Osman Aga
Banned
Seems ideal for Italy to take the Ogaden region rather than all of Ethiopia.
An unlikely option is to buy the Danish part of the West Indies rather than the US buying it.
Osman Reborn; The Survival of Ottoman Democracy [An Ottoman TL set in the 1900s]
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
Seems ideal for Italy to take the Ogaden region rather than all of Ethiopia.
An unlikely option is to buy the Danish part of the West Indies rather than the US buying it.
Osman Aga
Banned
How would a dual monarchy even work with an existing Greek Monarchy? Or the religion of the Sultan?
Im guessing this was more on paper idea not really being considered but idea nether less put out.
Osman Aga
Banned
There will be some agreements made that the Sultan remains Emperor and King only (The Sultans must have 1876-78 / 1908-1918 role to avert threats). Something like a confederacy in which the Greek Character of Greece remains. Greece would in addition get some land with 60%+ ethnic Greek land and probably keep Crete.
I do know Greece had a strict Christian only Constitution in the 1820s until at least the 1860s but not sure when it was out of use. That has to be amended as well otherwise no land concession is possible.
But this is theoretically speaking. The reality is harder than one can think.
Chapter 2: The Battle for Tobruk and the Battle for Diplomacy
Chapter 2: The Battle for Tobruk and the Battle for Diplomacy
***
“As the battles for Tripoli continued on in the western parts of Libya, the Italians who had turned back after seeing the reinforcements of the Ottomans had returned to the bay in front of Tobruk harbor, intent on landing and claiming Cyrenaica, this time having a total strength of 3000 marines available with them. The defenses of Tobruk were given to Captain Mustafa Kemal leading the detachments of battalions of the 9th Infantry Division alongside a group of Libyan volunteers fighting under the banner of the Senussi Order under Al Mabri Yassen.
Captain Mustafa Kemal before the battle.
The defenses at Tobruk were basically non-existent in comparison to the major earthworks, forts and redoubts that defended Tripoli and Benghazi. The Ottoman government had never given much thought to the other cities of Libya other than Benghazi and Tripoli, and this was evident in the fact that other than the two aforementioned two cities, the others basically had no defense against the shore bombardment that the Italian Navy threw at the Ottomans in the area.
Therefore on October 12th, when the Italian navy showed itself on the shores of Tobruk, Captain Mustafa Kemal ordered a tactical withdrawal from Tobruk into the hills and countrysides and ordered that the wells outside the city be held by the detachments of the Senussi order and the 6th Battalion, whilst the remainder of his other forces would lay siege to Tobruk and throw the Italians back into the sea.
Italian troops landing next to Tobruk.
He also had good news in the form that the rest of the 9th Infantry Division were ready to be deployed to Tobruk from Bardiyah and would be able to reach and group up with Kemal’s forces within a week at most. Kemal was now faced with the task of holding the lines against the Italians in Tobruk for only a week until he could use his overwhelming advantage in numbers to assault the city and drive the Italians out of the city.
However on October 13th, the Italian soldiers came out of the city and captured the Nadura Hill in Mureyra Valley and were busy with reinforcements and digging trenches. Captain Mustafa Kemal foresaw that this movement from the Italians which would consolidate Italian troops outside of Tobruk would jeopardize his position. Thus, he ordered Ali Mabri Yassen to attack as soon as possible to overcome further Italian reinforcements on the strategic Nadura hill which overlooked Tobruk. Under the approval of Enver Bey, a prominent CUP military official in Cyrenaica, Turkish soldiers and Libyan volunteers were ordered to recapture the hill. The ottoman forces approached the hill just before dawn on October 15th, and besieged the hill, followed by heavy fire and an all out attack. The Italian soldiers were surprised and responded in a disorganized manner under the command of General Carlo Caneva, unable to do much without the surveillance of the canon fire. Italian positions were captured in two hours and the Italian regiments retreated back into Tobruk leaving behind precious munitions and guns, most prominently 6 machine guns.
Meanwhile, the other Ottoman forces under the command of Mustafa Kemal, consisting of a thousand soldiers, destroyed Italian reinforcements who were supporting Italian forces near the hill. After five hours of brutal slogging and fighting, the Italian attack was repulsed and the Italians were forced to retreat back into Tobruk.
