A Better Rifle at Halloween

Diplomatic Initiative
15th August 1914, Constantinople.

The British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Sir Louis Mallet had managed to get back to Constantinople faster than expected, on the instruction of the Foreign Secretary he had cut his leave short. They had agreed to his precipitate return, given that with Churchill’s provocative seizure of the Reşadiye and the Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel, the Turks would be gravely insulted, and the position of the pro-British faction weakened. Both ships had already been paid for, the insult worsened by the fact that the crew of the later was standing by to take over the ship on the completion of her sea trials.
Sir Louis had also heard of the arrival of the Goeben and the Breslau, their successful flight making a laughingstock of the world’s most powerful navy. The Germans wanting to improve their already excellent relations, had then donated the ships to the Ottomans by way of adding insult to injury.
Recognising his work was cut out for him Sir Louis had requested audiences with the Sultan and the Grand Vizier, with them he would apologise and flatter, if that failed, he would deploy that other useful tool to try to restore the harm.
All he needed to do was preserve Ottoman neutrality, he was prepared to bribe his way to peace. Having already communicated that the British Government was prepared to increase the usage and retention subsidy from 1000 pounds per day, he would try to negotiate an amount that the Ottomans would be satisfied with. He was authorised to go as high as 2500 pounds per day for every day the ship was retained, plus the building of replacement vessels at the end of the war should either ship be damaged. He felt personally that direct payments to a number of key players would also be required and would explore that as well.
The German crew remained aboard Goeben and Breslau, they were a risk to peace, he would see what he could do to disrupt their smooth relationship with the Turkish people, perhaps a scandal could be brewed.
 
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Err, hadn't the Sultan been dismissed by the Young Turks revolution in Turkey?
Mehmed V was sultan, he was powerless but he would still have received ambassadors. The real power was held by the Three Pashas by this stage. Edited to replace Foreign minister with Grand Vizier, who seemed to receive ambassadors.
 
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I'm not sure if this is a change from what happened OTL, because the British mindset seems to have been.

"What are you going to do? Declare war on me?"
[Turkey] "Yes."
*shocked Picachu face*
 
Not sure, I have read that Enver Pasha had already decided to support Germany, British Intelligence knew. The take over of the ships simply helped him with public opinion.
 
I don't think I can keep the Turks out, I just wanted to get the Ambassador back a little earlier to see what he can do, also seizing the two Turkish ships was a bad idea, they were both quite rubbish and would have been death traps in action. The Pashas were looking for a reason for war, this helped but it still took a couple of months to get them into the war. Lots of things can change between now and then.
 
It's not just the seizure of the ships in Britain that brought the Ottomans into the war. There's also the not so small matter of the two German ships that despite been sold to the Ottomans and flying the Ottoman flag bombarded Russian ports in the Black sea while the O.E. was still technically neutral.
 
The last man and the last bullet
11pm 16th August 1914, Liege.

General Leman was at this command post at the Citadel of Liege, this fortress was part of the city itself, unmodernised during the works that had built the Fortified Position of Liege. It remained barracks and communications nexus, it was from here that General Leman watched the Germans slowly crush his position. The casualties continued to mount. Many of the Forts had been blasted to ruin by the German heavy guns, particularly the super heavy 42cm howitzer M-Gerat “Big Bertha” as built by Krupp. But despite the destruction the Garrison fought on, the ruins of concrete and steel still had to be cleared by infantry and the Belgian Garrison contested every position. German machine guns and light howitzers were exacting a heavy toll on the defenders, but the Germans were still having to take ground the hard way with infantry against the surviving Belgian artillery and machine guns.

Those fortresses which remained unsupressed tried to assist the garrison but in the end it was all down to the men of the Infantry units remaining in the town.

By this stage of the siege the town was massively damaged, mainly by the fall of heavy shells but also aerial bombing and also by the efforts of people of the town to ensure that the railways were as disrupted as possible. The great railway works had been burnt to the ground 2 days ago, the stacks of railway sleepers moved into the sheds and ignited, the coal stores burnt and the workshops smashed. Even the hand tools and lathes necessary for the repairs had been damaged.

In the quiet of his own mind Leman would have added the workers to the pyre, if he could have, it was ruthless but he knew that given enough time those skilled men would be fixing German trains just as readily as they had worked on Belgian. Not because they were traitors but simply because that was their jobs and when it came to feeding their families better to be doing that than forced labour somewhere in the German Empire.

