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Chapter 491 Second Greco-Turkish War

Although Turkey launched a large-scale arms purchase proposal and spent a huge amount of money to import advanced weapons and equipment from the Chinese Empire, the mechanization reform could not be completed in a short period of time, and what was in front of Turkey was how to prevent the invasion of the Greek army. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo~~

The Chinese Empire launched the Gulf War under the banner of the League of Nations and successfully crushed the Armenian military invasion of Turkey, but on the issue of Greece, the Chinese Empire did not seem to have any intention of directly using force.

The reason was that the Greek government was frightened by the Gulf War and knew that if it touched the core interests of the Chinese Empire, it would be destroyed and attacked, so the Greek king Alexander I personally visited China to explain the situation to the Chinese Empire.

At this time, many of the H2N1 bomber production lines of the Chinese Empire had been converted into flight aircraft for international civil aviation, and their powerful range only required two refueling refuels to fly to the Chinese Empire. Alexander I arrived in the capital of the Chinese Empire by plane, and successively met with the Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire, the two sides exchanged opinions and differences, and then Alexander I and the Prime Minister of the Chinese Empire Tang Shaoyi talks, the two sides basically reached an agreement, and when the Chinese Emperor Wang Chenhao received Alexander I, the Chinese Empire and the Kingdom of Greece had signed a memorandum of understanding and reached an agreement on the Balkan issue.

The Kingdom of Greece was badly damaged by the World War, and its economy was sustained by loans from the Chinese Empire. In exchange for the Chinese Empire's refusal to use force against Greece, the Greek Kingdom promised to borrow 500 million dragon coins from the Chinese Empire for the next ten years, with an interest rate of 4%, and promised not to allow the Greek currency to depreciate, while promising to encourage Greek citizens to buy goods from the Chinese Empire.

However, these promises did not discourage the Chinese Empire from using force to defend its interests in the Balkans, so the Greek king Alexander I also promised that the Greek army would not attack the urban areas through which the Baghdad Railway passed, and that he was willing to transfer Crete to the Chinese Empire.

Crete's strategic location is extremely important, and it is a key point for truly holding the Aegean Sea and controlling the Balkan Peninsula and the Mediterranean. During the First Greco-Turkish War, Greece seized the island from the Turkish Empire, although it was only used as a naval base. With the outbreak of the world war, Greece was driven to Crete by the League's ** team, and was saved by fighting the Allies with the help of the air force. After the war, the Greek military attached considerable importance to Crete, developing three large air bases and deploying strategic bomber groups to control the Mediterranean and Balkan Peninsulas.

The island of Cyprus controlled by the Chinese Empire is too close to the Turkish border, located in the westernmost part of the Mediterranean, if it can get Crete to build a military base, then it will just form a situation of taking care of the Cypriot base, controlling the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the east, blocking the exit of the Aegean Sea and deterring the Balkans to the north, and blocking the exit of the Suez Canal to the south. This time, the Chinese Empire sent the Aegean Sea Hun fleet to Turkey, preparing to help Turkey fight Greece, in order to force Greece to transfer Crete to the Chinese Empire after the war. Now that the Greek side has realized the true purpose of the Chinese Empire, it can't hold it anyway, so it is better to sell personal favors to the Chinese Empire.

However, the Greek side also had some petty plots to transfer Crete to the Chinese Empire, which was actually suspected of instigating relations between the Chinese Empire and Turkey, which was still Turkish territory a few years ago.

The Chinese Empire received a promise from the Greek side, so it gave up the idea of using force against the Greek army, but the Chinese Emperor** stationed in Constantinople has become a fact, and the Greek army is required not to attack Constantinople. In return, the Chinese Emperor only protected the Constantinople and Baghdad railways and would not attack the Greek army.

In this way, the Chinese Empire and Greece reached an agreement that the Chinese Emperor would not intervene in the Greco-Turkish War for the time being. The Greek military believed that it should take the opportunity to completely defeat the Turkish army, so that after creating a fait accompli, as long as the core interests of the Chinese Empire in the occupied areas were guaranteed, it would not provoke the Chinese Empire to intervene, so the Greek military continued to launch a fierce offensive.

