h division.

The British column which was operating between what were known as the
Suwada Marsh and Circular Marsh started its assault between eight and
nine o'clock in the morning. The British had concentrated all their
available artillery between the marshes, and under the protection of
the guns and the supporting fire of Maxims and musketry a double
company of the 117th Mahrattas made a headlong charge on the Turkish
trenches. The daring Indians suffered great losses, not more than half
the number who had set out reaching the Turkish trenches, into which
they dashed intrepidly and bayoneted their way along them, causing
heavy losses to the enemy. A double company of Second Dorsets was now
sent against the Turkish trenches, and after meeting with desperate
resistance they succeeded in entering the enemy's deeply dug line. The
rest of the battalion followed a little later, joining their comrades
in the captured position.

General Houghton's leading troops now came into action around the rear
of the Circular Marsh. The Turks' northern flank had been stormed, but
they still held desperately to their southern flank, from which they
poured a devastating stream of shells against the British troops that
caused many casualties.

General Houghton's troops had had little rest since the previous day,
but they were cheered by the prospect of success, and with the Oxfords
leading they entered the fight, and after four hours of continuous
struggle surrounded and destroyed or captured the enemy force. The
Turkish troops, concealed in deep ditches protected from the scorching
rays of the sun by grass matting, fought on with dogged determination
and were with difficulty dislodged. The British troops exposed to the
pitiless heat, and exhausted from lack of sleep and from having had no
water since the previous day, suffered terribly and could not possibly
have held out much longer if the Turkish resistance had not collapsed.

General Delamain, commanding the victorious columns, had made a night
march from the dummy camp on the Tigris, and his soldiers and horses
also suffered from thirst, having been forced into action before it
was possible to renew the water supply.

In the afternoon of the same day, September 28, 1915, General
Houghton's exhausted troops were furiously attacked by the Turkish
division that had crossed the Tigris at nine o'clock in the morning,
while a force of Turkish cavalry at the same time attempted an
outfl