ountry, such as Mesopotamia, they do not show to so much
advantage. Another trait is that when their line of retreat is
threatened they are more timorous than European troops. This weakness
will have important bearings on the future of the campaign on the Tigris
Valley, because the communications of the Turks are threatened by the
Russians far in their rear and in more than one place.

[Sidenote: Kut-el-Amara of great strategical importance.]

Townshend's camp at Kut-el-Amara is well supplied with stores and
munitions, and will soon be relieved. When his retreat was cut off at
the bend of the Tigris River he could still have retired safely by
following the Shat-el-Hai to Nasiriyeh. There was no thought, however,
of retreat, Kut-el-Amara is geographically of great strategical
importance, and the British garrison there has served the useful purpose
of detaining large forces of the enemy where it was desired they should
remain while important Allied developments were taking place in their
flank and rear. Most of these Turkish reinforcements were withdrawn from
Armenia when the depth of winter appeared to make it impossible for the
Russians to break through the lofty hills of Caucasia.

[Sidenote: Turks deceived by rumor about Grand Duke Nicholas.]

[Sidenote: The Grand Duke's strategy.]

The rumor, so diligently put about, that the Grand Duke Nicholas had
been retired in disgrace, after so ably extricating the Russian armies
in Poland, and that he had been sent to Caucasia, served its purpose.
The Turks were deceived by it, and sent part of their forces from
Armenia to oppose the Anglo-Indian advance on Bagdad and arrived in time
to turn the scale after the battle of Ctesiphon. When the Grand Duke
fell on the unwary Turks their defeat was complete. Flying from Erzerum,
one army made for Trebizond, another for the Lake Van district, and the
rest went due west towards Sivas. The Grand Duke's right wing, center,
and left are following in the same directions. He has two flying wings
further south--one in the Lake Urumia district and the other advancing
along the main caravan route from Kermanshah to Bagdad, while the
British are furthest south at Kut-el-Amara. It will be observed that the
whole of the Allied armies from the Black Sea to Kut-el-Amara are in
perfect echelon formation, and it would be a strange coincidence if this
just happened--say, by accident. Like the Syrian and Arabian littoral,
Mesopotamia is another tu