Generalleutnant Otto Liman von Sanders
Generalleutnant Otto Liman von Sanders (February 17, 1855 - August 22,
1929) was a German general who served as adviser and military
commander for the Ottoman Empire during World War
I.
He was born in Stolp in Pomerania. His father was a
Prussian nobleman and estate owner of Jewish descent.[1]
Like many other Prussians from aristocratic families, he joined the military and rose through the ranks to Lieutenant General.
Like several Prussian generals before him (e.g., Von Moltke and
Baron von der Goltz), he was appointed the head of a German military
mission to the Ottoman Empire in 1913. For nearly eighty years, the Ottoman Empire had
been trying to modernize their army along European lines. Liman von Sanders would be the last German to attempt this task.
Initially Liman formed a very low opinion of the Ottoman army and its political leadership. In July 1914 (with the war about
to start), Enver Pasha offered an alliance, of a sort, with Germany. The German ambassador
in Istanbul, Hans von Wangenheim, after
consulting with Liman von Sanders, refused Enver's offer. The analysis was that the Ottoman army was weak, the government had
little money to spend, and the leadership was incompetent. However, on 1 August
1914 the Germans and the Ottoman government did sign a secret treaty of alliance; included in the
provisions of the treaty was that the German military mission would wield "effective influence" over the military operations of
the Ottoman armies. [2] At first, this
influence was nearly zero. But when Enver Pasha and Djemal Pasha both suffered defeats, the
German military mission took increasing control over the Ottoman armies.
When the Ottoman forces finally entered the war (after trying to avoid open conflict with the Alliance for two months), Enver
Pasha showed Liman his grand scheme to destroy the Russian army defending Kars. Liman tried to dissuade Enver from implementing the plan, but his advice was ignored and Enver Pasha
personally lead the Ottoman army into its worst defeat of World War I at the
Battle of Sarikamis. Djemal Pasha was given the task
of attacking the Suez Canal; his personal military advisor was the German Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein. The attack on the Suez also failed,
although without enormous losses.
A shaken Enver Pasha returned to Istanbul and took command of the Ottoman army in the area around the capital. However
immediately after a huge British and French fleet
destroyed the Ottoman forts along the Dardanelles (18
March 1915), Enver turned over command to Liman von Sanders. Defending the Ottoman
government was now in the hands of the German general.
-
-
Liman had little time to organize the defences, but he had two things in his favor. First, the Ottoman 5th Army was the best
army they had, some 84,000 well-equipped soldiers in six divisions. Second, he was helped by poor Allied leadership. Instead of
using their massive fleet to force a passage through the straits to Istanbul, the British and French admirals called for ground
troops to capture the Dardanelles peninsula so their battleships could sail on into the Sea of
Marmara unmolested. Liman had just over a month to prepare. Then, on 23 April
1915, the British landed a major force at Cape Helles. One of
Liman's best decisions during this time was to promote Mustafa Kemal (later known as Atatürk) to commander of the 19th division. Kemal's division literally saved the day for the
Ottomans. His troops marched up on the day of the invasion and occupied the ridge line above the ANZAC landing site, just as the ANZAC troops were moving up the slope themselves.
Kemal recognized the danger and personally made sure his troops held the ridge line. They were never forced off despite constant
attacks for the next five months.
From April to November 1915 (when the decision to evacuate was made), Liman had to fight off numerous attacks against his
defensive positions. The British tried another landing at Suvla Bay, but this also was halted by
the Ottoman defenders. The only bright spot for the British in this entire operation was that they managed to evacuate their
positions without much loss. However, this battle was a major victory for the Ottoman army and some of the credit is given to the
generalship of Liman von Sanders.
Early in 1915, the previous head of the German military mission to the Ottoman Empire, Baron von der Goltz arrived in Istanbul
as military advisor to the (essentially powerless) Sultan, Mehmed
V. The old Baron did not get along with Liman von Sanders and did not like the three Pashas (Enver, Djemal and
Talat) who ran the Ottoman Empire during the war. The Baron proposed some major
offensives against the British, but these proposals came to nothing in the face of Allied offensives against the Ottomans on
three fronts (the Dardanelles, the Caucusus Front, and the newly opened
Mesopotamian Front). Liman was rid of the old Baron when Enver Pasha sent him to
fight the British in Mesopotamia in October 1915. (Goltz died there six months later just before the British army at
Kut surrendered).
In 1918, the last year of the war, Liman von Sanders took over command of the Ottoman army in Palestine, replacing the German General Erich von Falkenhayn who
had been defeated by British General Allenby at the end of
1917.
-
Liman was hampered by the significant decline in power of the Ottoman army. His forces were unable to do anything more than
occupy defensive positions and wait for the British attack. The attack was a long time in coming, but when General Allenby
finally unleashed his army, the entire Ottoman army was destroyed in a week of fighting (see the Battle of Megiddo). In the rout, Liman was nearly captured by British soldiers.
After the war ended he was arrested in Malta in February 1919 on charges of having committed
war crimes, but he was released six months later. He retired from the German army that year.
In 1927 he published a book he had written in captivity in Malta about his experiences before and during the war (there is an
English translation[3]). Two years later Otto Liman
von Sanders died in Munich at the age of seventy-four.
References
- ^ Bernt Engelmann,"Germany without Jews". Translated from German by D.J.
Beer, New York: Bantam Books, 1984, p. 132
- ^ A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire
and the Creation of the Modern Middle East David Fromkin. Owl Books. 636 pages. 2001. ISBN 0-8050-6884-8
- ^ Five years in Turkey Otto Viktor Karl Liman von Sanders. 326
pages. United States Naval Institute. 1927. ASIN B000883OAC
External links
See also
Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
