On Secret Service East of Constantinople: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire

by Peter Hopkirk

Under the banner of a Holy War, masterminded in Berlin and unleashed from Constantinople, the Germans and the Turks set out in 1914 to foment violent revolutionary uprisings against the British in India and the Russians in Central Asia. It was a new and more sinister version of the old Great Game, with world domination as its ultimate aim.

Here, told in epic detail and for the first time, is the true story behind John Buchan's classic wartime thriller Greenmantle, recounted through the adventures and misadventures of the secret agents and others who took part in it. It is an ominously topical tale today in view of the continuing turmoil in this volatile region where the Great Game has never really ceased.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Espionage, World War I, Thriller, Middle East, Historical

494 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Peter Hopkirk was born in Nottingham, the son of Frank Stewart Hopkirk, a prison chaplain, and Mary Perkins. He grew up at Danbury, Essex, notable for the historic palace of the Bishop of Rochester. Hopkirk was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford. The family hailed originally from the borders of Scotland in Roxburghshire where there was a rich history of barbaric raids and reivers hanging justice. It must have resonated with his writings in the history of the lawless frontiers of the British Empire. From an early age he was interested in spy novels carrying around Buchan's Greenmantle and Kipling's Kim stories about India. At the Dragon he played rugby, and shot at Bisley.

Before turning full-time author, he was an ITN reporter and newscaster for two years, the New York City correspondent of Lord Beaverbrook's The Sunday Express, and then worked for nearly twenty years on The Times; five as its chief reporter, and latterly as a Middle East and Far East specialist. In the 1950s, he edited the West African news magazine Drum, sister paper to the South African Drum. Before entering Fleet Street, he served as a subaltern in the King's African Rifles in 1949 – in the same battalion as Lance-Corporal Idi Amin, later to emerge as a Ugandan tyrant.

Hopkirk travelled widely over many years in the regions where his six books are set – Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and eastern Turkey.

He sought a life in dangerous situations as a journalist, being sent to Algeria to cover the revolutionary crisis in the French colonial administration. Inspired by Maclean's Eastern Approaches he began to think about the Far East. During the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961 he was based in New York covering the events for the Express. No stranger to misadventure, Hopkirk was twice arrested and held in secret police cells, once in Cuba, where he was accused of spying for the US Government. His contacts in Mexico obtained his release. In the Middle East, he was hijacked by Arab terrorists in Beirut, which led to his expulsion. The PLO hijacked his plane, a KLM jet bound for Amsterdam at the height of the economic oil crises in 1974. Hopkirk confronted them and persuaded the armed gang to surrender their weapons.

His works have been officially translated into fourteen languages, and unofficial versions in local languages are apt to appear in the bazaars of Central Asia. In 1999, he was awarded the Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal for his writing and travels by the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.[3] much of his research came from the India Office archives, British Library, St Pancras.

Hopkirk's wife Kathleen Partridge wrote A Traveller's Companion to Central Asia, published by John Murray in 1994 (ISBN 0-7195-5016-5).

Hopkirk died on 22 August 2014 at the age of 83.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My limited understanding of WWI, was ‘the tenches’. How little I know.

Sneaky plots and double-dealings across the deserts of Central Asia and all done to fell the British: they nearly pulled it off.

Courage and wit beyond measure, on both sides.

The telling of this saga is wonderful; rich in detail and utterly thrilling.

It leaves a girl’s heart all a flutter.

To think of what these boys willingly endured, all simply out of duty to the nation, is breathtaking.

A friend of the family, was ‘once a pilgrim’. I shall be pulling a pint for the boy, sitting on his knee, and insisting he tells me all.

This is a humdinger of a thriller. It took me into the unknown.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with 'The Great Game', again, a thrilling read.

[Geevee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast paced and very illuminating book on the Turko-German plan to use Holy War to foment revolution and disruption to India and the Middle East.

Mr Hopkirk again - as in his earlier book The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia - weaves high politics and strategy with espionage and battles ably telling the story using accounts and details from those who were there.

Although having read much on WWI including the side-shows of Mespot, Gallipoli and East Africa I learnt much on the involvement and actions of Britain, Turkey, Russia and of course Germany in the high plains and mountains of Afghanistan, Persia (Iran), Mesopotamia (Iraq) and modern day former Soviet republics as plot and counter plot came to bear or fail alongside battles and actions some of high stakes that I'd read little or nothing on.

