'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME I.' [‎26r] (56/454)

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THE TURKS IN MESOPOTAMIA 31
that the percentage of school-trained officers in the army had
risen to fifty. But after that date training undoubtedly
suffered owing to the different expeditions and campaigns in
which the Turkish army became involved.
There were no modern land defences in Mesopotamia and
the only Turkish vessel of war in these waters was the gunboat
Marmariss, armed with four 9-pounder Q.F. and two one-
pounder guns, also with one eighteen-inch torpedo tube : there
were also a certain number of armed motor and other launches,
mounting small guns.
The reserve system of the Turkish army had broken down
completely in the Balkan war and a new scheme had only
been introduced in 1914. Preferably to detailing this, it has
been considered better to describe very briefly the actual
arrangements carried out, as ascertained from our Intelligence
reports and from accounts subsequently given by the Turkish
General Staff. On the 3rd August 1914, the date on which
general mobilization had been ordered to commence, the
younger classes of reservists, i.e., men of from twenty-three
to thirty years of age, were mostly drafted into active units,
while men of from thirty to thirty-eight years of age were sent
to depot formations for training. Some men in the Mustahfiz
category (i.e., thirty-eight to forty-five years of age) were
embodied for a few weeks of rudimentary training and then
sent home with instructions to be ready to rejoin at twenty-
four hours’ notice, while others were sent to garrison and
detached duties, road-making, etc. ; and considerable numbers,
especially of non-Musalmans, obtained exemption on payment
of the exoneration tax. Mobilization arrangements proceeded
rapidly on the whole, though without much enthusiasm and
with a maximum of discomfort to the civil and foreign popula
tion owing to drastic requisitioning and lack of regard for the
rights of property or for the ordinary conditions of life of the
country. This system of requisitioning destroyed the nation’s
agriculture and its economic equilibrium, and led to the
starvation of hundreds of thousands and to the financial ruin
of many. The following depot formations were organised
with a view to maintaining units in the field at their proper
strength : for every infantry regiment a depot battalion was
formed ; for each cavalry regiment the fifth squadron became
the depot squadron ; and depot batteries of artillery, battalions
of engineers, companies of signallers, battalions of transport
personnel and field hospitals were formed at certain centres.
In Mesopotamia, Palestine and the Caucasus reserve training