4 August 1914 - Poland of July 1930, Russia of June 1919 and Imperial Japan of 8 February 1905 ISOT
Nov 21, 2024 11:21:51 GMT
Post by 575 on Nov 21, 2024 11:21:51 GMT
Turkey – Caucasus etc. February 1915/20/31
The Turk government was pestering the British for releasing the Resadiye Dreadnoughts as the Greeks were heating up on the former USS pre-Dreadnoughts Mississippi and Idaho that had been sold to them and delivered July 1914.
The Turks didn't like the situation as the Greeks might be up to an invasion of Asia Minor or going on Constantinoble.
With BC Goeben and CL Breslau gone the Turks had little if anything to confront the Greeks once they thought themselves proficient with those ships – and the Greeks had a history of ship proficiency.
The Turk Navy consisted of 2 pre-Dreadnoughts (1894), 1 ironclad battery ship, 2 old cruisers, 9 DD/Torpedoboats, several Minelayers and an obsolete gunboat.
Facing this was the Greek Navy - that had defeated the Ottomans 1912 - with the two Mississippi class pre-Dreadnoughts (1908), 2 Armoured Cruisers, 1 CL, 14 DD, 2 SS each with 6 torpedoes 1 internal tube and 4 external ”drop-collars”.
Poland had decided to warn the Turks of possible Greek intentions and this made the Turks secretly mobilize its 1. army in European Turkey and Western Provinces of Asia Minor. The 2. in Syria/Aleppo and 3. in Caucasus had already been mobilized for the operations in Caucasus. 4. Army in Syria and Mesopotamia mobilizing reserves.
The Poles as always was beneficial to the Turks – if they could be edged on getting into conflict with the Soviets these wouldn't have all the force to fight the Poles. So the Turks had gotten a rather thorough update on July 1919 from which they themselves had been able to follow the developments in Russia though the Poles had also briefed them from their intercepts of Soviet radiotraffic.
Learning of the Greek pondering the Poles better understood the reluctance of the Greeks of entering the Great War along the Entente. That had been nudging them rather heavily including taking their Navy from them without caring for the units during 2 years and then letting them have them back.
Now the Greeks had their fully functional ships and having avoided a long sitting it out and eventual offensive to the north. The Greeks would be waiting for their moment to go though they would be facing a not worn down Turkey.
Thinking of other Greek options the Poles came around the Dodecanese Islands of the Aegean Sea close to Turkey which had been ceded by Turkey 1912 to Italy – would the Greeks dare challenge the Italians? With their new worked up ships and aggressive Naval attitude they might just go for that lesser alternative.
However the Italian Navy was large – 3 Dreadnoughts with 3 building to be finished within a year, 11 pre-Dreadnoughts of which 4 only had 2 main guns and 3 with just 4-6” armour, 5 Monitors, 15 AC, 4 CLminelaying, 16 CL, 34 DD and 20 SS. Quite a mouthfull.
But its ships were build for speed not heavy combat being quite thin-skinned even the Dreadnoughts. Only the 3 Dreadnoughts, 8 pre-Dreadnoughts incl. those with only 2 mainguns had a decent AP range.
Those Mississippi class pre-Dreadnoughts were belt armoured as the Italian Dreadnoughts and heavier on trurrets than any Italian ship with the most modern US battleship guns that could fire 2-3 shots a minute with the Italian Dreadnoughts and 6 of the pre-Dr. (incl. the ones of only 2 guns) 1 every minute and of the remaining pre-Df. 2 could fire once every 1½ min. and 8 once every 2-8 minutes.
Not that it made the Greeks able to walk on water but it ensured their survival or at least made it possible.
There had been a stint of a thought of warning the Italians of possible Greek intentions but there was not need of doing such evil to the Greeks – they and the Italians would have to find their own course forward.
With the Navy in bad shape the Turk Army had also suffered as the German Military Mission had been recalled by the Cease Fire during December 1914. A few had decided to stay but the Turks were short of really professional officers.
Thus besides pleading for their Dreadnoughts they also tried getting a British or French Military Mission to supplant the Germans though the Entente preferred to get access through the straits to be able to supply Denikin in Ukraine; which to a degree but not too much appealed to the Turks too. If Deniking would be able to stop the Soviet advance south Turkey would be able to capture Baku.
If they were using the Straits for supplying Denikin the Entente would certainly look at a Greek attack on Asia Minor or Turkisk Thrake with little enthusiasm and probably tell the Greeks to f-off.
