Turkish Air Operation on the 102nd Anniversary of the Great Offensive and the Battle of the Commander-in-Chief and the Road to Victory (Part-5)

Conclusion and Evaluation

During the Great Offensive, the Turkish air force consisted of repaired aircraft from World War I, reconnaissance, hunting and bomber aircraft captured from the Greeks, and aircraft purchased from the French, Germans and Italians and donated to the army. On 18 August 1922, although the Turkish air force had 81 aircraft with the aircraft procured, 17 aircraft participated in the air operation in the Great Offensive, as some of the aircraft purchased were unarmed and some were from World War I and malfunctioned. The lack of a sufficient number of qualified pilots was another problem.

The aviation epic of the Great Offensive was written by approximately 60 personnel, including some aviators who secretly travelled to Anatolia from Istanbul to support the air force, and the aviators in Anatolia. With a small number of aircraft that were not adequately equipped, the Turkish Air Force made extraordinary sacrifices and achieved great success under very difficult conditions against the Greek Air Force, which was fully equipped and in good condition.

During the Great Offensive, the aviators followed and controlled the enemy's situation step by step from the air with reconnaissance and attack flights and reported the intelligence information they obtained to the command level, and the command committee made their plans for the war in the light of this information. Thus, according to the latest situation of the enemy, it played a very important role in gaining the superiority of command and control of the offensive in a planned and safe manner. Turkish aviation has shown great success by fulfilling their duties at the highest level despite all kinds of force and technical superiority of the enemy, all the negativities and impossibilities. The presence of heroic pilots was instrumental in the success of the Great Offensive and took an important place in history. Turkish aviators performed their duties self-sacrificingly in the face of privations, and with their successful efforts during the battle, they fulfilled the words of the Eternal Commander-in-Chief Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, ‘The Future is in the Skies!’.

They guarded the skies of the country with scrap and obsolete aircraft and in the absence of equipment and fuel. Since the Greek air force could not get close to the Turkish front, the command staff did not give the enemy the opportunity to recognise the location, quantity, condition and order of battle of the troops. In particular, Turkish aircraft, which have recently been equipped with cameras, have made a great contribution to ensuring air superiority.

During the Great Offensive, Turkish aviation experienced great difficulties in the supply of aircraft, aircraft weapons, ammunition, bombs, spare parts, maintenance and repair materials and other supplies. Aircraft became unusable from time to time due to breakdowns, malfunctions and lack of spare materials, and the lack of spare parts and fuel was a major problem until the end of the war. As there were no spare parts for the aircraft, their maintenance and repairs were carried out at night under the light of lanterns, candles and kindling under very bad conditions, and they were prepared for flights the next morning. This situation adversely affected the effectiveness of the mission, and there were many transfers due to the fact that the aircraft always had engine failures during long-range flights and the squares had to be selected close to the front. Since there were no spare parts and repair materials for the aircraft in the hands of the troops, these parts had to be brought from abroad.

With the occupation of a large part of the country, the connection with the world was cut off and the procurement of the necessary materials for aircraft was realised under very difficult conditions. Apart from simple and primitive materials such as bonnet cloth, which was used instead of the linen cloth used to cover the wings and fuselage of the aircraft, all kinds of supply materials, including fuel, and repair spare parts were only brought from abroad through secret organisations and smuggling. Maintenance and repair supplies were secretly obtained by the secret Turkish Society (Felah Group) in Istanbul, with the help of the Military Police Organisation, from the occupation army personnel and depots in exchange for money. Critical materials such as spark plugs were obtained in limited quantities from foreign brokers in occupied Istanbul and Antalya for large sums of money. Since the wings of the aircraft were made of cloth, they stretched under the influence of wind and pressure and lost their ability to remain taut.

In particular, the chemical enamel, which provides lubricity, tension and protection from external factors, could not be supplied from abroad. Turkish aviators found creative solutions to technical problems in this absence. Instead of special wing cloths coated with enamelite on the wings of the aircraft, tarpaulins were used to cover the wings with substances obtained from a mixture of egg white, potato peel, sheep or cow trotter juice and cola, and to provide tension to the wing cloths.

During the Great Offensive, the biggest problem was experienced in the supply of aircraft bombs. Since it was not possible to purchase bombs from abroad, 7.5 kg. artillery shells were used to make aircraft bombs to overcome the critical situation, and bombs were produced in the form of castings. Most of the 10 kg. bombs in some armouries in Anatolia were sent to the Western Front Command, and the aircraft companies successfully dropped the bombs on important targets.

