Turks Had Wooden Bullets.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 27, 1912:
Cartridges Intended Only for Manoeuvres Were Sent to the Front.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Wednesday, Nov. 27.— The rout of the Turkish troops in Macedonia appears in a new light with the discovery that the Turks, besides being badly organized and badly led, were in part provided with dummy cartridges fitted with wooden bullets.
    William Le Quex, in a letter to The Daily Mail, states that he found such bullets on the battlefield.
    Frank Magee, The Daily Mirror's war correspondent, brought back from the battlefield at Kumanova cases of these cartridges which had been thrown away by the Turks in their flight before the Servians. The cartridges were packed in clips of five, and had the ordinary metal cases, while the wooden bullets were painted red. These cartridges were supplied to Turkey by the Deutsche Waffen and Munitions Fabriken of Karlsruhe. They were intended solely for use in the manoeuvres with the Turkish Mauser rifle, and were labeled "wooden manoeuvre cartridges." By what means they came to be served out to the soldiers who had to face Servian shells and bullets is unknown.