RIGHT - "A Turkish Sniper" (Imperial War Museum collection), painted by James McBey 7 November 1917, outside the walls of Jerusalem. This painting appears to show:
The history research website Australian Light Horse Studies Centre indicates:
ABOVE - Around 1900, the Ottoman army had developed a marksmanship and sharpshooting skills medal [1]. After 1909, the Ottoman army encouraged its marksmanship in the School of Musketry courses for officers [2].
RIGHT - This photograph from WW1 shows a Turkish junior officer: cavas (sergeant) wearing an unidentified Ottoman script badge on the collar patch, and a crossed-rifles sleeve patch.
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[1] Metin Erüretin. (2001) Osmanli Madalyalari ve Nisanlari. [Ottoman medals and orders: documented history]. DMC: 284.
[2] British General Staff. (1995) 1916 Handbook of the Turkish Army. Battery Press, Nashville: 127.
RIGHT - This picture of the 'Ottoman coastal defences, in the Dardanelles, circa 1916' shows two types of painted Turkish camouflage. This coastal battery position utilised an 8.2 inch calibre naval gun taken off the old German armoured cruiser SMS Roon, which was disarmed in 1916 and converted into a training and accommodation ship.
ABOVE - A close view of the Turkish Army tent sheet camouflage pattern seen draped over the gun, in the picture of the 'Ottoman coastal defences, in the Dardanelles (circa 1916)'. It is assumed:
ABOVE - Reconstructing the camouflage pattern:
In WW1, the Ottoman Imperial Army adopted camouflage painting - in disruptive or dazzle patterns at a very early date [1]. Use of mottled, and disruptive or dazzle patterns by the Ottoman army in 1915-1916 is significant; as it had only been in 1914, that John Graham Kerr, who first applied the principle to British warships in WW I, outlined the principle in a letter to Winston Churchill explaining that disruptive camouflage sought to confuse, not to conceal, "It is essential to break up the regularity of outline and this can be easily effected by strongly contrasting shades ... a giraffe or zebra or jaguar looks extraordinarily conspicuous in a museum but in nature, especially when moving, is wonderfully difficult to pick up."
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[1] In 1909, the Ottoman Imperial Army adopted field brown uniforms (based in the 1908 Engineers' field uniform), as the basic combat dress. Nicolle notes, "the 'brown-grey shade' of the official Ottoman field uniform was ... well suited to the 'mud colour of Gallipoli'." David Nicolle. (2010) Ottoman Infantryman 1914-18. Osprey Publishing: 29.
Austrian instructors trained a unit of Ottoman skiers in 1914, and early 1915. The ski battalion was initially planned to have over 1,000 men. It was later reduced to a company under the third army, by June 1915. The third army ski company operated on the Caucasus front. Later it grew into a ski and mountain battalion with three companies, and a machine gun company. The skiers also continued as a training company till 1917, in Erzurum, East Anatolia.
Ski troops were provided with a white sniper smocks:
Ski Troops displayed a large white collar patch on the heavy wool coats.
Ski troops wore kabalak headgear covered in thick wool cloth, and the ear flap, was a single piece of wool cloth, that acted as a chin-strap/face protector when pulled down over the face.