Chapter 299 Bolayel

In the meeting room of the "Queen Elizabeth", the not-so-spacious round table was filled with officers from the navy and the army. In addition to several French officers such as Charles, Tijani and Gueprat, there were also British officers including General Winter and General Hamilton.

General Hamilton was the commander of the British landing force.

During his tenure, Lieutenant General Robeck believed that "local combat" commanders like Charles did not need to meet and communicate with commander-in-chief like Hamilton, as it was a waste of time.

So this was the first time Hamilton and Ciel met.

(The picture above shows Ian Hamilton. During the Battle of the Dardanelles, he served as the commander-in-chief of the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and commanded the army landing operations)

Hamilton looks gentle and refined, which may be related to his good literary accomplishment. He is called the "Poet General" because he can write poetry.

But at this moment, he looked tired and his eyes were filled with worry, and he didn't look poetic at all.

General Hamilton seemed to have a problem with Charles "driving away" Lieutenant General Robeck. As soon as he walked into the conference room and sat down, he asked Charles in a provocative tone: "So, you are finally going to implement the landing, Colonel?"

"Yes, you could say that," Charles replied.

"When?" General Hamilton asked, with a hint of reproach in his tone: "There won't be any submarines this time, right?"

"Of course, General." Charles said unfazed: "Tomorrow, we will attack at dawn again."

The reason why we always choose this time period to attack is because dawn is special:

The Allied forces, which had the advantage at sea, could prepare for the attack at dark, such as having the landing troops climb up rope ladders onto landing ships, and the landing ships could even be driven to the vicinity of the landing site without being discovered by the enemy.

"Very good!" Hamilton nodded with satisfaction. "Then I will order the troops on W Beach and S Beach to greet you. I hope you can be on time this time."

Having said that, Hamilton stood up and was about to leave, as if the journey would end here.

If the landing method is indeed similar to the previous ones, we can set the time and place, and then tell each other the contact codes between the troops. The rest can wait until the landing is successful.

But Charles stopped Hamilton and said, "General, the problem is that I don't plan to land on V Beach."

Hamilton was stunned, then sat back in his chair, looking at Charles with a puzzled look on his face: "Not landing at V Beach? Then what are you going to do..."

"Bolayel," answered Charles.

Hamilton laughed: "No, that's impossible! We can't land at Beaulaye, that's suicide!"

(The above picture shows the location of Bolayel, on the south bank of the Gulf of Saros, at the throat of the Gallipoli Peninsula)

Charles didn't say anything, he was waiting for Hamilton's analysis.

Sure enough, Hamilton spread his hands to both sides:

"Don't you think so? It has been analyzed before!"

"I know that Bolayel is a strategic location. A landing there would strangle the Gallipoli Peninsula and cut off the Ottoman supply lines."

"But the Ottomans also know this. They have deployed a division of more than 10,000 troops there, and they also have coastal defense artillery!"

"In addition, if we want to land in Bolayel, the fleet must enter the Gulf of Saros. We may be attacked from three sides by the enemy!"

The officers expressed their agreement.

It is obvious that the Gulf of Saros is a narrow bay, roughly "U"-shaped and only a dozen kilometers wide.

If a warship enters this sea area, it will be in a very passive situation. With artillery fire from three sides, even a battleship with strong skin and flesh may not be able to withstand it.

General Winter also began to doubt Charles' plan.

"I've read the combat report, Colonel." General Winter frowned slightly. "We launched a feint attack on Bolayer before, which made the Ottomans prepared. Do you think we should change the location..."

"It is precisely because of the feint attack we launched before." Charles interrupted General Winter: "This will make the Ottomans think that we cannot attack here."

Hamilton said sarcastically, "So, how do you solve the problem of a warship being attacked from three sides?"

Xia Er stood up slowly, pointed at the map and said, "The key to the plan is the mastery of time. Our fleet will enter the Gulf of Saros before dawn to bomb Borayer, and withdraw after dawn. At the same time, the landing force will land at dawn..."

When the fleet fights at night, it does not need to worry about being attacked from three sides.

"That's easy to say." Hamilton interrupted Charles and said, "How can you guarantee such a short time window to land at dawn? If you fail, you will suffer a fatal blow!"

Ciel turned his gaze towards Tijani.

Tijani understood, and he stood up and distributed the landing ship schematics that had been prepared long ago to the officers one by one.

When handing it to Hamilton, Tijani explained, "This is a landing craft invented by Charles, General. It can carry 32 fully armed soldiers at a time, and we have 20 of them in total. In other words, more than 600 people can land at a time, and the landing process only takes a few minutes."

Hamilton took the schematic and looked at it, his expression instantly becoming cautious.

The schematic diagram is clearly drawn, from the infantry climbing down the rope ladder to the landing craft, then sailing to the landing beach at a speed of 9 knots. The landing pedal is lowered, and the soldiers rush to the shore to launch an attack.

After a moment's silence, Hamilton said hesitantly:

"I'm afraid this is not enough!"

"As General Winter said, the enemy has already prepared and built a defense line in Bolayel, and our equipment and supplies cannot be transported ashore in time."

Tijani took out another stack of documents and distributed them, this time it was about landing craft.

Tijani had a confident smile on his face, and said as he sent the message: "You are right, General. So we also have landing ships, we use them to deliver supplies to the shore, and we even added front armor to it, 11MM thick, it can block bullets!"

When everyone received the sketch, they exclaimed in surprise. This was a strange ship with car wheels.

General Winter looked at the sketch and asked in disbelief: "This, this is a ship that can be used both on land and at sea?"

"Yes." Tijani nodded:

"It has always been a problem to transport supplies for landing operations. It is a huge problem, gentlemen."

"It has to be lifted from the transport ship onto the wooden boat, then transported from the wooden boat to the shore, and then it has to be carried by manpower."

"But with a ship like this..."

As he spoke, Tijani raised the sketch in his hand.

Everyone understands that with this amphibious landing ship, not only can supplies be transported ashore in one step, but it can also be used as a car after landing.

More importantly, with a machine gun and a few soldiers, it can participate in landing operations and provide protection and covering fire for the landing troops!

There is actually such a thing?

(End of this chapter)