DOCSLIB.ORG

Australians in Mesopotamia

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Australians in Mesopotamia APPENDIX No. 5 AUSTRALIANS IN MESOPOTAMIA CHAPTER I THE SIGNAL UNITS, 1916-17 THE most adventurous experience of any portion of the A.I.F. was probably that of the 670 Australians who, in scattered units or as individuals, took part in the operations of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force on the Upper Tigris and Euphrates and among the valleys and villages of Kurdistan, or who served with the “ Dunsterforce ” in Persia, Russia, and Armenia around the Caspian Sea. Very little has been heard of the work of Australians in Mesopotamia, less by reason of their small numbers than because they were, mainly technical troops. That indeed was the sole reason for their presence. India, in spite of its immense population, was astonishingly short of modern technical resources. For example, it contained only four aeroplanes at the beginning of the war, and the pilots and pupils of the local aviation school. from which an Indian flying corps was to have been recruited, were given up to the British War 0ffice.l When, therefore, the War Office, months later, was able to send out two aeroplanes for the Indian Government’s expedition in Mesopotamia, that Government had to borrow pilots and mechanics from Australia and New Zealand. It was a similar difficulty, in providing wireless apparatus and experts, that necessitated the presence of Australian signallers in Mesopotamia. As for the aeroplanes, the adventurous and tragic fate of the First Australian Half-Flight, sent in response to an appeal received in February, 1915, has been described in another 1 See Britrsh Oficral History: The Campaign in Mesopotamia, by Brig -Gen. F J. hloberly, Vol. I. pp. 63, 69. 703 704 AUSTRALIANS IN MESOPOTAMIA II915-I9 volume of this series.2 The first request for wireless personnel came on 27th December, 1915-fOr a troop of wireless signallersS (to be mounted on arrival in Mesopotamia). It was at once supplied, a similar unit going from New Zealand. Next, early in 1916, came an appeal for trained nurses for the military " station " hospitals in India-560 nurses were eventually as well as 43 dispensers and a small head- quarters. On 6th March, 1916, the Indian Government asked that the two Anzac wireless troops then serving in Mesopotamia should be expanded by a third troop and a headquarters (both from Australia) to form a squadron. On 15th January, 1917, Australia was asked for a signal squadron for the Indian cavalry division then being formed in Mesopotamia, New Zealand being at the same time requested to send a cable section. By that time, however, the Ne,w Zealand Government's policy was to concentrate its effort on the Western Front. Australia sent the signal squadron, and, in answer to a further request made in August, 1917, an additional wireless troop for service in Ford motor- cars. The New Zealand wireless troop was replaced by Australians, the 1st (Anzac) Wireless Signal Squadron thus finally becoming the 1st Australian Wireless Signal Squadron. In all, 558 Australian signallers were sent to Mesopotamia although nothing like that number was ever there at one time. At most times during the campaign, so long as the troops were in settled country behind the lines, the network of military telegraph lines (generally known as " land lines ") carried most of the crowd of messages on which the control of the Mesopotamian army depended. But, whenever an expedition struck out in the enemy's country or into such wildernesses as Kurdistan or North-West Persia, the staff depended on aeroplanes and on the small mobile wireless stations for its communications; and seeing that from the end of 1916 the Anzac squadron took over nearly all the mobile wireless work (the British squadron, then the 2nd Volume VIII, The Australian Flying Corps, by F. M. Cutlack A fuller account (GUCS~Jo the Unspeakable) is given b one of its officers-now Lieut.-Colonel Hon. T. W. dhite, Minister for Trade ana Customs-who was eventually captured 5y the Turks 'One officer and 53 of other ranks. 4 The first fifty were sent from Eqypt to India, and thence later to England for which they had originally been destined An account of the service of these nurses and dispensers is included in Iieast Burke's IYith Horse and Morse ~n hfesopotamra. 