Dunsterforce
Encyclopedia
Established in 1917, Dunsterforce was an Allied military mission of under 1,000 Australian, New Zealand, British, and Canadian troops (drawn from the Mesopotamian
Mesopotamian Campaign
The Mesopotamian campaign was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I fought between the Allies represented by the British Empire, mostly troops from the Indian Empire, and the Central Powers, mostly of the Ottoman Empire.- Background :...

 and Western
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

 Fronts), accompanied by armoured cars, deployed from Hamadan
Hamadan
-Culture:Hamadan is home to many poets and cultural celebrities. The city is also said to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.Handicrafts: Hamadan has always been well known for handicrafts like leather, ceramic, and beautiful carpets....

 some 350 km across Qajar Persia
Greater Iran
Greater Iran refers to the regions that have significant Iranian cultural influence. It roughly corresponds to the territory on the Iranian plateau and its bordering plains, stretching from Iraq, the Caucasus, and Turkey in the west to the Indus River in the east...

. It was named after its commander General Lionel Dunsterville
Lionel Dunsterville
General Lionel Charles Dunsterville CB, CSI was a British general, who led the so-called Dunsterforce across present-day Iraq and Iran towards Caucasus and oil-rich Baku.-Biography:...

. Its mission was to gather information, train and command local forces, and prevent the spread of German propaganda. Later on, Dunsterville was told to take and protect the Baku oil fields. The force was initially delayed by 3,000 Russian Bolshevik troops at Enzeli
Bandar-e Anzali
Bandar-e Anzali , also Romanized as Bandar-e Pahlavī, Bandar Pahlavi, and Bandar Pahlevi, or simply as Pahlavī, Pahlevī, and Pehlevi; earlier, Enceli and Enzeli) is a city in and the capital of Bandar-e Anzali County, Gilan Province, Iran...

 but then proceeded by ship to the port of Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

 on the Caspian Sea. This was the primary target for the advancing Turkish forces and Dunsterforce endured a short, brutal siege in September 1918 before being forced to withdraw.

Order of battle

The British element of Dunsterforce comprised 39th Brigade of 13th (Western) Division. On July 1, 1918 the brigade received orders to be detached from the division for attachment to the North Persia Force. The brigade's component units left the division between July 10 and August 19 . Brigade HQ arrived in Baku at Dunsterforce HQ on August 24.
39th Brigade
9th (Service) Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment
7th (Service) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment
The Gloucestershire Regiment
The Gloucestershire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Nicknamed "The Glorious Glosters", the regiment carried more battle honours on their regimental colours than any other British Army line regiment.-Origins and early history:...

9th (Service) Battalion, The Worcestershire Regiment
7th (Service) Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment
39th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps (MGC)
Machine Gun Corps
The Machine Gun Corps was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in World War I. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks in combat, and the branch was subsequently turned into the Tank...

39th Supply & Transport Column, Army Service Corps (ASC)
Royal Army Service Corps
The Royal Army Service Corps was a corps of the British Army. It was responsible for land, coastal and lake transport; air despatch; supply of food, water, fuel, and general domestic stores such as clothing, furniture and stationery ; administration of...

39th Trench Mortar Battery

Soviet account

Soviet archivist Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin was a Major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, and co-author with Christopher Andrew of The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, a massive account of Soviet intelligence...

 claimed that Dunsterforce's objective was, under the guise of defending British India
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

, to secure a foothold in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

. The force would then co-operate with counter-revolutionary forces to overthrow the Baku Soviet and seize control of the whole of the oil-rich Caucasus, the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

, and all surrounding regions. Mitrokhin claimed that Gen. Dunsterville had "forty Ford vans loaded with gold and silver" to pay for the operation.

Further reading

  • Major M. H. Donohoe, With the Persian Expedition (1919? Reprinted by The Naval & Military Press)
  • Major-General L. C. Dunsterville C.B., The Adventures of Dunsterforce (London, 1920)
  • Paul Easton, 'Tough little Kiwi fought to the death,' The Dominion Post (Wellington)
    The Dominion Post (Wellington)
    The Dominion Post is a metropolitan broadsheet newspaper published in Wellington, New Zealand, owned by the Australian Fairfax group, owners of The Age, Melbourne, and The Sydney Morning Herald.- Foundation :...

    , 17 April 2010, p.A5
  • Joyce Marlow, Billy Goes to War - illustrated, fictionalised account of the Dunsterforce expedition based on a real soldier's diary and photographs (London: Ronald Whiting & Wheaton, 1967)
  • Official History of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade
  • Bryan Perrett and Anthony Lord, The Czar's British Squadron (London: William Kimber, 1981)
  • Australians In Mesopotamia

External links

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