Highly recommended for all those interested in WWI and indeed on how the Great Game continued to be played throughout the war even if the old jousting partners of Russia and Britain ended up on the same side.

To close and as a taster I'd direct people to the link here to read about a young man who appears in the book and yet I'd not heard of him at all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald...

The painting in the Wikipedia article was done to deliberately show British officers at the massacre when in fact there were none present, nor had they instigated or indeed planned any part of it...but to find out more let Mr Hopkirk guide you through the exciting and treacherous waters of being On Secret Service East of Constantinople.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do believe my reading of 'Greenmantle' would have been greatly enhanced had I read this before tother.
I don't dare to detract from either; they are both jolly sumptuous reads.
I've a sense with this under my belt, I'd have enjoyed a more richer flavour when devouring 'Greenmantle'.
I highly recommend both.

[Poppy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book, ‘The Great Game’, which I now believe was Peter Hopkirk’s first, I found breathtaking. I learnt of the dueling between Britain and Russia across Central Asian just prior to WW1.
This, which again I knew nothing of before reading, describes the contest between Britain/Russia and Germany that was enacted during the First War. The Germans wanting to incite Holy War against both the British and the Russians: instil unrest within the Muslim tribes and give better chance of invading India, wanting to divert forces from the European conflict and weaken resolve.
Cunning of them: the author does paint them, the Germans, as the out-and-out baddies in this.
This, like ‘The Great Game’, is full of adventure, daring and characters willing to pit their strength, wit and courage to further their nation’s aims.
I’ll now read, ‘Greenmantle’ a novel based on these happenings.
This was fab.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible tale and reads like a fiction thriller.

The events recorded here were a complete unknown to me.

Great stuff.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me nearly a month to read this book! I could only read and absorb about one chapter a day. This is certainly not recreational reading. I learned so much, I wouldn't know where to begin. Peter Hopkirk is a master historian and an excellent writer. This is the second book of his that I've read, and I look forward to reading more.

It's way beyond the scope of a review like this to try and tell about what's in this book. It's full of history and treachery and war and spy craft and double crossers.

During WWI, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany sought to ally with Turkey and all the other Muslim nations in the region against England. He had visions of world domination, and wanted a direct railroad route from Germany to India so he could wrest it from the British. That's how the book starts, but then it covers so many fronts that it's hard to keep track of who's doing what and who's on which side. That's what a world war is all about. Fascinating book if you have the interest and the patience to work through it.

I highly recommend Peter Hopkirk. I'm not a history buff. Many history narratives are dry and far too detailed and hard to read. Hopkirk is an exception.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great and thrilling account of how the Germans tried to stoke up trouble for the British by creating a a holy war between their arch adversary and the muslim world.

Exciting stuff.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hopkirk was a good author. He was very British, and very detailed in parts of his narrative histories that interested him. This book was the second in his The Great Game books. It falls in between The Great Game and Setting the East Ablaze . It adds to the body of knowledge on the WWI espionage and the Central Powers' attempts at creating insurgencies in the Middle east and the subcontinent by the Imperial Germans against the British. It also discusses the low-level conflict in the Caucasus region after the collapse of Imperial Russia. Along the way, Hopkirk also provides insight into the region and its numerous peoples in the early years of the 20th Century.

My dead tree copy was a healthy 450-pages. The original UK copy write was 1994. Different sections of the book went fast and slow. Hopkirk covers a lot of territory, some sections were of more interest to me, and other regions were more of an interest to him.

Peter Hopkirk was a narrative historian of the British Empire in India and Central Asia. He passed in 2014.

Hopkirk was an accomplished writer like most Oxford educated Britons. His prose was clean and easily understandable British English. I suspect his early career as a journalist taught him how to convey the maximum amount of information with the fewest words. Likewise, his histories can be more akin to journalistic stories than historical non-fiction. In addition, his original Oxford University Press produces very well edited and proofread books.

This was an intermediate-level work on the: end of the Great Game, WWI in the Middle east and Central Asia. Having a general knowledge of WW I, and particularly the history of the Middle East Theater would be needed to completely leverage its contents.

