Shadowing Practice: WW1's Forgotten Middle Eastern Theater - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Thank you to PDS Debt for sponsoring this video.
2
On the moonless night of October 29th,
3
1914, two Ottoman cruisers sneak into the harbor of Odessa.
4
Once in position, the crew loads a torpedo and launches it at an unexpected gunboat.
5
For half an hour, they wreak havoc on the port.
6
While not all in Constantinople are pleased, the Black Sea Raid makes Turkish entry into the war inevitable.
7
Two weeks later, the Sultan of the Empire declares a Jihad
8
or Holy War against the Entente powers of the First World War.
9
Ottoman participation in the Great War had been a long time coming.
10
Two months before shelling Russian ports, the Empire formally allied with Germany, shielded German ships from the Entente,
11
and even closed the Turkish Straits to British shipping.
12
The Middle Eastern theater would see vicious fighting in treacherous conditions, with its legacy shaping the modern Middle East.
13
After entering the war, Ottoman attention immediately shifted to their mountainous border with the Russian Empire.
14
Here, they hoped to recover lost territory while also relieving pressure off their allies in Poland.
15
Enver Pasha, the Ottoman Minister of War,
16
engaged the Russian army near Serekemysh in eastern Anatolia at a high altitude of 6,000 feet or 1,800 meters.
17
The result was devastating.
18
The Russian counterattack encircled the Ottoman Third Army,
19
leaving only a fraction of Ottoman forces to make it back to their headquarters at Erzurum.
20
The Battle of Serechimish was indicative of the entire Middle Eastern theater.
21
The armies were comparatively small, but environmental and logistical problems wreaked havoc on the armies.
22
In the Caucasus Mountains, frostbite and typhus claimed as many lives as combat.
23
The strain of supporting fighting in remote areas drained the local population of resources, leading to widespread famine and disease.
24
Additionally, Enver Pasha in particular blamed his chaotic defeat on the disloyalty of the area's ethnic minority,
25
in this case, the Armenians.
26
The war in the Caucasus represented an existential fight for the Ottomans.
27
It was here that the Empire directed most of its attention and resources.
28
Meanwhile, the Mesopotamian Front initially began as a small frontier-style operation when British Indian troops seized control of Basra,
29
an important trade hub.
30
Buoyed by this success, Britain pushed further into Mesopotamia.
31
In Egypt, it was the Ottoman army which took the initiative.
32
Led by Cemal Pasha and the German general Friedrich Kress von Kreschenstein,
33
an army crossed the Sinai Peninsula in January 1915 to disrupt the Suez Canal and sever Britain's trade with its colonial subjects.
34
Although the raid was beaten back by Indian defenders, the Ottomans continued to threaten the canal.
35
Aside from the main fronts, the war spilled over into neutral nations.
36
Iran, notably, never fought in the war, but the war was certainly fought in it.
37
Russian and British forces brawled with Ottoman and German ones, as both sought to undermine the enemy's local influence.
38
German agents, notably Wilhelm Vassmos, organized and led revolts against Britain.
39
The fighting in Iran devastated the country and left 2 million civilians dead.
40
The Ottoman Empire got itself into a three-front war.
41
However, none of these fronts seemed to directly threaten the Empire's heartland, which was thousands of miles away from Constantinople.
42
That changed on April 25th, 1915, as the Entente thrust a dagger right into the Turkish Straits.
43
Britain's first Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, devised an audacious plan to force a passage through the Dardanelles Strait,
44
coerce the Ottomans to sue for peace, and reopen a supply route to Russia.
45
An initial naval attack in March failed miserably,
46
and by April, the plan morphed into an amphibious assault to clear the Ottoman defenses in the area.
47
The Turks were prepared.
48
Under supervision of the German General Otto Lehmann von Sanders, an ingenious defense-in-depth system turned the peninsula into an impregnable fortress.
49
Without the element of surprise, the landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles became a bloodbath.
50
Of the first 200 soldiers to come ashore, only 21 did so alive.
51
Nevertheless, the continuous wave of soldiers seemed on the verge of taking the critical high ground, until the local commander there,
52
Mustafa Kemal, led a successful counterattack with the cry, I don't expect you to attack, I order you to die.
53
The Entente would launch another major offensive in August, synchronizing breakouts at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles,
54
with a new landing at Soukla Bay.
55
Once more, the battles devolved into a bloody stalemate.
56
By November, Allied planners accepted that the situation was untenable,
57
and the entrance of Bulgaria in the war allowed Germany to transfer heavy artillery to the front, which devastated the entrenched Entente soldiers.
