>>64471914
When war broke out in 1914, in order to give the Royal Navy a larger margin of forces over the German High Seas Fleet, the British seized two Ottoman battleships which had been under construction in British yards, for which the Turkroaches had completed payment and even had crews in the UK waiting to take delivery of the vessels back to Turkey. These ships had been paid for through subscriptions by the Ottoman public, including women donating their jewelry. The contract had a clause that allowed the British to do this without compensation to the Turkroaches. This is regarded as one of the reasons for why the Turks joined the Central Powers against the British, and what followed next:
>After the British Army surrendered at Kut (in modern day Iraq), in April 1916, the survivors were sent on a death march of 500 miles with little food and even less medical care. Of the 2,592 British rank and file taken prisoner at Kut, more than 1,700 died (nearly 70%) died in captivity. The only reason why the guards kept their charges alive was to rape them and during the course of the death march all of the POWs were repeatedly gang-raped.
>According to the book 'Battle on the Tigris' by Ron Wilcox, Officers reported stories of 'young solders of the Hampshire and Norfolk [regiment] being repeatedly buggered by Turkish soldiers and sick men being buried by the road while still alive'.
>One Australian who after return from captivity in 1921 went on a mad spree in Launceston (Tasmania) which ended with his taking his own life with a pistol. When the inquest was held his former commanding officer came from Melbourne to give evidence ad stated that he had been "due to his youth and appearance, a particular subject of foul abuses by certain Turkish guards."
Let this be a lesson for what happens if you do not honour a business agreement
