Ottoman troops retake Mamahatun

A British chronology of the war records under 31 May 1916 that Turkish troops retook Mamahatun, a town on the western Euphrates (today Tercan), which the Russians had taken on 16 March. Sources differ on the day. According to W. E. D. Allen and Paul Muratoff’s history of the Caucasian wars, the Turks struck early in the morning of 29 May and in their first rush broke the Russian front and took the town. The Turkish official history, cited by modern Turkish historians, states that the attack began on 30 May and that Mamahatun passed into Turkish hands on the evening of that day. The Turkish advance continued on 31 May, so the date in the British chronology falls on the last day of this phase of the fighting.

The blow was the work of the commander of the Ottoman Third Army, Vehip Pasha. In the spring his army, routed at Erzurum, had recovered its strength thanks to reinforcements. In the second half of May the Turks discovered that the Russians were regrouping and had sent the experienced 39th Division to rest, its place taken by weaker units. Vehip secretly brought three divisions of IX Corps and part of XI Corps opposite the Russian salient in the bend of the Kara Su. He wanted to push the Russians away from Erzincan, shorten the front and free some troops for the Black Sea sector, where in April the Russians had taken Trebizond.

According to Allen and Muratoff, units of XI Corps attacked on the right bank of the river towards Barnakaban, from where a Don foot brigade withdrew, fighting stubbornly. The main blow fell on the 15th Caucasian Rifle Regiment, the only regular regiment in the centre, whose line stretched for more than 30 kilometres. The Turkish 29th Division broke through it on both sides of Mamahatun and took the town, capturing prisoners and two mountain guns. According to Turkish sources the Russians set fire to the depots in the town before retreating. Further south the Turkish 17th Division easily threw back the Transcaucasian militia and broke into the valley of the Tuzla-çay. On 30 and 31 May the Turks pressed on along the road from Mamahatun to Erzurum and up the Tuzla-çay valley, though on their left wing, beyond Barnakaban, progress was slower.

General Nikolai Yudenich immediately threw the regiments of the 39th Division into a counter-attack and sent newly arrived Kuban plastuns to the Don brigade. From 1 to 3 June heavy fighting went on by the road to Erzurum, in which the Turks were halted. On 4 June, in the Zazalar valley, three regiments of Turkish cavalry checked the Russian infantry with a charge, and the Baku Infantry Regiment alone lost more than a thousand men in this fighting. On 5 June the fighting suddenly died down. Both sides were exhausted, and Vehip was alarmed by news of Russian reinforcements landing at Trebizond.

Allen and Muratoff call the fighting at Mamahatun an undoubted tactical success for the Turks. Their new line ran a few kilometres west of Aşkale and only about 55 kilometres from Erzurum. The success did not last long, however. In July Yudenich went over to the long-expected offensive; on 10 July (the British chronology gives 12 July) the Russians reoccupied Mamahatun, and on 25 July they entered Erzincan.