Irány Baku! A Dunsterforce története
Heading to Baku! The History of Dunsterforce

Summary/Abstract: The article presents a summary of the political and military history of the Dunsterforce, a task force of the British Army in the Middle East. The Dunsterforce, named by its initial leader, Lionel Charles Dunsterville, was formed initially in early 1918 as a training and assistance mission to help form pro-Entente Georgian groups to help curb Ottoman gains in the Caucasus after the collapse of the Russian Army in the wake of the Russian revolutionary turmoil. The Dunsterforce reached the Caspian Sea in January but was barred from reaching the Caucasus by Bolshevik forces. The task force was rerouted to serve as a training mission in Northeast Persia to curb potential Ottoman and German gains. By the middle of 1918, the mission stabilized the region and cleared the way to the Caspian Sea for another British campaign. During that summer, the political situation altered in Baku, Russian Azerbaijan, which cleared the way for the British to intervene on the side of local Russian and Armenian groups against the incoming offensive of Azeri–Turkish forces. The British intervention stopped the “Caucasus Islam Army” from taking Baku from early August 1918 until mid-September. Still, it was forced to evacuate by the 15th of September because of the overwhelming enemy force. The Dunsterforce was successful in its task to stabilize the situation in Northwestern Persia and to help delay the taking of the Baku oilfields by the Central Powers.

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