turned to an organisational architecture that it had abandoned in 1913. One of the Ottoman General Staff's organisational changes in 1914 was the abolition of the organic rifle regiment at army corps level and the organic rifle battalion at infantry division level. These highly specialised regiments and battalions were the Ottoman Army's equivalent of German Jäger or French chusseurs. The reason for this action was the inability of the army during the Balkan Wars to utilise effectively the rifle regiments and battalions in their proper doctrinal role. In fact, during the First Balkan War, Ottoman commanders tended to misuse their rifle battalions as immediate reserves or as a nucleus for ad hoc provisional formations. They were almost never used properly in reconnaissance, screening, or flank guard missions. Consequently, the Ottoman General Staff deactivated the rifle units in the spring of 1914 because the misuse of concentrations of hand-picked men degraded the overall quality of the regular infantry regiments. It should be noted that after World War 2 the US Army deactivated its Ranger battalions for the same reason - the concentration of elite soldiers in specialised units weakened the army's regular infantry establishment and there did not seem to be an appropriate tactical return on such an investment.
The activation of the assault battalion (hücüm tahur) essentially returned the Ottoman Army to the elitist organisational architecture of 1910-14. Each infantry division had three infantry regiments (of three infantry battalions) and one assault battalion, within which there was a high concentration of aggressive and fit officers and men. Unlike the German Army, the Turks formed no specialised assault or storm troop divisions.
By the end of 1917 the strategic and operational initiative in Palestine had passed to the British. Consequently, both the practical and technical need of the Ottoman Army to possess assault troops also passed. Nevertheless, the assault troop battalions of the Ottoman Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Armies were retained, possibly with a view to future offensive operations of the Yildirim Army Group. It should be remembered that until the failure of the Ludendorff offensives in the spring of 1918, the strategic posture of the Central Powers appeared favourable.
With the falling moral of the Ottoman Army during the first half of 1918, the elite units also suffered a decline. A secret memo detailing the state of the Yildirim Army Group in July 1918 states the following:
Attack UnitsVIIth Army Attack Battalion.This battalion is camped about two miles south of Narblus. All men are equipped with steel helmets and gas masks. At present it is used in arresting deserters, but in case of the British advance it is to be used to counter attack.XX Army Corps Attack Battalion.This battalion is in reserve in the XXth Army Corps area. Its strength and equipment are similar to those of the VIIth Army Battalion.20th Division Attack CompanyThis company is camped near Jalud (C.5/O.2.a.) and is 130 strong. It formerly numbered 180, but three weeks ago, 50 men deserted, taking with them two machine guns stolen from a Regimental Machine Gun Company. (Officer deserter, 4/78th Regiment, 10-9).
Comment -The above strengths are greater than in the case of other formations and are probably exaggerated.