Welcome to the deep dive. We are, well, we're
thrilled to have you with us today. Absolutely.
If you're joining us, you're likely the kind
of person who is always looking for those hidden,
pivotal moments in history. You know, the specific
overlooked flash points that explain exactly
how our modern world was built. Right. The details
that usually get left out of the textbooks. Exactly.
Well, today we are focusing entirely on a single,
incredibly dense historical source that we've
been pouring over. It's a detailed breakdown
of the Battle of Charcot. Which is just a fascinating
document. It really is. Our mission today is
to unpack this frantic, chaotic, final clash
between the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire
in the Middle East. We're going to explore how
a desperate race against the clock, specifically
for oil fields, fundamentally shaped the end
of the First World War. And, by extension, the
geopolitical map we live with today. Yeah. So
to properly set the time frame for you, we need
to... Well, to place ourselves, we're looking
at late October 1918. The world is teetering
right on the precipice of peace. The First World
War has been raging for four brutal years. Millions
of lives have been lost. Entire empires have
been bled dry. And the end is finally palpably
in sight. It's right there. It is. But in the
Mesopotamian campaign, which encompasses what
we know today as modern Iraq area, The guns are
still firing. Yeah, the ink isn't on the armistice
paper yet. Exactly. The diplomats are talking,
but on the ground, the final moves on the chessboard
are still being aggressively and violently played
out. OK, let's unpack this. We need to look at
the big picture first, because the context here
is everything. Right. It's the fall of 1918,
and the Ottoman Empire, which has ruled this
entire region for centuries, is rapidly collapsing.
They've just suffered a decisive defeat in Palestine.
And over in Europe, their ally Bulgaria has already
surrendered. Right. So everyone from the highest
ranking generals down to the foot soldiers in
the trenches, they know an armistice is coming
any minute. It's a waiting game. Exactly. The
war, for all intents and purposes, is practically
over. Yet in the middle of all this impending
peace, the British premier, David Lloyd George,
sends a very specific, urgent directive down
to his commander on the ground. Sir William Marshall.
Sir William Marshall, yeah. And that directive
is really the spark that ignites this entire
final battle. Marshall is the commander in chief
on the Mesopotamian front. The order he receives
from London in these waning days of the war is
twofold. OK. First, he's ordered to completely
remove any residual Ottoman military presence
from that theater by launching a massive twin
advance of both the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
There's a second part. Right. The second part
of the order is the The real prize Marshall is
told to secure is the capture of the oil fields
near the town of Mosul, situated far up the Tigris
River. If we connect this to the bigger picture,
this represents a monumental paradigm shift in
global military strategy. Oh, absolutely. For
years, the First World War has been a gruesome
war of attrition. It was about grinding opposing
armies into the mud just to survive. But this
order from Lloyd George— It changes everything.
It does. This is no longer about attrition or
simply defeating an enemy. This is a strategic,
calculated land grab. Because the British government
recognizes that the post -war world is going
to look fundamentally different. A few years
prior, Winston Churchill had famously transitioned
the British naval fleet from burning coal to
burning oil. Right. Because oil offered greater
speed, greater efficiency, and less reliance
on massive coaling stations. Which means oil
is no longer just a commodity. No, it's a matter
of sheer existential national security. If you
control the petroleum, you literally control
the oceans. Precisely. The energy resources in
the Mosul region are vast and largely untapped.
The British War Cabinet realizes that whoever
is physically standing on that specific patch
of dirt when the music stops... When the armistice
is signed. Exactly. Whoever is there gets to
claim the energy resources that will fuel the
next century of global dominance. It's a mad
dash for the future. But Sir William Marshall
runs into a massive logistical nightmare right
out of the gate. You'd think for a prize this
critical to the British Empire, London would
give him every possible resource. You would think
so. Instead, he faces a crippling transport shortage.
The source material explains that a huge portion
of his transport vehicles had already been stripped
away and supplied to an operation known as Dunster
Force, which, for those who might not be familiar,
was essentially a covert Allied military mission
sent far to the north into the Caucasus region,
specifically toward Baku, to secure other crucial
oil pipelines. And that covert mission reveals
just how obsessed the British command was with
securing petroleum across the entire region.
Yeah. But the immediate consequence for Marshall
is that he is sitting in Baghdad with a mandate
to capture Mosul, but without the physical vehicles
required to rapidly move a massive army up two
different river valleys. He actually has to push
back against the prime minister's order. He does.
