All language subtitles for BBC.The.First.World.War.04of10.Jihad.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.Forum_[eng]

The call goes out for jihad -
holy war.

Germany hoped her new ally, Turkey,
would just do what it was told

and the Allies thought
Turkey would be a pushover.

But the war in the Middle East
went its own wild way.

The Kaiser had been cultivating the
Ottoman Empire long before the war
began.

He wore a fez on state visits.
He was nicknamed Hajji Wilhelm,

following rumours he'd become a
Muslim and made the pilgrimage to
Mecca.

The 300 million Muslims
scattered across the globe

can be assured the German emperor
is, and will at all times remain,
their friend.

Part of Germany's interest in Ottoman
Turkey

was that they shared a common enemy -
Russia.

Turkey's position,
controlling the Dardanelle Straits,

gave her the power
to lock Russia up in the Black Sea.

And Turkey shared a volatile border
with Russia in the Caucasus.

Russia is the hereditary enemy
of the Ottoman Empire

and her greatest desire
is possession of Constantinople.

The Ottoman Empire once stretched
from the Arabian peninsula

to the
gates of Vienna,

but it had lost a third of its
territory in a run of disastrous
wars.

The Ottoman Empire
was "the sick man of Europe" -
broke and on the verge of collapse.

The great powers have
grasped us by the throat.

The Government can't pay
monthly salaries,

all the public services are under
the control of privileged foreign
capital.

It would be very easy for a patriot
to go out of his mind.

But one group of nationalist
reformers planned to stop the rot -

the Young Turks.

In 1909, they replaced the Sultan
with his brother as a puppet

and started
a programme of modernisation.

They looked for an ally, to ward off
predators and bankroll the future.

The ambitious Minister of War
favoured Germany.

Just 32 years old, Enver Pasha
had risen through the ranks,

married the Sultan's niece and lived
in splendour in Constantinople,
also known as Istanbul.

Enver Pasha had been
military attache in Berlin.

The Germans had the power
his country needed.

I watched a parade
of 33,000 German soldiers.

It was so excellent,
it makes one's mouth water.

The reason I love Germany
is not sentimentality,

but the fact she is not a danger
to my beloved country.

On the contrary, our two countries'
interests go hand in hand.

Chief of the German general staff
Helmuth von Moltke

ruled out Turkey as an ally.

Turkey is militarily a nonentity.

If Turkey was described before
as a sick man,

it must now be described
as a dying man.

Flamboyant Baron Max von Oppenheim
made the Kaiser think again.

Archaeologist and consular official,

Oppenheim passed himself off
as an Islamic expert.

He was also a German agent.

He advocated a holy war
to bring down the British Empire.

When the Turks invade Egypt, and
India blazes with flames of revolt,

only then will England crumble...

..for England is at
her most vulnerable in her colonies.

By the outbreak of war the Kaiser saw
jihad as a way to foment revolution

among the millions of Muslims
under British rule.

Our consuls and agents
in Turkey and India

must inflame the whole
Mohammedan world to wild uprising.

For if we are to be bled to death,
at least England shall lose India.

The Ottoman Empire
had found its ally - Germany.

Enver bypassed the Turkish cabinet,

secretly signing an alliance
on 2nd August 1914,

while maintaining
a public stance of neutrality.

Constantinople became
the jump-off point for subversion,
to set the East ablaze.

The German embassy became
a hive of Oppenheim's raffish spies.

One group arrived from Berlin
disguised as a travelling circus.

The word was the Emir of Afghanistan

had 50,000 Muslims
ready to invade India.

The circus slipped out of
Constantinople,

bound for Afghanistan,

if only they could find it.

One of the Turks on the mission
was Huseyin Rauf.

What do we know about Afghanistan
beyond its name?

I can't visualise
its place on a map.

I don't know how to get there.
Do I go via America?

The irony was
Enver Pasha and the Young Turks
weren't fanatical believers at all.

They went along with Germany's
jihad idea out of opportunism.

