There is little more to add concerning the Russian operations in Armenia and Persia. Early. in 1917 General Baratov began a fresh offensive against the Turks by pressing south ward through Persia toward the common Allied objectives at Bagdad and beyond. He reoccu pied Hamadan, which he had lost to the Turks the previous August, and cau.sed the enemy to retire toward the Mesopotamian bor der, where they were attacloed and dislodged from the Assabad Pass. The Russians occu pied Kermanshah and Harunabad, and by 17 March were at Kennel, only 150 miles from Bagdad. A squadron of Cossacics, composed of five officers and 110 men, crossed the Push tilcuh hills through snow-laden passes 8,000 feet high, covered 180 miles and reached the British oantp at Ali Gharbi in Mesopotamia on 18 May. If report be true, the night of their arrival was celebrated with song, dance and hilarious conviviality. During May the main Russian body was obliged to retreat before su perior Turkish pressure and abandon positions on the border, including Khanilcin. He fell farther back to Kermansh-ah, where he was still 250 miles from the army's main base at Kasvin. Another move backwards to Hama dan became necessary, and that place also had te be abandoned. But the Turks were not able to attempt any fresh incursion into Persia. Re volt again flamed up in Persia; the government fell into difficultie.s and it seemed for a time as though German intrigues would gain the sup port of the country for the long-desired holy war. In the Caucasus the Russians held their ground; there was little fighting, the occupa tion of Van on 17 March being the chief inci dent of note. By detreege:n the Russian Trans caucasian campaign to fall off; both Russia and Turkey had weighty preoccupations nearer at home. In May 1917, before Russia dropped entirely out of the war, the Goebel( and several Turkish torpedo boats proceeded to Sevastopol, where the former German battle ship sustained some damage which the dock yard workmen refused to repair. When, after the armistice, the Allied fleet found the Goeben in Stenia Bay, in the Bosporus, she had a Turkish crew on board under a Turkish ad miral, Arir Pasha; the Germans on leaving had talcen all the plans of the ship and her engines, with the fire control and other instruments, so that the Turks could only find out details of her mechanism by actual inspection. In Asia as well as in Europe the contribution of Russia to the Allied ultimate success had been enormous. Her great battles of 1915 and 1916 were of vital importance to the Allies as a distraction for the enemy while they trained their manhood and prepared a machine, equal at first, and later superior, to that possessed by the principal enemy.
After the surrender in Kut of General Townshend in April 1916, the British authori ties in Mesopotamia and at hotne profited by the lesson of failure and began elaborate prepa rations commensurate with the task yet to be accomplished. On 28 Aug. 1916 Gen. Sir Stanley Maude took supreme command in Mesopotamia. Before any active operations could be undertaken with reasonable prospect of success it was necessary to improve the health and training of the troops, who had suffered severely from the intense stumner heat, and to perfect the precarious lines of communications. Other desiderata were to de velop the army's resources and to assemble re serves of supplies at the front. Basra re
mained the headquarters; its port was devel oped; railways were laid; men and material ar riving from overseas were transported and placed in requisite position; everything that foresight could devise was promoted to assure success. During the latter part of October the new commander-in-chief in India, Gen. Sir Charles Monro, arrived in Mesopotamia and made an extended tour of the theatre of opera tions.
At the beginning of December the enemy still occupied the same positions on the Tigris which he had held during the summer. Stra tegically, the British had the better situation. The Turks had withdrawn the bulk of their troops from the right bank of the Tigris, with the result that their line of communication was but an extension of the battk front. The Brit ish first objective now was Kut. By 13 Dec. 1916 the British opened their offensive; the troops were divided into two commands; one, under General Cobbe, was to hold the enemy to his positions on the left bank of the river and to picket the right bank as far as Es Sinn; the other, under General Marshall, with cav alry, was to secure and entrench a position on the Shatt-el-Hai by a surprise march. This program was duly carried out and Marshall gained control of the Hai waterway, threat ened the enemy cotrununications, and cut off another communication between the Turks in the Khadairi Bend, east of Kut, and those far ther west. The next move was to capture that bend, lined with Turkish trenches, an opera tion that required two weeks of severe and mainly hand-to-hand fighting. Then followed two months of further hard fighting for the strong Turkish lines on both banks, and when these were captured Kut was almost sur rounded, the Turks still holding fast at Sanna i-Yat. The point of attack decided upon was Shumran, five miles above Kut. Some feint movements by British and Indian troops de ceived the enemy, who hurried troops from Shumran to Sanna-i-Yat, and when the main attack was delivered on 23 Feb. 1917 the Brit ish crossed the river where it was 340 yards wide by means of three ferries and began building a bridge for the passage of troop. English and Gurkhas were employed in tMs enterprise under heavy fire. Meanwhile, Gen eral Coebbe, with Seaforth Highlanders and a Punjabi battalion was engaged in storming the Sanna-i-Yat lines, which fell to his men on the 24th, after they had cut their way through six lines of trenches. By the combined operations the TurIcs were completely outflanked; they evacuated Kut and retired on Bagdad. But this proved to be only the first stage in the British campaign. On the 26th the gunboats were 30 miles beyond Kut chasing the Turks; on 5 March British cavalry approached Bag dad ; the Ctesiphon position was passed next day, and on the 7th the advanced force came into contact with the Turks along the Dialah River, a tributary of the Tigris, where the enemy made a stand before Bagdad, only eight miles away. By a rapid advance against determined resistance and a violent dust storm General Cobbe reached Bagdad railway sta tion (10 March) on the right bank; Marshall on the left shore forced the Dialah and entered Bagdad on the Ilth. In the afternoon the gun boat flotilla anchored off the British residency.