Battle of the Mesopotamian Campaign of WWI
The
fall of Baghdad
(11 March 1917) occurred during the
Mesopotamia Campaign
, fought between the forces of the
British Empire
and the
Ottoman Empire
in the
First World War
.
Arrival of General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude
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After the
surrender of the Kut garrison
on 29 April 1916, the British Army in
Mesopotamia
underwent a major overhaul. A new commander, Lieutenant General
Sir Frederick Stanley Maude
, was given the job of restoring Britain's military reputation.
General Maude spent the rest of 1916 rebuilding his army. Most of his troops were recruited in
India
and then sent by sea to
Basra
. While these troops were being trained, British military engineers built a field railway from the coast up to Basra and beyond. General Maude also obtained a small force of armed river boats and river supply ships.
The British launched their new campaign on 13 December 1916. The British had some 50,000 well-trained and well-equipped troops: mostly British India troops of the
Indian Expeditionary Force D
together with the
13th (Western) Division
of the British Army forming the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force. The Indian divisions of the
Indian III Corps
(also called the
Tigris Corps
) included British Army units.
The Ottoman forces were smaller, perhaps around 25,000 strong under the overall command of General
Khalil Pasha
.
March on Baghdad
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There were no setbacks for the British on this campaign. General Maude proceeded cautiously, advancing on both sides of the
Tigris
River. He earned his nickname
Systematic Joe
. The Ottoman forces contested a fortified place called the Khadairi Bend which the British captured after two weeks of siege work (6 January to 19 January 1917). The British then had to force the Ottoman forces out of a strong defensive line along
the Hai River
. This took them two more weeks (from 25 January till 4 February). Another Ottoman position, called Dahra Bend, was taken on 16 February. Finally, the British re-captured
Kut
on 24 February 1917 in the
Second Battle of Kut
.
The local Ottoman commander,
Karabekir Bey
, did not let his army become trapped in Kut, as
General Townshend
had been in the
First Battle of Kut
.
The march on Baghdad resumed on 5 March 1917. Three days later, Maude's corps reached the
Diyala River
on the outskirts of the city.
Khalil Pasha
chose to defend Baghdad at the confluence of the Diyala and the Tigris, some 35 miles south of Baghdad. The Ottoman troops resisted the initial British assault on 9 March. General Maude then shifted the majority of his army north. He believed that he could outflank the Ottoman positions and strike directly for Baghdad. Khalil Pasha responded by shifting his army out of its defensive positions to mirror the move of the British on the other side of the river. A single regiment was left to hold the original Diyala River defences. The British crushed this regiment with a sudden assault on 10 March 1917. This sudden defeat unnerved Khalil Pasha and he ordered his army to retreat north to Baghdad.
The Ottoman authorities ordered the evacuation of Baghdad at 8 p.m. on 10 March, but the situation was rapidly moving beyond Khalil Pasha's control. The British followed close on the heels of the Ottoman troops and captured Baghdad without a fight on 11 March. A week later, General Maude issued the
Proclamation of Baghdad
, which included the line, "Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators".
[1]
Some 9,000 Ottoman troops were caught in the confusion and became prisoners of the British.
The British were worried that the Ottoman government might try to flood the Tigris plain. As it happened, this fear was unfounded. The Ottoman troops never attempted to flood the area.
Consequences
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The result was a decisive victory for the British and yet another defeat for the Ottoman government. The humiliation for the British due to the loss of Kut had been partially rectified. The Ottoman government was forced to end its military operations in
Persia
and try to build up a new army to prevent the British from moving on to capture
Mosul
.
The British had captured
Basra Vilayet
near the start of the war in 1914, and had now taken the provincial capital of
Baghdad Vilayet
. Although good news for the British forces, this caused a great deal of bureaucratic fighting between the British government in London and the British government in India over how to manage the region.
Once he captured Baghdad, Maude was the
de facto
Governor of Mesopotamia from
Basra
to Baghdad. Sir
Percy Cox
, the
Tigris Corps
Political Officer
, attempted to issue a proclamation stating that the province was under joint British-Indian administration, but London ordered Cox not to issue his proclamation and came out with its own proclamation asking Arab leaders to aid the British administration instead.
At the same time, the
Indian colonial government
had different ideas. After all, they had been the prime movers behind Mesopotamia in the first place. The British government in India wanted this new area placed under its direct control.
This power struggle led to the creation of the
Mesopotamian Administration Committee
, under the leadership of
Lord Curzon
. Its main task was to determine who would govern the Basra and Baghdad provinces. Its ruling was a
British
, not Anglo-Indian, administration for Basra and an
Arab
authority for Baghdad. The temporary government here would eventually evolve into the British
Mandate for Mesopotamia
and
Mandatory Iraq
.
Notes
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References
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Further reading
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]
- Barker, A. J.
The Bastard War: The Mesopotamian Campaign of 1914?1918
. New York: Dial Press, 1967.
OCLC
2118235
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Theatres
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Principal
participants
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Timeline
| Pre-War conflicts
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Prelude
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1914
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1915
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1916
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1917
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1918
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Co-belligerent conflicts
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Post-War conflicts
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Aspects
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