The Erzerum Offensive
was made to haul the artillery up by hand; but this proved impossible. Then each gun was taken to pieces, and the wheels, the fittings, and the body of the gun were carried on their shoulders by parties of men. This almost superhuman task was accomplished in twelve days.
The Turkish dispositions were as follows[1]: The 9th Army Corps with the Erzerum garrison held the Deve-Boyun forts, while the 11th Army Corps, greatly diminished by the retreat from Azap Keui, was kept in the rear as a reserve. The 10th Army Corps was in the northern sector, holding forts Kara-gyubek and Tufta, and the Gurji-Bogaz defiles.
On February 11th the order for the general Russian advance was given. The Elizabetopol and Baku regiments attacked forts Chaban-dede and Dolan-gyoz respectively. The latter fort is situated on a little knoll which juts out into the Passan plain, and is, as it were, the advanced guard of the outer chain. By 5 a.m. on the 12th Dolan-gyoz was surrounded, but the battalion of Turks holding the fort managed to retreat to the Uzun Ahmet fort, a powerful redoubt which rests upon a trapeze-like rocky mass with cliffs on three sides. At the same time the 2nd Turkestans, advancing through the defiles of the Gurji-Bogaz, surrounded the advanced fort of Kara-gyubek. Two outposts were already in the hands of the Russians; but the main struggle was yet to come.
On the Kargar-bazar heights to the North all through the day and night of the 10th and 11th of February the 4th Composite Division attacked the Turks across snow-fields and skrees of rock. The summit of the range
- ↑ See Map.
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