off in a blizzard to proceed by car some way
in the direction of Erzerum along the high-road over the col which
marked the frontier; the pass would be about 7600 feet above
sea-level; as the elevation of Sarikamish was given as 6700. This
high-road constituted the main line of communications of the Russian
forces in the field beyond railhead, and the traffic along it was
unceasing. With a long, stiff upward incline, there were the usual
sights of broken-down vehicles and of dead animals on all hands; but
the organization appeared to be good, if rough and ready, and the
transport was serviceable enough. Getting the cars along past the
strings of vehicles and animals was no easy job, and it proved a
chilly drive. But the weather brightened, and on the way back we got
out and proceeded on foot to a hill-top of historic interest known as
the "Crow's Nest," above Sarikamish. For it had been the site of
headquarters on the occasion of those very critical conflicts in
December 1914, when the Ottoman commanders had made a determined
effort to break through into Russian Transcaucasia, and when their
plans had only been brought to nought by a most signal combination of
war on the part of the defenders.

There, on the scene of his triumph, Colonel Maslianikov of the 16th
Caucasian Rifle Regiment described to a gathering of us fur-clad
figures how, with his regiment and some other troops hastily scraped
together, he had brought the leading Turkish divisions to a
standstill, largely by pure bluff and by audacious handling of an
inferior force, and so had prepared the way for the dramatic overthrow
of three Osmanli army corps which transformed a situation that had
been full of menace into one which became rich in promise. News of
this dramatic feat of arms reached the War Office at the time, but
without particulars. That the victor of this field, a field won by a
masterpiece of soldiership, should remain a simple colonel, suggested
a singular indifference on the part of authorities at the heart of the
empire to what wardens of the marches accomplished in peace and war.
That pow-wow in an icy blast amid the snow recalled the Grand Duke
Nicholas's appeal to Lord Kitchener that we should make some effort
to take pressure off his inadequate and hard-pressed forces in
Armenia, an appeal which landed us in the Dardanelles Campaign; and it
further recalled the fact that the colonel's feat near Sarikamish had
put an end to all need for Bri