What Enver really wanted to draw
together the Turkic peoples of

the East into a new empire.

MUSIC: ROUSING PATRIOTIC SONG

Enver had an army of 800,000,

mainly from Anatolia, but also Arabs,
Macedonians, Kurds.

It was thought to be a spent force,

but Enver had reformed it,
Germany trained it.

Considerable progress is being made
in the Ottoman army's efficiency.

Turkish forces must now be regarded
as a factor

to be taken seriously
into account.

But Turkey still had not publicly
declared herself as Germany's ally

and her cabinet was split
over whether to fight,

but Turkey was desperate for money.

So the Germans decided to sweeten
the deal and force the Turks' hand.

Two of Germany's cruisers,
the Goeben and the Breslau,

were being chased across
the Mediterranean by the Royal Navy.

Rather conveniently,

they took refuge in Constantinople
on 11th August 1914.

The presence of two German cruisers,

riding proudly at anchor by the
Golden Horn,

undermined the Turks' pretence
at neutrality.

So they shrugged and told the world
they'd bought the ships.

Their German crews
were given fezzes to wear.

Their fancy-dress antics
were the talk of Constantinople.

The Goeben sailed up the Bosphorus,
in front of the Russian embassy.

Officers and men solemnly removed
their Turkish fezzes

and put on German caps.

The band played
Deutschland Uber Alles.

MUSIC: "Deutschland Uber Alles"

After an hour or two serenading
the Russian ambassador,

they put on their fezzes
then picked up anchor,

leaving in the ears of the Russian
diplomat the dying strains

of German war songs.

The Turkish fleet,

led by the Goeben and the Breslau,
steamed out of the Bosphorus.

On 29th October 1914,
they attacked several Russian ports.

Enver Pasha had the gateway
to the Black Sea mined.

The Germans paid over £5 million in
gold, securing Turkey as their ally.

Turkey had joined the First World War

pretty much on her own terms
and with her own agenda.

The Persian Muslims
are threatening trouble.

There is a dry wind
blowing through the East

and the parched grasses wait the
spark

and the wind is blowing
towards the Indian border.

Fiction by novelist John Buchan,

but based on real fears
of an Islamic holy war.

By late 1914, Enver was looking east.

He had big ideas, both for jihad
and for uniting the Turkic peoples.

Beyond the frontiers
there are brethren to be liberated,

bits of fatherland to be redeemed.

Nearly 40 years before, Russia had
stolen a chunk of eastern Turkey

along its Caucasian border.

Enver was desperate to kick
the Russians off Turkish soil,

but it was an area
riven with ethnic friction -

Russians, Turks, Georgians, Kurds,

and on both sides of the frontier,
Armenian Christians.

Loyalties in the Caucasus were hard
to read, hard to be sure of.

Here, at Erzurum Castle, in November
1914, encouraged by the Germans,

Enver Pasha took a key decision.

Though winter was closing in,
he threw his army at the Russians.

Now he played the Islam card.

300 million Muslims
are sighing under their chains

and our former fellow countrymen are
praying for our victory and success.

Happy is he who falls
for religion and fatherland.

Forward, always forward for victory
and fame and martyrdom

and paradise!

In December 1914,
the Turkish 9th Corps

marched through the high passes
of the Ohuekberd mountains.

The aim was to sweep down
on the town of Sarikamis

and encircle the Russians.

The Russians at first panicked
and retreated.

Enver's bold gamble nearly paid off.

But then the temperature plummeted

and the Turks struggled
into worsening conditions.

Enver tried to reassure them.

I see you don't have shoes or coats,
but the enemy is afraid of you.

The Germans complained
about our slowness,

but the snow was so deep.

Soldiers got lost at night,
some tried to light fires,

but many fell asleep,
never to wake again.

We realised in the morning that half
the division had frozen to death.

The weather and terrain
killed 25,000 Turks before they
even made contact with the Russians.

The soldiers were terrified
of seeing the frozen corpses

and began deserting their posts.

