Above Tikrit and extending N. for a long distance, the country traversed by the Tigris is a sterile tract, hilly and broken at some points; the ordinary route from Bagdad to Mosul does not there- fore follow the river but takes a line to the E. through Kifri and Kirkuk. Maude had intended to conduct his main advance by this line a plan of operations which would make it possible for the Russians in Persia to cooperate should they be prepared to do so. The death of the distinguished general, just at the moment
- when the project was about to be put in execution, created some
delay, but his successor set troops in motion through the Jebel Hamrin in Dec. and Kifri was occupied in Jan. Having secured that point, Marshall in the middle of Feb. determined on a sudden advance of his extreme left wing up the Euphrates. Hit was captured, and on the igth a complete victory was gained over the Turks who had retired up the river from that place; they consisted of the soth Div., which was surrounded and captured, 5,000 prisoners and all its guns being taken. Difficulties of transport in the meantime hampered the force moving forward beyond Kifri, the distance from railhead being considerable, but
j on April 29 the Ottoman forces were heavily defeated on the road to Kirkuk, losing 3,000 prisoners, and a week later that town was occupied, much war material falling into the hands of the Anglo-Indian army. In view of the distance of the place from the railway the army commander however decided to withdraw his troops from the place after the booty had been evacuated; the troops then fell back to Kifri, and, the hot weather having now set in, active operations practically ceased for five months. The collapse of Russian fighting power in Armenia had enabled the Ottoman staff to move troops from there down to Mosul and northern Mesopotamia, and scarcely any assistance had
1 been received from the side of Persia; but Gen. Marshall's first campaign had nevertheless been remarkably successful and his
1 position to the N. of Bagdad had been effectually consolidated. In the meantime a special British mission, sent off in Jan.
. under charge of Gen. Dunsterville and originally intended for Tiflis with the object of coordinating resistance of Armenians, Georgians and Russians to the Turks threatening Transcaucasia, had been endeavouring to maintain satisfactory relations with
1 the Russians in Persia, and had arranged for supplying food to certain parts of that country which were almost famine-stricken. The allocation of a considerable amount of motor transport to this latter service had indeed somewhat hampered Marshall's
' operations about Kirkuk and the Persian border. Great diffi- culties were placed in Dunsterville's way by Russian officials who were tending towards Bolshevism, while open hostility was displayed by certain of the Persian tribesmen. Some Russian troops, however, remained loyal to the Entente and, cooperating with these, small bodies of British troops were gradually pushed
.up to establish a line of communications between the Anglo- Indian army in Mesopotamia and the Caspian Sea at Enzeli. During the early summer resistance to the Turks in Transcau- casia was gradually breaking down, and at the beginning of July
' the last of the organized Russian fighting forces in Persia pro-
' ceeded thither by ship. On the Ottoman troops appearing before Baku shortly afterwards, Dunsterville sailed for that city in Aug., followed by a brigade of British infantry.
He found a complex and disturbing situation to prevail. The Armenian garrison was unreliable. The attitude of the Russian officials was suspicious. Bolshevik armed craft were afloat on the Caspian. The lines constructed for the defence of Baku were of such extent as to require a large force to man them. It soon became apparent that the safety of the city depended entirely upon the meagre British force as the Armenian soldiery displayed little stomach for combat. For a very few weeks Dunsterville and his men did what they could to save the place; but on Sept. 14 the Turks broke through the outer defences, and that night the British reembarked and returned to Enzeli, whereupon Baku fell into the enemy's hands. A somewhat risky venture had proved unsuccessful, but it had at least prevented the dispatch of some of the Ottoman troops in Transcaucasia to confront the ^nglo-Indian army in N. Mesopotamia. On news of the fall of Baku reaching London it occurred
just when the season was suitable for commencing active opera- tions in the theatre of war farther to the S. Marshall was instructed to occupy Mosul, an undertaking for which he had been preparing during the summer. The best of the Turkish divisions in Mesopotamia were at this time assembled astride of the Tigris at Fatha, where the river breaks through the Jebel Hamrin range of hills. A naturally strong position had been assiduously fortified, and the enemy possessed a second fortified position a few miles higher up at the confluence of the Lesser Zab and a boat bridge was established at that point. Realizing that a frontal attack would be hazardous and that, owing to the extreme ruggedness of the ground in the immediate vicinity of the hostile lines a turning movement of the ordinary kind was out of the question, resolved nevertheless to strike a decisive blow, Marshall determined on a combination of war by which adequate mobile forces would be thrown right across the Ottoman communications between Fatha and Mosul. He entrusted the conduct of these operations to Gen. Cobbe, and arranged for a column to advance simultaneously by Kirkuk towards Mosul.
The final campaign in Mesopotamia lasted only a single week, the movement beginning on Oct. 23. Two cavalry columns, that with the shorter distance to cover being accompanied by some infantry, crossed the Jebel Hamrin many miles E. of Fatha and passed the Lesser Zab a long way above its junction with the Tigris. In the meantime the I7th and i8th Divs. advanced against the Ottoman position, the i7th on the right bank and the 1 8th on the left bank of the Tigris. Finding himself threatened in rear, Isma'il Hakki Pasha, who commanded the Turks, with- drew from the Fatha position to that higher up, followed by the two Anglo-Indian divisions, while the cavalry columns made for the Tigris many miles above the confluence of the Lesser Zab and placed themselves across Isma'il Hakki's line of retreat. The 1 8th Div. forced a passage across the Lesser Zab on the 2sth, whereupon Isma'il Hakki withdrew those of his troops that were on the left bank of the Tigris across the river, and pulled up his bridge. On the 26th the I7th Div. was pressing the Turkish main body on the right bank, and that same day the outer one of the cavalry columns forded the river and began moving down that side of the channel. On the 27th and 28th the I7th Div. was heavily engaged, before it finally made itself master of the enemy's position at the confluence of the Lesser Zab, whereupon Isma'il Hakki retired N. to Sherghat, but on the 2pth the last hope of the trapped Ottoman force was destroyed owing to a relieving column from Mosul being defeated by the cavalry. All that day Isma'il Hakki resisted the advance of the Anglo-Indian forces on Sherghat, but on the morning of the 3oth, just as the 1 7th Div. was about to launch a final attack, the white flag was displayed and the i4th and the bulk of the 2nd Turkish Divs. surrendered.
Eleven thousand prisoners, 51 guns and much war material were taken as a result of Cobbe's brilliantly successful operations. Two days later tidings of the signing of the Armistice arrived. The Kirkuk column had, in the meantime, been working its way forward, almost unopposed, toward Mosul. That city was occu- pied within a week; and so, in a blaze of triumph for the Anglo- Indian forces, the long-drawn-out campaign in Mesopotamia, in which they had experienced both extremes of fortune, came at last to an end, concurrently with the most sweeping tactical success gained by either side during the course of the struggle.
(C. E. C.)
(III.) THE SINAI CAMPAIGN, 1916-7
When the Dardanelles expedition came finally to an end during the first days of Jan. 1916, the British troops which had been engaged on the Gallipoli Peninsula were dispatched to Egypt, there to refit and reorganize, and to undertake the defence of Egypt against a possible attack by the Turks, who were now freed from any menace on the shores of the Dardanelles. On Jan. 10, the evacuation of Cape Helles having been successfully completed, Gen. Sir Charles Monro handed over his command to Gen. Sir Archibald Murray and returned! to France. Sir Arch- ibald Murray's instructions were to protect Egypt against attack
