Türkischer Halbmond träger database

[Witt]

Halil Kut










Born 1881 in Yenimahalle, İstanbul
Died 20 August 1957 in İstanbul


Halil Kut began his military career in 1905 after graduating from the War Academy (Staff College) in Constantinople. His first campaign was three years spent in the Ottoman Third Army in Macedonia. Here he also became a member of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). The group organized the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. Halil was sent by the CUP to Persia to create insurrection against the Shah. In 1909 he returned to Turkey to command the Imperial Guard. Next he took an assignment to Salonica to command Gendarmerie units in the area. During the Italo-Turkish War he was an officer apart of defending Tripoli ahainst Italian forces. The next year he commanded a unit during the Balkan Wars.
Before the start of the Great War, Halil was serving in the Ottoman High Command in Constantinople. The entire year of 1914 he was military governor of Constantinople. For most of the year of 1915 he commanded a division of the Third Army fighting at the Caucasus Front. Late 1915 he joined the staff of Feld Marshal Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz with the Sixth Army in Mesopotamia. A large strategic success under Halil Kut came in the Spring of 1916 when the British garrison (13,309 men) besieged at Kut-al-Amara surrendered. Freiherr von der Goltz died during the siege so Halil Kut assumed the role of commander of Sixth Army. In 1917 Halil and his men were deployed to Persia around the area of Baghdad. In March 1917 Baghdad fell to the British and the men of Sixth Army were taken prisoner. In 1918 he was fighting Armenian forces at Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

Halil Kut became a controversial figure when it was unearthed he was a large contributing factor to the Armenian Genocide in 1915. These claims came to light from men serving under him as well as a German vice-consul. He made the orders and partook in the execution of Armenian civilians during the Siege of Van. He also ordered the Armenians within his ranks to be executed. In the areas of Bitlis, Muş, and Beyazit, he commanded the massacres of all Armenians. Ditches were dug to bury people alive as well. In his memoirs he attested to his involvement in the killings of 300,000 Armenians. He was arrested, charged, and detained in Malta for his crimes after the end of the war. Prosecution was avoided once he fled to Anatolia. He was allowed to return to Turkey in 1923 after the Turkish War of Independence.

[Witt]

Unknown



An unknown Obermaschinisten Maat in the Kaiserliche Marine that has been awarded the Eiserner Halbmond. He was serving on one of the U-boot in the Mediterranean wolfpack as the cap tally marks the Unterseeboots Flotille Mittelmeer.

[Witt]

Karl Günste





Oberst Karl Günste was the Genstschef of the Austro-Hungarian XX. Korps which for part of 1917 was fighting in Galicia beside the German Südarmee. During the second half of 1915 he was serving as Generalstabschef of XIX. Korps fighting in Galicia. Bearer of the Eiserner Halbmond for service at the front in Ukraine. He also wears the Austrian neck order Kaiserlicher Orden der Eisernen Krone.