Wednesday October 30^th, 1918

Route march.

The Ottoman Empire

While Frank and the 9th seem to be kicking their heels, things in the Middle East have been hotting up.

After Allenby’s victories of December 1917, most notably the capture of Jerusalem, the Egyptian Expeditionary Forces (EEF) was rather forced into hiatus.  It faced weather and logistical problems, was starved of reinforcements and had to send 60,000 men to the Western Front during Germany’s Spring Offensive.  However this changed in August with the arrival of mainly Commonwealth troops.

Since then, the Ottoman Empire has been losing ground. It started with the EEF’s success at the Battle of Megiddo (19-21 September).

This was quickly followed by news of the Allied victory in Macedonia which made the Ottoman Empire more vulnerable to an overland attack on Constantinople.  The British, underlining this point, immediately redirected troops from Salonika towards Turkey.

The EEF then took Damascus on October 1st, Homs on October 16th and Aleppo on October 25th.¹  With its army in disarray and fearful of further incursions, the Ottoman Empire sued for peace.

The Armistice of Mudros

After a short negotiation, the Armistice will be signed on the HMS Agamemnon today in Mudros Harbour, Lemnos. Its terms will come into force at noon tomorrow.  The Agamemnon’s other claim to fame was its downing of a Zeppelin over Salonika in 1916.

Historians agree that the British (negotiating on behalf of the Allies) could have asked for more and the Turks could have asked for less.  Both sides however were anxious for a deal.

‘By its terms, Turkey had to open the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits to Allied warships and its forts to military occupation; it was also to demobilize its army, release all prisoners of war and evacuate its Arab provinces, the majority of which were already under Allied control.’²

‘…the Allies also won the right to occupy “in case of disorder” the six Armenian provinces in Anatolia and to seize “any strategic points” in case of a threat to Allied security.‘³

The Armistice of Mudros will take another of Germany’s allies off the board and leave its flank exposed.

9^th Battalion War Diary – 30^th October 1918 – Elincourt

Brigade Field Day.

References & Further Reading

¹ Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby on Wikipedia

² ‘Ottoman Empire signs treaty with Allies’ on History.com

³ ‘Armistice of Mudros‘ on Encyclopaedia Britannica 

* Q38055, copyright Imperial War Museums