This was very much a British history. The majority of anecdotes and excerpts from correspondence, diaries, and biographies were British. However, some German and Russian historical sources have also been incorporated into the book. The author disdains Soviet Russians sources as being propaganda. He believes Russian Imperial sources are more credible. Missing were: Turkish, Persian (now Iran) and Afghan sources.

This book was a blend of military and diplomatic history, including the clandestine activities of the Central Powers and the Allies. The Central Power’s goal was to cripple the British war effort. They would do this by isolating or causing India to leave the empire by fomenting revolution. A secondary goal was territory acquisition at the expense of the Allies. The military history was at the operational level . Overall military strategy within the northern Middle Eastern theater is reasonably well covered. The northern Middle Eastern theater would include Mesopotamia, and central Asia including parts of the Russian Empire. Strategy and operations within the southern portion of the theater gets short shrift. The southern Middle Eastern theater would include Palestine, and the Arabian Peninsula. Diplomatic history receives better attention. There are good descriptions of the people and their motivations for destabilizing the Muslim Middle East to threaten British India. The character studies of the folks influencing the course of events: British, German, Russian, Turkish, Persian, Afghan and Indian were good. Descriptions of British, German, Russian, Turkish ‘players’ were better than the rest. In addition, the politics of the German and Turkish Central Powers gets more attention than the Allies. British politics are covered well enough, if you're already familiar with them. The politics and political organization of the multi-ethnic and tribal Persia, Afghanistan and Caucasus region was well laid out. Politics of the Russian Revolution gets more attention than the late empire period.

The author root causes the WW 1 to The Kaiser , an autocrat surrounded by sycophants. The Kaiser saw the destruction of four (4) empires: Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Imperial Russian, and Imperial German. With Enver Pasha he brought the Ottoman’s into the war with the Central Powers. German diplomatic missions and agents provocateur infiltrated countries on the border of British India with the missions of inciting revolution and guerrilla action against the British under the guise of a Muslim Holy War. Britain was involved in direct military action against the Ottoman’s, counter-insurgencies against the German armed and financed ‘Freedom Fighters’ in the Middle east, Central Asia and India surroundings. Both sides violated weaker states neutrality. I found the British operations in Russia after the collapse of the Russian Empire and during the revolution to be particularly well done. In addition, the author took great pleasure in describing the adventures of the T. E. Lawrence-like characters on both the German and British sides-- of which there were several. They operated in a wilderness amongst medieval populations or in the middle of shooting revolutions. The detailed descriptions of their covert missions read like thriller-type novels. When I grow up, I want to be a 19th Century British Intelligence Officer.

The book was mixed in its use of pictures and maps. The included pictures were good. They were mostly of the major personalities. I would have liked to have seen some current photographs of existing locations. The use of maps was poor. There were a total of four (4) large scale maps. There were a lot of place names in the narrative. Period place names were used in the maps. The borders and place names have changed (or been modernized) in the past 100 years. Even the topography has changed. I found it difficult to use a modern atlas to follow the story or to get a high resolution picture of the terrain at key points in it. More and better maps would have been helpful.

The book assumes a historical background on the period and region. It was somewhat balanced in its narration, but there was a British bias. I found it very readable. I've already read several books on the WW 1. The book added a lot to my understanding of the non-military aspect of the war in Central Asia, Caucasus, and territories surrounding India. I found it a worthy read for those interested in how Fifth columns and counter-insurgency in the early part of the 20th Century operated.

Readers interested in an introduction to WW1 in the Middle east might try The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East (my review). Hopkirk has written extensively on the region, and his work was very readable. I intend to read the next book he wrote on the region Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin's Dream of an Empire in Asia.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Hopkirk impresses. I can't imagine the lengths her read to in order to write such an account. The whole idea of life in the hills spying the land takes my breath; the spies were a high-calibre of 'explorers' and although back in those days folk back home would probably shrug in acceptance of these adventurers and the adventures they embarked upon whereas today it strikes me as we're now so meek and mild their exploits bring a feeling of awe.

An amazing read and I will read this again.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a want to read thrillers, I never thought I'd become so keen on history [I think it's pigeon-holed as Modern-European History]. I'll also accept Peter Hopkirk is rather good at wording his knowledge in a most exciting manner. However, this is a THRILLING read about thrilling events played out by thrilling people.

