sore feet; and a great wave of depression passed over the division. We
would have made any effort to hold Tekrit after our toil and losses.
But the Fords were needed for another front. So Johnny, after a time,
was able to creep cautiously back, to the extent of cavalry patrols at
Daur and Tekrit.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] Casualty clearing-station.
X
DOWN TO BUSRA
Events moved rapidly for the division. The brigades scattered down the
line, and H.Q. went to Akab, near the supposed site of Opis. The 21st
Brigade went across the river. Only the Leicestershires remained at
Samarra, and even they sent one company to Istabulat. Our other three
companies went to the station. The 3rd Division took over Istabulat and
Samarra. The conviction took root that we were leaving the country.
On the 19th General Maude's death was told. A pack of rumours came as
to how he had come to die, and as to how many others had died. His
funeral took place in Baghdad; Fritz attended and dropped a message of
sympathy. Mistaking his purpose when he flew so low, the archies fired
on him. Also, for once, they are said to have nearly hit him.
Knowledge of the magnitude of the Italian reverses filtered in. Our
Baghdad Anzac wireless heard 'one hundred thousand prisoners,' when the
German wireless broke in, 'Hallo, hallo, hallo, Baghdad! We can tell
you later news. It is three hundred thousand prisoners, two thousand
five hundred guns.' The enemy wireless possessed the code-name of our
own, and frequently broke in on our messages with information, asking
us to acknowledge; but this was forbidden.
In December's first week the Kifri push took place. This was not the
7th Division's affair. The Third Corps had it in charge. We rationed
them, which meant thirty-five miles of communications, up the left bank
of the Tigris, into the sub-hills of the Persian borderlands. The 20th
Punjabis furnished dump-guards. These days I spent, exceedingly
pleasantly, with the Guides in the Adhaim Valley. Here was a scene of
exquisite loveliness. The Adhaim was dry; but, in its deep bed, green
lines showed where the water ran. The winter floods were even then
beginning to gather higher up, and had reached to within a dozen miles
of the brook's junction with Tigris. The valley was thick jungle. There
were no trees, but a most dense and luxuriant growth of tamarisk,
_populus euphratica_, zizyphs and other thorns, forming a covert six to
fourteen feet high. Liquorice grew freely. Wild pig abounded, hares,
black partridge, and _sisi_. In my very brief stay I saw no pig; but
their signs were everywhere, and their water-holes in the river-bed
bore marks of constant resort. The Adhaim was crossed by
Nebuchadnezzar's great Nahrwan Canal. This was now, in effect, a deep
nulla, and had silted in, so that its bottom was above the Adhaim bank.
Its cliffs were tenanted with blue rock-pigeon, with hedgehogs and
porcupines. Shoals of mackerel-like fish used to swim up the Tigris,
with fins skimming the surface. Erskine showed me how to shoot these;
as, in later days, when we were in the Palestine line at Arsuf, I have
seen Diggins stunning fish with rifle-shots in the old Roman harbour.
In their Samarra digging the Guides had found a stone statue, which is
what they asked me up to see. The head and arms had been broken off,
obviously deliberately; but it was plainly the Goddess Ishtar, with
breasts remaining. She was sitting before the mess-tent, like Demeter
before the House of Triptolemus. This discovery was of interest beyond
itself. The books place Opis near Akab, apparently because the Adhaim
enters the Tigris opposite Akab. But, as I have said already, Kenneth
Mason has accumulated good reasons for placing Opis near Samarra. With
those reasons, this statue of Ishtar may take its place. The Samarra of
history was not much more than a standing camp for caliphs in refuge
from their true capital, Baghdad. But old Samarra covers nearly twenty
square miles of ruins upon ruins. Opis was a great mart; and Samarra,
in the relics of Eski Baghdad, to the north, reaches almost to the
Tigris end of the Tekrit-Hit caravan road.
The Kifri push resulted in another withdrawal of the fight-weary John.
He set Kifri coal-mine on fire, and it burned for some days. We took a
hundred and fifty prisoners and two field-guns. Though Russia was out
of the war, a local force of Russians helped us. They were told they
would find their rations in a certain place when they took it. They
took it all right.
I left the Guides, and went back to Beled, to my good friends of the
56th Brigade, R.F.A. On December 6 the 19th Infantry and the 56th
Artillery Brigades received orders to move down-stream immediately. All
came suddenly; I was awakened by the striking of tents. On the 8th the
Leicestershires left Samarra. In less than six days they were in
Baghdad. In those six days of marching they suffered terribly from
cold, rain, and footsoreness. But they swung through Baghdad singing.