By October 18th, the 9th Infantry Division arrived at Tobruk in their full, and with the superiority of number with him, Kemal ordered the city of Tobruk to be besieged as the Siege of Tobruk began in earnest.”
Mustafa Kemal: A Biography by Fahad Ahmed Khan, published in University of Angora, in 1978.
“The Italian landing at Al-Khums had been unopposed and soon they swung to the west with the intention of destroying the tactical railroads connecting Benghazi and Tripoli and to join up with the beleaguered forces in Tripoli. However the amount of forces under the Italian army at Al-Khums was a scant 5,000 and the Senussi Order was given the order to stop them from reinforcing Tripoli, which if it could be done, may risk losing the wells of Bu Meliana, which would end the predicament that Italy found itself in Tripoli, unable to loot the water wares of the civilians, lest the Europeans act outraged, or sit down and die of thirst.
The Senussi Order managed to garner around 7,000 arab cavalry troops led by Ahmed Sharif to protect the Ottoman forces gathering next to Tripoli that were currently choking the Italians in the city.
Senussi soldiers shadowing Italian soldiers from Al-Khums
Ahmed Sharif led his 7,000 cavalrymen through the northern slopes and hills and instead of attacking the incoming Italians head on, he instead tried to shadow them, and keep himself at a distance from the Italians instead hoping to ambush them when the most opportune moment showed itself. While a sound plan, the arrival of Italian airplanes disrupted this idea. The Italian aviators saw the Senussi conducting a shadowing movement and soon contacted the soldiers on the ground about the Senussi movement and the Italians on the ground were made aware of the danger they were in.
Nonetheless, Ahmed Sharif had not survived the dangerous deserts and colonial wars against the French and British by being an idiot. When he saw the planes overhead and the planes taking their pictures, he knew his plans were in tatters and instead switched to another strategy. He quickly redirected his troops to hide in the mountains and passes of Northern Libya, allowing the Italian ground troops to remain scared whilst the Senussi remained hidden even from the Italian planes.
Italian planes in the Italo-Ottoman War.
By October 22nd, the Italian troops marching from Al-Khums resumed their march to Tripoli believing that the danger was over. The danger was far from over. Ahmed Sharif planned to attack the Italians the moment they entered the roads leading to Alaluas. Alaluas was next to sloping hills and a good amount of small rivers in the area and Ahmed Sharif suddenly attacked the marching slow moving Italians near Alaluas and conducted a cavalry charge at the surprised Italians and forced them back.
The small battle of Alaluas saw the Italians pushed back and with no other option in front of them, as the Italians were far from their supply depots, the Italians retreated back to Al-Khums with the intention of being reinforced them as Ahmed Sharif conducted multiple harassing attacks on the retreating Italians wearing them down bit by bit.”
From The War in the Sands, published in 1998 in the University of Angora.
“On October 29th, 1911 about a month into the Italo-Ottoman War, the Italian fleet in the Ionian Sea after reinforcing the Italian Central Mediterranean Fleet began searching for Ottoman warships in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. At around 2 pm, or so, five Italian destroyers under the command of Prince Luigi Amedeo sighted three Ottoman gunboats near Preveza. Outnumbered, the Ottomans opened fire but soon chose to flee without making any hits. The torpedo boat, Tokat steered to the north whilst the Anatolia veered south. After several moments of firing, one of the Italian destroyers managed to sink the Tokat in which 9 sailors were killed, including the ship’s captain.
Location of the Battle of Preveza in 1911.
However the Anatolia managed to successfully retreat from the engagement and became docked at Preveza harbor, where the Ottoman defenses there were made aware of the fact that the Italians were in the vicinity and the Preveza Castle and all of its defenses were readied by the castle’s commanders. The castle contained 25 modern heavy artillery batteries and were capable of firing at long distances, and the commander of the castle, Reis Pasha was ordered to fire at anything ‘that was Italian’. The next morning the Italians under Prince Amedeo attacked the next day towards the castle. The gunboats at Preveza harbor were all sunk by the Italians however one of the five Italian destroyers were also sunk by the castle defenses before Prince Amedeo decided to retreat in good order, having successfully destroyed any hopes of Ottoman hit and run tactics in the Ionian Sea against the Italians.
