THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST This page intentionally left blank KRISTIAN COATES ULRICHSEN The First World War in the Middle East HURST & COMPANY, LONDON First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 41 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3PL © Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, 2014 All rights reserved. Printed in the United Kingdom Distributed in the United States, Canada and Latin America by Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. The right of Kristian Coates Ulrichsen to be identified as the author of this publication is asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-84904-274-1 www.hurstpublishers.com This book is printed on paper from registered sustainable and managed sources. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations ix Maps x Introduction 1 PART I – PRELUDE 1. The Political Economy of the Empires in 1914 11 2. Military Campaigning in the Middle East 31 PART II – MILITARY OPERATIONS 3. The Caucasus Campaigns 53 4. Gallipoli and Salonika 75 5. Egypt and Palestine 97 6. Mesopotamia 119 PART III – POLITICS AND DIPLOMACY 7. The Struggle for Political Control in the Middle East 149 8. The Post-War Settlements, 1919-1923 173 Conclusion 203 Notes 207 Bibliography 237 Index 249 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book could not have been written without the professional support, friendship and encouragement of Michael Dwyer and his colleagues at Hurst & Co. The value of a good publisher is inestimable and worthy of deep appreciation. A section of the research was presented at the annual meeting of the British Commission for Military History in Keble College, Oxford, in July 2012, and other parts drew upon the author’s doctoral research at the University of Cambridge between 2002 and 2005. Academic colleagues at the London School of Economics and Chatham House provided further support and friendship, as did a small group of close friends who made the sometimes solitary task of writing a book a pleasurable experience. Finally, the book is dedicated to my parents and to my wife, in grateful recognition of their love and support. vii This page intentionally left blank ABBREVIATIONS Anzac Australian and New Zealand Army Corps APOC Anglo-Persian Oil Company CUL Cambridge University Library CUP Committee of Union and Progress EEF Egyptian Expeditionary Force GHQ General Headquarters HMS His Majesty’s Ship IEF Indian Expeditionary Force IOL India Office Library IWM Imperial War Museum LHCMA Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives MEF Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force NAA Northern Arab Army NILI Netzakh Yisrael Lo Yishaker (The Eternity of Israel will not lie) OETA Occupied Enemy Territory Administration RAF Royal Air Force TNA The National Archives ix