A Turkish funeral with Turkish and German soldiers and officers attending and praying. Is this a young Mustapha Kemal praying?

Türk[isches] Begräbnis



Turkish funeral

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Monday, November 22, 1915

"05.00 hrs. . . .

And what about my men? We have had seven groups of reinforcements so far. Originally there were 200 soldiers in each of our companies, but now we are down to 50 or less apiece. The rest have become martyrs, or are either missing or wounded. As for the officers, none of us has escaped unscathed. This continuous fighting has exhausted us.

08.00 hrs. Bitter cold gnaws at the flesh of our hands and faces. It makes my heart flutter to think we are in such a state already. What is in store for us? Whatever happens, we will get used to it. If we had to die twice, we would get used to that too."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the diary of Turkish Second Lieutenant Mehmed Fasih writing on November 22, 1915 on the front on the Gallipoli Peninsula. A gale had blown in on the 17th bringing colder weather, weather that would, in the coming days, turn deadly.

Source

Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, pp. 141, 142, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003

Tags

1915-11-22, November, 1915