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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME II.' [94r] (194/660)
The record is made up of 1 volume (323 folios). It was created in 1924. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
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DEFENCES OF KUT
159
artillery, and was consequently a good site for a depot on the
line of communication ; and when it was decided to organise
there the advanced base depot for the force advancing to
Baghdad, arrangements had been made to raise a defensive
barrier across the northern end of the peninsula. This barrier
consisted of a mud-walled fort at the northern corner of
the peninsula and a line of four blockhouses* connected
with one another and the fort by a barbed wire fence. At
that time it was not the intention that Kut town should be
occupied by the garrison, who were to be posted in the block
houses and the fort. The site for the fort was selected owing
to its position at the river bend, where, apart from other
advantages, the depth of the river was sufficient at all seasons
of the year to allow river craft to moor alongside the bank,
and thus avoid the difficult river channels nearer the town.
In the preceding chapter it has been shown how General
Rimington, commanding at Kut, had found a difficulty in
selecting a suitable defensive position to cover Kut, as he had
been instructed to do on the 30th November by General
Townshend, and had recommended a retirement to Es Sinn ,
and how he learnt on the 2nd December that General
Townshend had decided to hold Kut. Consequently, when
General Townshend’s force arrived at Kut on the 3rd, the
barrier above described constituted the sole defence of the
position.f
In his book, General Townshend gives fully his reasons
for deciding to remain in occupation of Kut. By doing so
he would block the advance of the Sixth Turkish Army—which
was as dependent as the British force was on water trans
port—along the Tigris and the Shatt al Hai, and thus
prevent von der Goltz, whose arrival with a large German
staff to take command of the Sixth Turkish Army had (he
says)! been reported, from assuming the offensive and
driving the small British force out of Mesopotamia. He
would also give General Nixon time in which to concentrate
in security the reinforcements then beginning to reach the
* To hold ten or twelve men each. ,
+ The garrison had been reduced by General Nixon to reopen the line oi
communication with Shaikh Saad and the few available men had been put
on to render the fort better capable of withstanding artillery fire. The three
companies and two guns taken downstream by General Nixon returned to
Kut before it was surrounded. , ^ .
t German writers say that Goltz's Chief of Staff was a Turk, and that any
few German officers he had with him had little to do with the operations
round Kut.
About this item
- Content
The volume is the second volume of an official government publication compiled at the request of the Government of India, and under the direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence, by Brigadier-General Frederick James Moberly. The volume was printed and published at His Majesty's Stationery Office, London.
The contents provide a narrative of the operations of 1914-1918 in Mesopotamia, based mainly on official documents.
The volume is in one part, entitled, 'Part III. The First Campaign for Baghdad', and consists of the following fourteen chapters:
- The Decision to Advance to Baghdad
- Commencement of the Advance Towards Baghdad
- The Battle of Ctesiphon - the First Day's Operations
- Battle of Ctesiphon (Continued) and the British Retirement to Kut
- The Decision to Hold Kut and British Policy Consequent on the Failure to Reach Baghdad
- The Siege of Kut: First Phase (December 1915)
- Commencement of the Relief Operations
- The Action of Shaikh Saad
- The Action of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. and the First Attack on Hanna
- Operations up to the End of February, 1916
- The Second Attempt to Relieve Kut; the Attack on the Dujaila Redoubt
- The Third Attempt to Relieve Kut; the Successful Advance to and First and Second Attacks on Sannaiyat
- The Last Attempt at Relief; Bait Isa and Sannaiyat
- The Siege of Kut; the Last Stages
The volume also includes nine maps, entitled:
- The Middle East
- Lower Mesopotamia
- Map 8 - The Tigris from Kut al Amara to Baghdad
- Map 9 - The Battle of Ctesiphon
- Map 10 - The affair of Umm at Tubul
- Map 11 - The defence of Kut al Amara
- Map 12 - The fort at Kut; with special reference to the Turkish attack on 24th December 1915
- Map 13 - River Tigris between Ali Gharbi and Shumran
- Map 14 - The action at Shaikh Saad
- Map 15 - The action of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
- Map 16 - The first attack on Hanna; 21st January 1916
- Map 17 - The attack on the Dujaila Redoubt, 8th March 1916
- Map 18 - To illustrate Tigris Corps Operation Order No. 26, dated 6th March 1916
- Map 19 - To illustrate operations between 10th March and end of April 1916
- Map 20 - The action of Bait Isa on 17th and 18th April 1916, and the attack on Sannaiyat 22nd April 1916
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (323 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume contains a list of contents (folios 6-10), a list of maps and illustrations (folio 11), appendices (folios 254-290), an index (folios 291-312), and eleven maps in a pocket attached to the inside back cover (folios 314-324).
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 325; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME II.' [94r] (194/660), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100045738548.0x0000c3> [accessed 10 February 2025]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/2
- Title
- 'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME II.'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:3r, 3r, 4r:70v, 72r:79r, 160v, 80r:102v, 104r:160r, 161r, 313v, 161v:281v, 283r:313v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence