Greece to roman road

In the command tower of the "Trikupis", the flagship of the rapid response fleet, the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Kontoriotis, ordered the fleet to set sail.

The searchlight on the flagship emitted a bright light that cut through the thick fog and continuously conveyed the fleet commander's orders to the surrounding warships.

When the distance is relatively close, warships can communicate with each other through light signals, which is much faster than wireless communication.

The warships in the port had black smoke billowing from their chimneys and rising into the sky. The loud whistles made the seagulls scatter.

A fleet composed of almost all the best of the Greek Navy officially set sail!

In addition to two supply ships, the ships following the fleet also included two 10,000-ton cargo ships leased by the Greek Navy from private parties.

On board were 3,000 Marine Corps soldiers and their full set of equipment.

The task of the Greek Navy is severe. As the only naval force in the Balkan Alliance, the Greek Navy must play an important role.

The Greek Navy faces important tasks:

1 Seize the islands in the Aegean Sea, especially the islands in the eastern Aegean Sea.

2. Block the Dardanelles Strait, cut off the Ottoman Empire's sea routes, and support the Macedonian battlefield.

3. Block the Ottoman offshore routes in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.

From the Suez Canal, Palestine, and Syria, all the way north to Asia Minor and up to the Dardanelles, these coastal areas of the Ottoman Empire are all within the scope of the Greek Navy's operations.

There are many islands in the Aegean Sea, and Greeks have lived on these islands for generations.

Blocking the Ottoman Empire's offshore routes was an economic attack on the enemy.

The most important role is to block the Dardanelles Strait and cut off the Ottoman Empire's support for the Balkan battlefield through land and sea.

This is crucial to the outcome of the war.

If the Ottoman Empire uses its huge forces in Asia and mobilizes its potential sources of troops in Asia, it is indeed possible to change the balance of forces between the two sides, and the situation will not be optimistic.

The total population of the three Balkan countries is about 10 million, and the total territorial area does not exceed 500,000.

After all, the Ottoman Empire was so skinny that a camel was bigger than a horse. It had a total population of about 20 million and a nominal territory of 5 million square kilometers.

Just looking at paper data, the Balkan Alliance has no advantage.

In the 1897 war, Greece was able to win because of many tricky factors.

At that time, the Ottoman Empire was in a special period.

Its large number of old troops are no longer sufficient, and their backward equipment and tactics are incompatible with modern warfare.

A new army was being transformed and trained with the help of German officers.

When the war broke out in 1897, the Ottoman Empire's new army was not yet established, and the old army was corrupt and degenerate. The entire country's military strength was in a special period of inadequacies.

Greece took advantage of a loophole, and there were many lucky factors.

The Ottoman army in 1912 was completely different.

German officers helped Sudan train hundreds of thousands of new troops whose weapons were entirely purchased from Germany.

The rifle is a Mauser 98 and the artillery is a Krupp.

In the previous Libyan War, the Ottoman army fought against the European power Italy and experienced the baptism of war.

Politically, the Turkish Youth Party launched a coup. The Turkish Youth Party, which itself had close ties with the Ottoman army, naturally gave great support to the armed force under its control, the New Ottoman Army, after it entered the political stage.

In the early days of the war, Greece had a small calculation to cut off the Ottoman Empire's sea support for the Balkan battlefield through Greece's superior navy.

If the Aegean Sea can be blocked, the Ottoman Empire's troops deployed in Asia, even if they are sent to support, can only resist the Bulgarians in trenches near Istanbul due to poor access.

The Greek army in Macedonia is basically unlikely to encounter these reinforcements.

After Bulgaria acquired Eastern Rumelia, the Bulgarian border was only nearly a hundred kilometers away from Constantinople, posing a serious threat to the Ottoman Empire.

Greece is naturally willing to see Bulgaria, which has the strongest army in the Balkan Alliance, assume more responsibilities.

The rapid response fleet led by Kontoriotis has the most important responsibility, which is to block the Dardanelles Strait.

This means that the rapid response fleet is likely to break out in a naval battle with the main force of the Ottoman navy.

After all, the Ottoman Empire would never be able to endure the humiliation of having its gate to the Dardanelles blocked by the Greek navy.

In the 1897 war, the Ottoman navy was unable to stop the Greek navy's actions, which led to the Greek navy's auxiliary army's sneak attack on Salonika, which directly caused the Ottoman Empire to lose the war.

In the recent Italian-Turkish war, the Ottoman navy was afraid of the strength of the Italian navy.

After all, the strength gap between the two sides was huge, and the Ottoman navy wisely protected itself. During the entire Italian-Turkish war, it stayed in the Dardanelles Strait and did not dare to go out to fight.

To the extent that the Ottomans wanted to support the Libyan battlefield, they had to find a way through a long land route, go around in a big circle, and send supporting troops to Libya through Egypt, and it also depended on the British's face (Egypt was controlled by the British for centuries).

Now the Ottoman navy once again faced a difficult choice - whether to engage the superior Greek navy.

The quick reaction fleet, under the command of Kontoriotis, after passing through the Kafiref Strait, headed north and headed straight for Limousia Island.

Limousine Island is located in the north-central Aegean Sea, guarding the Dardanelles Strait, only a few dozen nautical miles away from the Dardanelles Strait.

If the Greek Navy occupies the island, it will be like a nail, providing the Greek Navy with an advance base close to the Dardanelles Strait to closely monitor the movements of the Ottoman Navy in the Dardanelles Strait.

The Dardanelles Strait is the main base of the Ottoman Navy.

At seven o'clock in the morning on October 19, the entire fleet arrived 30 nautical miles south of Lemuas Island.

The three destroyers in the fleet, under the orders of the fleet commander, conducted reconnaissance and security work around Lemuas Island to explore whether there were any Ottoman Imperial naval activities in the nearby waters.

In the command room, Kontoriotis was discussing with the officers how to capture Lemuas Island.

"Colonel Ferard, you also know the strategic importance of Limousine Island. Are you sure you can win it?" Contoriotis asked.

Colonel Ferrad, commander of the Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps is, so far, the only force in the Greek Navy capable of conducting land operations.

The original intention of its establishment was to facilitate the Greek navy to seize islands in the Aegean Sea.

"If the fleet can ensure the blockade of Lemuas Island, the Marines will certainly be confident of seizing the island in a few days," Colonel Ferard said without hesitation.

According to information collected by the intelligence department before the war, due to the important strategic location of the island, there were always three to four hundred Ottoman troops stationed here.