Comments by "Winston Smith" (@kryts27) on "Henry Stewart History" channel.

  1. The British blundered in withholding the capital ships that the Ottomans paid for, without recompense. Maybe deliberately. The Ottoman force did well defensively at Gallipoli, although their casulties were about 50% higher than the attackers. The British blundered there because of poor reconnaissance and highly defensible terrain where steep and filled with ravines. However, true that most of the other fronts for the Otoomans were disasterous. The Ottomans had manpower, but were industrially weak, poor logistics, training and equipment for their troops. Worse even than the Russians in that respect. Turkish troops would fight if properly equipped and properly lead, so not "useless" which is a poor choice of words. Kemal Ataturk was the exception, in this regard, not the rule.
    2
  2. Only one to blame, Germany. Nah, just kidding (a bit). WW1 outbreak was a conumdrum of factors. That Germany was going to war with Russia and France is not all that surprising. Given Germany's precarious geopolitical position in central Europe, and her consistant conflicts with these two powerful neighbouring states (East and West of her), was nearly inevitable. What was suprising was that Germany had allied herself with Austria (traditionally also an enemy of Germany; don't forget the number of times Austria and Prussia were at war) and had challenged then got war with the British. The last was not obvious to occur. Britain was crucuially neutral during the Franco-Prussian war 40 years earlier. What made the difference were the Kaiserliche Marine's dreadnoughts (a challenge to Britain being naval blockaded) and the invasion of Belgium; that by treaty Britain was bound to protect Belgium (as per the Napoleonic wars really). Wars in general are mostly started by stupid reasons (politics) and end inconclusively, as WW1 did. The big difeerence being that as first modern industrialized war, the means could hardly justify the ends on the scale of slaughter; explosive shells, bullets and horrible chemical weapons deployment.
    1