Chapter 299 Bolayeer

In the meeting room of the Queen Elizabeth, the not-so-spacious round table was filled with officers from the navy and army. In addition to Charles, Tijani and Geprat, several French officers, 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 commanders-in-chief like Hamilton, which was a waste of time.

Therefore, this was the first time Hamilton and Charles 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's landing operations)

Hamilton looked gentle and refined, which may be related to his good literary literacy. He was called the "poet general" because he could write poems.

But at this time, he looked tired and worried, and he didn't look poetic at all.

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

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

"When?" General Hamilton asked, with some blame in his tone: "This time, there will be no more submarines, right?"

"Of course, General." Charles didn't care: "Tomorrow, it will still be dawn, and we will attack at dawn."

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

The Allied forces with maritime advantages can prepare for the attack at dark, such as letting the landing troops climb from the rope ladder to the landing ship, and even the landing ship can 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, and I hope you can be on time this time."

As he said, Hamilton stood up and was about to leave, as if he would end here.

If the landing method is similar to the previous one, the time and place will be set, and the contact code between the troops will be communicated to each other. The rest can wait until the landing is successful.

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

Hamilton was stunned, sat back in his chair, and looked at Charles with a puzzled look: "Not landing on V Beach? Then what do you plan to..."

"Bolayel." Charles replied.

Hamilton laughed: "No, this is impossible! We can't land on Bolayel, 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? We have analyzed it before!"

"I know that Bolayel is a strategic location. Landing there can strangle the throat of the Gallipoli Peninsula and cut off the supply line of the Ottomans."

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

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

The officers agreed.

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

If a warship enters this sea area, it will be in a very passive situation. Even a tough battleship may not be able to withstand the three-sided bombardment.

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 Bolayel before, which made the Ottomans prepared. Do you think we should change the place..."

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

Hamilton's mouth was mocking: "So, how do you solve the problem of warships being attacked on three sides?"

Charles stood up slowly, pointed to 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 Bolayel, and withdraw after dawn. At the same time, the landing force will land at dawn..."

The fleet will not need to consider the problem of being attacked on three sides when fighting at night.

"Easy to say." Hamilton interrupted Charles: "Landing at dawn, how can you guarantee such a short time window for landing? If you fail, you will suffer a fatal blow!"

Charles turned his eyes to Tijani.

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

When handing it to Hamilton, Tijani specifically explained: "This is a landing craft invented by Charles, General. It can carry 32 fully armed soldiers at a time, and we have a total of 20. 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, and his face instantly became cautious.

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

After a moment of silence, Hamilton hesitated and said:

"I'm afraid this is not enough!"

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

Tijani took out another stack of documents and distributed them. This time, he distributed landing craft.

Tijani smiled confidently and said as he distributed them: "You are right, General. So we also have landing craft. We use it to deliver supplies ashore. We even added front armor to it. It is 11MM thick. It can block bullets!"

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

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

"Yes." Tijani nodded:

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

"It must first be hoisted from the transport ship to the wooden boat, and then transported to the shore by the wooden boat, and then it must be carried by manpower."

"But with this kind of ship..."

Tijani raised the sketch in his hand.

Everyone understood that with this amphibious landing craft, not only can the supplies be transported ashore in one step, but it can also be used as a vehicle after landing.

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

There is actually such a thing?