Yıldırım Army Group

After losing Baghdad in March 1917, Enver Pasha decided to retake it with German help. At a conference in Aleppo in June 1917 it was agreed that a new Seventh Army would advance along the Euphrates, supported by the German Asia Corps, which the Turks called "Pasha II": only three infantry battalions, but plenty of artillery, machine guns, mortars, aircraft and motor transport. Erich von Falkenhayn took command of the group in the summer of 1917. The name Yıldırım, "Lightning", had been the nickname of Sultan Bayezid I. Falkenhayn concluded that the greater danger lay in Palestine, and in September obtained the transfer of the Seventh Army there.

In the autumn of 1917 the group lost Beersheba and Gaza, and in December Jerusalem. In February 1918 Falkenhayn was recalled and Otto Liman von Sanders took command; the date is given variously, from 24 February to 1 March. In September 1918 its Fourth, Seventh and Eighth Armies were destroyed at Megiddo. On 31 October Mustafa Kemal took over what was left, and after the Armistice of Mudros the group was dissolved on 7 November 1918.