WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 1

The call goes out for Jihad, Holy War. Germany hoped her new ally Turkey would do
just what it was told, and the Allies thought Turkey would be a pushover. But the war
in the Middle East went its own, wild way.
The Kaiser had been cultivating the Ottoman Empire long before the war began.
He wore a fez on state visits. He was nicknamed Haji Wilhelm, following rumours
that he had become a Muslim and made the pilgrimage to Mecca. The 300 million
Muslims scattered across the globe can be assured that the German Emperor is and
will at all times remain their friend.
Part of Germany's interest in Ottoman Turkey was that they shared a common
enemy: Russia.
Turkey's position, controlling the Dardanelle Straits, gave her the power to lock
Russia up in the Black Sea. And Turkey shared a volatile border with Russia in the
Caucasus.
Russia is the hereditary enemy of the Ottoman Empire, and her greatest desire is
the possession of Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire once stretched from the
Arabian Peninsula to the gates of Vienna. But it had lost a third of its territory in a
run of disastrous wars. The Ottoman Empire was the sick man of Europe, broke and
on the verge of collapse. The great powers have grasped us by the throat.
The Government can't pay monthly salaries. All the public services are under the
control of privileged foreign capital. It would be very easy for a patriot to go out of
his mind. But one group of nationalist reformers planned to stop the rot, the Young
Turks.
In 1909, they replaced the Sultan with his brother as a puppet, and started a
programme of modernisation. They looked for an ally to ward off predators and
bankroll the future. The ambitious Minister of War favoured Germany. Just 32 years
old, Enver Pasha had risen through the ranks, married the Sultan's niece, and lived
in splendour in Constantinople, also known as Istanbul.
Enver Pasha had been military attach in Berlin. The Germans had the power his
country needed.
I watched a parade of 33.000 German soldiers. It was so excellent it makes one's
mouth water. The reason I love Germany is not sentimentality, but the fact that she
is not a danger to my beloved country.
On the contrary, our two countries' interests go hand in hand.
Chief of the German General Staff, Helmuth von Moltke, ruled out Turkey as an ally.
Turkey is militarily a non-entity. If Turkey was described before as a sick man, it must
now be described as a dying man.
The flamboyant Baron Max von Oppenheim made the Kaiser think again. An
archaeologist and consular official, Oppenheim passed himself off as an Islamic
expert. He was also a German agent. He advocated a Holy War to bring down the
British Empire. When the Turks invade Egypt and India is set ablaze with the flames

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 2

of revolt, only then will England crumble. For England is at her most vulnerable in
her colonies.
By the outbreak of war, the Kaiser had come to see Jihad as the way to ferment
revolution among the millions of Muslims under British rule. Our consul and agents
in Turkey and India must inflame the whole Mohammedan world to wild uprising, for
if we are to be bled to death at least England shall lose India.
The Ottoman Empire had found its ally, Germany.
Enver bypassed the Turkish cabinet, secretly signing an alliance on the 2nd of
August 1914, while maintaining a public stance of neutrality.
Constantinople became the jump-off point for subversion, to set the East ablaze.
The German Embassy became a hive of Oppenheim's raffish spies. One group
arrived from Berlin disguised as a travelling circus. The word was, the Emir of
Afghanistan had 50.000 Muslims ready to invade India.
The circus slipped out of Constantinople bound for Afghanistan, if only they could
find it. One of the Turks on the mission was Huseyin Rauf. What do we know about
Afghanistan beyond its name?
I can't even visualise its place on the map. I don't know how to get there. Do I go via
America?
The irony was that Enver Pasha and the Young Turks weren't fanatical believers at
all.
They went along with Germany's Jihad idea out of opportunism. What Enver wanted
was to draw together the Turkic peoples of the East into a new empire. Enver had an
army of 800.000, mainly from Anatolia, but also Arabs, Macedonians, Kurds.
It was thought to be a spent force, but Enver had reformed it. Germany trained it.
Very considerable progress is being made in the Ottoman Army's efficiency.
The Turkish forces must now be regarded as a factor to be taken seriously into
account. But Turkey still had not publicly declared herself as Germany's ally. And her
cabinet was split over whether to fight.
But Turkey was desperate for money. So the Germans decided to sweeten the deal,
and force the Turks' hand.
Two of Germany's cruisers, the Gben and the Breslau, were being chased across
the Mediterranean by the Royal Navy.
Rather conveniently, they took refuge in Constantinople on the 11th of August
1914.
The presence of two German cruisers, riding proudly at anchor by the Golden Horn,
undermined the Turk's pretence at neutrality. So they shrugged, and told the world
they had bought the ships.

