100 Years Ago - fighting in Iraq
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/first-world-war/article4664408.ece
Adventures after Ctesiphon
January 13, 1916
I did not know what damage the bullet had done, but the holes in my helmet, which was covered with blood inside, made it evident that it was a wonder I was still alive.
Letters from the front. A soldier who was wounded at the Battle of Ctesiphon writes:
I seem to have had rather a near shave, having stopped a bullet with my head, but probably owing to the lack of brains therein it did not touch a vital spot. After knocking me clean out, it left me on the field, with shells and more bullets striking all round, and with dead and wounded for company. And then the real trouble began. After reaching the first dressing station and resting a while, all those who could get into carts were ordered to do so, and we had an awful journey to another field hospital, where we at last arrived badly bruised and shaken.
This had to be done, as I heard afterwards, because the Turks forced our little force back by superior numbers - about nine to one. By this time I was minus equipment and rifle, and my worldly goods consisted of trousers, tunic, and shirt. However, we tried to lie down to sleep, with the groans and wounded and dying all around to add to the misery of the bitter cold, which is worse than the coldest night in England. And then we were shelled again, and the wounded received more wounds.
Still the Turks came on, and when the end seemed to have arrived, our troops flung themselves in and bravely kept the enemy off all night and so saved the wounded. But morning brought no peace, for as soon as it was daylight they started dishing it up again, and once more we were ordered to clear out, this time to the shelter of a trench a mile or two away. There we sat, still under fire, until through the glasses the RAMC officers saw that the Turks had again been reinforced and were coming on, with our people slowly retiring; so putting those who could not walk into carts, we made for our last camp by the river, where our boats lay, eight miles away.
After going for hours and no sign of the river, the truth dawned upon us that we were hopelessly lost in the desert, and then once more darkness fell. We made a square of the carts and all lay down inside it; those who could use a rifle did “sentry.” The cold was so intense that we all had ague, shivering like jellies. It was then by all the rules of the desert that those beautiful devils the Arabs should have swooped down upon us. Our officers knew this, and served out what brandy there was, with tins of milk, and so we waited, with Arabs in front of us and Turks behind, for the dawn.
Providence must have been on our side and the night of anxious watching came to an end at last. When dawn appeared we could only look at each other in dumb surprise that we were really alive, although still lost. And then we fell in with some Indian cavalry who directed us on to the track that at last brought us, after three hours’ tramp, to our boats and water. How we drank - the first for three days. And how we nearly all broke down when we first saw the funnels sticking up across the desert!
All this time the wounded had been suffering awfully and my old head was spinning round and round. Of course, I did not know what damage the bullet had done, but the holes in my helmet, which was covered with blood inside, made it evident that it was a wonder I was still alive. However, on the boats we got (big river steamers) and sank down on to the luxury of blankets.
Soon we were on our way down the River Tigris - we, who had come 400 miles and had got within 10 miles of our objective - Baghdad, only to have been cheated out of the glory of taking it. We soon arrived at our last base on the river, Kut-el-Amar, which we had scrapped for about a month ago, and there most of us were put in hospital. Next morning we had to go on to the boats again. Then we learnt the cheerful news that the Turks had got round and were waiting for us lower down the river.
We stayed at Kut on the boats for a day or two and then all made a dash for it, and it was not long before we got a shower of bullets and shrapnel and more killed and wounded. But no boats were sunk and at last we got through the danger zone. The rest of our journey was uneventful and so we came to Basra, the place we had set out from over six months ago, and now a big port with everything up to date. We had taken 14 days to do the whole journey, and the first sight we saw was two huge hospital ships.
After waiting three days for more wounded we sailed on December 9 slowly making our way down the river and then to the open sea for Bombay. The doctor has found two holes in my head and the bullet is out. He says I shall feel the effects for 12 months, but ought to be as usual except for my nerves.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/first-world-war/article4664403.ece
General Townshend’s defence - a story of hard fighting
January 17, 1916
Kut stands in a deep loop of the river Tigris, which at this point is about 250 yards broad. The country round is absolutely flat and treeless, though covered by very low scrub.
For the past six weeks a small British force under General Townshend has been isolated at Kut-el-Amara, in the Mesopotamian desert, 400 miles from the Persian Gulf. Pressed day after day by overwhelming bodies of the enemy, it has held out, and now a relief force is not far away.
