17 Aralık 2018 Pazartesi

TNT History Mini-Series: Turks & Armenians Battle for Nakhchivan (1920)/Part V/FINAL

//Ed. Note: The saga of the Turkish detachment in 
Nakhchivan in the Fall of 1920 ends here.//

Turkey-Nakhchivan Border see this paper for an exhaustive
explanation of the border situation, which is a reality today
thanks in large part to the efforts of the Turkish detachment
in Nakhchivan chronicled here.

ığdır nakhchivan haritası ile ilgili görsel sonucu

Disposition:

A – Attack the rear of the enemy’s flank with a battalion and all cavalry;
have the other battalion remain behind the flank as a reserve against 
Dehne, moving it in the direction of Veli Dağı (Veli Mountain);

B – Block the enemy at the front with the militia troops that have been
engaging the enemy on two fronts;

With regard to disposition, this must also be mentioned:

The people are hungry. Their trust in the detachment is quite genuine.
So, taking advantage of this trust, the following message was sent to
the villages:

The detachment is starting the attack. The people should come to 
Karabulak to get provisions from the Armenian storehouses!

The consequence of this was that the Armenian troops, seeing a great 
crowd heading toward their line of retreat, panicked while the 
detachment and the populace came up behind the enemy.


Implementation

Contrary to the decision, the cavalrymen fought on foot at the attacking
enemy’s front and got stuck there, so they could not come to the 
location designated for the counterattack.  After waiting in vain for two
hours for the cavalry, the detachment troops began the attack on their 
own.  Since the attack was launched from behind the enemy and, as 
described above, together with a large crowd of the populace, along 
with one cannon’s fire from the side, the enemy was bewildered.  The
attack was successful.  The enemy’s line of retreat was cut off and those 
fleeing were tracked down one by one and, together with their 
commanders, cornered.

 The New Situation

The enemy that was headed in the direction of Karabulak was destroyed.
Those enemy elements coming from Yağcı were stopped.  The enemy 
at Dehne did not move. The troops fell back behind the Dehne Pass and,
taking full advantage of this, the decision was made to attack from the 
rear of the Dehne Pass in order to further capitalize on our success.

Map 5 Legend:

Situation after 15 November 1920/Operation carried out by 0330 hours.

                Turks
                Attack directions
                Armenians
                Retreat directions


















The large town at upper left is Sadarak. The dark lines show
the Turkish elements heading that way through Little Dehne
Pass.  Dehne Pass is at left where the road and rail line are
shown.

Disposition

A-     Cavalry will advance in the direction of Little Dehne.
B-      The 1st Battalion will continue its march in the direction of Veli 
Mountain.
C-      The 2nd Battalion will follow the cavalry.

The rear side of Dehne is swamp and only the railway and the road 
go through. The road should be seized as soon as possible.

Implementation

A-     Cavalry went towards the north, encountered 8 enemy soldiers 
and were held up dealing with them for about an hour.
B-      When the 2nd Battalion reached the west opening of the Little
Dehne Pass, they saw the end of the enemy’s marching column from
2 kilometers away.

Although two heavy machine guns were fired at the enemy marching 
column, there was no effect.   After the enemy passed Sederek and 
began to retreat with the support of cannon fire, the militia cavalry cut
off only a portion of the enemy force, even though they had seen them.

So a great opportunity was missed.  But here I must say something in 
the name of the heroic Turkish cavalry.  There is a particular aspect to 
the cavalry written about here: the militia cavalry is made up of  local 
people who have no training or experience.  There is no doubt than if 
this had been the Turkish Army cavalry this opportunity would not 
have been missed.  As a matter of fact, in the first phase of the battle,
without hesitation, the 10 Turkish cavalry at the detachment HQS 
went to the rear of the Armenians and made an Armenian regimental
commander defend himself in a rocky place.

The enemy was pursued along the rail line and on the morning of 16
November the advance troops of the detachment reached the Ararat 
station.  There was no sign of the enemy.  It seems that the enemy had
panicked. 
ığdır nakhchivan haritası ile ilgili görsel sonucu
The Armenian elements that were persevering against the 11th 
Division on the Iğdır front had to withdraw to Yerevan in the face of 
the detachment’s threat. (map 6)

In the course of the battle, two machine guns and quite a large amount
of weapons, ammunition and provisions were seized, along with 210 
prisoners, 3 of them officers. On the evening of 15 November the 
Armenian government requested an armistice. (agreed to on 18 
November/3 December, depending on which calendar is used.)

Map 6: shows the general disposition of the Armenian Army 
(compare with Map 1)

Scale: 1/1,000,000

Turks _______________

Armenians ------------------















The Turkish 15th Army Corps is shown
advancing toward Yerevan at upper left from
the northwest, while the Turkish detachment
from Nakhchivan moves up from the south.


//End of Part V/FINAL//



Hiç yorum yok:

Yorum Gönder