Mesopotamia Front (First World War)
| date | November 1914 to November 1918 |
|---|---|
| place | today's Iraq |
| output | British victory, armistice of Mudros |
| consequences | Mandate for Mesopotamia |
| Peace treaty | Treaty of Sèvres (1920) |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| 112,000 | 100,000–? |
| losses | |
|
92,000 |
? |
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Landing at Fao - Basra - al-Qurna - Shaiba - Ktesiphon - Siege of Kut - Sheikh Saad - Wadi - Hanna - Dujaila - Kut II - Baghdad - Samarra - Ramadi - Sharqat
The Mesopotamia Front (in Turkish Irak Cephesi ( Iraq Front )) was a secondary theater of the First World War . Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire were the main conflicting parties in the battles for Mesopotamia .
background
The Ottoman Empire had conquered Mesopotamia in the early 16th century, but it was never able to take complete control of the region. During the 19th century, the Ottomans tried to modernize the country with reforms . For this purpose, the Baghdad Railway was built with German help . This reduced the travel time from Baghdad to Istanbul to 21 days.
The British Empire had other interests in the region. With the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company it had the exclusive rights to the exploitation of oil deposits in the Persian Empire , with the exception of the fields in the provinces of Azerbaijan , Gilan , Māzandarān , Khorasan and Asdrabad . In 1914, before the outbreak of war, the British government had signed a treaty with Persia that secured oil for the British fleet. This increased the strategic value of the region of today 's Kuwait considerably.
Operations
1914
On November 6, 1914, the British Mesopotamia campaign began with the landing near Fao . The British shelled an old fortress in Fao on the border with Persia. Thereupon troops of the specially formed expeditionary corps of the British Indian Army , consisting of the 16th Infantry Brigade of the Indian 6th (Poona) Division, landed in Fao. They captured the fortress, which was defended by 350 soldiers and four cannons . The entire division had landed by mid-November and was advancing towards Basra , which was occupied without a fight on November 22 after a battle south of the city. In order to secure their position in Basra to the north, parts of the division advanced to al-Qurna at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in early December , which was captured after a battle lasting several days .
1915
On January 2, 1915, Suleyman Askerî Bey was given command of the area. The Ottoman army at that time had little resources for another front and decided that the fronts in Gallipoli , the Caucasus and Palestine had higher priority. That is why Süleyman Askerî Bey wrote letters to the Arab sheikhs in order to win them over to the Ottoman Empire. His goal was to retake the Shatt al-Arab at any cost. On April 12, 1915, the Ottomans attacked the British camp with 3800 soldiers. But the troops sent by the sheikhs could hardly have any effect. Still, the Ottoman infantry launched a series of attacks that lasted two days. When the British launched a cavalry attack, the Ottomans broke off the attacks. The Turks lost 1,000 soldiers, 400 men were taken prisoner of war and two field guns had to be left behind. As a result, the Ottoman troops had to retreat to the Hamisiye River.
Suleyman Askerî Bey was wounded during the fighting and was taken to Baghdad. The disappointed and depressed Süleyman then shot himself in the hospital. In his place, Nureddin Pasha was appointed commander of the troops in Mesopotamia on April 20, 1915. Due to the unexpected success, the British command reconsidered its plan and John Nixon took command of the British troops. He ordered Charles Vere Ferrer's Townshend to march with his Poona division to Kut or, if possible, to Baghdad . Townshend and his small army advanced as far as the Tigris . They defeated several Ottoman units who were supposed to stop the British.
The Ottoman Minister of War Enver Pasha was very concerned about the possible fall of Baghdad and recognized the importance of the front. He ordered the 35th Division to retreat to Mosul and set up the 38th Division again. The Sixth Army was created on October 5, 1915 under the German General Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz . Von der Goltz was a famous military historian who had written several books on classic military operations. But he was still in Istanbul and his arrival would take some time, so that Nureddin Pasha was still in command.
On November 22, 1915 there was a five-day battle at Seleukia-Ctesiphon . This ended in a stalemate as both sides had to return to their starting positions. Townshend decided to withdraw completely. The Ottomans recognized the retreat and pursued the British who withdrew to Kut . It was there that the siege of Kut began , where Nureddin Pasha tried to include the British, which he succeeded.
The siege of Kut began on December 7, 1915. Despite the complete isolation of the city, the British were able to defend Kut. Von der Goltz helped the Ottoman troops build defensive positions around Kut and restructured them. Nureddin Pascha then handed over the command from the Goltz. The newly built defenses prevented support for the besieged British. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to break the siege.
1916
On January 20, 1916, Enver Pascha replaced Nureddin Pascha with Halil Kut , as he did not want to work with a German general. General Nixon was also replaced by General Percy Lake due to his mistakes with Kut . Despite the air support, it became increasingly difficult for the British forces to hold Kut. Between January and March 1916, Townshend made various attempts to break the siege. There were several skirmishes, but they did not change the situation. Both sides suffered heavy losses.
Meanwhile, the besieged food became scarcer and diseases broke out. On April 19, 1916 von der Goltz died of typhus . The British took advantage of this and tried to supply Townshend with a paddle steamer, but this failed. Townshend surrendered on April 29, 1916 and went into captivity with 8,000 soldiers.
