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Description: | The war against the Ottoman Turkish Empire in Mesopotamia and Palestine, 1914-1918.
Two thousand miles from the Western Front a different kind of war was fought in the Middle East, an "old fashioned war" of small armies, large spaces, cavalry and manoeuvre, and transport by camels and rivers. For centuries the area had been a centre of civilisation, but under Ottoman Turkish rule came stagnation and poverty. There emerged in the nineteenth century both an Arab independence movement and a Jewish movement for a homeland in Palestine. The Middle East was also the key point in Britain's communications with India, Australia and New Zealand, and since 1882 Britain had controlled Egypt. The discovery of oil in Persia and the increased demand for fuel for ships and aircraft made the area of vital importance. Germany had ambitions to reach Persia through the Balkans and Turkey, and by 1914 the Berlin-Baghdad railway was almost complete. At the start of the war German friendship and British hostility pulled Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers. With Turkey hostile, British (and Indian and Australian) troops were deployed in Egypt and the Persian Gulf to secure British communications. From the Gulf the British under General Nixon advanced in 1915 to Basra in Mesopotamia; then Nixon despatched a further force under General Townshend on towards Baghdad. Lack of water, disease, and the heat of summer depleted this force and strained its tenuous supply line. Townshend reached Kut-el-Amara in November 1915 and pressed on to the Battle of Ctesiphon, near Baghdad. Although victorious, his army was so weakened that he fell back on Kut, where he was besieged and on 29th April 1916 surrendered with 13,000 troops. The medical services had collapsed, the prisoners were badly treated by the Turks, and two thirds of them died. In August 1916 the Turks, having moved troops from Mesopotamia, attacked towards the Suez Canal but were heavily defeated by the British commander in Egypt, General Sir Archibald Murray. The British then advanced across the Sinai Desert, supported by a railway and a water-pipeline. In April 1917 Murray attacked Gaza, with his British and Australian cavalry forces leading, but narrowly failed to take the town. Meanwhile in Mesopotamia Nixon had been replaced by Sir Stanley Maude, who reorganised the transport and supply system and advanced again towards Baghdad, which fell on 11th March 1917. Murray in Egypt had also been replaced by Sir Edmund Allenby, who in September again attacked at Gaza and Beersheba, driving the Turks back through Palestine. On 11th December Jerusalem fell, a much-needed propaganda victory for the Allies. Britain encouraged Arab uprisings against the Turks, sending T E Lawrence as "a leader" of the Arab revolt, which tied down 12,000 Turkish troops. Britain also promised both an independent Arab state and a Jewish homeland in Arabia. In 1918 the Germans sent the Turks a new commander, Liman von Sanders, to oppose the British; but with the collapse of Russia the Turks were more interested in extending their Empire into the Caucasus, and Allenby was able to concentrate twice as many troops against Liman von Sanders as the Turks posessed. In September 1918 Allenby again attacked, sending his cavalry over seventy miles into the Turkish rear positons. In three days Allenby destroyed two Turkish armies, while a third was severely damaged by the Arabs. On 2nd October Allenby's men took Damascus and the Turks were in full retreat. Since 1914 over two million British and Imperial soldiers had been involved in campaigns in the Middle East, and over 16,000 had become casualties. Although this war had little effect on the world-wide struggle, it had nevertheless destroyed the Turkish Empire.
16mm | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | 01/3(567) 01/3(569) | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Shaw, Sebastian | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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