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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13665 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 13665-h.htm or 13665-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/6/13665/13665-h/13665-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/6/13665/13665-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN
+
+by
+
+KERMIT ROOSEVELT
+
+Captain Motor Machine-Gun Corps, British Expeditionary Forces
+Captain Field Artillery, American Expeditionary Forces
+
+Illustrated from Photographs by the Author
+
+New York
+
+1919
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Kermit Roosevelt. From the drawing by John S.
+Sargent, July 8, 1917]
+
+
+
+To
+
+The Memory of My Father
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+   I. OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA
+  II. THE TIGRIS FRONT
+ III. PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON
+  IV. SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT
+   V. THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES
+  VI. BAGHDAD SKETCHES
+ VII. THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT
+VIII. BACK THROUGH PALESTINE
+  IX. WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+Kermit Roosevelt
+Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting
+Ashar Creek at Busra
+Golden Dome of Samarra
+Rafting down from Tekrit
+Captured Turkish camel corps
+Towing an armored car across a river
+Reconnaissance
+The Lion of Babylon
+A dragon on the palace wall
+Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car
+A Mesopotamian garage
+A water-wheel on the Euphrates
+A "Red Crescent" ambulance
+A jeweller's booth in the bazaar
+Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge
+The Kurd and his wife
+Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds
+Kirkuk
+A street in Jerusalem
+Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA
+
+
+It was at Taranto that we embarked for
+Mesopotamia. Reinforcements were sent out
+from England in one of two ways--either all
+the way round the Cape of Good Hope, or by
+train through France and Italy down to the
+desolate little seaport of Taranto, and thence
+by transport over to Egypt, through the Suez
+Canal, and on down the Red Sea to the Indian
+Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The latter
+method was by far the shorter, but the submarine
+situation in the Mediterranean was
+such that convoying troops was a matter of
+great difficulty. Taranto is an ancient Greek
+town, situated at the mouth of a landlocked
+harbor, the entrance to which is a narrow
+channel, certainly not more than two hundred
+yards across. The old part of the town is
+built on a hill, and the alleys and runways
+winding among the great stone dwellings serve
+as streets. As is the case with maritime towns,
+it is along the wharfs that the most interest
+centres. During one afternoon I wandered
+through the old town and listened to the fisherfolk
+singing as they overhauled and mended
+their nets. Grouped around a stone archway
+sat six or seven women and girls. They were
+evidently members of one family--a grandmother,
+her daughters, and their children.
+The old woman, wild, dark, and hawk-featured,
+was blind, and as she knitted she chanted
+some verses. I could only understand occasional
+words and phrases, but it was evidently
+a long epic. At intervals her listeners would
+break out in comments as they worked, but,
+like "Othere, the old sea-captain," she "neither
+paused nor stirred."
+
+There are few things more desolate than
+even the best situated "rest-camps"--the long
+lines of tents set out with military precision,
+the trampled grass, and the board walks; but
+the one at Taranto where we awaited embarkation
+was peculiarly dismal even for a rest-camp.
+So it happened that when Admiral Mark
+Kerr, the commander of the Mediterranean
+fleet, invited me to be his guest aboard H.M.S.
+_Queen_ until the transport should sail, it was
+in every way an opportunity to be appreciated.
+In the British Empire the navy is the "senior
+service," and I soon found that the tradition
+for the hospitality and cultivation of its officers
+was more than justified. The admiral had
+travelled, and read, and written, and no more
+pleasant evenings could be imagined than
+those spent in listening to his stories of the
+famous writers, statesmen, and artists who
+were numbered among his friends. He had
+always been a great enthusiast for the development
+of aerial warfare, and he was recently
+in Nova Scotia in command of the giant Handley-Page
+machine which was awaiting favorable
+weather conditions in order to attempt the nonstop
+transatlantic flight. Among his poems
+stands out the "Prayer of Empire," which,
+oddly enough, the former German Emperor
+greatly admired, ordering it distributed
+throughout the imperial navy! The Kaiser's
+feelings toward the admiral have suffered an
+abrupt change, but they would have been
+even more hostile had England profited by
+his warnings:
+
+    "There's no menace in preparedness, no threat in being strong,
+    If the people's brain be healthy and they think no thought of wrong."
+
+After four or five most agreeable days aboard the _Queen_ the word came to
+embark, and I was duly transferred to the _Saxon_, an old Union Castle
+liner that was to run us straight through to Busra.
+
+As we steamed out of the harbor we were joined by two diminutive Japanese
+destroyers which were to convoy us. The menace of the submarine being
+particularly felt in the Adriatic, the transports travelled only by night
+during the first part of the voyage. To a landsman it was incomprehensible
+how it was possible for us to pursue our zigzag course in the inky
+blackness and avoid collisions, particularly when it was borne in mind
+that our ship was English and our convoyers were Japanese. During the
+afternoon we were drilled in the method of abandoning ship, and I was put
+in charge of a lifeboat and a certain section of the ropes that were to be
+used in our descent over the side into the water. Between twelve and one
+o'clock that night we were awakened by three blasts, the preconcerted
+danger-signal. Slipping into my life-jacket, I groped my way to my station
+on deck. The men were filing up in perfect order and with no show of
+excitement. A ship's officer passed and said he had heard that we had
+been torpedoed and were taking in water. For fifteen or twenty minutes we
+knew nothing further. A Scotch captain who had charge of the next boat to
+me came over and whispered: "It looks as if we'd go down. I have just seen
+a rat run out along the ropes into my boat!" That particular rat had not
+been properly brought up, for shortly afterward we were told that we were
+not sinking. We had been rammed amidships by one of the escorting
+destroyers, but the breach was above the water-line. We heard later that
+the destroyer, though badly smashed up, managed to make land in safety.
+
+We laid up two days in a harbor on the Albanian coast, spending the time
+pleasantly enough in swimming and sailing, while we waited for a new
+escort. Another night's run put us in Navarino Bay. The grandfather of
+Lieutenant Finch Hatton, one of the officers on board, commanded the
+Allied forces in the famous battle fought here in 1827, when the Turkish
+fleet was vanquished and the independence of Greece assured.
+
+Several days more brought us to Port Said, and after a short delay we
+pushed on through the canal and into the Red Sea. It was August, and when
+one talks of the Red Sea in August there is no further need for comment.
+The _Saxon_ had not been built for the tropics. She had no fans, nor
+ventilating system such as we have on the United Fruit boats. Some
+unusually intelligent stokers had deserted at Port Said, and as we were in
+consequence short-handed, it was suggested that any volunteers would be
+given a try. Finch Hatton and I felt that our years in the tropics should
+qualify us, and that the exercise would improve our dispositions. We got
+the exercise. Never have I felt anything as hot, and I have spent August
+in Yuma, Arizona, and been in Italian Somaliland and the Amazon Valley.
+The shovels and the handles of the wheelbarrows blistered our hands.
+
+[Illustration: Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting. Inset,
+showing relative position of Mesopotamia and other countries.]
+
+We had a number of cases of heat-stroke, and the hospital facilities on a
+crowded transport can never be all that might be desired. The first
+military burial at sea was deeply impressive. There was a lane of Tommies
+drawn up with their rifles reversed and heads bowed; the short, classic
+burial service was read, and the body, wrapped in the Union Jack, slid
+down over the stern of the ship. Then the bugles rang out in the haunting,
+mournful strains of the "Last Post," and the service ended with all
+singing "Abide With Me."
+
+We sweltered along down the Red Sea and around into the Indian Ocean. We
+wished to call at Aden in order to disembark some of our sick, but were
+ordered to continue on without touching. Our duties were light, and we
+spent the time playing cards and reading. The Tommies played "house" from
+dawn till dark. It is a game of the lotto variety. Each man has a paper
+with numbers written on squares; one of them draws from a bag slips of
+paper also marked with numbers, calls them out, and those having the
+number he calls cover it, until all the numbers on their paper have been
+covered. The first one to finish wins, and collects a penny from each of
+the losers. The caller drones out the numbers with a monotony only
+equalled by the brain-fever bird, and quite as disastrous to the nerves.
+There are certain conventional nicknames: number one is always "Kelley's
+eye," eleven is "legs eleven," sixty-six is "clickety click," and the
+highest number is "top o' the 'ouse." There is another game that would be
+much in vogue were it not for the vigilance of the officers. It is known
+as "crown and anchor," and the advantage lies so strongly in favor of the
+banker that he cannot fail to make a good income, and therefore the game
+is forbidden under the severest penalties.
+
+As we passed through the Strait of Ormuz memories of the early days of
+European supremacy in the East crowded back, for I had read many a
+vellum-covered volume in Portuguese about the early struggles for
+supremacy in the gulf. One in particular interested me. The Portuguese
+were hemmed in at Ormuz by a greatly superior English force. The expected
+reinforcements never arrived, and at length their resources sank so low,
+and they suffered in addition, or in consequence, so greatly from disease
+that they decided to sail forth and give battle. This they did, but before
+they joined in fight the ships of the two admirals sailed up near each
+other--the Portuguese commander sent the British a gorgeous scarlet
+ceremonial cloak, the British responded by sending him a handsomely
+embossed sword. The British admiral donned the cloak, the Portuguese
+grasped the sword; a page brought each a cup of wine; they pledged each
+other, threw the goblets into the sea, and fell to. The British were
+victorious. Times indeed have sadly changed in the last three hundred
+years!
+
+I was much struck with the accuracy of the geographical descriptions in
+Camoens' letters and odes. He is the greatest of the Portuguese poets and
+wrote the larger part of his master-epic, "The Lusiad," while exiled in
+India. For seventeen years he led an adventurous life in the East; and it
+is easy to recognize many harbors and stretches of coast line from his
+inimitable portrayal.
+
+Busra, our destination, lies about sixty miles from the mouth of the Shatt
+el Arab, which is the name given to the combined Tigris and Euphrates
+after their junction at Kurna, another fifty or sixty miles above. At the
+entrance to the river lies a sand-bar, effectively blocking access to
+boats of as great draft as the _Saxon_. We therefore transshipped to some
+British India vessels, and exceedingly comfortable we found them, designed
+as they were for tropic runs. We steamed up past the Island of Abadan,
+where stand the refineries of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It is hard to
+overestimate the important part that company has played in the conduct of
+the Mesopotamian campaign. Motor transport was nowhere else a greater
+necessity. There was no possibility of living on the country; at first,
+at all events. General Dickson, the director of local resources, later set
+in to so build up and encourage agriculture that the army should
+eventually be supported, in the staples of life, by local produce.
+Transportation was ever a hard nut to crack. Railroads were built, but
+though the nature of the country called for little grading, obtaining
+rails, except in small quantities, was impossible. The ones brought were
+chiefly secured by taking up the double track of Indian railways. This
+process naturally had a limit, and only lines of prime importance could be
+laid down. Thus you could go by rail from Busra to Amara, and from Kut to
+Baghdad, but the stretch between Amara and Kut had never been built, up to
+the time I left the country. General Maude once told me that pressure was
+being continually brought by the high command in England or India to have
+that connecting-link built, but that he was convinced that the rails would
+be far more essential elsewhere, and had no intention of yielding.
+
+I don't know the total number of motor vehicles, but there were more than
+five thousand Fords alone. On several occasions small columns of infantry
+were transported in Fords, five men and the driver to a car. Indians of
+every caste and religion were turned into drivers, and although it seemed
+sufficiently out of place to come across wizened, khaki-clad Indo-Chinese
+driving lorries in France, the incongruity was even more marked when one
+beheld a great bearded Sikh with his turbaned head bent over the
+steering-wheel of a Ford.
+
+Modern Busra stands on the banks of Ashar Creek. The ancient city whence
+Sinbad the sailor set forth is now seven or eight miles inland, buried
+under the shifting sands of the desert. Busra was a seaport not so many
+hundreds of years ago. Before that again, Kurna was a seaport, and the two
+rivers probably only joined in the ocean, but they have gradually enlarged
+the continent and forced back the sea. The present rate of encroachment
+amounts, I was told, to nearly twelve feet a year.
+
+The modern town has increased many fold with the advent of the
+Expeditionary Force, and much of the improvement is of a necessarily
+permanent nature; in particular the wharfs and roads. Indeed, one of the
+most striking features of the Mesopotamian campaign is the permanency of
+the improvements made by the British. In order to conquer the country it
+was necessary to develop it,--build railways and bridges and roads and
+telegraph systems,--and it has all been done in a substantial manner. It
+is impossible to contemplate with equanimity the possibility of the
+country reverting to a rule where all this progress would soon disappear
+and the former stagnancy and injustice again hold sway.
+
+[Illustration: Ashar Creek at Busra]
+
+As soon as we landed I wandered off to the bazaar--"suq" is what the Arab
+calls it. In Busra there are a number of excellent ones. By that I don't
+mean that there are art treasures of the East to be found in them, for
+almost everything could be duplicated at a better price in New York. It is
+the grouping of wares, the mode of sale, and, above all, the salesmen and
+buyers that make a bazaar--the old bearded Persian sitting cross-legged in
+his booth, the motley crowd jostling through the narrow, vaulted
+passageway, the veiled women, the hawk-featured, turbaned men, the Jews,
+the Chaldeans, the Arabs, the Armenians, the stalwart Kurds, and through
+it all a leaven of khaki-clad Indians, purchasing for the regimental mess.
+All these and an ever-present exotic, intangible something are what the
+bazaar means. Close by the entrance stood a booth festooned with lamps and
+lanterns of every sort, with above it scrawled "Aladdin-Ibn-Said." My
+Arabic was not at that time sufficient to enable me to discover from the
+owner whether he claimed illustrious ancestry or had merely been named
+after a patron saint.
+
+A few days after landing at Busra we embarked on a paddle-wheel boat to
+pursue our way up-stream the five hundred intervening miles to Baghdad.
+Along the banks of the river stretched endless miles of date-palms. We
+watched the Arabs at their work of fertilizing them, for in this country
+these palms have to depend on human agency to transfer the pollen. At
+Kurna we entered the Garden of Eden, and one could quite appreciate the
+feelings of the disgusted Tommy who exclaimed: "If this is the Garden, it
+wouldn't take no bloody angel with a flaming sword to turn me back." The
+direct descendant of the Tree is pointed out; whether its properties are
+inherited I never heard, but certainly the native would have little to
+learn by eating the fruit.
+
+Above Kurna the river is no longer lined with continuous palm-groves;
+desert and swamps take their place--the abode of the amphibious, nomadic,
+marsh Arab. An unruly customer he is apt to prove himself, and when he is
+"wanted" by the officials, he retires to his watery fastnesses, where he
+can remain in complete safety unless betrayed by his comrades. On the
+banks of the Tigris stands Ezra's tomb. It is kept in good repair through
+every vicissitude of rule, for it is a holy place to Moslem and Jew and
+Christian alike.
+
+The third night brought us to Amara. The evening was cool and pleasant
+after the scorching heat of the day, and Finch Hatton and I thought that
+we would go ashore for a stroll through the town. As we proceeded down the
+bank toward the bridge, I caught sight of a sentry walking his post. His
+appearance was so very important and efficient that I slipped behind my
+companion to give him a chance to explain us. "Halt! Who goes there?"
+"Friend," replied Finch Hatton. "Advance, friend, and give the
+countersign." F.H. started to advance, followed by a still suspicious me,
+and rightly so, for the Tommy, evidently member of a recent draft, came
+forward to meet us with lowered bayonet, remarking in a businesslike
+manner: "There isn't any countersign."
+
+Except for the gunboats and monitors, all river traffic is controlled by
+the Inland Water Transport Service. The officers are recruited from all
+the world over. I firmly believe that no river of any importance could be
+mentioned but what an officer of the I.W.T. could be found who had
+navigated it. The great requisite for transports on the Tigris was a very
+light draft, and to fill the requirements boats were requisitioned ranging
+from penny steamers of the Thames to river-craft of the Irrawaddy. Now in
+bringing a penny steamer from London to Busra the submarine is one of the
+lesser perils, and in supplying the wants of the Expeditionary Force more
+than eighty vessels were lost at sea, frequently with all aboard.
+
+As was the custom, we had a barge lashed to either side. These barges are
+laden with troops, or horses, or supplies. In our case we had the first
+Bengal regiment--a new experiment, undertaken for political reasons. The
+Bengali is the Indian who most readily takes to European learning.
+Rabindranath Tagore is probably the most widely known member of the race.
+They go to Calcutta University and learn a smattering of English and
+absorb a certain amount of undigested general knowledge and theory. These
+partially educated Bengalis form the Babu class, and many are employed in
+the railways. They delight in complicated phraseology, and this coupled
+with their accent and seesaw manner of speaking supply the English a
+constant source of caricature. As a race they are inclined to be vain and
+boastful, and are ever ready to nurse a grievance against the British
+Government, feeling that they have been provided with an education but no
+means of support. The government felt that it might help to calm them if a
+regiment were recruited and sent to Mesopotamia. How they would do in
+actual fighting had never been demonstrated up to the time I left the
+country, but they take readily to drill, and it was amusing to hear them
+ordering each other about in their clipped English. They were used for
+garrisoning Baghdad.
+
+After we left Amara we continued our winding course up-stream. A boat
+several hours ahead may be seen only a few hundred yards distant across
+the desert. The banks are so flat and level that it looks as if the other
+vessels were steaming along on land. The Arab river-craft was most
+picturesque. At sunset a mahela, bearing down with filled sail, might
+have been the model for Maxfield Parrish's _Pirate Ship_. The Arab women
+ran along the bank beside us, carrying baskets of eggs and chickens, and
+occasionally melons. They were possessed of surprising endurance, and
+would accompany us indefinitely, heavily laden as they were. Their robes
+trailed in the wind as they jumped ditches, screaming out their wares
+without a moment's pause. An Indian of the boat's crew was haggling with a
+woman about a chicken. He threw her an eight-anna piece. She picked up the
+money but would not hand him the chicken, holding out for her original
+price. He jumped ashore, intending to take the chicken. She had a few
+yards' start and made the most of it. In and out they chased, over hedge
+and ditch, down the bank and up again. Several times he almost had her.
+She never for a moment ceased screeching--an operation which seemed to
+affect her wind not a particle. At the end of fifteen minutes the Indian
+gave up amid the delighted jeers of his comrades, and returned shamefaced
+and breathless to jump aboard the boat as we bumped against the bank on
+rounding a curve.
+
+One evening we halted where, not many months before, the last of the
+battles of Sunnaiyat had been fought. There for months the British had
+been held back, while their beleaguered comrades in Kut could hear the
+roar of the artillery and hope against hope for the relief that never
+reached them. It was one phase of the campaign that closely approximated
+the gruelling trench warfare in France. The last unsuccessful attack was
+launched a week before the capitulation of the garrison, and it was almost
+a year later before the position was eventually taken. The front-line
+trenches were but a short distance apart, and each side had developed a
+strong and elaborate system of defense. One flank was protected by an
+impassable marsh and the other by the river. When we passed, the field
+presented an unusually gruesome appearance even for a battle-field, for
+the wandering desert Arabs had been at work, and they do not clean up as
+thoroughly as the African hyena. A number had paid the penalty through
+tampering with unexploded grenades and "dud" shells, and left their own
+bones to be scattered around among the dead they had been looting. The
+trenches were a veritable Golgotha with skulls everywhere and dismembered
+legs still clad with puttees and boots.
+
+At Kut we disembarked to do the remaining hundred miles to Baghdad by rail
+instead of winding along for double the distance by river, with a good
+chance of being hung up for hours, or even days, on some shifting
+sand-bar. At first sight Kut is as unpromising a spot as can well be
+imagined, with its scorching heat and its sand and the desolate
+mud-houses, but in spite of appearances it is an important and thriving
+little town, and daily becoming of more consequence.
+
+The railroad runs across the desert, following approximately the old
+caravan route to Baghdad. A little over half-way the line passes the
+remaining arch of the great hall of Ctesiphon. This hall is one hundred
+and forty-eight feet long by seventy-six broad. The arch stands
+eighty-five feet high. Around it, beneath the mounds of desert sand, lies
+all that remains of the ancient city. As a matter of fact the city is by
+no means ancient as such things go in Mesopotamia, dating as it does from
+the third century B.C., when it was founded by the successors of Alexander
+the Great.
+
+My first night in Baghdad I spent in General Maude's house, on the
+river-bank. The general was a striking soldierly figure of a man, standing
+well over six feet. His military career was long and brilliant. His first
+service was in the Coldstream Guards. He distinguished himself in South
+Africa. Early in the present war he was severely wounded in France. Upon
+recovering he took over the Thirteenth Division, which he commanded in the
+disastrous Gallipoli campaign, and later brought out to Mesopotamia. When
+he reached the East the situation was by no means a happy one for the
+British. General Townshend was surrounded in Kut, and the morale of the
+Turk was excellent after the successes he had met with in Gallipoli. In
+the end of August, 1916, four months after the fall of Kut, General Maude
+took over the command of the Mesopotamian forces. On the 11th of March of
+the following year he occupied Baghdad, thereby re-establishing completely
+the British prestige in the Orient. One of Germany's most serious
+miscalculations was with regard to the Indian situation. She felt
+confident that, working through Persia and Afghanistan, she could stir up
+sufficient trouble, possibly to completely overthrow British rule, but
+certainly to keep the English so occupied with uprisings as to force them
+to send troops to India rather than withdraw them thence for use
+elsewhere. The utter miscarriage of Germany's plans is, indeed, a fine
+tribute to Great Britain. The Emir of Afghanistan did probably more than
+any single native to thwart German treachery and intrigue, and every
+friend of the Allied cause must have read of his recent assassination with
+a very real regret.
+
+When General Maude took over the command, the effect of the Holy War that,
+at the Kaiser's instigation, was being preached in the mosques had not as
+yet been determined. This jehad, as it was called, proposed to unite all
+"True Believers" against the invading Christians, and give the war a
+strongly religious aspect. The Germans hoped by this means to spread
+mutiny among the Mohammedan troops, which formed such an appreciable
+element of the British forces, as well as to fire the fury of the Turks
+and win as many of the Arabs to their side as possible. The Arab
+thoroughly disliked both sides. The Turk oppressed him, but did so in an
+Oriental, and hence more or less comprehensible, manner. The English gave
+him justice, but it was an Occidental justice that he couldn't at first
+understand or appreciate, and he was distinctly inclined to mistrust it.
+In course of time he would come to realize its advantages. Under Turkish
+rule the Arab was oppressed by the Turk, but then he in turn could oppress
+the Jew, the Chaldean, and Nestorian Christians, and the wretched
+Armenian. Under British rule he suddenly found these latter on an equal
+footing with him, and he felt that this did not compensate the lifting
+from his shoulders of the Turkish burden. Then, too, when a race has been
+long oppressed and downtrodden, and suddenly finds itself on an equality
+with its oppressor, it is apt to become arrogant and overbearing. This is
+exactly what happened, and there was bad feeling on all sides in
+consequence. However, real fundamental justice is appreciated the world
+over, once the native has been educated up to it, and can trust in its
+continuity.
+
+The complex nature of the problems facing the army commander can be
+readily seen. He was an indefatigable worker and an unsurpassed organizer.
+The only criticism I ever heard was that he attended too much to the
+details himself and did not take his subordinates sufficiently into his
+confidence. A brilliant leader, beloved by his troops, his loss was a
+severe blow to the Allied cause.
+
+Baghdad is often referred to as the great example of the shattered
+illusion. We most of us have read the _Arabian Nights_ at an early age,
+and think of the abode of the caliphs as a dream city, steeped in what we
+have been brought up to think of as the luxury, romance, and glamour of
+the East. Now glamour is a delicate substance. In the all-searching glare
+of the Mesopotamian sun it is apt to appear merely tawdry. Still, a goodly
+number of years spent in wandering about in foreign lands had prepared me
+for a depreciation of the "stuff that dreams are made of," and I was not
+disappointed. It is unfortunate that the normal way to approach is from
+the south, and that that view of the city is flat and uninteresting.
+Coming, as I several times had occasion to, from the north, one first
+catches sight of great groves of date-palms, with the tall minarets of the
+Mosque of Kazimain towering above them; then a forest of minarets and blue
+domes, with here and there some graceful palm rising above the flat roofs
+of Baghdad. In the evening when the setting sun strikes the towers and the
+tiled roofs, and the harsh lights are softened, one is again in the land
+of Haroun-el-Raschid.
+
+The great covered bazaars are at all times capable of "eating the hours,"
+as the natives say. One could sit indefinitely in a coffee-house and watch
+the throngs go by--the stalwart Kurdish porter with his impossible loads,
+the veiled women, the unveiled Christian or lower-class Arab women, the
+native police, the British Tommy, the kilted Scot, the desert Arab, all
+these and many more types wandered past. Then there was the gold and
+silver market, where the Jewish and Armenian artificers squatted beside
+their charcoal fires and haggled endlessly with their customers. These
+latter were almost entirely women, and they came both to buy and sell,
+bringing old bracelets and anklets, and probably spending the proceeds on
+something newer that had taken their fancy. The workmanship was almost
+invariably poor and rough. Most of the women had their babies with them,
+little mites decked out in cheap finery and with their eyelids thickly
+painted. The red dye from their caps streaked their faces, the flies
+settled on them at will, and they had never been washed. When one thought
+of the way one's own children were cared for, it seemed impossible that a
+sufficient number of these little ones could survive to carry on the
+race. The infant mortality must be great, though the children one sees
+look fat and thriving.
+
+Baghdad is not an old city. Although there was probably a village on the
+site time out of mind, it does not come into any prominence until the
+eighth century of our era. As the residence of the Abasside caliphs it
+rapidly assumed an important position. The culmination of its magnificence
+was reached in the end of the eighth century, under the rule of the
+world-famous Haroun-el-Raschid. It long continued to be a centre of
+commerce and industry, though suffering fearfully from the various sieges
+and conquests which it underwent. In 1258 the Mongols, under a grandson of
+the great Genghis Khan, captured the city and held it for a hundred years,
+until ousted by the Tartars under Tamberlane. It was plundered in turn by
+one Mongol horde after another until the Turks, under Murad the Fourth,
+eventually secured it. Naturally, after being the scene of so much looting
+and such massacres, there is little left of the original city of the
+caliphs. Then, too, in Mesopotamia there is practically no stone, and
+everything was built of brick, which readily lapses back to its original
+state. For this reason the invaders easily razed a conquered town, and
+Mesopotamia, so often called the "cradle of the world," retains but little
+trace of the races and civilizations that have succeeded each other in
+ruling the land. When the Tigris was low at the end of the summer season,
+we used to dig out from its bank great bricks eighteen inches square, on
+which was still distinctly traced the seal of Nebuchadnezzar. These,
+possibly the remnants of a quay, were all that remained of the times
+before the advent of the caliphs.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE TIGRIS FRONT
+
+
+A few days after reaching Baghdad I left for Samarra, which was at that
+time the Tigris front. I was attached to the Royal Engineers, and my
+immediate commander was Major Morin, D.S.O., an able officer with an
+enviable record in France and Mesopotamia. The advance army of the Tigris
+was the Third Indian Army Corps, under the command of General Cobbe, a
+possessor of the coveted, and invariably merited, Victoria Cross. The
+Engineers were efficiently commanded by General Swiney. The seventy miles
+of railroad from Baghdad to Samarra were built by the Germans, being the
+only Mesopotamian portion of the much-talked-of Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway,
+completed before the war. It was admirably constructed, with an excellent
+road-bed, heavy rails and steel cross-ties made by Krupp. In their retreat
+the Turks had been too hurried to accomplish much in the way of
+destruction other than burning down a few stations and blowing up the
+water-towers. The rolling-stock had been left largely intact. There were
+no passenger-coaches, and you travelled either by flat or box car. Every
+one followed the Indian custom of carrying with them their bedding-rolls,
+and leather-covered wash-basin containing their washing-kit, as well as
+one of the comfortable rhoorkhee chairs. In consequence, although for
+travel by boat or train nothing was provided, there was no discomfort
+entailed. The trains were fitted out with anti-aircraft guns, for the
+Turkish aeroplanes occasionally tried to "lay eggs," a by no means easy
+affair with a moving train as a target. Whatever the reason was, and I
+never succeeded in discovering it, the trains invariably left Baghdad in
+the wee small hours, and as the station was on the right bank across the
+river from the main town, and the boat bridges were cut during the night,
+we used generally, when returning to the front, to spend the first part of
+the night sleeping on the station platform. Generals or exalted staff
+officers could usually succeed in having a car assigned to them, and
+hauled up from the yard in time for them to go straight to bed in it.
+Frequently their trip was postponed, and an omniscient sergeant-major
+would indicate the car to the judiciously friendly, who could then enjoy a
+solid night's sleep. The run took anywhere from eight to twelve hours; but
+when sitting among the grain-bags on an open car, or comfortably ensconced
+in a chair in a "covered goods," with _Vingt Ans Après_, the time passed
+pleasantly enough in spite of the withering heat.
+
+While still a good number of miles away from Samarra we would catch sight
+of the sun glinting on the golden dome of the mosque, built over the cleft
+where the twelfth Imam, the Imam Mahdi, is supposed to have disappeared,
+and from which he is one day to reappear to establish the true faith upon
+earth. Many Arabs have appeared claiming to be the Mahdi, and caused
+trouble in a greater or less degree according to the extent of their
+following. The most troublous one in our day was the man who besieged
+Kharthoum and captured General "Chinese" Gordon and his men. Twenty-five
+years later, when I passed through the Sudan, there were scarcely any men
+of middle age left, for they had been wiped out almost to a man under the
+fearful rule of the Mahdi, a rule which might have served as prototype to
+the Germans in Belgium.
+
+[Illustration: Golden Dome of Samarra]
+
+[Illustration: Rafting down from Tekrit]
+
+Samarra is very ancient, and has passed through periods of great
+depression and equally great expansion. It was here in A.D. 363 that the
+Roman Emperor Julian died from wounds received in the defeat of his forces
+at Ctesiphon. The golden age lasted about forty years, beginning in 836,
+when the Caliph Hutasim transferred his capital thither from Baghdad.
+During that time the city extended for twenty-one miles along the
+river-bank, with glorious palaces, the ruins of some of which still stand.
+The present-day town has sadly shrunk from its former grandeur, but still
+has an impressive look with its great walls and massive gateways. The
+houses nearest the walls are in ruins or uninhabited; but in peacetime the
+great reputation that the climate of Samarra possesses for salubrity draws
+to it many Baghdad families who come to pass the summer months. A good
+percentage of the inhabitants are Persians, for the eleventh and twelfth
+Shiah Imams are buried on the site of the largest mosque. The two main
+sects of Moslems are the Sunnis and the Shiahs; the former regard the
+three caliphs who followed Mohammed as his legitimate successors,
+whereas the latter hold them to be usurpers, and believe that his
+cousin and son-in-law, Ali, husband of Fatimah, together with their sons
+Husein and Hasan, are the prophet's true inheritors. Ali was assassinated
+near Nejef, which city is sacred to his memory, and his son Husein was
+killed at Kerbela; so these two cities are the greatest of the Shiah
+shrines. The Turks belong almost without exception to the Sunni sect,
+whereas the Persians and a large percentage of the Arabs inhabiting
+Mesopotamia are Shiahs.
+
+The country around Samarra is not unlike in character the southern part of
+Arizona and northern Sonora. There are the same barren hills and the same
+glaring heat. The soil is not sand, but a fine dust which permeates
+everything, even the steel uniform-cases which I had always regarded as
+proof against all conditions. The parching effect was so great that it was
+not only necessary to keep all leather objects thoroughly oiled but the
+covers of my books cracked and curled up until I hit upon the plan of
+greasing them well also. In the alluvial lowlands trench-digging was a
+simple affair, but along the hills we found a pebbly conglomerate that
+gave much trouble.
+
+Opinion was divided as to whether the Turk would attempt to advance down
+the Tigris. Things had gone badly with our forces in Palestine at the
+first battle of Gaza; but here we had an exceedingly strong position, and
+the consensus of opinion seemed to be that the enemy would think twice
+before he stormed it. Their base was at Tekrit, almost thirty miles away.
+However, about ten miles distant stood a small village called Daur, which
+the Turks held in considerable force. Between Daur and Samarra there was
+nothing but desert, with gazelles and jackals the only permanent
+inhabitants. Into this no man's land both sides sent patrols, who met in
+occasional skirmishes. For reconnaissance work we used light-armored
+motor-cars, known throughout the army as Lam cars, a name formed by the
+initial letters of their titles. These cars were Rolls-Royces, and with
+their armor-plate weighed between three and three-quarters and four tons.
+They were proof against the ordinary bullet but not against the
+armor-piercing. When I came out to Mesopotamia I intended to lay my plans
+for a transfer to the cavalry, but after I had seen the cars at work I
+changed about and asked to be seconded to that branch of the service.
+
+A short while after my arrival our aeroplanes brought in word that the
+Turks were massing at Daur, and General Cobbe decided that when they
+launched forth he would go and meet them. Accordingly, we all moved out
+one night, expecting to give "Abdul," as the Tommies called him, a
+surprise. Whether it was that we started too early and their aeroplanes
+saw us, or whether they were only making a feint, we never found out; but
+at all events the enemy fell back, and save for some advance-guard
+skirmishing and a few prisoners, we drew a blank. We were not prepared to
+attack the Daur position, and so returned to Samarra to await
+developments.
+
+Meanwhile I busied myself searching for an Arab servant. Seven or eight
+years previous, when with my father in Africa, I had learned Swahili, and
+although I had forgotten a great deal of it, still I found it a help in
+taking up Arabic. Most of the officers had either British or Indian
+servants; in the former case they were known as batmen, and in the latter
+as bearers; but I decided to follow suit with the minority and get an
+Arab, and therefore learn Arabic instead of Hindustanee, for the former
+would be of vastly more general use. The town commandant, Captain Grieve
+of the Black Watch, after many attempts at length produced a native who
+seemed, at any rate, more promising than the others that offered
+themselves. Yusuf was a sturdy, rather surly-looking youth of about
+eighteen. Evidently not a pure Arab, he claimed various admixtures as the
+fancy took him, the general preference being Kurd. I always felt that
+there was almost certainly a good percentage of Turk. His father had been
+a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish army, and at first I was loath
+to take him along on advances and attacks, for he would have been shown
+little mercy had he fallen into enemy hands. He was, however, insistent on
+asking to go with me, and I never saw him show any concern under fire. He
+spoke, in varying degrees of fluency, Kurdish, Persian, and Turkish, and
+was of great use to me for that reason. He became by degrees a very
+faithful and trustworthy follower, his great weakness being that he was a
+one-man's man, and although he would do anything for me, he was of little
+general use in an officers' mess.
+
+I had two horses, one a black mare that I called Soda, which means black
+in Arabic, and the other a hard-headed bay gelding that was game to go
+all day, totally unaffected by shell-fire, but exceedingly stubborn about
+choosing the direction in which he went. After numerous changes I came
+across an excellent syce to look after them. He was a wild, unkempt
+figure, with a long black beard--a dervish by profession, and certainly
+gave no one any reason to believe that he was more than half-witted.
+Indeed, almost all dervishes are in a greater or less degree insane; it is
+probably due to that that they have become dervishes, for the native
+regards the insane as under the protection of God. Dervishes go around
+practically naked, usually wearing only a few skins flung over the
+shoulder, and carrying a large begging-bowl. In addition they carry a
+long, sharp, iron bodkin, with a wooden ball at the end, having very much
+the appearance of a fool's bauble. They lead an easy life. When they take
+a fancy to a house, they settle down near the gate, and the owner has to
+support them as long as the whim takes them to stay there. To use force
+against a dervish would be looked upon as an exceedingly unpropitious
+affair to the true believer. Then, too, I have little doubt but that they
+are capable of making good use of their steel bodkins. Why my dervish
+wished to give up his easy-going profession and take over the charge of my
+horses I never fully determined, but it must have been because he really
+loved horses and found that as a dervish pure and simple he had very
+little to do with them. When he arrived he was dressed in a very ancient
+gunny-sack, and it was not without much regret at the desecration that I
+provided him with an outfit of the regulation khaki.
+
+My duties took me on long rides about the country. Here, and throughout
+Mesopotamia, the great antiquity of this "cradle of the world" kept ever
+impressing itself upon one, consciously or subconsciously. Everywhere were
+ruins; occasionally a wall still reared itself clear of the all-enveloping
+dust, but generally all that remained were great mounds, where the desert
+had crept in and claimed its own, covering palace, house, and market,
+temple, synagogue, mosque, or church with its everlasting mantle. Often
+the streets could still be traced, but oftener not. The weight of ages was
+ever present as one rode among the ruins of these once busy, prosperous
+cities, now long dead and buried, how long no one knew, for frequently
+their very names were forgotten. Babylon, Ur of the Chaldees, Istabulat,
+Nineveh, and many more great cities of history are now nothing but names
+given to desert mounds.
+
+Close by Samarra stands a strange corkscrew tower, known by the natives as
+the Malwiyah. It is about a hundred and sixty feet high, built of brick,
+with a path of varying width winding up around the outside. No one knew
+its purpose, and estimates of its antiquity varied by several thousand
+years. One fairly well-substantiated story told that it had been the
+custom to kill prisoners by hurling them off its top. We found it
+exceedingly useful as an observation-post. In the same manner we used
+Julian's tomb, a great mound rising up in the desert some five or six
+miles up-stream of the town. The legend is that when the Roman Emperor
+died of his wounds his soldiers, impressing the natives, built this as a
+mausoleum; but there is no ground whatever for this belief, for it would
+have been physically impossible for a harassed or retreating army to have
+performed a task of such magnitude. The natives call it "The Granary," and
+claim that that was its original use. Before the war the Germans had
+started in excavating, and discovered shafts leading deep down, and on top
+the foundations of a palace. Around its foot may be traced roadways and
+circular plots, and especially when seen from an aeroplane it looks as if
+there had at one time been an elaborate system of gardens.
+
+We were continually getting false rumors about the movements of the Turks.
+We had believed that it would be impossible for them to execute a flank
+movement, at any rate in sufficient strength to be a serious menace, for
+from all the reports we could get, the wells were few and far between.
+Nevertheless, there was a great deal of excitement and some concern when
+one afternoon our aeroplanes came in with the report that they had seen a
+body of Turks that they estimated at from six to eight thousand marching
+round our right flank. The plane was sent straight back with instructions
+to verify most carefully the statement, and be sure that it was really men
+they had seen. They returned at dark with no alteration of their original
+report. As can well be imagined, that night was a crowded one for us, and
+the feeling ran high when next morning the enemy turned out to be several
+enormous herds of sheep.
+
+As part consequence of this we were ordered to make a thorough water
+reconnaissance, with a view of ascertaining how large a force could be
+watered on a march around our flank. I went off in an armored car with
+Captain Marshall of the Intelligence Service. Marshall had spent many
+years in Mesopotamia shipping liquorice to the American Tobacco Company,
+and he was known and trusted by the Arabs all along the Tigris from Kurna
+to Mosul. He spoke the language most fluently, but with an accent that
+left no doubt of his Caledonian home. We had with us a couple of old
+sheiks, and it was their first ride in an automobile. It was easy to see
+that one of them was having difficulty in maintaining his dignity, but I
+was not quite sure of the reason until we stopped a moment and he fairly
+flew out of the car. It didn't seem possible that a man able to ride
+ninety miles at a stretch on a camel, could be made ill by the motion of
+an automobile. However, such was the case, and we had great difficulty in
+getting him back into the car. We discovered far more wells than we had
+been led to believe existed, but not enough to make a flank attack a very
+serious menace.
+
+The mirage played all sorts of tricks, and the balloon observers grew to
+be very cautious in their assertions. In the early days of the campaign,
+at the battle of Shaiba Bund, a friendly mirage saved the British forces
+from what would have proved a very serious defeat. Suleiman Askari was
+commanding the Turkish forces, and things were faring badly with the
+British, when of a sudden to their amazement they found that the Turks
+were in full retreat. Their commanders had caught sight of the mirage of
+what was merely an ambulance and supply train, but it was so magnified
+that they believed it to be a very large body of reinforcements. The
+report ran that when Suleiman was told of his mistake, his chagrin was so
+great that he committed suicide.
+
+It was at length decided to advance on the Turkish forces at Daur. General
+Brooking had just made a most successful attack on the Euphrates front,
+capturing the town of Ramadie, with almost five thousand prisoners. It was
+believed to be the intention of the army commander to try to relieve the
+pressure against General Allenby's forces in Palestine by attacking the
+enemy on all three of their Mesopotamian fronts. Accordingly, we were
+ordered to march out after sunset one night, prepared to attack the enemy
+position at daybreak. During a short halt by the last rays of the setting
+sun I caught sight of a number of Mohammedan soldiers prostrating
+themselves toward Mecca in their evening prayers, while their Christian or
+pagan comrades looked stolidly on. It was late October, and although the
+days were still very hot and oppressive, the nights were almost bitterly
+cold. A night-march is always a disagreeable business. The head of the
+column checks and halts, and those in the rear have no idea whether it is
+an involuntary stop for a few minutes, or whether they are to halt for an
+hour or more, owing to some complication of orders. So we stood shivering,
+and longed for a smoke, but of course that was strictly forbidden, for the
+cigarettes of an army would form a very good indication of its whereabouts
+on a dark night. All night we marched and halted, and started on again;
+the dust choked us, and the hours seemed interminable, until at last at
+two in the morning word was passed along that we could have an hour's
+sleep. The greater part of the year in Mesopotamia the regulation army
+dress consisted of a tunic and "shorts." These are long trousers cut off
+just above the knee, and the wearer may either use wrap puttees, or
+leather leggings, or golf stockings. They are a great help in the heat,
+as may easily be understood, and they allow, of course, much freer knee
+action, particularly when your clothes are wet. The reverse side of the
+medal reads that when you try to sleep without a blanket on a cold night,
+you find that your knees are uncomfortably exposed. Still we were, most of
+us, so drunk with sleep that it would have taken more than that to keep us
+awake. At three we resumed our march, and attacked just at dawn. The enemy
+had abandoned the first-line positions, and we met with but little
+resistance in the second. Our cavalry, which was concentrated at several
+points in nullahs (dry river-beds), suffered at the hands of the hostile
+aircraft. The Turk had evidently determined to fall back to Tekrit without
+putting up a serious defense. They certainly could have given us a much
+worse time than they did, for they had dug in well and scientifically.
+Among the prisoners we took there were some that proved to be very worth
+while. These Turkish officers were, as a whole a good lot--well dressed
+and well educated. Many spoke French. There is an excellent gunnery school
+at Constantinople, and one of the officers we captured had been a senior
+instructor there for many years. We had with us among our intelligence
+officers a Captain Bettelheim, born in Constantinople of Belgian
+parentage. He had served with the Turks against the Italians and with the
+British against the Boers. This gunnery officer turned out to be an old
+comrade of his in the Italian War. Many of the officers we got knew him,
+for he had been chief of police in Constantinople. Apparently none of them
+bore him the slightest ill-will when they found him serving against them.
+
+Among the supplies we captured at Daur were a lot of our own rifles and
+ammunition that the Arabs had stolen and sold to the Turks. It was
+impossible to entirely stop this, guard our dumps as best we could. On
+dark nights they would creep right into camp, and it was never safe to
+have the hospital barges tie up to the banks for the night on their way
+down the river. On many occasions the Arabs crawled aboard and finished
+off the wounded. There was only one thing to be said for the Arab, and
+that was that he played no favorite, but attacked, as a rule, whichever
+side came handier. We were told, and I believe it to be true, that during
+the fighting at Sunnaiyat the Turks sent over to know if we would agree
+to a three days' truce, during which time we should join forces against
+the Arabs, who were watching on the flank to pick off stragglers or ration
+convoys.
+
+That night we bivouacked at Daur, and were unmolested except for the enemy
+aircraft that came over and "laid eggs." Next morning we advanced on
+Tekrit. Our orders were to make a feint, and if we found that the Turk
+meant to stay and fight it out seriously, we were to fall back. Some
+gazelles got into the no man's land between us and the Turk, and in the
+midst of the firing ran gracefully up the line, stopping every now and
+then to stare about in amazement. Later on in the Argonne forest in France
+we had the same thing happen with some wild boars. The enemy seemed in no
+way inclined to evacuate Tekrit, so in accordance with instructions we
+returned to our previous night's encampment at Daur. On the way back we
+passed an old "arabana," a Turkish coupé, standing abandoned in the
+desert, with a couple of dead horses by it. It may have been used by some
+Turkish general in the retreat of two days before. It was the sort of
+coupé one associates entirely with well-kept parks and crowded city
+streets, and the incongruity of its lonely isolation amid the sand-dunes
+caused an amused ripple of comment.
+
+Our instructions were to march back to Samarra early next morning, but
+shortly before midnight orders came through from General Maude for us to
+advance again upon Tekrit and take it. Next day we halted and took stock
+in view of the new orders. The cavalry again suffered at the hands of the
+Turkish aircraft. I went to corps headquarters in the afternoon, and a
+crowd of "red tabs," as the staff-officers were called, were seated around
+a little table having the inevitable tea. A number of the generals had
+come in to discuss the plan of attack for the following day. Suddenly a
+Turk aeroplane made its appearance, flying quite low, and dropping bombs
+at regular intervals. It dropped two, and then a third on a little hill in
+a straight line from the staff conclave. It looked as if the next would be
+a direct hit, and the staff did the only wise thing, and took cover as
+flat on the ground as nature would allow; but the Hun's spacing was bad,
+and the next bomb fell some little way beyond. I remember our glee at
+what we regarded as a capital joke on the staff. The line-officer's humor
+becomes a trifle robust where the "gilded staff" is concerned,
+notwithstanding the fact that most staff-officers have seen active and
+distinguished service in the line.
+
+Our anti-aircraft guns--"Archies" we called them--were mounted on trucks,
+and on account of their weight had some difficulty getting up. I shall not
+soon forget our delight when they lumbered into view, for although I never
+happened personally to see an aeroplane brought down by an "Archie," there
+was no doubt about it but that they did not bomb us with the same
+equanimity when our anti-aircrafts were at hand.
+
+[Illustration: Captured Turkish camel corps]
+
+That night we marched out on Tekrit, and as dawn was breaking were ready
+to attack. As the mist cleared, an alarming but ludicrous sight met our
+eyes. On the extreme right some caterpillar tractors hauling our "heavies"
+were advancing straight on Tekrit, as if they had taken themselves for
+tanks. They were not long in discovering their mistake, and amid a mixed
+salvo they clumsily turned and made off at their best pace, which was not
+more than three miles an hour. Luckily, they soon got under some
+excellent defilade, but not until they had suffered heavily.
+
+Our artillery did some good work, but while we were waiting to attack we
+suffered rather heavily. We had to advance over a wide stretch of open
+country to reach the Turkish first lines. By nightfall the second line of
+trenches was practically all in our hands. Meanwhile the cavalry had
+circled way around the flank up-stream of Tekrit to cut the enemy off if
+he attempted to retreat. The town is on the right bank of the Tigris, and
+we had a small force that had come up from Samarra on the left bank, for
+we had no means of ferrying troops across. Our casualties during the day
+had amounted to about two thousand. The Seaforths had suffered heavily,
+but no more so than some of the native regiments. In Mesopotamia there
+were many changes in the standing of the Indian battalions. The
+Maharattas, for instance, had never previously been regarded as anything
+at all unusual, but they have now a very distinguished record to take
+pride in. The general feeling was that the Gurkhas did not quite live up
+to their reputation. But the Indian troops as a whole did so exceedingly
+well that there is little purpose in making comparisons amongst them. At
+this time, so I was informed, the Expeditionary Force, counting all
+branches, totalled about a million, and a very large percentage of this
+came from India. We drew our supplies from India and Australia, and it is
+interesting to note that we preferred the Australian canned beef and
+mutton (bully beef and bully mutton, as it was called) to the American.
+
+At dusk the fighting died down, and we were told to hold on and go over at
+daybreak. As I was making my way back to headquarters a general pounced
+upon me and told me to get quickly into a car and go as rapidly as
+possible to Daur to bring up a motor ration-convoy with fodder for the
+cavalry horses and food for the riders. A Ford car happened to pass by,
+and he stopped it and shoved me in, with some last hurried injunction. It
+was quite fifteen miles back, and the country was so cut up by nullahs or
+ravines that in most places it was inadvisable to leave the road, which
+was, of course, jammed with a double stream of transport of every
+description. When we were three or four miles from Daur a tire blew out.
+The driver had used his last spare, so there was nothing to do but keep
+going on the rim. The car was of the delivery-wagon type--"pill-boxes"
+were what they were known as--and while we were stopped taking stock I
+happened to catch sight of a good-sized bedding-roll behind. "Some one's
+out of luck," said I to the driver; "whose roll is it?" "The corps
+commander's, sir," was his reply. After exhausting my limited vocabulary,
+I realized that it was far too late to stop another motor and send this
+one back, so I just kept going. Across the bed of one more ravine, the
+sand up to the hubs, and we were in the Daur camp. I managed to rank some
+one out of a spare tire and started back again. My driver proved unable to
+drive at night, at all events at a pace that would put us anywhere before
+dawn, so I was forced to take the wheel. By the time I had the convoy
+properly located I was rather despondent of the corps commander's temper,
+even should I eventually reach him that night, which seemed a remote
+chance, for the best any one could do was give me the rough location on a
+map. Still, taking my luminous compass, I set out to steer a cross-country
+course. I ran into five or six small groups of ambulances filled with
+wounded, trying to find their way to Daur, and completely lost. Most had
+given up--some were unknowingly headed back for Tekrit. I could do no more
+than give them the right direction, which I knew they had no chance of
+holding. Of course I could have no headlights, and the ditches were many,
+but in some miraculous way, more through good luck than good management, I
+did find corps headquarters, and what was better still, the general's
+reprimand took the form of bread and ham and a stiff peg of whiskey--the
+first food I had had since before daylight.
+
+During the night the Turks evacuated the town. Their forces were certainly
+mobile. They could cover the most surprising distances, and live on almost
+nothing. We marched in and occupied. White flags were flying from all the
+houses, which were not nearly so much damaged from the bombardment as one
+would have supposed. This was invariably the case; indeed, it is
+surprising to see how much shelling a town can undergo without noticeable
+effect. It takes a long time to level a town in the way it has been done
+in northern France. In this region the banks of the river average about
+one hundred and fifty feet in height, and Tekrit is built at the junction
+of two ravines. No two streets are on the same level; sometimes the roofs
+of the houses on a lower level serve as the streets for the houses above.
+Many of the booths in the bazaar were open and transacting business when
+we arrived, an excellent proof of how firmly the Arabs believed in British
+fair dealing. Our men bought cigarettes, matches, and vegetables. Yusuf
+had lived here three or four years, so I despatched him to get chickens
+and eggs for the mess. I ran into Marshall, who was on his way to dine
+with the mayor, who had turned out to be an old friend of his. He asked me
+to join him, and we climbed up to a very comfortable house, built around a
+large courtyard. It was the best meal we had either of us had in
+days--great pilaus of rice, excellent chicken, and fresh unleavened bread.
+This bread looks like a very large and thin griddle-cake. The Arab uses it
+as a plate. Eating with your hands is at first rather difficult. Before
+falling to, a ewer is brought around to you, and you are supplied with
+soap--a servant pours water from the ewer over your hands, and then gives
+you a towel. After eating, the same process is gone through with. There
+are certain formalities that must be regarded--one of them being that you
+must not eat or drink with your left hand.
+
+In Tekrit we did not find as much in the way of supplies and ammunition as
+we had hoped. The Turk had destroyed the greater part of his store. We did
+find great quantities of wood, and in that barren, treeless country it was
+worth a lot. Most of the inhabitants of Tekrit are raftsmen by profession.
+Their rafts have been made in the same manner since before the days of
+Xerxes and Darius. Inflated goatskins are used as a basis for a platform
+of poles, cut in the up-stream forests. On these, starting from Diarbekr
+or Mosul, they float down all their goods. When they reach Tekrit they
+leave the poles there, and start up-stream on foot, carrying their
+deflated goatskins. The Turks used this method a great deal bringing down
+their supplies. In pre-war days the rafts, keleks as they are called,
+would often come straight through to Baghdad, but many were always broken
+up at Tekrit, for there is a desert route running across to Hit on the
+Euphrates, and the supplies from up-river were taken across this in camel
+caravans.
+
+The aerodrome lay six or seven miles above the town, and I was anxious to
+see it and the comfortable billets the Germans had built themselves. I
+found a friend whose duties required motor transportation, and we set off
+in his car. A dust-storm was raging, and we had some difficulty in finding
+our way through the network of trenches. Once outside, the storm became
+worse, and we could only see a few yards in front of us. We got completely
+lost, and after nearly running over the edge of the bluff, gave up the
+attempt, and slowly worked our way back.
+
+When we started off on the advance I was reading Xenophon's _Anabasis_. On
+the day when we were ordered to march on Tekrit a captain of the Royal
+Flying Corps, an ex-master at Eton, was in the mess, and when I told him
+that I was nearly out of reading matter, he said that next time he came
+over he would drop me Plutarch's _Lives_. I asked him to drop it at corps
+headquarters, and that a friend of mine there would see that I got it. The
+next day in the heat of the fighting a plane came over low, signalling
+that it was dropping a message. As the streamer fell close by, there was a
+rush to pick it up and learn how the attack was progressing. Fortunately,
+I was far away when the packet was opened and found to contain the book
+that the pilot had promised to drop for me.
+
+After we had been occupying the town for a few days, orders came through
+to prepare to fall back on Samarra. The line of communication was so long
+that it was impossible to maintain us, except at too great a cost to the
+transportation facilities possessed by the Expeditionary Forces. Eight or
+ten months later, when we had more rails in hand, a line was laid to
+Tekrit, which had been abandoned by the Turks under the threat of our
+advance to Kirkuk, in the Persian hills. It was difficult to explain to
+the men, particularly to the Indians, the necessity for falling back. All
+they could understand was that we had taken the town at no small cost, and
+now we were about to give it up.
+
+For several days I was busy helping to prepare rafts to take down the
+timber and such other captured supplies as were worth removing. The river
+was low, leaving a broad stretch of beach below the town, and to this we
+brought down the poles. Several camels had died near the water, probably
+from the results of our shelling, and the hot weather soon made them very
+unpleasant companions. The first day was bad enough; the second was worse.
+The natives were not in the least affected. They brought their washing and
+worked among them--they came down and drew their drinking-water from the
+river, either beside the camels or down-stream of them, with complete
+indifference. It is true this water percolates drop by drop through large,
+porous clay pots before it is drunk, but even so, it would have seemed
+that they would have preferred its coming from up-stream of the derelict
+"ships of the desert." On the third day, to their mild surprise, we
+managed with infinite difficulty to tow the camels out through the shallow
+water into the main stream.
+
+We finally got our rafts built, over eighty in number, and arranged for
+enough Arab pilots to take care of half of them. On the remainder we put
+Indian sepoys. They made quite a fleet when we finally got them all
+started down-stream. Two were broken up in the rapids near Daur, the rest
+reached Samarra in safety on the second day.
+
+We had a pleasant camp on the bluffs below Tekrit--high-enough above the
+plain to be free of the ordinary dust-storms, and the prospect of
+returning to Samarra was scarcely more pleasant to us than to the men.
+Five days after we had taken the town, we turned our backs on it and
+marched slowly back to rail-head.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON
+
+
+We returned to find Samarra buried in dust and more desolate than ever. A
+few days later came the first rain-storm. After a night's downpour the air
+was radiantly clear, and it was joy to ride off on the rounds, no longer
+like Zeus, enveloped in a cloud.
+
+It was a relief to see the heat-stroke camps broken up. During the summer
+months our ranks were fearfully thinned through the sun. Although it was
+the British troops that suffered most, the Indians were by no means
+immune. Before the camps were properly organized the percentage of
+mortality was exceedingly large, for the only effective treatment
+necessitates the use of much ice. The patient runs a temperature which it
+was impossible to control until the ice-making machines were installed.
+The camps were situated in the coolest and most comfortable places, but in
+spite of everything, death was a frequent result, and recoveries were apt
+to be only partial. Men who had had a bad stroke were rarely of any
+further use in the country.
+
+Another sickness of the hot season which now began to claim less victims
+was sand-fly fever. This fever, which, as its name indicates, was
+contracted from the bites of sand-flies, varied widely in virulence.
+Sometimes it was so severe that the victim had to be evacuated to India;
+as a rule he went no farther than a base hospital at Baghdad or Amara.
+
+One of the things about which the Tommy felt most keenly in the
+Mesopotamian campaign was that there was no such thing as a "Cushy
+Blighty." To take you to "Blighty" a wound must mean permanent
+disablement, otherwise you either convalesced in the country or, at best,
+were sent to India. In the same manner there were no short leaves, for
+there was nowhere to go. At the most rapid rate of travelling it took two
+weeks to get to India, and once there, although the people did everything
+possible in the way of entertaining, the enlisted man found little to make
+him less homesick than he had been in Mesopotamia. Transportation was so
+difficult and the trip so long that only under very exceptional
+circumstances was leave to England given. One spring it was announced
+that officers wishing to get either married or divorced could apply for
+leave with good hopes of success. Many applied, but a number returned
+without having fulfilled either condition, so that the following year no
+leaves were given upon those grounds. The army commander put all divorce
+cases into the hands of an officer whose civil occupation had been the
+law, and who arranged them without the necessity of granting home leave.
+
+A week after our return to Samarra a rumor started that General Maude was
+down with cholera. For some time past there had been sporadic cases,
+though not enough to be counted an epidemic. The sepoys had suffered
+chiefly, but not exclusively, for the British ranks also supplied a quota
+of victims. An officer on the staff of the military governor of Baghdad
+had recently died. We heard that the army commander had the virulent form,
+and knew there could be no chance of his recovery. The announcement of his
+death was a heavy blow to all, and many were the gloomy forebodings. The
+whole army had implicit confidence in their leader, and deeply mourned his
+loss. The usual rumors of foul play and poison went the rounds, but I
+soon after heard Colonel Wilcox--in pre-war days an able and renowned
+practitioner of Harley Street--say that it was an undoubted case of
+cholera. The colonel had attended General Maude throughout the illness.
+The general had never taken the cholera prophylactic, although Colonel
+Wilcox had on many occasions urged him to do so, the last time being only
+a few days before the disease developed.
+
+[Illustration: Towing an armored car across a river]
+
+[Illustration: Reconnaissance]
+
+General Marshall, who had commanded General Maude's old division, the
+Thirteenth, took over. The Seventeenth lost General Gillman, who thereupon
+became chief of staff. This was a great loss to his division, for he was
+the idol of the men, but the interest of the Expeditionary Force was
+naturally and justly given precedence.
+
+In due course my transfer to the Motor Machine-Gun Corps came through
+approved, and I was assigned to the Fourteenth battery of light-armored
+motor-cars, commanded by Captain Nigel Somerset, whose grandfather, Lord
+Raglan, had died, nursed by Florence Nightingale, while in command of the
+British forces in the Crimean War. Somerset himself was in the infantry at
+the outbreak of the war and had been twice wounded in France. He was an
+excellent leader, possessing as he did dash, judgment, and personal
+magnetism. A battery was composed of eight armored cars, subdivided into
+four sections. There was a continually varying number of tenders and
+workshop lorries. The fighting cars were Rolls-Royces, the others Napiers
+and Fords.
+
+At that time there were only four batteries in the country. We were army
+troops--that is to say, we were not attached to any individual brigade, or
+division, or corps, but were temporarily assigned first here and then
+there, as the need arose.
+
+In attacks we worked in co-operation with the cavalry. Although on
+occasions they tried to use us as tanks, it was not successful, for our
+armor-plate was too light. We were also employed in raiding, and in
+quelling Arab uprisings. This latter use threw us into close touch with
+the political officers. These were a most interesting lot of men. They
+were recruited in part from the army, but largely from civil life. They
+took over the civil administration of the conquered territory and
+judiciously upheld native justice. Many remarkable characters were
+numbered among them--men who had devoted a lifetime to the study of the
+intricacies of Oriental diplomacy. They were distinguished by the white
+tabs on the collars of their regulation uniforms; but white was by no
+means invariably the sign of peace, for many of the political officers
+were killed, and more than once in isolated towns in unsettled districts
+they sustained sieges that lasted for several days. We often took a
+political officer out with us on a raid or reconnaissance, finding his
+knowledge of the language and customs of great assistance. Sir Percy Cox
+was at the head, with the title "Chief Political Officer" and the rank of
+general. His career in the Persian Gulf has been as distinguished as it is
+long, and his handling of the very delicate situations arising in
+Mesopotamia has called forth the unstinted praise of soldier and civilian
+alike.
+
+Ably assisting him, and head of the Arab bureau, was Miss Gertrude Bell,
+the only woman, other than the nursing sisters, officially connected with
+the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Forces. Miss Bell speaks Arabic fluently
+and correctly. She first became interested in the East when visiting her
+uncle at Teheran, where he was British minister. She has made noteworthy
+expeditions in Syria and Mesopotamia, and has written a number of
+admirable books, among which are _Armurath to Armurath_ and _The Desert
+and the Sown_. The undeniable position which she holds must appear doubly
+remarkable when the Mohammedan official attitude toward women is borne in
+mind. Miss Bell has worked steadily and without a leave in this trying
+climate, and her tact and judgment have contributed to the British success
+to a degree that can scarcely be overestimated.
+
+The headquarters of the various batteries were in Baghdad. There we had
+our permanent billets, and stores. We would often be ordered out in
+sections to be away varying lengths of time, though rarely more than a
+couple of months. The workshops' officer stayed in permanent charge and
+had the difficult task of keeping all the cars in repair. The supply of
+spare parts was so uncertain that much skill and ingenuity were called
+for, and possessed to a full degree by Lieutenant Linnell of the
+Fourteenth.
+
+A few days after I joined I set off with Somerset and one of the battery
+officers, Lieutenant Smith, formerly of the Black Watch. We were ordered
+to do some patrolling near the ruins of Babylon. Kerbela and Nejef, in the
+quality of great Shiah shrines, had never been particularly friendly to
+the Turks, who were Sunnis--but the desert tribes are almost invariably
+Sunnis, and this coupled with their natural instinct for raiding and
+plundering made them eager to take advantage of any interregnum of
+authority. We organized a sort of native mounted police, but they were
+more picturesque than effective. They were armed with weapons of varying
+age and origin--not one was more recent than the middle of the last
+century. Now the Budus, the wild desert folk, were frequently equipped
+with rifles they had stolen from us, so in a contest the odds were
+anything but even.
+
+We took up our quarters at Museyib, a small town on the banks of the
+Euphrates, six or eight miles above the Hindiyah Barrage, a dam finished a
+few years before, and designed to irrigate a large tract of potentially
+rich country. We patrolled out to Mohamediyah, a village on the caravan
+desert route to Baghdad, and thence down to Hilleh, around which stand the
+ruins of ancient Babylon. The rainy season was just beginning, and it was
+obvious that the patrolling could not be continuous, for a twelve-hour
+rain would make the country impassable to our heavy cars for two or three
+days. We were fortunate in having pleasant company in the officers of a
+Punjabi infantry battalion and an Indian cavalry regiment. Having
+commandeered an ancient caravan-serai for garage and billets, we set to
+work to clean it out and make it as waterproof as circumstances would
+permit. An oil-drum with a length of iron telegraph-pole stuck in its top
+provided a serviceable stove, and when it rained we played bridge or read.
+
+I was ever ready to reduce my kit to any extent in order to have space for
+some books, and Voltaire's _Charles XII_ was the first called upon to
+carry me to another part of the world from that in which I at the moment
+found myself. I always kept a volume of some sort in my pocket, and during
+halts I would read in the shade cast by the turret of my car. The two
+volumes of Layard's _Early Adventures_ proved a great success. The writer,
+the great Assyriologist, is better known as the author of _Nineveh and
+Babylon_. The book I was reading had been written when he was in his early
+twenties, but published for the first time forty years later. Layard
+started life as a solicitor's clerk in London, but upon being offered a
+post in India he had accepted and proceeded thither overland. On reaching
+Baghdad he made a side-trip into Kurdistan, and became so enamored of the
+life of the tribesmen that he lived there with them on and off for two
+years--years filled with adventure of the most thrilling sort.
+
+I had finished a translation of Xenophon shortly before and found it a
+very different book than when I was plodding drearily through it in the
+original at school. Here it was all vivid and real before my eyes, with
+the scene of the great battle of Cunaxa only a few miles from Museyib.
+Babylon was in sight of the valiant Greeks, but all through the loss of a
+leader it was never to be theirs. On the ground itself one could
+appreciate how great a masterpiece the retreat really was, and the
+hardiness of the soldiers which caused Xenophon to regard as a "snow
+sickness" the starvation and utter weariness which made the numbed men lie
+down and die in the snow of the Anatolian highlands. He remarks naïvely
+that if you could build a fire and give them something hot to eat, the
+sickness was dispelled!
+
+The rain continued to fall and the mud became deeper and deeper. It was
+all the Arabs could do to get their produce into market. The bazaar was
+not large, but was always thronged. I used to sit in one of the
+coffee-houses and drink coffee or tea and smoke the long-stemmed
+water-pipe, the narghile. My Arabic was now sufficiently fluent for
+ordinary conversation, and in these clubs of the Arab I could hear all the
+gossip. Bazaar rumors always told of our advances long before they were
+officially given out. Once in Baghdad I heard of an attack we had
+launched. On going around to G.H.Q. I mentioned the rumor, and found that
+it was not yet known there, but shortly after was confirmed. I had already
+in Africa met with the "native wireless," and it will be remembered how in
+the Civil War the plantation negroes were often the first to get news of
+the battles. It is something that I have never heard satisfactorily
+explained.
+
+In the coffee-houses, besides smoking and gossiping, we also played games,
+either chess or backgammon or munkula. This last is an exceedingly
+primitive and ancient game--it must date almost as far back as jackstones
+or knucklebones. I have seen the natives in Central Africa and the Indians
+in the far interior of Brazil playing it in almost identical form. In
+Mesopotamia the board was a log of wood sliced in two and hinged together.
+In either half five or six holes were scooped out, and the game consisted
+in dropping cowrie shells or pebbles into the holes. When the number in a
+particular hollow came to a certain amount with the addition of the one
+dropped in, you won the contents.
+
+In most places the coffee was served in Arab fashion, not Turkish. In the
+latter case it is sweet and thick and the tiny cup is half full of
+grounds; in the former the coffee is clear and bitter and of unsurpassable
+flavor. The diminutive cup is filled several times, but each time there is
+only a mouthful poured in. Tea is served in small glasses, without milk,
+but with lots of sugar. The spoons in the glasses are pierced with holes
+like tea-strainers so that the tea may be stirred without spilling it.
+
+There was in particular one booth I could never tire watching. The old man
+who owned it was a vender of pickles. In rows before him were bottles and
+jars and bowls containing pickles of all colors--red, yellow, green,
+purple, white, and even blue. Above his head were festoons of gayly
+painted peppers. He had a long gray beard, wore a green turban and a
+flowing robe with a gold-braided waistcoat. In the half-lights of the
+crowded, covered bazaar his was a setting in which Dulac would have
+revelled.
+
+At Museyib we led a peaceful, uneventful existence--completely shut in by
+the mud. We had several bazaar rumors about proposed attacks upon the
+engineers who were surveying for a railroad that was to be built to Hilleh
+for the purpose of transporting the grain-crop to the capital. Nothing
+materialized, however. The conditions were too poor to induce even the
+easily encouraged Arabs to raid. One morning when I was wandering around
+the gardens on the outskirts of the town I came across some jackals and
+shot one with my Webley revolver. It was running and I fired a number of
+times, and got back to town to find that my shooting had started all sorts
+of excitement and reports of uprisings.
+
+Christmas came and the different officers' messes organized celebrations.
+The mess we had joined was largely Scotch, so we decided we must make a
+haggis, that "chieftain of the pudden race." The ingredients, save for the
+whiskey, were scarcely orthodox, but if it was not a success, at least no
+one admitted it.
+
+As soon as the weather cleared we made a run to Kerbela--a lovely town,
+with miles of gardens surrounding it and two great mosques. The bazaar was
+particularly attractive--plentifully supplied with everything. We got
+quantities of the deliciously flavored pistachio-nuts which were difficult
+to obtain elsewhere, as well as all sorts of fruit and vegetables. There
+were no troops stationed in the vicinity, so the prices were lower than
+usual. The orders were that we should go about in armed bands, but I never
+saw any marked indication of hostility. The British, true to the
+remarkable tact and tolerance that contributes so largely to their success
+in dealing with native races, posted Mohammedan sepoys as guards on the
+mosques, and no one but Moslems could even go into the courtyards. If this
+had not been done, there would have been many disturbances and uprisings,
+for the Arabs and Persians felt so strongly on the question that they
+regarded with marked hostility those who even gazed into the mosque
+courtyards. Why it is so different in Constantinople I do not know, but
+there was certainly no hostility shown us in Santa Sophia nor in the
+mosque of Omar in Jerusalem. Be that as it may, forbidden fruit is always
+sweet, and the Tommies were inclined to force an entrance. During a change
+of guard a Tommy who had his curiosity and initiative stimulated through
+recourse to arrick, the fiery liquor distilled from dates, stole into the
+most holy mosque in Kerbela. By a miracle he was got out unharmed, but for
+a few hours a general uprising with an attendant massacre of unbelievers
+was feared.
