Adventures of Dunsterforce

Dunsterforce - named after its intrepid commander, Major-General L. C. Dunsterville - was the small, secret expedition (known as ‘the Hush-Hush army' ) sent to the Caucasus in late 1917 to forestall the export of Russia's Bolshevik Revolution. Small and ill-supplied, Dunsterforce made up for its lack of numbers with the personal dash of its commander, (who had already been immortalized in literature as ‘Stalky' in Rudyard Kipling's public school tales, ‘Stalky & Co' based on Kipling's boyhood with Dunsterville at the United Services College at Westward Ho! in Devon). Dunsterville's own book has plenty of Kiplingesque derring-do. In the end, Dunsterforce found itself battling in vain to save the oil rich town of Baku from the Bolsheviks before a lack of resources and the fatal disunity among his allies forced withdrawal with the mission unfulfilled. This colourful memoir, reflecting the charismatic character of its author, is a key source for anyone interested in what Kipling called the Great Game - the great power rivalry between Russia and Britain; in British intervention in Russia and the history of unorthodox warfare.