He informs London that he simply doesn't have
the wheels to do both, and he persuades them
to limit the advance strictly to the Tigris Front.
Which brings us to the harsh reality of military
logistics. If you don't have enough trucks, you
have to use boots. Yeah. And that brings us to
October 23, 1918. The march officially begins.
Sir Alexander Cobb is tapped to lead an Anglo
-Indian force out of Baghdad, pushing north toward
Mosul. And the makeup of this force is fascinating.
It really is. It truly highlights the sprawling
global nature of the British Empire at that time.
You're looking at a highly diverse combined force
converging on this one stretch of the Tigris.
Khab is commanding the 17th and 18th Indian divisions,
doing the heavy lifting as infantry. Right. Along
with the 7th and 11th Indian cavalry brigades
providing the speed. And crucially, the source
notes, they are joined by Assyrian volunteers.
Specifically led by Malik Yako and Aga Petros.
Yes. When you visualize this, it's an incredible
cross section of humanity. You have Indian infantrymen,
British cavalry officers, and local Assyrian
volunteers who are fighting for their own homeland
and survival, all marching together through the
dust of Iraq. And they're marching at an absolutely
blistering pace because they are fighting a two
-front war here. The actual military in the ticking
clock. Exactly. One against the Ottoman army
and one against the diplomatic clock. They are
acutely aware... that peace negotiators are sitting
in rooms right at that very moment, drawing up
the end of the war. To give you a sense of that
pace, we really need to dwell on the sheer physical
toll this took on the soldiers and their animals.
It's brutal. According to the records, Cobb's
force covers 120 kilometers. That's 75 miles
in just 39 hours. Wow. I want you to truly imagine
the mechanics of that. That's equivalent of running
nearly three back -to -back marathons. But these
men aren't in lightweight running gear. No, they're
in full combat kits. They're wearing heavy woolen
uniforms in the punishing Iraqi climate. They're
carrying Lee -Enfield rifles, ammunition pouches,
canteens, and heavy packs. They're marching through
rugged, unforgiving desert terrain. And they
maintain that pace for a day and a half. Operating
on almost zero sleep, pushing their horses to
the absolute brink of collapse. The level of
physical endurance required for that kind of
movement is staggering. When you push an entire
military apparatus, infantry columns, cavalry
squadrons, and whatever supply lines can keep
up that distance in 39 hours, it demonstrates
just how desperate the high command was to reach
those oil fields before the war officially ended.
They're essentially outrunning their own logistics
just to put boots on the ground. Exactly. So
after this grueling sprint, they finally arrive
at their first major obstacle, the Zab River,
and they find that they aren't alone. Waiting
for them on the other side is the Dickel group,
or the Tigris group, of the Ottoman 6th Army.
This is where we're introduced to the Ottoman
commander tasked with defending this approach,
Ismail Haka Bey. He commands the Ottoman 14th
Division. But to understand his decisions over
the next few days, we have to look closely at
the actual condition of his forces. The Ottoman
6th Army, at this stage in late 1918, is in a
deeply fragile state. They've been fighting nonstop
for years. enduring the same brutal conditions
as the British forces. They have, but the historical
breakdown notes, they were severely compromised
by a complete lack of reinforcements. Akebe's
forces technically comprised two distinct army
corps. the 8th Corps, encompassing the 14th and
46th Divisions. OK. And the 3rd Corps, making
up the 2nd and 6th Divisions. Now, on a military
map, two full army corps sounds incredibly imposing.
Sounds huge. But in reality, these units were
entirely hollowed out. They were ghost units.
Or regiments that should have had thousands of
men. Reduced to the size of small companies.
