'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎197v] (399/862)

HISTORY
284
plentiful and because its southern flank was protected by the Jabal
Hamrin. With Baghdad as a base drawing local supplies from the
fertile Euphrates region south of the Hindiya barrage, General Maude
was strongly placed to strike at the Turkish advance along each of
these three approaches in turn, for he could transfer troops rapidly
from one wing to the other, while the Turks could not. On the
Tigris above Baghdad the gunboats could only operate for a short
distance, and there could be no naval co-operation on the Euphrates or
Diyala, but there was no longer any shortage of artillery support or
of land transport, and before long railways were built outwards
from Baghdad to help maintain supplies (p. 580).
First Advance to Kirkuk. The winter campaign began with a
successful attack against the Turkish position at Ramadi on the
Euphrates (28 Sept.), where the Turkish force was surrounded and
taken prisoner. Then General Maude struck the Turks at the Diyala
gorge, an operation that brought a counter-move down the Tigris
towards Samarra; this was crushed, the Turks were driven back past
Daur, their starting-point, and after a short battle at Tikrit (5 Nov.)
they were scattered northwards. These operations coincided with
General Allenby’s offensive in southern .Palestine, where Gaza was
captured on 7 November.
General Maude died of cholera on 18 November and was suc
ceeded by General Marshall. The offensive on the Diyala front was
renewed on 3 December and was supported by a small Cossack force
on the British right flank; the Turks were driven back to Kifri, and
no further operations were necessary until March. By then the Turks
were again reinforcing their Iraqi front. At Khan Baghdadi on
26 March almost their whole force on the Euphrates was captured
or destroyed, the remnant being pursued for 70 miles beyond Ana,
where their ammunition dumps and base supplies were destroyed.
A month later the Turkish left flank suffered another defeat, but
the Turks barely awaited the attack; the British entered Kirkuk
unopposed, though they came away from the town later.
Meanwhile the position in west and north-west Persia, where
a Russian force had crossed the frontier and taken Ruwandiz, had
deteriorated as the result of the Russian Revolution, and it was clear
that a British force would have to be sent to the Caspian. The
operations in Iraq opened the road by Khanaqin into Persia and
enabled a force under General Dunsterville to occupy Enzeli on the
Caspian before the autumn.
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