Video Creator’s Channel The Great War
What The Soldiers Of The Warring Nations Wore
on their bodies varied widely, so were doing a series of specials on the uniforms of those nations, and today I ll be looking at Empire” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>the Ottoman Empire. I m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode on Ottoman Army uniforms during the First World War.
One Physically Visible Result Of The
Young Turk Revolution in the Empire in 1908 was in the army uniforms,, though reform did take a few years to go into effect. Going back a century. The Empire had tried several times to modernize the army s appearance and organization with different foreign influences. .
For Example, In The 1850S At The
time of the Crimean War. There was a heavy French influence, but by the end of the century the army pretty much modeled itself after German fashions. . In 1909 a basic Khaki uniform replaced the old dark blue. One, though officers still used those for full-dress uniforms.
The Red Tarbush, The Fez, Which Had A
dark-blue tassel and had been used for a century, was replaced by the Kabalak, though fezes were occasionally still worn by troops off duty. The 1916 Turkish army handbook reads, UK cap is a khaki kalpak with a distinctive top or dome the same color as the coat collars. Officers have gold ornamental bands on the crown. But. The rank and file were supplied in 1913 and 1914 with a new head-covering, the Bashlik, a long strip of khaki cloth tied spirally on the head and forming a sort of soft helmet, which can be easily mistaken for the British Khaki helmet in a bad light.
It Is, However,, More Pointed, And Falls Particularly
in front and behind. Some reports say that the Kabalak was personally designed by Enver Pasha, Minister of War,. that. So from 1908 they had the Kabalak, and then it was later replaced with the simpler Bashlik.
.
Troops of Arab origin usually wore their traditional Kufiya head cloths. Later. In the war, the Ottoman Navy brought in a new headgear that was basically a normal European naval cap, but without the peak in front as deference to Islamic tradition. You could touch your head to the ground during prayers without taking it off.
Actually, Post War.
When Ataturk came to power. He insisted that men wore peaked caps as a direct challenge to Islamic tradition and a lot of people were killed in the subsequent riots. Toward. The end of the war, some soldiers were issued steel helmets, the first of those being Ottoman Shock troops that served in Palestine and the Caucasus.
We
ve seen in other armies how the quality of the uniforms can vary quite a bit,, but it varied more among the Ottoman soldiers than elsewhere. . Many officers, especially senior officers, had their clothing made in Germany. Some of the enlisted men
S Stuff Was Made There Too, But The
bulk of it was made in Turkey.. It was all right at first, but toward the end of the war. The quality ranged from okay
To
appalling . This also applied to things like boots and by the summer of 1917 even some officers didn t have anything approaching decent boots.
A Side Note Here, During The Nasty November
weather at Gallipoli In 1915, many soldiers wore a strange amalgamation of clothing donated by the people of nearby Constantinople, including high fashion underwear and fine gentlemens walking shoes. Branches of service were indicated by colored collars for officers and collar patches for the other ranks. . You also saw these in the edging of the officers
Kabalak; Olive Green For Infantry, Grass Green For
machine gun companies, light grey for cavalry, dark blue for artillery, mid-blue for engineers, sky blue for railway troops, and scarlet for the military police. In 1915. The Ottoman Air Service became a separate branch from the engineers and their color was changed to red. Like. Most armies, rank was indicated by either pips and braiding on the shoulder boards or stripes on the sleeves.
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Auxiliary cavalry was made up of tribal auxiliaries, mostly recruited from among the Kurds. . The government was supposed to give them uniforms,, but if you look at old pictures. You can see that even some of the officers still wore traditional Kurdish clothing.
The Personal Equipment Was Basically German In.
and the weapons were mostly of German manufacture. Officers were armed with swords, which they generally did not carry in to battle, and they bought their own pistols of European design. . The Infantry rifle was the Turkish Mauser, either the Model 1893 or Model 1903.
Later On They
d get German M1888 rifles, called the Commission Rifle, and some German Mauser M1898s, while the Austrians sent them. Some adapted Russian UK M1891s. Some of the reservists still had the obsolete black powder. Turkish Mauser M1887s.
Bayonets Were Produced By German Companies In
Solingen and Sl, and some infantry carried fighting knives in their boots, a practice that went back to medieval times.. Cavalry were armed with a rifle or carbine, the Carbines being the Turkish Mauser M1905. They also carried a sword, a lance, or both, with the swords, often being the M1909 made by Carl Eickhorn of Solingen. I Gotta.
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Point Out That The Uniforms And Arms Supply
could really vary on all of the different fronts.. IN 1914 the ordinary infantryman was well equipped and well-dressed, but the standards deteriorated. Once the reserves began to be called up en masse. So later in the war, you had situations like one unit of 8,000 men who were reported as only having 1,000 rifles.
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They were also in general so short of entrenching tools that they captured them whenever possible, and officers found that maps captured from the British were superior to the Baedeker tourist guides on which they often had to rely. I m not making that up. And that
S The Basic Rundown.
You have to realize that the fronts on which Ottoman soldiers fought varied more widely that most of the other nations, and the equipment is going to reflect all the local variations that adjust for climate. They fought in the deserts of the Middle East or Libya, the flood plains of Mesopotamia, the frozen mountains of East. Anatolia, the Galician heartland, the rocks of Gallipoli, the bleak expanses of the Caucasus, pretty much every climate imaginable. If.
You Spend Some Time Just Googling Old Photos
of the empire. You can see the variations in uniforms and equipment. I have to say that I personally think the Ottomans had some of the cooler looking uniforms, but you can form your own opinions. .
In Fact, I
m going to wrap it up now so you can spend the next few minutes looking up Ottoman uniforms for yourselves to see it in a little more depth, and while you re doing so. , think of that unit of men with only 1,000 rifles-7,000 of them going into battle armed with.
.
. what I don t know.
Rocks Knives Just Thousands More Young Men
marching. to their deaths against the modern forces of modern war. .
Summary
In 1909 a basic Khaki uniform replaced the old dark blue, but officers still used those for full-dress uniforms . The Red Tarbush, the Fez, had a dark-blue tassel and had been used for a century, was replaced by the Kabalak . The rank and file were supplied in 1913 and 1914 with a new head-covering, the Bashlik . The Bashlik is a long strip of khaki cloth tied spirally on the head and forming a sort of soft helmet, which can be easily mistaken for the British Khaki helmet in a bad light . In the war, the Ottoman Navy brought in new headgear that was basically a normal European naval naval headgear . The 1916 Turkish army handbook reads, UK cap is a khaki kalpak with a distinctive top or dome the same color as the coat collars.& Officers have gold ornamental bands on the crown.& But But. But. Some reports say that the ….. Click here to read more and watch the full video