We tried to fire at Russian troops,

but the mechanisms of the guns
had iced up.

We tremble to think what we lived
through during those long and deadly
days.

The scenes made one shudder.

The depressing
sound of the trembling ox carts.

The corpses, mouths open,

eyes staring.

Thrown into the greedy stomach of the
soil.

THEY PRAY IN TURKISH

On the Ohuekberd mountains,
local men still say prayers
for the dead of Sarikamis.

HE PRAYS IN TURKISH

In 1919,
Imdat Demir helped bury the bones.

THEY ALL CHANT

Enver's grand offensive had
ended in catastrophe.

He addressed his soldiers
before leaving the front.

My friends,
for almost a month I have seen

with my own eyes how you have
attacked the enemy.

In spite of the
harshness of the weather

and all kinds of shortages you
broke their resistance.

The sultan and the whole nation
congratulates you.

I am returning to Istanbul.

I pray that you will get more
victories

and not let the enemy
rear his head any more.

I entrust you to the safekeeping of
Allah.

Now the search for scapegoats began.

THEY CHEER

Enver blamed defeat not on
himself, but on Turkish Armenians

serving with the Russians in the
Caucasus.

Tension between Turks and their
Armenian population was nothing new,

but now Turkey feared the Armenians
were bidding for independence.

From all countries, Armenians are
entering the glorious Russian army.

Let peoples remaining under
the Turkish yoke receive freedom,

let the Armenians of Turkey,
who suffer for the faith of Christ,

receive resurrection
for a new free life

under the protection of Russia.

The Russians advanced and the Turks
fell back through Armenian areas.

Local Armenian resistance
was more imagined than real.

The Turks responded with
disproportionate, pre-emptive action.

Turkish Minister of the Interior,
Mehmet Talaat,

issued the following decree
on 26th May 1915.

Because some Armenians
living near the war zones

have attacked military forces
and the innocent population,

certain measures are being adopted,

among which is the deportation
of the Armenians.

The German ambassador in Turkey,
Baron von Wangenheim,

warned Berlin
of the imminent disaster.

A mass deportation to a destination
many hundreds of kilometres away,

without sufficient means
of transport,

via areas that offer
neither accommodation nor food

and are plagued with
epidemic illness such as typhus,

will cost many lives,
especially women and children.

The town of Harpout - key transit
point of the forced Armenian exodus.

Thousands passed through here
to exile in Syria,

then part of the Ottoman Empire.

American missionary Tracy Atkinson
saw terrible sights in Harpout.

Thousands herded together,
mostly women and children,

sick lying everywhere.

They had been on the road six weeks,
not knowing where they are to go.

They have been attacked,
robbed and killed.

Armin T Wegner, a German
medical officer stationed in Turkey,

photographed the plight
of the Armenians.

The American consul on the spot
reported to his ambassador.

Sir, I have to report one of the
greatest tragedies in all history.

A revolutionary movement by some
of the Armenians was discovered

and severe measures taken
to check it,

little distinction being made
between the innocent

and those suspected of being
participants in the movement.

The Armenians were marched
across these mountains.

Even those who survived were not safe
when they reached Syria,

as a German diplomat in Aleppo
reported.

Out of 2,000 to 3,000 peasant women
from the Armenian plateau,
brought here in good health,

only 40 or 50 skeletons are left.

The prettier ones are the victims
of their jailers' lust,

the plain ones succumb to blows,
hunger and thirst.

Every day, more than 100 corpses
are carried out of Aleppo.

Perhaps 800,000 Armenians died
in all.

Whether this was centrally-directed
genocide is still a matter of furious
debate.

The Turks deny the charge, saying the
Armenians died of exposure, famine

and the actions of bad officials.

In June 1916, Mehmet Talaat,
the Minister of the Interior
who'd issued the deportation order,

spoke to a newspaper
about Turkey's role in the disaster.

The removal of the Armenians
was a military necessity.

Unfortunately,
due to bad officials,

grave excesses occurred
when this order was being executed.

