CHAPTER XI
A Soldiers' Battle
Bugles were resounding throughout the expeditionary camp, stationedclose to the bank of the Shatt-el-Arab, within two mornings of thereturn of Geoff and his chum from their adventurous journey into thewastes and marshes of the Euphrates. There was, perhaps, a sharper, morejubilant ring about the notes of those instruments on this particularmorning, notes which brought men hurrying to join the ranks, which settroopers saddling their horses with an energy and rapidity which perhapshad been lacking on the previous day, and which caused radiant smilesand a glow of enthusiasm to spread throughout the ranks of the force.
"It's a general move, eh?" Philip asked his chum, meeting him as hecrossed from his bivouac of the night before to fall in with hisregiment. "Please note that I am appealing to you, Geoff, as a man whoought to know everything that's happening; if not, what's the good of afellow being on the Head-quarters Staff. What's up?"
"I know as little as you do," came the laughing rejoinder; "but I canguess, and my guess is that we are on the way up the river to takeKurna. It's somewhere about there that the Rivers Tigris and Euphratescome together, and I suppose it's a point of some strategicalimportance."
"Strategical! Ahem!" coughed Philip. "Ain't we going it! From talkingTurkish we're now getting to use quite military sort of language!"
It was just one of his little pleasantries, and, indeed, Geoff was thesort of young fellow who never resented being twitted, and, moreover, hewas rather given to being facetious himself, especially when withPhilip. However, he was too busy on this eventful morning to spend timein bantering, for indeed much was about to happen.
We have mentioned already that the head of the Persian Gulf is of nolittle importance to Great Britain, and that for many reasons, one ofwhich, no doubt of somewhat recent origin, has to do with the supply ofoil for our battleships--a supply which is piped from the oil-fields inPersia, under the control of Britain. The pipe-line itself passes downin the neighbourhood of Ahwaz, towards which place a portion of theExpeditionary Force was at that moment proceeding, with a view toseizing it and holding it against the enemy. But the safe possession andprotection of that oil-line was not the only reason for sending anExpeditionary Force to Mesopotamia.
There were other, and perhaps somewhat complex reasons, which can onlybe broadly dealt with in this cover. International questions areinvolved, the discussion of which would take up an abundance of space,and might well prove not altogether interesting. But it becomesnecessary at this stage to give some idea, even if it be only a meagredescription, of other reasons which induced the British Government todispatch a force to the valley of the Euphrates.
The Persian Gulf and the coast which borders it may be said to be theeastern end of the Turkish possessions, while Turkey in Asia is boundedto the north and east by the difficult country of Persia. Already wehave sketched in the position of Russia and of the Caucasus frontier,and have stated that the coming of Turkey into this gigantic conflict onthe side of Germany and Austria--the Central Powers--had a distinct anddirect effect on the fighting in Europe, seeing that the Turks were ableto dispose of some excellent troops, and were able to dispatch thempromptly to the Caucasus area, where, fearing the invasion of southernRussia, the Tsar was forced to march and post an adequate army--an armywhich, but for the Turks, might have been merely a frontier guard,allowing of the bulk of the troops being dispatched to Poland, there tomeet Germany and Austria. Thus the entry of Turkey into the war affectedGreat Britain and her allies, but yet cannot be said to have called foran expedition on our part to the eastern end of the Turkish Empire.Distances are huge in the country governed in name by the Sultan ofTurkey, and in actual fact by the Young Turk party, who, let us explain,are themselves swayed, if not actually governed, by the emissaries ofthe Kaiser in Constantinople. From Constantinople itself to Bagdad, orto the Caucasus front, is roughly a thousand miles, and from Bagdad tothe head of the Gulf of Persia is perhaps some five or six hundred more.But, as we have shown, a blow dealt at a distance may, in the war whichis now raging, affect the course of that war at some far-off point--asthe amassing of Turkish troops on the Caucasian frontier had alreadyundoubtedly affected the fortunes of the Russians in Poland. Thus ourExpeditionary Force sent to the valley of the Euphrates and of theTigris might very well, though that point is at such a great distancefrom the Russo-Turkish frontier, affect the fortunes of the Turkishtroops fighting the Russians in the Caucasian Mountains; for undoubtedlythe enemy would need to send troops against us. But, and this is amatter of considerable importance, the valley of the Euphrates isnotoriously unhealthy and is an extremely difficult country tonegotiate. Practically roadless, and without a railway, it is not acountry easy of invasion, and at the best no rapid advance was to beexpected. Thus the force which Britain could afford to send to thissomewhat out-of-the-way part of the world, though it might affect theTurks to some degree, could not be expected to make a very seriousdifference to them. It would seem, therefore, that there was anotherreason, and a better one, for our sending troops to Mesopotamia.
