Black Sea Raid

Oil tanks in Novorossiysk harbour burn following bombardment

Date	October 29, 1914
Location	Black Sea 44°N 35°E / 44°N 35°E / 44; 35Coordinates: 44°N 35°E / 44°N 35°E / 44; 35
Result	Ottoman victory

Belligerents

Ottoman Empire

Russian Empire

Commanders and leaders

Wilhelm Souchon

Andrei Eberhardt

Strength

1 battlecruiser
1 light cruiser
1 protected cruiser
1 torpedo cruiser
4 destroyers
1 gunboat

Shore defences
1 pre-dreadnought
1 minelayer
1 gunboat
3 destroyers

Casualties and losses

1 battlecruiser damaged

1 minelayer scuttled
1 gunboat sunk
1 destroyer damaged
Numerous merchant vessels damaged or destroyed
Unknown human losses

The Black Sea Raid was an Ottoman naval sortie against Russian ports in the Black Sea on 29 October 1914, supported by Germany, that led to the Ottoman entry into World War I. The attack was conceived by Ottoman War Minister Enver Pasha, German Admiral Wilhelm Souchon and the German foreign ministry.

The German government had been hoping that the Ottomans would enter the war to support them but the Porte in Istanbul was undecided. The pro-German Enver Pasha began conspiring with the German ambassador to bring the empire into the war. Attempts to secure widespread support in the government failed, so Enver decided conflict would have to be instigated. With the help of the Ottoman naval minister and German Admiral Wilhelm Souchon, Enver arranged for the Ottoman fleet to go out to sea on 29 October supposedly to perform maneuvers. They were to provoke Russian vessels and then accuse them of inciting war. Instead, Souchon raided the Russian coast in a flagrant display of hostility, causing little lasting damage but enraging the Russians.

Attempts by anti-war officials in Istanbul to apologize for the incident were botched by Enver Pasha. The British quickly retaliated with naval attacks in the Dardanelles, the Russians declared war on 2 November, followed by the British and the French three days later. The Ottomans did not officially declare war until 11 November.

The Ottomans had been desperately trying to secure an alliance with a great power before the war in 1914, but most of their attempts failed. Even when the Germanophile Ottoman War Minister Enver Pasha directly proposed an alliance on 22 July to the German ambassador in Istanbul, Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim, he was turned down. Kaiser Wilhelm II overruled Wagenheim two days later, and an Ottoman draft for an alliance was delivered in Berlin on 28 July (the same day World War I began). The July Crisis had now come to a breaking point and it appeared Germany would be fighting a two-front war. Hesitant to make any more significant military obligations, Wangenheim was authorized by German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg to sign the agreement only if the Ottoman Empire would "undertake action against Russia worthy of its name." On 1 August, Enver Pasha offered Wangenheim the new battleship Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel in exchange for German protection. This was likely a clever ploy; the British had already seized Sultan Osman-ı Evvel and the battleship Reşadiye, which were under construction in their shipyards. Wagenheim and the majority of the Ottoman Porte were unaware of this. Enver probably already knew of the seizure, since actually releasing the battleship to a foreign nation would've caused an uproar in the public and the government. Ambassador Wagenheim signed the treaty the next day, creating the secret Ottoman–German alliance.

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Wikipedia