Despite some good 'demonstration' units with German instructors, training was generally poor: the Ikhtiat [Reserve] was supposedly trained one month per year, Redif [Militia] one month every two years, but internal unrest and shortage of funds prevented most of it. Officers' training was also poor, excluding the 1,500 who had trained abroad or under German instruction. Some were of extremely dubious background: Muntaz Bey, for example, who commanded the 'Northern Column' of the advance on Egypt, had murdered a fellow-officer at Salonika, escaped from prison at Jaffa and become a bandit, before ingratiating himself with Enver to gain both a pardon and an independent command.
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Administration and support remained lamentable, beset with peculation and idleness, which compounded grievous shortages of equipment.
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Each division thus possessed from 24 to 36 field guns, but the severe losses sustained in the Balkan War had not been restored completely, and guns were in short supply...older 87mm German field guns and even antique smoothbored howitzers were also in service, the latter of very limited value.