The First World War

[deepsepia]

Turkey has quite recently played the role of a potential ally "on the fence", whose decision turns out to be of strategic importance (Think Shield & Storm, Syria, Gaza), but it was in WW I when their alliance was most keenly sought.

Towards that end, locating the German battlecruisers Goeben and light cruiser Breslau in the Mediterranean became a naval mission of great diplomatic importance to the British -- it was thought that their presence might sway the [then] neutral Turks.

So the search for the Goeben was another of Britain's great sea hunts, something which seems to recur in Anglo-German naval encounters, but particularly challenging without radar or aviation for search

There followed a remarkable cat-and-mouse, which culminated in the Goeben and the Breslau arriving in the Dardanelles, and probably precipitated the Turks' entry into the war in alliance with germany and Austria Hungary, due to a complex state of affairs (Britain had seized two erstwhile Turkish battleships under construction in Britain for their own use during the war -- but this left Turkey very exposed to the Russian fleet; having the use of two German ships was thus enormously welcome when offered in exchange for alliance.)

For our ANZAC friends, had the Goeben been stopped, it is quite likely that there'd not have been a Gallipoli.

There was an early SPI game (1970) of the event, called "Flight of the Goeben" -- a very creative and unusual simulation for that date, in that the aim is less to win a battle than to evade the enemy.

It remains one of the "most military diplomatic episodes" or "most diplomatic military episode" depending on how you want to look at it.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5...-of-the-goeben

[Ennath]

March 23, 1915
Western Front The Germans bombard Soissons and Rheims. French counterbattery fire silences the Soissons guns.
Eastern Front German troops reoccupy Memel. Russian troops in Przemysl embark on a pogrom. In the coming weeks, some 600,000 Jews are uprooted all over Eastern Europe; 200,000 never return home.
Mediterranean Some bombardment resumes at the Dardanelles.
Egypt A Turkish raiding force is repulsed from the Suez Canal near El Kubri.

March 23, 1916
Western Front, Elsewhere The British line is extended to take in Souchez. More and more French troops are required for the fight at Verdun.
Eastern Front A German concentration near Dvinsk is broken up.
French Command The government pressures Joffre to relieve Dubail and Langle de Cary. A few days later each receives a courteous letter, informing them of their retirement due to age. Dubail complains, with some justification, of being a scapegoat for Joffre’s lack of foresight. Petain replaces Langle de Cary at Central Army Group.

March 23, 1917
Western Front The French take Artemps.
Rumanian Front The Russians lose some trenches near Moinesci.on the Trotus.
Mesopotamia After a pause to consolidate his victories, Maude sends troops out of Baqubah to take Shahraban, but just beyond they meet heavy resistance and suffer 1200 casualties.
Persia The Russian force comes to a halt at Banen, completely snowed in.
Diplomatic Relations Princes Sixtus and Xavier meet secretly with Erdody and Emperor Karl at the emperor’s castle. Karl tells them “It is absolutely necessary to make peace. I want it at any price.” A stumbling block for him is Italy. He will consider a settlement with Italy only after the other three Allies have agreed to make peace.

March 23, 1918
Western Front Hutier’s troops continue their advance, as 5th Army’s position crumbles. The Germans take Monchy-le-Preux, Peronne, and Ham and reach the line of the Somme. Small actions by pockets of scattered defenders manage to delay the Germans long enough for new troops to move into place. Ludendorff’s offensive has now driven an enormous salient into the center of the British line, but has failed to destroy much of the BEF. He sees no choice but to continue. He moves more troops in, redeploying them from Flanders, and orders Hutier to attack west and south, possibly menacing Paris. Apprised of the desperate British position, General Petain sends 12 French divisions into the Noyon sector to bolster the British right.
In anticipation of the spring offensive, Ludendorff had approved the creation of a giant cannon by the Krupp Works. Named the Wilhelm Gun, the cannon extends 112 feet in length, weighs 138 tons, and hurls shells 75 miles. Transported by train to the forest of Crepy-en-Laonnois and there hidden among the trees and camouflaged to prevent detection from the air, the great gun is emplaced to bombard Paris in an effort to destroy civilian morale. The Germans fire the first shell at 7:26 AM. At regular intervals of about 15 minutes thereafter, other shells follow. Parisians and the War Ministry assume the city is being bombed from the air, but soon discover the truth. The first day’s toll is 16 dead and 29 injured.
Caucasus The Turks take Malazgirt.
Palestine The British are firmly across the Jordan, but behind schedule as the Turks rush reinforcements to Amman. Allenby is instructed to dispatch a division to France.
Diplomatic Relations Costa Rica declares war on Germany.

March 23, 1919
Italy Benito Mussolini founds the Fascist Party. He offers a popular mix of socialism and nationalism.

[blueballsdc]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

There was an early SPI game (1970) of the event, called "Flight of the Goeben" -- a very creative and unusual simulation for that date, in that the aim is less to win a battle than to evade the enemy.

It remains one of the "most military diplomatic episodes" or "most diplomatic military episode" depending on how you want to look at it.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5...-of-the-goeben

Wow! That was a trip down memory alley. I remember that game and I remember playing it.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

For our ANZAC friends, had the Goeben been stopped, it is quite likely that there'd not have been a Gallipoli.

So the point of Gallipoli was to sink Goeben

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by palo5

So the point of Gallipoli was to sink Goeben

You're being naughty, palo.