The men of the Anzac wireless bought up oranges, and threw them to our
fellows as they passed out of Baghdad to their camp at Hinaidi, two
miles below. Baghdad streets were frozen every morning; a bucket of
water, put out overnight, would be almost solid next day. Nevertheless
there were enough flies to be an intolerable pest. When we passed the
variously spelt station of Mushaidiyeh, Keely noted the script
preferred by the railway, Mouchâhadie, and observed, 'Evidently it was
connected in their mind with flies; no doubt with good reason.'
Baghdad in winter is given up to immense flocks of crows and starlings
and to the 'Baghdad canary.'[31] No wild flowers were out, except a
white _alisma_. We purchased 'goodly Babylonish garments,' the _abbas_
for which the town is famous. Mine were sent home in an oil-sheet. The
oil-sheet arrived, the postal-service satisfying themselves with
looting the _abbas_. After all, men who have the monotony of service at
the Base are entitled to indemnify themselves for the trouble to which
men up the line put them.
We got our last glimpse of Fritz on the 15th. He was over Baghdad, and
was said to have dropped a message, 'Good-bye, 7th Division.' The
countryside was stiff with troops moving up and down.
Our destination was matter of constant speculation. When orders to
leave Beled reached the 19th Brigade, there came a wire from Divisional
Head Quarters, 'Tell the padre to preach from Matthew twenty, verse
eighteen.' But the 28th Brigade knew nothing of this hint to Lee. Some
thought we were going to Ahwaz, and thence up to Persia; others held
this Persian theory with a modification, that we should arrive
up-country from Bushire. The favourite notion was that we were going to
do another Gallipoli landing, behind Alexandretta. Some one got hold of
a map, and announced that there were mountains there nine thousand feet
high.
On the 18th we embarked, and began our slow drift down the flooded,
racing stream. We passed the old landmarks, so known and so remembered.
On the 20th we passed Kut, and knew that for most of us it was our
farewell glimpse of the town that through so many dreadful months had
seemed a place of faery, and inaccessible.
Red Autumn on the banks,
Where, through fields that bear no grain,
A desolate Mother treads,
By the brimming river, torn with rain!
A chill wind moves in the faded ranks
Of the rushes, rumpling their russet heads.
And out of the mist, on the racing stream
As I drift, I know that there gathers fast,
Over the lands I shall see no more,
Another mist, which with life shall last,
Till all that I watched and my comrades bore
Will be autumn mist, in an old man's dream.
Here an Empire's might had agonized; and many of us had buried more
hopes than we shall cherish again.
It rained, and kept on raining. Knowing what wretchedness this meant on
shore, we were glad of the crowded shelter of our P-boat, maugre its
noises and discomforts. Marshall, the semi-mythical person at Corps,
who had visited the Turks at Tekrit, scattering ruin from a 'lamb,' was
everywhere said to be taking bets, ten to one, that the war would be
ended by Christmas. If rumour spoke truth, Marshall must have lost a
pile of money.
On the 22nd we entrained at Amara, reaching Busra late on the 23rd. We
spent Christmas encamped on a marsh. My mare developed unsuspected
gifts as a humorist. Every time she saw a tree, even a date-palm, she
shied, cavorted, and leapt, showing the utmost amazement and terror.
This was witty at first, but she kept it up too long. Busra backwaters
were lovelier than ever, with the willows in their winter dress,
gold-streaked, and the brooding blue kingfishers above the waveless
channels. _Bablas_[32] were in yellow button, scenting the ditches
where huge tortoises crawled and clustered. On the 30th I got a glimpse
of Shaiba, of the tall feathery tamarisks above the Norfolks' graves
and trenches. On January 2 we embarked on the _Bandra_. With the
cheering as we moved away, the words of a Mesopotamian 'gaff'[33]
recurred to memory:
And when we came to Ashar,[34] we only cheered once;
And I don't suppose we shall cheer again, for months, and months,
and months.
We drifted down the beautiful waterway, past its forest of palms and
its abundant willows and waving reeds. We reached Koweit Bay on the 4th
and waited for rations and our new boats. On the 7th we were on our way
to a new campaign. In nine months the Leicestershires were swinging
through Beirut in the old, immemorial fashion, though foot-weary, and
singing, whilst the people madly cheered and shouted. But it was not
the old crowd. Fowke, Warren, Burrows--these three were gathered, two
months after the battalion left Mesopotamia, at Kantara, when the
German last offensive burst. They were sent at once to France. Fowke
and Warren were badly wounded; a letter from Fowke informed me that he
was hit 'while running away,' a jesting statement which one
understands. Burrows, one of our keenest minds and a delightful man, a
valued friend, did extraordinarily well--he was strangely fearless--but
was killed as the French war was ending. From the 19th Brigade
Haughton, Thornhill, General Peebles, had all gone long ago. Haughton
was wounded in the Afghan War, and Thornhill died of illness. And now,
as I write, G.A. is off to South America again, and J.Y. to Canada.
