ble
and, after a little firing and the capture of a few more prisoners,
the last of the Turkish trenches fell into our hands before noon.

The Divisional Commander now ordered a halt. An order doubtless
necessary, but that was somewhat reluctantly obeyed, the troops being
anxious to get in touch with their vanishing foe, and it was not till
4 p.m. that an order came to send two patrols some four miles further
north to the Horse Shoe lake. As it was uncertain what they might
encounter the Commanding Officer sent forward four platoons and they
reached the Nwhrwan Ridge without opposition. Our Colonel proposed
that the rest of the Brigade should push forward after the enemy, but
instead of this patrols were brought back about midnight, and it was
not till the next day that the line of the Dahra Canal was taken up by
the Division, the Turks by then being many miles to the north.

On February 24th Kut fell in the hands of the British and the King
cabled to the Army Commander:

"I congratulate you and the troops under your command on the successes
recently obtained, and feel confident that all ranks will spare no
effort to achieve further success. It is gratifying to me to know that
the difficulties of communications which hitherto hampered your
operations have been overcome" George R.I.

[Illustration: LUNN Has A Quiet Rest And Smoke.]

[Illustration: B. H. LUNN And C. V. HENDRY.]

[Illustration: Map: The Operations At Kut-el-amara, Showing The Wide
Turning Movements South Of The River.]

When some five months later I stood on the summit of Kut's famous
minaret, from which Briton and Turk had each in their turn observed
the enemy closing in on them, and from which one could see the
junction of the Hai with the Tigris now very low, the ruins of what
was the Liquorice Factory, and miles away Es Sinn and San-i-yat, it
was impossible not to be impressed and to feel a certain sadness and
yet a great admiration for all those lives which had been so freely
given to uphold the honour of the flag and the dignity of the Empire,
and how when failure after failure had dogged our steps, grit and
perseverance had at last won the day, and success crowned our efforts.
Kut was ours; it must have cheered those lonely prisoners in captivity
in the fastnesses of Asia Minor when the news eventually leaked
through that their defeat was avenged and that the flag which
Townshend had been compelled to haul down once again flew over the
smal