The Transport Branch controled the Automobile units. For example, for Yildirim Army Group (1 October 1917), the following units were known to have existed:
At the battle of Megiddo, 1918, the advancing British cavalry later found among abandoned Turkish equipment, 55 motor-lorries, and four motor-cars. These likely belonged to the wartime Automobile units of Ottoman Yildirim Army Group, in 1917-18 at the battle.
The Turkish Imperial Army set-up several auto-motorised transport companies in WW1, and no armoured cars appear in these records.
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[1] H.S. Gullet, The AIF in Sinai and Palestine, v. VII, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 (University of Queensland Press, 1984): 778:
[2] Flaherty, C. (2013) The 1909 Turkish Machine-Gun Carrier Car. The Armourer Militaria Magazine, Issue 117 (May-June): 51-52. "The French 1906-07 Panhard-Genty Modification - Historically, French development of the machine-gun armed cars after 1900, began in 1904 with the French Army purchase of a ‘Panhard & Levassor’ 24 hp touring car, and used it as an un-armed reconnaissance vehicle during the 1905 manoeuvres. In 1906, Captain H. Genty converted this vehicle into a motorized machine-gun carrier (or Auto-Mitrailleuse), by simply mounting a light machine-gun on a pivot behind the rear seat".
[3] Right - A 1917 Ford Model T Light Car, and Lewis gun, belonging to the Australian No. 1 Light Car Patrol. This vehicle is based on the French 1906-07 Panhard-Genty modification - which had also been adopted by the Ottoman Imperial Army and Police, in the Turkish service 1909 Hotchkiss 'Automitrailleuse'.
The French 1906-07 Panhard-Genty Modification - Historically, French development of the machine-gun armed cars after 1900, began in 1904 with the French Army purchase of a ‘Panhard & Levassor’ 24 hp touring car, and used it as an un-armed reconnaissance vehicle during the 1905 manoeuvres. In 1906, Captain H. Genty converted this vehicle into a motorized machine-gun carrier (or Auto-Mitrailleuse), by simply mounting a light machine-gun on a pivot behind the rear seat [2].
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[1] H.S. Gullet, The AIF in Sinai and Palestine, v. VII, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918: 778.
[2] Flaherty, C. (2013) The 1909 Turkish Machine-Gun Carrier Car. The Armourer Militaria Magazine, Issue 117 (May-June): 51-52.
Right - Several Ottoman staff car drivers are pictured in photographs in the US Library of Congress collection, however apart from drivers goggles being worn, they are wearing typical Turkish uniforms without any insignia.
Little is currently available describing the organisation of Ottoman Imperial Army military vehicle drivers.
In 1909, an actual Transport Branch Colour was established for collars, and shoulder boards, which was:
The personnel account of Ludomil Rayski, who returned to Turkey in 1915 (as he had dual Ottoman citizenship), began his service in the Ottoman Imperial Army as a car driver in the 'Dardanelles Fortified Zone's Transportation Unit'. This had two vehicles to transport the Turkish high commanders in the region [2].
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[1] The British General Staff. (1995) 1916 Handbook of the Turkish Army. Battery Press, Nashville: 93.
[2] Piotr Nykiel. The Poles in the Gallipoli Campaign. Naval Operations in the Dardanelles 1915.
[3] Mesut Uyar, and Edward J. Erickson. (2009) A Military History of the Ottomans (Greenwood): 63.
[4] The British General Staff. (1995) 1916 Handbook of the Turkish Army. Battery Press, Nashville: 96.
Right - Extracted from photographs made by the American Colony of Jerusalem in WW1 showing Turkish staff vehicles recognition insignia. This vehicle has the 1882 Hamidiye Coat of Arms Badge, in full colours painted on the mid-row seats door. Additionally on the wind screen a more elaborate set of insignia has been painted on the glass. This is the star and crescent quartered in red/white. Flanking this are two swallow-tail flags in red/white. These are Turkish army’s Corps Command flags.
Right - Fixed to Imperial Army railway locomotives, these cast brass (with painted red backgrounds) star and crescent badges are 21cm diameter. The Imperial War Museum collection contains a similar badge 23cm in diameter.
Right - Stencilled in large white stylised German gothic letters, this designation for a Turkish heavy battery can be seen on the gun trail from WW1. The rest of the lettering disappears behind equipment attached to the side of the gun trail. However it appears to read as '.2.turk.s.F.H.B ....' The initials s.F.H.B ... likely mean "schwer" (heavy) Feldhaubitzen-Batterie (Field-howitzer-battery). This could be for the 2nd Turkish heavy guns field-howitzer-battery (2nd Field Howitzer Battalion). However, it is not known why this abbtreviation has been written in German, and not using Ottoman script.