Scenes of War - German Soldiers in Palestine.

"The Palestine Front, or Sinai Front, was a secondary theater of war during World War I. From 1915 to 1918 the troops of the British Empire and the Central Powers, which consisted of the Ottoman Army, the German Asia Corps and Austro-Hungarian units, faced each other in hard-fought battles."

(Source: Wikipedia).

At the beginning of the First World War the political situation in the Balkans also had to be clarified. Walter Hubatsch comments as follows:

"The Turkey had already on 28 July 1914 brought an offer of alliance against Russia up for discussion in Berlin and on 2 August 1914 signed a secret alliance treaty with the German Reich. However, at that time England's opposition had not yet been taken into account, so that the Porte, weakened by past wars and internal unrest, initially declared its neutrality. The arrival of the two German cruisers "Goeben" and "Breslau" in the Golden Horn and their formal transfer into Turkish service then so increased Turkey's tension with the Entente that English naval forces at the end of September prevented a Turkish torpedo boat from leaving the straits. In response the Turkish government closed the Dardanelles. Despite internal tensions, the Young Turk party under Enver Pasha was willing to confront Russian possession of the straits by military force."

Source: Background according to Walter Hubatsch, Germany in the World War 1914 - 1918, Ulm 1966, p. 74 ff..

Even before the formal outbreak of war there were strong political currents in the Ottoman Empire. The driving force was the ruling Young Turks movement, in particular the influential war minister Enver Pasha. He was strongly pro-German and saw an alliance with the German Empire as the only chance to save the weakening empire from final disintegration and to regain lost territories - especially against the arch-enemy Russia.

On 02.08.1914, as mentioned, Berlin and Constantinople signed a secret military alliance.

Although the alliance stood, the Ottoman Empire initially remained officially neutral, as it was completely unprepared militarily and financially.

The catalyst for entering the war was the aforementioned takeover of two German warships: the cruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau.

In October 1914 the German Reich increasingly pushed for active Ottoman intervention in order to engage the Russian Tsarist Empire on another front. Enver Pasha finally gave the green light for a deliberate provocation without the knowledge of the Ottoman prime minister or the rest of the cabinet.

On 29.10.1914 the Ottoman fleet under Admiral Souchon sailed into the Black Sea and shelled Russian ports without a declaration of war, including Sevastopol, Odessa and Novorossiysk. Russian ships were also sunk.

This attack made a return to neutrality impossible. The reaction of the Entente powers was prompt:

November 1914: Russia, Great Britain and France officially declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

11.11.1914: The Ottoman Empire in turn declared war on the Entente powers.

14.11.1914: Sultan Mehmed V., in his capacity as Caliph, officially proclaimed the jihad (the holy war) against the Entente powers in the hope of inciting Muslim subjects in the British and French colonies, which, however, largely remained ineffective.

The entry of the Ottomans fundamentally changed the character of the First World War:

Huge new theaters of war emerged in the Caucasus (against Russia), in Mesopotamia and Palestine (against Great Britain), as well as the strategically decisive front at the Dardanelles (Battle of Gallipoli).

The straits from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea were closed. As a result, Russia was effectively cut off from direct arms deliveries from its Western allies, which contributed to its later economic and military collapse in 1917.

However, the precarious condition of the Turkish army required concrete military support from the German Empire. This was provided by the two expeditions under the code names Pascha I and Pascha II.

The German troops primarily acted as support and elite units for the numerically superior but materially disadvantaged Ottoman army.

The Asia Corps (Pascha I and Pascha II) was the official name of the German expeditionary forces in the Levant. They included infantry (including machine-gun and assault battalions), artillery, engineer and signal units.

One of the most important components was aerial reconnaissance and air defense. Units such as the Prussian Fliegerabteilung 304b (stationed, among others, in Merchavja) provided vital aerial imagery of the extensive operational area.