191s-191 THE SIGNAL UNITS 705 IYireless Signal Squadron, undertaking most of the base and lines-of-communication duties), the Anzacs were a necessary part of nearly all the adventurous expeditions that marked the latter history of the campaign. Without unduly stressing the importance of these fifteen or twenty little sections in a force of over 200,000 men, it may truly be said that the formation of this wireless network was a basic condition of some of the most interesting operations of Generals Maude, Marshall, and Dunsterville. An admirable account of it is given in the regimental history of the Australian units In Mesopotamia5 by Keast Burke,s based on the official as well as upon private records; but it is due to them that at least some notion of their achievement and of the manner in which it fitted into the vast operations in the East should be given in the present work. For an account of their daily experiences -of the frizzling heat which for four months in the year caused all movement outside tents and billets-except the watering of horses-to be, forbidden in the four middle hours of the day, reducing the catnps of both sides to the semblance of cities of the dead; heat that could strike men down even inside the great “ Egyptian pattern ” tents, through canvas and mat ceilings; of the flies whose swarms exceeded those of Gallipoli ; of the mosquitoes, sandflies, and malaria, of the native camp-followers, the long monotonous ratiotiings, grooniings, waterings, and camp troubles, the short excitements of sightseeing in Ancient Babylonia and Persia and modern Baghdad-for an account of all these the reader must be referred to Keast Burke’s narrative. The description of the work of the wireless squadron here given is based largely OT. that book, the strategical background being sketched in mainly from the excellent British Official History of the Mesopotamian Campaign. When in December, 1915, the first request for a wireiess signal troop arrived in Australia, the operators were at once found from the Marconi school in Sydney and the signallers’ dBp6t at Broadmeadows in Victoria, and the drivers (nearly half the strength of the troop) from the army service corps 8 With Horse and Morse ;I Mesopotamia, one of the unit histories published under the Defence Department’s unit history scheme OSpr. E. K. Burke (No. 20555; 1st. Aust. Wireless Sig. Sqn ). University student; of Roseville. N.S.W.; b. Christchurch. N.Z.. 16 Jan, 1896. 706 AUSTRALIANS IN MESOPOTAMIA [ 1914-16 camp in New South Wales (Moore Park) and the artillery school in Victoria. The men were eager for this new service The unit-then known as the 1st Australian Pack Wireless Signal Troop-sailed on 5th February, 1916, from Melbourne, and, after transhipping at Colombo and B~mbay,~landed at Basra on the 19th of March, 1916. There it went into camp at Makina Masus (becoming “ C ” Troop of the 1st Wireless Signal Squadron, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force), and was organised in four sections, each forming a wireless station with 7 operators and 6 drivers (including the N.C.O’s in command) all mounted, with 5 horses additional to carry the gear. The sets were of half-a-kilowatt power, and were divided into five loads each carried on one horse-first, on a special frame, the small generator, petrol driven and air-cooled, with alternator ; second, the sending and receiving apparatus ; third, the rigging; fourth, the mast, in sections; and, fifth, the spare parts and petrol. The New Zealatid contingent, arriving in April, furnished another four sections for the same troop. “ A ’’ Troop-a British unit-was meanwhile carrying on the work at the front,* 150-200 miles away. At this time the Mesopotamian campaign had been brought to a standstill through the unfortunate results of the rush for Baghdad, attempted by the section of the origin of force on the River Tigris in November, Campaign 191.5. The expedition had originally been undertaken upon the entry of Turkey into the war, its object being, first to protect India by averting the chief dangers of Arab hostility and of German and Turkish attempts to stir I’ersians, Afghans, and Arabs into war ; second, the protection of the Anglo-Persian oil-supply at the head of the Persian Gulf. Of these, the defence of India was then the more important; when, in September, 1914, the staff at the Admiralty suggested that Indian troops should be sent to defend the oil works. Winston Churchill. then First Lord of ‘Here there was a difficulty over a messing allowance, which was first paid to the Australians in the same way as to British troops in India, and later demanded back from them. 8 ‘‘ B ” Troop was in India. 1914-191 THE SIGNAL UNITS 707 the Admiralty, advised against it. “ We shall have to buy our oil from elsewhere,” he wrote. Steps were eventually taken to protect the works, but in the military plans of that time this was treated as a secondary duty. The chief danger to India lay in the fact that Persia, though neutral, afforded an altnost open avenue for Turkish and German agents to the Afghans and other mountain peoples on the north-west frontier to whom the plains and cities of India provide much the same temptation that those of ancient Italy furnished for the Goths and Vandals.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Purpose of the First World War War Aims and Military Strategies Schriften Des Historischen Kollegs