With an end to hostilities in the north west, east of the Baltics the Bolshevics got a breather which Stalin used to turn south to harry the various Ukrainian fractions while also forcing Denikin back towards the Kalmyk steppelands.
However Denikins White Army had some newfound vitality probably due to their experience of meeting the Turks north of the Caucasus and with Entente supplies reaching them following the pause of the past half year.
The Turks were driving North and west along the foothills of the Caucasus as they were through the Kura river valley all while fighting the Armenians, Georgians and Azerbajani.
The deal of Denikin and the Turks were keeping their peace or at least not getting a stab in the back.
The Georgians had seen themselves due to the ISOT being robbet of the British force deployed there following the Armistige in 1918 being on their own as were the Armenians and Azerbajdjani who had also lost the British which had moved into these areas 1919 but all resisted the Turk invasion as best they could.
The Azerbajdjani had planned to attack Armenia which had occupied Azerbajdjani Nakhijevan Province but had been caught up in the fight with the Turks due to the Baku oilfields which the Turks were heading for.
The Azerbajanis being themselves Turks didn't want to share the oil of Baku with the Turks of Asia Minor and thus fought them along the Georgians and Armenis.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend – oil for joining the fight. Which stopped the Turk drive east north of and in the Caucasus.
The British had tried the 1919 trek up the mountains towards Baku to secure that asset but snow in the mountains had stopped the expedition at least for the time being.
Going through the Straits by ship had been much more comfortable but at that moment the Turks had generally overrun the Georgian coast so the British weren't able to land there but went up coast.
All fighting in Ukraine and Denikin apart Stalin had also managed to begin forming an Army to renew the fight against the Poles.
This time the Poles felt more confident. They had had their army blooded again and thought themselves able to withstand the Bolshevic's when they came. Their signals service was more experienced than ever and constantly monitoring everything it could in the ether.
The recent war had also convinced the Polish Army of the need for bombers and PZL was working hard to build such.
The new fighters were only few in numbers but more powerfull engines was forthcoming to make the existing scout-bombers able to carry more payload.
The British had supplied some ammunition which was the major concern at the time though the Polish industry did what it could to rebuild stocks and some captured – quite a lot actually as the German 8. Army had left at Königsberg during the evacuation the year prior.
There had been exchanging with the Baltic armed forces so that the German materiel went up there and their former Russian stock to Poland – practical for both parties as the Poles didn't expect the Germans to resupply them. More likely the Baltics.
The Turk government was pestering the British for releasing the Resadiye Dreadnoughts as the Greeks were heating up on the former USS pre-Dreadnoughts Mississippi and Idaho that had been sold to them and delivered July 1914.
The Turks didn't like the situation as the Greeks might be up to an invasion of Asia Minor or going on Constantinoble.
With BC Goeben and CL Breslau gone the Turks had little if anything to confront the Greeks once they thought themselves proficient with those ships – and the Greeks had a history of ship proficiency.
The Turk Navy consisted of 2 pre-Dreadnoughts (1894), 1 ironclad battery ship, 2 old cruisers, 9 DD/Torpedoboats, several Minelayers and an obsolete gunboat.
Facing this was the Greek Navy - that had defeated the Ottomans 1912 - with the two Mississippi class pre-Dreadnoughts (1908), 2 Armoured Cruisers, 1 CL, 14 DD, 2 SS each with 6 torpedoes 1 internal tube and 4 external ”drop-collars”.
Poland had decided to warn the Turks of possible Greek intentions and this made the Turks secretly mobilize its 1. army in European Turkey and Western Provinces of Asia Minor. The 2. in Syria/Aleppo and 3. in Caucasus had already been mobilized for the operations in Caucasus. 4. Army in Syria and Mesopotamia mobilizing reserves.
The Poles as always was beneficial to the Turks – if they could be edged on getting into conflict with the Soviets these wouldn't have all the force to fight the Poles. So the Turks had gotten a rather thorough update on July 1919 from which they themselves had been able to follow the developments in Russia though the Poles had also briefed them from their intercepts of Soviet radiotraffic.
Learning of the Greek pondering the Poles better understood the reluctance of the Greeks of entering the Great War along the Entente. That had been nudging them rather heavily including taking their Navy from them without caring for the units during 2 years and then letting them have them back.
Now the Greeks had their fully functional ships and having avoided a long sitting it out and eventual offensive to the north. The Greeks would be waiting for their moment to go though they would be facing a not worn down Turkey.
