At the same time that Roque arrived in Cyprus, the Mediterranean Fleet could not wait to launch an attack on the Dardanelles.

In fact, as early as last November, after the Ottoman Empire entered the war, Winston sent a warship to the Dardanelles.

It took only half an hour for a single warship to destroy the outermost fortress of the Dardanelles, which was so empty of defense that if Winston had made up his mind at that time, he could have captured the Dardanelles before the Ottomans could have moved their troops back from the valley of the two rivers.

Now the Ottoman Empire has formed the Fifth Army, with a total strength of about 87,000 men, and the commander is Otto Liman von Zanders from Germany.

London's trust in Roque is still limited, and although Roque is appointed commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Roque does not have the right to appoint a chief of staff, and Roque's chief of staff is Ian Hamilton, the former commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force.

Compared to Roque, Ian Hamilton was really miserable, he only served as commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force for less than a month, and then he was demoted to chief of staff.

Roque could understand Ian Hamilton's feelings, so Roque put his headquarters in Cyprus, but Ian Hamilton remained on Lemnos Island, and Roque did not let Ian Hamilton report as soon as possible.

Lemnos belongs to Greece and is only about sixty kilometers away from the southernmost tip of the Garibaldi Peninsula on the side of the Dardanelles, because the Battle of the Dardanelles was launched relatively suddenly, and the plan of the War Department was not detailed, the approximate plan was that the ground forces would land from the Garibaldi Peninsula, and the Mediterranean Fleet would attack the Bosphorus through the Dardanelles and eventually occupy Constantinople.

There is a question here, whether the ground forces will land first, or the navy will attack first, according to Roque's thinking, it must be the fleet that will cover the landing of the ground forces first, and the landing force will gradually clear the batteries on both sides of the Dardanelles, and then the fleet will pass through the Dardanelles.

Sackville Carden did not think so, and on March 5, as soon as Roque arrived in Cyprus, and before the ground forces had been assembled, Sackville Carden ordered the Mediterranean Fleet to rush towards the Dardanelles.

"Send a telegram to General Carden, telling him not to rush to attack, without the cooperation of the ground forces, will those battleships that are about to be retired put on their wings and fly through the Dardanelles?" Roque really couldn't figure it out, Sackville Carden was also an old navyman, who had joined the navy in 1870, and now he had made such an obvious mistake, which was really incomprehensible.

It is also normal that the Royal Navy has been invincible in the sea for hundreds of years, and if you have the sea, you have everything, and the soldiers of the island countries are also difficult to understand the mentality of the soldiers of the mainland countries.

To put it bluntly, everyone thinks that they can be saviors.

"General Carden's telegram said that the mines deployed by the Ottomans in the Dardanelles should be cleared first to facilitate the next move of the navy—" Cecil Milner temporarily served as Roque's chief of staff before Ian Hamilton came to Cyprus.

Cecil Milner never held any military position, the rank of colonel was given temporarily, he was qualified as secretary, and chief of staff could not help him with anything other than to help Roque draft the telegram.

But Roque can accept it, at least Roque has a good relationship with Cecil Milner, although Cecil Milner does not understand military affairs, but he has a huge advantage, he knows when to speak and when not to speak, and he will not find trouble with Roque.

"What's the use of clearing mines without the cooperation of ground forces?" Roque was furious, the narrowest point of the Dardanelles Strait is only 1.2 kilometers, without the cooperation of ground forces, the Mediterranean fleet will sweep mines during the day and retreat at night, even if the Ottoman navy is worse, it can still complete the task of laying mines in the dark.

Zanders is not a fool, he also has "von" in his name, although there may be a gap with Goltz, who has already died in battle, but it is not too far behind.

The point is that the advance of the navy's action will also lead to another serious consequence, that is, exposing the strategic goal of the Entente to open up a second battlefield in advance, giving the Ottoman Empire enough time to respond, which will bring greater difficulty to subsequent operations.

The Ottoman Empire had already sensed the Allies' intentions to open a second battlefield, but did not know that the Anglo-French forces had chosen the Dardanelles Strait, and the other side of the Garibaldi Peninsula was also one of the backup options, and the leader of Al-Shabaab, Enver Pasha, was the de facto master of Constantinople, he had commanded the Caucasus campaign, but the Ottoman army had suffered a crushing defeat, and now Enver Pasha wisely ceded command to Zanders, After inspecting the Ottoman military deployment in the Garibaldi Peninsula, Zanders said worriedly: I hope Ian Hamilton will give him eight days.

