Turkish infantry from 'Four Years Beneath the Crescent' by Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War.
Turkish Infantry
"10.00 hrs. Go to see how my men are doing. Each time I pass by the olive grove I am profoundly affected by the memory of all our martyrs buried there. My heart keeps telling me that at the end of the war they will come back to life. Oh my God! Show mercy to those of us who are still living! And guide us!18.00 hrs. My men are singing their traditional songs. They tell of deep sadness and a sense of mourning. They were singing these same sad songs when we left Mersin. But most of the men who were singing then now lie covered with earth."
Excerpt from the diary of Turkish Second Lieutenant Mehmed Fasih writing on December 13, 1915 on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Fasih did not know that the enemy he and his men had faced and had fought since April had begun evacuating two of their three positions.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 143, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
1915-12-13, 1915, December, Fasih, Mehmed Fasih, Gallipoli, Turkish infantry
