GREAT RUSSIAN DRIVE BEGINS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2701, 22 February 1916, Page 5

GREAT RUSSIAN DRIVE BEGINS

TURKS IN FULL RETREAT HOW THE ERZERUM STRONGHOLD WAS RUSHED By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright Petrograd, February 20. A Rusßian communique states: "We captured) north-west of Erzerum the remains of the 34th Turkish Division, with thirteen guns, and also the remnants of a regiment on the Erzerum road. One of our corps daring the assault on Erzerum captured 240 guus. "We have carried by assault Mu6h and' Akhlat. The enemy continues his flight." .TURKISH COMMUNICATIONS SEVERED ' Petrograd, February 20. Military critics point out that the capture of Mush and. Akhlat gravely affects the Turkish position. It completely cuts their communications between North and South, and deprives tlicm of all possibility of junctioning their forces. The Grank Duke has been paid a warm tribute for infusing new energy into his troops and rousing them to deeds recalling the most splendid episodes of the early days of the war. His strategy was admirable. First 'he gave a sudden sharp knock, sending the Turkish cohtro flying •to the fortress. Then simultaneously made a thrust forward from the north-east and enclosed on the enemy on the south-east. There was no time to lose, as strong reiliforcements were advancing from Thrace. The Krupp-defended heights of Erzerum were j sealed and stormed at the bayonet point, despite the fact that the Germans seemed to have achieved a complete technical supremacy.

, The artillery captured at Erzerum included 150 8-inch Krupp guns,

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE VIGOROUSLY PUSHED FORWARD

BRILLIANT SUCCESS OF STRATEGY CONTINUES. 1 CRec, February 21, 9.50 p.m.) Potrograd, February 21. Now that the key of Armenia has been taken, the Russians are swiftly occupying the stricken land, and now hold the valley of Mush, eighty-three miles to the southward of Erzeruiii, where,'in September, the Kurds and' 5 '.Turkish gendarmes drove the Armenian women and children into barns and burnt them. Large bodies of beaten Turks are reported to bo fleeing southwards, apparently making for Kharput and Diai bekir. The Turkish 11th Army Corps is retreating westward towards Erzingan; one regiment has already been captured. The Russians have apparently succeeded in breaking the connection between the three corps composing the Third Turkish Army. The Grand Duke Nicholas has transferred his. headquarters to Erzerum. . The surrender of-the 34th Division is explained by the fact that it was unaware of the fall of Erzerum, and. was hastening to join the main body. The Turkish forces near the Black Sea have hastily abandoned their positions, and are retreating along the coast road towards Trebizond. The Russians are pursuing them, and the retreating enemy is also subjected to a constant fire from the Russian warships. The next positions behind Erzerum are at Sivas, but the rotreating columns are badly scattered. One division has been ordered to Trebizond to resist a Russian attempt to seize .this valuable port before tlie Germans and Turks are able to reorganise their forces. The Russians ought to be firmly established on the Armenian plateau. They are making every effort'to save some vestige of the ancient Armeuiau civilisation. Only two of the monasteries'have been left standing in the province of Lake Van. and thousands of Valuable manuscripts have been destroyed. THRILLING STORY OF THE ATTACK MAGNIFICENT BRAVERY AND BRILLIANT GENERALSHIP. (Rec. February 22, 1.10 a.m.) , | ' London, February 21. The fighting in the Erzerum campaign has been utterly different to that in Europe. The troops wore.not in trenchcs, and had to operate along the roads. Forces a few miles away may be separated by a mountain range as completely as if thoy were in different hemispheres. The Russians' success was largely due to manoeuvring, which mystified the Germano-Turkish troops, and lea their commanders to make a fatal dispersion of their forces. The Grand Duke Nicholas and General Yudenitch. at first did not colitemplato an assault', on Erzerum, but the breaking of the Turkish centre gave them -tho opportunity for a Suaden stroke, the details of which are still unknown. Some of the heavy guns were laid on sledges and sweated by man-power over • mountains deep in snow. , The night attack on Fort Tafma was mado without firearms Tho Russians, in tho starlight, crept _ silently across the snow, and rushed the fort with tho bayonet alone. The Siberians thou attacked the great Fort Tcliabandedo, the fall of which caused a disorderly Turkish rout. Hand-to-hand fighting on tho frozen marshes followed north of Eraeruni, and the storming of the southern ridge proceeded simultaneously. The horrors of the Turkish retroat were increased by the burning of the town and tho merciless hail of Russian shells. Tlie Siberians rushed fort after fort from frontal positions. Though eighty thousand Turks, under Achmet Pasha, were defending the town, Kiamil Pasha vainly ordered two other army corps to hasten to Erzerum. The Russians, assisted by a blizzard, surrounded one division in a defilo and compelled it to surrender. EXPOSED TO THE RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE. ("Times" and Sydney "Sun" Services.) London, February 20. M. Ludovic Nandaud, the war correspondent of tho Paris "Journal," tolcraphinp: from Petrograd, says that tho fall ot Erzerum leaves Asiatic Turkev°exposed to U\mm. Erzeruiii is the only real fortress in Southern Turkey, anil commands all the', roads to Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Persia. HOW THE TURKS WERE LEFT IN THE LURCH. Petrograd, February 20. Germany's policy in Turkey, with a view to controlling the centre of the Turkish E'li'ivre wan to weaken it by despatching Turkish troons to the furthest extremities and beyond the frontiers. The fall of Erzeriini implies that the A astro-Germans must rely oseluwoly on Uwaiwlm and tfa Uqtarian ill the Balkans, the Turks restricting themselves to tho defence o-f Turkej.