Dunsterforce

Dunsterforce
Map of the Ottoman Empire, Caucasus and Iran (Persia) in the First World War
Active	December 1917 – 17 September 1918
Country	British Empire
Allegiance	Allies
Branch	Army
Type	Infantry
Role	Detachment
Size	350 men later reinforced by 39th Infantry Brigade
Engagements	Battle of Baku
Commanders
Notable commanders	Lionel Dunsterville

Dunsterforce was an Allied military force, established in December 1917 and named after its commander, Major-General Lionel Dunsterville. The force comprised fewer than 350 Australian, New Zealand, British and Canadian officers and NCOs, who were drawn from the Western and Mesopotamian fronts. The force was intended to organise local units in northern Iran (Persia) and South Caucasus, to replace the Tsarist army that had fought the Ottoman armies in Armenia. The Russians had also occupied northern Iran in co-operation with the British occupation of southern Iran, to create a cordon to prevent German and Ottoman agents from reaching Central Asia, Afghanistan and India.

In July 1918, Captain Stanley Savige, five officers and fifteen NCOs of Dunsterforce, set out towards Urmia and were caught up in an exodus of Assyrians, after the town had been captured by the Ottoman army. About 80,000 people fled and the Dunsterforce party helped hold off the Ottoman pursuit and attempts by local Kurds to get revenge on the Assyrians for their earlier plundering. By the time the rearguard reached Bijar on 17 August, the Dunsterforce party was so worn out that only four men recovered before the war ended. A combined infantry and cavalry brigade was raised from the Assyrian survivors to re-capture Urmia and the rest of the civilians were sent to refugee camps at Baqubah near Baghdad.

Dunsterville and the rest of the force, with reinforcements from the 39th Infantry Brigade, drove in 500 Ford vans and armoured cars about 220 mi (350 km) from Hamadan across Qajar Iran to Baku. Dunsterforce fought in the Battle of Baku from 26 August to 14 September 1918 and abandoned the city on the night of 14/15 September, to be disbanded two days later. North Persia Force (Norper Force, Major-General William Thomson) took over command of the troops in northern Iran. Troops diverted from Dunsterforce in Sweet's Column opposed an Ottoman diversion from Tabriz, on the Persian road, during September; the situation was transformed by news of the great British victory in the Battle of Megiddo in Palestine (19–25 September). The army in Caucasus was the only source of Ottoman reinforcements and had to give up divisions, ending offensive operations in the theatre.