Thanks awfully for your letter. It was one of the best I've had for a
long time. And many congratulations on the birth of a daughter. I'm
delighted it went off so well, and only hope she and Grace are both
flourishing.
I am sorry to hear about Benison. I suppose he was in some unit or
other. You saw of course that Stolley was killed some time ago.
At present, at any rate, we're a very comfortable distance behind the
firing line. This has been the advanced base for the Kut show. By river
we are 130 miles above Basra and about the same below Kut. The action
there on the 27th and 28th was a great success, but the pursuit was
unfortunately hung up and prevented our reaping quite the full fruits.
This was partly due to a raid on our L. of C. scuppering some
barge-loads of fuel, but chiefly to the boats getting stuck on mud
banks. This river is devilish hard to navigate just now. It winds like a
corkscrew, and though it looks 150 yards wide, the navigable channel is
quite narrow, and only 4ft. to 6ft. deep at that. So all the river boats
have to be flat bottomed, and the strong current and violent N.W. wind
keeps pushing them on the mud banks at every bend.
[Illustration]
The Turks had, they think, 15,000 men and 32 guns. Their position was
twelve miles long and most elaborately entrenched and wired with all
the German devices, and rested on a marsh at either end.
We had about 10,000 men of all arms and 25 or 27 guns, seven of them
on river boats, I think. Townshend's attack was as follows. He made
all his reconnaissances and preparations as for an attack on their
right flank, and on Monday, 27th he deployed a brigade, A. on that
side of the river, leaving only two battalions, B. on the right bank,
and keeping two battalions in reserve, C. For various reasons this
attack had made very little progress by sunset and was last seen
digging itself in. Then as soon as it got dark almost the whole of A.
together with the reserve C. was ordered to march round to the enemy's
left flank and attack Fort E. at dawn. So they moved off, intending to
go between Marsh 1 and Marsh 2; but in the dark they went round
outside Marsh 2, and at dawn after a twelve mile march found
themselves at G. They completely surprised and quickly captured Fort
E. and the section E. and F., their casualties here being mainly from
our own artillery, as was inevitable: but they were enfiladed from F.
and had to reform and dig themselves in on a front parallel with the
river, and send for artillery support.
Meanwhile the skeleton left on our left flank and the force B. were
pressing a frontal attack, supported by the guns: and by the afternoon
the outflanking force A. was able to resume its advance, which it was
keen to finish as the men were very tired and had run out of water.
But just then the whole Turkish reserve turned up on their right front
and flank, having been hurried back from the right flank to which our
feint had drawn them, across the bridge D. whence they deployed in
crescent formation. Apparently this new danger had a very bracing
effect on the thirsty ones; it is a rash man that stands between T.A.
and his drink. They went straight for the centre of the crescent, as
far as I can make out, with the Turkish reserves on their front and
flanks and the Turkish firing line in their rear. This was where most
of the casualties occurred, but after a stiff fight the Turks broke
and ran: and there was a tremendous crush at the bridge D. where they
started shooting each other freely.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Commander announced that he had received a
telegram from the Sultan requiring the immediate presence of himself
and army at Constantinople: so the firing line took the hint and
started for the new alignment by the shortest route. However, as
everybody's great idea was to put the river between himself and the
enemy he'd been facing, two streams met at the bridge D. and there
were further scenes. By this time it was dark, and our troops were
utterly exhausted, so nothing more was done for the moment.
Our casualties were 85 killed and 1,158 wounded, an extraordinary
proportion. We haven't had any reliable information of the enemy's
losses yet: but we took about 1,300 prisoners.
I must stop now. I am very fit and a Capt., 3rd Senior Officer out
here for the moment (excluding Adjutant O.M.O.) and am commanding "A"
double Coy.
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