At this point the minister paused
and covered his eyes with his hand,

as if to avoid the contemplation
of the terrible vision.

After which he continued.

We are no savages.
Care for the security of Turkey

had to predominate
over all other considerations.

On 3rd January 1915,
the Russian czar, panicking
at the Turkish advance on Sarikamis,

urged the Allies to attack Turkey.

The British agreed.

This is one of
the greatest campaigns in history.

Think what Constantinople is
to the East -

more than London, Paris and Berlin
all rolled into one are to the West.

Think what its fall will mean.

This was the battle
which might turn the war,

cut Germany's route to the East,

unlock the Balkans and
open up Russia via the Black Sea.

First, the Navy had to force its way
through the Dardanelle straits.

The French insisted on being
involved, not wanting the British
to dominate the Mediterranean.

On 18th March 1915,

a combined French and British fleet
attacked the straits.

The flagship was hit by a number
of high calibre shells.

A turret was put out of action
and the crew killed

The flames didn't spare anything.

Our young men, a few minutes earlier
so alert and courageous,

were all skeletons
lying on the bare steel.

lacquered, carbonised.

The Turkish guns survived
the naval bombardment.

The Allied ships were sitting ducks.

I told the battery commander
to increase fire.

He replied, "Shells are exploding
on the decks of the enemy ships,

"there is considerable damage."

The French battleship Bouvet
hit a mine.

Three battleships were sunk that day,
three crippled, four damaged.

The Allies lost over 700 men.

It was a remarkable victory
for the Ottoman Empire.

The Allies tried again.

This time, the Navy would support
an amphibious landing of troops.

The Australian and New Zealand
Army Corps, known as Anzacs,

joined French and British soldiers.

Contrary to myth, the Anzacs weren't
tough diggers from the outback.

They were mostly city dwellers,

many first-generation immigrants,
fighting for the mother country.

Turks, like Behzade Kerim,

knew this would be a fight
for their country's survival.

I will sacrifice myself for my
faith, my country, my dear Istanbul.

I will crush the dirty, loathsome
hands threatening my old father's
happiness,

my innocent baby's life,
my beloved wife's honour.

I shall be as hardhearted
as an Englishman.

I salute you,
o, apple of my eye, Istanbul.

Those who are about to die
bid you farewell.

On 25th April 1915,

70,000 Allied troops went ashore
on the peninsula of Gelibolu -
Gallipoli.

A post-war film
reconstructed the battle.

Private Robert Atkinson witnessed
what was then the greatest
seaborne invasion ever.

Troops in small boats
were towed ashore.

Terrific bombardment, awful noise
rolling round the cliffs.
Surprised the Turks.

Splendid gunnery by the Navy.

Awe-inspiring scene,
my first experience of battle.

The Anzacs were landed
in the wrong place.

8,000 men struggled ashore
on a narrow strip of sand,

hemmed in by steep hills.

GUNFIRE

The men christened it Anzac Cove.

The Turks welcomed us with shrapnel,
and sprayed up the sea,

but few of us got hit.

There didn't seem much organisation.

In fact, it was disorganisation.

Breaking out of Anzac Cove,
the casualties soared.

New Zealander William Malone blamed
the folly of Australian officers.

General Braund had
no defensive position, no plan,

nothing but a murderous notion
that the only thing to do

was to plunge troops over the ridge
into the jungle beyond.

It was on these Turkish hills
that Australian and New Zealand
national identities were forged.

We were singing "This bit
of the world belongs to us".

We charged up a hill so steep
we could only just scramble up.

Clean over a machine gun we leapt,
men dropping all around.

It was mad, wild, thrilling.

They would have had an easier time

if it had been left to German General
Liman von Sanders.

He held troops back for an attack
nine miles away that never came.

But a 34-year-old Turkish officer,
Mustafa Kemal,

climbed the peak of Chanak Bayir
and saw Anzac troops approaching

and his own men fleeing.

"Why are you running away?" I asked.
"The enemy, sir," they said.

