by N S Nash
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
List of Illustrations and Photographs
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Hardinge at Bay
Chapter 2: Mesopotamia and its Oil
Chapter 3: Invasion and the Capture of Basra
Chapter 4: The Capture of Kurnah
Chapter 5: Chitrál Charlie, his Regatta and the Capture of Amara
Chapter 6: The Capture of Kut
Chapter 7: What Next?
Chapter 8: Advance to Ctesiphon
Chapter 9: The Pyrrhic Victory at Ctesiphon
Chapter 10: The Retreat to Kut
Chapter 11: The Siege: Early Days, December 1915
Chapter 12: January 1916: The Battles of Sheikh Saad and the Wadi River
Chapter 13: February–March 1916: The Battle of the Dujaila Redoubt
Chapter 14: April 1916: The Battle of Sannaiyat and Capitulation
Chapter 15: Aftermath
Chapter 16: The Inquiry
Chapter 17: The Debate
Chapter 18: Responsibility – the Reckoning
Appendix A: Whatever Happened to Old …?
Appendix B: Witnesses Who Appeared Before the Mesopotamia Commission
Appendix C: An Analysis of Kipling’s Mesopotamia
Bibliography
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
List of Illustrations and Photographs
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Hardinge at Bay
Chapter 2: Mesopotamia and its Oil
Chapter 3: Invasion and the Capture of Basra
Chapter 4: The Capture of Kurnah
Chapter 5: Chitrál Charlie, his Regatta and the Capture of Amara
Chapter 6: The Capture of Kut
Chapter 7: What Next?
Chapter 8: Advance to Ctesiphon
Chapter 9: The Pyrrhic Victory at Ctesiphon
Chapter 10: The Retreat to Kut
Chapter 11: The Siege: Early Days, December 1915
Chapter 12: January 1916: The Battles of Sheikh Saad and the Wadi River
Chapter 13: February–March 1916: The Battle of the Dujaila Redoubt
Chapter 14: April 1916: The Battle of Sannaiyat and Capitulation
Chapter 15: Aftermath
Chapter 16: The Inquiry
Chapter 17: The Debate
Chapter 18: Responsibility – the Reckoning
Appendix A: Whatever Happened to Old …?
Appendix B: Witnesses Who Appeared Before the Mesopotamia Commission
Appendix C: An Analysis of Kipling’s Mesopotamia
Bibliography
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By the same author
The Colonel’s Table
Reveille & Retribution
Spit & Polish
Friend & Foe
On Laffan’s Plain
‘K’ Boat Catastrophe
Chitrál Charlie
Valour in the Trenches
Strafer – Desert General
Where Tom Long Roamed
First published in Great Britain by
PEN AND SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS
Copyright © N.S. Nash, 2016
ISBN: 978 1 47384 376 9
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47384 379 0
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47384 377 6
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47384 378 3
The right of N.S. Nash to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Contents
List of Illustrations and Photographs
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1
Hardinge at Bay
Chapter 2
Mesopotamia and its Oil
Chapter 3
Invasion and the Capture of Basra
Chapter 4
The Capture of Kurnah
Chapter 5
Chitrál Charlie, his Regatta and the Capture of Amara
Chapter 6
The Capture of Kut
Chapter 7
What Next?
Chapter 8
Advance to Ctesiphon
Chapter 9
The Pyrrhic Victory at Ctesiphon
Chapter 10
The Retreat to Kut
Chapter 11
The Siege: Early Days, December 1915
Chapter 12
January 1916: The Battles of Sheikh Saad and the Wadi River
Chapter 13
February–March 1916: The Battle of the Dujaila Redoubt
Chapter 14
April 1916: The Battle of Sannaiyat and Capitulation
Chapter 15
Aftermath
Chapter 16
The Inquiry
Chapter 17
The Debate
Chapter 18
Responsibility – the Reckoning
Appendix A
Whatever Happened to Old …?