But, whilst this was a naval defeat for the Ottomans in the Ionian Sea, the situation in the Red Sea was quite different than the Ionian Sea. Both sides had old decrepit ships in the area with second standard sailors, however in the region, the Ottomans held a significant numerical advantage against the Italians and on October 18th, the Ottoman government declared a blockade of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somalia declaring weapons, munitions, extra supply of food, to be contraband.
Nonetheless, as the Ottomans weren’t exactly a stellar naval power, not many really cared about the declaration and Giolitti was not exactly taken aback by the Ottoman declaration at all, stating that the Italian fleets in the area would be more than enough to take care of the Ottomans in the Red Sea and take out this so called blockade. The ottomans were intent on proving him wrong on that point.
In the beginning of November, 1911 the Italians had a fleet of 1 protected cruiser, 3 destroyers, and 2 gunboats in the Red Sea whilst the Ottomans had the torpedo Cruiser, Peyk-I-Sevket alongside 4 gunboats and 3 destroyers themselves, having a slight edge ready for service. The Italian naval commanders decided that in order to clear the way to Suez and stop the Ottoman disruption of transport ships, they would sally out and destroy the Ottoman fleet in good order.
The Peyk-i-Sevket
However there was a problem. Ottoman spotters from the Yemeni Viyalet in Al-Hudayda and Kamaran had been ordered by the Sublime Porte to keep tabs on the Ottoman coastline in the region and they immediately responded back to Jeddah reporting the Italian fleet that was moving northwards. The Ottomans had learned the presence of the Italian ships, and the Ottoman fleet in the region set out to meet their Italian adversary. The Italians were taken by surprise when the Ottoman lead ships opened fire at a range of 3,500 yards and a tense naval battle soon followed. The Italian fleet was led by the small Italian protected cruiser Calabria and the ship paled in its armaments in comparison to the Peyk-i-Sevket which was a very modern ship, perhaps the most modern class in the entire Ottoman Navy, commissioned in 1908 and 1909. Her sister ship was in the Smyrna detachment of the Ottoman fleet.
Ottoman Yemeni Viyalet.
The Peyk-i-Sevket soon rounded against the Calabria and after a quarter of an hour of intense naval bombardment the Peyk-i-Sevket managed to sink the Calabria and instead turned towards the other Ottoman ships intent on helping them, as the battle between the gunboats and destroyers between the Ottomans and the Italians remained a bloody stalemate.
The battle unfolded at Kunfuda bay near the Ottoman Hejaz coast and before the Peyk-i-Sevket entered the fray between the destroyers and gunboats both sides were fighting each other on equal terms. 3 Ottoman gunboats had been taken out of the fight (1 sunk) whilst on the same level 2 Italian gunboats were taken out of the fight (1 sunk) leaving both sides having 2 gunboats and 3 destroyers firing at each other.
At around 1 pm, the Peyk-i-sevket arrived to reinforce the Ottoman fleet and managed to force the gunboats to flee as the gunboats really could do nothing against the guns of a cruiser, and the destroyers of the Italians were now stuck between a rock and hard place as the Ottoman destroyers concentrated from the north and the gunboats aided them using covering fire. The Peyk-i-Sevket concentrated from behind. By 1:15 pm, they came to a decision to conduct a strategic withdrawal and started to disengage from the battle, and even though one destroyer was lost during the retreat, mainly due to one of the gunboat’s hitting the stern of the ship, the other two managed to retreat in good order and grouped up with the retreating Italian gunboats to return back to their naval bases in Eritrea.
The ottomans thus were able to lose one naval battle, and win another. The Ottomans were ecstatic about their victory in the Red Sea, at least for now, and decided to reinforce the Red Sea fleet with the Beirut Detachment, knowing that defending that portion of the Ottoman coasts with naval power was futile against the Italians and the 2 Destroyers and 3 gunboats from the region were immediately transferred to the Red Sea through the Suez Canal.
The sinking of the Italian Cruiser Calabria was the highlight of the Battle of Kunfuda Bay.