    The Purpose of the First World War War Aims and Military Strategies Schriften des Historischen Kollegs Herausgegeben von Andreas Wirsching Kolloquien 91 The Purpose of the First World War War Aims and Military Strategies Herausgegeben von Holger Afflerbach An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libra- ries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org Schriften des Historischen Kollegs herausgegeben von Andreas Wirsching in Verbindung mit Georg Brun, Peter Funke, Karl-Heinz Hoffmann, Martin Jehne, Susanne Lepsius, Helmut Neuhaus, Frank Rexroth, Martin Schulze Wessel, Willibald Steinmetz und Gerrit Walther Das Historische Kolleg fördert im Bereich der historisch orientierten Wissenschaften Gelehrte, die sich durch herausragende Leistungen in Forschung und Lehre ausgewiesen haben. Es vergibt zu diesem Zweck jährlich bis zu drei Forschungsstipendien und zwei Förderstipendien sowie alle drei Jahre den „Preis des Historischen Kollegs“. Die Forschungsstipendien, deren Verleihung zugleich eine Auszeichnung für die bisherigen Leis- tungen darstellt, sollen den berufenen Wissenschaftlern während eines Kollegjahres die Möglich- keit bieten, frei von anderen Verpflichtungen eine größere Arbeit abzuschließen. Professor Dr. Hol- ger Afflerbach (Leeds/UK) war – zusammen mit Professor Dr. Paul Nolte (Berlin), Dr. Martina Steber (London/UK) und Juniorprofessor Simon Wendt (Frankfurt am Main) – Stipendiat des Historischen Kollegs im Kollegjahr 2012/2013. Den Obliegenheiten der Stipendiaten gemäß hat Holger Afflerbach aus seinem Arbeitsbereich ein Kolloquium zum Thema „Der Sinn des Krieges. Politische Ziele und militärische Instrumente der kriegführenden Parteien von 1914–1918“ vom 21.
    [Show full text]
  • The Forgotten Fronts the First World War Battlefield Guide: World War Battlefield First the the Forgotten Fronts Forgotten The
    Ed 1 Nov 2016 1 Nov Ed The First World War Battlefield Guide: Volume 2 The Forgotten Fronts The First Battlefield War World Guide: The Forgotten Fronts Creative Media Design ADR005472 Edition 1 November 2016 THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS | i The First World War Battlefield Guide: Volume 2 The British Army Campaign Guide to the Forgotten Fronts of the First World War 1st Edition November 2016 Acknowledgement The publisher wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following organisations in providing text, images, multimedia links and sketch maps for this volume: Defence Geographic Centre, Imperial War Museum, Army Historical Branch, Air Historical Branch, Army Records Society,National Portrait Gallery, Tank Museum, National Army Museum, Royal Green Jackets Museum,Shepard Trust, Royal Australian Navy, Australian Defence, Royal Artillery Historical Trust, National Archive, Canadian War Museum, National Archives of Canada, The Times, RAF Museum, Wikimedia Commons, USAF, US Library of Congress. The Cover Images Front Cover: (1) Wounded soldier of the 10th Battalion, Black Watch being carried out of a communication trench on the ‘Birdcage’ Line near Salonika, February 1916 © IWM; (2) The advance through Palestine and the Battle of Megiddo: A sergeant directs orders whilst standing on one of the wooden saddles of the Camel Transport Corps © IWM (3) Soldiers of the Royal Army Service Corps outside a Field Ambulance Station. © IWM Inside Front Cover: Helles Memorial, Gallipoli © Barbara Taylor Back Cover: ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ at the Tower of London © Julia Gavin ii | THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS THE FORGOTTEN FRONTS | iii ISBN: 978-1-874346-46-3 First published in November 2016 by Creative Media Designs, Army Headquarters, Andover.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 7. Remembering Them
    University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository University of Calgary Press University of Calgary Press Open Access Books 2017-02 Understanding Atrocities: Remembering, Representing and Teaching Genocide Murray, Scott W. University of Calgary Press http://hdl.handle.net/1880/51806 book http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNDERSTANDING ATROCITIES: REMEMBERING, REPRESENTING, AND TEACHING GENOCIDE Edited by Scott W. Murray ISBN 978-1-55238-886-0 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. It is an electronic version of a book that can be purchased in physical form through any bookseller or on-line retailer, or from our distributors. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your university purchase a print copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected] Cover Art: The artwork on the cover of this book is not open access and falls under traditional copyright provisions; it cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission of the artists and their agents. The cover can be displayed as a complete cover image for the purposes of publicizing this work, but the artwork cannot be extracted from the context of the cover of this specific work without breaching the artist’s copyright. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This open-access work is published under a Creative Commons licence. This means that you are free to copy, distribute, display or perform the work as long as you clearly attribute the work to its authors and publisher, that you do not use this work for any commercial gain in any form, and that you in no way alter, transform, or build on the work outside of its use in normal academic scholarship without our express permission.
