Friedrich Siegmund Georg Freiherr Kreß von Kressenstein
(24.4.1870 - 6.4.1948)
place of birth:  Nürnberg, Mittelfranken  (Bavaria)


Bavarian colonel who spent most of the war as a German officer in Liman von Sanders military mission to Turkey. He headed the German military mission in Turkey with Fourth Army when Turkey declared war on Britain (1914). Von Kressenstein was tasked by Enver Pasha in January 1915 to advance across the Sinai and capture the Suez Canal (First Suez Offensive). The British were aware of their approach and so the Turkish forces were easily repulsed after two days of fighting. More than a year later, the Turks once again unsuccessfully assaulted a well-defended British fortification during the Battle of Romani. Kress von Kressenstein was in charge of the Ottoman defenses along with an Ottoman General Tala Bey. In the First Battle of Gaza (March 1917), the British were defeated due in large part to their own errors. In the Second Battle of Gaza of April 1917, the British were defeated again, with credit mainly going to von Kressenstein. 

After former Chief of the German General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn arrived on the scene, Kress von Kressenstein remained in command of Eighth Army's coastal defenses until being transferred to the Caucasus in May 1918. While there, he led the German-Turkish column occupying Tbilisi and took part in defending Abkhazia from an invasion by the Red Army. He was also awarded Prussia's highest order, the Pour le Merite in September 1917. After the war, he had various commands in the German Reichswehr and retired in 1929 as General of Artillery. Kress von Kressenstein died in Munich in 1948.