Chapter 688: Incompetence of Friendly Forces
At this point, the only person who could solve the Ottoman army's lack of supplies was Sheffield. Germany had always had few choices for allies, and on the other hand, the Germans themselves did not trust their allies. The Central Powers were called allies of Germany, but in the process of getting along, they were only slightly stronger than the vassal army.
Naturally, priority would be given to German soldiers in terms of supplies. The Ottoman Empire could not count on the Germans for material assistance. Enver Pasha was born in 1881, which made him younger than Sheffield.
From the son-in-law of the Caliphate to the hero who led Tripoli against the Italian invaders, from the imperial hero in the Balkan war to the leader of the Young Turks, from one of the three imperial giants who led the Ottomans to participate in the First World War to an exile who sought refuge in Germany after the war, from a politician who competed with Kemal for leadership to a revolutionary who cooperated with the Bolsheviks, from an ambitious leader of the Central Asian Turkic movement to a stranger killed by the Red Army on the Pamir Plateau.
Enver Pasha's life spanned Europe and Asia, and his political views wavered from side to side, but he was always a loyal child of the Ottoman Empire, and he fought all his life for the survival and even revival of this crumbling Ottoman empire.
After the Young Turks coup, he could have taken power, but he gave it up. When Italy invaded Libya, Enver could have stayed in the safety of Costantiniya to negotiate a truce with Italy, but he volunteered to go to the front and led the Ottoman army, which was outnumbered and outequipped, until he was betrayed by the capital.
As for Enver Pasha, when the Ottoman defeat was inevitable, he led the massacre of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian ethnic groups. This was certainly a serious crime, but everyone has the right to criticize him except the Ottomans.
Sheffield was appointed commander-in-chief of the Persian Gulf front line, and was actually on an equal footing with Cemal Pasha, one of the three pashas. Cemal Pasha was appointed commander of the Fourth Army of the Ottoman Empire, in charge of the military and political power of provinces such as Cilicia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Hejaz.
This is equivalent to the southern front of the Ottoman Empire, with two different war zones responsible for military and political power. And Sheffield is a foreigner, so this treatment is not too bad, and it has surpassed the British who became the Ottoman Empire's naval marshal.
When taking Hafiz Samuddin to the factory, Sheffield demonstrated the modern production line to the Ottoman military attaché, which left a deep impression on Hafiz Samuddin.
Hafez Samuddin gave the Ottoman army on the Caucasus front the current material gap of 17,000 military coats, 17,000 pairs of boots, 23,000 blankets, 13,000 backpacks, plus marching tents, artillery and rifles.
"For the shortage of artillery and rifles, we can just send people to Kuwait to get them. But I need some time to produce these new military supplies, and it won't take long, a month will be enough." Sheffield said as he walked, "The Christian militias near the Persian Gulf are definitely suspected by the capital, but the three Pashas can rest assured that I will never let these Christians rebel. I am not speaking for the Christians in the Middle East, they are also poor people, and sometimes they will be used by the powerful forces in Western Europe. I will make them put an end to their unrealistic ideas. Religion is not the criterion for determining whether to rebel or not! Maybe the Arabs will be instigated by the British earlier, I hope Jemal Pasha will be careful."
Sheffield still remembers the Arab Revolt. It seems that there was an Englishman named Lawrence who played a very important role in this incident. If nothing unexpected happened, when the British instigated the Arab Revolt, this person would become the enemy of him, the Pasha of Kuwait.
"Enver Pasha believes in William Pasha, and I have no reason not to believe in him," Hafez Samuddin said firmly.
"It doesn't matter if you don't believe me. I'm a citizen of the United States. We'll just have to wait and see." Sheffield smiled and said, "I can only guarantee that the British army will not invade the heartland of the empire from the Persian Gulf. As for the battle on the Caucasus front, to be honest, it's too difficult for the Greeks and Armenians to fight against the Russian Empire. Anyway, you can call Enver Pasha back. I will ensure the stability of the Persian Gulf and provide logistical support to the imperial army."
Sheffield had the confidence to make this guarantee. If the British were not satisfied, he could rely on the traditional naval foundation of a century and use cruisers or destroyers in overseas territories to sink his battleships in the Persian Gulf.
Hafiz Samuddin left, and Sheffield, who returned to the villa, faced Louisa Morgan's soul-searching. The slave owner had kept Natalia in the dark about his relationship with the Ottoman Empire. Louisa Morgan knew about it, and although she did not openly object, she also hinted, "You just criticized the Republicans for dragging the country into war."
