Posted on 07/07/2019 4:44:15 AM PDT by marktwain
| Rifles and flag used in the Picnic Train Attack by Muslims in Broken Hill Australia, 1 January, 1915 |
The sheikh’s declaration of a holy war, made two weeks later, urged Muslims all over the world–including in the Allied countries–to rise up and defend the Ottoman Empire, as a protector of Islam, against its enemies. “Of those who go to the Jihad for the sake of happiness and salvation of the believers in God’s victory,” the declaration read, “the lot of those who remain alive is felicity, while the rank of those who depart to the next world is martyrdom. In accordance with God’s beautiful promise, those who sacrifice their lives to give life to the truth will have honor in this world, and their latter end is paradise.”Australia was part of the British commonwealth, although it had been self-governing as a nation since 1901. At least two Muslims in Australia listened to the call to Jihad and took it seriously. They plotted an attack on a picnic train of Australians. The train was a holiday celebration of 1 January, 1915. The picture is of the actual train, shortly before the attack. The picture timing was verified by the distinctive automobile, its tires, and by a woman who was on the train and in the picture.
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| Picture from Railway Museum in Broken Hill, Australia |
Mullah Abdullah and Gool Mahomed had fled the scene on foot heading in a north east direction where they knocked on the door of a house near the Allendale Hotel on the corner of Jones and Morgan Streets to seek refuge. Some words were exchanged between the two men and the resident, 70 year old Thomas Campbell, which resulted in one of the men firing a shot at Campbell with the bullet passing through the side of his abdomen (Campbell survived). By this time the police had arrived and Abdullah and Mahomed ran off heading in the direction of their cameleer's camp and as they neared the Cable Hotel the two men came under fire from mounted Constable Robert Mills. Shots were exchanged between both parties and Constable Mills was injured, taking two bullets, one to the thigh and one in his groin. The police were forced to pull back and continue their pursuit from a distance enabling the two men time to take cover at a rocky outcrop of white quartz (White Rocks). Military men from the local base along with men from the rifle club joined in the combat. Police Inspector James Miller and Lieutenant Richard Resch were now present and gave instructions, an unrelenting tirade of bullets were fired at the two men who were hiding behind the rocks with both men returning fire. Civilian James Craig who was in his backyard at the time quickly became a victim during the conflict when a 'stray' bullet hit him in his abdomen from 500 yards away. Mr Craig was treated by a doctor on site and was later transported to the local hospital where he sadly passed away hours later as a result of his wound.The attackers knew this was a suicide mission. They expected to be killed. Both men came to Australia from areas now in modern Pakistan or Afghanistan, though from different tribes. Mohamed claimed previous military experience. It is likely both were experienced fighting men. They kept their pursuers at bay. They wounded a policeman and another civilian as they retreated. They took up a position with good cover (there were no aircraft available at the time) at the white rocks, for their final stand. I visited the site. The rocky outcrops rise about two feet above ground level, providing excellent cover against rifle fire (center top of picture).
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| The typist misspelled Snider in the identification at the Museum. |
The attack has many similarities to modern terrorist attacks by Muslims following jihad.
The attack was precipitated by a missive issued by a religious authority figure.
The attack was planned and executed independently of authority, using locally available materials and a soft target.
Police were informed of the planned attack, but did nothing because of lack of details. A concerned Muslim, Khan Bahader, told the police the men were planning an attack. He had accurately identified the two attackers by name. Police had not bothered to question the men.
The police were not able to provide sufficient response to overcome two riflemen.
Unlike most situations today, a combined force of police, military men, and armed civilians were mobilized to bring the attackers under fire.
The Muslim men had chosen a good hasty defensive position, but they lacked any resupply or reinforcement.
When examined, they each had multiple gunshot wounds. One was dead at the white rocks, the other died at the hospital.
While not noted in the historical record, I suspect the two Muslims had run out of ammunition.
It is noteworthy that rifle club members participated in the armed response. There were no calls for gun control after this attack.
The Ottoman Empire suffered a severe loss at the end of World War I. In the process, from 1915 to 1922, they murdered about a million Armenian Christians.
©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
I’ve been to Broken Hill. Lovely place. Always HOT.
those in power did not care then.
do not care now.
SSDD
Buy guns and ammo, folks.
JoMa
Today, any Aussie rifle club members who came armed to assist would be arrested.
I had not heard of this before! Something they didnt teach at school! I know there were many Afghan cameleers here at that time. A friends great great grandfather was an Afghan cameleer. He married an aboriginal girl. On the wedding certificate they had his occupation and beside her name they wrote “feral” - not a great time in race relations. Somewhere down the line they all became Christians and my friend was as blonde and English looking as they come. Would that they would all convert. Many are but many more will be lost!
Nice bit of history relevant to today. I say the same about Churchill’s books about colonial wars with Muslims, which were from not all that long before this event. Very illustrative of how jihadis think and act, not much has changed.
“Police were informed of the planned attack, but did nothing because of lack of details.”
Another chilling parallel with today....the FBI’s “radar” and lack of interest/follow-thru.
One parallel I did not see mentioned:
They chose to attack unarmed civilians, just like they do today.
Not only is that cowardly and morally wrong, strategically what were they hoping to accomplish?
If I’m gonna go jihad a$$ deep in enemy territory, with little to no hope of surviving afterward, I’m going big.
