Chapter 969: The Turkey Operation

The news of the German offensive into the Middle East spread like wildfire across the globe. The most vehement reaction came not from the region’s behind-the-scenes power brokers, but from Turkey, the traditional power to the north. While Italy had trumpeted slogans like “Make the Mediterranean an Italian Imperial Lake,” the Turks were brandishing the grand banner of “March into the Middle East and Restore Former Glory.”

However, Turkey had yet to make a move. Instead, the German and Italian joint forces, having come from afar, had already occupied Egypt. Not long ago, they had even rapidly crossed the Suez Canal, showing every sign of intending to swallow the Middle East whole. For Turkey, this was undoubtedly an intolerable situation.

Don’t be mistaken into thinking Italy was the most famous turncoat in world history. In this regard, Turkey was by no means inferior, seemingly unwilling to let Italy have all the glory. So even though Italy had switched sides mid-battle in two world wars, it could only be called one of the turncoats. From Turkey’s wavering attitude on military purchases from China, one could see that this country seemed to have an inherently fickle nature.

“Of course, this matter cannot be ignored.” It was precisely based on this character that, at a meeting of the Turkish military, the leading Turkish general looked at his subordinates. He held no great affection for the German military, especially after their advance into the Middle East. The Turkish high command was deeply uneasy about Germany’s expansion.

Since the Kemalist Revolution, Turkey’s internal political system was not much stronger than the former Ottoman government. However, this government had successfully aroused a strong sense of nationalism and discipline among the country’s vast peasant population, and so it still held some authority domestically—but just how much, only God knew.

Originally, Turkey’s foreign policy was closely tied to Greece in the Balkans. But in the process of carving up the Balkans, this good relationship between the two countries had been completely shattered by Akado’s clever distribution of Balkan interests. Turkey had abandoned Greece in exchange for sovereignty over almost all of its territory.

After that, the arduous task of ruling the Balkans had exhausted the Turkish military. After losing tens of thousands of soldiers, Turkey still had not won a moment of peace from the chaotic Balkan Peninsula. But the Turkish government’s emphasis on its traditional sphere of influence remained unprecedented.

After all, from a historical perspective, the Turkish Empire had a certain influence in the Middle East, and Germany’s advance into the region was clearly a substantial provocation to Turkey’s surrounding sphere of influence. At the very least, on the surface, Germany had already brought its army to Turkey’s doorstep.

“The Italians and the Germans are cut from the same cloth. They weren’t satisfied with just taking Africa, and now they’re here showing off… Who do they think they are?” another Turkish general chimed in. After all, Turkey had not contributed much in the several wars of partition it had cooperated in with the Germans, so they had grown accustomed to this Axis model of利益分配 (profit distribution) where Germany did the fighting and everyone else shared the spoils. At this point, they had forgotten what they had actually contributed and were simply furious about what they hadn’t gotten.

Germany’s scorched-earth tactics in the Middle East made Turkey’s heart ache. Most of the Turkish military and politicians believed that Turkey should send its own troops south to occupy those rich regions. Their argument was very consistent: “Instead of letting those wasteful German fools destroy the entire Middle Eastern oil-producing region, it would be better for Turkey to take their place.”

And so, under the influence of this argument, the Turkish army left its garrisons and began to assemble on a large scale to the south. These troops lacked equipment and supplies and were by no means ready for war. They were just pushed to the front line by their officers in a muddle, preparing for a brutal, life-or-death struggle with the most powerful of enemies.

Because Turkey had been the last to join the Axis, and because it had contributed almost nothing within the Axis, the arms trade between Turkey and Germany had been the briefest and most perfunctory. In order to learn from the German army, Turkey had “massively” purchased German weapons and equipment. As for just how “massive” this quantity was, it could only be described with the word “joke.”

Turkey had purchased a total of 40,000 rifles, 1,000 submachine guns, and 500 old-model Maxim heavy machine guns from Germany. These firearms were roughly the equivalent of the weapons for a German infantry corps, and second-line infantry at that! Of course, this did not include the artillery and other equipment needed by this infantry corps.

In the same procurement plan, Turkey had bought a total of 30 trucks, 4 armored reconnaissance vehicles, and 19 tanks from the Germans. And these 19 tanks, at Turkey’s request, had been delivered as war booty captured in North Africa… In short, in terms of arms purchases, Turkey was very “stingy.”

