became unworkable after rain. And apart from these difficulties, of course difficulties peculiar to Mesopotamia there was also the difficulty, common to all theatres, due to shortage of material and rolling-stock; and the strain thrown upon India was very great.
Railway construction in Mesopotamia began in the middle of 1916. Two railways were decided upon the one, between Basra and Nasiriya, the other between Qurna and 'Amara. The Basra- Nasiriya line was built on the metre-gauge ; the Qurna-'Amara line on the 2 ft. 6 in.-gauge. This question of gauge was a vital and con- troversial one. No definitive ruling was possible during the war, however; and the gauge of each railway in Mesopotamia was usually determined by some such consideration as the availability of material and rolling-stock. But the decision to convert the Qurna-'Amara line to metre-gauge had important effect. By the end of 1916 there were in the country three unconnected railway lines, totalling 234 m. of track. One, the Sheikh Sa'd-As Sinn line (24 m. of 2 ft. 6 in.-gauge line, opened in Oct. 1916) was built in order to maintain communica- tion between the advanced base on the Tigris and the troops on the Kut front. It was dismantled in 1917 after the Turkish retreat. The Qurna-'Amara line (70 m. of 2 ft. 6 in.-gauge line, afterwards {April 1917] converted to metre-gauge line) was opened for traffic in Nov. 1916. It ran along the right bank of the Tigris and its principal object was to relieve the river transport on the difficult section of the Tigris between Qurna and 'Amara. Almost _ all the country through which the line had to pass is liable to flooding and the track had to be carried on hijh banks. Many bridges were also necessary, that at the Majar Kebir spill being 200 ft. wide. The Basra-Nasiriya line (the first metre-gauge line to be opened in Mesopotamia) followed the Euphrates and was 140 m. long. The rails were so laid on the sleepers (mostly of the Indian broad-gauge type) that, by shifting one rail, the line could be converted to a standard-gauge track. Much of the land through which the line had to pass was below flood level and banks had to be constructed. In addition to these three lines, a further 126 m. of track had been authorized in 1916 one line to link up Basra and Qurna, the other to connect 'Amara and Sheikh Sa'd. The latter line (the construc- tion of which was not proceeded with owing to the rapid advance of the British forces) would have been some 86 m. long. Work on the Basra-Qurna line was begun in Feb. 1917. The principal_construc- tional difficulty which had to be overcome was the crossing of the new channel of the Euphrates at Gurmat 'Ali. The river there is between 60 ft. and 70 ft. deep and an ordinary pile bridge was not possible. A floating bridge was brought from India and was placed in position on Dec. 26 1917. This pontoon, however, was not a great success; owing to the rise and fall of the tide the bridge could not be used more than 16 hours daily. The old channel of the Euphrates at Qurna was crossed by a pile bridge 900 ft. long.
In April 1917 the Bagdad-Samarra standard-gauge line (74 m. long) a well-ballasted track built by the Germans in 1915 fell into British hands. The Turks, when retreating, had damaged the line had blown up bridges and destroyed stations; but they made no attempt to demolish the track itself; and on May 61917 the first British train ran through from Bagdad to Samarra. In June 1918 work began on an extension of this line; and by Sept. I connexion between Bagdad and Tikrit was established. In Oct. work began on a further extension from Tikrit to Shuraimiya, a distance of 30 m. ; but when the line reached Baiji, 26 m. beyond Tikrit, the Armistice was signed and any further construction on the line was abandoned. The Sumaiki-Sadiya bra,nch of this line was opened in July 1917.
After the advance beyond Bagdad in July 1917, the completion of the Kut-Bagdad line (already in course of construction) became of vital importance. This line (metre-gauge) reached Hinaidi (4 m. S. of Bagdad) on July 24 1917, the average rate of progress in construction working out at about I J m. per day. The line was later extended to Bagdad East, though Hinaidi remained the terminal centre. It was 109 m. long, with crossing stations at 13 points, and afforded great relief to the river traffic; for while the upstream journey from Kut occupied two days, Bagdad could be reached by rail from Kut in about eight hours.
In May 1917 work had been begun on a line from Bagdad to the i Diala front. It was (owing to shortage of metre-gauge material) constructed on the 2 ft. 6 in.-gauge material from the dismantled Sheikh Sa'd-As Sinn line and the abandoned Qurna-'Amara line being used. The line as far as Baquba was opened for traffic on July 13 1917. It was later extended to Table Mountain, 65 m. from Bagdad. (Between Baquba and Table Mountain, it should be added, was a branch line [4 m. long and opened at the end of 1917] connect- ing Abu Jezra and Abu Saida on the Diala river.) The whole of this line was afterwards converted to metre-gauge-^-or, more accurately, a new metre-gauge line was laid beside the existing track; the section Bagdad-Baquba being opened in Nov. 1917, and the section Baquba-Table Mountain, in June 1918. The line was originally carried over the Diala river at Baquba by a pile-and-trestle bridge. At the end of 1918, however, the pile bridge was replaced by a permanent structure, consisting of four spans of 100 ft. and two spans of 75 ft. on well piers. Towards the end of 1918, an extension of this line to Khaniqin, on the Persian frontier, was completed ; later, the line was again extended to Quretu, 130 m. from Bagdad.
tin Aug. 1917 work was begun on the standard-gauge line between iagdad and Falluja. Owing to shortage of matefial, however, it
was not finished until the following December. One bridge 290 ft. long had to be built over the Euphrates just outside Bagdad. After the occupation of Ramadi, at the end of Sept. 1917, it became neces- sary, for the support of the advancing troops, to extend the Falluja line. The original intention was to carry it to Ramadi ; but it was, in practice, only extended to Dhibban, 485 m. from Bagdad, the work being completed by Feb. 1918.