+
+The great mosque lost much of its dignity through an atrocious clock-tower
+standing in the courtyard in front of it. It had evidently been found too
+expensive to cover this tower with a golden scale to shine in the sun, so
+some ingenious architect hit upon the plan of papering it with flattened
+kerosene-tins. It must have glinted gloriously at first, but weather and
+rain had rusted the cans and they presented but a sorry spectacle. From
+the thousand and one uses to which these oil-cans have been put by the
+native, one is inclined to think that the greatest benefit that has been
+conferred on the natives by modern civilization is from the hands of the
+Standard Oil Company.
+
+There were a fair number of Indians living in Kerbela before the war, for
+devout Shiahs are anxious to be buried near the martyred sons of Ali, and
+when they are unable to move to Kerbela in their lifetime they frequently
+make provisions that their remains may be transported thither. The British
+found it a convenient abode for native rulers whom they were forced to
+depose but still continued to pension.
+
+[Illustration: The Lion of Babylon]
+
+[Illustration: A dragon on the palace wall]
+
+Hilleh, which stands near the ruins of ancient Babylon, is a modern town
+very much like Museyib. I never had a chance to study the ruins at any
+length. Several times we went over the part that had been excavated by the
+Germans immediately before the war. I understand that this is believed to
+be the great palace where Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall. It
+is built of bricks, each one of which is stamped in cuneiform characters.
+There are very fine bas-reliefs of animals, both mythical and real. In the
+centre is the great stone lion, massively impressive, standing over the
+prostrate form of a man. The lion has suffered from fire and man; there
+have even been chips made in it recently by Arab rifles, probably not
+wantonly, but in some skirmish. Standing alone in its majesty in the midst
+of ruin and desolation amid the black tents of a people totally unable to
+construct or even appreciate anything of a like nature, it gave one
+much to think over and moralize about. The ruins of Babylon have been
+excavated only in very small part; there are great isolated mounds which
+have never been touched, and you can still pick up in the sand bits of
+statuary, and the cylinders that were used as seal-rings. The great city
+of Seleucia on the Tigris was built largely with bricks and masonry
+brought by barge from the ruins of Babylon through the canal that joined
+the two rivers.
+
+The prophecy of Isaiah has fallen true:
+
+    And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
+    excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
+
+    It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from
+    generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent
+    there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
+
+    But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses
+    shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there,
+    and satyrs shall dance there.
+
+    And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate
+    houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is
+    near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
+
+A few days after Christmas, we were ordered to return to Baghdad. The
+going was still bad. We had a Ford tender in advance to find and warn us
+of the softest spots. Once it got into the middle of such a bottomless bog
+that, after trying everything else, I hit upon the idea of rolling it out.
+It was built all enclosed like a bread-van, and we turned it over and over
+until we had it clear of the mud. We had hard work with the heavy
+cars--sometimes we could tow one out with another, but frequently that
+only resulted in getting the two stuck. Once when the cars were badly
+bogged I went to a near-by Arab village to get help. I told the head man
+that I wanted bundles of brush to throw in front of the cars in order to
+make some sort of a foundation to pass them over. He at once started
+turning out his people to aid us, but after he had got a number of loads
+under way he caught sight of one of his wives, who, instead of coming to
+our assistance, was washing some clothes in a copper caldron by the fire.
+There followed a scene which demonstrated that even an Arab is by no means
+always lord of his own household. The wife refused to budge; the Arab
+railed and stormed, but she went calmly on with her washing, paying no
+more attention to his fury than if he were a fractious, unreasonable
+child. At length, driven to a white heat of rage, the head man upset the
+caldron into the fire with his foot. The woman, without a word, got up and
+stalked into a near-by hut, from which she refused to emerge. There was
+nothing for her discomfited adversary to do but go on with his rounds.
+
+By manoeuvring and digging and towing we managed to make seven miles after
+fourteen hours' work that first day. Night found us close beside an Arab
+village, from which I got a great bowl of buffalo milk to put into the
+men's coffee. Early in the morning we were off again. The going was so
+much better that we were able to make Baghdad at ten o'clock in the
+evening.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT
+
+
+We spent a few days making repairs and outfitting before starting off
+again. This time our destination was Deli Abbas, the headquarters of the
+Thirteenth Division. The town is situated in the plains below the
+foot-hills of the Persian Mountains, on the banks of the Khalis Canal,
+some seventy miles north-east of Baghdad. At dawn we passed out of the
+north gate, close to where General Maude is buried, and whirled across the
+desert for thirty miles to Bakuba, a prosperous city on the banks of the
+Diyala. From the junction of the greater Zab down to Kurna, where the
+Euphrates joins, this stream is the most important affluent of the Tigris.
+It was one of those bright, sparkling mornings on which merely to be alive
+and breathe is a joy. We passed a number of caravans, bringing carpets and
+rugs from Persia, or fruit and vegetables from the rich agricultural
+district around Bakuba. The silks manufactured here are of a fine quality
+and well known throughout the country.
+
+After passing the big aerodrome near the town, the going became very bad;
+we struggled along through the village of Deltawa, in and out of
+unfathomable ditches. The rivers were in flood, and we ran into lakes and
+swamps that we cautiously skirted. Dark overtook us in the middle of a
+network of bogs, but we came upon an outpost of Welsh Fusiliers and spent
+the night with them. We had smashed the bottom plate of one of the cars,
+so that all the oil ran out of the crank-case, but with a side of the
+ever-useful kerosene tin we patched the car up temporarily and pushed off
+at early dawn. Our route wound through groves of palms surrounding the
+tumble-down tomb of some holy man, occasional collections of squalid
+little huts, and in the intervening "despoblado" we would catch sight of a
+jackal crouching in the hollow or slinking off through the scrub. Deli
+Abbas proved a half-deserted straggling town which gave evidence of having
+once seen prosperous days. Some Turkish aeroplanes heralded our arrival.
+
+In front of us rose the Jebel Hamrin--Red Hills--beyond them the
+snow-clad peaks of the Kurdish Range. A few months previous we had
+captured the passes over the Jebel, and we were now busy repairing and
+improving the roads--in particular that across the Abu Hajjar, not for
+nothing named by the Arabs the "Father of Stones." Whenever the going
+permitted we went out on reconnaissances--rekkos, as we called them. They
+varied but slightly; the one I went on the day after reaching Deli Abbas
+might serve as model. We started at daybreak and ran to a little village
+called Ain Lailah, the Spring of Night, a lovely name for the small clump
+of palm-trees tucked away unexpectedly in a hollow among barren
+foot-hills. There we picked up a surveyor--an officer whose business it
+was to make maps for the army. We passed through great herds of camels,
+some with small children perched on their backs, who joggled about like
+sailors on a storm-tossed ship, as the camels made away from the cars.
+There were villages of the shapeless black tents of the nomads huddled in
+among the desolate dunes. We picked up a Turk deserter who was trying to
+reach our lines. He said that his six comrades had been killed by Arabs.
+Shortly afterward we ran into a cavalry patrol, but the men escaped over
+some very broken ground before we could satisfactorily come to terms with
+them. It was lucky for the deserter that we found him before they did, for
+his shrift would have been short. We got back to camp at half past eight,
+having covered ninety-two miles in our windings--a good day's work.
+
+Each section had two motorcycles attached to it--jackals, as one of the
+generals called them, in apt reference to the way in which jackals
+accompany a lion when hunting. The cyclists rode ahead to spy out the
+country and the best course to follow. When we got into action they would
+drop behind, and we used them to send messages back to camp. The best
+motorcyclist we had was a Swiss named Milson. He was of part English
+descent, and came at once from Switzerland at the outbreak of the war to
+enlist. When he joined he spoke only broken English but was an exceedingly
+intelligent man and had been attending a technical college. I have never
+seen a more skilful rider; he could get his cycle along through the mud
+when we were forced to carry the others, and no one was more cool and
+unconcerned under fire. The personnel of the battery left nothing to be
+desired. One was proud to serve among such a fine set of men. Corporal
+Summers drove the car in which I usually rode, and I have never met with a
+better driver or one who understood his car so thoroughly, and possessed
+that intangible sympathy with it which is the gift of a few, but can be
+never attained.
+
+We were still in the rainy season. We had to travel as light as possible,
+and all we could bring were forty-pounder tents, which correspond to the
+American dog-tent. Very low, they withstood in remarkable fashion the
+periodical hurricanes of wind and rain. They kept us fairly dry, too, for
+we were careful to ditch them well. There was room for two men to sleep in
+the turret of a Rolls, and they could spread a tarpaulin over the top to
+keep the rain from coming in through the various openings. The balance of
+the men had a communal tent or slept in the tenders. The larger tents in
+the near-by camps blew down frequently, but with us it happened only
+occasionally. There are happier moments than those spent in the inky
+blackness amid a torrential deluge, when you try to extricate yourself
+from the wet, clinging folds of falling canvas.
+
+Time hung heavily when the weather was bad, and we were cooped up inside
+our tents without even a hostile aeroplane to shoot at. One day when the
+going was too poor to take out the heavy cars, I set off in a tender to
+visit another section of the battery that was stationed thirty or forty
+miles away in the direction of Persia, close by a town called Kizil Robat.
+We had a rough trip, with several difficult fords to cross. It was only
+through working with the icy water above our waists that we won through
+the worst, amid the shouts of "Shabash, Sahib!" ("Well done!") from the
+onlooking Indian troops. I reached the camp to find the section absent on
+a reconnaissance, for the country was better drained than that over which
+we were working. A few minutes later one of the cyclists came in with the
+news that the cars were under heavy fire about twenty-five miles away and
+one of them was badly bogged. I immediately loaded all the surplus men and
+eight Punjabis from a near-by regiment into the tenders. We reached the
+scene just after the disabled car had been abandoned. Some of the Turks
+were concealed in a village two hundred and fifty yards away; the rest
+were behind some high irrigation embankments. The free car had been
+unable to circle around or flank them because of the nature of the
+terrain. The men had not known that the village was occupied and had
+bogged down almost at the same time that the Turks opened fire. By
+breaking down an irrigation ditch the enemy succeeded in further flooding
+the locality where the automobile was trapped. The Turks made it hot for
+the men when they tried to dig out the car. The bullets spattered about
+them. It was difficult to tell how many Turks we accounted for. As dark
+came on, the occupants of the disabled car abandoned it and joined the
+other one, which was standing off the enemy but had lost all four tires
+and was running on its rims. We held a consultation and decided to stay
+where we were until dawn. We had scarcely made the decision when one of
+our cyclists arrived with orders from the brigade commander to return
+immediately. Although exceedingly loath to leave the armored car, we had
+no other course than to obey.
+
+It was after midnight by the time we made back to camp. We were told that
+a small attack had been planned for the morning, and that then we could go
+out with the troops and recover our car, using some artillery horses to
+drag it free. The troops soon began filing past, but we didn't pull out
+till three o'clock, by which time we were reinforced by an armored car
+from another battery. We were held back behind the advanced cavalry until
+daylight, and felt certain that the Turks would have either destroyed or
+succeeded in removing our car. Nor were we wrong, for just as we breasted
+the hill that brought the scene of yesterday's engagement into view, we
+saw the smoke of an explosion and the men running back into the village.
+We cleared the village with the help of a squadron of the Twenty-First
+cavalry, and found that the car had been almost freed during the night. It
+was a bad wreck, but we were able to tow it. I wished to have a reckoning
+with the village head man, and walked to an isolated group of houses a few
+hundred yards to the left of the village. As I neared them a lively
+fusillade opened and I had to take refuge in a convenient irrigation
+ditch. The country was so broken that it was impossible for us to operate,
+so we towed the car back to camp.
+
+[Illustration: Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car]
+
+[Illustration: A Mesopotamian garage]
+
+Our section from Deli Abbas was moved up to take the place of the one that
+had been engaged, which now returned to Baghdad. We were camped at
+Mirjana, a few miles north of Kizil Robat, on the Diyala River. A pontoon
+bridge was thrown across and the cars were taken over to the right bank,
+where we bivouacked with a machine-gun company and a battalion of native
+infantry. The bed of the river was very wide, and although throughout the
+greater part of the year the water flowed only through the narrow main
+channel, in the time of the spring floods the whole distance was a riotous
+yellow torrent. We had no sooner got the cars across than the river began
+to rise. During the first night part of the bridge was carried away, and
+the rest was withdrawn. The rise continued; trees and brush were swept
+racing past. We made several fruitless attempts to get across in the
+clumsy pontoons, but finally gave it up, resigning ourselves to being
+marooned. We put ourselves on short rations and waited for the river to
+fall. If the Turks had used any intelligence they could have gathered us
+in with the greatest ease, in spite of our excellent line of trenches. On
+the fourth day of our isolation the river subsided as rapidly as it had
+risen.
+
+We had good patrolling conditions, and each day we made long circuits.
+Sometimes we would run into a body of enemy cavalry and have a skirmish
+with them. Again we would come upon an infantry outpost and manoeuvre
+about in an effort to damage it. The enemy set traps for us, digging big
+holes in the road and covering them over with matting on which they
+scattered dirt to make the surface appear normal. The nearest town
+occupied by the Turks was Kara Tepe, distant from Mirjana eight or ten
+miles as the crow flies. In the debatable land were a number of native
+villages, and such inhabitants as remained in them led an unpleasantly
+eventful existence. In the morning they would be visited by a Turkish
+patrol, which would be displaced by us in our rounds. Perhaps in the
+evening a band of wild mountainy Kurds would blow in and run off some of
+their few remaining sheep. Then the Turks would return and accuse them of
+having given us information, and carry off some hostages or possibly beat
+a couple of them for having received us, although goodness knows they had
+little enough choice in the matter. There was one old sheik with whom I
+used often to sit and gossip while an attendant was roasting the berries
+for our coffee over the near-by fire. He was ever asking why we couldn't
+make an advance and put his village safely behind our lines, so that the
+children could grow fat and the herds graze unharmed. In this country
+Kurdish and Turkish were spoken as frequently as Arabic, and many of the
+names of places were Turkish--such as Kara Tepe, which means Black
+Mountain, and Kizil Robat, the Tomb of the Maidens. My spelling of these
+names differs from that found on many maps. It would be a great
+convenience if some common method could be agreed upon. At present the
+map-makers conform only in a unanimous desire to each use a different
+transliteration.
+
+Kizil Robat is an attractive town. I spent some pleasant mornings
+wandering about it with the mayor, Jameel Bey, a fine-looking Kurdish
+chieftain of the Jaf tribe. He owned a lovely garden with date-palms,
+oranges, pomegranates, and figs. Tattered Kurds were working on the
+irrigation ditches, and a heap of rags lying below the wall in the sun
+changed itself into a small boy, just as I was about to step on it.
+Jameel's son was as white, with as rosy cheeks, as any American baby.
+
+Harry Bowen, brother-in-law of General Cobbe, was the political officer
+in charge of Kizil Robat. He spoke excellent Arabic and was much respected
+by the natives. His house was an oasis in which I could always look
+forward to a pleasant talk, an excellent native dinner, and some
+interesting book to carry off. Although the town was small, there were
+three good Turkish baths. One of them belonged to Jameel Bey, but, judging
+from the children tending babies while squatting in the entrance portico,
+was generally given over to the distaff side and its friends. The one
+which we patronized, while not so grand a building, had an old Persian who
+understood the art of massage thoroughly, and there was nothing more
+restful after a number of days' hard work with the cars.
+
+In the end of February there passed through Kizil Robat the last
+contingent of our former Russian Allies. They were Cossacks--a
+fine-looking lot as they rode along perched on their small chunky saddles
+atop of their unkempt but hardy ponies. When Russia went out of the war
+they asked permission to keep on fighting with us. They were a good deal
+of a problem, for they had no idea whatever of discipline, and it was most
+difficult to keep them in hand and stop them from pillaging the natives
+indiscriminately. They had been completely cut off from Russia for a long
+time but were now on their way back. A very intelligent woman doctor and a
+number of nurses who had been with them were sick with smallpox in one of
+our hospitals in Baghdad. When they recovered they were sent to India, for
+it was not feasible to repatriate them by way of Persia. When the Russians
+first established connection with us, some armored cars were sent to bring
+in the Cossack general, whose name we were told was Leslie. We were
+unprepared to find that he spoke no English! It turned out that his
+ancestors had gone over from Scotland to the court of Peter the Great.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES
+
+
+Early in March we got orders to return to Baghdad, where all the armored
+cars were to be concentrated preparatory to an attack on the Euphrates
+front. There was much speculation as to our mission. Some said that we
+were to break through and establish connection with General Allenby's
+forces in Palestine. While I know nothing about it authoritatively, it is
+certain that if the state of affairs in France had not called for the
+withdrawal from the East of all the troops that could be spared, the
+attack that was launched in October would have taken place in March. We
+could then have advanced up the Euphrates, and it would have been entirely
+practical to cross over the desert in the cars by way of Tadmor.
+
+When we got word to come in, the roads were in fearful shape and the rain
+was falling in torrents, but we were so afraid that we might miss the
+attack that we salvaged everything not essential and started to fight our
+way through the mud. It was a slow and wearisome process, but we managed
+to get as far as Bakuba by evening. The river was rising in one of its
+periodical floods and we found that the pontoon bridge had been cut half
+an hour before our arrival. No one could predict how long the flood would
+last, but the river rarely went down sufficiently to allow the bridge to
+be replaced within a week. At that time the railroad went only as far as
+Bakuba, and crossed the river on a wooden trestle, so I decided to try to
+load the motors on a flat car and get across the Diyala in that way.
+
+After having made arrangements to do this I wandered off into the bazaar
+to get something to eat. In native fashion I first bought a big flap of
+bread from an old woman, and then went to a pickle booth to get some
+beets, which I wrapped in my bread. Next I proceeded to a meat-shop and
+ordered some lamb kababs roasted. The meat is cut in pellets, spitted on
+rods six or eight inches long, and lain over the glowing charcoal embers.
+In the shop there are long tables with benches beside them. The customer
+spreads his former purchases, and when his kababs are ready he eats his
+dinner. He next proceeds to a coffee-house, where he has a couple of
+glasses of tea and three or four diminutive cups of coffee to top off, and
+the meal is finished. The Arab eats sparingly as a rule, but when he gives
+or attends a banquet he stuffs himself to his utmost capacity.
+
+Next morning we loaded our cars successfully and started off by rail for
+Baghdad, some thirty miles away. The railroad wound across the desert,
+with here and there a water-tank with a company from a native regiment
+guarding it. As we stopped at one particularly desolate spot, a young
+officer came running up and asked if we would have tea with him. He took
+us to his tent, where everything was ready, for he apparently always met
+the two trains that passed through daily. Poor fellow, he was only a
+little over twenty, and desperately lonely and homesick. Many of the young
+officers who were wounded in France were sent to India with the idea that
+they could be training men and getting on to the methods of the Indian
+army while yet recuperating and unfit to go back to the front. They were
+shipped out with a new draft when they had fully recovered. This boy had
+only been a month in the country, and ten days before had been sent off in
+charge of his Sikh company to do this wearisome guard duty.
+
+We spent a few days in Baghdad refitting. The cars were to go out
+camouflaged to resemble supply-trucks, for every precaution was taken to
+prevent the Turks from realizing that we were massing men for an attack.
+The night before we were to start, word came in that the political officer
+at Nejef had been murdered, and the town was in revolt. We were ordered to
+send a section there immediately, so Lieutenant Ballingal's was chosen,
+while the rest of us left next morning with the balance of the battery for
+Hit. The first part of the route lay across the desert to Falujah, a
+prosperous agricultural town on the Euphrates. Rail-head lies just beyond
+at a place known as Tel El Dhubban--the "Hill of the Flies." From there on
+supplies were brought forward by motor transport, or in Arab barges,
+called shakturs. We crossed the river on a bridge of boats and continued
+up along the bank to Ramadie. Here I stayed over, detailed to escort the
+army commander on a tour of inspection.
+
+The smaller towns along the Euphrates are far more attractive than those
+on the Tigris. The country seems more developed, and most inviting
+gardens surround the villages. Hit, which lies twenty miles up-stream of
+Ramadie, is an exception. It is of ancient origin and built upon a hill,
+with a lovely view of the river. It has not a vestige of green on it, but
+stands out bleak and harsh in contrast to the palm-groves fringing the
+bank. The bitumen wells near by have been worked for five thousand years
+and are responsible for the town being a centre of boat manufacture. With
+the bitumen, the gufas and mahelas are "pitched without and within," in
+the identical manner in which we are told that the ark was built. The jars
+in which the women of the town draw water from the river, instead of being
+of copper or earthenware as elsewhere, are here made of pitched
+wicker-work. The smell of the boiling bitumen and the sulphur springs is
+trying to a stranger, although the natives regard it as salubrious, and
+maintain that through it the town is saved from cholera epidemics. We had
+captured Hit a few weeks previously, and the aeroplanes flying low over
+the town had reported the disagreeable smell, attributing it to dirt and
+filth. "Eyewitness," the official newspaper correspondent, mentioned this
+in despatches, and when I was passing through, a proclamation of apology
+was being prepared to soothe the outraged and slandered townsfolk.
+
+[Illustration: A water-wheel on the Euphrates]
+
+After taking the army commander back to rail-head, we retraced our steps
+with all speed to Hit, and thence the eight miles up-stream to Salahiyeh.
+The road beyond Hit was in fearful shape, and the engineers were working
+night and day to keep it open and in some way passable. In the proposed
+attack we were to jump off from Salahiyeh, and it was here that the
+armored cars were assembled. Our camp was close to a Turkish hospital.
+There were two great crescents and stars laid out for a signal to warn our
+aeroplanes not to drop bombs. One of the crescents was made of turf and
+the other of limestone. The batteries took turns in making the
+reconnaissances, in the course of which they would come in for a good deal
+of shelling. The road was unpleasant, because the camels and transport
+animals that had been killed during the Turkish retreat from Hit were by
+now very high. For some unknown reason there were no jackals or vultures
+to form a sanitary section. After reconnoitring the enemy positions and
+noting the progress they were making in constructing their defenses, we
+would make a long circuit back to camp.
+
+One unoccupied morning I went over to an island on the river. Its cool,
+restful look had attracted me on the day I arrived, and it quite fulfilled
+its promise. Indeed, it was the only place I came across in Mesopotamia
+that might have been a surviving fragment of the Garden of Eden. It was
+nearly a mile long, and scattered about on it were seven or eight
+thick-walled and well-fortified houses. The entire island was one great
+palm-grove, with pomegranates, apricots, figs, orange-trees, and
+grape-vines growing beneath the palms. The grass at the foot of the trees
+was dotted with blue and pink flowers. Here and there were fields of
+spring wheat. The water-ditches which irrigated the island were filled by
+giant water-wheels, thirty to fifty feet in diameter. These "naurs" have
+been well described in the Bible, and I doubt if they have since been
+modified in a single item. There are sometimes as many as sixteen in a
+row. As they scoop the water up in the gourd-shaped earthenware jars bound
+to their rims, they shriek and groan on their giant wooden axles.
+
+On the night of March 25 we got word that the long-expected attack would
+take place next morning. We had the cars ready to move out by three. Since
+midnight shadowy files had been passing on their way forward to get into
+position. One of our batteries went with the infantry to advance against
+the main fortified position at Khan Baghdadi. The rest of us went with the
+cavalry around the flank to cut the Turks off if they tried to retreat
+up-stream. We were well on our way at daybreak. The country was so broken
+up with ravines and dry river-beds that we knew we had a long, hard march
+ahead of us. Our maps were poor. A German officer that we captured had in
+some manner got hold of our latest map, and noting that we had omitted
+entirely a very large ravine, became convinced that any enveloping
+movement we attempted would prove a failure. As it happened, we came close
+to making the blunder he had anticipated, for we started to advance down
+to the river along the bank of a nullah which would have taken us to Khan
+Baghdadi instead of eight or ten miles above it, as we wished. I think it
+was our aeroplanes that set us straight. I was in charge of the tenders
+with supplies and spares, and spent most of the time in the leading
+Napier lorry. Occasionally I slipped into an armored car to go off
+somewhere on a separate mission. The Turks had doubtless anticipated a
+flanking movement and kept shelling us to a certain extent, but we could
+hear that they were occupying themselves chiefly with the straight
+attacking force. By afternoon we had turned in toward the river and our
+cavalry was soon engaged. The country was too broken for the cars to get
+in any really effective work. By nightfall we hoped we were approximately
+where we should be, and after making our dispositions as well as the
+circumstances would permit, we lay down beside the cars and were soon
+sound asleep. At midnight we were awakened by the bullets chipping the
+rocks and stones among which we were sleeping. A night attack was
+evidently under way, and it is always an eerie sensation. We correctly
+surmised that the Turks were in retreat from Khan Baghdadi and had run
+into our outposts. In a few minutes we were replying in volume, and the
+rat-tat-tats of the machine-guns on either side were continuous. The enemy
+must have greatly overestimated our numbers, for in a short time small
+groups started surrendering, and before things had quieted we had twelve
+hundred prisoners. The cavalry formed a rough prison-camp and we turned in
+again to wait for daylight.
+
+At dawn we started to reconnoitre our position to find out just how
+matters stood. We came upon a body of two thousand of the enemy which had
+been held up by us in the night and had retreated a short distance to wait
+till it became light before surrendering. Among them were a number of
+German officers. They were all of them well equipped with machine-guns and
+rifles. Their intrenching tools and medical supplies were of Austrian
+manufacture, as were also the rolling kitchens. These last were of an
+exceedingly practical design. While we were taking stock of our capture we
+got word that Khan Baghdadi had been occupied and a good number of
+prisoners taken. We were instructed to press on and take Haditha, thirty
+miles above Khan Baghdadi. It was hoped that we might recapture Colonel
+Tennant, who was in command of the Royal Flying Corps forces in
+Mesopotamia. He had been shot down at Khan Baghdadi the day before the
+attack. We learned from prisoners that he had been sent up-stream
+immediately, on his way to Aleppo, but it was thought that he might have
+been held over at Haditha or at Ana.
+
+We found that a lot of the enemy had got by between us and the river and
+had then swung back into the road. We met with little opposition, save
+from occasional bands of stragglers who concealed themselves behind rocks
+and sniped at us. Numbers surrendered without resistance as we caught up
+with them. We disarmed them and ordered them to walk back until they fell
+in with our cavalry, or the infantry, which was being brought forward in
+trucks. As we bowled along in pursuit the scene reminded me of
+descriptions in the novels of Sienkiewicz or Erckmann-Chatrian. The road
+was littered with equipment of every sort, disabled pack-animals, and dead
+or dying Turks. It was hard to see the wounded withering in the increasing
+heat--the dead were better off. We reached the heights overlooking Haditha
+to find that the garrison was in full retreat. Most of it had left the
+night before. Those remaining opened fire upon us, but in a half-hearted
+way, that was not calculated to inflict much loss. Many of the inhabitants
+of the town lived in burrows in the hillsides. Some of these caves had
+been filled with ammunition. The enemy had fired all their dumps, and
+rocks were flying about. We endeavored to save as much of the material as
+was possible. We were particularly anxious to get all papers dealing with
+the Arabs, to enable us to check up which were our friends and which of
+the ones behind our lines were dealing treacherously with us. We
+recaptured a lot of medical equipment and some ammunition that had been
+taken from our forces during the Gallipoli campaign.
+
+Haditha is thirty-five miles from Khan Baghdadi, and Ana is an equal
+distance beyond. It was decided that we should push on to a big bridge
+shown on the map as eight miles this side of Ana. We were to endeavor to
+secure this before the Turks could destroy it, and cross over to bivouac
+on the far side. The road was in fair shape. Many of the small bridges
+were of recent construction. We soon found that our map was exceedingly
+inaccurate. Our aeroplanes were doing a lot of damage to the fleeing
+Turks, and as we began to catch up with larger groups we had some sharp
+engagements. The desert Arabs hovered like vultures in the distance
+waiting for nightfall to cover them in their looting.
+
+That night we camped near the bridge. At dusk the Red Cross ambulances and
+some cavalry caught up. The latter had had a long, hard two days, with
+little to eat for the men and less for the horses, but both were standing
+up wonderfully. They were the Seventh Hussars and just as they reached us
+we recaptured one of their sergeants who had been made prisoner on the
+previous night. He had covered forty miles on foot, but the Turks had
+treated him decently and he had come through in good shape. We always felt
+that the Turk was a clean fighter. Our officers he treated well as long as
+he had anything to give or share with them. With the enlisted men he was
+not so considerate, but I am inclined to think that it was because he was
+not accustomed to bother his head much about his own rank and file, so it
+never occurred to him to consider ours. The Turkish private would thrive
+on what was starvation issue to our men. The attitude of many of the
+Turkish officers was amusing, if exasperating. They seemed to take it for
+granted that they would be treated with every consideration due an honored
+guest. They would complain bitterly about not being supplied with coffee,
+although at the time we might be totally without it ourselves and far
+from any source of supply. The German prisoners were apt to cringe at
+first, but as soon as they found they were not to be oppressed became
+arrogant and overbearing. At different times we retook men that had been
+captives for varying lengths of time. I remember a Tommy, from the
+Manchesters, if I am not mistaken, who had been taken before Kut fell, but
+had soon after made his escape and lived among the Kurdish tribesmen for
+seven or eight months before he found his way back to us. Quite a number
+of Indians who had been set to work on the construction of the
+Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway between Nisibin and Mosul made good their escape
+and struggled through to our lines.
+
+It was a great relief when the Red Cross lorries came in and we could turn
+over the wounded to them. All night long they journeyed back and forth
+transporting such as could stand the trip to the main evacuation camp at
+Haditha.
+
+By daybreak we were once more under way. Under cover of darkness the Arabs
+had pillaged the abandoned supplies, in some cases killing the wounded
+Turks. The transport animals of the enemy and their cavalry horses were
+in very bad shape. They had evidently been hard put to it to bring through
+sufficient fodder during the wet winter months when the roads were so deep
+in mud as to be all but impassable. Instead of being distant from Ana the
+eight miles that we had measured on the map, we found that we were
+seventeen, but we made it without any serious hindrance. The town was most
+attractive, embowered in gardens which skirt the river's edge for a
+distance of four or five miles. In addition to the usual palms and
+fruit-trees there were great gnarled olives, the first I had seen in
+Mesopotamia, as were also the almond-trees. It must be of great antiquity,
+for the prophet Isaiah speaks of it as a place where kings had reigned,
+but from which, even in his time, the grandeur had departed.
+
+The greater part of the enemy had already abandoned the town, but we
+captured the Turkish governor and a good number of the garrison, and many
+that had escaped from Haditha. The disaster at Khan Baghdadi had only been
+reported the afternoon before, as we had of course cut all the telegraph
+wires, and the governor had not thought it possible we would continue the
+pursuit so far. He had spent most of his life in Hungary and had been
+given this post only a few months previous to our advance. From the
+prisoners we had taken at Haditha we had extracted conflicting estimates
+as to the time when Colonel Tennant, the commander of our air forces, had
+been sent on, and from those we took at Ana we received equally varying
+accounts. The cars had been ordered to push on in search of the colonel as
+long as sufficient gasolene remained to bring them back. Captain Todd with
+the Eighth Battery was in the lead when some thirty miles north of Ana
+they caught sight of a group of camels surrounded by horsemen. A couple of
+belts from the machine-guns scattered the escort, and Colonel Tennant and
+his companion, Major Hobart, were soon safe in the turret of one of the
+cars.
+
+From some of our Turkish captives we heard about a large gold convoy which
+had been sent back from Ana; some said one day, and others two, before our
+arrival. The supply of fuel that we had brought in the tenders was almost
+exhausted, so that it would be necessary to procure more in order to
+continue the pursuit. Major Thompson, who was in command of the
+armored-car detachment, instructed me to take all the tenders and go back
+as far as was necessary to find a petrol dump from which I could draw a
+thousand gallons. I emptied the trucks and loaded them with such of the
+wounded as could stand the jolting they were bound to receive because of
+the speed at which I must travel. I also took a few of the more important
+prisoners, among them the governor of Ana. He was a cultivated middle-aged
+man who spoke no Arabic but quite good French. It was mid-afternoon when
+we started, and I hadn't the most remote idea where I would find a
+sufficient quantity of petrol. During the run back we were sniped at
+occasionally by Turks who were still hiding in the hills. A small but
+determined force could have completely halted the cars in a number of
+different places where the road wound through narrow rock-crowned gorges,
+or along ledges cut in the hillside and hemmed in by the river. In such
+spots the advance of the armored cars could either have been completely
+checked, or at all events seriously hampered and delayed, merely by
+rolling great boulders down on top of us.
+
+When we had retraced our steps for about sixty miles I was lucky enough
+to get wind of an enemy petrol dump that our men had discovered. It was a
+special aeroplane supply and the colonel of the infantry regiment who was
+guarding it had been instructed to allow none of it to be used for
+automobiles. He showed his desire to co-operate and his ability to read
+the spirit rather than the letter of a command by letting me load my
+tenders. The L.A.M. batteries were well regarded and we everywhere
+encountered a willingness to meet us more than half-way and aid us in the
+thousand and one points that make so much difference in obtaining results.
+
+By the time that we had everything in readiness for our return run it was
+long after dark and the men were exhausted. I managed to get some tea, but
+naturally no sugar or milk. The strong steaming brew served to wash down
+the scanty supply of cold bully beef. Fortunately it was a brilliant
+starlit night, but even so it was difficult to avoid ditches and washouts,
+and the road seemed interminable. Not long after we left we ran into a
+couple of armored cars that had been detailed to bring the rescued
+aviators back, after they had been reoutfitted and supplied as far as our
+limited resources would permit. During the halt I found that my sergeant
+had produced from somewhere or other an emergency rum ration which he was
+issuing. An old-army, experienced sergeant always managed to hold over a
+reserve from former issues for just such occasions as this, when it would
+be of inestimable value. I had been driving all day and had the greatest
+difficulty in keeping awake. Twice I dozed off. Once I awakened just as
+the car started over the edge of an embankment; the other time a large
+rock in the road brought me back to the world. It was two o'clock in the
+morning when we wearily crept into Ana.
+
+The expedition to capture the gold convoy was to start at four, so after
+two hours' sleep I bundled into one of the Rolls-Royces and the column
+swung out into the road. Through the mist loomed the sinister,
+businesslike outlines of the armored car ahead of me. Captain Carr of the
+Thirteenth L.A.M.B.'s[1] was in command of the expedition. Unless we were
+in action or in a locality where we momentarily expected to be under fire
+from rifle or machine-gun, the officer commanding the car and his N.C.O.
+stood in the well behind the turret, steadying themselves with leather
+loops riveted to its sides. On long runs the tool-boxes on either side of
+the well formed convenient seats. When the car became engaged the crew
+would get inside, pulling the steel doors shut. The slits through which
+the driver and the man next him looked could be made still smaller when
+the firing was heavy, and the peep-holes at either side and in the rear
+had slides which could be closed. The largest aperture was that around the
+tube of the gun. Splinters of lead came in continuously, and sometimes
+chance directed a bullet to an opening. One of our drivers was shot
+straight through the head near Ramadie. The bottom of the car was of wood,
+and bullets would ricochet up through it, but to have had it made of steel
+would have added too much weight. The large gasolene-tank behind was
+usually protected by plating, but even so was fairly vulnerable. A
+reserve-tank holding ten gallons was built inside the turret. We almost
+invariably had trouble with the feed-pipes leading from it. During the
+great heat of the summer the inside of the turret was a veritable fiery
+furnace, with the pedals so hot that they scorched the feet.
+
+[Footnote 1: Light Armored Motor Battery.]
+
+Forty miles above Ana we came upon a large khan. These road-houses are
+built at intervals along the main caravan routes. Their plan is simple:
+four walls with two tiers of rooms or booths built into them, enclosing an
+open court in which the camels and horses are tethered during the night.
+The whole is strongly made to resist the inroads of the desert tribesmen.
+As we drove to the heavy gate, a wild clamor met our ears from a confused
+jumble of Jewish and Armenian merchants that had taken refuge within. Some
+of them had left Ana on their way to Aleppo before the news of the fall of
+Khan Baghdadi had reached the town. Others had been despatched by the
+Turks when the news of our advance arrived. All had been to a greater or
+lesser degree plundered by the Arabs. Most of the baggage animals had been
+run off, and the merchants were powerless to move. The women were weeping
+and imploring help, and the children tumbled about among the confused
+heaps of merchandise. Some of the Armenians had relations in Baghdad about
+whom I was able to give them bits of information. All begged permission to
+go back to Ana and thence to the capital. We, of course, had no means of
+supplying them with transportation, and any attempt to recapture their
+lost property was out of the question.
+
+A few miles on we made out a troop of Arabs hurrying inland, a mile or so
+away from us, across a couple of ravines. They had some of the stolen
+camels and were laden down with plunder. Two of our cars made a fruitless
+attempt to come to terms with them, but only succeeded in placing a few
+well-aimed bursts from their machine-guns among them.
+
+We now began to come up with bands of Turks. We ran across a number of
+isolated stragglers who had been stripped by the Arabs. A few had been
+killed. They as a rule surrendered without any hesitation. We disarmed
+them and told them to walk back toward Ana. Several times we had short
+engagements with Turkish cavalry. As a general thing the ground was so
+very broken up that it was impossible to manoeuvre. I was riding a good
+deal of the time in the Ford tender that we had brought along with a few
+supplies, and when one of the tires blew out I waited behind to replace
+it. The armored cars had quite a start and we raced along to catch them.
+In my hurry I failed to notice that they had left the road in pursuit of a
+troop of cavalry, so when we sighted a large square building of the sort
+the Turks use as barracks, I made sure that the cars had been there before
+me. We drove up to the door and I jumped out and shoved it open. In the
+yard were some infantry and a few cavalry. I had only my stick--my Webley
+revolver was still in its holster. There was nothing to do but put on a
+bold front, so I shouted in Arabic to the man I took to be the officer in
+command, telling him to surrender, and trying to act as if our forces were
+just outside. I think he must have been more surprised than I was, for he
+did so immediately, turning over the post to me. Eldridge, the Ford
+driver, had succeeded in disengaging the rifle that he had strapped in
+beside him, and we made the rounds under the escort of our captive.
+
+One wing of the post was used as a hospital, under the charge of an
+intelligent little Armenian. He seemed well informed about the war, and
+asked the question that was the universal wail of all the Armenians we
+encountered: "When would Great Britain free their country, and would she
+make it an independent state?" There was a definite limit to the number of
+prisoners we could manage to carry back, but I offered the doctor to
+include him. His answer was to go to his trunk and produce a picture of
+his wife and little daughter. They were, he told me, in Constantinople,
+and it was now two years since he had had leave, so that as his turn was
+due, he would wait on the chance of seeing his family.
+
+When the cars came up we set off again in pursuit of the elusive gold
+convoy. We could get no accurate information concerning it. Some said it
+was behind, others ahead. We never ran it down. It may well be that it was
+concealed in a ravine near the road a few yards from where we passed. Just
+short of a town called Abu Kemal we caught three Germans. They were in
+terror when we took them, and afterward said that they had expected to be
+shot. Under decent treatment they soon became so insolent that they had to
+be brought up short.
+
+[Illustration: A "Red Crescent" ambulance]
+
+During the run back to Ana we picked up the more important of our
+prisoners and took them with us. Twenty-two were all we could manage. I
+was running one of the big cars. It was always a surprise to see how easy
+they were to handle in spite of the weight of the armor-plate. We each
+took great pride in the car in which we generally rode. All had names. In
+the Fourteenth one section had "Silver Dart" and "Silver Ghost" and
+another "Gray Terror" and "Gray Knight." The car in which I rode a
+great deal of the time met its fate only a few days before the armistice,
+long after I had gone to France. Two direct hits from an Austrian
+"eighty-eight" ended its career.
+
+It was after midnight when we got back to our camp in a palm-garden in
+Ana. Although we had not succeeded in capturing the gold convoy, we had
+brought in a number of valuable prisoners, and among other things I had
+found some papers belonging to a German political agent whom we had
+captured. These contained much information about the Arab situation, and
+through them it was all but proved that the German was the direct
+instigator of the murder of the political officer at Nejef. An amusing
+sidelight was thrown in the letters addressed by Arab sheiks through this
+agent to the Kaiser thanking him for the iron crosses they had been
+awarded. There must have been an underlying grim humor in distributing
+crosses to the Mohammedan Arabs in recognition of their efforts to
+withstand the advance into the Holy Land of the Christian invaders.
+
+On our arrival at Ana we were told that orders had come through that the
+town be evacuated on the following morning. Preparations were made to
+blow up the ammunition dump, which was fortunately concentrated in a
+series of buildings that joined each other. We warned the inhabitants and
+advised them to hide in the caves along the hillsides. We ourselves went
+back to the camp which we had occupied near the bridge the night before
+entering Ana. During the afternoon Major Edye, a political officer, turned
+up, travelling alone with an Arab attendant. He pitched his camp,
+consisting of a saddle and blanket, close beside us. He was an
+extraordinarily interesting man, with a great gift for languages. In the
+course of a year or so's wandering in Abyssinia he had learned both
+ancient and modern Abyssinian. There was a famous German Orientalist with
+whom he corresponded in the pre-war days. He had mailed him a letter just
+at the outbreak, which, written in ancient Abyssinian, must have been a
+good deal of a puzzle to the censors.
+
+The main explosion, taking place at the appointed time, was succeeded by
+smaller ones, which continued at gradually lengthening intervals
+throughout the night. General Cassels, who had commanded the cavalry
+brigade so ably throughout the advance, wished to return to Ana on the
+following morning in order to check up the thoroughness with which the
+dump had been destroyed. He took an escort of armored cars, and as I was
+the only one in the batteries who could speak Arabic, my services were
+requisitioned. As we approached the town the rattle of the small-arms
+ammunition sounded like a Fourth of July celebration. The general noticed
+that I had a kodak and asked me to go out into the dump and take some
+photographs. There was nothing to do but put on a bold front, but I have
+spent happier moments than those in which I edged my way gingerly over the
+smoking heaps to a ruined wall from which I could get a good view for my
+camera. As I came back a large shell exploded and we hastily moved the
+cars farther away.
+
+I went to the mayor's house to find out how the town had fared. He was a
+solemn old Arab, and showed me the damage done by the shells with an
+absolutely expressionless face. The houses within a fair radius had been
+riddled, but the natives had taken our warning and no one had been killed.
+After a cup of coffee in a lovely garden on the river-bank, I came back
+to the cars and we ran on through to Haditha. Here we were to remain for a
+week or ten days to permit the evacuation of the captured supplies.
+
+Thus far we had been having good luck with the weather, but it now began
+to threaten rain. We crawled beneath the cars with our blankets and took
+such precautions as were possible, but it availed us little when a
+veritable hurricane blew up at midnight. I was washed out from under my
+car, but before dark I had marked down a deserted hut, and thither I
+groped my way. Although it was abandoned by the Arabs, living traces of
+their occupancy remained. Still, even that was preferable to the rain, and
+the roof proved unexpectedly water-tight.
+
+All next day the storm continued. The Wadi Hauran, a large ravine reaching
+back into the desert for a hundred and fifty miles, became a boiling
+torrent. When we crossed over, it was as dry as a bone. A heavy lorry on
+which an anti-aircraft gun was mounted had been swirled away and smashed
+to bits. The ration question had been difficult all along, but now any
+further supply was temporarily out of the question.
+
+Oddly enough, I was the only member of the brigade occupying Haditha who
+could speak enough Arabic to be of any use, so I was sent to look up the
+local mayor to see whether there was any food to be purchased. The town is
+built on a long island equidistant from either bank. We ferried across in
+barges. The native method was simpler. They inflated goatskins, removed
+their clothes, which they had fastened in a bundle on top of their heads,
+and with one hand on the goatskin they paddled and drifted over. By
+starting from the head of the island they could reach the shore opposite
+the down-stream end. The bobbing heads of the dignified old graybeards of
+the community looked most ludicrous. On landing they would solemnly don
+their clothes, deflate the skins, and go their way.
+
+The mayor proved both intelligent and agreeable. The food situation was
+such that it was obviously impossible for him to offer us any serious
+help. We held a conclave in the guest-house, sitting cross-legged among
+the cushions. In the centre a servant roasted coffee-beans on the large
+shovel-spoon that they use for that purpose. The representative village
+worthies impressed me greatly. The desert Arabs are always held to be
+vastly superior to their kinsmen of the town, and it is undoubtedly true
+as a general rule; nevertheless, the elders of Haditha were an unusually
+fine group of men. We got a few eggs, which were a most desirable luxury
+after a steady diet of black unsweetened tea and canned beef. We happened
+to have a sufficient supply of tea to permit us to make an appreciated
+gift to the village.
+
+My shoes had collapsed a few days before and I borrowed a pair from a Turk
+who had no further use for them. These were several sizes too large and
+fashioned in an oblong shape of mathematical exactness. Even in the motor
+machine-gun service, there is little that exceeds one's shoes in
+importance, and I was looking forward with almost equal eagerness to a
+square meal and a pair of my own shoes. The supply of reading-matter had
+fallen very low. I had only Disraeli's _Tancred_, about which I found
+myself unable to share Lady Burton's feelings, and a French account of a
+voyage from Baghdad to Aleppo in 1808. The author, Louis Jacques Rousseau,
+a cousin of the great Jean Jacques, belonged to a family of noted
+Orientalists. Born in Persia, and married to the daughter of the Dutch
+consul-general to that country, he was admirably equipped for the
+distinguished diplomatic career that lay before him in the East and in
+northern Africa. His treatises on the archæological remains that he met
+with on his many voyages are intelligent and thorough. The river towns
+have changed but little in the last hundred years, and the sketch of Hit
+might have been made only yesterday.
+
+Within three days after the rise, the waters of the Wadi Hauran subsided
+sufficiently for us to cross, and I received orders to return to Baghdad.
+The rain had brought about a change in the desert since we passed through
+on our way up. The lines of Paterson, the Australian poet, kept running
+through my head:
+
+    "For the rain and drought and sunshine make no changes in the street,
+    In the sullen line of buildings and the ceaseless tramp of feet,
+    But the bush hath moods and changes, as the seasons rise and fall,
+    And the men who know the bushland they are loyal through it all."
+
+The formerly arid floor of the desert was carpeted with a soft green, with
+myriads of little flowers, all small, but delicately fashioned. There
+were poppies, dwarf daisies, expanses of buttercups, forget-me-nots, and
+diminutive red flowers whose name I did not know. It started raining
+again, and we only just succeeded in winning our way through to Baghdad
+before the road became impassable.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+BAGHDAD SKETCHES
+
+
+Although never in Baghdad for long at a time, I generally had occasion to
+spend four or five days there every other month. The life in any city is
+complex and interesting, but here it was especially so. We were among a
+totally foreign people, but the ever-felt intangible barrier of color was
+not present. For many of the opportunities to mingle with the natives I
+was indebted to Oscar Heizer, the American consul. Mr. Heizer has been
+twenty-five years in the Levant, the greater part of which time he has
+spent in the neighborhood of Constantinople. The outbreak of the war found
+him stationed at one of the principal ports of the Black Sea. There he
+witnessed part of the terrible Armenian massacres, when vast herds of the
+wretched people were driven inland to perish of starvation by the
+roadsides. Quiet and unassuming, but ever ready to act with speed and
+decision, he was a universal favorite with native and foreigner alike.
+
+With him I used to ferry across the river for tea with the Asadulla Khan,
+the Persian consul. The house consisted of three wings built around a
+garden. The fourth side was the river-bank. The court was a jungle of
+flowering fruit-trees, alive with birds of different kinds, all singing
+garrulously without pause. There we would sit sipping sherbet, and
+cracking nuts, among which salted watermelon seeds figured prominently.
+Coffee and sweets of many and devious kinds were served, with arrack and
+Scotch whiskey for those who had no religious scruples. The Koran's
+injunction against strong drink was not very conscientiously observed by
+the majority, and even those who did not drink in public, rarely abstained
+in private. Only the very conservative--and these were more often to be
+found in the smaller towns--rigorously obeyed the prophet's commands. It
+was pleasant to smoke in the shade and watch the varied river-craft
+slipping by. The public bellams plied to and fro, rowed by the swart
+owners, while against them jostled the gufas--built like the coracles of
+ancient Britain--a round basket coated with pitch. No Anglo-Saxon can see
+them without thinking of the nursery rhyme of the "wise men of Gotham who
+went to sea in a tub." These gufas were some of them twenty-five feet in
+diameter, and carried surprising loads--sometimes sheep and cattle
+alone--sometimes men and women--often both indiscriminately mingled.
+Propelling a gufa was an art in itself, for in the hands of the
+uninitiated it merely spun around without advancing a foot in the desired
+direction. The natives used long round-bladed paddles, and made good time
+across the river. Crossing over in one was a democratic affair, especially
+when the women were returning from market with knots of struggling
+chickens slung over their shoulders.
+
+Asadulla Khan's profile always reminded me of an Inca idol that I once got
+in Peru. Among his scribes were several men of culture who discoursed most
+sagely on Persian literature; on Sadi and Hafiz, both of whom they held to
+be superior to Omar Khayyam. I tried through many channels to secure a
+manuscript of the "Rubaiyat," but all I succeeded in obtaining was a
+lithograph copy with no place or date of publication; merely the remark
+that it had been printed during the cold months. I was told that the
+writings of Omar Khayyam were regarded as immoral and for that reason were
+not to be found in religious households. My Persian friends would quote
+at length from Sadi's _Gulistan_ or _Rose Garden_, and go into raptures
+over its beauty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Below the consulate was a landing-place, and when we were ready to leave
+we would go down to the river-bank preceded by our servants carrying
+lanterns. They would call "Abu bellam" until a boat appeared. The term
+"abu" always amused me. Its literal meaning is "father." In the bazaars a
+shop-owner was always hailed as "father" of whatever wares he had for
+sale. I remember one fat old man who sold porous earthenware
+jars--customers invariably addressed him as "Abu hub"--"Father of
+water-coolers."
+
+My best friend among the natives was a Kurdish chief named Hamdi Bey
+Baban. His father had been captured and taken to Constantinople. After
+living there a number of years in semicaptivity he died--by poison it was
+said. Hamdi was not allowed to return to Kurdistan until after he was a
+grown man and had almost forgotten his native language. He spoke and read
+both French and English. Eventually permission was granted him to live in
+Baghdad as long as he kept out of the Kurdish hills, so he set off by
+motor accompanied only by a French chauffeur. Gasolene was sent ahead by
+camel caravan to be left for him at selected points. The journey was not
+without incident, for the villagers had never before seen an automobile
+and regarded it as a devil; often stones were thrown at them, and on one
+occasion they were mobbed and Hamdi only escaped by driving full speed
+through the crowd.
+
+His existence in Baghdad had been subject to sudden upheavals. Once he was
+arrested and convoyed back to Constantinople; and just before the advance
+of the British his life was in great danger. Naturally enough he had
+little love for the Turk and staked everything on the final victory of the
+Allies.
+
+He intended writing a book on the history of his family, in which he was
+much interested. For material he was constantly purchasing books and
+manuscripts. In the East many well-known histories still exist only in
+manuscript form, and when a man wishes to build up a library he engages
+scribes and sends them to the place where a famous manuscript is kept with
+an order to make a copy. In the same way Hamdi Bey had men busied
+transcribing rare chronicles dealing with the career of his family--extant
+in but one or two examples in mosques. He once presented me with a large
+manuscript in Persian in which his family is mentioned, the mention taking
+the form of a statement to the effect that seventeen of them had had their
+heads removed!
+
+Next to various small tradesmen with whom I used to gossip, drink coffee,
+and play dominoes, my best Arab friend was Abdul Kader Pasha, a striking
+old man who had been a faithful ally to the British through thick and
+thin. The dinners at his house on the river-bank were feasts such as one
+reads of in ancient history. Course succeeded course without any definite
+plan; any one of them would have made a large and delicious meal in
+itself. True to Arab custom, the son of the house never sat down at table
+with his father, although before and after dinner he talked and smoked
+with us.
+
+[Illustration: A jeweller's booth in the bazaar]
+
+I had a number of good friends among the Armenians. There was not one of
+them but had some near relation, frequently a parent or a brother or
+sister, still among the Turks. Sometimes they knew them to be dead, more
+frequently they could only hope that such was the case and there was no
+further suffering to be endured. Many of these Armenians belonged to
+prominent families, numbering among their members men who had held the
+most important government posts in Constantinople. The secretary of the
+treasury was almost invariably an Armenian, for the race outstrips the
+Jews in its money touch.
+
+With one family I dined quite often--the usual interminable Oriental feast
+varying only from the Arab or Turkish dinners in a few special national
+dishes. All, excepting the aged grandmother, spoke French, and the
+daughters had a thorough grounding in the literature. Such English books
+as they knew they had read in French translations. The house was
+attractively furnished, with really beautiful rugs and old silverware. The
+younger generation played bridge, and the girls were always well dressed
+in European fashion. Whence the clothes came was a mystery, for nothing
+could have been brought in since the war, and even in ante-bellum days
+foreign clothes of that grade could never have been stocked but must have
+been imported in individual orders. The evenings were thoroughly
+enjoyable, for everything was in such marked contrast to our every-day
+life. It must be remembered that these few Armenians were the only women
+with whom we could talk and laugh in Occidental fashion.
+
+By far the best-informed and cleverest Arab was Père Anastase. He was a
+Catholic, and under the supervision of the Political Department edited the
+local Arab paper. All his life he had worked building up a
+library--gathering rare books throughout Syria and Mesopotamia. He was
+himself an author of no small reputation. Just before the British took
+Baghdad the Germans pillaged his collection, sending the more valuable
+books to Constantinople and Berlin, and turning the rest over to the
+populace. The soldiers made great bonfires of many--others found their way
+to the bazaars, where he was later able to repurchase some of them. When
+talking of the sacking of his house, Père Anastase would work himself into
+a white heat of fury and his eyes would flash as he bitterly cursed the
+vandals who had destroyed his treasures.
+
+It was in Baghdad that I first ran into Major E.B. Soane, whose _Through
+Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise_ is a classic. Soane was born in
+southern France, his mother French and his father English. The latter
+walked across the United States from ocean to ocean in the early forties,
+so Soane came by his roving, adventurous spirit naturally. When still but
+little more than a boy he went out to work in the Anglo-Persian Bank, and
+immediately interested himself in the language and literature of the
+country. Some of his holidays he spent in the British Museum translating
+and cataloguing Persian manuscripts. Becoming interested in the Kurds, he
+spent a number of years among them, learning their languages and customs
+and joining in their raids.
+
+As soon as we got a foothold in the Kurdish Hills, Soane was sent up to
+administer the captured territory. His headquarters were at Khanikin,
+twenty-five miles from Kizil Robat and but a short distance from the
+Persian frontier. One morning during the time that I was stationed in that
+district I motored over to see him. It was a glorious day. The cloud
+effects were most beautiful, towering in billows of white above the snow
+peaks, against a background of deepest blue. The road wound in and out
+among the barren foot-hills until suddenly as I topped a rise I saw right
+below a great clump of palm-trees, with houses showing through here and
+there--the whole divided by a lovely river bestridden by an old seven-arch
+bridge. I picked my way through the narrow streets, scattering ragged
+Kurds right and left; past part of the covered bazaar, until I came to a
+house with a large courtyard, thronged with a motley array of Kurdish
+irregulars, armed with every sort of weapon. It was there that Soane
+administered his stern but practical justice, for he thoroughly understood
+how to handle these men.
+
+The district had suffered fearfully, for it had been occupied in turn by
+Turk and Russian, and then Turk again, before we took it over, and the
+unfortunate natives had been pillaged and robbed mercilessly. Thousands
+starved to death. When I was at Deli Abbas ghastly bands of ragged
+skeletons would come through to us begging food and work. Soane turned a
+large khan on the outskirts of the town into a poorhouse, and here he
+lodged the starving women and children that drifted in from all over
+Kurdistan. It was a fearful assemblage of scarecrows. As they got better
+he selected women from among them to whom he turned over the
+administration of the khan. They divided the unfortunates in gangs, and
+supervised the issue of dates on which they were fed. Such as were
+physically able were employed in cleaning the town. The Kurds are a fine,
+self-respecting race and it was easy to understand Soane's enthusiasm for
+them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Baghdad you lived either in the cellars or on the housetops. The former
+were called serdabs. A large chimney, cowled to face the prevailing wind,
+served for ventilation, and on the hottest days one was cool and
+comfortable. We slept on the roofs, and often dined there, too. Since the
+town was the General Headquarters of the Expeditionary Force, one was
+always sure to meet many friends. A comfortable and well-run officers'
+club was installed, as well as warrant officers' and enlisted men's clubs.
+
+Occasionally race meetings were planned and the various divisions would
+send representatives. Frank Wooton, the well-known jockey, was a
+despatch-rider, and usually succeeded in getting leave enough to allow him
+to ride some general's horses. An Arab race formed part of the programme.
+Once a wild tribesman who had secured a handsome lead almost lost the
+race by taking off his cloak and waving it round his head as he gave
+ear-piercing shouts of triumph. The Arab riding second was less emotional
+and attended better to the business in hand, but his horse was not quite
+good enough to make the difference.
+
+The scene at the race-course was a gay one. The color was chiefly
+contributed by the Jewesses who wore their hooded silk cloaks of lively
+hue--green or pink or yellow. The only crowd that I saw to vie with it was
+one which watched the prisoners taken at Ramadie march through the town.
+Turkish propaganda, circulated in the bazaars, gave out that instead of
+taking the prisoners we claimed, we had in reality suffered a defeat, and
+it was decided that the sight of the captive Turks would have a salutary
+effect upon the townsmen. Looking down from a housetop the red fezzes and
+the gay-colored abas made the crowd look like a vast field of poppies.
+
+When I was at Samarra an amusing incident took place in connection with a
+number of officers' wives who were captured at Ramadie. The army commander
+didn't wish to ship them off to India and Burma with their husbands, so he
+sent them up to Samarra with instructions that they be returned across
+the lines to the Turks. After many aeroplane messages were exchanged it
+was agreed that we should leave them at a designated hill and that the
+Turks would later come for them. Meanwhile we had arranged quarters for
+them, trying to do everything in a manner that would be in harmony with
+the Turkish convenances. When the wives were escorted forth to be turned
+back to their countrymen, they were all weeping bitterly. Whether it was
+that the Turk in his casual manner decided that one day was as good as
+another, or whether he felt that he had no particular use for these
+particular women, we never knew, but at all events twenty-four hours later
+one of our patrols came upon the prisoners still forlornly waiting. We
+shipped them back to Baghdad.
+
+Occasionally I would go to one of the Arab theatres. The plays were
+generally burlesques, for the Arab has a keen sense of humor and greatly
+appreciates a joke. Most of the puns were too involved for me to follow,
+but there was always a certain amount of slap-stick comedy that could be
+readily understood. Then there was dancing--as a whole monotonous and
+mediocre; but there was one old man who was a remarkable performer, and
+would have been appreciated on any stage in the world. The topical songs
+invariably amused me--they were so universal in spirit. The chorus of one
+which was a great hit ran: "Haido, haido, rahweni passak!" "I say, I say,
+show me your pass." There had been much trouble with spies and every one
+was required to provide himself with a certificate of good conduct and to
+show it on demand. It was to this that the song referred.
+
+Captain C.G. Lloyd was my companion on many rambles among the natives. He
+had been stationed in Burma and India for many years, and was a good
+Persian scholar. Like every one who has knocked about to any extent among
+native peoples, his career had not been lacking in incident. I remember on
+one occasion asking him why it was that he never joined me in a cup of
+coffee when we stopped at a coffee-house. He replied that he had always
+been wary of coffee since a man with him was poisoned by a cup which was
+intended for him.
+
+I always looked forward to a trip to Baghdad, for it gave me a chance to
+mingle in a totally different life from that which daily surrounded me,
+and temporarily, at least, forget about the war in which the world was
+plunged. Still, the morning set to leave invariably found me equally glad
+to shove off once more into the great expanses of the desert.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT
+
+
+When I reached headquarters after the attack on the Euphrates front, I was
+expecting to hear that my transfer to France had gone through and receive
+orders to proceed thither immediately. It had always been my intention to
+try to join the American army once it began to take a real part in the
+war, and for some time past I had been casting about in my mind for the
+best method to carry out my plans. When affairs looked so very black for
+the Allied forces in March and April, 1918, I decided that France was the
+place where every one, who could by any possibility manage it, should be.
+General Gillman, the chief of staff, had on more than one occasion shown
+himself a good friend, and I determined to once more task his kindness. He
+said that he thought he could arrange for my transfer to France, and that
+once there I could work out the best way of getting into the American
+army.
+
+Everything went well, and I was daily expecting my orders, when Major
+Thompson, who commanded the brigade of armored cars, sent for me and told
+me that an advance was being planned on the Kurdish front. Only two
+batteries were to be taken--the Eighth and the Thirteenth--but he said
+that he would like to have me go along in command of the supply-train. Of
+course I jumped at the chance, as the attack promised to be most
+interesting.
+
+We were told to be ready to move on an hour's notice. For several days the
+weather held us back. The rain, helped out by the melting snow from the
+mountains, caused the rivers to rise in flood. The Tigris rose sixteen
+feet in a night. The lower bridge was broken and washed away. Everything
+possible was done to reinforce the upper bridge, but it was hourly
+expected to give way under the strain of the whirling yellow waters. The
+old Arab rivermen said that they could tell by the color just which of the
+tributaries were in spate. When they saw or thought they saw a new
+admixture, they would shake their heads and say: "Such and such a river
+is now also in flood--the Tigris will rise still further."
+
+On the night of April 24 we at length got our orders and at six o'clock
+the following morning we set out, prepared to run through to Ain Leilah.
+The country was indeed changed since I passed through six weeks before.
+The desert had blossomed. We ran through miles and miles of clover; the
+sweet smell seemed so wholesomely American, recalling home and family, and
+the meadows of Long Island. The brilliant red poppies were more in keeping
+with the country; and we passed by Indian cavalry reinforcements with the
+scarlet flowers stuck in their black hair and twined in the head-stalls of
+the horses.
+
+As we approached the hills they looked less bleak--a soft green clothed
+the hollows, and the little oasis of Ain Leilah no longer stood out in the
+same marked contrast as when last I visited it. The roads were in good
+shape, and we reached camp at four in the afternoon. I took one of the
+tenders and set off to look up some old friends in the regiments near by.
+As I passed a group of Arabs that had just finished work on the roads, I
+noticed that they were playing a game that was new to me. A stake was
+driven into the ground, with a horsehair rope ten or twelve feet in length
+attached to it. An old man had hold of the end of the rope. About the
+stake were piled some clothes, and the Arabs were standing around in a
+circle just out of reach of the man with the rope. The object was to dart
+in and snatch up something from the heap without the old man who was on
+guard catching you. They were enjoying themselves hugely--the oldest
+graybeards behaving as if they were children--a very pleasant side of the
+Arab.
+
+Our instructions were to be ready to pull out before daybreak. The mission
+was, as usual, a flanking one. The direct attack was to be delivered on
+Kara Tepe, and, if that were successful, upon Kifri. We were to intercept
+the arrival of reinforcements, or cut off the retreat of the garrisons, as
+the case might be.
+
+In the early morning hours the country was lovely--rolling grass land
+"with a hint of hills behind"--miles of daisies with clusters of blood-red
+poppies scattered through them--and occasional hollows carpeted with a
+brilliant blue flower. In the river courses there were numbers of
+brilliantly hued birds--the gayest colors I saw in Mesopotamia with the
+exception of the vivid arsenic-green birds around Ana on the Euphrates.
+In one place I thought that the ground was covered with red flowers, but a
+close inspection proved it to be myriads of tiny red insects swarming on
+the grass stems.
+
+Column marching is slow and wearisome, and after the sun rose the heat
+became intense. The dust smothered us; there was not a breath of air to
+rid us of it for even a moment. The miles seemed interminable. At noon we
+halted beside a narrow stream known as Oil River--a common name in this
+part of the country where oil abounds and the water is heavily impregnated
+with it. For drinking it was abominable--and almost spoiled the tea upon
+which we relied for a staple. A few miles beyond, the engineers found a
+suitable location to throw a bridge across the creek. The main body was
+halted at a place known as Umr Maidan and we were sent over the bridge to
+form across the main road leading from Kara Tepe back into the Turkish
+territory.
+
+It was nightfall before we had effected a crossing, and we groped our way
+along until we came upon the road. It was impossible to do very much in
+the way of selecting a position, but we arranged the cars as best we
+could. When you were off at large in the desert you were what the army
+called "Out in the blue," and that was certainly our situation on the
+night of April 26. We all expected that we would intercept traffic going
+one way or the other, but the night passed without incident or excitement.
+
+[Illustration: Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge]
+
+By four in the morning we were once more feeling our way along through the
+darkness. As it lightened we came under observation by the Turks, who
+started in to shell us. We learned from our aeroplanes that Kifri had been
+evacuated; the garrison was falling back along a road running parallel to
+the one on which we were, separated by eight or ten miles of broken
+country. By this time our cavalry had caught up with us. They pushed off
+across country to intercept the Turks. We attempted to do likewise but it
+was more difficult, and what with dodging in and out to avoid a ravine
+here or a hill there, we made little headway. At length we struck a road
+that led in approximately the direction whither we wished to go. It was
+already early afternoon before, upon topping a rise, we caught sight of a
+good-sized body of Turks marching on a road which ran along the base of
+a range of steep, stony hills. We put on as much speed as was possible,
+and headed north to try to intercept them. The cavalry were coming from
+the south, and while we were circling around they charged in upon the
+Turks. It was a stirring scene. The powerful Indians sat their horses with
+the utmost grace. Their drawn sabres flashed in the sun. As they came to
+close quarters the turbaned heads bent forward and we could hear the
+shouts and high-pitched cries of triumph as the riders slashed at the foe.
+The wounded and dead testified to their skill as swordsmen. The whole
+sight reminded me more of the battle books I read as a boy than anything I
+saw in the war. About six hundred prisoners were taken, but many of the
+Turks escaped to the mountains and lay among the rocks, whence they could
+snipe at us with impunity. They were a tenacious lot, for all next day
+when we were using the road below the hills they continued to shoot at us
+from the places whence it was impossible to dislodge them.
+
+While the prisoners were being brought in we caught sight of one of our
+aeroplanes crashing. Making our way over to it we found that neither the
+pilot nor the observer was seriously hurt. Flying in Mesopotamia was made
+unusually difficult by the climatic conditions. The planes were designed
+for work in France and during the summer months the heat and dryness
+warped the propeller blades and indeed all the wooden parts. Then, too,
+the fine dust would get into the machinery when the aviator was taxiing
+for a start. Many pilots coming out from France with brilliant records met
+an early and untimely end because they could not realize how very
+different the conditions were. I remember one poor young fellow who set
+off on a reconnaissance without the food and water he was required by
+regulations to carry. He got lost and ran out of gasolene--being forced to
+land out in the desert. The armored cars went off in search of him, and on
+the second morning after he had come down they found his body near their
+bivouac. He had evidently got that far during the night and died of
+exhaustion and exposure practically within hearing. He was stripped of his
+clothes; whether this had been done by himself or by the tribesmen was
+never determined. A death of this sort always seems so much sadder than
+being legitimately killed in combat. The L.A.M. batteries were in close
+touch with the Royal Flying Corps, for when news came in that a plane was
+down in the desert or some part of the debatable land, we would be
+detailed to go out in search of the occupants. A notice printed in Arabic,
+Persian, Turkish, and Kurdish was fastened into each aeroplane informing
+the reader of the reward that would be paid him if the pilot were brought
+in safety to the British lines. This was done in case a plane got lost and
+was driven down out of its course among the tribesmen.
+
+The night of the 27th we bivouacked once more "out in the blue." Dawn
+found me on my way back to Umr Maidan to lay in a new supply of gasolene.
+I made a rapid trip and caught up with the armored cars in action in a
+large swampy plain. The grass was very high and the ground so soft that it
+was difficult to accomplish anything. Two or three small hills offered
+vantage-points, but they were not neglected by the Turk, and among those
+that fell was the colonel of the Twenty-First cavalry--the regiment that
+had acquitted itself so well in the charge of the day before.
