In order to ensure that the Turks could obediently obey the arrangement, the Berlin government also promised Istanbul that after the capture of Egypt, the Ottoman Empire would not only have complete sovereignty over Egypt, but also the vital Suez Canal would also be under the control of the Ottoman government. From the point of view of practical interests, the benefits of conquering Egypt are undoubtedly much better than fighting for those rugged mountain tracts in the North Caucasus!

Under German persuasion, Enver finally decided to send his army to attack in the direction of the Arabian Peninsula. The army first captured Kuwait and Oman, which were located on the southeastern edge of the peninsula, in order to ensure that German submarines could enter and exit the Persian Gulf; Then the main force turned westward, passing through the Sinai Peninsula to the Suez Canal. The Eastern Railway, which was built by German companies before the war, finally came in handy, and a large number of soldiers and supplies were continuously transported from Istanbul to Baghdad in the east; Under the lingering of this bond, the Ottoman army's ability to assemble and prepare has increased exponentially.

On 13 July, while the German and French armies were fighting fiercely in Paris, the Ottoman army in Central Asia began its own operations. The Ottoman 3rd Army, with a total strength of nearly 150,000 troops, formed the Ottoman 3rd Army, consisting of the 9th, 10th, and 11th armies stationed in Armenia in peacetime, a division deployed in Baghdad, and the 1st Army transferred from Istanbul plus two divisions.

In the face of the flood of Ottoman troops, the British governor in the Middle East, Clairton, felt like a thorn in the back: the British troops on the Arabian Peninsula were only 30,000 in total, including the local colonial divisions that had been urgently mobilized, and they were absolutely inferior in numbers. And because the British government before the war, it never thought that Ottoman, the sick man of Europe, would dare to brush the tiger whiskers of the British Empire. The British army did not build a functional fortified defense line in Kuwait and other places, and could only rely on some outdated forts to support it. After the outbreak of the Great War. Manpower from India was prioritized for the European theater; This hot, dry, barren land in the Middle East is simply a baby without a mother, and it can only be carried by this army and the Turks!

In addition to the quantity. The Ottoman army's suzhì can also be said to have made a qualitative leap. After more than 20 years of painstaking training by German Field Marshal Goltz, the violent machinery of this decadent country has been completely reborn: the officers and men at the grassroots level have been trained by German officer advisers for a long time, and their combat skills in modern warfare have been greatly improved, and the phenomena of malpractice, embezzlement and theft, which have existed in the upper echelons of the army, have also been changed considerably in the washing of the old and the clean of the old and the powerful Goltz. Coupled with the fact that they were armed with almost all German-made weapons, this was already a force that could fully compete with the Austro-Hungarian army. In the historical Battle of the Dardanelles, the Turkish army fought fiercely against the British and French forces on the beachhead for nearly a year, but did not lose the wind at all, and finally forced the other side to retreat, which is the best proof that its army is completely worthy of a war! At the moment, in the German Army Lieutenant General Otto? Feng? Under the command of Saunders. The Ottoman army, which was marching in three directions, went on the offensive and soon engaged in a fierce exchange with the British troops defending Kuwait.

These Muslim yarkehats, who pray to Allahu Akbar all day long, are born with the genes to fight for Allah in their blood; Now they are facing the British who forcibly seized their warship, and the enemies are even more angry when they meet them. Recalling the hardships of the nation's donation to buy a ship, and the humiliation of the British seizing the battleship that had been paid for in full and kicking the navy back to China, the Turks were filled with anger and hatred, and they rushed to the battlefield like a madman. Although the British officers and soldiers were more well-trained elite divisions, the disparity in numbers was too great, facing this almost endless influx of fierce infidels. The British seem to have returned to the medieval times when Mamluk cavalry roamed the Arabian Peninsula; After a short battle, they were slaughtered by the Seljuks and fled for their lives to the rear.

The gate of the government building in Kuwait City, July 19. He was kicked away by an Ottoman lieutenant colonel named Kemal. The British governor, Claire, fled by sea by speedboat, and large numbers of British troops fled further southeast to the UAE and Oman, or became captives of the Turks in Kuwait City. The Ottoman army cut off the rice flags in the central square and threw them into the fire. and celebrate victory under the re-rising star and moon on a red background; Although they suffered a large number of casualties in the assault than the British, this was nothing in the face of the British victory. In makeshift prisoner of war camps like livestock pens. Hundreds of captured British officers and soldiers had humiliation and grief written on their faces; As soldiers of the world's most powerful empire, they not only did not reap the glory and victory. Instead, he became a captive of the "sick man and bad horse" Turks, who had been despised and despised by them, and was ridiculed and humiliated. Even God has chosen to abandon Britain, and who else can save the empire from war?

Over the next month, the Ottoman 3rd Army and subsequent reinforcements marched south along the Persian Gulf to conquer the UAE. Despite the extreme heat, desert, lack of water, and transportation difficulties, they still relied on their absolute superiority in strength to drive the British out of the area. At the same time, the German submarine forces based in the inland river port of Basra launched a massive hunt in the Arabian Sea, sinking 13 British merchant ships and even a troop carrier carrying 1,200 Indian soldiers! After the death of this battalion, British troop carriers no longer dared to sail directly into the area, which further exacerbated the difficulties faced by Britain in the lack of troops on the Arab halfway. Although the Ottoman army was hampered in its assault on Oman, its initial objectives had been achieved: the Strait of Hormuz was under Allied control, and German submarine forces were able to freely enter and exit the Persian Gulf and hunt down British transports sailing in the Indian Ocean. After this was done, the main force of the Ottoman army immediately turned around and prepared to march into the Sinai Peninsula and drink the Suez Canal.

After two months of mobilization, the Ottoman army in late August was much stronger than before: more than 25 divisions were transported by rail to Beirut, an important town on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, to form a terrifying heavy group with the original 3rd Army. The war potential of the Ottoman Empire, with a population of nearly 20 million, was being realized, and the country, which was less important than a warship in the eyes of Churchill and the British hierarchy, was gradually showing the world the bitter anger of being deceived and insulted. On 27 August, the Ottoman army began to storm the Sinai Peninsula after being covered by 900 cannons, largely pacifying the Turkish morale in the Arabian Peninsula, who prayed and swore to Allah that the British would pay the worst price for their arrogance.

At this time, the British had also cobbled together an army of about 150,000 people in Egypt, but the number of British troops was only about 40,000, and the rest were almost all cheap cannon fodder from the two colonies of Egypt and Sudan. This is not because the British are reluctant to send their main forces to protect the largest military base overseas, but because the current British is no longer able to do so: with the loss of sea control in the Eastern Mediterranean, Britain can no longer send its troops directly to North Africa by sea; Bypassing the whole of Africa and taking the Red Sea Route, it will pass through the Gulf of Aden, an extremely dangerous sea area where German submarine activity is rampant. In desperation, the British army had to disembark and unload at the Algerian port in West Africa, and then travel east through Libya, the previously opened Ottoman overseas territory, and trek nearly 2,000 kilometers to Egypt. When the Turks were almost done fighting the Arabian Peninsula, the first British reinforcements were exhausted and scattered and struggled into Egypt; At this moment, their fatigue was even worse than that of Crook's 1st Army on the eve of the Battle of the Marne, and it was almost impossible to fight a luxury!

Therefore, although the British army was ready to meet the Ottoman army in the Sinai Peninsula, after more than half a month of bloody battles, their defense line in this area was still broken by the Turks who were filled with the fire of revenge. German Field Marshal Colmar, who was 70 years old at the time? Feng? Gertz, glad to be invited by the Istanbul government to return to the Ottoman Empire, carefully commanded the sword, which he had sharpened himself, to deliver a severe blow to Germany's enemies. 5,000 British troops and 25,000 servants were surrounded near Hasna and eventually all of them were annihilated. With more than half of the Anglo-Egyptian forces lost, they were forced to completely withdraw across the Suez Canal and retreat to the vicinity of Cairo for defense. The British Mediterranean Fleet stationed in Alexandria slipped away early and escaped to the French port of Toulon. On the evening of September 12, the first Ottoman army crossed the canal, and Istanbul immediately delivered a warm message to the world, saying that "this is the most glorious page in the history of our empire."

The defeat from the Middle East shook Britain and France. The Ottoman army was not at all the rookie they imagined, but under the command of German generals, they were fully equipped to compete with them; And thanks to the geographical advantage of the home field, they were able to put a large number of troops into the North African theater of operations, which undoubtedly posed an unprecedented threat to the African colonies of Britain and France! In order to salvage the situation, Britain and France were forced to adjust their original deployments, and put a large number of troops originally intended for land frontal theater into the African theater to protect the safety of these colonial "blood banks". However, this move is destined to be a thirst-quenching drink. (To be continued......)

PS: The author is now at the construction site in Xinjiang, and it is extremely inconvenient to use the Internet codeword, and I hope you will understand