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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME I.' [‎11r] (26/454)

The record is made up of 1 volume (223 folios). It was created in 1923. 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. .

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CHAPTER I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.*
T HE area known as Mesopotamia consists, generally
speaking, of the lowland regions of the basin of the
Euphrates and the Tigris. The term Upper Mesopotamia is
usually applied to the northern portion reaching almost as
far south as Baghdad. Lower Mesopotamia, or Iraq, stretches
thence, roughly southward to the sea. The boundaries of
Mesopotamia are on the north the Armenian plateau and
Kurdistan ; on the east Persia ; on the west the Arabian
tableland and the Syrian Desert; on the south the Persian
Gulf and the deserts of North-Eastern Arabia.
The line of demarcation on the south and west between
the authority of the Turkish Government and the spheres of the
various Arab tribes has been at all times indefinite. On the
east, the Turco-Persian frontier was demarcated in 1914; it
emerges from the mountains east of Baghdad through the
foot-hills some forty miles from the Tigris and, passing west of
Mohammerah, joins the Shatt al Arab.
The whole zone may be regarded as a former northern
extension of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , which at one time probably
reached almost to the Mediterranean. In the north the plain
has a fall in three hundred miles of some fourteen hundred
feet to near Baghdad, whence to the south it is nowhere more
than one hundred feet above sea-level.
The sole access from the sea is through the channel formed
by the confluence, at Kurmat Ali, of the Euphrates and the
Tigris and known as the Shatt al Arab. This is a fine river,
about one and a half miles wide at the mouth, narrowing at
Basra, sixty-two miles up-stream, to about six hundred yards.
Up to this point it is navigable by any vessel that can cross
the bar at the entrance.f
The Karun river enters it about forty-five miles upstream
at Mohammerah. This is navigable for vessels of two and a
half to five feet draught, according to the season of the year, *
* See Frontispiece and Map of Lower Mesopotamia.
f In 1914, to cross the bar, vessels drawing more than eleven feet had to
wait for the flood. At high water spring tides, vessels of twenty to twenty-two
feet could enter ; but at neaps the draught was only seventeen feet.
( 6788 )
B

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Content

The volume is the first 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 divided into two parts. The first part, entitled, 'Part I. Before the Outbreak of Hostilities', consists of the following five chapters:

  • General Description of the Country
  • The Turks in Mesopotamia
  • British Pre-War Policy
  • The Army in India and Pre-War Military Policy
  • Inception of the Operations

The second part, entitled, 'Part II. The Campaign in Lower Mesopotamia', consists of the following seven chapters:

  • The Landing in Mesopotamia of Force "D" and the Operations Leading to the Occupation of Basra
  • The Occupation of Basra and the Capture of Qurna
  • Commencement of the Turkish Counter-Offensive
  • Development and Defeat of the Turkish Counter-Offensive
  • Operations in Arabistan and the Capture of Amara
  • Operations on the Euphrates and the Occupation of Nasiriya
  • The battle of Kut and Occupation of Aziziya

The volume also includes nine maps, entitled:

  • The Middle East
  • Lower Mesopotamia
  • Map 1 - To illustrate operations described in Chapter VI
  • Map 2 - To illustrate fighting near Qurna
  • Map 3 - To illustrate fighting round Shaiba
  • Map 4 - To illustrate operations in Persian Arabistan
  • Map 5 - To illustrate operations in the Akaika Channel 27th June to 5th July 1915
  • Map 6 - To illustrate operations near Nasiriya 6th to 24th July 1915
  • Map 7 - To illustrate the Battle of Kut 28th September 1915
Extent and format
1 volume (223 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains a page of errata (folio 5), a list of contents (folios 6-8), a list of maps and illustrations (folio 9), appendices (folios 185v-192), an index (folios 192v-214v), and eight maps in a pocket attached to the inside back cover (folios 217-224).

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 225; 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
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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME I.' [‎11r] (26/454), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100048172213.0x00001b> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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