+
+We were ten miles from Tuz Khurmartli, the next important town held by
+the enemy now that Kifri had been taken. It was thither that the Turks had
+been retreating when we cut them off. Finding that we were unable to
+operate effectively where we were, it was decided that we should make our
+way across to the Kifri-Kirkuk road and advance along it to make a frontal
+attack upon Tuz. Our orders were to proceed to a deserted village known as
+Kulawand, and wait there for the command to advance. When we got to the
+road we found the hills still occupied by camel-guns and machine-guns. We
+replied ineffectively, for we had no means of dislodging them, nor did the
+cavalry when they came up. Kulawand we found to be a fair-sized native
+village unoccupied save for a single hut full of old women and children.
+Here we waited until nightfall for the orders that never came. I sat under
+a ruined wall reading alternatively Camoens' _Lusiad_ and _David Harum_
+until darkness fell.
+
+During the night some infantry came up, both native and British. They had
+had stiff marching during the last few days, and were done up, but very
+cheerful at the prospect of an attack on the morrow. They had some hard
+fighting ahead of them. The King's Own in particular distinguished itself
+in taking a stubbornly contested and strongly held hill.
+
+At dawn we were under way. We had heard reports during the night that the
+Turks had evacuated Tuz--but it was not long before we found that such was
+not the case. They were still there and showed every evidence of staying.
+A small village five or six miles to the southwest was also bitterly
+contested. Our cavalry did some excellent work, capturing small hills held
+with machine-guns.
+
+We advanced down the road beside the hills. A mile before reaching Tuz we
+ran into the Aq Su, a large stream flowing through a narrow cleft in the
+hills. Fortunately the river was very low, and there were several places
+where it was spread out over such a wide bed that it seemed as if it might
+be possible to get the cars across. I emptied a Ford van and set out to do
+some prospecting. First I went up-stream, which was toward the mountains,
+but I could not go far, for there was an ancient fort situated at the
+mouth of the gorge, and it had not been evacuated. Finding a likely
+looking place a little below, I made a cast and just succeeded in getting
+through. It was easy to see that it would not be possible for the
+low-swung Rolls to cross under their own power, for the fly-wheel would
+throw the water up into the motor. There was nothing to do but send back
+for artillery horses to pull the armored cars across.
+
+Meanwhile, as our artillery had practically ceased firing on the town and
+the Turks seemed to have entirely evacuated it, I thought that I would go
+up and take over and see whether there had not been some valuable
+documents left behind. I drove along past some abandoned artillery into
+the main street. A number of Turkish soldiers came up to surrender and I
+told them to have the Reis Beledia--the town mayor--report to me. When he
+came I directed him to take me to the quarters of the Turkish commanding
+general. As we drove through the covered bazaar everything was closed.
+Scarcely anybody was in the streets--but I could see the inhabitants
+peeping out from behind lattices. It was a good thing to have the old
+mayor along, for he served as an excellent hostage, and I kept close watch
+upon him. He brought me to a prosperous, neat-looking house with heavy
+wooden doors. In response to his summons an old woman came and ushered us
+into a large, cool room, well furnished and with beautiful Kurdish rugs.
+There we found four young girls, who, it was explained to me, formed the
+Turkish general's "field harem." He had left in too much of a hurry to
+take them with him. They were Kurds and Circassians, or Georgians--and the
+general had shown no lack of taste in his selection! True to the tradition
+of the Garden of Eden, this harem proved disastrous to a brother officer
+who, having heard of my capture, sent me "priority" over the field service
+lines a ribald message as to its disposition. "Priority" wires are sent
+only on affairs of the greatest importance, and when I left the country my
+friend was slated to explain matters before a court martial. There were no
+papers of any great value to be found, and I told the mayor to take me to
+the more important ammunition and supply dumps. By the time I had located
+these some cavalry had come in, and I went back to the river to help get
+the fighting cars across.
+
+Once we had these safely over we set out in pursuit of the Turks. The next
+town of importance was a ramshackle mud-walled affair called Tauq, twenty
+miles beyond, on the far side of a river known as the Tauq Chai. The
+leading cars pursued to within sight of the town and came in for a good
+deal of shelling.
+
+The Turks we captured were in far poorer shape than those we had recently
+taken on the Euphrates front. Their shoes were worn out, they were very
+ragged, and, what was of greater significance, they were badly nourished.
+The length of their line of communications had evidently severely strained
+them. Supplies had to come overland all the way from Nisibin, which is
+more than a hundred miles beyond Mosul. The broken country made the
+transportation a difficult problem to solve. It was a miracle that they
+had the morale to fight as they did under such disadvantageous conditions.
+
+Here, as throughout the campaign, it was a continual source of pride to
+see the way in which our soldiers behaved to the natives. I never heard of
+a case in which man, woman, or child was wrongfully treated. Minor
+offenses were sometimes committed, but these were quickly righted. No
+doubt there were isolated instances of wrong-doing, for in such a large
+army there are bound to be degenerate individuals from whose conduct it is
+unfair to judge the whole.
+
+That night we encamped in the outskirts of Tuz, not far from the Turkish
+aerodrome. Next morning one of the batteries was ordered to reconnoitre as
+far as the town--pursuing a different route than that taken on the
+previous day. The commanding officer asked me to go along because of my
+knowledge of Arabic. The road followed the telegraph-lines, and part of
+the time that was the only way in which we could distinguish it from the
+surrounding country. Of course, the map was hopelessly incorrect. The
+villages were not even rightly named. A great deal of reconnoitring was
+called for, and in one village we had to knock the corner off a mud house
+to enable us to make a sharp right-angle turn. The natives were in pitiful
+condition. The Turks had not only taken all their crops, but even the
+grain that should be reserved to sow for the following year. The sheep had
+been killed in the lambing season, so the flocks were sadly depleted. Such
+standing grain as there was left looked flourishing. The wheat waved above
+the cars.
+
+As we came out of a deep, broad ravine that had caused us much delay and
+difficulty, we caught sight of an attractive town situated on a steep,
+flat-topped hill. Upon drawing near, a fine-looking, white-bearded Arab
+rode up on a small gray mare. He said that he was the head man of the
+town; that he hated the Turks, and would like to be of any assistance
+possible to us. I asked him if the enemy had evacuated Tauq. He replied
+that they had. I then asked him if he were positive about it. He offered
+to accompany us to prove it. The trail was so bad that we could not go
+fast, and he rode along beside us at a hand-gallop.
+
+When we came to the river in front of the town we found that it was
+impossible to get the armored cars across. The Turks had evidently fallen
+back, but not far, for they were dropping in shells with regularity. Our
+Arab friend told us that there was a bridge six miles up-stream, but it
+was too late for us to attempt it, and we turned back to Tuz after
+arranging with Sheikh Muttar to meet us in the morning.
+
+[Illustration: The Kurd and his wife]
+
+[Illustration: Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds]
+
+Next day we found him waiting for us as he had promised. With him were two
+handsome Kurds. One of them had his wife perched behind him on the horse's
+crupper. Together they undertook to guide us up to the bridge. It was
+invariably difficult to find out from natives whether or not a road was
+passable for motor-cars. They were accustomed to think only in terms of
+horses or men, and could not realize that a bad washout might be
+impassable for automobiles. Curiously enough, even those natives whom we
+had taken along with us on several reconnaissances as guides could not be
+trusted to give an opinion as to the feasibility of a proposed route. We
+experienced no little trouble in following our guides to the bridge,
+although we afterward discovered a good road that cut off from the main
+trail about half-way between Tuz and Tauq.
+
+When we reached the bridge we found it to be a solid, well-built affair of
+recent construction. The retreating Turks had tried to blow it up, but the
+most vital charges had failed to go off, so the damage done would not be
+sufficiently serious to stop our passage, after six or seven hours'
+preliminary work. We immediately sent back for the engineers, and put in
+the time while waiting by taking a much-needed bath in the rapids beneath
+one of the side arches. Every one who has wandered about in the waste
+places of the world can recall certain swims that will always stand out in
+his memory. Perhaps they have been after a long and arduous hunt--perhaps
+at the end of a weary march. Our plunge in the Tauq Chai took its place
+among these.
+
+In the late afternoon we drove back to Tuz. Our camp there was anything
+but cheerful, for swarms of starving townsfolk hovered on the outskirts
+ready to pounce on any refuse that the men threw away. Discarded tin cans
+were cleaned out until the insides shone like mirrors. The men gave away
+everything they could possibly spare from their rations. As the news
+spread, the starving mountain Kurds began straggling in; and the gruesome
+band made one glad to leave camp early and return after dark. Our line of
+communication was so extended that it was impossible to attempt any relief
+work.
+
+The following morning we crossed over the bridge with little trouble, but
+ran into a lot of difficulty when we tried to make our way down to the
+town. A couple of miles above the main town there is a small settlement
+grouped on a hill around the mosque of Zain El Abidin. The "mutabelli," or
+keeper of the shrine, is an important personage in the community, so when
+he appeared riding a richly caparisoned stallion and offered to accompany
+us to the town, we welcomed the opportunity of going in under such good
+auspices. We decided to take Seyid Mustapha, for that was his name, in one
+of the Ford vans with us. It was comparatively easy to get the light car
+up over the precipitous, rocky trail; and eventually one of the fighting
+cars succeeded in following. I was driving, with Mustapha beside me. In
+front of us on a white horse galloped the Seyid's attendant singing and
+shouting and proclaiming our arrival. We stopped at Mustapha's house for a
+cup of coffee and a discussion of events. The information which we secured
+from him afterward proved unusually correct. I took him on with us to the
+town so that he could identify the head man and see that we got hold of
+the right people. Our reception was by no means cordial, although after we
+had talked a little and explained what we were after, the mayor became
+cheerful and expansive. He had a jovial, rotund face, covered in large
+part by a bushy beard, and would have done excellently as a model for
+Silenus. In the town were a handful of Turkish stragglers--among them a
+stalwart Greek who spoke a little English. He said that he had been
+impressed into service by the Turks and was most anxious to join our
+forces.
+
+We found large stores of ammunition and other supplies, among them a
+wireless set. What interested us most, I am afraid, was the quantity of
+chickens that we saw strutting about. A few of them and a good supply of
+eggs found their way to the automobiles in short order. We were always
+very particular about paying for whatever we took, and seeing that the men
+did likewise; our reputation went before us, and the native, as a rule,
+took it for granted that we would pay. It was up to the officers to see
+that the prices were not exorbitant. We always used Indian currency--the
+rupee and the anna. In normal times a rupee is about a third of a dollar.
+Throughout the occupied area Turkish currency also circulated, but the
+native invariably preferred to be paid in Indian. Curiously enough, even
+on entering towns like Tauq, we found the inhabitants eager for payment in
+rupees. I was told that in the money market in Baghdad a British advance
+would be heralded by a slump in Turkish exchange. Paper rupees were almost
+everywhere as readily accepted as silver, but paper liras and piasters
+were soon of so little value that they were no longer in circulation.
+
+When we got back to camp I found a wire informing me that I had been
+transferred to the American army, and ordering me to report at once to
+Baghdad to be sent to France. Major Thompson asked me if I would delay my
+return until the end of the advance. It was rumored that we would continue
+to push on and would attack Kirkuk. Many felt that the difficulty that was
+already being experienced in rationing us would preclude our thrusting
+farther. Still, I made up my mind that as long as the major wished it and
+would wire for permission I would stay a few days longer on the chance of
+the attack continuing.
+
+On the morning of the 3d we moved camp to the far side of the Tauq Chai
+bridge. When the tenders were unloaded I started back to bring up a supply
+of gasolene, with the purpose of making a dump in case we were called upon
+for a further advance. I was told that the nearest supply from which I
+could draw was at Umr Maidan; and the prospect of running back, a distance
+of seventy miles, was not cheerful. When I got as far as Tuz I found a
+friend in charge of the dump there, and he let me draw what I wanted, so I
+turned back to try to get to the bridge by dark. One car after another
+got in trouble; first it was a puncture, then it was a tricky carburetor
+that refused to be put to rights; towing-ropes were called into
+requisition, but the best had been left behind, and those we had were
+rotted, and broke on every hill. Lastly a broken axle put one of the
+tenders definitely out of commission, and, of course, I had to wait behind
+with it. To add to everything, a veritable hurricane set in, with thunder
+and lightning and torrents of rain. The wind blew so hard that I thought
+the car would be toppled over. What made us more gloomy than anything else
+was the thought of all the dry river courses that would be roaring floods
+by morning, and probably hold up the ration supply indefinitely.
+
+Two days later the orders for which we had been waiting came through. We
+were to march upon a town called Taza Khurmatli, lying fifteen miles
+beyond Tauq and ten short of Kirkuk. If we met with no opposition there we
+were to push straight on. From all we could hear Taza was occupied only by
+cavalry, which would probably fall back without contesting our advance.
+The cars had been out on reconnaissance near the town for the last two
+days, and had come in for artillery and machine-gun fire; but it was
+believed that the Turks had everything ready to withdraw their guns on our
+approach.
+
+In the gray light that preceded dawn we saw shadowy columns of infantry
+and artillery and cavalry passing by our camp. The costumes of the
+different regiments made a break in the drab monotony. The Mesopotamian
+Expeditionary Force was composed of varied components. Steel helmets could
+be worn only in winter. In many of the native regiments the British
+officers wore tasselled pugrees, and long tunics that were really shirts,
+and an adaption of the native custom of wearing the shirt-tails outside
+the trousers. The Gurkhas were supplied with pith helmets. It was
+generally claimed that this was unnecessary, but the authorities felt that
+coming from a cold, high climate they would be as much affected by the
+Mesopotamian sun as were Europeans. The presence of the Indian troops
+brought about unusual additions to the dry "General Routine Orders" issued
+by general headquarters. One of them, referring to a religious festival of
+the Sikhs, ran:
+
+"The following cable message received from Sunder Signh Hagetha,
+Amritsar, addressed to Sikhs in Mesopotamian force:
+
+"To our most Dear Brothers now serving the Benign King-Emperor oversea,
+the chief Khalsa Dewan tenders hearty and sincere greetings on the
+auspicious Gurpurb of First Guru. You are upholding the name and fame of
+Gurupurb. Our hearts are with you and our prayers are that Satguru and
+Akalpurkh may ever be with you and lead you to victory and return home
+safe, after vanquishing the King-Emperor's foes, with honor and flying
+colors."
+
+The British Empire was well and loyally served by her Indian subjects, and
+by none more faithfully than the Sikhs.
+
+We let the column get well started before we shoved off in our cars. The
+trail was wide enough to pass without interfering; and long before we were
+in sight of Taza we had taken our place ahead. As was foreseen, the enemy
+evacuated the town with scarce a show of resistance. I set off to
+interview the local head man. In the spring all the upper Mesopotamian
+towns are inundated by flocks of storks, but I have never seen them in
+greater force than in Taza. On almost every housetop were a couple,
+throwing their heads back and clattering their beaks in the odd way that
+gives them their onomatopoetic Arabic name of Lak-Lak. It sounded like the
+rattle of machine-guns; so much so that on entering the village, for the
+first second I thought that the Turks were opening up on us. No native
+will molest a stork; to do so is considered to the last degree
+inauspicious.
+
+There was but little water in the river running by Taza, and we managed to
+get the cars through under their own power. A few miles farther on lay a
+broad watercourse, dry in the main, but with the centre channel too deep
+to negotiate, so there was nothing to be done without the help of the
+artillery horses. The Turks were shelling the vicinity of the crossing, so
+we drew back a short distance and sent word that we were held up waiting
+for assistance to get us over.
+
+Once we had reached the far side we set out to pick our way round Kirkuk
+to get astride the road leading thence to Altun Kupri. This is the main
+route from Baghdad to Mosul, the chief city on the upper Tigris, across
+the river from the ruins of Nineveh. It was a difficult task finding a way
+practicable for the cars, as the ground was still soft from the recent
+rains. It was impossible to keep defiladed from Turkish observation, but
+we did not supply them with much in the way of a target. At length we got
+round to the road, and started to advance down it to Kirkuk. The town, in
+common with so many others in that part of the country, is built on a
+hill. The Hamawand Kurds are inveterate raiders, and good fortifications
+are needed to withstand them. As we came out upon the road we caught sight
+of our cavalry preparing to attack. The Turks were putting up a stout
+resistance, with darkness fast coming to their aid. After approaching
+close to the town, we were ordered to return to a deserted village for the
+night, prepared to go through in the early morning.
+
+The co-ordinates of the village were given, and we easily found it on the
+map; but it was quite another proposition to locate it physically. To add
+to our difficulties, the sky clouded over and pitchy blackness settled
+down. It soon started to rain, so we felt that the best we could do was
+select as likely a spot as came to hand and wait for morning. I made up my
+mind that the front seat of a van, uncomfortable and cramped as it was,
+would prove the best bed for the night. My estimate was correct, for at
+midnight the light drizzle, that was scarcely more than a Scotch mist,
+turned into a wild, torrential downpour that all but washed away my
+companions. The waterproof flap that I had rigged withstood the onslaughts
+of wind and rain in a fashion that was as gratifying as it was unexpected.
+The vivid flashes of lightning showed the little dry ravine beside us
+converted into a roaring, swirling torrent. The water was rushing past
+beneath the cars, half-way up to their hubs. A large field hospital had
+been set up close to the banks of the stream at Taza. We afterward heard
+that the river had risen so rapidly that many of the tents and a few
+ambulances were washed away.
+
+By morning it had settled down into a steady, businesslike downpour. We
+found that we were inextricably caught in among some low hills. There was
+not the slightest chance of moving the fighting cars; they were bogged
+down to the axle. There was no alternative other than to wait until the
+rain stopped and the mud dried. Fortunately our emergency rations were
+still untouched.
+
+Our infantry went over at dawn, and won through into the town. If it had
+not been for the rain we would have made some important captures. As it
+was, the Turks destroyed the bridge across the Hasa Su and retreated to
+Altun Kupri by the road on the farther bank. From a hill near by we
+watched everything, powerless to help in any way.
+
+At noon the sky unexpectedly cleared and the sun came out. We unloaded a
+Ford van, and with much pushing and no little spade work managed to get it
+down to a road running in the direction of Kirkuk. We found the surface
+equal to the light car, and slowly made our way to the outskirts of the
+town, with occasional halts where digging and shoving were required. We
+satisfied ourselves that, given a little sun, we could bring the armored
+cars out of their bog and through to the town.
+
+[Illustration: Kirkuk]
+
+Next morning, in spite of the fact that more rain had fallen during the
+night, I set to work on my tenders, and at length succeeded in putting
+them all in Kirkuk. We were billeted in the citadel, a finely built,
+substantial affair, with a courtyard that we could turn into a good
+garage. The Turks had left in great haste, and, although they had
+attempted a wholesale destruction of everything that they could not
+take, they had been only partially successful. In my room I found a
+quantity of pamphlets describing the American army--with diagrams of
+insignia, and pictures of fully equipped soldiers of the different
+branches of the service. There was also a map of the United States showing
+the population by States. The text was, of course, in Turkish and the
+printing excellently done. What the purpose might be I could not make out.
+
+The wherefore of another booklet was more obvious. It was an illustrated
+account of alleged British atrocities. Most of the pictures purported to
+have been taken in the Sudan, and showed decapitated negroes. Some I am
+convinced were pictures of the Armenian massacres that the Turks had
+themselves taken and in a thrifty moment put to this useful purpose. This
+pamphlet was printed at the press in Kirkuk.
+
+There were a number of excellent buildings--mainly workshops and armories,
+but the best was the hospital. The long corridors and deep windows of the
+wards looked very cool. An up-to-date impression was given by the
+individual patient charts, with the headings for the different diagnoses
+printed in Turkish and French. The doctors were mainly Armenians. The
+occupants were all suffering from malnutrition, and there was a great deal
+of starvation in the town.
+
+I did not wish to return to Baghdad until I could be certain that we were
+not going to advance upon Altun Kupri. The engineers patched up the
+bridge, and we took the cars over to the other side and went off on a
+reconnaissance to ascertain how strongly the town was being held. The long
+bridge from which it gets its name could easily be destroyed, and crossing
+over the river would be no light matter. The surrounding mountains limited
+the avenue of attack. Altogether it would not be an easy nut to crack, and
+the Turks had evidently determined on a stand. What decided the army
+commander to make any further attempt to advance was most probably the
+great length of the line of communications, and the recent floods had made
+worse conditions which were bad enough at the best. The ration supply had
+fallen very low, and it seemed impossible to hold even Kirkuk unless the
+rail-head could be advanced materially.
+
+I put in all my odd moments wandering about the bazaars. The day after
+the fall the merchants opened their booths and transacted business as
+usual. The population was composed of many races, chiefly Turcoman, Kurd,
+and Arab. There were also Armenians, Chaldeans, Syrians, and Jews. The
+latter were exceedingly prosperous. Arabic and Kurdish and Turkish were
+all three spoken. Kirkuk is of very ancient origin--but of its early
+history little is known. The natives point out a mound which they claim to
+be Daniel's tomb. Two others are shown as belonging to Shadrach and
+Meshech; that of the third of the famous trio has been lost. There are
+many artificial hills in the neighborhood, and doubtless in course of time
+it will prove a fruitful hunting-ground for archæologists. As far as I
+could learn no serious excavating has hitherto been undertaken in the
+vicinity.
+
+The bazaars were well filled with goods of every sort. I picked up one or
+two excellent rugs for very little, and a few odds and ends, dating from
+Seleucid times, that had been unearthed by Arab laborers in their gardens
+or brick-kilns. There were some truck-gardens in the outskirts, and we
+traded fresh vegetables for some of our issue rations. There are few
+greater luxuries when one has been living on canned foods for a long
+time. I saw several ibex heads nailed up over the doors of houses. The
+owners told me that they were to be found in the near-by mountains, but
+were not plentiful. There is little large game left in Mesopotamia, and
+that mainly in the mountains. I once saw a striped hyena. It is a
+nocturnal animal, and they may be common, although I never came across but
+the one, which I caught sight of slinking among the ruins of Istabulat,
+south of Samarra, one evening when I was riding back to camp. Gazelle were
+fairly numerous, and we occasionally shot one for venison. It was on the
+plains between Kizil Robat and Kara Tepe that I saw the largest bands.
+Judging from ancient bas-reliefs lions must at one time have been very
+plentiful. In the forties of the last century Sir Henry Layard speaks of
+coming across them frequently in the hill country; and later still, in the
+early eighties, a fellow countryman, Mr. Fogg, in his _Land of the Arabian
+Nights_, mentions that the English captain of a river steamer had recently
+killed four lions, shooting from the deck of his boat. Rousseau speaks of
+meeting, near Hit, a man who had been badly mauled by a lion, and was
+going to town to have his wounds cared for. Leopards and bears are to be
+met with in the higher mountain regions, and wild boars are common in many
+districts. They inhabit the thickets along the river-banks, in country
+that would permit of much sound sport in the shape of pig-sticking.
+
+Game-birds are found in abundance; both greater and lesser bustard; black
+and gray partridges, quail, geese, duck, and snipe. A week's leave could
+be made provide good shooting and a welcome addition to the usual fare
+when the wanderer returned. Every sort of shotgun was requisitioned, from
+antiquated muzzle-loaders bought in the bazaar to the most modern
+creations of Purdy sent out from India by parcel-post.
+
+After waiting a few days further, to be certain that an attack would not
+be unexpectedly ordered, I set out on my return trip to Baghdad. The river
+at Taza was still up, but I borrowed six mules from an accommodating
+galloping ambulance, and pulled the car across. We went by way of Kifri, a
+clean, stone-built town that we found all but empty. The food situation
+had become so critical that the inhabitants had drifted off, some to our
+lines, others to Persia, and still others to Kirkuk and Mosul. Near Kifri
+are some coal-mines about which we had heard much. It is the only place in
+the country where coal is worked, and we were hoping that we might put it
+to good use. Our experts, however, reported that it was of very poor
+quality and worth practically nothing.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+BACK THROUGH PALESTINE
+
+
+Several days later I embarked at Baghdad on one of the river boats. I took
+Yusuf with me to Busra to put me aboard the transport for Egypt. It was
+the first time he had ever been that far down-stream, and he showed a fine
+contempt for everything he saw, comparing it in most disparaging terms to
+his own desolate native town of Samarra. The cheapness, variety, and
+plenty of the food in the bazaars of Busra were the only things that he
+allowed in any way to impress him.
+
+I was fortunate enough to run into some old friends, and through one of
+them met General Sutton, who most kindly and opportunely rescued me from
+the dreary "Rest-Camp" and took me to his house. While I was waiting for a
+chance to get a place on a transport, he one morning asked me to go with
+him to Zobeir, where he was to dedicate a hospital. Zobeir is a desert
+town of ten thousand or so inhabitants, situated fifteen miles inland
+from Busra. The climate is supposed to be more healthful, and many of the
+rich and important residents of the river town have houses there to which
+they retire during the summer months. To an outsider any comparison would
+seem only a refinement of degrees of suffocation. The heat of all the
+coastal towns of the Persian Gulf is terrific.
+
+Zobeir is a desert town, with its ideals and feelings true to the
+inheritance of the tribesmen. It is a market for the caravans of central
+Arabia. A good idea of the Turkish feeling toward it may be gathered from
+the fact that the inhabitants were exempt from military service. This was
+a clear admission on the part of the Turk that he could not cope with the
+situation, and thought it wisest not to attempt something which he had no
+hope of putting through. It was, therefore, a great triumph for the
+British and a sure wedge into the confidence of the desert folk when the
+hospital was opened, for any people that can introduce so marked an
+innovation among the hidebound desert communities must have won their
+confidence and respect in a remarkable degree. Ibrahim, the hereditary
+Sheikh of Zobeir, himself contributed largely to the fund for the
+endowment. It was arranged that Doctor Borrie, who among his other duties
+ran the civil hospital at Busra, should periodically include Zobeir in his
+rounds. The Sheikh showed us over the building. It was cool, comfortable,
+and very sanitary. The Indian who was to be resident physician had every
+appearance of intelligence and proficiency. Old Ibrahim gave us a large
+banquet of the orthodox type. There was a sheep roasted whole, and dishes
+of every sort of meat and vegetable marshalled upon the table, which
+fairly groaned beneath their weight. We had innumerable speeches. General
+Sutton made an excellent address, which an interpreter translated into
+Arabic. Our Arabian hosts were long-winded, and the recognized local
+orator was so classical in his phrases and forms and tenses that it was
+impossible to do more than get the general drift of what he said. Luckily
+I had in my pocket a copy of the _Lusiads_, which I surreptitiously read
+when the speeches became hopelessly long drawn out.
+
+I was allotted space on a British India, boat, the _Torrilla_, that was to
+take to Egypt a field artillery regiment of the Third Division. As we
+dropped down-stream and I watched a disconsolate Yusuf standing on the
+dock, I felt that another chapter had closed--an interesting one at that.
+I was not left long to muse on what the next would bring forth before
+there was a cry of "fire"; and from where I was standing in the
+smoking-room I could see, through the open hatchways, the soldiers
+hurrying about below decks. As the ship was well ballasted with
+ammunition, anything that happened would, take place quickly, and only
+those on the spot could hope to control events, so I stayed where I was. A
+few minutes later the fire was reported out.
+
+The long two weeks' trip through the Persian Gulf and round to the Red Sea
+was monotonously peaceful. Being "unattached," I had no regular duties.
+Occasionally I attended "stables," and wandered around the horse lines.
+The great heat below decks had far less effect upon the horses than would
+be supposed. Of course, they were well cared for, and many were seasoned
+veterans that had taken more than one long sea voyage. If I am not
+mistaken, only one was lost on the trip.
+
+Most of the time I lay back in my rhoorkhee chair and read whatever I
+could find in the ship's library. The wireless broke down a few days
+after we left Busra, so we got no news whatever of the outer world, and
+soon ceased to speculate on what might be happening in France.
+
+At length, on the morning of June 4, we dropped anchor in Suez harbor. We
+had hoped that the _Torrilla_ would run through the canal to Port Said,
+but the disembarkation officer told us that we were all to be unloaded at
+Suez and proceed by rail. When I reached Alexandria I learned that a
+convoy had just sailed and there would not be another for two weeks at
+earliest. Sir Reginald Wingate, who had long been a family friend, was the
+British High Commissioner. Lady Wingate and he with the utmost hospitality
+insisted on my moving out to the residency to wait for my sailing.
+
+When I left for Mesopotamia Lord Derby had given me a letter to General
+Allenby which I had never had an opportunity to present. Sir Reginald
+suggested that I could not do better than make use of this enforced delay
+by going up to Palestine. The railway was already running to Jerusalem and
+you could go straight through from Cairo with but one change. At Kantara
+you crossed the canal and entered the military zone. Leaving there at
+half past eleven in the evening the train reached Ludd, which was general
+headquarters, at seven the following morning.
+
+Every one that I had ever met who knew General Allenby was wildly
+enthusiastic about him, and you had only to be with him a few minutes to
+realize how thoroughly justified their enthusiasm was. He represented the
+very highest type of the British soldier, and more need not be said. On
+the morning on which I arrived an attack was in progress and we could hear
+the drumming of the guns. The commander-in-chief placed a car at my
+disposal and I went around visiting old friends that I had made in
+Mesopotamia or still earlier in England, before the war. Among the latter
+was Colonel Ronald Storrs, the military governor of Jerusalem. With him I
+spent several days. Life in the Holy City seemed but little changed by the
+war. There was an interesting innovation in the Church of the Nativity at
+Bethlehem. The different Christian religious sects, in particular the
+Greek and Latin Catholics, were prone to come to blows in the church, and
+bloodshed and death had more than once been the result. To obviate this
+it had been the custom to have a regular relief of Turkish soldiers
+stationed in the church. Their place was now taken by British and French
+and Italians. Each nationality in rotation furnished the guard for a day.
+At the festival of the distribution of the Sacred Fire from the Church of
+the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem there were usually a number of accidents
+caused by the anxiety to reach the portal whence the fire was given out.
+The commander-in-chief particularly complimented Colonel Storrs upon the
+orderly way in which this ceremony was conducted under his régime. The
+population of Jerusalem is exceedingly mixed--and the percentage of
+fanatics is of course disproportionately large. There are many groups that
+have been gathered together and brought out to the Holy Land with
+distinctly unusual purposes. One such always had an empty seat at their
+table and confidently expected that Christ would some day appear to occupy
+it. The long-haired Russian and Polish Jews with their felt hats and
+shabby frock coats were to be met with everywhere. In the street where the
+Jews meet to lament the departed glory of Jerusalem an incongruous and
+ludicrous element was added by a few Jews, their bowed heads covered with
+ancient derby hats, wailing with undefeated zeal.
+
+[Illustration: A street in Jerusalem]
+
+It is a mournful fact that the one really fine building in Jerusalem
+should be the Mosque of Omar--the famous "Dome of the Rock." This is built
+on the legendary site of the temple of Solomon, and the mosaics lining the
+inside of the dome are the most beautiful I have ever seen. The simplicity
+is what is really most felt, doubly so because the Christian holy places
+are garish and tawdry, with tin-foil and flowers and ornate carving. It is
+to be hoped that the Christians will some day unite and clean out all the
+dreary offerings and knickknacks that clutter the Church of the Holy
+Sepulchre. Moslems hold the Mosque of Omar second in sanctity only to the
+great mosque in the holy city of Mecca. It is curious, therefore, that
+they should not object to Christians entering it. Mohammedans enter
+barefoot, but we fastened large yellow slippers over our shoes, and that
+was regarded as filling all requirements. Storrs pointed out to me that it
+was quite unnecessary to remove our hats, for that is not a sign of
+respect with Moslems, and they keep on their red fezzes. The mosque was
+built by the Caliph Abd el Melek, about fifty years after Omar had
+captured Jerusalem in 636 A.D. Many of the stones used in building it came
+from the temple of Jupiter. In the centre lies the famous rock, some sixty
+feet in diameter, and rising six or seven feet above the floor of the
+mosque. To Mohammedans it is more sacred than anything else in the world
+save the Black Stone at Mecca. Tradition says that it was here that
+Abraham and Melchizedek sacrificed to Jehovah, and Abraham brought Isaac
+as an offering. Scientists find grounds for the belief that it was the
+altar of the temple in the traces of a channel for carrying off the blood
+of the victims. The Crusaders believed the mosque to be the original
+temple of Solomon, and, according to their own reports, rededicated it
+with the massacre of more than ten thousand Moslems who had fled thither
+for refuge. The wrought-iron screen that they placed around the rock still
+remains. The cavern below is the traditional place of worship of many of
+the great characters of the Old Testament, such as David and Solomon and
+Elijah. From it Mohammed made his night journey to heaven, borne on his
+steed El Burak. In the floor of the cavern is an opening covered with a
+slab of stone, and said to go down to the centre of the world and be a
+medium for communicating with the souls of the departed.
+
+The military governor has been at work to better the sanitary conditions
+in Jerusalem. Hitherto the only water used by the townsfolk had been the
+rain-water which they gathered in tanks. Some years ago it was proposed to
+bring water to the city in pipes, some of which were already laid before
+the inhabitants decided that such an innovation could not be tolerated.
+The British have put in a pipe-line, and oddly enough it runs to the same
+reservoir whence Pontius Pilate started to bring water by means of an
+aqueduct. They have also built some excellent roads through the
+surrounding hills. Here, as in Mesopotamia, one was struck by the
+permanent nature of the improvements that are being made. Even to people
+absorbed in their own jealousies and rivalries the advantages that they
+were deriving from their liberation from Turkish rule must have been
+exceedingly apparent.
+
+The situation in Palestine differed in many ways from that in Mesopotamia,
+but in none more markedly than in the benefits derived from the
+propinquity of Egypt. Occasional leaves were granted to Cairo and
+Alexandria and they afforded the relaxation of a complete change of
+surroundings. I have never seen Cairo gayer. Shepherd's Hotel was open and
+crowded--and the dances as pleasant as any that could be given in London.
+The beaches at Ramleh, near Alexandria, were bright with crowds of
+bathers, and the change afforded the "men from up the line" must have
+proved of inestimable value in keeping the army contented. There were
+beaches especially reserved for non-commissioned officers and others for
+the privates--while in Cairo sightseeing tours were made to the pyramids
+and what the guide-books describe as "other points of interest."
+
+When I left Mesopotamia I made up my mind that there was one man in
+Palestine whom I would use every effort to see if I were held over waiting
+for a sailing. This man was Major A.B. Paterson, known to every Australian
+as "Banjo" Paterson. His two most widely read books are _The Man from
+Snowy River_ and _Rio Grande's Last Race_; both had been for years
+companions of the entire family at home and sources for daily quotations,
+so I had always hoped to some day meet their author. I knew that he had
+fought in the South African War, and I heard that he was with the
+Australian forces in Palestine. As soon as I landed I asked every
+Australian officer that I met where Major Paterson was, for locating an
+individual member of an expeditionary force, no matter how well known he
+may be, is not always easy. Every one knew him. I remember well when I
+inquired at the Australian headquarters in Cairo how the man I asked
+turned to a comrade and said: "Say, where's 'Banjo' now? He's at Moascar,
+isn't he?" Whether they had ever met him personally or not he was "Banjo"
+to one and all.
+
+On my return to Alexandria I stopped at Moascar, which was the main depot
+of the Australian Remount Service, and there I found him. He is a man of
+about sixty, with long mustaches and strong aquiline features--very like
+the type of American plainsman that Frederic Remington so well portrayed.
+He has lived everything that he has written. At different periods of his
+life he has dived for pearls in the islands, herded sheep, broken broncos,
+and known every chance and change of Australian station life. The
+Australians told me that when he was at his prime he was regarded as the
+best rider in Australia. A recent feat about which I heard much mention
+was when he drove three hundred mules straight through Cairo without
+losing a single animal, conclusively proving his argument against those
+who had contested that such a thing could not be done. Although he has
+often been in England, Major Paterson has never come to the United States.
+He told me that among American writers he cared most for the works of Joel
+Chandler Harris and O. Henry--an odd combination!
+
+While in Egypt I met a man about whom I had heard much, a man whose career
+was unsurpassed in interest and in the amount accomplished by the
+individual. Before the war Colonel Lawrence was engaged in archæological
+research under Professor Hogarth of Oxford University. Their most
+important work was in connection with the excavation of a buried city in
+Palestine. At the outbreak of hostilities Professor Hogarth joined the
+Naval Intelligence and rendered invaluable services to the Egyptian
+Expeditionary Forces. Lawrence had an excellent grounding in Arabic and
+decided to try to organize the desert tribes into bands that would raid
+the Turkish outposts and smash their lines of communication. He
+established a body-guard of reckless semioutlaws, men that in the old days
+in our West would have been known as "bad men." They became devoted to him
+and he felt that he could count upon their remaining faithful should any
+of the tribes with which he was raiding meditate treachery. He dressed in
+Arab costume, but as a whole made no effort to conceal his nationality.
+His method consisted in leading a tribe off on a wild foray to break the
+railway, blow up bridges, and carry off the Turkish supplies. Swooping
+down from out the open desert like hawks, they would strike once and be
+off before the Turks could collect themselves. Lawrence explained that he
+had to succeed, for if he failed to carry off any booty, his reputation
+among the tribesmen was dead--and no one would follow him thereafter. What
+he found hardest on these raids was killing the wounded--but the dread of
+falling into the hands of the Turks was so great that before starting it
+was necessary to make a compact to kill all that were too badly injured to
+be carried away on the camels. The Turks offered for Colonel Lawrence's
+capture a reward of ten thousand pounds if dead and twenty thousand
+pounds if alive. His added value in the latter condition was due to the
+benefit that the enemy expected to derive from his public execution. No
+one who has not tried it can realize what a long ride on a camel means,
+and although Lawrence was eager to take with him an Englishman who would
+know the best methods of blowing up bridges and buildings, he could never
+find any one who was able to stand the strain of a long journey on camel
+back.
+
+Lawrence told me that he couldn't last much longer, things had broken
+altogether too well for him, and they could not continue to do so.
+Scarcely more than thirty years of age, with a clean-shaven, boyish face,
+short and slender in build, if one met him casually among a lot of other
+officers it would not have been easy to single him out as the great power
+among the Arabs that he on every occasion proved himself to be. Lawrence
+always greatly admired the Arabs--appreciating their many-sidedness--their
+virility--their ferocity--their intellect and their sensitiveness. I
+remember well one of the stories which he told me. It was, I believe, when
+he was on a long raid in the course of which he went right into the
+outskirts of Damascus--then miles behind the Turkish lines. They halted at
+a ruined palace in the desert. The Arabs led him through the various
+rooms, explaining that each was scented with a different perfume. Although
+Lawrence could smell nothing, they claimed that one room had the odor of
+ambergris--another of roses--and a third of jasmine;--at length they came
+to a large and particularly ruinous room. "This," they said, "has the
+finest scent of all--the smell of the wind and the sun." I last saw
+Colonel Lawrence in Paris, whither he had brought the son of the King of
+the Hedjaz to attend the Peace Conference.
+
+When I got back to Alexandria I found that the sailing of the convoy had
+been still further delayed. Three vessels out of the last one to leave had
+been sunk, involving a considerable loss of life. The channel leading from
+the harbor out to sea is narrow and must be followed well beyond the
+entrance, so that the submarines had an excellent chance to lay in wait
+for outgoing boats. The greatest secrecy was observed with regard to the
+date of leaving and destination--and of course troops were embarked and
+held in the harbor for several days so as to avoid as far as possible any
+notice being given to the lurking enemy by spies on shore.
+
+The transports were filled with units that were being hurried off to stem
+the German tide in France, so casual officers were placed on the
+accompanying destroyers and cruisers. I was allotted to a little Japanese
+destroyer, the _Umi_. She was of only about six hundred and fifty tons
+burden, for this class of boat in the Japanese navy is far smaller than in
+ours. She was as neat as a pin, as were also the crew. The officers were
+most friendly and did everything possible to make things comfortable for a
+landsman in their limited quarters. The first meal on board we all used
+knives and forks, but thereafter they were only supplied to me, while the
+Japanese fell back upon their chop-sticks. It was a never-failing source
+of interest to watch their skill in eating under the most difficult
+circumstances. One morning when the boat was dancing about even more than
+usual, I came into breakfast to find the steward bringing in some rather
+underdone fried eggs, and thought that at last I would see the ship's
+officers stumped in the use of their chop-sticks. Not a bit of it; they
+had disposed of the eggs in the most unsurpassed manner and were off to
+their duties before I myself had finished eating.
+
+[Illustration: Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto]
+
+We left Alexandria with an escort of aeroplanes to see us safely started,
+while an observation balloon made fast to a cruiser accompanied us on the
+first part of our journey. The precautions were not in vain, for two
+submarines were sighted a short time after we cleared the harbor. The
+traditional Japanese efficiency was well borne out by the speed with which
+our crew prepared for action. Every member was in his appointed place and
+the guns were stripped for action in an incredibly short time after the
+warning signal. It was when we were nearing the shores of Italy that I had
+best opportunity to see the destroyers at work. We sighted a submarine
+which let fly at one of the troopers--the torpedo passing its bow and
+barely missing the boat beyond it. Quick as a flash the Japanese were
+after it--swerving in and out like terriers chasing a rat, and letting
+drive as long as it was visible. We cast around for the better part of an
+hour, dropping overboard depth charges which shook the little craft as the
+explosion sent great funnels of water aloft. The familiar harbor of
+Taranto was a welcome sight when we at length herded our charges in
+through the narrow entrance and swung alongside the wharf where the
+destroyers were to take in a supply of fuel preparatory to starting out
+again on their interminable and arduous task.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY
+
+I
+
+
+My transfer to the American army appointed me as captain of field
+artillery instead of infantry, as I had wished. Just how the mistake
+occurred I never determined, but once in the field artillery I found that
+to shift back would take an uncertain length of time, and that even after
+it was effected I would be obliged to take a course at some school before
+going up to the line. It therefore seemed advisable to go immediately, as
+instructed, to the artillery school, at Saumur. The management was half
+French and half American. Colonel MacDonald and Colonel Cross were the
+Americans in charge, and the high reputation of the school bore testimony
+to their efficiency. It was the intention of headquarters gradually to
+replace all the French instructors with Americans, but when I was there
+the former predominated. It was of course necessary to wait until our
+officers had learned by actual experience the use of the French guns with
+which our army was supplied. When men are being taught what to do in
+combat conditions they apply themselves more attentively and absorb far
+more when they feel that the officer teaching them has had to test, under
+enemy fire, the theories he is expounding. The school was for both
+officers and candidates. The latter were generally chosen from among the
+non-commissioned officers serving at the front; I afterward sent men down
+from my battery. The first part of the course was difficult for those who
+had either never had much mathematical training or had had it so long ago
+that they were hopelessly out of practice. A number of excellent sergeants
+and corporals did not have the necessary grounding to enable them to pass
+the examinations. They should never have been sent, for it merely put them
+in an awkward and humiliating position--although no stigma could possibly
+be attached to them for having failed.
+
+The French officer commanding the field work was Major de Caraman. His
+long and distinguished service in the front lines, combined with his
+initiative and ever-ready tact, made him an invaluable agent in welding
+the ideas and methods of France and America. His house was always filled
+with Americans, and how much his hospitality meant to those whose ties
+were across the ocean must have been experienced to be appreciated. The
+homes of France were ever thrown open to us, and the sincere and simple
+good-will with which we were received has put us under a lasting debt
+which we should be only too glad to cherish and acknowledge.
+
+Saumur is a delightful old town in the heart of the château country. The
+river Loire runs through it, and along the banks are the caves in some of
+which have been found the paintings made by prehistoric man picturing the
+beasts with which he struggled for supremacy in the dim dark ages. The
+same caves are many of them inhabited, and their owners may well look with
+scorn upon the châteaux and baronial castles of whose antiquity it is
+customary to boast. There is an impressive castle built on a hill
+dominating the town, and in one of the churches is hung an array of
+tapestries of unsurpassed color and design. The country round about
+invited rambling, and the excellent roads made it easy; particularly
+delightful were the strolls along the river-banks, where patient
+fisherfolk of every sex and age sat unperturbed by the fact that they
+never seemed to catch anything. One old lady with a sunbonnet was always
+to be seen seated on a three-legged stool in the same corner amid the
+rocks. She had a rusty black umbrella which she would open when the rays
+of the sun became too searching.
+
+The buildings which were provided for the artillery course had formerly
+been used by the cavalry school, probably the best known in the world.
+Before the war army officers of every important nation in the Occident and
+Orient were sent by their governments to follow the course and learn the
+method of instruction. My old friend Fitzhugh Lee was one of those sent by
+the United States, and I found his record as a horseman still alive and
+fresh in the memory of many of the townspeople.
+
+Soon after the termination of my period of instruction I was in command of
+C Battery of the Seventh Field Artillery in the Argonne fighting. I was
+standing one morning in the desolate, shell-ridden town of Landres et St.
+George watching a column of "dough-boys" coming up the road; at their head
+limped a battered Dodge car, and as it neared me I recognized my elder
+brother Ted, sitting on the back seat in deep discussion with his
+adjutant. I had believed him to be safely at the staff school in Langres
+recuperating from a wound, but he had been offered the chance to come up
+in command of his old regiment, the Twenty-Sixth, and although registered
+as only "good for light duty in the service of supply," he had made his
+way back to the division. While we were talking another car came up and
+out from it jumped my brother-in-law, Colonel Richard Derby--at that time
+division surgeon of the Second Division. We were the only three members of
+the family left in active service since my brother Quentin, the aviator,
+was brought down over the enemy lines, and Archie, severely wounded in leg
+and arm, had been evacuated to the United States. I well remember how once
+when Colonel Derby introduced me to General Lejeune, who was commanding
+his division, the general, instead of making some remark about my father,
+said: "I shall always be glad to meet a relative of a man with Colonel
+Derby's record."
+
+On the 11th of November we had just returned to our original sector after
+attacking Sedan. None of us placed much confidence in an armistice being
+signed. We felt that the German would never accept the terms, but were
+confident that by late spring or early summer we would be able to bring
+about an unconditional surrender. When the firing ceased and the news came
+through that the enemy had capitulated, there was no great show of
+excitement. We were all too weary to be much stirred by anything that
+could occur. For the past two weeks we had been switched hither and yon,
+with little sleep and less food, and a constant decrease in our personnel
+and horses that was never entirely made good but grew steadily more
+serious. The only bursts of enthusiasm that I heard were occasioned by the
+automobile trucks and staff cars passing by after dark with their
+headlights blazing. The joyous shouts of "Lights out!" testified that the
+reign of darkness was over. Soon the men began building fires and
+gathering about them, calling "Lights out!" as each new blaze started--a
+joke which seemed a never-failing source of amusement.
+
+We heard that we were to march into Germany in the wake of the evacuating
+army and occupy one of the bridge-heads. All this came through in vague
+and unconfirmed form, but in a few days we were hauled back out of the
+line to a desolate mass of ruins which had once been the village of
+Bantheville. We were told that we would have five days here, during which
+we would be reoutfitted in every particular. Our horses were in fearful
+shape--constant work in the rain and mud with very meagre allowance of
+fodder had worn down the toughest old campaigners among them. During the
+weary, endless night march on Sedan I often saw two horses leaning against
+each other in utter exhaustion--as if it were by that means alone that
+they kept on their feet. We were told to indent for everything that we
+needed to make our batteries complete as prescribed in the organization
+charts, but we followed instructions without any very blind faith in
+results--nor did our lack of trust prove unwarranted, for we got
+practically nothing for which we had applied.
+
+There were some colored troops near by engaged in repairing the roads, and
+a number of us determined to get up a quartet to sing for the men. We went
+to where the negroes had built themselves shelters from corrugated-iron
+sheets and miscellaneous bits of wreckage from the town. We collected
+three quarters of our quartet and were directed to the mess-shack for the
+fourth. As we approached I could hear sounds of altercation and a voice
+that we placed immediately as that of our quarry arose in indignant
+warning: "If yo' doan' leggo that mess-kit I'll lay a barrage down on
+yo'!" A platform was improvised near a blazing fire of pine boards and we
+had some excellent clogging and singing. The big basso had evidently a
+strong feeling for his steel helmet, and it undoubtedly added to his
+picturesqueness--setting off his features with his teeth and eyes gleaming
+in the firelight.
+
+On the evening of the second day orders came to move off on the following
+morning. We were obliged to discard much material, for although the two
+days' rest and food had distinctly helped out the horse situation, we had
+many animals that could barely drag themselves along, much less a loaded
+caisson, and our instructions were to on no account salvage ammunition. We
+could spare but one horse for riding--my little mare--and she was no use
+for pulling. She was a wise little animal with excellent gaits and great
+endurance. We were forced to leave, behind another mare that I had ridden
+a good deal on reconnaissances, and that used to amuse me by her
+unalterable determination to stick to cover. It was almost most impossible
+to get her to cut across a field; she preferred to skirt the woods and had
+no intention of exposing herself on any sky-line. In spite of her caution
+it was on account of wounds that she had eventually to be abandoned. I
+trust that the salvage parties found her and that she is now reaping the
+reward of her foresight.
+
+We were a sorry-looking outfit as we marched away from Bantheville. My
+lieutenants had lost their bedding-rolls and extra clothes long since--as
+every one did, for it was impossible to keep your belongings with you--and
+although authorized dumps were provided and we were told that anything
+left behind would be cared for, we would be moved to another sector
+without a chance to collect our excess and practically everything would
+have disappeared by the time the opportunity came to visit the cache. But
+although the horses and accoutrements were in bad shape, the men were fit
+for any task, and more than ready to take on whatever situation might
+arise.
+
+Our destination was Malancourt, no great distance away, but the roads
+were so jammed with traffic that it was long after dark before we reached
+the bleak, wind-swept hillside that had been allotted to us. It was
+bitterly cold and we groped about among the shattered barbed-wire
+entanglements searching for wood to light a fire. There was no difficulty
+in finding shell-craters in which to sleep--the ground was so pockmarked
+with them that it seemed impossible that it could have been done by human
+agency.
+
+This country had been an "active" area during practically all the war, and
+the towns had been battered and beaten down first by the Boche and then by
+the French, and lately we ourselves had taken a hand in the further
+demolition of the ruins. Many a village was recognizable from the
+encompassing waste only by the sign-board stuck in a mound announcing its
+name. The next day's march took us through Esné, Montzeville, and
+Bethainville, and on down to the Verdun-Paris highway. We passed by
+historic "Dead Man's Hill," and not far from there we saw the mute
+reminders of an attack that brought the whole scene vividly back. There
+were nine or ten tanks, of types varying from the little Renault to the
+powerful battleship sort. All had been halted by direct hits, some while
+still far from their objective, others after they had reached the wire
+entanglements, and there was one that was already astride of the
+first-line trench. The continual sight of ruined towns and desolated
+countryside becomes very oppressive, and it was a relief when we began to
+pass through villages in which many of the houses were still left
+standing; it seemed like coming into a new world.
+
+At ten in the evening I got the battery into Balaicourt. A strong wind was
+blowing and the cold was intense, so I set off to try to find billets for
+the men where they could be at least partly sheltered. The town was all
+but deserted by its inhabitants, and we managed to provide every one with
+some degree of cover. Getting back into billets is particularly welcome in
+very cold or rainy weather, and we all were glad to be held over a day on
+the wholly mythical plea of refitting. Although the time would not be
+sufficient to make any appreciable effort in the way of cleaning harness
+or _matériel_, the men could at any rate heat water to wash their clothes
+and themselves.
+
+The next day's march we regarded as our first in the advance into Germany
+to which we had so long looked forward. We found the great Verdun highway
+which had played such an important part in the defense that broke the back
+of the Hun to be in excellent shape and a pleasant change from the
+shell-pitted roads to which we had become accustomed. It was not without a
+thrill that I rode, at the head of my battery, through the missive south
+gate of Verdun, and followed the winding streets of the old city through
+to the opposite portal. Before we had gone many miles the road crossed a
+portion of the far-famed Hindenburg line which had here remained intact
+until evacuated by the Boche a few days previously under the terms of the
+armistice.
+
+We made a short halt where a negro engineer regiment was at work making
+the road passable. A most hospitable officer strolled up and asked if I
+wanted anything to eat, which when you are in the army may be classified
+with Goldberg's "foolish questions." A sturdy coal-black cook brought me
+soup and roast beef and coffee, and never have I appreciated the culinary
+arts of the finest French chef as I did that meal, for the food had been
+cooked, not merely thrown into one of the tureens of a rolling kitchen,
+which was as much as we had recently been able to hope for.
+
+The negro cook looked as if he would have been able to emulate his French
+confrère of whom Major de Caraman told me. The Frenchman was on his way to
+an outpost with a steaming caldron of soup. He must have lost the way, for
+he unexpectedly found himself confronted by a German who ordered him to
+surrender. For reply the cook slammed the soup-dish over his adversary's
+head and marched him back a prisoner. His prowess was rewarded with a
+Croix de Guerre.
+
+It was interesting to see the German system of defense when it was still
+intact and had not been shattered by our artillery preparation as it was
+when taken in an attack. The wire entanglements were miles in depth, and
+the great trees by the roadside were mined. This was done by cutting a
+groove three or four inches broad and of an equal depth and filling it
+with packages of explosive. I suppose the purpose was to block the road in
+case of retreat. Only a few of the mines had been set off.
+
+Passing through several towns that no longer existed we came to Etain,
+where many buildings were still standing though completely gutted. The
+cellars had been converted into dugouts with passages and ramifications
+added. We were billeted in some German huts on the outskirts. They were
+well dug in and comfortably fitted out, so we were ready to stay over a
+few days, as we had been told we should, but at midnight orders were sent
+round to be prepared to march out early.
+
+The country was lovely and gave little sign of the Boche occupation except
+that it was totally deserted and when we passed through villages all the
+signs were in German. There was but little originality displayed in naming
+the streets--you could be sure that you would find a Hindenburg Strasse
+and a Kronprinz Strasse, and there was usually one called after the
+Kaiser. The mile-posts at the crossroads had been mostly replaced, but
+occasionally we found battered metal plaques of the Automobile Touring
+Club of France. Ever since we left Verdun we had been meeting bands of
+released prisoners, Italians and Russians chiefly, with a few French and
+English mingled. They were worn and underfed--their clothes were in rags.
+A few had combined and were pulling their scanty belongings on little
+cars, such as children make out of soap-boxes. The motor-trucks returning
+to our base after bringing up the rations would take back as many as they
+could carry.
+
+We came across scarcely any civilians until we reached Bouligny, a once
+busy and prosperous manufacturing town. A few of the inhabitants had been
+allowed to remain throughout the enemy occupation and small groups of
+those that had been removed were by now trickling in. The invader had
+destroyed property in the most ruthless manner, and the buildings were
+gutted. The domestic habits of the Hun were always to me inexplicable--he
+evidently preferred to live in the midst of his own filth, and many times
+have I seen recently captured châteaux that had been converted into
+veritable pigsties.
+
+The inhabitants went wild at our entry--in the little villages they came
+out carrying wreaths and threw confetti and flowers as they shouted the
+"Marseillaise." The infantry, marching in advance, bore the brunt of the
+celebrations. What interested me most were the bands of small children,
+many of them certainly not over five, dancing along the streets singing
+their national anthem. It must have been taught them in secret. In the
+midst of a band were often an American soldier or two, in full swing,
+thoroughly enjoying themselves. The enthusiasm was all of it natural and
+uninspired by alcohol, for the Germans had taken with them everything to
+drink that they had been unable to finish.
+
+Bouligny is not an attractive place--few manufacturing towns are--but we
+got the men well billeted under water-tight roofs, and we were able to
+heat water for washing. My striker found a large caldron and I luxuriated
+in a steaming bath, the first in over a month, and, what was more, I had
+some clean clothes to pull on when I got out.
+
+One evening, when returning from a near-by village, I met a frock-coated
+civilian who inquired of me in German the way to Etain. I asked him who he
+was and what he wanted. He answered that he was a German but was tired of
+his country and wished to go almost anywhere else. He seemed altogether
+too apparent to be a spy, and even if he were I could not make out any
+object that he could gain. I have often wondered what became of him.
+
+The Boches had evidently not expected to give up their conquests, for they
+had built an enormous stone-and-brick fountain in the centre of the town,
+and chiselled its name, "Hindenburg Brunnen." Above the German canteen or
+commissary shop was a great wooden board with "Gott strafe England"--a
+curious proof of how bitterly the Huns hated Great Britain, for there were
+no British troops in the sectors in front of this part of the invaded
+territory.
+
+We worked hard "policing up" ourselves and our equipment during the few
+days we stayed at Bouligny. One morning all the townsfolk turned out in
+their best clothes, which had been buried in the cellars or hidden behind
+the rafters in the attics, to greet the President and Madame Poincaré, who
+were visiting the most important of the liberated towns. It was good to
+hear the cheering and watch the beaming faces.
+
+On November 21 we resumed our march. Close to the border we came upon a
+large German cemetery, artistically laid out, with a group of massive
+statuary in the centre. There were some heroic-size granite statues of
+Boche soldiers in full kit with helmet and all, that were particularly
+fine. As we passed the stones marking the boundary-line between France
+and Lorraine there was a tangible feeling of making history, and it was
+not without a thrill that we entered Aumetz and heard the old people greet
+us in French while the children could speak only German. The town was gay
+with the colors of France--produced from goodness knows where. Children
+were balancing themselves on the barrels of abandoned German cannon and
+climbing about the huge camouflaged trucks. We were now where France,
+Luxemburg, and Lorraine meet, and all day we skirted the borders of first
+one and then the other, halting for the night at the French town of
+Villerupt. The people went wild when we rode in--we were the first
+soldiers of the Allies they had seen, for the Germans entered immediately
+after the declaration of war, and the only poilus the townsfolk saw were
+those that were brought in as prisoners. We were welcomed in the town
+hall--the German champagne was abominable but the reception was
+whole-hearted and the speeches were sincere in their jubilation.
+
+I was billeted with the mayor, Monsieur Georges. After dinner he produced
+two grimy bottles of Pol Roger--he said that he had been forced to change
+their hiding-place four times, and had just dug them up in his cellar.
+They were destined for the night of liberation. Monsieur Georges was thin
+and worn; he had spent two years in prison in solitary confinement for
+having given a French prisoner some bread. His eighteen-year-old daughter
+was imprisoned for a year because she had not informed the authorities as
+to what her father had done. No one in the family would learn a single
+word of German. They said that all French civilians were forced to salute
+the Germans, and each Sunday every one was compelled to appear in the
+market-place for general muster. The description of the departure of their
+hated oppressors was vivid--the men behind the lines knew the full portent
+of events and were sullen and crestfallen, but the soldiers fresh from the
+front believed that Germany had won and was dictating her own terms; they
+came through with wreaths hung on their bayonets singing songs of victory.
+
+I had often wondered how justly the food supplies sent by America for the
+inhabitants of the invaded districts were distributed. Monsieur Georges
+assured me that the Germans were scrupulously careful in this matter,
+because they feared that if they were not, the supplies would no longer
+be sent, and this would of course encroach upon their own resources, for
+even the Hun could not utterly starve to death the captured French
+civilians. The mayor told me of the joy the shipments brought and how when
+the people went to draw their rations they called it "going to America."
+We sat talking until far into the night before I retired to the luxury of
+a real bed with clean linen sheets. There was no trouble whatever in
+billeting the men--the townsmen were quarrelling as to who should have
+them.
+
+Next morning, with great regret at so soon leaving our willing hosts, we
+marched off into the little Duchy of Luxemburg. We passed through the
+thriving city of Esch with its great iron-mines. The streets were gay with
+flags, there were almost as many Italian as French, for there is a large
+Italian colony, the members of which are employed in mining and smelting.
+Brass bands paraded in our honor, and we were later met by them in many of
+the smaller towns. The shops seemed well filled, but the prices were very
+high. The Germans seemed to have left the Luxemburgers very much to
+themselves, and I have little doubt but that they would have been at least
+as pleased to welcome victorious Boches had affairs taken a different
+turn. Still they were glad to see us, for it meant the end of the
+isolation in which they had been living and the eventual advent of
+foodstuffs.
+
+As we rode along, the countryside was lovely and the smiling fields and
+hillsides made "excursions and alarums" seem remote indeed. It felt
+unnatural to pass through a village with unscarred church spires and
+houses all intact--such a change from battered, glorious France.
+
+We were immediately in the wake of the German army, and taken by and large
+they must have been retiring in good order, for they left little behind.
+Our first night we spent at the village of Syren, eight kilometres from
+the capital of the Duchy. Billeting was not so easy now, for we were
+ordered to treat the inhabitants as neutrals, and when they objected we
+couldn't handle the situation as we did later on in Germany. No one likes
+to have soldiers or civilians quartered on him, and the Luxemburgers were
+friendly to us only as a matter of policy. Fortunately, the chalk marks of
+the Boche billeting officers had not been washed off the doors, and these
+told us how many men had been lodged in a given house.
+
+In my lodging I was accorded a most friendly reception, for my hostess
+was French. Her nephew had come up from Paris to visit her a few months
+before the outbreak of the war, and had been unable to get back to France.
+To avoid the dreaded internment camp he had successfully passed as a
+Luxemburger. In the regiment there were a number of men whose parents came
+from the Duchy; these and a few more who spoke German acquired a sudden
+popularity among their comrades. They would make friends with some of the
+villagers and arrange to turn over their rations so that they would be
+cooked by the housewife and eaten with the luxurious accompaniment of
+chair and table. The diplomat would invite a few friends to enjoy with him
+the welcome change from the "slum" ladled out of the caldrons of the
+battery rolling kitchen. I had always supposed that I had in my battery a
+large number of men who could speak German--a glance over the pay-roll
+would certainly leave that impression--but when I came to test it out, I
+found that I had but four men who spoke sufficiently well to be of any use
+as interpreters.
+
+Next morning we made a winding, roundabout march to Trintange. Here we
+were instructed to settle down for a week or ten days' halt, and many
+worse places might have been chosen. The country was very broken, with
+hills and ravines. Little patches of woodland and streams dashing down
+rocky channels on their way to join the Moselle reminded one of Rock Creek
+Park in Washington. The weather couldn't be bettered; sharp and cold in
+the early morning with a heavy hoarfrost spreading its white mantle over
+everything, then out would come the sun, and the hills would be shrouded
+in mist.
+
+My billeting officer had arranged matters well, so we were comfortably
+installed and in good shape to "police up" for the final leg of the march
+to Coblenz. I had now my full allowance of officers--Lieutenants Furness,
+Brown, Middleditch, and Pearce. In active warfare discipline while
+stricter in some ways is more lax in others, and there were many small
+points that required furbishing. Close order drill on foot is always a
+great help in stiffening up the men, and such essentials as instruction in
+driving and in fitting harness required much attention. In the American
+army much less responsibility is given to the sergeants and corporals than
+in the British, but even so the spirit and efficiency of an organization
+must depend largely on its non-commissioned officers. We were fortunate in
+having an unusually fine lot--Sergeant Cushing was a veteran of the
+Spanish War. He had been a sailor for many years, and after he left the
+sea he became chief game warden of Massachusetts. In time of stress he was
+a tower of strength and could be counted upon to set his men an example of
+cool and judicious daring. The first sergeant, Armstrong, was an old
+regular army man, and his knowledge of drill and routine was invaluable to
+us. He thoroughly understood his profession, and was remarkably successful
+in training raw men. Sergeants Grumbling, Kubelis, and Bauer were all of
+them excellent men, and could be relied upon to perform their duty with
+conscientious thoroughness under the most trying conditions.
+
+One afternoon I went in to Luxemburg with Colonel Collins, the battalion
+commander. The town looks thoroughly mediæval as you approach. It might
+well have been over its castle wall that Kingsley's knight spurred his
+horse on his last leap; as a matter of fact the village of Altenahr, where
+the poet laid the scene, is not so many miles away. The town is built
+along the ragged cliffs lining a deep, rocky canyon spanned by old stone
+bridges. The massive entrance-gates open upon passages tunnelled through
+the hills, and although the modern part of the town boasts broad streets
+and squares, there are many narrow passageways winding around the ancient
+quarter.
+
+I went into a large bookstore to replenish my library, and was struck by
+the supply of post-cards of Marshal Foch and Kitchener and the King and
+Queen of Belgium. All had been printed in Leipzig, and when I asked the
+bookseller how that could be, he replied that he got them from the German
+commercial travellers. He said that he had himself been surprised at the
+samples shown him, but the salesman had remarked that he thought such
+post-cards would have a good sale in Luxemburg, and if such were the case
+"business was business," and he was prepared to supply them. There was
+even one of King Albert standing with drawn sword, saying: "You shall not
+violate the sacred soil of my country." A publication that also interested
+me was a weekly paper brought out in Hamburg and written in English. It
+was filled with jokes, beneath which were German notes explaining any
+difficult or idiomatic words and phrases. With all their hatred of England
+the Huns still continued to learn English.
+
+Thanksgiving Day came along, and we set to work to provide some sort of a
+special feast for the men. It was most difficult to do so, for the
+exchange had not as yet been regulated and the lowest rate at which we
+could get marks was at a franc, and usually it was a franc and a quarter.
+Some one opportunely arrived from Paris with a few hundred marks that he
+had bought at sixty centimes. For the officers we got a suckling pig,
+which Mess Sergeant Braun roasted in the priest's oven. He even put the
+traditional baked apple in its mouth, a necessary adjunct, the purpose of
+which I have never discovered, and such stuffing as he made has never been
+equalled. We washed it down with excellent Moselle wine, for we were but a
+couple of miles from the vineyards along the river. In the afternoon I
+borrowed a bicycle from the burgomaster and trailed over to Elmen, where I
+found my brother just about to sit down to his Thanksgiving dinner served
+up by two faithful Chinamen, who had come to his regiment in a draft from
+the West Coast. After doing full justice to his fare I wended my way back
+to Trintange in the rain and dark.
+
+The next day we paid the men. For some it was the first time in ten
+months. To draw pay it was necessary to sign the pay-roll at the end of
+one month and be on hand at the end of the following month to receive the
+money. No one could sign unless his service record was at hand, and as
+this was forwarded to the hospital "through military channels" when a man
+was evacuated sick or wounded, it rarely reached his unit until several
+months after he returned. It may easily be seen why it was that an
+enlisted man often went for months without being able to draw his pay.
+This meant not only a hardship to him while he was without money, but, it
+also followed that when he got it he had a greater amount than he could
+possibly need, and was more than apt to gamble or drink away his sudden
+accession of wealth. We always tried to make a man who had drawn a lot of
+back pay deposit it or send it home. Mr. Harlow, the Y.M.C.A. secretary
+attached to the regiment, helped us a great deal in getting the money
+transferred to the United States. The men, unless they could spend their
+earnings immediately, would start a game of craps and in a few days all
+the available cash would have found its way into the pocket of the
+luckiest man. They would throw for appallingly high stakes. On this
+particular pay-day we knew that the supply of wine and beer in the village
+was not sufficient to cause any serious trouble, and orders were given
+that no cognac or hard liquor should be sold. A few always managed to get
+it--all precautions to the contrary notwithstanding.
+
+II
+
+On the 1st of December we once more resumed our march and at Wormeldange
+crossed over the Moselle River into Hunland. The streets of the first town
+through which we passed were lined with civilians, many of them only just
+out of uniform, and they scowled at us as we rode by, muttering below
+their breath. A short way out and we began to meet men still in the
+field-gray uniform; they smiled and tried to make advances but our men
+paid no attention. When we reached Onsdorf, which was our destination, the
+billeting officer reported that he had met with no difficulty.
+
+The inhabitants were most effusive and anxious to please in every way. Of
+course they were not Prussians, and no doubt were heartily tired and sick
+of war, but here, as throughout, their attitude was most distasteful to
+us--it was so totally lacking in dignity. We could not tell how much they
+were acting on their own initiative and to what extent they were following
+instructions. Probably there was something of both back of their conduct.
+Warnings had been issued that the Germans were reported to be planning a
+wholesale poisoning of American officers, but I never saw anything to
+substantiate the belief.
+
+Next morning we struck across to the Saar River and followed it down to
+its junction with the Moselle. The woods and ravines were lovely, but from
+the practical standpoint the going was very hard upon the horses. We
+marched down through Treves, the oldest town in Germany, with a population
+of about thirty thousand. In the fourth century of our era Ausonius
+referred to it as "Rome beyond the Alps," and the extent and variety of
+the Roman remains would seem to justify the epithet. We were halted for
+some time beside the most remarkable of these, the Porta Nigra, a huge
+fortified gateway, dating from the first century A.D. The cathedral is an
+impressive conglomeration of the architecture of many different
+centuries--the oldest portion being a part of a Roman basilica of the
+fourth century, while the latest additions of any magnitude were made in
+the thirteenth. Most famous among its treasures is the "holy coat of
+Treves," believed by the devout to be the seamless garment worn by Christ
+at the crucifixion. The predominant religion of the neighborhood is the
+Roman Catholic, and on the occasions when the coat is exhibited the town
+is thronged by countless pilgrims.
+
+Leaving Treves we continued down along the river-bank to Rawen Kaulin,
+where we turned inland for a few miles and I was assigned to a village
+known as Eitelsbach. The inhabitants were badly frightened when we rode
+in--most of the men hid and the women stood on the door-steps weeping. I
+suppose they expected to be treated in the manner that they had behaved to
+the French and Belgians, and as they would have done by us had the
+situation been reversed. When they found they were not to be oppressed
+they became servile and fawning. I had my officers' mess in the
+schoolmaster's house. He had been a non-commissioned officer of infantry,
+and yet he wanted to send his daughters in to play the piano for us after
+dinner. We would have despised the German less if he had been able to
+"hate" a little more after he was beaten and not so bitterly while he felt
+he was winning.
+
+The country through which we marched during the next few days was most
+beautiful. We followed the winding course of the river, making many a
+double "S" turn. The steep hills came right to the bank; frequently the
+road was cut into their sides. A village was tucked in wherever a bit of
+level plain between the foot of the hill and the river permitted. When the
+slopes gave a southern exposure they were covered with grape-vines,
+planted with the utmost precision and regularity. Every corner and cranny
+among the rocks was utilized. The original planting must have been
+difficult, for the soil was covered with slabs of shale. The cultivator
+should develop excellent lungs in scaling those hillsides. The leaves had
+fallen and the bare vines varied in hue from sepia brown to wine color,
+with occasional patches of evergreen to set off the whole. Once or twice
+the road left the river to cut across over the mountains, and it cost our
+horses much exertion to drag the limbers up the steep, slippery trail. It
+was curious to notice the difference between those who dwelt along the
+bank and the inhabitants of the upland plateau. The latter appeared
+distinctly more "outlandish" and less sleek and prosperous. The highlands
+we found veiled in mist, and as I looked back at the dim outlines of horse
+and man and caisson, it seemed as if I were leading a ghost battery.
+
+We were in the heart of the wine country, and to any one who had enjoyed a
+good bottle of Moselle such names as Berncastel and Piesport had long been
+familiar. In the former town I was amused on passing by a large millinery
+store to see the proprietor's name was Jacob Astor. The little villages
+inevitably recalled the fairy-tales of Hans Andersen and the Grimm
+brothers. The raftered houses had timbered balconies that all but met
+across the crooked, winding streets through which we clattered over the
+cobblestones. Capping many of the beams were gargoyles, demons, and
+dwarfs, and a galaxy of strange creatures were carved on the ends of the
+gables that jutted out every which way. The houses often had the date
+they were built and the initials of the couple that built them over the
+front door, frequently with some device. I saw no dates that went further
+back than the late sixteen hundreds, though many of the houses doubtless
+were built before then. The doors in some cases were beautifully carved
+and weathered. The old pumps and wells, the stone bridges, and the little
+wayside shrines took one back through the centuries. To judge by the
+records carved on wall and house, high floods are no very uncommon
+occurrence--the highest I noticed was in 1685, while the last one of
+importance was credited to 1892.
+
+We were much surprised at the well-fed appearance of the population, both
+old and young, for we had heard so much of food shortages, and the Germans
+when they surrendered had laid such stress upon it. As far as we could
+judge; food was more plentiful than in France. Rubber and leather were
+very scarce, many of the women wore army boots, and the shoes displayed in
+shop-windows appeared made of some composition resembling pasteboard. The
+coffee was evidently ground from the berry of some native bush, and its
+taste in no way resembled the real. Cigars were camouflaged
+cabbage-leaves, with little or no flavor, and the beer sadly fallen off
+from its pre-war glory. Still, in all the essentials of life the
+inhabitants appeared to be making out far better than we had been given to
+believe.
+
+We met with very little trouble. There were a few instances where people
+tried to stand out against having men billeted in their houses, but we of
+course paid no attention except that we saw to it that they got more men
+than they would have under ordinary circumstances. Every now and then we
+would have amusing side-lights upon the war news on which the more
+ignorant Boches had been fed. A man upon whom several of my sergeants were
+quartered asked them if the Zeppelins had done much damage to New York;
+and whether Boston and Philadelphia had yet been evacuated by the
+Germans--he had heard that both cities had been taken and that Washington
+was threatened and its fall imminent.
+
+Our men behaved exceedingly well. Of course there were individual cases of
+drunkenness, but very few considering that we were in a country where the
+wine was cheap and schnapps plentiful. There were the inevitable
+A.W.O.L.'s and a number of minor offenses, but I found that by making the
+prisoner's life very unattractive--seeing to it that they performed
+distasteful "fatigues," giving them heavy packs to carry when we marched,
+and allowing them nothing that could be construed as a delicacy--I soon
+reformed the few men that were chronically shiftless or untidy or late.
+When not in cantonments the trouble with putting men under arrest is that
+too often it only means that they lead an easier life than their comrades,
+and it takes some ingenuity to correct this situation. Whenever it was in
+any way possible an offender was dealt with in the battery and I never let
+it go further, for I found it made for much better spirit in a unit.
+
+The men were a fine lot, and such thoroughgoing Americans, no matter from
+what country their parents had come. One of my buglers had landed in the
+United States only in 1913; he had been born and brought up on the
+confines of Germany and Austria, and yet when a large German of whom he
+was asking the way said, "You speak the language well--your parents must
+be German," the unhesitating reply was: "Well, my mother was of German
+descent!" The battery call read like a League of Nations, but no one could
+have found any cause of complaint in lack of loyalty to the United
+States.
+
+The twelfth day after we had crossed over the river from Luxemburg found
+us marching into Coblenz. We were quartered in large brick barracks in the
+outskirts of the city. The departing Germans had left them in very bad
+shape, and Hercules would have felt that cleaning the Augean stables was a
+light task in comparison. However, we set to work without delay and soon
+had both men and horses well housed. Life in the town was following its
+normal course; the stores were well stocked and seemed to be doing a
+thriving trade. We went into a café where a good orchestra was playing and
+had some very mediocre war beer, and then I set off in search of the
+Turkish bath of which I was much in need. The one I found was in charge of
+an ex-submarine sailor, and when I was shut in the steam-room I wondered
+if he were going to try any "frightfulness," for I was the only person in
+the bath. My last one had been in a wine-vat a full week before, and I was
+ready to risk anything for the luxury of a good soak.
+
+Orders to march usually reached us at midnight--why, I do not know; but we
+would turn in with the belief that we would not move on the following
+day, and the next we knew an orderly from regimental headquarters would
+wake us with marching instructions, and in no happy frame of mind we would
+grumblingly tumble out to issue the necessary commands. Coblenz proved no
+exception to this rule. As we got under way, a fine rain was falling that
+was not long in permeating everything. Through the misty dripping town the
+"caissons went rolling along," and out across the Pfaffendorf bridge, with
+the dim outlines of the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein towering above us. The
+men were drowsy and cold. I heard a few disparaging comments on the size
+of the Rhine. They had heard so much talk about it that they had expected
+to find it at least as large as the Mississippi. We found the slippery
+stones of the street ascending from the river most difficult to negotiate,
+but at length everything was safely up, and we struck off toward the
+bridge-head position which we were to occupy for we knew not how long. The
+Huns had torn down the sign-posts at the crossroads; with what intent I
+cannot imagine, for the roads were not complicated and were clearly
+indicated on the maps, and the only purpose that the sign-posts could
+serve was to satisfy a curiosity too idle to cause us to calculate by map
+how far we had come or what distance lay still before us. A number of
+great stone slabs attracted our attention; they had been put up toward the
+close of the eighteenth century and indicated the distance in hours. I
+remember one that proclaimed it was three hours to Coblenz and eighteen to
+Frankfort. I have never seen elsewhere these records of an age when time
+did not mean money.
+
+The march was in the nature of an anticlimax, for we had thought always of
+Coblenz as our goal, and the good fortune in which we had played as
+regarded weather during our march down the valley of the Moselle had made
+us supercritical concerning such details as a long, wearisome slogging
+through the mud in clumsy, water-logged clothes. At length we reached the
+little village of Niederelbert and found that Lieutenant Brown, whose turn
+it was as billeting officer, had settled us so satisfactorily that in a
+short time we were all comfortably steaming before stoves, thawing out our
+cramped joints.
+
+With the exception of Lieutenant Furness my officers belonged to the
+Reserve Corps, and we none of us looked forward to a long tour of garrison
+duty on the Rhine or anywhere else. Furness, who had particularly
+distinguished himself in liaison work with the infantry, held a temporary
+commission in the regular army, but he was eager to go back to civil life
+at the earliest opportunity. In Germany the prospect was doubly gloomy,
+for there would be no intercourse with the natives such as in France had
+lightened many a weary moment. Several days later regimental headquarters
+coveted our village and we were moved a few miles off across the hills to
+Holler. We set to work to make ourselves as snug and comfortable as
+possible. I had as striker a little fellow of Finnish extraction name
+Jahoola, an excellent man in every way, who took the best of care of my
+horse and always managed to fix up my billet far better than the
+circumstances would seem to permit.
+
+The days that followed presented little variety once the novelty of the
+occupation had worn off. The men continued to behave in exemplary fashion,
+and the Boche gave little trouble. As soon as we took up our quarters we
+made the villagers clean up the streets and yards until they possessed a
+model town, and thereafter we "policed up" every untidiness of which we
+might be the cause, and kept the inhabitants up to the mark in what
+concerned them. The head of the house in which I was lodged in
+Niederelbert told me that his son had been a captain in the army but had
+deserted a fortnight before the armistice and reached home in civilian
+clothes three weeks in advance of the retreating army. Of course he was
+not an officer before the war--not of the old military school, but the
+fact that he and his family were proud of it spoke of a weakening
+discipline and morale.
+
+Now that we had settled down to a routine existence I was doubly glad of
+such books as I had been able to bring along. Of these, O. Henry was the
+most popular. The little shilling editions were read until they fell to
+pieces, and in this he held the same position as in the British army. I
+had been puzzled at this popularity among the English, for much of his
+slang must have been worse than Greek to them. I also had _Charles
+O'Malley_ and _Harry Lorrequer_, Dumas' _Dame de Monsereau_ and _Monte
+Cristo_, Flaubert's _Education Sentimentale_, Gibbon's _Rise and Fall_,
+and Borrow's _Zincali_. These with the Oxford Books of French and English
+verse and a few Portuguese and Spanish novels comprised my library, a
+large one considering the circumstances. It was always possible to get
+books through the mail, although they were generally many months en route.
+
+Soon after we reached the bridge-head, officers of the regular army began
+turning up from the various schools whither they had been sent as
+instructors. We all hoped to be released in this manner, for we felt that
+the garrison duty should be undertaken by the regulars, whose life
+business it is, in order to allow the men who had left their trades and
+professions to return to their normal and necessary work. In the meantime
+we set out to familiarize ourselves with the country and keep our units in
+such shape that should any unforeseen event arise we would be in a
+position to meet it. The horses required particular attention, but one
+felt rewarded on seeing their improvement. There were many cases of mange
+which we had been hitherto unable to properly isolate, and good fodder in
+adequate quantity was an innovation.
+
+For the men we had mounted and unmounted drill, and spent much time in
+getting the accoutrements into condition for inspection. During part of
+the march up rations had been short, and for a number of days were very
+problematical. Sufficient boots and clothing were also lacking and we had
+had to get along as best we could without. Now that we were stationary our
+wants were supplied, and the worst hardship for the men was the lack of
+recreation. A reading-room was opened and a piano was procured, but there
+was really no place to send them on short passes; nothing for them to do
+on an afternoon off. When I left, trips down the Rhine were being planned,
+and I am sure they proved beneficial in solving the problem of legitimate
+relaxation and amusement.
+
+My father had sent my brother and myself some money to use in trying to
+make Christmas a feast-day for the men. It was difficult to get anything,
+but the Y.M.C.A. very kindly helped me out in procuring, chocolates and
+cigarettes, and I managed to buy a couple of calves and a few
+semi-delicacies in the local market. While not an Arabian Night feast, we
+had the most essential adjunct in the good spirits of the men, who had
+been schooled by their varied and eventful existence of the past eighteen
+months to make the most of things.
+
+In the middle of January my brother and I left for Paris. I was very sorry
+to leave the battery, for we had been through much together, but in common
+with most reserve officers I felt that, now that the fighting was over,
+there was only one thing to be desired and that was to get back to my wife
+and children. The train made light of the distance over which it had taken
+us so long to march, and the familiar sight of the friendly French towns
+was never more welcome. After several months on duty in France and Italy,
+I sailed on a transport from Brest, but not for the wonderful home-coming
+to which I had so long looked forward.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13665 ***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, War in the Garden of Eden, by Kermit
+Roosevelt</h1>
+<hr class="pg" noshade>
+<br><br><br><br><br><a name='Page_i'></a><a name='Page_ii'></a>
+
+
+
+
+<h1><a name='Page_iii'></a>War in the Garden of Eden</h1>
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+<h2>Kermit Roosevelt</h2>
+<h3>Captain Motor Machine-Gun Corps<br />
+British Expeditionary Forces<br />
+<br />
+Captain Field Artillery<br />
+American Expeditionary Forces</h3>
+<br />
+<h4>Illustrated from Photographs by the Author</h4>
+<br />
+<h5>New York<br />
+1919</h5><a name='Page_iv'></a><a name='Page_v'></a>
+
+
+
+<hr  />
+<h2>To</h2>
+
+<h3>The Memory of My Father</h3>
+<hr  />
+<a name='Frontispiece'></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/1.jpg"><img src="./images/1_th.jpg"
+alt="Kermit Roosevelt"></a></p><p class="ctr">Kermit Roosevelt</p>
+<p class="ctr">From the drawing by John S. Sargent, July 8, 1917</p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='Contents'></a><h2><a name='Page_vi'></a><a name='Page_vii'></a>Contents</h2>
+
+
+<table align='center' border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents'>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><a href='#I'>OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_3'>3</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><a href='#II'>THE TIGRIS FRONT</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><a href='#III'>PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><a href='#IV'>SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_85'>85</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><a href='#V'>THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_101'>101</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><a href='#VI'>BAGHDAD SKETCHES</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></td><td align='right'></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><a href='#VII'>THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_153'>153</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><a href='#VIII'>BACK THROUGH PALESTINE</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_189'>189</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><a href='#IX'>WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_211'>211</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<a name='Page_viii'></a><a name='Page_ix'></a>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='Illustrations'></a><h2>Illustrations</h2>
+
+
+<table align='center' border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Illustrations'>
+<tr><td align='left'>Kermit Roosevelt</td><td align='right'><a href='#Frontispiece'>Frontispiece</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_8'>8</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Ashar Creek at Busra</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_14'>14</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Golden Dome of Samarra</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_34'>34</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Rafting down from Tekrit</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_34'>34</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Captured Turkish camel corps</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Towing an armored car across a river</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Reconnaissance</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Lion of Babylon</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A dragon on the palace wall</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Mesopotamian garage</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A water-wheel on the Euphrates</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_106'>106</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A &quot;Red Crescent&quot; ambulance</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_124'>124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A jeweller's booth in the bazaar</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_140'>140</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_158'>158</a><a name='Page_x'></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Kurd and his wife</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_168'>168</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_168'>168</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Kirkuk</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_180'>180</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A street in Jerusalem</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_196'>196</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_206'>206</a></td></tr></table>
+<br />
+<a name='Page_1'></a><a name='Page_2'></a><a name='Page_3'></a>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='I'></a><h2>I</h2>
+
+<h3>OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>It was at Taranto that we embarked for
+Mesopotamia. Reinforcements were sent out
+from England in one of two ways&mdash;either all
+the way round the Cape of Good Hope, or by
+train through France and Italy down to the
+desolate little seaport of Taranto, and thence
+by transport over to Egypt, through the Suez
+Canal, and on down the Red Sea to the Indian
+Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The latter
+method was by far the shorter, but the submarine
+situation in the Mediterranean was
+such that convoying troops was a matter of
+great difficulty. Taranto is an ancient Greek
+town, situated at the mouth of a landlocked
+harbor, the entrance to which is a narrow
+channel, certainly not more than two hundred
+yards across. The old part of the town is
+built on a hill, and the alleys and runways
+winding among the great stone dwellings serve
+as streets. As is the case with maritime towns,
+<a name='Page_4'></a>it is along the wharfs that the most interest
+centres. During one afternoon I wandered
+through the old town and listened to the fisherfolk
+singing as they overhauled and mended
+their nets. Grouped around a stone archway
+sat six or seven women and girls. They were
+evidently members of one family&mdash;a grandmother,
+her daughters, and their children.
+The old woman, wild, dark, and hawk-featured,
+was blind, and as she knitted she chanted
+some verses. I could only understand occasional
+words and phrases, but it was evidently
+a long epic. At intervals her listeners would
+break out in comments as they worked, but,
+like &quot;Othere, the old sea-captain,&quot; she &quot;neither
+paused nor stirred.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There are few things more desolate than
+even the best situated &quot;rest-camps&quot;&mdash;the long
+lines of tents set out with military precision,
+the trampled grass, and the board walks; but
+the one at Taranto where we awaited embarkation
+was peculiarly dismal even for a rest-camp.
+So it happened that when Admiral Mark
+Kerr, the commander of the Mediterranean
+fleet, invited me to be his guest aboard H.M.S.
+<i>Queen</i> until the transport should sail, it was
+in every way an opportunity to be appreciated.<a name='Page_5'></a>
+In the British Empire the navy is the &quot;senior
+service,&quot; and I soon found that the tradition
+for the hospitality and cultivation of its officers
+was more than justified. The admiral had
+travelled, and read, and written, and no more
+pleasant evenings could be imagined than
+those spent in listening to his stories of the
+famous writers, statesmen, and artists who
+were numbered among his friends. He had
+always been a great enthusiast for the development
+of aerial warfare, and he was recently
+in Nova Scotia in command of the giant Handley-Page
+machine which was awaiting favorable
+weather conditions in order to attempt the nonstop
+transatlantic flight. Among his poems
+stands out the &quot;Prayer of Empire,&quot; which,
+oddly enough, the former German Emperor
+greatly admired, ordering it distributed
+throughout the imperial navy! The Kaiser's
+feelings toward the admiral have suffered an
+abrupt change, but they would have been
+even more hostile had England profited by
+his warnings:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span>&quot;<i>There's no menace in preparedness, no threat in being strong,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>If the people's brain be healthy and they think no thought of wrong.</i>&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div><a name='Page_6'></a>
+
+<p>After four or five most agreeable days aboard
+the <i>Queen</i> the word came to embark, and I
+was duly transferred to the <i>Saxon</i>, an old
+Union Castle liner that was to run us straight
+through to Busra.</p>
+
+<p>As we steamed out of the harbor we were
+joined by two diminutive Japanese destroyers
+which were to convoy us. The menace of the
+submarine being particularly felt in the Adriatic,
+the transports travelled only by night
+during the first part of the voyage. To a landsman
+it was incomprehensible how it was possible
+for us to pursue our zigzag course in the
+inky blackness and avoid collisions, particularly
+when it was borne in mind that our ship was
+English and our convoyers were Japanese. During
+the afternoon we were drilled in the method
+of abandoning ship, and I was put in charge of a
+lifeboat and a certain section of the ropes that
+were to be used in our descent over the side into
+the water. Between twelve and one o'clock that
+night we were awakened by three blasts, the
+preconcerted danger-signal. Slipping into my
+life-jacket, I groped my way to my station on
+deck. The men were filing up in perfect order
+and with no show of excitement. A ship's
+officer passed and said he had heard that we
+<a name='Page_7'></a>had been torpedoed and were taking in water.
+For fifteen or twenty minutes we knew nothing
+further. A Scotch captain who had charge of
+the next boat to me came over and whispered:
+&quot;It looks as if we'd go down. I have just seen
+a rat run out along the ropes into my boat!&quot;
+That particular rat had not been properly
+brought up, for shortly afterward we were
+told that we were not sinking. We had been
+rammed amidships by one of the escorting
+destroyers, but the breach was above the
+water-line. We heard later that the destroyer,
+though badly smashed up, managed to make
+land in safety.</p>
+
+<p>We laid up two days in a harbor on the
+Albanian coast, spending the time pleasantly
+enough in swimming and sailing, while we
+waited for a new escort. Another night's run
+put us in Navarino Bay. The grandfather of
+Lieutenant Finch Hatton, one of the officers
+on board, commanded the Allied forces in the
+famous battle fought here in 1827, when the
+Turkish fleet was vanquished and the independence
+of Greece assured.</p>
+
+<p>Several days more brought us to Port Said,
+and after a short delay we pushed on through
+the canal and into the Red Sea. It was<a name='Page_8'></a>
+August, and when one talks of the Red Sea
+in August there is no further need for comment.
+The <i>Saxon</i> had not been built for the
+tropics. She had no fans, nor ventilating
+system such as we have on the United Fruit
+boats. Some unusually intelligent stokers had
+deserted at Port Said, and as we were in consequence
+short-handed, it was suggested that
+any volunteers would be given a try. Finch
+Hatton and I felt that our years in the tropics
+should qualify us, and that the exercise would
+improve our dispositions. We got the exercise.
+Never have I felt anything as hot, and
+I have spent August in Yuma, Arizona, and
+been in Italian Somaliland and the Amazon
+Valley. The shovels and the handles of the
+wheelbarrows blistered our hands.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/2.jpg"><img src="./images/2_th.jpg"
+alt="Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting"></a></p><p class="ctr">Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting</p>
+<p class="ctr">Inset, showing relative position of Mesopotamia and other countries</p>
+
+<p>We had a number of cases of heat-stroke,
+and the hospital facilities on a crowded transport
+can never be all that might be desired.
+The first military burial at sea was deeply impressive.
+There was a lane of Tommies drawn
+up with their rifles reversed and heads bowed;
+the short, classic burial service was read, and
+the body, wrapped in the Union Jack, slid
+down over the stern of the ship. Then the
+bugles rang out in the haunting, mournful
+<a name='Page_9'></a>strains of the &quot;Last Post,&quot; and the service
+ended with all singing &quot;Abide With Me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>We sweltered along down the Red Sea and
+around into the Indian Ocean. We wished to
+call at Aden in order to disembark some of our
+sick, but were ordered to continue on without
+touching. Our duties were light, and we
+spent the time playing cards and reading.
+The Tommies played &quot;house&quot; from dawn till
+dark. It is a game of the lotto variety.
+Each man has a paper with numbers written
+on squares; one of them draws from a bag
+slips of paper also marked with numbers, calls
+them out, and those having the number he
+calls cover it, until all the numbers on their
+paper have been covered. The first one to
+finish wins, and collects a penny from each of
+the losers. The caller drones out the numbers
+with a monotony only equalled by the
+brain-fever bird, and quite as disastrous to the
+nerves. There are certain conventional nicknames:
+number one is always &quot;Kelley's eye,&quot;
+eleven is &quot;legs eleven,&quot; sixty-six is &quot;clickety
+click,&quot; and the highest number is &quot;top o' the
+'ouse.&quot; There is another game that would be
+much in vogue were it not for the vigilance
+of the officers. It is known as &quot;crown and
+<a name='Page_10'></a>anchor,&quot; and the advantage lies so strongly in
+favor of the banker that he cannot fail to make
+a good income, and therefore the game is forbidden
+under the severest penalties.</p>
+
+<p>As we passed through the Strait of Ormuz
+memories of the early days of European supremacy
+in the East crowded back, for I had read
+many a vellum-covered volume in Portuguese
+about the early struggles for supremacy in the
+gulf. One in particular interested me. The Portuguese
+were hemmed in at Ormuz by a greatly
+superior English force. The expected reinforcements
+never arrived, and at length their
+resources sank so low, and they suffered in
+addition, or in consequence, so greatly from
+disease that they decided to sail forth and give
+battle. This they did, but before they joined
+in fight the ships of the two admirals sailed
+up near each other&mdash;the Portuguese commander
+sent the British a gorgeous scarlet ceremonial
+cloak, the British responded by sending him
+a handsomely embossed sword. The British
+admiral donned the cloak, the Portuguese
+grasped the sword; a page brought each a
+cup of wine; they pledged each other, threw
+the goblets into the sea, and fell to. The
+British were victorious. Times indeed have
+<a name='Page_11'></a>sadly changed in the last three hundred years!</p>
+
+<p>I was much struck with the accuracy of the
+geographical descriptions in Camoens' letters
+and odes. He is the greatest of the Portuguese
+poets and wrote the larger part of his master-epic,
+&quot;The Lusiad,&quot; while exiled in India. For
+seventeen years he led an adventurous life in
+the East; and it is easy to recognize many harbors
+and stretches of coast line from his inimitable
+portrayal.</p>
+
+<p>Busra, our destination, lies about sixty miles
+from the mouth of the Shatt el Arab, which is
+the name given to the combined Tigris and
+Euphrates after their junction at Kurna, another
+fifty or sixty miles above. At the entrance
+to the river lies a sand-bar, effectively blocking
+access to boats of as great draft as the
+<i>Saxon</i>. We therefore transshipped to some
+British India vessels, and exceedingly comfortable
+we found them, designed as they were for
+tropic runs. We steamed up past the Island
+of Abadan, where stand the refineries of the
+Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It is hard to
+overestimate the important part that company
+has played in the conduct of the Mesopotamian
+campaign. Motor transport was nowhere else
+a greater necessity. There was no possi<a name='Page_12'></a>bility
+of living on the country; at first, at
+all events. General Dickson, the director of
+local resources, later set in to so build up
+and encourage agriculture that the army should
+eventually be supported, in the staples of life,
+by local produce. Transportation was ever
+a hard nut to crack. Railroads were built,
+but though the nature of the country called
+for little grading, obtaining rails, except in
+small quantities, was impossible. The ones
+brought were chiefly secured by taking up the
+double track of Indian railways. This process
+naturally had a limit, and only lines of prime
+importance could be laid down. Thus you
+could go by rail from Busra to Amara, and from
+Kut to Baghdad, but the stretch between
+Amara and Kut had never been built, up to
+the time I left the country. General Maude
+once told me that pressure was being continually
+brought by the high command in England
+or India to have that connecting-link built, but
+that he was convinced that the rails would be
+far more essential elsewhere, and had no intention
+of yielding.</p>
+
+<p>I don't know the total number of motor
+vehicles, but there were more than five thousand
+Fords alone. On several occasions small
+<a name='Page_13'></a>columns of infantry were transported in Fords,
+five men and the driver to a car. Indians of
+every caste and religion were turned into drivers,
+and although it seemed sufficiently out of
+place to come across wizened, khaki-clad Indo-Chinese
+driving lorries in France, the incongruity
+was even more marked when one beheld
+a great bearded Sikh with his turbaned
+head bent over the steering-wheel of a Ford.</p>
+
+<p>Modern Busra stands on the banks of Ashar
+Creek. The ancient city whence Sinbad the
+sailor set forth is now seven or eight miles inland,
+buried under the shifting sands of the
+desert. Busra was a seaport not so many
+hundreds of years ago. Before that again,
+Kurna was a seaport, and the two rivers probably
+only joined in the ocean, but they have
+gradually enlarged the continent and forced
+back the sea. The present rate of encroachment
+amounts, I was told, to nearly twelve
+feet a year.</p>
+
+<p>The modern town has increased many fold
+with the advent of the Expeditionary Force,
+and much of the improvement is of a necessarily
+permanent nature; in particular the
+wharfs and roads. Indeed, one of the most
+striking features of the Mesopotamian cam<a name='Page_14'></a>paign
+is the permanency of the improvements
+made by the British. In order to conquer the
+country it was necessary to develop it,&mdash;build
+railways and bridges and roads and telegraph
+systems,&mdash;and it has all been done in a
+substantial manner. It is impossible to contemplate
+with equanimity the possibility of the
+country reverting to a rule where all this
+progress would soon disappear and the former
+stagnancy and injustice again hold sway.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/3.jpg"><img src="./images/3_th.jpg"
+alt="Ashar Creek at Busra"></a></p><p class="ctr">Ashar Creek at Busra</p>
+
+<p>As soon as we landed I wandered off to the
+bazaar&mdash;&quot;suq&quot; is what the Arab calls it. In
+Busra there are a number of excellent ones.
+By that I don't mean that there are art treasures
+of the East to be found in them, for almost
+everything could be duplicated at a better
+price in New York. It is the grouping of
+wares, the mode of sale, and, above all, the
+salesmen and buyers that make a bazaar&mdash;the
+old bearded Persian sitting cross-legged in
+his booth, the motley crowd jostling through
+the narrow, vaulted passageway, the veiled
+women, the hawk-featured, turbaned men, the
+Jews, the Chaldeans, the Arabs, the Armenians,
+the stalwart Kurds, and through it all a leaven
+of khaki-clad Indians, purchasing for the regimental
+mess. All these and an ever-present
+<a name='Page_15'></a>exotic, intangible something are what the
+bazaar means. Close by the entrance stood
+a booth festooned with lamps and lanterns of
+every sort, with above it scrawled &quot;Aladdin-Ibn-Said.&quot;
+My Arabic was not at that time
+sufficient to enable me to discover from the
+owner whether he claimed illustrious ancestry
+or had merely been named after a patron saint.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after landing at Busra we embarked
+on a paddle-wheel boat to pursue our
+way up-stream the five hundred intervening
+miles to Baghdad. Along the banks of the
+river stretched endless miles of date-palms.
+We watched the Arabs at their work of fertilizing
+them, for in this country these palms
+have to depend on human agency to transfer
+the pollen. At Kurna we entered the Garden
+of Eden, and one could quite appreciate the
+feelings of the disgusted Tommy who exclaimed:
+&quot;If this is the Garden, it wouldn't
+take no bloody angel with a flaming sword to
+turn me back.&quot; The direct descendant of the
+Tree is pointed out; whether its properties
+are inherited I never heard, but certainly the
+native would have little to learn by eating the
+fruit.</p>
+
+<p>Above Kurna the river is no longer lined
+<a name='Page_16'></a>with continuous palm-groves; desert and
+swamps take their place&mdash;the abode of the
+amphibious, nomadic, marsh Arab. An unruly
+customer he is apt to prove himself, and
+when he is &quot;wanted&quot; by the officials, he retires
+to his watery fastnesses, where he can
+remain in complete safety unless betrayed by
+his comrades. On the banks of the Tigris
+stands Ezra's tomb. It is kept in good repair
+through every vicissitude of rule, for it is a
+holy place to Moslem and Jew and Christian
+alike.</p>
+
+<p>The third night brought us to Amara. The
+evening was cool and pleasant after the scorching
+heat of the day, and Finch Hatton and I
+thought that we would go ashore for a stroll
+through the town. As we proceeded down
+the bank toward the bridge, I caught sight of
+a sentry walking his post. His appearance was
+so very important and efficient that I slipped
+behind my companion to give him a chance
+to explain us. &quot;Halt! Who goes there?&quot;
+&quot;Friend,&quot; replied Finch Hatton. &quot;Advance,
+friend, and give the countersign.&quot; F.H. started
+to advance, followed by a still suspicious me,
+and rightly so, for the Tommy, evidently member
+of a recent draft, came forward to meet us
+<a name='Page_17'></a>with lowered bayonet, remarking in a businesslike
+manner: &quot;There isn't any countersign.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Except for the gunboats and monitors, all
+river traffic is controlled by the Inland Water
+Transport Service. The officers are recruited
+from all the world over. I firmly believe that
+no river of any importance could be mentioned
+but what an officer of the I.W.T. could be
+found who had navigated it. The great requisite
+for transports on the Tigris was a
+very light draft, and to fill the requirements
+boats were requisitioned ranging from penny
+steamers of the Thames to river-craft of the
+Irrawaddy. Now in bringing a penny steamer
+from London to Busra the submarine is one of
+the lesser perils, and in supplying the wants of
+the Expeditionary Force more than eighty vessels
+were lost at sea, frequently with all aboard.</p>
+
+<p>As was the custom, we had a barge lashed
+to either side. These barges are laden with
+troops, or horses, or supplies. In our case we
+had the first Bengal regiment&mdash;a new experiment,
+undertaken for political reasons. The
+Bengali is the Indian who most readily takes
+to European learning. Rabindranath Tagore
+is probably the most widely known member of
+the race. They go to Calcutta University and
+<a name='Page_18'></a>learn a smattering of English and absorb a
+certain amount of undigested general knowledge
+and theory. These partially educated
+Bengalis form the Babu class, and many are
+employed in the railways. They delight in
+complicated phraseology, and this coupled with
+their accent and seesaw manner of speaking
+supply the English a constant source of caricature.
+As a race they are inclined to be vain
+and boastful, and are ever ready to nurse a
+grievance against the British Government,
+feeling that they have been provided with an
+education but no means of support. The
+government felt that it might help to calm
+them if a regiment were recruited and sent to
+Mesopotamia. How they would do in actual
+fighting had never been demonstrated up to
+the time I left the country, but they take readily
+to drill, and it was amusing to hear them ordering
+each other about in their clipped English.
+They were used for garrisoning Baghdad.</p>
+
+<p>After we left Amara we continued our winding
+course up-stream. A boat several hours
+ahead may be seen only a few hundred yards
+distant across the desert. The banks are so
+flat and level that it looks as if the other vessels
+were steaming along on land. The Arab
+river-craft was most picturesque. At sunset
+<a name='Page_19'></a>a mahela, bearing down with filled sail, might
+have been the model for Maxfield Parrish's
+<i>Pirate Ship</i>. The Arab women ran along the
+bank beside us, carrying baskets of eggs and
+chickens, and occasionally melons. They were
+possessed of surprising endurance, and would
+accompany us indefinitely, heavily laden as
+they were. Their robes trailed in the wind
+as they jumped ditches, screaming out their
+wares without a moment's pause. An Indian
+of the boat's crew was haggling with a woman
+about a chicken. He threw her an eight-anna
+piece. She picked up the money but would
+not hand him the chicken, holding out for her
+original price. He jumped ashore, intending
+to take the chicken. She had a few yards'
+start and made the most of it. In and out
+they chased, over hedge and ditch, down the
+bank and up again. Several times he almost
+had her. She never for a moment ceased
+screeching&mdash;an operation which seemed to
+affect her wind not a particle. At the end of
+fifteen minutes the Indian gave up amid the
+delighted jeers of his comrades, and returned
+shamefaced and breathless to jump aboard the
+boat as we bumped against the bank on rounding
+a curve.</p>
+
+<p>One evening we halted where, not many
+<a name='Page_20'></a>months before, the last of the battles of Sunnaiyat
+had been fought. There for months the
+British had been held back, while their beleaguered
+comrades in Kut could hear the roar
+of the artillery and hope against hope for the
+relief that never reached them. It was one
+phase of the campaign that closely approximated
+the gruelling trench warfare in France.
+The last unsuccessful attack was launched a
+week before the capitulation of the garrison,
+and it was almost a year later before the
+position was eventually taken. The front-line
+trenches were but a short distance apart, and
+each side had developed a strong and elaborate
+system of defense. One flank was protected
+by an impassable marsh and the other by the
+river. When we passed, the field presented an
+unusually gruesome appearance even for a
+battle-field, for the wandering desert Arabs
+had been at work, and they do not clean up
+as thoroughly as the African hyena. A number
+had paid the penalty through tampering
+with unexploded grenades and &quot;dud&quot; shells,
+and left their own bones to be scattered around
+among the dead they had been looting. The
+trenches were a veritable Golgotha with skulls
+everywhere and dismembered legs still clad
+with puttees and boots.</p><a name='Page_21'></a>
+
+<p>At Kut we disembarked to do the remaining
+hundred miles to Baghdad by rail instead
+of winding along for double the distance by
+river, with a good chance of being hung up for
+hours, or even days, on some shifting sand-bar.
+At first sight Kut is as unpromising a spot as
+can well be imagined, with its scorching heat
+and its sand and the desolate mud-houses,
+but in spite of appearances it is an important
+and thriving little town, and daily becoming
+of more consequence.</p>
+
+<p>The railroad runs across the desert, following
+approximately the old caravan route to Baghdad.
+A little over half-way the line passes the
+remaining arch of the great hall of Ctesiphon.
+This hall is one hundred and forty-eight feet
+long by seventy-six broad. The arch stands
+eighty-five feet high. Around it, beneath the
+mounds of desert sand, lies all that remains of
+the ancient city. As a matter of fact the city
+is by no means ancient as such things go in
+Mesopotamia, dating as it does from the third
+century B.C., when it was founded by the
+successors of Alexander the Great.</p>
+
+<p>My first night in Baghdad I spent in General
+Maude's house, on the river-bank. The
+general was a striking soldierly figure of a
+man, standing well over six feet. His military
+<a name='Page_22'></a>career was long and brilliant. His first service
+was in the Coldstream Guards. He distinguished
+himself in South Africa. Early in the
+present war he was severely wounded in France.
+Upon recovering he took over the Thirteenth
+Division, which he commanded in the disastrous
+Gallipoli campaign, and later brought
+out to Mesopotamia. When he reached the
+East the situation was by no means a happy
+one for the British. General Townshend was
+surrounded in Kut, and the morale of the Turk
+was excellent after the successes he had met
+with in Gallipoli. In the end of August, 1916,
+four months after the fall of Kut, General
+Maude took over the command of the Mesopotamian
+forces. On the 11th of March of the
+following year he occupied Baghdad, thereby
+re-establishing completely the British prestige
+in the Orient. One of Germany's most serious
+miscalculations was with regard to the Indian
+situation. She felt confident that, working
+through Persia and Afghanistan, she could
+stir up sufficient trouble, possibly to completely
+overthrow British rule, but certainly to keep
+the English so occupied with uprisings as to
+force them to send troops to India rather than
+withdraw them thence for use elsewhere. The
+<a name='Page_23'></a>utter miscarriage of Germany's plans is, indeed,
+a fine tribute to Great Britain. The
+Emir of Afghanistan did probably more than
+any single native to thwart German treachery
+and intrigue, and every friend of the Allied
+cause must have read of his recent assassination
+with a very real regret.</p>
+
+<p>When General Maude took over the command,
+the effect of the Holy War that, at the
+Kaiser's instigation, was being preached in
+the mosques had not as yet been determined.
+This jehad, as it was called, proposed to unite
+all &quot;True Believers&quot; against the invading
+Christians, and give the war a strongly religious
+aspect. The Germans hoped by this
+means to spread mutiny among the Mohammedan
+troops, which formed such an appreciable
+element of the British forces, as well as to
+fire the fury of the Turks and win as many of
+the Arabs to their side as possible. The Arab
+thoroughly disliked both sides. The Turk
+oppressed him, but did so in an Oriental, and
+hence more or less comprehensible, manner.
+The English gave him justice, but it was an
+Occidental justice that he couldn't at first
+understand or appreciate, and he was distinctly
+inclined to mistrust it. In course of
+<a name='Page_24'></a>time he would come to realize its advantages.
+Under Turkish rule the Arab was oppressed
+by the Turk, but then he in turn could oppress
+the Jew, the Chaldean, and Nestorian
+Christians, and the wretched Armenian. Under
+British rule he suddenly found these latter
+on an equal footing with him, and he felt that
+this did not compensate the lifting from his
+shoulders of the Turkish burden. Then, too,
+when a race has been long oppressed and downtrodden,
+and suddenly finds itself on an equality
+with its oppressor, it is apt to become arrogant
+and overbearing. This is exactly what
+happened, and there was bad feeling on all
+sides in consequence. However, real fundamental
+justice is appreciated the world over,
+once the native has been educated up to it,
+and can trust in its continuity.</p>
+
+<p>The complex nature of the problems facing
+the army commander can be readily seen.
+He was an indefatigable worker and an unsurpassed
+organizer. The only criticism I ever
+heard was that he attended too much to the
+details himself and did not take his subordinates
+sufficiently into his confidence. A brilliant
+leader, beloved by his troops, his loss
+was a severe blow to the Allied cause.</p><a name='Page_25'></a>
+
+<p>Baghdad is often referred to as the great
+example of the shattered illusion. We most
+of us have read the <i>Arabian Nights</i> at an early
+age, and think of the abode of the caliphs as a
+dream city, steeped in what we have been
+brought up to think of as the luxury, romance,
+and glamour of the East. Now glamour is a
+delicate substance. In the all-searching glare
+of the Mesopotamian sun it is apt to appear
+merely tawdry. Still, a goodly number of
+years spent in wandering about in foreign
+lands had prepared me for a depreciation of
+the &quot;stuff that dreams are made of,&quot; and I
+was not disappointed. It is unfortunate that
+the normal way to approach is from the south,
+and that that view of the city is flat and uninteresting.
+Coming, as I several times had
+occasion to, from the north, one first catches
+sight of great groves of date-palms, with the
+tall minarets of the Mosque of Kazimain towering
+above them; then a forest of minarets
+and blue domes, with here and there some
+graceful palm rising above the flat roofs of
+Baghdad. In the evening when the setting sun
+strikes the towers and the tiled roofs, and the
+harsh lights are softened, one is again in the
+land of Haroun-el-Raschid.</p><a name='Page_26'></a>
+
+<p>The great covered bazaars are at all times
+capable of &quot;eating the hours,&quot; as the natives
+say. One could sit indefinitely in a coffee-house
+and watch the throngs go by&mdash;the stalwart
+Kurdish porter with his impossible loads,
+the veiled women, the unveiled Christian or
+lower-class Arab women, the native police,
+the British Tommy, the kilted Scot, the desert
+Arab, all these and many more types wandered
+past. Then there was the gold and silver
+market, where the Jewish and Armenian artificers
+squatted beside their charcoal fires and
+haggled endlessly with their customers. These
+latter were almost entirely women, and they
+came both to buy and sell, bringing old bracelets
+and anklets, and probably spending the
+proceeds on something newer that had taken
+their fancy. The workmanship was almost
+invariably poor and rough. Most of the
+women had their babies with them, little mites
+decked out in cheap finery and with their eyelids
+thickly painted. The red dye from their
+caps streaked their faces, the flies settled on
+them at will, and they had never been washed.
+When one thought of the way one's own children
+were cared for, it seemed impossible that
+a sufficient number of these little ones could
+<a name='Page_27'></a>survive to carry on the race. The infant mortality
+must be great, though the children one
+sees look fat and thriving.</p>
+
+<p>Baghdad is not an old city. Although there
+was probably a village on the site time out of
+mind, it does not come into any prominence
+until the eighth century of our era. As the
+residence of the Abasside caliphs it rapidly
+assumed an important position. The culmination
+of its magnificence was reached in the end
+of the eighth century, under the rule of the
+world-famous Haroun-el-Raschid. It long continued
+to be a centre of commerce and industry,
+though suffering fearfully from the various
+sieges and conquests which it underwent. In
+1258 the Mongols, under a grandson of the great
+Genghis Khan, captured the city and held it
+for a hundred years, until ousted by the Tartars
+under Tamberlane. It was plundered in
+turn by one Mongol horde after another until
+the Turks, under Murad the Fourth, eventually
+secured it. Naturally, after being the scene
+of so much looting and such massacres, there is
+little left of the original city of the caliphs.
+Then, too, in Mesopotamia there is practically
+no stone, and everything was built of brick,
+which readily lapses back to its original state.<a name='Page_28'></a>
+For this reason the invaders easily razed a
+conquered town, and Mesopotamia, so often
+called the &quot;cradle of the world,&quot; retains but
+little trace of the races and civilizations that
+have succeeded each other in ruling the land.
+When the Tigris was low at the end of the
+summer season, we used to dig out from its
+bank great bricks eighteen inches square, on
+which was still distinctly traced the seal of
+Nebuchadnezzar. These, possibly the remnants
+of a quay, were all that remained of the
+times before the advent of the caliphs.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='II'></a><h2><a name='Page_29'></a><a name='Page_30'></a><a name='Page_31'></a>II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TIGRIS FRONT</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>A few days after reaching Baghdad I left
+for Samarra, which was at that time the Tigris
+front. I was attached to the Royal Engineers,
+and my immediate commander was Major
+Morin, D.S.O., an able officer with an enviable
+record in France and Mesopotamia. The
+advance army of the Tigris was the Third Indian
+Army Corps, under the command of
+General Cobbe, a possessor of the coveted,
+and invariably merited, Victoria Cross. The
+Engineers were efficiently commanded by General
+Swiney. The seventy miles of railroad
+from Baghdad to Samarra were built by
+the Germans, being the only Mesopotamian
+portion of the much-talked-of Berlin-to-Baghdad
+Railway, completed before the war. It
+was admirably constructed, with an excellent
+road-bed, heavy rails and steel cross-ties made
+by Krupp. In their retreat the Turks had
+been too hurried to accomplish much in the
+<a name='Page_32'></a>way of destruction other than burning down
+a few stations and blowing up the water-towers.
+The rolling-stock had been left largely intact.
+There were no passenger-coaches, and
+you travelled either by flat or box car. Every
+one followed the Indian custom of carrying
+with them their bedding-rolls, and leather-covered
+wash-basin containing their washing-kit,
+as well as one of the comfortable rhoorkhee
+chairs. In consequence, although for travel
+by boat or train nothing was provided, there
+was no discomfort entailed. The trains were
+fitted out with anti-aircraft guns, for the Turkish
+aeroplanes occasionally tried to &quot;lay eggs,&quot;
+a by no means easy affair with a moving train
+as a target. Whatever the reason was, and I
+never succeeded in discovering it, the trains
+invariably left Baghdad in the wee small
+hours, and as the station was on the right
+bank across the river from the main town, and
+the boat bridges were cut during the night, we
+used generally, when returning to the front,
+to spend the first part of the night sleeping on
+the station platform. Generals or exalted staff
+officers could usually succeed in having a car
+assigned to them, and hauled up from the yard
+in time for them to go straight to bed in it.<a name='Page_33'></a>
+Frequently their trip was postponed, and an
+omniscient sergeant-major would indicate the
+car to the judiciously friendly, who could then
+enjoy a solid night's sleep. The run took
+anywhere from eight to twelve hours; but when
+sitting among the grain-bags on an open car,
+or comfortably ensconced in a chair in a &quot;covered
+goods,&quot; with <i>Vingt Ans Apr&egrave;s</i>, the time
+passed pleasantly enough in spite of the withering
+heat.</p>
+
+<p>While still a good number of miles away
+from Samarra we would catch sight of the sun
+glinting on the golden dome of the mosque,
+built over the cleft where the twelfth Imam,
+the Imam Mahdi, is supposed to have disappeared,
+and from which he is one day to
+reappear to establish the true faith upon earth.
+Many Arabs have appeared claiming to be the
+Mahdi, and caused trouble in a greater or less
+degree according to the extent of their following.
+The most troublous one in our day was
+the man who besieged Kharthoum and captured
+General &quot;Chinese&quot; Gordon and his men.
+Twenty-five years later, when I passed through
+the Sudan, there were scarcely any men of
+middle age left, for they had been wiped out
+almost to a man under the fearful rule of the<a name='Page_34'></a>
+Mahdi, a rule which might have served as
+prototype to the Germans in Belgium.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/4.jpg"><img src="./images/4_th.jpg"
+alt="Golden Dome of Samarra"></a></p><p class="ctr">Golden Dome of Samarra</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/5.jpg"><img src="./images/5_th.jpg"
+alt="Rafting down from Tekrit"></a></p><p class="ctr">Rafting down from Tekrit</p>
+
+<p>Samarra is very ancient, and has passed
+through periods of great depression and equally
+great expansion. It was here in A.D. 363
+that the Roman Emperor Julian died from
+wounds received in the defeat of his forces at
+Ctesiphon. The golden age lasted about forty
+years, beginning in 836, when the Caliph Hutasim
+transferred his capital thither from
+Baghdad. During that time the city extended
+for twenty-one miles along the river-bank,
+with glorious palaces, the ruins of some of
+which still stand. The present-day town has
+sadly shrunk from its former grandeur, but still
+has an impressive look with its great walls and
+massive gateways. The houses nearest the
+walls are in ruins or uninhabited; but in peacetime
+the great reputation that the climate of
+Samarra possesses for salubrity draws to it
+many Baghdad families who come to pass the
+summer months. A good percentage of the
+inhabitants are Persians, for the eleventh and
+twelfth Shiah Imams are buried on the site
+of the largest mosque. The two main sects
+of Moslems are the Sunnis and the Shiahs;
+the former regard the three caliphs who followed
+Mohammed as his legitimate successors,
+<a name='Page_35'></a>whereas the latter hold them to be usurpers,
+and believe that his cousin and son-in-law, Ali,
+husband of Fatimah, together with their sons
+Husein and Hasan, are the prophet's true
+inheritors. Ali was assassinated near Nejef,
+which city is sacred to his memory, and his
+son Husein was killed at Kerbela; so these
+two cities are the greatest of the Shiah shrines.
+The Turks belong almost without exception
+to the Sunni sect, whereas the Persians and a
+large percentage of the Arabs inhabiting Mesopotamia
+are Shiahs.</p>
+
+<p>The country around Samarra is not unlike
+in character the southern part of Arizona and
+northern Sonora. There are the same barren
+hills and the same glaring heat. The soil is
+not sand, but a fine dust which permeates
+everything, even the steel uniform-cases which
+I had always regarded as proof against all conditions.
+The parching effect was so great
+that it was not only necessary to keep all
+leather objects thoroughly oiled but the covers
+of my books cracked and curled up until I
+hit upon the plan of greasing them well also.
+In the alluvial lowlands trench-digging was a
+simple affair, but along the hills we found a
+pebbly conglomerate that gave much trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Opinion was divided as to whether the Turk
+<a name='Page_36'></a>would attempt to advance down the Tigris.
+Things had gone badly with our forces in Palestine
+at the first battle of Gaza; but here we
+had an exceedingly strong position, and the
+consensus of opinion seemed to be that the
+enemy would think twice before he stormed it.
+Their base was at Tekrit, almost thirty miles
+away. However, about ten miles distant stood
+a small village called Daur, which the Turks
+held in considerable force. Between Daur
+and Samarra there was nothing but desert,
+with gazelles and jackals the only permanent
+inhabitants. Into this no man's land both
+sides sent patrols, who met in occasional skirmishes.
+For reconnaissance work we used
+light-armored motor-cars, known throughout
+the army as Lam cars, a name formed by the
+initial letters of their titles. These cars were
+Rolls-Royces, and with their armor-plate
+weighed between three and three-quarters and
+four tons. They were proof against the ordinary
+bullet but not against the armor-piercing.
+When I came out to Mesopotamia I intended
+to lay my plans for a transfer to the cavalry,
+but after I had seen the cars at work I
+changed about and asked to be seconded to
+that branch of the service.</p><a name='Page_37'></a>
+
+<p>A short while after my arrival our aeroplanes
+brought in word that the Turks were massing
+at Daur, and General Cobbe decided that when
+they launched forth he would go and meet
+them. Accordingly, we all moved out one
+night, expecting to give &quot;Abdul,&quot; as the
+Tommies called him, a surprise. Whether it
+was that we started too early and their aeroplanes
+saw us, or whether they were only
+making a feint, we never found out; but at all
+events the enemy fell back, and save for some
+advance-guard skirmishing and a few prisoners,
+we drew a blank. We were not prepared
+to attack the Daur position, and so returned
+to Samarra to await developments.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I busied myself searching for an
+Arab servant. Seven or eight years previous,
+when with my father in Africa, I had learned
+Swahili, and although I had forgotten a great
+deal of it, still I found it a help in taking up
+Arabic. Most of the officers had either British
+or Indian servants; in the former case they
+were known as batmen, and in the latter as
+bearers; but I decided to follow suit with the
+minority and get an Arab, and therefore learn
+Arabic instead of Hindustanee, for the former
+would be of vastly more general use. The town
+<a name='Page_38'></a>commandant, Captain Grieve of the Black
+Watch, after many attempts at length produced
+a native who seemed, at any rate, more
+promising than the others that offered themselves.
+Yusuf was a sturdy, rather surly-looking
+youth of about eighteen. Evidently not a pure
+Arab, he claimed various admixtures as the
+fancy took him, the general preference being
+Kurd. I always felt that there was almost certainly
+a good percentage of Turk. His father
+had been a non-commissioned officer in the
+Turkish army, and at first I was loath to take
+him along on advances and attacks, for he
+would have been shown little mercy had he
+fallen into enemy hands. He was, however, insistent
+on asking to go with me, and I never
+saw him show any concern under fire. He
+spoke, in varying degrees of fluency, Kurdish,
+Persian, and Turkish, and was of great use to
+me for that reason. He became by degrees a
+very faithful and trustworthy follower, his
+great weakness being that he was a one-man's
+man, and although he would do anything for
+me, he was of little general use in an officers'
+mess.</p>
+
+<p>I had two horses, one a black mare that I
+called Soda, which means black in Arabic, and
+<a name='Page_39'></a>the other a hard-headed bay gelding that was
+game to go all day, totally unaffected by shell-fire,
+but exceedingly stubborn about choosing
+the direction in which he went. After numerous
+changes I came across an excellent syce
+to look after them. He was a wild, unkempt
+figure, with a long black beard&mdash;a dervish by
+profession, and certainly gave no one any
+reason to believe that he was more than half-witted.
+Indeed, almost all dervishes are in
+a greater or less degree insane; it is probably
+due to that that they have become dervishes,
+for the native regards the insane as under
+the protection of God. Dervishes go around
+practically naked, usually wearing only a few
+skins flung over the shoulder, and carrying a
+large begging-bowl. In addition they carry a
+long, sharp, iron bodkin, with a wooden ball
+at the end, having very much the appearance
+of a fool's bauble. They lead an easy life.
+When they take a fancy to a house, they settle
+down near the gate, and the owner has to support
+them as long as the whim takes them to
+stay there. To use force against a dervish
+would be looked upon as an exceedingly unpropitious
+affair to the true believer. Then,
+too, I have little doubt but that they are
+<a name='Page_40'></a>capable of making good use of their steel bodkins.
+Why my dervish wished to give up
+his easy-going profession and take over the
+charge of my horses I never fully determined,
+but it must have been because he really loved
+horses and found that as a dervish pure and
+simple he had very little to do with them.
+When he arrived he was dressed in a very
+ancient gunny-sack, and it was not without
+much regret at the desecration that I provided
+him with an outfit of the regulation khaki.</p>
+
+<p>My duties took me on long rides about
+the country. Here, and throughout Mesopotamia,
+the great antiquity of this &quot;cradle
+of the world&quot; kept ever impressing itself upon
+one, consciously or subconsciously. Everywhere
+were ruins; occasionally a wall still
+reared itself clear of the all-enveloping dust,
+but generally all that remained were great
+mounds, where the desert had crept in and
+claimed its own, covering palace, house, and
+market, temple, synagogue, mosque, or church
+with its everlasting mantle. Often the streets
+could still be traced, but oftener not. The
+weight of ages was ever present as one rode
+among the ruins of these once busy, prosperous
+cities, now long dead and buried, how long
+<a name='Page_41'></a>no one knew, for frequently their very names
+were forgotten. Babylon, Ur of the Chaldees,
+Istabulat, Nineveh, and many more great cities
+of history are now nothing but names given to
+desert mounds.</p>
+
+<p>Close by Samarra stands a strange corkscrew
+tower, known by the natives as the Malwiyah.
+It is about a hundred and sixty feet
+high, built of brick, with a path of varying
+width winding up around the outside. No
+one knew its purpose, and estimates of its antiquity
+varied by several thousand years. One
+fairly well-substantiated story told that it had
+been the custom to kill prisoners by hurling
+them off its top. We found it exceedingly useful
+as an observation-post. In the same manner
+we used Julian's tomb, a great mound rising
+up in the desert some five or six miles up-stream
+of the town. The legend is that when
+the Roman Emperor died of his wounds his
+soldiers, impressing the natives, built this as a
+mausoleum; but there is no ground whatever
+for this belief, for it would have been physically
+impossible for a harassed or retreating army
+to have performed a task of such magnitude.
+The natives call it &quot;The Granary,&quot; and claim
+that that was its original use. Before the war
+<a name='Page_42'></a>the Germans had started in excavating, and
+discovered shafts leading deep down, and on
+top the foundations of a palace. Around its
+foot may be traced roadways and circular
+plots, and especially when seen from an aeroplane
+it looks as if there had at one time been
+an elaborate system of gardens.</p>
+
+<p>We were continually getting false rumors
+about the movements of the Turks. We had
+believed that it would be impossible for them
+to execute a flank movement, at any rate in
+sufficient strength to be a serious menace, for
+from all the reports we could get, the wells
+were few and far between. Nevertheless, there
+was a great deal of excitement and some concern
+when one afternoon our aeroplanes came
+in with the report that they had seen a body
+of Turks that they estimated at from six
+to eight thousand marching round our right
+flank. The plane was sent straight back with
+instructions to verify most carefully the statement,
+and be sure that it was really men they
+had seen. They returned at dark with no alteration
+of their original report. As can well be
+imagined, that night was a crowded one for us,
+and the feeling ran high when next morning the
+enemy turned out to be several enormous herds
+of sheep.</p><a name='Page_43'></a>
+
+<p>As part consequence of this we were ordered
+to make a thorough water reconnaissance, with
+a view of ascertaining how large a force could
+be watered on a march around our flank. I
+went off in an armored car with Captain Marshall
+of the Intelligence Service. Marshall had
+spent many years in Mesopotamia shipping
+liquorice to the American Tobacco Company,
+and he was known and trusted by the Arabs all
+along the Tigris from Kurna to Mosul. He
+spoke the language most fluently, but with an
+accent that left no doubt of his Caledonian
+home. We had with us a couple of old sheiks,
+and it was their first ride in an automobile. It
+was easy to see that one of them was having
+difficulty in maintaining his dignity, but I was
+not quite sure of the reason until we stopped
+a moment and he fairly flew out of the car.
+It didn't seem possible that a man able to ride
+ninety miles at a stretch on a camel, could be
+made ill by the motion of an automobile.
+However, such was the case, and we had great
+difficulty in getting him back into the car.
+We discovered far more wells than we had
+been led to believe existed, but not enough to
+make a flank attack a very serious menace.</p>
+
+<p>The mirage played all sorts of tricks, and
+the balloon observers grew to be very cautious
+<a name='Page_44'></a>in their assertions. In the early days of the
+campaign, at the battle of Shaiba Bund, a
+friendly mirage saved the British forces from
+what would have proved a very serious defeat.
+Suleiman Askari was commanding the Turkish
+forces, and things were faring badly with the
+British, when of a sudden to their amazement
+they found that the Turks were in full retreat.
+Their commanders had caught sight of the
+mirage of what was merely an ambulance and
+supply train, but it was so magnified that they
+believed it to be a very large body of reinforcements.
+The report ran that when Suleiman
+was told of his mistake, his chagrin was so
+great that he committed suicide.</p>
+
+<p>It was at length decided to advance on the
+Turkish forces at Daur. General Brooking
+had just made a most successful attack on
+the Euphrates front, capturing the town of
+Ramadie, with almost five thousand prisoners.
+It was believed to be the intention of the army
+commander to try to relieve the pressure
+against General Allenby's forces in Palestine
+by attacking the enemy on all three of their
+Mesopotamian fronts. Accordingly, we were
+ordered to march out after sunset one night,
+prepared to attack the enemy position at day<a name='Page_45'></a>break.
+During a short halt by the last rays of
+the setting sun I caught sight of a number of
+Mohammedan soldiers prostrating themselves
+toward Mecca in their evening prayers, while
+their Christian or pagan comrades looked stolidly
+on. It was late October, and although the
+days were still very hot and oppressive, the
+nights were almost bitterly cold. A night-march
+is always a disagreeable business. The
+head of the column checks and halts, and those
+in the rear have no idea whether it is an involuntary
+stop for a few minutes, or whether
+they are to halt for an hour or more, owing to
+some complication of orders. So we stood
+shivering, and longed for a smoke, but of course
+that was strictly forbidden, for the cigarettes
+of an army would form a very good indication
+of its whereabouts on a dark night. All night
+we marched and halted, and started on again;
+the dust choked us, and the hours seemed interminable,
+until at last at two in the morning
+word was passed along that we could have an
+hour's sleep. The greater part of the year in
+Mesopotamia the regulation army dress consisted
+of a tunic and &quot;shorts.&quot; These are
+long trousers cut off just above the knee, and the
+wearer may either use wrap puttees, or leather
+<a name='Page_46'></a>leggings, or golf stockings. They are a great
+help in the heat, as may easily be understood,
+and they allow, of course, much freer knee
+action, particularly when your clothes are wet.
+The reverse side of the medal reads that when
+you try to sleep without a blanket on a cold
+night, you find that your knees are uncomfortably
+exposed. Still we were, most of us,
+so drunk with sleep that it would have taken
+more than that to keep us awake. At three
+we resumed our march, and attacked just at
+dawn. The enemy had abandoned the first-line
+positions, and we met with but little resistance
+in the second. Our cavalry, which
+was concentrated at several points in nullahs
+(dry river-beds), suffered at the hands of the
+hostile aircraft. The Turk had evidently determined
+to fall back to Tekrit without putting
+up a serious defense. They certainly could
+have given us a much worse time than they
+did, for they had dug in well and scientifically.
+Among the prisoners we took there were some
+that proved to be very worth while. These
+Turkish officers were, as a whole a good lot&mdash;well
+dressed and well educated. Many
+spoke French. There is an excellent gunnery
+school at Constantinople, and one of the officers
+<a name='Page_47'></a>we captured had been a senior instructor there
+for many years. We had with us among our
+intelligence officers a Captain Bettelheim, born
+in Constantinople of Belgian parentage. He
+had served with the Turks against the Italians
+and with the British against the Boers. This
+gunnery officer turned out to be an old comrade
+of his in the Italian War. Many of the
+officers we got knew him, for he had been
+chief of police in Constantinople. Apparently
+none of them bore him the slightest ill-will
+when they found him serving against them.</p>
+
+<p>Among the supplies we captured at Daur
+were a lot of our own rifles and ammunition
+that the Arabs had stolen and sold to the Turks.
+It was impossible to entirely stop this, guard
+our dumps as best we could. On dark nights
+they would creep right into camp, and it was
+never safe to have the hospital barges tie up
+to the banks for the night on their way down
+the river. On many occasions the Arabs
+crawled aboard and finished off the wounded.
+There was only one thing to be said for the
+Arab, and that was that he played no favorite,
+but attacked, as a rule, whichever side came
+handier. We were told, and I believe it to
+be true, that during the fighting at Sunnaiyat
+<a name='Page_48'></a>the Turks sent over to know if we would agree
+to a three days' truce, during which time we
+should join forces against the Arabs, who were
+watching on the flank to pick off stragglers or
+ration convoys.</p>
+
+<p>That night we bivouacked at Daur, and were
+unmolested except for the enemy aircraft that
+came over and &quot;laid eggs.&quot; Next morning we
+advanced on Tekrit. Our orders were to make
+a feint, and if we found that the Turk meant
+to stay and fight it out seriously, we were to
+fall back. Some gazelles got into the no man's
+land between us and the Turk, and in the
+midst of the firing ran gracefully up the line,
+stopping every now and then to stare about
+in amazement. Later on in the Argonne forest
+in France we had the same thing happen
+with some wild boars. The enemy seemed in
+no way inclined to evacuate Tekrit, so in accordance
+with instructions we returned to our
+previous night's encampment at Daur. On
+the way back we passed an old &quot;arabana,&quot; a
+Turkish coup&eacute;, standing abandoned in the
+desert, with a couple of dead horses by it. It
+may have been used by some Turkish general
+in the retreat of two days before. It was the
+sort of coup&eacute; one associates entirely with well-<a name='Page_49'></a>kept
+parks and crowded city streets, and the
+incongruity of its lonely isolation amid the
+sand-dunes caused an amused ripple of comment.</p>
+
+<p>Our instructions were to march back to
+Samarra early next morning, but shortly before
+midnight orders came through from General
+Maude for us to advance again upon
+Tekrit and take it. Next day we halted and
+took stock in view of the new orders. The
+cavalry again suffered at the hands of the
+Turkish aircraft. I went to corps headquarters
+in the afternoon, and a crowd of &quot;red tabs,&quot;
+as the staff-officers were called, were seated
+around a little table having the inevitable tea.
+A number of the generals had come in to discuss
+the plan of attack for the following day.
+Suddenly a Turk aeroplane made its appearance,
+flying quite low, and dropping bombs
+at regular intervals. It dropped two, and
+then a third on a little hill in a straight line
+from the staff conclave. It looked as if the
+next would be a direct hit, and the staff did
+the only wise thing, and took cover as flat
+on the ground as nature would allow; but the
+Hun's spacing was bad, and the next bomb
+fell some little way beyond. I remember
+<a name='Page_50'></a>our glee at what we regarded as a capital
+joke on the staff. The line-officer's humor
+becomes a trifle robust where the &quot;gilded
+staff&quot; is concerned, notwithstanding the fact
+that most staff-officers have seen active and
+distinguished service in the line.</p>
+
+<p>Our anti-aircraft guns&mdash;&quot;Archies&quot; we called
+them&mdash;were mounted on trucks, and on account
+of their weight had some difficulty getting up.
+I shall not soon forget our delight when they
+lumbered into view, for although I never happened
+personally to see an aeroplane brought
+down by an &quot;Archie,&quot; there was no doubt
+about it but that they did not bomb us with
+the same equanimity when our anti-aircrafts
+were at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/6.jpg"><img src="./images/6_th.jpg"
+alt="Captured Turkish camel corps"></a></p><p class="ctr">Captured Turkish camel corps</p>
+
+<p>That night we marched out on Tekrit, and
+as dawn was breaking were ready to attack.
+As the mist cleared, an alarming but ludicrous
+sight met our eyes. On the extreme right
+some caterpillar tractors hauling our &quot;heavies&quot;
+were advancing straight on Tekrit, as if they
+had taken themselves for tanks. They were
+not long in discovering their mistake, and
+amid a mixed salvo they clumsily turned and
+made off at their best pace, which was not
+more than three miles an hour. Luckily, they
+<a name='Page_51'></a>soon got under some excellent defilade, but
+not until they had suffered heavily.</p>
+
+<p>Our artillery did some good work, but while
+we were waiting to attack we suffered rather
+heavily. We had to advance over a wide
+stretch of open country to reach the Turkish
+first lines. By nightfall the second line of
+trenches was practically all in our hands.
+Meanwhile the cavalry had circled way around
+the flank up-stream of Tekrit to cut the enemy
+off if he attempted to retreat. The town is on
+the right bank of the Tigris, and we had a small
+force that had come up from Samarra on the
+left bank, for we had no means of ferrying
+troops across. Our casualties during the day
+had amounted to about two thousand. The
+Seaforths had suffered heavily, but no more
+so than some of the native regiments. In
+Mesopotamia there were many changes in the
+standing of the Indian battalions. The Maharattas,
+for instance, had never previously
+been regarded as anything at all unusual, but
+they have now a very distinguished record to
+take pride in. The general feeling was that
+the Gurkhas did not quite live up to their
+reputation. But the Indian troops as a whole
+did so exceedingly well that there is little
+<a name='Page_52'></a>purpose in making comparisons amongst them.
+At this time, so I was informed, the Expeditionary
+Force, counting all branches, totalled
+about a million, and a very large percentage
+of this came from India. We drew our supplies
+from India and Australia, and it is interesting
+to note that we preferred the Australian
+canned beef and mutton (bully beef and bully
+mutton, as it was called) to the American.</p>
+
+<p>At dusk the fighting died down, and we
+were told to hold on and go over at daybreak.
+As I was making my way back to headquarters
+a general pounced upon me and told me to get
+quickly into a car and go as rapidly as
+possible to Daur to bring up a motor ration-convoy
+with fodder for the cavalry horses
+and food for the riders. A Ford car happened
+to pass by, and he stopped it and shoved me
+in, with some last hurried injunction. It was
+quite fifteen miles back, and the country was
+so cut up by nullahs or ravines that in most
+places it was inadvisable to leave the road,
+which was, of course, jammed with a double
+stream of transport of every description.
+When we were three or four miles from Daur
+a tire blew out. The driver had used his last
+spare, so there was nothing to do but keep
+<a name='Page_53'></a>going on the rim. The car was of the delivery-wagon
+type&mdash;&quot;pill-boxes&quot; were what they
+were known as&mdash;and while we were stopped
+taking stock I happened to catch sight of a
+good-sized bedding-roll behind. &quot;Some one's
+out of luck,&quot; said I to the driver; &quot;whose roll
+is it?&quot; &quot;The corps commander's, sir,&quot; was
+his reply. After exhausting my limited vocabulary,
+I realized that it was far too late to
+stop another motor and send this one back, so
+I just kept going. Across the bed of one more
+ravine, the sand up to the hubs, and we were
+in the Daur camp. I managed to rank some
+one out of a spare tire and started back again.
