Chapter 215 Naval Operations

In the command tower of the "Trikupis", the flagship of the rapid response fleet, the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Kontoriotis, ordered the fleet to set sail.

The strong light emitted by the searchlight on the flagship penetrated the thick fog and continuously conveyed the fleet commander's orders to the surrounding warships.

When the distance is close, warships can communicate with each other through light signals, which is much faster than wireless communication.

The chimneys of the warships in the port billowed black smoke and soared into the sky. The loud whistle startled the seagulls and scattered.

The fleet, composed of almost all the elite of the Greek Navy, officially set sail!

The ships following the fleet, in addition to two supply ships, also have two 10,000-ton cargo ships leased by the Greek Navy from the private sector.

On board are 3,000 soldiers of the Marine Corps and their full set of equipment.

The Greek Navy's mission is severe. As the only naval force in the Balkan Alliance, the Greek Navy must play an important role.

The Greek Navy faces important tasks:

1 Seize the islands in the Aegean Sea, especially the islands in the eastern Aegean Sea.

2 Block the Dardanelles to cut off the possibility of the Ottoman Empire supporting the Macedonian battlefield through the sea route.

3 Block the Ottoman coastal routes in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean.

From the Suez Canal, Palestine, Syria, all the way north to Asia Minor, and up to the Dardanelles, these coastal areas of the Ottoman Empire are all within the scope of the Greek Navy's operations.

There are many islands in the Aegean Sea, and Greeks have lived on these islands for generations.

Blocking the Ottoman Empire's coastal routes is to strike the enemy from an economic level.

The most important role is to block the Dardanelles and cut off the Ottoman Empire's support for the Balkan battlefield by sea and land.

This is crucial to the outcome of the war.

If the Ottoman Empire uses its huge military forces in Asia and mobilizes its potential military sources in Asia, it is indeed possible to change the balance of forces between the two sides, and the situation will not be optimistic.

The total population of the three Balkan countries is about 10 million, and the total land area does not exceed 500,000 square kilometers.

After all, the Ottoman Empire is a lean camel that is bigger than a horse, with a total population of about 20 million and a nominal land area of ​​5 million square kilometers.

Just looking at the data on paper, the Balkan Alliance has no advantage.

There are many tricks for Greece to win the war in 1897.

At that time, the Ottoman Empire was in a special period.

Its large number of old troops was no longer sufficient, and their backward equipment and tactics were incompatible with modern warfare.

With the help of German officers, they were changing and training new troops.

When the war broke out in 1897, the new army of the Ottoman Empire was not yet complete, the old army was corrupt and decadent, and the military power of the entire country was in a special period of transition.

Greece took advantage of a loophole, and there were many lucky factors.

The Ottoman army in 1912 was already very different.

German officers helped the Sudan train hundreds of thousands of new troops, and the weapons of these troops were completely purchased from Germany.

The rifle is Mauser 98, and the artillery is Krupp.

In the previous Libyan War, the Ottoman army fought against the European power Italy and went through the baptism of war.

Politically, the Turkish Youth Party launched a coup. The Turkish Youth Party, which was closely connected with the Ottoman army, naturally supported the armed forces under its control-the Ottoman New Army after entering the political arena.

In the early days of the war, Greece also had a small calculation to cut off the Ottoman Empire's channel to support the Balkan battlefield from the sea through Greece's superior navy.

If the Aegean Sea can be blocked, the Ottoman Empire's troops deployed in Asia, even if they are sent to support, can only resist the Bulgarians in the trenches near Istanbul due to the poor channel.

The Greek army in Macedonia is basically unlikely to encounter these reinforcements.

After Bulgaria obtained Eastern Rumelia, the Bulgarian border was only nearly 100 kilometers away from Constantinople, posing a serious threat to the Ottoman Empire.

Greece naturally wants to see Bulgaria, the strongest army in the Balkan Alliance, take more responsibility.

The most important responsibility of the rapid response fleet led by Kontoriotis is to block the Dardanelles.

This means that the rapid response fleet is likely to engage in a naval battle with the main force of the Ottoman Navy.

After all, the Ottoman Empire could not bear the humiliation of having the gate of the Dardanelles blocked by the Greek Navy.

In the war of 1897, the Ottoman Navy was unable to stop the actions of the Greek Navy, which led to the Greek Navy assisting the army to sneak attack on Salonika, which directly caused the Ottoman Empire to lose the war.

In the Italo-Turkish War not long ago, the Ottoman Navy was afraid of the strength of the Italian Navy.

After all, the gap in strength between the two sides was huge. The Ottoman Navy was cautious and kept itself safe. During the entire Italo-Turkish War, it huddled in the Dardanelles and did not dare to go out to fight.

So much so that the Ottomans had to find a way to support the Libyan battlefield from a long land route, go around a big circle, send support troops to Libya through Egypt, and depend on the British (Egypt was controlled by Britain for centuries).

Now, the Ottoman Navy once again faced a difficult choice - whether to engage the superior Greek Navy.

The rapid reaction fleet, under the command of Kontoriotis, passed through the Kafirev Strait and headed north to the island of Lemu.

Limæus Island, located in the north-central Aegean Sea, controls the Dardanelles Strait, and is only a few dozen nautical miles away from the Dardanelles Strait.

If the Greek Navy occupies the island, it will be like a nail, providing the Greek Navy with a forward base close to the Dardanelles Strait, and closely monitoring the movements of the Ottoman Navy in the Dardanelles Strait.

The Dardanelles Strait is the main base of the Ottoman Navy.

At 7 o'clock in the morning on October 19, the entire fleet arrived 30 nautical miles south of Lemæus Island.

Under the order of the fleet commander, the three destroyers in the fleet conducted reconnaissance and vigilance around Lemæus Island to explore whether there were any Ottoman naval activities in the nearby waters.

In the command room, Kontoriotis was discussing with the officers how to take Lemæus Island.

"Colonel Ferard, you also know the importance of the strategic location of Lemæus Island. Are you sure you can take it here?" Kontoriotis asked.

Colonel Ferard is the commander of the Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps, so far, is the only force of the Greek Navy that can conduct land operations.

The original intention of its establishment was to facilitate the Greek Navy to capture the islands in the Aegean Sea.

"If the fleet can ensure the blockade of Lemue Island, the Marine Corps is certainly confident that it will capture the island in a few days," Colonel Ferard said without hesitation.

According to the intelligence collected by the intelligence department before the war, due to the important strategic location of the island, there have always been three or four hundred Ottoman troops stationed here.