Appendix B
Witnesses Who Appeared Before the Mesopotamia Commission
Appendix C
An Analysis of Kipling’s Mesopotamia
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
1. Lord Hardinge of Penshurst.
2. Bravo Belgium, from Mr Punch’s History of the Great War.
3. Map of the early area of operations.
4. General Sir Beauchamp Duff GCB GCSI KCVO CIE KSt.J.
5. Lieutenant General (later Field Marshal) Sir Arthur Barrett KCB KCVO.
6. The setting for the opening shots in the Mesopotamia Campaign, November 1914.
7. HMS Odin.
8. Honorary Major General Sir Percy Cox GCMG GCIE KCSI KBE.
9. Captain Nunn (right) and Army officers examine a Turkish gun.
10. The confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates.
11. The Battle of Shaiba.
12. Mountain guns at Shaiba, April 1915.
13. Major G.G. Wheeler VC.
14. Major General Sir Charles Mellis VC KCB.
15. Major General C.V.F. Townshend CB DSO.
16. Lieutenant General Sir John Nixon KCB.
17. Major General William Babtie VC.
18. HMS Espiègle.
19. The site of Townshend’s Regatta, 30–31 May 1915.
20. The recently promoted Captain Wilfred Nunn DSO RN.
21. The Turkish ship Marmarice, after the pursuit on 15 April 1915.
22. Major General G.F. Gorringe DSO.
23. Pack animals being moved upstream.
24. Austen Chamberlain, Secretary of State for India.
25. Nureddin Pasha.
26. The Battle of Kut.
27. Brigadier General Fry and staff officers.
28. Brigadier General W.S. Delamain DSO.
29. The Bayonet – Cartoon from Mr Punch’s History of the Great War.
30. Lieutenant Commander E.C. Cookson VC DSO RN.
31. Wounded Indian soldiers.
32. Major General George Vere Kemball DSO.
33. Enva Pasha with unknown German officer.
34. General Sir George de Symons Barrow GCB KCMG.
35. The line of advance of the 6th Division.
36. Khalil Pasha.
37. Field Marshal von der Goltz.
38. Colonel Sir Mark Sykes Bt MP.
39. The Battle of Ctesiphon (1).
40. Lance Corporal John Boggis, R. Norfolk Regt.
41. The Great Arch of Ctesiphon.
42. The Battle of Ctesiphon (2).
43. The unloved AT cart.
44. The river steamer Medjidieh.
45. The route of Townshend’s retreat to Kut.
46. HMS Firefly.
47. The stern-wheeler HMS Shushan.
48. Captain E.O Mousley RFA.
49. The 6th Division’s stronghold on Kut.
50. The fort at Kut.
51. The relief of Kut.
52. The Battle of Sheikh Saad.
53. The Battle of the River Wadi.
54. Sepoy Chatta Singh VC.
55. The attack on the Hanna Defile.
56. Lieutenant General Sir Percy Lake KCB KCMG.
57. Pack animals and soldiers struggle in the mud.
58. The GOC and staff officers of the besieged 6th Indian Division.
59. An illustration of how barges were used to increase the capacity of river steamers.
60. The Battle of the Dujaila Redoubt.
61. British graves.
62. The last photograph of HMS Julnar.
63. Lieutenant Commander C.H. Cowley VC RNVR.
64. Lieutenant H.O.B. Firman VC RN.
65. One of Townshend’s last messages.
66. One of the Indian soldiers of the 6th Division.
67. Lord George Hamilton, the Chairman of the Mesopotamia Commission.
68. General Sir Neville Lyttelton GCB GCVO.
69. Commander Josiah Wedgwood MP.
70. Sir Frederick Smith MP, the Attorney General.
71. Arthur Balfour, Foreign Secretary.
72. Commonwealth War Grave Commission Cemetery in Basra, now Iraq.
73. Prime Minister’s letter to Mrs Townshend.
74. Townshend in captivity with his personal staff.
75. Rudyard Kipling.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Lieutenant Colonel W.W.T. Gowans who reviewed the text, suggested corrections, posed me some interesting questions and considered, in particular, my judgments. Similarly, I was fortunate that Professor Peter Liddle, who having read the text, challenged elements of my approach; I enjoyed our debate. Even though they did not necessarily entirely agree with me on all the issues I am enormously grateful to them both. Any errors or omissions are entirely mine.
At Pen and Sword, Brigadier Henry Wilson, my commissioning editor, for the fourth time, eased my path and encouraged my endeavours. Matt Jones was his usual helpful self with all matters technical. My text editor Linne Matthews was not only very skilled and professional but a delight to work with.
Where possible the attribution has been given to photographs and maps but those taken from the Internet do not always identify the original source.
Introduction
In 2009 I was researching the Mesopotamian campaign up to the fall of Kut in April 1916. This was in order to produce my biography of Major General Sir Charles Townshend (Chitrál Charlie, Pen and Sword Books, 2010). Townshend was an individual who played a key role during that period and it was he who was, ultimately, surrendered the remnants of the 6th Indian Division to the Turks. Inevitably, he also makes a lengthy appearance in this book. He was a prisoner of war (albeit a comfortable one) when the Mesopotamia Commission sat and so he could not be interviewed, more is the pity.
Much of the research carried out in 2009 has been germane to this book. Facts remain the facts and, over the last century, nothing has happened to change them, although here they are viewed from a different angle and in a wider context.
The far-reaching and abundant military naivety, at a very senior level, that was revealed in Chitrál Charlie shocked me. The painful impact that gross mal-administration had upon tens of thousands of British and Indian soldiers made a strong impression and I resolved to return to the subject ere long.