THE WAR IN PERSIA.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 593, 4 January 1916, Page 12

THE WAR IN PERSIA.

RUSSO-TURKISH CAMPAIGN

THE BATTLE OF OILMAN

[By M. Phillips Price, special correspondent j -with the Russians in North-west Persia.] | It is not generally realised that, like her allies, Russia is carrying on a great campaign far away from her main field of military activity. That campaign covers a front of about 400 miles, running in a diagonal line across the mountains and plateau valleys of Transcaucasia, Turkish Armenia, and Persian Kurdistan from the Black Sea to the Ircart of Northern Persia. Ever since last October the Rusjsian army in the Caucasus has been | engaged in drawing off from Conjstantinople the 9th, the 10th, and the j 11th Turkish Army Corps of the Ar-. [menian Inspection Area, and has been holding them up in the Erzei rum region for the protection of 'that great fortress. Besides this, irregular bands of Kurds have been i endeavouring to protect the Black Sea region, while on the Turcoi Persian borderland the remnants of Halil Bey's army (formerly about 15,000, now scarcely one-quarter) are still operating against the Russian Comunmder-in-Chief's left. This force of Halil Bey's, if it had not been held up thus in the Armenian highlands, would have been brought to bear on the small British Expeditionary Force which has been operating in Mesopotamia. Thus the Russian and British expeditionary forces are loosely related in their operations, and during the last six months have been drawing closer and closer. One cannot say yet if they will meet, for the inhospitable tract of the Kurkish highlands, with its opportunities for protracted guerrilla warfare, lies still between them.

The Border Regions,

j 111 Ike middle of August I started ! from Tabriz with a caravan of two horses and a native servant, and 'trekked westward towards the [Turco-Persian frontier. The cornfields and vineyards of Azerbaijan were just yielding their yearly proI due.e to the industrious Persian husbandman. The blessings of peace ; still Jay on this part of the land. 'The Valiahd, the younger brother of the Shah, was (iovernor-General of ! the province, and general satisfaction was expressed on every side that the full authority of the' Shah should be recognised in this important border province. As I proceeded westward I became more and more aware of the disturbances caused by the Russo-Turkish War, which had been brought within the frontiers of Persia and had caused this unfortunate country to be an innocent sufferer in a dispute which is not her own. All along the roadside I met bands of refugees pouring into Tabriz from Urumiah. The wayside inns were full of emaciated people, some dying, others dead. Many had fled from the mountains, 100 miles distant, in rags, and had only had a few melons picked up on the roadside to subsist on. The cause of the violation of Persian neutrality is not far to seek. Persia has been rendered so weak by the internal revolution of the last decade that she has become, temporarily, at least, unable to protect her own frontiers from violation. The north-west corner of the province of Azerbaijan, is an important strategic point for both the Russian and the Turkish armies. Through it the former can turn the Turkish right and threaten the fortress of Erzerum from the south and east, while the latter can turn the Russian left and threaten the Caucasian capital by cutting off the Russian armies in the government of Raku. The temptation was too strong and Persia too weak to prevent such attempts being made, and the plan of the Turkish army, as exposed in the last winter and spring campaign, obviously aimed at striking a blow in Eastern Transcaucasia through this corner of Persia, Indeed, at one time the Turks had succeeded in winning over to their side the Khan of Maku, a powerful Persian chief living in the corner of Azerbaijan where the Turkish, Persian, and Russian Empires meet, and in persuading him to conduct their army from the Persian frontier to the Araxes. The plot was discovered, and the Khan now resides in Russian territory under surveillance. This was quickly followed in May last by the inoccupation of Azerbaijan by Russian troops, so that, when in that same month the army of Halil Bey made its appearance, the Russians were sufficiently well established near Dihnan to defeat it completely. Thus the fate of the Turkish offensive through Persian territory was sealed in one of the most decisive engagements on this front since the beginning of the war. The Battlefield of Dilman. My hist object, after arriving at the Russian headquarters in this region, was to visit the battlefield of Dilman. Up to this time 1 was the first person from the outside world to visit this scene and lo obtain a lirst-hand account of this battle, which has meant so much to the success of the eastern campaign. "The battle was fought on the north end of a level plain which opens out from the north-west shore of Lake Urumiah. The high mountains of the Turco-Persian frontier border the plain on the west, while low hills encircle it on the north and south. [lt is dotted with villages of Persians,