58
Over the course of the next two months, France and Britain methodically withdrew from Gallipoli.
59
Did you know that countries within the Entente and Central Powers
60
borrowed so much money during the First World War that it took some of them decades to pay it all off?
61
Thanks to the sponsor of today's video, PDS Debt, you don't need decades to take control of your debt and achieve financial freedom.
62
It's likely that you or someone you know is struggling to pay off high-interest credit cards or student loans, and if you're a homeowner like me, skyrocketing mortgage rates.
63
Thankfully, PDS Debt can help discover the path to living debt-free.
64
Their plans are tailored to you and built around your specific needs, regardless of your credit score.
65
PDS Debt is dedicated to helping you pay off your debt faster, save more money, and keep your hard-earned cash in your pocket and your bank account where it belongs.
66
And when it comes to managing your debt, trust absolutely matters.
67
That's why PDS Debt has an 8-plus rating from the Better Business Bureau, hundreds of 5-star reviews on Google, and a 5-star rating on Trustpilot.
68
Take control of your finances today.
69
Get your free assessment now at pdsdebt.com slash armchair historian or scan the QR code and discover the path to living debt-free.
70
You're just 30 seconds away from starting your journey.
71
Visit pdsdebt.com slash armchair historian right now.
72
A day before the Entente came ashore, hundreds of Armenian leaders were rounded up and deported to holding centers,
73
where many would die.
74
Under orders of Talat Pasha, the Minister of the Interior,
75
the Ottoman state carried out a systematic genocide against the Empire's Armenian population.
76
Decades of ethnic tension between the Ottoman state and the Armenian community preceded the genocide.
77
The assertion of a more Islamic and Turkish identity within the Empire sparked attacks on religious minorities.
78
After the radical young Turks came to power, a narrow ethnocentric nationalism developed.
79
By the time the war with Russia broke out, Armenians had become an internal enemy,
80
the result of a projected image fueled by fear, jealousy, and vengeance.
81
Other Christian and minority groups also faced persecution under the young Turk triumvirate.
82
The Armenians became the scapegoat for the Ottoman military failures in the Caucasus.
83
From February 1915 onward, Armenian men in the Ottoman army were disarmed and pressed into labor battalions,
84
where they were worked to death or executed.
85
In the Van province, the ruthless and sadistic governor, Javdet Bey, unleashed a campaign of terror on the local populace.
86
In response, Armenians took up arms.
87
For months, they were besieged in the city of Ban until Russian General Nikolai Yudinich relieved the city.
88
The genocide left 500,000 to 1 million dead, with another 200,000 forcibly converted to Islam.
89
Throughout the remainder of 1915 and 1916, Russian and Ottoman forces brawled in the Caucasus theater.
90
The fighting was brutal.
91
Three quarters of all Ottoman casualties between 1915 and 1917 were sustained in the Caucasus.
92
Nonetheless, the Russians dominated the fighting in this theater.
93
By the spring of 1917, Russia had seized the vast majority of northeastern Anatolia,
94
including the major cities of Erzurum, Erzinken and Trabzon.
95
After the campaign at Gallipoli, Britain continued to engage in the Egyptian and Mesopotamian theatres.
96
In the latter, the army advanced quickly throughout 1915.
97
A year after taking Basra, Britain had taken large swaths of land, until ultimately reaching the strategic city of Qut.
98
As the British advanced, their supply lines became ever more strained.
99
Despite this, the advance continued.
100
saw Cut as a strategic necessity to secure the South.
101
General Charles Townsend ultimately did reach the city, albeit with an exhausted and undersupplied force.
102
On November 22nd, 1915, a weary British army faced a force twice its size at the Battle of Tichefon.
103
The fighting was inconclusive, but due to heavy casualties, Townsend had to retreat to Cut and await reinforcements.
104
While he held his position, the Ottomans settled in for a siege.
105
For five months, the army's supplies dwindled, as the British launched three frantic, poorly organized relief efforts.
106
Ultimately, Townsend surrendered.
107
The Siege of Cut was a humiliating defeat for Britain.
108
The battle triggered a widespread reorganization of operational, administrative, and logistical responsibility, which halted the front for nearly a year.
109
While the front stalled in Mesopotamia, Britain's diplomatic overtures in Arabia finally bore fruit.
110
After years of exchanging letters with the British High Commissioner in Egypt,
111
Sharif Hussein bin Ali of Mecca agreed to rise up against Constantinople.
112
Hussein's ambitions matched Britain's interests, despite Britain's support for rivals and several other conflicting promises.