Turkey had hostile intentions towards Russia but was intimidated by the Russian Black Sea Fleet. She had commissioned modern battleships from British yards which would have given her the edge, but these were not yet finished in 1914 and were commandeered by the Royal Navy with war imminent, leaving the Turkish navy deterred by superior Russian force. The arrival of SMS Goeben, a superdreadnought armed with 280mm (11 inch) guns, meant that the Turkish navy was definitely superior to the Russian navy in the Black Sea. Turkey promptly used the Goeben to shell Sevastapol, I think without the mere formality of declaring war; by her actions she joined the war on Germany's side and thus the path to Gallipoli was laid.

No Goeben, no Gallipoli.

[Ennath]

The way I read it, Souchon, the German commander of the Goeben, exceeded his orders when he bombarded Odessa. He was authorized only to attack Russian ships making threatening moves on the high seas, but the Turks had been dragging their feet when it came to joining the war, so the Souchon decided to force their hand. I don't know whether or not he was acting on orders from Berlin. At any rate, it worked.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

You're being naughty, palo.

No, Comrade. We all know how paranoid you were about enemy ships

But you should have looked under the water, because u-boots were deadlier

Gallipoli was the result of stupid thought and lack of analysis at the highest level. However, such mismanagement was not uncommon at that time

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by palo5

Gallipoli was the result of stupid thought and lack of analysis at the highest level. However, such mismanagement was not uncommon at that time

Actually, the Gallipoli operation was sound in principle and could have knocked Turkey out of the war, prevented Bulgaria from making the grave error of joining the war on the German side in September 1915 (for the really ignoble motive of opportunistic territorial aggression against Serbia) and above all, saved Serbia from being crushed in the winter of 1915-16 after 18 months of valiant resistance and after an appalling typhus epidemic had savaged her population and thinned out her already desperately outnumbered armies. Success at Gallipoli would quite possibly have lured the cynical Bulgarians in on the Allied side, which would have rescued Serbia from her encirclement and diverted an awfully large number of Austrian troops to Hungary and Bosnia from France, Italy and Russia in order to defend her Balkan frontiers. So I disagree with "stupid thought"; the concept was far from stupid.

Unfortunately, the senior commanders on the ground had no understanding of amphibious landings at all; none. When you succeed in getting large forces ashore, you must get off the beach where you are a sitting duck, get as far inland as the enemy will allow, take the high ground and hold it. Even in 1914-15, this was not revolutionary or innovative thinking and the failure of the commanding officers to get men inland when they had the chance was extremely costly. The US Army under Mark Clark and Major General Lucas made the same error of fatal timidity (Clark's final advice to Lucas before the landing was "Don't stick your neck out": Clark was a dickhead and so was Lucas); amphibious landings are inherently perilous and only the brave deserve the fair.

[Tmee2020]

Germany needed Turkey more than Turkey needed Germany.

The entry of Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers was a serious failure of British diplomacy, and a great story of intrigue in which the Turks themselves seem to be bystanders for much of the time.
It started to go bad when Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, confiscated the two new Turkish battleships on Aug 3, 1914. The ships had cost Turkey over £7,000,000, a huge sum of money for any nation, let alone Turkey which was bankrupt. Payment had been raised by public subscription, and public reaction in Turkey was outrage.
One of the ships, which would soon be HMS Agincourt, had originally been ordered by Brazil but they had bailed out of the deal and Turkey had taken on the contract.

On Aug 10, after the Boys Own chase around the Mediterranean the Goeben and Breslau were off the castle at Seddülbahir asking for permission to enter the Dardanelles. Turkey was being asked to commit. If she wished to remain neutral Turkey was bound by treaty to intern any warship that remained in the straits for more than 24 hours.
The German military mission demanded an immediate answer. Enver, Minister for War, said yes, they could enter.
The Germans then demanded that the Turkish forts be ordered to fire on any British ships that attempted to follow. Enver again hesitated, and under pressure gave the Germans the answer they wanted.
The German ships were "sold" to Turkey, which got around the treaty obligations. In any case they were no good to Germany anywhere else because they were sure to be sunk. Souchon, the German squadron commander, was made commander of the Turkish fleet and the German crews transferred to the Ottoman navy. Turkey is still neutral.
On Sep 27 the British squadron off the Dardanelles intercepted a Turkish torpedo-boat. Turkey closed the straits.
The decision took the Turkish Cabinet by surprise. It seems to have come from either Bey, Turkish commander of the Dardanelles, or Weber Pasha, German commander of the forts. Hundreds of ships from Russia, Bulgaria and Romania waited, but eventually had to turn back.

On October 28 Souchon took his ships across the Black Sea and started shelling Sevastopol, Odessa and nearby towns. Again it is unclear whether Souchon acted on his own initiative or Enver authorised it, I suspect it was Souchon's plan.
On November 2 Russia declared war on Turkey.

"The closure of the Dardenelles so hurt Russia it probably hastened the revolution and the rise of Lenin. The closure so hurt the Ottoman empire that when the Great War was over there was no Ottoman empire."

Les Carlyon, Gallipoli

[deepsepia]

The only remaining classified data from World War One I know of is the court file on Mata Hari, from the French Army court martial, which is sealed for a century from her trial -- will be opened in 2017.

There's probably stuff hidden away in archives waiting to be found, but is there anything still classified?

I'd have assumed that things involving Lenin and the Russian revolution might have been kept under wraps . .