Page 22 - Sylvia Malt - Side by Side

Turkey’s entry into the war in October 1914 immediately prompted Britain to open a new
military front in the remote Ottoman province of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). British
and Indian troops were immediately sent to the area in early November to protect British oil
interests and made rapid progress inland against weak Turkish resistance. Despite the
unforgiving climate, British forces continued to march steadily up the River Tigris in 1915
and by 28th September, under the leadership of General Charles Townshend, they had
taken the town of Kut-al-Amara, just 120 miles south of Mesopotamia’s major city,
Baghdad.

The tide turned quickly at the Battle of Ctesiphon (22nd-26th November 1915) which was
thought by the military would be a trouble-free prelude to the final march on Baghdad.
Unfortunately, it was yet another a disastrous affair, in which Turkish troops withstood
heavy casualties to defeat General Townshend’s attacking forces. More than half of the
8,500 British and Indian troops who fought in the battle were either killed or wounded.

The siege at Kut-al-Amara lasted 147 days before the 11,800 British and Indian troops
inside the garrison town finally surrendered on 29th April 1916. The conditions during the
siege were appalling. In bitterly cold weather and with little medical treatment, many of the
soldiers did not survive the winter.

The surrender of Townshend’s army shocked people in Britain and questions were asked
in Parliament who decided to order an enquiry. Gen. Townshend was exonerated, but this
did little to help his beleaguered soldiers. Of the 2,500 British soldiers who had been
captured at Kut, 1,750 died during the march northwards, or in the appalling conditions of
the prisoner-of-war camps in Anatolia.

Marjery Swynnerton, a nurse at the British General Hospital, Basra, Mesopotamia
stated: “Kut, under General Townshend, had fallen in April 1916, and we still had some
who had been through that hell, and had been sent down as totally unfit. However ill they
were, they were the lucky ones. Of the 13,000 odd men made to walk into captivity, 70 per
cent had died or were to die. With no medical attention, hardly any food or water, they had
to struggle through burning hot deserts, terrible mud when it rained, flies, sand,
mosquitoes with dysentery, malaria and sunstroke.” (Henry James Johnson/Richard
Thwaites)

1917 - The 91st Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, was one of the Battalions which took part in
the Passchendael offensive, officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres.
Passchendael became infamous not only for the enormous number of casualties, but also
because of the appalling mud. Rain had fallen constantly for a number of months and the
day-by- day battles had eliminated any semblance of trees or vegetation, reducing the land
to nothing but mile after mile of muddy fields.

On 16th August, the 91st Brigade, Royal Field Artillery was heavily involved as the attack
resumed, to little effect. Eventually, General Haig gave way to a new commander who
devised a more constructive strategy that took into account the awful conditions. General
Plummer recognised that the idea of a decisive breakthrough was impractical, so he
launched a succession of limited offensives that had relatively modest objectives.
(Geoffrey Vesey Holt)

On 20th November 1917 the Army Tanks launched a limited and tactically radical attack at
Cambrai. Constant artillery bombardment managed to cut a temporary rupture of the
German Lines but insufficient mobile reserves failed to exploit the tank's success.
(Norman Booker/John Browning/Edward Payne Thrift)

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