General Townshend’s men have had perhaps the toughest work of the war. In the most trying climate in the world they have for 14 months fought their way from the Persian Gulf up the Shatt-el-Arab and the Tigris to within a few miles of Baghdad, over 500 miles from their starting-point. There, after winning a battle at the ruins of Ctesiphon, they found themselves faced by great Turkish reinforcements, and were constrained to retreat. This was in the last days of November. The retreat was a difficult one. Exhausted by the battle, with a casualty list of nearly 5,000, the troops started back by river and by forced marches across the desert towards Kut-el-Amara, the camp from which they had started on the vain attempt to reach Baghdad.
How closely they were pressed in their retreat is evident from letters which have reached this country from those who took part in the retreat. On December 1 an officer’s letter says: “We found the Turks in camps, sitting all around us. We had to fight a rearguard action all day, and marched 27 miles before we halted. After lying down for two or three hours we marched on 15 miles more, to within four miles of Kut. Here we had to stop because the infantry were too tired to move.”
However, the force were reported safely back in Kut by December 5. What strength they were in is not clear. According to statements in Parliament, where the advance towards Baghdad with insufficient forces has been much criticized, General Townshend’s division had been strengthened before it set out on its fruitless journey to Baghdad.
The troops remained at Kut to await reinforcements. They had established a strong post here on their way up the river after winning a brilliant little battle six miles to the east of the town on September 28 and 29. Kut stands in a deep loop of the river Tigris, which at this point is about 250 yards broad. The country round is absolutely flat and treeless, though covered by very low scrub.
The Turks gave the troops little rest. They shelled the town continuously, and gradually worked round it on all sides. On December 8 it was learnt from the India Office the enemy shelled the position all day, and on the 9th made desultory attacks “from all sides”. And so Kut was beleaguered.
The subsequent story of the town is as follows:
December 10. Heavy bombardment and attack against the northern front not pressed.
December 11. Bombardment renewed; two attacks made on north front, repulsed with heavy loss. Turks report occupation of Sheikh Saad, on line of retreat, 25 miles east of Kut.
December 12. Heavy musketry fire. Attack on a village on the right bank of river repulsed. General Townshend estimates Turkish losses at 1,000.
December 13. Another abortive attack.
December 17. Turks surprised in advanced trenches. Thirty killed, 11 prisoners.
December 18. British losses at Kut since their return, 1,127, including 200 deaths, 49 from discase.
December 24. Heavy fighting. Enemy breach a fort in north of Kut peninsula, but are driven out.
December 25. Turkish division capture bastion and are driven out with loss of 700. British losses 190.
December 29. General Townshend reports our losses in Christmas fighting at 71 killed (including three officers), one missing, 309 wounded.
December 30. Heavy shelling, some casualties in hospital through shells bursting through roof.
January 2. Heavy bombardment.
The last news from Kut published was sent on January 4. On January 6 the relief force left Imam Ali Gherbi, 50 miles from Kut. The next day it was in action with about three Turkish divisions at Sheikh Saad, 25 miles east of Kut. On the right bank of the river General Kemball’s column carried the enemy’s position, but the main attack on the left bank was retarded by the enemy’s outflanking movements. On the 8th General Aylmer, owing to the fatigue of his troops, was unable to push on, and on the 9th he reported that the Turks wore in retreat, and that he was pursuing, but was hindered by heavy rain. On the 10th General Aylmer’s troops were still in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Saad, where they had been halted owing to weather conditions and the necessity of removing all the wounded down the river.
In the fighting of the 6th and 7th our casualties among the infantry had been heavy.
The most recent fighting reported is said to be at Orah, 25 miles downstream from Kut. The Turks began to retire from here on January 13 and 14, but they have another strong position from six to seven miles to the east of Kut in the neighbourhood of El Chusa, a position which was carried in the battle of September 27 and 28 and which extends on a front of 12 miles on both banks of the Tigris. In that battle it was outflanked on the north, but the weather conditions were then different. In this season of the year much of the country on each side of the river is marshland.
There will be much relief when General Aylmer’s forces reach Kut, for it is evident that the garrison has been hard pressed. Curiously enough its commander, General Townshend, is experiencing his second siege, for he was in command of the little fort in Chitral when the late Sir George Robertson, who was Political Agent, was besieged there in 1895.
