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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME II.' [209r] (426/660)
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.
PROGRESS OF ADVANCE
381
along the communication trench, encountered an enemy
piquet, which fell back. Some three-quarters of an hour later,
when the guides of the 19th Brigade calculated that they had
advanced some 4,500 paces (rather over two miles) beyond the
Fallahiya trenches, orders were issued for both brigades to
form into lines of platoon columns. This brought the composite
Highland battalion (Black Watch and Seaforths) and 28th
Punjabis, in this order from the left, into the front line of the
19th Brigade, with the 125th Rifles and 92nd Punjabis in
second line. The 28th Brigade formed into three lines : 51st
Sikhs (on the left) and Provisional Battalion, Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry* in first line; 2/Leicester
shire in second line, and 53rd Sikhs and 56th Rifles in third
line. General Peebles halted his 19th Brigade considering
the circumstances required a wider deployment, but the
dawning light showed him the 28th Brigade, still advancing,
three or four hundred yards ahead. The 19th started to catch
the 28th up, when orders were issued to both brigades to
extend into attack formation.
By this time General Younghusband had come up and joined
General Kemball, who offered the opinion that they were
still a mile from the Turkish trenches. In point of fact they
appear to have been still farther away. General Young-
husband, however, believed them to be closer and decided
that the assault should be made. General Kemball, who had
halted the 28th Brigade to allow the 19th Brigade to draw
level, now ordered the 28th to push on.f At 5.30 a.m. both
brigades were advancing and, although it was light enough
to distinguish objects within about half a mile, the enemy’s
trenches could not be discerned. It was seen, however, that
the north-west wind, which had begun that morning, was
driving the waters of the Suwaikiya marsh southward, and this
had already contracted the front between the marsh and com
munication trench to about 350 or 400 yards.
The Turks were evidently fully prepared for the attack, |
for five minutes later a storm of machine gun and rifle fire,
followed immediately by gunfire from both banks of the
river, fell on the 28th Brigade, who were still leading, and then
on the 19th Brigade. The enemy trenches could still not be
discerned, but the gallant 28th Brigade dashed forward in a
desperate attempt to-carry out their orders. The Oxfords under
* Battalion improvised from drafts for the 1st Battalion in Kut.
t It appears that the whole brigade had not extended by then.
t In addition to the piquet driven back along the communication trench,
they had observers with telephones lying out in front of their left.
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.' [209r] (426/660), 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_100045738550.0x00001b> [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