I and my friends have seen our friends no more.
FOOTNOTES:
[31] The domestic ass.
[32] Mimosa.
[33] Concert party.
[34] At Busra; the place of disembarkation.
INDEX
Adams, Captain, 80, 84
Adhaim, Shat-el, 54, 106, 146, 147
Ahwaz, 15
Akab, 145, 147
Al-Ajik, 80, 104, 108, 109, 124, 125
Ali Gharbi, 16
Amara, 15, 150
Anzac Wireless, 145, 148
Arabs, 26, 43 seq., 96, 100, 117, 122, 140, 143
Aujeh, 131 seq.
Aujeh, (Palestine), 27
Babi, 22
Baghdad, 7, 9, 18 seq., 54, 107, 148
Baldry, Sec.-Lieut., 138
Bale, Sec.-Lieut., 114
Barrett, Major, 37, 91
Barron, Sec.-Lieut., 111
Batten, Sergeant, 46
Beit Aiessa, 17, 116
Beit Na'ama, 112
Beled, 21 seq., 48, 49, 112, 117, 147
Beirut, 151
Bhopals (9th), 64, 65, 118
Black Watch (2nd), 8, 9, 65, 70
Blewitt, Captain, 84
Bracken, Captain, 108
British Field Ambulance (7), 67
Brock, Lieut.-Col., 128
Brodie, Lieut., 60
Brooking, Maj.-Gen., 118
Buddus. _See_ ARABS
Burn, Sec.-Lieut., 138
Burrows, Sec.-Lieut., 151
Busra, 112, 115, 143, 150
Cailley's Column, 54
Candler, Edmund, 7, 9
Carmel, 27
Casualty Clearing Station (19), 140
Cavalry, 18, 22, 30, 36, 39, 60, 61, 102, 132, 133, 137, 142
Clifton, Private, 93
Cobbe, Lieut.-Gen., 136
Connaught Rangers, 110
Copeman, Sec.-Lieut. Charles, 32, 44, 57, 58, 60, 80, 114
Copeman, Sec.-Lieut. J.Y., 60, 61, 63, 69, 101, 142, 151
Cotter, Colonel, 66
Creagh, Captain, 31, 87
Ctesiphon, 16, 117
Culverwell, Captain, 38
Daur, 120, 124 seq., 133, 144
Davies, Brig.-Gen., 22, 38, 107
Delamaine, Brig.-Gen., 15
Diggins, Captain, 10, 86 seq., 101, 131, 134, 139, 143, 146
Dobson, Private, 32 seq., 79, 84, 85, 92, 94, 96, 126
Dujail Canal, 44, 45, 51, 62, 70, 71, 110
Dujaileh, 16, 116
Erskine, Captain, 146
Ewing, Rev. Dr., 138
Ezra's Tomb, 113
Fane, Maj.-Gen., 113
Fao, 15
Farrell, Father, 97
Felahiyeh, 17
Fergusson, Sec.-Lieut., 113
Fisher, Sec.-Lieut., 44
Fowke, Sec.-Lieut., 31 seq., 42, 48, 52, 54 seq., 60 seq., 69, 74, 101,
102, 113, 120 seq., 132, 142, 151
Gurkhas (1/8th), 65, 69, 70, 90
Godson, Captain, 140
Graham, Captain, V.C., 84, 90
Grant-Anderson, Sec.-Lieut., 35, 54, 55, 69, 81 seq., 86, 114, 120,
143, 151
Grattan, Lieut.-Col., 84
Griffiths, Lieut.-Col., 103
Guides (1st), 65, 118, 146, 147
Haigh, Captain, 111, 124, 126
Hall, Sec.-Lieut., 44, 53, 54, 81, 83
Harbe, 28, 43, 48 seq.
Harley, Major, 49
Hart, Sec.-Lieut., 66
Hasted, Captain, 10, 35, 36, 44, 71, 82, 85 seq., 102
Haughton, Captain, 97, 151
Hayes, Sergeant, 34
Heathcote, Captain, 125
Hebden, Sec.-Lieut., 53
Henderson, Captain, 139
Highland Light Infantry, 116
Hinaidi, 148
Hunter, Captain, 103
Huweslet, 120 seq.
Intelligence Summaries, 117 seq.
Irvine, Captain, 65
Ishtar, 147
Istabulat, 48, 54, 57 seq.