Indeed, a consideration of facts well known to the British Governmentmakes it clear that fear for the safety of India had something to dowith the matter. It was known, and had been known for a long time, thatGerman emissaries had been exceedingly busy, not only in Turkey in Asiabut also in Persia. Persia itself is inhabited by a decadent nation,unable to keep order, disturbed by bands of outlaws. The country lies,as a glance at the map shows, squeezed in between Russia, Afghanistan,and Turkey; and passage through it, though difficult, gives access toour possessions in India. There are not wanting signs that Germanywould, if she could master her Turkish friends, quickly accomplish thesubjection of Persia, and from thence make her blow against India. Forrecollect, though the seas give a clear passage to our Indian Dominions,there is a British fleet to be reckoned with, and the first day of thewar saw that fleet paramount, sweeping the seas, making the invasion ofour Eastern possessions on the part of Germany hopeless by the searoute. Thus, Germany had need to look for another way, and for long herthoughts had been at work, scheming and conspiring to obtain theassistance of Turks and Persians.
No doubt it was for this reason, amongst others, that an ExpeditionaryForce left India for Mesopotamia; for, with Russian troops able toinvade Turkey from the north, and to keep a watchful eye on Persia, andwith British troops advancing up the Tigris River to the very boundariesof that country, there was every prospect of being able to counter themoves of the Kaiser's agents, and to ruin their fortunes. Actualopposition from the subjects of the Shah of Persia was hardly to beexpected or feared, for, if anything, the ruling powers in Persia werelikely to be friendly; and then again the condition of the country hasnow for some considerable while been in a chaotic state, almost devoidof a standing army, and so feebly governed that anarchy and outlawry hadat one period been rampant. Indeed, the unsettled condition of Persia,its contiguity to Russia, and the danger of outlaws invading thatcountry, had led, some while before the outbreak of this huge war, to apenetration of the Shah's dominions by the soldiers of the Tsar, whichhad at once created international jealousies. No doubt Germany, schemingat that time, as she undoubtedly was, to obtain a hold over the Shah ofPersia and over the country, was furiously jealous of the coming of theRussians, and as furiously antagonistic to British influence in southernPersia. It may be said that the three nations, and others who may havebeen interested, watched the position in Persia with no littlemisgiving; and, seeing that outlawry was rife, and that some means mustbe obtained for bringing peace to the inhabitants, an amicable agreementwas arrived at, after a while, which resulted in a system ofpolicing--the officers of the force employed being brought from Sweden.
Thus, at the moment when Russia was facing the Turkish armies along theCaucasus frontier, and when the British Expeditionary Force was marchingup the Shatt-el-Arab towards Kurna, Persia, seemingly quiescent andunder the nominal governorship of its Shah, was controlled in someconsiderable measure
by a police force commanded by Swedish officers,and no doubt the integrity of those officers was not all that it shouldbe. That an attempt would be made to tamper with them, to suborn theirallegiance to the Shah, to bribe them from the carrying out of theirduties, was nearly certain. Germans were already in the country--thosepeaceful penetrators sent by the ambitious Kaiser--and might be trustedto make the utmost of the opportunity. For see what an opportunity laybefore them! Here was a police force controlled by officers of a nationwhich was not a party to the war now raging, officers whose goodwillmight perhaps be obtained by the offer of the Kaiser's money. There wasa police force there, too, ready organized, and practically no armyraised from the people of Persia to oppose it. Even had the Shah anyconsiderable number of soldiers to boast of, there were yet in thecountry scores of outlaws who could be bought with the same gold whichpurchased the allegiance of those Swedish officers. The moment wasalmost ripe to strike a blow for the country, to seize it while Russiaand France and Britain were busy elsewhere, and to lay the foundation inPersia for the march through Constantinople of Turks and Germans, andfor the campaign destined to strike a blow at India.
