The Ottoman Army 1914–18 (Men-at-Arms)

Interesting look at one of WWI's overlooked armies.

Great illustrations, as usual. Modelers cannot do without this book. Author David Nicolle takes a little space to put us in the picture, so to speak, to set the stage for WWI for the Ottomans which I found helpful. The political, economic, and military big picture stuff is good, accurate, and helpful. One of the most interesting sections described the Ottoman railroad and highway situation. Both were much worse than I had previously understood. They had a very large empire but the communications were grossly undeveloped. That naturally did not help the war effort. I also much enjoyed the section on allies and auxiliaries. I learned that an early 20th century Emperor of Ethiopia converted to Islam. I didn't know that and I have read several histories of Ethiopia but that fact slipped my notice. Some very interesting stuff on Iran and Central Asia as well, lightly touched upon but still useful. I would have liked more detail on Orbat, numbers of divisions on various fronts rather than just the Army unit number. I like to have solid numbers on cannon, machine guns, and so on when I can get them. Not here, but the booklet is only 48 pages long which includes many pages of drawings with more pages of explanation of the drawings. Recommended as a first look at the Ottoman army rather than as a comprihensive understanding of the Ottoman role in WWI.

ANOTHER STERLING ENTRY IN THE OSPREY SERIES, WITH DATA AND INFORMATION YOU RARELY FIND IN ANY OTHER BOOK. GOOD CHRONOLOGY OF OTTOMAN ARMIES IN THE GREAT WAR, WITH THE USUAL EXPERT DESCRIPTIONS OF UNIFORMS AND WEAPONS. STILL WISH THE EDITORS OF THIS SERIES WOULD INCLUDE ONE PAGE ON MEDALS AND INSIGNIA, BUT STILL YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THIS GEM. IT JUST WHETS YOUR APPETITE FOR A SECOND VOLUME PERHAPS????

Usually I love Osprey books. They contain a lot of useful knowledge about military history in a concise package. This book does a pretty good job describing the Ottoman armed forces overall, but doesn't describe the uniforms and equipment as well as some of the other titles in the Men-at-Arms series, such as those on the German, French or even Balkan armies. Considering the size and scope of the Ottoman Empire in WWI, I expected a little bit more.

The Ottoman Empire was the weak sister of the Central Powers coalition of the First World War. This book adds much detailed information about the Ottoman Army in the First World War and that information is not limited to the uniforms of the military forces.

THIS A GOOD BOOK FOR GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE TURKISH ARMY IN WW1 HAS SOME EXCELLENT PICTURES AND GREAT ARTWORK ABOUT A LITTLE KNOWN PART OF THE WW1 ARMIES

Very good.

For modelers, this book is a great source on all details about the not-much-written-about turkish army. As usual, it has plenty of black and white photos as well as eight center color plates, with complete explanations at the end.For a little bit more of history on the Turkish army, I'd suggest adding another Osprey book: GALLIPOLI 1915.

Reasonable text but I was rather disappointed by the illustrations, nowhere near the standard of for example Mike Chappell. This is definitely not the definitive reference book on the Ottoman army of WW1 but still worth buying due to its low price.

excellent little book

very good

An interesting book which was as described. It arrived quite promptly in good condition. Overall, I am most satisfied.

Je voulais compléter ma collection "Osprey" sur les théâtres "secondaires" de la Grande Guerre en acquérant ce titre sur un belligérant important mais méconnu.Quelle n'a pas été ma déception.Non seulement des aspects importants sur l'organisation de l'armée ottomane manquent mais, surtout, le génocide des Arméniens est présenté de façon tronquée dans une partie sur "les Arméniens". D'ailleurs il n'y a pas de génocide mais des "massacres", et les Arméniens en sont davantage auteurs que victimes ! De toute façon, ils l'on bien cherché si on suit l'auteur qui ne voit en eux que des auxiliaires des Russes - la chronologie laisse entendre que les Arméniens de l'Empire sont des belligérants comme les autres ... - et des assassins - les massacres (réels) de Musulmans par les Arméniens sont à nouveau évoqués quelques pages plus loin !J'ai réellement été choqué par ce qui n'est rien de plus que du négationnisme de la part de D. Nicolle. La lecture de l'ouvrage d'Y. Ternon "les Arméniens, histoire d'un génocide" - 1ère édition 1977 ... - est à l'opposé vivement conseillée !Je donne deux étoiles à cet Osprey car il comprend cependant des informations intéressantes sur d'autres sujets - moral, logistique, fronts orientaux, etc . - en espérant que ce ne soit pas non plus un tissu de mensonges. La biblio date un peu même si le titre a une quinzaine d'années.