"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. مجلد I" [ظ‎‎١‎٧‎٩] (٤٥٤/٣٦٣)

332 HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
that their progress was slow and hampered by many wounded,
and asking that General Fry’s attack should press in to assist
them. On General Fry being requested to do so by General
Townshend, he replied that he would do what he could, but
that the enemy’s opposition was still such that no decisive
attack on it was yet possible. A comparison of the above
timings with the movements of General Hoghton’s force as
given previously appear to show that the reports to General
Townshend gave the situation of the flanking movement too
optimistically* At 1.45 p.m., however, General Townshend
received a further report from General Delamain that he was
then in possession of the whole of the enemy position north
of the Suwada marsh. This showed him that the whole of
General Delamain’s force could not have been moving south
at noon. At 3.30 p.m., having received no further reports,
General Townshend sent orders to his aeroplanes to report
on the situation of General Delamain’s force, and at 5.30 p.m.
they brought him a report, written at 4.50 by General
Delamain, saying that he was about to attack the enemy
position between the Suwada and Horse Shoe marshes and
asking for the support of concentrated artillery fire by the
guns with Generals Townshend and Fry.
By 4.30 p.m. General Fry’s infantry had worked farther
forward, the right of their firing line being within nine hundred
yards of the hostile trenches between the Suwada and Horse
Shoe marshes ; but owing to heavy enfilade fire from the
hostile trenches south of the Horse Shoe marsh their left had
been echeloned back to face southward. In making this
advance the infantry had received such effective support from
the 63rd, 86th and 104th Batteries and from the naval guns,
that the Turkish guns had been practically silenced.
Meanwhile, General Delamain, having rested his tired troops
for an hour, left the 119th Infantry to hold the captured
northern position and began a further advance at about
4.50 p.m. from point “ B ” round the south-western corner of
the Suwada marsh, with the intention of assisting the attack
of the 18th Brigade by taking in reverse the Turkish position
between the Suwada and Horse Shoe marshes, as contem
plated in the general plan of his divisional commander. The
three battalions of the 17th Brigade led the advance. The
22nd Punjabis, on the left of the leading line, moved along
* Some margin must, however, be allowed in the timings given on both
sides, as those given in the war diaries sometimes vary, and although the times
given in this account have been arrived at with all possible care, their absolute
accuracy cannot be guaranteed.