Such a state of affairs would, if allowed to proceed unchecked, presenta danger of no small degree to Great Britain and her Indiandependencies. The condition of Persia in fact, the known activity ofGerman agents there, and probably the doubtful position of the Swedishpolice were factors in the decision to send a force to Mesopotamia. Weshall see later how Russia, furiously engaged as she was in Poland andGalicia, and heavily attacked in the Caucasus, still found troops tomarch into northern Persia; and how, when the conspiracies hatched byGerman agents came to a head, and the police force we have alreadymentioned seized certain of the Persian towns and some British subjects,those Russian troops intervened in the most summary and drastic manner.
If one seeks for other reasons for the dispatch of a British force tothe notoriously unhealthy valley of the Tigris, one may suggest that, inaddition to combating German influence in Turkey, it was equallyimportant to attempt to overthrow the hold which the Kaiser and hisemissaries had obtained over the Young Turk Party, and through them ofthe Turkish nation. We may go further, seeing that the course of eventsproved this latter to be the case, and add that the progress of the war,and the peculiar geographical situation attached to our Russian ally,made it of paramount importance that Great Britain should engage theTurks and endeavour to break their opposition. For Russia, with itsteeming millions of men, is yet not a manufacturing country, and warfarenowadays has become more or less a matter of mechanics. To raise anarmy, where men alone are required, is not a difficult matter where menare to be found in abundance; but, in these modern days, when arms ofprecision are of paramount importance in the waging of war, and when, asin the case of Russia, a country is unable herself to provide herthousands of soldiers with those weapons, it behoves her allies to sendthem to her. It is here that the peculiar geographical situation of theTsar's dominions provided another serious difficulty. SouthernRussia--the ports of the Crimea--is easily get-at-able at all seasons byway of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea; but close theDardanelles--as the Turks had now done--and Russia is only approachableby way of the White Sea, or through her possessions in Asia--for theclosing of the Baltic Sea may be taken as effected the moment war wasdeclared between Germany and Russia. The result of such a closure can beeasily realized if one looks at the map; for in the winter months at theopening of the campaign Russia was entirely cut off from her Europeanallies, and could only be reached from the direction of Asia; while inthe open months of the year Archangel could not be described as a porteither convenient in position or of vast dimensions. Thus we arrive atanother reason for attacking Turkey.
The opening of the Dardanelles, the capture of Constantinople, and thedomination of the Black Sea were of vital importance to Russia, and ofjust as vital importance to Britain, seeing that Russia was our ally. Weknow, too, that, as the months rolled on, and failure to burst a roadthrough the narrow Dardanelles by means of our battle fleet becamecertain, an expedition was organized to seize the Isthmus of Gallipoli,to dominate the land forts, and so clear the road to the Sea of Marmoraand Russia--an expedition which, in the course of the few months itfought on the isthmus, put up a glorious record for Great Britain andher colonies, and which, if it were unfortunately wanting in success, atleast proved to the world at large that the youths of our nation are notwanting in prowess.
No doubt one might suggest even further reasons for the sending of anexpedition to the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, but, as we havesaid already, the question is a large one, and hardly fitted for ourdiscussion. We turn, therefore, once more, to Geoff and Philip, the twoyoung subalterns who had already seen much adventure on the Euphrates.
"Hi! Stop! I want to talk to you," Philip sang out, as Geoff wentswinging by on Sultan when the troops had covered a few miles fromBasra. "What's up?"
It took Geoff quite a few minutes to pacify his fiery steed, and toquiet him down sufficiently to allow of an answer to his chum'squestion. For, if Geoff himself were full of energy and enthusiasm,Sultan was overflowing with spirits, the sort of spirits which causedhim to rear up time and again, which sent him bounding and curvettingfrom side to side till the sweat dropped from his narrow shoulders;while often he would have been off at a mad gallop, perhaps rightthrough the marching division, had it not been for the strongrestraining hand which held him. In short, and in fact, Sultan had takenmost kindly to the valley of the Tigris, and if his master was pleasedat being one of the expedition, Sultan, had he been able to give anopinion, would have voted Mesopotamia the place above all others forhimself and his master.
"What's up! Oh, well!" began Geoff, patting the neck of his charger.
"Well you needn't say it like that," Philip answered hotly. "I'm notasking for any secrets, and, besides, it would be swank on your part totry to make out that you possessed 'em. Anyone can see that something'sgoing to happen."
"And that 'something' is a good brush with the enemy," Geoff told him."We've had information that the Turks have come down the river andpropose to attack us, and I hear that they are within only a shortdistance. What will it be like with shells bursting?"
