The Dardanelles Conspiracy by Alan Bardos (best ereader for pc TXT) 📗

beaten Crassus, is your own. Besides, it was good old Colonel Wakey Woking who thought up the nickname.’ Johnny strode off back to Hill 114. He needed to find a signaller.

Chapter 50

Laszlo Breitner shouted a greeting to Major Toprak and slipped off his horse, glad to have finally reached the new headquarters of the 19th Division, and hobbled towards the Major. His fastidious appearance made a sharp contrast to the shabby men around him and acted like a beacon.

‘So you found your way from headquarters Breitner, however did you manage it?’ Despite their rivalry for Esther’s affections Toprak seemed relieved to see him.

‘I secured passage on a torpedo boat to Maidos and joined a column travelling over the Sari Bair mountain range.’

‘You must have orders directly from von Saunders to have done that?’ Toprak asked, nervously tapping a riding crop against his thigh.

‘I’ve been instructed to assess the strength of the British landings.’

‘We’re actually facing colonial troops, from Australia and New Zealand.’ Toprak said in his usual pedantic manner, then regained his friendly persona. ‘I suspect we have a similar mission.’

‘In that case I would be grateful for any assistance you can give me.’ Breitner said with all the sincerity he could muster.

‘The person you need to talk to is Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal, the commander of the 19th Division. He’s seen fit to deploy the strategic reserve on his own initiative.’ Toprak said leading Breitner away from the men rushing around them.

‘The entire division? That’s a hell of a risk.’ Breitner said.

‘Indeed.’ Toprak slashed his riding crop to emphasise the point and Breitner recognised it as the one he’d tried to beat Johnny Swift with at Enver Pasha’s house.

‘I’ve been sent here by Enver to keep an eye on things and we may need to work together to ensure he does not exceed his authority any further than he already has. The situation is quite desperate.'

‘I’ll do what I can.’ Breitner said.

They found the Colonel in his command post looking out at a distant mountain range. Kemal greeted Breitner with penetrating grey blue eyes. He was, Breitner observed, a strikingly handsome man, fair, with strong features that were sharpened by an Eastern intensity.

‘What are you doing here? We don’t need help from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.’

‘I’m sure that is true, sir. I’m here to find out your situation and report on your lack of resource.’

‘A foreigner with some use, how refreshing. Please forgive my rudeness. The situation is that the enemy has landed in force and I am holding them, with one division!’

Breitner glanced at Toprak, ‘you have committed the entire strategic reserve, without orders?’

Kemal looked at him scornfully and ignored the question. ‘It has been sixty five days since the Allied naval assault ended. We have had sixty five days to prepare and when the Allies come, it is nothing but confusion.’

‘Headquarters are unsure where the main landings have taken place, so do not know where to send the reserves,’ Breitner said.

A wave of anger flared in Kemal and he pointed at the mountain range. ‘It seems the opinion of my fellow commanders is that the landings here in the west are a feint. Ari Burnu is rough ground and a strange place to land. Yet if the landings are a diversion why is the enemy advancing on the high ground of Sari Bair ridge?‘

‘I agree, if the enemy are advancing on such a key strategic position they must have landed in strength.’

Kemal frowned, he did not need Breitner’s agreement. ‘I have ridden to corps headquarters myself and they have granted me command of a further regiment, but it is not enough.’

Toprak spoke for the first time. ‘Our attacks are dying out in the face of determined opposition and counterattack. As soon as we push them off a hill they come back and retake it.’

‘Be quiet, you fool, do you want to spread unrest and repeat the humiliations of the Balkan Wars?’ He turned to Breitner. ‘We have held the invaders. We now need to drive them back. The plateau the enemy holds is vital. If it remains in Allied hands they can use it as a base to mount further advances. We have to retake it and hold the high ground, they will then be contained in a narrow strip of low ground, enfiladed and trapped.’

‘The situation is untenable sir, we should withdraw or risk losing the whole division.’ Toprak said desperately hitting the riding crop against his leg.

Kemal snatched the riding crop out of his hand, smashed it down on a camp table and threw it on the ground. ‘I cannot believe you wear the uniform of a Turkish officer. We will drive the enemy into the sea, even if it means sacrificing the whole division to do it. Take this down. I wish to issue an order of the day.’

Silenced, Toprak picked up his riding crop and fumbled for a notebook. Breitner watched Kemal pace around his command post, his shoulders hunched, smoking and resolute in the decisions he’d taken. Then began to dictate.

‘We face invaders who come to take your homes, they do not respect you as soldiers. They do not think you will fight. They think you have forgotten the glorious past of your empire when the kings of Europe shivered in terror at the thought of your forefathers, who knocked on the very gates of Vienna.’

Kemal looked at Breitner and turned back to Toprak boring into his soul. ‘I am not ordering you to attack, I am ordering you to die. In the time which passes until we die, other troops and commanders can take our place. Until the invaders are stopped and driven back.’

Major Toprak looked up from his pad, his eyes alive with a fire Breitner had never seen in them before. ‘I will have that distributed to the