ia from Persia slightly north of the most easterly point of
the Turkish frontier.

Broadly speaking the Russian attack through Persia covered a front of
about 200 miles. It must not be understood, however, that this was a
continuous "front" of the same nature as the front in the western and
eastern theaters of war in Europe. The undeveloped condition of the
country made the establishment of a continuous front not only
impossible, but unnecessary. Each of the three Russian groups were
working practically independent of each other, except that their
operations were planned and executed in such a way that their
respective objectives were to be reached simultaneously. Even that
much cooperation was made extremely difficult, because of the lack of
any means of communication in a horizontal direction. No roads worthy
of that name, parallel to the Turko-Persian frontier, existed.
Telegraph or telephone lines, of course, were entirely lacking, except
such as were established by the advancing armies. How great the
difficulties were which confronted both the attacking and the
defending armies in this primitive country can, therefore, readily be
understood. They were still more increased by the climatic conditions
which prevail during the winter and early spring. If fighting in the
comparatively highly developed regions of the Austro-Italian
mountains was fraught with problems that at times seemed almost
impossible of solution, what then must it have been in the more or
less uncivilized and almost absolutely undeveloped districts of
Persian "Alps!" The difficulties that were overcome, the suffering
which was the share of both Russians and Turks make a story the full
details of which will not be told--if ever told at all--for a long
time to come. No daily communique, no vivid description from the pen
of famous war correspondents acquaints us of the details of the heroic
struggle that for months and months progressed in these distant
regions of the "near East." Not even "letters from the front" guide us
to any extent. For where conditions are such that even the transport
of supplies and ammunition becomes a problem that requires constantly
ingenuity of the highest degree, the transmission of mail becomes a
matter which can receive consideration only very occasionally.
Whatever will be known for a long time to come about this campaign is
restricted to infrequent official statements made by the Russian and
Turkish General Staffs, ann