The Fourth Army of the
Ottoman Empire (
Turkish: Dördüncü Ordu) was one of the
field armies of the
Ottoman Army. It was formed in the middle nineteenth century, during Ottoman military reforms.
The army did not survive the
WWI battles in Palestine and Syria.[1][2]
Formations
Order of Battle, 1877
In 1877, it was stationed in
Anatolia. It was composed of:[3]
Infantry: Five line regiments and six rifle battalions
After the
Young Turk Revolution and the establishment of the
Second Constitutional Era on 3 July 1908, the new government initiated a major military reform. Army headquarters were modernized. The Fourth Army's new operational area was
Caucasia and its many troops were scattered along the frontier to keep an eye on the
Russian Empire. It commanded the following active divisions and other units:[4]
7th Infantry Division (Yedinci Fırka)
8th Infantry Division (Sekicinci Fırka)
19th Infantry Division (On Dokuzuncu Fırka)
4th Artillery Division (Dördüncü Topçu Fırkası)
Erzurum Fortress Artillery Regiment
The Fourth Army also had inspectorate functions for four Redif (reserve) divisions:[5][6]
13th
Erzincan Reserve Infantry Division (On Üçüncü Erzincan Redif Fırkası)
14th
Trabzon Reserve Infantry Division (On Dördüncü Trabzon Redif Fırkası)
15th
Diyarbekir Reserve Infantry Division (On Beşinci Diyarbekir Redif Fırkası)
16th
Sivas Reserve Infantry Division (On Altıncı Sivas Redif Fırkası)
Order of Battle, 1911
With further reorganizations of the Ottoman Army, to include the creation of corps level headquarters, by 1911 the Army's headquarters were
Baghdad. Before the
First Balkan War in 1911, the Army was structured as:[7]
On 26 September the Fourth Army headquarters moved to Damascus, dividing its area of responsibility in half, leaving Cemal Pasha answerable for Syria and western Arabia.[13]
Order of Battle, January, June 1918
Between January and June 1918, the army was structured as follows:[14]
Fourth Army (commanded by Jemal) (Syria-West Arabia)
^Lawrence, T.E. (1935). Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc. p. 640.
^Faulkner, Neil (2016). Lawrence of Arabia's War: The Arabs, the British and the Remaking of the Middle East in WWI. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 449.
ISBN9780300226393.
^Ian Drury, Illustrated by Raffaele Ruggeri, The Russo-Turkish War 1877, Men-at-Arms 277, Ospray Publishing Ltd., Reprinted 1999,
ISBN1-85532-371-0, p. 35.
^T.C. Genelkurmay Başkanlığı, Balkan Harbi, 1912–1913: Harbin Sebepleri, Askerî Hazırlıklar ve Osmanlı Devletinin Harbe Girişi, Genelkurmay Basımevi, 1970, pp. 87–90. (in Turkish)
Erickson, Edward J. (2001). Order to Die: A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War. Greenwood Press.
ISBN0-313-31516-7.
Erickson, Edward J. (2003). Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912–1913. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Falls, Cyril (1930). Military Operations Egypt & Palestine from June 1917 to the End of the War. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. 2 Part II. A. F. Becke (maps). London: HM Stationery Office.