The Black Sea Raid occurred on 29 October 1914 when the German-led Ottoman Navy shelled the Russian Black Sea ports of Odessa and Sebastopol, marking its entry into World War I as a member of the Central Powers.
Background[]
For over a century before World War I, the Turkish-ruled Ottoman Empire was in decline. Attempts at reform failed to restore its military strength. Ottoman military weakness was revealed by the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12, which enabled Italy to seize Libya, and the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, which deprived Turkey of almost all its remaining territory in Europe. The Ottoman Empire lost a third of its area in the years leading up to World War I.
A revolt by "Young Turk" military officers deposed Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid II and replaced him with Mehmed V. Attempts at constitutional government were undermined by the strains of defeat in war. By 1914, the government was dominated by Interior Minister Talaat Pasha and War Minister Enver Pasha.
History[]
Desperate to restore Turkey's status as a military power, Turkish governments before World War I sought foreign expertise and investment, without tying themselves to the European alliance system. The Ottoman Army established close links with Germany, which sent a military mission under General Liman von Sanders to modernize Turkish land forces. The Ottoman Navy, on the other hand, traditionally looked to Britain for ships and advisers.
As the war crisis erupted in Europe in July–August 1914, pro-German figures in the Turkish government signed a secret treaty with Germany aimed specifically against Russia, the historic enemy of the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, the Turkish people were eagerly awaiting delivery of two dreadnoughts, Reshadieh and Sultan Osman I, paid for by public subscription and being built at shipyards in Britain. Possession of such warships was the mark of great-power status.
At the start of August, the British Admiralty, facing war with Germany, seized the dreadnoughts for the Royal Navy. In response, a wave of anti-British feeling swept through Turkey. On 10 August, the German warships Goeben and Breslau sailed through the Dardanelles and were handed to the Turks. With this action, Turkish commitment to Germany was sealed. British naval advisers were asked to leave, and German rear admiral Wilhelm Souchon took command of Turkish naval operations.
Shelling Russian ports[]
On 29 October, sailing aboard Goeben, renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, Souchon took his fleet and bombarded Russian Black Sea ports, including Odessa and Sebastopol. Russia responded by declaring war on Turkey, followed in the first week of November by France and Britain. The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed V, was also the caliph - the head of the worldwide community of Islam. On 11 November, he declared a jihad (holy war), calling on Muslims in the British, French, and Russian empires to rise in revolt. This raised German hopes of the collapse of British India, but its effect was muted.