The communication links back to the Army Headquarters were tenuous, his knowledge of how the rest of war was going was limited to snippets. He knew that the Germans were filtering past his position but it was a key hub and so for the advance to pick up the pace it must be taken, every message from headquarters reiterated that order, hold to the last man and the last bullet.
 
Is that OTL?
No the last fortress fell on the 16th, also the Germans captured the town early on in the siege as Leman evacuated the garrison which meant that the germans could push into liege between the forts, they were also able to bring fire to bear on the rear of each fort. In this case I have him being concussed early in the battle so he does not order the evacuation, instead he holds the 3rd division and the 15th brigade, that prevents the infiltration and requires the germans to expend more effort on reducing the forts and the entrenched position, in addition he recognises the importance of the railroad infrastructure and makes sure it is thoroughly smashed.
 
So if Liege falls the Germans are going to seize a wrecked town and any value to it being an important logistics hub is gone due to its train depot, station and associated facilities and equipment being utterly destroyed and hard if not impossible to repair immediately. Sure when the town's occupied for longer the repairs can be made, but you're talking months and months of work, combined with the sheer delay in taking the city as well as the human cost on both sides.

For the Germans its a painful delay, for the French (and Allies as a whole) its a rallying cry, and you can bet that the Allied Governments will use the civilian deaths and 'barbarism' of the Germans artillery barrage to maximum effect both at home, and abroad.
 
So if Liege falls the Germans are going to seize a wrecked town and any value to it being an important logistics hub is gone due to its train depot, station and associated facilities and equipment being utterly destroyed and hard if not impossible to repair immediately.
In a word yes.
 
Liege has to fall for the right wing to swing. It will fall but a bit slower than OTL, the Germans learnt a lot of lessons from liege which meant that Namur and Mauberge fell faster. I had always thought I had a pretty good knowledge of ww1 but writing this has taught me so much that I did not know.
 
One possible butterfly flap down the way, perhaps the French, after seeing how the forts at Liege held out and were able to resist even when pounded flat don't abandon and ignore places like Fort Douaumont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Douaumont and whilst its not going to stop a German assault, its value as a strongpoint and shelter can't be said enough.
 
Gather up the railway workers into an impromptu brigade, issue them rifles and throw them into the meatgrinder. Not nice but it allows the Germans to do the messy work of further destroying the railway infrastructure, or rather the human component.
 
Gather up the railway workers into an impromptu brigade, issue them rifles and throw them into the meatgrinder. Not nice but it allows the Germans to do the messy work of further destroying the railway infrastructure, or rather the human component.
I did think about that, but I don't see the Belgians doing it, I could see the French, a sort of Levee en Masse type solution.
 
Somewhere in England
17th August 1914, On a train.

The Men of the 4th Battalion the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders were on a train heading south, they had paraded 5 days ago and over 80% had volunteered for foreign service. When the overaged and the underaged were combed out 700 men had boarded the train for the journey from Inverness to the South. It was a strange journey for many of the men, many had never left the highlands before, many spoke English as a second language, St Albans would be a strange place for them, but it was where the Brigade would assemble. One young private soldier announced to the men in his carriage, “tha mi a faiccin am sassain” to which another replied “tha mi a fàileadh am sassain”. This caused laughter amongst the carriage until a more senior NCO pointed out that they were going to be billeted in private houses in St Albans and that using what amounted to a private language in the town would not help with relations with the people of the community. Better to speak English in England and save the purity of Gaelic for their native lands, although he thought it would work wonders for passwords and the like in action.

*Soldier 1 "I see England", soldier 2 "I smell England"
 
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I did think about that, but I don't see the Belgians doing it, I could see the French, a sort of Levee en Masse type solution.
The majority will have done their national service in their youth and still technically be reservists. Handing at least the younger men a rifle and uniform jacket and sending them to join the defence is militarily justifiable in a siege.
 
The majority will have done their national service in their youth and still technically be reservists. Handing at least the younger men a rifle and uniform jacket and sending them to join the defence is militarily justifiable in a siege.
I will see how the story evolves, the Belgians didn't have universal conscription till 1913 but I am sure many of the patriotic citizens will join the line, especially as the siege continues and the rations shorten, I have already press ganged many into labour units to dig.
 
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