They were exhausted, subsisting on minimal rations,
chronically under -equipped. And now they are
staring down a massive, highly motivated enemy
force that has just sprinted 75 miles to reach
them. But wait, if Hakabe knows his forces are
hollowed out and he knows peace is practically
days away, why retreat at all? Right. Why not
simply dig in at the Little Zab River or even
just surrender right there and then rather than
making his exhausted men march again? It comes
down to basic tactical survival and the duty
of a commander to buy time. Haka Bay assesses
the situation and sees that his army's rear is
actively threatened by the sheer speed of the
Anglo -Indian advance. Because they're moving
so fast. Right. If he stays at the Little Zab
River, he risks being completely encircled and
annihilated before the diplomats can sign the
peace treaty. So he executes a textbook tactical
withdrawal. He pulls back. He pulls his forces
back another 100 kilometers, about 62 miles further
north, to a highly defensible position at a place
called Al -Shirkhat. By doing this, he forces
the British to stretch their already strained
supply lines even further. He's playing rope
-a -dope, hoping the British exhaust themselves
before or they can strike a fatal blow. Here's
where it gets really interesting. Cobb isn't
going to just let them retreat, consolidate,
and wait out the clock. He decides to force the
issue. He doesn't have a choice with the armistice
looming. Exactly. On October 29th, Cobb launches
his attack at Elsher Cot. He sends the 11th Cavalry
Brigade, pushing forward with orders to pin down
the Ottoman front line to hold Haka Bay's forces
in place while the heavier infantry of the 17th
Division moves up to deliver the hammer blow.
But as military historians always note, no plan
survives first contact with the enemy. The tactical
logic starts to break down because the 17th Division
gets delayed. The terrain, the exhaustion, the
logistics, whatever the specific friction was,
they simply do not arrive on time to support
the cavalry. Which leaves the 11th Cavalry Brigade
completely exposed out in the open. Sitting ducks.
Yeah. They're pinned down by the Ottoman defense
and they are forced to endure an entire night
of being relentlessly shelled by Ottoman artillery.
You have to put yourself in their boots for a
moment. You've just force -marched across the
desert. You engage a desperate enemy. Your heavy
backup fails to show up. And you spend the entire
night huddled in the dark while high explosive
artillery rains down around you. The psychological
and physical toll of that night must have been
unimaginable. It creates a desperate situation
that requires a desperate solution, and that
leads directly to the climax of the battle on
the morning of October 30th. Exactly. When the
sun comes up on October 30th, the British forces,
specifically the 13th Hussars, realize they cannot
survive another day under those Ottoman guns.
The artillery is positioned up on a commanding
hill, raining fire down on their positions. So
the Hussars decide to take extreme action. But
they don't draw their swords and charge up the
hill on horseback like a scene from the Crimean
War. They execute a dismounted charge. Now, you
might be wondering why a proud cavalry unit would
willingly get off their horses for a critical
charge. Seems counterintuitive. It does. But
by 1918, military technology had fundamentally
changed the battlefield. Charging entrenched
artillery and machine guns on horseback was considered
absolute suicide. A horse is simply too massive
of a target. Right. So the Hussars adapt on the
fly. reins, they fix long bayonets to the ends
of their Lee -Enfield rifles, and they effectively
turn themselves into traditional infantrymen.
They rush the ravines and charge up the hill
on foot, directly into the teeth of the Ottoman
guns. And against all odds, relying on sheer
aggression and surprise, they successfully overrun
the positions and capture the artillery. It's
an incredible image. And it provides such a stark
contrast in warfare. You have these soldiers
executing raw 19th century combat tactics, a
visceral close quarters bayonet charge up a hill
in order to secure the most vital 20th century
geopolitical prize imaginable. Oil. Oil. They're
fighting hand to hand with fixed blades to usher
in the modern age of petroleum. It completely
bridges two entirely different eras of human
history in one violent chaotic moment. It really
does. So what does this all mean for the immediate
battle? The Hussars have their dramatic charge,
the guns are silenced, but the broader reality
of the global war is still hovering over every
decision made on the ground. And this brings
us to a profound leadership decision by the Ottoman
commander, Ismail Hakkabe. He is a seasoned military
man, and he's fully aware through his communication
lines that peace talks are actively underway
at Mudros. Mudros is a port on a Greek island
in the Aegean Sea. Exactly. Where the allied
and Ottoman diplomats are literally sitting around
tables negotiating the armistice. Haka Bay knows
the war is functionally over. The Ottoman Empire
has lost. Which puts him in a terrible agonizing
position. He still commands thousands of men,
but they are surrounded and exhausted. It forces
him to answer the hardest question any commander
can face. Do you order your men into a bloody
breakout attempt, knowing that most of your hollowed
out force will be slaughtered for a cause that
has already been politically surrendered? Or
do you swallow your pride? Right. Do you swallow
your pride and prioritize the lives of the soldiers
who have bled for you for years? Hawkeye Bay
chooses the humane path. Rather than forcing
a final doomed and ultimately pointless stand,
he decides to spare his remaining forces. On
October 30th. On October 30th, he officially
surrenders the 6th Army to the British. When
we look at the raw historical records of the
aftermath, the numbers paint a stark picture
of the cost of these final days. The British
forces suffered around 1 ,800 casualties during
the advance in the battle. A heavy price. And
on the Ottoman side, the loss of personnel is
massive. Between 11 ,322 and 13 ,000 Ottoman
soldiers are taken as prisoners of war, with
many others killed or wounded in the preceding
days. It's an enormous capture. Haka Bey's entire
defensive line is effectively removed from the
board in one stroke. But remember that original
underlying order from Prime Minister Lloyd George.
