Second Army ( Ottoman Empire ) The Second Army of the Ottoman Empire was one of the field armies of the Ottoman Army . It was formed in the late 19th century during Ottoman military reforms . Order of Battle , 1877 . In 1877 , it was stationed in what is now Bulgaria . It was composed of : Upon mobilization for the Russo - Turkish War ( 1877 – 1878 ) , the second army was split in two ; these were named as Eastern Danube Army and Western Danube Army . Order of battle , 1908 . After the Young Turk Revolution and the establishment of the Second Constitutional Era on 3 July 1908 , new government initiate a major military reform . Army headquarters were modernized . The army headquarter established in Adrianople . Its operational area was Thrace , the Dardanelles , and it had units in Europe and Asia Minor . It commanded the following active divisions : The Second Army also had inspectorate functions for six Redif or reserve divisions and one brigade : The Army also had 34 machine gun detachments . Order of battle , 1911 . With further reorganizations of the Ottoman Army , to include the creation of corps level headquarters , by 1911 the Army was headquartered in Salonika . It now had responsibility for the Balkans and operational control over forces in Syria and Palestine . The Army included two inspectorates , the Second in the Balkans and the Fifth in Syria . The Army at the start of the First Balkan War in 1912 was structured as such : ( place names given are ones the Ottomans used at that time ) Additionally , the Second Redif Inspectorate had divisions in the Balkans at : Drama , Serez , Salonika , İştip , Monastir , Uskup , Piristine , Metroviçe , Pirzenin , Yanya , Elbasan , Naslic , and İşkodra . The Fifth Redif Inspectorate in Syria had divisions at : Adana , Antep , Aleppo , Damascus , Jerusalem , Akka , and Tripoli . When the war started , the Second Army became the Western Army , the equivalent of an Army Group . The troops in Syria were prevented by the Greek Navy from reinforcing the forces in the Balkans . After the war , the Second Army was reconstituted from those personnel who survived the destruction of the Western Army in the Balkans . It was first sent to Konya , and later to Syria . Order of Battle , 1914 . At the outset of World War I , the army headquarters was located in Aleppo Syria commanding two corps made up of two divisions . The Redif system had been done away with , and the plan was to have reserve soldiers fill out active units rather than constitute separate units . The commander in October 1914 was General Vehip Pasha . By November 1914 , the Second Army was moved to Constantinople and commanded the V and VI Corps , each composed of three divisions . In February 1915 the defense of the Turkish Straits was reorganized . The Second Army had responsibility for the south and east coasts . It later provided troops to the fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula but did not otherwise have a role . Second Army Order of battle , April 1915 . Second Army The XVI . Corps , also known as the " Saros Group " , was located north of the peninsula ' s neck to defend against a landing from the Gulf of Saros . Order of battle , 1916 . In March 1916 , the decision was made to deploy the Second Army to the Caucasus Campaign . The plan was to have the Second Army attack in conjunction with the Third Army . The Second Army was made up of veterans of the Gallipoli campaign as well as two new divisions . Due to the poor state of the Ottoman rail network , it took a long period of time to move the forces . In the mean time the Russians hit the Third Army , causing heavy casualties on that already battered army , preventing it from cooperating with the Second Army . The Second Army , commanded by Ahmet Izzet Pasha , finally attacked in August with the following divisions : Also assigned to the army was the 3rd Regular Cavalry Division . While the XVI Corps commanded by Mustafa Kemal had success at Bitlis and Mus , the main attacks by the III and IV Corps suffered heavy losses . The Army lost about 30 , 000 out of 100 , 000 soldiers . The divisions suffering the losses were both veteran units and the best of the newly created divisions . The Ottoman Army could not afford to lose such men for meaningless gains . As a result the offensive was a major strategic defeat . It was the last major strategic offensive by the Ottomans in the war . In response to defeats elsewhere , the army had a number of divisions transferred to other areas such as Mesopotamia and Palestine . By December 1916 , it was made up of six infantry divisions and one cavalry division . The army did not play a major role in the war after that . Order of battle , 1917 . In 1917 , Mustafa Kemal promoted to be the acting commander of the Second Army . His tenure was brief as he moved on to command the Seventh Army in Palestine . The army was deactivated in on 4 February 1918 . It was later activated and commanded rear area troops including labor units in Anatolia . After the defeat at Megiddo , the army briefly saw front line service commanding three divisions ( 23rd , 41st , 44th ) at the end of the war .