Prelude
On August 2nd the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire signed a secret Ottoman-German Alliance. This was followed by a treaty with Bulgaria in 1915. The Ottomans also developed two major plans of attack, one of which created by von Schellendorf, which was seen as more German oriented. This was opposed by the plan of Hafiz Hakki Pasha, who created a plan focusing more on Russia rather than the German plan which was seen to not take ottoman conditions into account. Hafiz Hakki Pasha's plan was shelved because of resources. Schellendorfs plan was thus the primary. As result of the Schellendorf plan being selected as the primary many battles were fought on Ottoman soil.
November
In November the Middle Eastern theatre began. After two german warships were tranferred to the Ottoman navy, and shelled the port of Odessa Russia declared war upon the Ottoman Empire. On the 3rd the first British attack against the Ottomans happened as the Britinh Navy attacked the port of Dardenelles. Soon afterwards Britain and France declared war against the Ottoman Empire, and on the 11th the Ottomans drafteed declaration of Jihad, which was publicized on the 14th.
First Lord Admilarty Winston Churchill proposed a naval atack on the Ottoman capital, ordering ships to be ready by February 1916.
Simultaneously the Ottoman 4th army was preparing a force of 20 000 to capture the Suez Canal, teh supplies and such for the crossinf of the desert being organized by Bavarian Colonel Kress von Kressenstein.
The Caucasus reached its first armed conflict with the Begmann Offensive, in which the 9th-11th and 13th corps of the Ottoman 3rd army fought against the invading Russian force. Alongside them the Fortress of Erzurum had 32 000 men. The Russians crossed the border on the 1st and began the advance toward Erzurum. 3rd army commander Hasan izzet Pasha assumed that the Russian force was superior in forces, thus ordering the 9th corps to retreat to Erzurum. He also sent the 2nd Cavalry Division, 1300 strong to enact reconnaisance against the Russians. The cavalry divison fought a victorious battle in Köpruköy village on the 4th. Enver pasha adviced Hasan Izzet Pasha to crush seperately moving Russian forces. Hasan Izzet Pasha followed these instructions though with caution. The plan Hasan Izzet had was to rout the Vanguard and then retreat back to Erzurum. The 7th was a foggy day. three divisions of the 9th Corp moved to Hassankale, the Russian forces were supposed to be east of Köpruköy, but truly they had moved toward Badicivan, 10 kilometers north of Köpruköy. A regiment of the 9th corp came under heavy fire from the Russians and retreated to Hassankale, where the 9th Corp regrouped and were sent back to the Russians. On the first day of the attack the Ottoman troops made little to no success, but on the second day they managed to rout the Russian forces. German Lieutenant Colonel Felix Guse told Hasan izzett that a retreat would be benefiucial after a succesfull battle, for if the Russians return with a grater force a defeat was possible. Thus Hasan izzet ordered a retreat decree to the troops, which although protested by some ultimately passed. The retreat to Erzurum led to no further casualties and only light fighting against advancing Russian troops, which were mostly victorious. This meant that the Russian advance became halted, allowing the Ottomans to launch a counterattack in more favourable conditions.
On 8th of November Ottoman high command insisted that Hasan izzet make a counter offensive against the russians so that they could later begin to advance into Tiblisi, inviting an Caucasus Muslim revolt. The Ottoman 9th corp reinforced by the 9th corp on the left flank began the counteroffensive to push back the Russians. Due to retreating to Erzum earlier the Ottomans had proper winter clothes to use during the offensive, preventing many casualties from Hypothermia. The Russians were successful along the southern shoulder, where Armenian volunteers took Karaköze and Dogubeyazit. By the end the Russians held a good 20 kilometers into Ottoman territory.
A British naval force bombarded the fort at Fao. The IEF (Indian Expeditionary Force) cosisting of the 6th Division landed in Fao. The landing was opposed by a mere 350 Ottoman troops and a few cannons. Later on the 22nd the British occupied the city of Basra against a group of 3 000 arabian recruits. In the result 1 200 men and Safi Pasha were captured. From there the allied offensive into Mesopotamia would begin.
December
The Battle of Sarikamish began on the 22nd. It was an attempt by the now better equipped Ottoman forces to capture the area for an advance toward Tibilisi. In it the 3rd Army battled with the Russian Caucasus Army. Due to the better clothing the Ottomans had they lost fewer men to cold conditions. The battle itself took place across some 1300 kilometers between the Black Sea and Lake Van. This made troop concentration difficult. The 10th corp made a manouver being victorious in smaller battles along the frontline. This led to General Istomin withdrawing his troops. Overall the initial phase of the battle was more or less in the Ottomans favour.
From the 25th until the 26th the Ottomans were caught in a snowstorm. This led to the halt of the Ottoman troops. Many soldiers froze to death.
Afterward the battle got more intense. The Russians began a steady victory against Ottoman forces, leading to the eventual defeat of Ottoman forces on January 4th 1915. This led to a total Ottoman retreat from which a small portion of the original army managed to come back.
Overall
Overall the Caucasian offensive ended up in a stalemate between Russian and Ottoman troops, with the Russians on a slight edge after the battle of Sarikamish.
In Mesopotamia the IEF and British forces remain largely unattended, leading to a quick advance in 1915.
(Thanks to AustrianFanboy i managed to at least make the descriptions a bit cleaner, i think? I did read a good part of the Marne without Moltke 2.0 TL and tried to take lessons from it but still somehow managed to make it about Battles rather thank the actual front. Hopefullt ill make a better thing with the next post. I fell into the trap of making a detailed-ish account of a battle, while completely ignoring a cohesive frontlin again. I wonder how i manage to be so bad at this lol.
However i feel like this was at least and improvement over the last few posts, but didnt do much. Ill only learn by doing anyway, and a huge part of that is critique. And if anyones willing could you please explain how i can maintain the feeling of a proper and cohesive frontline. I have no idea and would appreciate it.
Anyway thanks a lot for reading and please critique this mess of a TL)