"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. مجلد I" [ظ‎‎١‎٨‎٠] (٤٥٤/٣٦٥)

334 HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
co-operation with the expected attack by General Delamain..
In the absence of this attack, however, the 18th Brigade were
unable to advance nearer than five hundred yards to the
hostile trenches. In this situation they dug themselves in at
nightfall.
Generals Townshend and Fry could hear that General
Delamain’s force was heavily engaged, but they were still out
of communication with him and had no idea what was happen
ing. About 6.40 p.m., when it was completely dark, General
Delamain's guns ceased firing. But General Townshend
received no further news till the next morning, when General
Fry’s patrols and the British aeroplanes found that during the
night the Turkish force had evacuated all their positions east
of Kut and were in full retreat up the Tigris towards Baghdad.
General Delamain’s men, after their fine attack, passed a
miserable night; stupefied with their exertions, hungry and
parched with thirst, they suffered intensely from the bitter
cold* After they had had a few hours’ rest, General Delamain
sent Captain Cochran, of the Divisional General Staff, who
had accompanied his force, with a small cavalry escort to
inform General Townshend of what had happened, but all the
horses of the party were killed on the way by enemy fire and
the party had to lie out in the plain waiting for the dawn and
could neither get the news through to General Townshend nor
inform General Delamain that they had failed to do so. The
cavalry, which had withdrawn from the final attack when
darkness fell, spent several hours trying to find water and then
General Delamain’s column, in both of which they failed.
They then settled down for the night in a separate bivouac.
Early next morning the aeroplanes brought General Delamain
the news of the Turkish flight and his force was at last able to
get to the Tigris to obtain water.
Soon after General Delamain’s successful attack the naval
flotilla made a gallant attempt to break through the Turkish
obstruction in the Tigris. While co-operating with General
Fry’s attack, the Senior Naval Officer (Lieutenant-Commander
E. C. Cookson, R.N.) received a message from General Town
shend, about 6 p.m., suggesting that he should make an effort
to get through the obstruction, when it might be possible to
capture the Turkish steamers. Knowing that General Dela
main’s force was in rear of the Turkish trenches, General
* The temperature dropped 50 degrees. Captain Birch Reynardson, in
“ Mesopotamia, 1914-1915,” gives a graphic description of the men’s con
dition.