Desert Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia PDF
Preview Desert Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia
desert Hell D e s e r t H e l l the British Invasion of Mesopotamia charles townshend The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 2011 Copyright © 2010 by Charles Townshend All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First published in the United Kingdom by Faber and Faber Ltd., 2010, as When God Made Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914–1921 Townshend, Charles. [When God made hell] Desert hell : the British invasion of Mesopotamia / Charles Townshend. p. cm. Originally published as: When God made hell. London : Faber, 2010. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-674-05999-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. World War, 1914–1918—Campaigns—Iraq. 2. Great Britain— Foreign relations—Iraq. 3. Iraq—Foreign relations—Great Britain. 4. Iraq—History—20th century. I. Title. D568.5.T68 2011 940.4′23—dc22 2010045186 For Kate, leo and Max Contents list of Plates ix list of abbreviations xi author’s note xiii Maps xv Introduction xxi part i: basra 1. Into Mesopotamia 3 2. ‘an unexpected stroke’ 11 3. Turks and Indians 23 4. Basra 30 5. ‘Conciliating the arabs’ 41 6. Qurna 61 7. ‘Morally responsible to humanity and to civilization’ 72 8. ‘one of the decisive battles of the world’ 83 9. Townshend’s Regatta 95 10. Up the euphrates 109 11. To Kut 120 part ii: kut 1. To Baghdad? 133 2. To Salman Pak 144 3. Ctesiphon 157 4. Retreat 167 5. Under Siege 180 6. To the Rescue 192 7. Marking Time 207 8. Flood and Famine 213 9. dujaila: The Second Battle for Kut 224 10. Failure 232 11. Surrender 249 part iii: baghdad 1. Policy Paralysed: egypt v India 259 2. administration and Punishment 272 3. Retooling the army 288 4. Captivity 304 5. Inquiry 324 6. Maude’s offensive: The Third Battle for Kut 337 7. Baghdad at last 360 8. Maude’s Moment 369 part iv: mosul 1. northern exposure 387 2. Maude’s end 397 3. Strengthening the Hold 403 4. Caucasian Fantasies 418 5. Victory 432 6. Self-determination? 440 7. Retrenchment 453 8. Rebellion 463 9. Kingdom Come 479 10. Kurdistan for the Kurds? 493 11. The World decides 514 afterword 519 notes 528 Bibliography 555 Index 563 Plates View up the River Tigris from Qurna courtesy of the Council of the National Army Museum (NAM), London British troops enter Baghdad, March 1917 Mary Evans Picture Library / AISA Media Turkish infantry launching a counter-attack Imperial War Museum (IWM), London, HU 94153 a Gurkha manning a lewis gun, 1916 IWM Q 79438 Colonel Heawood’s map of the defences at Kut Major-General Sir George Gorringe IWM Q 70423 lord Hardinge of Penshurst Townshend and Halil Pasha after the surrender at Kut NAM ‘P Boats’ on the River Tigris IWM Q 71329 The boat bridge across the euphrates at nasiriya IWM Q 34379 British soldiers buying eggs from arab women IWM Q 24588 General Maude with British and Russian officers IWM Q 25732 Men of the King’s own bathing near Basra IWM HU 94155 Turkish prisoners from the Battle of Ramadi IWM Q 24294 Percy Cox and Gertrude Bell with Ibn Saud and the Sheikh of Kuwait in Basra Illustrated London News Ltd / Mary Evans Picture Library emir abdallah and Winston Churchill in Cairo, 1921 IWM Q 60172 ix
The list of books you might like
