ABSTRACT
The Turks must have been very much in the dark as to what their next move would be when soldiers had cleared the Dahra Bend. Soldiers held the right bank of the Tigris, they the left for thirty miles from Sannaiyat to Shumran, and their position at Sannaiyat, with its left flank on the marsh, closed the river to them for navigation. Neither of them had guns of sufficient calibre for this kind of work; and there were better ways of taking Sannaiyat than by costly frontal attacks. Surprise was essential. Everything depended on the mystification of the Turk. To realise the nature of the assault, one should think of the bund as the parapet of the enemy’s trench: it was loopholed, and had head cover. In the meantime the infantry had advanced to a ridge astride the bend, sweeping the enemy before them. Six hundred prisoners were taken.
