"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٢‎٢‎١] (٥٦٦/٤٤٧)

392
OPERATIONS IN PERSIA
Trans- reconnoitred position within artillery range of Arman Sagad.
Caspia; intention was to attack at dawn any enemy trains there
OC i 9 i 8 ^ or, if they were not present, to destroy the armoured train which
* generally came up daily. But Arman Sagad proved to be empty
and no hostile armoured train appeared.
Having reported the enemy's absence, the two squadrons
28th Light Cavalry, under Major J. A. G. Kreyer, moved for
ward during the 10 th along a previously reconnoitred concealed
route south of the railway to a small village six miles south of
Dushak ; and here they waited so as to co-operate in an attack
which the main force, after a further advance during the night
lOth/llth, was to make on Dushak, from the north of the rail
way, at dawn on the 11th. The main force, apparently un
detected by the enemy, halted during the daylight hours of
the 10 th in a ruined village three miles north of Arman Sagad;
the railway between Kaahka and Arman Sagad was repaired;
and an armoured train moved up. But, when the time came to
start the night advance, it had to be abandoned, as the Trans-
Caspian troops declined to move on the ground that they had
no food. The 28th Light Cavalry were consequently recalled
and it was finally decided to postpone the attack on Dushak
till dawn on the 14th October.
On the 9th October, General Malleson telegraphed saying
that the news of the Allied successes had brought about an
immediate and striking improvement and that British prestige,
which had been rather shaken by the fall of Baku, now stood
very high.
On the 11th October General Malleson sent a long telegram,
summarising a report on the situation at Tashkend which a
Russian ex-officer and agent of the Turkestan Union had just
given him on return from a visit to that place. German in
fluence there was very strong, he said, and was working to
prevent the British obtaining a footing in Turkestan. The
Bolsheviks, disheartened at their failure to gain Askabad,
hoped to open up the Orenburg line, when the Germans promised
two divisions from Russia to settle affairs. But the hatre
towards the Bolsheviks was general and intense, their power
was tottering, and if the Trans-Caspian force could drive them
back to the Oxus all Bokhara would rise against them. 1 e
Turkestan Union had a strong party in Tashkend, though their
greatest asset was 4,000 good men in Trans-Caspia, w o
possesesd arms and were ready to rise, when, if they gained any
preliminary success, crowds would join them. General Malleso
informant was convinced that a successful rising coul