The most important of the critical needs of this period was the supply of aviation fuel, which took a long time and was very expensive to procure from abroad. Aircraft fuel was procured from Russia and Italy with great difficulty, and especially the aircraft fuel procured from Italy was purchased at an expensive price due to its high octane rating and brought to Antalya by land. Aircraft gasoline was not supplied in sufficient quantity and quality, and the available gasoline was kept for critical missions. Difficulties were encountered in transporting aircraft fuel to forward airfields. The 68 octane fuel, which was procured with great difficulty, was sent to the airfields of the aircraft divisions on the Western Front under very difficult conditions in tins, on horse carts and mule backs. Again in this period, some of the aircraft fuel was supplied from Russia and some from Italy with high prices. Since aircraft bombs could not be supplied from abroad, attempts were made to make aircraft bombs from 7.5 kilogram artillery shells.

The Turkish air force was less in number than the Greek air force, and its equipment and all kinds of needs for the continuation of the war remained limited. It consisted of a small wreckage consisting of a few scrapped and broken aircraft, and a few Turkish engineers and a few brave Turkish pilots created a miracle of broken wings. During the Great Offensive, they acted very brave and aggressive in reconnaissance flights and observed every movement of the enemy step by step and detected the changes in the movement and current situation day by day, the information was immediately reported to the Turkish command board and appropriate action plans were made in the light of the information.

By intercepting enemy aeroplanes, it prevented the Greek forces from approaching the Turkish front line and was unable to determine the location, quantity, situation and order of battle of the Turkish troops. By supporting and contributing to the safe advance of the land army, it enabled it to achieve great successes. Since there were no machine guns on the unarmed aircraft purchased from France and Italy in accordance with international rules, Maksim machine guns from German aircraft were installed at Konya Aircraft Station, and maintenance and renewal operations were carried out. The rifle was placed in front of the pilot and fixed to the fuselage, and was designed to fire from the rear during the rotation of the propeller in front of the aircraft.

During the Great Offensive, the Greek Air Force lost 25 aircraft, while the Turkish Air Force lost 3 aircraft. During the Great Offensive, the Greek Air Force lost 25 aircraft, while the Turkish Air Forces lost 3 aircraft. 22 of the Greek aircraft were operational, some were inactive and some were captured as intact aircraft parts. In the Great Offensive, the airmen, who served with a ratio of 100 to 17 aircraft, ensured air dominance despite not having numerical and technical superiority, and the fact that the waiting point of the Turkish fighters in the air on the morning of 26 August 1922 was over Afyon Square was the most obvious proof of air dominance. They performed an honourable duty in the air operation and defended the skies of the country bravely. During World War I, some of the equipment of the aircraft that were unable to fly and were lost were recovered and weapons were provided, and the weapons of the armed aircraft were dismantled and installed on unarmed active aircraft. Turkish aviation pursued Greek aircraft fleeing from the front and rained fire on the enemy.

In the Great Offensive, aircraft participated in operations at different airfields, and reconnaissance, surveillance and bombardment of enemy operations constituted important elements of aviation, and bombs and aerial leaflets were dropped from aircraft during flight missions. The role and importance of air power and reconnaissance activities, which were carried out with great sacrifice despite many difficulties on the road to victory, was of great importance, and it was seen that air power was important in terms of psychological operations and intelligence. In the War of Independence, which was won under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, aviators made a great contribution to the clearance of the enemy from the country by forcing the impossibilities. The Great Offensive was an operation in which the ‘Great Victory’ was won by clearing the country from the invaders by pushing the possibilities to the end, and it was won with broken-wheeled oxcarts and broken-winged aircraft in the air. Victory was achieved by covering the wings of broken planes with mashed potato, by using parts of different planes to make a collection of planes, by carrying aircraft petrol on horses and donkeys' backs, and by making aircraft bombs from artillery shells. In this context, on 7 September 1922, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk asked the Turkish Grand National Assembly to reward the pilots and navigators, especially Plt.Astsb.Vecihi, who showed outstanding achievements in the Great Offensive. The pilots were awarded with certificates of appreciation for their outstanding service. On 10 September 1922, the newspaper‘İstikbal’ reportedthat ‘The Grand National Assembly awarded our heroic pilots with a commendation certificate for their very high level of service.’ It was announced with the news.

Starting on 26 August 1922 and ending with the liberation of Izmir on 9 September 1922, the ‘Great Victory’, the greatest victory of our history, is an epic of heroism that reveals our nation's passion for independence and freedom. The Turkish nation has declared to the whole world the ‘Great Victory’, which was won with the honourable struggle initiated under the leadership of the Eternal Commander-in-Chief Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, with the determination and determination to live independent and free forever. This victory has been a document and a shout to the whole world that the Turkish nation will not tolerate living under the domination and tutelage of others even in the most difficult moment. It has set an example for the nations in captivity that have lost their independence and are in search of it. The Turkish Nation cannot be too proud of its heroes who do not know how to boast. Under the leadership of the Eternal Commander-in-Chief Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Turkish nation has achieved its ‘Full Independence’ as a result of the Great Offensive, which is a victory of the Turkish nation's love of homeland and determination and will by fighting for life and death with the motto ‘Either Independence or Death’.

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TATAR, Cengiz, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ü Tanımak ve Anlamak, Galeati Yayıncılık, 2023.