This is a comprehensive new operational military history of the Ottoman army during the First World War. Drawing from archives, official military histories, personal war narratives and sizable Turkish secondary literature, it tells the incredible story of the Ottoman army's struggle from the mountains of the Caucasus to the deserts of Arabia and the bloody shores of Gallipoli. The Ottoman army, by opening new fronts, diverted and kept sizeable units of British, Russian and French forces away from the main theatres and even sent reinforcements to Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria. Against all odds the Ottoman army ultimately achieved some striking successes, not only on the battlefield, but in their total mobilization of the empire's meagre human and economic resources. However, even by the terrible standards of the First World War, these achievements came at a terrible price in casualties and, ultimately, loss of territory. Thus, instead of improving the integrity and security of the empire, the war effectively dismantled it and created situations and problems hitherto undreamed of by a besieged Ottoman leadership. In a unique account, Uyar revises our understanding of the war in the Middle East.
"Mesut Uyar's long awaited history of the Ottoman's Army's operations in the First World War is a brilliant addition to the field" - Edward J. Erickson, Marine Corps University, First World War Studies
"Mesut Uyar's long awaited history of the Ottoman's Army's operations in the First World War is a brilliant addition to the field" - Edward J. Erickson, Marine Corps University, First World War Studies
"The Ottoman Army and the First World War is a thorough analysis of the Ottoman Army on all fronts during the Great War. It describes its operational military history and military effectiveness during that war, and it is difficult to disagree with Uyar in his assessment that Western historiography has for too long ignored the so-called peripheral campaigns of the war ... This book is a long overdue addition to the modern historiography of the First World War."
Michael Tyquin, British Journal for Military History
"What emerges from Uyar's wide-ranging study is a work of great utility to scholars of the First World War and conflict in the Middle East. Ultimately, he makes a powerful case for the need to rigorously re-examine the operational military history of the Ottoman Empire's war, as doing so opens up myriad fascinating questions that have still yet to be explored about how the empire coped with and waged a modern war."
James E. Kitchen, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, IJMH Book Reviews - Issue 44-2
Michael Tyquin, British Journal for Military History
"What emerges from Uyar's wide-ranging study is a work of great utility to scholars of the First World War and conflict in the Middle East. Ultimately, he makes a powerful case for the need to rigorously re-examine the operational military history of the Ottoman Empire's war, as doing so opens up myriad fascinating questions that have still yet to be explored about how the empire coped with and waged a modern war."
James E. Kitchen, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, IJMH Book Reviews - Issue 44-2