National Experiences - British Commission for Military History

f. Rezzan Ünalp *
Turkish Air Campaigns during the
Battles of çanakkale March 1915 - January 1916
Turchia
Introduction
Those, who wrote the history of the air power just before the World War I, have
attached little importance to the aerial aspects of the Ottoman-Italian war and
Balkan Wars. In fact, the basic principles governing the employment of the
aircraft in the theater for attack purposes have been introduced during these battles.
The Ottoman army having learnt lessons from experience during the Balkan Wars
has recognized the need for a separate corps of observation which would assume the
duty of observation in an aircraft in support of the pilot, and to that end issued an
order in May 1913 in order to train staff officers as air observers and establish an
independent corps of air observers. On the other hand, the British had just seen the
necessity of an independent observation in July 1914. At the beginning of the campaign
in the Çanakkale front the British did not
have even one trained observer.
First Lieutenant Fazıl
At a time when First Lord of the Admiralty
Churchill did not say anything about
the employment of the aircraft in the Strait of
Çanakkale, the Ottoman army posted aircraft
to Çanakkale patrol the Strait long before the
bomb attacks. Although there was no aircraft
capable to perform military tasks in the Yeşilköy
(Ayastefanos) Flight School, a one-man Nieuport
seaplane was deployed to Çanakkale on
August 18, 1914 under First Lieutenant Fazıl’s
command. Since it was expected in Çanakkale
that the army posted an aircraft not a seaplane,
no works were carried out for a seaplane base.
While a seaplane base was being under construct
near the Cape Nara in the Anatolian section of
*
Col. PhD Secretary General Turkish Commission of
Military History.