The World's War by David Olusoga

Author:David Olusoga [Olusoga, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781858967
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

ISTANBUL, SEPTEMBER 1914. Oskar von Niedermayer, a highly educated, highly capable German artillery officer, arrives at Istanbul’s Sirkeci Station, in the part of the city that lies on Europe’s mainland. He has crossed Europe on the Orient Express. Although he is a pragmatic and ruthless soldier, what makes Niedermayer unusual is his education. As confident in the lecture hall as he is on the battlefield, he has a strong command of languages and a deep knowledge of Islam. He has already travelled extensively in the Middle East and Asia, visiting Persia, India and the Ottoman province of Syria. Like Oppenheim, he is entranced by the Orient – and like Oppenheim, he has been a spy. In later life, Niedermayer will often be compared to T.E. Lawrence, and in truth the German is a more accomplished soldier and a more gifted linguist. It is, perhaps, inevitable that Niedermayer’s unique set of skills are now called upon by Max von Oppenheim and the German Foreign Office to serve their evolving Jihad strategy.

Accompanying Niedermayer is a small team of fifteen officers. They are all disguised – less than convincingly – as a travelling circus. Their bags and equipment are supposed to follow on later, but in fact never arrive. After Romanian customs officials examine baggage described on the inventory as ‘tent poles’, they identify the contents – accurately – as the aerials of field radios. That discovery leads to a full search, which turns up machine guns, rifles and all the paraphernalia of a military expedition rather than a season under the big top.

Deprived of their equipment, the German contingent is forced to wait in the Pera Palace Hotel in the European quarter of Istanbul, while they are re-equipped. Eventually, on 5 December 1914, on the same day that French aircraft drop bombs on the ancient German city of Freiburg and German guns resume their bombardment of the beautiful French city of Reims, Niedermayer and his men slip across the Bosphorus to Haydarpasha Station in Asian Istanbul, and they board a train on the railway to Baghdad. Their ultimate destination is, however, much further beyond: Afghanistan. And their goal is to incite the collapse of British India.

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