Military History

Despite the positive trend, there were also a series of internal problems. Intelligence showed that the Turks were attempting to buy the loyalties of Auda abu Tayi and although he did not defect, such overtures were made to other Arab leaders, including Feisal, later in the campaign.

Although the Ottoman high command in Damascus was expecting trouble and had even begun moving reinforcements into the region, the outbreak of the revolt seems to have taken the local commanders by surprise.

The Arab Revolt was directed against the Muslim Ottoman Empire which had ruled most or the Middle East for centuries. The Revolt also began at the very heart of the Muslim world: in the Hijaz, with its holiest of Muslim cities, Mecca and Medina.

On the 10th of June 1916, Sherif Hussein Ibn Ali, Amir of Mecca and Keeper of the Holy Cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina, pushed a rifle through the window of his house in Mecca and opened fire on the barracks of the Turkish garrison. The 62-year-old Hussein was an Arab prince, not a military leader, but by this symbolic act of defiance, he sign...

Joachim von Heydebreck was born on October 6, 1861 in Schwedt as the son of Lieutenant General Hennig von Heydebreck (1828-1904) and his wife, Anna von Colmar (1837-1879). He attended the Royal Pedagogy in Putbus and entered military service at nineteen.

Jan Smuts was born near Riebeeck West (near Malmesbury), Cape Colony on September 24, 1870. The son of a member of the colonial parliament, he was sent to school at 12, and four years later attended Victoria College at Stellenbosch. There he met his future wife Sybella (Isie) Krige. In 1891 he attended Cambridge, where he read for the Bar.

Born in Saarlouis, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was the son of a prominent Prussian army officer. Marked from birth for a military career, Lettow-Vorbeck was commissioned as an artillery officer and graduated from the prestigious Kriegsakademie (war academy) in 1899. His promise was early apparent, and he was tapped for service on the General Staff (...

Albanian independence from the Ottoman Empire was finally achieved because of the Balkan Wars, and Albania was recognized as a sovereign and neutral state on 29 July 1913.