This episode of Out of the Trenches is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus,
and Out of the Trenches is where I, Indy Neidell, sit here in the Chair of Wisdom and answer
all your questions about the First World War.
Neo Torchwick writes:
Well, that was very nice. Well, I'm honoured I could be an inspiration.
Anyhow, the traditional tactics of naval warfare since the turn of the 20th century didn't drastically change
during the war.
Other than the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and some comparatively minor engagements in the Baltics,
the Black Sea, and the Adriatic Sea, there were no decisive clashes of two mighty fleets
that could've led to an evaluation of new doctrines and tactics.
Instead, the real decisive naval power was the supply and merchant ships, right?
Because many nations could not have stayed in the war had they not been supplied by sea.
There it became a race between offensive defensive weapons, the U-boats and raiders
versus the convoys and countermeasures, like depth charges.
You could even argue that the Great War was the beginning of the end for the traditional dominance
of big naval ships, like dreadnoughts or other heavy-class battleships.
More cost effective small and cheap torpedo boats alongside minelayers and aircraft bombers began
threatening the years of investment in money and resources of the big naval fleets.
They were still relevant, though, but only in concert with other elements, like we see in the amphibious landings
of, say, Gallipoli or in the Gulf of Riga.
Also, aircraft began stealing their spotlight, which we see in the rise of hydroplanes
and the first aircraft carriers that began emerging at the end of the war.
Callum says:
Okay, while Townshend's soldiers suffered horrendously on the death march from their defeat
at Kut Al-Amara in 1916, British Major-General Charles Townshend on the other hand
enjoyed his stay in Constantinople in luxury and freedom.
He was considered more of an honoured guest of Enver Pasha than a common prisoner.
Townshend was allowed to freely move through the city, dine with Enver's inner circle in the evening,
and even talk to the press. That, of course, was exactly what Enver Pasha wanted Townshend to do.
To speak to the press and create a positive image of the Ottoman Empire at home, and Townshend did
become a vocal supporter of the Turkish cause after the war ended, and openly criticised the Allied policy
and the peace treaty of Sèvres.
He was somehow surprised that he was shunned by his peers at home, although this was kind of an
exaggerated occurrence during the war.
Most higher officers were treated quite well by their captors. The gentleman's code of the officer class
existed throughout the war, and the higher your rank the more privileges and liberty you could enjoy
in your captivity. High officers usually had their own "prisons", or gentleman camps, where they employed
their own staff and had their own necessities. Officers of all nations treated each other more or less
as equals in the understanding that they all belonged to an upper class with the same morals,
the same standards, the same social background. Their code of honour allowed them to live by their word alone.
If they promised they would not attempt to escape, well they most likely didn't do it out of respect.
(Flo) "Hey Indy."
"Hey, Flo."
(Flo) "How did they..."
"Flo, we're shooting."
(Flo) "Okay, but very quick question":
Okay, yeah, I can answer that. Okay, well, Flo, the Brusilov Offensive had caused such high casualties to
the Austro-Hungarian army, and now that offensive happened in summer of 1916, that it pretty much
exhausted the reserves of that whole sector.
German high command sought to prevent a collapse, but it had its own hands full on the Western Front,
so they went to Enver Pasha for help, and this created the "Türkisch Abteilung", the Turkish detachment.
The Ottoman 15th Corps, consisting of the 20th Infantry Division and Mustafa Kemal's battle-hardened
19th Infantry Division, would fight on the Romanian Front, many of them of as shock troops.
Two other corps were formed and were sent to the Macedonian Front.
Assigned to Lieutenant-General Graf von Bothmer, of the "Südarmee" (South Army), they were positioned
alongside German divisions at the Zolota Lypa River.
Fighting began in early September, 1916, as superior Russian forces attacked all over the front lines.
Heavy fighting ensued with the Turkish repulsing repeated assaults of the Russian infantry, and even poison gas,
but constant pressure broke the Austrians in the south while the Germans lacked the strength to counter-attack.
The whole front had to retreat and the line was shortened. Only after the Russian offensive had
run out of steam at the end of September could combined German-Turkish attacks retake much of the
lost ground.
Both nations' armies actually worked very well together on that front.
Some Turkish troops were even formed into storm troop battalions and trained with flamethrowers.
That is where they pretty much stayed until August, 1917, as that front quietened down and they were
needed in their home country.
Hunter McKenzie writes:
St. Johns, to anybody who doesn't know, St. Johns was the school I went to growing up in Houston,
although I did not live next to St. Johns, I lived pretty far away. Anyhow...
Well, y'all are probably great too.
In comparison to most other warring nations, the state of the infrastructure and supply system
of the Ottoman army was extremely poor, to put it mildly.
That, and the lack of cohesion and even conviction in many parts of the army undermined its
capability to fight modern war against nations that were better prepared and better equipped, and
those problems were, they were obvious right from the start.
In the disastrous winter offensive in the Caucasus in December of 1914 and January, 1915,
of the 100-000-man strong 3rd Army, for example, only a fifth came back to its starting positions because of
abysmal leadership and supply issues that condemned the men to their deaths in the freezing mountains.
20,000 new recruits were sent to reinforce the destroyed army. Of those 20,000 only a fragment reached the front,
with 12,000 deserters roaming the landscape.
As the victorious Russian army captured the fortress city Erzurum their booty, what they took,
consisted of two hundred outdated guns and empty storage space.
This engagement in the Caucasus is a prime example of what hindered the Ottoman war effort.
The problem was not the common soldier, I mean these guys were generally as courageous and as good
as any other soldier of the war, but the poor, poor state of the military apparatus itself.
The Dardanelles were, by comparison, a prime example of what the Ottoman army could really do
with competent leaders, modern equipment, short supply routes, and patriotically motivated men,
and that victory gave the Ottomans the breath to rebuild their army, and create new reserves, but it did not
solve their problems. It took 35 days to transport a grenade from Constantinople to Ottoman-Armenia country.
That's 35 days. The empire severely lacked any allocated workshops and warehouses, trucks and planes
had to be brought in by the Central Powers, the other Central Powers. Many supplies were simply sold
or stolen on the way to the front, so the armies were constantly under-supplied. The few machines
available could not be maintained, artillery pieces could not repaired, wounded soldiers could not receive
medical attention. This is why once the Ottoman army was defeated in the field, it was hard to get
them back into the fight, but we will definitely talk about this in future once we have found, I guess,
the right way to tackle it.
So, as I said in the beginning, this episode of Out of the Trenches is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus.
The Great Courses Plus is a fantastic online video learning sevice.
They feature over 7,000 different courses with top professors from all over the world that cover a variety
of topics, and, starting at $14.99 a month, you can get unlimited access to all of these courses and watch them all.
Oh, and, funny, we were just talking and, speaking of Russia and the Caucasus and all, they have a really cool
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and this is why we all liked it, and you guys probably would too, the great thing is that they spend a lot of time
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Russia up to the revolution of 1917, and a detailed look at the aftermath, like the Russian Civil War,
you should totally check out this course by Professor Mark Steinberg. He does a really great job
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or click the link in the video description and you can start a one-month free trial and check out the
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