the right on both banks of the water-way, the II., under Gen. Marshall, on the left. Maude's plan was to start by pushing his left still farther forward, to clear the right bank of the Tigris of the enemy to well above Kut, and, when these dispositions had in due course taken effect, to force the lines of Sanna-i-yat with his right. So long as Sanna-i-yat remained in Ottoman hands his flotilla could not advance above that point; but, with the railway from Skeikh Sa'd running to Es Sinn, his troops operat- ing on that side of the Tigris could be supplied, provided they did not advance more than a few miles. Marshall, being on the left, opened the attack by forcing the Shatt al Hai, after a night march, and by capturing some of the Turkish defences which formed a bridgehead S. of Kut. During the struggles that ensued, lasting several weeks, Khalil Pasha's forces offered a stout resistance, and although Maude's operations on the right bank of the great river were uniformly successful, they proceeded slowly and by successive stages. It was not till the middle of Feb. that the whole of the Turkish entrenched camp on that bank was in Anglo-Indian hands and that the Ottoman troops had withdrawn across channel.
No sooner had this part of the programme been accomplished than, on the ryth, Gen. Cobbe attacked Sanna-i-yat. The effort failed for the moment; but five days later the lines were assaulted again, and they were at last carried after a desperate contest in which the Turks lost very heavily. On the same day Marshall's II. Corps by a brilliant feat of arms forced a passage across the Tigris at Shumran. There was then no course left to the Ottoman commander but to abandon Kut in haste and to withdraw his forces as best he could up the left bank of the river. Maude's flotilla instantly pushed up to the front past Kut, which fell automatically into his hands, and the Anglo-Indian army in Mesopotamia could then claim to have won a victory that went far towards wiping out the discomfitures of the previous year. Within the space of two months the military situation had been completely transformed as the result of a happily conceived and resolutely executed plan of campaign that had been rend- ered possible by prescient and comprehensive organization in rear of the fighting front.
But Maude was not the man to tarry after gaining a signal triumph and thereby to give his vanquished opponents breathing space to recover. His supplies guaranteed by the arrival of his water transport, he pushed on along the left bank of the Tigris on the heels of the fugitive Turks, his troops ready for any exer- tion in their enthusiasm and full of confidence in their leader. The river channel between Kut and 'Aziziya has many loops and bends, making it difficult for a naval force and a military force to act in tactical concert, but on the a6th the British gunboats, steaming up almost ahead of the mounted troops, destroyed or captured practically the entire Ottoman flotilla after a sharp combat. Great prizes in war material as well as many prisoners were also made by the advancing army. Keeping his own counsel, as was his wont, the army commander had from the outset of his active operations contemplated an immediate advance on Bagdad after expelling the enemy from Kut, and he now requested permission from the Home Government to make the historic city his objective. He received the requisite sanction. But he found himself obliged, in spite of his eagerness to press on, to halt for some days at 'Aziziya for fear of outrunning his sup- plies a check which enabled the rear of his army to close up and which afforded the troops a welcome rest, although the brief relaxation in the pursuit gave the Turks time to occupy defensive positions covering the capital.
All being ready, the Anglo-Indian army resumed its advance on March 4, whereupon it was found that the enemy had aban- doned Ctesiphon and retired behind the Diala. This river repre- sented a serious military obstacle, and when an attempt was made to force the passage the Turks were discovered to be in such strength and to be so favourably posted that the effort proved in the first instance unsuccessful. Maude thereupon threw a bridge across the Tigris and passed the cavalry and the I. Corps across the channel. Then, his troops pressing forward on either bank, the Diala was forced by Gen. Marshall, opposition
on the other side of the Tigris was gradually overcome, and bj the nth the City of the Caliphs was in British hands, the enem) having withdrawn northwards, unable to stem the resolutt advance of the victors. Maude, however, allowed no pause in hi: offensive operations to take place. Cobbe, pushing up the righ bank of the Tigris along which a stretch of railway ran as far a: Samarra, heavily defeated a Turkish force which attempted t< bar his progress at Mushaida, while Marshall cleared the triangli of country between the Tigris and the Diala in the direction o the Jebel Hamrin. Russian forces in Persia had been penetratinj into the mountainous country on the Turko-Persian border: while Maude was advancing from Kut, and it had been hopec that they might cooperate effectively with an Anglo-Indiai column which was pushed into the hills towards Khanivin; bu this project did not materialize. Marshall, however, conductec a most successful campaign on the Shatt al Adhaim during tht month of April, inflicting a number of severe defeats upon th< Turkish XIII. and XVIII. Army Corps in that direction, anc Cobbe completed the operations on the right bank of the Tigri: by the capture of Samarra with many prisoners and much wa: material. Then, having secured possession of a wide area o fertile territory to the N. of Bagdad and driven the enemy ir confusion into the deserts and uplands beyond, Maude was a( last enabled to afford his victorious troops rest just as the bo\ weather set in.
The virtual conquest of Mesopotamia in a four and a hal months' campaign had been brought about by the resolute execution of a plan of operations based on correct calculation o; requirements. It had been a triumph of forethought and o strategical and tactical skill on the part of a chief who followec up his successes relentlessly and who inspired his subordinate commanders and his troops with his own unconquerable spirit Neither the stout resistance offered by the Ottoman troops a) the outset and which they had maintained even after the tide began to set against them, nor yet the formidable defences whict their engineers had elaborated around Kut, had in reality proved the greatest stumbling-block to be overcome. The vast extent of the theatre of war, the lack of communications, and the fad that fighting forces advancing from the Shatt al 'Arab must almost inevitably adhere to the line of the Tigris constituting virtually one long military defile, had interposed even greatei obstacles in the path of conquest. But those obstacles had been surmounted as a result of appropriate and effectual organization consummated during the months which had immediately pre- ceded Maude's advance; and during the torrid summer of 1917, when little fighting took place, he was busily engaged in perfect- ing administration in the territory won, improving communica- tions, and preparing for a fresh offensive in the cold weather.
A railway was constructed from Kut to Bagdad, as the intervening section of the Tigris channel was shallow and awk- ward to navigate. Sanitation and policing were secured in the capital. Comfort and recreation were provided for the troops. Steps were taken to tap the supply resources of the fertile dis- tricts in occupation of the army. A division that had been in reserve at Nasiriya was brought up to the front. Great efforts were for a time made to arrange for cooperation with the Russian forces in Persia; but the influence of the revolution in Petrograd made itself more and more felt in that quarter as the weeks passed, and before Maude started his autumn campaign it had become manifest that little was to be hoped for from that direction. Indeed the situation in Armenia was becoming such as to affect adversely the prospects of the Anglo-Indian host operating in Mesopotamia, and in the late summer there were indications that under German instigation the Turks were contemplating an effort to recover Bagdad. This merely made Maude the more anxious to resume the offensive, and on Sept. 28 he struck his first blow by the capture of Ramadi on the Euphrates, with much booty. This victory was followed by successful operations in clearing the Jebel Hamrin and by the capture of Tikrit on the Tigris at the beginning of Nov. A few days later, however, the army commander was struck down by cholera, and he died on the loth. He was succeeded by Sir W. Marshall.