"You mustn't run from the enemy."
"We've no more ammunition."

I ordered them to fix bayonets
and lie down.

As they did so,
the enemy, too, lay down.

We had won time.

Mustafa Kemal issued a stark command.

I don't order you to attack,
I order you to die.

By the time we are dead, other units
and commanders will have come up
to take our place.

He sent an angry letter to Enver
Pasha, damning their German allies.

Von Sanders did not know
either our army or our country,

he had no time
to study the situation properly.

Do not rely on the ability of
the Germans headed by von Sanders,

whose hearts and souls
are not as engaged as ours are
in the defence of our country.

The Turks contained
the Anzac break-out at the cove.

Gallipoli made a hero
out of Mustafa Kemal.

Within eight years
he became his country's leader,

earning the name Ataturk -
father of the Turks.

The British landing at V beach
went badly.

The plan was to run
the ship River Clyde onto the shore,

her hold no longer full of coal
but men.

But she went aground further out,

exposing the British to withering
Turkish fire.

MACHINE-GUN FIRES

The enemy commanders
were sending the men down the ramps.

But they could not escape
the Turkish bullets.

Our fire was very effective,
knocking the enemy into the sea.

GUNFIRE

The shore at V beach was full of
enemy corpses, like shoals of fish.

The colour of the sea changed
with the blood from their bodies.

Other landings went well, but initial
success was not quickly exploited.

The Allies under General Sir Ian
Hamilton were cursed by poor
coordination.

As on the western front, the two
sides dug in to a bitter trench war.

Here, an Australian cameraman
scrambles back

to help his assistant under fire.

GUNFIRE

French officer Jean Giraudoux
watched the war turn brutal.

The Australians massacre the Turks.

One Australian told me that
the Turks are their national enemy.

The conditions at Gallipoli
were terrible -

intense heat, bitter cold,
little water.

Major Burge wrote home to his mother.

Respected madam,
sitting fearlessly 200 yards
from two million bloodthirsty Turks,

I take up my pen.

I forgot to mention, I have six feet
of solid earth between me and them.

The sun is very hot
and I am very thirsty.

The only thing to drink is water
from a nasty well,

which tastes as if
it had a dead mule in it.

However, we are given purifying
tablets, which are very good

and make the water taste
as if it had two dead mules in it.

To my high-born royal wife, Ayesha,

from your husband, Mustafa Mahomet,
captain, 13th Turkish Infantry.

Oh, Ayesha, my morning star, I pray
God to bring this all to an end.

I see lovely Constantinople in ruins
and our houses burnt to the ground.

These English are very persistent,
there is no fear of death for them.

They are very cruel,
they watch us like wolves at night

and are upon us like the devil
in the day.

Why did we join in this wicked war?

Ayesha, I must take my leave of you
and I must away to my devotion.

God bless you, Ayesha. I wish I were
at home to give you my adorations.

But Ayesha never received
Mustafa's letter.

It was found on his dead body
by a British soldier.

The Turks lost 10,000 men
in one afternoon.

As spring turned into summer, the
stench of the dead became unbearable.

Eventually an armistice was called,
to bury the dead.

Many Turkish soldiers
were illiterate -

their experiences were reflected
in their songs.

SOULFUL TURKISH SONG PLAYS

Disease became a major killer,
particularly typhus and dysentery.

My old pal, he was smart and upright
as a guardsman.

After ten days, to see him, crawling
about, his backside hanging out.

We lowered him into the latrine,

but he simply rolled
into this trench.

We couldn't pull him out,
we didn't have any strength.

He drowned in his own excrement.

Allied resolve was weakening,
as Lieutenant Colonel Fahrettin
realised, writing to his father.

The morale of his troops has sunk
so low as to be beyond description.

These fellows
will have to embark their troops
and remove them one of these nights.

On 20th December 1915,
they did just that.

Turkish officer Izzettin Bey
was woken by the duty officer at 3am.

They had spotted many frigates
and transport ships,

they thought it was a new invasion.

