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

58 WARBYREVOLUTION

stronglytotheforeignministryandtoGermanofficialsinConstan-
tinople."TheministryandtheGeneralStaffincreasedtheirpressure
onWangenheimandLiman,respectively,ropersuadetheYoung
Turkstoenterthewar. AtBethmannHollweg'sorder,]agowinformed
ZimmermannthatGermanywouldsendmoneytoequiptheTurk-
ishattackonEgyptonlyafterTurkeyhadjoinedthewar against
Russia."
Simultaneously,JagowdiscussedwithZimmermanntheproblem
raisedpreviouslybyWangenheimaboutItaly.BothZimmermann
andJagowseemedunconcernedaboutItalyjoiningtheEntente.Ac-
cordingtoJagow,whospentmuchofhistimeatGeneralStaffhead-
quarters,aTurkishassaultonEgyptandtheincitementofMuslim
unresttherewouldreally beanasset,ratherthanaliability,in keep-
ingItalyfromjoiningtheenemyl-t
AlthoughtheintensifiedGermanpressureonthePortefailedto
persuadeittoenterthewar,EnverPashainchedclosertoconflict
withRussiaandgrewmoreconfidentofTurkey'sdefensesalongthe
Dardanelles.On 20 Septemberheassignedthetaskoforganizing
andcarryingouttheOttomanmilitaryattackonEgypttoaunitin
DamascusoftheFourthArmy,theVIIICorps.Dispatchedas advis-
erstothecorpswere fiveGermanofficers,includingtheunit'schief
ofstaff,theBavarianmajorFriedrichFreiherrKressvonKressenstein,
andtheintelligenceagentandinterpreterPrufer,
Kress,whoimmediatelyvisitedtheTurkish-Egyptianborderatthe
easternendoftheSinaiPeninsula,discoveredseriousobstaclesto
theattackonEgypt.TheVIIICorpsbadlyneededequipmentand
supplies,butthetransportavailablewaspoor,andproblemsloomed
inprovisioningthecorpswithwaterintheSinaidesert.Further,Kress
andPruferlearnedofconflictsinSyriaandtheSinairegionbetween
ArabsandTurks,anissueaboutwhichKressclaimedafterthewar he
hadknownnothing.
KressandhisstaffinDamascusalsodiscoveredthattheTurkish
troopsoftenbitterlyresenteddirectivesissuedbytheGermanoffic-
ers, inpartbecausetheorderswereoftenabruptandcategorical.The
factthatfewoftheGermansknewTurkishor Arabic,andthatthey
viewedtheOrientalswithracialandculturalcontemptaddedtothe