Paying the price

Three battleships sunk in attack on the Narrows

Raid into East Prussia

THE ADMIRALTY report of Thursday’s operations in the Dardanelles is a test not of our ability to bear ill tidings but of the intelligence we possess to properly appraise events.

So far there has been very little inroad upon the margin of loss allowed for when the enterprise was undertaken and there can be but little doubt that the sinking of three of the allied warships is not the whole or nearly the whole of the price we shall have to pay before the Fleet rides on the waters of the Sea of Marmore.

The fact is we have now entered upon the supreme task and the work has to be carried out and will be carried out regardless of the cost.

The forcing of the Narrows indeed the passage of the Straits as a whole was never regarded as anything other than an operation of great difficulty and it has been pointed out over and over again that the attack on the Narrows, while bound to succeed was exceedingly perilous work - by reason of the more formidable character of the forts , their greater number and the circumstance that the attack upon them must necessarily be at comparatively low range.

The task has never been underestimated and even now though the enemy’s gunfire may have done a fair amount of damage and caused a number of casualties , it was from drifting mines that the serious hurt came.

It has to be noted too that in each case where a ship was struck by a floating mine it was in areas which had previously been swept, a danger which it is intimated, will require special treatment.

The attack was continued yesterday and the Fleet has already been reinforced with two battleships to take the place of those lost.

While we can afford to lose even first class battleships of an earlier type, we are bound to regret deeply the loss of the brave tars who man them and while we are able to congratulate ourselves that the crews of both the Irresistible and the Ocean were saved our sympathies will go out to our ally so many of whose brave men went down with the Bouvet.

We can but hope that the attack already delivered has broken the power of resistance and that the work of the Fleet so far as the Narrows is concerned is nearing completion.

In an encounter of this description, without a parallel in navy history, when it comes to fighting at close quarters a few hours or at the most a few days, brings definite results. An important admission is made in the Admiralty report. For the first time we learn officially that ample military as well as naval forces are available on the spot to carry on the operations.

German irritation at the irruption of Russian troops once more in Eastern Prussia will not be assuaged by the cavalier references to the matter in Petrograd. It is treated there, merely as an incident devoid of military importance or significance.

And the rage of the enemy is attributed to a realisation of their complete inability to prevent the Russian invasion on one side or to resist the advance of Russian armies on the other side of East Prussia.

At the same time it must be admitted that the message from Petrograd to hand this morning, is somewhat puzzling, for the Prussian Commissioner stated that 80,000 German houses were destroyed in the course of the Russian invasion.

The apostles of frightfulness are easily upset as eye witness showed us the other day when they get a taste themselves of the medicine they prescribe for others but it is evident that whether the Russians do or do not attach military significance to their advance in East Prussia, the Germans are in a spluttering rage over it, and show some signs of fear.