FA 300 at Ramlah, 1916 - see these German "Tropical" Uniforms

Just found this photo of Fliegerabteilung 300 "Pascha" at the Buddecke Website .
The unit was established in Palestine in early 1916.
Now I wonder wether all these "tropical uniforms" were real military designs?
Or did they just add tropical helmets? Does anyone know?

A nice pic!

The German Kaiserreich had colonies both in Africa and Asia (unlike Hitler's Reich), so the military had also developed some tropical equipment for those areas.

I found a pic that shows some German tropical uniforms from troops in German East Africa during WW1:

Now we only need to find the white ones. I guess, German Navy could be right?

As an apart, it seems Germans were less prone to catch malaria and other tropical diseases because:

"German troops, in their high-necked uniforms, long-sleeved shirts, and long pants or breeches with puttees, suffered less than the British from insects and the diseases they carried. Most of the British wore open-necked shirts with short sleeves, and many wore shorts." The Great War in Africa by Byron Farwell.

It's one of those occasions that the German discipline did pay off.

I guess it's better to sweat more than to get malaria!

Thanks for this info, von Paulus - didn't know that!
Germans of those days seem to have been a bit stiff in behaviour and style -
not as relaxed and carefree as the British seem to have been.
In this case it did pay off in deed.

Are not two of those gents wearing shorts?

Nevermind closer inspection reveals they are not....

Even their Askari troops follow the German rule:

Detlev, probably you would like to read the book I mentioned previously, "The Great War in Africa" by Byron Farwell. They aren't many books about the African theatre of war.
There's a good description of the epic von Lettow-Vorbeck's campaign.

Thanks for the tip, von Paulus - I'll add it to my (constantly growing) list.
A quick check in WIKIPEDIA seemed to describe him a bit like the later Rommel:
he seems to have done his (and his Askaris') best to hold as many Entente troops as
possible in Afrika, to relieve the German western front.

I'm not sure if you can compare with Rommel, but that he seemed to be fully aware of the terrain conditions and the enemy forces presented in that theatre of war, that's true.
Splendid.

I think he can easily be compared to any brilliant commander in any war. Not everybody could have done what he did with such limited resources.

Oh yeah, that's another book to my ever-growing backlog. I'll probably die of old age before reading them all...