[Janet H Swinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely cracking read. The book gives an account of Germany's 'drive to the East' under the command of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the aim being to destabilise the British Empire,even if this meant forming an unholy alliance with the Muslim Turks. I learned a lot, for example about the Berlin to Bhagdad railway; about the young Turks rise to power, and about the Battle of Sarikamish in the mountains of North Eastern Turkey, where Enver Pasha's pig-headedness led to the loss of thousands of his own troops. I have also remembered a fair bit, which is a tribute to the author's absolutely lucid style and masterly command of a wealth of information. It's enough to make me wonder what on earth they taught us at school that was masquerading as History. My one quibble is that the tale dribbles away a bit at the end with an account of what happened to a single British officer. This didn't seem to be in keeping with the broader brush approach that had been taken up till then.
This book has inspired me to want to track down two feature films about the Battle of Sarikamish.Well worth reading!

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched, well-written, and very readable work.

Hopkirk tells the colorful stories of German attempts to foment a jihad among the British empire’s Muslim subjects. He also tells the story of some German-backed Indian revolutionaries, of British intervention in Russia’s civil war, and the Caucasus in the Great War. The portraits of the people involved are vivid and colorful, though the British ones feel more fleshed out than the German ones.

The narrative is strong, accessible and insightful, though it can meander a bit. The narrative jumps around somewhat, and the different stories don’t always feel cohesive. Some of them feel more like introductions than full treatments. The text also lacks endnotes. The perspectives of the local peoples are mostly a cipher throughout the book, while the Turks are portrayed as almost cartoonishly evil.

Hans von Wangenheim is called “Konrad” at one point. Also, at one point Hopkirk writes that the capture of Wilhelm Wassmuss’s codebook in Persia helped the British decrypt the Zimmerman Telegram. Reginald Hall did claim this, but the Telegram was encrypted with a completely different cipher.

A well-researched, compelling and engaging work, if a bit unevenly paced.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple weeks ago I caught a bad end-of-winter cold, the perfect excuse for holing up on the weekend with a good book, ideally something completely engaging but not too taxing – and so I grabbed Hopkirk's history of British/German/Turkish/Russian shenanigans during World War I off the shelf. It was as satisfying as his other books on the permutations of the Great Game between Britain and Russia.

In this book his focus is on Kaiser Wilhelm's hopes of inciting jihad against the British, replacing their empire in the Middle East with his own. Hopkirk's wide cast of characters is, as usual, fantastic, starting with Wilhelm himself and concluding with British agents of daring-do scrambling around Persia and the Caspian Sea, tangling with Turks, Persians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Bolsheviks, Afghanis, as well as with German agents as wily as themselves. Hugely entertaining tales, the stuff of history and fiction (John Buchan's Greenmantle), and the distant origin of the political nightmares that still bedevil the Middle East and Central Asia. Hopkirk has made this remote corner of history his own.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent three years studying European History-Medieval to Modern. An entire block was devoted to WW1: the causes, events and key figures in the lead up to and eventual breakout of war. No mention of a Holy War in Europe during late 19th and early 20th C. and German perfidy (hands up, we are as guilty as they'll ever be). I’m tempted to ask for my money back. I spent two years studying Counter-Terrorism, not a thing mentioned about a Holy War in Europe during late 19th and early 20th C and the terrorism waged by Germany in support of their notions of stealing India from 'The Empire'. I was of the belief Europe’s wars of religion came to an end long before that. This book is an eye-opener and I am so glad to have picked it up. Any thoughts on the research behind this work are mind-boggling. I recommend this to anyone with an eye on what went on in modern Europe and why we are where we are. I’ve read Mr Hopkirk’s, ‘The Great Game’ and was more than impressed. This takes the biscuit.

[Jimp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read. Daring, devil may care, duty calls, empire before all else, exploits. A not so well known part of history that reads like a thriller.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am captivated by this chapter in our history: I can see why it is termed 'The Great Game'. I accept the hook is mostly the author's wordsmithmanship, even so 'the game' was played out by some incredible characters.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's cracking. Rushed in, raced through the pages, hit the brakes, hard, went back to the start line and slowly consumed the goodies on offer.

Brilliant read: deserves all the attention. I'm fast becoming a fan.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

More gripping storytelling. I'm happy to accept it's all true however, this has everything needed to make a Hollywood blockbuster.

