win greater fame in Mesopotamia. All accounts agree as
to the masterly strategy with which he defeated Nur-ed-Din Pasha at
Kut-el-Amara, and subsequently fought the battle of Ctesiphon. Those
two battles and his heroic endurance of the long siege of Kut have
given his name a permanent place in the annals of the British army.

"Townshend has always attributed his success as a soldier to his
constant study of the campaigns of Napoleon, a practice which he has
long followed for a regular period of every day wherever he has
happened to be serving. He has mastered the Napoleonic battle fields
at first hand, and is an ardent collector of Napoleonic literature and
relics. Everyone who knows him is familiar with the sight of the
paraphernalia of his studies in peace time--the textbooks and maps,
spread on the ground or on an enormous table, to which he devotes his
morning hours. During the present campaign his letters have been full
of comparisons with the difficulties which confronted Napoleon.

"But Townshend possesses other qualities besides his zeal for his
profession, and one of them at least must have stood him in good stead
during these anxious months. He is indomitably serene and cheerful, a
lover of amusement himself and well able to amuse others. In London
and Paris he is nearly as well known in the world of playwrights and
actors as in the world of soldiers. He can sing a good song and tell a
good story. Like Baden-Powell, the hero of another famous siege, he is
certain to have kept his gallant troops alert and interested during
the long period of waiting for the relief which never came. Up to the
last his messages to the outside world have been full of cheery
optimism and soldierly fortitude. No general was ever less to blame
for a disastrous enterprise or better entitled to the rewards of
success."

CHAPTER XLI

SPRING AND SUMMER TRENCH WAR ON THE TIGRIS

After the surrender of Kut-el-Amara a lull of a few weeks occurred.
The Turkish forces seemed to be satisfied for the time being with
their victory over their English opponents for which they had striven
so long. The English forces below Kut-el-Amara likewise seemed to have
ceased their activities as soon as the fall of Kut had become an
established fact.

Almost for three weeks this inactivity was maintained. On May 19,
1916, however, both sides resumed military operations. The Turks on
that day vacated an advanced position on the south bank of the