The BdAK was established in 1918, at the end of the war, by German ex-armymen. One of their main purposes was to investigate what had happened to entire missing German units of the Asien-Korps, including German nurses (German Red Cross Sisters), when the Palestine-Transjordan front collapsed at the end of September 1918. At that time many Germans fighting along Turkish troops in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign suddenly found themselves behind enemy lines, fighting for their lives.