+My driver proved unable to drive at night,
+at all events at a pace that would put us anywhere
+before dawn, so I was forced to take
+the wheel. By the time I had the convoy
+properly located I was rather despondent of
+the corps commander's temper, even should I
+eventually reach him that night, which seemed
+a remote chance, for the best any one could do
+was give me the rough location on a map.
+Still, taking my luminous compass, I set out to
+steer a cross-country course. I ran into five
+or six small groups of ambulances filled with
+wounded, trying to find their way to Daur,
+<a name='Page_54'></a>and completely lost. Most had given up&mdash;some
+were unknowingly headed back for
+Tekrit. I could do no more than give them
+the right direction, which I knew they had no
+chance of holding. Of course I could have no
+headlights, and the ditches were many, but
+in some miraculous way, more through good
+luck than good management, I did find corps
+headquarters, and what was better still, the
+general's reprimand took the form of bread and
+ham and a stiff peg of whiskey&mdash;the first food
+I had had since before daylight.</p>
+
+<p>During the night the Turks evacuated the
+town. Their forces were certainly mobile.
+They could cover the most surprising distances,
+and live on almost nothing. We marched in
+and occupied. White flags were flying from
+all the houses, which were not nearly so much
+damaged from the bombardment as one would
+have supposed. This was invariably the case;
+indeed, it is surprising to see how much shelling
+a town can undergo without noticeable effect.
+It takes a long time to level a town in the way
+it has been done in northern France. In this
+region the banks of the river average about one
+hundred and fifty feet in height, and Tekrit is
+built at the junction of two ravines. No two
+<a name='Page_55'></a>streets are on the same level; sometimes the
+roofs of the houses on a lower level serve as
+the streets for the houses above. Many of the
+booths in the bazaar were open and transacting
+business when we arrived, an excellent
+proof of how firmly the Arabs believed in British
+fair dealing. Our men bought cigarettes,
+matches, and vegetables. Yusuf had lived
+here three or four years, so I despatched him
+to get chickens and eggs for the mess. I ran
+into Marshall, who was on his way to dine
+with the mayor, who had turned out to be an
+old friend of his. He asked me to join him,
+and we climbed up to a very comfortable
+house, built around a large courtyard. It was
+the best meal we had either of us had in days&mdash;great
+pilaus of rice, excellent chicken, and
+fresh unleavened bread. This bread looks like
+a very large and thin griddle-cake. The Arab
+uses it as a plate. Eating with your hands is
+at first rather difficult. Before falling to, a ewer
+is brought around to you, and you are supplied
+with soap&mdash;a servant pours water from
+the ewer over your hands, and then gives you
+a towel. After eating, the same process is
+gone through with. There are certain formalities
+that must be regarded&mdash;one of them being
+<a name='Page_56'></a>that you must not eat or drink with your left
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>In Tekrit we did not find as much in the way
+of supplies and ammunition as we had hoped.
+The Turk had destroyed the greater part of
+his store. We did find great quantities of
+wood, and in that barren, treeless country it
+was worth a lot. Most of the inhabitants of
+Tekrit are raftsmen by profession. Their
+rafts have been made in the same manner
+since before the days of Xerxes and Darius.
+Inflated goatskins are used as a basis for a
+platform of poles, cut in the up-stream forests.
+On these, starting from Diarbekr or Mosul,
+they float down all their goods. When they
+reach Tekrit they leave the poles there, and
+start up-stream on foot, carrying their deflated
+goatskins. The Turks used this method a
+great deal bringing down their supplies. In
+pre-war days the rafts, keleks as they are
+called, would often come straight through to
+Baghdad, but many were always broken up
+at Tekrit, for there is a desert route running
+across to Hit on the Euphrates, and the supplies
+from up-river were taken across this in
+camel caravans.</p>
+
+<p>The aerodrome lay six or seven miles above
+<a name='Page_57'></a>the town, and I was anxious to see it and the
+comfortable billets the Germans had built
+themselves. I found a friend whose duties
+required motor transportation, and we set off
+in his car. A dust-storm was raging, and we
+had some difficulty in finding our way through
+the network of trenches. Once outside, the
+storm became worse, and we could only see a
+few yards in front of us. We got completely
+lost, and after nearly running over the edge
+of the bluff, gave up the attempt, and slowly
+worked our way back.</p>
+
+<p>When we started off on the advance I was
+reading Xenophon's <i>Anabasis</i>. On the day
+when we were ordered to march on Tekrit a
+captain of the Royal Flying Corps, an ex-master
+at Eton, was in the mess, and when I
+told him that I was nearly out of reading matter,
+he said that next time he came over he
+would drop me Plutarch's <i>Lives</i>. I asked him
+to drop it at corps headquarters, and that a
+friend of mine there would see that I got it.
+The next day in the heat of the fighting a
+plane came over low, signalling that it was
+dropping a message. As the streamer fell
+close by, there was a rush to pick it up and
+learn how the attack was progressing. Fortu<a name='Page_58'></a>nately,
+I was far away when the packet was
+opened and found to contain the book that
+the pilot had promised to drop for me.</p>
+
+<p>After we had been occupying the town for a
+few days, orders came through to prepare to
+fall back on Samarra. The line of communication
+was so long that it was impossible to
+maintain us, except at too great a cost to the
+transportation facilities possessed by the Expeditionary
+Forces. Eight or ten months later,
+when we had more rails in hand, a line was
+laid to Tekrit, which had been abandoned by
+the Turks under the threat of our advance
+to Kirkuk, in the Persian hills. It was difficult
+to explain to the men, particularly to the
+Indians, the necessity for falling back. All
+they could understand was that we had taken
+the town at no small cost, and now we were
+about to give it up.</p>
+
+<p>For several days I was busy helping to prepare
+rafts to take down the timber and such
+other captured supplies as were worth removing.
+The river was low, leaving a broad stretch
+of beach below the town, and to this we brought
+down the poles. Several camels had died near
+the water, probably from the results of our
+shelling, and the hot weather soon made them
+<a name='Page_59'></a>very unpleasant companions. The first day
+was bad enough; the second was worse. The
+natives were not in the least affected. They
+brought their washing and worked among them&mdash;they
+came down and drew their drinking-water
+from the river, either beside the camels
+or down-stream of them, with complete indifference.
+It is true this water percolates drop by
+drop through large, porous clay pots before it
+is drunk, but even so, it would have seemed
+that they would have preferred its coming from
+up-stream of the derelict &quot;ships of the desert.&quot;
+On the third day, to their mild surprise, we
+managed with infinite difficulty to tow the
+camels out through the shallow water into the
+main stream.</p>
+
+<p>We finally got our rafts built, over eighty in
+number, and arranged for enough Arab pilots
+to take care of half of them. On the remainder
+we put Indian sepoys. They made quite
+a fleet when we finally got them all started
+down-stream. Two were broken up in the
+rapids near Daur, the rest reached Samarra in
+safety on the second day.</p>
+
+<p>We had a pleasant camp on the bluffs below
+Tekrit&mdash;high-enough above the plain to
+be free of the ordinary dust-storms, and the
+<a name='Page_60'></a>prospect of returning to Samarra was scarcely
+more pleasant to us than to the men. Five
+days after we had taken the town, we turned
+our backs on it and marched slowly back to
+rail-head.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='III'></a><h2><a name='Page_61'></a><a name='Page_62'></a><a name='Page_63'></a>III</h2>
+
+<h3>PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>We returned to find Samarra buried in dust
+and more desolate than ever. A few days
+later came the first rain-storm. After a night's
+downpour the air was radiantly clear, and it
+was joy to ride off on the rounds, no longer
+like Zeus, enveloped in a cloud.</p>
+
+<p>It was a relief to see the heat-stroke camps
+broken up. During the summer months our
+ranks were fearfully thinned through the sun.
+Although it was the British troops that suffered
+most, the Indians were by no means immune.
+Before the camps were properly organized the
+percentage of mortality was exceedingly large,
+for the only effective treatment necessitates
+the use of much ice. The patient runs a temperature
+which it was impossible to control
+until the ice-making machines were installed.
+The camps were situated in the coolest and
+most comfortable places, but in spite of everything,
+death was a frequent result, and recoveries
+were apt to be only partial. Men who had
+<a name='Page_64'></a>had a bad stroke were rarely of any further use
+in the country.</p>
+
+<p>Another sickness of the hot season which
+now began to claim less victims was sand-fly
+fever. This fever, which, as its name indicates,
+was contracted from the bites of sand-flies,
+varied widely in virulence. Sometimes
+it was so severe that the victim had to be
+evacuated to India; as a rule he went no
+farther than a base hospital at Baghdad or
+Amara.</p>
+
+<p>One of the things about which the Tommy
+felt most keenly in the Mesopotamian campaign
+was that there was no such thing as a
+&quot;Cushy Blighty.&quot; To take you to &quot;Blighty&quot;
+a wound must mean permanent disablement,
+otherwise you either convalesced in the country
+or, at best, were sent to India. In the
+same manner there were no short leaves, for
+there was nowhere to go. At the most rapid
+rate of travelling it took two weeks to get to
+India, and once there, although the people
+did everything possible in the way of entertaining,
+the enlisted man found little to make him
+less homesick than he had been in Mesopotamia.
+Transportation was so difficult and the trip so
+long that only under very exceptional circum<a name='Page_65'></a>stances
+was leave to England given. One
+spring it was announced that officers wishing
+to get either married or divorced could apply
+for leave with good hopes of success. Many
+applied, but a number returned without having
+fulfilled either condition, so that the following
+year no leaves were given upon those grounds.
+The army commander put all divorce cases
+into the hands of an officer whose civil occupation
+had been the law, and who arranged them
+without the necessity of granting home leave.</p>
+
+<p>A week after our return to Samarra a rumor
+started that General Maude was down with
+cholera. For some time past there had been sporadic
+cases, though not enough to be counted
+an epidemic. The sepoys had suffered chiefly,
+but not exclusively, for the British ranks also
+supplied a quota of victims. An officer on the
+staff of the military governor of Baghdad had
+recently died. We heard that the army commander
+had the virulent form, and knew there
+could be no chance of his recovery. The announcement
+of his death was a heavy blow to
+all, and many were the gloomy forebodings.
+The whole army had implicit confidence in their
+leader, and deeply mourned his loss. The
+usual rumors of foul play and poison went the
+<a name='Page_66'></a>rounds, but I soon after heard Colonel Wilcox&mdash;in
+pre-war days an able and renowned practitioner
+of Harley Street&mdash;say that it was an
+undoubted case of cholera. The colonel had attended
+General Maude throughout the illness.
+The general had never taken the cholera prophylactic,
+although Colonel Wilcox had on
+many occasions urged him to do so, the last
+time being only a few days before the disease
+developed.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/7.jpg"><img src="./images/7_th.jpg"
+alt="Towing an armored car across a river"></a></p><p class="ctr">Towing an armored car across a river</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/8.jpg"><img src="./images/8_th.jpg"
+alt="Reconnaissance"></a></p><p class="ctr">Reconnaissance</p>
+
+<p>General Marshall, who had commanded
+General Maude's old division, the Thirteenth,
+took over. The Seventeenth lost General
+Gillman, who thereupon became chief of staff.
+This was a great loss to his division, for he was
+the idol of the men, but the interest of the
+Expeditionary Force was naturally and justly
+given precedence.</p>
+
+<p>In due course my transfer to the Motor
+Machine-Gun Corps came through approved,
+and I was assigned to the Fourteenth battery
+of light-armored motor-cars, commanded by
+Captain Nigel Somerset, whose grandfather,
+Lord Raglan, had died, nursed by Florence
+Nightingale, while in command of the British
+forces in the Crimean War. Somerset himself
+was in the infantry at the outbreak of the war
+<a name='Page_67'></a>and had been twice wounded in France. He
+was an excellent leader, possessing as he did
+dash, judgment, and personal magnetism. A
+battery was composed of eight armored cars,
+subdivided into four sections. There was a
+continually varying number of tenders and
+workshop lorries. The fighting cars were Rolls-Royces,
+the others Napiers and Fords.</p>
+
+<p>At that time there were only four batteries
+in the country. We were army troops&mdash;that
+is to say, we were not attached to any individual
+brigade, or division, or corps, but were temporarily
+assigned first here and then there, as
+the need arose.</p>
+
+<p>In attacks we worked in co-operation with
+the cavalry. Although on occasions they tried
+to use us as tanks, it was not successful, for
+our armor-plate was too light. We were also
+employed in raiding, and in quelling Arab uprisings.
+This latter use threw us into close
+touch with the political officers. These were
+a most interesting lot of men. They were recruited
+in part from the army, but largely from
+civil life. They took over the civil administration
+of the conquered territory and judiciously
+upheld native justice. Many remarkable
+characters were numbered among them&mdash;men
+<a name='Page_68'></a>who had devoted a lifetime to the study of the
+intricacies of Oriental diplomacy. They were
+distinguished by the white tabs on the collars
+of their regulation uniforms; but white was by
+no means invariably the sign of peace, for many
+of the political officers were killed, and more
+than once in isolated towns in unsettled districts
+they sustained sieges that lasted for
+several days. We often took a political officer
+out with us on a raid or reconnaissance, finding
+his knowledge of the language and customs
+of great assistance. Sir Percy Cox was at the
+head, with the title &quot;Chief Political Officer&quot;
+and the rank of general. His career in the
+Persian Gulf has been as distinguished as it is
+long, and his handling of the very delicate situations
+arising in Mesopotamia has called forth
+the unstinted praise of soldier and civilian alike.</p>
+
+<p>Ably assisting him, and head of the Arab
+bureau, was Miss Gertrude Bell, the only
+woman, other than the nursing sisters, officially
+connected with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary
+Forces. Miss Bell speaks Arabic fluently
+and correctly. She first became interested in
+the East when visiting her uncle at Teheran,
+where he was British minister. She has made
+noteworthy expeditions in Syria and Mesopo<a name='Page_69'></a>tamia,
+and has written a number of admirable
+books, among which are <i>Armurath to Armurath</i>
+and <i>The Desert and the Sown</i>. The undeniable
+position which she holds must appear doubly
+remarkable when the Mohammedan official attitude
+toward women is borne in mind. Miss
+Bell has worked steadily and without a leave
+in this trying climate, and her tact and judgment
+have contributed to the British success
+to a degree that can scarcely be overestimated.</p>
+
+<p>The headquarters of the various batteries
+were in Baghdad. There we had our permanent
+billets, and stores. We would often be
+ordered out in sections to be away varying
+lengths of time, though rarely more than a
+couple of months. The workshops' officer
+stayed in permanent charge and had the difficult
+task of keeping all the cars in repair. The
+supply of spare parts was so uncertain that
+much skill and ingenuity were called for, and
+possessed to a full degree by Lieutenant Linnell
+of the Fourteenth.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after I joined I set off with Somerset
+and one of the battery officers, Lieutenant
+Smith, formerly of the Black Watch. We were
+ordered to do some patrolling near the ruins of
+Babylon. Kerbela and Nejef, in the quality
+<a name='Page_70'></a>of great Shiah shrines, had never been particularly
+friendly to the Turks, who were Sunnis&mdash;but
+the desert tribes are almost invariably
+Sunnis, and this coupled with their natural
+instinct for raiding and plundering made them
+eager to take advantage of any interregnum
+of authority. We organized a sort of native
+mounted police, but they were more picturesque
+than effective. They were armed with weapons
+of varying age and origin&mdash;not one was
+more recent than the middle of the last century.
+Now the Budus, the wild desert folk, were frequently
+equipped with rifles they had stolen
+from us, so in a contest the odds were anything
+but even.</p>
+
+<p>We took up our quarters at Museyib, a small
+town on the banks of the Euphrates, six or
+eight miles above the Hindiyah Barrage, a dam
+finished a few years before, and designed to
+irrigate a large tract of potentially rich country.
+We patrolled out to Mohamediyah, a
+village on the caravan desert route to Baghdad,
+and thence down to Hilleh, around which stand
+the ruins of ancient Babylon. The rainy season
+was just beginning, and it was obvious that
+the patrolling could not be continuous, for a
+twelve-hour rain would make the country
+<a name='Page_71'></a>impassable to our heavy cars for two or three
+days. We were fortunate in having pleasant
+company in the officers of a Punjabi infantry
+battalion and an Indian cavalry regiment.
+Having commandeered an ancient caravan-serai
+for garage and billets, we set to work to
+clean it out and make it as waterproof as circumstances
+would permit. An oil-drum with
+a length of iron telegraph-pole stuck in its
+top provided a serviceable stove, and when
+it rained we played bridge or read.</p>
+
+<p>I was ever ready to reduce my kit to any
+extent in order to have space for some books,
+and Voltaire's <i>Charles XII</i> was the first called
+upon to carry me to another part of the world
+from that in which I at the moment found
+myself. I always kept a volume of some sort
+in my pocket, and during halts I would read in
+the shade cast by the turret of my car. The
+two volumes of Layard's <i>Early Adventures</i>
+proved a great success. The writer, the great
+Assyriologist, is better known as the author of
+<i>Nineveh and Babylon</i>. The book I was reading
+had been written when he was in his early
+twenties, but published for the first time forty
+years later. Layard started life as a solicitor's
+clerk in London, but upon being offered a post
+<a name='Page_72'></a>in India he had accepted and proceeded
+thither overland. On reaching Baghdad he
+made a side-trip into Kurdistan, and became so
+enamored of the life of the tribesmen that he
+lived there with them on and off for two years&mdash;years
+filled with adventure of the most thrilling
+sort.</p>
+
+<p>I had finished a translation of Xenophon
+shortly before and found it a very different
+book than when I was plodding drearily
+through it in the original at school. Here it
+was all vivid and real before my eyes, with the
+scene of the great battle of Cunaxa only a few
+miles from Museyib. Babylon was in sight of
+the valiant Greeks, but all through the loss of a
+leader it was never to be theirs. On the ground
+itself one could appreciate how great a masterpiece
+the retreat really was, and the hardiness
+of the soldiers which caused Xenophon to regard
+as a &quot;snow sickness&quot; the starvation and
+utter weariness which made the numbed men
+lie down and die in the snow of the Anatolian
+highlands. He remarks na&iuml;vely that if you
+could build a fire and give them something hot
+to eat, the sickness was dispelled!</p>
+
+<p>The rain continued to fall and the mud became
+deeper and deeper. It was all the Arabs
+<a name='Page_73'></a>could do to get their produce into market. The
+bazaar was not large, but was always thronged.
+I used to sit in one of the coffee-houses and
+drink coffee or tea and smoke the long-stemmed
+water-pipe, the narghile. My Arabic was now
+sufficiently fluent for ordinary conversation,
+and in these clubs of the Arab I could hear
+all the gossip. Bazaar rumors always told of
+our advances long before they were officially
+given out. Once in Baghdad I heard of an
+attack we had launched. On going around
+to G.H.Q. I mentioned the rumor, and found
+that it was not yet known there, but shortly
+after was confirmed. I had already in Africa
+met with the &quot;native wireless,&quot; and it will be
+remembered how in the Civil War the plantation
+negroes were often the first to get news of
+the battles. It is something that I have never
+heard satisfactorily explained.</p>
+
+<p>In the coffee-houses, besides smoking and
+gossiping, we also played games, either chess
+or backgammon or munkula. This last is an
+exceedingly primitive and ancient game&mdash;it
+must date almost as far back as jackstones or
+knucklebones. I have seen the natives in
+Central Africa and the Indians in the far
+interior of Brazil playing it in almost identical
+<a name='Page_74'></a>form. In Mesopotamia the board was a log
+of wood sliced in two and hinged together.
+In either half five or six holes were scooped out,
+and the game consisted in dropping cowrie
+shells or pebbles into the holes. When the
+number in a particular hollow came to a certain
+amount with the addition of the one
+dropped in, you won the contents.</p>
+
+<p>In most places the coffee was served in Arab
+fashion, not Turkish. In the latter case it is
+sweet and thick and the tiny cup is half full
+of grounds; in the former the coffee is clear and
+bitter and of unsurpassable flavor. The diminutive
+cup is filled several times, but each
+time there is only a mouthful poured in. Tea
+is served in small glasses, without milk, but with
+lots of sugar. The spoons in the glasses are
+pierced with holes like tea-strainers so that the
+tea may be stirred without spilling it.</p>
+
+<p>There was in particular one booth I could
+never tire watching. The old man who owned
+it was a vender of pickles. In rows before him
+were bottles and jars and bowls containing
+pickles of all colors&mdash;red, yellow, green, purple,
+white, and even blue. Above his head were
+festoons of gayly painted peppers. He had a
+long gray beard, wore a green turban and a
+<a name='Page_75'></a>flowing robe with a gold-braided waistcoat.
+In the half-lights of the crowded, covered bazaar
+his was a setting in which Dulac would
+have revelled.</p>
+
+<p>At Museyib we led a peaceful, uneventful
+existence&mdash;completely shut in by the mud.
+We had several bazaar rumors about proposed
+attacks upon the engineers who were surveying
+for a railroad that was to be built to Hilleh
+for the purpose of transporting the grain-crop
+to the capital. Nothing materialized, however.
+The conditions were too poor to induce even
+the easily encouraged Arabs to raid. One
+morning when I was wandering around the
+gardens on the outskirts of the town I came
+across some jackals and shot one with my
+Webley revolver. It was running and I fired
+a number of times, and got back to town to
+find that my shooting had started all sorts of
+excitement and reports of uprisings.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas came and the different officers'
+messes organized celebrations. The mess we
+had joined was largely Scotch, so we decided
+we must make a haggis, that &quot;chieftain of the
+pudden race.&quot; The ingredients, save for the
+whiskey, were scarcely orthodox, but if it was
+not a success, at least no one admitted it.</p><a name='Page_76'></a>
+
+<p>As soon as the weather cleared we made a
+run to Kerbela&mdash;a lovely town, with miles of
+gardens surrounding it and two great mosques.
+The bazaar was particularly attractive&mdash;plentifully
+supplied with everything. We got quantities
+of the deliciously flavored pistachio-nuts
+which were difficult to obtain elsewhere, as
+well as all sorts of fruit and vegetables. There
+were no troops stationed in the vicinity, so the
+prices were lower than usual. The orders were
+that we should go about in armed bands, but
+I never saw any marked indication of hostility.
+The British, true to the remarkable tact and
+tolerance that contributes so largely to their
+success in dealing with native races, posted Mohammedan
+sepoys as guards on the mosques,
+and no one but Moslems could even go into
+the courtyards. If this had not been done,
+there would have been many disturbances
+and uprisings, for the Arabs and Persians
+felt so strongly on the question that they regarded
+with marked hostility those who even
+gazed into the mosque courtyards. Why it is
+so different in Constantinople I do not know,
+but there was certainly no hostility shown us
+in Santa Sophia nor in the mosque of Omar in
+Jerusalem. Be that as it may, forbidden fruit
+<a name='Page_77'></a>is always sweet, and the Tommies were inclined
+to force an entrance. During a change of
+guard a Tommy who had his curiosity and
+initiative stimulated through recourse to arrick,
+the fiery liquor distilled from dates, stole into
+the most holy mosque in Kerbela. By a
+miracle he was got out unharmed, but for a
+few hours a general uprising with an attendant
+massacre of unbelievers was feared.</p>
+
+<p>The great mosque lost much of its dignity
+through an atrocious clock-tower standing in
+the courtyard in front of it. It had evidently
+been found too expensive to cover this tower
+with a golden scale to shine in the sun, so some
+ingenious architect hit upon the plan of papering
+it with flattened kerosene-tins. It must
+have glinted gloriously at first, but weather and
+rain had rusted the cans and they presented but
+a sorry spectacle. From the thousand and one
+uses to which these oil-cans have been put by
+the native, one is inclined to think that the
+greatest benefit that has been conferred on the
+natives by modern civilization is from the hands
+of the Standard Oil Company.</p>
+
+<p>There were a fair number of Indians living in
+Kerbela before the war, for devout Shiahs are
+anxious to be buried near the martyred sons of<a name='Page_78'></a>
+Ali, and when they are unable to move to Kerbela
+in their lifetime they frequently make
+provisions that their remains may be transported
+thither. The British found it a convenient
+abode for native rulers whom they
+were forced to depose but still continued to
+pension.</p>
+
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/9.jpg"><img src="./images/9_th.jpg"
+alt="The Lion of Babylon"></a></p><p class="ctr">The Lion of Babylon</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/10.jpg"><img src="./images/10_th.jpg"
+alt="A dragon on the palace wall"></a></p><p class="ctr">A dragon on the palace wall</p>
+
+<p>Hilleh, which stands near the ruins of ancient
+Babylon, is a modern town very much like
+Museyib. I never had a chance to study the
+ruins at any length. Several times we went
+over the part that had been excavated by the
+Germans immediately before the war. I understand
+that this is believed to be the great palace
+where Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the
+wall. It is built of bricks, each one of which
+is stamped in cuneiform characters. There are
+very fine bas-reliefs of animals, both mythical
+and real. In the centre is the great stone lion,
+massively impressive, standing over the prostrate
+form of a man. The lion has suffered
+from fire and man; there have even been
+chips made in it recently by Arab rifles, probably
+not wantonly, but in some skirmish.
+Standing alone in its majesty in the midst of
+ruin and desolation amid the black tents of
+a people totally unable to construct or even
+<a name='Page_79'></a>appreciate anything of a like nature, it gave
+one much to think over and moralize about.
+The ruins of Babylon have been excavated
+only in very small part; there are great isolated
+mounds which have never been touched,
+and you can still pick up in the sand bits of
+statuary, and the cylinders that were used as
+seal-rings. The great city of Seleucia on the
+Tigris was built largely with bricks and masonry
+brought by barge from the ruins of Babylon
+through the canal that joined the two rivers.</p>
+
+<p>The prophecy of Isaiah has fallen true:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of
+the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew
+Sodom and Gomorrah.</p>
+
+<p>It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt
+in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian
+pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make
+their fold there.</p>
+
+<p>But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their
+houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall
+dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.</p>
+
+<p>And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their
+desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces:
+and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be
+prolonged.</p></div>
+
+<p>A few days after Christmas, we were ordered
+to return to Baghdad. The going was still
+<a name='Page_80'></a>bad. We had a Ford tender in advance to
+find and warn us of the softest spots. Once
+it got into the middle of such a bottomless bog
+that, after trying everything else, I hit upon the
+idea of rolling it out. It was built all enclosed
+like a bread-van, and we turned it over and
+over until we had it clear of the mud. We
+had hard work with the heavy cars&mdash;sometimes
+we could tow one out with another,
+but frequently that only resulted in getting the
+two stuck. Once when the cars were badly
+bogged I went to a near-by Arab village to get
+help. I told the head man that I wanted bundles
+of brush to throw in front of the cars in
+order to make some sort of a foundation to
+pass them over. He at once started turning
+out his people to aid us, but after he had got
+a number of loads under way he caught sight of
+one of his wives, who, instead of coming to
+our assistance, was washing some clothes in a
+copper caldron by the fire. There followed a
+scene which demonstrated that even an Arab
+is by no means always lord of his own household.
+The wife refused to budge; the Arab
+railed and stormed, but she went calmly on
+with her washing, paying no more attention to
+his fury than if he were a fractious, unreasona<a name='Page_81'></a>ble
+child. At length, driven to a white heat of
+rage, the head man upset the caldron into the
+fire with his foot. The woman, without a word,
+got up and stalked into a near-by hut, from
+which she refused to emerge. There was nothing
+for her discomfited adversary to do but go
+on with his rounds.</p>
+
+<p>By man&oelig;uvring and digging and towing we
+managed to make seven miles after fourteen
+hours' work that first day. Night found us
+close beside an Arab village, from which I got
+a great bowl of buffalo milk to put into the
+men's coffee. Early in the morning we were
+off again. The going was so much better that
+we were able to make Baghdad at ten o'clock
+in the evening.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='IV'></a><h2><a name='Page_82'></a><a name='Page_83'></a><a name='Page_84'></a><a name='Page_85'></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h3>SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>We spent a few days making repairs and
+outfitting before starting off again. This time
+our destination was Deli Abbas, the headquarters
+of the Thirteenth Division. The
+town is situated in the plains below the foot-hills
+of the Persian Mountains, on the banks
+of the Khalis Canal, some seventy miles north-east
+of Baghdad. At dawn we passed out of
+the north gate, close to where General Maude
+is buried, and whirled across the desert for
+thirty miles to Bakuba, a prosperous city on
+the banks of the Diyala. From the junction
+of the greater Zab down to Kurna, where the
+Euphrates joins, this stream is the most important
+affluent of the Tigris. It was one of
+those bright, sparkling mornings on which
+merely to be alive and breathe is a joy. We
+passed a number of caravans, bringing carpets
+and rugs from Persia, or fruit and vegetables
+from the rich agricultural district around<a name='Page_86'></a>
+Bakuba. The silks manufactured here are of
+a fine quality and well known throughout the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>After passing the big aerodrome near the
+town, the going became very bad; we struggled
+along through the village of Deltawa, in and
+out of unfathomable ditches. The rivers were
+in flood, and we ran into lakes and swamps
+that we cautiously skirted. Dark overtook
+us in the middle of a network of bogs, but we
+came upon an outpost of Welsh Fusiliers and
+spent the night with them. We had smashed
+the bottom plate of one of the cars, so that all
+the oil ran out of the crank-case, but with a
+side of the ever-useful kerosene tin we patched
+the car up temporarily and pushed off at early
+dawn. Our route wound through groves of
+palms surrounding the tumble-down tomb of
+some holy man, occasional collections of squalid
+little huts, and in the intervening &quot;despoblado&quot;
+we would catch sight of a jackal crouching in
+the hollow or slinking off through the scrub.
+Deli Abbas proved a half-deserted straggling
+town which gave evidence of having once seen
+prosperous days. Some Turkish aeroplanes
+heralded our arrival.</p>
+
+<p>In front of us rose the Jebel Hamrin&mdash;Red<a name='Page_87'></a>
+Hills&mdash;beyond them the snow-clad peaks of
+the Kurdish Range. A few months previous
+we had captured the passes over the Jebel, and
+we were now busy repairing and improving
+the roads&mdash;in particular that across the Abu
+Hajjar, not for nothing named by the Arabs
+the &quot;Father of Stones.&quot; Whenever the going
+permitted we went out on reconnaissances&mdash;rekkos,
+as we called them. They varied but
+slightly; the one I went on the day after
+reaching Deli Abbas might serve as model.
+We started at daybreak and ran to a little
+village called Ain Lailah, the Spring of Night,
+a lovely name for the small clump of palm-trees
+tucked away unexpectedly in a hollow
+among barren foot-hills. There we picked up
+a surveyor&mdash;an officer whose business it was to
+make maps for the army. We passed through
+great herds of camels, some with small children
+perched on their backs, who joggled about
+like sailors on a storm-tossed ship, as the
+camels made away from the cars. There were
+villages of the shapeless black tents of the
+nomads huddled in among the desolate dunes.
+We picked up a Turk deserter who was trying
+to reach our lines. He said that his six
+comrades had been killed by Arabs. Shortly
+<a name='Page_88'></a>afterward we ran into a cavalry patrol, but
+the men escaped over some very broken ground
+before we could satisfactorily come to terms
+with them. It was lucky for the deserter that
+we found him before they did, for his shrift
+would have been short. We got back to camp
+at half past eight, having covered ninety-two
+miles in our windings&mdash;a good day's work.</p>
+
+<p>Each section had two motorcycles attached to
+it&mdash;jackals, as one of the generals called them,
+in apt reference to the way in which jackals accompany
+a lion when hunting. The cyclists
+rode ahead to spy out the country and the best
+course to follow. When we got into action they
+would drop behind, and we used them to send
+messages back to camp. The best motorcyclist
+we had was a Swiss named Milson. He
+was of part English descent, and came at once
+from Switzerland at the outbreak of the war to
+enlist. When he joined he spoke only broken
+English but was an exceedingly intelligent
+man and had been attending a technical college.
+I have never seen a more skilful rider;
+he could get his cycle along through the mud
+when we were forced to carry the others, and
+no one was more cool and unconcerned under
+fire. The personnel of the battery left nothing
+<a name='Page_89'></a>to be desired. One was proud to serve among
+such a fine set of men. Corporal Summers
+drove the car in which I usually rode, and
+I have never met with a better driver or one
+who understood his car so thoroughly, and
+possessed that intangible sympathy with it
+which is the gift of a few, but can be never
+attained.</p>
+
+<p>We were still in the rainy season. We had
+to travel as light as possible, and all we could
+bring were forty-pounder tents, which correspond
+to the American dog-tent. Very low,
+they withstood in remarkable fashion the
+periodical hurricanes of wind and rain. They
+kept us fairly dry, too, for we were careful to
+ditch them well. There was room for two men
+to sleep in the turret of a Rolls, and they
+could spread a tarpaulin over the top to keep
+the rain from coming in through the various
+openings. The balance of the men had a communal
+tent or slept in the tenders. The
+larger tents in the near-by camps blew down
+frequently, but with us it happened only occasionally.
+There are happier moments than
+those spent in the inky blackness amid a torrential
+deluge, when you try to extricate yourself
+from the wet, clinging folds of falling canvas.</p><a name='Page_90'></a>
+
+<p>Time hung heavily when the weather was
+bad, and we were cooped up inside our tents
+without even a hostile aeroplane to shoot at.
+One day when the going was too poor to take
+out the heavy cars, I set off in a tender to
+visit another section of the battery that was
+stationed thirty or forty miles away in the
+direction of Persia, close by a town called Kizil
+Robat. We had a rough trip, with several
+difficult fords to cross. It was only through
+working with the icy water above our waists
+that we won through the worst, amid the
+shouts of &quot;Shabash, Sahib!&quot; (&quot;Well done!&quot;)
+from the onlooking Indian troops. I reached
+the camp to find the section absent on a reconnaissance,
+for the country was better drained
+than that over which we were working. A few
+minutes later one of the cyclists came in with
+the news that the cars were under heavy fire
+about twenty-five miles away and one of them
+was badly bogged. I immediately loaded all
+the surplus men and eight Punjabis from a
+near-by regiment into the tenders. We reached
+the scene just after the disabled car had been
+abandoned. Some of the Turks were concealed
+in a village two hundred and fifty yards
+away; the rest were behind some high irriga<a name='Page_91'></a>tion
+embankments. The free car had been
+unable to circle around or flank them because
+of the nature of the terrain. The men had not
+known that the village was occupied and had
+bogged down almost at the same time that the
+Turks opened fire. By breaking down an irrigation
+ditch the enemy succeeded in further
+flooding the locality where the automobile was
+trapped. The Turks made it hot for the men
+when they tried to dig out the car. The bullets
+spattered about them. It was difficult to tell
+how many Turks we accounted for. As dark
+came on, the occupants of the disabled car
+abandoned it and joined the other one, which
+was standing off the enemy but had lost all four
+tires and was running on its rims. We held a
+consultation and decided to stay where we were
+until dawn. We had scarcely made the decision
+when one of our cyclists arrived with orders
+from the brigade commander to return immediately.
+Although exceedingly loath to leave
+the armored car, we had no other course than
+to obey.</p>
+
+<p>It was after midnight by the time we made
+back to camp. We were told that a small
+attack had been planned for the morning, and
+that then we could go out with the troops and
+<a name='Page_92'></a>recover our car, using some artillery horses
+to drag it free. The troops soon began filing
+past, but we didn't pull out till three o'clock,
+by which time we were reinforced by an armored
+car from another battery. We were held back
+behind the advanced cavalry until daylight,
+and felt certain that the Turks would have
+either destroyed or succeeded in removing our
+car. Nor were we wrong, for just as we breasted
+the hill that brought the scene of yesterday's
+engagement into view, we saw the smoke of an
+explosion and the men running back into the
+village. We cleared the village with the help
+of a squadron of the Twenty-First cavalry,
+and found that the car had been almost freed
+during the night. It was a bad wreck, but we
+were able to tow it. I wished to have a reckoning
+with the village head man, and walked to
+an isolated group of houses a few hundred yards
+to the left of the village. As I neared them a
+lively fusillade opened and I had to take
+refuge in a convenient irrigation ditch. The
+country was so broken that it was impossible
+for us to operate, so we towed the car back to
+camp.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/11.jpg"><img src="./images/11_th.jpg"
+alt="Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car"></a></p><p class="ctr">Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/12.jpg"><img src="./images/12_th.jpg"
+alt="A Mesopotamian garage"></a></p><p class="ctr">A Mesopotamian garage</p>
+
+<p>Our section from Deli Abbas was moved up
+to take the place of the one that had been en<a name='Page_93'></a>gaged,
+which now returned to Baghdad. We
+were camped at Mirjana, a few miles north
+of Kizil Robat, on the Diyala River. A pontoon
+bridge was thrown across and the cars
+were taken over to the right bank, where we
+bivouacked with a machine-gun company and a
+battalion of native infantry. The bed of the
+river was very wide, and although throughout
+the greater part of the year the water flowed
+only through the narrow main channel, in the
+time of the spring floods the whole distance
+was a riotous yellow torrent. We had no sooner
+got the cars across than the river began to rise.
+During the first night part of the bridge was
+carried away, and the rest was withdrawn.
+The rise continued; trees and brush were swept
+racing past. We made several fruitless attempts
+to get across in the clumsy pontoons,
+but finally gave it up, resigning ourselves to
+being marooned. We put ourselves on short
+rations and waited for the river to fall. If
+the Turks had used any intelligence they could
+have gathered us in with the greatest ease, in
+spite of our excellent line of trenches. On the
+fourth day of our isolation the river subsided as
+rapidly as it had risen.</p>
+
+<p>We had good patrolling conditions, and each
+<a name='Page_94'></a>day we made long circuits. Sometimes we
+would run into a body of enemy cavalry and
+have a skirmish with them. Again we would
+come upon an infantry outpost and man&oelig;uvre
+about in an effort to damage it. The enemy
+set traps for us, digging big holes in the road
+and covering them over with matting on which
+they scattered dirt to make the surface appear
+normal. The nearest town occupied by the
+Turks was Kara Tepe, distant from Mirjana
+eight or ten miles as the crow flies. In the debatable
+land were a number of native villages,
+and such inhabitants as remained in them led
+an unpleasantly eventful existence. In the
+morning they would be visited by a Turkish
+patrol, which would be displaced by us in our
+rounds. Perhaps in the evening a band of
+wild mountainy Kurds would blow in and run
+off some of their few remaining sheep. Then
+the Turks would return and accuse them of having
+given us information, and carry off some
+hostages or possibly beat a couple of them for
+having received us, although goodness knows
+they had little enough choice in the matter.
+There was one old sheik with whom I used
+often to sit and gossip while an attendant was
+roasting the berries for our coffee over the near-<a name='Page_95'></a>by
+fire. He was ever asking why we couldn't
+make an advance and put his village safely behind
+our lines, so that the children could grow
+fat and the herds graze unharmed. In this
+country Kurdish and Turkish were spoken as
+frequently as Arabic, and many of the names of
+places were Turkish&mdash;such as Kara Tepe,
+which means Black Mountain, and Kizil Robat,
+the Tomb of the Maidens. My spelling of
+these names differs from that found on many
+maps. It would be a great convenience if some
+common method could be agreed upon. At
+present the map-makers conform only in a
+unanimous desire to each use a different transliteration.</p>
+
+<p>Kizil Robat is an attractive town. I spent
+some pleasant mornings wandering about it
+with the mayor, Jameel Bey, a fine-looking
+Kurdish chieftain of the Jaf tribe. He owned
+a lovely garden with date-palms, oranges,
+pomegranates, and figs. Tattered Kurds were
+working on the irrigation ditches, and a heap of
+rags lying below the wall in the sun changed
+itself into a small boy, just as I was about to
+step on it. Jameel's son was as white, with
+as rosy cheeks, as any American baby.</p>
+
+<p>Harry Bowen, brother-in-law of General<a name='Page_96'></a>
+Cobbe, was the political officer in charge of
+Kizil Robat. He spoke excellent Arabic and
+was much respected by the natives. His
+house was an oasis in which I could always look
+forward to a pleasant talk, an excellent native
+dinner, and some interesting book to carry off.
+Although the town was small, there were three
+good Turkish baths. One of them belonged to
+Jameel Bey, but, judging from the children
+tending babies while squatting in the entrance
+portico, was generally given over to the distaff
+side and its friends. The one which we patronized,
+while not so grand a building, had an
+old Persian who understood the art of massage
+thoroughly, and there was nothing more restful
+after a number of days' hard work with
+the cars.</p>
+
+<p>In the end of February there passed through
+Kizil Robat the last contingent of our former
+Russian Allies. They were Cossacks&mdash;a fine-looking
+lot as they rode along perched on their
+small chunky saddles atop of their unkempt but
+hardy ponies. When Russia went out of the
+war they asked permission to keep on fighting
+with us. They were a good deal of a problem,
+for they had no idea whatever of discipline,
+and it was most difficult to keep them in hand
+<a name='Page_97'></a>and stop them from pillaging the natives indiscriminately.
+They had been completely
+cut off from Russia for a long time but were
+now on their way back. A very intelligent
+woman doctor and a number of nurses who had
+been with them were sick with smallpox in one
+of our hospitals in Baghdad. When they recovered
+they were sent to India, for it was not
+feasible to repatriate them by way of Persia.
+When the Russians first established connection
+with us, some armored cars were sent to bring in
+the Cossack general, whose name we were told
+was Leslie. We were unprepared to find that
+he spoke no English! It turned out that his
+ancestors had gone over from Scotland to the
+court of Peter the Great.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='V'></a><h2><a name='Page_98'></a><a name='Page_99'></a><a name='Page_100'></a><a name='Page_101'></a>V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Early in March we got orders to return to
+Baghdad, where all the armored cars were to
+be concentrated preparatory to an attack on
+the Euphrates front. There was much speculation
+as to our mission. Some said that we
+were to break through and establish connection
+with General Allenby's forces in Palestine.
+While I know nothing about it authoritatively,
+it is certain that if the state of affairs in France
+had not called for the withdrawal from the East
+of all the troops that could be spared, the attack
+that was launched in October would have
+taken place in March. We could then have
+advanced up the Euphrates, and it would have
+been entirely practical to cross over the desert
+in the cars by way of Tadmor.</p>
+
+<p>When we got word to come in, the roads were
+in fearful shape and the rain was falling in torrents,
+but we were so afraid that we might miss
+the attack that we salvaged everything not
+essential and started to fight our way through
+<a name='Page_102'></a>the mud. It was a slow and wearisome process,
+but we managed to get as far as Bakuba
+by evening. The river was rising in one of its
+periodical floods and we found that the pontoon
+bridge had been cut half an hour before our
+arrival. No one could predict how long the
+flood would last, but the river rarely went down
+sufficiently to allow the bridge to be replaced
+within a week. At that time the railroad went
+only as far as Bakuba, and crossed the river
+on a wooden trestle, so I decided to try to load
+the motors on a flat car and get across the
+Diyala in that way.</p>
+
+<p>After having made arrangements to do this
+I wandered off into the bazaar to get something
+to eat. In native fashion I first bought
+a big flap of bread from an old woman, and then
+went to a pickle booth to get some beets, which
+I wrapped in my bread. Next I proceeded to
+a meat-shop and ordered some lamb kababs
+roasted. The meat is cut in pellets, spitted
+on rods six or eight inches long, and lain over
+the glowing charcoal embers. In the shop
+there are long tables with benches beside them.
+The customer spreads his former purchases,
+and when his kababs are ready he eats his
+dinner. He next proceeds to a coffee-house,
+<a name='Page_103'></a>where he has a couple of glasses of tea and
+three or four diminutive cups of coffee to top
+off, and the meal is finished. The Arab eats
+sparingly as a rule, but when he gives or attends
+a banquet he stuffs himself to his utmost
+capacity.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we loaded our cars successfully
+and started off by rail for Baghdad, some thirty
+miles away. The railroad wound across the
+desert, with here and there a water-tank with
+a company from a native regiment guarding
+it. As we stopped at one particularly desolate
+spot, a young officer came running up and asked
+if we would have tea with him. He took us
+to his tent, where everything was ready, for
+he apparently always met the two trains that
+passed through daily. Poor fellow, he was only
+a little over twenty, and desperately lonely and
+homesick. Many of the young officers who
+were wounded in France were sent to India
+with the idea that they could be training men
+and getting on to the methods of the Indian
+army while yet recuperating and unfit to go
+back to the front. They were shipped out with
+a new draft when they had fully recovered.
+This boy had only been a month in the country,
+and ten days before had been sent off in
+<a name='Page_104'></a>charge of his Sikh company to do this wearisome
+guard duty.</p>
+
+<p>We spent a few days in Baghdad refitting.
+The cars were to go out camouflaged to resemble
+supply-trucks, for every precaution was
+taken to prevent the Turks from realizing that
+we were massing men for an attack. The
+night before we were to start, word came in
+that the political officer at Nejef had been
+murdered, and the town was in revolt. We
+were ordered to send a section there immediately,
+so Lieutenant Ballingal's was chosen,
+while the rest of us left next morning with the
+balance of the battery for Hit. The first part
+of the route lay across the desert to Falujah, a
+prosperous agricultural town on the Euphrates.
+Rail-head lies just beyond at a place known as
+Tel El Dhubban&mdash;the &quot;Hill of the Flies.&quot;
+From there on supplies were brought forward
+by motor transport, or in Arab barges, called
+shakturs. We crossed the river on a bridge
+of boats and continued up along the bank to
+Ramadie. Here I stayed over, detailed to
+escort the army commander on a tour of inspection.</p>
+
+<p>The smaller towns along the Euphrates are
+far more attractive than those on the Tigris.<a name='Page_105'></a>
+The country seems more developed, and most
+inviting gardens surround the villages. Hit,
+which lies twenty miles up-stream of Ramadie,
+is an exception. It is of ancient origin and
+built upon a hill, with a lovely view of the river.
+It has not a vestige of green on it, but stands
+out bleak and harsh in contrast to the palm-groves
+fringing the bank. The bitumen wells
+near by have been worked for five thousand
+years and are responsible for the town being a
+centre of boat manufacture. With the bitumen,
+the gufas and mahelas are &quot;pitched without
+and within,&quot; in the identical manner in
+which we are told that the ark was built. The
+jars in which the women of the town draw water
+from the river, instead of being of copper or
+earthenware as elsewhere, are here made of
+pitched wicker-work. The smell of the boiling
+bitumen and the sulphur springs is trying to
+a stranger, although the natives regard it as
+salubrious, and maintain that through it the
+town is saved from cholera epidemics. We
+had captured Hit a few weeks previously, and
+the aeroplanes flying low over the town had
+reported the disagreeable smell, attributing it
+to dirt and filth. &quot;Eyewitness,&quot; the official
+newspaper correspondent, mentioned this in
+<a name='Page_106'></a>despatches, and when I was passing through, a
+proclamation of apology was being prepared
+to soothe the outraged and slandered townsfolk.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/13.jpg"><img src="./images/13_th.jpg"
+alt="A water-wheel on the Euphrates"></a></p><p class="ctr">A water-wheel on the Euphrates</p>
+
+<p>After taking the army commander back to
+rail-head, we retraced our steps with all speed
+to Hit, and thence the eight miles up-stream
+to Salahiyeh. The road beyond Hit was in
+fearful shape, and the engineers were working
+night and day to keep it open and in some way
+passable. In the proposed attack we were
+to jump off from Salahiyeh, and it was here
+that the armored cars were assembled. Our
+camp was close to a Turkish hospital. There
+were two great crescents and stars laid out for
+a signal to warn our aeroplanes not to drop
+bombs. One of the crescents was made of turf
+and the other of limestone. The batteries
+took turns in making the reconnaissances,
+in the course of which they would come in for
+a good deal of shelling. The road was unpleasant,
+because the camels and transport
+animals that had been killed during the
+Turkish retreat from Hit were by now very
+high. For some unknown reason there were
+no jackals or vultures to form a sanitary section.
+After reconnoitring the enemy positions
+and noting the progress they were making in
+<a name='Page_107'></a>constructing their defenses, we would make a
+long circuit back to camp.</p>
+
+<p>One unoccupied morning I went over to an
+island on the river. Its cool, restful look had
+attracted me on the day I arrived, and it quite
+fulfilled its promise. Indeed, it was the only
+place I came across in Mesopotamia that
+might have been a surviving fragment of the
+Garden of Eden. It was nearly a mile long,
+and scattered about on it were seven or eight
+thick-walled and well-fortified houses. The
+entire island was one great palm-grove, with
+pomegranates, apricots, figs, orange-trees, and
+grape-vines growing beneath the palms. The
+grass at the foot of the trees was dotted with
+blue and pink flowers. Here and there were
+fields of spring wheat. The water-ditches
+which irrigated the island were filled by giant
+water-wheels, thirty to fifty feet in diameter.
+These &quot;naurs&quot; have been well described in the
+Bible, and I doubt if they have since been modified
+in a single item. There are sometimes as
+many as sixteen in a row. As they scoop the
+water up in the gourd-shaped earthenware jars
+bound to their rims, they shriek and groan
+on their giant wooden axles.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of March 25 we got word
+<a name='Page_108'></a>that the long-expected attack would take
+place next morning. We had the cars ready
+to move out by three. Since midnight shadowy
+files had been passing on their way forward
+to get into position. One of our batteries
+went with the infantry to advance against
+the main fortified position at Khan Baghdadi.
+The rest of us went with the cavalry around the
+flank to cut the Turks off if they tried to retreat
+up-stream. We were well on our way at
+daybreak. The country was so broken up
+with ravines and dry river-beds that we knew
+we had a long, hard march ahead of us. Our
+maps were poor. A German officer that we
+captured had in some manner got hold of our
+latest map, and noting that we had omitted
+entirely a very large ravine, became convinced
+that any enveloping movement we attempted
+would prove a failure. As it happened, we
+came close to making the blunder he had anticipated,
+for we started to advance down to the
+river along the bank of a nullah which would
+have taken us to Khan Baghdadi instead of
+eight or ten miles above it, as we wished. I
+think it was our aeroplanes that set us straight.
+I was in charge of the tenders with supplies
+and spares, and spent most of the time in the
+<a name='Page_109'></a>leading Napier lorry. Occasionally I slipped
+into an armored car to go off somewhere on a
+separate mission. The Turks had doubtless
+anticipated a flanking movement and kept
+shelling us to a certain extent, but we could hear
+that they were occupying themselves chiefly
+with the straight attacking force. By afternoon
+we had turned in toward the river and
+our cavalry was soon engaged. The country
+was too broken for the cars to get in any really
+effective work. By nightfall we hoped we
+were approximately where we should be, and
+after making our dispositions as well as the
+circumstances would permit, we lay down
+beside the cars and were soon sound asleep.
+At midnight we were awakened by the bullets
+chipping the rocks and stones among which we
+were sleeping. A night attack was evidently
+under way, and it is always an eerie sensation.
+We correctly surmised that the Turks were in
+retreat from Khan Baghdadi and had run into
+our outposts. In a few minutes we were replying
+in volume, and the rat-tat-tats of the
+machine-guns on either side were continuous.
+The enemy must have greatly overestimated
+our numbers, for in a short time small groups
+started surrendering, and before things had
+<a name='Page_110'></a>quieted we had twelve hundred prisoners.
+The cavalry formed a rough prison-camp and
+we turned in again to wait for daylight.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn we started to reconnoitre our position
+to find out just how matters stood. We
+came upon a body of two thousand of the
+enemy which had been held up by us in the
+night and had retreated a short distance to
+wait till it became light before surrendering.
+Among them were a number of German officers.
+They were all of them well equipped with
+machine-guns and rifles. Their intrenching
+tools and medical supplies were of Austrian
+manufacture, as were also the rolling kitchens.
+These last were of an exceedingly practical
+design. While we were taking stock of our
+capture we got word that Khan Baghdadi had
+been occupied and a good number of prisoners
+taken. We were instructed to press on and
+take Haditha, thirty miles above Khan Baghdadi.
+It was hoped that we might recapture
+Colonel Tennant, who was in command of the
+Royal Flying Corps forces in Mesopotamia.
+He had been shot down at Khan Baghdadi
+the day before the attack. We learned from
+prisoners that he had been sent up-stream
+immediately, on his way to Aleppo, but it
+<a name='Page_111'></a>was thought that he might have been held
+over at Haditha or at Ana.</p>
+
+<p>We found that a lot of the enemy had got
+by between us and the river and had then
+swung back into the road. We met with little
+opposition, save from occasional bands of stragglers
+who concealed themselves behind rocks
+and sniped at us. Numbers surrendered without
+resistance as we caught up with them. We
+disarmed them and ordered them to walk back
+until they fell in with our cavalry, or the infantry,
+which was being brought forward in
+trucks. As we bowled along in pursuit the
+scene reminded me of descriptions in the novels
+of Sienkiewicz or Erckmann-Chatrian. The
+road was littered with equipment of every
+sort, disabled pack-animals, and dead or dying
+Turks. It was hard to see the wounded withering
+in the increasing heat&mdash;the dead were better
+off. We reached the heights overlooking Haditha
+to find that the garrison was in full retreat.
+Most of it had left the night before. Those
+remaining opened fire upon us, but in a half-hearted
+way, that was not calculated to inflict
+much loss. Many of the inhabitants of
+the town lived in burrows in the hillsides.
+Some of these caves had been filled with am<a name='Page_112'></a>munition.
+The enemy had fired all their
+dumps, and rocks were flying about. We endeavored
+to save as much of the material as
+was possible. We were particularly anxious to
+get all papers dealing with the Arabs, to enable
+us to check up which were our friends and which
+of the ones behind our lines were dealing treacherously
+with us. We recaptured a lot of medical
+equipment and some ammunition that
+had been taken from our forces during the
+Gallipoli campaign.</p>
+
+<p>Haditha is thirty-five miles from Khan Baghdadi,
+and Ana is an equal distance beyond.
+It was decided that we should push on to a
+big bridge shown on the map as eight miles
+this side of Ana. We were to endeavor to
+secure this before the Turks could destroy it,
+and cross over to bivouac on the far side. The
+road was in fair shape. Many of the small
+bridges were of recent construction. We soon
+found that our map was exceedingly inaccurate.
+Our aeroplanes were doing a lot of damage to
+the fleeing Turks, and as we began to catch up
+with larger groups we had some sharp engagements.
+The desert Arabs hovered like vultures
+in the distance waiting for nightfall to cover
+them in their looting.</p><a name='Page_113'></a>
+
+<p>That night we camped near the bridge. At
+dusk the Red Cross ambulances and some
+cavalry caught up. The latter had had a long,
+hard two days, with little to eat for the men
+and less for the horses, but both were standing
+up wonderfully. They were the Seventh Hussars
+and just as they reached us we recaptured
+one of their sergeants who had been made
+prisoner on the previous night. He had covered
+forty miles on foot, but the Turks had
+treated him decently and he had come through
+in good shape. We always felt that the Turk
+was a clean fighter. Our officers he treated
+well as long as he had anything to give or share
+with them. With the enlisted men he was not
+so considerate, but I am inclined to think that
+it was because he was not accustomed to bother
+his head much about his own rank and file, so
+it never occurred to him to consider ours.
+The Turkish private would thrive on what was
+starvation issue to our men. The attitude of
+many of the Turkish officers was amusing, if exasperating.
+They seemed to take it for granted
+that they would be treated with every consideration
+due an honored guest. They would
+complain bitterly about not being supplied
+with coffee, although at the time we might be
+<a name='Page_114'></a>totally without it ourselves and far from any
+source of supply. The German prisoners were
+apt to cringe at first, but as soon as they found
+they were not to be oppressed became arrogant
+and overbearing. At different times we retook
+men that had been captives for varying
+lengths of time. I remember a Tommy, from
+the Manchesters, if I am not mistaken, who
+had been taken before Kut fell, but had soon
+after made his escape and lived among the
+Kurdish tribesmen for seven or eight months
+before he found his way back to us. Quite a
+number of Indians who had been set to work
+on the construction of the Berlin-to-Baghdad
+Railway between Nisibin and Mosul made
+good their escape and struggled through to
+our lines.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great relief when the Red Cross
+lorries came in and we could turn over the
+wounded to them. All night long they journeyed
+back and forth transporting such as
+could stand the trip to the main evacuation
+camp at Haditha.</p>
+
+<p>By daybreak we were once more under way.
+Under cover of darkness the Arabs had pillaged
+the abandoned supplies, in some cases killing
+the wounded Turks. The transport animals
+<a name='Page_115'></a>of the enemy and their cavalry horses were in
+very bad shape. They had evidently been
+hard put to it to bring through sufficient fodder
+during the wet winter months when the roads
+were so deep in mud as to be all but impassable.
+Instead of being distant from Ana the eight
+miles that we had measured on the map, we
+found that we were seventeen, but we made it
+without any serious hindrance. The town was
+most attractive, embowered in gardens which
+skirt the river's edge for a distance of four or
+five miles. In addition to the usual palms and
+fruit-trees there were great gnarled olives, the
+first I had seen in Mesopotamia, as were also
+the almond-trees. It must be of great antiquity,
+for the prophet Isaiah speaks of it as
+a place where kings had reigned, but from
+which, even in his time, the grandeur had departed.</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of the enemy had already
+abandoned the town, but we captured the Turkish
+governor and a good number of the garrison,
+and many that had escaped from Haditha.
+The disaster at Khan Baghdadi had only been
+reported the afternoon before, as we had of
+course cut all the telegraph wires, and the
+governor had not thought it possible we would
+<a name='Page_116'></a>continue the pursuit so far. He had spent
+most of his life in Hungary and had been given
+this post only a few months previous to our
+advance. From the prisoners we had taken at
+Haditha we had extracted conflicting estimates
+as to the time when Colonel Tennant, the
+commander of our air forces, had been sent on,
+and from those we took at Ana we received
+equally varying accounts. The cars had been
+ordered to push on in search of the colonel as
+long as sufficient gasolene remained to bring
+them back. Captain Todd with the Eighth
+Battery was in the lead when some thirty miles
+north of Ana they caught sight of a group of
+camels surrounded by horsemen. A couple of
+belts from the machine-guns scattered the
+escort, and Colonel Tennant and his companion,
+Major Hobart, were soon safe in the turret
+of one of the cars.</p>
+
+<p>From some of our Turkish captives we
+heard about a large gold convoy which had been
+sent back from Ana; some said one day, and
+others two, before our arrival. The supply of
+fuel that we had brought in the tenders was
+almost exhausted, so that it would be necessary
+to procure more in order to continue the pursuit.
+Major Thompson, who was in command
+<a name='Page_117'></a>of the armored-car detachment, instructed me
+to take all the tenders and go back as far as
+was necessary to find a petrol dump from which
+I could draw a thousand gallons. I emptied
+the trucks and loaded them with such of the
+wounded as could stand the jolting they were
+bound to receive because of the speed at which
+I must travel. I also took a few of the more
+important prisoners, among them the governor
+of Ana. He was a cultivated middle-aged
+man who spoke no Arabic but quite good
+French. It was mid-afternoon when we started,
+and I hadn't the most remote idea where I
+would find a sufficient quantity of petrol. During
+the run back we were sniped at occasionally
+by Turks who were still hiding in the hills. A
+small but determined force could have completely
+halted the cars in a number of different
+places where the road wound through narrow
+rock-crowned gorges, or along ledges cut in
+the hillside and hemmed in by the river. In
+such spots the advance of the armored cars
+could either have been completely checked, or
+at all events seriously hampered and delayed,
+merely by rolling great boulders down on top
+of us.</p>
+
+<p>When we had retraced our steps for about
+<a name='Page_118'></a>sixty miles I was lucky enough to get wind of
+an enemy petrol dump that our men had discovered.
+It was a special aeroplane supply
+and the colonel of the infantry regiment who
+was guarding it had been instructed to allow
+none of it to be used for automobiles. He
+showed his desire to co-operate and his ability
+to read the spirit rather than the letter of a
+command by letting me load my tenders. The
+L.A.M. batteries were well regarded and we
+everywhere encountered a willingness to meet
+us more than half-way and aid us in the thousand
+and one points that make so much difference
+in obtaining results.</p>
+
+<p>By the time that we had everything in readiness
+for our return run it was long after dark
+and the men were exhausted. I managed to
+get some tea, but naturally no sugar or milk.
+The strong steaming brew served to wash down
+the scanty supply of cold bully beef. Fortunately
+it was a brilliant starlit night, but even
+so it was difficult to avoid ditches and washouts,
+and the road seemed interminable. Not long
+after we left we ran into a couple of armored
+cars that had been detailed to bring the rescued
+aviators back, after they had been reoutfitted
+and supplied as far as our limited resources
+<a name='Page_119'></a>would permit. During the halt I found that
+my sergeant had produced from somewhere or
+other an emergency rum ration which he was
+issuing. An old-army, experienced sergeant
+always managed to hold over a reserve from
+former issues for just such occasions as this,
+when it would be of inestimable value. I had
+been driving all day and had the greatest difficulty
+in keeping awake. Twice I dozed off.
+Once I awakened just as the car started over
+the edge of an embankment; the other time
+a large rock in the road brought me back to
+the world. It was two o'clock in the morning
+when we wearily crept into Ana.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition to capture the gold convoy
+was to start at four, so after two hours' sleep
+I bundled into one of the Rolls-Royces and
+the column swung out into the road. Through
+the mist loomed the sinister, businesslike outlines
+of the armored car ahead of me. Captain
+Carr of the Thirteenth L.A.M.B.'s<a name='FNanchor_1_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_1'><sup>[1]</sup></a> was in
+command of the expedition. Unless we were
+in action or in a locality where we momentarily
+expected to be under fire from rifle or machine-gun,
+the officer commanding the car and his
+N.C.O. stood in the well behind the turret,
+<a name='Page_120'></a>steadying themselves with leather loops riveted
+to its sides. On long runs the tool-boxes on
+either side of the well formed convenient seats.
+When the car became engaged the crew would
+get inside, pulling the steel doors shut. The
+slits through which the driver and the man
+next him looked could be made still smaller
+when the firing was heavy, and the peep-holes
+at either side and in the rear had slides which
+could be closed. The largest aperture was that
+around the tube of the gun. Splinters of lead
+came in continuously, and sometimes chance
+directed a bullet to an opening. One of our
+drivers was shot straight through the head
+near Ramadie. The bottom of the car was of
+wood, and bullets would ricochet up through
+it, but to have had it made of steel would have
+added too much weight. The large gasolene-tank
+behind was usually protected by plating,
+but even so was fairly vulnerable. A reserve-tank
+holding ten gallons was built inside the
+turret. We almost invariably had trouble
+with the feed-pipes leading from it. During
+the great heat of the summer the inside of the
+turret was a veritable fiery furnace, with the
+pedals so hot that they scorched the feet.</p>
+
+<p>Forty miles above Ana we came upon a large
+khan. These road-houses are built at intervals
+<a name='Page_121'></a>along the main caravan routes. Their plan is
+simple: four walls with two tiers of rooms or
+booths built into them, enclosing an open court
+in which the camels and horses are tethered
+during the night. The whole is strongly made
+to resist the inroads of the desert tribesmen.
+As we drove to the heavy gate, a wild clamor
+met our ears from a confused jumble of Jewish
+and Armenian merchants that had taken refuge
+within. Some of them had left Ana on their
+way to Aleppo before the news of the fall of
+Khan Baghdadi had reached the town. Others
+had been despatched by the Turks when the
+news of our advance arrived. All had been to
+a greater or lesser degree plundered by the
+Arabs. Most of the baggage animals had been
+run off, and the merchants were powerless to
+move. The women were weeping and imploring
+help, and the children tumbled about among
+the confused heaps of merchandise. Some of
+the Armenians had relations in Baghdad about
+whom I was able to give them bits of information.
+All begged permission to go back to
+Ana and thence to the capital. We, of course,
+had no means of supplying them with transportation,
+and any attempt to recapture their
+lost property was out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>A few miles on we made out a troop of Arabs
+<a name='Page_122'></a>hurrying inland, a mile or so away from us,
+across a couple of ravines. They had some of
+the stolen camels and were laden down with
+plunder. Two of our cars made a fruitless attempt
+to come to terms with them, but only
+succeeded in placing a few well-aimed bursts
+from their machine-guns among them.</p>
+
+<p>We now began to come up with bands of
+Turks. We ran across a number of isolated
+stragglers who had been stripped by the Arabs.
+A few had been killed. They as a rule surrendered
+without any hesitation. We disarmed
+them and told them to walk back toward Ana.
+Several times we had short engagements with
+Turkish cavalry. As a general thing the ground
+was so very broken up that it was impossible
+to man&oelig;uvre. I was riding a good deal of
+the time in the Ford tender that we had brought
+along with a few supplies, and when one of the
+tires blew out I waited behind to replace it.
+The armored cars had quite a start and we
+raced along to catch them. In my hurry I
+failed to notice that they had left the road in
+pursuit of a troop of cavalry, so when we
+sighted a large square building of the sort the
+Turks use as barracks, I made sure that the
+cars had been there before me. We drove up
+<a name='Page_123'></a>to the door and I jumped out and shoved it
+open. In the yard were some infantry and a
+few cavalry. I had only my stick&mdash;my Webley
+revolver was still in its holster. There was
+nothing to do but put on a bold front, so I
+shouted in Arabic to the man I took to be the
+officer in command, telling him to surrender,
+and trying to act as if our forces were just outside.
+I think he must have been more surprised
+than I was, for he did so immediately,
+turning over the post to me. Eldridge, the
+Ford driver, had succeeded in disengaging the
+rifle that he had strapped in beside him, and
+we made the rounds under the escort of our
+captive.</p>
+
+<p>One wing of the post was used as a hospital,
+under the charge of an intelligent little Armenian.
+He seemed well informed about the war,
+and asked the question that was the universal
+wail of all the Armenians we encountered:
+&quot;When would Great Britain free their country,
+and would she make it an independent state?&quot;
+There was a definite limit to the number of
+prisoners we could manage to carry back, but
+I offered the doctor to include him. His answer
+was to go to his trunk and produce a
+picture of his wife and little daughter. They
+<a name='Page_124'></a>were, he told me, in Constantinople, and it was
+now two years since he had had leave, so that
+as his turn was due, he would wait on the
+chance of seeing his family.</p>
+
+<p>When the cars came up we set off again in
+pursuit of the elusive gold convoy. We could
+get no accurate information concerning it.
+Some said it was behind, others ahead. We
+never ran it down. It may well be that it
+was concealed in a ravine near the road a
+few yards from where we passed. Just short
+of a town called Abu Kemal we caught three
+Germans. They were in terror when we took
+them, and afterward said that they had expected
+to be shot. Under decent treatment
+they soon became so insolent that they had to
+be brought up short.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/14.jpg"><img src="./images/14_th.jpg"
+alt="A &quot;Red Crescent&quot; ambulance"></a></p><p class="ctr">A &quot;Red Crescent&quot; ambulance</p>
+
+<p>During the run back to Ana we picked up
+the more important of our prisoners and took
+them with us. Twenty-two were all we could
+manage. I was running one of the big cars.
+It was always a surprise to see how easy they
+were to handle in spite of the weight of the
+armor-plate. We each took great pride in
+the car in which we generally rode. All had
+names. In the Fourteenth one section had
+&quot;Silver Dart&quot; and &quot;Silver Ghost&quot; and another<a name='Page_125'></a>
+&quot;Gray Terror&quot; and &quot;Gray Knight.&quot; The car
+in which I rode a great deal of the time met its
+fate only a few days before the armistice,
+long after I had gone to France. Two direct
+hits from an Austrian &quot;eighty-eight&quot; ended its
+career.</p>
+
+<p>It was after midnight when we got back to
+our camp in a palm-garden in Ana. Although
+we had not succeeded in capturing the gold convoy,
+we had brought in a number of valuable
+prisoners, and among other things I had found
+some papers belonging to a German political
+agent whom we had captured. These contained
+much information about the Arab situation,
+and through them it was all but proved
+that the German was the direct instigator of
+the murder of the political officer at Nejef.
+An amusing sidelight was thrown in the letters
+addressed by Arab sheiks through this agent
+to the Kaiser thanking him for the iron crosses
+they had been awarded. There must have
+been an underlying grim humor in distributing
+crosses to the Mohammedan Arabs in recognition
+of their efforts to withstand the advance
+into the Holy Land of the Christian invaders.</p>
+
+<p>On our arrival at Ana we were told that
+orders had come through that the town be
+<a name='Page_126'></a>evacuated on the following morning. Preparations
+were made to blow up the ammunition
+dump, which was fortunately concentrated
+in a series of buildings that joined each other.
