Following the failure of the Anglo-Indian attack upon Ctesiphon (in modern-day Iraq), the 6th (Poona) Division, led by Sir Charles Townshend, retreated to Kut-al-Amara, arriving in early December 1915. They were almost immediately besieged by a Turkish force led by Nur-Ud-Din and the German commander Baron von der Goltz. In due course, Sir Fenton Aylmer set out from Basra on January 4, 1916 with 19,000 troops, initially consisting of the 2nd (Lahore) and 7th (Meerut) Divisions.
Advancing up the River Tigris, Aylmer soon his path blocked by a superior Turkish force at Sheikh Sa'ad, 32km downstream from Kut. Over the next three days and nights, the British force suffered 4000 casualties for no significant gain until, on the night of 8/9 January, they found the Turkish trenches inexplicably unoccupied, Nur-Ud-Din having ordered a withdrawal. He was summarily dismissed and replaced by Khalil Pasha, who established a firm defensive position on the banks of the Wadi, through which the British would have to pass en route to Kut. On 13th January the British secured control of the Wadi , but Khalil Pasha remained in command of the Hanna Defile.
On 21st January, after repeated attempts in heavy rain to take the Hanna Defile, Aylmer launched a fresh attack. Preceded by a short artillery bombardment, which served only to warn the 30,000 Turkish troops of an impending attack, 4000 troops of the 7th Division advanced across 600 yards of flooded ground, suffering 2,700 casualties from carefully sited machine guns. Once he witnessed at first hand the critical condition of his forces sick and wounded, Aylmer called off operations and withdrew to Ali Gharbi.
Despite two more relief attempts, the garrison at Kut-al-Amara was forced to surrender on 29th April 1916.
No comments:
Post a Comment