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Middle Eastern theatre of World War I
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The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I was fought between the Allied Powers, primarily the British and the Russians on the one hand, and the Central Powers, primarily the Ottoman Empire and a German Military Mission, on the other. The Allied side also included the Arabs who participated in the Arab Revolt in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, and the Democratic Republic of Armenia after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Fighting in the theatre began on October 29, 1914; hostilities ended on October 30, 1918 and a peace treaty was signed on August 10, 1920.
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The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I was fought between the Allied Powers, primarily the British and the Russians on the one hand, and the Central Powers, primarily the Ottoman Empire and a German Military Mission, on the other. The Allied side also included the Arabs who participated in the Arab Revolt in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, and the Democratic Republic of Armenia after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Fighting in the theatre began on October 29, 1914; hostilities ended on October 30, 1918 and a peace treaty was signed on August 10, 1920. This theatre encompassed the largest territory of all the theatres of WWI. It comprised four main campaigns: the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, the Mesopotamian Campaign, the Caucasus Campaign, and the Dardanelles Campaign. There were also minor campaigns in Arabia and Southern Arabia, Aden, and Persia.
Prelude
The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in October–November 1914, pursuant to the secret Ottoman-German Alliance[ 2 August, 1914] signed on August 2, 1914, threatening Russia's Caucasian territories and Britain's communications with India and the East via the Suez Canal.
The Ottoman Empire's entry into hostilities occurred on October 29, 1914 when German battlecruiser Goeben and light cruiser Breslau, operating under Turkish flag, shelled the Russian Black Sea port of Odessa.
Activities
1914
Mesopotamian Campaign: The campaign was fought mainly in the Tigris River valley region of what is now Iraq, and included battles on the Persian Gulf coast, at Basra, and numerous struggles around Kut and Baghdad.
Caucasus Campaign: The Russian and Ottoman armies fought in the Caucasus and eastern Anatolia (northeastern Turkey), with the Ottoman Empire suffering a crushing defeat at the Battle of Sarikamis in November-December.
1915
Mesopotamian Campaign: Initially the Ottomans successfully repelled the British incursions. However, fortunes reversed after the disastrous Siege of Kut.
Caucasus Campaign: The Russians went on the offensive, advancing as far as Lake Van, but the Ottoman forces were ultimately able to drive them back. Ottoman repression of the Armenian population in Anatolia, who had evinced pro-Russian sentiments, grew into what is now called the Armenian Genocide. The fighting was largely inconclusive as the focus of the Ottoman and Russian war effort shifted to the Dardanelles Campaign and the Eastern Front respectively.
Dardanelles Campaign: the campaign, which began on April 25, took place at on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the European side of the Dardanelles (:tr:Çanakkale Savaslari), and is commonly referred to in Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland simply as "Gallipoli". The British and French mounted a combined operation with the goal of capturing the Ottoman capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul). The campaign started with a Naval attempt to force the Dardanelles. When this failed the Allies decided to seize the European side of the Dardanelles with an amphibious assault. The troops were able to land but could not dislodge the Ottoman forces after months of battle that caused the deaths of an estimated 131,000 soldiers, and 262,000 wounded. Eventually the Allied forces withdrew. The campaigning represented something of a coming of age for Australia and New Zealand who celebrate April 25th as ANZAC Day. Kemal Ataturk, who would go on to become the first leader of modern Turkey distinguished himself as a Lieut. Colonel in the Ottoman forces there.
Arab Revolt: The British, based in Egypt, began to incite the Arabs living in Hejaz near the Red Sea and inland to revolt to expel the Ottoman forces from what is the modern-day Saudi Arabian peninsula.
Sinai and Palestine Campaign: The Ottomans launched an unsuccessful attack across the Sinai with the objective of destroying or capturing the Suez Canal.
1916
Arab Revolt: In 1916, a combination of diplomacy and genuine dislike of the new leaders of the Ottoman Empire (the Three Pashas) convinced Sherif Hussein ibn Ali of Mecca to begin a revolt. He gave the leadership of this revolt to two of his sons: Faisal and Abdullah, though the planning and direction for the war was largely the work of Lawrence of Arabia.
Caucasus Campaign: The Russian offensive in northeastern Turkey started with a victory at Battle of Koprukoy and culminated with the capture of Erzurum in February and Trabzon in April. By the Battle of Erzincan the Third Army was no longer capable of launching an offensive nor could it stop the advance of the Russian Army.
Sinai and Palestine Campaign: The Ottoman forces launched a second attack across the Sinai with the objective of destroying or capturing the Suez Canal. Both this and the earlier attack (1915) were unsuccessful, though not very costly by the standards of the Great War. The British then went on the offensive, attacking east into Palestine. However, two failed attempts to capture the Ottoman fort of Gaza resulted in sweeping changes to the British command and the arrival of General Allenby, along with many reinforcements.
1917
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Mesopotamian Campaign: British Empire forces reorganized and captured Baghdad in March 1917.
Caucasus Campaign: Russia effectively withdrew from the war in 1917; the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918 eventually restored to Ottoman Empire the territories it had lost to Russia during the war.
Arab Revolt: The revolt was a success, aided immensely by General Allenby's conquest of Palestine in 1917 (see the Sinai and Palestine Campaign for details).