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 3

Their German crews were given fezzes to wear. Their fancy-dress antics were the
talk of Constantinople. The Gben sailed up the Bosporus, halted in front of the
Russian Embassy.
Officers and men solemnly removed their Turkish fezzes and put on German caps.
The band played "Deutschland ber Alles".
When they had spent an hour or two serenading the Russian Ambassador, they put
on their fezzes, then picked up anchor, leaving in the ears of the Russian diplomat
the dying strains of German war songs.
The Turkish fleet, led by the Gben and the Breslau, steamed out of the Bosporus.
On the 29th of October 1914, they attacked several Russian ports. Enver Pasha had
the gateway to the Black Sea mined. The Germans paid over 5 million in gold,
securing Turkey as their ally.
Turkey had joined in the First World War, pretty much on her own terms, and with
her own agenda.
The Persian Muslims are threatening trouble. There is a dry wind blowing through
the East and the parched grasses wait the spark. And the wind is blowing towards
the Indian border.
Fiction by novelist John Buchan, but based on real fears of an Islamic Holy War.
By late 1914, Enver was looking East. He had big ideas both for Jihad and for uniting
the Turkic peoples.
Beyond the frontiers there are brethren to be liberated and bits of fatherland to be
redeemed.
Nearly 40 years before, Russia had stolen a chunk of Eastern Turkey, along its
Caucasian border.
Enver was desperate to kick the Russians off Turkish soil. But it was an area riven
with ethnic friction: Russians, Turks, Georgians, Kurds, and, on both sides of the
frontier, Armenian Christians.
Loyalties in the Caucasus were hard to read, hard to be sure of.
Here at Erzurum Castle in November 1914, encouraged by the Germans, Enver
Pasha took a key decision. Though winter was closing in, he threw his army at the
Russians. Now he played the Islam card.
300 million Muslims are sighing under their chains, and all our former fellow
countrymen are praying for our victory and success.
Happy is he who falls for religion and fatherland. Forward, always forward for victory
and fame and martyrdom and paradise.
In December 1914, the Turkish Ninth Corps marched through the high passes of the
Allah Akbar mountains.
The aim was to sweep down on the town of Sarikamis and encircle the Russians. The
Russians at first panicked and retreated. Enver's bold gamble nearly paid off. But

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 4

then the temperature plummeted and the Turks struggled into worsening
conditions.
Enver tried to reassure them. I see that you don't have shoes or coats but the
enemy is afraid of you.
The Germans complained about our slowness but the snow was so deep. Soldiers
got lost at night, some tried to light fires but many fell asleep, never to wake again.
We realised in the morning that half the division had frozen to death. The weather
and terrain killed 25.000 Turks before they even made contact with the Russians.
The soldiers were terrified of seeing the frozen corpses and they began deserting
their posts. We were trying to fire at the Russian troops but the mechanism of the
guns had iced up. We tremble to think what we lived through during those long and
deadly days.
The scenes made one shudder. The depressing sound of the trundling ox carts, the
corpses, mouths open, eyes staring, thrown into the greedy stomach of the soil.
On the Allah Akbar mountains, local men still say prayers for the dead of Sarikamis.
In 1919, Imdat Demir helped bury the bones. Enver's grand offensive had ended in
catastrophe. He addressed his soldiers before leaving the front.
My friends, for almost a month I have seen with my own eyes how you have
attacked the enemy.
In spite of the harshness of the weather and all kinds of shortages, you broke their
resistance. The Sultan and the whole nation congratulates you. I am returning to
Istanbul.
I pray that you will get more victories and not let the enemy rear his head any more.
I entrust you to the safekeeping of Allah. Now the search for scapegoats began.
Enver blamed the defeat not on himself, but on Turkish Armenians serving with the
Russians in the Caucasus.
Tension between the Turks and their Armenian population was nothing new. But now
Turkey had serious fears that the Armenians were bidding for independence. From
all countries Armenians are hurrying to enter the ranks of the glorious Russian Army.
Let peoples remaining under the Turkish yoke receive freedom. Let the Armenian
people of Turkey, who have suffered for the faith of Christ, receive resurrection for a
new free life under the protection of Russia.
The Russians now advanced, and the Turks fell back through Armenian areas. Local
Armenian resistance was more imagined than real. The Turks responded with
disproportionate, pre-emptive action. Turkish Minister of the Interior, Mehmet
Talaat, issued the following decree on the 26th of May 1915. Because some of the
Armenians, who are living near the war zones, have attacked the military forces and
the innocent population, certain measures are being adopted, among which is the
deportation of the Armenians.
The German Ambassador in Turkey, Baron von Wangenheim, warned Berlin of the
imminent disaster.
Such a mass deportation to a destination many hundreds of kilometres away,
without sufficient means of transport, via areas that offer neither accommodation