Adventures after Ctesiphon
January 13, 1916
I did not know what damage the bullet had done, but the holes in my helmet, which was covered with blood inside, made it evident that it was a wonder I was still alive.
Letters from the front. A soldier who was wounded at the Battle of Ctesiphon writes:
I seem to have had rather a near shave, having stopped a bullet with my head, but probably owing to the lack of brains therein it did not touch a vital spot. After knocking me clean out, it left me on the field, with shells and more bullets striking all round, and with dead and wounded for company. And then the real trouble began. After reaching the first dressing station and resting a while, all those who could get into carts were ordered to do so, and we had an awful journey to another field hospital, where we at last arrived badly bruised and shaken.
This had to be done, as I heard afterwards, because the Turks forced our little force back by superior numbers - about nine to one. By this time I was minus equipment and rifle, and my worldly goods consisted of trousers, tunic, and shirt. However, we tried to lie down to sleep, with the groans and wounded and dying all around to add to the misery of the bitter cold, which is worse than the coldest night in England. And then we were shelled again, and the wounded received more wounds.
Still the Turks came on, and when the end seemed to have arrived, our troops flung themselves in and bravely kept the enemy off all night and so saved the wounded. But morning brought no peace, for as soon as it was daylight they started dishing it up again, and once more we were ordered to clear out, this time to the shelter of a trench a mile or two away. There we sat, still under fire, until through the glasses the RAMC officers saw that the Turks had again been reinforced and were coming on, with our people slowly retiring; so putting those who could not walk into carts, we made for our last camp by the river, where our boats lay, eight miles away.
After going for hours and no sign of the river, the truth dawned upon us that we were hopelessly lost in the desert, and then once more darkness fell. We made a square of the carts and all lay down inside it; those who could use a rifle did “sentry.” The cold was so intense that we all had ague, shivering like jellies. It was then by all the rules of the desert that those beautiful devils the Arabs should have swooped down upon us. Our officers knew this, and served out what brandy there was, with tins of milk, and so we waited, with Arabs in front of us and Turks behind, for the dawn.
Providence must have been on our side and the night of anxious watching came to an end at last. When dawn appeared we could only look at each other in dumb surprise that we were really alive, although still lost. And then we fell in with some Indian cavalry who directed us on to the track that at last brought us, after three hours’ tramp, to our boats and water. How we drank - the first for three days. And how we nearly all broke down when we first saw the funnels sticking up across the desert!
All this time the wounded had been suffering awfully and my old head was spinning round and round. Of course, I did not know what damage the bullet had done, but the holes in my helmet, which was covered with blood inside, made it evident that it was a wonder I was still alive. However, on the boats we got (big river steamers) and sank down on to the luxury of blankets.
Soon we were on our way down the River Tigris - we, who had come 400 miles and had got within 10 miles of our objective - Baghdad, only to have been cheated out of the glory of taking it. We soon arrived at our last base on the river, Kut-el-Amar, which we had scrapped for about a month ago, and there most of us were put in hospital. Next morning we had to go on to the boats again. Then we learnt the cheerful news that the Turks had got round and were waiting for us lower down the river.
We stayed at Kut on the boats for a day or two and then all made a dash for it, and it was not long before we got a shower of bullets and shrapnel and more killed and wounded. But no boats were sunk and at last we got through the danger zone. The rest of our journey was uneventful and so we came to Basra, the place we had set out from over six months ago, and now a big port with everything up to date. We had taken 14 days to do the whole journey, and the first sight we saw was two huge hospital ships.
After waiting three days for more wounded we sailed on December 9 slowly making our way down the river and then to the open sea for Bombay. The doctor has found two holes in my head and the bullet is out. He says I shall feel the effects for 12 months, but ought to be as usual except for my nerves.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/first-world-war/article4664403.ece
General Townshend’s defence - a story of hard fighting
January 17, 1916
Kut stands in a deep loop of the river Tigris, which at this point is about 250 yards broad. The country round is absolutely flat and treeless, though covered by very low scrub.
For the past six weeks a small British force under General Townshend has been isolated at Kut-el-Amara, in the Mesopotamian desert, 400 miles from the Persian Gulf. Pressed day after day by overwhelming bodies of the enemy, it has held out, and now a relief force is not far away.