    [Show full text]
  • Red Sand: Canadians in Persia & Transcaucasia, 1918 Tom
    RED SAND: CANADIANS IN PERSIA & TRANSCAUCASIA, 1918 TOM SUTTON, MA THESIS ROUGH DRAFT, 20 JANUARY 2012 CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1 Stopgap 2 Volunteers 3 The Mad Dash 4 Orphans 5 Relief 6 The Push 7 Bijar 8 Baku 9 Evacuation 10 Historiography Conclusion Introduction NOTES IN BOLD ARE EITHER TOPICS LEFT UNFINISHED OR GENERAL TOPIC/THESIS SENTENCES. REFERECNCE MAP IS ON LAST PAGE. Goals, Scope, Thesis Brief assessment of literature on Canada in the Russian Civil War. Brief assessment of literature on Canadians in Dunsterforce. 1 Stopgap: British Imperial Intentions and Policy in the Caucasus & Persia Before 1917, the Eastern Front was held almost entirely by the Russian Imperial Army. From the Baltic to the Black Sea, through the western Caucasus and south to the Persian Gulf, the Russians bolstered themselves against the Central Empires. The Russians and Turks traded Kurdistan, Assyria, and western Persia back and forth until the spring of 1917, when the British captured Baghdad, buttressing the south-eastern front. Meanwhile, the Russian army withered in unrest and desertion. Russian troops migrated north through Tabriz, Batum, Tiflis, and Baku, leaving dwindling numbers to defend an increasingly tenable front, and as the year wore on the fighting spirit of the Russian army evaporated. In the autumn of 1917, the three primary nationalities of the Caucasus – Georgians, Armenians, and Azerbaijanis – called an emergency meeting in Tiflis in reaction to the Bolshevik coup d'etat in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In attendance were representatives from trade unions, civil employees, regional soviets, political parties, the army, and lastly Entente military agents.
    [Show full text]
  • Dunsterforce
    John Weightman Warden (marked “Daddy”) with other members of an aerial course in October, 1917. City of Vancouver Archives CVA802-52 revolver. The volunteers for the mission—which required 150 Dunsterforce officers and 300 NCOs—included Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and Imperials (British), all By Lisa Smedman with at least a year’s worth of front-line experience. They were, said Warden, “highly individualistic characters... men of Vancouver Courier newspaper the do or die type.” All of the officers, and most of the men, (www.vancourier.com) had received decorations for valour—some, as many as five times. n January 1918, Lieutenant Colonel John Weightman They were told they would be “embarking on one of the Warden faced the toughest decision of his long most dangerous missions that British troops had ever been I military career. He’d just received word that asked to attempt.” Wild speculation followed. Some of the volunteers were being recruited for a “secret mission” in some recruits thought they would be bound for Ireland, or that distant land far from the trenches of France—a mission that, they’d be used to put down French Canadian “revolts” in he later recalled, “was mysteriously whispered was a very Quebec. Others guessed Egypt or East Africa. dangerous one.” When the volunteers were introduced to 15 Russian Volunteering for this mission, however, would mean officers who would be acting as interpreters, rumour had it giving up command of the 102nd Canadian Infantry they were going to fight the Bolsheviks. But then came a Battalion—men he’d personally recruited from Vancouver and confusing order: they should pack both cold-weather gear— from smaller towns throughout B.C.
    [Show full text]
  • Legacies of the Anglo-Hashemite Relationship in Jordan
    Legacies of the Anglo-Hashemite Relationship in Jordan: How this symbiotic alliance established the legitimacy and political longevity of the regime in the process of state-formation, 1914-1946 An Honors Thesis for the Department of Middle Eastern Studies Julie Murray Tufts University, 2018 Acknowledgements The writing of this thesis was not a unilateral effort, and I would be remiss not to acknowledge those who have helped me along the way. First of all, I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Thomas Abowd, for his encouragement of my academic curiosity this past year, and for all his help in first, making this project a reality, and second, shaping it into (what I hope is) a coherent and meaningful project. His class provided me with a new lens through which to examine political history, and gave me with the impetus to start this paper. I must also acknowledge the role my abroad experience played in shaping this thesis. It was a research project conducted with CET that sparked my interest in political stability in Jordan, so thank you to Ines and Dr. Saif, and of course, my classmates, Lensa, Matthew, and Jackie, for first empowering me to explore this topic. I would also like to thank my parents and my brother, Jonathan, for their continuous support. I feel so lucky to have such a caring family that has given me the opportunity to pursue my passions. Finally, a shout-out to the gals that have been my emotional bedrock and inspiration through this process: Annie, Maya, Miranda, Rachel – I love y’all; thanks for listening to me rant about this all year.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to the MS-236: Bernard Peace WWI Photograph Album
    ________________________________________________________________________ Guide to the MS-236: Bernard Peace WWI Photograph Album Kelly Murphy ‘21, Ester Kenyon Fortenbaugh ’46 Intern February 2019 MS – 236: Bernard Peace WWI Photograph Album 1 box, .175 cubic feet Inclusive Dates: 1917-1919 Processed by: Kelly Murphy, Ester Kenyon Fortenbaugh ’46 Intern (February 2019) Provenance This photo album was purchased from Between the Covers in 2016. Biographical Note Bernard Peace was born in 1884 and lived in Lockwood, a suburb of Huddersfield, England when he enlisted in the British Army. In September 1916, Private Peace completed basic training and was placed in the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, which mainly saw action on the Western Front. In February 1917 he was transferred to the Territorial Forces and stationed in Baghdad after its capture in March 1917. Between his arrival and his transfer home in April 1919 he stayed in Baghdad and traveled to other areas of Iraq and India when permitted. After arriving in Great Britain in November, he was transferred to the Class Z Reserve in Huddersfield.1 Although not much is known about the rest of his life, it can be presumed he left the army after the Class Z Reserve was disbanded. Historical Note The Middle Eastern theater of World War I was mainly fought between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire. Since the Ottoman Empire was considered the weakest of the Central Powers, the British and French believed that they would be the easiest to defeat, and launched a failed naval attack on Gallipoli in 1914. They then decided on a land campaign led by the British and their colonial troops from India.
    [Show full text]
  • Allenby's Military Medicine
    ALLENBY’S MILITARY MEDICINE Life and Death in World War I Palestine eran dolev.indd 1 4/19/2007 10:35:13 eran dolev.indd 2 1/24/2007 12:55:44 ALLENBY’S MILITARY MEDICINE Life and Death in World War I Palestine ERAN DOLEV eran dolev.indd 3 4/19/2007 10:35:37 Published in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com In the United States of America and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan a division of St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © 2007 Eran Dolev The right of Eran Dolev to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. International Library of Colonial History 6 ISBN: 978 1 84511 290 5 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available Printed and bound by Thomson Press India Limited From camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author Contents Foreword by Major General Louis Lillywhite vii Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii Prologue 1 Chapter 1: Military Medicine during the Great War 5 Chapter
    [Show full text]
  • Occupation and Resistance in Southern Iraq: a Study of Great Britain's Civil Administration in the Middle Euphrates and the Gr
    DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 3-2018 Occupation and resistance in southern Iraq: a study of Great Britain’s civil administration in the Middle Euphrates and the Great Rebellion, 1917-1920 Scott Jones DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Jones, Scott, "Occupation and resistance in southern Iraq: a study of Great Britain’s civil administration in the Middle Euphrates and the Great Rebellion, 1917-1920" (2018). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 241. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/241 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Occupation and Resistance in Southern Iraq: A Study of Great Britain’s Civil Administration in the Middle Euphrates and the Great Rebellion, 1917-1920 A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts March, 2018 BY Scott Jones Department of International Studies College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences DePaul University Chicago, Illinois Jones 1 Occupation and Resistance in Southern Iraq: A Study of Great Britain’s Civil Administration in the Middle Euphrates and the Great Rebellion, 1917-1920 Scott Jones International Studies Master’s Thesis Thesis Committee Advisor – Kaveh Ehsani, Ph.D., DePaul University Reader – Rajit Mazumder, Ph.D., DePaul University Reader – Eugene Beiriger, Ph.D., DePaul University Introduction – Occupation and Resistance in Southern Iraq 1.