German officers occupied key central positions. Well-known generals such as Erich von Falkenhayn (former chief of the German Supreme Army Command) and Otto Liman von Sanders at times commanded the Ottoman Army Group F (also known as "Yildirim" / "Blitz").

Units arrived in the operational area from March 1916 via the Balkan–Constantinople staging route.

Command of this contingent and the Asia Corps that arose from it initially rested with Major General Friedrich Freiherr Kreß von Kressenstein.

The force was intended to support the Ottoman forces in the planned offensive across the Sinai Desert toward the British-controlled Suez Canal and to stabilize the defense of Palestine.

Because the Ottoman Empire primarily lacked modern military technology and logistics, Pascha I consisted mainly of specialized units:

The centerpiece was Aviation Detachment 300 (under Captain Hellmut Felmy), which mapped the desert from the air with modern reconnaissance aircraft and scouted British positions.

Also included were:

several heavy machine-gun battalions (No. 601, 602, 604, etc.),

anti-aircraft platoons (Flak) and

foot artillery units.

radio stations, truck convoys,

railway special commands as well as

drilling special detachments that had to bore vital wells for the troop advance in the extremely arid desert

In summary, Operation Pascha I laid the foundation for the entire German military presence in the Near East and demonstrated the logistical integration of the most modern European military technology into the Ottoman army.

"Organization Pascha I:

MG Battalion 601

MG Battalion 602

MG Battalion 604

MG Battalion 606

MG Battalion 607

Flak Platoon 28

Flak Platoon 133

Flak Platoon 136

Flak Platoon 142

Flak Platoon 172

Foot Artillery Battalion 60

Portable radio stations 2 and 4

Aviation Detachments 300 'Pascha', 301 and 302 (formed at Flieger Replacement Detachment Breslau-Brieg), 303 (FEA Altenburg), 304 b (FEA 1 b Oberschleißheim) and 305 (FEA Breslau), from 1918 Fighter Squadron 55 (later renamed Fighter Squadron 1 F)

Staff officer of the railway troops No. 25 with 3 companies

Drilling special detachments

5 railway special detachments

3 truck columns"

(Source: Wikipedia).

Pascha II was the military codename for the second, significantly stronger German expeditionary corps that was sent in late summer 1917 to reinforce the Palestine front.

While Pascha I (1916) mainly consisted of technical specialist and support units, Pascha II was a full-fledged, highly modern combat contingent from the German Western Front, intended as an elite force to halt the British advance.

After the fierce battles around Gaza in spring 1917 and the increasing pressure from the British, the German High Command decided to form the Asia Corps. The core of this corps was the newly formed troop brigade Pascha II.

Command of the entire Asia Corps was assumed by Lieutenant General Werner von Frankenberg and Proschlitz. Operationally, the force was subordinated to the Ottoman Army Group F under General Erich von Falkenhayn and later Otto Liman von Sanders.

The contingent was conceived as a modern "storm troop" and comprised around 6,500 soldiers.

At its core it consisted of three reinforced infantry battalions, namely the Silesian infantry regiments 701, 702 and 703. Added were:

storm battalions and mountain machine-gun detachments.

strong artillery formations, cavalry squadrons and pioneer companies.

three new aviation detachments (301, 302, 303, later also 304b and 305) to secure air superiority.

its own medical detachments, motor vehicle columns and radio operators.

The troops arrived from September/October 1917 by rail via Constantinople in the Jerusalem area. They immediately went into heavy defensive fighting:

They fought in the Third Battle of Gaza (Autumn 1917), but could no longer prevent the breakthrough of the British under General Allenby.

After the withdrawal from Jerusalem they established the Jaffa–Jerusalem line and held the British in trench warfare for months.

In September 1918 Pascha II was annihilated by British superiority in the Battle of Megiddo. The remnants of the force fought their way north (Damascus/Aleppo) with heavy losses.

In summary, Pascha II was Germany's attempt to stabilize the collapsing Ottoman front in the Near East through highly specialized German frontline troops from the Western Front, which ultimately could only delay the British victory.