The Battle of Kunfuda Bay was an embarrassment for Italy. Giolitti came under significant scrutiny and so did the Ministry of Naval Affairs. In response Giolitti ordered the Italian Indian Ocean Fleet based in Mogadishu to move north to Eritrea to reinforce the Eritrean fleet and force the Ottoman fleet to stay bottled up in the Red Sea, dampening the effects of the Ottoman victory. Nonetheless, this forced around 7,000 Somali reinforcements to Libya to stay put.”
A Naval History of the Ottoman Empire by Sir Douglass Howe
“Ibrahim Hakki Pasha was able to remain as Grand Vizier by the skin of his teeth mainly due to his good decision to prepare for the war against Italy, which gained him a lot of votes in his favor in the Chamber of Deputies. On October 27th, 1911 the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies also passed the ‘Bill of Bonds’ in which the government issued debt securities and war bonds to the people of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman economy was still within a recovery phase and the country was not capable of going into a full war economy. As such the Ottomans decided to sell retail bonds, at affordable prices for the citizens of the empire, at least within urban areas such as Salonika, Constantinople, Skopje, Tirana, Angora, Smyrna, Baghdad, Damascus and Jerusalem. The Ottoman government knew that it could not count on advances from the banks to meet the costs of war, and the Ottoman bond loans followed a pre-arranged plan and were issued half yearly intervals for a five year term.
The government also temporarily nationalized all military industries in the country and instead focused the production of rifles, mobile artillery and rations for the army, recognizing the logistical difficulties of the ottoman army, in these particular areas. Some stocks were sold by the government in order to raise funds as well. The Ottoman Public Debt Administration was asked by the government to create a credit launch by the government from the amount of money that the government had paid to the OPDA, and the OPDA was partially successful in the endeavor which did lighten a good amount of the economic strains on the Ottoman Empire.
Politically, Hakki Pasha created a War Cabinet, consisting of himself, the Grand Vizier, the Minister of War, Mahmud Shevket Pasha, the Minister of Naval Affairs, Ciballi Mehmed Bey, Ahmet Riza, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, and Ibrahim Temo, the leader of the Opposition.
Ahmet Riza, who was a gifted polymath and diplomat was assigned with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mehmed Rifat Pasha to conduct diplomatic meetings with the ambassadors to Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain and France to ensure their neutrality within the context of the war, and in the case of Britain, Riza was asked to find a favorable outcome to the Egyptian question in the war and the placement of orders for 2 dreadnoughts for the Ottoman Navy, for which the government had managed to scrape just enough money.
Ahmet Riza.
On the former, Riza was not successful, as Sir Gerard Lowther, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire carefully danced around the issue and did not give a concrete answer to Riza regarding Egypt and its accessibility to Ottoman troops as a subject to the Sultan. However in regards to the Dreadnoughts, when presented with the money, Lowther agreed and two dreadnoughts were contracted in British dockyards to be built for the Ottoman Empire.
In terms of Egypt, the Khedive of Egypt, Abbas II, he was staunchly in favor of aiding the Ottomans. Abbas II called the Italian war in Libya ‘a national disgrace for moslems’ and instead tried to convince his british governor-general Sir Eldon Gorst to aid the Ottoman Empire in the war. Gorst and Abbas II had good relations, unlike Gorst’s predecessor Sir Cromer, and did cooperate with Egyptian authorities on many matters. However Gorst did not accept this idea from Abbas II stating that it would go against legislation from London and against direct orders, much to the disappointment of Abbas II. Nonetheless, whilst officially Abbas II remained at the sidelines, he did secretly aid the Ottoman Empire, turning a blind eye to Ottoman smugglers going through Egypt, not reporting them to the British, and sending ‘Religious Volunteers’ to fight in Libya in support of the Ottoman Empire. In order to deflect the Italian blockade of Ottoman goods, he also allowed the Ottoman Merchant Marine to use the Egyptian flag and stay at Egyptian ports. Much of these would be invaluable aid to the Ottoman War Effort.”
Abbas II of Egypt.
Excerpts from The Ottoman War in Libya
***
***
“As the battles for Tripoli continued on in the western parts of Libya, the Italians who had turned back after seeing the reinforcements of the Ottomans had returned to the bay in front of Tobruk harbor, intent on landing and claiming Cyrenaica, this time having a total strength of 3000 marines available with them. The defenses of Tobruk were given to Captain Mustafa Kemal leading the detachments of battalions of the 9th Infantry Division alongside a group of Libyan volunteers fighting under the banner of the Senussi Order under Al Mabri Yassen.
