Asia Corps

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Asia Corps
(Asien-Korps)
Active28 January 1915 – 28 October 1918
Country 
German Army
Nickname(s)Pasha I, Pasha II
EngagementsWorld War I
  • Sinai and Palestine Campaign
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Gustav von Oppen
Werner von Frankenberg und Proschlitz

The Asia Corps (

German Army, sent to assist the Ottoman Army during World War I
.

Medics from Asia Corps carrying a wounded soldier with camel (Palestine
/May 1918).

Pasha I

The first German troops despatched to assist the Ottoman Army in 1914 and 1915 were Pioneers, who assisted in the construction of roads in

.

Once

Danube River
and Balkan railways. A detachment of specialist troops and officers, the Asia Korps, was assembled to increase the Ottoman Army's effectiveness in the use of equipment they hitherto lacked. In March 1916, the "Pasha I Expedition" set out for Palestine. The various units of the expedition included:

  • Infantry Battalion 701
  • Infantry support gun sections 701, 702, 703
  • Machine gun company 701
  • Asia Korps Cavalry squadron
  • Pioneer detachment 701
  • Pioneer company 205 (from the Hessian 11th Pioneer Battalion)
  • Flying detachment (Fliegerabteilung) 300 ("Pasha")
  • Mountain Signal detachment 27
  • Survey section 27
  • Medical section

Fortress Railway Construction Company No. 11 and Railway Operating Companies Nos. 44 and 48 were also deployed to assist the Ottoman railway authorities on the lines of communication.

In April, the 300th Flying Detachment ("Pasha") was stationed in

First Suez Offensive and Battle of Romani, they subsequently fell back to Beersheba and Ramallah
.

Pasha II

On 11 March 1917, after the

capture of Jerusalem
by the British in December, further reinforcements were despatched, including substantial fighting ground formations.

The German troops forming Pasha II, and subsequent reinforcements were under the administrative control of the 201st Infantry Brigade commanded by Major General Werner von Frankenberg zu Proschlitz, and included:

German staff officers with signal and other personnel formed a Corps headquarters within the Ottoman Eighth Army in Palestine, which was also termed the "Asia Corps", although it is also referred to in Turkish histories as the "Left Wing Group", commanded by Colonel Gustav von Oppen.[1]

Austro-Hungarian troops in the Middle East

Austro-Hungarian troops marching to their quarters at St. Paulus, Jerusalem.

Gallipoli
:

  • Motor Mortar Battery No. 9
  • Howitzer Battery No. 36

Between the summer of 1916 and the end of the war, the following artillery units were serving on the Palestine front:

  • Mountain Howitzer Battery No. 1/4
  • Mountain Howitzer Battery No. 2/6

Major Adolf Wilhelm Marno von Eichenhorst commanded this artillery group until 1917, after which it was commanded by Captain Wladislaw Ritter von Truszkowski. The overall commander of Austro-Hungarian troops in the Ottoman Empire was Feldmarschall-Leutnant Joseph Ritter von Pomiankowski. It was planned in 1917 and 1918 to send an "Orient-Korps" to the Ottomans, but this was abandoned.

Final actions

In the Battle of Megiddo, the Ottoman forces west of the Jordan River were engulfed by the Allied offensive. The surviving German and Austrian detachments fought their way northward towards Damascus amid the routed Turkish armies.

References

  1. ^ Erickson, p.196

Sources

  • Bruce, Anthony. The Last Crusade: The Palestine Campaign in the First World War. MacArthur & co. .
  • Erickson, Edward J. (2001). Ordered to die: a history of the Ottoman army in the First World War. Greenwood Publishing Group. .

External links