On the Turkish side, at the beginning, it was still counting on the Chinese emperor ** to come forward and defeat the Greek army in a week, just like the defeat of the Armenian army. But they were disappointed that the Chinese Empire was only concerned with their interests in the area surrounding the Baghdad Railway, and the Chinese Emperor refused to take the initiative to attack the Greek army on the grounds of protecting Constantinople from threats.

In this way, in the face of the invasion of the Greek army, the Turkish army again found itself in the situation of fighting duli.

After World War I, the Turkish economy could no longer support a large army, and most of the troops had been debanded, but there were still two corps in Anatolia, with a total of 7 corps and 17 divisions, stationed in major cities throughout the country. The vast majority of the generals of these units could not bear to witness the unprecedented catastrophe of the country and had the mentality of resistance to war.

At the same time, from the time the Greeks landed in Izmir, many of the former Ottoman troops spontaneously threw themselves into the struggle for armed resistance, in defiance of the ban of the Sultan's government, together with the National Self-Defense Army. Kemal's National Liberation Organization in Anatolia was also enthusiastically embraced by the generals stationed in the garrison, many of whom were elected to the organization's committees and later became members of the Grand Jirga.

However, after six years of war and large-scale post-war demobilization, these remnants of the Turkish army were severely understaffed and had no heavy weapons, making it difficult for them to conduct regular operations. However, Kemal's determination to build a regular army was strong, and he vigorously propagated this idea, and his ideas were supported by Parliament. Kemal then decided to first reorganize the front command, and will command the unfavorable former commander of the Western Front, Ali? Fouad Pasha was transferred from the front and Colonel Ismail, who had just arrived from Istanbul, was appointed commander of the Western Front, and at the same time, the Southern Front Command was established. Colonel Bailay is the commander. After confirming the terms of reference of the commander of the front, it was stipulated that both fronts would be under the command of the chief of the general staff, thus changing the form of command of the loya jirga government over the armed forces in various localities from command-style leadership to institutional control, and laying the foundation for the reconstruction of the regular army.

After that, at the end of 1920, the government of Ankara began to form a new Turkish National Army. A large number of young people responded to the call of the government and enlisted in the army, and the veterans after the war also returned to the army. Ismet's former subordinate Terman? Simna, on the other hand, led more than 10,000 men out of the Istanbul regime and joined the National Army. In order to strengthen the leadership of the Loya Jirga in the war of national liberation, Kemal decided to integrate the guerrilla organizations in various places, and most of the guerrillas voluntarily joined the regular army.

On January 10, 1921, the situation in Turkey was confusing, the Sultan and the revolutionary party coexisted, and the attitude of the Chinese Empire between the two political parties in Turkey changed somewhat, and in order to ensure that the core interests of the Chinese Empire in Turkey were not affected, it was impossible to put the eggs in one basket, so the Chinese Empire began to contact the leaders of the Turkish revolutionary armed forces in addition to maintaining relations with the Sultan.

Through contact with Kemal, Kemal and the Turkish Revolutionary Government believed that the Chinese Empire could not be offended, and that the support and acquiescence of the Chinese Empire were necessary to seize and completely defeat the Sultan Wangfu, so the revolutionary party and government actively contacted the Chinese Empire, and promised that after the revolutionary party ruled Turkey in the future, it would still maintain its relationship with the Chinese Empire, and the interests of the Chinese Empire in Turkey would not be violated.

After receiving assurances from the Turkish Revolutionary Party, the Chinese Empire decided to give them some sweet dates to eat, and in addition to providing modern weapons and equipment to the Turkish Sultan's army, it also secretly provided the Turkish National Revolutionary Army with advanced weapons and equipment, including aircraft, tanks, artillery and machine guns, to arm the Turkish Revolutionary Army.