Captain Mustafa Kemal before the battle.
The defenses at Tobruk were basically non-existent in comparison to the major earthworks, forts and redoubts that defended Tripoli and Benghazi. The Ottoman government had never given much thought to the other cities of Libya other than Benghazi and Tripoli, and this was evident in the fact that other than the two aforementioned two cities, the others basically had no defense against the shore bombardment that the Italian Navy threw at the Ottomans in the area.
Therefore on October 12th, when the Italian navy showed itself on the shores of Tobruk, Captain Mustafa Kemal ordered a tactical withdrawal from Tobruk into the hills and countrysides and ordered that the wells outside the city be held by the detachments of the Senussi order and the 6th Battalion, whilst the remainder of his other forces would lay siege to Tobruk and throw the Italians back into the sea.
Italian troops landing next to Tobruk.
He also had good news in the form that the rest of the 9th Infantry Division were ready to be deployed to Tobruk from Bardiyah and would be able to reach and group up with Kemal’s forces within a week at most. Kemal was now faced with the task of holding the lines against the Italians in Tobruk for only a week until he could use his overwhelming advantage in numbers to assault the city and drive the Italians out of the city.
However on October 13th, the Italian soldiers came out of the city and captured the Nadura Hill in Mureyra Valley and were busy with reinforcements and digging trenches. Captain Mustafa Kemal foresaw that this movement from the Italians which would consolidate Italian troops outside of Tobruk would jeopardize his position. Thus, he ordered Ali Mabri Yassen to attack as soon as possible to overcome further Italian reinforcements on the strategic Nadura hill which overlooked Tobruk. Under the approval of Enver Bey, a prominent CUP military official in Cyrenaica, Turkish soldiers and Libyan volunteers were ordered to recapture the hill. The ottoman forces approached the hill just before dawn on October 15th, and besieged the hill, followed by heavy fire and an all out attack. The Italian soldiers were surprised and responded in a disorganized manner under the command of General Carlo Caneva, unable to do much without the surveillance of the canon fire. Italian positions were captured in two hours and the Italian regiments retreated back into Tobruk leaving behind precious munitions and guns, most prominently 6 machine guns.
Meanwhile, the other Ottoman forces under the command of Mustafa Kemal, consisting of a thousand soldiers, destroyed Italian reinforcements who were supporting Italian forces near the hill. After five hours of brutal slogging and fighting, the Italian attack was repulsed and the Italians were forced to retreat back into Tobruk.
By October 18th, the 9th Infantry Division arrived at Tobruk in their full, and with the superiority of number with him, Kemal ordered the city of Tobruk to be besieged as the Siege of Tobruk began in earnest.”
Mustafa Kemal: A Biography by Fahad Ahmed Khan, published in University of Angora, in 1978.
“The Italian landing at Al-Khums had been unopposed and soon they swung to the west with the intention of destroying the tactical railroads connecting Benghazi and Tripoli and to join up with the beleaguered forces in Tripoli. However the amount of forces under the Italian army at Al-Khums was a scant 5,000 and the Senussi Order was given the order to stop them from reinforcing Tripoli, which if it could be done, may risk losing the wells of Bu Meliana, which would end the predicament that Italy found itself in Tripoli, unable to loot the water wares of the civilians, lest the Europeans act outraged, or sit down and die of thirst.
The Senussi Order managed to garner around 7,000 arab cavalry troops led by Ahmed Sharif to protect the Ottoman forces gathering next to Tripoli that were currently choking the Italians in the city.
Senussi soldiers shadowing Italian soldiers from Al-Khums
Ahmed Sharif led his 7,000 cavalrymen through the northern slopes and hills and instead of attacking the incoming Italians head on, he instead tried to shadow them, and keep himself at a distance from the Italians instead hoping to ambush them when the most opportune moment showed itself. While a sound plan, the arrival of Italian airplanes disrupted this idea. The Italian aviators saw the Senussi conducting a shadowing movement and soon contacted the soldiers on the ground about the Senussi movement and the Italians on the ground were made aware of the danger they were in.
