m.

The backbone of my enterprise is the 29th Division. At dawn I intend to
land the covering force of that Division at Sedd-el-Bahr, Cape Helles
and, D.V., in Morto Bay. I tack my D.V. on to Morto Bay because the
transports will there be under fire from Asia unless the French succeed
in silencing the guns about Troy or in diverting their aim. Whether then
our transports can stick it or not is uncertain, like everything else in
war, only more so. They must if they can and if they can they must; that
is all that can be said at present.

As to the effort to be made to envelop the enemy's right flank along the
coast between Helles and Krithia, I have not yet quite fixed on the
exact spot, but I am personally bent upon having it done as even a small
force so landed should threaten the line of retreat and tend to shake
the confidence of any Turks resisting us at the Southernmost point.
Some think these cliffs along that North-west coast unclimbable, but I
am sure our fellows will manage to scramble up, and I think their losses
should be less in doing so than in making the more easy seeming lodgment
at Sedd-el-Bahr or Helles. The more broken and precipitous the glacis,
the more the ground leading up to the objective is dead. The guns of the
Fleet can clear the crest of the cliffs and the strip of sand at their
foot should then be as healthy as Brighton. If the Turks down at Helles
are nervous, even a handful landing behind their first line (stretching
from the old Castle Northwards to the coast) should make them begin to
look over their shoulders.

As to the A. and N.Z. landing, that will be of the nature of a strong
feint, which may, and we hope will, develop into the real thing. My
General Staff have marked out on the maps a good circular holding
position, starting from Fisherman's Hut in the North round along the
Upper Spurs of the high ridges and following them down to where they
reach the sea, a little way above Gaba Tepe. If only Birdwood can seize
this line and fix himself there for a bit, he should in due course be
able to push on forward to Kojah Dere whence he will be able to choke
the Turks on the Southern part of the Peninsula with a closer grip and a
more deadly than we could ever hope to exercise from far away Bulair.

We are bound to suffer serious loss from concealed guns, both on the sea
and also during the first part of our landing before we can win ground
for our guns. That is part of the hardness of the