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'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME IV.' [168v] (341/540)
The record is made up of 1 volume (266 folios). It was created in 1927. 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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280 HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
moving fast towards the Humr bridge ; and large numbers of
troops crossing this bridge.
At 1.50 p.m. General Cobbe heard from the 18th Division
that the 53rd Infantry Brigade had started to cross the Little
Zab at a ford about two miles from the Tigris. This report,
taken in conjunction with the air report of the movement of
the two cavalry brigades, led him at 2.10 p.m. to send off an
order by aeroplane to General Cassels, saying that, as the
enemy had apparently been driven across the river off the
Tigris left bank, he was to push on at once with the 11th Cavalry
Brigade, if he could feed himself, to ford the Tigris above
Sharqat. ^
Receiving a message at 3 p.m. that the whole of the 53rd
Infantry Brigade had crossed the Little Zab, General Cobbe
issued orders for the construction of a pontoon bridge there
and the improvement of the approaches to it so as to facilitate
the passage of a Ford van convoy to supply the 11th Cavalry
Brigade. He also sent orders to the 17th Division to press
its attack vigorously and to the 18th Division to support the
17th by pushing on to the Humr bend. Actually the 53rd
Infantry Brigade was still crossing the Little Zab and the whole
did not get over till dusk.* But the 341st Field Battery moved
forward to close range and came into action near the Little
Zab-Tigris junction. Here it came under such accurate and
steady shell fire from the hostile guns that eventually only two
of its guns and wagons were brought out of action.
At 4.30 p.m. General Cobbe heard from the 18th Division
that both cavalry brigades were retiring to the Little Zab and
he sent another order (issued by wireless at 4.55 p.m.) to
General Cassels to push on to Sharqat at once, cross the Tigris
north of that place and cut the enemy’s line of retreat. At
the same time he asked General Fanshawef if he could detail
a column to leave next morning and push up the Tigris left
bank to prevent the enemy from crossing and to support the
11th Cavalry Brigade.
At 6.45 p.m., half an hour after receiving an air report that
the enemy had started to break up the bridge at Humr, General
Gobbe issued his orders for further operations. The enemy,
the order said, having been driven across to the Tigris right
* The records do not give the actual message, so that it is not clear how the
mistake occurred.
t In the message to General Fanshawe it was stated that the enemy was
blowing up his guns. General Fanshawe, however, felt sure that what had
been reported to General Cobbe as the enemy’s guns being blown up was in
reality the guns of our 341st Battery being destroyed by hostile fire.
About this item
- Content
The volume is the fourth 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 V. The Campaign in Upper Mesopotamia, 1917-1918 - North-West Persia and the Caspian, 1918', and consists of the following ten chapters:
- May, June and July 1917
- August and September 1917: The Capture of Ramadi
- October to December 1917 - Occupation of the Jabal Hamrin, Action of Tikrit and Death of General Maude
- January to March 1918: Dunsterville's Mission and the Action of Khan Baghdadi
- April and May 1918: Operations in Kurdistan and Arrangements to Counter the Turco-German Threat beyond our Northern Flank
- British Plans to Stop the Enemy's Advance into Persia and to Obtain Control of the Caspian
- The Fall of Baku
- British Advance up the Tigris: Actions of Fat-Ha Gorge and on the Little Zab
- The Battle of Sharqat and the Armistice
- Conclusion
The volume also includes fourteen maps, entitled:
- The Middle East
- Mesopotamia
- Map 34 - Operations near Ramadi: July and September 1917
- Map 35 - Operations in the Jabal Hamrin: October and December 1917
- Map 36 - Actions at Daur and Tikrit: 2nd and 5th November 1917
- Map 37 - Operations on the Euphrates line: March 1918
- Map 38 - Action of Khan Baghdadi: 26th March 1918
- Map 39 - Operations in the Kifri-Kirkuk area: April and May 1918
- Map 40 - The Cavalry affair of the 27th April 1918, and the action of Tuz Khurmatli, 29th April 1918
- Map 41 - Operations of "Dunsterforce", 1918
- Map 42 - Operations at Baku, August-September 1918
- Map 43 - Operations on the Tigris: 18th-30th October 1918
- Map 44 - Action by 7th Cavalry Brigade near Hadraniya: 29th October 1918
- Map 45 - Battle of Sharqat, 29th October 1918
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (266 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume contains a preface (folios 5-6), a chronological summary of the campaign in Mesopotamia (folios 7-8), a list of contents (folios 8-11), a list of maps and illustrations (folios 11-12), appendices (folios 197-232), an index (folios 233-254), and twelve maps in a pocket attached to the inside back cover (folios 256-267).
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 268; 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 file 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 IV.' [168v] (341/540), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/4, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100049244985.0x00008e> [accessed 31 March 2025]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/4
- Title
- 'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME IV.'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:2v, 4r:186v, 188r:255v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence