War by Revolution. Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

ASENSEOFCRISISON BOTHSIDES 167

presenceandinfluenceinTurkeybutalso to seizethemilitaryinitia-
tiveagainsttheBritishintheMiddleEastandEastAfrica.Thisin-
volvedasecondattackontheSuezCanal.Althoughtheystillknew
littleaboutthesituationinsideEgypt,theGeneralStaffandforeign
ministrycontinuedtohopethattheappearanceofTurkishtroopsat
thecanalwouldigniteapan-IslamicrevoltofEgyptiansagainstthe
British.Berlinalso intendedtocapitalizeonthesteadilygrowing
SanussiunrestonthewesternborderofEgypt.^59
Since]uly1915,Falkenhayn,thechiefoftheGermanGeneralStaff,
hadurgedthePortetoundertakea newEgyptiancampaign.Conse-
quently,KressvonKressenstein,thechiefofstaffoftheTurkish
FourthArmy'sVIIICorps,nowstationedalongtheSinaiborderbe-
tweenTurkeyandEgypt,devisedanoperationalconceptfortheof-
fensive.Theplan,acceptedbybothEnverandFalkenhaynon 24
November,calledforGermanytosupplytheVIIICorpswitha spe-
cial, heavilyarmedforce,codenamed"PashaI,"of 150 officersand
1,500men."
Kress,however,muchlike hissuperiorsinBerlin,mistrustedthe
commanderoftheFourthArmy,JemalPasha.InNovembertheGen-
eralStaffandforeignministrydirectedOppenheimtoremainin Syria
to observe]emal'sworkontheplannedEgyptianoffensive;"only
muchlater,in May1916,didthefirstPashaIunitsarrivefromGer-
manyinTurkey.TwomonthsthereafterKressattemptedtheassault.
Germany'srenewedinterestinattackingEgyptresultedfurther-
morefromthestruggleinGermanEastAfricaofGeneralPaulvon
Lettow-Vorbeck'sforce of 300 GermansandII,OOOnativesoldiers
againstoverwhelmingnumbersofBritish,Indian,Boer,andnative
troops.BoththeGermancolonialministryandGeneralStaffintended
theattackonEgyptto relievetheintensepressureonLettow-
Verbeck."
Mostofall,theministryanditssecretary,WilhelmSolf,envisioned
usingEgyptas aspringboardfromwhichtolaunchaneventualGer-
maninvasionofmuchgreaterareasofeasternandcentralAfrica.
SolfpushedtowinbacktheGermancoloniesalreadylosttoBritain
andtoestablishaGermancentralAfricancolonialempirebyacquir-
ingFrench,Belgian,Portuguese,andpossiblyBritishcolonies.The
colonialsecretary,withtheforeignministry'sapproval,hadsenta