Cemil Cahit Toydemir (1883 – July 15, 1956) was an officer of the

Ottoman Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...

and a general of the

Turkish Army The Turkish Land Forces () is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for Army, land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant campaigns since the ...

of Circassian origin. He served in Caucasus front in WWI, after

Armistice of Mudros The Armistice of Mudros () ended hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between Ottoman Turkey and the Allies of World War I. It was signed on 30 October 1918 by the Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey and British Admiral Somerset ...

he joined

Turkish National Movement The Turkish National Movement (), also known as the Anatolian Movement (), the Nationalist Movement (), and the Kemalists (, ''Kemalciler'' or ''Kemalistler''), included political and military activities of the Turkish revolutionaries that resu ...

and attended Sivas Congress.

Meeting with Adolf Hitler

In 1943

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

invited the Turkish government to an official visit. Army General Toydemir had been assigned by President İnönü to visit Nazi Germany in an official trip. He had visited the

Atlantic Wall The Atlantic Wall () was an extensive system of coastal defence and fortification, coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defense (military), d ...

and Eastern Front. He examined

Tiger I The Tiger I () was a Nazi Germany, German heavy tank of World War II that began operational duty in 1942 in North African Campaign, Africa and in the Soviet Union, usually in independent German heavy tank battalion, heavy tank battalions. It g ...

tanks with Turkish officers just before

Operation Citadel Operation Citadel () was the German offensive operation in July 1943 against Soviet forces in the Kursk salient, proposed by Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein during the Second World War on the Eastern Front that initiated the Battle of ...

and shared a cigar with

Erich von Manstein Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Manstein (born Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Lewinski; 24 November 1887 – 9 June 1973) was a Germans, German Officer (armed forces), military officer of Poles (people), Polish descent who served as a ''Generalfeld ...

. During this trip, he noticed

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

members, below the age of eighteen, were in uniform. He met

Wilhelm Keitel Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (; 22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal who held office as chief of the (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's armed forces, during World War II. He signed a number of criminal ...

and

Alfred Jodl Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl (; born Alfred Josef Baumgärtler; 10 May 1890 – 16 October 1946) was a German Wehrmacht Heer, Army ''Generaloberst'' (the rank was equal to a four-star full general) and War crime, war criminal, who served as th ...

, and during the meeting Hitler stated that Turkey, being the first ones to defy postwar treaties, inspired their movement and compared the well-preparedness of Atlantic wall to Çatalca line (Çatalca line was built to stop any probable German invasion.). Hitler also claimed that if they did not started

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

in 1941 the Soviet Union would have invaded Europe. Hitler ended the meeting with a prediction that in the future it will only take two hours to fly from Moscow to Berlin. After he came back to Turkey, General Toydemir wrote a report to President İnönü about Germany's military situation. He came to a conclusion that Germany would lose the war.Hitler ile görüşme
/ref>

Gallery

File:Turkish Military visit to eastern front.jpg, General Toydemir with Field Marshal Erich von Manstein visitng the Eastern Front File:Adolf Hitler & Cemil Cahit Toydemir 1943.jpg, General Toydemir and Adolf Hitler File:Werner Kempf and General Toydemir.jpg, General Toydemir and Werner Kempf File:S7bsu1objfg61.webp, General Toydemir with Grand admiral Karl Donitz

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toydemir, Cemil Cahit 1883 births 1956 deaths Military personnel from Istanbul Turkish people of Ubykh descent Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians Ministers of national defence of Turkey Deputies of Istanbul Ottoman Military Academy alumni Ottoman Army officers Turkish Army generals Commanders of the First Army of Turkey General Commanders of the Gendarmerie of Turkey Ottoman military personnel of the Italo-Turkish War Ottoman military personnel of the Balkan Wars Ottoman military personnel of World War I Turkish military personnel of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) Recipients of the Medal of Independence with Red Ribbon (Turkey) Burials at Turkish State Cemetery Turkish people of Circassian descent

Meeting with Adolf Hitler

Gallery

See also

Sources

External links