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Author: Charles Townshend
Publisher: Belknap Press
Published: 2011-03-31
Total Pages: 640
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKModern Iraq was created deliberately by the British over the seven years following their first invasion in 1914. Charles Townshend provides an informative and compelling explanation of that conquest and examines how an initially cautious strategic invasion by British forces led to imperial expansion on a vast scale.
Author: Ron Wilcox
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
Published: 2020-11-19
Total Pages:
ISBN-13: 9781526781697
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn 1914 the British expedition to Mesopotamia set out with the modest ambition of protecting the oil concession in Southern Persia but, after numerous misfortunes, ended up capturing Baghdad and Northern Towns in Iraq.Initially the mission was successful in seizing Basra but the British under Generals Nixon and Townshend, found themselves drawn North, becoming besieged by the Turks at Kut. After various failed relief attempts the British surrendered and the prisoners suffered appalling indignities and hardship, culminating in a death march to Turkey.In 1917 General Maude was appointed CinC but, as usual in Iraq, policy kept changing. Hopes that the Russians would come into the war were dashed by the Revolution. Operations were further frustrated by the hottest of summers. Fighting against the Turks continued right up to the Armistice. The conduct of the Campaign was subject to a Commission of Inquiry which was highly critical of numerous individuals and the administrative arrangements.
Author: Paul Knight
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2013-08-09
Total Pages: 211
ISBN-13: 0786470496
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhen war broke out between the British and Turkish empires in 1914, the 6th (Poona) Division sailed from India to Basra to bolster Britain's allies, deny the port to enemy shipping, and secure Britain's Persian oil supplies. Further expansion followed: the capture of Al-Amara was the British Army's greatest victory of 1915. When an advance on Baghdad was repulsed, the Siege of Kut became the British Army's longest siege and greatest surrender. Attempts to relieve Kut led to unsuccessful battles that were bloody and muddy even by Western Front standards. Under new leadership, revitalized and reinforced, the British avenged their defeat when Baghdad was captured in March 1917. Thereafter, the British Empire committed, in campaigns of limited value to the overall war effort, huge levels of manpower and materiel desperately needed elsewhere. What was created was modern Iraq and the first Arab government in Baghdad in over 400 years. This detailed history places the campaign in context of Allied operations in the Middle East and sheds light on several unsung heroes of the war, including General Charles Townshend whose spectacular 1915 victories led to humiliating defeat and captivity in 1916; General Frederick Stanley Maude whose March 1917 entry into Baghdad preceded General Allenby's entry into Jerusalem by eight months; and Miss Gertrude Bell, a "female Lawrence of Arabia" who played a central role in the creation of the new Iraqi state.
Author: Frederick James Moberly
Publisher:
Published: 1923
Total Pages: 434
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Major Michael Andrew Kappelmann
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2014-08-15
Total Pages: 168
ISBN-13: 1782896678
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Mesopotamia Campaign of World War I and Operation Iraqi Freedom of the Global War on Terrorism took place on the same geographic and human terrain. Though separated by nearly a century, a significant number of points of comparison are evident, particularly with regard to strategic and operational missteps. In both cases Western armies successfully invaded and occupied the present-day region of Iraq, and both armies suffered the effects of difficult insurgencies in the wake of their conventional campaigns. This thesis explores parallel mistakes committed by the political and military leadership of each operation in order to determine what aspects of the Mesopotamia Campaign might have provided useful precedents to the planners of Operation Iraqi Freedom. These comparable operations suggest an argument for studying history during the formulation of strategy and the design of supporting campaigns. If the American leadership had closely examined the earlier British encounter in Iraq, then it may have been able to avoid repeating some of that operation’s costly and deadly aspects.
Author: Nikolas Gardner
Publisher: Twentieth-Century Battles
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 205
ISBN-13: 9780253013842
DOWNLOAD EBOOKKut-al-Amara was the site of one of the longest sieges ever endured by British forces. On December 3, 1915, the 6th Indian Division under Charles Townshend sought refuge from pursuing Turkish forces inside the walled town. With no heavy artillery to destroy fortifications, the Turks circled the town, subjecting it to intermittent shelling, small arms fire, and infantry attacks. British relief units made repeated attempts to break through the Turkish lines. Meanwhile, within Kut-al-Amara a different sort of war was going on. Townshend's division was made up of Muslim sepoys, who had misgivings about fighting the Turks. Not only were the Turks fellow Muslims but they served the Ottoman Sultan, recognized by many as the Caliph, the spiritual and temporal head of Islam. The Turks played upon this potentially divided loyalty with a propaganda campaign intended to encourage desertion. Then, when a shortage of food forced the garrison to supplement its rations with horsemeat, Muslim and Hindu soldiers were faced with violating dietary restrictions in order to survive. For British officers, prolonging the defense of Kut was complicated by the need to combat disaffection and starvation among the Indian rank and file. A significant event in the British campaign in Mesopotamia, the Siege of Kut-al-Amara offers important insights into Britain's imperial army and its role in the Middle East during World War I.
Author: Justin Fantauzzo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2019-12-12
Total Pages: 259
ISBN-13: 1108479006
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe first full-length study of the experience and memory of British and Dominion soldiers in the Middle East and Macedonia during WWI.
Author: Anon (Black Tab)
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2014-06-13
Total Pages: 262
ISBN-13: 1782891757
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIncludes 56 original illustrations and a map of the area. Our anonymous author was part of the 6th Poona Division, Indian Army, the first of the British Empire’s forces to be deployed to Mesopotamia during the First World War. Fighting and marching through sweltering temperatures forced much inactivity on the British and Indian troops as much as their Turkish and Arab opponents. The author in his irreverent style remarked: “From 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. it was hot. From 9 a.m. to 12 damned hot. From 12 to 5.30 much too damned hot.” The campaigning seasons in this part of the world were hot, difficult and fraught with ambush and disease. Black Tab’s struggles and travails as he marches with his comrades to the relief of Kut are punctuated with witty asides, and amusing vignettes, maintaining spirits in the face of adversity. An interesting memoir from an often forgotten campaign.
Author: Charles Townshend
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2010-10-21
Total Pages: 616
ISBN-13: 0571269494
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSince 2003, Iraq has rarely left the headlines. But less discussed is the fact that Iraq as we know it was created by the British, in one of the most dramatic interventions in recent history. A cautious strategic invasion by British forces led - within seven years - to imperial expansion on a dizzying scale, with fateful consequences for the Middle East and the world. In When God Made Hell, Charles Townshend charts Britain's path from one of its worst military disasters to extraordinary success with largely unintended consequences, through overconfidence, incompetence and dangerously vague policy. With monumental research and exceptionally vivid accounts of on-the-ground warfare, this a truly gripping account of the Mesopotamia campaign, and its place in the wider political and international context. For anyone seeking to understand the roots of British involvement in Iraq, it is essential reading.
Author: Vedica Kant
Publisher: Roli Books
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9788174369796
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Though the Great war is widely considered to have been a primarily European conflict, it had enormous effects halfway across the world, and especially in India. Largely overlooked by Indian history textbooks, many Indian nationalists believed that supporting Britain's war effort would benefit India's move towards self-government. As a result, over a million and a half Indians were encouraged to enlist, and subsequently deployed to fight for the British."--Book jacket.
