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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME II.' [127r] (262/660)
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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AIR RECONNAISSANCE REPORT
223
distance of some eighteen miles.* The force consisted of the
7th Lancers, two sections of the 23rd Mountain Battery, the
21st Infantry Brigadef and an improvised 9th Infantry Brigade.^
The river flotilla included five steamers and tugs,|| a part of
the bridging train and a mahaila convoy, which was escorted
by the Provisional Battalion, formed of drafts for units in
Kut. A troop 16th Cavalry, half the 67th Punjabis and a
15-pounder post gun of the Volunteer Artillery Battery were
left to garrison the post at Ali Gharbi.
On General Aylmer’s arrival at the eastern end of the
Musandaq reach, he received the report of an aeroplane
reconnaissance carried out that day as far as Es Sinn. Es Sinn
position was empty and the Turks had no bridge below there.
There were no large columns between Es Sinn and Shaikh Saad,
but four bodies of the enemy estimated at a total of 3,000 had
been seen between these places on the left bank of the river
within six or seven miles of Shaikh Saad. The camps and num
bers seen at Shaikh Saad were as had been reported on the
5th ; and the enemy’s position was three miles south-east
of that place. The trenches on the left bank, extending for
about one and a half miles northward from the river with their
left flank turned back, were in four lengths, each with communi
cation trenches leading to a short support trench ; and there
was a short second line trench half a mile in rear.§ Gun pits
for six guns were also observed on this bank. On the right
bank the trenches were in two lines along irrigation cuts
extending for about a mile and a half southward from the river.
On this bank no gun pits had been observed.
This report did not account for the column of 8,000 Turkish
troops seen by General Townshend marching down the left
bank on the 5th, and General Aylmer suspected that it had
turned northward from the Tigris so as to take up a position
whence it could strike at the right flank of his own force.
A warning having been issued previously, General Aylmer
issued orders at midnight on the 6th/7th January for the * * * §
* General Aylmer was convinced of the necessity for the earliest possible
junction with General Younghusband.
f 2/Black Watch, 6th Jats, 9th Bhopal Infantry, and 41st Dogras, under
Brig.-General C. E. Norie.
t l/4th Hampshire (less one company) and 107th Pioneers, under Brig.-
General W. J. St. J. Harvey.
|| General Aylmer’s headquarters were on the Mejidieh, which was equipped
with the main wireless installation.
§ It is difficult to reconcile this report with the trenches reported by the
infantry on the 6th. It seems likely that during the 6th, the night 6th/7th,
and the 7th, the Turks did a great deal of entrenching.
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.' [127r] (262/660), 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_100045738549.0x00003f> [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