"I am different from the Republicans. I joined the war in my personal capacity. I am the Pasha of the Ottoman Empire!" Sheffield straightened his back and expressed the difference between himself and Roosevelt righteously.
"What's the difference?" Louisa Morgan was not fooled by the rhetoric and said in disbelief, "We still joined the war. As for the current situation, the British will have an impact on the United States because of this incident, but it will definitely exist."
"The difference is that the Republicans want us to join the Allies and fight the Germans. And I am helping the Ottoman Empire and monitoring the Arabs' movements." The slave owner emphasized the difference. The difference is huge. I believe no one would compare the Arab national armed forces with the regular armies of the two major camps.
After calling Jesra over, Sheffield got busy and temporarily left New York. While riding on the airship, he said to the head bodyguard, "Send another 3,000 people from the Black Gold Company to Kuwait, and delegate the commander to the company. Tell the Christian militia that what we have to do now is to protect ourselves. Before the war has a clear outcome, we must remain loyal to the Ottoman Empire. Develop a plan for fighting in the Persian Gulf. In principle, my goal is to push the territory south to the border of Oman."
Although Sheffield became the Pasha of Kuwait recognized by the Ottoman Empire before Britain officially annexed Kuwait, it does not mean that Britain lost its foothold in the Persian Gulf region. Before it gained a foothold in Kuwait, Britain had been operating in the Persian Gulf for many years, with Oman as its center.
When the slave owners mention Oman, they think of the Omani colonial empire! In its heyday, the empire included all of Oman, eastern Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, southwestern Iran, Baluchistan and Gawadur, eastern Somalia, the coast of Kenya, the coast of Tanzania, northern Madagascar, and the Comoros Islands. It was the most powerful country on the Indian Ocean coast at the time. Zanzibar, Tanzania, East Africa, was the second capital of the Omani Empire.
Britain's influence in the Persian Gulf was mainly in Oman. Sheffield's goal was to wait for an opportunity under the cover of the world war to allow the Kuwaiti Christian Legion to occupy the future UAE and all the oil-producing areas on the west coast of the future Persian Gulf along the way.
Jasra lived up to expectations and found a group of retired officers from the Federal War Department and made a plan to seize the UAE from the Kuwaiti territory to the south.
"Boss, the staff said that they never thought someone would dare to make a plan against the British." Jesla handed over a thick stack of plans and said jokingly, "What they want to capture is still a barren desert."
"The barren desert is also the home of Christians in the Middle East. It is better for them to follow me, the Pasha of the Ottoman Empire, than to be used by the British and then abandoned." Sheffield took over the plan for the Persian Gulf operation and said as he flipped through it.
The plan does not have a grand goal, but it is to take over Saudi Arabia's oil-producing areas, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Together with Kuwait, which is already in hand, it accounts for about 65 to 70 percent of the Persian Gulf's oil reserves, with the rest in northern Iraq and Iran.
The slave owner felt that the Arabs were more suited to hard work, and that something like oil was more suitable for him, a degenerate slave owner, to control.
After the mid-term elections in the United States, the two battlefields on the Western Front also decided the outcome. The Battle of the Marne was drawing to a close. Paris was already in sight of the German army, but it was out of reach. The British and French forces held off the German attack!
The German Chief of General Staff Moltke the Younger mobilized heavy howitzers and airships for support, and at the same time hoped that the Italian army on the Franco-Italian border would be able to make progress. In this way, the German and Italian armies could encircle the whole of France from the north and south, end the war on the Western Front, turn around and eliminate the Russian Empire in the East, and win the war.
However, the news from the Franco-Italian border was not good news. The 400,000 Italian troops had been besieging the Franco-Italian border for a whole month without making much progress. After the French counterattack in late October, the French army instead invaded into Italian territory.
When the news came, Moltke the Younger, who had been receiving frequent orders from the frontline generals to rest, ordered the attacking German army to retreat with a sad voice. The Battle of the Marne came to an end, with 250,000 German casualties and 400,000 British and French deaths. The two armies broke contact!
"Although I have never had hope for the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army, is it okay for them to be counterattacked and occupy their homeland?" Sheffield muttered when he heard the news. "The Germans will have something to say in the next hundred years."
The slave owners knew too well what kind of character the German Junker officers represented by Man Buqun were. They could not tolerate weather that was too hot, too cold, or neither too hot nor too cold. In the Franco-Italian border battle that took place at the same time as the Battle of the Marne, the Italian Army performed like this. Germany was defeated in the end, and they would definitely say that the friendly forces were incompetent and hindered their determination to win a quick victory.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
