White tropical uniform

[Peter H]

From the Great War Forum,poster domsim:

David Nicolle's Osprey book 'The Ottoman Army 1914-1918' says that the standard Ottoman Army summer/tropical uniform was white for the 100 years up to the beginning of WW1 and that it was still being phased out during the War. He has photos of troops in white at Gallipoli in 1915 and a photo of a medic in Palestine in white with a red crescent arm band.

From: http://www.gallipoli1915.org/



Some of these Askeri are wearing the tropical uniform?

[domster]

Hi peter
That was me-I'd forgotten about that. There are quite few of the Library of Congress photos that appear to show this uniform. The quality of these photos is awwesome!

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[Peter H]

Thanks

My understanding is that those photos were taken by the photographers of the American Colony in Jerusalem,later known as the Matson Photo service.They freelanced for the Ottomans,making postcards as well.Luckily for us such a unique organisation was around to record those historical events.

Although the US was never at war with Turkey it makes you ponder the situation of American citizens freely taking photos of Germans and Austrians in 1917,at the time their country's enemy.


Regards
Peter

[Peter H]

Another photo from: http://www.gallipoli1915.org/

[Tosun Saral]

The color is not white but grey.(feldgrau)(Boz in Turkish)
Turks liked the color grey at army uniforms. The grey color played a kind of of camouflage role. Because in mid summer all the country turns in grey. On the other hand winters are hard in Turkey. The grey uniform suits very well to the snow. We had gray uniforms till 1950's.

Me with father and mother in 1943
Here is a picture of me and my fathers orderly soldier Hasan Gemici in 1943