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 5

nor food and are plagued with epidemic illness such as typhus, will cost many lives,
especially amongst women and children.
The town of Harpout, key transit point of the forced Armenian exodus. Thousands
passed through here to exile in Syria, then part of the Ottoman Empire. American
Missionary Tacy Atkinson saw terrible sights in Harpout. Thousands herded together,
mostly women and children, sick lying everywhere. These people have been on the
road six weeks. They don't know where they are to go. They have been attacked,
robbed and killed. Armin T. Wegner, a German medical officer stationed in Turkey,
photographed the plight of the Armenians. And the American Consul on the spot
reported to his ambassador.
Sir, I have to report one of the greatest tragedies in all history. A revolutionary
movement on the part of some of the Armenians was discovered, and severe
measures taken to check it, little distinction being made between people who were
entirely innocent and those suspected of being participants in the movement. The
Armenians were marched across these mountains. Even those who survived the
journey were not safe when they reached Syria, as a German diplomat in Aleppo
reported.
Out of 2.000 to 3.000 peasant women from the Armenian Plateau, who were
brought here in good health, only 40 or 50 skeletons are left. The prettier ones are
the victims of their jailers' lust.
The plain ones succumb to blows, hunger and thirst. Every day more than a 100
corpses are carried out of Aleppo. Perhaps 800.000 Armenians died in all.
Whether this was an act of centrally directed genocide is still a matter of furious
debate. The Turks deny the charge, saying the Armenians died of exposure, famine
and the actions of bad officials. In June 1916, Mehmet Talaat, the Minister of the
Interior who had issued the deportation order, spoke to a newspaper about Turkey's
role in the disaster.
"The removal of the Armenians has become a military necessity but unfortunately,
through the fault of bad officials, grave excesses occurred when this order was
being executed."
At this point the minister is stated to have paused and covered his eyes with his
hand, as if to avoid the contemplation of the terrible vision, after which he
continued:
"We are no savages. Care for the security of Turkey had to predominate over all
other considerations."
On the 3rd of January 1915, the Russian Tsar, panicking at the Turkish advance on
Sarikamis, urged the Allies to attack Turkey. The British agreed. This is one of the
greatest campaigns in history. Think what Constantinople is to the East. It is more
than London, Paris and Berlin, all rolled into one, are to the West. Think what its fall
will mean. This was the battle which might turn the war. It could cut Germany's
route to the East, unlock the Balkans and open up Russia via the Black Sea.

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 6

But first, the Navy would have to force its way through the Dardanelle Straits. The
French insisted on being involved, not wanting the British to dominate the
Mediterranean. On the 18th of March 1915, a combined French and British fleet
attacked the Straits. The flagship was hit by a large number of high calibre shells.
A turret was put out of action and all its crew killed. The flames didn't spare
anything. Our young men, a few minutes earlier so alert and courageous, were all
skeletons lying on the bare steel, blackened, carbonized.
The Turkish guns survived the naval bombardment. The Allied ships were sitting
ducks. I told the battery commander, Rifat Bey, to increase fire. He replied that
shells are exploding on the decks of the enemy ships. There is considerable damage
to them.
The French battleship Bouvet hit a mine. Three battleships were sunk that day,
three crippled, four damaged.
The Allies lost over 700 men. It was a remarkable victory for the Ottoman Empire.
The Allies tried again. This time, the Navy would support an amphibious landing of
troops. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, known as Anzacs, joined
French and British soldiers.
Contrary to later myth, the Anzacs weren't rough, tough diggers from the outback.
They were mostly city dwellers, many first-generation British immigrants, fighting
for the mother country. Turks like Behzade Kerim knew this would be a fight for their
country's survival.
I will sacrifice myself for my faith, my country, my dear Istanbul. I will crush the
dirty loathsome hands reaching out to threaten my old father's happiness, my
innocent baby's life, my beloved wife's honour.
I shall be as hard-hearted as an Englishman. I salute you, oh apple of my eye,
Istanbul. Those who are about to die bid you farewell.
On the 25th of April 1915, 70.000 Allied troops went ashore on the peninsula of
Gelibolu, Gallipoli.
A post-war film reconstructed the battle. Private Robert Atkinson witnessed what
was then the greatest seaborne invasion ever. Troops in small boats being towed
ashore, effect a landing.
Terrific bombardment, awful noise, rolling round the cliffs, surprise the Turks.
Splendid gunnery by the Navy.
Awe-inspiring scene. My first experience of battle. The Anzacs were landed in the
wrong place.
8.000 men struggled ashore on a narrow strip of sand hemmed in by steep hills.
The men christened it Anzac Cove. The Turks welcomed us with shrapnel and
sprayed up the sea all about us, but very few of us got hit. There didn't seem much
organization on the shore. In fact it was disorganization. Breaking out of Anzac
Cove, the casualties soared. New Zealander William Malone blamed the folly and
incompetence of Australian officers.

