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How A Prince's Downfall Foiled The Kaiser's Plans

Discussion in 'Military History' started by GRW, Sep 25, 2016.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Almost reads like a "Boy's Own" adventure.
    "A hundred years ago, the Ethiopian prince Lij Iyasu was deposed after the Orthodox church feared he had converted to Islam. But it also scuppered Germany's plans to draw Ethiopia into World War One, writes Martin Plaut.
    In January 1915 a dhow slipped quietly out of the Arabian port of Al-Wajh. On board were a group of Germans and Turks, under the guise of the Fourth German Inner-Africa Research Expedition.
    Led by Leo Frobenius, adventurer, archaeologist and personal friend of the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, its aim was nothing less than to encourage Ethiopia to enter World War One.
    Germany believed that the Suez canal was Britain's "jugular vein" allowing troops and supplies to be brought from Australia, New Zealand and India.
    The war plan
    An assault on the canal by Turkish and German forces had been repelled in early 1915, but it was clear that this was not the final attack.
    Ethiopia - an independent nation - was the major power in the region and Germany believed that if it could persuade the Ethiopians to enter the war on its side, British and allied forces would have to be withdrawn from the Canal and other fronts.
    The aims of the General Staff in Berlin were: "To force the enemy to commit large forces in defending their colonies in the Horn of Africa, thus weakening their European front and relieving the German forces fighting in German East Africa."
    This called for "insurrection" in Sudan with the aim of toppling British rule and attacks on French-ruled Djibouti and Italian Eritrea.
    Leo Frobenius and his party were smuggled into Eritrea on a dhow
    "The colonial Italian and French possessions on the shore of the Red Sea were difficult even impossible to defend without [the] commitment of large forces: chances were that an Ethiopian blow against the shores of the Red Sea and Suez Canal would either succeed at once, or that Italy and France would voluntarily withdraw in view of the critical situation of the European front, where all men and rifles were badly needed after the initial military successes of the Central powers."
    In Berlin's view, the "double threat" of internal insurrection in Sudan and an Ethiopian offensive would pave the way for a successful attack on the Suez Canal by Turkish forces "supported by a German expeditionary force".
    The loss of the Canal would be a decisive blow against Britain and its allies, from which it would be unable to recover."
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-37428682
     
    ColHessler likes this.

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