On October 5, 1912, Kamberos flew the first combat mission, a reconnaissance flight over Thessaly. This was the first day of the Balkan wars, and during the same day a similar mission was flown by German mercenaries in Ottoman service in the Thrace front against the Bulgarians. The Greek and the Ottoman mission flown during the same day are the first military aviation combat missions in a conventional war. As a matter of fact all Balkan countries used military aircraft and foreign mercenaries during the Balkan Wars.

Reconnaissance aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps and seaplanes of the Royal Naval Air Service found only small, scattered Ottoman forces in the Sinai region and no sign of any major concentration of troops in southern Palestine.

British aircraft bombed the town and aerodrome at El Arish on 18 May and 18 June, and bombed all the Ottoman camps on a front of parallel to the canal on 22 May.

British monitors in the Mediterranean Sea off Mahamdiyah got into position to shell the assembling Ottoman force, while an armoured train at Kantara was ready to assist the defence of the right flank, and all available aircraft were on standby at Ismailia, Kantara, Port Said and Romani.

But they could not stop British aircraft from continuing to reconnoitre the country to the east, and on 19 July, a British aircraft, with Brigadier General E. W. C. Chaytor ( commander of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade ) acting as observer, discovered an Ottoman force of about 2, 500 at Bir Bayud.

The attackers appeared to have exhausted themselves, but they held their ground while Austrian and Ottoman artillery of various calibres, including 5. 9 " and 10. 5 cm guns, fired on the defenders and their camps, and German and Ottoman aircraft severely bombed the defenders.

However, on 17 February when the columns were approaching the area, reconnaissance aircraft found the Ottoman garrisons had retired.

During the night of 19 January, ten days after the victory at El Magruntein and Rafa, with the benefit of a full moon, German and Ottoman aircraft carried out a night bombing on El Arish.

Shortly after German or Ottoman aircraft fired machine guns on the leading mounted troops.

On the first day, a DH. 9 drops a bomb on the tent of the Mullah – who has never seen an airplane before and whose advisers tell him that the aircraft must be either chariots from Allah or friendly messengers from the Ottoman Empires Sultan Mehmed VI – while he waits to receive their crews as important guests.

Indian and Australian mounted divisions rode through the breach in the Ottoman lines created by the infantry and captured communication centres deep in the Ottoman rear areas to encircle the Ottoman armies fighting in the Judean Hills, while British and Australian aircraft paralysed the Ottoman headquarters and cut their main lines of retreat from the Judean Hills.

Surprise and deception have been mentioned but Allenby achieved this major set piece victory by following plans to break a state of trench warfare, and following plans used his mobile forces ( cavalry, armoured cars and aircraft ) to encircle the Ottoman armies ' positions in the Judean Hills, cutting off their lines of retreat.

The squadrons of the Royal Air Force and the Australian Flying Corps outnumbered and outclassed the Ottoman and German aircraft detachments in Palestine.

Eventually, Ottoman and German reconnaissance aircraft could not even take off without being engaged by British or Australian fighters, and could therefore not see through Allenby's deceptions, nor spot the true Allied concentration which was concealed in orange groves and plantations.

German and Turkish aircraft had continued to operate from Deraa, harassing the Arab irregulars and insurgents still attacking railways and isolated Ottoman detachments about the town.

In particular the fighting from 31 October to 7 November against the Ottoman Gaza – Sheria – Beersheba line resulted in the first defeat of entrenched, experienced and, up until then, successful Ottoman armies which were supported by artillery, machine guns and aircraft.

On numerous occasions Ottoman troops, after recovering from their initial confusion, attempted to shoot down the aircraft with their rifles, with little success.

Romania attacked from the north and north-east, the Ottoman empire also intervened in Thrace.

A cycle of paintings in Schloss Eggenberg, near Graz in Austria, translated the theme to a different medium ; this was completed in the 1670s shortly before the Ottoman army attacked the Habsburgs in central Europe.

The First Balkan War broke out when the League attacked the Ottoman Empire on 8 October 1912 and was ended seven months later by the Treaty of London.

The Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked into Bulgaria, while Romania and the Ottoman Empire also attacked Bulgaria and gained ( or regained ) territory.

The Second Balkan War broke out on 29 ( 16 ) June 1913 when Bulgaria attacked its erstwhile allies in the First Balkan War, Serbia and Greece, while Montenegro, Romania and the Ottoman Empire intervened later against Bulgaria.

Later, under the Ottoman Turks, they were severely attacked at Ayn-Ṣawfar in 1585 after the Ottomans claimed that they assaulted their caravans near Tripoli.

On 3 October 1911 the Italians attacked Tripoli, claiming somewhat disingenuously to be liberating Libya from Ottoman rule.

But a sortie of the garrison of Astrakhan drove back the besiegers ; a Russian relief army of 15, 000 attacked and scattered the workmen and the Tatar force sent for their protection ; and finally, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a storm.

Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Ottoman Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Greeks, and some scholars consider those events to be part of the same policy of extermination.

A pamphlet he published in September 1876, Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East, attacked the Disraeli government for its indifference to the Ottoman Empire's violent repression of the Bulgarian April uprising.

Since the Ottoman Empire never attacked again, the fortifications were never put to the test, and today remain one of the best-preserved fortifications of this period.

In June 1826, regular Ottoman soldiers attacked and destroyed the Janissary base in Thessaloniki while also killing over 10, 000 Janissary, an event known as The Auspicious Incident in Ottoman history.