General Townshend’s men have had perhaps the toughest work of the war. In the most trying climate in the world they have for 14 months fought their way from the Persian Gulf up the Shatt-el-Arab and the Tigris to within a few miles of Baghdad, over 500 miles from their starting-point. There, after winning a battle at the ruins of Ctesiphon, they found themselves faced by great Turkish reinforcements, and were constrained to retreat. This was in the last days of November. The retreat was a difficult one. Exhausted by the battle, with a casualty list of nearly 5,000, the troops started back by river and by forced marches across the desert towards Kut-el-Amara, the camp from which they had started on the vain attempt to reach Baghdad.
How closely they were pressed in their retreat is evident from letters which have reached this country from those who took part in the retreat. On December 1 an officer’s letter says: “We found the Turks in camps, sitting all around us. We had to fight a rearguard action all day, and marched 27 miles before we halted. After lying down for two or three hours we marched on 15 miles more, to within four miles of Kut. Here we had to stop because the infantry were too tired to move.”
However, the force were reported safely back in Kut by December 5. What strength they were in is not clear. According to statements in Parliament, where the advance towards Baghdad with insufficient forces has been much criticized, General Townshend’s division had been strengthened before it set out on its fruitless journey to Baghdad.
The troops remained at Kut to await reinforcements. They had established a strong post here on their way up the river after winning a brilliant little battle six miles to the east of the town on September 28 and 29. Kut stands in a deep loop of the river Tigris, which at this point is about 250 yards broad. The country round is absolutely flat and treeless, though covered by very low scrub.
The Turks gave the troops little rest. They shelled the town continuously, and gradually worked round it on all sides. On December 8 it was learnt from the India Office the enemy shelled the position all day, and on the 9th made desultory attacks “from all sides”. And so Kut was beleaguered.
The subsequent story of the town is as follows:
December 10. Heavy bombardment and attack against the northern front not pressed.
December 11. Bombardment renewed; two attacks made on north front, repulsed with heavy loss. Turks report occupation of Sheikh Saad, on line of retreat, 25 miles east of Kut.
December 12. Heavy musketry fire. Attack on a village on the right bank of river repulsed. General Townshend estimates Turkish losses at 1,000.
December 13. Another abortive attack.
December 17. Turks surprised in advanced trenches. Thirty killed, 11 prisoners.
December 18. British losses at Kut since their return, 1,127, including 200 deaths, 49 from discase.
December 24. Heavy fighting. Enemy breach a fort in north of Kut peninsula, but are driven out.
December 25. Turkish division capture bastion and are driven out with loss of 700. British losses 190.
December 29. General Townshend reports our losses in Christmas fighting at 71 killed (including three officers), one missing, 309 wounded.
December 30. Heavy shelling, some casualties in hospital through shells bursting through roof.
January 2. Heavy bombardment.
The last news from Kut published was sent on January 4. On January 6 the relief force left Imam Ali Gherbi, 50 miles from Kut. The next day it was in action with about three Turkish divisions at Sheikh Saad, 25 miles east of Kut. On the right bank of the river General Kemball’s column carried the enemy’s position, but the main attack on the left bank was retarded by the enemy’s outflanking movements. On the 8th General Aylmer, owing to the fatigue of his troops, was unable to push on, and on the 9th he reported that the Turks wore in retreat, and that he was pursuing, but was hindered by heavy rain. On the 10th General Aylmer’s troops were still in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Saad, where they had been halted owing to weather conditions and the necessity of removing all the wounded down the river.
In the fighting of the 6th and 7th our casualties among the infantry had been heavy.
The most recent fighting reported is said to be at Orah, 25 miles downstream from Kut. The Turks began to retire from here on January 13 and 14, but they have another strong position from six to seven miles to the east of Kut in the neighbourhood of El Chusa, a position which was carried in the battle of September 27 and 28 and which extends on a front of 12 miles on both banks of the Tigris. In that battle it was outflanked on the north, but the weather conditions were then different. In this season of the year much of the country on each side of the river is marshland.
There will be much relief when General Aylmer’s forces reach Kut, for it is evident that the garrison has been hard pressed. Curiously enough its commander, General Townshend, is experiencing his second siege, for he was in command of the little fort in Chitral when the late Sir George Robertson, who was Political Agent, was besieged there in 1895.