Hat 8070 WWI Turkish Infantry

With the outbreak of World War I, in August 1914, Turkey remained neutral. However, soon after - already in October 1914 - it joined the war on the side of the Central Powers. In the course of World War I, the Turkish army, the largest number of which was infantry, was engaged mainly against Russia and Great Britain, and one of the most famous campaigns in which the Turkish army fought was the Battle of Gallipolli (also known as the Dardanelles operation), which took place from April 1915 to January 1916. The main armament of the Turkish infantryman during the Great War was the Mauser M1903 rifle. However, the supply of these weapons before 1914 turned out to be insufficient and the Turkish infantry continued to use Mauser M1890 and M1893 rifles. It is worth noting that the units of the second throw or considered unsuitable for offensive operations were also used by Mauser M1887 rifles or even Peabody-Martini M1874! The basic machine gun was also the German-made 7.65 mm MG09 rifle. From 1916, MG08 rifles also began to arrive in Turkey. The backbone of the Turkish field artillery, on the other hand, consisted - not surprisingly here either - of the German production guns of 75 and 77 mm caliber, mainly Krupp M03 L / 30, Krupp M96 L / 27 or Rheinmetall M16 L / 35. The Turkish infantry division consisted of three infantry regiments, a light infantry battalion, a field artillery regiment and other subunits, including medical, supply and veterinary. The infantry corps, on the other hand, was usually composed of three infantry divisions and relatively modest support units. In total, it numbered about 41,000 people.