    [Show full text]
  • The Russian Intervention
    INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS The extended war on the Eastern Front, 1918-1925: the Russian Intervention A paper based on a presentation to the Institute on 27 November 2018 by Bryce M. Fraser Military Historian Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, New South Wales1 Conflict in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Middle East, over issues which plagued the region at the end of the Great War, continues to this day. Although considered insignificant by some historians and overshadowed by the gigantic scale of warfare during the two World Wars, the Russian Intervention was substantial and Australians played a significant role in it, two winning the Victoria Cross and one the Distinguished Service Order. Key words: Australia; Russia; Russian Intervention, 1918-1919; North Russian Expeditionary Force; North Russian Relief Force; Murmansk; Archangel; Siberian Intervention; South Russia; Transcaucasus Intervention; Dunsterforce; Lionel Dunsterville; Stanley Savige. The late historian Eric Hobsbawm in The Age of precarious at the end of 1917. In October, the inconclusive Extremes (Hobsbawm 1994) coined the term ‘the short battle of Passchendaele had a month to run. In the Atlantic, twentieth century’ to describe the period of conflict in despite the introduction of convoys, submarine warfare Europe from 1914 to the collapse of the Union of Soviet was still sinking 300,000 tons of shipping per month. In Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991, in contrast to the Palestine, the Third Battle of Gaza was just underway. The customary view that fighting in the Great War ended with only good news would be the Allied capture of Jerusalem the armistice of 11 November 1918 on the Western Front.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War
    Salve Regina University Digital Commons @ Salve Regina Pell Scholars and Senior Theses Salve's Dissertations and Theses 6-1-2009 The Sick Man’s Last Fight: The Role of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War Henry A. Crouse Salve Regina University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/pell_theses Part of the European History Commons, and the Islamic World and Near East History Commons Crouse, Henry A., "The Sick Man’s Last Fight: The Role of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War" (2009). Pell Scholars and Senior Theses. 40. https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/pell_theses/40 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Salve's Dissertations and Theses at Digital Commons @ Salve Regina. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pell Scholars and Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Salve Regina. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Crouse 1 The Sick Man’s Last Fight: The Role of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War “O Muslims, know that our Empire is at war with the mortal enemies of Islam: the governments of Muscovy, Britain, and France. The commander of the Faithful summons you to Jihad.” Henry A. Crouse HIS 490-01: Senior Seminar Brother John Buckley, FSC, Ph.D. June 5, 2009 Crouse 2 The Great War in 1914 to 1918 destroyed mighty empires, and created nations from their ashes. Both the Allied and Central Powers had been dominated by powerful empires. The Ottoman Empire, established by the Turks was at one point the largest empire in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • British Foreign Policy in Azerbaijan, 1918-1920 Afgan Akhmedov A
    British Foreign Policy in Azerbaijan, 1918-1920 Afgan Akhmedov A thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Lancaster March 2018 Afgan Akhmedov 2018 2 Abstract This thesis examines Anglo-Russian rivalry in Transcaucasia in general - and Azerbaijan in particular - focusing on the years 1918-1920. The first part of the thesis provides a general review of the history of the Great Game - the geopolitical rivalry between the British and Russian Empires fought in the remote areas of central Asia - before going on to examine the growing investment by British firms in the oil industry of Baku. It also discusses how the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907 changed the texture of Anglo- Russian relations without resolving the tensions altogether, which lasted until the February Revolution of 1917, despite the wartime alliance between Britain and Russia. The thesis then goes on to examine British policy towards Transcaucasia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The thesis argues that the political turmoil in Russia provided the British government with an opportunity to exert greater political control over the south of the country, securing its access to oil and control of the Caspian Sea region, thereby reducing any potential threat to India. The allied victory in the First World War, and the weakening of Turkey in particular, meant that British policy in central Asia after November 1918 increasingly focused on advancing British economic and strategic interests in the area. Although the British government did not seek to exert direct long-term political control over Azerbaijan, its policy in 1919 was designed both to support the local government in Baku against possible Bolshevik attack, whilst simultaneously exerting control over Baku oil.
    [Show full text]