A platoon of the Worcesters arrived to reinforce our attenuated line, and Colonel Matthews of the 14th Hants took over command on the 9th. The Turks had now occupied Mianeh in force, and during the ensuing two days were busy preparing for an offensive movement. They pushed a considerable body of infantry down to the cultivated fields bordering the north bank of the Karangu. Here, amongst the boundary ditches, topped with low bushes, they found a certain amount of ready-made cover, and they subjected our advanced posts on the right to a harassing fire. These were held by levies with a stiffening of British officers and British N.C.O's. The Persians, as usual, became "jumpy" whenever Turkish bullets hummed in their immediate vicinity, and as they were utterly lacking in elementary fire-control they were a source of vexatious perplexity to their British officers and sergeants. One officer, in despair at their utter unreliability under fire, pleadingly suggested that they might be withdrawn {192} altogether, and himself left with two British sergeants to hold the post. Even after making due allowance for the complete worthlessness of our Persian auxiliaries, we hesitated to believe that the Turks would commit themselves to a frontal attack on the Kuflan Kuh. Given a sufficiency of reliable troops, it would have been an admirably strong defensive position, and any enemy who came "butting" against it with lowered head would have found the experiment a costly one. But the Turks had seemingly gauged the measure of our strength and our weakness more accurately than we had ourselves, for, eschewing anything in the nature of new-fangled turning movements, they came at us in the good old-fashioned way, and by the most direct route. The attack was delivered after breakfast on September 12th, and on the part of the enemy there was no sign of hurry or confusion. Two thousand infantry, highly trained and admirably handled, belonging to one of their crack Caucasian divisions, crossed the river in extended order and flung themselves against our line. The shock of contact was first felt on the right, where the Persians were in position. These latter promptly broke and fled in utter disorder, all attempts to rally them proving futile. Our line was now in the air, so to speak, with the Persians scuttling like rabbits up towards the entrance to the Pass. It was short and bloody work. {193}