But the British were running away,
their situation had become hopeless.

What had happened was victory
and the will of Allah.

Turkish troops enter
abandoned Allied trenches.

They did not fire on the retreating
Allies, happy just to see them go.

After nine terrible months,
the hills of Gallipoli fell silent.

Both sides suffered around
a quarter of a million casualties,

but for the Turks it was a triumph.

MUSIC: ROUSING TURKISH SONG

When the enemy withdrew,
Constantinople was decorated
from one end to the other.

The minarets were lit with oil lamps
- everyone was full of joy.

Pale faces began to smile,
Constantinople came back to life.

The Germans were still trying
to ignite a holy war, jihad,
in the Middle East.

In the mosques, fiery speeches
are made against the English.

Excitement is increasing.

60,000 Afghan riders are ready
to march.

German agents who'd slipped into the
Ottoman Empire as a travelling circus

were now crossing Persia,
disguised as tribesmen.

On 19th August 1915,

they evaded Russian patrols
and entered Afghanistan.

Their mission, to raise a Muslim army
against the British and invade India.

They'd been on the road
for nine months,

spending much of their time arguing
over the route and who was in charge.

The answer to that was
German spy Oskar von Niedermayer.

Then Enver Pasha had second thoughts.

The Germans, in stirring up revolt
against Russian and British masters,

encouraged ideas of independence.

This clashed with Enver's vision
of uniting all Muslims

in an expanded, all-Turkic empire.

Enver pulled the Turks
out of Niedermayer's mission,

leaving the Germans to go it alone.

When they reached Kabul,

the Emir kept them waiting another
two months before even seeing them.

His Excellency told us why
he could not receive us earlier.

Of course, it had nothing to do
with anything political.

He compared us with tradesmen, with
lots of wares he could pick from.

Everything seemed to be
a business transaction for him.

The Emir played the Germans off
against the British.

Great riches, even his country's
independence, were at stake.

He hit Niedermayer with
a demand for £10 million
and 100,000 rifles and guns.

While they waited for the Emir
to decide whether to invade India,

they blundered about,
offending Muslim sensibilities.

In order to enjoy forbidden alcohol,
soldiers secretly brewed schnapps.

The first drunkard, a sight never
before witnessed in Afghanistan,

as it is religious blasphemy caused
severe public anger.

The Emir had long been on
the British payroll.

Now they upped the bribe
to keep Afghanistan on side.

There were rumours of
huge money transports from India.

We worked it out
that the closer this caravan got,

the icier our relationship
with the Emir became.

Niedermayer and the Germans realised
they were pawns in the Emir's game

and abandoned the operation.

Jihad wasn't setting the East ablaze,

but it still had the power
to petrify the British

and Enver had no intention
of halting his expansionist plans.

He sent Colmar von der Goltz,
a distinguished German field marshal,

to take command in Iraq and drive
the war through Persia into India.

Then 72 years old, von der Goltz
kept in touch with his family.

I never imagined that in my old age

fate would take me so far out
into the world

and I would travel in the steps
of Alexander the Great

through countries that filled
our imaginations when we were young.

Britain decided a show of strength
was needed in the Middle East

to persuade the Arabs that
the British were the masters there,
not the Germans or Turks.

The capture of Baghdad would create
an immense impression,

especially in Persia, Afghanistan
and on our own frontier,

and counteract
the unfortunate impression

created by want of success
on the Dardanelles.

By May 1915, a British division under
Major General Sir Charles Townshend

was advancing up the Tigris,
through Iraq,

then part of the Ottoman Empire.

Just 25 miles short of Baghdad, they
were halted by the Turkish 6th Army.

The British fell back on Kut,
a town on a loop in the Tigris.

The Turks surrounded them and
the British settled in for a siege.

Major Dunn, who drew this map,
wrote home on Christmas Day.

A very good dinner today - mutton,
Scotch broth, salmon mayonnaise,

chicken conflet, roast duck and
green peas, Italian eggs, chocolate.

