were a German guarantee to help Turkey against external threat and Turkish acceptance of a commanding role for Liman von Sanders and his colleagues if the Turkish Army went to war. The alliance was to remain secret until an announcement was made. Enver as War Minister jumped the gun on 31 July by ordering general mobilisation in support of Turkeyâs declared posture of âarmed neutralityâ in the coming conflict. On 2 August he lost patience with his vacillating colleagues, still debating Turkeyâs stance in wartime, and pressed the Grand Vizier to sign the treaty. Talaat and Halil of the Chamber of Deputies were the only other Cabinet members in the know at the time. Such was the character of the only major diplomatic triumph of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the prelude to the war of 1914. Turkey would suffer for it; but then so would Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand and even Newfoundland.
Wangenheimâs main concern, as he impatiently awaited the signing of the treaty (which he was confident was only a matter of time), was how Germany could quickly demonstrate its practical value and significance to the many sceptics in Constantinople. So on 1 August, the day Germany declared war on Russia, he wired Berlin asking for the dispatch of Souchonâs Mediterranean Division, a familiar and much-admired sight at the Golden Horn, to Constantinople. The Foreign Office in Berlin replied that the Kaiser did not deem this appropriate; but Grand Admiral Tirpitz, head of the Navy Office, intervened and told Wangenheim on the 3rd, the day Germany declared war on France, that the Goeben and the Breslau had been ordered to proceed to Constantinople after all. He also suggested that Souchon should be proposed to the Turks as commander-in-chief of their fleet. As Germany violated Belgiumâs neutrality by sending a vast army through the country to attack northern France, Britain decided to go to warin support of France and Belgium with effect from midnight Greenwich Mean Time on 4 August.
Souchonâs orders in the event of war between Germany and France were simple enough: he was to take his two ships and disrupt the anticipated movement of large numbers of colonial troops across the western basin of the Mediterranean from North Africa to metropolitan France. In the dying days of July 1914 the Goeben (Captain Richard Ackermann, IGN) was visiting Trieste, then Austrian, while the Breslau (Commander Kettner, IGN) was at Durrazzo (now Durres) as part of an international flotilla supporting the government of Albania, newly independent from Turkey after the Balkan wars of 1912. The admiral, uncertain as to who would go to war and when, ordered the two ships to join up at the south-east Italian port of Brindisi on 1 August, so as not to be trapped in the Adriatic. The omens were not good. The Mediterranean Division anchored in the roads outside the harbour and Souchon asked the port authorities for coal â only to be refused. Italy had decided on neutrality, and was not obliged to help the Germans because they had declared war on France rather than the reverse. Souchon ordered his two ships to sail on to Messina, the port at the north-eastern tip of Sicily, just two miles from the Italian mainland. On the way the crews were told after breakfast on 2 August that they were now at war, the articles of war were read out and three cheers raised for the Kaiser.
Once again the Germans anchored offshore in the roads. There too the Italian authorities refused to supply coal, and even food â but later relented. The ships were allowed to load some coal from Italian government and German mercantile bunkers. Since Germany had ordered general mobilisation on 1 August, Souchon now had legal powers to issue orders to any ship flying the German flag. He instructed the East Africa Line ship SS General to rendezvous with him at Messina so he could plunder the big linerâs bunkers. The passengers were disembarked and sent away
Wangenheimâs main concern, as he impatiently awaited the signing of the treaty (which he was confident was only a matter of time), was how Germany could quickly demonstrate its practical value and significance to the many sceptics in Constantinople. So on 1 August, the day Germany declared war on Russia, he wired Berlin asking for the dispatch of Souchonâs Mediterranean Division, a familiar and much-admired sight at the Golden Horn, to Constantinople. The Foreign Office in Berlin replied that the Kaiser did not deem this appropriate; but Grand Admiral Tirpitz, head of the Navy Office, intervened and told Wangenheim on the 3rd, the day Germany declared war on France, that the Goeben and the Breslau had been ordered to proceed to Constantinople after all. He also suggested that Souchon should be proposed to the Turks as commander-in-chief of their fleet. As Germany violated Belgiumâs neutrality by sending a vast army through the country to attack northern France, Britain decided to go to warin support of France and Belgium with effect from midnight Greenwich Mean Time on 4 August.
Souchonâs orders in the event of war between Germany and France were simple enough: he was to take his two ships and disrupt the anticipated movement of large numbers of colonial troops across the western basin of the Mediterranean from North Africa to metropolitan France. In the dying days of July 1914 the Goeben (Captain Richard Ackermann, IGN) was visiting Trieste, then Austrian, while the Breslau (Commander Kettner, IGN) was at Durrazzo (now Durres) as part of an international flotilla supporting the government of Albania, newly independent from Turkey after the Balkan wars of 1912. The admiral, uncertain as to who would go to war and when, ordered the two ships to join up at the south-east Italian port of Brindisi on 1 August, so as not to be trapped in the Adriatic. The omens were not good. The Mediterranean Division anchored in the roads outside the harbour and Souchon asked the port authorities for coal â only to be refused. Italy had decided on neutrality, and was not obliged to help the Germans because they had declared war on France rather than the reverse. Souchon ordered his two ships to sail on to Messina, the port at the north-eastern tip of Sicily, just two miles from the Italian mainland. On the way the crews were told after breakfast on 2 August that they were now at war, the articles of war were read out and three cheers raised for the Kaiser.
Once again the Germans anchored offshore in the roads. There too the Italian authorities refused to supply coal, and even food â but later relented. The ships were allowed to load some coal from Italian government and German mercantile bunkers. Since Germany had ordered general mobilisation on 1 August, Souchon now had legal powers to issue orders to any ship flying the German flag. He instructed the East Africa Line ship SS General to rendezvous with him at Messina so he could plunder the big linerâs bunkers. The passengers were disembarked and sent away
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