With these advanced weapons and equipment, it is undoubtedly a relief for the Turkish Revolutionary Party. Although the Sultan had heard some news about this and expressed concern about it, the situation in Turkey at this time was that the two political groups needed to work together with the outside world, and the fight against the Greek invading army was the first priority, so they turned a blind eye.

Subsequently, the troops of the Western Front led by Ismet encountered the Greek army in a valley near the village of Inonu in the west of Eskisehir, and a battle broke out between the two sides. Although the newly formed Turkish National Army had only 15,000 men, they showed high morale and combat effectiveness, and the first batch of advanced weapons and equipment was urgently delivered to them from Cyprus, which played a huge role, and they made full use of the terrain to deal a powerful blow to the Greek army.

Although the Greek army was outnumbered and well equipped, it was difficult to spread out in the narrow valley, unable to use its strengths, and suffered heavy casualties, so it had to retreat quietly to the Bursa side after nightfall.

Also known as the "First Battle of Inonenu", it was the first military defeat suffered by the Greeks in Turkey and a turning point in the Greco-Turkish War.

Turkey's victory on the battlefield also shook the Entente countries, and they began to realize that the armed forces of the Turkish national government were not to be taken lightly, so they decided to convene a London conference in February with the participation of Greece and Turkey, hoping to negotiate Turkey's acceptance of the "status quo".

However, the London talks eventually broke down due to the intervention of the Chinese Empire and the support of Turkey, and the Entente Group gained nothing but objectively recognized Ankara's revolutionary policy by inviting representatives of the Grand National Assembly to the meeting.

After the London Conference, Britain encouraged Greece to continue its march into Anatolia. At this time, the Greek king Alexander I suddenly fell ill and died, and the Greek king Constantine returned to power in the general election.

In terms of Turkish policy, he advocated the use of force more than Vinizelos, and the Entente also wanted to get Crete, intending to prevent Greece from giving Crete to the Chinese Empire.

On March 23, 1921, Britain and France ostensibly reached a compromise with the Chinese Empire, but they continued to make small moves in secret, and did not dare to openly export weapons and equipment to Greece, but secretly instructed the arms companies of the two countries to go to Greece. With the covert support of Britain and France, the Greek army was appeased by the Chinese Empire without interference, and a Greek army armed with 40,000 new rifles, 3,700 machine guns, 114 guns, 300 Mark 4 tanks, 180 Renault FT-17 tanks, and 1,200 cavalry launched an attack on the Turkish defense line from Bursa and Ushak from the south and north.

After a short period of replenishment of equipment on the part of the Chinese Empire, the Turkish army on the Western Front already had 24,000 M16 advanced rifles, 214 Ting machine guns and M2 heavy machine guns, 1,200 Ting M16 light machine guns, 207 MEN guns, and 25 M10 tanks (the M16 tanks promised to them by the Chinese Empire were not yet available).

Although the Turkish army is still at a relative disadvantage in personnel and armaments, the number of cavalry of the Turkish army is three times more than that of the Greek army, and in Turkish territory, the roads are not developed and are not suitable for mechanized combat, so the Greek army, although there are many tanks, does not have an advantage over cavalry.

The commander of the battle line, Ismail, focused his defense on the northern road at the beginning of the campaign, and the headquarters was located in the village of Inonou, the site of the last Jiao battle.

On 27ri, the Greek army, advancing to Inonu, launched a fierce attack on the Turkish positions. The Greek army fought valiantly because of the disgrace of the First Battle of Innonu, and soon after the battle began, forced the center and right flank of the Turkish army to retreat. However, the Turkish army seemed to be more tenacious, and in the following time, the Turkish army stabilized its position and organized a counterattack. In the face of the Turkish counterattack, the Greek offensive gradually lost its sharpness, and finally had to retreat.

In 30ri, the Greek army launched another attack after receiving reinforcements, but met with the same stubborn resistance of the Turkish army. In this battle, the right flank of the Turkish army not only held its position, but also routed the left flank of the Greek army and made it retreat.

At this time, reinforcements from Ankara arrived, so the Turkish cavalry, together with the reinforcements, took advantage of the situation to launch a fierce counterattack on the left flank of the Greeks.

