But the main factor in the 'Plevna delay' was the wholescale employment by the Ottoman garrison of the Peabody-Martini rifle, a weapon that had only recently entered the Ottoman infantry inventory. The successful defence of Plevna was to a great extent due to the defensive earthworks built there by the Ottoman garrison and which resisted all attempts at destruction through artillery fire. The only major Ottoman feat of arms in that campaign was the 'Plevna delay', where between July and December 1877, the garrison of Plevna, under Nuri Osman Paşa, resisted two major attacks by Russian forces and a third with their Romanian allies, thus preventing the Russians from advancing on Constantinople until the following year. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 is generally recognised as the most calamitous of the several wars fought by the 'modernised' Ottoman Army of the late 19 th century as it ended with the Russian army at the gates of Constantinople in the west, and in occupation of Erzurum in the east.
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