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Mesopotamia The territory between the Euphrates and the Tigris, which now lies in Iraq, belonged to the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century onward. For the British, the occupation of this barren and remote territory, which was only weakly defended by the Turks, held interesting prospects for a variety of reasons: the exploitation of the region’s oilfields offered promising economic perspectives, while the geographical situation of Mesopotamia at the crossroads of a land route connecting India, s…

Gaza A town in southwest Palestine. After the failure of their assaults against the Suez Canal during 1916, Turkish forces withdrew to the Gaza – Tel el Sheria – Beersheba line, which barred access to Palestine and Jerusalem. In the spring of 1917, British troops under General Sir Archibald Murray launched a surprise attack on the line from the Sinai. The British were quickly repulsed in this First Battle of Gaza of March 26–27. The renewed attack on April 17 (Second Battle of Gaza), confronted a…

Palestine Front After the failure of the two Turkish/German expeditions against the Suez Canal (in January/February 1915 with 18,000 men and 5,000 camels, and in July/August 1916 with 16,000 men, including Austro-Hungarian contingents, and, again, 5,000 camels), by the beginning of 1917 the Ottoman Empire had been forced to evacuate the Sinai Peninsula. The Turks chose the Gaza – Tel el Sheria – Beersheba line, a front of 50 km, for their defense of Palestine. The mixed units on the ground were co…

Hussein bin Ali (1853, Constantinople – June 4, 1931, Amman), king of the Hejaz. As the “Guardian of the Holy Places of Islam” and as the presumed contender for the title of Caliph, Hussein was held captive in Constantinople from 1891 to 1908 as a state prisoner of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. After the latter’s downfall, the Young Turks appointed Hussein Emir of Mecca in 1908. However, the Arab efforts to gain independence – which were also fuelled by fears that the Hejaz Railway might threaten Hussein’…

Hejaz Railway Railway line between Damascus and Medina. In 1900 Sultan Abdul Hamid II commissioned the construction of a railway to link Damascus with Mecca. The railway was to help provide access to the remote Arab provinces, forge closer ties between Constantinople and the holy sites, and ease the pilgrimage of the Hajjis (pilgrims). In addition, it allowed for the rapid transport of troops to deal with renegade Bedouin tribes in Arabia. The German engineer Heinrich August Meissner was hired to …

German Asia Corps German Expeditionary Corps established for the purpose of recovering Baghdad. – After the capture of Baghdad by the British on March 11, 1917, the German and Turkish High Commands decided to set up the Army Group F (Yilderim) in order to recapture the capital city of the ancient caliphate. The German core unit was to be the Asia Corps (Pasha II), raised in Neuhammer/Silesia (modern Świętoszów). Initially commanded by Colonel Werner von Frankenberg und Proschlitz, the well-equipped…

Arab Revolt Bedouin uprising against Turkish suzerainty. In July of 1915 the Emir of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali, began negotiations with the British High Commissioner in Egypt regarding the Arab desire for independence and British support for a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. For Great Britain this presented an opportunity to increase its influence in the Middle East considerably. While making promises to Hussein, the British simultaneously divided the Middle East into a French and a British sph…