'Field notes: Mesopotamia. General Staff, India. February, 1917.' [‎90r] (186/350)

171
ie Turks
it order,
the con-
is lid
alah are
of con-
and by *
unford-
3 banks
1. For
le right
lis, the
k.
on the
covers
am 25
ghdad-
south
canals
fheels.
c and
3 'intry
. (w.
jmEut
no’ ob-
y ramp-
diets to
Jahrwan
/
formid-
;ly to be
I runi8 r -
wses by
Route jN'o. 8— contd.
At Shidhaif—a nullah, the bridge over which was destroyed
by Townshend’s rearguard in the Ctesiphon retirement.
A little upstream of ’Aziziyah—several cuts 12 feet vide*
At Zuwair—a dry canal 15 feet wide and 10 feet deep, lihicii
had to be heavily ramped at the time of the Ctesiphon advance.
Near Ctesiphon—several canals 15 feet wide over which the
road is carried by brick bridges. These cuts are dry except at
high river.
Also the Lajj spill channel—40 yards wide and in places 20
feet deep, with steep banks.
All the above are passable by ramping. And although
details are not actually available conditi-.ns on right bank are
known to be similar—a column of all arms of Nur ed Din’s
force retreated (and made remarkably good time) up the right
bank after the battle of Kut-al-Amarah in September 1915.
7. Supplies.—A limited number of sheep and cattle can be
obtained normally from villages and Arab encampments en route,
also considerable quantities of bhoosa and grain for the last
stage of an advance by right bank, supplies could be reckoned
on at Mahmudiyah (on Karbala road).
Camel grazing is plentiful; for horses there is very little.
Fuel .—Scrub jungle is plentiful.
8 . Water .—If it be a question of turning an inundation in
the flood season in order to avoid a defile the flood water would
be available.
To provide for a movement wide of the river in the low
water season, we have no record of any water existing away
from the Tigris. As regards likely sites for getting water by
digging—the Mardj depression which runs from east of Balad
Ruz to the country north of Kut would furnish likely spots but
is too far afield for our purpose. The trace of the old Nahrwan
canal of course runs along a watershed and is an unlikely line-
best results are likely to be obtained along the natural drainage
line, intermediate between the Nahrwan trace and the Tigris
■(vide Willcock’s Plan No. 2)—this approaches the Tigris at
Shaikh Ja’ad and Nahr Kellak, is about 1| miles wide of it at
’Aziziyah, 3 miles at Zuwair and 6 miles at Ctesiphon. Enquiries