ul retreat.
There was much hand-to-hand fighting before the British could struggle
back to Ahwaz. As the Turks did not continue to attack it was to be
supposed that they had lost heavily. The Anglo-Indian force had lost
about 200. The colonel of the Seventh Rajputs was wounded, and four
of their white officers were killed.

On this day, March 3, 1915, a body of British cavalry reconnoitering
toward Nakaila, about twenty-five miles northwest of Basra, was
attacked while on their way back to camp by some 1,500 mounted Turks.
The British pretending to retire, maneuvered to lure them on to a
position where they had concealed infantry with machine guns and
artillery. The Turks, quite unsuspecting a ruse came on, were met by a
withering fire from the guns that sent them shattered and broken
flying back to Nakaila. In this little fight the British had four
officers killed and several severely wounded.

Reenforcements had been sent from India in anticipation of the end of
the flood season, and Ahwaz and Kurna were greatly strengthened.
Lieutenant General Sir J. E. Nixon, K. C. B., accompanied the new
troops, and on his arrival took command of the entire force of between
30,000 and 40,000 men.

The Turks, who had also been largely reenforced with soldiers probably
from Bagdad, on April 11 attacked the three British positions at
Kurna-Ahwaz and Shaiba, the last a fort protecting Basra. Kurna was
bombarded for two days, with small result. A bridge across the Tigris
was partly destroyed, but they inflicted no casualties. Guns from the
shore and those in H.M.S. _Odin_ did effective work in scattering such
of the enemy as appeared in boats. At Ahwaz large bodies of hostile
cavalry could be seen against the sky line surrounding the British
positions, but they did not attack.

[Illustration: Mesopotamia--The British Operations from the Persian
Gulf.]

The main object of the Turks was evidently to capture Basra, their
attempts on Kurna and Ahwaz being merely feints to keep the British
occupied while they struck a real blow at Shaiba. On April 12, 1915,
an action began that lasted three days--one of the most notable fights
in the history of this campaign. The attacking force was estimated at
between 18,000 and 22,000 men. Perhaps 11,000 were regular infantry
and cavalry from Bagdad, and 12,000 irregular levies of Kurds and
Arabs. The Turkish infantry after some irregular artillery fire,
commanded by German officers, advanced in th