The British viewed the loss of Kut as a humiliating defeat as it had been many years since such a large unit had to surrender. Just four months after the defeat, they also lost the Battle of Gallipoli . As a result, they dismissed almost all commanders who had failed to terrorize Townshend.
A big problem for the British was the lack of infrastructure. Supply ships waited too long to be unloaded. This led to bottlenecks in the supply of units to the north. After the defeat at Kut, the British made great efforts to send more people and material to the region. The port of Basra was rebuilt so that ships could be unloaded faster, better roads were built and rest camps and depots were set up. New hospitals were also built to better care for the wounded. This enabled the British to bring more troops and equipment to the front.
1917
In early 1917, General Frederick Stanley Maude became the new Commander in Chief of the British Forces. While Maude reorganized the British, the Ottoman army was thinned out. Halil Pasha received very few supplies and had to disband the 38th Division. Maude began a new offensive on December 13, 1916. The British penetrated as far as the Tigris and forced the Ottomans to leave their defensive positions. General Maude's offensive was successful and Halil had to regroup his troops at Kut. Maude moved to the other bank of the Tigris during his advance and was able to bypass most of the Ottoman troops. The British occupied Kut and advanced steadily towards the Tigris.
By early March 1917, the British had reached the edge of Baghdad and Halil Kut tried in vain to stop them at the Diyala River . The British overcame their defensive positions and defeated the Turks. The Ottomans then gave up Baghdad and Maude and his troops entered Baghdad on March 11, 1917. Amid the retreat of the Ottoman army, Indo-British forces captured about 15,000 soldiers. Halil Pasha pulled his battered Sixth Army back to Mosul. There were only about 30,000 soldiers left to counter Maude. In April he received the 2nd Infantry Division as support, but this hardly improved his position. After conquering Baghdad, Maude stopped his advance. His supply routes were too long, the summer conditions were too harsh and he urgently needed reinforcements. General Maude died of cholera on November 18, 1917 . He was replaced by General William Marshall , who stopped further operations for the winter.
1918
The British continued their offensive in late February 1918, capturing Hīt and Khan al Baghdadi, and in April Kifri . In the course of the following year the British troops had to go to Palestine to support the troops there in the battle of Megiddo . In October 1918 armistice negotiations began between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire. On instructions from the War Department, General Marshall went on the offensive and advanced 120 kilometers within two days and reached Little Zab . Here it came to fighting with the Ottoman Sixth Army, which was under Ismail Hakki Bey. During the fighting that followed, the entire army was captured.
armistice
On October 30, 1918, General Marshall accepted the surrender of Halil Pasha and the Ottoman Sixth Army. On the same day the armistice was signed by Mudros .
The war in Mesopotamia ended on November 14, 1918.
Aftermath
The British had conquered most of Mesopotamia, only the province of Mosul was still in Ottoman hands. As part of the Mudros armistice, the Entente was able to conquer “any strategic point” in the event of a threat to Allied security. The Ottomans had to evacuate Mosul on orders from Istanbul and the British entered in early November 1918 without any resistance. The Mosul question that arose between Great Britain and Turkey , the successor to the Ottoman Empire, was only resolved years later. At the Sanremo Conference in April 1920, the British were given the mandate of the three Mesopotamian provinces (Basra, Baghdad and Mosul). The provinces were amalgamated in August 1920 to form the British Mandate of Mesopotamia .
losses
The British and British Indian Army lost 92,000 soldiers in the fighting for Mesopotamia. The Ottoman losses are unknown, but the British took a total of 45,000 prisoners of war. By the end of 1918 the British had dispatched 410,000 people to the area, of whom only 112,000 were soldiers. Most of the British soldiers were recruited from India.
literature
- AJ Barker: Neglected War: Mesopotamia 1914-18 . Faber & Faber, 1967, ISBN 978-0-571-08020-5 . With Dial Press in the same year under the title The Bastard War: The Mesopotamian campaign of 1914-1918 published. Reprint: The First Iraq War, 1914–1918: Britain's Mesopotamian Campaign . Enigma Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-929631-86-5 .
- Paul Knight: The British Army in Mesopotamia, 1914–1918 . Mcfarland & Co Inc, 2013, ISBN 978-0-7864-7049-5 .
- FJ Moberly: The Campaign in Mesopotamia . 4 volumes. London, HM Stationery office, 1923-1927. Digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 3 , Volume 4 . Reprint: Naval & Military Press, 2011. Volume 1: ISBN 978-1-84574-942-2 ; Volume 2: ISBN 978-1-84574-941-5 ; Volume 3: ISBN 978-1-84574-940-8 ; Volume 4: ISBN 978-1-84574-939-2 .
- Ian Rutledge: Enemy on the Euphrates: The Battle for Iraq, 1914-1921 . Saqi Books, 2014, ISBN 978-0-86356-762-9 , 2015, ISBN 978-0-86356-170-2 .
- Charles Townshend: When God Made Hell. The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921 . Faber & Faber, 2010, ISBN 978-0-571-23719-7 .
- Ron Wilcox: Battles on the Tigris: The Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War . Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2006, ISBN 978-1-84415-430-2 .
Web links
- Campaigns: Mesopotamia on turkeyswar.com
- The British Campaign in Mesopotamia 1914-1918 on 1914-1918.net