Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein

[Peter H]

Bill

You'll find that shoulder patch discussed in our Turkish Stromtroop thread:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=48481

Best
Peter

[Bill Woerlee]

Peter

G'day mate

Thanks for that - I forgot all about your page. Sorry it took so long to respond but ... well all the things going on with the site.

Cheers

Bill

[belita]

Hello! Happy New Year Everybody!
Just sharing an interesting comment from another discussion...
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=96639

by trickcyclist on 07 Mar 2006, 00:33
Big Al P:
The M.16 Stahlhelm is the German steel helmet of WWI. Americans troops in Afghanistan have found hundreds of them in mint condition, stored in caves.
No one really knows how they got there.

by Duckman on 07 Mar 2006, 02:51
Kress von Kressenstein?
Well, he getsyou about halfway there. What happened next? Who knows, but I bet there's a good novel in it.
I must say I'm more bewildered by how a 3-tonne tank gets there

No comments!
Cheers,
IR

[AlifRafikKhan]

Thirty years before German General Erwin Rommel earned the nick-name "Desert Fox" in the deserts of World War II - Baron Friedrich Kress von Kressenstein had earned a similar reputation as a cunning and resourceful leader in the deserts of Sinai and Palestine in the Great War...

British historian Liddell Hart described him as "the inspiration and brain of the Turks in Palestine for the first three years of the war."

Kress von Kressenstein was a Bavarian born artillery-officer, and became a member of Liman von Saunders' military mission to Turkey in January 1914. He was to spend the majority of the war in service with the Ottoman Empire...

He planned the attack on the Suez Canal in January 1915 which opened hostilities on the Palestine Front. His 'Desert Force' traversed the Sinai carrying with them specially designed and built punts to cross the Suez waterway, but on arrival at the Canal, February 2 1915, British forces were waiting and the attack failed completely and he was forced to retreat back across the desert...

Not until the Gallipoli Campaign ended did the Turks try to take the Suez Canal a second time. Again Kress von Kressenstein (his full surname) led the Ottoman Army across the Sinai in 1916...

This time he was to meet the Anzac force of Australian Light Horsemen and New Zealand Mounted Riflemen at the Battle of Romani where his forces were routed and he fled backwards to El Arish, harrassed by Anzac actions at Katia and Bir el Abd during the retreat...

Attacks against his forces contnued and he was ordered to take command of the Gaza Garrison. He was fortunate to obtain victory during the first British attack, due in large part to the bungling of English General Sir Charles Dobell; when the battle appeared to be won as Anzac Troops finally broke into the town after a faltering Infantry attack - Dobell ordered the Anzac mounted force to retire...

However the successful defense of Gaza in the second battle was attributed to the skills of Kress von Kressenstein in upgrading fortifications of the garrison...

Replaced in command at Gaza on 5 November 1917 by former German Chief of Staff Erich Falkenhayn, Kressenstein was given command of the Turkish Eighth Army in defence of the coastal sector of the front until the summer of 1918, when he was then transferred to command a German military mission in the Caucasus...

At wars end he returned to Germany in 1919...

Source : http://www.nzmr.org/german.htm

[belita]

Jerusalem in World War I: The Palestine Diary…
by Conde de Ballobar, Eduardo Manzano Moreno

“13 January, 1916 - In these days I have learned something about the war; sufficient to somewhat calm my anxiety about news. I visited Van Kressenstein in the German hospice of St. Paul, where he finds himself lodged along with his military staff. To my questions he responded that he is no longer the Chief of Staff of Djemal Pasha, but rather the Commander of the expedition against the Canal. In fact, he is thus independent and with the maximum authority. His guard (an interesting detail) is composed of dervishes…”

[Osman Levent]

I know I'm bit late to post a remark on the subject but I had the inevitable visit of a hacker ruining my system.
This little note by an eye witness is proof enough about how truth can be distorted, even with the best possible intentions.
The so called "Dervishes" mentioned in Conde de Ballobar's memoirs belong to a volunteer brigade formed by the adherents of the Mawlawi and Qadiri Sects originally from Konya Province who must have been the first "conscientious objectors" of history as they were free of conscription being of a religious class. But wanting to serve their country nevertheless; they had asked and were organized as a medical corps to serve in the battle field to assist their fallen comrades since their beliefs to kill another human being even at times of war, was totally abhorrent to them. So at the time when the good Count, the Consul General of the Spanish Crown was visiting Freiherr von Kressenstein; the Ottoman Army was preparing for the last offensive on Suez Canal and understandably these volunteer forces which had already participated in previous operations in the Sinai were still with the Commanding Officer of the "First Expeditionary Force" in Jerusalem.
Best Regards, Osman Levend

[belita]

Thanks for the explanation about the Dervishes, Osman Levent.
This was my sketch of the photo in Chapter 4 of Ron Havilio's "Fragment's Jerusalem", many years after I watched the film.
This is a link because I forgot how to add images to these replies.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater
I wasn't yet able to find the photo or a copy of the DVD or the old video... But I'm still enquiring here and there... Cheers! IR