Alexander
Normal guy with limited brain power Feb 6

What are the most mind-blowing tricks used during any war?
During the Palestine campaign of World War 1, the British and Ottomans
were deadlocked in a trench-warfare stalemate. The progression was
extremely slow.

One day, the British learned that the Ottomans had run out of
cigarettes. To try and demoralize the enemy, they sent cigarettes
wrapped in propaganda to the Ottomans. As a response to this, the
Ottomans threw away the propaganda and smoked the cigarettes anyway.

This is when the fun begins:

The British noticed this behavior, and made and extremely smart move.
Before a scheduled raid, the British sent more cigarettes…laced with heroin!

Needless to say they faced little resistance during the assault.

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Comments include

Roger Moran
· Feb 13
Sweet! What a good lesson for anyone who has to deal with an
insufferable enemy. All is fair in love and war

Ahmet Ozgen
· Sun
After some fun on an imaginary event now the time for truth. Turks were
repelling all British assaults against Gaza without difficulty. But
after the flanking operations of British cavalry at the left flank of
Turkish forces Gaza defenders were without supply and no chance o to
retreat then left arms and surrender. My granddad were there in those
troops as a private and surrendered to British forces. Eventually sent
to Cyprus POW camp. He was telling us couldn’t understand - after many
years of war- why suddenly trumpets sounded to cease fire and surrender
while troops were repelling Brits at that time.

Ahmet Ozgen
· Feb 9
This should be wrong. Ottomans were the most productive and famous
country with their famous tobacco, so there should be no shortage of
tobacco to smoke but except all other needs.

Nathan Thomas
· Feb 13
The British commonly dropped packets of cigarettes and other things with
a typical pamphlet saying you should surrenderer for all these good
reasons ect.

Michael Sander
· Feb 12
Soldiers in trenches don't give a shit. They want something to escape
in, and the flag on the fags don't matter

Mike Brown
· Feb 13
Have you a reference for this? The Sinai and Palestine campaign page on
Wikipedia does not mention it, nor does the Egypt and Palestine campaign
page on the website of the National Army Museum.

Nathan Thomas
· Feb 13
November 1917, prior to a British attack in the Third Battle of Gaza,
Allenby ordered the airdrop of cigarettes laced with opium. It was
opium. And it didn't really play a role. Simple tactics won that battle.

On 21/02/2023 18:27, a425couple wrote:
> Alexander
> Normal guy with limited brain power Feb 6
>
> What are the most mind-blowing tricks used during any war?
> During the Palestine campaign of World War 1, the British and Ottomans
> were deadlocked in a trench-warfare stalemate. The progression was
> extremely slow.
>
> One day, the British learned that the Ottomans had run out of
> cigarettes. To try and demoralize the enemy, they sent cigarettes
> wrapped in propaganda to the Ottomans. As a response to this, the
> Ottomans threw away the propaganda and smoked the cigarettes anyway.
>
>

The reality is that Turkey was a major producer of Opium right into the
1970's and amongst their major customers until the beginning of WW1 was
the British pharmaceuticals industry

The war against Turkey was remarkable for how successful it was. An
Ottoman force launched an attack on the Sinai Peninsula attempting to
seize or destroy the Suez Canal - it failed

In Jan 1917 a newly formed British Expeditionat Force returned the
compliment, invading Egypt and advancing to Gaza and pushed on to
Jerusalem. This was an era when communications and road were primitive
and the BEF was small. Fittingly the climactic battle in Palestine was
fought and won at Meggido considered the site of Armageddon.

In the process 3 Ottoman armies were destroyed and their equipment lost.
Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo were seized. The Ottomans fought hard but
were pooely equipped and asked for an Armistice in October 1918 as the
old empire disintegrated into chaos due to famine induced by a British
Blockade. A shortage of cigarettes was the least of their problems.

Total British and Imperial losses were 12,873 killed/missing, 37,193
wounded, and 1,385 captured.

Total Ottoman losses were as best as can be tallied

Battle losses 15,364 KIA, 34,199 WIA, 10,069 MIA, 78,735 POW
Losses from illness were higher with 50,000 dying from illness

In total the best estimate of total Ottoman losses were 230,500
15,364 KIA, 10,069 MIA, 40,900 died of disease, 85,497 WIA/DOW, 78,735
Prisoners of War.

The POW's were mostly Ottoman but 3,000 Austro-German men and 206
Austro-German officers were also captured

In WW1 terms this was considered a side show.