alliance with the indigenous populations there using his knowledge of their culture to try to incite a revolt against the British Empire's presence in India & Persia, in a similar strategy to that which would later by used by Lawrence of Arabia against the Ottoman Empire during the Arab revolt. On 26 September 1915 the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition reached Kabul, but despite his efforts nothing of a decisive practical nature emerged from his work with Emir Habibullah. In May 1916 he and his team received orders to withdraw from Afghanistan and attach itself to the authority of the Ottoman Empire, involving a dangerous return march through hostile Russian territory, which was accomplished on 1 September 1916. On arrival Niedermayer received orders from the German Military Mission to the Ottomans, commanded by Field Marshal Baron Colmar von der Goltz, that he was to commence similar work to that which he had attempted in Afghanistan amongst the Arabic tribes within Ottoman Imperial territory aimed at targeting the British Imperial authority in the Middle East. In early 1918 he was recalled to Germany, arriving in Berlin at General Headquarters on 28 March. Niedermayer was awarded for his work in the Orient the Militär-Max-Joseph-Orden and subsequently posted with the rank of Captain to the Western Front, where he took part in fighting in the Champagne and Flanders before the war ended in November 1918. Between wars At the end of World War I, Niedermayer was on leave and had an opportunity to recommence his academic life at the University of Munich studying Literature and Geography for two more semesters. Whilst there he obtained a D.Phil. summa cum laude. During this period also, commencing on April 29, 1919, he was appointed Director of the Publicity Department of Freikorps Epp, the Munich City Council's Republican Force. On 12 December 1919 Niedermayer returned to the Army from academe. Initially he served in the H.Q. of the 23rd Division and was adjutant to Reichswehr Minister Otto Gessler. On 23 December 1921 Niedermayer ostensibly resigned from the army, but this was used as cover for work in the at that time unofficial Soviet Union Section of the German Army. Until 1932 he worked in the Reichswehr office in Moscow, when he returned to Germany and officially rejoined the Wehrmacht, being assigned to the 2nd Prussian Artillery Regiment. On 29 January 1933, he again resigned from active service with the rank