Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 274, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1912 — TRIP THROUGH DARDANELLES [ARTICLE]

TRIP THROUGH DARDANELLES

New Light Thrown on the Famous Raid of Italian War Vessels on Turkish Forts.

Rome.—Corrado Zoli, the war correspondent of II Secolo of Milan, whp is now in Rome, has cleared up the mystery surrounding the raid made through the Dardanelles on the night of July 18-19, by six Italian torpedo boats, of which, r according to Turkish reports, three were, and according to Italian reports, not only was none sunk, but the flotilla actually engaged the Turkish fleet beyond Kilid BahrChanak. Signor Zoli finds, after examining the reports of Admiral Viale and Commander Millo, that the flotilla never came within striking distance of the Turkish fleet, and that Its approach was first discovered by the vedettes on the Serril Bahr fort, near the en-

trance, that although there was no Italian loss the flotilla never got much farther, and that Turkish gunners on shore if they struck anything must have hit their own destroyers. In his article, Signor Zoli says: “Commander Millo said that when he reached the second cable under .the Baikouch Tepe battery, the Spica stopped, and that this stop permitted him to observe the water space beyond the narrows. By looking at the plan it will be seen that this water space is the Bay of Chanak. From this point the commander watched the firing from the Hamazieh battery, and considered it impossible to pass the zone of action commanded by this battery without sacrificing all the squadron, and therefore gave the order to return. Therefore the truth is that the Italian torpedo boats did not pass beyond the Kilid Bahr-Chanak line. “In the report of Commander Millo there is one certainly involuntary inexactitude —his persuasion that he saw the Turkish fleet and that he was fired on by it. If he did not pasß the Kilid Bahr-Chanak line, he could not have seen the Turkish fleet anchored in the Bay of Nagara, and most certainly he could not have been fired on by it. The Turkish fleet did not fire a single cannon. “But it is clear that Commander Millo was misled by the numerous steamships and by two or threo Turkish. torpedo boats anchored in the Bay of Chanak; it was probably these vessels that, hidden in the darknesß of the night and the shadows of the numerous searchlights were mistaken for the opposing fleet, and he could easily have mistaken for the guns of this fleet the guns fired from Hamazieh and Chanak Kalessi. "There is nothing strange or inadmissible in this explanation, given the conditions of time and the nervous tension produced on all. It Is even more possible when we think that ‘a high personae of the ministry of marine’ furnished one of the most important newspapers with a sketch map of the raid in which the fiay of Chanak was confounded with Nagar, placing Chanak on the other side of the narrows and fixing the anchorage of the Turkish fleet exactly ih. this Bay of Chanak where Commander Millo thought he saw them."