Battle of Geok Tepe
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Siege of Geok Tepe | |
---|---|
Part of Geok Tepe, Turkmenistan 38°09′28″N 57°57′59″E / 38.15778°N 57.96639°E | |
Result |
Russian victory |
72 artillery pieces
no artillery
268 killed
669 wounded[2]: 402 [3]
or:
59 killed,
254 wounded[1][4]
or up to 20,000 killed[6]
The Battle of Geok Tepe in 1881 was the main event in the 1880/81 Russian campaign to conquer the
The battle is also called Denghil-Tepe or Dangil Teppe. Sources are inconsistent, but Denghil-Tepe seems to have been the name of the fort and also the name of a small hill or
The Russians killed all Turkmen males who had not succeeded in escaping from the
Campaign and siege
After Russian forces were
Battle
The attack began at 07:00 on January 24. All the artillery opened up and the southern artillery started to reopen the south breach. On the west side a diversionary attack was made to capture a redoubt. The mine was exploded at 11:20 and made a 43-metre (140 ft) breach in the wall. Kuropatkin led eleven and a half companies into the breach, which was taken. At the same time Kozelkov led eight companies into the southern breach, which proved too small. They were stopped and the breach was only taken when reserves were brought up, the flanks being taken with scaling ladders. The two groups linked up and, following instructions, began to entrench themselves. Meanwhile, the western group scaled the wall. Given this success, Skobelev reversed orders and ordered a general advance. By afternoon the hill at the northwest corner was taken and the Tekkes were fleeing over the north wall, pursued by cavalry. The pursuit continued for 16 kilometers and was only stopped by nightfall.
Aftermath
For the final day's battle Skobelev reported 59 killed, 304 wounded and 85 slightly wounded. For the month of January "Indian Officer" gave 1108 Russians killed and wounded out of about 5000 engaged. Ammunition expended was 287,314 bullets, 5,864 artillery shells and 224 rockets (time period uncertain). Thousands of transport camels died during the campaign. Tekke losses were estimated at 20,000. On 30 January the Russians moved 45 km (28 mi) southeast and took
The last paragraph of Skobelev's official report reads: "After the capture of the fortress, 6,500 bodies were buried inside it. During the pursuit 8,000 were killed." On the previous page he wrote: "In this pursuit by the dragoons and Cossacks ... the killed of both sexes amounted to 8,000 persons."
See also
- Russian Turkestan
- History of Turkmenistan
- Russian conquest of Turkestan
- Aerial view of battlefield and memorial mosque 38°10′02″N 57°58′04″E / 38.167286°N 57.967847°E
Sources and notes
- "An Indian Officer", "Russia's March towards India", Chapter XVI, 1894
- Mikhail Skobelev, "Siege and Assault of Denghil-Tepe", 1881 (official report)
- ^ a b c d e Pierce, Richard A (1960). Russian Central Asia, 1867-1917: A Study in Colonial Rule. University of California Press. pp. 41–42. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
Geok tepe.
- ^ Marvin, Charles (1881). Merv: The Queen of the World. W.H. Allen. p. 400. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
Geok tepe.
- ISBN 978-1-59884-336-1. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-59884-947-9. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- ^ a b Turkmenistan, MaryLee Knowlton, page 30, 2005
- ^ Dictionary of Battles and Sieges, Tony Jaques, page 389, 2007