Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein ( April 24 , 1870 – October 16 , 1948 ) was a German General from Nuremberg . He was a member of the group of German officers who assisted in the direction of the Ottoman Army during World War I . Kress von Kressenstein was part of Otto Liman von Sanders military mission to Turkey , which arrived in Turkey shortly before World War I broke out . Von Kressenstein came from a noble family in Nuremberg . His father Georg Kress von Kressenstein ( 1840 – 1911 ) was a high court judge . Von Kressenstein joined the Bavarian army as an ensign in the artillery in 1888 . World War I . Palestine . He joined Djemal Pasha ' s army in Palestine as a military engineer and later chief of staff . Djemal Pasha was given the job by the Turkish leader Enver Pasha of capturing or disabling the Suez Canal . This effort is called the First Suez Offensive and it occurred in January 1915 . Kress von Kressenstein was responsible for creating special boats for crossing the canal ( pontoons ) as well as organizing the crossing of the Sinai desert . While the desert was crossed with little loss of life , the British were aware of their approach and their attack on the Suez came as no surprise to the defenders . The Turkish forces were repulsed easily and after two days of fighting , they retreated . Kress von Kressenstein ' s special pontoons were never used . More than a year passed when the Turks tried a second attack on the Suez . With Djemal Pasha directing affairs from his base in Damascus , Kress von Kressenstein led a larger Ottoman army across the Sinai desert , again . This attack ran into a strong British defensive fortification at Romani , east of the canal . The Ottoman army prepared a major set - piece assault on Romani , scheduled for August 3 , 1916 ( see the Battle of Romani for a detailed description ) . The attack was beaten off and again the Turks retreated back to their bases in Palestine . The British responded with an attack of their own . They captured some small Turkish forts in the Sinai , built a railroad and water pipe across the desert and then launched an assault on the Ottoman fort at Gaza . Kress von Kressenstein was in charge of the Ottoman defences along with an Ottoman General Tala Bey . In the First Battle of Gaza ( March 1917 ) , the British were defeated , largely due to their own errors . In the Second Battle of Gaza in April 1917 , the British were defeated again , the credit for this victory largely going to Kress von Kressenstein . The British removed their unsuccessful generals and replaced them with General Allenby . The Ottomans also replaced their top leadership , bringing in the former Chief of the German General Staff , General von Falkenhayn . Kress von Kressenstein was kept on as commander of the Turkish 8th Army defending Gaza and he was also awarded Prussia ' s highest order , the Pour le Mérite . In November 1917 , the British under General Allenby breached the Ottoman defensive positions at the Battle of Beersheba and the Third Battle of Gaza . Kreß von Kressenstein was able to withdraw his defeated troops in fairly good order to new defensive positions in the north . Caucasus . In the middle of 1918 , with the Ottoman - German alliance breaking down , Kress von Kressenstein was sent with a small German force to Georgia , that was protected by Germany after its independence . He helped to frustrate the Red Army ' s invasion of Abkhazia . Later life . Kress von Kressenstein retired from the German army in 1929 and died in Munich in 1948 . He wrote at least one paper ' The Campaign in Palestine from the Enemy ' s Side ' published in the Royal United Services Institute Journal , and also memoirs " My Mission in Caucasus " which were published in 2001 in Tbilisi , Georgia .