The Campaign on the Caucasian Frontier.
(Inset—The Turkish Advance.)
For the Caucasus campaign which the Turks were now about to begin they collected at Erzerum an army of 150,000 men with which to oppose the Russian army, which was not more than 100,000 strong. The object of the Turks was to capture the fortress of Kars, and thus open the way to Tiflis and to the Caspian oil fields at Baku. In order to do this they proposed to entice the Russians from Sarikamish across the frontier, and hold them at some point as far from the railhead as possible. While the Russian front was thus held, the Turks intended to make a wide encircling movement with their left centre and fall upon Sarikamish. At the same time, their left was to push up the Choruk River, cross the mountains to Ardahan, follow the road to Kars, and thus take the fortress in the rear.
Fighting began in the first fortnight of November. The Russians advanced from Sarikamish, and crossed the frontier to within about forty or fifty miles of Erzerum. Now that they were sufficiently far from their railhead, the great Turkish plan was put into operation. You will understand more clearly what the plan was if you study the little inset map on the opposite page. The 11th Corps was ordered to hold the Russians in the direction of Erzerum, while the 10th Corps, at Id, was to follow a bad mountain road which crosses the passes and comes down to the railway between Sarikamish and Kars. Between the 10th Corps and the 11th Corps a third corps, the 9th, was also to strike across the mountains directly at the railhead.
Meanwhile the 1st Corps was carried in transports to Trebizond, on the Black Sea. It was to follow the valley of the Choruk until it came to a mountain road which climbs a pass of more than eight thousand feet, and runs to the town of Ardahan, from which there is a fairly easy road to Kars.
About the middle of December the 11th Corps took the offensive, and, after fierce fighting, pushed back the Russians for about a dozen miles. On Christmas Day the Russians made a stand. At that time they were strung out along the railway and the road that runs by the side of it for about thirty miles. Meanwhile the 9th and 10th Corps had struggled over the high hills, and were descending upon Sarikamish and the railway to the east of it; while the 1st Corps, on the extreme Turkish left, had climbed the mountains at the head of the Choruk valley in the teeth of fierce blizzards, and had reached a position from which in the pauses of the storms they could look down on Ardahan. On 28th December it seemed as if the Turkish plan had succeeded.
But the forces which had toiled over the mountains and had battled with the furious storms and the deep snow were worn out and utterly incapable of meeting the Russians. Their transport and big guns could not follow them over the rocky steeps; so they were without artillery, ammunition, and a proper supply of food. Many of the men were starving, and their hands and feet were frost-bitten, while thousands of others could only crawl along in a dazed and numb condition. It was impossible for these hungry, cold, and toil-worn men to make a great united attack, and the Russians were therefore able to deal with them piecemeal.
First they dealt with the 10th Corps. On January 1, 1915, after three days of hard fighting on the railway, they forced this corps to retreat into the hills. This retreat left the 9th Corps unsupported. The Russians had pushed forward their right in pursuit of the retreating enemy, and at the same time their left had advanced, so that the 9th Corps was taken on both flanks. It fought with the fury of despair, and on January 3, 1915, when it had almost been wiped out, the remnants laid down their arms. It is said that the Turks yielded rather to cold and hunger than to the onset of the Russians; that they surrendered as much to the Russian field kitchens as to Russian steel.
Meanwhile the 1st Corps had entered Ardahan, but could not advance any farther. The Russian force which had been detached to cope with it drove the worn-out Turks from the town, and thrust them back in complete rout into the mountains and towards the Choruk valley, by which they had advanced. The 10th Corps, now in flight, was also heading in the same direction. The 11th Corps, which had been holding up the Russians on the road from Erzerum to Sarikamish, now made a big effort to save the situation. It had been unable to rescue the 9th Corps, but it might do something to cover the retreat of the 10th Corps. Accordingly it attacked vigorously, and pushed back the Russians to within twenty miles of Sarikamish, where three days' heavy fighting took place amidst the snowdrifts. By January 17, 1915, the 11th Corps had also been broken, and was forced to retreat on Erzerum, with a great loss of men and guns.
While this struggle was going on, the Russian right was pursuing the 1st Corps and the remnant of the 10th and was driving them towards Trebizond. The Turkish navy attempted to bring reinforcements and stores to these harried corps; but Russian warships sank several of the transports and provision vessels, and hunted the Breslau and the Hamidieh, which accompanied them, back to Constantinople. The Goeben had already been crippled and put out of action for several weeks.
So, in hopeless and utter failure, ended the great adventure in the Caucasus. The plan of campaign had been prepared by German generals, who worked from the map without any actual knowledge of the terribly difficult country in which the troops were to operate. They did not foresee that the mountains and gorges, the broken tracks, the fierce storms, the deep snow, and the biting cold were of themselves sufficient to defeat any army, however brave and determined. Neither did they foresee that the Turks would have to fight when worn out with marching and privation. They set their allies an impossible task; but the Turks fought like heroes. More than 50,000 of them were killed or wounded, or led away into captivity. For many months to come, Russia had nothing to fear from the Turks in the Caucasus.
Immediately war was declared on Turkey several of our submarines were sent to the Dardanelles, to destroy, if possible, some of the Turkish warships. Submarine B11 was most successful in this work, and its commander,
Lieutenant Norman Douglas Holbrook, R.N., was awarded the Victoria Cross for a conspicuous act of bravery on 13th December. On that day he entered the Dardanelles, and, notwithstanding the difficult current, dived his vessel under five rows of mines, and then torpedoed the Turkish battleship Messudiyeh, which was guarding the mine-field. After this exploit he brought his vessel back safely, though it was fiercely attacked by gun fire and torpedo boats. So beset was he that on one occasion he had to submerge the submarine for nine hours.