The Bagdad-Hilla line was opened for traffic in May 1918. This line was, originally, to have connected Bagdad with Musaiyib, branching from the existing standard-gauge line to Dhibban at a point 3 m. from Bagdad. Changes in the strategical situation, how- ever, led to the abandonment of the proposed line to Musaiyib, one to Hilla being decided upon instead. The Bagdad-Hilla line 58 m. long was built of 75-lb. rails on broad-gauge sleepers. In Aug. 1918 a 2 ft. 6 in.-line was opened from Hilla to Kifl, 21 m. away, for the purpose of carrying the harvest from the Hincliya agricultural district to Bagdad.
As the joint result of strategical requirements and the shortage of material, it was not found possible to complete the Bagdad-Basra through line until after the close of the campaign in Mesopotamia. Of the three alternative routes for the through line, that along the Euphrates was eventually decided on; and work on the connecting link between Nasiriya and Hilla was begun in Aug. 1918. The through line is on the metre-gauge; but it will undoubtedly be con- verted to the standard-gauge later.
It was not, as has been said, until the middle of 1916 that railway construction began in Mesopotamia. At the beginning of 1919, how- ever, just after the close of the campaign the railway system in the country consisted of some 1,000 m. of track, 799 m. being main line track, and 200 m. secondary line track. Rolling stock, too, was at first extremely scarce. In July 1917, for example, only 20 standard-gauge engines and 323 standard-gauge waggons were available, together with 57 metre-gauge engines and 979 metre-gauge waggons. But by Sept. 1918 the numbers of standard-gauge engines and waggons available had increased to 38 and 562 respectively, and the numbers of metre-gauge engines and waggons to 145 and 4,158.
Inland water transport was, unquestionably, the first line of com- munication in Mesopotamia. It is certain however that after the advance beyond Bagdad the railways played the most vital part; and the following figures showing the total of War Department stores (D.W. tons) carried on the principal lines in Mesopotamia during the two years 1917-8 will make clear the growth of the freight traffic service: Basra-Nasiriya line (metre-gauge), 542,407 tons; Basra- 'Amara line (metre-gauge), 699,526 tons; Kut-Bagdad line (metre-gauge), 572,696 tons; Bagdad-Baquba-Table Mountain and Qizil Robat line (metre-gauge), 403,087 tons; Bagdad-Samarra- Tikrit and Baiji line (standard-gauge), 388,934 tons; Bagdad- Falluja-Dhibban line (standard-gauge), 122,001 tons; Bagdad-Hilla line, 37,551 tons: a total of 2,766,202 tons.
Sinai and Syria. ihe first steps towards developing a military railway system in Palestine were taken in the early part of 1916. The strategical position at the time seemed to be such as to favour a British offensive; and, as a preliminary to an offensive, certain rail- way construction was decided on. The doubling of the existing line from Zagazig to Ismailia was essential and, in addition, several short 2 ft. 6 in.-gauge lines on the E. bank of the Suez Canal were neces- sary. The Egyptian State railways undertook to carry out the work, which had to be completed by the middle of Jan. 1916. A 2 ft. 6 in.- gauge line to the Baharia oasis and a similar line to the Kharga oasis were also laid down, though not by the State railways; the necessary material being obtained by dismantling certain private lines in Egypt. In addition, since an advance into Palestine had been decided on, the construction of a line from Qantara (on the E. bank of the Suez Canal) towards Romani and El 'Arish had to be under- taken. Royal Engineer construction companies were made respon- sible for the actual laying of the track on this line, the preliminary formation work being carried out by Egyptian labour. A single standard-gauge line only was laid down, the question of the double line being deferred. By Aug. 1916 the line reached Romani (41 km. from Qantara); and, within a month of the British entry into El Arish (Dec. 21 1916), it had been extended to that place, which is 155 km. from Qantara. By mid-March 1917 the line was at Rafa, 200 km. from the base, and by June in which month Gen. Allenby took over command of the E.E.F. at a point (El Belah) about 13 km. from Gaza. In July the special commission on the Palestine railways, under Brig.-Gen. Stewart, recommended that, in view of the proposed further advance into Syria, the line from Qantara to Rafa should be doubled and at the end of the month the work was begun. During the subsequent advance to Jerusalem the Turkish line from Beit Hanun to Wadi Sarar was captured, and as it was practically undamaged it was, at the end of Nov., by which time the main line from Qantara had been extended to Beit Hanun used for the onward conveyance of supplies. With the capture of Jeru- salem (Dec. 9) the Turkish branch line from Wadi Sarar (l -OS-metre gauge, like the line Beit Hanun-Wadi Sarar) came under British control and was converted to standard-gauge. Meanwhile, the work on the main line from the base at Qantara had been continued ; by March 30 1918 it had been extended to a point some 8 km. N. of Ludd, and by Dec. of the same year to Haifa, 412 km. from Qantara. A branch line from Rafa to Beersheba had been completed by the