Thinking of other Greek options the Poles came around the Dodecanese Islands of the Aegean Sea close to Turkey which had been ceded by Turkey 1912 to Italy – would the Greeks dare challenge the Italians? With their new worked up ships and aggressive Naval attitude they might just go for that lesser alternative.
However the Italian Navy was large – 3 Dreadnoughts with 3 building to be finished within a year, 11 pre-Dreadnoughts of which 4 only had 2 main guns and 3 with just 4-6” armour, 5 Monitors, 15 AC, 4 CLminelaying, 16 CL, 34 DD and 20 SS. Quite a mouthfull.
But its ships were build for speed not heavy combat being quite thin-skinned even the Dreadnoughts. Only the 3 Dreadnoughts, 8 pre-Dreadnoughts incl. those with only 2 mainguns had a decent AP range.
Those Mississippi class pre-Dreadnoughts were belt armoured as the Italian Dreadnoughts and heavier on trurrets than any Italian ship with the most modern US battleship guns that could fire 2-3 shots a minute with the Italian Dreadnoughts and 6 of the pre-Dr. (incl. the ones of only 2 guns) 1 every minute and of the remaining pre-Df. 2 could fire once every 1½ min. and 8 once every 2-8 minutes.
Not that it made the Greeks able to walk on water but it ensured their survival or at least made it possible.
There had been a stint of a thought of warning the Italians of possible Greek intentions but there was not need of doing such evil to the Greeks – they and the Italians would have to find their own course forward.
With the Navy in bad shape the Turk Army had also suffered as the German Military Mission had been recalled by the Cease Fire during December 1914. A few had decided to stay but the Turks were short of really professional officers.
Thus besides pleading for their Dreadnoughts they also tried getting a British or French Military Mission to supplant the Germans though the Entente preferred to get access through the straits to be able to supply Denikin in Ukraine; which to a degree but not too much appealed to the Turks too. If Deniking would be able to stop the Soviet advance south Turkey would be able to capture Baku.
If they were using the Straits for supplying Denikin the Entente would certainly look at a Greek attack on Asia Minor or Turkisk Thrake with little enthusiasm and probably tell the Greeks to f-off.
With an end to hostilities in the north west, east of the Baltics the Bolshevics got a breather which Stalin used to turn south to harry the various Ukrainian fractions while also forcing Denikin back towards the Kalmyk steppelands.
However Denikins White Army had some newfound vitality probably due to their experience of meeting the Turks north of the Caucasus and with Entente supplies reaching them following the pause of the past half year.
The Turks were driving North and west along the foothills of the Caucasus as they were through the Kura river valley all while fighting the Armenians, Georgians and Azerbajani.
The deal of Denikin and the Turks were keeping their peace or at least not getting a stab in the back.
The Georgians had seen themselves due to the ISOT being robbet of the British force deployed there following the Armistige in 1918 being on their own as were the Armenians and Azerbajdjani who had also lost the British which had moved into these areas 1919 but all resisted the Turk invasion as best they could.
The Azerbajdjani had planned to attack Armenia which had occupied Azerbajdjani Nakhijevan Province but had been caught up in the fight with the Turks due to the Baku oilfields which the Turks were heading for.
The Azerbajanis being themselves Turks didn't want to share the oil of Baku with the Turks of Asia Minor and thus fought them along the Georgians and Armenis.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend – oil for joining the fight. Which stopped the Turk drive east north of and in the Caucasus.
The British had tried the 1919 trek up the mountains towards Baku to secure that asset but snow in the mountains had stopped the expedition at least for the time being.
Going through the Straits by ship had been much more comfortable but at that moment the Turks had generally overrun the Georgian coast so the British weren't able to land there but went up coast.
All fighting in Ukraine and Denikin apart Stalin had also managed to begin forming an Army to renew the fight against the Poles.
This time the Poles felt more confident. They had had their army blooded again and thought themselves able to withstand the Bolshevic's when they came. Their signals service was more experienced than ever and constantly monitoring everything it could in the ether.
The recent war had also convinced the Polish Army of the need for bombers and PZL was working hard to build such.
The new fighters were only few in numbers but more powerfull engines was forthcoming to make the existing scout-bombers able to carry more payload.
The British had supplied some ammunition which was the major concern at the time though the Polish industry did what it could to rebuild stocks and some captured – quite a lot actually as the German 8. Army had left at Königsberg during the evacuation the year prior.
There had been exchanging with the Baltic armed forces so that the German materiel went up there and their former Russian stock to Poland – practical for both parties as the Poles didn't expect the Germans to resupply them. More likely the Baltics.