"To Minister of War Éthienne de Premoncourt,
His Catholic Majesty's Court, Burquerie-au-Sogne,
from his most faithful S'vnt Auguste Briant du Petal,
General of His Majesty's Armies in the Levant
Your Highness,
I am pleased to tell you that we have approached the great fortress of Diken with our armies, and undertook some minor successful endeavours in order to firmly establish ourselves in the vicinity.
Admiral de la Montaigne has supported us greatly during the approach, and I will include his report on the circumstances of the naval situation around the fortress. Suffice to say that his smaller vessels had already destroyed some of the Heathen galleys, and a larger action around the cape is inevitable.
Let me begin, then, by describing to you and H. M. the King the lay of the fortress and the challenges ahead of us. 'Diken' means 'thorn' in the Heathen tongue, which is an ample name, for it lies in a sharp pointy bend of the southern coast of the Sea of Glambria, which to the east continues in a curve towards the Tekirdagian crown lands, and to the west a narrow channel leads to Tulbuk Bay, a well known hiding place of barbarous pirates. The leader of the heathen sea forces, Emir Dürtük originates from this region and knows the waters well, but more of that later.
Diken has three outlying fortifications, which are not at all connected to the main fort itself. Two of these lie on the northern coast of Tulbuk Bay, and are meant to rule the waterways there with their large batteries. With a few Xibecs and these strong points, the Heathen can deny all access to the bay to our forces. The one at the entrance of the bay, a bit more eastward than the cape Diken is situated on, is called Meyve Pasha Fortress, and the other, opposite to the main fortress' walls is Bayram Fortress.
I tasked M. le Chef de Brigade Cambronne, Chevalier of Patrenostre, to take these with our auxiliary forces - three reserve battalions, three mercenary btn's, three musketeer btn's, ten cannon, six howitzers and naval support. He further managed to turn up some free riders to serve as his envoys and secure his flanks.
Most of the land north of the bay is flat, with the occasional dunes, and the rest is rather unnavigable by foot; with the amount of space the turrets on the two fortresses can command, and the Heathen galleys' yet uncontested supervision of the coastal areas, Cambronne had managed to land, but had not yet made any progress towards the fortresses. He eagerly awaits the outcome of M. de la Montaigne's undertakings against the Heathen fleet, which, shall they be successful, would greatly ease his going, and otherwise would outright make it impossible for him to take these forts; and this could result in, point one, the ferrying of these forts' crews over to Diken Fortress, shall it be threatened, and point two, the reverse, e. g. the ferrying over of the remaining defenders of Diken, shall most of it fall to our attack.
My vanguard has already began shelling the outer fortification on the mainland, which does not even have a name, and a few auxiliary troops and a battery yet hold on to it. I expect it to fall within a day, as a dozen mortars and ten of my good cannon are directed to it. It is situated on a sandhill, and a few of my restless Hussards managed to climb the almost vertical hillside and capture three Tekirdagian guns, loading them with grape and turning them against the other crews, which caused great havoc and demoralised the defenders even more. The walls are made of dry clay, with some earthworks thrown up, and shall not resist the cannonade for long. They should either retreat to the main fortifications, or surrender - the latter would be more useful, for finding out information about the defenders' detailed strength.
Now on to the fortress itself: it is an ancient construction, employing in its defensibility more the lay of the land than modern fortress-building methods. It has five to six consecutive series of walls, and is protected mostly by the lowest grade of Tekirdagian troopers, sword-armed infantry, mercenaries and bow-armed missile infantry. I expect the walls further inwards to be defended by stronger troops, notably some armored infantry, armored sipahis and musket-armed janissaries.
It is important to note that the fortress has no internal port or dockyard, as the walls run down to the seashore at almost all places. Some separate gun turrets are placed outside of the walls, and the crews guarding these are ferried over from either other parts of the fortress, or the northern shore of Tulbuk Bay. There is an opening on the wall to the western side, where a small ferry could make landfall, but larger ones could not: this opening is held by a hundred or so infantry and twenty howitzers.
Intelligence suggests that there are more than a hundred pieces of artillery distributed among the many towers and bastions overall, and my estimate of the number of defenders is about six thousand, together with the three small fortresses. This makes them about equal in number to my own command, the quality of the troops being the main difference.
The forces amassed by Gölcük Aga, Kiraz Bey and Dürtük Emir, I must state, cannot put up a fight on a field, thus the only reason this siege might drag on for more than a month is that the walls and geography give them a great advantage. I shall approach this siege therefore with great precaution: the rest of my Hussards are already screening the flanks, and M. Chef de Brigade Boyard has been sent with four battalions and ample cavalry support to watch out for any Tekirdagian approach from the direction of the main land.
So far our losses amount to: one wounded hussar during the surprise attack on the outlying fort, and one frigate of M. de la Montaigne's badly damaged. Please find his report attached to this message.
To General the Chevalier du Petal,
Sou'East of the Main Defenses near Diken Fortress,
from Vice-Admiral Justine de la Montaigne,
at the entrance of Tulbuk Bay
My Dear Sir,
We are well into undertaking the drawing out in piece-meal of the Tekirdagian naval forces. I sent a boat up the bay during the previous night - despite their precarious position, many of their sentries were apparently sleeping -, and they confirmed that, although larger in number than our own forces at sea, the Heathen has many old galleys prone to catching fire and of generally low quality.
The Ministry of the Navy was kind enough to give me four large ships of war, fourteen frigates and four bomb-ketches. I organized these to four squadrons according to their role. The enemy has 'round twenty xibecs and the same amount galleys, now five less than at the beginning of our operations, I am pleased to inform you.
During the day, with four of my war vessels I have managed to draw out five enemy galleys stationed near Meyve Pasha Fortress, and sink them, with little peril to our own ships. One of my frigates' rigging has been badly damaged, and until a new mast can be installed, I ordered her out of action, to which her captain greatly protested. But with the number of enemies ahead of us, I cannot risk losing a single ship yet. The bomb-vessels should also come in handy for M. Cambronne's siege of the two small fortresses, as the mortars on these have a greater range, and once their route has been cleared, can stay well out of harm's way.
So far the enemy's intention was most likely to hold up any naval advance with smaller squadrons up the bay, but now the rest of the flotilla at Meyve Pasha Fortress has warned the main Heathen fleet of our coming, and with the exception of a few reserves, they are amassing at Diken Cape. I must find out some way of splitting this force up presently, either by drawing them away with faster ships, or setting them on fire with bomb-vessels, to succeed in the assistance of taking the fortress."
"To His Majesty Sultan Muhammed Ahmed III, at the court of Tekirdag
by Commander Kiraz Bey, Diken Fortress
Your Most Glorious Majesty, My Padishah,
Our troops are ready to die for you at Diken Fortress. I expect my provisions to hold, unless the relief force I requested from Toplerpashin Aga arrive, for two months, and the enemy to die from hunger and thirst within that period, should my raiders succeed.
We are strong in our faith and protected by great walls. Our fleet is glorious on sea against the feeble infidel vessels that cannot come near us unsupervised. The enemy has made attempts at the smaller garrisons, but so far we have repelled every attack.
They suffered great losses, while only a few dozen of your servants went to heaven with Your name on their lips.
I commend my subalterns Gölcük Aga, Dürtük Emir, Omar Bey and the mercenary captain Kovats Janos from the Turbulent Lands. If they do not die defending the walls, they shall be of great use to our cause.
We wish you to be in great health for the coming hundred years, and will protect Your lands with the utmost effort."
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