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 7

General Braund had no defensive position, no plan, nothing but a murderous notion
that the only thing to do was to plunge troops out of the neck of the ridge into the
jungle beyond. It was on these Turkish hills that Australian and New Zealand
national identities were forged. We were singing "This bit of the world belongs to
us."
Much swearing and cheering, we charged up a hill so steep in places we could only
just scramble up. Clean over a machine gun we went, men dropping all around me.
It was mad, wild, thrilling.
The Anzacs would have had an easier time, if it had been left to the German
General Liman von Sanders. He was holding troops back for an attack nine miles
away that never came.
But a 34-year-old Turkish officer, Mustafa Kemal, climbed the peak of Chanak Bair
and saw the Anzac troops approaching, and his own men fleeing.
"Why are you running away?" I asked. "The enemy sir", they said. "You mustn't run
away from the enemy."
"We've no more ammunition", they replied. I ordered them to fix their bayonets and
lie down, and as they did so the enemy too lay down.
We had won time. Mustafa Kemal issued a stark command. I don't order you to
attack. I order you to die.
By the time we are dead, other units and commanders will have come up to take
our place. He sent an angry letter to Enver Pasha, damning their German allies.
Liman von Sanders did not know either our army or our country, and did not have
time to study the situation properly.
I urge you strongly not to rely on the mental ability of the Germans headed by von
Sanders, whose hearts and soul are not engaged as ours are in the defence of our
country.
The Turks contained the Anzac break-out at the cove. Gallipoli made a hero out of
Mustafa Kemal. Within eight years, he became his country's leader, learning the
name Ataturk, father of the Turks. The British landing at V beach went badly. The
plan was to run the ship River Clyde onto the shore, her hold no longer full of coal,
but men.
But she went aground further out, exposing the British to withering Turkish fire. The
enemy commanders were sending the men down the ramps. But they could not
escape the Turkish bullets.
Our fire was very effective, knocking the enemy into the sea. The shore at V beach
was full of enemy corpses like shoal of fish.
The colour of the sea changed with the blood from their bodies. The other landings
went well, but initial success was not quickly exploited.
The Allied campaign, under General Sir Ian Hamilton, was cursed by poor coordination. As on the Western Front, the two sides dug in to a bitter trench war.
Here, an Australian cameraman scrambles back to help his assistant under fire.

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 8

French officer Jean Giraudoux watched the war turn brutal. The Australians
massacre all the Turks.
One Australian told me that the Turks are their national enemy. The conditions at
Gallipoli were terrible. Intense heat, bitter cold, little water.
Major Burge wrote home to his mother. Respected madam, Sitting fearlessly about
200 yards from two million bloodthirsty Turks, I take up my pen. I forgot to mention
I've got about six feet of solid earth between me and them. The sun is very hot and
I am very thirsty. The only thing there is to drink is water that comes from a nasty
well, which tastes as if it had a dead mule in it. However we are given purifying
tablets, which are very good and make the water taste as if it had two dead mules
in it.
To my high born royal wife, Ayesha, from your husband Mustafa Mahomet, Captain
13th Turkish Infantry. Oh Ayesha, my morning star, I pray God to bring this all to an
end. I can see our lovely Constantinople in ruins and our houses burnt to the
ground. These English are very persistent and there is no fear of death for them.
They are very cruel. They watch us like wolves in the night and are upon us like the
devil in the day. Oh, why did we join in this wicked war? Ayesha, I must now take my
leave of you, as the sun is sinking and I must away to my devotion.
God bless you, Ayesha. I wish I were at home to give you my adorations. But Ayesha
never received Mustafa's letter.
It was found on his dead body by a British soldier.
The Turks lost 10.000 men in one afternoon. As spring turned into summer, the
stench of the dead became unbearable. Eventually an armistice was called to bury
the dead.
Many Turkish soldiers were illiterate. Their experiences were reflected in their songs.
Disease became a major killer, particularly typhus and dysentery.
My old pal, he was smart and upright as a guardsman. After about 10 days to see
him crawling about, his backside hanging out.
We were trying to lower him down into the latrine. I don't know what happened but
he simply rolled into this foot-wide trench. We couln't pull him out, we didn't have
any strength. He drowned in his own excrement.
Allied resolve was weakening, as Lieutenant Colonel Fahrettin realised, writing to his
father. The moral of this troops has sunk so low as to be beyond description.
These fellows will eventually have to embark their troops and remove them one of
these nights.
On the 20th of December 1915, they did just that. Turkish officer Izzettin Bey was
woken by the duty officer at three o'clock in the morning. They had spotted many
frigates and military transport ships.
They thought it was a new invasion, but on the contrary the British were running
away. Their situation had become hopeless.
What had happened was victory and the will of Allah.

