militarysawitselfasaprimusinterparesamongtheCentralPowers.Thesenseof
inferioritywascommonbetweenAustro-HungarianandOttomanofficersalike,
whentheylookedattheiraccomplishments,whichwerenevertofullysatisfy
theGermanally.Asaresultfromitsallies’shortcomings,theGermanHighCom-
mandalsotriedtoimposetheGermanmilitaryorganizationalstructureonitsal-
lies,ameasurewhichemanatedfromtheGermanside.³¹⁵ThoughtheGerman
speakingmilitaryeliteledtheAustro-HungarianarmyandtheOttomanarmy
hadmanyGermanophileofficersinitsranks,themilitaryculturesofbotharmies
differedfromtheGermanmodel.Accordingly,thepostwardiscourseinthethree
countriesabouttheWorldWarIallianceshowedsurprisingsimilarities.³¹⁶
Nevertheless,oneshouldnotforgetthatsomeoftheoutcomesofcoalition
warfarewerealsorelatedtothespecialconditionsofwarfareintheOttomanen-
vironment.
AskariandAsker:TheOttomanEmpireandColonialWarfare
FromthepointofviewofthemajorityofGermanofficers,theOttomanlands
werecomparabletoacolonialtheaterofwarduringtheFirstWorldWar.³¹⁷
ThefrontswerefarfromCentralEuropeandthefrontlineswereoftennotas
clearlydefinedasintheOttomanArabprovinces.Therewasnopermanenttele-
graphandwirelesscommunicationavailable,whichwasparticularlyvalidfor
supplyroutes.Asaresult,somefundamentalsofthe‘Germanwayofwar’
couldbarelybeimplemented.³¹⁸
LocalculturedifferedconsiderablyfromanythingtheGermansoldierswere
accustomedto.Germanofficerspostedtoremoteprovinceshadmorefreedomin
theirdecisionsthantheirfellowcomradesontheWesternfrontbecausetheGer-
manHighCommandwasfarawayintheOttomanlands.Thiswasnotthecase
GüntherKronenbitter,“VonSchweinehundenundWaffenbrüdern:DerKoalitionskriegder
Mittelmächte1 91 4/ 15 zwischenSachzwangundRessentiment,”inDievergesseneFront:Der
Osten 191 4/15;Ereignis,Wirkung,Nachwirkung.ed.GerhardP.Groß(Munich:FerdinandSchö-
ningh, 20 06), 137 .ForthewordingoftheGermanconventionsee:Jäschke,“Deutsch-Türkische
Militärkonvention”.
GüntherKronenbitter,“Waffenbrüder.DerKoalitionskriegderMittelmächte1 914 – 1918 und
dasSelbstbildzweierMilitäreliten,”inMythenundLegendeninderGeschichte.,ed.VolkerDot-
terweich(Munich:ErnstVögel, 20 04), 181 – 186.
Cf.forthefollowingconsiderationsTanjaBührer,“Peripherien,”inDerErsteWeltkrieg 1914
1918.DerdeutscheAufmarschineinkriegerischesJahrhundert.ed.MarkusPöhlmann(Munich:
Bucher,2 01 4), 267 – 27 4.
FortheproblemwiththeAuftragstaktikseeWallach,AnatomieeinerMilitärhilfe,2 17.
96 2ThePeakofKnowledgeTransfer