The Entente Offensive, Autumn, 1916
line; as soon as sufficient progress had been made with these works an enemy invasion of Palestine was to be anticipated.
The Turkish success at Kut-el-Amara had had no sequel. The English were preparing a new operation against Bagdad, and this time it looked as if it was to be carried right through. The resumption of active hostilities here was to be expected sooner or later.
Both operations were bound to succeed if the English really took their task in hand, as now appeared to be the case. But the stouter the Turkish resistance, the larger the force they would have to employ. For that reason the fighting value of the Turkish Army was a matter of the greatest importance to us. The stiffer the Turkish defence in Palestine and Mesopotamia and the larger the force absorbed in the English effort to achieve their object, the more our burden in the West would be lightened. Of course in their Indian contingents the English had troops at their disposal which they did not care to use in France, so that their employment in Asiatic Turkey did not benefit our situation in the West. All the same, it increased the military demands on the British.
The Turkish enterprises in Persia in the direction of Hamadan were merely episodes, and of no importance for the Conduct of the war.
In eastern Asia Minor, west and south of the Trebizond-Erzinjan-Mush line, Russians and Turks stood facing each other, inactive. The strengths of both armies appeared to be extraordinarily low. I have never been able to find out exactly what the Turkish strength there was. We no longer anticipated any more great Russian offensives, because this theatre presented too many difficulties for Russia, as well.
The Turkish Army was exhausted. To begin with, it had not recovered from the Balkan War before it was involved in another Its wastage from disease and in action was continuously high. The trustworthy, brave Anatolian had vanished from its ranks. The unreliable Arab auxiliaries were playing an increasingly important part everywhere, but especially in Mesopotamia and Palestine. The forces were now below their paper strength and the men were badly fed and still worse equipped. The lack of
255