Battle of Kars
| date | November 17, 1877 to November 18, 1877 |
|---|---|
| place | Kars , Turkey |
| output | Russian victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | 24,000 |
| losses | |
|
2,273 dead and wounded |
2,500 dead |
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Zimnicea - Nikopol - 1st Shipka Pass - Elena - 2nd Shipka Pass - Pleven - Lovech - 3rd Shipka Pass - Kızıl Tepe - Alaja - Gorni-Dubnik - Kars - Tashkesen - 4th Shipka Pass - Plovdiv
The Battle of Kars took place on the night of November 17-18, 1877 as part of the Russo-Ottoman War 1877–1878 . It was the decisive victory of the Russians over the Ottoman Empire on the front in the Caucasus .
Starting position
On April 24, 1877, the Russian Caucasus Army opened hostilities with around 70,000 men. Divided into four columns, the Russian troops advanced towards the Turkish fortresses of Batumi , Ardahan , Kars and Bayazid . After the capture of Kars, Erzurum was to be conquered. After just a few days, the Russian troops had reached the area around Kars and soon began to demolish the city and its upstream fortifications. The beginning of the siege was still a long time coming because of the capture of the fortresses Ardahan and Bayazid. Fierce fighting broke out, especially around Bayazid, as the Russian garrison stationed there after the capture was soon besieged by strong Turkish forces and had to be horrified .
After the previously more defensive Turkish commander Ahmed Muhtar Pasha had received reinforcements, he went on the offensive in June 1877 and forced the Russian troops to break off the siege of Kars in July, which had been personally led by Grand Duke Michael since June 9 . On August 25, the Turkish troops won the battle of Kizil-Tepe , but did not take advantage of it, for example to carry the war onto Russian territory. A long period of standstill now set in, during which the Russian troops under Loris-Melikov received reinforcements from two divisions from Europe. This enabled the offensive to be resumed with renewed momentum. In the battle of Aladscha Dagh , fought between October 15 and 18 , the Russians finally achieved a decisive victory. Muhtar Pasha's badly beaten army subsequently withdrew to Erzurum, which opened the way to Kars again for the Russians.
procedure
In mid-November, the Russian Grand Duke Kars called for surrender , which was rejected. As a result, a part of the Russian army, which could not be precisely quantified, was sent to take the city by storm. In a night raid the Russians captured the eastern fortifications of the city on November 17th. The garrison , which was under the command of Hussein Hami Pasha and was now cut off, tried to fight its way out of the city, but only Hussein and a small number of soldiers succeeded. The majority of the Turkish armed forces, 17,000 men, were taken prisoner.
losses
The losses on the Russian side amounted to 2,273 dead and wounded soldiers. On the Turkish side, 2,500 men were killed and 4,500 wounded. In addition to the large number of prisoners mentioned above, the Russians also fell into the hands of 303 guns.
consequences
In the Peace of San Stefano , the city of Kars was assigned to the Russian Empire. It remained in Russian hands until the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty after the First World War .
See also
literature
- FV (= Francis Vinton) Greene: Report on the Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878. D. Appleton and Company, New York 1879.
- Bryan Perrett: The Battle Book. Crucial Conflicts in History from 1469 BC to the Present. Arms and Armor Press, London 1996, ISBN 1-85409-328-2 .