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 9

Turkish troops enter abandoned Allied trenches. They did not fire on the retreating
Allies, happy just to see them go. After nine terrible months, the hills of Gallipoli fell
silent. Both sides had suffered around a quarter of a million casualties. But for the
Turks it was a triumph. When the enemy finally withdrew, Constantinople was
decorated from one end to the other.
At night the minarets were lit up with oil lamps. Everyone was full of joy. Pale faces
began to smile. Constantinople came back to life.
The Germans were still trying to ignite a Holy War, Jihad, in the Middle East. In the
mosques fiery speeches are made against the English. The excitement of the
population is increasing. 60.000 Afghan riders are ready to march.
The German agents, who'd slipped into the Ottoman Empire as a travelling circus,
were now crossing Persia, disguised as tribesmen.
On the 19th of August 1915, they evaded Russian patrols and entered Afghanistan.
Their mission, to raise a Muslim army against the British and invade India.
The team had been on the road for nine months and had spent much of the time
arguing about what route to take, and who was in charge. The answer to that was
German spy Oskar von Niedermayer.
Then Enver Pasha had second thoughts. The Germans, in stirring up countries to
revolt against their Russian and British masters, encouraged ideas of independence.
This clashed with Enver's vision of uniting all Muslims in an expanded, all-Turkic
empire.
Enver pulled the Turks out of Niedermayer's mission, leaving the Germans to go it
alone. And when they finally reached Kabul, the Emir of Afghanistan kept them
waiting another two months, before he'd even see them. His Excellency listed the
reasons why he could not receive us earlier.
It of course had nothing to do with anything political. He compared us with
tradesmen, with lots of wares, from which he could pick whatever he fancied and
considered necessary. Everything seemed to be a business transaction for him.
The Emir played the Germans off against the British. Great riches, even his
country's independence, were at stake. He hit Niedermayer with a demand for 10
million and 100.000 rifles and guns.
While Niedermayer's party waited for the Emir to decide whether to invade India,
they blundered about, offending Muslim sensibilities. In order to enjoy some
forbidden alcohol, the soldiers secretly brewed schnapps. The first drunkard, a sight
never before witnessed in Afghanistan as it is a religious blasphemy, caused severe
public anger.
The Emir had long been on the British payroll. Now they upped the bribe to keep
Afghanistan on side.
There were rumours of the arrival of huge money transports from India. We worked
it out that the closer this caravan got, the icier our relationship with the Emir
became.