Neither of the two had, so far, been actually under shell-fire, thoughthey had watched the British ships shelling the Turkish forts at themouth of the Shatt-el-Arab before the landing of the expedition. But theday was not to be very much older before both of them were considerablywiser, and, may we say, considerably startled. It was, indeed, but acouple of hours later that the deep note of a gun reached their ears,followed by two others, and then by the shriek of shells coming towardsthem. There followed a commotion within a hundred feet of the pointwhere the two young officers were standing, a commotion which sentSultan rearing into the air till he nearly tore away the reins whichGeoff, now dismounted, had swung over his shoulder. And then a column ofsand and dust was blown high, while bits of metal and gravel swept likelocusts round the heads of the soldiers. Philip turned his back, andcoughed, and rubbed his eyes to get rid of the grit, while Geoff foughtfor his breath for quite a few moments.
"Like it?" asked Philip, with a mischievous grin, proceeding to mop hisface with a handkerchief which had once been white, but which was now abeautiful desert colour. "There they go again; heavy metal, eh?"
"Four-inch, I should say," Geoff answered; "bigger perhaps. You'd bettermake sure of it, Philip. Why not catch one of the shells and let me knowthe measurements when you've finished--that is to say, if there'sanything of you left after the skirmish? But there go our guns, and itsounds as though the advance-guard had already got into action. Ta-ta,old boy! I must get off, for I was returning to Head-quarters afterdelivering a message."
As he swung himself across the back of the restive Sultan, and gallopedtowards Head-quarters, he heard the guns aboard the sloops which wereaccompanying the force up the Shatt-el-Arab open on the enemy. Bang!Bang! Bang! Quite sharp, sailor-like reports; while, in the fardistance, thro
ugh his glasses, he observed splotches of sand and dustspringing up between himself and the flat horizon.
"Take this 'chit' along to your old Commanding Officer," he was orderedthe moment he reached Head-quarters. "Be good enough to ask him to acton the order immediately. You know the position of the regiment, andtherefore need not delay to ask questions."
Geoff saluted briskly, and tucked the note between his belt and hisbody; then, swinging Sultan round, he set him off at a pace which sentsand and gravel flying out behind them, and sent him across a wide openspace--already passed by the troops--to that point where he knew theMahrattas were marching. By now, the division had stretched itself outon the left bank of the river, its right flank protected by the water,and supported by the guns and rifles aboard the British sloops alreadymentioned. To the left it had deployed till the ranks were opened outconsiderably, while behind those ranks, now stationary, were thehundred-and-one followers always attached to an Indian army--bearers ofammunition for guns and rifles, water-carriers, stretcher-bearers, andother useful, if not ornamental, individuals. Here and there tall brownfigures lay inertly on the smooth expanse of desert, while alreadystretcher-bearers were crossing the open space, bearing human bundlesenclosed in stained khaki clothing towards the dressing-station openedfor the reception and treatment of the wounded.
It was a battle-scene in fact, the view one obtains behind the fightingfront of an army--a view, up to this day, foreign to Geoff's eyes, savefor what he had seen in the course of peace manoeuvres. But this wasthe real thing. For from the British front, and on beyond it, there camethe rattle of rifles, punctuated every now and again by the sharprat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat of machine-guns, and drowned every fewseconds by the deeper, hoarser, more venomous bellow of cannon. A shellplumped into the ground almost under Sultan, though the leap that animalgave carried him clear before the resulting explosion. As it was, he andhis master were stung by the gravel flung out by the explosive, while asplinter of shell, singing past Geoff's leg, crossed the open space andfound a billet in the body of a stretcher-bearer carrying one of thewounded. Crash! Down the man went, and with him his burden, and for amoment or so Geoff watched as a comrade bent over him and examined thewound he had suffered. He saw the tall native lay his brother soldierout straight and stark on the desert, and then, helped by another, seizethe stretcher and march on towards the rear of the army. It was just anincident. Those men carrying their stretcher, and assisting theirdamaged brothers, were doing their duty just as well as, just asunflinchingly as, and in circumstances of equal danger with those armedwith rifles in the forefront of the battle.
And what a sight it was when Geoff reached the Mahrattas, and came uponthe officer he sought, occupying a shallow trench scooped in the sandbehind his battalion.
"A message, sir," he said, pulling the note out from his belt andpresenting it, and then watching the officer as he opened it and readthe contents.
