Chapter 128 Patrol
After being stunned for a while, Ferard immediately asked the messenger to notify officers at all levels and command the soldiers to clear the remaining enemies around.
After the bombardment, the actions of the Marine Corps were much smoother, and there was almost no effective resistance.
The fierce bombardment completely destroyed the enemy's fighting will.
Thirty minutes later, the staff at all levels summarized the information on the battlefield.
In the mountains and forests around Mudros Bay, a total of nearly 200 enemy casualties were found, including more than 50 injured.
According to the reaction of the captured injured soldiers, after the bombardment began, the enemy commander quickly issued an order for the troops to evacuate.
However, the fierce explosion had already cut off the effective contact between the troops scattered everywhere. Seeing that things were impossible, he led a small force of less than 100 people to evacuate the battlefield and headed towards the northern foot of the mountain.
Generally speaking, if a unit suffers more than 30% casualties, it is considered to have lost its combat effectiveness.
This 300-man Ottoman island defense force directly lost two-thirds.
Hearing the soldiers report that the remnants of the army had entered the forest, Fedra sighed. It would probably take some time to completely eliminate this unit.
According to the Navy's next strategic deployment, Mudros Bay on Lemues Island will be a temporary port of call for the rapid response fleet for some time.
These remnants of the enemy are a hidden danger.
If the enemy finds a loophole and sneak attacks the warships anchored in Mudros Bay at night like the frogmen, it will be a disaster if these expensive war weapons are lost.
In his heart, he couldn't help but sigh at the mental tenacity of the enemy commander. In the hopeless situation, he still insisted on fighting and did not surrender.
In order to eliminate the remaining enemies, Ferard commanded all the Marines to land, divided into several groups, and entered the forest on the island to encircle and suppress the remaining enemies.
Ferard personally led a team of 300 people, crossed the ridge in front, and looked down from a high place. He saw a small village on the hillside of the northern foot of the mountain.
A dozen low houses were vaguely visible in the shade of the woods, and people were walking in the village.
The most conspicuous building was a small church with a towering white cross on the roof.
Obviously, this was a village inhabited by Greeks.
Because they were not familiar with the terrain of the island, the other search teams searched around like headless flies, and they didn't know when they could eliminate this group of rat-like enemies.
Ferard thought about asking the Greeks in the village about the terrain of the island, so he led the troops to the village.
The sudden appearance of hundreds of soldiers naturally attracted the attention of the villagers, and the villagers went out of the village in panic.
A little boy in linen attracted Ferard's attention.
The little boy had black curly hair, and his two black eyes stared at the fully armed soldiers without blinking.
Ferard joked: "What are you looking at, kid?"
"Looking at you Greeks!" The boy raised his head and answered without fear.
The boy's answer made Ferard stunned, and he subconsciously asked: "We are Greeks, who are you?"
"We are Romans," the little boy quickly replied.
"Romulus, what nonsense are you talking about!" The sudden scolding interrupted Ferard who was in a trance.
A man in a red silk robe came forward, and the cross sign on the robe showed his identity.
"I'm sorry, sir, this child was deceived by the Ottomans. I am a priest in the village church, Rofus," the man said to Ferard with an apologetic face.
Ferard, who came back to his senses, said: "Father Rofus, hello"
"A dozen soldiers came to the village a few days ago to promote these things to the villagers, such as Romans, Greeks, etc." Rofus seemed to be worried that Romulus' words would anger these soldiers, and explained.
Now Greece and the Ottoman Empire are at war, and there are a large number of Greeks living in Ottoman territory.
According to conservative estimates, the number of Greeks in Ottoman territory will not be less than 2 million.
In order to win over these people, the authorities promoted them as Romans, intending to cut off their national sentiments with the Greeks and separate them from their compatriots living in Greece.
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Kontoriotis was also very happy to learn that the Marines had successfully gained control of Mudros Bay, and immediately informed the Greek General Staff of the news of the successful capture of Lemue Island.
Soon there was a response, and the General Staff sent a radio message, asking the fleet to annihilate or severely damage the Ottoman Navy as soon as possible, and effectively block the shipping along the Thracian coastal route.
In the next few days, as the Ottoman fleet did not appear for a long time, the Greek Marines, with the cooperation of the fleet, successively occupied the islands of Imbros, Thassos, Agios Efstratus and other islands in the Aegean Sea.
Greece continued to occupy islands in the Aegean Sea, and the Ottoman side seemed to be completely unconcerned about the loss of these islands.
In the command tower of the Trikupis flagship
"The main force of the Ottoman Navy shows no signs of sailing out of the Dardanelles. Is there any way to lure them to the Aegean Sea?" Fleet Staff Officer Aprus said, looking at the sea chart on the table.
"If they hold on, we don't have much better solutions. Judging from the current situation of the Ottoman Empire, it seems that the islands in the Aegean Sea are really going to be abandoned," Kontoriotis replied helplessly.
Originally, it was thought that the naval strength of Greece and the Ottoman Empire was similar, and there would be a fierce naval battle in the Aegean Sea to determine the real controller of the Aegean Sea.
Unexpectedly, the Ottoman Navy had no intention of fighting at all.
Several accompanying destroyers ventured to the Dardanelles for reconnaissance over the past few days, but the Ottoman Navy turned a blind eye.
"In this case, let's send destroyers to completely block the offshore shipping from the Dardanelles to the Thracian coast."
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At six o'clock in the morning on October 26, a double destroyer formation was quietly moving forward in the morning mist on the sea in the coastal area of Thrace 120 nautical miles northwest of Lemus Island.
As the commander of this small fleet, Captain Chris was very excited standing in the bridge of the temporary flagship Xianlin.
The mission of this small fleet is to search for imperial ships along the Ottoman coast and completely block the offshore shipping of the Ottoman Empire.
"Ah... morning patrols are so annoying," Sergeant Herum complained as he dozed off on the lookout of the Xianlin destroyer.
Herum had been on this towering lookout for three hours since 3 a.m., the time when the human body is most sleepy.
The fleet was on patrol, and the unchanging scenery on the sea made Herum feel extremely bored.