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 10

Niedermayer and the Germans finally realized they were pawns in the Emir's game
and abandoned the operation.
Jihad wasn't setting the East ablaze, but it still had the power to petrify the British.
And Enver had no intention of halting his expansionist plans.
He sent Colmar von der Goltz, a distinguished German Field Marshal, to take over
command in Iraq and drive the war through Persia into India.
Then 72 years old, von der Goltz kept in touch with his family.
I could never have imagined that in my old age, fate would take me so far out into
the world, and that I would travel in the steps of Alexander the Great, through
countries that filled our imaginations when we were young.
Britain decided a show of strength was needed in the Middle East, to persuade the
Arabs that the British were the masters there, not the Germans or Turks.
The capture of Baghdad would create an immense impression in the Middle East,
especially in Persia, Afghanistan and on our own frontier, and would counteract the
unfortunate impression created by want of success on the Dardanelles.
By May 1915, a British division, under Major-General Sir Charles Townshend, was
advancing up the Tigris through Iraq, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
Just 25 miles short of Baghdad, they were halted by the Turkish Sixth Army. The
British fell back on Kut, a town on a loop in the Tigris.
The Turks surrounded them and the British settled in for a siege. Major Dunn, who
drew this map, wrote home on Christmas Day:
"A very good dinner today, mutton, scotch broth, salmon mayonnaise, chicken
cornfley, roast duck and green peas, Italian eggs, chocolate, and of course we
toasted all our dear ones at home. "
The British found themselves up against Colmar von der Goltz, now in charge of the
besieging Turkish army, his conquest of India on hold.
Unfortunately the English have dug in well and we don't have the technical means
to get rid off them. Whether we will meet again in good health is in God's hand.
Townshend was optimistic they'd all be rescued within days. But by January, with
the food running out, their own cavalry came reluctantly to the rescue. About three
weeks ago, the first horse fell under the butcher's knife. Since then they have been
slain daily, about 20 a time.
We have it in steak and kidney pie, horse mince, horse risols, potted horse, horse
soup, stuffed horse meat, etc, ad nauseam. Hundreds of British soldiers died, trying
to save Townshend's garrison.
This morning there was a strong English attack. Between the battle lines, the field is
covered with English corpses. The relieving force downstream has again failed to
get through.
General Townshend has issued a communiqu to us: "The eyes of India and England
are on us and we shall go down as heroes."

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 11

Which doesn't do us much good. I'd sooner not be a hero in Kut and have plenty to
eat. The men are dying off fast now from starvation, scurvy, pneumonia.
The Tommies are sticking it out better than the Indian troops, who refuse to eat
mule or horse.
On the 24th of April, during the last, desperate days of the siege, a gallant attempt
was made to send a ship carrying 270 tons of food up the Tigris to Kut. Ali Ihsan was
one of a group of Turks who stretched a cable across the Tigris, ensnaring the
supply ship.
We conficated an English boat which contained all kinds of food, enough to feed
5.000 for two months. It was called Julnar but we renamed it Kendi Geln, the
Godsend.
Townsend became so desperate that the British made an offer to Turkish General
Halil Pasha for the freedom of the garrison. General Townshend offered to me one
million English pounds for the freedom of the English Army. Had this offer been
made in other circumstances, my answer would have been one word, out of the
barrel of my rifle. Trying to keep my calm, I replied that I took this offer as a joke.
Finally on the 29th of April 1916, after 146 days of siege, Townshend surrendered.
An even more humiliating defeat than Gallipoli.
All up now. A terrible pity. Never shall I forget that morning of surrender.
We settled down to the melancholy task of destruction. Poor gunners. Some were in
tears, as the guns they were so proud to have tended, were blown to pieces. The
Turks marched in at noon and took over the place. By the waters of Babylon we sat
down and wept.
Field Marshal von der Goltz died of typhus just before the Turkish victory at Kut, but
it was in line with something he wrote, an unusually modern and prophetic view.
For me the present war is only the beginning of a long hitorical development, at
whose end will stand the defeat of England's world position.
The hallmark of the 20th century must be the revolution of the coloured races
against the colonial Imperialism of Europe.
The evening after the fall, Turks and Arabs moved through the narrow streets of the
city, to where we had buried the much loved Field Marshal a few days earlier. The
Turkish commander wanted to bring the news of the fall of Kut-el-Amara, to the
dead leader whose achievement it was. Townshend sailed off to a comfortable
captivity in Constantinople.
During the siege, 1.750 of his British and Indian soldiers had died, but the worst lay
ahead.
12.000 men were marched through the desert to Baghdad. A large percentage of
the men were quite done for and couldn't possibly march another inch.
They were lying on the ground suffering from high fever and dysentery, and were
smothered from head to foot in filth and covered with flies.

WW1 war in the Middle East (1914-1916) *** 12

By the war's close, over 4.000 veterans of Kut had died in prison camp, victims of
willful neglect by both Turkey and Britain.
"Never come back no more boys, never come back no more.
The camp is becoming a bore boys, it's becoming a terrible bore. Shut up the old
shop window, put a notice over the door. We're packing our kits for the jolly ol Ritz
and we'll never come back no more."
The Allies had written off the Ottoman Empire from the start, but then suffered
major defeats at its hands. The Turks would see out the war. It wasn't Allah or the
Germans that kept them fighting to the end, but self-defence and political ambition.
In the next episode of The First World War: the giants Russia and Germany clash on
the Eastern Front, and millions get caught in the middle. A war without pity or rules.