"Pascha II consisted, among others, of the staff of the 201st Infantry Brigade under the command of Colonel Gustav von Oppen and was attached to the Asia Corps.

Organization late 1917:

Infantry Battalion 701

Infantry Battalion 702

Infantry Battalion 703

Artillery Detachment 701

Flak Battery 15

Pioneer Company 701

MG Detachment Hentig

Army Signals Commander 70

"Furthermore, in 1917/18 the Fortress Railway Construction Company 11 and the Railway Operations Company 44/48 were deployed on the Hejaz Railway.

The supreme commander of the Asia Corps was initially Major General Friedrich Freiherr Kreß von Kressenstein (1870–1948) as commander of the 1st Turkish Expeditionary Corps and later commander of the Gaza front".

(Source: Wikipedia).

"Organization of Pascha II in spring 1918:

Staff of the 201st Infantry Brigade

1st Masurian Infantry Regiment No. 146 from Allenstein under Lieutenant Colonel Frithjof von Hammerstein-Gesmold

Pioneer Company 205

Mountain MG Detachment 201

Mountain MG Detachment 203

Mountain MG Detachment 207

Mountain MG Detachment 208

Reserve Jäger Battalion 11 from Marburg

Mountain Artillery Detachment 1

7th Battery, Foot Artillery Regiment 2

7th Battery, Foot Artillery Regiment 9

Flak Platoon 120

Mountain Radio Detachment

Radio Platoon 1720

Radio Platoon 1731

Light Signal Platoon 27

Light Signal Platoon 28

Telegraph Detachment "Little Asia"

Source: Wikipedia.

The theater of war in Palestine was characterized by extreme climatic conditions and the continuous advance of the British.

Although the equipment was optimized for the heat, the army leadership initially underestimated the extreme drops in temperature during desert nights and in the Palestinian highlands (especially in winter around Jerusalem). Because the soldiers had often left their heavy coats behind, many units suffered severe hypothermia at night during the transitional seasons.

The campaign also suffered from massive supply problems.

The transport routes from the German Empire over the Balkans and Anatolia were long and incomplete.

The Baghdad Railway had significant gaps (e.g., in the Taurus Mountains), meaning goods had to be loaded and unloaded multiple times. In addition, extreme heat, water shortages and tropical diseases like malaria took a heavy toll on the soldiers

A feature of the German deployment was its political and humanitarian role on the ground:

Protection of the Jewish population: The Ottoman military commander Ahmed Cemal Pasha planned deportations and harsh countermeasures against the Zionist movement and the Jewish population of Palestine. German military personnel and diplomats (such as Friedrich Kreß von Kressenstein) intervened several times successfully to prevent deportations and to secure the survival of the settlements.

Protection of German colonists: The troops also provided protection for the German Templer colonists residing there

Well over 1,000 German soldiers died during the Palestine campaign, many of them not in combat but from disease.

The largest German military cemetery from this period in the Middle East is located in Nazareth. About 250 of the fallen are interred there. Further graves are found in the Zion Cemetery in Jerusalem.

The records of the fallen can be consulted today at the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge

The term Pascha I referred to the first German expeditionary corps, which was sent to the Sinai and Palestine front in early 1916 to support the Ottoman Empire.

The name was a military cover name or working title, chosen in reference to the Ottoman minister of war Enver Pasha. It stood in contrast to Pascha II, the second large reinforcement contingent that followed in the summer of 1917.

The adaptation of German equipment for the expeditionary corps Pascha II (the Asia Corps) in 1917 was a logistical necessity. The soldiers came directly from the trenches of the Western and Eastern Fronts and there wore thick, field-gray wool uniforms that were completely unsuitable for the desert climate of Palestine.

The German Army High Command drew on the expertise of the Imperial Schutztruppen (colonial troops) when equipping Pascha II.

The German troops deployed in the Middle East therefore wore special clothing adapted to the local climatic conditions. Camels were also used.