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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME I.' [12v] (29/454)
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. .
Transcription
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4
HISTORY OF THE WAR: MESOPOTAMIA
Although it is the best port for transhipment from ocean
going steamers to river craft, Basra in 1914 had many dis
advantages as a base for operations. Owing to the total lack
of wharves or quays, vessels had to be unloaded in midstream
into native sailing craft by primitive methods. Although to
some extent our men were billeted in the houses, there were
few buildings suitable or of sufficient size for the accommodation
of stores or animals; and roads were equally lacking. The
river-banks to a depth of about a mile were planted with
date trees, and, as these plantations are below the level of
high water, they are flooded to a depth of one to two feet for a
considerable portion of the year. This fact limited greatly
the amount of dry ground available for camps or stores. The
surrounding country is flat and swampy, and many irrigation
channels or creeks (unbridged for the most part) enter the
main stream here. Basra was in no sense a modern civilised
port and possessed no resources or facilities which would assist
materially towards the development required to meet the
sudden increase of traffic.
Above Baghdad, navigation is usually only downstream
by rafts, though small steamers can go 50 miles up, to Samarra.
Connecting the Tigris and Euphrates is the Shatt al Hai, a
branch of the first-named river which it leaves at Kut al Amara ;
but thirty miles above Nasiriya it diverges into many small
channels which waste themselves for the most part in the
Hammar marshes. It is navigable throughout a portion of
its length from February to June and is used mainly by country
craft which draw up to five feet of water. At other seasons it
is not navigable, and the bed is dry in many places from July
to November.
The navigation difficulties of the country, naturally con
siderable, were much aggravated in 1914 by the lack of
proper water conservancy arrangements under the Turkish
Government.
Between Baghdad and Qurna, the country contained by the
Tigris and Euphrates is the ancient Babylonian plain, once of
great fertility but largely uncultivated through the long period
of Turkish misrule up to 1914 owing to lack of proper control
of the waters. Practically the whole of Lower Mesopotamia
is beneath the water-level of these two main rivers during the
high flood season ; and the rivers are only kept within their
banks by means of slight dams of loose earth heaped up at
the edge of the rivers. These dams are a constant source of
anxiety, as an unnoticed break in them is apt to put miles
About this item
- 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 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 I.' [12v] (29/454), 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_100048172213.0x00001e> [accessed 24 April 2024]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/1
- Title
- 'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME I.'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:3r, 4r:216v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence