- from 'the War Illustrated', 29th June, 1918
- 'Flood Warfare in Mesopotamia'
- Word-Pictures of the Desert War
British gunboats and barges on the Tigris
MESOPOTAMIA is a country of contrasts. For eight months in the year a general has to scheme to get water to his troops. For four months in the year he has to strive to keep water away from his troops. When the thermometer begins to range from 80 to 130" in the shade — and there isn't any shade — and the sky turns to brass ; when the two rivers sink, and the marshes dry up, the fighting columns go where the "dust devils" dance, a man can't sweat and a water-bottle is worth its weight in diamonds.
But when the icy shimal comes from the Persian Hills and the rains break, and the rivers run higher than the land, we continue the war on the waters, and Bedouin Atkins becomes an armed waterman. Our camp on the W — position is a vast square saucer of mud surrounded by water. To keep ourselves from being washed away — horse, foot, and guns — by the rising brown floods, we have piled our arms and dug from dawn till sunset for days and days on end. Along the whole river-line of the encamped corps, and the entrenched front lines, we have built a continuous bund. We have walled the river to its course. The bunds are about twelve feet high by thirty feet thick at the base, and a column of fours can almost pass along the top. Our only materials have been British muscle, picks and shovels, and desert earth, plus a few flour or grain sacks and sand-bags for the worst places.
British gunboats and barges on the Tigris
War in the Waters
Up-stream the Turk has carried on the work for his own protection. Thus the camps, "back" of the line, are below the water-level, and our trenches more so. Around the canvas of each tent is built a miniature bund to keep the surface water out. Deep pits bisect the lines to drain the water off and make foot movement feasible.
It is impossible to drain water from our trenches, so we bale them out with our canteens, if time and opportunity permit. Usually this permission is not forthcoming. That is the peaceable side of the picture.
We have got to make an effort to get through the enemy's line. Just on dawn our heavy artillery and the big guns of the monitors enter a fifteen minutes' intensive fire upon the Turkish position. The Turkish gunners reply upon our trenches, where the assaulting troops stand in benumbing water. Shrapnel bursts with a clean dull crack overhead, hisses into the water, and smacks into sodden parapet and parados. High-explosive shells crash sullenly in front and at the rear, and fling pillars of mud and sheets of water into the air, obscuring our objective.
From both sides the vicious rip and deafening rattle of machine-guns link up the din. The curtain of mud subsides, the smoke rises ; our monitor guns have ranged the enemy's batteries. Along the whole front of the Turkish position a violent belt of mud and water and smoke is rising and falling. Almost simultaneously, from the river and marsh flanks of the Turkish position, a solid spout of earth and water gushes up into the air and subsides again to the deep reverberation of our high explosives. Almost at once the volume of Maxim fire dwindles and staggers, the phut and splutter of bullet impact on our parapet eddies and diminishes, and the shrill, sharp "ping" of bullets overhead dies down in places. A grin travels from face to face in our trenches.
Our monitor guns have cut the bund, and the enemy's first line is flooded. The guns stop suddenly, and three regiments — one British and two Indian — surge over our parapets and begin a splashing rush forward.
The impetus was stifled at the commencement. Mud over the ankles, and water to the knees, converted the advance into a slipping, ungainly stagger. Several men fell down and arose like drowned rats. Some fell and failed to rise. The enemy's machine-guns and rifles were rattling again. The line went clumsily but steadily forward, reached the Turkish first line, and — found it a creek about three yards wide.
One cannot jump from a knee-deep "take off" of mud and water and . Bunches of men disappeared to their necks, and fruitlessly endeavoured to scramble out at the other side.
We had captured the first line all right, but the river had "occupied" and defeated the attack. That time' we did not get through.
Bund cutting is not confined to occasions of attack. When we get bored with the halts that are forced upon us by climatic conditions, a monitor steams into range, "ties up," and puts a few shells into the Turkish bunds. .This is generally done in the evenings, just to keep the Turk busy during the dark night hours, and to use up the energy of his fighting men. Occasionally he has his revenge, and cuts our bunds with one of his heavy batteries. Then it is our turn to spend the night sweating and toiling with pick and shovel and sack, stemming the incoming river. It is a Herculean business. Fortunately our bunds are well made, and the Turk has not the same high-explosive facilities for cutting that we have.
A "strong point" of a group of works near a village was holding up the advance.
Several attempts had been made to take it, but had failed, chiefly because of a swollen marsh and water-protected flanks.
For a few days there was a halt, and the position was left severely alone. In the meantime, some Norfolks and Dorsets organised a brief relaxation in the form of rehearsing a regatta. They obtained some bellums and goofas from a native village down-stream. A bellum is like a small narrow punt. It is poled or paddled along. A goofa is a big circular basket, a kind of vast round coracle.
Its method of propulsion is paddle. It will carry six people, but it is about the most unwieldy and unmanageable craft that a British soldier has ever tried to manipulate.
pages from 'the War Illustrated'
"Bellum" and "Goofa" Regalia
For several days the local villagers sat and smoked their pipes, and gravely watched the amusing efforts of the khaki-clad " Anklizi" to master the idiosyncrasies of their simple craft. It probably struck them as a great and mysterious waste of time when the Turk was just round the next bend impeding the column's advance.
Late one afternoon the regatta came off. It assembled perilously near the Turkish "point." Besides bellums and goofas there were rafts constructed chiefly of ration- cases. There was a maximum number of competitors, but several companies of troops had gone into the desert. Every available craft was present. They were all crowded, and each man carried a rifle and wore his equipment.
At the moment the sports were timed to commence some Maxims started to bark on the distant desert flank of the Turkish position. The strange flotilla at once pushed off and swung round for the reeds masking the enemy's water flank. Inside an hour that Turkish position was in our hands, captured by the scratch - regatta-party of the Norfolk's and Dorsets who had caught the enemy on the side which had been regarded as protected by the "impassable" flooded marsh.
Our plan was quite unsuspected. Our casualties were very slight. The next day saw the column six miles farther on its journey. Such is flood warfare with Bedouin-Waterman Atkins.
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