The Sick Man Strikes
The Ottoman entry into the war naturally opened a new front to the war this month, though it was initially quieter than expected. British forces in Egypt braced themselves for what they thought was going to be an immediate attack and manned their positions in the Sinai, only to be disappointed. The Ottomans didn’t come. For five days they stood at high readiness expecting an attack that didn’t come. Finally as orders were given to begin to expect no Ottman attacks and to prepare for their own attacks, they struck. In an extremely well organised assault the Ottman forces concentrated their offensive against the 2nd (Australian) Division of the British ANZAC forces in the Sinai. Caught on the back foot, the Australians were sent reeling backwards under heavy artillery and Infantry assault. As the Ottomans exploited the breach and started the spread out, the Indian, South African and other ANZAC forces were forced to redeploy or face being encircled. This menovour was not without losses and on the 18th the Agra Brigade found itself out flanked and surrounded in their positions by the Ottomans. They had been able to withdraw and now were cut off from the rest of their Division. They were not to go down this month though, holding their ground they refused to surrender or give any more ground to the Ottomans. The success of the month though was soon halted by a well organised defensive action by the ANZACs. Though ground has been lost, it was nothing but desert. The british had the last laugh though. The 2nd and 3rd (Indian) Divisions successfully landed in Mesopotamia unimpeded sizing Basrah on the 28th with little opposition aside from Garrison forces, the shock of the landing catching the off guard and unready. The Ottomans also made their entry to the wider war and launched an invasion of the Italian held Rhodes, Kos and Karpathos Islands in their enforcement of the Treaty of Ouchy. The Islands, left unready, were in Ottoman hands by the end of the month with minimal losses. Alongside this was a successful offensive into Caucasus driving the Russian defenders before as the defenders fell back deeper into the mountains rather than taking the fight head on, yet. As the month ended 1,200 British and Commonwealth, 2,000 Ottomans. and 800 Russia were added to June body count.