'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME I.' [‎25r] (54/454)

THE TURKS IN MESOPOTAMIA
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In peace time there was a total of thirty-six infantry divi
sions ; early in the war these were increased to forty-five,* and
during the course of the war seventy divisions in all were
raised, though there were never this number “ in being ” at
the same time. The Turkish General Staff estimate that the
strength of their army reached its maximum in May 1916.
The normal composition of a cavalry brigade was ten to
fifteen squadrons (1,400 to 2,000 sabres), twelve machine guns,
and eight horse artillery guns ; and of an infantry division
three regiments of three battalions and a machine gun com
pany each, sometimes a rifle battalion, and a varying number
of field or mountain batteries, pontoon sections and sanitary
detachments ; the nominal average strength of a division was
8,000 to 9,000 rifles, 12 machine guns and 24 to 36 field or
mountain guns.
Cavalry regiments were organised in peace in five squadrons,
of which, on mobilization, one squadron formed a depot to
supply reinforcements for four squadrons in the field. They
had a nominal war strength of 647 of all ranks (472 sabres)
and were armed with Mauser carbines and swords; they
carried sixty rounds of ammunition per carbine on the man
and were for the most part mounted on undersized country
horses ; they had been trained mainly in patrol and piquet
duties and not in shock tactics, for which their horses were
unfit. The militia raised from Kurdish and Arab tribes,
known as the Hamidieh cavalry, had practically ceased to
exist ; but the material remained and large bodies of Arab
horsemen were used against us at times.
The artillery was organised in regiments, each infantry
division being Plotted nominally one field gun regiment of two
or three battalions, each of three four-gun batteries; each
corps cavalry brigade should have had a battalion of two
four-gun horse artillery batteries ; and each corps should have
had two mountain battalions, each of three four-gun batteries
and one howitzer battalion of three six-gun batteries of field
and heavy howitzers. But in October 1914 there were
insufficient quick-firing guns in the country to arm these
numbers, and the corps in Mesopotamia were known to be very
short of artillery. The Turks had lost the greater part of
their guns in the Balkan war and had only been able to
replace part of them. During the first part of the war,
* The Intelligence Department, Cairo, in their Handbook of the Turkish
Army dated 1.3.15, estimated that the Turks might be able to raise nine or
ten divisions of full strength in addition to the thirty-six peace divisions.