ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the cold weather, 1917, the Turkish forces opposing us on the north-east were holding Jebel Hamrin; in the centre, on the Tigris, they were entrenched at Daur, eighteen miles north of our position at Samarrah; and on the Euphrates they held Ramadi. There had been great talk of a Turkish thrust in the autumn. The Hun boasted that a German army was coming down the Tigris or Euphrates to stiffen the Turk, recapture Baghdad, and drive the British into the sea. Before the spring of 1918 soldiers had troops on the Caspian; soldiers had been fighting in southern Turkestan and pursued the Turks as far as Altun Kupri on the Lesser Zab. After Ramadi the old pensioners in Baghdad began to come in for their dole. Before the fall of the town they held aloof and were afraid to apply to the British, fearing reprisals should the Ottoman appear on the stage again.
