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Taken in Gallipoli/Anatolia during World War I at the Ottoman Front. Their Names, Mehmet and Mehmet. Their only wealth is their life. View full size.
Ragged yes (just imagine what they endured to end up looking like that); flyboys, probably not. But they're posing in front of what appears to be an Albatross BII airplane (although the front strut seems to have a different angle than the one in my public domain photo). At Gallipoli the Turks mostly used various early Albatros B-types, LVG B-types, and Gotha floatplanes. The Albie had a Mercedes D III watercooled six-cylinder inline engine with 160 HP. The one behind the soldiers has its prop off. Check this comparison photo.
Assuming these lads were more than likely from the peasant class, the sight and noise of something that FLEW must have seemed to have arrived from another planet.
These are our heroes. The point was their independent country and land for them, not their life.
Have been there several times in the 1 1/2 years I worked in Turkey. One of the communication sites we performed maintenance on was located there. Once my Turkish driver showed me the series of underground bunkers still in place - pretty creepy!!
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