My Campaign in Mesopotamia (Annotated) - Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend

"A book of extraordinary fascination." The Dial, New York, October 1920

MESOPOTAMIA, 1915-1916.

The road to Baghdad ran north through heat, marsh, dust and the winding course of the Tigris. Along it advanced the 6th (Poona) Division of the Indian Army under Major-General Sir Charles Townshend: British and Indian regiments moving farther from their bases, farther from reinforcement, and deeper into a campaign in which every mile gained lengthened the line upon which the army depended.

There were victories at Kurna, Amara and Kut. Then came the advance upon Baghdad, the savage battle of Ctesiphon, the retreat down the Tigris and the decision that would define Townshend’s name forever: to stand at Kut-al-Amara.

For nearly five months the garrison endured bombardment, assault, hunger and the repeated failure of the relief columns fighting their way north. When surrender came on 29 April 1916, it ended one of the most formidable sieges in the history of the British and Indian Armies-and began one of the most bitter controversies over command in the Great War.

First published in London in 1920, My Campaign in Mesopotamia is Townshend’s own account of that march from confidence to extremity: a commander’s record of operations, orders, calculations, battles and decisions, written by a man determined that judgment should be passed with the facts of command before it.

It is not a story of uncomplicated victory. It is a book about what remains when victory recedes and duty, honour and command must bear the whole weight of events.

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