Terror.
Pure and simple.
Same as today’s Muzzies.
Been to Broken Hill. Deadsville.
PING
Ditto, same here then by bus to Adelaide.
Yeah...I understand that......but...
I know your typical muslim is different than us. I know what they perceive as “scary” is different from us.
Think about it....Australia is populated with the descendants of inmates, cast offs, and others who decided to leave the safety of Europe and head to an island continent isolated from the world and populated with the deadliest creatures in the world on land and in the ocean surrounding it.
Sharks, box jellyfish, some of the deadliest snakes known to exist, spiders whose venom will drop you in minutes, and God knows what.
Judging from their dna and their enviroment, I’d say there aint much that scares the average Aussie, especially dying.
Hell, did 9/11 stop Americans from flying? Nope, the TSA has stopped way more people from flying than muslims did.
I guess Muslims look at things different than us. Their whole lives they are subjected to fear and intimidation, and submit to it. Fear is how their society is run, without fear aint no one gonna choose to live like that.
And anyway, IMO the whole “terror” used as an excuse to attack unarmed, weak targets is b.s.. Muslims do this because from their first jihad, everytime they put the jihad shoes on man to man, everytime they try and fight like men in battle against us , they lose. Everytime.
They may have gained some ground, won some battles, but in the end they got their asses handed to them. Even with a superior force.
I imagine 1,000 years of getting your ass kicked takes it’s toll on muslim manhood. Plus, when they see that western men can get women without having to force women to do so, nor do we have to resort to shagging boys and goats, it adds to their complex.
Immigration needs to be strictly controlled.
A nation has customs and culture and those that cannot assimilate, such as muslims, need to be weeded out.
“Chilling parallels with today’s Jihad attacks.”
Including the government agents that do nothing.
Bookmark
wow!
I’d known nothing about this, good post.
“...At the start of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire had not chosen sides. Blunders by the British Empire and internal plotting inside the Ottoman Empire dragged the Ottomans into the war on the side of Germany...on 5 August, 1914, the British confiscated two nearly completed Ottoman warships in British yards...” [from the original Gun Watch blog post]
Fascinating account of an incident from World War One’s earliest days.
But I’d thought better of Dean Weingarten. He coyly left out historical or geostrategic context, then left out key details of the British seizure of warships being modified for purchase by the Ottoman Turks - implying that the action was uniquely unwise and morally suspect.
For decades, Imperial Germany had been challenging the British Empire’s maritime dominance, and had been aggressively competing for influence over the Ottoman Empire, urging the Turks toward favorable concessions (Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway etc), selling arms, providing military assistance in training and civil engineering and the like.
British leaders had long been concerned that Ottoman entry into any possible war on the side of the Central Powers would cut off the Imperial Russians from possible Allied assistance and general trade.
For some years before 1914, private industrial firms in the British Isles had built warships to order for other nations; in some instances, they outclassed those built for the Royal Navy itself. Amidst generalized worry over Royal Navy strength compared to the German High Seas Fleet, the British government seized several: of the two battlecruisers slated for the Ottoman navy, the larger had been ordered by Brazil in 1911 but when that nation was unable to pay up the Turks bought it in late December 1913.
Winston Churchill - in summer 1914, First Lord of the Admiralty - ordered the vessels seized, just after 500 Turkish sailors arrived at the shipyard on 27 July 1914. He offered to pay the Turkish government 1000 Pounds a day for as long as Britain kept them, provided the Ottoman Empire stayed neutral.
Turkey remained non-committal.
In September 1914, the British seized one of two dreadnoughts under construction for the nation of Chile. The other was itself later seized, ultimately going to sea as Royal Navy aircraft carrier.
In early August 1914, the Royal Navy pursued SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau - a battlecruiser and cruiser of Germany’s Kaiserliche Marine - most of the length of the Mediterranean. They sailed to Constantinople and on 16 August were “sold” to the Turks.
The Ottoman government still refused to commit.
On 27 October, the two vessels - with crews wearing fezzes and conducting divine services each Friday, “proof” of their conversion to Islam - sailed into the Black sea and - flying Turkish colors - attacked Odessa, Sevastopol, and Novorissisk.
The British ambassador presented an ultimatum to the Ottoman government on 30 October, demanding removal of the German crews. Imperial Russia declared war on Turkey on 4 November, with France and Britain doing so the next day.
Only then did the Turks close the Bosporus to Russian shipping - leading in time to Russian collapse, and to major alterations in British strategy. And many other changes.
Amid the confusion and uncertainty over who was declaring war on whom early in August, the Royal Navy’s failure to catch Goeben and Breslau was later seen as a key failure on the part of the Allies.
Many historians have since assigned Winston Churchill a major share of the blame, for issuing unclear, overly rushed, and conflicting orders to the Mediterranean fleet via radio.
He has suffered a similar critique for impetuousness in the leadup to the Battle of Coronel, fought off the coast of Chile on 1 November, in which the Kaiserliche Marine’s Far East Squadron defeated Royal Navy vessels sent to get them.
At the start of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire had not chosen sides. Blunders by the British Empire and internal plotting inside the Ottoman Empire dragged the Ottomans into the war on the side of Germany.
If you go to the link in the article, it details nearly everything you wrote.
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