THE NEW DASH TO BAKU
Treachery in the town--Jungalis attack Resht--Armoured cars in
street-fighting--Baku tires of Bolshevism--British summoned to the
rescue--Dunsterville sets out--Position at Baku on arrival--British
officers' advice ignored--Turkish attacks--Pressing through the
defences--Baku again evacuated.
We were soon to discover that we had not cut the claws of the Jungali
tiger, and that he was yet capable of giving us serious trouble.
There had been a good deal of unrest amongst the disbanded followers
of Kuchik Khan. Men had gone back to their villages to brood over
their reverse of fortune. The hotheads amongst them were not at all
satisfied at the easy way in which they had been beaten out of their
entrenchments on the Manjil road. Various pretexts were put forward
with a view of explaining away the sharp reverse they suffered on
that occasion. Further, there was a recrudescence of propaganda
activity amongst them, carried on by Turkish agents and sympathizers
who came and went in the jungle country on the shores of the Caspian.
Bicherakoff and his Russians had gone off to Baku, and a small force
of British alone was holding {210} Resht. Admirable for the
Jungalis' plan, thought their leaders! This time they would be able
to settle their account with the British without any intervening
Russian mixing himself up in the business.
Early on July 20th a large force of Jungalis made a surprise attack
on Resht. Aided by armed partisans within who, once the attack
developed, brought hitherto concealed rifles into play from window
and roof-top, the enemy achieved a distinct measure of success. The
street fighting was desperate and severe. The attacking force fought
with great bravery, determination, and skill. They dug themselves
in, and threw up barricades the better to aid them to hold ground
they had won.
But, although the greater part of Resht passed into their hands,
following their first impetuous dash, the Jungalis were never able to
make themselves masters of the south-western section of the town
which was held by British troops. They knocked their heads against
this in vain. It was left to the armoured cars, moreover, once more
to demonstrate their great value in street fighting. The heavy cars
of the Brigade and the 6th Light Armoured-Motor Battery were rushed
into action, and although the streets had been dug up by the enemy in
order to impair the mobility of the Brigade, the latter made short
work of the Jungalis, driving them from point to point, and from
street to street, until the town was once more in our possession.
The enemy found themselves at a complete disadvantage {211} when
facing armour-plated fighting machines. The moral effect of these
alone, apart from their fire efficiency, proved disastrous to Jungali
nerves, and spread panic and disorganization in the ranks of the foe.
Profiting by the bitter example of treachery that the Jungali attack
had furnished, the British this time were less lenient when it came
to imposing terms upon the beaten enemy.
Towards the end of July signs of dissension showed themselves amongst
the Bolshevik militants who controlled the political and military
destinies of Baku, a matter of which I wrote in the previous chapter.
The Turks were without the gates. Bicherakoff had gone north, and
the Bolshevik military machine had helplessly broken down. It could
neither organize any scheme of defence, nor evolve any offensive plan
for relieving the city from the gradually tightening grip of the
Turk. The people of Baku found that mediocrity and mendacity were
but poor and unsatisfactory weapons with which to attempt to arrest
the march of a modern army, and these were about all the Bolsheviks
possessed in their mental arsenal. Above the chaos and welter of
discordant opinion arose the murmurings of a discontented,
fear-stricken people. They had suffered much from Bolshevik
oppression and from Bolshevik ineptitude, and clamoured for a new set
of _dramatis personæ_ and the recasting of the principal roles in the
Baku tragedy. So these political _farceurs_, the Bolsheviks, were
figuratively hissed off the boards, and disappeared {212} down the
stage trap-door to an oblivion which, alas! was but temporary. They
were baffled, but not beaten.
Their places were taken by men holding saner and less violent
political views. One of the first official acts of the new Baku
Government was to summon the British to their aid.
It was the chance for which Dunsterville had lived and waited, and he
lost no time in grasping it. At Enzeli he embarked a mixed force of
about two thousand, made up of unattached Imperial and Dominion
officers of the original Dunsterforce, a battalion or so of the North
Staffords, a detachment of Hants, howitzer and field gun sections,
two armoured cars, two sections of the motor machine-gun company, and
other sundry units and details which had been commandeered from Resht
for the move upon Baku.
