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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME II.' [155r] (318/660)
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.
BRITISH RETIREMENT 275
of this, and that, therefore, plans for the next day should be
based on the supposition that the withdrawal had taken place.
The Turks made no attempt to interfere with the withdrawal
or to follow it up. One of General Younghusband’s staff
officers left divisional headquarters to visit all brigades to
explain the situation and to ascertain the position, strength and
condition of units ; and it took him over five hours to perform
the task. He found that the troops were in the positions
assigned to them, except that certain battalions had become so
scattered and had lost so heavily that, owing to the breaking
down of communications, they had not all been collected.
The men, drenched and physically tired out, passed a miserable
night in their water-logged muddy trenches under the contin
uous rain and in the cold, which was so iqtense that the marsh
froze when the wind dropped. A large proportion of the men’s
rifles had become clogged with mud and temporarily useless;
and the shadow of a costly failure hung over everyone. But the
staff officer reported that the general moral of the men re
mained good, though all brigade commanders were unanimously
of opinion that any attack on the 22nd January by the units
engaged that day ( 21 st) was out of the question.
Until the Turkish account of this fight is available it will
probably be difficult to judge the effect on the Turkish trenches
of the fire from General Keary’s force on the right bank, but it
does not appear to have been great. During the morning o
the 21st the two guns of “ S ” Battery, R.H.A., were reported
to have fired with effect on advancing Turkish reinforcements ,
but about 11 a.m. the Tigris began to overflow its bank above
Arab Village, rapidly forming a wide stream which extended for
some two miles to the southward.* This forced the cavalry
and horse artillery guns to withdraw.
At dusk General Keary withdrew all his infantry from the
river bank except one company 93rd Infantry ; and, to coyer
his guns and his bivouac, took up a line of outposts which
extended from Arab Village to the mud fort. His casualties
during the day had totalled twenty-nine.
General Aylmer put the strength of the Turkish force opposed
to him at 9,000 infantry and 26 guns and he estimated their
casualties at two thousand.
The British casualties amounted to 2,741, including 78
British officers.f The exceedingly heavy proportion of casualties
* It is said that the Turks caused this inundation by cutting the river bank
t For detail of some of these, with the approximate strength of some of the
units on the morning of the 21st January, see Appendix XVI.
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.' [155r] (318/660), 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_100045738549.0x000077> [accessed 30 April 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