This unites a few threads of thought I had been contemplating for the last couple of days. The comment I posted is of considerable value too, Im rather proud of myself for this one. For I was mistaken, I had believed Diebitsch had stopped at Adrianople, in fact he continued as far as the Ergene, to the Enos-Midia Line which formed the Bulgarian frontier after the First Balkan War. And unlike the Ottoman Empire at that time, there was precious little defending the lines of Chataldzha and nothing defending the lines of Bulair. Diebitsch could have swept into Gallipoli to allow the Russian Baltic Fleet to enter the Sea of Marmara as the Bulgarians attempted to do with the Greek fleet in 1912, but failed, obviously, because the Straits Defence Command under Fethi Pasha (with Mustapha Kemal as Chief-of-Staff) was too strong to overcome. There were practically no troops at Bulair in 1829. Chesney states that the Russian fleet under Geiden was in contact with Diebitsch in the Gulf of Saros, and thus was there to be used if Diebitsch was bold enough to employ it. On the other side, the Russians had lost contact with the fleet after moving south from Burgas, as the coast is separated from the interior by the Strandzha mountains. But the Russians pushed south of these to regain contact with the Black Sea fleet at Midia. This fleet could have brought more men and supplies from southern Russia to Midia to create a forward base at the latter port, to support an advance on Constantinople. This fleet also could have allowed Russian troops to land behind the Chataldzha lines. With eleven sail-of-the-line with bomb ketches the Russians would have been able to rake any landing point with immense firepower, covering a landing and allowing it to establish itself. The lines of Chataldzha would therefore have been rendered useless and insisting on manning them would have risked losing the few forces remaining to the Turks to a Russian encirclement that cut them off from the capital. The late summer of 1829 was undoubtedly the most opportune time to attempt to take the city of Constantinople and with all these factors in its favour the Russians could hardly have failed to achieve it. Never again were these circumstances to recur, and Russias one chance was blown.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 15:02:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015