More bad news for Hamilton on 14 May as the Admiralty confirmed that they were waiting for the army to succeed before they would contemplate making another attempt on the Straits. The response is classic 'Hamilton' as he expounds the me
rits of concentrating forces - this the man who always seemed to split his force into as many seperate attacks as possible, all suposedly co-ordinated yet so far apart that none of them could help the others when things went wrong - as they did.In the afternoon d'Amade came back with General Gouraud, his successor, the new Chief of the French. He brings a great reputation with him from the Western Front. Quite late the Admiral came over to see me. He brings bad news. Roger Keyes and the forwards will be cut to the heart. The Admiralty have turned down the proposal to force the Straits simultaneously by land and sea. We are to go on attacking; the warships are to go on supporting. From the earliest days great commanders have rubbed in the maxim, "If you attack, attack with all your force." Our people know better; we are to go on attacking with half our force. First we attack with the naval half and are held up - next we attack with the army half and are held up. The Admiral has changed his mind about our landing and thinks it would be best not to fix G.H.Q. at Tenedos; first, because there might be delay in getting quickly to Anzac; secondly, because Tenedos is so close to Asia that we might all be scuppered in our beds by a cutting-out party of Besika Bay ruffians, unless we had a guard. But we can't run to the pomp and circumstance of a Commander-in-Chief's guard here.
SOURCE: I. Hamilton, Gallipoli Diary, (London, Edward Arnold, 1920), pp.226-227
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