On the one hand, Turkey’s economic situation was not good. It was not like Romania, which had abundant oil resources to exchange for a large amount of German equipment, nor was it like Italy, which had a developed industry and could export some things to Germany. On the other hand, Turkey needed to buy too many things, so it simply couldn’t afford to buy everything.

New weapons that were changing the battlefield were emerging in a short period of time, such as the crucial radar systems for air defense, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, large-caliber artillery, and armored cars and tanks. Turkey had no experience with any of these. To sell things was no problem, but the seller needed to provide a large amount of personnel training services and a series of after-sales issues.

The entire Third Reich’s arms manufacturers were working overtime to produce munitions for the front line. Who had the time to take care of such a troublesome customer? This was not a post-war sales environment where the market was waiting to be revived. Their own country’s army was almost out of ammunition. Who had the time to develop new customers?

In such a state, where the buyer had neither money nor inclination, and the seller had neither time nor energy, just how many original German weapons and equipment Turkey could get was imaginable. The German ME-109C fighter, its hottest export product, had only had eight units delivered to Turkey, half-sold and half-given, during the few months when German-Turkish relations were at their best.

Now everyone should understand why Akado had never even considered the plan of Turkey attacking the Soviet Union or the Middle East. Because in fact, Turkey’s military strength was simply not something to be looked forward to. As soon as the war started, let alone achieving any combat results, it would be a problem for the seemingly powerful Turkish army to even hold its positions.

Unfortunately, although Akado had an objective evaluation of the Turkish army, the Turks themselves were not so self-aware. Under the instigation of countless people, the Turkish high command had finally been unable to resist the temptation and had made up its mind to make a move on the Middle East.

One hundred thousand Turkish soldiers, with food in their pockets and a rifle on their backs, after receiving a few rounds of ammunition, set off in a mighty procession towards the border region. The combat effectiveness of these soldiers, in the face of the British and American forces that had already undergone a dramatic transformation, was roughly equal to zero.

However, the Turks were not very clear about these things. The thoughts of several Turkish generals were actually very simple: the enemy was pinned down by the German army near the Suez Canal. The army they had to face was just some Arab armed forces with equally poor equipment. With this thought, the Turkish military felt they had a chance to pull chestnuts out of the fire, to occupy a large swath of Middle Eastern territory, and if they were lucky, to even get a finger in the Persian Gulf.

At 6:00 a.m. on May 20th, 200,000 Turkish infantry began to cross the Syrian defense line and attack French Syria. This place had originally been a French colony, but after the German invasion of France had succeeded, this colony had chosen to support the exiled French government. Now stationed here were some French colonial troops, as well as 7,000 British and 4,000 American soldiers.

Of course, if one included the 80,000 hastily armed local Syrian troops, these forces barely reached half the number of the Turkish southward-advancing force. But if one were to consider their combat effectiveness, these forces were clearly a little stronger than the Turkish troops.

At the very least, in terms of equipment, they were indeed a good deal better than the Turkish army. The Americans here had 40 outdated M3 tanks, and the British had retained 70 of their useless Matildas. Although these tanks were indeed difficult to deal with for the German army, to fight the Turkish troops, they were more than enough.

The two sides had thus begun to fight on the border without any warning. The Turkish army’s attempt to quickly break through the Anglo-American defense line had completely failed. The crude defense line in Syria had made it impossible for the Turkish troops to advance a single step, and the American and British forces had an overwhelming advantage in firepower. After losing about 10,000 soldiers, the Turkish forces were forced to halt their full-scale offensive.

Subsequently, the American fighters and bombers, which had been so abused by the German Air Force that they dared not take off to meet them, found their self-respect on the Turkish front. They bombed and suppressed the Turkish ground targets, making it a luxury for the Turkish troops to assemble for an attack or to assemble for a retreat. In utter desperation, the Turkish forces finally remembered that they still had three unsuspecting German infantry divisions behind them. And so the Turkish military hastily contacted the German commanders, hoping they could intervene and save the current situation.

The German commanders were no fools. They had been sent to Turkey from a great distance not to fight, but to act as a deterrent. To actually fight, to rely on three infantry divisions without heavy fire support and without air superiority to attack an enemy’s carefully laid plan—what was the difference from suicide? So the German commanders had not agreed to the Turkish request for assistance in the battle, but had only agreed that they could provide some necessary soldier training assistance.

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