From The Great War magazine, Part 34: Map of the Turkish invasion of Russia in the Caucasus at the end of 1914, ending in defeat at the Battle of Sarikamish.
The Turkish invasion of the CaucasusKey map of the passes by which the Turkish forces invaded Russian territory. They suffered utter rout at Sarykamysch (or Sarykamish), and at Ardahan.
"The [Turkish] 5th Expeditionary Force reached Diyarbakir on 10 January, by which time the situation in the Caucasus had been transformed out of all recognition. The following day Halil Bey learned that his orders had been revised: he was now to make for Erzurum, to reinforce the garrison there. In all he brought with him about nine thousand men, of whom perhaps 75 per cent were combat-fit, and received a warm welcome. However, he also brought something far less acceptable: spotted typhus. It ran through the garrison like wildfire, and Hafiz Hakki was an early victim; he died on 12 February, to be replaced in command of the Third Army by Mahmut Kamil Pasha, who retained the German, Guse, as his chief of staff."
Excerpt from Roger Ford's account of the Battle of Sarikamish and its aftermath in the Russo-Turkish frontier. The Turkish invasion of Russia had been a disaster — the transformation Ford writes of — for Turkey and its soldiers, and the Turks desperately needed reinforcements. In winter 1915, typhus was raging elsewhere, including in Serbia.
Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East by Roger Ford, page 141, copyright © Roger Ford 2010, publisher: Pegasus Books, publication date: 2010
1915-01-10, 1915, January
