Ottoman fleet attacks Russian ports

Before dawn on 29 October 1914 warships of the Ottoman Empire’s fleet attacked Russian ports on the Black Sea without a declaration of war. Within a few hours Odessa, Sevastopol, Feodosia and Novorossiysk were shelled. The expedition was commanded by the German admiral Wilhelm Souchon, commander of the Ottoman fleet since September, and the most important ships had German crews. The raid lasted a single morning, but it settled that Turkey would enter the war on Germany’s side.

The secret order

Since the beginning of August the Ottoman Empire had been bound to Germany by a secret alliance, yet the government in Constantinople was still delaying its entry into the war. The Grand Vizier Said Halim Pasha and some of the ministers wanted to stay neutral for as long as possible, pleading that the army was unprepared. Berlin pressed ever harder, and the Minister of War, Enver Pasha, was in favour of war. Of the plans under consideration, one promised immediate results: an attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

A few days before the raid Enver handed Souchon written orders. The surviving document is dated 25 October, although some sources put the decision a day or several days earlier. The whole fleet was to “manoeuvre” in the Black Sea and attack the Russian fleet when a favourable opportunity arose. An attached secret order was even more explicit: the Turkish fleet was to win command of the Black Sea by force, seek out the Russian fleet and attack it wherever it found it, without a declaration of war. Neither the Grand Vizier nor most of the government knew of the order.

Souchon went further than Enver had envisaged. Instead of looking for the Russians at sea, he planned a simultaneous attack on four ports. On the evening of 27 October the fleet, officially on exercises, left the Bosporus and split into several groups.

The morning of 29 October

The first to strike were two torpedo boats, Muavenet-i Milliye and Gayret, sent to Odessa. At about three in the morning they entered the harbour and from a range of a few dozen metres torpedoed the Russian gunboat Donets, which quickly sank. Their guns damaged several merchant ships, including the French steamer Portugal, as well as oil tanks, harbour buildings and a sugar refinery. Shells also fell on the city. The attack on Odessa came several hours before the others, so the Russians had time to raise the alarm.

When at about 6.30 a.m. the battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim, formerly the Goeben, appeared off Sevastopol, the coastal batteries were ready for action. Yavuz shelled the main base of the Russian fleet for roughly a quarter of an hour and took several hits from heavy shells before turning away. Meanwhile the Russian minelayer Prut, fully loaded with mines, arrived on the scene. Her crew scuttled their own ship so that she would not blow up. Russian destroyers tried to pursue the attackers but turned back when the leading ship was hit.

The cruiser Midilli, formerly the Breslau, first laid mines in the Kerch Strait, and before noon joined the torpedo cruiser Berk-i Satvet off Novorossiysk; the latter had warned the inhabitants and was the first to open fire. Midilli fired more than 300 shells, set dozens of oil tanks alight and sank several ships in the harbour. The number of vessels sunk varies in the sources, from a few to more than a dozen. The cruiser Hamidiye sailed to Feodosia. Meeting no defence, she sent officers ashore to warn the inhabitants, and only then shelled the port. She went on to shell Yalta as well. All the ships returned to the Bosporus without loss.

The pretext

The military effects of the raid were slight. The Black Sea Fleet suffered almost no damage, and Donets was later raised and returned to service. The political effects were far more important. That same day Souchon reported that Russian ships had shadowed the Turkish fleet, interfered with its exercises and opened fire first. The official communiqué in Constantinople claimed that the Russians had intended to mine the entrance to the Bosporus and destroy the Turkish fleet without a declaration of war. The story of a Russian provocation was dismissed in the Entente capitals as an invention, but in Turkey many believed it.

Consequences

The news of the attack caused a shock in Constantinople. The Grand Vizier insisted that he had known nothing, and at stormy cabinet meetings the opponents of war still tried to undo what had happened. Several ministers, among them the Minister of Finance Cavid Bey, resigned. Enver made sure, however, that the note sent to Russia, instead of apologising, put the blame on the Russians.

The Entente responded quickly. On 30 October the ambassadors of Russia, Britain and France asked for their passports, on 2 November Russia declared war on Turkey, and on 5 November Britain and France followed. The Ottoman Empire formally proclaimed a state of war on 11 November, and three days later a holy war against the Entente powers was proclaimed in the Sultan’s name. The raid on the Russian ports opened new fronts: in the Caucasus, in Mesopotamia, on the Suez Canal and at the Dardanelles.