Mesopotamia

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 35, 16 May 1916, Page 5

Mesopotamia

THE SIEQE OF KUT. GENERAL TOY/NSHEND'S RF.SJSTANCE. TTkitKD PHEW Aasooution.] London, May 1~Mr Edmund Candler, the Ihitirh war correspondent in Mesopotarui, sends the iirst connected narrative or the siege of Kut-el j Antaia. He says: When General Townshend arrived at Kut on December 8, four Turki-ii divisions and some thousand tribesmen were within 10 miles. The British were holding a peninsula, 6200 yards by 1700 yards, while two British battalions fortified a garrison in a liquorice factory at a village on the right bank of the Tigris. | The troops were worn out by long fighting and the march, and the enemy • immediately commenced an investment. By December 7, a. Turkish division moved around General Townshend' s flank, four miles to the south, land two divisions took up a position 'west of Kut. General Townshend refused to surrender on the 9th, and this was followed by a heavy bombardment. The attacks were pressed severely all day on the 10th and 11th. We lost 120 men on the 10th and 202 on the 11th.

! • The enemy dug in within six hundred yards, strengthening his work with sandbags and timber. Our casualties dropped to 62 on the 15th, the Turks becoming tired at their ineffectual attacks, and they had lost at least a thousand men.

General Townshend throughout made repeated sorties. A small force from the liquorice factory drove out the enemy from their trenches, but the increased boldness of an attack on the 24th indicated that the enemy had been reinforced. The famous 52nd Division arrived from the Caucasus and the fort was heavily shelled, large breaches being made in the walls. The garrison were driven out from the first line of defence, though the enemy, in reply, repulsed a conn* ter-attack. There was another fierce attack at midnight, and the Turks carried the northern bastion, but they were again driven out. Our casualties on that night were 315.

; One prisoner' said that our fort was a cemetery of Turkish dead. The 52nd Division had been annihilated. The enemy, on December 29, asked for an armistice to bury their dead. Our | casualties for the month were 1,840 .killed and wounded, and the enemy's were 4000. • The failure, of the Christmas Day attack, and the approach oi a relieving force, introduced a- new phase into the siege, the.enemy shelling the garjrison nightly with big guns. General .Townshend had to fight hunger. Horse meat was at first plentiful, and large .quantities of grain were discovered, ibut on January 24 it wag impossible to [utilise these, owing to the difficulty iof grinding, but millstones were dropped by our aeroplanes. Scurvy- set ,in on February 5; though vegetables .that General Townshend had planted bore welcome fruit just before the capitulation. J ;> The British soldiers on February.£; were receiving a 12oz loaf, a pound or' meat, a few groceries and dates j the i Indian rations were a pound of ihalf rations of tea, chillies, ginger'./, [and dates. The rations lasted ori'tinS' 'scale until March 5, when the British loaf and Indian flour were reduced to 110 ounces. The ration was again rejduced on March 31, and on April 6 the [British and Indians had only four ounces of flour each. During the last phase, salt, Hour ,and tea were dropped by aeroplanes, i which had previously dropped light I articles, including rifle cleaners, ?pare !parts of wireless, fishing nets, cigarlettes, and tobacco. As it was impossible to supply these luxuries to all, ! General Townshend refused fjither. tobacco. He personally shared in every privation. ] After April 20, many Arabs, feeling the pinch of hunger, attempted to escape "by swimming. Two ;-;ot through to the British lines by *Jie help of the' i current, one, supported by skin bladi ders, making the journey by night in eight hours. Another, who was a surI ° ' vivor of a party, on the 18th came aboard a raft with a bullet in one of his legs. The Arabs emphasised the cheerfulness of the garrison, and .'•aid , they looked thin; but well and strong. Their admiration of General IWnshend almost amounted to superstition. Cigarettes were soiling at eightpence each. I The only member of the Kut garrison that has yet arrived at f Basra is "Spot," General Townshend's fox terrier. ! THE ADVANCE ON BAGDAD. i SIXTEEN HOURS' FIGHTING. fUmTSD Pu*»a AwsooiATmw 1 Petrograd, May 15. Despatches from Kerniansbah gave details of a sixteen hours' sanguinary light at the Kurdish village of Sarmil, situated on a hill between two rugged mountain ranges, ten miles from Kirind. This was the first engagement in Persia exclusively against Turkish regulars. Sarmil blocked the advance to Kasr-i-Shirin, and fighting com-

meuced at dawn. The Turks, who were defending the historic road to Mesopotamia, withstood the devastating Russian guniire and successive onslaughts of infantry until midnight, and then fell back on Kasr-i-Shirin. A British officer who is accompanying the Russians speaks in the highest terms of the Russians' valor. THE NORTHERN DRIVE ON BAGDAD. Petrograd, May 14. A communique states ; The enemy in Mesopotamia precipitately retreated in the Mosul vicinity f abandoning their guns and munitions.