j Armenians, and Chaldean Christians, ] in the centre of which stands the town of Dilman, surrounded hy mediaeval mud walls, now crumbling to decay. On the morning of May 1 the army of Halil Bey, numbering 15,00 Nizams (regulars), with about f>ooo Kurdish irregular cavalry, centred on Dilman, stood in possession of nearly the whole plain. The Russians, a much inferior force, had retired to the low foothills on the north edge of the plain, where they had dug themselves trenches. Here, after some unsuccessful engagements with the Turkish advanced 'guards, they had been driven in to jmake their last stand. The Russian I trenches lay in a semi-circle protecting the road from Salmas to Khoi. j Only three regiments, together with 'some 1000 Armenian volunteers, could he mustered in all to protect this four miles of front. Behind the trenches four batteries of mountain artillery and two field-guns lay con- ! cealed in the hollows of the low hills to the north. The ground rose slightly towards the Russian positions, and thus afforded a good field of vision against the attacking Turks. Rut the numbers of the Russians were such as to give rise to grave anxiety as to the issue, for they could only oppose some 3000 infantry against 15,000 Nizams, and 300 to 100 Cossacks against 5000 Kurds.! Had the Turks known the real strength of the Russians the result might have been other. As it was, these three regiments, with a handful of Cossacks and Armenians, kept at bay half a Turkish army corps for two days and one night by the ruse of pretending to be twice as strong as they really were. As the Turks advanced the three regiments, scattered along the four-mile front, kept rapid a rifle fire thai at one time it was feared that the ammunition would give out. Fortunately the transport did its work in time and kept the trenches supplied. This is just where the Turks failed. No Night Attacks.

The Turks directed their main attack at daybreak on the morning of May 1 on the village of Muganjik. As they were the attacking force they had dug for themselves no permanent trenches. As I went over the field I could only discern little dug-outs, scooped from behind the irrigation canals that threaded along the plain. The Nizams advanced over the open ground in" close formation, throwing themselves down every 100 yards to fire volleys into the Russian trenches. Rut they feared to use the bayonet, not knowing what lay behind those trenches, and. judging from the rifle-fire that came from them, they thought that at least a division was confronting them. Meanwhile the Russian artillery was taking its 1011, and the Turks retired to their surface trenches towards sundown. Unlike the war on the west front, the strenuousness of night warfare finds no place, on these Asiatic battlefields. There is no fierce night, attacks by the light of searchlights j and star-rockets, no nerve-racking artillery cannonade for three days and nights without a break. Each j side agrees to break off for the night ; and begin again next morning. During the night of May 1, however, the Russians succeeded in getting a bat- ; tery of machine guns on to an old Persian burial mound out in the!

miudi.c of the plain, whence they could sweep the Turkish lines next morning.

May 2 opened with an attack of jthe Kurdish and Turkish cavalry. I first on the Russian left and then on I the right. In the early hours of the j morning swarms of these roughI riders threw themselves on to the | low hills that flanked the Russian i left, from the ridges of which a danjgerous fire was poured out, threatening the whole line. Two sotnias of Cossacks who attempted to dislodge them were repulsed. Meanwhile another force of Turkish cavalry attempted to surround the Russian right, and had actually reached the summit of the hills on the west. The situation was desperate, when reinforcements of one regiment under the brave Armenian commander Nazir-Bcgov arrived. His arrival rallied the Cossacks who were trying to check the Turkish advance on the j right, and so the Russian line maniaged to hold firm till sundown. The Russians knew they could not hold out much longer. They had only lost 800 in killed and wounded, and the Turks had lost over 4000, but j stillHhe overwhelming superiority of the latter made their position almost untenable. Preparations, therefore, for evacuation were made that even-1 ing, according to the statement made to me by an officer who was present. About midnight the advanced post j reported that the Turkish trenches' were half empty, and as the day began to dawn a long line of khakicoloured forms could be observed threading their way slowly southwest towards the passes leading over into Turkish Armenia. Loud hur-' rahs broke from the Russian lines: as they perceived the enemy in full j retreat. Rut no pursuit was possible j with so small a force of Cossacks. Moreover, the Turks retired in good j order, for Jlalil Bey had given orders j during the night for the gradual| evacuation of the Turkish lines. By morning the great Mosul army, the' flower of the Ottoman East, had! turned its back on the promised land,! to which, thanks to the bravery of) three Russian regiments, and especially of the Armenian volunteers,' they were never to return. What was j the cause of this sudden and mys-i terious retreat? Ilalil Bey's ammunition had given out. Nor was this; to be wondered at, for his only method of transport was by camels and mules, and it was therefore impossible for his army, which had left some GOO miles of desert and mountain between it and its base, to keep j itself supplied for more than a two days' battle. Thus, as so often hasi been the case before, the Turkish bravery was of no avail against the forces of Nature.