The following announcement concerning the operations was given out officially today:
The situation on the Gallipoli Peninsula has developed into trench warfare. After our success on the 4th instant the Turks have evinced a great respect for our offensive, and by day and by night they have to submit to captures of trenches.
On the night of the 11th-12th of June two regiments of a British regular brigade made a simultaneous attack on the advanced Turkish trenches, and after severe fighting, which included the killing of many snipers, succeeded in maintaining themselves, in spite of bombs, in the captured position.
On the morning of the 13th a counter-attack was made by the Turks, who rushed forward with bombs, but coming under the fire of the naval machine gun squadron were annihilated. Of the fifty who attacked, thirty dead bodies were counted in front of that part of our trenches.
The situation is favorable to our forces, but is necessarily slow on account of the difficulties of the ground. The Turkish offensive has sensibly weakened.
FROM THE TURKISH SIDE.
[Staff Correspondence of The Brooklyn Eagle.]
CONSTANTINOPLE, June 5, (by Courier to Berlin and Wireless to Sayville, L.I.)—The forces of the Allies on the Gallipoli Peninsula at Ari Burnu and Sedd-el-Bahr are in the greatest danger, as a result of the withdrawal of the bombarding fleets—made necessary by the activity of German submarines—and the consequent difficulty of maintaining communications oversea from the Aegean Islands.
The English position is at present desperate.
The inability to land heavy artillery was at first compensated for by the protection given by the guns of the fleet, but the withdrawal of the ships from Ari Burnu leaves the shore forces resting almost on the water's edge without means of meeting attacks.