+We warned the inhabitants and advised them
+to hide in the caves along the hillsides. We
+ourselves went back to the camp which we
+had occupied near the bridge the night before
+entering Ana. During the afternoon Major
+Edye, a political officer, turned up, travelling
+alone with an Arab attendant. He pitched his
+camp, consisting of a saddle and blanket, close
+beside us. He was an extraordinarily interesting
+man, with a great gift for languages. In the
+course of a year or so's wandering in Abyssinia
+he had learned both ancient and modern Abyssinian.
+There was a famous German Orientalist
+with whom he corresponded in the pre-war days.
+He had mailed him a letter just at the outbreak,
+which, written in ancient Abyssinian,
+must have been a good deal of a puzzle to the
+censors.</p>
+
+<p>The main explosion, taking place at the appointed
+time, was succeeded by smaller ones,
+which continued at gradually lengthening intervals
+throughout the night. General Cassels,
+who had commanded the cavalry brigade so
+<a name='Page_127'></a>ably throughout the advance, wished to return
+to Ana on the following morning in order to
+check up the thoroughness with which the
+dump had been destroyed. He took an escort
+of armored cars, and as I was the only one in
+the batteries who could speak Arabic, my services
+were requisitioned. As we approached
+the town the rattle of the small-arms ammunition
+sounded like a Fourth of July celebration.
+The general noticed that I had a kodak and
+asked me to go out into the dump and take
+some photographs. There was nothing to do
+but put on a bold front, but I have spent happier
+moments than those in which I edged my
+way gingerly over the smoking heaps to a
+ruined wall from which I could get a good view
+for my camera. As I came back a large shell
+exploded and we hastily moved the cars farther
+away.</p>
+
+<p>I went to the mayor's house to find out how
+the town had fared. He was a solemn old
+Arab, and showed me the damage done by the
+shells with an absolutely expressionless face.
+The houses within a fair radius had been riddled,
+but the natives had taken our warning
+and no one had been killed. After a cup of
+coffee in a lovely garden on the river-bank,<a name='Page_128'></a>
+I came back to the cars and we ran on through
+to Haditha. Here we were to remain for a
+week or ten days to permit the evacuation of
+the captured supplies.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far we had been having good luck with
+the weather, but it now began to threaten rain.
+We crawled beneath the cars with our blankets
+and took such precautions as were possible,
+but it availed us little when a veritable hurricane
+blew up at midnight. I was washed out
+from under my car, but before dark I had
+marked down a deserted hut, and thither I
+groped my way. Although it was abandoned
+by the Arabs, living traces of their occupancy
+remained. Still, even that was preferable to
+the rain, and the roof proved unexpectedly
+water-tight.</p>
+
+<p>All next day the storm continued. The
+Wadi Hauran, a large ravine reaching back
+into the desert for a hundred and fifty miles,
+became a boiling torrent. When we crossed
+over, it was as dry as a bone. A heavy lorry
+on which an anti-aircraft gun was mounted
+had been swirled away and smashed to bits.
+The ration question had been difficult all along,
+but now any further supply was temporarily
+out of the question.</p><a name='Page_129'></a>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, I was the only member of the
+brigade occupying Haditha who could speak
+enough Arabic to be of any use, so I was sent
+to look up the local mayor to see whether there
+was any food to be purchased. The town is
+built on a long island equidistant from either
+bank. We ferried across in barges. The native
+method was simpler. They inflated goatskins,
+removed their clothes, which they had
+fastened in a bundle on top of their heads, and
+with one hand on the goatskin they paddled
+and drifted over. By starting from the head of
+the island they could reach the shore opposite
+the down-stream end. The bobbing heads of
+the dignified old graybeards of the community
+looked most ludicrous. On landing they would
+solemnly don their clothes, deflate the skins,
+and go their way.</p>
+
+<p>The mayor proved both intelligent and agreeable.
+The food situation was such that it was
+obviously impossible for him to offer us any
+serious help. We held a conclave in the guest-house,
+sitting cross-legged among the cushions.
+In the centre a servant roasted coffee-beans on
+the large shovel-spoon that they use for that
+purpose. The representative village worthies
+impressed me greatly. The desert Arabs are
+<a name='Page_130'></a>always held to be vastly superior to their kinsmen
+of the town, and it is undoubtedly true as
+a general rule; nevertheless, the elders of Haditha
+were an unusually fine group of men. We
+got a few eggs, which were a most desirable
+luxury after a steady diet of black unsweetened
+tea and canned beef. We happened to have a
+sufficient supply of tea to permit us to make an
+appreciated gift to the village.</p>
+
+<p>My shoes had collapsed a few days before
+and I borrowed a pair from a Turk who had no
+further use for them. These were several sizes
+too large and fashioned in an oblong shape of
+mathematical exactness. Even in the motor
+machine-gun service, there is little that exceeds
+one's shoes in importance, and I was looking
+forward with almost equal eagerness to a square
+meal and a pair of my own shoes. The supply
+of reading-matter had fallen very low. I had
+only Disraeli's <i>Tancred</i>, about which I found
+myself unable to share Lady Burton's feelings,
+and a French account of a voyage from Baghdad
+to Aleppo in 1808. The author, Louis
+Jacques Rousseau, a cousin of the great Jean
+Jacques, belonged to a family of noted Orientalists.
+Born in Persia, and married to the
+daughter of the Dutch consul-general to that
+<a name='Page_131'></a>country, he was admirably equipped for the
+distinguished diplomatic career that lay before
+him in the East and in northern Africa.
+His treatises on the arch&aelig;ological remains that
+he met with on his many voyages are intelligent
+and thorough. The river towns have
+changed but little in the last hundred years,
+and the sketch of Hit might have been made
+only yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>Within three days after the rise, the waters
+of the Wadi Hauran subsided sufficiently for
+us to cross, and I received orders to return to
+Baghdad. The rain had brought about a
+change in the desert since we passed through
+on our way up. The lines of Paterson, the
+Australian poet, kept running through my head:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><i>&quot;For the rain and drought and sunshine make no changes in the street,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>In the sullen line of buildings and the ceaseless tramp of feet,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>But the bush hath moods and changes, as the seasons rise and fall,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>And the men who know the bushland they are loyal through it all.&quot;</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The formerly arid floor of the desert was carpeted
+with a soft green, with myriads of little
+flowers, all small, but delicately fashioned.<a name='Page_132'></a>
+There were poppies, dwarf daisies, expanses of
+buttercups, forget-me-nots, and diminutive red
+flowers whose name I did not know. It started
+raining again, and we only just succeeded in
+winning our way through to Baghdad before
+the road became impassable.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<a name='Footnote_1_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_1'>[1]</a><div class='note'><p> Light Armored Motor Battery.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='VI'></a><h2><a name='Page_133'></a><a name='Page_134'></a><a name='Page_135'></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>BAGHDAD SKETCHES</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Although never in Baghdad for long at a
+time, I generally had occasion to spend four
+or five days there every other month. The
+life in any city is complex and interesting, but
+here it was especially so. We were among a
+totally foreign people, but the ever-felt intangible
+barrier of color was not present. For many
+of the opportunities to mingle with the natives
+I was indebted to Oscar Heizer, the American
+consul. Mr. Heizer has been twenty-five
+years in the Levant, the greater part of which
+time he has spent in the neighborhood of Constantinople.
+The outbreak of the war found
+him stationed at one of the principal ports of
+the Black Sea. There he witnessed part of the
+terrible Armenian massacres, when vast herds
+of the wretched people were driven inland to
+perish of starvation by the roadsides. Quiet
+and unassuming, but ever ready to act with
+speed and decision, he was a universal favorite
+with native and foreigner alike.</p><a name='Page_136'></a>
+
+<p>With him I used to ferry across the river for
+tea with the Asadulla Khan, the Persian consul.
+The house consisted of three wings built
+around a garden. The fourth side was the
+river-bank. The court was a jungle of flowering
+fruit-trees, alive with birds of different
+kinds, all singing garrulously without pause.
+There we would sit sipping sherbet, and cracking
+nuts, among which salted watermelon seeds
+figured prominently. Coffee and sweets of
+many and devious kinds were served, with
+arrack and Scotch whiskey for those who had
+no religious scruples. The Koran's injunction
+against strong drink was not very conscientiously
+observed by the majority, and even
+those who did not drink in public, rarely abstained
+in private. Only the very conservative&mdash;and
+these were more often to be found in the
+smaller towns&mdash;rigorously obeyed the prophet's
+commands. It was pleasant to smoke in the
+shade and watch the varied river-craft slipping
+by. The public bellams plied to and fro, rowed
+by the swart owners, while against them jostled
+the gufas&mdash;built like the coracles of ancient
+Britain&mdash;a round basket coated with pitch.
+No Anglo-Saxon can see them without thinking
+of the nursery rhyme of the &quot;wise men of<a name='Page_137'></a>
+Gotham who went to sea in a tub.&quot; These
+gufas were some of them twenty-five feet in
+diameter, and carried surprising loads&mdash;sometimes
+sheep and cattle alone&mdash;sometimes men
+and women&mdash;often both indiscriminately mingled.
+Propelling a gufa was an art in itself, for
+in the hands of the uninitiated it merely spun
+around without advancing a foot in the desired
+direction. The natives used long round-bladed
+paddles, and made good time across
+the river. Crossing over in one was a democratic
+affair, especially when the women were
+returning from market with knots of struggling
+chickens slung over their shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Asadulla Khan's profile always reminded me
+of an Inca idol that I once got in Peru. Among
+his scribes were several men of culture who
+discoursed most sagely on Persian literature;
+on Sadi and Hafiz, both of whom they held to
+be superior to Omar Khayyam. I tried through
+many channels to secure a manuscript of the
+&quot;Rubaiyat,&quot; but all I succeeded in obtaining
+was a lithograph copy with no place or date of
+publication; merely the remark that it had
+been printed during the cold months. I was
+told that the writings of Omar Khayyam were
+regarded as immoral and for that reason were
+<a name='Page_138'></a>not to be found in religious households. My
+Persian friends would quote at length from
+Sadi's <i>Gulistan</i> or <i>Rose Garden</i>, and go into
+raptures over its beauty.</p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Below the consulate was a landing-place, and
+when we were ready to leave we would go down
+to the river-bank preceded by our servants
+carrying lanterns. They would call &quot;Abu
+bellam&quot; until a boat appeared. The term
+&quot;abu&quot; always amused me. Its literal meaning
+is &quot;father.&quot; In the bazaars a shop-owner was
+always hailed as &quot;father&quot; of whatever wares
+he had for sale. I remember one fat old man
+who sold porous earthenware jars&mdash;customers
+invariably addressed him as &quot;Abu hub&quot;&mdash;&quot;Father
+of water-coolers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>My best friend among the natives was a
+Kurdish chief named Hamdi Bey Baban. His
+father had been captured and taken to Constantinople.
+After living there a number of
+years in semicaptivity he died&mdash;by poison it
+was said. Hamdi was not allowed to return to
+Kurdistan until after he was a grown man and
+had almost forgotten his native language. He
+spoke and read both French and English.
+Eventually permission was granted him to live
+<a name='Page_139'></a>in Baghdad as long as he kept out of the Kurdish
+hills, so he set off by motor accompanied
+only by a French chauffeur. Gasolene was sent
+ahead by camel caravan to be left for him at
+selected points. The journey was not without
+incident, for the villagers had never before seen
+an automobile and regarded it as a devil;
+often stones were thrown at them, and on one
+occasion they were mobbed and Hamdi only
+escaped by driving full speed through the
+crowd.</p>
+
+<p>His existence in Baghdad had been subject
+to sudden upheavals. Once he was arrested
+and convoyed back to Constantinople; and
+just before the advance of the British his life
+was in great danger. Naturally enough he
+had little love for the Turk and staked everything
+on the final victory of the Allies.</p>
+
+<p>He intended writing a book on the history of
+his family, in which he was much interested.
+For material he was constantly purchasing
+books and manuscripts. In the East many
+well-known histories still exist only in manuscript
+form, and when a man wishes to build
+up a library he engages scribes and sends them
+to the place where a famous manuscript is kept
+with an order to make a copy. In the same
+<a name='Page_140'></a>way Hamdi Bey had men busied transcribing
+rare chronicles dealing with the career of his
+family&mdash;extant in but one or two examples in
+mosques. He once presented me with a large
+manuscript in Persian in which his family is
+mentioned, the mention taking the form of a
+statement to the effect that seventeen of them
+had had their heads removed!</p>
+
+<p>Next to various small tradesmen with whom
+I used to gossip, drink coffee, and play dominoes,
+my best Arab friend was Abdul Kader
+Pasha, a striking old man who had been a
+faithful ally to the British through thick and
+thin. The dinners at his house on the river-bank
+were feasts such as one reads of in ancient
+history. Course succeeded course without
+any definite plan; any one of them would
+have made a large and delicious meal in itself.
+True to Arab custom, the son of the house
+never sat down at table with his father, although
+before and after dinner he talked and
+smoked with us.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/15.jpg"><img src="./images/15_th.jpg"
+alt="A jeweller's booth in the bazaar"></a></p><p class="ctr">A jeweller's booth in the bazaar</p>
+
+<p>I had a number of good friends among the
+Armenians. There was not one of them but
+had some near relation, frequently a parent
+or a brother or sister, still among the Turks.
+Sometimes they knew them to be dead, more
+<a name='Page_141'></a>frequently they could only hope that such was
+the case and there was no further suffering to
+be endured. Many of these Armenians belonged
+to prominent families, numbering among
+their members men who had held the most
+important government posts in Constantinople.
+The secretary of the treasury was
+almost invariably an Armenian, for the race
+outstrips the Jews in its money touch.</p>
+
+<p>With one family I dined quite often&mdash;the
+usual interminable Oriental feast varying only
+from the Arab or Turkish dinners in a few special
+national dishes. All, excepting the aged
+grandmother, spoke French, and the daughters
+had a thorough grounding in the literature.
+Such English books as they knew they had
+read in French translations. The house was
+attractively furnished, with really beautiful
+rugs and old silverware. The younger generation
+played bridge, and the girls were always
+well dressed in European fashion. Whence the
+clothes came was a mystery, for nothing could
+have been brought in since the war, and even
+in ante-bellum days foreign clothes of that
+grade could never have been stocked but must
+have been imported in individual orders. The
+evenings were thoroughly enjoyable, for every<a name='Page_142'></a>thing
+was in such marked contrast to our
+every-day life. It must be remembered that
+these few Armenians were the only women with
+whom we could talk and laugh in Occidental
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>By far the best-informed and cleverest Arab
+was P&egrave;re Anastase. He was a Catholic, and
+under the supervision of the Political Department
+edited the local Arab paper. All his
+life he had worked building up a library&mdash;gathering
+rare books throughout Syria and
+Mesopotamia. He was himself an author of
+no small reputation. Just before the British
+took Baghdad the Germans pillaged his collection,
+sending the more valuable books to
+Constantinople and Berlin, and turning the
+rest over to the populace. The soldiers made
+great bonfires of many&mdash;others found their
+way to the bazaars, where he was later able to
+repurchase some of them. When talking of the
+sacking of his house, P&egrave;re Anastase would work
+himself into a white heat of fury and his eyes
+would flash as he bitterly cursed the vandals
+who had destroyed his treasures.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Baghdad that I first ran into Major
+E.B. Soane, whose <i>Through Mesopotamia and
+Kurdistan in Disguise</i> is a classic. Soane was
+<a name='Page_143'></a>born in southern France, his mother French
+and his father English. The latter walked
+across the United States from ocean to ocean
+in the early forties, so Soane came by his roving,
+adventurous spirit naturally. When still
+but little more than a boy he went out to work
+in the Anglo-Persian Bank, and immediately
+interested himself in the language and literature
+of the country. Some of his holidays he
+spent in the British Museum translating and
+cataloguing Persian manuscripts. Becoming
+interested in the Kurds, he spent a number of
+years among them, learning their languages
+and customs and joining in their raids.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as we got a foothold in the Kurdish
+Hills, Soane was sent up to administer the captured
+territory. His headquarters were at
+Khanikin, twenty-five miles from Kizil Robat
+and but a short distance from the Persian frontier.
+One morning during the time that I was
+stationed in that district I motored over to see
+him. It was a glorious day. The cloud effects
+were most beautiful, towering in billows of
+white above the snow peaks, against a background
+of deepest blue. The road wound in
+and out among the barren foot-hills until suddenly
+as I topped a rise I saw right below a
+<a name='Page_144'></a>great clump of palm-trees, with houses showing
+through here and there&mdash;the whole divided by
+a lovely river bestridden by an old seven-arch
+bridge. I picked my way through the narrow
+streets, scattering ragged Kurds right and left;
+past part of the covered bazaar, until I came
+to a house with a large courtyard, thronged
+with a motley array of Kurdish irregulars,
+armed with every sort of weapon. It was there
+that Soane administered his stern but practical
+justice, for he thoroughly understood how
+to handle these men.</p>
+
+<p>The district had suffered fearfully, for it had
+been occupied in turn by Turk and Russian,
+and then Turk again, before we took it over,
+and the unfortunate natives had been pillaged
+and robbed mercilessly. Thousands starved to
+death. When I was at Deli Abbas ghastly
+bands of ragged skeletons would come through
+to us begging food and work. Soane turned a
+large khan on the outskirts of the town into a
+poorhouse, and here he lodged the starving
+women and children that drifted in from all
+over Kurdistan. It was a fearful assemblage
+of scarecrows. As they got better he selected
+women from among them to whom he turned
+over the administration of the khan. They
+<a name='Page_145'></a>divided the unfortunates in gangs, and supervised
+the issue of dates on which they were fed.
+Such as were physically able were employed
+in cleaning the town. The Kurds are a fine,
+self-respecting race and it was easy to understand
+Soane's enthusiasm for them.</p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>In Baghdad you lived either in the cellars
+or on the housetops. The former were called
+serdabs. A large chimney, cowled to face the
+prevailing wind, served for ventilation, and on
+the hottest days one was cool and comfortable.
+We slept on the roofs, and often dined there,
+too. Since the town was the General Headquarters
+of the Expeditionary Force, one was
+always sure to meet many friends. A comfortable
+and well-run officers' club was installed,
+as well as warrant officers' and enlisted
+men's clubs.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally race meetings were planned and
+the various divisions would send representatives.
+Frank Wooton, the well-known jockey,
+was a despatch-rider, and usually succeeded in
+getting leave enough to allow him to ride some
+general's horses. An Arab race formed part of
+the programme. Once a wild tribesman who
+had secured a handsome lead almost lost the
+<a name='Page_146'></a>race by taking off his cloak and waving it
+round his head as he gave ear-piercing shouts
+of triumph. The Arab riding second was less
+emotional and attended better to the business
+in hand, but his horse was not quite good
+enough to make the difference.</p>
+
+<p>The scene at the race-course was a gay one.
+The color was chiefly contributed by the Jewesses
+who wore their hooded silk cloaks of
+lively hue&mdash;green or pink or yellow. The only
+crowd that I saw to vie with it was one which
+watched the prisoners taken at Ramadie march
+through the town. Turkish propaganda, circulated
+in the bazaars, gave out that instead
+of taking the prisoners we claimed, we had in
+reality suffered a defeat, and it was decided
+that the sight of the captive Turks would have
+a salutary effect upon the townsmen. Looking
+down from a housetop the red fezzes and the
+gay-colored abas made the crowd look like a
+vast field of poppies.</p>
+
+<p>When I was at Samarra an amusing incident
+took place in connection with a number of
+officers' wives who were captured at Ramadie.
+The army commander didn't wish to ship them
+off to India and Burma with their husbands,
+so he sent them up to Samarra with instruc<a name='Page_147'></a>tions
+that they be returned across the lines to
+the Turks. After many aeroplane messages
+were exchanged it was agreed that we should
+leave them at a designated hill and that the
+Turks would later come for them. Meanwhile
+we had arranged quarters for them, trying to
+do everything in a manner that would be in
+harmony with the Turkish convenances. When
+the wives were escorted forth to be turned
+back to their countrymen, they were all weeping
+bitterly. Whether it was that the Turk
+in his casual manner decided that one day
+was as good as another, or whether he felt
+that he had no particular use for these particular
+women, we never knew, but at all
+events twenty-four hours later one of our patrols
+came upon the prisoners still forlornly
+waiting. We shipped them back to Baghdad.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally I would go to one of the Arab
+theatres. The plays were generally burlesques,
+for the Arab has a keen sense of humor and
+greatly appreciates a joke. Most of the puns
+were too involved for me to follow, but there
+was always a certain amount of slap-stick
+comedy that could be readily understood.
+Then there was dancing&mdash;as a whole monotonous
+and mediocre; but there was one old man
+<a name='Page_148'></a>who was a remarkable performer, and would
+have been appreciated on any stage in the
+world. The topical songs invariably amused
+me&mdash;they were so universal in spirit. The
+chorus of one which was a great hit ran:
+&quot;Haido, haido, rahweni passak!&quot; &quot;I say, I
+say, show me your pass.&quot; There had been
+much trouble with spies and every one was
+required to provide himself with a certificate
+of good conduct and to show it on demand.
+It was to this that the song referred.</p>
+
+<p>Captain C.G. Lloyd was my companion on
+many rambles among the natives. He had
+been stationed in Burma and India for many
+years, and was a good Persian scholar. Like
+every one who has knocked about to any extent
+among native peoples, his career had not been
+lacking in incident. I remember on one occasion
+asking him why it was that he never
+joined me in a cup of coffee when we stopped
+at a coffee-house. He replied that he had always
+been wary of coffee since a man with
+him was poisoned by a cup which was intended
+for him.</p>
+
+<p>I always looked forward to a trip to Baghdad,
+for it gave me a chance to mingle in a
+totally different life from that which daily
+<a name='Page_149'></a>surrounded me, and temporarily, at least, forget
+about the war in which the world was
+plunged. Still, the morning set to leave invariably
+found me equally glad to shove off
+once more into the great expanses of the
+desert.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='VII'></a><h2><a name='Page_150'></a><a name='Page_151'></a><a name='Page_152'></a><a name='Page_153'></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>When I reached headquarters after the attack
+on the Euphrates front, I was expecting
+to hear that my transfer to France had gone
+through and receive orders to proceed thither
+immediately. It had always been my intention
+to try to join the American army once it
+began to take a real part in the war, and for
+some time past I had been casting about in
+my mind for the best method to carry out my
+plans. When affairs looked so very black for
+the Allied forces in March and April, 1918, I
+decided that France was the place where every
+one, who could by any possibility manage it,
+should be. General Gillman, the chief of
+staff, had on more than one occasion shown
+himself a good friend, and I determined to
+once more task his kindness. He said that he
+thought he could arrange for my transfer to
+France, and that once there I could work out
+<a name='Page_154'></a>the best way of getting into the American
+army.</p>
+
+<p>Everything went well, and I was daily expecting
+my orders, when Major Thompson,
+who commanded the brigade of armored cars,
+sent for me and told me that an advance was
+being planned on the Kurdish front. Only
+two batteries were to be taken&mdash;the Eighth
+and the Thirteenth&mdash;but he said that he would
+like to have me go along in command of
+the supply-train. Of course I jumped at the
+chance, as the attack promised to be most interesting.</p>
+
+<p>We were told to be ready to move on an
+hour's notice. For several days the weather
+held us back. The rain, helped out by the
+melting snow from the mountains, caused the
+rivers to rise in flood. The Tigris rose sixteen
+feet in a night. The lower bridge was broken
+and washed away. Everything possible was
+done to reinforce the upper bridge, but it was
+hourly expected to give way under the strain
+of the whirling yellow waters. The old Arab
+rivermen said that they could tell by the color
+just which of the tributaries were in spate.
+When they saw or thought they saw a new admixture,
+they would shake their heads and
+<a name='Page_155'></a>say: &quot;Such and such a river is now also in
+flood&mdash;the Tigris will rise still further.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>On the night of April 24 we at length got
+our orders and at six o'clock the following
+morning we set out, prepared to run through
+to Ain Leilah. The country was indeed
+changed since I passed through six weeks
+before. The desert had blossomed. We ran
+through miles and miles of clover; the sweet
+smell seemed so wholesomely American, recalling
+home and family, and the meadows of
+Long Island. The brilliant red poppies were
+more in keeping with the country; and we
+passed by Indian cavalry reinforcements with
+the scarlet flowers stuck in their black hair
+and twined in the head-stalls of the horses.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached the hills they looked less
+bleak&mdash;a soft green clothed the hollows, and
+the little oasis of Ain Leilah no longer stood out
+in the same marked contrast as when last I
+visited it. The roads were in good shape, and
+we reached camp at four in the afternoon. I
+took one of the tenders and set off to look up
+some old friends in the regiments near by. As
+I passed a group of Arabs that had just finished
+work on the roads, I noticed that they
+were playing a game that was new to me. A
+<a name='Page_156'></a>stake was driven into the ground, with a
+horsehair rope ten or twelve feet in length attached
+to it. An old man had hold of the end
+of the rope. About the stake were piled some
+clothes, and the Arabs were standing around
+in a circle just out of reach of the man with the
+rope. The object was to dart in and snatch
+up something from the heap without the old
+man who was on guard catching you. They
+were enjoying themselves hugely&mdash;the oldest
+graybeards behaving as if they were children&mdash;a
+very pleasant side of the Arab.</p>
+
+<p>Our instructions were to be ready to pull
+out before daybreak. The mission was, as
+usual, a flanking one. The direct attack was to
+be delivered on Kara Tepe, and, if that were
+successful, upon Kifri. We were to intercept
+the arrival of reinforcements, or cut off the
+retreat of the garrisons, as the case might be.</p>
+
+<p>In the early morning hours the country was
+lovely&mdash;rolling grass land &quot;with a hint of hills
+behind&quot;&mdash;miles of daisies with clusters of
+blood-red poppies scattered through them&mdash;and
+occasional hollows carpeted with a brilliant
+blue flower. In the river courses there
+were numbers of brilliantly hued birds&mdash;the
+gayest colors I saw in Mesopotamia with the
+<a name='Page_157'></a>exception of the vivid arsenic-green birds
+around Ana on the Euphrates. In one place I
+thought that the ground was covered with red
+flowers, but a close inspection proved it to be
+myriads of tiny red insects swarming on the
+grass stems.</p>
+
+<p>Column marching is slow and wearisome, and
+after the sun rose the heat became intense.
+The dust smothered us; there was not a breath
+of air to rid us of it for even a moment. The
+miles seemed interminable. At noon we halted
+beside a narrow stream known as Oil River&mdash;a
+common name in this part of the country where
+oil abounds and the water is heavily impregnated
+with it. For drinking it was abominable&mdash;and
+almost spoiled the tea upon which
+we relied for a staple. A few miles beyond, the
+engineers found a suitable location to throw a
+bridge across the creek. The main body was
+halted at a place known as Umr Maidan and
+we were sent over the bridge to form across
+the main road leading from Kara Tepe back
+into the Turkish territory.</p>
+
+<p>It was nightfall before we had effected a
+crossing, and we groped our way along until
+we came upon the road. It was impossible to
+do very much in the way of selecting a posi<a name='Page_158'></a>tion,
+but we arranged the cars as best we could.
+When you were off at large in the desert you
+were what the army called &quot;Out in the blue,&quot;
+and that was certainly our situation on the
+night of April 26. We all expected that we
+would intercept traffic going one way or the
+other, but the night passed without incident
+or excitement.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/16.jpg"><img src="./images/16_th.jpg"
+alt="Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge"></a></p><p class="ctr">Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge</p>
+
+<p>By four in the morning we were once more
+feeling our way along through the darkness.
+As it lightened we came under observation by
+the Turks, who started in to shell us. We
+learned from our aeroplanes that Kifri had
+been evacuated; the garrison was falling back
+along a road running parallel to the one on
+which we were, separated by eight or ten miles
+of broken country. By this time our cavalry
+had caught up with us. They pushed off across
+country to intercept the Turks. We attempted
+to do likewise but it was more difficult, and
+what with dodging in and out to avoid a ravine
+here or a hill there, we made little headway.
+At length we struck a road that led in approximately
+the direction whither we wished to go.
+It was already early afternoon before, upon
+topping a rise, we caught sight of a good-sized
+body of Turks marching on a road which ran
+<a name='Page_159'></a>along the base of a range of steep, stony hills.
+We put on as much speed as was possible, and
+headed north to try to intercept them. The
+cavalry were coming from the south, and while
+we were circling around they charged in upon
+the Turks. It was a stirring scene. The powerful
+Indians sat their horses with the utmost
+grace. Their drawn sabres flashed in the sun.
+As they came to close quarters the turbaned
+heads bent forward and we could hear the
+shouts and high-pitched cries of triumph as
+the riders slashed at the foe. The wounded
+and dead testified to their skill as swordsmen.
+The whole sight reminded me more of the battle
+books I read as a boy than anything I saw
+in the war. About six hundred prisoners were
+taken, but many of the Turks escaped to the
+mountains and lay among the rocks, whence
+they could snipe at us with impunity. They
+were a tenacious lot, for all next day when we
+were using the road below the hills they continued
+to shoot at us from the places whence
+it was impossible to dislodge them.</p>
+
+<p>While the prisoners were being brought in
+we caught sight of one of our aeroplanes crashing.
+Making our way over to it we found that
+neither the pilot nor the observer was seri<a name='Page_160'></a>ously
+hurt. Flying in Mesopotamia was made
+unusually difficult by the climatic conditions.
+The planes were designed for work in France
+and during the summer months the heat and
+dryness warped the propeller blades and indeed
+all the wooden parts. Then, too, the fine
+dust would get into the machinery when the
+aviator was taxiing for a start. Many pilots
+coming out from France with brilliant records
+met an early and untimely end because they
+could not realize how very different the conditions
+were. I remember one poor young
+fellow who set off on a reconnaissance without
+the food and water he was required by regulations
+to carry. He got lost and ran out of
+gasolene&mdash;being forced to land out in the
+desert. The armored cars went off in search
+of him, and on the second morning after he
+had come down they found his body near their
+bivouac. He had evidently got that far during
+the night and died of exhaustion and exposure
+practically within hearing. He was stripped
+of his clothes; whether this had been done by
+himself or by the tribesmen was never determined.
+A death of this sort always seems
+so much sadder than being legitimately killed in
+combat. The L.A.M. batteries were in close
+<a name='Page_161'></a>touch with the Royal Flying Corps, for when
+news came in that a plane was down in the
+desert or some part of the debatable land, we
+would be detailed to go out in search of the
+occupants. A notice printed in Arabic, Persian,
+Turkish, and Kurdish was fastened into
+each aeroplane informing the reader of the reward
+that would be paid him if the pilot were
+brought in safety to the British lines. This
+was done in case a plane got lost and was
+driven down out of its course among the
+tribesmen.</p>
+
+<p>The night of the 27th we bivouacked once
+more &quot;out in the blue.&quot; Dawn found me
+on my way back to Umr Maidan to lay in
+a new supply of gasolene. I made a rapid
+trip and caught up with the armored cars
+in action in a large swampy plain. The grass
+was very high and the ground so soft that
+it was difficult to accomplish anything. Two
+or three small hills offered vantage-points, but
+they were not neglected by the Turk, and
+among those that fell was the colonel of the
+Twenty-First cavalry&mdash;the regiment that had
+acquitted itself so well in the charge of the day
+before.</p>
+
+<p>We were ten miles from Tuz Khurmartli,
+<a name='Page_162'></a>the next important town held by the enemy
+now that Kifri had been taken. It was thither
+that the Turks had been retreating when we
+cut them off. Finding that we were unable to
+operate effectively where we were, it was decided
+that we should make our way across to
+the Kifri-Kirkuk road and advance along it to
+make a frontal attack upon Tuz. Our orders
+were to proceed to a deserted village known as
+Kulawand, and wait there for the command to
+advance. When we got to the road we found
+the hills still occupied by camel-guns and
+machine-guns. We replied ineffectively, for
+we had no means of dislodging them, nor did
+the cavalry when they came up. Kulawand
+we found to be a fair-sized native village unoccupied
+save for a single hut full of old women
+and children. Here we waited until nightfall
+for the orders that never came. I sat under a
+ruined wall reading alternatively Camoens'
+<i>Lusiad</i> and <i>David Harum</i> until darkness fell.</p>
+
+<p>During the night some infantry came up,
+both native and British. They had had stiff
+marching during the last few days, and were
+done up, but very cheerful at the prospect of
+an attack on the morrow. They had some hard
+fighting ahead of them. The King's Own in
+<a name='Page_163'></a>particular distinguished itself in taking a
+stubbornly contested and strongly held hill.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn we were under way. We had heard
+reports during the night that the Turks had
+evacuated Tuz&mdash;but it was not long before we
+found that such was not the case. They were
+still there and showed every evidence of staying.
+A small village five or six miles to the
+southwest was also bitterly contested. Our
+cavalry did some excellent work, capturing
+small hills held with machine-guns.</p>
+
+<p>We advanced down the road beside the hills.
+A mile before reaching Tuz we ran into the
+Aq Su, a large stream flowing through a narrow
+cleft in the hills. Fortunately the river
+was very low, and there were several places
+where it was spread out over such a wide bed
+that it seemed as if it might be possible to get
+the cars across. I emptied a Ford van and
+set out to do some prospecting. First I went
+up-stream, which was toward the mountains,
+but I could not go far, for there was an ancient
+fort situated at the mouth of the gorge, and it
+had not been evacuated. Finding a likely looking
+place a little below, I made a cast and just
+succeeded in getting through. It was easy to
+see that it would not be possible for the low-<a name='Page_164'></a>swung
+Rolls to cross under their own power,
+for the fly-wheel would throw the water up
+into the motor. There was nothing to do but
+send back for artillery horses to pull the armored
+cars across.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, as our artillery had practically
+ceased firing on the town and the Turks
+seemed to have entirely evacuated it, I thought
+that I would go up and take over and see
+whether there had not been some valuable
+documents left behind. I drove along past
+some abandoned artillery into the main street.
+A number of Turkish soldiers came up to surrender
+and I told them to have the Reis Beledia&mdash;the
+town mayor&mdash;report to me. When
+he came I directed him to take me to the quarters
+of the Turkish commanding general. As
+we drove through the covered bazaar everything
+was closed. Scarcely anybody was in
+the streets&mdash;but I could see the inhabitants
+peeping out from behind lattices. It was a
+good thing to have the old mayor along, for
+he served as an excellent hostage, and I kept
+close watch upon him. He brought me to a
+prosperous, neat-looking house with heavy
+wooden doors. In response to his summons
+an old woman came and ushered us into a
+<a name='Page_165'></a>large, cool room, well furnished and with beautiful
+Kurdish rugs. There we found four young
+girls, who, it was explained to me, formed the
+Turkish general's &quot;field harem.&quot; He had
+left in too much of a hurry to take them with
+him. They were Kurds and Circassians, or
+Georgians&mdash;and the general had shown no lack
+of taste in his selection! True to the tradition
+of the Garden of Eden, this harem proved
+disastrous to a brother officer who, having
+heard of my capture, sent me &quot;priority&quot; over
+the field service lines a ribald message as to
+its disposition. &quot;Priority&quot; wires are sent only
+on affairs of the greatest importance, and when
+I left the country my friend was slated to explain
+matters before a court martial. There
+were no papers of any great value to be found,
+and I told the mayor to take me to the more
+important ammunition and supply dumps.
+By the time I had located these some cavalry
+had come in, and I went back to the river to
+help get the fighting cars across.</p>
+
+<p>Once we had these safely over we set out in
+pursuit of the Turks. The next town of importance
+was a ramshackle mud-walled affair
+called Tauq, twenty miles beyond, on the far
+side of a river known as the Tauq Chai. The
+<a name='Page_166'></a>leading cars pursued to within sight of the
+town and came in for a good deal of shelling.</p>
+
+<p>The Turks we captured were in far poorer
+shape than those we had recently taken on the
+Euphrates front. Their shoes were worn out,
+they were very ragged, and, what was of greater
+significance, they were badly nourished. The
+length of their line of communications had
+evidently severely strained them. Supplies had
+to come overland all the way from Nisibin,
+which is more than a hundred miles beyond Mosul.
+The broken country made the transportation
+a difficult problem to solve. It was a miracle
+that they had the morale to fight as they
+did under such disadvantageous conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Here, as throughout the campaign, it was a
+continual source of pride to see the way in
+which our soldiers behaved to the natives. I
+never heard of a case in which man, woman, or
+child was wrongfully treated. Minor offenses
+were sometimes committed, but these were
+quickly righted. No doubt there were isolated
+instances of wrong-doing, for in such a large
+army there are bound to be degenerate individuals
+from whose conduct it is unfair to
+judge the whole.</p>
+
+<p>That night we encamped in the outskirts of<a name='Page_167'></a>
+Tuz, not far from the Turkish aerodrome.
+Next morning one of the batteries was ordered
+to reconnoitre as far as the town&mdash;pursuing a
+different route than that taken on the previous
+day. The commanding officer asked me to go
+along because of my knowledge of Arabic.
+The road followed the telegraph-lines, and part
+of the time that was the only way in which
+we could distinguish it from the surrounding
+country. Of course, the map was hopelessly
+incorrect. The villages were not even rightly
+named. A great deal of reconnoitring was
+called for, and in one village we had to knock
+the corner off a mud house to enable us to make
+a sharp right-angle turn. The natives were in
+pitiful condition. The Turks had not only
+taken all their crops, but even the grain that
+should be reserved to sow for the following
+year. The sheep had been killed in the lambing
+season, so the flocks were sadly depleted.
+Such standing grain as there was left looked
+flourishing. The wheat waved above the cars.</p>
+
+<p>As we came out of a deep, broad ravine that
+had caused us much delay and difficulty, we
+caught sight of an attractive town situated on
+a steep, flat-topped hill. Upon drawing near,
+a fine-looking, white-bearded Arab rode up on
+<a name='Page_168'></a>a small gray mare. He said that he was the
+head man of the town; that he hated the Turks,
+and would like to be of any assistance possible
+to us. I asked him if the enemy had evacuated
+Tauq. He replied that they had. I then asked
+him if he were positive about it. He offered
+to accompany us to prove it. The trail was
+so bad that we could not go fast, and he rode
+along beside us at a hand-gallop.</p>
+
+<p>When we came to the river in front of the
+town we found that it was impossible to get
+the armored cars across. The Turks had evidently
+fallen back, but not far, for they were
+dropping in shells with regularity. Our Arab
+friend told us that there was a bridge six
+miles up-stream, but it was too late for us to
+attempt it, and we turned back to Tuz after
+arranging with Sheikh Muttar to meet us in
+the morning.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/17.jpg"><img src="./images/17_th.jpg"
+alt="The Kurd and his wife"></a></p><p class="ctr">The Kurd and his wife</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/18.jpg"><img src="./images/18_th.jpg"
+alt="Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds"></a></p><p class="ctr">Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds</p>
+
+<p>Next day we found him waiting for us as
+he had promised. With him were two handsome
+Kurds. One of them had his wife perched
+behind him on the horse's crupper. Together
+they undertook to guide us up to the bridge.
+It was invariably difficult to find out from
+natives whether or not a road was passable
+for motor-cars. They were accustomed to
+<a name='Page_169'></a>think only in terms of horses or men, and could
+not realize that a bad washout might be impassable
+for automobiles. Curiously enough,
+even those natives whom we had taken along
+with us on several reconnaissances as guides
+could not be trusted to give an opinion as to
+the feasibility of a proposed route. We experienced
+no little trouble in following our
+guides to the bridge, although we afterward
+discovered a good road that cut off from the
+main trail about half-way between Tuz and
+Tauq.</p>
+
+<p>When we reached the bridge we found it to
+be a solid, well-built affair of recent construction.
+The retreating Turks had tried to blow
+it up, but the most vital charges had failed to
+go off, so the damage done would not be sufficiently
+serious to stop our passage, after six
+or seven hours' preliminary work. We immediately
+sent back for the engineers, and put
+in the time while waiting by taking a much-needed
+bath in the rapids beneath one of the
+side arches. Every one who has wandered
+about in the waste places of the world can recall
+certain swims that will always stand out
+in his memory. Perhaps they have been after
+a long and arduous hunt&mdash;perhaps at the end
+<a name='Page_170'></a>of a weary march. Our plunge in the Tauq
+Chai took its place among these.</p>
+
+<p>In the late afternoon we drove back to Tuz.
+Our camp there was anything but cheerful,
+for swarms of starving townsfolk hovered on
+the outskirts ready to pounce on any refuse
+that the men threw away. Discarded tin cans
+were cleaned out until the insides shone like
+mirrors. The men gave away everything they
+could possibly spare from their rations. As
+the news spread, the starving mountain Kurds
+began straggling in; and the gruesome band
+made one glad to leave camp early and return
+after dark. Our line of communication was so
+extended that it was impossible to attempt any
+relief work.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning we crossed over the
+bridge with little trouble, but ran into a lot of
+difficulty when we tried to make our way down
+to the town. A couple of miles above the main
+town there is a small settlement grouped on a
+hill around the mosque of Zain El Abidin.
+The &quot;mutabelli,&quot; or keeper of the shrine, is
+an important personage in the community, so
+when he appeared riding a richly caparisoned
+stallion and offered to accompany us to the
+town, we welcomed the opportunity of going
+<a name='Page_171'></a>in under such good auspices. We decided to
+take Seyid Mustapha, for that was his name, in
+one of the Ford vans with us. It was comparatively
+easy to get the light car up over the precipitous,
+rocky trail; and eventually one of the
+fighting cars succeeded in following. I was
+driving, with Mustapha beside me. In front
+of us on a white horse galloped the Seyid's
+attendant singing and shouting and proclaiming
+our arrival. We stopped at Mustapha's
+house for a cup of coffee and a discussion of
+events. The information which we secured
+from him afterward proved unusually correct.
+I took him on with us to the town so that he
+could identify the head man and see that we
+got hold of the right people. Our reception
+was by no means cordial, although after we
+had talked a little and explained what we were
+after, the mayor became cheerful and expansive.
+He had a jovial, rotund face, covered
+in large part by a bushy beard, and would
+have done excellently as a model for Silenus.
+In the town were a handful of Turkish stragglers&mdash;among
+them a stalwart Greek who
+spoke a little English. He said that he had
+been impressed into service by the Turks and
+was most anxious to join our forces.</p><a name='Page_172'></a>
+
+<p>We found large stores of ammunition and
+other supplies, among them a wireless set.
+What interested us most, I am afraid, was the
+quantity of chickens that we saw strutting
+about. A few of them and a good supply of
+eggs found their way to the automobiles in
+short order. We were always very particular
+about paying for whatever we took, and seeing
+that the men did likewise; our reputation
+went before us, and the native, as a rule, took
+it for granted that we would pay. It was up
+to the officers to see that the prices were not
+exorbitant. We always used Indian currency&mdash;the
+rupee and the anna. In normal times
+a rupee is about a third of a dollar. Throughout
+the occupied area Turkish currency also
+circulated, but the native invariably preferred
+to be paid in Indian. Curiously enough, even
+on entering towns like Tauq, we found the
+inhabitants eager for payment in rupees. I
+was told that in the money market in Baghdad
+a British advance would be heralded by a
+slump in Turkish exchange. Paper rupees
+were almost everywhere as readily accepted
+as silver, but paper liras and piasters were
+soon of so little value that they were no longer
+in circulation.</p><a name='Page_173'></a>
+
+<p>When we got back to camp I found a wire
+informing me that I had been transferred to
+the American army, and ordering me to report
+at once to Baghdad to be sent to France.
+Major Thompson asked me if I would delay
+my return until the end of the advance. It
+was rumored that we would continue to push
+on and would attack Kirkuk. Many felt that
+the difficulty that was already being experienced
+in rationing us would preclude our
+thrusting farther. Still, I made up my mind
+that as long as the major wished it and would
+wire for permission I would stay a few days
+longer on the chance of the attack continuing.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 3d we moved camp
+to the far side of the Tauq Chai bridge. When
+the tenders were unloaded I started back to
+bring up a supply of gasolene, with the purpose
+of making a dump in case we were called upon
+for a further advance. I was told that the
+nearest supply from which I could draw was
+at Umr Maidan; and the prospect of running
+back, a distance of seventy miles, was not
+cheerful. When I got as far as Tuz I found
+a friend in charge of the dump there, and he
+let me draw what I wanted, so I turned back
+to try to get to the bridge by dark. One car
+<a name='Page_174'></a>after another got in trouble; first it was a
+puncture, then it was a tricky carburetor that
+refused to be put to rights; towing-ropes were
+called into requisition, but the best had been
+left behind, and those we had were rotted,
+and broke on every hill. Lastly a broken axle
+put one of the tenders definitely out of commission,
+and, of course, I had to wait behind
+with it. To add to everything, a veritable
+hurricane set in, with thunder and lightning
+and torrents of rain. The wind blew so hard
+that I thought the car would be toppled over.
+What made us more gloomy than anything else
+was the thought of all the dry river courses
+that would be roaring floods by morning, and
+probably hold up the ration supply indefinitely.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later the orders for which we had
+been waiting came through. We were to
+march upon a town called Taza Khurmatli,
+lying fifteen miles beyond Tauq and ten short
+of Kirkuk. If we met with no opposition there
+we were to push straight on. From all we
+could hear Taza was occupied only by cavalry,
+which would probably fall back without contesting
+our advance. The cars had been out
+on reconnaissance near the town for the last
+<a name='Page_175'></a>two days, and had come in for artillery and
+machine-gun fire; but it was believed that the
+Turks had everything ready to withdraw their
+guns on our approach.</p>
+
+<p>In the gray light that preceded dawn we
+saw shadowy columns of infantry and artillery
+and cavalry passing by our camp. The costumes
+of the different regiments made a break
+in the drab monotony. The Mesopotamian
+Expeditionary Force was composed of varied
+components. Steel helmets could be worn only
+in winter. In many of the native regiments
+the British officers wore tasselled pugrees,
+and long tunics that were really shirts, and an
+adaption of the native custom of wearing the
+shirt-tails outside the trousers. The Gurkhas
+were supplied with pith helmets. It was generally
+claimed that this was unnecessary, but
+the authorities felt that coming from a cold,
+high climate they would be as much affected
+by the Mesopotamian sun as were Europeans.
+The presence of the Indian troops brought
+about unusual additions to the dry &quot;General
+Routine Orders&quot; issued by general headquarters.
+One of them, referring to a religious
+festival of the Sikhs, ran:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The following cable message received from<a name='Page_176'></a>
+Sunder Signh Hagetha, Amritsar, addressed to
+Sikhs in Mesopotamian force:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To our most Dear Brothers now serving
+the Benign King-Emperor oversea, the chief
+Khalsa Dewan tenders hearty and sincere
+greetings on the auspicious Gurpurb of First
+Guru. You are upholding the name and fame
+of Gurupurb. Our hearts are with you and
+our prayers are that Satguru and Akalpurkh
+may ever be with you and lead you to victory
+and return home safe, after vanquishing the
+King-Emperor's foes, with honor and flying
+colors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The British Empire was well and loyally
+served by her Indian subjects, and by none
+more faithfully than the Sikhs.</p>
+
+<p>We let the column get well started before we
+shoved off in our cars. The trail was wide
+enough to pass without interfering; and long
+before we were in sight of Taza we had taken
+our place ahead. As was foreseen, the enemy
+evacuated the town with scarce a show of resistance.
+I set off to interview the local head
+man. In the spring all the upper Mesopotamian
+towns are inundated by flocks of storks, but
+I have never seen them in greater force than
+in Taza. On almost every housetop were a
+<a name='Page_177'></a>couple, throwing their heads back and clattering
+their beaks in the odd way that gives
+them their onomatopoetic Arabic name of
+Lak-Lak. It sounded like the rattle of machine-guns;
+so much so that on entering the
+village, for the first second I thought that the
+Turks were opening up on us. No native will
+molest a stork; to do so is considered to the
+last degree inauspicious.</p>
+
+<p>There was but little water in the river running
+by Taza, and we managed to get the cars
+through under their own power. A few miles
+farther on lay a broad watercourse, dry in the
+main, but with the centre channel too deep to
+negotiate, so there was nothing to be done
+without the help of the artillery horses. The
+Turks were shelling the vicinity of the crossing,
+so we drew back a short distance and sent
+word that we were held up waiting for assistance
+to get us over.</p>
+
+<p>Once we had reached the far side we set out
+to pick our way round Kirkuk to get astride
+the road leading thence to Altun Kupri. This
+is the main route from Baghdad to Mosul, the
+chief city on the upper Tigris, across the river
+from the ruins of Nineveh. It was a difficult
+task finding a way practicable for the cars, as
+<a name='Page_178'></a>the ground was still soft from the recent rains.
+It was impossible to keep defiladed from Turkish
+observation, but we did not supply them
+with much in the way of a target. At length
+we got round to the road, and started to advance
+down it to Kirkuk. The town, in common
+with so many others in that part of the
+country, is built on a hill. The Hamawand
+Kurds are inveterate raiders, and good fortifications
+are needed to withstand them. As we
+came out upon the road we caught sight of our
+cavalry preparing to attack. The Turks were
+putting up a stout resistance, with darkness
+fast coming to their aid. After approaching
+close to the town, we were ordered to return to
+a deserted village for the night, prepared to go
+through in the early morning.</p>
+
+<p>The co-ordinates of the village were given,
+and we easily found it on the map; but it was
+quite another proposition to locate it physically.
+To add to our difficulties, the sky clouded
+over and pitchy blackness settled down. It
+soon started to rain, so we felt that the best we
+could do was select as likely a spot as came to
+hand and wait for morning. I made up my
+mind that the front seat of a van, uncomfortable
+and cramped as it was, would prove the
+<a name='Page_179'></a>best bed for the night. My estimate was
+correct, for at midnight the light drizzle, that
+was scarcely more than a Scotch mist, turned
+into a wild, torrential downpour that all but
+washed away my companions. The waterproof
+flap that I had rigged withstood the onslaughts
+of wind and rain in a fashion that
+was as gratifying as it was unexpected. The
+vivid flashes of lightning showed the little dry
+ravine beside us converted into a roaring,
+swirling torrent. The water was rushing past
+beneath the cars, half-way up to their hubs.
+A large field hospital had been set up close
+to the banks of the stream at Taza. We afterward
+heard that the river had risen so rapidly
+that many of the tents and a few ambulances
+were washed away.</p>
+
+<p>By morning it had settled down into a
+steady, businesslike downpour. We found
+that we were inextricably caught in among
+some low hills. There was not the slightest
+chance of moving the fighting cars; they were
+bogged down to the axle. There was no alternative
+other than to wait until the rain
+stopped and the mud dried. Fortunately our
+emergency rations were still untouched.</p>
+
+<p>Our infantry went over at dawn, and won
+<a name='Page_180'></a>through into the town. If it had not been for
+the rain we would have made some important
+captures. As it was, the Turks destroyed the
+bridge across the Hasa Su and retreated to
+Altun Kupri by the road on the farther bank.
+From a hill near by we watched everything,
+powerless to help in any way.</p>
+
+<p>At noon the sky unexpectedly cleared and
+the sun came out. We unloaded a Ford van,
+and with much pushing and no little spade
+work managed to get it down to a road running
+in the direction of Kirkuk. We found the
+surface equal to the light car, and slowly made
+our way to the outskirts of the town, with occasional
+halts where digging and shoving were
+required. We satisfied ourselves that, given a
+little sun, we could bring the armored cars out
+of their bog and through to the town.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/19.jpg"><img src="./images/19_th.jpg"
+alt="Kirkuk"></a></p><p class="ctr">Kirkuk</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, in spite of the fact that more
+rain had fallen during the night, I set to work
+on my tenders, and at length succeeded in
+putting them all in Kirkuk. We were billeted
+in the citadel, a finely built, substantial affair,
+with a courtyard that we could turn into a
+good garage. The Turks had left in great haste,
+and, although they had attempted a wholesale
+destruction of everything that they could
+<a name='Page_181'></a>not take, they had been only partially successful.
+In my room I found a quantity of pamphlets
+describing the American army&mdash;with diagrams
+of insignia, and pictures of fully equipped
+soldiers of the different branches of the service.
+There was also a map of the United States
+showing the population by States. The text
+was, of course, in Turkish and the printing
+excellently done. What the purpose might be
+I could not make out.</p>
+
+<p>The wherefore of another booklet was more
+obvious. It was an illustrated account of alleged
+British atrocities. Most of the pictures
+purported to have been taken in the Sudan,
+and showed decapitated negroes. Some I am
+convinced were pictures of the Armenian
+massacres that the Turks had themselves taken
+and in a thrifty moment put to this useful purpose.
+This pamphlet was printed at the press
+in Kirkuk.</p>
+
+<p>There were a number of excellent buildings&mdash;mainly
+workshops and armories, but the best
+was the hospital. The long corridors and deep
+windows of the wards looked very cool. An
+up-to-date impression was given by the individual
+patient charts, with the headings for
+the different diagnoses printed in Turkish and<a name='Page_182'></a>
+French. The doctors were mainly Armenians.
+The occupants were all suffering from malnutrition,
+and there was a great deal of starvation
+in the town.</p>
+
+<p>I did not wish to return to Baghdad until I
+could be certain that we were not going to advance
+upon Altun Kupri. The engineers
+patched up the bridge, and we took the cars
+over to the other side and went off on a reconnaissance
+to ascertain how strongly the town
+was being held. The long bridge from which
+it gets its name could easily be destroyed, and
+crossing over the river would be no light matter.
+The surrounding mountains limited the
+avenue of attack. Altogether it would not be
+an easy nut to crack, and the Turks had evidently
+determined on a stand. What decided
+the army commander to make any further
+attempt to advance was most probably the
+great length of the line of communications,
+and the recent floods had made worse conditions
+which were bad enough at the best.
+The ration supply had fallen very low, and it
+seemed impossible to hold even Kirkuk unless
+the rail-head could be advanced materially.</p>
+
+<p>I put in all my odd moments wandering about
+<a name='Page_183'></a>the bazaars. The day after the fall the merchants
+opened their booths and transacted
+business as usual. The population was composed
+of many races, chiefly Turcoman, Kurd,
+and Arab. There were also Armenians, Chaldeans,
+Syrians, and Jews. The latter were exceedingly
+prosperous. Arabic and Kurdish
+and Turkish were all three spoken. Kirkuk
+is of very ancient origin&mdash;but of its early history
+little is known. The natives point out a
+mound which they claim to be Daniel's tomb.
+Two others are shown as belonging to Shadrach
+and Meshech; that of the third of the
+famous trio has been lost. There are many
+artificial hills in the neighborhood, and doubtless
+in course of time it will prove a fruitful
+hunting-ground for arch&aelig;ologists. As far as
+I could learn no serious excavating has hitherto
+been undertaken in the vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>The bazaars were well filled with goods of
+every sort. I picked up one or two excellent
+rugs for very little, and a few odds and ends,
+dating from Seleucid times, that had been unearthed
+by Arab laborers in their gardens or
+brick-kilns. There were some truck-gardens
+in the outskirts, and we traded fresh vegetables
+for some of our issue rations. There are few
+<a name='Page_184'></a>greater luxuries when one has been living on
+canned foods for a long time. I saw several
+ibex heads nailed up over the doors of houses.
+The owners told me that they were to be found
+in the near-by mountains, but were not plentiful.
+There is little large game left in Mesopotamia,
+and that mainly in the mountains. I once
+saw a striped hyena. It is a nocturnal animal,
+and they may be common, although I never
+came across but the one, which I caught sight
+of slinking among the ruins of Istabulat, south
+of Samarra, one evening when I was riding back
+to camp. Gazelle were fairly numerous, and
+we occasionally shot one for venison. It was
+on the plains between Kizil Robat and Kara
+Tepe that I saw the largest bands. Judging
+from ancient bas-reliefs lions must at one time
+have been very plentiful. In the forties of the
+last century Sir Henry Layard speaks of coming
+across them frequently in the hill country;
+and later still, in the early eighties, a fellow
+countryman, Mr. Fogg, in his <i>Land of the
+Arabian Nights</i>, mentions that the English
+captain of a river steamer had recently killed
+four lions, shooting from the deck of his boat.
+Rousseau speaks of meeting, near Hit, a man
+who had been badly mauled by a lion, and
+<a name='Page_185'></a>was going to town to have his wounds cared
+for. Leopards and bears are to be met with
+in the higher mountain regions, and wild boars
+are common in many districts. They inhabit
+the thickets along the river-banks, in country
+that would permit of much sound sport in
+the shape of pig-sticking.</p>
+
+<p>Game-birds are found in abundance; both
+greater and lesser bustard; black and gray
+partridges, quail, geese, duck, and snipe. A
+week's leave could be made provide good
+shooting and a welcome addition to the usual
+fare when the wanderer returned. Every sort
+of shotgun was requisitioned, from antiquated
+muzzle-loaders bought in the bazaar to the
+most modern creations of Purdy sent out from
+India by parcel-post.</p>
+
+<p>After waiting a few days further, to be certain
+that an attack would not be unexpectedly
+ordered, I set out on my return trip to Baghdad.
+The river at Taza was still up, but I borrowed
+six mules from an accommodating galloping
+ambulance, and pulled the car across.
+We went by way of Kifri, a clean, stone-built
+town that we found all but empty. The food
+situation had become so critical that the inhabitants
+had drifted off, some to our lines,
+<a name='Page_186'></a>others to Persia, and still others to Kirkuk and
+Mosul. Near Kifri are some coal-mines about
+which we had heard much. It is the only place
+in the country where coal is worked, and we
+were hoping that we might put it to good use.
+Our experts, however, reported that it was
+of very poor quality and worth practically
+nothing.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='VIII'></a><h2><a name='Page_187'></a><a name='Page_188'></a><a name='Page_189'></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>BACK THROUGH PALESTINE</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Several days later I embarked at Baghdad
+on one of the river boats. I took Yusuf with
+me to Busra to put me aboard the transport
+for Egypt. It was the first time he had ever
+been that far down-stream, and he showed a
+fine contempt for everything he saw, comparing
+it in most disparaging terms to his own
+desolate native town of Samarra. The cheapness,
+variety, and plenty of the food in the
+bazaars of Busra were the only things that he
+allowed in any way to impress him.</p>
+
+<p>I was fortunate enough to run into some
+old friends, and through one of them met
+General Sutton, who most kindly and opportunely
+rescued me from the dreary &quot;Rest-Camp&quot;
+and took me to his house. While I
+was waiting for a chance to get a place on a
+transport, he one morning asked me to go with
+him to Zobeir, where he was to dedicate a hospital.
+Zobeir is a desert town of ten thousand
+or so inhabitants, situated fifteen miles inland
+<a name='Page_190'></a>from Busra. The climate is supposed to be
+more healthful, and many of the rich and important
+residents of the river town have houses
+there to which they retire during the summer
+months. To an outsider any comparison
+would seem only a refinement of degrees of
+suffocation. The heat of all the coastal towns
+of the Persian Gulf is terrific.</p>
+
+<p>Zobeir is a desert town, with its ideals and
+feelings true to the inheritance of the tribesmen.
+It is a market for the caravans of central
+Arabia. A good idea of the Turkish feeling toward
+it may be gathered from the fact that
+the inhabitants were exempt from military service.
+This was a clear admission on the part
+of the Turk that he could not cope with the
+situation, and thought it wisest not to attempt
+something which he had no hope of putting
+through. It was, therefore, a great triumph
+for the British and a sure wedge into the confidence
+of the desert folk when the hospital
+was opened, for any people that can introduce
+so marked an innovation among the hidebound
+desert communities must have won
+their confidence and respect in a remarkable degree.
+Ibrahim, the hereditary Sheikh of Zobeir,
+himself contributed largely to the fund for
+<a name='Page_191'></a>the endowment. It was arranged that Doctor
+Borrie, who among his other duties ran the
+civil hospital at Busra, should periodically include
+Zobeir in his rounds. The Sheikh showed
+us over the building. It was cool, comfortable,
+and very sanitary. The Indian who was
+to be resident physician had every appearance
+of intelligence and proficiency. Old
+Ibrahim gave us a large banquet of the orthodox
+type. There was a sheep roasted whole,
+and dishes of every sort of meat and vegetable
+marshalled upon the table, which fairly groaned
+beneath their weight. We had innumerable
+speeches. General Sutton made an excellent
+address, which an interpreter translated into
+Arabic. Our Arabian hosts were long-winded,
+and the recognized local orator was so classical
+in his phrases and forms and tenses that it was
+impossible to do more than get the general
+drift of what he said. Luckily I had in my
+pocket a copy of the <i>Lusiads</i>, which I surreptitiously
+read when the speeches became hopelessly
+long drawn out.</p>
+
+<p>I was allotted space on a British India, boat,
+the <i>Torrilla</i>, that was to take to Egypt a field
+artillery regiment of the Third Division. As
+we dropped down-stream and I watched a
+<a name='Page_192'></a>disconsolate Yusuf standing on the dock, I
+felt that another chapter had closed&mdash;an interesting
+one at that. I was not left long to
+muse on what the next would bring forth before
+there was a cry of &quot;fire&quot;; and from where
+I was standing in the smoking-room I could
+see, through the open hatchways, the soldiers
+hurrying about below decks. As the ship was
+well ballasted with ammunition, anything that
+happened would, take place quickly, and only
+those on the spot could hope to control events,
+so I stayed where I was. A few minutes later
+the fire was reported out.</p>
+
+<p>The long two weeks' trip through the Persian
+Gulf and round to the Red Sea was monotonously
+peaceful. Being &quot;unattached,&quot; I had
+no regular duties. Occasionally I attended
+&quot;stables,&quot; and wandered around the horse
+lines. The great heat below decks had far less
+effect upon the horses than would be supposed.
+Of course, they were well cared for, and many
+were seasoned veterans that had taken more
+than one long sea voyage. If I am not mistaken,
+only one was lost on the trip.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the time I lay back in my rhoorkhee
+chair and read whatever I could find in the
+ship's library. The wireless broke down a few
+<a name='Page_193'></a>days after we left Busra, so we got no news
+whatever of the outer world, and soon ceased
+to speculate on what might be happening in
+France.</p>
+
+<p>At length, on the morning of June 4, we
+dropped anchor in Suez harbor. We had
+hoped that the <i>Torrilla</i> would run through the
+canal to Port Said, but the disembarkation
+officer told us that we were all to be unloaded
+at Suez and proceed by rail. When I reached
+Alexandria I learned that a convoy had just
+sailed and there would not be another for two
+weeks at earliest. Sir Reginald Wingate, who
+had long been a family friend, was the British
+High Commissioner. Lady Wingate and he
+with the utmost hospitality insisted on my
+moving out to the residency to wait for my
+sailing.</p>
+
+<p>When I left for Mesopotamia Lord Derby
+had given me a letter to General Allenby
+which I had never had an opportunity to present.
+Sir Reginald suggested that I could not
+do better than make use of this enforced delay
+by going up to Palestine. The railway was
+already running to Jerusalem and you could
+go straight through from Cairo with but one
+change. At Kantara you crossed the canal
+<a name='Page_194'></a>and entered the military zone. Leaving there
+at half past eleven in the evening the train
+reached Ludd, which was general headquarters,
+at seven the following morning.</p>
+
+<p>Every one that I had ever met who knew
+General Allenby was wildly enthusiastic about
+him, and you had only to be with him a few
+minutes to realize how thoroughly justified
+their enthusiasm was. He represented the
+very highest type of the British soldier, and
+more need not be said. On the morning on
+which I arrived an attack was in progress and
+we could hear the drumming of the guns.
+The commander-in-chief placed a car at my
+disposal and I went around visiting old friends
+that I had made in Mesopotamia or still
+earlier in England, before the war. Among the
+latter was Colonel Ronald Storrs, the military
+governor of Jerusalem. With him I spent several
+days. Life in the Holy City seemed but
+little changed by the war. There was an interesting
+innovation in the Church of the Nativity
+at Bethlehem. The different Christian
+religious sects, in particular the Greek and
+Latin Catholics, were prone to come to blows
+in the church, and bloodshed and death had
+more than once been the result. To obviate
+<a name='Page_195'></a>this it had been the custom to have a regular
+relief of Turkish soldiers stationed in the
+church. Their place was now taken by British
+and French and Italians. Each nationality in
+rotation furnished the guard for a day. At
+the festival of the distribution of the Sacred
+Fire from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
+Jerusalem there were usually a number of
+accidents caused by the anxiety to reach the
+portal whence the fire was given out. The
+commander-in-chief particularly complimented
+Colonel Storrs upon the orderly way in which
+this ceremony was conducted under his r&eacute;gime.
+The population of Jerusalem is exceedingly
+mixed&mdash;and the percentage of fanatics is of
+course disproportionately large. There are
+many groups that have been gathered together
+and brought out to the Holy Land with distinctly
+unusual purposes. One such always
+had an empty seat at their table and confidently
+expected that Christ would some day
+appear to occupy it. The long-haired Russian
+and Polish Jews with their felt hats and shabby
+frock coats were to be met with everywhere.
+In the street where the Jews meet to lament
+the departed glory of Jerusalem an incongruous
+and ludicrous element was added by a few<a name='Page_196'></a>
+Jews, their bowed heads covered with ancient
+derby hats, wailing with undefeated zeal.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/20.jpg"><img src="./images/20_th.jpg"
+alt="A street in Jerusalem"></a></p><p class="ctr">A street in Jerusalem</p>
+
+<p>It is a mournful fact that the one really fine
+building in Jerusalem should be the Mosque
+of Omar&mdash;the famous &quot;Dome of the Rock.&quot;
+This is built on the legendary site of the temple
+of Solomon, and the mosaics lining the inside
+of the dome are the most beautiful I have ever
+seen. The simplicity is what is really most
+felt, doubly so because the Christian holy
+places are garish and tawdry, with tin-foil
+and flowers and ornate carving. It is to be
+hoped that the Christians will some day unite
+and clean out all the dreary offerings and
+knickknacks that clutter the Church of the
+Holy Sepulchre. Moslems hold the Mosque
+of Omar second in sanctity only to the great
+mosque in the holy city of Mecca. It is curious,
+therefore, that they should not object to
+Christians entering it. Mohammedans enter
+barefoot, but we fastened large yellow slippers
+over our shoes, and that was regarded as filling
+all requirements. Storrs pointed out to me
+that it was quite unnecessary to remove our
+hats, for that is not a sign of respect with
+Moslems, and they keep on their red fezzes.
+The mosque was built by the Caliph Abd el<a name='Page_197'></a>
+Melek, about fifty years after Omar had captured
+Jerusalem in 636 A.D. Many of the
+stones used in building it came from the temple
+of Jupiter. In the centre lies the famous
+rock, some sixty feet in diameter, and rising
+six or seven feet above the floor of the mosque.
+To Mohammedans it is more sacred than anything
+else in the world save the Black Stone
+at Mecca. Tradition says that it was here
+that Abraham and Melchizedek sacrificed to
+Jehovah, and Abraham brought Isaac as an
+offering. Scientists find grounds for the belief
+that it was the altar of the temple in the
+traces of a channel for carrying off the blood
+of the victims. The Crusaders believed the
+mosque to be the original temple of Solomon,
+and, according to their own reports, rededicated
+it with the massacre of more than ten
+thousand Moslems who had fled thither for
+refuge. The wrought-iron screen that they
+placed around the rock still remains. The
+cavern below is the traditional place of worship
+of many of the great characters of the
+Old Testament, such as David and Solomon
+and Elijah. From it Mohammed made his
+night journey to heaven, borne on his steed
+El Burak. In the floor of the cavern is an
+<a name='Page_198'></a>opening covered with a slab of stone, and said
+to go down to the centre of the world and be
+a medium for communicating with the souls
+of the departed.</p>
+
+<p>The military governor has been at work to
+better the sanitary conditions in Jerusalem.
+Hitherto the only water used by the townsfolk
+had been the rain-water which they gathered in
+tanks. Some years ago it was proposed to
+bring water to the city in pipes, some of which
+were already laid before the inhabitants decided
+that such an innovation could not be tolerated.
+The British have put in a pipe-line, and oddly
+enough it runs to the same reservoir whence
+Pontius Pilate started to bring water by means
+of an aqueduct. They have also built some
+excellent roads through the surrounding hills.
