The oil fields of Binagardy, Baku, August 1918 (b/w photo)

The oil fields of Binagardy, Baku, August 1918. Photograph, World War One, Caucasus (1914-1918), 1918. Both the Baku oil installations and the strategically important Trans-Caucasian railway were deemed vital to the Allied war effort so after the Russian armies in the Caucasus collapsed following the October Revolution (1917), the British attempted to bolster the Allied position there by despatching a military mission called Dunsteforce. The resources available to Dunsterville, both in terms of men and equipment, were insufficient to accomplish this and Baku fell to the Turks on 14 September 1918. From an album of 334 photographs compiled by Major W Leith-Ross, Army Staff and 13th Frontier Force Rifles, 1918-1920.