113
On June 10th, 1916, Hussein personally marked the start of the Arab Revolt with the shot of a rifle.
114
The revolters quickly seized Mecca and the port of Jeddah.
115
From October onward, the Sharif and his sons were joined by a British army officer called T.E.
116
Lawrence, who led several famous raids on the Hejaz Railway and disrupted Ottoman supply in the region.
117
Although the Arab revolt had a major political legacy, its military significance was fairly small.
118
The Arabs generally faced weak enemy resistance and failed to incite Arabs outside the Hejaz region to join them.
119
In 1917, Britain renewed its efforts to break through the Ottoman defensive lines in the Empire's southern reaches.
120
In Egypt, Britain dislodged the Ottomans from the Sinai Peninsula and prepared for a push into southern Palestine.
121
Simultaneously, months of reorganization were put to the test in Mesopotamia, where another advance sought to finally capture Baghdad.
122
Palestine's steady water supply and fertile grasslands made it an attractive base for the British Army.
123
However, the offensive started off poorly.
124
In the spring of 1917, two attempts to breach the defensive lines in Gaza had failed.
125
But while the front stagnated, progress was made elsewhere.
126
In June, Arab forces took the strategic port city of Aqaba.
127
The defenses here were designed to protect against an attack by sea, rather than land.
128
Although the attack still owed much to supporting bombardments by British Royal Navy vessels.
129
At the same time, the Mesopotamian front advanced rapidly.
130
Under the command of General Stanley Maude, Britain methodically advanced against their outmatched and increasingly drained Ottoman adversary.
131
Only two months after taking to the offensive,
132
Maude triumphantly entered Baghdad, to whose people he proclaimed that his army did not come as a conqueror but as a liberator.
133
Half a year later, Britain was on the move in Palestine as well.
134
General Edmund Allenby had strengthened their logistical situation while the Ottoman forces were hampered by desertion,
135
shortages, and a strategic focus on other theatres.
136
A third battle of Gaza finally broke the stalemate.
137
notably thanks to overwhelming artillery support, Mark IV tanks, and nearly 10,000 chemical shells.
138
Following the breakthrough, the British pursued the Ottomans north.
139
In December, Allenby victoriously entered Jerusalem.
140
Church bells across Britain rang, and a cartoon boldly proclaimed the victory as the Last Crusade.
141
1918 marked a turning point in the Middle Eastern theater, While famines, disease, and ethnic violence ravaged the land,
142
the Ottoman Empire stumbled on, barely hanging together.
143
But before their own collapse, the crumbling of their mortal Russian foe sparked an ill-afforded offensive,
144
fueled by the maniacal dreams of Pan-Turkism.
145
The Russian Revolution of 1917 had thrown the empire into disarray.
146
After the Bolsheviks took over, Russia devolved into a patchwork of independence movements and rivaling governments with disputed legal status.
147
The Caucasus was in a particular state of chaos.
148
With the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Ottomans recovered some of the land they had lost to Russia in the 19th century.
149
But many in Constantinople wanted more.
150
Throughout 1918, Ottoman armies would fight their way through the Caucasus, trying to unite all Turks, even those of Central Asia, into one state.
151
While the Ottomans tried to profit off the collapse of Russia, their own collapse would not take much longer.
152
After another stalemate in Palestine, British forces smashed through the Ottoman lines at the Battle of Megiddo on September 19, 1918.
153
Large numbers of aircraft and mechanized transport cut off the Ottoman retreat.
154
The battle turned into a rout.
155
A month later, the Entente pushed as far north as Aleppo.
156
Despite this route, victory over the Ottomans would not be won in the Middle East.
157
Instead, a decisive Entente breakthrough at the Salonika Front did more
158
to convince Constantinople of the hopeless situation than the advances in faraway Palestine or Mesopotamia.
159
As a crumbling Bulgaria sued for peace and the German armies were in full retreat, the capital laid exposed.
160
Finally, the Armistice of Mudrose brought the Middle Eastern Theater in the First World War to an end.
161
In the end, the Middle Eastern Theater played a fairly small role in the course of the war.
162
However, the local consequences were enormous.
163
Particularly due to famine and disease, over 7 million people lost their lives.
164
As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, conflicting promises and desires transformed the region into the modern Middle East.
165
In Arabia, Anatolia, and the Caucasus, years of ethnic violence, imperial machinations,
166
and civil war would decide the region's future.
167
Don't forget to check out the uncensored version of this episode
168
over on armchairhistory.tv using code WORLDWAR1 for 100% off of your first month.
