"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. المجلد IV". [و‎‎٢‎٤] (٥٤٠/٥٢)

ATTACK ON RAMADI
23
armoured cars, followed by the remaining half of the 93rd
Infantry and section 133rd Machine Gun Company, moved out
from there at 5.30 p.m. and secured the Madhij defile, seven
miles to the westward,* without opposition, though soon after
its occupation hostile rifle fire was opened on the cavalry. By
midnight the whole force had concentrated at Madhij and, after
resting and watering there, recommenced its advance at 1 a.m.
on the 11th July, the half battalion 93rd and half section 133rd
Machine Gun Company being left to hold Madhij. No opposi
tion was encountered till 3.15 a.m., when the leading troops
were fired on by an enemy piquet on Mushaid Point, but this
was quickly driven off and the point occupied. Owing, however,
to the heavy sand along the route it was not till 4.45 a.m.
that the whole column concentrated there.
After a personal reconnaissance by Colonel Haldane and his
artillery commander from Mushaid Point, whence a good view
was obtainable, the armoured cars moved forward at 5.15 a.m.
to reconnoitre, with three companies 91st Punjabis, who had
been covering the advance, following them ; and the cavalry
pushed out to the right through the gardens along the river
bank. The armoured cars were stopped by fire from the banks
of the recently constructed Euphrates Valley Canal, which
connected the Euphrates with Lake Habbaniya, and by the
soft ground. But they brought back information to Colonel
Haldane that the Turkish left in the vicinity of the Regulator
House was strongly held and that the canal was impassable for
cars.f The advance of the 91st Punjabis was also stopped by
artillery fire about 5.25 a.m. ; and soon afterwards the 2/7th
Gurkhas, with half the 131st Machine Gun Company to guard
their left flank, were sent forward, supported by the 215th
Field Artillery Brigade, to attack south of the left of the 91st.
Of three aeroplanes, which had left Baghdad at 4.30 a.m. to
co-operate, two had already been forced down by the heat and
only one remained in action till about 10 a.m.
The enemy now disclosed six guns, two machine guns and a
considerable strength in rifles. His shell fire was very accurate,
putting our wireless out of action no less than three times and
thus preventing effective counter-battery work by the 66th and
524th Batteries. The Gurkha advance, with nearly two miles
to traverse, progressed steadily with only slight loss and about
6.30 a.m. the Turks evacuated the canal banks. The Gurkhas,
reaching the canal some twenty minutes later, crossed it and,
changing direction to the north-west, took up a line along the
Ramadi ridge with their right on the canal. Here they came
* See Map 34.
t It was some 150 feet wide, the water in places being three or four feet deep,
and the embankments on both sides of it were about 60 feet wide.