"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. المجلد IV". [و‎‎٨‎٦] (٥٤٠/١٧٦)

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PURSUIT
135
The Light Armoured Motor Brigade passed through Ana
without opposition at 8.30 a.m., on the 28th March. Hearing
of this a quarter of an hour later, General Cassels motored
straight there leaving orders for the Cavalry Brigade and
Hogg’s Group to follow.* By questioning the chief inhabitants,
General Cassels gathered that Colonel Tennant and Major
Hobart had left Ana for Aleppo on camels on the morning
of the 27th, that some Germans and the wireless installation
had left on the evening of the 27th, and that the very few
Turks and Tartar cavalryf in the town had scattered in all
directions on hearing of our approach that morning. General
Cassels then gave orders for the despatch of some armoured
cars along the Aleppo road with the object of rescuing Colonel
Tennant and Major Hobart and of capturing the wireless, the
Germans and the influential Arabs accompanying them.
The 8 th Light Armoured Motor Battery, which was leading,
commanded by Captain Tod, was detailed for this operation.
It had already, about five miles above Ana, captured the
Turkish commandant of Ana and about twenty other officers^ ;
and it now proceeded to advance again, with orders to push on,
if necessary and possible, for one hundred miles to carry out
its task. After going some distance, the battery encountered
a party of about 150 Turks, whom it captured after some
slight resistance; and from one of the captured officers
Captain Tod gathered that Colonel Tennant and Major Hobart
had been hurried forward from there on camels about two
hours previously. Captain Tod at once pushed on again,
succeeded in overtaking the two British officers and, by his
skilful handling of his cars, in rescuing them, at a point about
thirty-two miles west of Ana.§ The battery also captured
the Ana wireless installation ; and, after proceeding about
fifty miles beyond Ana, returned to that town.
At Ana, as at Haditha, large quantities of war material and
large numbers of shakturs were found ; but as only a small
part of these stores could be evacuated in the available
transport, the greater part was ordered to be destroyed.
During the 28th March the Reserve Group reached Haditha.
On the 29th the 13th Light Armoured Motor Battery went * * * §
* They reached Ana between 10 and 11 a.m.
f Mainly deserters from the Russian army.
} In the war diary of the battery this commandant is said, evidently by
mistake, to have been the commander of the 50th Division, who had really
already surrendered at Haditha the previous afternoon.
§ Details of this stirring rescue are given by Colonel Tennant in his book
*' In the Clouds above Baghdad." For his action Captain Tod was awarded
an immediate D.S.O.