+Here, as in Mesopotamia, one was struck by
+the permanent nature of the improvements
+that are being made. Even to people absorbed
+in their own jealousies and rivalries the advantages
+that they were deriving from their
+liberation from Turkish rule must have been
+exceedingly apparent.</p>
+
+<p>The situation in Palestine differed in many
+ways from that in Mesopotamia, but in none
+more markedly than in the benefits derived
+<a name='Page_199'></a>from the propinquity of Egypt. Occasional
+leaves were granted to Cairo and Alexandria
+and they afforded the relaxation of a complete
+change of surroundings. I have never seen
+Cairo gayer. Shepherd's Hotel was open and
+crowded&mdash;and the dances as pleasant as any
+that could be given in London. The beaches
+at Ramleh, near Alexandria, were bright with
+crowds of bathers, and the change afforded the
+&quot;men from up the line&quot; must have proved of
+inestimable value in keeping the army contented.
+There were beaches especially reserved
+for non-commissioned officers and others
+for the privates&mdash;while in Cairo sightseeing
+tours were made to the pyramids and what the
+guide-books describe as &quot;other points of interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When I left Mesopotamia I made up my
+mind that there was one man in Palestine whom
+I would use every effort to see if I were held
+over waiting for a sailing. This man was
+Major A.B. Paterson, known to every Australian
+as &quot;Banjo&quot; Paterson. His two most
+widely read books are <i>The Man from Snowy
+River</i> and <i>Rio Grande's Last Race</i>; both had
+been for years companions of the entire family
+at home and sources for daily quotations,
+<a name='Page_200'></a>so I had always hoped to some day meet their
+author. I knew that he had fought in the
+South African War, and I heard that he was
+with the Australian forces in Palestine. As
+soon as I landed I asked every Australian
+officer that I met where Major Paterson was,
+for locating an individual member of an expeditionary
+force, no matter how well known he
+may be, is not always easy. Every one knew
+him. I remember well when I inquired at the
+Australian headquarters in Cairo how the man
+I asked turned to a comrade and said: &quot;Say,
+where's 'Banjo' now? He's at Moascar, isn't
+he?&quot; Whether they had ever met him personally
+or not he was &quot;Banjo&quot; to one and all.</p>
+
+<p>On my return to Alexandria I stopped at
+Moascar, which was the main depot of the
+Australian Remount Service, and there I found
+him. He is a man of about sixty, with long
+mustaches and strong aquiline features&mdash;very
+like the type of American plainsman that
+Frederic Remington so well portrayed. He
+has lived everything that he has written. At
+different periods of his life he has dived for
+pearls in the islands, herded sheep, broken
+broncos, and known every chance and change
+of Australian station life. The Australians told
+<a name='Page_201'></a>me that when he was at his prime he was regarded
+as the best rider in Australia. A recent
+feat about which I heard much mention was
+when he drove three hundred mules straight
+through Cairo without losing a single animal,
+conclusively proving his argument against
+those who had contested that such a thing
+could not be done. Although he has often been
+in England, Major Paterson has never come
+to the United States. He told me that among
+American writers he cared most for the works
+of Joel Chandler Harris and O. Henry&mdash;an
+odd combination!</p>
+
+<p>While in Egypt I met a man about whom I
+had heard much, a man whose career was unsurpassed
+in interest and in the amount accomplished
+by the individual. Before the war
+Colonel Lawrence was engaged in arch&aelig;ological
+research under Professor Hogarth of Oxford
+University. Their most important work was
+in connection with the excavation of a buried
+city in Palestine. At the outbreak of hostilities
+Professor Hogarth joined the Naval Intelligence
+and rendered invaluable services to
+the Egyptian Expeditionary Forces. Lawrence
+had an excellent grounding in Arabic and decided
+to try to organize the desert tribes into
+<a name='Page_202'></a>bands that would raid the Turkish outposts
+and smash their lines of communication. He
+established a body-guard of reckless semioutlaws,
+men that in the old days in our West
+would have been known as &quot;bad men.&quot; They
+became devoted to him and he felt that he
+could count upon their remaining faithful
+should any of the tribes with which he was
+raiding meditate treachery. He dressed in
+Arab costume, but as a whole made no effort
+to conceal his nationality. His method consisted
+in leading a tribe off on a wild foray to
+break the railway, blow up bridges, and carry
+off the Turkish supplies. Swooping down from
+out the open desert like hawks, they would
+strike once and be off before the Turks could
+collect themselves. Lawrence explained that
+he had to succeed, for if he failed to carry off
+any booty, his reputation among the tribesmen
+was dead&mdash;and no one would follow him
+thereafter. What he found hardest on these
+raids was killing the wounded&mdash;but the dread
+of falling into the hands of the Turks was so
+great that before starting it was necessary to
+make a compact to kill all that were too badly
+injured to be carried away on the camels.
+The Turks offered for Colonel Lawrence's cap<a name='Page_203'></a>ture
+a reward of ten thousand pounds if dead
+and twenty thousand pounds if alive. His
+added value in the latter condition was due
+to the benefit that the enemy expected to derive
+from his public execution. No one who
+has not tried it can realize what a long ride on
+a camel means, and although Lawrence was
+eager to take with him an Englishman who
+would know the best methods of blowing up
+bridges and buildings, he could never find any
+one who was able to stand the strain of a long
+journey on camel back.</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence told me that he couldn't last
+much longer, things had broken altogether too
+well for him, and they could not continue to
+do so. Scarcely more than thirty years of age,
+with a clean-shaven, boyish face, short and slender
+in build, if one met him casually among a lot
+of other officers it would not have been easy to
+single him out as the great power among the
+Arabs that he on every occasion proved himself
+to be. Lawrence always greatly admired
+the Arabs&mdash;appreciating their many-sidedness&mdash;their
+virility&mdash;their ferocity&mdash;their intellect
+and their sensitiveness. I remember well one
+of the stories which he told me. It was, I
+believe, when he was on a long raid in the
+<a name='Page_204'></a>course of which he went right into the outskirts
+of Damascus&mdash;then miles behind the
+Turkish lines. They halted at a ruined palace
+in the desert. The Arabs led him through the
+various rooms, explaining that each was scented
+with a different perfume. Although Lawrence
+could smell nothing, they claimed that one room
+had the odor of ambergris&mdash;another of roses&mdash;and
+a third of jasmine;&mdash;at length they came to
+a large and particularly ruinous room. &quot;This,&quot;
+they said, &quot;has the finest scent of all&mdash;the smell
+of the wind and the sun.&quot; I last saw Colonel
+Lawrence in Paris, whither he had brought the
+son of the King of the Hedjaz to attend the
+Peace Conference.</p>
+
+<p>When I got back to Alexandria I found that
+the sailing of the convoy had been still further
+delayed. Three vessels out of the last
+one to leave had been sunk, involving a considerable
+loss of life. The channel leading
+from the harbor out to sea is narrow and must
+be followed well beyond the entrance, so that
+the submarines had an excellent chance to lay
+in wait for outgoing boats. The greatest
+secrecy was observed with regard to the date
+of leaving and destination&mdash;and of course
+troops were embarked and held in the harbor
+<a name='Page_205'></a>for several days so as to avoid as far as possible
+any notice being given to the lurking
+enemy by spies on shore.</p>
+
+<p>The transports were filled with units that
+were being hurried off to stem the German tide
+in France, so casual officers were placed on the
+accompanying destroyers and cruisers. I was
+allotted to a little Japanese destroyer, the <i>Umi</i>.
+She was of only about six hundred and fifty
+tons burden, for this class of boat in the Japanese
+navy is far smaller than in ours. She was
+as neat as a pin, as were also the crew. The
+officers were most friendly and did everything
+possible to make things comfortable for a
+landsman in their limited quarters. The first
+meal on board we all used knives and forks, but
+thereafter they were only supplied to me, while
+the Japanese fell back upon their chop-sticks.
+It was a never-failing source of interest to
+watch their skill in eating under the most
+difficult circumstances. One morning when the
+boat was dancing about even more than usual,
+I came into breakfast to find the steward
+bringing in some rather underdone fried eggs,
+and thought that at last I would see the ship's
+officers stumped in the use of their chop-sticks.
+Not a bit of it; they had disposed of the eggs
+<a name='Page_206'></a>in the most unsurpassed manner and were off
+to their duties before I myself had finished
+eating.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/21.jpg"><img src="./images/21_th.jpg"
+alt="Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto"></a></p><p class="ctr">Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto</p>
+
+<p>We left Alexandria with an escort of aeroplanes
+to see us safely started, while an observation
+balloon made fast to a cruiser accompanied
+us on the first part of our journey. The
+precautions were not in vain, for two submarines
+were sighted a short time after we cleared
+the harbor. The traditional Japanese efficiency
+was well borne out by the speed with which
+our crew prepared for action. Every member
+was in his appointed place and the guns were
+stripped for action in an incredibly short time
+after the warning signal. It was when we were
+nearing the shores of Italy that I had best opportunity
+to see the destroyers at work. We
+sighted a submarine which let fly at one of the
+troopers&mdash;the torpedo passing its bow and
+barely missing the boat beyond it. Quick as a
+flash the Japanese were after it&mdash;swerving in
+and out like terriers chasing a rat, and letting
+drive as long as it was visible. We cast
+around for the better part of an hour, dropping
+overboard depth charges which shook the
+little craft as the explosion sent great funnels
+of water aloft. The familiar harbor of<a name='Page_207'></a>
+Taranto was a welcome sight when we at
+length herded our charges in through the narrow
+entrance and swung alongside the wharf
+where the destroyers were to take in a supply
+of fuel preparatory to starting out again on
+their interminable and arduous task.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='IX'></a><h2><a name='Page_208'></a><a name='Page_209'></a><a name='Page_210'></a><a name='Page_211'></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY</h3>
+
+<h4>I</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>My transfer to the American army appointed
+me as captain of field artillery instead of
+infantry, as I had wished. Just how the mistake
+occurred I never determined, but once
+in the field artillery I found that to shift back
+would take an uncertain length of time, and
+that even after it was effected I would be
+obliged to take a course at some school before
+going up to the line. It therefore seemed advisable
+to go immediately, as instructed, to the
+artillery school, at Saumur. The management
+was half French and half American. Colonel
+MacDonald and Colonel Cross were the Americans
+in charge, and the high reputation of the
+school bore testimony to their efficiency. It
+was the intention of headquarters gradually
+to replace all the French instructors with Americans,
+but when I was there the former pre<a name='Page_212'></a>dominated.
+It was of course necessary to
+wait until our officers had learned by actual
+experience the use of the French guns with
+which our army was supplied. When men are
+being taught what to do in combat conditions
+they apply themselves more attentively and
+absorb far more when they feel that the
+officer teaching them has had to test, under
+enemy fire, the theories he is expounding.
+The school was for both officers and candidates.
+The latter were generally chosen from
+among the non-commissioned officers serving
+at the front; I afterward sent men down from
+my battery. The first part of the course was
+difficult for those who had either never had
+much mathematical training or had had it so
+long ago that they were hopelessly out of practice.
+A number of excellent sergeants and
+corporals did not have the necessary grounding
+to enable them to pass the examinations. They
+should never have been sent, for it merely put
+them in an awkward and humiliating position&mdash;although
+no stigma could possibly be attached
+to them for having failed.</p>
+
+<p>The French officer commanding the field
+work was Major de Caraman. His long and
+distinguished service in the front lines, com<a name='Page_213'></a>bined
+with his initiative and ever-ready tact,
+made him an invaluable agent in welding the
+ideas and methods of France and America.
+His house was always filled with Americans,
+and how much his hospitality meant to those
+whose ties were across the ocean must have
+been experienced to be appreciated. The
+homes of France were ever thrown open to us,
+and the sincere and simple good-will with which
+we were received has put us under a lasting
+debt which we should be only too glad to
+cherish and acknowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Saumur is a delightful old town in the heart
+of the ch&acirc;teau country. The river Loire runs
+through it, and along the banks are the caves
+in some of which have been found the paintings
+made by prehistoric man picturing the
+beasts with which he struggled for supremacy
+in the dim dark ages. The same caves are
+many of them inhabited, and their owners may
+well look with scorn upon the ch&acirc;teaux and
+baronial castles of whose antiquity it is customary
+to boast. There is an impressive castle
+built on a hill dominating the town, and in one
+of the churches is hung an array of tapestries
+of unsurpassed color and design. The country
+round about invited rambling, and the excel<a name='Page_214'></a>lent
+roads made it easy; particularly delightful
+were the strolls along the river-banks, where
+patient fisherfolk of every sex and age sat unperturbed
+by the fact that they never seemed
+to catch anything. One old lady with a sunbonnet
+was always to be seen seated on a
+three-legged stool in the same corner amid the
+rocks. She had a rusty black umbrella which
+she would open when the rays of the sun became
+too searching.</p>
+
+<p>The buildings which were provided for the
+artillery course had formerly been used by the
+cavalry school, probably the best known in
+the world. Before the war army officers of
+every important nation in the Occident and
+Orient were sent by their governments to follow
+the course and learn the method of instruction.
+My old friend Fitzhugh Lee was
+one of those sent by the United States, and I
+found his record as a horseman still alive and
+fresh in the memory of many of the townspeople.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the termination of my period of
+instruction I was in command of C Battery
+of the Seventh Field Artillery in the Argonne
+fighting. I was standing one morning in the
+desolate, shell-ridden town of Landres et St.<a name='Page_215'></a>
+George watching a column of &quot;dough-boys&quot;
+coming up the road; at their head limped a
+battered Dodge car, and as it neared me I
+recognized my elder brother Ted, sitting on the
+back seat in deep discussion with his adjutant.
+I had believed him to be safely at the staff school
+in Langres recuperating from a wound, but he
+had been offered the chance to come up in
+command of his old regiment, the Twenty-Sixth,
+and although registered as only &quot;good
+for light duty in the service of supply,&quot; he had
+made his way back to the division. While we
+were talking another car came up and out from
+it jumped my brother-in-law, Colonel Richard
+Derby&mdash;at that time division surgeon of the
+Second Division. We were the only three
+members of the family left in active service
+since my brother Quentin, the aviator, was
+brought down over the enemy lines, and
+Archie, severely wounded in leg and arm, had
+been evacuated to the United States. I well
+remember how once when Colonel Derby introduced
+me to General Lejeune, who was
+commanding his division, the general, instead
+of making some remark about my father, said:
+&quot;I shall always be glad to meet a relative of a
+man with Colonel Derby's record.&quot;</p><a name='Page_216'></a>
+
+<p>On the 11th of November we had just
+returned to our original sector after attacking
+Sedan. None of us placed much confidence in
+an armistice being signed. We felt that the
+German would never accept the terms, but
+were confident that by late spring or early summer
+we would be able to bring about an unconditional
+surrender. When the firing ceased
+and the news came through that the enemy had
+capitulated, there was no great show of excitement.
+We were all too weary to be much
+stirred by anything that could occur. For the
+past two weeks we had been switched hither
+and yon, with little sleep and less food, and a
+constant decrease in our personnel and horses
+that was never entirely made good but grew
+steadily more serious. The only bursts of
+enthusiasm that I heard were occasioned by
+the automobile trucks and staff cars passing
+by after dark with their headlights blazing.
+The joyous shouts of &quot;Lights out!&quot; testified
+that the reign of darkness was over. Soon
+the men began building fires and gathering
+about them, calling &quot;Lights out!&quot; as each
+new blaze started&mdash;a joke which seemed a
+never-failing source of amusement.</p>
+
+<p>We heard that we were to march into Ger<a name='Page_217'></a>many
+in the wake of the evacuating army and
+occupy one of the bridge-heads. All this came
+through in vague and unconfirmed form, but
+in a few days we were hauled back out of the
+line to a desolate mass of ruins which had once
+been the village of Bantheville. We were told
+that we would have five days here, during
+which we would be reoutfitted in every particular.
+Our horses were in fearful shape&mdash;constant
+work in the rain and mud with very
+meagre allowance of fodder had worn down the
+toughest old campaigners among them. During
+the weary, endless night march on Sedan I
+often saw two horses leaning against each other
+in utter exhaustion&mdash;as if it were by that means
+alone that they kept on their feet. We were
+told to indent for everything that we needed
+to make our batteries complete as prescribed
+in the organization charts, but we followed instructions
+without any very blind faith in results&mdash;nor
+did our lack of trust prove unwarranted,
+for we got practically nothing for which
+we had applied.</p>
+
+<p>There were some colored troops near by engaged
+in repairing the roads, and a number of
+us determined to get up a quartet to sing for
+the men. We went to where the negroes had
+<a name='Page_218'></a>built themselves shelters from corrugated-iron
+sheets and miscellaneous bits of wreckage from
+the town. We collected three quarters of our
+quartet and were directed to the mess-shack
+for the fourth. As we approached I could hear
+sounds of altercation and a voice that we
+placed immediately as that of our quarry arose
+in indignant warning: &quot;If yo' doan' leggo that
+mess-kit I'll lay a barrage down on yo'!&quot; A
+platform was improvised near a blazing fire of
+pine boards and we had some excellent clogging
+and singing. The big basso had evidently
+a strong feeling for his steel helmet, and it undoubtedly
+added to his picturesqueness&mdash;setting
+off his features with his teeth and eyes
+gleaming in the firelight.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the second day orders
+came to move off on the following morning.
+We were obliged to discard much material, for
+although the two days' rest and food had distinctly
+helped out the horse situation, we had
+many animals that could barely drag themselves
+along, much less a loaded caisson, and
+our instructions were to on no account salvage
+ammunition. We could spare but one horse
+for riding&mdash;my little mare&mdash;and she was no
+use for pulling. She was a wise little animal
+with excellent gaits and great endurance. We
+<a name='Page_219'></a>were forced to leave, behind another mare that
+I had ridden a good deal on reconnaissances,
+and that used to amuse me by her unalterable
+determination to stick to cover. It was almost
+most impossible to get her to cut across a
+field; she preferred to skirt the woods and had
+no intention of exposing herself on any sky-line.
+In spite of her caution it was on account of
+wounds that she had eventually to be abandoned.
+I trust that the salvage parties found
+her and that she is now reaping the reward of
+her foresight.</p>
+
+<p>We were a sorry-looking outfit as we marched
+away from Bantheville. My lieutenants had
+lost their bedding-rolls and extra clothes long
+since&mdash;as every one did, for it was impossible
+to keep your belongings with you&mdash;and although
+authorized dumps were provided and
+we were told that anything left behind would
+be cared for, we would be moved to another
+sector without a chance to collect our excess
+and practically everything would have disappeared
+by the time the opportunity came to
+visit the cache. But although the horses and
+accoutrements were in bad shape, the men were
+fit for any task, and more than ready to take on
+whatever situation might arise.</p>
+
+<p>Our destination was Malancourt, no great
+<a name='Page_220'></a>distance away, but the roads were so jammed
+with traffic that it was long after dark before
+we reached the bleak, wind-swept hillside that
+had been allotted to us. It was bitterly cold
+and we groped about among the shattered
+barbed-wire entanglements searching for wood
+to light a fire. There was no difficulty in finding
+shell-craters in which to sleep&mdash;the ground
+was so pockmarked with them that it seemed
+impossible that it could have been done by
+human agency.</p>
+
+<p>This country had been an &quot;active&quot; area
+during practically all the war, and the towns
+had been battered and beaten down first by
+the Boche and then by the French, and lately
+we ourselves had taken a hand in the further
+demolition of the ruins. Many a village was
+recognizable from the encompassing waste
+only by the sign-board stuck in a mound announcing
+its name. The next day's march took
+us through Esn&eacute;, Montzeville, and Bethainville,
+and on down to the Verdun-Paris highway.
+We passed by historic &quot;Dead Man's
+Hill,&quot; and not far from there we saw the mute
+reminders of an attack that brought the whole
+scene vividly back. There were nine or ten
+tanks, of types varying from the little Renault
+<a name='Page_221'></a>to the powerful battleship sort. All had been
+halted by direct hits, some while still far from
+their objective, others after they had reached
+the wire entanglements, and there was one
+that was already astride of the first-line
+trench. The continual sight of ruined towns
+and desolated countryside becomes very oppressive,
+and it was a relief when we began to
+pass through villages in which many of the
+houses were still left standing; it seemed like
+coming into a new world.</p>
+
+<p>At ten in the evening I got the battery into
+Balaicourt. A strong wind was blowing and
+the cold was intense, so I set off to try to find
+billets for the men where they could be at
+least partly sheltered. The town was all but
+deserted by its inhabitants, and we managed
+to provide every one with some degree of
+cover. Getting back into billets is particularly
+welcome in very cold or rainy weather, and we
+all were glad to be held over a day on the
+wholly mythical plea of refitting. Although the
+time would not be sufficient to make any appreciable
+effort in the way of cleaning harness
+or <i>mat&eacute;riel</i>, the men could at any rate heat
+water to wash their clothes and themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The next day's march we regarded as our
+<a name='Page_222'></a>first in the advance into Germany to which
+we had so long looked forward. We found
+the great Verdun highway which had played
+such an important part in the defense that
+broke the back of the Hun to be in excellent
+shape and a pleasant change from the shell-pitted
+roads to which we had become accustomed.
+It was not without a thrill that I rode,
+at the head of my battery, through the missive
+south gate of Verdun, and followed the winding
+streets of the old city through to the opposite
+portal. Before we had gone many miles the
+road crossed a portion of the far-famed Hindenburg
+line which had here remained intact
+until evacuated by the Boche a few days previously
+under the terms of the armistice.</p>
+
+<p>We made a short halt where a negro engineer
+regiment was at work making the road
+passable. A most hospitable officer strolled
+up and asked if I wanted anything to eat, which
+when you are in the army may be classified
+with Goldberg's &quot;foolish questions.&quot; A sturdy
+coal-black cook brought me soup and roast beef
+and coffee, and never have I appreciated the
+culinary arts of the finest French chef as I did
+that meal, for the food had been cooked, not
+merely thrown into one of the tureens of a
+<a name='Page_223'></a>rolling kitchen, which was as much as we had
+recently been able to hope for.</p>
+
+<p>The negro cook looked as if he would have
+been able to emulate his French confr&egrave;re of
+whom Major de Caraman told me. The
+Frenchman was on his way to an outpost with
+a steaming caldron of soup. He must have
+lost the way, for he unexpectedly found himself
+confronted by a German who ordered him
+to surrender. For reply the cook slammed
+the soup-dish over his adversary's head and
+marched him back a prisoner. His prowess
+was rewarded with a Croix de Guerre.</p>
+
+<p>It was interesting to see the German system
+of defense when it was still intact and had not
+been shattered by our artillery preparation as
+it was when taken in an attack. The wire
+entanglements were miles in depth, and the
+great trees by the roadside were mined. This
+was done by cutting a groove three or four
+inches broad and of an equal depth and filling
+it with packages of explosive. I suppose the
+purpose was to block the road in case of retreat.
+Only a few of the mines had been set
+off.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through several towns that no longer
+existed we came to Etain, where many build<a name='Page_224'></a>ings
+were still standing though completely
+gutted. The cellars had been converted into
+dugouts with passages and ramifications added.
+We were billeted in some German huts on the
+outskirts. They were well dug in and comfortably
+fitted out, so we were ready to stay
+over a few days, as we had been told we should,
+but at midnight orders were sent round to be
+prepared to march out early.</p>
+
+<p>The country was lovely and gave little sign
+of the Boche occupation except that it was
+totally deserted and when we passed through
+villages all the signs were in German. There
+was but little originality displayed in naming
+the streets&mdash;you could be sure that you would
+find a Hindenburg Strasse and a Kronprinz
+Strasse, and there was usually one called after
+the Kaiser. The mile-posts at the crossroads
+had been mostly replaced, but occasionally we
+found battered metal plaques of the Automobile
+Touring Club of France. Ever since we
+left Verdun we had been meeting bands of released
+prisoners, Italians and Russians chiefly,
+with a few French and English mingled. They
+were worn and underfed&mdash;their clothes were in
+rags. A few had combined and were pulling
+their scanty belongings on little cars, such as
+<a name='Page_225'></a>children make out of soap-boxes. The motor-trucks
+returning to our base after bringing up
+the rations would take back as many as they
+could carry.</p>
+
+<p>We came across scarcely any civilians until
+we reached Bouligny, a once busy and prosperous
+manufacturing town. A few of the inhabitants
+had been allowed to remain throughout
+the enemy occupation and small groups of
+those that had been removed were by now
+trickling in. The invader had destroyed property
+in the most ruthless manner, and the
+buildings were gutted. The domestic habits
+of the Hun were always to me inexplicable&mdash;he
+evidently preferred to live in the midst of his
+own filth, and many times have I seen recently
+captured ch&acirc;teaux that had been converted
+into veritable pigsties.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants went wild at our entry&mdash;in
+the little villages they came out carrying
+wreaths and threw confetti and flowers as they
+shouted the &quot;Marseillaise.&quot; The infantry,
+marching in advance, bore the brunt of the
+celebrations. What interested me most were
+the bands of small children, many of them certainly
+not over five, dancing along the streets
+singing their national anthem. It must have
+<a name='Page_226'></a>been taught them in secret. In the midst of a
+band were often an American soldier or two,
+in full swing, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
+The enthusiasm was all of it natural and uninspired
+by alcohol, for the Germans had taken
+with them everything to drink that they had
+been unable to finish.</p>
+
+<p>Bouligny is not an attractive place&mdash;few
+manufacturing towns are&mdash;but we got the men
+well billeted under water-tight roofs, and we
+were able to heat water for washing. My
+striker found a large caldron and I luxuriated
+in a steaming bath, the first in over a month,
+and, what was more, I had some clean clothes
+to pull on when I got out.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, when returning from a near-by
+village, I met a frock-coated civilian who inquired
+of me in German the way to Etain. I
+asked him who he was and what he wanted.
+He answered that he was a German but was
+tired of his country and wished to go almost
+anywhere else. He seemed altogether too apparent
+to be a spy, and even if he were I could
+not make out any object that he could gain.
+I have often wondered what became of him.</p>
+
+<p>The Boches had evidently not expected to
+give up their conquests, for they had built an
+<a name='Page_227'></a>enormous stone-and-brick fountain in the centre
+of the town, and chiselled its name, &quot;Hindenburg
+Brunnen.&quot; Above the German canteen
+or commissary shop was a great wooden
+board with &quot;Gott strafe England&quot;&mdash;a curious
+proof of how bitterly the Huns hated Great
+Britain, for there were no British troops in the
+sectors in front of this part of the invaded
+territory.</p>
+
+<p>We worked hard &quot;policing up&quot; ourselves
+and our equipment during the few days we
+stayed at Bouligny. One morning all the
+townsfolk turned out in their best clothes,
+which had been buried in the cellars or hidden
+behind the rafters in the attics, to greet the
+President and Madame Poincar&eacute;, who were
+visiting the most important of the liberated
+towns. It was good to hear the cheering and
+watch the beaming faces.</p>
+
+<p>On November 21 we resumed our march.
+Close to the border we came upon a large German
+cemetery, artistically laid out, with a
+group of massive statuary in the centre. There
+were some heroic-size granite statues of Boche
+soldiers in full kit with helmet and all, that were
+particularly fine. As we passed the stones
+marking the boundary-line between France
+<a name='Page_228'></a>and Lorraine there was a tangible feeling of
+making history, and it was not without a
+thrill that we entered Aumetz and heard the
+old people greet us in French while the children
+could speak only German. The town was
+gay with the colors of France&mdash;produced from
+goodness knows where. Children were balancing
+themselves on the barrels of abandoned
+German cannon and climbing about
+the huge camouflaged trucks. We were now
+where France, Luxemburg, and Lorraine meet,
+and all day we skirted the borders of first one
+and then the other, halting for the night at the
+French town of Villerupt. The people went
+wild when we rode in&mdash;we were the first soldiers
+of the Allies they had seen, for the Germans
+entered immediately after the declaration
+of war, and the only poilus the townsfolk
+saw were those that were brought in as prisoners.
+We were welcomed in the town hall&mdash;the
+German champagne was abominable but the
+reception was whole-hearted and the speeches
+were sincere in their jubilation.</p>
+
+<p>I was billeted with the mayor, Monsieur
+Georges. After dinner he produced two grimy
+bottles of Pol Roger&mdash;he said that he had been
+forced to change their hiding-place four times,
+<a name='Page_229'></a>and had just dug them up in his cellar. They
+were destined for the night of liberation.
+Monsieur Georges was thin and worn; he had
+spent two years in prison in solitary confinement
+for having given a French prisoner some
+bread. His eighteen-year-old daughter was
+imprisoned for a year because she had not informed
+the authorities as to what her father
+had done. No one in the family would learn a
+single word of German. They said that all
+French civilians were forced to salute the
+Germans, and each Sunday every one was compelled
+to appear in the market-place for general
+muster. The description of the departure
+of their hated oppressors was vivid&mdash;the men
+behind the lines knew the full portent of events
+and were sullen and crestfallen, but the soldiers
+fresh from the front believed that Germany
+had won and was dictating her own terms;
+they came through with wreaths hung on their
+bayonets singing songs of victory.</p>
+
+<p>I had often wondered how justly the food
+supplies sent by America for the inhabitants
+of the invaded districts were distributed.
+Monsieur Georges assured me that the Germans
+were scrupulously careful in this matter,
+because they feared that if they were not, the
+<a name='Page_230'></a>supplies would no longer be sent, and this
+would of course encroach upon their own resources,
+for even the Hun could not utterly
+starve to death the captured French civilians.
+The mayor told me of the joy the shipments
+brought and how when the people went to
+draw their rations they called it &quot;going to
+America.&quot; We sat talking until far into the
+night before I retired to the luxury of a real
+bed with clean linen sheets. There was no
+trouble whatever in billeting the men&mdash;the
+townsmen were quarrelling as to who should
+have them.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, with great regret at so soon
+leaving our willing hosts, we marched off into
+the little Duchy of Luxemburg. We passed
+through the thriving city of Esch with its
+great iron-mines. The streets were gay with
+flags, there were almost as many Italian as
+French, for there is a large Italian colony, the
+members of which are employed in mining and
+smelting. Brass bands paraded in our honor,
+and we were later met by them in many of the
+smaller towns. The shops seemed well filled,
+but the prices were very high. The Germans
+seemed to have left the Luxemburgers very
+much to themselves, and I have little doubt
+but that they would have been at least as
+<a name='Page_231'></a>pleased to welcome victorious Boches had affairs
+taken a different turn. Still they were
+glad to see us, for it meant the end of the isolation
+in which they had been living and the
+eventual advent of foodstuffs.</p>
+
+<p>As we rode along, the countryside was lovely
+and the smiling fields and hillsides made &quot;excursions
+and alarums&quot; seem remote indeed. It
+felt unnatural to pass through a village with
+unscarred church spires and houses all intact&mdash;such
+a change from battered, glorious France.</p>
+
+<p>We were immediately in the wake of the
+German army, and taken by and large they
+must have been retiring in good order, for they
+left little behind. Our first night we spent at
+the village of Syren, eight kilometres from the
+capital of the Duchy. Billeting was not so
+easy now, for we were ordered to treat the inhabitants
+as neutrals, and when they objected
+we couldn't handle the situation as we did
+later on in Germany. No one likes to have
+soldiers or civilians quartered on him, and the
+Luxemburgers were friendly to us only as a
+matter of policy. Fortunately, the chalk marks
+of the Boche billeting officers had not been
+washed off the doors, and these told us how
+many men had been lodged in a given house.</p>
+
+<p>In my lodging I was accorded a most friendly
+<a name='Page_232'></a>reception, for my hostess was French. Her
+nephew had come up from Paris to visit her a
+few months before the outbreak of the war,
+and had been unable to get back to France.
+To avoid the dreaded internment camp he had
+successfully passed as a Luxemburger. In the
+regiment there were a number of men whose
+parents came from the Duchy; these and a
+few more who spoke German acquired a sudden
+popularity among their comrades. They
+would make friends with some of the villagers
+and arrange to turn over their rations so that
+they would be cooked by the housewife and
+eaten with the luxurious accompaniment of
+chair and table. The diplomat would invite
+a few friends to enjoy with him the welcome
+change from the &quot;slum&quot; ladled out of the caldrons
+of the battery rolling kitchen. I had always
+supposed that I had in my battery a large
+number of men who could speak German&mdash;a
+glance over the pay-roll would certainly leave
+that impression&mdash;but when I came to test it
+out, I found that I had but four men who spoke
+sufficiently well to be of any use as interpreters.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we made a winding, roundabout
+march to Trintange. Here we were instructed
+to settle down for a week or ten days'<a name='Page_233'></a>
+halt, and many worse places might have been
+chosen. The country was very broken, with
+hills and ravines. Little patches of woodland
+and streams dashing down rocky channels on
+their way to join the Moselle reminded one of
+Rock Creek Park in Washington. The weather
+couldn't be bettered; sharp and cold in the
+early morning with a heavy hoarfrost spreading
+its white mantle over everything, then out
+would come the sun, and the hills would be
+shrouded in mist.</p>
+
+<p>My billeting officer had arranged matters
+well, so we were comfortably installed and in
+good shape to &quot;police up&quot; for the final leg of
+the march to Coblenz. I had now my full
+allowance of officers&mdash;Lieutenants Furness,
+Brown, Middleditch, and Pearce. In active
+warfare discipline while stricter in some ways
+is more lax in others, and there were many
+small points that required furbishing. Close
+order drill on foot is always a great help in
+stiffening up the men, and such essentials as
+instruction in driving and in fitting harness
+required much attention. In the American
+army much less responsibility is given to the
+sergeants and corporals than in the British,
+but even so the spirit and efficiency of an or<a name='Page_234'></a>ganization
+must depend largely on its non-commissioned
+officers. We were fortunate in
+having an unusually fine lot&mdash;Sergeant Cushing
+was a veteran of the Spanish War. He had
+been a sailor for many years, and after he left
+the sea he became chief game warden of Massachusetts.
+In time of stress he was a tower of
+strength and could be counted upon to set his
+men an example of cool and judicious daring.
+The first sergeant, Armstrong, was an old
+regular army man, and his knowledge of drill
+and routine was invaluable to us. He thoroughly
+understood his profession, and was remarkably
+successful in training raw men.
+Sergeants Grumbling, Kubelis, and Bauer were
+all of them excellent men, and could be relied
+upon to perform their duty with conscientious
+thoroughness under the most trying conditions.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon I went in to Luxemburg with
+Colonel Collins, the battalion commander.
+The town looks thoroughly medi&aelig;val as you
+approach. It might well have been over its
+castle wall that Kingsley's knight spurred his
+horse on his last leap; as a matter of fact the
+village of Altenahr, where the poet laid the
+scene, is not so many miles away. The town
+<a name='Page_235'></a>is built along the ragged cliffs lining a deep,
+rocky canyon spanned by old stone bridges.
+The massive entrance-gates open upon passages
+tunnelled through the hills, and although
+the modern part of the town boasts broad
+streets and squares, there are many narrow
+passageways winding around the ancient
+quarter.</p>
+
+<p>I went into a large bookstore to replenish
+my library, and was struck by the supply of
+post-cards of Marshal Foch and Kitchener and
+the King and Queen of Belgium. All had been
+printed in Leipzig, and when I asked the bookseller
+how that could be, he replied that he got
+them from the German commercial travellers.
+He said that he had himself been surprised at
+the samples shown him, but the salesman had
+remarked that he thought such post-cards
+would have a good sale in Luxemburg, and if
+such were the case &quot;business was business,&quot;
+and he was prepared to supply them. There
+was even one of King Albert standing with
+drawn sword, saying: &quot;You shall not violate
+the sacred soil of my country.&quot; A publication
+that also interested me was a weekly paper
+brought out in Hamburg and written in English.
+It was filled with jokes, beneath which
+<a name='Page_236'></a>were German notes explaining any difficult or
+idiomatic words and phrases. With all their
+hatred of England the Huns still continued to
+learn English.</p>
+
+<p>Thanksgiving Day came along, and we set
+to work to provide some sort of a special feast
+for the men. It was most difficult to do so, for
+the exchange had not as yet been regulated
+and the lowest rate at which we could get marks
+was at a franc, and usually it was a franc
+and a quarter. Some one opportunely arrived
+from Paris with a few hundred marks that he
+had bought at sixty centimes. For the officers
+we got a suckling pig, which Mess Sergeant
+Braun roasted in the priest's oven. He even
+put the traditional baked apple in its mouth,
+a necessary adjunct, the purpose of which I
+have never discovered, and such stuffing as he
+made has never been equalled. We washed it
+down with excellent Moselle wine, for we were
+but a couple of miles from the vineyards along
+the river. In the afternoon I borrowed a
+bicycle from the burgomaster and trailed over
+to Elmen, where I found my brother just about
+to sit down to his Thanksgiving dinner served
+up by two faithful Chinamen, who had come
+to his regiment in a draft from the West Coast.<a name='Page_237'></a>
+After doing full justice to his fare I wended my
+way back to Trintange in the rain and dark.</p>
+
+<p>The next day we paid the men. For some it
+was the first time in ten months. To draw
+pay it was necessary to sign the pay-roll at the
+end of one month and be on hand at the end
+of the following month to receive the money.
+No one could sign unless his service record
+was at hand, and as this was forwarded to
+the hospital &quot;through military channels&quot; when
+a man was evacuated sick or wounded, it
+rarely reached his unit until several months
+after he returned. It may easily be seen why
+it was that an enlisted man often went for
+months without being able to draw his pay.
+This meant not only a hardship to him while
+he was without money, but, it also followed
+that when he got it he had a greater amount
+than he could possibly need, and was more
+than apt to gamble or drink away his sudden
+accession of wealth. We always tried to make
+a man who had drawn a lot of back pay deposit
+it or send it home. Mr. Harlow, the
+Y.M.C.A. secretary attached to the regiment,
+helped us a great deal in getting the
+money transferred to the United States. The
+men, unless they could spend their earnings
+<a name='Page_238'></a>immediately, would start a game of craps and
+in a few days all the available cash would have
+found its way into the pocket of the luckiest
+man. They would throw for appallingly
+high stakes. On this particular pay-day we
+knew that the supply of wine and beer in the
+village was not sufficient to cause any serious
+trouble, and orders were given that no cognac
+or hard liquor should be sold. A few always
+managed to get it&mdash;all precautions to the contrary
+notwithstanding.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>II</h4>
+
+<p>On the 1st of December we once more resumed
+our march and at Wormeldange crossed
+over the Moselle River into Hunland. The
+streets of the first town through which we
+passed were lined with civilians, many of them
+only just out of uniform, and they scowled at
+us as we rode by, muttering below their breath.
+A short way out and we began to meet men
+still in the field-gray uniform; they smiled and
+tried to make advances but our men paid no
+attention. When we reached Onsdorf, which
+was our destination, the billeting officer reported
+that he had met with no difficulty.</p><a name='Page_239'></a>
+
+<p>The inhabitants were most effusive and anxious
+to please in every way. Of course they were
+not Prussians, and no doubt were heartily
+tired and sick of war, but here, as throughout,
+their attitude was most distasteful to us&mdash;it
+was so totally lacking in dignity. We could
+not tell how much they were acting on their
+own initiative and to what extent they were following
+instructions. Probably there was something
+of both back of their conduct. Warnings
+had been issued that the Germans were
+reported to be planning a wholesale poisoning
+of American officers, but I never saw anything
+to substantiate the belief.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we struck across to the Saar
+River and followed it down to its junction with
+the Moselle. The woods and ravines were
+lovely, but from the practical standpoint the
+going was very hard upon the horses. We
+marched down through Treves, the oldest town
+in Germany, with a population of about thirty
+thousand. In the fourth century of our era
+Ausonius referred to it as &quot;Rome beyond the
+Alps,&quot; and the extent and variety of the Roman
+remains would seem to justify the epithet.
+We were halted for some time beside the most
+remarkable of these, the Porta Nigra, a huge
+<a name='Page_240'></a>fortified gateway, dating from the first century
+A.D. The cathedral is an impressive
+conglomeration of the architecture of many different
+centuries&mdash;the oldest portion being a
+part of a Roman basilica of the fourth century,
+while the latest additions of any magnitude
+were made in the thirteenth. Most famous
+among its treasures is the &quot;holy coat of
+Treves,&quot; believed by the devout to be the
+seamless garment worn by Christ at the crucifixion.
+The predominant religion of the neighborhood
+is the Roman Catholic, and on the
+occasions when the coat is exhibited the town
+is thronged by countless pilgrims.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Treves we continued down along
+the river-bank to Rawen Kaulin, where we
+turned inland for a few miles and I was assigned
+to a village known as Eitelsbach. The
+inhabitants were badly frightened when we
+rode in&mdash;most of the men hid and the women
+stood on the door-steps weeping. I suppose
+they expected to be treated in the manner
+that they had behaved to the French and
+Belgians, and as they would have done by us
+had the situation been reversed. When they
+found they were not to be oppressed they became
+servile and fawning. I had my officers'<a name='Page_241'></a>
+mess in the schoolmaster's house. He had
+been a non-commissioned officer of infantry,
+and yet he wanted to send his daughters in to
+play the piano for us after dinner. We would
+have despised the German less if he had been
+able to &quot;hate&quot; a little more after he was beaten
+and not so bitterly while he felt he was winning.</p>
+
+<p>The country through which we marched during
+the next few days was most beautiful. We
+followed the winding course of the river, making
+many a double &quot;S&quot; turn. The steep hills
+came right to the bank; frequently the road
+was cut into their sides. A village was tucked
+in wherever a bit of level plain between the
+foot of the hill and the river permitted. When
+the slopes gave a southern exposure they were
+covered with grape-vines, planted with the
+utmost precision and regularity. Every corner
+and cranny among the rocks was utilized.
+The original planting must have been difficult,
+for the soil was covered with slabs of shale.
+The cultivator should develop excellent lungs
+in scaling those hillsides. The leaves had fallen
+and the bare vines varied in hue from sepia
+brown to wine color, with occasional patches
+of evergreen to set off the whole. Once or
+twice the road left the river to cut across over
+<a name='Page_242'></a>the mountains, and it cost our horses much
+exertion to drag the limbers up the steep,
+slippery trail. It was curious to notice the
+difference between those who dwelt along the
+bank and the inhabitants of the upland plateau.
+The latter appeared distinctly more
+&quot;outlandish&quot; and less sleek and prosperous.
+The highlands we found veiled in mist, and as
+I looked back at the dim outlines of horse and
+man and caisson, it seemed as if I were leading
+a ghost battery.</p>
+
+<p>We were in the heart of the wine country, and
+to any one who had enjoyed a good bottle of
+Moselle such names as Berncastel and Piesport
+had long been familiar. In the former town I
+was amused on passing by a large millinery
+store to see the proprietor's name was Jacob
+Astor. The little villages inevitably recalled
+the fairy-tales of Hans Andersen and the
+Grimm brothers. The raftered houses had
+timbered balconies that all but met across the
+crooked, winding streets through which we
+clattered over the cobblestones. Capping
+many of the beams were gargoyles, demons, and
+dwarfs, and a galaxy of strange creatures were
+carved on the ends of the gables that jutted
+out every which way. The houses often had
+<a name='Page_243'></a>the date they were built and the initials of the
+couple that built them over the front door,
+frequently with some device. I saw no dates
+that went further back than the late sixteen
+hundreds, though many of the houses doubtless
+were built before then. The doors in some
+cases were beautifully carved and weathered.
+The old pumps and wells, the stone bridges,
+and the little wayside shrines took one back
+through the centuries. To judge by the records
+carved on wall and house, high floods are
+no very uncommon occurrence&mdash;the highest I
+noticed was in 1685, while the last one of importance
+was credited to 1892.</p>
+
+<p>We were much surprised at the well-fed appearance
+of the population, both old and young,
+for we had heard so much of food shortages,
+and the Germans when they surrendered had
+laid such stress upon it. As far as we could
+judge; food was more plentiful than in France.
+Rubber and leather were very scarce, many of
+the women wore army boots, and the shoes
+displayed in shop-windows appeared made of
+some composition resembling pasteboard. The
+coffee was evidently ground from the berry of
+some native bush, and its taste in no way resembled
+the real. Cigars were camouflaged
+<a name='Page_244'></a>cabbage-leaves, with little or no flavor, and
+the beer sadly fallen off from its pre-war glory.
+Still, in all the essentials of life the inhabitants
+appeared to be making out far better than we
+had been given to believe.</p>
+
+<p>We met with very little trouble. There were
+a few instances where people tried to stand out
+against having men billeted in their houses,
+but we of course paid no attention except
+that we saw to it that they got more men than
+they would have under ordinary circumstances.
+Every now and then we would have amusing
+side-lights upon the war news on which the
+more ignorant Boches had been fed. A man
+upon whom several of my sergeants were quartered
+asked them if the Zeppelins had done
+much damage to New York; and whether Boston
+and Philadelphia had yet been evacuated
+by the Germans&mdash;he had heard that both cities
+had been taken and that Washington was
+threatened and its fall imminent.</p>
+
+<p>Our men behaved exceedingly well. Of
+course there were individual cases of drunkenness,
+but very few considering that we were
+in a country where the wine was cheap and
+schnapps plentiful. There were the inevitable
+A.W.O.L.'s and a number of minor offenses,
+<a name='Page_245'></a>but I found that by making the prisoner's life
+very unattractive&mdash;seeing to it that they performed
+distasteful &quot;fatigues,&quot; giving them
+heavy packs to carry when we marched, and
+allowing them nothing that could be construed
+as a delicacy&mdash;I soon reformed the few men
+that were chronically shiftless or untidy or late.
+When not in cantonments the trouble with
+putting men under arrest is that too often it
+only means that they lead an easier life than
+their comrades, and it takes some ingenuity
+to correct this situation. Whenever it was in
+any way possible an offender was dealt with
+in the battery and I never let it go further, for
+I found it made for much better spirit in a unit.</p>
+
+<p>The men were a fine lot, and such thoroughgoing
+Americans, no matter from what country
+their parents had come. One of my buglers
+had landed in the United States only in 1913;
+he had been born and brought up on the confines
+of Germany and Austria, and yet when a
+large German of whom he was asking the way
+said, &quot;You speak the language well&mdash;your
+parents must be German,&quot; the unhesitating
+reply was: &quot;Well, my mother was of German
+descent!&quot; The battery call read like a League
+of Nations, but no one could have found any
+<a name='Page_246'></a>cause of complaint in lack of loyalty to the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>The twelfth day after we had crossed over
+the river from Luxemburg found us marching
+into Coblenz. We were quartered in large
+brick barracks in the outskirts of the city.
+The departing Germans had left them in very
+bad shape, and Hercules would have felt that
+cleaning the Augean stables was a light task in
+comparison. However, we set to work without
+delay and soon had both men and horses
+well housed. Life in the town was following
+its normal course; the stores were well stocked
+and seemed to be doing a thriving trade. We
+went into a caf&eacute; where a good orchestra was
+playing and had some very mediocre war beer,
+and then I set off in search of the Turkish bath
+of which I was much in need. The one I found
+was in charge of an ex-submarine sailor, and
+when I was shut in the steam-room I wondered
+if he were going to try any &quot;frightfulness,&quot;
+for I was the only person in the bath.
+My last one had been in a wine-vat a full week
+before, and I was ready to risk anything for
+the luxury of a good soak.</p>
+
+<p>Orders to march usually reached us at midnight&mdash;why,
+I do not know; but we would turn
+<a name='Page_247'></a>in with the belief that we would not move on
+the following day, and the next we knew an
+orderly from regimental headquarters would
+wake us with marching instructions, and in no
+happy frame of mind we would grumblingly
+tumble out to issue the necessary commands.
+Coblenz proved no exception to this rule. As
+we got under way, a fine rain was falling
+that was not long in permeating everything.
+Through the misty dripping town the &quot;caissons
+went rolling along,&quot; and out across the
+Pfaffendorf bridge, with the dim outlines of
+the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein towering above
+us. The men were drowsy and cold. I heard a
+few disparaging comments on the size of
+the Rhine. They had heard so much talk
+about it that they had expected to find it at
+least as large as the Mississippi. We found
+the slippery stones of the street ascending
+from the river most difficult to negotiate, but
+at length everything was safely up, and we
+struck off toward the bridge-head position
+which we were to occupy for we knew not how
+long. The Huns had torn down the sign-posts
+at the crossroads; with what intent I cannot
+imagine, for the roads were not complicated
+and were clearly indicated on the maps, and
+<a name='Page_248'></a>the only purpose that the sign-posts could
+serve was to satisfy a curiosity too idle to
+cause us to calculate by map how far we had
+come or what distance lay still before us. A
+number of great stone slabs attracted our attention;
+they had been put up toward the close
+of the eighteenth century and indicated the
+distance in hours. I remember one that proclaimed
+it was three hours to Coblenz and
+eighteen to Frankfort. I have never seen elsewhere
+these records of an age when time did
+not mean money.</p>
+
+<p>The march was in the nature of an anticlimax,
+for we had thought always of Coblenz
+as our goal, and the good fortune in which we
+had played as regarded weather during our
+march down the valley of the Moselle had made
+us supercritical concerning such details as a long,
+wearisome slogging through the mud in clumsy,
+water-logged clothes. At length we reached the
+little village of Niederelbert and found that
+Lieutenant Brown, whose turn it was as billeting
+officer, had settled us so satisfactorily
+that in a short time we were all comfortably
+steaming before stoves, thawing out our
+cramped joints.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of Lieutenant Furness
+<a name='Page_249'></a>my officers belonged to the Reserve Corps, and
+we none of us looked forward to a long tour
+of garrison duty on the Rhine or anywhere else.
+Furness, who had particularly distinguished
+himself in liaison work with the infantry, held
+a temporary commission in the regular army,
+but he was eager to go back to civil life at
+the earliest opportunity. In Germany the
+prospect was doubly gloomy, for there would
+be no intercourse with the natives such as in
+France had lightened many a weary moment.
+Several days later regimental headquarters
+coveted our village and we were moved a few
+miles off across the hills to Holler. We set
+to work to make ourselves as snug and comfortable
+as possible. I had as striker a little
+fellow of Finnish extraction name Jahoola, an
+excellent man in every way, who took the best
+of care of my horse and always managed to fix
+up my billet far better than the circumstances
+would seem to permit.</p>
+
+<p>The days that followed presented little
+variety once the novelty of the occupation had
+worn off. The men continued to behave in
+exemplary fashion, and the Boche gave little
+trouble. As soon as we took up our quarters
+we made the villagers clean up the streets and
+<a name='Page_250'></a>yards until they possessed a model town, and
+thereafter we &quot;policed up&quot; every untidiness of
+which we might be the cause, and kept the inhabitants
+up to the mark in what concerned
+them. The head of the house in which I was
+lodged in Niederelbert told me that his son
+had been a captain in the army but had deserted
+a fortnight before the armistice and
+reached home in civilian clothes three weeks
+in advance of the retreating army. Of course
+he was not an officer before the war&mdash;not of
+the old military school, but the fact that he
+and his family were proud of it spoke of a
+weakening discipline and morale.</p>
+
+<p>Now that we had settled down to a routine
+existence I was doubly glad of such books as I
+had been able to bring along. Of these, O.
+Henry was the most popular. The little shilling
+editions were read until they fell to pieces,
+and in this he held the same position as in the
+British army. I had been puzzled at this
+popularity among the English, for much of
+his slang must have been worse than Greek to
+them. I also had <i>Charles O'Malley</i> and <i>Harry
+Lorrequer</i>, Dumas' <i>Dame de Monsereau</i> and
+<i>Monte Cristo</i>, Flaubert's <i>Education Sentimentale</i>,
+Gibbon's <i>Rise and Fall</i>, and Borrow's<a name='Page_251'></a>
+<i>Zincali</i>. These with the Oxford Books of
+French and English verse and a few Portuguese
+and Spanish novels comprised my library,
+a large one considering the circumstances.
+It was always possible to get books
+through the mail, although they were generally
+many months en route.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after we reached the bridge-head, officers
+of the regular army began turning up from the
+various schools whither they had been sent as
+instructors. We all hoped to be released in
+this manner, for we felt that the garrison duty
+should be undertaken by the regulars, whose
+life business it is, in order to allow the men who
+had left their trades and professions to return
+to their normal and necessary work. In the
+meantime we set out to familiarize ourselves
+with the country and keep our units in such
+shape that should any unforeseen event arise
+we would be in a position to meet it. The
+horses required particular attention, but one
+felt rewarded on seeing their improvement.
+There were many cases of mange which we had
+been hitherto unable to properly isolate, and
+good fodder in adequate quantity was an innovation.</p>
+
+<p>For the men we had mounted and un<a name='Page_252'></a>mounted
+drill, and spent much time in getting
+the accoutrements into condition for inspection.
+During part of the march up rations
+had been short, and for a number of days were
+very problematical. Sufficient boots and clothing
+were also lacking and we had had to get
+along as best we could without. Now that we
+were stationary our wants were supplied, and
+the worst hardship for the men was the lack
+of recreation. A reading-room was opened
+and a piano was procured, but there was really
+no place to send them on short passes; nothing
+for them to do on an afternoon off. When I
+left, trips down the Rhine were being planned,
+and I am sure they proved beneficial in solving
+the problem of legitimate relaxation and
+amusement.</p>
+
+<p>My father had sent my brother and myself
+some money to use in trying to make Christmas
+a feast-day for the men. It was difficult
+to get anything, but the Y.M.C.A. very kindly
+helped me out in procuring, chocolates and
+cigarettes, and I managed to buy a couple of
+calves and a few semi-delicacies in the local
+market. While not an Arabian Night feast, we
+had the most essential adjunct in the good spirits
+of the men, who had been schooled by their
+<a name='Page_253'></a>varied and eventful existence of the past
+eighteen months to make the most of things.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of January my brother and
+I left for Paris. I was very sorry to leave
+the battery, for we had been through much
+together, but in common with most reserve
+officers I felt that, now that the fighting was
+over, there was only one thing to be desired and
+that was to get back to my wife and children.
+The train made light of the distance over
+which it had taken us so long to march, and
+the familiar sight of the friendly French towns
+was never more welcome. After several months
+on duty in France and Italy, I sailed on a
+transport from Brest, but not for the wonderful
+home-coming to which I had so long looked
+forward.</p>
+
+<a name='Page_254'></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13665 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, War in the Garden of Eden, by Kermit
+Roosevelt
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: War in the Garden of Eden
+
+Author: Kermit Roosevelt
+
+Release Date: October 11, 2004  [eBook #13665]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Michael Ciesielski and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
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+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 13665-h.htm or 13665-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/6/13665/13665-h/13665-h.htm)
+      or
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+
+
+
+
+
+WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN
+
+by
+
+KERMIT ROOSEVELT
+
+Captain Motor Machine-Gun Corps, British Expeditionary Forces
+Captain Field Artillery, American Expeditionary Forces
+
+Illustrated from Photographs by the Author
+
+New York
+
+1919
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Kermit Roosevelt. From the drawing by John S.
+Sargent, July 8, 1917]
+
+
+
+To
+
+The Memory of My Father
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+   I. OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA
+  II. THE TIGRIS FRONT
+ III. PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON
+  IV. SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT
+   V. THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES
+  VI. BAGHDAD SKETCHES
+ VII. THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT
+VIII. BACK THROUGH PALESTINE
+  IX. WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+Kermit Roosevelt
+Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting
+Ashar Creek at Busra
+Golden Dome of Samarra
+Rafting down from Tekrit
+Captured Turkish camel corps
+Towing an armored car across a river
+Reconnaissance
+The Lion of Babylon
+A dragon on the palace wall
+Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car
+A Mesopotamian garage
+A water-wheel on the Euphrates
+A "Red Crescent" ambulance
+A jeweller's booth in the bazaar
+Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge
+The Kurd and his wife
+Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds
+Kirkuk
+A street in Jerusalem
+Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA
+
+
+It was at Taranto that we embarked for
+Mesopotamia. Reinforcements were sent out
+from England in one of two ways--either all
+the way round the Cape of Good Hope, or by
+train through France and Italy down to the
+desolate little seaport of Taranto, and thence
+by transport over to Egypt, through the Suez
+Canal, and on down the Red Sea to the Indian
+Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The latter
+method was by far the shorter, but the submarine
+situation in the Mediterranean was
+such that convoying troops was a matter of
+great difficulty. Taranto is an ancient Greek
+town, situated at the mouth of a landlocked
+harbor, the entrance to which is a narrow
+channel, certainly not more than two hundred
+yards across. The old part of the town is
+built on a hill, and the alleys and runways
+winding among the great stone dwellings serve
+as streets. As is the case with maritime towns,
+it is along the wharfs that the most interest
+centres. During one afternoon I wandered
+through the old town and listened to the fisherfolk
+singing as they overhauled and mended
+their nets. Grouped around a stone archway
+sat six or seven women and girls. They were
+evidently members of one family--a grandmother,
+her daughters, and their children.
+The old woman, wild, dark, and hawk-featured,
+was blind, and as she knitted she chanted
+some verses. I could only understand occasional
+words and phrases, but it was evidently
+a long epic. At intervals her listeners would
+break out in comments as they worked, but,
+like "Othere, the old sea-captain," she "neither
+paused nor stirred."
+
+There are few things more desolate than
+even the best situated "rest-camps"--the long
+lines of tents set out with military precision,
+the trampled grass, and the board walks; but
+the one at Taranto where we awaited embarkation
+was peculiarly dismal even for a rest-camp.
+So it happened that when Admiral Mark
+Kerr, the commander of the Mediterranean
+fleet, invited me to be his guest aboard H.M.S.
+_Queen_ until the transport should sail, it was
+in every way an opportunity to be appreciated.
+In the British Empire the navy is the "senior
+service," and I soon found that the tradition
+for the hospitality and cultivation of its officers
+was more than justified. The admiral had
+travelled, and read, and written, and no more
+pleasant evenings could be imagined than
+those spent in listening to his stories of the
+famous writers, statesmen, and artists who
+were numbered among his friends. He had
+always been a great enthusiast for the development
+of aerial warfare, and he was recently
+in Nova Scotia in command of the giant Handley-Page
+machine which was awaiting favorable
+weather conditions in order to attempt the nonstop
+transatlantic flight. Among his poems
+stands out the "Prayer of Empire," which,
+oddly enough, the former German Emperor
+greatly admired, ordering it distributed
+throughout the imperial navy! The Kaiser's
+feelings toward the admiral have suffered an
+abrupt change, but they would have been
+even more hostile had England profited by
+his warnings:
+
+    "There's no menace in preparedness, no threat in being strong,
+    If the people's brain be healthy and they think no thought of wrong."
+
+After four or five most agreeable days aboard the _Queen_ the word came to
+embark, and I was duly transferred to the _Saxon_, an old Union Castle
+liner that was to run us straight through to Busra.
+
+As we steamed out of the harbor we were joined by two diminutive Japanese
+destroyers which were to convoy us. The menace of the submarine being
+particularly felt in the Adriatic, the transports travelled only by night
+during the first part of the voyage. To a landsman it was incomprehensible
+how it was possible for us to pursue our zigzag course in the inky
+blackness and avoid collisions, particularly when it was borne in mind
+that our ship was English and our convoyers were Japanese. During the
+afternoon we were drilled in the method of abandoning ship, and I was put
+in charge of a lifeboat and a certain section of the ropes that were to be
+used in our descent over the side into the water. Between twelve and one
+o'clock that night we were awakened by three blasts, the preconcerted
+danger-signal. Slipping into my life-jacket, I groped my way to my station
+on deck. The men were filing up in perfect order and with no show of
+excitement. A ship's officer passed and said he had heard that we had
+been torpedoed and were taking in water. For fifteen or twenty minutes we
+knew nothing further. A Scotch captain who had charge of the next boat to
+me came over and whispered: "It looks as if we'd go down. I have just seen
+a rat run out along the ropes into my boat!" That particular rat had not
+been properly brought up, for shortly afterward we were told that we were
+not sinking. We had been rammed amidships by one of the escorting
+destroyers, but the breach was above the water-line. We heard later that
+the destroyer, though badly smashed up, managed to make land in safety.
+
+We laid up two days in a harbor on the Albanian coast, spending the time
+pleasantly enough in swimming and sailing, while we waited for a new
+escort. Another night's run put us in Navarino Bay. The grandfather of
+Lieutenant Finch Hatton, one of the officers on board, commanded the
+Allied forces in the famous battle fought here in 1827, when the Turkish
+fleet was vanquished and the independence of Greece assured.
+
+Several days more brought us to Port Said, and after a short delay we
+pushed on through the canal and into the Red Sea. It was August, and when
+one talks of the Red Sea in August there is no further need for comment.
+The _Saxon_ had not been built for the tropics. She had no fans, nor
+ventilating system such as we have on the United Fruit boats. Some
+unusually intelligent stokers had deserted at Port Said, and as we were in
+consequence short-handed, it was suggested that any volunteers would be
+given a try. Finch Hatton and I felt that our years in the tropics should
+qualify us, and that the exercise would improve our dispositions. We got
+the exercise. Never have I felt anything as hot, and I have spent August
+in Yuma, Arizona, and been in Italian Somaliland and the Amazon Valley.
+The shovels and the handles of the wheelbarrows blistered our hands.
+
+[Illustration: Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting. Inset,
+showing relative position of Mesopotamia and other countries.]
+
+We had a number of cases of heat-stroke, and the hospital facilities on a
+crowded transport can never be all that might be desired. The first
+military burial at sea was deeply impressive. There was a lane of Tommies
+drawn up with their rifles reversed and heads bowed; the short, classic
+burial service was read, and the body, wrapped in the Union Jack, slid
+down over the stern of the ship. Then the bugles rang out in the haunting,
+mournful strains of the "Last Post," and the service ended with all
+singing "Abide With Me."
+
+We sweltered along down the Red Sea and around into the Indian Ocean. We
+wished to call at Aden in order to disembark some of our sick, but were
+ordered to continue on without touching. Our duties were light, and we
+spent the time playing cards and reading. The Tommies played "house" from
+dawn till dark. It is a game of the lotto variety. Each man has a paper
+with numbers written on squares; one of them draws from a bag slips of
+paper also marked with numbers, calls them out, and those having the
+number he calls cover it, until all the numbers on their paper have been
+covered. The first one to finish wins, and collects a penny from each of
+the losers. The caller drones out the numbers with a monotony only
+equalled by the brain-fever bird, and quite as disastrous to the nerves.
+There are certain conventional nicknames: number one is always "Kelley's
+eye," eleven is "legs eleven," sixty-six is "clickety click," and the
+highest number is "top o' the 'ouse." There is another game that would be
+much in vogue were it not for the vigilance of the officers. It is known
+as "crown and anchor," and the advantage lies so strongly in favor of the
+banker that he cannot fail to make a good income, and therefore the game
+is forbidden under the severest penalties.
+
+As we passed through the Strait of Ormuz memories of the early days of
+European supremacy in the East crowded back, for I had read many a
+vellum-covered volume in Portuguese about the early struggles for
+supremacy in the gulf. One in particular interested me. The Portuguese
+were hemmed in at Ormuz by a greatly superior English force. The expected
+reinforcements never arrived, and at length their resources sank so low,
+and they suffered in addition, or in consequence, so greatly from disease
+that they decided to sail forth and give battle. This they did, but before
+they joined in fight the ships of the two admirals sailed up near each
+other--the Portuguese commander sent the British a gorgeous scarlet
+ceremonial cloak, the British responded by sending him a handsomely
+embossed sword. The British admiral donned the cloak, the Portuguese
+grasped the sword; a page brought each a cup of wine; they pledged each
+other, threw the goblets into the sea, and fell to. The British were
+victorious. Times indeed have sadly changed in the last three hundred
+years!
+
+I was much struck with the accuracy of the geographical descriptions in
+Camoens' letters and odes. He is the greatest of the Portuguese poets and
+wrote the larger part of his master-epic, "The Lusiad," while exiled in
+India. For seventeen years he led an adventurous life in the East; and it
+is easy to recognize many harbors and stretches of coast line from his
+inimitable portrayal.
+
+Busra, our destination, lies about sixty miles from the mouth of the Shatt
+el Arab, which is the name given to the combined Tigris and Euphrates
+after their junction at Kurna, another fifty or sixty miles above. At the
+entrance to the river lies a sand-bar, effectively blocking access to
+boats of as great draft as the _Saxon_. We therefore transshipped to some
+British India vessels, and exceedingly comfortable we found them, designed
+as they were for tropic runs. We steamed up past the Island of Abadan,
+where stand the refineries of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It is hard to
+overestimate the important part that company has played in the conduct of
+the Mesopotamian campaign. Motor transport was nowhere else a greater
+necessity. There was no possibility of living on the country; at first,
+at all events. General Dickson, the director of local resources, later set
+in to so build up and encourage agriculture that the army should
+eventually be supported, in the staples of life, by local produce.
+Transportation was ever a hard nut to crack. Railroads were built, but
+though the nature of the country called for little grading, obtaining
+rails, except in small quantities, was impossible. The ones brought were
+chiefly secured by taking up the double track of Indian railways. This
+process naturally had a limit, and only lines of prime importance could be
+laid down. Thus you could go by rail from Busra to Amara, and from Kut to
+Baghdad, but the stretch between Amara and Kut had never been built, up to
+the time I left the country. General Maude once told me that pressure was
+being continually brought by the high command in England or India to have
+that connecting-link built, but that he was convinced that the rails would
+be far more essential elsewhere, and had no intention of yielding.
+
+I don't know the total number of motor vehicles, but there were more than
+five thousand Fords alone. On several occasions small columns of infantry
+were transported in Fords, five men and the driver to a car. Indians of
+every caste and religion were turned into drivers, and although it seemed
+sufficiently out of place to come across wizened, khaki-clad Indo-Chinese
+driving lorries in France, the incongruity was even more marked when one
+beheld a great bearded Sikh with his turbaned head bent over the
+steering-wheel of a Ford.
+
+Modern Busra stands on the banks of Ashar Creek. The ancient city whence
+Sinbad the sailor set forth is now seven or eight miles inland, buried
+under the shifting sands of the desert. Busra was a seaport not so many
+hundreds of years ago. Before that again, Kurna was a seaport, and the two
+rivers probably only joined in the ocean, but they have gradually enlarged
+the continent and forced back the sea. The present rate of encroachment
+amounts, I was told, to nearly twelve feet a year.
+
+The modern town has increased many fold with the advent of the
+Expeditionary Force, and much of the improvement is of a necessarily
+permanent nature; in particular the wharfs and roads. Indeed, one of the
+most striking features of the Mesopotamian campaign is the permanency of
+the improvements made by the British. In order to conquer the country it
+was necessary to develop it,--build railways and bridges and roads and
+telegraph systems,--and it has all been done in a substantial manner. It
+is impossible to contemplate with equanimity the possibility of the
+country reverting to a rule where all this progress would soon disappear
+and the former stagnancy and injustice again hold sway.
+
+[Illustration: Ashar Creek at Busra]
+
+As soon as we landed I wandered off to the bazaar--"suq" is what the Arab
+calls it. In Busra there are a number of excellent ones. By that I don't
+mean that there are art treasures of the East to be found in them, for
+almost everything could be duplicated at a better price in New York. It is
+the grouping of wares, the mode of sale, and, above all, the salesmen and
+buyers that make a bazaar--the old bearded Persian sitting cross-legged in
+his booth, the motley crowd jostling through the narrow, vaulted
+passageway, the veiled women, the hawk-featured, turbaned men, the Jews,
+the Chaldeans, the Arabs, the Armenians, the stalwart Kurds, and through
+it all a leaven of khaki-clad Indians, purchasing for the regimental mess.
+All these and an ever-present exotic, intangible something are what the
+bazaar means. Close by the entrance stood a booth festooned with lamps and
+lanterns of every sort, with above it scrawled "Aladdin-Ibn-Said." My
+Arabic was not at that time sufficient to enable me to discover from the
+owner whether he claimed illustrious ancestry or had merely been named
+after a patron saint.
+
+A few days after landing at Busra we embarked on a paddle-wheel boat to
+pursue our way up-stream the five hundred intervening miles to Baghdad.
+Along the banks of the river stretched endless miles of date-palms. We
+watched the Arabs at their work of fertilizing them, for in this country
+these palms have to depend on human agency to transfer the pollen. At
+Kurna we entered the Garden of Eden, and one could quite appreciate the
+feelings of the disgusted Tommy who exclaimed: "If this is the Garden, it
+wouldn't take no bloody angel with a flaming sword to turn me back." The
+direct descendant of the Tree is pointed out; whether its properties are
+inherited I never heard, but certainly the native would have little to
+learn by eating the fruit.
+
+Above Kurna the river is no longer lined with continuous palm-groves;
+desert and swamps take their place--the abode of the amphibious, nomadic,
+marsh Arab. An unruly customer he is apt to prove himself, and when he is
+"wanted" by the officials, he retires to his watery fastnesses, where he
+can remain in complete safety unless betrayed by his comrades. On the
+banks of the Tigris stands Ezra's tomb. It is kept in good repair through
+every vicissitude of rule, for it is a holy place to Moslem and Jew and
+Christian alike.