The author has a gift in his telling and I'm becoming hooked on what went at that time: a three-way fencing match between Britain, Russia and Germany.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this is the first time I have read one of the author's books, I should note that he is a well-regarded historian with expertise in writing about the "Great Game" between Russia and the United Kingdom over control of Central Asia, the subject of one of his previous books.  Although my interest in World War I history is perhaps broader than most [1], there was a lot in this book that I was not aware of and I found this book to be very helpful in looking at the reasons why the twentieth century (and so far the twenty-first century) have seen such a scourge of political Islam.  While British diplomacy (see the Balfour Declaration) has traditionally been blamed for this, the author manages to show that the Germans bear some heavy responsibility as well in attempting to inflame the people of the Middle East and Central Asia against European and American powers.  This book is like finding missing pieces of a puzzle one might have been only half aware of, and that makes for pretty remarkable reading.

As a volume, this book is a sizable one at 400 pages, and is certainly no read to simply race through.  The prose is gripping, but the author focuses on a few stories rather than attempting to give the same level of detail for the whole period of World War I.  The book opens with a discussion of how it was that the Ottoman Empire, under the rule of some particularly wicked Sultans and the Young Turks, dropped their historic alliance with Great Britain and chose to ally itself somewhat tepidly with Germany.  The book spends a lot of time talking about the importance of various secret agents and their missions in diplomacy, views Afghanistan as an important power broker in the Middle East, and also has a lot to say about the rise of communism and the efforts to contain it.  The author shows himself to be clear-eyed about the historical sins of the people of the Middle East and the Caucasus and does not dwell on the Armenian genocide as much as one would expect given the focus of the book.  Overall, though, this book reads like source material for spy novels aplenty, and readers who have an interest in diplomatic and military history as well as espionage will find a lot of material here of great interest and perhaps even literary inspiration.

The subtitle of this book is at least a little bit misleading.  The first part of the book, to be sure, focuses on the attempts of Germany and the Turks to bring down the British Empire, and also spends a lot of time discussing skulduggery with various Indian nationalists, but the rest of the book focuses on the efforts of able and daring British agents to try to salvage something out of the destruction of Tsarist Russia and the temporary, if dramatic, gains of Germany and Turkey in the region.  Ultimately, the fate of Central Asia and the Middle East during the latter part of World War I depended on a few people who sought to preserve the British position under extreme duress as well as the events that went on outside of the region that brought the United States into war alongside the Entente Powers--Zimmerman comes of particularly poorly here--and brought the Central Powers to their knees after four years of titanic struggle.  This book shines a light on a small part of that struggle, in an area of the world where World War I proved to be immensely significant but not well understood.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

[Hazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thrilling read. I read it twice.

[Mike Winters · Rating 4 out of 5]

A follow-on from 'The Great Game' by the same author.

Still an utterly absorbing read and adds to little I knew of this time.

[Claire Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading Greenmantle years and years ago. I'm not sure I was too taken by it, I will need to read it once again: I was at school at the time.
I am hugely taken by this book:
devious plotting by those dastardly Germans when trying to wrestle our hard-earned Empire from our sticky-mitts; how dare they?
I got such a thrill from this, it is told so well. Spying as I never imagined spying.
I can recall, spying being talked of as the oldest or second oldest profession and never really thought of it as anymore than a glib remark.
History told in such a way that you become captured by the thought of how these brave and resourceful 'defenders of their nation' survived.
I cannot imagine what it must have been like to live in such circumstances; I become flustered reading of their exploits - I get the impression these gallant adventurers were far more excited by the thrill of it all than ever in fear of their lives.

[Abhineet Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant book about the events which culminated in the war for the control of Baku. Brave individuals who live for the thrill adore this narrative.

Some highlights and my comments:

Constantinople not Istanbul, Tiflis not Tbilisi, Erzerum not Erzurum, Persia not Iran, Mesopotamia not Iraq, Transcaspia not Turkmenistan.

But on one thing all were agreed. Eventually, even if sovereignty remained nominally in the Sultan’s hands, ‘Germany’s India’ could be created amid the ruins of his empire. Bismarck himself would have no part in these grandiose schemes, however, and gave the expansionists little encouragement or help

In 1907 the two countries signed a treaty — the Anglo-Russian Convention - which settled their ancient differences, and finally brought the Great Game to an end.

In the summer of 1911, the head of the Indian Secret Service, Sir Charles Cleveland, warned the government that his men had uncovered a mysterious and dangerous conspiracy aimed at overthrowing British rule in India. ‘Like some hidden fire’, he told a gathering of defence chiefs in Simla, this seditious movement was spreading across the country If extinguished in one place, it immediately flared up in another. The conspirators, he said, were not the usual agitators and hotheads, who were well known to the authorities and carefully watched. These men were highly intelligent and well organised. While maintaining absolute secrecy, they carried out assassinations, bombings and armed robberies - to obtain funds - the length and breadth of India. It all appeared to be part of a skilfully orchestrated overall strategy directed against the British Raj. As to who was behind it, he was unable to say. ‘My own impression’, he told his audience, ‘is that it is directed and controlled by one great intellect - but whoseV As those present were aware, Cleveland’s reputation for uncovering native conspiracies, and sending the plotters to the gallows, was legendary. ‘His flair’, a colleague once observed, ‘was amazing. His genius for solving problems was[…]
—>
How the Raj portrays his enemies? “Sending to the gallows is legendary” is how they call these monsters’ thirst for violence against the inferior natives.

The evil genius is Veer Savarkar.

—>
This entire chapter is beautiful.


The cold-blooded murder of Curzon Wyllie naturally sent a shockwave through the British Establishment. The assassin’s victim was known to be a kindly man, much concerned over the welfare of Indian students in London, and such rank ingratitude seemed utterly incomprehensible.
—>
What crap! Curzon was one of the worst monsters out there. Peter and his white men burden syndrome.


The evil genius behind these nefarious activities was a 27-year-old Hindu intellectual named Vinayak Savarkar, who was officially the hostel’s director

One editorial demanded that for every fresh outrage, twenty-five terrorist suspects should be hanged, while another called for political agitators to be ‘flogged in public by the town sweepers’. Only this, it was argued, would bring an end to terrorism.
—>
Ah! The cultured British.


Ghadr groups into action on the day of the uprising. Their battle-cry was to be ‘Maro Ferangi Ko\ or ‘Kill the English’.and 178 other ranks, plus wounded and prisoners. He certainly deserved to have far heavier losses than even the British estimate, and Sir John Maxwell, Commander-in-Chief in Egypt, was widely criticised for allowing the Turks to escape across the desert with all their guns, instead of destroying them as they fled.
—>
Benign rule!


it was hardly surprising that the ‘regiments of peasants’ whom the Ghadr leaders had expected to flock to join the insurrection also failed to materialise.
Everything that the British state was right, and that the other party did was wrong. If the British were really not worried about the regiment of peasants, why did they bother so much about curbing this movement?

For some months now, it will be recalled, German agents and Indian revolutionaries had been secretly purchasing large quantities of small arms from dealers across the United States, a country then still not at war. At the same time, using German secret service funds, two vessels — the schooner Annie Larsen and the tanker Maverick — had been acquired for shipping the weapons across the Pacific to a rendezvous in the Far East. From there they would be smuggled into India, where revolutionary groups were eagerly awaiting their delivery. Unlike the earlier uprising in the Punjab, when impatient Ghadr leaders had struck prematurely, before arms could be got to them, this one was masterminded from Berlin as part of Germany’s overall war strategy, and as such enjoyed the full support of the Kaiser’s intelligence services. The uprising, which aimed at seizing control of Calcutta, from where it would spread to every town and village in India, was timed for Christmas Day 1915, when it was reasoned that the British would be engaged in merry-making, and would therefore be caught off their guard. Ideally, it would coincide with the entry of both Afghanistan and Persia into the Holy War, or so[…]

voyage across the Pacific to the Far East. On the island of Java, in the neutral Dutch East Indies, they would once more be off-loaded. Awaiting them there would be a number of small fishing boats chartered by the German consul for the final leg of their journey — delivery into the hands of the revolutionaries nicely in time for the Christmas bloodbath. Such then was the top-secret plan worked out between Berlin and those on the spot.

Then there were the arms for wThich the Indian revolutionaries were currently negotiating in China. The nationalists there had offered them a million rifles they no longer needed at $10 apiece. However, a German expert who had examined some of these dismissed them as antiquated and virtually useless.
—>
The Chinese have always had a quality problem.

