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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME II.' [102r] (210/660)
The record is made up of 1 volume (323 folios). It was created in 1924. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
SORTIE FROM THE FORT
175
In his opinion the best plan was to invest Kut and keep the
main Turkish force in a position close below it to await develop
ments, in the hope of starving out the garrison.
The fort at Kut was undoubtedly a weak point in the defence.
North-eastwards and within half a mile of it two irrigation
channels ran northward from the river bank, each, with
their banks, giving a depth of from five to six feet. These
afforded excellent cover to an assailant, and, as already related,
on the 7th December the Turkish infantry had managed to
reach and occupy the nearer of these two channels, just over
four hundred yards from the fort. For the next few days they
were hard at work digging and sapping forward all round
the north and north-east walls. By the 17th their sap-heads
had got so close that a trench raid was arranged for that night
to check the enemy’s advance and ascertain if he was mining.
The raiding parties, consisting of infantry, sappers and bombers,
started just before dawn under cover of artillery, machine
gun and rifle fire from the Kut garrison. The raid met with
complete success, forty Turks being killed and eleven taken
prisoner, and the parties returned with only one man slightly
wounded, having ascertained that no mining work was in progress.
The Turks, however, immediately recommenced to sap
forward and also to destroy the barbed wire entanglement
with bombs; and it became evident that they intended to
assault the fort. At an early stage of the siege it had become
. clear to the defenders that the walls of the fort would not
stand much bombardment, so that trenches and low-level
loopholes had been constructed along the walls and inside
the fort, and a stockade with head cover of bales of forage had
been built across the gorge of the north-east bastion. Saps
had also been pushed out under the fort walls and across the
ditch to the edge of the wire entanglements towards each of
the enemy’s saps. All this entailed continuous hard work on
the garrison, who had to spend most of the nights in repairing
the damage done by day and in otherwise improving the
defences ;* and for the first few weeks they were further
hampered by the continual fires among the combustible
stores belonging to the Supply and Transport Corps.
To turn now to the action, in the meantime, of the small
naval contingent. The main role of the Swnana, which at
this time was stationed alongside the river bank near the
* Much of the success of the defensive arrangements was due to the fine
work of Captain Colbeck, R.E., and the Sirmur Sapper and Miner Company,
of which he was in charge.
About this item
- Content
The volume is the second volume of an official government publication compiled at the request of the Government of India, and under the direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence, by Brigadier-General Frederick James Moberly. The volume was printed and published at His Majesty's Stationery Office, London.
The contents provide a narrative of the operations of 1914-1918 in Mesopotamia, based mainly on official documents.
The volume is in one part, entitled, 'Part III. The First Campaign for Baghdad', and consists of the following fourteen chapters:
- The Decision to Advance to Baghdad
- Commencement of the Advance Towards Baghdad
- The Battle of Ctesiphon - the First Day's Operations
- Battle of Ctesiphon (Continued) and the British Retirement to Kut
- The Decision to Hold Kut and British Policy Consequent on the Failure to Reach Baghdad
- The Siege of Kut: First Phase (December 1915)
- Commencement of the Relief Operations
- The Action of Shaikh Saad
- The Action of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. and the First Attack on Hanna
- Operations up to the End of February, 1916
- The Second Attempt to Relieve Kut; the Attack on the Dujaila Redoubt
- The Third Attempt to Relieve Kut; the Successful Advance to and First and Second Attacks on Sannaiyat
- The Last Attempt at Relief; Bait Isa and Sannaiyat
- The Siege of Kut; the Last Stages
The volume also includes nine maps, entitled:
- The Middle East
- Lower Mesopotamia
- Map 8 - The Tigris from Kut al Amara to Baghdad
- Map 9 - The Battle of Ctesiphon
- Map 10 - The affair of Umm at Tubul
- Map 11 - The defence of Kut al Amara
- Map 12 - The fort at Kut; with special reference to the Turkish attack on 24th December 1915
- Map 13 - River Tigris between Ali Gharbi and Shumran
- Map 14 - The action at Shaikh Saad
- Map 15 - The action of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
- Map 16 - The first attack on Hanna; 21st January 1916
- Map 17 - The attack on the Dujaila Redoubt, 8th March 1916
- Map 18 - To illustrate Tigris Corps Operation Order No. 26, dated 6th March 1916
- Map 19 - To illustrate operations between 10th March and end of April 1916
- Map 20 - The action of Bait Isa on 17th and 18th April 1916, and the attack on Sannaiyat 22nd April 1916
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (323 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume contains a list of contents (folios 6-10), a list of maps and illustrations (folio 11), appendices (folios 254-290), an index (folios 291-312), and eleven maps in a pocket attached to the inside back cover (folios 314-324).
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 325; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME II.' [102r] (210/660), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100045738549.0x00000b> [accessed 15 May 2024]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/2
- Title
- 'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME II.'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:3r, 3r, 4r:70v, 72r:79r, 160v, 80r:102v, 104r:160r, 161r, 313v, 161v:281v, 283r:313v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence