Red Cross postcard of Turkish cavalry routing a Russian patrol in the Caucasus. 1914 illustration.

Türkische Kavallerie schlägt eine russische Patrouille im Kaukasus in die Flucht



Turkish cavalry routs a Russian patrol in the Caucasus putting it to flight



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Offizielle Karte für Rotes Kreuz, Kriegsfürsorgeamt, Kriegshilfsbüro No. 65



Official card for the Red Cross, war welfare office, war aid office no. 65

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Saturday, December 26, 1914

"The morale of the Russians defending Sarikamiş was to be another [crucial factor]. Few in number they might have been, but they were ready to take the fight to the enemy. Before dawn on 26 December [1914], Frontier Guards and railwaymen marched from the town and climbed the road towards the Bardiz Pass. Three hard hours they crossed the col and began the descent towards Kizilkilise; some way below the crest they halted, dispersed, secreted themselves in the snow and brushwood which covered the slopes, and settled down to await the Turks.

They were in action by mid-afternoon. Unsure of the numbers which faced them, the Turks deployed into an attacking formation; eventually they managed to threaten the dispersed snipers, who promptly fell back just far enough to repeat the exercise, and continued to do so until dusk fell and they were able to disappear into the gathering darkness. The Turks bivouacked where they were, still ten kilometers short of their objective, to spend their fourth night in the open."

Quotation Context

Turkish War Minister Ismail Enver Pasha planned and took command of a winter assault on the Russians on Turkey's eastern border, a drive on Tiflis (Tbilisi), the Russian Empire's administrative center in the Caucasus, along the rail line from the mountain cities of Sarikamish and Kars. Enver had neither prepared nor supplied his troops for the bitter winter mountain weather they faced, and hundreds froze to death the night of December 26. The Battle of Sarikamish would be a major defeat for the Turks.

Source

Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East by Roger Ford, page 130, copyright © Roger Ford 2010, publisher: Pegasus Books, publication date: 2010

Tags

1914-12-26, December, 1914, Battle of Sarikamish, Sarikamish