Nonetheless, Ahmed Sharif had not survived the dangerous deserts and colonial wars against the French and British by being an idiot. When he saw the planes overhead and the planes taking their pictures, he knew his plans were in tatters and instead switched to another strategy. He quickly redirected his troops to hide in the mountains and passes of Northern Libya, allowing the Italian ground troops to remain scared whilst the Senussi remained hidden even from the Italian planes.
Italian planes in the Italo-Ottoman War.
By October 22nd, the Italian troops marching from Al-Khums resumed their march to Tripoli believing that the danger was over. The danger was far from over. Ahmed Sharif planned to attack the Italians the moment they entered the roads leading to Alaluas. Alaluas was next to sloping hills and a good amount of small rivers in the area and Ahmed Sharif suddenly attacked the marching slow moving Italians near Alaluas and conducted a cavalry charge at the surprised Italians and forced them back.
The small battle of Alaluas saw the Italians pushed back and with no other option in front of them, as the Italians were far from their supply depots, the Italians retreated back to Al-Khums with the intention of being reinforced them as Ahmed Sharif conducted multiple harassing attacks on the retreating Italians wearing them down bit by bit.”
From The War in the Sands, published in 1998 in the University of Angora.
“On October 29th, 1911 about a month into the Italo-Ottoman War, the Italian fleet in the Ionian Sea after reinforcing the Italian Central Mediterranean Fleet began searching for Ottoman warships in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. At around 2 pm, or so, five Italian destroyers under the command of Prince Luigi Amedeo sighted three Ottoman gunboats near Preveza. Outnumbered, the Ottomans opened fire but soon chose to flee without making any hits. The torpedo boat, Tokat steered to the north whilst the Anatolia veered south. After several moments of firing, one of the Italian destroyers managed to sink the Tokat in which 9 sailors were killed, including the ship’s captain.
Location of the Battle of Preveza in 1911.
However the Anatolia managed to successfully retreat from the engagement and became docked at Preveza harbor, where the Ottoman defenses there were made aware of the fact that the Italians were in the vicinity and the Preveza Castle and all of its defenses were readied by the castle’s commanders. The castle contained 25 modern heavy artillery batteries and were capable of firing at long distances, and the commander of the castle, Reis Pasha was ordered to fire at anything ‘that was Italian’. The next morning the Italians under Prince Amedeo attacked the next day towards the castle. The gunboats at Preveza harbor were all sunk by the Italians however one of the five Italian destroyers were also sunk by the castle defenses before Prince Amedeo decided to retreat in good order, having successfully destroyed any hopes of Ottoman hit and run tactics in the Ionian Sea against the Italians.
But, whilst this was a naval defeat for the Ottomans in the Ionian Sea, the situation in the Red Sea was quite different than the Ionian Sea. Both sides had old decrepit ships in the area with second standard sailors, however in the region, the Ottomans held a significant numerical advantage against the Italians and on October 18th, the Ottoman government declared a blockade of Italian Eritrea and Italian Somalia declaring weapons, munitions, extra supply of food, to be contraband.
Nonetheless, as the Ottomans weren’t exactly a stellar naval power, not many really cared about the declaration and Giolitti was not exactly taken aback by the Ottoman declaration at all, stating that the Italian fleets in the area would be more than enough to take care of the Ottomans in the Red Sea and take out this so called blockade. The ottomans were intent on proving him wrong on that point.
In the beginning of November, 1911 the Italians had a fleet of 1 protected cruiser, 3 destroyers, and 2 gunboats in the Red Sea whilst the Ottomans had the torpedo Cruiser, Peyk-I-Sevket alongside 4 gunboats and 3 destroyers themselves, having a slight edge ready for service. The Italian naval commanders decided that in order to clear the way to Suez and stop the Ottoman disruption of transport ships, they would sally out and destroy the Ottoman fleet in good order.