Then he swung his eyes over the backs of the men of the Mahrattas, whowere now lying flat on the ground, digging their way into the softgravel, seeking shelter from the Turkish enemy. Across the plainstretching before him, perhaps six hundred yards distant, were deeplydug trenches, parapeted, and manned by soldiers of the Sultan, and nodoubt commanded in many cases by German officers. Farther back, andalmost out of view, and dug in just as deeply and as securely as werethe infantry, were guns--invisible almost, yet showing their positionsevery now and again by the dull-red flash which shot up above them.Geoff watched an instant, and listened to the rattle of musketry fromthe men stretching along the British line who were not engaged indigging but in holding down the fire of the enemy--watched those sharperred flashes in the distance, listened to the roar of British batteries,and saw a sudden blinding flash above one of those dug-in Turkish guns,and heard the splitting, thunderous report of a British shell as it gothome on an enemy cannon; and then, though he watched for some fewminutes, no sharp red point of light appeared above the spot, noanswering report came from the gun dug into its hollow, for no doubt theBritish shell had put gun and crew out of action. As for bullets, theyswept through the air like bees, humming and droning, splashing the sandand gravel here and there, throwing dust and stones over the soldierslying full length and eagerly digging for shelter. They screamed andhissed past Sultan and past our hero, and between him and the officer towhom he had brought a message. They fascinated Geoff, and certainly didnot frighten him in the slightest. So interested was he, in fact, withhis view of the Turks--an excellent view considering he was mounted--andso taken up was he with watching those Turkish batteries and looking forthe result of British shells amongst them, that he did not heed thevoice of the officer he had accosted.
Then a shout attracted his attention.
"That will do," he heard sharply; "you are bringing fire on us with thatwhite mount of yours, and it would be a pity to see him damaged. Get offback out of rifle-fire, or I shall have you on my hands wounded."
Phit! Phit! A couple of bullets whizzed past Sultan's nose at thatprecise instant, and in a moment he was dancing on his hind legs,thrashing the air with those handsome fore legs of his, shaking hishead, and neighing, while foam flecked his lips and soiled his beautifularched neck.
"D'you hear? Confound you, young Keith!" shouted the officer. "You'llget me shot next. Clear off, for you're drawing fire from the whole ofthe enemy front upon us."
Crouching in his little hollow, the officer watched as the punctiliousGeoff pulled Sultan to his feet again with a steady hand, and, sittingvery upright--bolt upright--in fact, the position adapted for formalparades, saluted his senior.
"Hang it," he shouted; "go off!" and then smiled--an indulgent smile--asSultan broke into a furious gallop and went off at mad speed across theopen. "Fine boy! Nice boy!" that officer said as he glanced backwardfrom his "funk hole". "Knew his father--and that's the sort of thing hewould have done; and how proud he would have been of the boy if onlyhe'd lived to see him."
Plunk! A bullet struck the lip of the parapet which one of his men hadhurriedly thrown up before the officer, and sent a shower of sand andgravel all over him. Indeed, it drew his attention once more to thebattle now proceeding and to the position of his own men. With glassesfixed to his eyes, and himself kneeling in his little shelter, theofficer scanned the Turkish lines with the eye of an expert and acritic. Undoubtedly the enemy had taken up a strong position, and,moreover, were in strong force and were well supported by guns of largecalibre. There was, in fact, no question of the British ExpeditionaryForce coming in contact with an enemy indifferently organized, badlyarmed, and meagrely supplied. No! Those Turkish troops sent to meet theBritish, and those others then fighting in the Caucasus Mountains, werethe product of German energy and German money. They were part of thatvast organization built up during some forty years past, which aimed atmaking the Kaiser the Emperor of the World, and not merely of humbleEurope. If there had been any doubt about the question of the arming ofthis force which barred the progress of our soldiers, the shells flungat the latter were sufficient indication, while the rattle of rifles andthe sharper staccato tack-tack of machine-guns proved the case withoutroom for doubt or argument. Looking at those positions, those preparedtrenches of the enemy, and guessing at their number of troops, which wasconsiderable, it seemed almost hopeless for the Expeditionary Force toexpect to be able to advance farther. And yet, as the dusk of eveningcame on, and the fighting died down, there was no sign of a Britishretirement.
"We're going to hang on to our trenches all night," Geoff told hisfriend Philip when he hunted him out, after snatching a meal atHead-quarters. "You mark my words! To-morrow will see something that'llstartle the Turks and send 'em flying."
On the Road to Bagdad: A Story of Townshend's Gallant Advance on the Tigris Page 11