The advanced guard disembarked at the Caspian oil port on August 5th,
and the remainder speedily followed.
The position in Baku was not one to inspire confidence. There were
Bolshevik troops in the town who did not attempt to conceal their
displeasure at the arrival of the British. The "Red Committee," too,
was gathering fresh strength and planning the overthrow of its
successors in office--the Government that had invited Dunsterville to
Baku. Muddle and confusion prevailed everywhere. Jealousy,
distrust, and bickering were rife amongst the heterogeneous, {213}
ill-disciplined mass of Russians and Armenians which passed for an
army in Baku. It was computed that there were about 20,000 Russians
of various political hues, ranging from bright Bolshevik red to sober
Imperial grey, in and around the town, while the number of Armenian
auxiliaries was estimated at 5,000. Yet the brunt of the fighting
had to be borne by the British infantry, chiefly the North Staffords,
for it was rarely that over 5,000 of our more than doubtful allies
could be rounded up to assist in holding the far-flung defensive line
of Baku.
Despite the stiffening of British troops in the front line, the moral
encouragement of British officers, and the active material support of
British artillery and British armoured cars, it was found impossible
to infuse any real or lasting enthusiasm into the Baku army. It had
its own ethics of fighting and stuck to them. War, it was felt, was
a job not to be taken too seriously, and must never be allowed to
interfere with one's customary distractions, nor with one's business
or social engagements. Russians and Armenians would leave a "back
to-morrow" message, and casually stroll out of the front-line
trenches, whenever they felt in the mood, to go off to attend some
political meeting in Baku, or seek refreshment and questionable
enjoyment at some of the local cafés.
The position of the unattached British officers was a difficult one
in Baku. They were there in an {214} advisory capacity chiefly, but
their counsel and presence were alike resented by all parties,
political and military. Suggestions for a more efficient
co-operation between infantry and artillery, for the filling up of
dangerous gaps in the line, the better siting of trenches, or the
establishing of observation posts and the employment of "spotters,"
were usually received in silence and with a disdainful shrug of the
shoulders.
While striving to beat off the Turk outside, the British, too, had to
sit on the head of the rabid Bolshevik within, and prevent his
regaining his feet and running amuck once more.
The economic situation was also serious. Food supplies were
lamentably short, and the available stock was running low. A
super-commercial instinct had been developed, and gross profiteering
was widely practised. It was true that the pre-war standard value of
the paper rouble had suffered a heavy depreciation, but this hardly
justified the exorbitant tariff of some of the Baku restaurants. It
was no uncommon thing for them to exact five roubles for the bread
eaten at meals, and about seventy roubles for the very indifferent
meal itself.
Colonel Keyworth, R.H.A., was appointed to the command of the troops
in the Baku area. His heavy duties confined him a good deal to the
port itself, and he was unable to see very much of the defensive
perimeter; but he had excellent coadjutors in Colonel Matthews of the
Hants, and in Colonel {215} Stokes of the Intelligence Department, an
officer who had been for many years British Military Attaché in
Teheran. Then, too, there was Lieutenant-Colonel Warden, a blunt,
straight-spoken Canadian, and a very keen and efficient infantry
soldier whose permanent telegraphic address in Flanders had been
"Vimy Ridge." Warden was generally an optimist, but the Baku problem
was responsible for his passing sleepless, unhappy nights; and
finally he gave up attempting to instil martial ardour into the
non-receptive mind of the Baku soldier. In his own racy speech,
redolent, of his native prairie, he summed up his efforts in this
direction as being as futile as trying to flog a dead horse back to
life.
I am not so much concerned with describing the military operations in
detail as I am with laying stress upon the many difficulties that
beset the path of the British during their first and short-lived
occupation of Baku. The wonder is that, instead of giving in after a
few days, they were able to cling to the position for weeks.
