THE MIDDLE EAST FRONT
THE CAUCASUS CAMPAIGN: OCTOBER 1914 – OCTOBER 1918
Acknowledgements
Map-Caucasus: islamandthegreatwar.umwblogs.org Battle Zone: The Great War Magazine, part 34 Battle of Sarikamish: Great War Magazine, ww1today.com. Map (Sarikamish): The Islamic History Podcast Map of Eastern Turkey: wargamesinthedungeon.blogspot.com
As noted earlier, the Ottomans opened up their war with Russia in October. The Minister for War, Enver Pasha, in a surprise attack, sent a squadron of warships into the Black Sea (The Black Sea Raid). They bombarded a number of Russian ports, including Odessa and Sevastopol, and sank a minesweeper, a gunboat and a number of civilian vessels. The Caucasus Campaign, one of the bloodiest and most horrific encounters of the entire war, was under way. It was fought in a vast, treacherous, mountain region between the Black and Caspian Seas and was home to the most exacting of winter conditions. In addition to the loses in battle, thousands of men were literally frozen to death. And it was in this campaign, as we shall see, that the world learnt of what came to be known as the “Armenian Genocide”, the alleged massacre of almost an entire people.
ThexRussian Army wasted no time. It crossed into the Ottoman Empire on the 2nd November – the opening gambit of the Bergmann Offensive. At that stage, it numbered around 100,000 men, including Russian Armenians and units of Georgians and CaucasusXGreeks. Making for the fortified city of Erzerum, they quicklyxtook the town of Kupri Keui. (see map). At this stage, however, as a result of Russia’s disastrous defeats, suffered at the Battles of Tannenberg and The Masurian Lakes in East Prussia, a force of more than 40,000 men were hastily withdrawn and transferred to the Eastern Front to hold the line. The Ottomans seized their opportunity. Their Third Army, some 150,000 strong, launched a counter attack on the 11th November, and the Russians, lacking sufficient troops to safeguard their flanks, were forced to fall back very close to their border. For them it was not an auspicious start.
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Encouraged by what he saw as an outstanding victory, Enver Pasha, ignoring all criticsm, now came up with a major offensive. His Third Army was still over 118,000 strong. In addition to a general advance on Kars (see map above), he planned to send three divisions over the Allahuekber Mountains in north-east Turkey. These would advance northwards and then swing to the east to capture Tiflis, the capital of Georgia (see map above), thereby encircling almost the entire Russian force south of the Caucasus Mountains. It was at this point that his faith in the ability of his own fighting men – and, indeed, in his own ability – proved too optimistic. Most of his troops lacked the skill, the arms and, indeed, the basic clothing required in such a hostile, mountainous environment; there was a serious lack of artillery and ammunition; and Enver Pasha and his field commanders had little if any experience in controlling an operation of this depth and complexity. Added to this, was the arrival of a severe snowstorm and the bitter, biting cold it brought across the entire region. The offensive began on the 22nd December. Not surprisingly, the Ottoman forces crossing over the Allahuekber Mountains suffered enormous loses. It is estimated that some 25,000 were frozen to death in this so-called “Death March” before a shot was fired! Those who managed to survive were lured into a series of Russian traps, brought to a halt, and then driven south. Thenxon the 2nd January, 1915, the Russians met up with the bulk of the invasion force at Sarykamish (see map and pic above) and, over the next two weeks, virtually destroyed it. One of the greatest military disasters of the entire, war, it is estimated that the Turkish 3rd Army was reduced to less than 30% of its former strength. Russian losses were put at 16,000, killed or wounded. In thexmeantime, further north, at the town of Ardahan (see map above), an Ottoman force, tasked with cutting of the enemies’ supply routes to the south, was likewise attacked and brutally defeated. Here, again, Turkish casualties were heavy.
Given the scale of this defeat, and the fact that some 43,000 troops from the Russian Caucasus Army had had to be redeployed to the Eastern Front, the rest of 1915 was relatively calm. However, there was one major encounter in July which had its repercussions. Onxthe 10th, the Russians seized Malazgirt (crossed-swords) in Mus Province. Within a matter of days, however, the Turks counter-attacked, regained the town and drove the Russians out of the entire Van region. They then advanced upon Kara Kellisse, a few miles to the north, but they were defeated there and forced to retreat, losing Malazgirt in the process. Despite a share in failure, both sides claimed a measure of success from this engagement and, as we shall see, this encouraged both sides to take the offensive at the beginning of 1916.
But it was before the renewal of this large-scale fighting, that the Ottoman government introduced what many see as the systematic massacre and ethnic cleansing of its Armenian population – men, women and children – in Anatolia and its surrounding regions. Needing a scapegoat for his disastrous defeat at Sarikamish, Enver Pasha placed most of the blame on the Armenians, claiming – rightly – that many had deserted from the Turkish army, and that large numbers had fought alongside Russian forces. And he was aided in this assertion when, inxthe Spring of 1915, violent clashes broke out between Armenians and Ottoman troops in the city of Van (see map above). This uprising spread rapidly and was regarded as a serious threat to national security. This triggered off, as we shall see, the so-called Armenian Genocide, the state-controlled extermination of the Armenian people within the Ottoman Empire – explained away by the Ottoman government as the forcible but necessary relocation of the Armenian population of Antolia. As you will see, the account of this event, no matter what it might be called, makes for tragic reading.
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