And, of course, we toasted
all our dear ones at home.

The British were up against
Colmar von der Goltz,

now in charge of
the besieging Turkish army,

his conquest of India on hold.

Unfortunately,
the English have dug in well

and we don't have the
technical means to get rid of them.

Whether we will meet again
in good health is in God's hand.

Townshend was optimistic
they'd all be rescued within days,

but by January, food running out,

their own cavalry
came reluctantly to the rescue.

Three weeks ago, the first horse
fell under the butcher's knife.

Since then they have been slain
daily, about 20 a time.

We have it in steak-and-kidney pie,
horse mince, horse rissoles,

potted horse, horse soup,
stuffed horse meat etc, ad nauseam.

Hundreds of British soldiers died
trying to save Townshend's garrison.

This morning
there was a strong English attack.

Between the battle lines, the field
is covered with English corpses.

The relieving force downstream
again failed to get through.

General Townshend has issued
a communique.

The eyes of India and England are
on us, we shall go down as heroes,

which doesn't do us much good.

I'd sooner not be a hero in Kut
and have plenty to eat.

The men are dying off fast
from starvation, scurvy, pneumonia.

The Tommies are sticking it out
better than the Indian troops,

who refuse to eat mule or horse.

On 24th April, in the last,
desperate days of the siege,

a gallant attempt was made to send
a ship carrying 270 tons of food

up the Tigris to Kut.

Ali Ihsan was one of a group of Turks
who stretched a cable across
the Tigris, ensnaring the ship.

We confiscated an English boat
which contained all kinds of food,

enough to feed 5,000 for two months.

It was called Jullenar. We renamed
it Kendi Gellen - the Godsend.

A desperate Townshend made an offer
to Turkish General Halil Pasha

for the freedom of the garrison.

General Townshend offered me
one million pounds

for the freedom of the English army.

Had the offer been made
in other circumstances,

my answer would have been one word
out of the barrel of my rifle.

Trying to keep my calm, I replied
that I took this offer as a joke.

Finally, on 29th April 1916,
after 146 days of siege,

Townshend surrendered.

An even more humiliating defeat
than Gallipoli.

All up now, a terrible pity.

Never shall I forget
that morning of surrender.

We settled down to
the melancholy task of destruction.

Poor gunners. Some were in tears
as the guns they were so proud
to have tended were blown to pieces.

The Turks marched in at noon
and took over the place.

By the waters of Babylon,
we sat down and wept.

Von der Goltz died of typhus just
before the Turkish victory at Kut,

but it was in line with something
he wrote, an unusually modern
and prophetic view.

For me,
this war is only the beginning
of a long, historical development

at whose end will stand the defeat
of England's world position.

The hallmark of the 20th century

must be the revolution of the
coloured races

against the colonial
imperialism of Europe.

THe evening after the fall

Turks and Arabs moved through
the narrow streets of the city

to where we had buried the
much-loved field marshal a few days
earlier.

The Turkish commander wanted to
bring the news of the fall

of Kut to the dead leader whose
achievement it was.

Townshend sailed off to a comfortable
captivity in Constantinople.

During the siege, 1,750 British
and Indian soldiers had died,

but the worst lay ahead.

12,000 men were marched
through the desert to Baghdad.

A large percentage of men
were quite done for

and couldn't march another inch.

They lay on the ground,
suffering from fever and dysentery,

smothered from head to foot in filth
and covered with flies.

By the war's close, over 4,000

veterans of Kut had died in prison
camp,

victims of wilful neglect
by both Turkey and Britain.

Never come back no more, boys,
Never come back no more

The camp is becoming a bore, boys,
It's becoming a terrible bore

Shut up the old shop window
Put a notice over the door

We're packing our kits
for the jolly old Ritz
And we'll never come back no more

The Allies wrote off
the Ottoman Empire from the start,

but then suffered major defeats
at its hands.

The Turks would see out the war.

It wasn't Allah or the Germans
that kept them fighting,

but self-defence
and political ambition.