On August 26th, the Turks, who had been preparing for days, delivered
a heavy attack against the Griazni-Vulkan sector. Their advance took
place under cover of destructive artillery fire which caused many
casualties. The section of the line where the Turks struck first was
held by about one hundred and fifty of the North Staffords, supported
by four machine-guns of the Armoured Car Brigade. Despite severe
losses, the Turks, being reinforced, pressed {216} home the attack,
and the auxiliary troops on the right flank were flung back and
forced to retire. At this point two of the machine-guns failed to
hear the order to retreat, and fought the Turks until their crew were
surrounded and cut off. The other machine-gun section, under
Lieutenant Titterington, stuck it to the last, and when they withdrew
the Turks were already firing upon them from the rear. But the
surviving members of the gun crews managed to "shoot" their way
through the ranks of the foe.
The enemy, who had suffered very heavily in the attack of the 26th,
resumed the offensive on the 31st, when he bit another slice out of
the thinly held line and captured the position known as Vinigradi
Hill. After this the Turk advanced from success to success, slowly
driving back the garrison on the inner defensive line.
[Illustration: GROUP OF THE STAFFORDS, WHOSE HEROIC ATTEMPT TO
RECOVER THE SITUATION FOLLOWING THE ARMENIAN RETIREMENT WILL ALWAYS
BE REMEMBERED AT BAKU. THE SCENE WAS AT BALADADAR STATION.]
His crowning victory was the storming of the Voltchi Vorota sector on
the morning of September 14th. An Arab officer who deserted two days
previously furnished full particulars of the impending attack, but
his information was regarded with suspicion. It proved, however, to
be absolutely correct, for the enemy made a feigned attack on the
neighbouring Baladjari sector and delivered his main blow against
Voltchi Vorota. He got home at once, driving out the Russian troops,
who retreated in some confusion. An armoured car, however,
intervened between the retiring troops and the oncoming enemy, and,
although heavily shelled by the Turkish batteries, {217} it
manoeuvred adroitly, paralyzing the advance by its deadly fire and
allowing the broken Russians time to reform with a leavening of
British bayonets. The Turks later in the day converted the feigned
into a real attack, and broke through at Baladjari.
This series of reverses contracted the daily shrinking perimeter
still more. It was now clear to Dunsterville that his troubled
occupancy of Baku had come to an end, and orders were issued for an
immediate evacuation. The Bolsheviks had got the upper hand again.
Their attitude was doubtful and, in the first instance, they had
objected to the troops being withdrawn, threatening to use the
Caspian fleet of gunboats to fire on the laden transports should the
latter attempt to sail. It was not exactly altruism, nor the
promptings of a generous nature, that led them to do this. On the
contrary, it was rather a tender regard for their own cowardly skins.
Should the victorious enemy storm the town the British would serve as
a useful chopping-block upon which the Turks might expend their fury;
and, if the worst came to the worst, and there was no other way out
of a disagreeable dilemma, grace and favour might be won from the
Osmanli by uniting with him in administering the _coup de grâce_ to
the trapped and betrayed remnant of Dunsterville's Army of Occupation.
Although the town lay defenceless and at their mercy, the
Turks--victims probably of their periodical inertia--did not follow
up their advantage. The {218} Bolsheviks hesitated to strike, and,
after the motor-cars, stores, and transport had been destroyed, the
evacuation was successfully carried out under the menacing guns of
the Caspian Fleet.
Captain Suttor, an Australian officer, and two sergeants, were
overlooked in the hurry of embarkation. But they escaped and,
boarding a steamer full of Bolshevik fugitives, induced the Captain
to land them at Krasnovodsk on the eastern shore of the Caspian and
the terminus of the Trans-Caspian Railway. Suttor knew that a
British military post had been established there. Of this the
Bolsheviks were ignorant, and their fury and amazement were great
when they found themselves marched off as prisoners.
[Illustration: SIX-INCH HOWITZER IN ACTION AT BAKU WITH A DETACHMENT
OF DUNSTERFORCE GUNNERS.]
The day after the British evacuation of Baku the Turks entered, and
for two days the town was given over to pillage, many of the Armenian
irregulars being killed in cold blood by the enemy.
{219}