"دراسة نقدية عن الحملة في ميسوبوتاميا حتى أبريل ١٩١٧: الجزء I - تقرير" [و‎‎٥‎٥] (٤٢٤/١١٤)

89
adopted for the troops, but that requirements for the carriage of tents
should also be submitted.
The corps would probably be organized as one division with corps
ftroop^, but this organisation was not in fact followed in the first instance.
The former, the 7th Division, under General Younghusband, would com
prise the 19th, 21st and 28th Infantry Brigades, the 16th Cavalry (less
(One squadron), the 107th Pioneers, the 3rd or 4th Company of Sappers
.and Miners, the 9th Field Artillery Brigade of eighteen 18-pounders s the
«61st Field Howitzer Battery of six 4*5 inch howitzers, and other units.
The Corps Tropj^ were to consist of the 35th and 9th Infantry Brigades,
.one squadroja (Oi the 16th Cavalry, the 1-lst Sussex Territorial Field
Battery of iour Impounders, two sections of the 23rd Mountain Battery,
the 72nd and 77th Heavy Howitzer Batteries, each of four 5-inch howit
zers, one -section of the 104th Heavy Battery of 4-inch guns, two pro
visional battalions composed of drafts for the units in Kut-al-Amara,
;the 13th Company of Sappers and Miners, a squadron of the Flying
vCorps and Signal and Administrative formations. The 6th Cavalry
.Brigade would include the 14th King's Hussars, the 4th Cavalry, the
.7th Lancers, the 33rd Cavalry (one or more squadrons had been detached
irom the 7th and 33rd), two sections of S. Battery Horse Artillery and
Signal and Administrative units. Subsequently General Younghusband
was informed that units as they reached Ali-Gharbi were to be so en-
scamped as to facilitate an advance by the 7th Division and Cavalry
Brigade up the right bank of the Tigris, and by the remainder up the
ieft bank of the river.
Owing to the prevalence of strong winds at Christmas time it had not
.been practicable until the 27th December to make a reconnaissance with
.either of the two British aeroplanes that were then available. On this
♦ date it was ascertained that there were 100 tents at Shaikh Saad (a tent
.might accommodate twenty-five men), that the camps near Kut-al-
Amara were somewhat larger than had been the case before, and that a
bridge of boats, with ramped approaches was in position at the southern
iportion of the Shumran bend ; it was moved subsequently to the
western portion. On the next day Townshend reported that the Turks
were busily entrenching on the right bank of the Tigris to the west of
Kut-al-Amara, and that at least a division (that is from 3,000 to 6,000
men) with a considerable quantity of transport had marched past the
town and was bivouacking on the left bank three miles to the north-east
* of the fort.
General Aylmer now sent an enquiry to General Townshend as to
4}he number of troops that would be available, out of his garrison to co-
.operate with the Tigris Corps on the 10th January. Townshend had
already forwarded a message that, on the 27th December, the effective
.strength of the garrison in combatants was 6,764 infantry, 1,051 artillery,
(x %