When, in December 1916, the British were ready once more to advance up the Tigris towards Kut and Baghdad, it was with a far more formidable army than that led by the unfortunate Townshend. For a start, with 150,000 men, it was many times larger. But equally important it was commanded, not by a soldier whose experience was limited to Indian frontier campaigns, but by one of the finest fighting generals in the British Army, Sir Stanley Maude, who had earned his spurs in action in the Sudan, the Boer War, at Gallipoli and on the Western Front.
—>
How surprising? even if the best of British channels have worked in the Indian subcontinent, they are so far compared to the British generals who have worked elsewhere. The racism espoused by the author has no end..

—>
Ludendorff’s offensive, employing more than sixty divisions, including those now switched from the Russian front, was directed principally against the British army, which he judged to be the most vulnerable.
Yeah. The author does not want to critique the British army. Has this been the Indian army, he would have used a great selection of expletives.


What should have been a decisive victory, leading eventually to the capture of Merv, had been turned into a costly failure by the craven and rapacious Transcaspians and Turcomans. Even so, for the Bolsheviks it had proved considerably more costly, for they were estimated to have lost at least 1,000 troops, and large quantities of weapons and ammunition, in those five or six hours of fighting.
—>
Let’s blame everyone but the British officers

[Bubba · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's not to like. The overall narrative involves Imperial German and Ottoman attempts to harness militant Islam against the British and Russian Empires in Asia during the First World War. Though allies, the Germans and Ottomans had separate and sometimes conflicting foreign policy aims. Germany sought to use Indian revolutionaries to stir up insurrection in Britain's key colony so as to distract her in war time, while trying to enlist Persia and Afghanistan to achieve the same ends. Their efforts in Persia also included the exploits of Wassmuss, the "German Lawrence," who did his best to stir up revolt among Persian tribes in the British sphere of influence along the Persian Gulf. Some in Germany also saw the provinces of the decaying Ottoman Empire as suitable future colonies or pseudo-colonies ripe for economic penetration (Berlin-Baghdad Railway, etc.)Meanwhile, Enver Pasha, chief member of the Young Turk triumvirate, hoped to spread the Ottoman Empire into the Russian-held Caucasus and Central Asia, with fatwas and daring military campaigns. Both of these thrusts to the East ultimately failed, and with the collapse of the war both Imperial Germany and the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist.

Hopkirk does an excellent job of seamlessly weaving together various narratives of this era together, including: the Russian revolution and subsequent civil war in the Caucasus and Central Asia (including the British and Ottoman interventions in these areas); the Armenian Genocide of 1915; the Zimmerman telegram, it's connection with Wassmuss, and it's role in bringing the U.S. into the war; the siege of Kut; the "Christmas Day Plot" in British India; the Battle of Baku; and the murder of the 26 Soviet commissars in Transcaspia.

This is my favorite era in history, and Hopkirk deals with all my favorite regions (Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia...and even Mexico). My only criticism is that Hopkirk's narrative tends to wander from his original purpose near the end. that is, he ceases talking about attempts to ignite a holy war, and spends the last several chapters talking about British intervention in the Russian civil war. I certainly don't mind reading those chapter, it's good stuff, but somewhat off-track.

[Mick · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're familiar with Hopkirk's work you know roughly what to expect from this book. If not, this is a fascinating exploration of a relatively unknown power struggle between the great powers in Central Asia at the turn of the 20th century. Hopkirk's signature style combines strong scholarship with an easily read style that resembles an old adventure novel, which makes the end product very readable even for those unfamiliar with the subject. This is as true of On Secret Service East of Constantinople: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire as it is of his other books such as The Great Game: the Struggle for Empire in Central Asia and Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret Exploration of Tibet, and it is definitely recommended.

[Simon Bendle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Hopkirk takes a madly complicated subject – a German plot to incite rebellion in British India during the First World War – and produces an exciting and thoroughly readable history. The bulk of the action takes place in an unfamiliar part of Central Asia that is now Turkmenistan. German spies, fierce Turks, brave Brits and warlike Cossacks abound. And towards the end the mad Bolsheviks turn up to complicate things still further. At times, perhaps inevitably, it can all get a little overwhelming. But a cracking read nonetheless; a book to admire and enjoy.

