Türkenübung - 07.07.1943

World War II German Military
#1

Führer wanted Turkey in axis from start,because of interests and relations with Turks.
In WW1 Germans and Turks fought together aganist their mutual enemies in same fronts.
For example ; Germans sent officers to Turkey,and Turks sent 20.000 Soldiers to Galician front to aid German Army.
Hitler stoped Italians to invade Turkey with their forces in aegean islands before WW2 (most of them was at rhodes,40.000 soldiers) , sent officers to help creation of Turkish self-product airforce and plane factories etc.
Turkey had good natural resources which German Army needed.Germany had non agression,friendship etc pacts with Turkey.


In both 1941 and 1943 Germans invate Turkish Officers to Fronts for convince them to join at axis’ side.
But it was nearly impossible for Turkey because Turkey was surrounded by three powers.
Soviets in east,allies in south,Germans in west.President couldnt take risk

“One of the purposes of this military demonstration(video below) was to show how powerful the German War Machine was, and convince Turkey to join the war on Germany’s side. This demonstration took place jut before the Operation Citadel (7 July 1943) under te name of “Türkenübung”. Turkish Generals and Officers observed soldiers and equipments with German officers and General Field Marshal Erich von Manstein.”

Here is the video :

//youtu.be/W1slinRlWS0

Some photos :

Adolf Hitler,Turkish Gen.Cemil Cahit Toydemir,Feldmarschall Keitel and Turkish Officers at Wolfsschanze







Plus + photo of Turkish Hitlerjugend - 1934

#2

Wow fascinating piece of WW2 politics - I wasn’t awre of this. Thanks.

#3

If Turkey had joined the Axis and if its troops had fought half as well as they did at Gallipoli in WWI, it could have made a useful contribution to the Axis effort.

However, I don’t know enough about the WWII Turkish military capacity to know if it was likely to be of great use in WWII. If its WWII pre-war capacity was anything like its WWI pre-war capacity http://www.worldwar1.com/neareast/ta.htm , its contribution might have been of limited value. Although Turkey’s military and strategic position in WWII was very different to the one it faced in before, during and after WWI.