The Peyk-i-Sevket
However there was a problem. Ottoman spotters from the Yemeni Viyalet in Al-Hudayda and Kamaran had been ordered by the Sublime Porte to keep tabs on the Ottoman coastline in the region and they immediately responded back to Jeddah reporting the Italian fleet that was moving northwards. The Ottomans had learned the presence of the Italian ships, and the Ottoman fleet in the region set out to meet their Italian adversary. The Italians were taken by surprise when the Ottoman lead ships opened fire at a range of 3,500 yards and a tense naval battle soon followed. The Italian fleet was led by the small Italian protected cruiser Calabria and the ship paled in its armaments in comparison to the Peyk-i-Sevket which was a very modern ship, perhaps the most modern class in the entire Ottoman Navy, commissioned in 1908 and 1909. Her sister ship was in the Smyrna detachment of the Ottoman fleet.
Ottoman Yemeni Viyalet.
The Peyk-i-Sevket soon rounded against the Calabria and after a quarter of an hour of intense naval bombardment the Peyk-i-Sevket managed to sink the Calabria and instead turned towards the other Ottoman ships intent on helping them, as the battle between the gunboats and destroyers between the Ottomans and the Italians remained a bloody stalemate.
The battle unfolded at Kunfuda bay near the Ottoman Hejaz coast and before the Peyk-i-Sevket entered the fray between the destroyers and gunboats both sides were fighting each other on equal terms. 3 Ottoman gunboats had been taken out of the fight (1 sunk) whilst on the same level 2 Italian gunboats were taken out of the fight (1 sunk) leaving both sides having 2 gunboats and 3 destroyers firing at each other.
At around 1 pm, the Peyk-i-sevket arrived to reinforce the Ottoman fleet and managed to force the gunboats to flee as the gunboats really could do nothing against the guns of a cruiser, and the destroyers of the Italians were now stuck between a rock and hard place as the Ottoman destroyers concentrated from the north and the gunboats aided them using covering fire. The Peyk-i-Sevket concentrated from behind. By 1:15 pm, they came to a decision to conduct a strategic withdrawal and started to disengage from the battle, and even though one destroyer was lost during the retreat, mainly due to one of the gunboat’s hitting the stern of the ship, the other two managed to retreat in good order and grouped up with the retreating Italian gunboats to return back to their naval bases in Eritrea.
The ottomans thus were able to lose one naval battle, and win another. The Ottomans were ecstatic about their victory in the Red Sea, at least for now, and decided to reinforce the Red Sea fleet with the Beirut Detachment, knowing that defending that portion of the Ottoman coasts with naval power was futile against the Italians and the 2 Destroyers and 3 gunboats from the region were immediately transferred to the Red Sea through the Suez Canal.
The sinking of the Italian Cruiser Calabria was the highlight of the Battle of Kunfuda Bay.
The Battle of Kunfuda Bay was an embarrassment for Italy. Giolitti came under significant scrutiny and so did the Ministry of Naval Affairs. In response Giolitti ordered the Italian Indian Ocean Fleet based in Mogadishu to move north to Eritrea to reinforce the Eritrean fleet and force the Ottoman fleet to stay bottled up in the Red Sea, dampening the effects of the Ottoman victory. Nonetheless, this forced around 7,000 Somali reinforcements to Libya to stay put.”
A Naval History of the Ottoman Empire by Sir Douglass Howe
“Ibrahim Hakki Pasha was able to remain as Grand Vizier by the skin of his teeth mainly due to his good decision to prepare for the war against Italy, which gained him a lot of votes in his favor in the Chamber of Deputies. On October 27th, 1911 the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies also passed the ‘Bill of Bonds’ in which the government issued debt securities and war bonds to the people of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman economy was still within a recovery phase and the country was not capable of going into a full war economy. As such the Ottomans decided to sell retail bonds, at affordable prices for the citizens of the empire, at least within urban areas such as Salonika, Constantinople, Skopje, Tirana, Angora, Smyrna, Baghdad, Damascus and Jerusalem. The Ottoman government knew that it could not count on advances from the banks to meet the costs of war, and the Ottoman bond loans followed a pre-arranged plan and were issued half yearly intervals for a five year term.
The government also temporarily nationalized all military industries in the country and instead focused the production of rifles, mobile artillery and rations for the army, recognizing the logistical difficulties of the ottoman army, in these particular areas. Some stocks were sold by the government in order to raise funds as well. The Ottoman Public Debt Administration was asked by the government to create a credit launch by the government from the amount of money that the government had paid to the OPDA, and the OPDA was partially successful in the endeavor which did lighten a good amount of the economic strains on the Ottoman Empire.
