mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab, the common estuary by which
the Tigris and the Euphrates reach the Persian Gulf. The objects of this
expedition were to secure the oil-fields of Persia in which Britain was
largely interested; to neutralize German ascendancy, which was rapidly
developing in this part of the world through her interests in the
Baghdad Railway; and to embarrass Turkey by attacking her at a point
where facilities of manoeuvre and supply seemed to hold out a
reasonable promise of success.

Throughout 1915 this expedition met with uninterrupted success. The
British Indian forces engaged were increased in number and strength,
and, in spite of appalling conditions of climate, and notwithstanding
more than one narrow escape from disaster, the British flag was pushed
further and further forward into this flat alluvial country. In the
autumn of 1915, we held all the country up to Nasiriyeh on the Euphrates
and to Kut el Amara on the Tigris. Then that ill-fated decision was
arrived at which sent General Townshend, with the inadequate force at
his command, up the Tigris to capture Baghdad. This force went
heroically forward, and, just short of that city, defeated the Turks at
the battle of Ctesiphon. But General Townshend's casualties were heavy,
and his available reinforcements were neither sufficiently numerous nor
at hand. The pick of the Turkish army released by our withdrawal from
Gallipoli, had poured down to reinforce the enemy, and General Townshend
had no alternative but to beat a hasty retreat. Accordingly, he fell
back to Kut el Amara. Partly from inability to get his war-worn forces
further away, and partly from a disinclination to abandon this important
tactical point to the enemy, he consolidated here and prepared to
withstand a siege. The history of that siege will live as one of the
noblest in the annals of the British army. But the stars in their
courses fought against us. Strong enemy positions, inadequate supplies
and transport arrangements, floods, and appalling conditions of country
and weather, proved overwhelming. In spite of the unremitting efforts of
the relieving army, which fought battle after battle without stint of
labour or loss, the garrison of Kut found themselves, at the beginning
of May, 1916, left with no alternative but to capitulate. Almost the
whole of the garrison were removed into Asia Minor, to a captivity which
few were destined to survive. Naturally the Turks were much elated by