May 16 in Military History — On This Day

Mining Operations at Blachernae

Unable to breach the Blachernae sector walls with artillery alone, Ottoman engineers — including Serbian miners from Novo Brdo — began digging tunnels beneath the walls to collapse them from below. Byzantine defenders, led by the Scottish engineer Johannes Grant (serving the Emperor), counter-mined: digging parallel tunnels, listening for the sound of Ottoman digging through bowls of water placed on the ground, then breaking into the Ottoman tunnels and fighting them underground. At least six tunnels were discovered and neutralized — Byzantine troops fought the miners in complete darkness, collapsed their tunnels with smoke and fire, or flooded them with water. Every Ottoman mining attempt failed.

The mining war was one of the most technically sophisticated aspects of the siege. The Byzantine success in countering every Ottoman tunnel was a remarkable defensive achievement, and the role of the Scottish engineer Grant — evidence of the international mercenary networks that crisscrossed late medieval Europe — highlights how cosmopolitan Constantinople's last defenders were.

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⚔️📍 London, England1916

Sykes-Picot Agreement — Britain and France Divide the Middle East

Britain and France secretly agreed to divide the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire between them after the war, drawing borders that ignored existing tribal and ethnic boundaries. The agreement directly contradicted promises of Arab independence made by the British.

The Sykes-Picot borders created the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, and their artificial nature contributed to political instability and conflicts that continue today.

Outcome

Middle East divided; promises to Arab allies broken

Operation Dignity — Second Civil War

General Khalifa Haftar, a former Gaddafi commander who had spent years in CIA-connected exile in Virginia, launched 'Operation Dignity' with airstrikes on Islamist militia bases in Benghazi. His Libyan National Army refused to recognize the internationally recognized parliament, which he dismissed as Islamist-dominated. Two weeks later, his forces stormed the parliament building in Tripoli. Libya split into two governments: the UN-recognized GNA in Tripoli, backed by Islamist militias and Turkey, and Haftar's administration in the east, backed by Russia, UAE, and Egypt.

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