of whom 1,600 had been captured at Ctesiphon, were allowed
to fall into the hands of the enemy. The country around is perfectly
flat, covered with short grass or shrub, though here and there old
irrigation channels make it difficult for carts or motor cars to
negotiate. The operations above the Kut were carried out by land,
though ships bore an important part in bringing up supplies and the
thousand and one things required by an army in the field. An enemy
report was published to the effect that the Turks had captured one of
our armored trains. It will not be giving away a military secret when
I say that no railway of any sort exists south of Bagdad."

How closely General Townshend was pressed by the enemy in his retreat
to Kut-el-Amara is evident from an officer's letter: "We found the
Turks in camps sitting all around us. We had to fight a rear-guard
action all day and marched twenty-seven miles before we halted. After
lying down for two or three hours, we marched on fifteen miles more to
within four miles of the Kut. Here we had to stop for a time because
the infantry were too tired to move."

CHAPTER LIV

STAND AT KUT-EL-AMARA--ATTEMPTS AT RELIEF

Kut-el-Amara, where General Townshend and his troops were so long
besieged, stands on the left bank of the Tigris, almost at the water's
level, with sloping sand hills rising to the north. The desert beyond
the river is broken here and there by deep nullahs which, when they
are filled with water after a rainfall, are valuable defensive
features of the country. Five miles from the town, and surrounding it
on all sides but the waterside, is a series of field forts of no great
value against heavy artillery. Had the Turks been equipped with large
guns such as the Germans employed in Europe these fortifications would
have been shattered to pieces in a few hours. But the forts proved
useful.

The spaces between them were filled with strong barbed-wire
entanglements and carefully prepared intrenchments. To the southeast
the position was further strengthened by a wide marshy district that
lies just outside the fortified line. General Townshend was holding a
position that was about fifteen miles in circumference, to adequately
protect which it would have been necessary for him to have twice as
many men as were at his disposal. For one of the lessons that has been
learned in the Great War is that 5,000 men, including reserves, are
required to the mile to properly defe