Italian Reverses, 124, 145
Jebel Hamrin, 19, 21, 63, 143
Kazim Karabekir Bey, 62
Keely, Sec.-Lieut., 53, 113, 117, 148
Kifri, 131, 146, 147
Knatchbull, Lieut.-Col., 29, 33, 35, 66, 87, 112
Knott, Rev. A.E., 67
Koweit, 150
Kut-el-Amara, 15 seq., 54, 115 seq., 149
Lancers (32nd). _See_ CAVALRY
Lang, Captain, 117
Lang, Sergeant, 98
Lawrence, Sergeant, 34
Lee, Rev. R.E., 138, 149
Leslie, Lieut.-Col., 49
Light Armoured Motor Batteries, 125, 139
Lone-Tree Village, 16
Lowther, Captain, 89, 97, 101
Lyons, Sec.-Lieut., 127
Machine-gunners, 22, 33, 65, 121
Mackenzie, Captain, 65
McInerney, Sec.-Lieut., 57 seq., 83, 87 seq.
McIntyre, Captain, 135
McKay, Lieut., 84
McLeod, Major, 28, 38 seq., 95
McLeod, Sec-Lieut., 67 seq.
McRae, Major, 138
Manchesters, 117, 137 seq.
Marner, Lieut., 35, 38, 45 seq.
Marshall's Column, 85
Marshall, Captain, 125, 150
Mason, Sec-Lieut., 113
Mason, Captain Kenneth, 10, 26, 105, 115, 147
Maude, General, 18, 46, 63, 111, 118, 145
Median Wall, 56, 59 seq.
Median Wall, Second, 75 seq.
Milne, Sec.-Lieut., 138
Mosul, 19, 113, 118
Mushaidiyeh, 19, 21, 27, 28, 148
Nagpur, Bishop of, 51, 108
Nahrwan Canal, 146
Nasiriyeh, 15
Newitt, Captain, 38, 125
Norfolks, 150
Opis, 105, 145, 147
Otter, Sec-Lieut., 35
Owen, Sec-Lieut., 128, 129
Peebles, Brig.-Gen., 51, 76, 97, 101, 107, 151
Punjabis, 90, 146
Q'urna, 15
Ramadie, 20, 110, 118, 131
Reid, Major, 61
Rifles (56th), 22, 31, 39, 79, 84 seq.
Royal Field Artillery, 22, 30, 63, 77, 85, 128, 139, 147
Royal Flying Corps, 123
Russians, 16, 17, 22, 147
Samarra, 8, 9, 19, 22, 70 seq., 113, 117, 123, 143, 145, 147
Saladin, 143
Sanderson, Captain, 34
Sannaiyat, 17, 18, 28, 63, 64, 65, 109, 111, 114 seq., 138
Sarcka, 126 seq.
Scarth, Lieut., 84, 94
Schomberg, Lieut.-Col., 138, 139
Seaforths (1st), 8, 61 seq., 90, 137 seq.
Service, Lieut., 32, 33, 36, 83
Shaiba, 15, 150
Shefket Pasha, 62
Sheikh Saad, 16, 116, 138
Shumran, 18, 116 seq.
Sikhs (51st and 53rd), 22, 31 seq., 71 seq., 125 seq.
Sikhs (47th and 59th), 138
Sindiyeh, 22, 78
Singh, Subahdar Aryan, 89
Sinijah, 54
Sittake, 26
Sowter, Lieut., 53, 58, 97, 102
Stewart, Lieut., 66
Stones, Captain, 39
Suffolk, Major the Earl of, 65, 67
Sumaikchah, 22 seq., 37, 45, 57, 80, 111
Sutherland, Sergeant-Major, 138
Tekrit, 10, 20, 132 seq.
Tennant, Major, 22
Thomson, Brig.-Gen., 93
Thornhill, Captain, 97, 107 seq., 151
Thorpe, Lieut., 66, 87 seq., 102, 107 seq., 114
Tivey, Sergeant, 89, 96
Townshend, Maj.-Gen., 15 seq., 140
Townshend's Regatta, 15
Twin Canals, 112
Umm-el-Hanna, 16 seq.
Wadi, 16, 83
Waller, Lieut., 94
Warren, Sec-Lieut., 68, 81, 114, 151
Wauchope, Brig.-Gen., 8, 62
Weir, Captain, 99 seq., 107
Westlake, Sec-Lieut., 23, 30, 46, 48 seq., 53, 75, 80, 92, 97, 114
Whatsize, Sergeant-Major, 69, 88
Whitehead, Sergeant, 32, 84
Willcocks, Sir William, 50
Williamson, Corporal, 87
Wilson, Captain, 32 seq., 78 seq., 111
Xenophon, 26 seq., 59, 78
Printed by the Southampton Times Company, Ltd., 70 Above Bar.
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