The ultimate goal was never just to defeat the
Ottoman 6th Army. It was the oil. It was to physically
occupy the oil fields near Mosul. So despite
the massive surrender of the enemy forces on
October 30th, the British advance doesn't halt.
The 18th Division keeps walking. Yeah. They march
another 50 miles further north toward Mosul,
continuing to push their exhausted men to the
absolute limit. And they get agonizingly close.
They're just 12 miles short of the town limits
when the armistice of Mudros is finally officially
declared. The geopolitical bill rings. Right.
The fighting is supposed to stop. The First World
War is officially over. What? What's fascinating
here is what happens next because it completely
defies the rules of international diplomacy.
It's now November 1st, 1918. The armistice is
in full effect. Every military unit across Europe
and the Middle East is supposed to stand down
and hold their current positions. But the British
7th and 11th Indian Cavalry Brigades, they just
keep writing. They ignore the official ceasefire.
Right. They march right into the city of Mosul
and peacefully occupy it, directly ignoring the
fact that the conflict has officially ended.
This, predictably, creates an immediate and intense
diplomatic standoff. The regional Ottoman commander
-in -chief Ali Dressan is furious. He points
directly to the signed terms of the armistice.
He formally demands that the British forces withdraw
12 miles back to the exact positions they held
at the very moment the treaty went into effect.
And legally, technically, diplomatically, he
is entirely correct. But the British response
is essentially silence. Yeah. They simply ignore
his protests, they are physically inside the
city, they control the infrastructure, and more
importantly, they control the access to the oil
fields, and they refuse to leave. That's unbelievable.
This serves as a master class in how global politics
actually functions on the ground, stripped of
its polite diplomatic veneer. We're taught to
think of history as being cleanly dictated by
treaties. With borders drawn by men in suits,
signing official paperwork in ornate European
rooms. Exactly. But what the occupation of Moldova
demonstrates is that geopolitical realities on
the ground, the literal physical presence of
soldiers holding rifles, often completely override
official paperwork. The British forces possessed
the territory, so the terms of the internationally
recognized treaty became completely secondary
to that physical reality, which perfectly encapsulates
what this entire deep dive has been about. The
Battle of Charcot is far more than just a footnote
at the very end of World War I. It's a perfect
microcosm of the chaotic, frantic, and transitional
end to the conflict. You have this incredible
blend of superhuman endurance marching 75 miles
in 39 hours through a desert. You have archaic
military tactics like dismounted infantry bayonet
charges directly clashing with the dawn of the
modern industrialized scramble for Middle Eastern
oil. It's the exact moment the 19th century dies
and the 20th century begins. And as you reflect
on this history, it's crucial not to lose sight
of the profound human elements hidden within
these strategic movements. It's very easy to
just read the dates, the unit numbers, and the
casualty reports. But take a moment to think
about Assyrian Haqqabe standing in the Iraqi
dust, choosing his men's lives over his own military
glory for a collapsing empire. Think about the
Assyrian volunteers fighting shoulder to shoulder
with Indian cavalrymen and British hussars. all
converging on this ancient landscape to fight
for underground resources that would eventually
power a modern world they were only just beginning
to see. It adds so much dimension to how you
view the map of the modern Middle East. And that
leaves us with a final thought for you to mull
over as you go about your day. We just saw how
the British military command simply ignored an
international armistice to secure the oil wealth
of Mosul. Right. If a global peace treaty signed
by empires can be effectively rewritten simply
because a cavalry unit refuses to stop marching,
how much of our modern political map is actually
based on official agreed upon borders? And how
much is simply based on the sheer audacity of
troops who decided to ignore the missile blowing?
It's a phenomenal question, and it's one that
history continually asks us to consider when
we look at borders today. Thank you so much for
joining us on this deep dive. We will catch you
on the next one.