British Advance in Mesopotamia

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 81, 11 March 1916, Page 5

British Advance in Mesopotamia

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

From the Verdun front the news is decidedly bracing in that the enemy appear not to be able to advance against the French, notwithstanding a tremendous expenditure of munitions and an enormous sacrifice of life. The German battering-ram is said to have completely failed to break the French wall of steel. Indeed, the attempt to debouch from Douaumont to Vauz was frustrated, the enemy suffering great loss, while the French made headway in Crows Wood. From Paris it has been found necessary to issue a statement exposing the German lies which have been circulated concerning the result of the fight at Verdun, and it is significant that the number of these false statements has been growing since' the reported failure of the German offensive. Altogther, the cables from this front are more encouraging and optimistic in tone than has been the case for some days past.

To-day the Admiralty report the Jos<s of two units of the Fleet, the destroyer Coquette and a torpedoboat having fallen victims to the enemy’s insidious, mine-policy on the East Coast of England. These vessels, were, no doubt, among those of the Navy who conduct their unceasing and bravo patrol of the waters round the “tight little island,” and whose address is always “somewhere in the North Sea.” As a loss, the intrinsic value and the deprecative effect upon the Navy is but as a drop in the ocean, but it is in mourning for the forty-five brave men who in their daily routine carried their lives in their hands that Britishers the world over will not cease to regret.

H.M.S.' Coquette was of the “D” class of destroyers built between 1895 and 1901, with a displacement of about 350 tons; the engines of 6000 horse-power developed 30 knots per hour; and the armament consisted of one 12-pounder, five 6-pounders and two 18-inch torpedo tubes. Torpedo boat No. 11, was built in 1906-7, having a displacement of about 250 tons, the engines of 3750 h.p. developing up to 28£ knots per hour, and the armament consisting of two 12-pounders and three 18-ineh torpedo tubes.

Enver Pasha, the Turkish leader, is not dead as was reported recently, but is very much alive and has gone on a visit to Medina, the ancient and walled city of Arabia, 240 miles north by west of Mecca, and second only to Mecca in sanctity. It is the scene of Mohammed’s work after his flight from Mecca in 622 A.D., and here is Mohammed’s tomb, behind the mosque where he died, conspicuous by a green cupola and four tall flowers. Medina is 100 miles inland from the eastern shores of the Red Sea, and is connected with Damascus, 650 miles away, by a railway which was completed in 1908. Owing to the fact that non-Mohammedans are excluded, as at Mecca, little is known of the place. Burckhardt, the famous Eastern traveller, and Sir Richard Burton Ure among those who have visited Medina; the latter gave the population in 1852 as 16,000, but later estimates put it down as 40,000.

The British are still advancing in Mesopotamia, and we learn that General Aylmer’s force, which is pushing on to succor .General Townshend and his beleaguered garrison in Kut-el-Amara, have succeeded in getting to Essim, on the right bank of the Tigris, seven miles from Kut. fliis was on

Monday, and though they were then unable to dislodge the enemy from a strongly-entrenched, position, it is certain that Kut will shortly be relieved. The difficulties attending the campaign in these lands are big and varithe climate and natural configuration of the country being at times well nigh insuperable. The fall of Kut would mean putting the pinchers on Bagdad, which is 100 miles away, and with another set of these handy tools being worked by the Russians advancing from the direction .of Kermanshah, the inhabitants of this famous city and capital of the ancient Saracen Empire will soon begin to squeal.

The collection of vessels which are helping the Mesopotamian expedition on the Tigris is distinctly mixed. There are paddle steamers which once carried passengers, and now waddle along with a barge on either side, loaded, 1 perhaps, the one with a portable wireless station, and the other with bullocks for heavy guns ashore.

There are once respectable tugs which stagger along under a weight of boiler plating, and are armed with guns of varying calibre. There is a launch which pants indignantly between batteries of 4.7’5, looking like a sardine between, two cigarette boxes. There is a steamer with a Christmas tree growing amidships, in the branches of which its offices fondly imagine they are invisible to friend or foe. There is also a ship which is said to have started life as an aeroplane in Singapore, shed its wings but kept its aerial propeller, taken to water, and become a hospital. Its progress is attended by a series of detonations which serves it as an escort among the Arabs, who attribute its method of progress to the devil’s art. And this fleet is the cavalry screen, advance guard, rear guard, flank guard, railway, general headquarters, heavy artillery, line of communication, supply depot, police force, field ambulance, aerial hangar, and base of supply of the Mespotamian exedition!