Black Sea Raid (1914)

Black Sea Raid
Part of World War I
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 government in Istanbul was undecided. The Germanophile Ottoman War Minister, 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 into opening fire 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 apologise for the incident were botched by Enver. 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 desperately tried to secure an alliance with a great power before the outbreak of World War I in 1914, but almost all of their attempts ended in failure. 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 the war began). The July Crisis had now come to a breaking point and it appeared Germany would be fighting a two-front war with France and Russia. Hesitant to make any more significant military obligations, Wangenheim was authorised 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 offered Wangenheim the new battleship Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel in exchange for German protection. This was likely a clever ploy; United Kingdom officials, in order to bolster the Royal Navy to wage war against Germany, 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 government were unaware of this. Enver probably already knew of the seizure, since actually releasing the battleship to a foreign nation would have caused an uproar from the public and the government. Ambassador Wagenheim signed the treaty the next day, creating the secret Ottoman–German alliance.

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Wikipedia