Horrors of war in the Caucasus along the Russian / Turkish border. Road of Sarikamish after Turkish Army retreat; December; 1914.

Shot moving down road; panning on many dead bodies lying in snow and frozen mud along side of road (camera moves; probably held by cameraman who walked along filming. This shot goes on and on; seemingly endless road of death. Live soldiers at work digging a mass grave in the frozen ground; looks like Russians supervising and Prisoners of War actually doing the digging. Men rolling and tossing corpses off a cart; dropping them into the snow. MS men digging trench. Pan on many bodies close together. Bodies on hillside in foreground, trucks driving on road down hill in background. CU pan on corpses. Horrible and sickening. Dog eating corpse (not human, looks like it could be a horse).

The Turkish war minister had decided to attack the Russian Caucasus in winter; although in this terrain it would have been difficult enough in summer. The Turkish Third Army; 190;000 men strong; advanced to the high plateau along the Russian / Turkish border and slowly pushed into Russian territory. However the army was poorly equipped; without winter clothing; and soon became cut off from supplies. Russian Army counterattack was devastating. Many of those who were not killed or captured froze to death. (Although the date 1923 was written on Pathe's log for this film I believe it is actually from the campaign described above.) Some also on ON 378 A but more here.

Warning: this item contains images which some people may find distressing.

Cataloguer's note: duplicate of item 'Corpses on Russian Front' in ON 451 E on *PM2472*.