Like Roque, Zanders did not believe that the navy was the key force that would decide the Garibaldi Campaign, and that it was the decisive battle of the ground forces that would determine the outcome of the Garibaldi Campaign, and Zanders did not yet know that Roque had replaced Ian Hamilton as commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, which was one of Roque's strengths.

In fact, by the time Roque had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, the eight days that Zanders had hoped for had passed, and if he had followed Ian Hamilton's plan, Zanders would have had nearly a month to prepare.

Roque would not have given Zanders so much time to prepare, when Ian Hamilton was commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, not a single force could be commanded, and Roque had not yet arrived in Cyprus, and the 501st and 502nd Divisions had already left the port of Beirut for Lemnos.

Winston was right to choose Roque as the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, and all the logistics needed were coordinated by the War Department.

Roque has many advantages as the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, don't forget that Roque has a lot of enterprises under his name in addition to being the Minister of Defense of Southern Africa and the Minister of War, after Roque served as the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, the forces of the Southern African Navy and the Nyasaland Ocean Shipping Company were also integrated, compared with the British Royal Navy, although the strength of the Southern African Navy is weak, but the task of escorting and minesweeping can still be completed, when encountering the huge but backward fleet of the Ottoman Empire, The more technologically advanced light cruisers were not without the strength of the First World War, and the ships that sent the 501st and 502nd Divisions to Lemnos were the carriers of the Nyasaland Ocean Shipping Company.

Similarly, the ships that sent the Anzac from Alexandria to Lemnos were also from the Nyasaland Ocean Shipping Company, and the ships that delivered supplies and logistics for the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force were still from the Nyasaland Ocean Shipping Company, and this situation would only occur if Roque was the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, and if Ian Hamilton was still the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, then the logistics support would not be mentioned, and it would indeed take a month for the troops to arrive at the intended combat position alone.

As for logistical support, it was another disaster, when the coalition forces landed in another time and space, the artillery and the shells were not on the same ship, and as a result, the artillery units could only be beaten passively after landing, and it was not until the third day of the landing that the artillery had shells to fight back.

This is certainly not the case now.

"What's the use of you getting angry with me, General Carden also has to show his worth." Sidney Milner and Roque are also not polite, and anger does not solve the problem.

"When will the three divisions promised by Greece be in place?" Roque's main task now is coordination, and with the addition of Greek troops, the situation will be more complicated for the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force.

"Athens is bargaining with London, and it will be difficult for the three Greek divisions to be in place in a short time." Sidney Milner was not optimistic, and there were countries that did not enter the war, such as Greece and Italy, both of which were likely to join the side of the Entente, and the Entente diplomats were trying to convince them.

Although the forces of the Kingdom of Italy did not perform well in the Italo-Turkish War, the Kingdom of Italy had a huge advantage in that it had a large population, and before the outbreak of the World War, the Kingdom of Italy joined the German-dominated Central Powers, but remained neutral after the outbreak of the World War, claiming that the Triple Alliance was only for defensive purposes and had not officially entered the war.

The so-called "alliance" was a mouthpiece, as long as it did not enter the war, then there was the possibility of switching to the Entente, and both Britain and France hoped that the Kingdom of Italy would join the Entente, because the Kingdom of Italy mobilized a million troops after the outbreak of the war.

The current army of one million is of great use to the Entente, but Britain and France do not have a clear understanding of the army of the Kingdom of Italy, and the Entente also fantasizes that after the one million army of the Kingdom of Italy joins the war, it can change the situation of the war, and no one thought that it would be another tragedy.

Tragedy is everywhere, the Kingdom of Italy is a tragedy, and so is Greece.

The problems of Greece were mainly in the Russian Empire.

Considering the distance of Greece from Constantinople, one of the requirements for Greece to join the Entente was to get Constantinople after the war.

One of the reasons why Kitchener chose the Dardanelles Strait as the second battlefield was that the Tsar sent a telegram to Kitchener, hoping that the British and French forces would open up a second battlefield and relieve the pressure on the Russian Empire on the Eastern Front.

It is estimated that the Tsar never expected that Kitchener would choose the Dardanelles Strait as the second battlefield.

After this purpose was communicated to the Russian Empire, the Eighth Army of the Russian Empire had stopped all military operations, and the hundreds of ships that the Russian Empire had assembled in the Black Sea were parked in the military port, and Kitchener originally hoped that the Eighth Army would continue to attack and reduce the pressure on the Anglo-French forces in the Dardanelles, but he did not expect that the Russian Empire itself was unable to capture Constantinople, and was unwilling to let others capture Constantinople.

This is the situation that Roque is facing, before accepting the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Roque knew that the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was a mess, but he didn't expect it to be so bad.