[Jlnpeacock Peacock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredible story thus far. I am reading this before Buchan's "Greenmantle." The time period is prior to WWI and following. Although this was written as a documentary, it reads as beautifully as any novel. Mr. Hopkirk writes in a captivating manner while supplying valuable details and information. It is well worth the time to be better educated about this time period. I look forward to the reading of "Greenmantle."

[Sicofonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Hidden Fire: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire picks up where The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia ends in early Twentieth century Central Asia / Middle East. Having been entertained by their Asian quarrels, the British and Russian Empires haven't paid attention to the trouble that is brewing in continental Europe.
The second half of the Nineteenth century saw the unification of many duchies and principalities into a single German state. Such new country wasted no time in implement their own imperial ambitions, as everyone else in Europe at the time was doing.
The process is accelerated by Kaiser Wilhelm II, monarch with delusional dreams of establishing an Empire that would reach, then called, Mesopotamia (nowadays Irak). This would lead to Germany to establish ties with the Ottoman Empire, if only as a relationship of mutual interest as at the time the Ottoman Empire was backwards and barely held together. At the time, this policy of expansion to the East became known as Drang nach Osten. Among other projects, the Germans wanted to build a railway from Berlin to Baghdad in order to compete against the British Empire commercially in the region. It goes without saying, this in turn excited the Britons' old fear of someone else scheming against British India and having other more aggressive intentions than trading.

The struggle would come to a head with WWI. And it is in this period that this book develops most of its narrative, as German sought to unleash a Muslim Holy War against British domains in Central Asia. Names such as Wilhelm Wassmuss, Oskar von Niedermeyer, Werner von Hentig, Hans von Wagenheim are long forgotten in history. These were the people who conspired to entice the Muslim in Central Asia to turn against the British in the vain hope it would alleviate Germany's Western Front.

As war progressed and the Russian revolution took place, Germany became less of a concern as it weakened. For the British, the newly established Bolshevik government became another problem. Large Central Asian regions belonging the the former Russian Empire got embroiled in turmoil and disorder. This presented an excellent opportunity for the Turks and Enver Pasha's (de-facto dictator of the Ottoman Empire) dreams of a Pan-Turkic Empire extending to the East. It was now the turn of the British to conspire themselves against Soviet Russia to fill the void created by the revolution and prevent the Turks from getting hold of key areas such as the oil fields of Baku, in Azerbaijan. Ranald MacDonell and Reginald Teague-Jones were two of the most prominent British agents in the region at the time, and their exploits are told in detail in this book.

All in all, Like Hidden Fire makes for another compelling read by Peter Hopkirk. A lot has been said and written about WWI, but Hopkirk managed to bring to life and make justice to one key theater of war in that conflict. Outside the main narrative, there's an interesting analysis in the first quarter of the book explaining the origin and evolution of Drang nach Osten. Which tenets are eerily similar to what Nazism would proclaim and implement 30 years later after the WWI ended.

The book nonetheless is not perfect. There are times where the narrative jumps back and forth, and the last number of chapters focus too much, in my view, of the events that took place in Baku in 1918-1919. So the narrative goes beyond a "plot to bring down British Empire". I can see how Hopkirk felt compelled to include it in the book as the developments the tells were indeed hair-raising.

When I read this book I was immersed in a personal goal of reading the so-called "Great Game Trilogy". Although I think that's how readers refer to The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin's Dream of an Empire in Asia and Like Hidden Fire: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire. I read the books in chronological order by publication date. Mistake!
Something I have come to appreciate is that the Great Game exists in a continuum of sorts. It didn't end with the 1907 Anglo-Russian entente, it certainly still exists these days (see what happened in Afghanistan occupation force in 2021).
So I dare to suggest, that it is perhaps a better idea to read the three books in the following order:
1. The Great Game (tells the story from 1800s to 1907)
2. Like Hidden Fire (picks up around mids 1800s and ends in 1919)
3. Setting the East Ablaze (picks up in 1919 and goes all the way 'till WW2)

[Jem · Rating 4 out of 5]

As said in my previous review: More from Mr Hopkirk. History on steroids..... I'm fast becoming a fan of Peter Hopkirk, his books are exciting.