After two failed attacks, the Greeks felt that they could not fight anymore and retreated in the direction of Bursa during the night of 31 Ri. The Turkish army seized the fighter plane and pursued it, inflicting heavy casualties on the Greek army.

At this time, the Greek army on the southern route once repelled the Turkish defenders on the Ushak front line and occupied the city of Afyon, but the Turkish army that won in Inonu quickly advanced south and launched an attack from the north of the Greek army.

At this point, the second Battle of Inonu ended with another defeat of the Greek army. General Ismet was given the surname "Inonu" for his exploits in the two Inunu campaigns, when the Turkish surname law was promulgated later.

The defeat of the two Inonu campaigns did not stop the Greek king Constantine, and he and Prime Minister Gunnaris reformulated a plan of aggression, and at the same time replenished the army in the country, increasing the range of conscripts by three years, and increasing the total strength of the Greek army to 200,000.

Britain and France were full of hope for this military operation that Greece was preparing for, and did not hesitate to send tanks, artillery and other weapons and equipment left over from the war to Asia Minor to assist Greece.

At the beginning of July, the Greek army had completed preparations for the offensive. According to the operational arrangement, the Greek army will deploy one corps in Bursa and two corps east of Usak, and with the cooperation of the northern road to contain the Xing offensive, through a large-scale assault of heavy troops on the southern road, break through the defense line of the Turkish army on the southern road, so as to seize the initiative in the campaign.

Turkey is now facing another unfavorable situation, the general mobilization decree has only been promulgated for a short time, and the concentration of manpower and material resources is waiting for time. Almost all of the country's railway network is in enemy-occupied areas, while the roads in the areas under the control of the national regime have not been repaired, and strategic goods can only be transported from afar along muddy roads by oxen, horses, and two-wheeled vehicles, sometimes even on their shoulders, and the movement of reinforcements from all over the country is often affected by this.

In this case, the Turkish army on the Western Front was far inferior to the Greek army both in terms of numbers and equipment. In the face of this situation, Turkey should have relied on the strongholds on the Jiaotong Line to hold on to the premise of preserving its strength, and delayed the offensive of the Greek army as much as possible, so that the main force of the Turkish army on the Western Front could be reinforced by reinforcements from all over the country before the decisive battle. Unfortunately, the Turkish army did not understand the Greek army's intentions until the start of the war, and mistakenly believed that the focus of the Greek attack was still on the northern route, so they concentrated their main forces in the areas of Eskisehir, Inonou, and Kütahya-Altantash, while only 2 divisions were deployed at Afyon on the southern route, and 1 division each was deployed at Gayvi and Menderes. As a result of this mistake, the Turkish army was put on the back soon after the start of the campaign.

On July 10, 1921, the Battle of Eskise Sehir-Kütahya began. After breaking through the Turkish defensive line, the two armies of the South Route of the Greek Army quickly advanced and soon occupied the important Jiaotong hub of Afyon. Then, the Greek army marched north along the railway from Afyon to Kütahya and Eskisehir, and went straight to Kütahia. In 13ri, after a short period of resistance, the Turkish defenders of Kütahya had to abandon their positions and retreat, and 4 days later, Kütahya fell. As a result, the Greek army turned to the north and south to flank Eskisehir, and by 20ri, it had seized this important military town. Only 10 days after the start of the battle, the Turkish army suffered a series of defeats, losing three important cities one after another, and the front line was hunluan.

On 21ri, the Turkish army hastily launched a counteroffensive, but was immediately repulsed.

At the time of crisis, Kemal resolutely ordered all the Turkish troops on the Western Front to retreat to the east bank of the Sakarya River to deploy defenses, and at the same time requested support from the Chinese Empire.

At Kemal's request, the Chinese Emperor**, on the pretext of protecting the Baghdad Railway, advanced 100 kilometers in the direction of Kütahya, took control of the Kuttahya Bridge, and blocked the advance of the Greek army. The Turkish army avoided the fate of being encircled and took the opportunity to regroup on the other side.