The decision to launch a major offensive in Palestine, in the autumn of 1917, was also based on "very sound strategical reasons." The collapse of the Russian Empire in the spring led to the withdrawal of Russia from the war, as a consequence of the Russian Revolution, and freed up large numbers of Ottoman Empire troops, which had been fighting the Russians on the Eastern Front. These Ottoman units became available to reinforce the Palestine front and were in the process of assembling near Aleppo, along with German soldiers and equipment. They were to launch operations to recapture Baghdad, which had been captured by the British in March. The threat to Baghdad could be more economically opposed by an EEF offensive in southern Palestine. Rather than sending reinforcements to General Frederick S. Maude's Mesopotamian army holding Baghdad, British reinforcements from the Salonika front, which the War Office wanted to scale down, would strengthen the EEF.