"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. مجلد I" [ظ‎‎١‎٧‎٢] (٤٥٤/٣٤٩)

318 HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
The moral of these troops was not considered to be high
and this conclusion was found after the battle to have been
justified by the fact that the Turkish troops had been
distributed among the Arabs as a stiffening. The enemy
were thought not to have more than twenty-five guns, but this
proved to be an under-estimate, for they were found to have
possessed three heavy guns, two howitzers, eight Q.F. field
guns, sixteen 15-pounders, two mountain guns and seven old
muzzle-loaders, i.e., a total of thirty-eight.
On the 26th September General Townshend advanced from
Sannaiyat to Nukhailat, about four miles from the Turkish
position. The advance was carried out in two columns
known as “ A ” and “ B ” columns. Column “ A,” under
General Delamain, marched along the right bank of the river,
with a right flank guard on the left bank ; it consisted of
three and a half squadrons* and two machine gun sections
7th Lancers and 16th Cavalry, 76th and 82nd Field and one
section l/5th Hants Howitzer Batteries, 22nd Sapper Company,
16th, 17th and half 30th Infantry Brigades, Maxim Battery!
and some signal and medical units. Column “ B,” under
General Fry, consisted of the 63rd Field and one section l/5th
Hants Howitzer Batteries, 17th Sapper Company, 18th Infantry
Brigade and 48th Pioneers. Excepting the 63rd Field Battery
and 48th Pioneers, who marched along the left bank of the
river, this column moved up the river in steamers, preceded
by the naval flotilla, and disembarked on the left bank at
Nukhailat. The two columns were organised thus early in
accordance with the part each was to play in the forth
coming battle.
The Bridging Train, composed of eighteen pontoons and
forty-two danaks,^ was towed up in previously prepared
sections, and a bridge across the Tigris was ready at Nukhailat
soon after 4 p.m. on the 26th. The site was technically not
an ideal one, as it was on a very sharp curve of the river, but
it had the advantage of being screened from the view of the
Turks and of being just out of range| of their shrapnel. The
naval 4-7-inch guns, the four 5-inch guns of the 86th Battery
and the two 4-inch guns of the 104th Battery moved up in
barges on the river.
* The 7th Lancers were so weak in strength that they were formed in two
squadrons and, with one and a half squadrons 16th Cavalry and the machine
gun section of each regiment, were amalgamated temporarily into one com
mand under Major Mears, 16th Cavalry.
t Thirt y t° forty feet long and somewhat similar to the mahaila, but not
so low amidships.
+ Sandes : “ In Kut and Captivity.”