Maths connect Author:David Kirkby Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Reminiscences. Ill THE TURKISH ARMY RIGHTLY or wrongly, the Turkish army of last century had a tremendous reputation for courage and other fighting qualiti... more »es. There are many who still hold that belief to-day. It is a commonly accepted theory when comparing the respective chances of another army with the Turkish that the latter is and always has been a splendid fighting machine, even if unkempt and dirty. As far as the latter belief is concerned it is absolutely and painfully correct, for a more disreputable looking rascal than a soldier of the Imperial Ottoman Army can scarcely be imagined, except perhaps in a Portuguese colony or a Central American Republic. His face is stamped with evil lusts and cruelty, and is a confirmation in itself of the tales of his atrocities. Regarding his past reputation as a fighter, he has certainly given his enemy much trouble, though purely through acting on the defensive. That is doubtless his great if not his only military virtue. Put a Turkish soldier in a fort and tell him to stop there, he will do so—unless there is dynamite about. But I cannot remember, at any rate during the last century, any instance where the Turk has assumed the offensive against an equally determined foe with success. The Turco-Greek war cannot be quoted because of the abject cowardice of the Greeks, who nowhere made a stand. Butwitness little Montenegro, which defied the Ottoman Empire at its zenith for five long centuries and was never beaten. Even in bygone centuries, when the Turkish Empire carried all before it, the pick of the army who bore the brunt of the battles were the corps of Janissaries, who were not Turks at all, but whilom Christian children trained to war practically from infancy. When this famous corps collapsed, Turkey's power began to wane...« less