too late to rescue, and out of the 648 officers and soldiers, only 5 officers, 9 non-commissioned officers and 33 sailors survived. "

The headquarters fell into silence again, seemingly in mourning for these fallen officers and soldiers.

But they soon returned to normal.

They have experienced too many similar things. More than six hundred officers and soldiers are just a small number. Any battle in the army will cause tens of thousands of casualties.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the battleship, a symbol of invincibility, sank in just over two minutes, they might not have even had a moment of silence.

"This may be an accident." Fair Xian sighed lightly: "For example, the operation was irregular, or the enemy shell detonated the ammunition depot by some coincidence."

Others agreed. In their opinion, it was impossible for the Ottoman Empire to sink even one battleship.

Charles shook his head slightly. None of them, including the fleet, realized it was a mine.

But this seemed normal. A loud bang detonated the ammunition depot inside the battleship's hull. The violent explosion was visible to the naked eye outside the hull, and it sank in more than two minutes.

Even the officers and soldiers on the warship at the time could not figure out the cause of the explosion.

ACCIDENT?

Or did the enemy's large-caliber artillery shell penetrate the armor?

No matter what it was, no one suspected it was a mine, because the explosion of the mine should have occurred under the hull.

However, this laid the foundation for other warships to hit mines.

An hour later, another telegram was sent to the city defense headquarters: "The battlecruiser HMS Indomitable was seriously injured after hitting a mine."

Three minutes later: "The battleship 'No Resistance' hit a mine and was seriously flooded. We abandoned the ship."

Half an hour later: "The battleship USS Ocean rushed to rescue, struck a mine, and the hull tilted severely, so we had to abandon the ship."

A series of mine-hit intelligences confused the staff of the entire headquarters. They could not imagine that a nearly invincible battleship could be so fragile. One after another, they were defeated by the mines.

At this time, the sky was getting dark, and the war could only end hastily.

Because battleships may be in greater danger in the dark, they can't even see the mines floating on the sea.

The final result was: three battleships were sunk, and the other three battleships were severely damaged and had to withdraw from the battle.

This happened in one day. A total of 18 battleships were sunk and damaged in 6 battleships in one day. This did not include the cruisers and destroyers that were sunk and damaged by the enemy.

If the fight continued like this, the seemingly huge fleet of the Allied Powers, which initially clamored to force the Ottoman Empire to surrender, would only be able to last for three days.

Lieutenant Colonel Fernando immediately realized that the fleet's attack had completely failed. After suffering such heavy casualties, there would be no follow-up attack unless they wanted to involve the entire fleet.

He handed the 11 francs back to Charles and said with difficulty: "I still owe you 1,100 francs, Colonel."

Charles smiled slightly: "No need, Lieutenant Colonel, just consider it as my treat for you."

Lieutenant Colonel Fernand's eyes widened instantly, 1100 francs a glass of wine? It's a pity that I don't have that kind of luck!

Charles stood up and walked towards Gallieni, handing over today's report.

This is the additional work that Charles has done after being promoted to colonel. He needs to analyze and evaluate the intelligence once a day, which is a rough summary.

After taking the report, Gallieni glanced at it and said, "You don't seem to have analyzed the navy's battle."

Charles was stunned: "I thought that was not within our scope of responsibility, General, we are the army."

"As long as it is intelligence in this operations department, it is within your scope of responsibility." Gallieni replied with a straight face: "You should know that the navy's war may affect the army, and its strategic goal is even to bypass the side and rear of the army's defense line to open up a new front. Otherwise, why do you think the navy's intelligence was sent to us?"

"Okay!" Charles said with some helplessness: "The reason why the navy failed is because it missed the opportunity. If they fought like today on the first day, the Ottoman Empire might have surrendered."

Galieni was stunned for a while, and nodded slightly in agreement: "On the first day, there were not even many mines in the Dardanelles. It was even navigable the day before."

(The picture above shows the Ottoman Empire minelayer "Nusret". The German carbon mines it laid destroyed three battleships and seriously damaged one in one day. The ship was copied by Turkey and placed in the park to commemorate it to this day)