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

BRITAINASWARTIME"REVOLUTIONARY" 18S

sion,bydispatchingalettertoHusayn'sforeignminister,Fuadal-

Khatib."NeithertheGermansnortheTurks,however,receiveda

reply-exceptfor acontinuationoftherevolt.

"The BiggestThingintheNearEast since 1550 "

FortheBritish,theArabrevolthadanimmediateeffect. Tobegin

with,itdestroyedtheStotzingenmission,leavinginshamblesthe

majorGermaneffort,begunattheendOf1915andcarefullyorches-

tratedtogainTurkishapproval,toseizefromavulnerableBritain

themilitaryandpoliticalinitiativeintheMiddleEastandEastAf-

rica.Althoughtherevoltfailedtogenerateamassanti-Turkishmove-

mentamongtheArabs, itneverthelessbroughttheAllieswelcome

relief.AccordingtotheofficialBritishhistoryoftheMiddleEastwar:

It ishardtooverestimatetheimportanceofthe[Stotzingen]expedi-

tion,whichmighthavetakenAdenbysurprise.Withthesereinforce-

mentsthe[pro-BritishArabchiefin Yemen]Idrissimighthavebeen

crushedandthe[pro-Turkish]Imam[Yahya]lefttriumphantinthe

south.Ofnotlessimportancewouldhavebeenitsinfluenceacrossthe

Red Sea,hadStotzingenobtainedtouchwithGermanagents."

Further,therevolt,takeninconjunctionwiththeadvancebegun
inthespringof 1916 bythenewlyformedBritishEEFacrosstheSinai
Peninsula,providedtheYoungTurkswithamajorembarrassment.
TheTurkishforces opposingMurray'sEEFsuddenlyfoundthem-
selveshamperedby Arabdissidentsthreateningtheircommunica-
tionsandtransportationlinesfromtherear.
TherevoltandnewBritishstrategyinEgyptparticularlyhelpedto
offsetthehumiliatingdefeatoftheAnglo-IndianarmyinMesopo-
tamia.On29 April,Anglo-IndiantroopshadsurrenderedatKutal-
Amara,aftertheTurkishSixthArmy,commandedbyvonderGoltz,
rejectedanextraordinaryofferoftwomillionpoundsandfortyguns
fortheTurkstoallowthedefeatedforcetoretreatonparole.Nearly
70 percentoftheAnglo-IndianprisonerstakenatKutlaterdiedin
Ottomancaptivity.ThefightingandintenseheatleftboththeTurks