From the Western Front to the Heights of Ankara

Abstract

The Defence in Depth tactical doctrine was developed by the German Army during the First World War in order to overcome the increasing French and British offensive capability on the Western Front. This article attempts to analyse how the Turkish High Command accepted and implemented the German Defence in Depth doctrine as a guiding principle during the defensive and pivotal Battle of Sakarya (1921) as a part of the 1919–1922 war with Greece. Despite the sudden change of tactical doctrine and lack of experience, the Turkish Army successfully employed it, and the new tactics proved instrumental in the Turkish victory. Although the Germans designed this concept for trench warfare, the Battle of Sakarya proved that it could also be applied, with some modification, to a war of manoeuvre.