Chapter XXVII, Blunders
By the fall of 1916, it most were convinced that the Triple Alliance would win the war. France was facing a two-front war, with Germany not very far from Paris. Russia’s grand offensive failed to knock Austria-Hungary out of the war. And now Japan and the Ottoman Empire were taking advantage of Russian weakness. Kaiser Wilhelm, Emperor Franz-Josef, and King Alphonso, along with Sultan Abdul Hamid and Emperor Taisho were confident that the war would end within a year. Morale was dropping among the Entente powers, in both the soldiers on the front and the people back home. However, the fall of 1916 would see two major blunders from two of the members of the Alliance. Predictions that the war would end within a year would turn out to be as groundless as predictions that Operation Poseidon would force Austria-Hungary to surrender.
-Excerpt from The World's War, Ludwig Faerber, Globe Books, 2015.
After Poseidon, the front lines in Europe became more stable, both in France and in Eastern Europe. In Africa, the Alliance was at a clear disadvantage and was losing. The German colonies in the Pacific were also being picked off one-by-one. It was in Anatolia and East Asia that the Alliance was gaining ground. The Russian Far Eastern Fleet was no match for the Japanese Navy. Japanese troops stationed in Korea attacked Vladivostok as well as Russian positions in their sphere of influence in China. Japan only declared war on Russia, and stated that it had no quarrel with Britain and France. Some in Britain advocated remaining at peace with Japan, but eventually Britain and France declared war. The Ottomans quickly overran the outnumbered Russian forces in the lands annexed during the Balkan Wars. The Ottoman war effort was motivated by revenge.
In May Spanish forces had tried and failed to capture the Southern French city of Foix. Spain had also lost most of its territory in North Africa to French and Moroccan troops. Its African colonies further south were taken by France. Of all the Alliance powers, Spain was clearly doing the worst. Spain’s decision to try to reconquer some of its North African territory is considered by most military historians to be a severe miscalculation. On August 20, Spanish troops captured the port of Tangier. Tens of thousands of conscripts were then sent in as reinforcements to Ceuta, the remaining Spanish stronghold in North Africa. Tetouan fell in early September. At Larache, Spanish troops encountered heavier resistance, but the town was taken on September 20. Then in October, the British and French Navies fought Spain at the Strait of Gibraltar. The Spanish fleet was outnumbered and outgunned; it lost three armored Cruisers and several other ships. The Entente Navy from that point forward effectively blocked Spanish forces in Morocco from receiving supplies or reinforcements from Spain. The Spanish troops in Africa were effectively stranded.
(Moroccan troops armed with captured Spanish weapons)
After the Ottomans quickly drove the Russians out of Anatolia, they advanced into the Caucasus where Russia had much easier time defending. The Ottoman government then determined to get revenge in the Balkans. On August 29, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Serbia, hoping to force Austria-Hungary to invade the Balkan nation from the North. But to the Sultan’s dismay, Austria-Hungary and Germany both declared that “The war between the Serbs and the Turks is not part of the war between the Triple Alliance and the Entente.” The Turks invaded in September, but the Serbs held strong, making the Ottoman invaders pay for every inch in blood. The entire Balkan region turned against the Ottomans. Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire on September 9. Bulgaria declared its complete independence from the Ottoman Empire on the 19th. Albania was in revolt as well. Constantinople itself was under threat from both the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the Bulgarians invading from the North. The Ottomans began to fill their capital with whatever soldiers they could spare.
-Except from The Dying Man of Europe, the Ottoman Empire in the 20th Century, Debora Nestani, Harvard Press, 2018.
In North Africa, the stranded Spanish soldiers continued to fight, hoping that they would eventually be resupplied and reinforced. This never happened. Moroccan forces were bolstered by the arrival of French colonial troops, and they attacked the Spanish relentlessly. Larache fell on October 25. Spanish forces retreated to Tangier and Ceuta, building as many defenses as they could before the enemy arrived. In November, British Indian troops took Gibraltar back from Spain. Around the same time, across the Atlantic, San Juan fell to French, Cuban, and Canadian troops, ending Spain’s control over Puerto Rico. Portugal, enticed by the promise of land from Spain and Germany’s colonial empires, declared war on the 20th. Many in Spain began to agitate for peace. On November 30, Tangier fell to Moroccan and French West African troops aided by British Naval bombardment. On December 13, the Spanish garrison at Ceuta surrendered. Tens of thousands of Spanish soldiers would spend the rest of the war in prison camps in the deserts of North Africa.
Back home, the Spanish public was furious. Protests erupted in all of Spain’s major cities. Propaganda leaflets were dropped from Entente planes. Most of these leaflets contained messages pleading with the Spanish people to not be “pawns in the Kaiser’s game.” Spain now faced the possibility of an invasion from both France and Portugal. There were also rumors that the Entente was planning an invasion from North Africa. While some in the German government were concerned that Spain might surrender, Kaiser Wilhelm stated in private that “Whether Spain surrenders or continues to fight, it makes little difference. It will only affect the length of the war, not its outcome.” Despite Allied blunders, Kaiser Wilhelm and most of the German high command believed that the Alliance would win the war. They believed that these were merely setbacks.
Meanwhile, Ottoman troops put up a brave fight at Skopje, but were outnumbered by Serbian, Greek, and Albanian troops. The city fell on October 10. Britain and France made short work of the Ottoman forces in Libya. Persia declared war on the Ottoman Empire on the 11th. The Ottomans realized how desperate their situation and called for help from the Triple Alliance. But the Triple Alliance was not in a great position to help. Austro-Hungarian diplomats tried to persuade some of the Balkan states to make peace, but it was to no avail. On October 25, The Bulgarians arrived at Constantinople and put the great city under siege. A smaller Greek contingent was supposed to help but it didn’t come. The Greeks wanted to be the ones who took the city. The Bulgarian attack on Constantinople failed and Bulgaria blamed Greece. Both nations wanted the honor of taking the “Queen of Cities.” The fragile alliance between Bulgaria and Greece fell apart when Bulgaria declared war on December 1, 1916. The Ottoman Empire was given a reprieve.
