'Critical Study of the Campaign in Mesopotamia up to April 1917: Part I - Report' [‎9v] (23/424)

establishment. there were not more than 150,000 combatants in the
Turkish Army.
From the date of mobilization up to the signing of the Armistice
2,700,000 more men were called up. The total number of men of military
age available in the Turkish Empire, at the beginning of the war and
during the war, was said to be something under 4^ millions. When one
considers that a proportion of this number was composed of Arabs, Kurds,
Armenians, Greeks, Jews and Circassians, in other words of racen who
were not reaily good fighting men and who did not have much, il any,
interest in a Turkish victory in the war, we must admit that the Turkish
effort, judged by these mobilization figures only, was good. At the
same time, desertion was rife, and assumed proportions that could not
have existed among European nations. It is said that the deserters
amounted to 400,000 men at one period. There were large tracts of
undeveloped and wild country, where the deserters could live without
fear of apprehension.
That portion of the Turkish army, with which we are more parti
cularly interested in the earlier stages of the campaign, consisted of
the 4th Inspectorate, comprising the 35th, 36th, 37th and 38th
divisions. The peace location of these divisions was, respectively,
Mosul, Kirkuk, Baghdad, Basra. The 35th and 36th formed the 12th
Army Corps : the 37th and 38th the 13th Army Corps.
These four divisions were composed almost entirely of local Arabs and
Kurds. The proper Anatolian Turk has a large contempt for these races,,
and he considers them to have no fighting value. But we must remember
that all accounts of the fighting, which we have obtained from the Turkish
side, have come from Anatolian Turks : and they nearly all show a ten
dency to extol the Turk and decry the Arab. Nevertheless, there is not
the slightest doubt that the value of an Arab as a fighter in modern war
is very inferior to that of the Turk.
The divisions with which we chiefly deal at the moment are the 35th
and 38th. The 35th, on the outbreak of war, was sent to Aleppo. Thence,.
it returned to Baghdad and first fought against us at Shaiba. It was
engaged in most of the succeeding operations and was finally disbanded
during the siege of Kut.
The 38th was at Basra at the beginning of the war. It was severely
handled by us and was disbanded soon after the battle of Ctesiphon.
This division at the outset had one redeeming feature. It contained
an Anatolian Turk battalion, the l-26th. This battalion suffered heavy
casualties in the early actions and soon became merged into a " Muratteb 5J
battalion.
' c Muratteb is a term frequently found in Turkish orders of battle.
This word is applied to any composite formation not larger than a
regiment.