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This month's Forgotten Battle is...
The Battle of Sarikamish
Intro
The Battle of Sarikamish occurred December of 1914 to January of 1915 during World War I. It was fought between the Russian Caucuses Army against the Ottoman 3rd Army outside the town of Sarikamish in what is now Turkey. Also involved in this battle were thousands of volunteers from the country of Armenia. This month long battle would take the lives of thousands and have dire consequences for millions in the area.
Part I
By the end of 1914, the First World War was raging across the Continents of Europe and Asia. For Imperial Russia, the war had taken a very bad turn. In the summer of that year, two whole armies had been surrounded and annihilated by the Germans at the battles of Tannenburg and the Masurian Lakes. Their invasion of Prussia had ended in a costly failure that they would never fully recover from.
However, in spite of their failure on the Eastern Front, the Russians found some success on their border with the Ottoman Empire. When the latter entered the war in October of 1914, it opened up a second campaign called, the Caucasus Front. In the year 1877, the Russians had conquered the Turkish provinces of Kars, Andahan, and Batum and feared that the Ottomans aimed to retake them upon their entrance into the war. In early November of 1914, more than 100,000 Russian soldiers crossed into Ottoman territory. The Ottomans responded by sending the Ottoman Third Army to stop them.
The Russian invasion force consisted of the I Caucuses and II Turkestan Corps. Among them were thousands of Armenian and Georgian volunteers. By contrast, the Ottoman Third Army is believed to have numbered over 118,000 able-bodied infantry and two artillery batteries. The converging point of the two massive armies was the Kars oblast territory.
Part II
The men who was in overall command the Russian Invasion was General Alexander Myshlayevsky. As in the case of their invasion of East Prussia that year, the Russians launched an offensive into Turkey in early November (the Bergmann Offensive). And also like that invasion, it was defeated. The Russians then pulled back to the town of Sarikamish in Kars oblast. Morale within the Russian Army was now very low and many were losing faith in their leaders. Initially, General Myshlayevsky considered ordering a retreat back to Russia. However, his Chief of Staff (General Nikolai Yudenich) convinced him to hold their position at Sarikamish
Unlike the Russians, the Ottomans were not commanded by a single commander. Instead, they had several high-ranking officials of the Ottoman Empire commanding their own units. The three most notable leaders were Hasan Izzet, ismâil Enver Pasha (the Minister of War), and Major General Hafiz Hakki Pasha. Also involved were a few German generals who were there to act as advisors.
Although the Ottomans had superior numbers, many of their soldiers were ill-equipped to deal with the harsh conditions of Kars oblast during the winter. As they pursued the defeated Russians towards Sarikamish, a harsh blizzard rolled into the territory. With no tents and temperatures dropping to -20°, thousands of Turkish soldiers and their allies began dying from hypothermia and disease. They also lacked any major artillery units (they only had twenty guns).
Enver Pasha's plan of attack involved using three army corps in single envelopment. Simultaneously, a fourth unit would launch an attack on the Russian-held town of Ardahan which was 86 kilometers to the north of Sarikamish. If they succeeded, then the Russian Army at Sarikamish would be surrounded and completely cut-off from retreating. However, in order for this plan to work, all four units would need to attack at the same time. And due to a breakdown in communications and getting across rugged terrain, caused many Ottoman soldiers to become separated from their brigades.
By the time they arrived at Sarikamish, the Ottoman Third Army had been dangerously weakened in both manpower and equipment. The Russians by contrast, were dug in and armed with plenty of artillery and machine-guns around the town and in the surrounding forest. The fighting began on December 22.
Part III
That morning, the Russian right flank came under heavy attack. For the first few days, it looked as if the Enver's plan was working. The Ottomans managed to push the Russians back. On December 25, at the extreme left wing, the Turkish XI Corps successfully captured Ardahan and the Russian retreat was cut off.
Just when victory seemed near however, Enver Pasha made a critical mistake. He ordered the Ottomans to cease their attacks and take a short rest. This allowed the Russians to regroup and occupy the high ground around Sarikamish. When the Ottoman Third Army launched its second attack on the Russian lines, it was repulsed with heavy casualties. To make matters worse, the Turkish IX and X Corps were caught in an unexpected blizzard on the night of December 25. The heavy snowfall prevented them from reaching their objectives and depleted much of their ranks.
On the morning of December 26, the Turks resumed their attacks on Sarikamish. By then however, the Russians had received reinforcements and successfully repelled each assault. With casualties now rising into the tens of thousands and the weather getting worse, Enver Pasha ordered a night attack to be launched on Sarikamish on December 29. It was repulsed. Then on December 30, General Yudenich orchestrated a counter-attack which drove the Turks out of their positions and forced them into a disorganized retreat (including Enver Pasha himself).
Three days later, the Siberian Cossacks successfully recaptured the town of Ardahan. On January 8, 1915, the Russians launched a counter-offensive on the faltering Turks. They annihilated the IX, X, XI Corps and pushed them completely out of the Kars territory. By January 17, the battle of Sarikamish was finally over.
Epilogue
The casualties for the three week long clash at Sarikamish had been horrific for both sides. Although the exact numbers are incomplete, the Russians are believed to have suffered over 22,000 killed or wounded with a further 6,000 suffering frostbite. By contrast, the Turkish casualties are believed to be over 48,000 killed, wounded, or captured. If the amount of those killed from disease and hypothermia are counted, the number may be over 90,000.
For the Ottomans, the battle of Sarikamish had been an unequivocal disaster. For Enver Pasha, it was an utter humiliation and he would never command in the field again. Desperate to look for a scapegoat, he laid the blame on the Armenians who had fought with the Russian Army. He claimed that thousands of Armenian soldiers had deserted the Ottoman Army, joined the Russians, and "betrayed" all his plans to the enemy. With the Ottoman Empire's already pre-existing contempt for its Armenian citizens, the disaster at Sarikamish would become the catalyst for the Armenian Genocide.
For their part, in spite of their own high casualties, the Russians had won a major victory at Sarikamish. The credit was attributed to General Yudenich who was promoted to General of Infantry (a position he would hold until the end of the war). The Russians would remain in control of the entire Caucuses Theatre of World War I until the Russian Revolution forced them to withdraw their armies.