📺 Same Channel
✨ Recommend Video
C1164 sentences
The Greek-Turkish War 1919-1923 (Greco-Turkish War Documentary)
University StudentsWorking Adults
B21
66 sentences
When a Bf-109 spared a stricken B-17
University StudentsWorking Adults
B21
89 sentences
Omar Khayyám - Documentary (Part 1 of 5) The Genius Of Omar Khayyám
Cambridge Exam PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
439 sentences
Kolchak & Russia's Civil War (All Parts)
British AccentUniversity Students
B21
30 sentences
Professor Jeffrey Sachs on CIA's Role in Syria & Operation Timber Sycamore | AC1G
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B22
107 sentences
Average Day In The Life Of A WW1 Soldier
High School StudentsUniversity Students
B2212 sentences
What Happened to the Ancient Wonders of the World?
University Students
C156 sentences
The Death of the Russian Army 1917 (WW1 Documentary)
University StudentsWorking Adults
B11
51 sentences
Top 10 Most Popular Turkish Foods || Turkish Traditional Food || Istanbul Street Foods || OnAir24
Travel EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
166 sentences
Ep 11: Forgotten Kingdoms That Ruled Ancient India | Bharat Bioscope with Palki Sharma | IGR
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
258 sentences
When Corruption Pushed People too Far in History
University StudentsWorking Adults
![MAN CITY HAD NO ANSWER AS ARSENAL DOMINATED THE COMMUNITY SHIELD 🔥⚡ 2026 [4K]](https://img.youtube.com/vi/A-XgYeEs1vI/mqdefault.jpg)
B21
207 sentences
MAN CITY HAD NO ANSWER AS ARSENAL DOMINATED THE COMMUNITY SHIELD 🔥⚡ 2026 [4K]
Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 168 sentences and 2299 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:38. The speaker talks at a steady 130 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 71% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| theater noun | /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/ | A place or building, consisting of a stage and seating, in which an audience gathers to watch plays, musical performances, public ceremonies, and so on. |
| offensive adjective | /ˈɔˌfɛnsɪv/ | Causing offense; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, hatred, sadness, or indignation. |
| strategic adjective | /stɹəˈti.dʒɪk/ | Of or pertaining to strategy. |
| ethnic adjective | /ˈɛθ.nɪk/ | Of or relating to a group of people having common racial, ancestral, national, religious or cultural origins. |
| minority noun | /maɪˈnɒɹ.ɪ.ti/ | The state or condition of being smaller, inferior, or subordinate to something or someone else; lesserness. |
| raid noun | /ɹeɪd/ | A quick hostile or predatory incursion or invasion in a battle. |
| collapse verb | /kəˈlæps/ | To break apart and fall down suddenly; to cave in. |
| retreat noun | /ɹɪˈtɹiːt/ | The act of pulling back or withdrawing, as from something dangerous, or unpleasant. |
| ally noun | /ˈæl.aɪ/ | A person who co-operates with or helps another; an associate; a friend. |
| peninsula noun | /pəˈnɪn.sə.lə/ | A piece of land projecting into water from a larger land mass. |
| notably adverb | As a pointed example; in a notable manner. | |
| genocide noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛnəsaɪd/ | The systematic and deliberate destruction of a group of people; typically by killing substantial numbers of them, on the basis of their ethnicity, religion… |
| seize verb | /ˈsiːz/ | To deliberately take hold of; to grab or capture. |
| discover verb | /dɪˈskʌvə/ | To find or learn something for the first time. |
| defensive adjective | /dɪˈfɛn.sɪv/ | Intended for defence; protective. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pay off verb | To bribe, especially to deter oversight. | |
| break out verb | To escape, especially forcefully or defiantly. | |
| break through verb | To gain popularity. | |
| carry out verb | /ˈkæ.ɹi aʊt/ | To hold while moving it out. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| cut off verb | /ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf] | To remove by cutting. |
| hang together verb | To be connected. | |
| start off verb | To begin. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 5 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: theater /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, ethnic /ˈɛθ.nɪk/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, breakthrough /ˈbɹeɪk.θɹuː/, nevertheless /ˌnɛvɚðəˈlɛs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: casualty /ˈkæʒu.əlti/, ashore /əˈʃɔɹ/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, shell /ʃɛl/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/
- Long words — get the stress right: minority /maɪˈnɒɹ.ɪ.ti/, peninsula /pəˈnɪn.sə.lə/, artillery /ɑɹˈtɪləɹi/, historian /hɪˈstɔɹi.ən/, devastated /ˈdɛv.əˌsteɪ.təd/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like theater, offensive, strategic.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.