Goltz Pasha I.

This is coolbert:

Here is another German general officer, who, leading Turkish troops in World War One [WW1], dealt another significant defeat to British forces. Turkish troops, under German command, as at Gallipoli, performing very well!

Colmar von der Goltz.

Prussian officer of the old school. Led those under his command into battle at the ripe old age of seventy three!!

Able to successfully stymie another British advance into Ottoman territory. This during the Mesopotamian Campaign.

The British aim of this abortive campaign was to protect a specific oil field [Abadan] supplying crude oil used by English warships.

"The British didn't use much oil at the start of the war but they had already started building warships which would be fueled by oil instead of coal by 1912."

"Goltz [was] in charge of the Fifth Army [Turkish] . . . Baron von der Goltz was in command at the Battle of Ctesiphon - which was a draw, as both side retreated from the battlefield. However with the British retreating, Goltz turned his army around and followed them down the river . . . Goltz laid siege to the British position [Kut]. Much like Julius Caesar's legions at the Battle of Alesia, the Turkish army had to fight off a major British effort to relieve the Kut garrison while maintaining the siege. All told the British tried three different attacks and each one failed at a total cost of 23,000 casualties."

[in 2003, one stated objective of British forces participating in the invasion of Iraq was to refurbish the military cemetery at Kut!!!]

"Baron von der Goltz died just before the surrender of Kut, supposedly of typhus"

"With the loss of Baron von der Goltz, the Ottomans never won another battle against the British in Mesopotamia"

There is also, much more about von der Goltz. To be continued!

coolbert.