Politically, Hakki Pasha created a War Cabinet, consisting of himself, the Grand Vizier, the Minister of War, Mahmud Shevket Pasha, the Minister of Naval Affairs, Ciballi Mehmed Bey, Ahmet Riza, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, and Ibrahim Temo, the leader of the Opposition.
Ahmet Riza, who was a gifted polymath and diplomat was assigned with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mehmed Rifat Pasha to conduct diplomatic meetings with the ambassadors to Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain and France to ensure their neutrality within the context of the war, and in the case of Britain, Riza was asked to find a favorable outcome to the Egyptian question in the war and the placement of orders for 2 dreadnoughts for the Ottoman Navy, for which the government had managed to scrape just enough money.
Ahmet Riza.
On the former, Riza was not successful, as Sir Gerard Lowther, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire carefully danced around the issue and did not give a concrete answer to Riza regarding Egypt and its accessibility to Ottoman troops as a subject to the Sultan. However in regards to the Dreadnoughts, when presented with the money, Lowther agreed and two dreadnoughts were contracted in British dockyards to be built for the Ottoman Empire.
In terms of Egypt, the Khedive of Egypt, Abbas II, he was staunchly in favor of aiding the Ottomans. Abbas II called the Italian war in Libya ‘a national disgrace for moslems’ and instead tried to convince his british governor-general Sir Eldon Gorst to aid the Ottoman Empire in the war. Gorst and Abbas II had good relations, unlike Gorst’s predecessor Sir Cromer, and did cooperate with Egyptian authorities on many matters. However Gorst did not accept this idea from Abbas II stating that it would go against legislation from London and against direct orders, much to the disappointment of Abbas II. Nonetheless, whilst officially Abbas II remained at the sidelines, he did secretly aid the Ottoman Empire, turning a blind eye to Ottoman smugglers going through Egypt, not reporting them to the British, and sending ‘Religious Volunteers’ to fight in Libya in support of the Ottoman Empire. In order to deflect the Italian blockade of Ottoman goods, he also allowed the Ottoman Merchant Marine to use the Egyptian flag and stay at Egyptian ports. Much of these would be invaluable aid to the Ottoman War Effort.”
Abbas II of Egypt.
Excerpts from The Ottoman War in Libya
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apologies you have to remember im a person who doesn't type proper sentences, i know the ships are ready in 1914 but Britain instead kept them and the money. Im asking if those boats here are the same ones in 1914.
If I read my book properly, Ibrahim Hakki Pasha also did propose an alliance with the Greeks in 1911 by recognizing Cretan union with Greece and creating recognition of Greeks in the ottoman empire and recognition of Muslims in Greece. However the war torpedoed that plan because he was ousted at the start of the war. Ittl he does stay on, barely, so it could lead to some kind of an agreement with Greece, even if it is not an alliance. Even a non aggression pact would be a huge relief. An economic left would be event better as the ottomans would be able to get around Italian blockades and the Greeks would be able to access Indian and Persian markets at a cheaper rate.
A dual monarchy is quite implausible. However a rapprochement is possible.
Italy allocated 30 million per month for the war. It ended up costing 80 million per month. The war was very expensive to Italy otl
Reshadiye was actually ordered in June 1911 and laid down in August of the same year, with a second dreadnought ordered some time later. But since 6 dreadnought were envisigated I don't see much trouble in the Ottomans placing the orders for two ships right away. @Dorknought in another thread had provided a very detailed view of the Ottoman naval program in OTL. And likely with 2-3 Ottoman dreadnoughts already ordered the Greeks go straight away to full dreadnoughts ordered instead of the back and forth with Salamis. In which case the chances of the Germans getting the order are slim, the Greeks likely order either 1-2 Lattore for Britain or 14in ships from the US. Given the difference in prices the second may be more likely.
ah thanks! yes, with the Ottomans going a very different route in terms of naval matters, though with the base from otl, greece will of course be affected as well, which would change its naval policy as well. Greece getting ships from Britain or the US is a high probability.
Osman Aga
Banned
Not attack yet and wait for a better momentum. Participation in the Great War by the Ottoman Empire is something that they can consider. That is if they do participate.