The British Army in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918

The British Army in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918
Author: Paul Knight
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2013-08-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786470496

When 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.

Desert Hell

Desert Hell
Author: Charles Townshend
Publisher: Belknap Press
Total Pages: 640
Release: 2011-03-31
Genre: History
ISBN:

Modern 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.

The Egyptian Labor Corps

The Egyptian Labor Corps
Author: Kyle J. Anderson
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2021-12-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1477324569

During World War I, the British Empire enlisted half a million young men, predominantly from the countryside of Egypt, in the Egyptian Labor Corps (ELC) and put them to work handling military logistics in Europe and the Middle East. British authorities reneged on their promise not to draw Egyptians into the war, and, as Kyle Anderson shows, the ELC was seen by many in Egypt as a form of slavery. The Egyptian Labor Corps tells the forgotten story of these young men, culminating in the essential part they came to play in the 1919 Egyptian Revolution. Combining sources from archives in four countries, Anderson explores Britain’s role in Egypt during this period and how the ELC came to be, as well as the experiences and hardships these men endured. As he examines the ways they coped—through music, theater, drugs, religion, strikes, and mutiny—he illustrates how Egyptian nationalists, seeing their countrymen in a state akin to slavery, began to grasp that they had been racialized as “people of color.” Documenting the history of the ELC and its work during the First World War, The Egyptian Labor Corps also provides a fascinating reinterpretation of the 1919 revolution through the lens of critical race theory.

The British Army in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918

The British Army in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918
Author: Paul Knight
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2013-07-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786493046

When 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.

Gallipoli & the Middle East 1914–1918

Gallipoli & the Middle East 1914–1918
Author: Edward J Erickson
Publisher: Amber Books Ltd
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2014-03-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1908273097

With the aid of over 300 photographs, complemented by full-colour maps, Gallipoli and the Middle East provides a detailed guide to the background and conduct of World War I in all the theatres in which Ottoman forces were engaged.

Parallel Campaigns: The British In Mesopotamia, 1914-1920 And The United States In Iraq, 2003-2004

Parallel Campaigns: The British In Mesopotamia, 1914-1920 And The United States In Iraq, 2003-2004
Author: Major Michael Andrew Kappelmann
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2014-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782896678

The 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.

Terriers in India

Terriers in India
Author: Peter Stanley
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2022-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9781804510513

Some 50,000 British Territorials served in India during the Great War. Astonishingly, it has taken a century for a book on them to be written. The Territorials - citizen soldiers, members of a force formed before the war for home defence - never expected to serve abroad, but volunteered for 'Imperial Service' at Lord Kitchener's request. Instead of going to France, in 1914 they went to India, to release Regulars for the front. The Territorials - 'Terriers' - became responsible at first for garrison duty, not trusted to fight in Mesopotamia or on the North-West Frontier. Gradually, they gained the skill to be sent to war, and most of the 41 Territorial battalions sent to India saw active service, in Mesopotamia, in Frontier campaigns, in Aden and in the Third Anglo-Afghan war of 1919. (Territorials were retained in India for up to a year after the Armistice, unhappily.) Terriers in India, based on the abundant but almost untouched holdings of county archives and regimental museums mainly in southern English counties, tells their story for the first time. It shows how novice citizen soldiers learned to act as sahibs, how they responded to India and its people (often sensitively) and took part in the most dramatic upheaval in British India since the 1857 Mutiny. Terriers in India is a rich mix of social and military history, ranging from cantonment bungalows, bazaars and brothels to sangers on the Frontier and tragic actions on the Tigris; battles in which the Terriers played a full part.

The Fall of the Ottomans

The Fall of the Ottomans
Author: Eugene Rogan
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 514
Release: 2015-03-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0465056695

"A remarkably readable, judicious and well-researched account" (Financial Times) of World War I in the Middle East By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.