ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the December operations the enemy held two main trench systems on the right bank. The first of these was the loop of Mahomed Abdul Hassan, or the Khaderi bend, opposite Khaderi Fort, where the Tigris takes a bend almost due north of Kut. The second, a rough triangle south and south-west of the Kut peninsula with its apex nearly two miles down the Shatt-el-Hai from the point where it leaves the Tigris, and the ends of its base resting on the river upstream and downstream of Kut. Mahomed Abdul Hassan, the first of these positions, was in the nature of an outwork of the Hai defences. The author’s infantry, which had pushed forward to within 300 yards of the enemy, attacked in the mist on the morning of January 9th, 1917. The Turkish front line at Mahomed Abdul Hassan lay across the bend some 2,400 yards, with both flanks resting on the river.
