Armies of the Greek-Turkish War 1919–22
Philip Jowett author Stephen Walsh illustrator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:20th Jul '15
£11.99
Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.
There are very few books in English to focus on the armies of the Eastern Mediterranean in the violent aftermath of World War I. With revealing illustrations and scrupulous detail, this volume offers a comprehensive guide to the appearance, organization, and history of the units that fought a war that would shape the political and ethnic map of the region to this day.
A guide to the armies that fought a devastating and decisive conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean between the two World Wars of the 20th century. Augmented with rare photographs and illustrations, this title explores the history, organization, and appearance of the armies, both guerilla and conventional, that fought in this bloody war.This is a comprehensive guide to the armies that fought a devastating and decisive conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean between the two World Wars of the 20th century. From the initial Greek invasion, designed to "liberate" the 100,000 ethnic Greeks that lived in Western Turkey and had done for centuries, to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's incredibly efficient formation of a national government and a regular army, this was a war that shaped the geopolitical landscape of the Mediterranean to this day. It gave birth to the modern Turkish state, displacing millions and creating bitter memories of atrocities committed by both sides. Augmented with very rare photographs and beautiful illustrations, this ground-breaking title explores the history, organization, and appearance of the armies, both guerilla and conventional, that fought in this bloody war.
In his introduction to the New Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War Sir Hew Strachan noted that warfare didn’t end neatly because an armistice was agreed with Germany on 11 November 1918, as many peripheral conflicts began or continued. This excellent booklet in the Osprey Men-at-Arms series covers one of these conflicts, the GreekTurkish War of 1919 to 1922 that led to the establishment of the modern Turkish state. Philip Jowett has packed in a great deal of information, while remaining eminently readable. He recounts the support that the Entente/Allied nations gave to Greece for its invasion of Anatolia and the parlous state of Turkish resistance. Once Allied support was reduced in 1921, on the return of Constantine to the Greek throne, it was only a matter of time before the Turkish Nationalists triumphed, under the leadership of Gallipoli hero Mustapha Kemal. British soldiers were sent to Thrace and Constantinople in late 1922 to help oversee the armistice and the peace treaty, including the resulting massive population movements that were a feature of the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, such as the ‘Armenian Genocide’. Jowett doesn’t ignore the widespread civilian atrocities but space doesn’t allow him to dwell on them. This is part of a series of Osprey booklets on near-eastern armies of the period, including one on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk by Edward Erikson, the American historian who has done much to open up later Ottoman archives. -- Ted Green * The Historian *
ISBN: 9781472806840
Dimensions: 248mm x 184mm x 5mm
Weight: 168g
48 pages