ay, probably, there was
time. Were we to prolong hesitation, or, were we, now that we had done
the best we could with the means under our hands, to go boldly forward?
Here was the great issue: there was no use discussing detail until the
principle was settled. By God's mercy the Vice-Admiral, Wemyss and Keyes
were all quite clear and quite determined. They rejected Bulair; they
rejected Asia; most of all they spurned the thought of further delay or
of hanging about hoping for something to turn up.

So I then told them my plan. The more, I said, I had pondered over the
map and reflected upon the character, probable numbers and supposed
positions of the enemy, the more convinced I had become that the first
and foremost step towards a victorious landing was to upset the
equilibrium of Liman von Sanders, the enemy Commander who has succeeded
Djavad in the Command of the Fifth Army. I must try to move so that he
should be unable to concentrate either his mind or his men against us.
Here I was handicapped by having no knowledge of my opponent whereas the
German General Staff is certain to have transferred the "life-like
picture" Schroeder told me they had of me to Constantinople. Still, sea
power and the mobility it confers is a great help, and we ought to be
able to rattle the enemy however imperturbable may be his nature and
whatever he knows about us if we throw every man we can carry in our
small craft in one simultaneous rush against selected points, whilst
using all the balance in feints against other likely places. Prudence
here is entirely out of place. There will be and can be no
reconnaissance, no half measures, no tentatives. Several cautious
proposals have been set before me but this is neither the time nor the
place for paddling about the shore putting one foot on to the beaches
with the idea of drawing it back again if it happens to alight upon a
land mine. No; we've got to take a good run at the Peninsula and jump
plump on--both feet together. At a given moment we must plunge and stake
everything on the one hazard.

I would like to land my whole force in one,--like a hammer stroke--with
the fullest violence of its mass effect--as close as I can to my
objective, the Kilid Bahr plateau. But, apart from lack of small craft,
the thing cannot be done; the beach space is so cramped that the men and
their stores could not be put ashore. I have to separate my forces and
the effect of momentum, which cannot be produced