Sinai and Palestine Campaign: Late in 1917, Allenby's Egyptian Expeditionary Force smashed the Ottoman defenses and captured Gaza, and then captured Jerusalem just before Christmas. While strategically of minimal importance to the war, this event was key in the subsequent creation of Israel as a separate nation in 1948.
1918
Sinai and Palestine Campaign: The Ottoman Empire could be defeated with campaigns in Palestine and Mesopotamia and the Spring Offensive delayed the expected attack. General Allenby was given brand new divisions recruited from India. The British achieved complete control of the air. General Liman von Sanders had no clear idea where the British were going to attack. Compounding the problems, withdrew their best troops to Caucasus Campaign. General Allenby finally launched the Battle of Megiddo, with the Jewish Legion under his command. Ottoman troops started a full scale retreat.
Arab Revolt: T. E. Lawrence and his Arab fighters staged many hit-and-run attacks on supply lines and tied down thousands of soldiers in garrisons throughout Palestine, Jordan, and Syria.
Caucasus Campaign: The Grand vizier Talat Pasha signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk March 3 1918 with the Russian SFSR which stipulated that Bolshevik Russia cede Batum, Kars, and Ardahan to Ottoman Empire. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk united the Armenian-Georgian block. Democratic Republic of Armenia declared the existence of a state of war between the Ottoman Empire. In early May, 1918, the Ottoman army faced the Armenian Corps of Armenian National Councils which soon declared the Democratic Republic of Armenia. The Ottoman army captured Trabzon, Erzurum, Kars, Van, and Batumi. The conflict led to the Battle of Sardarapat, the Battle of Kara Killisse (1918), and the Battle of Bash Abaran. Although the Armenians managed to inflict a defeat on the Ottomans at the Battle of Sardarapat, the Ottoman army won the later battle and scattered the Armenian army. The fight with Democratic Republic of Armenia ended with the sign the Treaty of Batum in June, 1918. However throughout the summer of 1918, under the leadership of Andranik Toros Ozanian Armenians in the mountainous Karabag region resisted the Ottoman 3th army and established the Republic of Mountainous Armenia. The Army of Islam avoided Georgia and marched to the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. They got as far as Baku on the Caspian Sea. They threw the British out in September 1918 with the Battle of Baku.
The Armistice, October 30, 1918
The Armistice of Mudros, signed on aboard HMS Agamemnon in Mudros port on the island of Lemnos on October 30 1918, with the Ottoman Empire and Triple Entente. Ottoman activities at all the active campaigns terminated.
Peace Treaty
The negotiations for a peace treaty continued at the Conference of London, and took definite shape only after the premiers' meeting at the San Remo conference in April 1920. France, Italy, and Great Britain, however, had secretly begun the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire as early as 1915. The Ottoman Government representatives signed the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920, however, treaty was not sent to Ottoman Parliament for ratification, as it was abolished on March 18 1920 by the British, during the occupation of Istanbul. The treaty was never ratified by the Ottoman Empire The Treaty of Sèvres was annulled in the course of the Turkish War of Independence and the parties signed and ratified the superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
Command Structures
Ottoman
The Ottoman Empire fielded a large but ineffective army during World War I. Their offensive operations were failures, most of their best generals were in fact Germans (e.g. Otto Liman von Sanders, Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, Erich von Falkenhayn and Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein), with only one effective Turkish Commander, Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk), and just about all their modern war equipment (war ships, heavy artillery, machine guns, railroads, and air-planes) were built by Germans or Austrians and were maintained by German and Austrian engineers.
When holding defensive fortified positions the Ottoman Army was often able to beat back major attacks, and tens of thousands of British and Russian soldiers died making fruitless assaults on Turkish positions. However, the only successful Ottoman military operations were defensive and they suffered many defeats when attacking.
Unlike the army of Austria-Hungary which essentially fell apart in 1918, or the Russian Army that fell apart with the revolution in 1917, or the French Army that mutinied in 1917, or the German High Seas Fleet that mutinied in 1918, the Ottoman Army was still partially intact and partially effective to the end of the war. Despite losing its armies in Palestine and Mesopotamia in the fall of 1918, it maintained a combat-effective army based around Istanbul. In 1918, the Ottoman Army was able to recapture all their lost territory in Armenia, if against weak opposition. The Ottoman Army managed to reach Baku just before the war ended.
Despite the occasional successes and sometimes capable leaders, on the whole the Ottoman Army was a weak partner to the German Army during World War I. Yet to Germany's advantage it tied down large number of Russian and British soldiers throughout the war.
Sami Bey, Landing at Cape Helles Third Battle of Krithia First Battle of Krithia
Faik Pasa, Battle of Gully Ravine Battle of Sari Bair
Mehmet Ali Pasa Battle of Gully Ravine
Von der Goltz
Erich von Falkenhayn
Otto Liman von Sanders, Dardanelles Campaign
Kress von Kressenstein
British
Russian
Armenia
France
Casualties
Timeline
Footnotes
Further reading
- David R. Woodward: Hell in the Holy Land: World War I in the Middle East. Lexington 2006, ISBN 978-0-8131-2383-7
- W.E.D. Allen and Paul Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields, A History of Wars on the Turco-Caucasian Border, 1828-1921, Nashville, TN, 1999 (reprint). ISBN 0898392969
- 1907
- The French, British and Russian over the situation in Armenia published on May 24, 1915
- Sykes-Picot Agreement 15 & 16 May, 1916.
- By Professor David R Woodward for the BBC
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