The Ottoman Empire saw this as an opportunity to regain the territories lost to the Bulgarian advancement and also attacked from the south-east.

Soon after, Bulgaria attacked its recent allies Serbia and Greece and itself was attacked by Romania and the Ottoman Empire and was defeated.

Eventually " crowds " of townpeople attacked the Swedish colony at Bender and Charles had to defend himself against the mobs and the Ottoman Janissaries involved.

An Ottoman corvette then attacked Sirène with its guns.

On 7 March 1573 the Venetians thus recognized by treaty the Ottoman possession of Cyprus, whose last Venetian possession, Famagosta, had fallen to the Turks under Piyale Pasha on 3 August 1571, just two months before Lepanto, and remained Turkish for the next three centuries, and that summer the Ottoman Navy attacked the geographically vulnerable coasts of Sicily and southern Italy.

Its planes attacked and reconnoitered the Ottoman positions during the First Balkan War 1912 – 13.

During the night, a detachment of Ottoman forces attacked the drunk Serbian knights and pushed them to the river.

On 13 January, Aylmer attacked the Ottoman Wadi position on the left bank with all of his forces.

Europe gained a brief respite from Ottoman pressure in 1402 when the Mongol leader, Tamerlane, attacked Anatolia from the east, killed the Turks ' absolute ruler, the Sultan, and sparked a civil war.

Following their coordinated uprising, Michael the Brave attacked Ottoman strongholds along the Danube and recovered Giurgiu and Brăila, while Aaron the Tyrant seized Ismail ( now in Ukraine ).

* 1916 – World War I: Battle of Romani – Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai Peninsula.

With most of the strategic reserve sent to the Western Front, an Egyptian Expeditionary Force of two British infantry and one Australian and New Zealand mounted division in Eastern Force, successfully defend the Suez Canal and Romani in 1916 from German and Ottoman incursions.

At the same time, with the aid of numerous merchant ships converted to auxiliary cruisers, a loose naval blockade on the Ottoman coasts from the Dardanelles to Suez was instituted, which disrupted the Ottomans ' flow of supplies ( only the Black Sea routes to Romania remained open ) and left some 250, 000 Ottoman troops immobilized in Asia.

Missions were flown in a wide range of theatres, from the Western Front to the plains of Russia, and as far away as bombing raids on British Suez Canal positions in support of the Ottoman offense in 1915.

In 1547, Piri had risen to the rank of Reis ( admiral ) as the Commander of the Ottoman Fleet in the Indian Ocean and Admiral of the Fleet in Egypt, headquartered in Suez.

The Ottoman fleets at Suez were instrumental in disputing control with the Portuguese over Indian Ocean trade.

At the same time, with the aid of numerous merchant ships converted to auxiliary cruisers, a loose naval blockade on the Ottoman coasts from the Dardanelles to Suez was instituted, which disrupted the Ottomans ' flow of supplies ( only the Black Sea routes to Romania remained open ) and left some 250, 000 Ottoman troops immobilized in Asia.

This British Empire victory over a joint Ottoman and German force marked the end of the Defence of the Suez Canal campaign, known by the Germans as the Offensive zur Eroberung des Suezkanals and by the Ottomans as the İkinci Kanal Harekâtı, which had begun on 26 January 1915.

In February 1915, a German and Ottoman force unsuccessfully attacked the Suez Canal.

In 1915, they had been used by the central group of about 6, 000 or 7, 000 Ottoman soldiers who moved across the Sinai Desert to attack the Suez Canal at Ismailia.

The objectives of the German, Austrian and Ottoman advance were to capture Romani and to then establish a strongly entrenched position opposite Kantara, from which place their heavy artillery would be within range of the Suez Canal.

The threat of an Ottoman attack towards the Suez Canal had been considered by Lawrence in consultation with his divisional commanders, and a second defensive area was developed to address their concerns.

Their plans took into account the possibility of an Ottoman army at Katia moving to attack Romani or following the old caravan route to assault Hill 70 and Dueidar on their way to the Suez Canal.

The New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade was stationed at Hill 70 at the end of June and the 5th Light Horse Regiment at Dueidar to prevent such an Ottoman force from reaching the Suez Canal.

By daylight on 3 August, the German, Austrian and Ottoman force had occupied Katia and were within striking distance of Romani, Dueidar, Hill 70 and the Suez Canal.

In February 1915, a German and Ottoman force unsuccessfully attacked the Suez Canal.

" With the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, the prospect of Russia seizing a portion of the Ottoman seacoast on the Mediterranean, potentially threatening the strategic waterway, was of great concern to the British.

The main contribution of the Arab Revolt to the war was to pin down tens of thousands of Ottoman troops who otherwise might have been used to attack the Suez Canal, allowing the British to undertake offensive operations with a lower risk of counter-attack.

Lawrence then rode 150 miles to Suez to arrange Royal Navy delivery of food and supplies for the 2500 Arabs and 700 Ottoman prisoners in Aqaba ; soon the city was co-occupied by a large Anglo-French flotilla ( including warships and sea planes ), which helped the Arabs secure their hold on Aqaba.

It was not only the very existence of the Ottoman empire that seemed to be at stake, but Egypt itself had become more than ever an object of attention, to British statesmen especially, and in the issue of the struggle were involved the interests of Britain in the two routes to India by the Isthmus of Suez and the valley of the Euphrates.

Egypt had long been only loosely connected to the Ottoman Empire and in 1882 the British invaded it for the Suez Canal.