+
+The third night brought us to Amara. The evening was cool and pleasant
+after the scorching heat of the day, and Finch Hatton and I thought that
+we would go ashore for a stroll through the town. As we proceeded down the
+bank toward the bridge, I caught sight of a sentry walking his post. His
+appearance was so very important and efficient that I slipped behind my
+companion to give him a chance to explain us. "Halt! Who goes there?"
+"Friend," replied Finch Hatton. "Advance, friend, and give the
+countersign." F.H. started to advance, followed by a still suspicious me,
+and rightly so, for the Tommy, evidently member of a recent draft, came
+forward to meet us with lowered bayonet, remarking in a businesslike
+manner: "There isn't any countersign."
+
+Except for the gunboats and monitors, all river traffic is controlled by
+the Inland Water Transport Service. The officers are recruited from all
+the world over. I firmly believe that no river of any importance could be
+mentioned but what an officer of the I.W.T. could be found who had
+navigated it. The great requisite for transports on the Tigris was a very
+light draft, and to fill the requirements boats were requisitioned ranging
+from penny steamers of the Thames to river-craft of the Irrawaddy. Now in
+bringing a penny steamer from London to Busra the submarine is one of the
+lesser perils, and in supplying the wants of the Expeditionary Force more
+than eighty vessels were lost at sea, frequently with all aboard.
+
+As was the custom, we had a barge lashed to either side. These barges are
+laden with troops, or horses, or supplies. In our case we had the first
+Bengal regiment--a new experiment, undertaken for political reasons. The
+Bengali is the Indian who most readily takes to European learning.
+Rabindranath Tagore is probably the most widely known member of the race.
+They go to Calcutta University and learn a smattering of English and
+absorb a certain amount of undigested general knowledge and theory. These
+partially educated Bengalis form the Babu class, and many are employed in
+the railways. They delight in complicated phraseology, and this coupled
+with their accent and seesaw manner of speaking supply the English a
+constant source of caricature. As a race they are inclined to be vain and
+boastful, and are ever ready to nurse a grievance against the British
+Government, feeling that they have been provided with an education but no
+means of support. The government felt that it might help to calm them if a
+regiment were recruited and sent to Mesopotamia. How they would do in
+actual fighting had never been demonstrated up to the time I left the
+country, but they take readily to drill, and it was amusing to hear them
+ordering each other about in their clipped English. They were used for
+garrisoning Baghdad.
+
+After we left Amara we continued our winding course up-stream. A boat
+several hours ahead may be seen only a few hundred yards distant across
+the desert. The banks are so flat and level that it looks as if the other
+vessels were steaming along on land. The Arab river-craft was most
+picturesque. At sunset a mahela, bearing down with filled sail, might
+have been the model for Maxfield Parrish's _Pirate Ship_. The Arab women
+ran along the bank beside us, carrying baskets of eggs and chickens, and
+occasionally melons. They were possessed of surprising endurance, and
+would accompany us indefinitely, heavily laden as they were. Their robes
+trailed in the wind as they jumped ditches, screaming out their wares
+without a moment's pause. An Indian of the boat's crew was haggling with a
+woman about a chicken. He threw her an eight-anna piece. She picked up the
+money but would not hand him the chicken, holding out for her original
+price. He jumped ashore, intending to take the chicken. She had a few
+yards' start and made the most of it. In and out they chased, over hedge
+and ditch, down the bank and up again. Several times he almost had her.
+She never for a moment ceased screeching--an operation which seemed to
+affect her wind not a particle. At the end of fifteen minutes the Indian
+gave up amid the delighted jeers of his comrades, and returned shamefaced
+and breathless to jump aboard the boat as we bumped against the bank on
+rounding a curve.
+
+One evening we halted where, not many months before, the last of the
+battles of Sunnaiyat had been fought. There for months the British had
+been held back, while their beleaguered comrades in Kut could hear the
+roar of the artillery and hope against hope for the relief that never
+reached them. It was one phase of the campaign that closely approximated
+the gruelling trench warfare in France. The last unsuccessful attack was
+launched a week before the capitulation of the garrison, and it was almost
+a year later before the position was eventually taken. The front-line
+trenches were but a short distance apart, and each side had developed a
+strong and elaborate system of defense. One flank was protected by an
+impassable marsh and the other by the river. When we passed, the field
+presented an unusually gruesome appearance even for a battle-field, for
+the wandering desert Arabs had been at work, and they do not clean up as
+thoroughly as the African hyena. A number had paid the penalty through
+tampering with unexploded grenades and "dud" shells, and left their own
+bones to be scattered around among the dead they had been looting. The
+trenches were a veritable Golgotha with skulls everywhere and dismembered
+legs still clad with puttees and boots.
+
+At Kut we disembarked to do the remaining hundred miles to Baghdad by rail
+instead of winding along for double the distance by river, with a good
+chance of being hung up for hours, or even days, on some shifting
+sand-bar. At first sight Kut is as unpromising a spot as can well be
+imagined, with its scorching heat and its sand and the desolate
+mud-houses, but in spite of appearances it is an important and thriving
+little town, and daily becoming of more consequence.
+
+The railroad runs across the desert, following approximately the old
+caravan route to Baghdad. A little over half-way the line passes the
+remaining arch of the great hall of Ctesiphon. This hall is one hundred
+and forty-eight feet long by seventy-six broad. The arch stands
+eighty-five feet high. Around it, beneath the mounds of desert sand, lies
+all that remains of the ancient city. As a matter of fact the city is by
+no means ancient as such things go in Mesopotamia, dating as it does from
+the third century B.C., when it was founded by the successors of Alexander
+the Great.
+
+My first night in Baghdad I spent in General Maude's house, on the
+river-bank. The general was a striking soldierly figure of a man, standing
+well over six feet. His military career was long and brilliant. His first
+service was in the Coldstream Guards. He distinguished himself in South
+Africa. Early in the present war he was severely wounded in France. Upon
+recovering he took over the Thirteenth Division, which he commanded in the
+disastrous Gallipoli campaign, and later brought out to Mesopotamia. When
+he reached the East the situation was by no means a happy one for the
+British. General Townshend was surrounded in Kut, and the morale of the
+Turk was excellent after the successes he had met with in Gallipoli. In
+the end of August, 1916, four months after the fall of Kut, General Maude
+took over the command of the Mesopotamian forces. On the 11th of March of
+the following year he occupied Baghdad, thereby re-establishing completely
+the British prestige in the Orient. One of Germany's most serious
+miscalculations was with regard to the Indian situation. She felt
+confident that, working through Persia and Afghanistan, she could stir up
+sufficient trouble, possibly to completely overthrow British rule, but
+certainly to keep the English so occupied with uprisings as to force them
+to send troops to India rather than withdraw them thence for use
+elsewhere. The utter miscarriage of Germany's plans is, indeed, a fine
+tribute to Great Britain. The Emir of Afghanistan did probably more than
+any single native to thwart German treachery and intrigue, and every
+friend of the Allied cause must have read of his recent assassination with
+a very real regret.
+
+When General Maude took over the command, the effect of the Holy War that,
+at the Kaiser's instigation, was being preached in the mosques had not as
+yet been determined. This jehad, as it was called, proposed to unite all
+"True Believers" against the invading Christians, and give the war a
+strongly religious aspect. The Germans hoped by this means to spread
+mutiny among the Mohammedan troops, which formed such an appreciable
+element of the British forces, as well as to fire the fury of the Turks
+and win as many of the Arabs to their side as possible. The Arab
+thoroughly disliked both sides. The Turk oppressed him, but did so in an
+Oriental, and hence more or less comprehensible, manner. The English gave
+him justice, but it was an Occidental justice that he couldn't at first
+understand or appreciate, and he was distinctly inclined to mistrust it.
+In course of time he would come to realize its advantages. Under Turkish
+rule the Arab was oppressed by the Turk, but then he in turn could oppress
+the Jew, the Chaldean, and Nestorian Christians, and the wretched
+Armenian. Under British rule he suddenly found these latter on an equal
+footing with him, and he felt that this did not compensate the lifting
+from his shoulders of the Turkish burden. Then, too, when a race has been
+long oppressed and downtrodden, and suddenly finds itself on an equality
+with its oppressor, it is apt to become arrogant and overbearing. This is
+exactly what happened, and there was bad feeling on all sides in
+consequence. However, real fundamental justice is appreciated the world
+over, once the native has been educated up to it, and can trust in its
+continuity.
+
+The complex nature of the problems facing the army commander can be
+readily seen. He was an indefatigable worker and an unsurpassed organizer.
+The only criticism I ever heard was that he attended too much to the
+details himself and did not take his subordinates sufficiently into his
+confidence. A brilliant leader, beloved by his troops, his loss was a
+severe blow to the Allied cause.
+
+Baghdad is often referred to as the great example of the shattered
+illusion. We most of us have read the _Arabian Nights_ at an early age,
+and think of the abode of the caliphs as a dream city, steeped in what we
+have been brought up to think of as the luxury, romance, and glamour of
+the East. Now glamour is a delicate substance. In the all-searching glare
+of the Mesopotamian sun it is apt to appear merely tawdry. Still, a goodly
+number of years spent in wandering about in foreign lands had prepared me
+for a depreciation of the "stuff that dreams are made of," and I was not
+disappointed. It is unfortunate that the normal way to approach is from
+the south, and that that view of the city is flat and uninteresting.
+Coming, as I several times had occasion to, from the north, one first
+catches sight of great groves of date-palms, with the tall minarets of the
+Mosque of Kazimain towering above them; then a forest of minarets and blue
+domes, with here and there some graceful palm rising above the flat roofs
+of Baghdad. In the evening when the setting sun strikes the towers and the
+tiled roofs, and the harsh lights are softened, one is again in the land
+of Haroun-el-Raschid.
+
+The great covered bazaars are at all times capable of "eating the hours,"
+as the natives say. One could sit indefinitely in a coffee-house and watch
+the throngs go by--the stalwart Kurdish porter with his impossible loads,
+the veiled women, the unveiled Christian or lower-class Arab women, the
+native police, the British Tommy, the kilted Scot, the desert Arab, all
+these and many more types wandered past. Then there was the gold and
+silver market, where the Jewish and Armenian artificers squatted beside
+their charcoal fires and haggled endlessly with their customers. These
+latter were almost entirely women, and they came both to buy and sell,
+bringing old bracelets and anklets, and probably spending the proceeds on
+something newer that had taken their fancy. The workmanship was almost
+invariably poor and rough. Most of the women had their babies with them,
+little mites decked out in cheap finery and with their eyelids thickly
+painted. The red dye from their caps streaked their faces, the flies
+settled on them at will, and they had never been washed. When one thought
+of the way one's own children were cared for, it seemed impossible that a
+sufficient number of these little ones could survive to carry on the
+race. The infant mortality must be great, though the children one sees
+look fat and thriving.
+
+Baghdad is not an old city. Although there was probably a village on the
+site time out of mind, it does not come into any prominence until the
+eighth century of our era. As the residence of the Abasside caliphs it
+rapidly assumed an important position. The culmination of its magnificence
+was reached in the end of the eighth century, under the rule of the
+world-famous Haroun-el-Raschid. It long continued to be a centre of
+commerce and industry, though suffering fearfully from the various sieges
+and conquests which it underwent. In 1258 the Mongols, under a grandson of
+the great Genghis Khan, captured the city and held it for a hundred years,
+until ousted by the Tartars under Tamberlane. It was plundered in turn by
+one Mongol horde after another until the Turks, under Murad the Fourth,
+eventually secured it. Naturally, after being the scene of so much looting
+and such massacres, there is little left of the original city of the
+caliphs. Then, too, in Mesopotamia there is practically no stone, and
+everything was built of brick, which readily lapses back to its original
+state. For this reason the invaders easily razed a conquered town, and
+Mesopotamia, so often called the "cradle of the world," retains but little
+trace of the races and civilizations that have succeeded each other in
+ruling the land. When the Tigris was low at the end of the summer season,
+we used to dig out from its bank great bricks eighteen inches square, on
+which was still distinctly traced the seal of Nebuchadnezzar. These,
+possibly the remnants of a quay, were all that remained of the times
+before the advent of the caliphs.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE TIGRIS FRONT
+
+
+A few days after reaching Baghdad I left for Samarra, which was at that
+time the Tigris front. I was attached to the Royal Engineers, and my
+immediate commander was Major Morin, D.S.O., an able officer with an
+enviable record in France and Mesopotamia. The advance army of the Tigris
+was the Third Indian Army Corps, under the command of General Cobbe, a
+possessor of the coveted, and invariably merited, Victoria Cross. The
+Engineers were efficiently commanded by General Swiney. The seventy miles
+of railroad from Baghdad to Samarra were built by the Germans, being the
+only Mesopotamian portion of the much-talked-of Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway,
+completed before the war. It was admirably constructed, with an excellent
+road-bed, heavy rails and steel cross-ties made by Krupp. In their retreat
+the Turks had been too hurried to accomplish much in the way of
+destruction other than burning down a few stations and blowing up the
+water-towers. The rolling-stock had been left largely intact. There were
+no passenger-coaches, and you travelled either by flat or box car. Every
+one followed the Indian custom of carrying with them their bedding-rolls,
+and leather-covered wash-basin containing their washing-kit, as well as
+one of the comfortable rhoorkhee chairs. In consequence, although for
+travel by boat or train nothing was provided, there was no discomfort
+entailed. The trains were fitted out with anti-aircraft guns, for the
+Turkish aeroplanes occasionally tried to "lay eggs," a by no means easy
+affair with a moving train as a target. Whatever the reason was, and I
+never succeeded in discovering it, the trains invariably left Baghdad in
+the wee small hours, and as the station was on the right bank across the
+river from the main town, and the boat bridges were cut during the night,
+we used generally, when returning to the front, to spend the first part of
+the night sleeping on the station platform. Generals or exalted staff
+officers could usually succeed in having a car assigned to them, and
+hauled up from the yard in time for them to go straight to bed in it.
+Frequently their trip was postponed, and an omniscient sergeant-major
+would indicate the car to the judiciously friendly, who could then enjoy a
+solid night's sleep. The run took anywhere from eight to twelve hours; but
+when sitting among the grain-bags on an open car, or comfortably ensconced
+in a chair in a "covered goods," with _Vingt Ans Après_, the time passed
+pleasantly enough in spite of the withering heat.
+
+While still a good number of miles away from Samarra we would catch sight
+of the sun glinting on the golden dome of the mosque, built over the cleft
+where the twelfth Imam, the Imam Mahdi, is supposed to have disappeared,
+and from which he is one day to reappear to establish the true faith upon
+earth. Many Arabs have appeared claiming to be the Mahdi, and caused
+trouble in a greater or less degree according to the extent of their
+following. The most troublous one in our day was the man who besieged
+Kharthoum and captured General "Chinese" Gordon and his men. Twenty-five
+years later, when I passed through the Sudan, there were scarcely any men
+of middle age left, for they had been wiped out almost to a man under the
+fearful rule of the Mahdi, a rule which might have served as prototype to
+the Germans in Belgium.
+
+[Illustration: Golden Dome of Samarra]
+
+[Illustration: Rafting down from Tekrit]
+
+Samarra is very ancient, and has passed through periods of great
+depression and equally great expansion. It was here in A.D. 363 that the
+Roman Emperor Julian died from wounds received in the defeat of his forces
+at Ctesiphon. The golden age lasted about forty years, beginning in 836,
+when the Caliph Hutasim transferred his capital thither from Baghdad.
+During that time the city extended for twenty-one miles along the
+river-bank, with glorious palaces, the ruins of some of which still stand.
+The present-day town has sadly shrunk from its former grandeur, but still
+has an impressive look with its great walls and massive gateways. The
+houses nearest the walls are in ruins or uninhabited; but in peacetime the
+great reputation that the climate of Samarra possesses for salubrity draws
+to it many Baghdad families who come to pass the summer months. A good
+percentage of the inhabitants are Persians, for the eleventh and twelfth
+Shiah Imams are buried on the site of the largest mosque. The two main
+sects of Moslems are the Sunnis and the Shiahs; the former regard the
+three caliphs who followed Mohammed as his legitimate successors,
+whereas the latter hold them to be usurpers, and believe that his
+cousin and son-in-law, Ali, husband of Fatimah, together with their sons
+Husein and Hasan, are the prophet's true inheritors. Ali was assassinated
+near Nejef, which city is sacred to his memory, and his son Husein was
+killed at Kerbela; so these two cities are the greatest of the Shiah
+shrines. The Turks belong almost without exception to the Sunni sect,
+whereas the Persians and a large percentage of the Arabs inhabiting
+Mesopotamia are Shiahs.
+
+The country around Samarra is not unlike in character the southern part of
+Arizona and northern Sonora. There are the same barren hills and the same
+glaring heat. The soil is not sand, but a fine dust which permeates
+everything, even the steel uniform-cases which I had always regarded as
+proof against all conditions. The parching effect was so great that it was
+not only necessary to keep all leather objects thoroughly oiled but the
+covers of my books cracked and curled up until I hit upon the plan of
+greasing them well also. In the alluvial lowlands trench-digging was a
+simple affair, but along the hills we found a pebbly conglomerate that
+gave much trouble.
+
+Opinion was divided as to whether the Turk would attempt to advance down
+the Tigris. Things had gone badly with our forces in Palestine at the
+first battle of Gaza; but here we had an exceedingly strong position, and
+the consensus of opinion seemed to be that the enemy would think twice
+before he stormed it. Their base was at Tekrit, almost thirty miles away.
+However, about ten miles distant stood a small village called Daur, which
+the Turks held in considerable force. Between Daur and Samarra there was
+nothing but desert, with gazelles and jackals the only permanent
+inhabitants. Into this no man's land both sides sent patrols, who met in
+occasional skirmishes. For reconnaissance work we used light-armored
+motor-cars, known throughout the army as Lam cars, a name formed by the
+initial letters of their titles. These cars were Rolls-Royces, and with
+their armor-plate weighed between three and three-quarters and four tons.
+They were proof against the ordinary bullet but not against the
+armor-piercing. When I came out to Mesopotamia I intended to lay my plans
+for a transfer to the cavalry, but after I had seen the cars at work I
+changed about and asked to be seconded to that branch of the service.
+
+A short while after my arrival our aeroplanes brought in word that the
+Turks were massing at Daur, and General Cobbe decided that when they
+launched forth he would go and meet them. Accordingly, we all moved out
+one night, expecting to give "Abdul," as the Tommies called him, a
+surprise. Whether it was that we started too early and their aeroplanes
+saw us, or whether they were only making a feint, we never found out; but
+at all events the enemy fell back, and save for some advance-guard
+skirmishing and a few prisoners, we drew a blank. We were not prepared to
+attack the Daur position, and so returned to Samarra to await
+developments.
+
+Meanwhile I busied myself searching for an Arab servant. Seven or eight
+years previous, when with my father in Africa, I had learned Swahili, and
+although I had forgotten a great deal of it, still I found it a help in
+taking up Arabic. Most of the officers had either British or Indian
+servants; in the former case they were known as batmen, and in the latter
+as bearers; but I decided to follow suit with the minority and get an
+Arab, and therefore learn Arabic instead of Hindustanee, for the former
+would be of vastly more general use. The town commandant, Captain Grieve
+of the Black Watch, after many attempts at length produced a native who
+seemed, at any rate, more promising than the others that offered
+themselves. Yusuf was a sturdy, rather surly-looking youth of about
+eighteen. Evidently not a pure Arab, he claimed various admixtures as the
+fancy took him, the general preference being Kurd. I always felt that
+there was almost certainly a good percentage of Turk. His father had been
+a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish army, and at first I was loath
+to take him along on advances and attacks, for he would have been shown
+little mercy had he fallen into enemy hands. He was, however, insistent on
+asking to go with me, and I never saw him show any concern under fire. He
+spoke, in varying degrees of fluency, Kurdish, Persian, and Turkish, and
+was of great use to me for that reason. He became by degrees a very
+faithful and trustworthy follower, his great weakness being that he was a
+one-man's man, and although he would do anything for me, he was of little
+general use in an officers' mess.
+
+I had two horses, one a black mare that I called Soda, which means black
+in Arabic, and the other a hard-headed bay gelding that was game to go
+all day, totally unaffected by shell-fire, but exceedingly stubborn about
+choosing the direction in which he went. After numerous changes I came
+across an excellent syce to look after them. He was a wild, unkempt
+figure, with a long black beard--a dervish by profession, and certainly
+gave no one any reason to believe that he was more than half-witted.
+Indeed, almost all dervishes are in a greater or less degree insane; it is
+probably due to that that they have become dervishes, for the native
+regards the insane as under the protection of God. Dervishes go around
+practically naked, usually wearing only a few skins flung over the
+shoulder, and carrying a large begging-bowl. In addition they carry a
+long, sharp, iron bodkin, with a wooden ball at the end, having very much
+the appearance of a fool's bauble. They lead an easy life. When they take
+a fancy to a house, they settle down near the gate, and the owner has to
+support them as long as the whim takes them to stay there. To use force
+against a dervish would be looked upon as an exceedingly unpropitious
+affair to the true believer. Then, too, I have little doubt but that they
+are capable of making good use of their steel bodkins. Why my dervish
+wished to give up his easy-going profession and take over the charge of my
+horses I never fully determined, but it must have been because he really
+loved horses and found that as a dervish pure and simple he had very
+little to do with them. When he arrived he was dressed in a very ancient
+gunny-sack, and it was not without much regret at the desecration that I
+provided him with an outfit of the regulation khaki.
+
+My duties took me on long rides about the country. Here, and throughout
+Mesopotamia, the great antiquity of this "cradle of the world" kept ever
+impressing itself upon one, consciously or subconsciously. Everywhere were
+ruins; occasionally a wall still reared itself clear of the all-enveloping
+dust, but generally all that remained were great mounds, where the desert
+had crept in and claimed its own, covering palace, house, and market,
+temple, synagogue, mosque, or church with its everlasting mantle. Often
+the streets could still be traced, but oftener not. The weight of ages was
+ever present as one rode among the ruins of these once busy, prosperous
+cities, now long dead and buried, how long no one knew, for frequently
+their very names were forgotten. Babylon, Ur of the Chaldees, Istabulat,
+Nineveh, and many more great cities of history are now nothing but names
+given to desert mounds.
+
+Close by Samarra stands a strange corkscrew tower, known by the natives as
+the Malwiyah. It is about a hundred and sixty feet high, built of brick,
+with a path of varying width winding up around the outside. No one knew
+its purpose, and estimates of its antiquity varied by several thousand
+years. One fairly well-substantiated story told that it had been the
+custom to kill prisoners by hurling them off its top. We found it
+exceedingly useful as an observation-post. In the same manner we used
+Julian's tomb, a great mound rising up in the desert some five or six
+miles up-stream of the town. The legend is that when the Roman Emperor
+died of his wounds his soldiers, impressing the natives, built this as a
+mausoleum; but there is no ground whatever for this belief, for it would
+have been physically impossible for a harassed or retreating army to have
+performed a task of such magnitude. The natives call it "The Granary," and
+claim that that was its original use. Before the war the Germans had
+started in excavating, and discovered shafts leading deep down, and on top
+the foundations of a palace. Around its foot may be traced roadways and
+circular plots, and especially when seen from an aeroplane it looks as if
+there had at one time been an elaborate system of gardens.
+
+We were continually getting false rumors about the movements of the Turks.
+We had believed that it would be impossible for them to execute a flank
+movement, at any rate in sufficient strength to be a serious menace, for
+from all the reports we could get, the wells were few and far between.
+Nevertheless, there was a great deal of excitement and some concern when
+one afternoon our aeroplanes came in with the report that they had seen a
+body of Turks that they estimated at from six to eight thousand marching
+round our right flank. The plane was sent straight back with instructions
+to verify most carefully the statement, and be sure that it was really men
+they had seen. They returned at dark with no alteration of their original
+report. As can well be imagined, that night was a crowded one for us, and
+the feeling ran high when next morning the enemy turned out to be several
+enormous herds of sheep.
+
+As part consequence of this we were ordered to make a thorough water
+reconnaissance, with a view of ascertaining how large a force could be
+watered on a march around our flank. I went off in an armored car with
+Captain Marshall of the Intelligence Service. Marshall had spent many
+years in Mesopotamia shipping liquorice to the American Tobacco Company,
+and he was known and trusted by the Arabs all along the Tigris from Kurna
+to Mosul. He spoke the language most fluently, but with an accent that
+left no doubt of his Caledonian home. We had with us a couple of old
+sheiks, and it was their first ride in an automobile. It was easy to see
+that one of them was having difficulty in maintaining his dignity, but I
+was not quite sure of the reason until we stopped a moment and he fairly
+flew out of the car. It didn't seem possible that a man able to ride
+ninety miles at a stretch on a camel, could be made ill by the motion of
+an automobile. However, such was the case, and we had great difficulty in
+getting him back into the car. We discovered far more wells than we had
+been led to believe existed, but not enough to make a flank attack a very
+serious menace.
+
+The mirage played all sorts of tricks, and the balloon observers grew to
+be very cautious in their assertions. In the early days of the campaign,
+at the battle of Shaiba Bund, a friendly mirage saved the British forces
+from what would have proved a very serious defeat. Suleiman Askari was
+commanding the Turkish forces, and things were faring badly with the
+British, when of a sudden to their amazement they found that the Turks
+were in full retreat. Their commanders had caught sight of the mirage of
+what was merely an ambulance and supply train, but it was so magnified
+that they believed it to be a very large body of reinforcements. The
+report ran that when Suleiman was told of his mistake, his chagrin was so
+great that he committed suicide.
+
+It was at length decided to advance on the Turkish forces at Daur. General
+Brooking had just made a most successful attack on the Euphrates front,
+capturing the town of Ramadie, with almost five thousand prisoners. It was
+believed to be the intention of the army commander to try to relieve the
+pressure against General Allenby's forces in Palestine by attacking the
+enemy on all three of their Mesopotamian fronts. Accordingly, we were
+ordered to march out after sunset one night, prepared to attack the enemy
+position at daybreak. During a short halt by the last rays of the setting
+sun I caught sight of a number of Mohammedan soldiers prostrating
+themselves toward Mecca in their evening prayers, while their Christian or
+pagan comrades looked stolidly on. It was late October, and although the
+days were still very hot and oppressive, the nights were almost bitterly
+cold. A night-march is always a disagreeable business. The head of the
+column checks and halts, and those in the rear have no idea whether it is
+an involuntary stop for a few minutes, or whether they are to halt for an
+hour or more, owing to some complication of orders. So we stood shivering,
+and longed for a smoke, but of course that was strictly forbidden, for the
+cigarettes of an army would form a very good indication of its whereabouts
+on a dark night. All night we marched and halted, and started on again;
+the dust choked us, and the hours seemed interminable, until at last at
+two in the morning word was passed along that we could have an hour's
+sleep. The greater part of the year in Mesopotamia the regulation army
+dress consisted of a tunic and "shorts." These are long trousers cut off
+just above the knee, and the wearer may either use wrap puttees, or
+leather leggings, or golf stockings. They are a great help in the heat,
+as may easily be understood, and they allow, of course, much freer knee
+action, particularly when your clothes are wet. The reverse side of the
+medal reads that when you try to sleep without a blanket on a cold night,
+you find that your knees are uncomfortably exposed. Still we were, most of
+us, so drunk with sleep that it would have taken more than that to keep us
+awake. At three we resumed our march, and attacked just at dawn. The enemy
+had abandoned the first-line positions, and we met with but little
+resistance in the second. Our cavalry, which was concentrated at several
+points in nullahs (dry river-beds), suffered at the hands of the hostile
+aircraft. The Turk had evidently determined to fall back to Tekrit without
+putting up a serious defense. They certainly could have given us a much
+worse time than they did, for they had dug in well and scientifically.
+Among the prisoners we took there were some that proved to be very worth
+while. These Turkish officers were, as a whole a good lot--well dressed
+and well educated. Many spoke French. There is an excellent gunnery school
+at Constantinople, and one of the officers we captured had been a senior
+instructor there for many years. We had with us among our intelligence
+officers a Captain Bettelheim, born in Constantinople of Belgian
+parentage. He had served with the Turks against the Italians and with the
+British against the Boers. This gunnery officer turned out to be an old
+comrade of his in the Italian War. Many of the officers we got knew him,
+for he had been chief of police in Constantinople. Apparently none of them
+bore him the slightest ill-will when they found him serving against them.
+
+Among the supplies we captured at Daur were a lot of our own rifles and
+ammunition that the Arabs had stolen and sold to the Turks. It was
+impossible to entirely stop this, guard our dumps as best we could. On
+dark nights they would creep right into camp, and it was never safe to
+have the hospital barges tie up to the banks for the night on their way
+down the river. On many occasions the Arabs crawled aboard and finished
+off the wounded. There was only one thing to be said for the Arab, and
+that was that he played no favorite, but attacked, as a rule, whichever
+side came handier. We were told, and I believe it to be true, that during
+the fighting at Sunnaiyat the Turks sent over to know if we would agree
+to a three days' truce, during which time we should join forces against
+the Arabs, who were watching on the flank to pick off stragglers or ration
+convoys.
+
+That night we bivouacked at Daur, and were unmolested except for the enemy
+aircraft that came over and "laid eggs." Next morning we advanced on
+Tekrit. Our orders were to make a feint, and if we found that the Turk
+meant to stay and fight it out seriously, we were to fall back. Some
+gazelles got into the no man's land between us and the Turk, and in the
+midst of the firing ran gracefully up the line, stopping every now and
+then to stare about in amazement. Later on in the Argonne forest in France
+we had the same thing happen with some wild boars. The enemy seemed in no
+way inclined to evacuate Tekrit, so in accordance with instructions we
+returned to our previous night's encampment at Daur. On the way back we
+passed an old "arabana," a Turkish coupé, standing abandoned in the
+desert, with a couple of dead horses by it. It may have been used by some
+Turkish general in the retreat of two days before. It was the sort of
+coupé one associates entirely with well-kept parks and crowded city
+streets, and the incongruity of its lonely isolation amid the sand-dunes
+caused an amused ripple of comment.
+
+Our instructions were to march back to Samarra early next morning, but
+shortly before midnight orders came through from General Maude for us to
+advance again upon Tekrit and take it. Next day we halted and took stock
+in view of the new orders. The cavalry again suffered at the hands of the
+Turkish aircraft. I went to corps headquarters in the afternoon, and a
+crowd of "red tabs," as the staff-officers were called, were seated around
+a little table having the inevitable tea. A number of the generals had
+come in to discuss the plan of attack for the following day. Suddenly a
+Turk aeroplane made its appearance, flying quite low, and dropping bombs
+at regular intervals. It dropped two, and then a third on a little hill in
+a straight line from the staff conclave. It looked as if the next would be
+a direct hit, and the staff did the only wise thing, and took cover as
+flat on the ground as nature would allow; but the Hun's spacing was bad,
+and the next bomb fell some little way beyond. I remember our glee at
+what we regarded as a capital joke on the staff. The line-officer's humor
+becomes a trifle robust where the "gilded staff" is concerned,
+notwithstanding the fact that most staff-officers have seen active and
+distinguished service in the line.
+
+Our anti-aircraft guns--"Archies" we called them--were mounted on trucks,
+and on account of their weight had some difficulty getting up. I shall not
+soon forget our delight when they lumbered into view, for although I never
+happened personally to see an aeroplane brought down by an "Archie," there
+was no doubt about it but that they did not bomb us with the same
+equanimity when our anti-aircrafts were at hand.
+
+[Illustration: Captured Turkish camel corps]
+
+That night we marched out on Tekrit, and as dawn was breaking were ready
+to attack. As the mist cleared, an alarming but ludicrous sight met our
+eyes. On the extreme right some caterpillar tractors hauling our "heavies"
+were advancing straight on Tekrit, as if they had taken themselves for
+tanks. They were not long in discovering their mistake, and amid a mixed
+salvo they clumsily turned and made off at their best pace, which was not
+more than three miles an hour. Luckily, they soon got under some
+excellent defilade, but not until they had suffered heavily.
+
+Our artillery did some good work, but while we were waiting to attack we
+suffered rather heavily. We had to advance over a wide stretch of open
+country to reach the Turkish first lines. By nightfall the second line of
+trenches was practically all in our hands. Meanwhile the cavalry had
+circled way around the flank up-stream of Tekrit to cut the enemy off if
+he attempted to retreat. The town is on the right bank of the Tigris, and
+we had a small force that had come up from Samarra on the left bank, for
+we had no means of ferrying troops across. Our casualties during the day
+had amounted to about two thousand. The Seaforths had suffered heavily,
+but no more so than some of the native regiments. In Mesopotamia there
+were many changes in the standing of the Indian battalions. The
+Maharattas, for instance, had never previously been regarded as anything
+at all unusual, but they have now a very distinguished record to take
+pride in. The general feeling was that the Gurkhas did not quite live up
+to their reputation. But the Indian troops as a whole did so exceedingly
+well that there is little purpose in making comparisons amongst them. At
+this time, so I was informed, the Expeditionary Force, counting all
+branches, totalled about a million, and a very large percentage of this
+came from India. We drew our supplies from India and Australia, and it is
+interesting to note that we preferred the Australian canned beef and
+mutton (bully beef and bully mutton, as it was called) to the American.
+
+At dusk the fighting died down, and we were told to hold on and go over at
+daybreak. As I was making my way back to headquarters a general pounced
+upon me and told me to get quickly into a car and go as rapidly as
+possible to Daur to bring up a motor ration-convoy with fodder for the
+cavalry horses and food for the riders. A Ford car happened to pass by,
+and he stopped it and shoved me in, with some last hurried injunction. It
+was quite fifteen miles back, and the country was so cut up by nullahs or
+ravines that in most places it was inadvisable to leave the road, which
+was, of course, jammed with a double stream of transport of every
+description. When we were three or four miles from Daur a tire blew out.
+The driver had used his last spare, so there was nothing to do but keep
+going on the rim. The car was of the delivery-wagon type--"pill-boxes"
+were what they were known as--and while we were stopped taking stock I
+happened to catch sight of a good-sized bedding-roll behind. "Some one's
+out of luck," said I to the driver; "whose roll is it?" "The corps
+commander's, sir," was his reply. After exhausting my limited vocabulary,
+I realized that it was far too late to stop another motor and send this
+one back, so I just kept going. Across the bed of one more ravine, the
+sand up to the hubs, and we were in the Daur camp. I managed to rank some
+one out of a spare tire and started back again. My driver proved unable to
+drive at night, at all events at a pace that would put us anywhere before
+dawn, so I was forced to take the wheel. By the time I had the convoy
+properly located I was rather despondent of the corps commander's temper,
+even should I eventually reach him that night, which seemed a remote
+chance, for the best any one could do was give me the rough location on a
+map. Still, taking my luminous compass, I set out to steer a cross-country
+course. I ran into five or six small groups of ambulances filled with
+wounded, trying to find their way to Daur, and completely lost. Most had
+given up--some were unknowingly headed back for Tekrit. I could do no more
+than give them the right direction, which I knew they had no chance of
+holding. Of course I could have no headlights, and the ditches were many,
+but in some miraculous way, more through good luck than good management, I
+did find corps headquarters, and what was better still, the general's
+reprimand took the form of bread and ham and a stiff peg of whiskey--the
+first food I had had since before daylight.
+
+During the night the Turks evacuated the town. Their forces were certainly
+mobile. They could cover the most surprising distances, and live on almost
+nothing. We marched in and occupied. White flags were flying from all the
+houses, which were not nearly so much damaged from the bombardment as one
+would have supposed. This was invariably the case; indeed, it is
+surprising to see how much shelling a town can undergo without noticeable
+effect. It takes a long time to level a town in the way it has been done
+in northern France. In this region the banks of the river average about
+one hundred and fifty feet in height, and Tekrit is built at the junction
+of two ravines. No two streets are on the same level; sometimes the roofs
+of the houses on a lower level serve as the streets for the houses above.
+Many of the booths in the bazaar were open and transacting business when
+we arrived, an excellent proof of how firmly the Arabs believed in British
+fair dealing. Our men bought cigarettes, matches, and vegetables. Yusuf
+had lived here three or four years, so I despatched him to get chickens
+and eggs for the mess. I ran into Marshall, who was on his way to dine
+with the mayor, who had turned out to be an old friend of his. He asked me
+to join him, and we climbed up to a very comfortable house, built around a
+large courtyard. It was the best meal we had either of us had in
+days--great pilaus of rice, excellent chicken, and fresh unleavened bread.
+This bread looks like a very large and thin griddle-cake. The Arab uses it
+as a plate. Eating with your hands is at first rather difficult. Before
+falling to, a ewer is brought around to you, and you are supplied with
+soap--a servant pours water from the ewer over your hands, and then gives
+you a towel. After eating, the same process is gone through with. There
+are certain formalities that must be regarded--one of them being that you
+must not eat or drink with your left hand.
+
+In Tekrit we did not find as much in the way of supplies and ammunition as
+we had hoped. The Turk had destroyed the greater part of his store. We did
+find great quantities of wood, and in that barren, treeless country it was
+worth a lot. Most of the inhabitants of Tekrit are raftsmen by profession.
+Their rafts have been made in the same manner since before the days of
+Xerxes and Darius. Inflated goatskins are used as a basis for a platform
+of poles, cut in the up-stream forests. On these, starting from Diarbekr
+or Mosul, they float down all their goods. When they reach Tekrit they
+leave the poles there, and start up-stream on foot, carrying their
+deflated goatskins. The Turks used this method a great deal bringing down
+their supplies. In pre-war days the rafts, keleks as they are called,
+would often come straight through to Baghdad, but many were always broken
+up at Tekrit, for there is a desert route running across to Hit on the
+Euphrates, and the supplies from up-river were taken across this in camel
+caravans.
+
+The aerodrome lay six or seven miles above the town, and I was anxious to
+see it and the comfortable billets the Germans had built themselves. I
+found a friend whose duties required motor transportation, and we set off
+in his car. A dust-storm was raging, and we had some difficulty in finding
+our way through the network of trenches. Once outside, the storm became
+worse, and we could only see a few yards in front of us. We got completely
+lost, and after nearly running over the edge of the bluff, gave up the
+attempt, and slowly worked our way back.
+
+When we started off on the advance I was reading Xenophon's _Anabasis_. On
+the day when we were ordered to march on Tekrit a captain of the Royal
+Flying Corps, an ex-master at Eton, was in the mess, and when I told him
+that I was nearly out of reading matter, he said that next time he came
+over he would drop me Plutarch's _Lives_. I asked him to drop it at corps
+headquarters, and that a friend of mine there would see that I got it. The
+next day in the heat of the fighting a plane came over low, signalling
+that it was dropping a message. As the streamer fell close by, there was a
+rush to pick it up and learn how the attack was progressing. Fortunately,
+I was far away when the packet was opened and found to contain the book
+that the pilot had promised to drop for me.
+
+After we had been occupying the town for a few days, orders came through
+to prepare to fall back on Samarra. The line of communication was so long
+that it was impossible to maintain us, except at too great a cost to the
+transportation facilities possessed by the Expeditionary Forces. Eight or
+ten months later, when we had more rails in hand, a line was laid to
+Tekrit, which had been abandoned by the Turks under the threat of our
+advance to Kirkuk, in the Persian hills. It was difficult to explain to
+the men, particularly to the Indians, the necessity for falling back. All
+they could understand was that we had taken the town at no small cost, and
+now we were about to give it up.
+
+For several days I was busy helping to prepare rafts to take down the
+timber and such other captured supplies as were worth removing. The river
+was low, leaving a broad stretch of beach below the town, and to this we
+brought down the poles. Several camels had died near the water, probably
+from the results of our shelling, and the hot weather soon made them very
+unpleasant companions. The first day was bad enough; the second was worse.
+The natives were not in the least affected. They brought their washing and
+worked among them--they came down and drew their drinking-water from the
+river, either beside the camels or down-stream of them, with complete
+indifference. It is true this water percolates drop by drop through large,
+porous clay pots before it is drunk, but even so, it would have seemed
+that they would have preferred its coming from up-stream of the derelict
+"ships of the desert." On the third day, to their mild surprise, we
+managed with infinite difficulty to tow the camels out through the shallow
+water into the main stream.
+
+We finally got our rafts built, over eighty in number, and arranged for
+enough Arab pilots to take care of half of them. On the remainder we put
+Indian sepoys. They made quite a fleet when we finally got them all
+started down-stream. Two were broken up in the rapids near Daur, the rest
+reached Samarra in safety on the second day.
+
+We had a pleasant camp on the bluffs below Tekrit--high-enough above the
+plain to be free of the ordinary dust-storms, and the prospect of
+returning to Samarra was scarcely more pleasant to us than to the men.
+Five days after we had taken the town, we turned our backs on it and
+marched slowly back to rail-head.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON
+
+
+We returned to find Samarra buried in dust and more desolate than ever. A
+few days later came the first rain-storm. After a night's downpour the air
+was radiantly clear, and it was joy to ride off on the rounds, no longer
+like Zeus, enveloped in a cloud.
+
+It was a relief to see the heat-stroke camps broken up. During the summer
+months our ranks were fearfully thinned through the sun. Although it was
+the British troops that suffered most, the Indians were by no means
+immune. Before the camps were properly organized the percentage of
+mortality was exceedingly large, for the only effective treatment
+necessitates the use of much ice. The patient runs a temperature which it
+was impossible to control until the ice-making machines were installed.
+The camps were situated in the coolest and most comfortable places, but in
+spite of everything, death was a frequent result, and recoveries were apt
+to be only partial. Men who had had a bad stroke were rarely of any
+further use in the country.
+
+Another sickness of the hot season which now began to claim less victims
+was sand-fly fever. This fever, which, as its name indicates, was
+contracted from the bites of sand-flies, varied widely in virulence.
+Sometimes it was so severe that the victim had to be evacuated to India;
+as a rule he went no farther than a base hospital at Baghdad or Amara.
+
+One of the things about which the Tommy felt most keenly in the
+Mesopotamian campaign was that there was no such thing as a "Cushy
+Blighty." To take you to "Blighty" a wound must mean permanent
+disablement, otherwise you either convalesced in the country or, at best,
+were sent to India. In the same manner there were no short leaves, for
+there was nowhere to go. At the most rapid rate of travelling it took two
+weeks to get to India, and once there, although the people did everything
+possible in the way of entertaining, the enlisted man found little to make
+him less homesick than he had been in Mesopotamia. Transportation was so
+difficult and the trip so long that only under very exceptional
+circumstances was leave to England given. One spring it was announced
+that officers wishing to get either married or divorced could apply for
+leave with good hopes of success. Many applied, but a number returned
+without having fulfilled either condition, so that the following year no
+leaves were given upon those grounds. The army commander put all divorce
+cases into the hands of an officer whose civil occupation had been the
+law, and who arranged them without the necessity of granting home leave.
+
+A week after our return to Samarra a rumor started that General Maude was
+down with cholera. For some time past there had been sporadic cases,
+though not enough to be counted an epidemic. The sepoys had suffered
+chiefly, but not exclusively, for the British ranks also supplied a quota
+of victims. An officer on the staff of the military governor of Baghdad
+had recently died. We heard that the army commander had the virulent form,
+and knew there could be no chance of his recovery. The announcement of his
+death was a heavy blow to all, and many were the gloomy forebodings. The
+whole army had implicit confidence in their leader, and deeply mourned his
+loss. The usual rumors of foul play and poison went the rounds, but I
+soon after heard Colonel Wilcox--in pre-war days an able and renowned
+practitioner of Harley Street--say that it was an undoubted case of
+cholera. The colonel had attended General Maude throughout the illness.
+The general had never taken the cholera prophylactic, although Colonel
+Wilcox had on many occasions urged him to do so, the last time being only
+a few days before the disease developed.
+
+[Illustration: Towing an armored car across a river]
+
+[Illustration: Reconnaissance]
+
+General Marshall, who had commanded General Maude's old division, the
+Thirteenth, took over. The Seventeenth lost General Gillman, who thereupon
+became chief of staff. This was a great loss to his division, for he was
+the idol of the men, but the interest of the Expeditionary Force was
+naturally and justly given precedence.
+
+In due course my transfer to the Motor Machine-Gun Corps came through
+approved, and I was assigned to the Fourteenth battery of light-armored
+motor-cars, commanded by Captain Nigel Somerset, whose grandfather, Lord
+Raglan, had died, nursed by Florence Nightingale, while in command of the
+British forces in the Crimean War. Somerset himself was in the infantry at
+the outbreak of the war and had been twice wounded in France. He was an
+excellent leader, possessing as he did dash, judgment, and personal
+magnetism. A battery was composed of eight armored cars, subdivided into
+four sections. There was a continually varying number of tenders and
+workshop lorries. The fighting cars were Rolls-Royces, the others Napiers
+and Fords.
+
+At that time there were only four batteries in the country. We were army
+troops--that is to say, we were not attached to any individual brigade, or
+division, or corps, but were temporarily assigned first here and then
+there, as the need arose.
+
+In attacks we worked in co-operation with the cavalry. Although on
+occasions they tried to use us as tanks, it was not successful, for our
+armor-plate was too light. We were also employed in raiding, and in
+quelling Arab uprisings. This latter use threw us into close touch with
+the political officers. These were a most interesting lot of men. They
+were recruited in part from the army, but largely from civil life. They
+took over the civil administration of the conquered territory and
+judiciously upheld native justice. Many remarkable characters were
+numbered among them--men who had devoted a lifetime to the study of the
+intricacies of Oriental diplomacy. They were distinguished by the white
+tabs on the collars of their regulation uniforms; but white was by no
+means invariably the sign of peace, for many of the political officers
+were killed, and more than once in isolated towns in unsettled districts
+they sustained sieges that lasted for several days. We often took a
+political officer out with us on a raid or reconnaissance, finding his
+knowledge of the language and customs of great assistance. Sir Percy Cox
+was at the head, with the title "Chief Political Officer" and the rank of
+general. His career in the Persian Gulf has been as distinguished as it is
+long, and his handling of the very delicate situations arising in
+Mesopotamia has called forth the unstinted praise of soldier and civilian
+alike.
+
+Ably assisting him, and head of the Arab bureau, was Miss Gertrude Bell,
+the only woman, other than the nursing sisters, officially connected with
+the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Forces. Miss Bell speaks Arabic fluently
+and correctly. She first became interested in the East when visiting her
+uncle at Teheran, where he was British minister. She has made noteworthy
+expeditions in Syria and Mesopotamia, and has written a number of
+admirable books, among which are _Armurath to Armurath_ and _The Desert
+and the Sown_. The undeniable position which she holds must appear doubly
+remarkable when the Mohammedan official attitude toward women is borne in
+mind. Miss Bell has worked steadily and without a leave in this trying
+climate, and her tact and judgment have contributed to the British success
+to a degree that can scarcely be overestimated.
+
+The headquarters of the various batteries were in Baghdad. There we had
+our permanent billets, and stores. We would often be ordered out in
+sections to be away varying lengths of time, though rarely more than a
+couple of months. The workshops' officer stayed in permanent charge and
+had the difficult task of keeping all the cars in repair. The supply of
+spare parts was so uncertain that much skill and ingenuity were called
+for, and possessed to a full degree by Lieutenant Linnell of the
+Fourteenth.
+
+A few days after I joined I set off with Somerset and one of the battery
+officers, Lieutenant Smith, formerly of the Black Watch. We were ordered
+to do some patrolling near the ruins of Babylon. Kerbela and Nejef, in the
+quality of great Shiah shrines, had never been particularly friendly to
+the Turks, who were Sunnis--but the desert tribes are almost invariably
+Sunnis, and this coupled with their natural instinct for raiding and
+plundering made them eager to take advantage of any interregnum of
+authority. We organized a sort of native mounted police, but they were
+more picturesque than effective. They were armed with weapons of varying
+age and origin--not one was more recent than the middle of the last
+century. Now the Budus, the wild desert folk, were frequently equipped
+with rifles they had stolen from us, so in a contest the odds were
+anything but even.
+
+We took up our quarters at Museyib, a small town on the banks of the
+Euphrates, six or eight miles above the Hindiyah Barrage, a dam finished a
+few years before, and designed to irrigate a large tract of potentially
+rich country. We patrolled out to Mohamediyah, a village on the caravan
+desert route to Baghdad, and thence down to Hilleh, around which stand the
+ruins of ancient Babylon. The rainy season was just beginning, and it was
+obvious that the patrolling could not be continuous, for a twelve-hour
+rain would make the country impassable to our heavy cars for two or three
+days. We were fortunate in having pleasant company in the officers of a
+Punjabi infantry battalion and an Indian cavalry regiment. Having
+commandeered an ancient caravan-serai for garage and billets, we set to
+work to clean it out and make it as waterproof as circumstances would
+permit. An oil-drum with a length of iron telegraph-pole stuck in its top
+provided a serviceable stove, and when it rained we played bridge or read.
+
+I was ever ready to reduce my kit to any extent in order to have space for
+some books, and Voltaire's _Charles XII_ was the first called upon to
+carry me to another part of the world from that in which I at the moment
+found myself. I always kept a volume of some sort in my pocket, and during
+halts I would read in the shade cast by the turret of my car. The two
+volumes of Layard's _Early Adventures_ proved a great success. The writer,
+the great Assyriologist, is better known as the author of _Nineveh and
+Babylon_. The book I was reading had been written when he was in his early
+twenties, but published for the first time forty years later. Layard
+started life as a solicitor's clerk in London, but upon being offered a
+post in India he had accepted and proceeded thither overland. On reaching
+Baghdad he made a side-trip into Kurdistan, and became so enamored of the
+life of the tribesmen that he lived there with them on and off for two
+years--years filled with adventure of the most thrilling sort.
+
+I had finished a translation of Xenophon shortly before and found it a
+very different book than when I was plodding drearily through it in the
+original at school. Here it was all vivid and real before my eyes, with
+the scene of the great battle of Cunaxa only a few miles from Museyib.
+Babylon was in sight of the valiant Greeks, but all through the loss of a
+leader it was never to be theirs. On the ground itself one could
+appreciate how great a masterpiece the retreat really was, and the
+hardiness of the soldiers which caused Xenophon to regard as a "snow
+sickness" the starvation and utter weariness which made the numbed men lie
+down and die in the snow of the Anatolian highlands. He remarks naïvely
+that if you could build a fire and give them something hot to eat, the
+sickness was dispelled!
+
+The rain continued to fall and the mud became deeper and deeper. It was
+all the Arabs could do to get their produce into market. The bazaar was
+not large, but was always thronged. I used to sit in one of the
+coffee-houses and drink coffee or tea and smoke the long-stemmed
+water-pipe, the narghile. My Arabic was now sufficiently fluent for
+ordinary conversation, and in these clubs of the Arab I could hear all the
+gossip. Bazaar rumors always told of our advances long before they were
+officially given out. Once in Baghdad I heard of an attack we had
+launched. On going around to G.H.Q. I mentioned the rumor, and found that
+it was not yet known there, but shortly after was confirmed. I had already
+in Africa met with the "native wireless," and it will be remembered how in
+the Civil War the plantation negroes were often the first to get news of
+the battles. It is something that I have never heard satisfactorily
+explained.
+
+In the coffee-houses, besides smoking and gossiping, we also played games,
+either chess or backgammon or munkula. This last is an exceedingly
+primitive and ancient game--it must date almost as far back as jackstones
+or knucklebones. I have seen the natives in Central Africa and the Indians
+in the far interior of Brazil playing it in almost identical form. In
+Mesopotamia the board was a log of wood sliced in two and hinged together.
+In either half five or six holes were scooped out, and the game consisted
+in dropping cowrie shells or pebbles into the holes. When the number in a
+particular hollow came to a certain amount with the addition of the one
+dropped in, you won the contents.
+
+In most places the coffee was served in Arab fashion, not Turkish. In the
+latter case it is sweet and thick and the tiny cup is half full of
+grounds; in the former the coffee is clear and bitter and of unsurpassable
+flavor. The diminutive cup is filled several times, but each time there is
+only a mouthful poured in. Tea is served in small glasses, without milk,
+but with lots of sugar. The spoons in the glasses are pierced with holes
+like tea-strainers so that the tea may be stirred without spilling it.
+
+There was in particular one booth I could never tire watching. The old man
+who owned it was a vender of pickles. In rows before him were bottles and
+jars and bowls containing pickles of all colors--red, yellow, green,
+purple, white, and even blue. Above his head were festoons of gayly
+painted peppers. He had a long gray beard, wore a green turban and a
+flowing robe with a gold-braided waistcoat. In the half-lights of the
+crowded, covered bazaar his was a setting in which Dulac would have
+revelled.
+
+At Museyib we led a peaceful, uneventful existence--completely shut in by
+the mud. We had several bazaar rumors about proposed attacks upon the
+engineers who were surveying for a railroad that was to be built to Hilleh
+for the purpose of transporting the grain-crop to the capital. Nothing
+materialized, however. The conditions were too poor to induce even the
+easily encouraged Arabs to raid. One morning when I was wandering around
+the gardens on the outskirts of the town I came across some jackals and
+shot one with my Webley revolver. It was running and I fired a number of
+times, and got back to town to find that my shooting had started all sorts
+of excitement and reports of uprisings.
+
+Christmas came and the different officers' messes organized celebrations.
+The mess we had joined was largely Scotch, so we decided we must make a
+haggis, that "chieftain of the pudden race." The ingredients, save for the
+whiskey, were scarcely orthodox, but if it was not a success, at least no
+one admitted it.
+
+As soon as the weather cleared we made a run to Kerbela--a lovely town,
+with miles of gardens surrounding it and two great mosques. The bazaar was
+particularly attractive--plentifully supplied with everything. We got
+quantities of the deliciously flavored pistachio-nuts which were difficult
+to obtain elsewhere, as well as all sorts of fruit and vegetables. There
+were no troops stationed in the vicinity, so the prices were lower than
+usual. The orders were that we should go about in armed bands, but I never
+saw any marked indication of hostility. The British, true to the
+remarkable tact and tolerance that contributes so largely to their success
+in dealing with native races, posted Mohammedan sepoys as guards on the
+mosques, and no one but Moslems could even go into the courtyards. If this
+had not been done, there would have been many disturbances and uprisings,
+for the Arabs and Persians felt so strongly on the question that they
+regarded with marked hostility those who even gazed into the mosque
+courtyards. Why it is so different in Constantinople I do not know, but
+there was certainly no hostility shown us in Santa Sophia nor in the
+mosque of Omar in Jerusalem. Be that as it may, forbidden fruit is always
+sweet, and the Tommies were inclined to force an entrance. During a change
+of guard a Tommy who had his curiosity and initiative stimulated through
+recourse to arrick, the fiery liquor distilled from dates, stole into the
+most holy mosque in Kerbela. By a miracle he was got out unharmed, but for
+a few hours a general uprising with an attendant massacre of unbelievers
+was feared.
+
+The great mosque lost much of its dignity through an atrocious clock-tower
+standing in the courtyard in front of it. It had evidently been found too
+expensive to cover this tower with a golden scale to shine in the sun, so
+some ingenious architect hit upon the plan of papering it with flattened
+kerosene-tins. It must have glinted gloriously at first, but weather and
+rain had rusted the cans and they presented but a sorry spectacle. From
+the thousand and one uses to which these oil-cans have been put by the
+native, one is inclined to think that the greatest benefit that has been
+conferred on the natives by modern civilization is from the hands of the
+Standard Oil Company.
+
+There were a fair number of Indians living in Kerbela before the war, for
+devout Shiahs are anxious to be buried near the martyred sons of Ali, and
+when they are unable to move to Kerbela in their lifetime they frequently
+make provisions that their remains may be transported thither. The British
+found it a convenient abode for native rulers whom they were forced to
+depose but still continued to pension.
+
+[Illustration: The Lion of Babylon]
+
+[Illustration: A dragon on the palace wall]
+
+Hilleh, which stands near the ruins of ancient Babylon, is a modern town
+very much like Museyib. I never had a chance to study the ruins at any
+length. Several times we went over the part that had been excavated by the
+Germans immediately before the war. I understand that this is believed to
+be the great palace where Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall. It
+is built of bricks, each one of which is stamped in cuneiform characters.
+There are very fine bas-reliefs of animals, both mythical and real. In the
+centre is the great stone lion, massively impressive, standing over the
+prostrate form of a man. The lion has suffered from fire and man; there
+have even been chips made in it recently by Arab rifles, probably not
+wantonly, but in some skirmish. Standing alone in its majesty in the midst
+of ruin and desolation amid the black tents of a people totally unable to
+construct or even appreciate anything of a like nature, it gave one
+much to think over and moralize about. The ruins of Babylon have been
+excavated only in very small part; there are great isolated mounds which
+have never been touched, and you can still pick up in the sand bits of
+statuary, and the cylinders that were used as seal-rings. The great city
+of Seleucia on the Tigris was built largely with bricks and masonry
+brought by barge from the ruins of Babylon through the canal that joined
+the two rivers.
+
+The prophecy of Isaiah has fallen true:
+
+    And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
+    excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
+
+    It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from
+    generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent
+    there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
+
+    But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses
+    shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there,
+    and satyrs shall dance there.
+
+    And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate
+    houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is
+    near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
+
+A few days after Christmas, we were ordered to return to Baghdad. The
+going was still bad. We had a Ford tender in advance to find and warn us
+of the softest spots. Once it got into the middle of such a bottomless bog
+that, after trying everything else, I hit upon the idea of rolling it out.
+It was built all enclosed like a bread-van, and we turned it over and over
+until we had it clear of the mud. We had hard work with the heavy
+cars--sometimes we could tow one out with another, but frequently that
+only resulted in getting the two stuck. Once when the cars were badly
+bogged I went to a near-by Arab village to get help. I told the head man
+that I wanted bundles of brush to throw in front of the cars in order to
+make some sort of a foundation to pass them over. He at once started
+turning out his people to aid us, but after he had got a number of loads
+under way he caught sight of one of his wives, who, instead of coming to
+our assistance, was washing some clothes in a copper caldron by the fire.
+There followed a scene which demonstrated that even an Arab is by no means
+always lord of his own household. The wife refused to budge; the Arab
+railed and stormed, but she went calmly on with her washing, paying no
+more attention to his fury than if he were a fractious, unreasonable
+child. At length, driven to a white heat of rage, the head man upset the
+caldron into the fire with his foot. The woman, without a word, got up and
+stalked into a near-by hut, from which she refused to emerge. There was
+nothing for her discomfited adversary to do but go on with his rounds.
+
+By manoeuvring and digging and towing we managed to make seven miles after
+fourteen hours' work that first day. Night found us close beside an Arab
+village, from which I got a great bowl of buffalo milk to put into the
+men's coffee. Early in the morning we were off again. The going was so
+much better that we were able to make Baghdad at ten o'clock in the
+evening.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT
+
+
+We spent a few days making repairs and outfitting before starting off
+again. This time our destination was Deli Abbas, the headquarters of the
+Thirteenth Division. The town is situated in the plains below the
+foot-hills of the Persian Mountains, on the banks of the Khalis Canal,
+some seventy miles north-east of Baghdad. At dawn we passed out of the
+north gate, close to where General Maude is buried, and whirled across the
+desert for thirty miles to Bakuba, a prosperous city on the banks of the
+Diyala. From the junction of the greater Zab down to Kurna, where the
+Euphrates joins, this stream is the most important affluent of the Tigris.
+It was one of those bright, sparkling mornings on which merely to be alive
+and breathe is a joy. We passed a number of caravans, bringing carpets and
+rugs from Persia, or fruit and vegetables from the rich agricultural
+district around Bakuba. The silks manufactured here are of a fine quality
+and well known throughout the country.
+
+After passing the big aerodrome near the town, the going became very bad;
+we struggled along through the village of Deltawa, in and out of
+unfathomable ditches. The rivers were in flood, and we ran into lakes and
+swamps that we cautiously skirted. Dark overtook us in the middle of a
+network of bogs, but we came upon an outpost of Welsh Fusiliers and spent
+the night with them. We had smashed the bottom plate of one of the cars,
+so that all the oil ran out of the crank-case, but with a side of the
+ever-useful kerosene tin we patched the car up temporarily and pushed off
+at early dawn. Our route wound through groves of palms surrounding the
+tumble-down tomb of some holy man, occasional collections of squalid
+little huts, and in the intervening "despoblado" we would catch sight of a
+jackal crouching in the hollow or slinking off through the scrub. Deli
+Abbas proved a half-deserted straggling town which gave evidence of having
+once seen prosperous days. Some Turkish aeroplanes heralded our arrival.
+
+In front of us rose the Jebel Hamrin--Red Hills--beyond them the
+snow-clad peaks of the Kurdish Range. A few months previous we had
+captured the passes over the Jebel, and we were now busy repairing and
+improving the roads--in particular that across the Abu Hajjar, not for
+nothing named by the Arabs the "Father of Stones." Whenever the going
+permitted we went out on reconnaissances--rekkos, as we called them. They
+varied but slightly; the one I went on the day after reaching Deli Abbas
+might serve as model. We started at daybreak and ran to a little village
+called Ain Lailah, the Spring of Night, a lovely name for the small clump
+of palm-trees tucked away unexpectedly in a hollow among barren
+foot-hills. There we picked up a surveyor--an officer whose business it
+was to make maps for the army. We passed through great herds of camels,
+some with small children perched on their backs, who joggled about like
+sailors on a storm-tossed ship, as the camels made away from the cars.
+There were villages of the shapeless black tents of the nomads huddled in
+among the desolate dunes. We picked up a Turk deserter who was trying to
+reach our lines. He said that his six comrades had been killed by Arabs.
+Shortly afterward we ran into a cavalry patrol, but the men escaped over
+some very broken ground before we could satisfactorily come to terms with
+them. It was lucky for the deserter that we found him before they did, for
+his shrift would have been short. We got back to camp at half past eight,
+having covered ninety-two miles in our windings--a good day's work.
+
+Each section had two motorcycles attached to it--jackals, as one of the
+generals called them, in apt reference to the way in which jackals
+accompany a lion when hunting. The cyclists rode ahead to spy out the
+country and the best course to follow. When we got into action they would
+drop behind, and we used them to send messages back to camp. The best
+motorcyclist we had was a Swiss named Milson. He was of part English
+descent, and came at once from Switzerland at the outbreak of the war to
+enlist. When he joined he spoke only broken English but was an exceedingly
+intelligent man and had been attending a technical college. I have never
+seen a more skilful rider; he could get his cycle along through the mud
+when we were forced to carry the others, and no one was more cool and
+unconcerned under fire. The personnel of the battery left nothing to be
+desired. One was proud to serve among such a fine set of men. Corporal
+Summers drove the car in which I usually rode, and I have never met with a
+better driver or one who understood his car so thoroughly, and possessed
+that intangible sympathy with it which is the gift of a few, but can be
+never attained.
+
+We were still in the rainy season. We had to travel as light as possible,
+and all we could bring were forty-pounder tents, which correspond to the
+American dog-tent. Very low, they withstood in remarkable fashion the
+periodical hurricanes of wind and rain. They kept us fairly dry, too, for
+we were careful to ditch them well. There was room for two men to sleep in
+the turret of a Rolls, and they could spread a tarpaulin over the top to
+keep the rain from coming in through the various openings. The balance of
+the men had a communal tent or slept in the tenders. The larger tents in
+the near-by camps blew down frequently, but with us it happened only
+occasionally. There are happier moments than those spent in the inky
+blackness amid a torrential deluge, when you try to extricate yourself
+from the wet, clinging folds of falling canvas.
+
+Time hung heavily when the weather was bad, and we were cooped up inside
+our tents without even a hostile aeroplane to shoot at. One day when the
+going was too poor to take out the heavy cars, I set off in a tender to
+visit another section of the battery that was stationed thirty or forty
+miles away in the direction of Persia, close by a town called Kizil Robat.
+We had a rough trip, with several difficult fords to cross. It was only
+through working with the icy water above our waists that we won through
+the worst, amid the shouts of "Shabash, Sahib!" ("Well done!") from the
+onlooking Indian troops. I reached the camp to find the section absent on
+a reconnaissance, for the country was better drained than that over which
+we were working. A few minutes later one of the cyclists came in with the
+news that the cars were under heavy fire about twenty-five miles away and
+one of them was badly bogged. I immediately loaded all the surplus men and
+eight Punjabis from a near-by regiment into the tenders. We reached the
+scene just after the disabled car had been abandoned. Some of the Turks
+were concealed in a village two hundred and fifty yards away; the rest
+were behind some high irrigation embankments. The free car had been
+unable to circle around or flank them because of the nature of the
+terrain. The men had not known that the village was occupied and had
+bogged down almost at the same time that the Turks opened fire. By
+breaking down an irrigation ditch the enemy succeeded in further flooding
+the locality where the automobile was trapped. The Turks made it hot for
+the men when they tried to dig out the car. The bullets spattered about
+them. It was difficult to tell how many Turks we accounted for. As dark
+came on, the occupants of the disabled car abandoned it and joined the
+other one, which was standing off the enemy but had lost all four tires
+and was running on its rims. We held a consultation and decided to stay
+where we were until dawn. We had scarcely made the decision when one of
+our cyclists arrived with orders from the brigade commander to return
+immediately. Although exceedingly loath to leave the armored car, we had
+no other course than to obey.
+
+It was after midnight by the time we made back to camp. We were told that
+a small attack had been planned for the morning, and that then we could go
+out with the troops and recover our car, using some artillery horses to
+drag it free. The troops soon began filing past, but we didn't pull out
+till three o'clock, by which time we were reinforced by an armored car
+from another battery. We were held back behind the advanced cavalry until
+daylight, and felt certain that the Turks would have either destroyed or
+succeeded in removing our car. Nor were we wrong, for just as we breasted
+the hill that brought the scene of yesterday's engagement into view, we
+saw the smoke of an explosion and the men running back into the village.
+We cleared the village with the help of a squadron of the Twenty-First
+cavalry, and found that the car had been almost freed during the night. It
+was a bad wreck, but we were able to tow it. I wished to have a reckoning
+with the village head man, and walked to an isolated group of houses a few
+hundred yards to the left of the village. As I neared them a lively
+fusillade opened and I had to take refuge in a convenient irrigation
+ditch. The country was so broken that it was impossible for us to operate,
+so we towed the car back to camp.
+
+[Illustration: Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car]
+
+[Illustration: A Mesopotamian garage]
+
+Our section from Deli Abbas was moved up to take the place of the one that
+had been engaged, which now returned to Baghdad. We were camped at
+Mirjana, a few miles north of Kizil Robat, on the Diyala River. A pontoon
+bridge was thrown across and the cars were taken over to the right bank,
+where we bivouacked with a machine-gun company and a battalion of native
+infantry. The bed of the river was very wide, and although throughout the
+greater part of the year the water flowed only through the narrow main
+channel, in the time of the spring floods the whole distance was a riotous
+yellow torrent. We had no sooner got the cars across than the river began
+to rise. During the first night part of the bridge was carried away, and
+the rest was withdrawn. The rise continued; trees and brush were swept
+racing past. We made several fruitless attempts to get across in the
+clumsy pontoons, but finally gave it up, resigning ourselves to being
+marooned. We put ourselves on short rations and waited for the river to
+fall. If the Turks had used any intelligence they could have gathered us
+in with the greatest ease, in spite of our excellent line of trenches. On
+the fourth day of our isolation the river subsided as rapidly as it had
+risen.
+
+We had good patrolling conditions, and each day we made long circuits.
+Sometimes we would run into a body of enemy cavalry and have a skirmish
+with them. Again we would come upon an infantry outpost and manoeuvre
+about in an effort to damage it. The enemy set traps for us, digging big
+holes in the road and covering them over with matting on which they
+scattered dirt to make the surface appear normal. The nearest town
+occupied by the Turks was Kara Tepe, distant from Mirjana eight or ten
+miles as the crow flies. In the debatable land were a number of native
+villages, and such inhabitants as remained in them led an unpleasantly
+eventful existence. In the morning they would be visited by a Turkish
+patrol, which would be displaced by us in our rounds. Perhaps in the
+evening a band of wild mountainy Kurds would blow in and run off some of
+their few remaining sheep. Then the Turks would return and accuse them of
+having given us information, and carry off some hostages or possibly beat
+a couple of them for having received us, although goodness knows they had
+little enough choice in the matter. There was one old sheik with whom I
+used often to sit and gossip while an attendant was roasting the berries
+for our coffee over the near-by fire. He was ever asking why we couldn't
+make an advance and put his village safely behind our lines, so that the
+children could grow fat and the herds graze unharmed. In this country
+Kurdish and Turkish were spoken as frequently as Arabic, and many of the
+names of places were Turkish--such as Kara Tepe, which means Black
+Mountain, and Kizil Robat, the Tomb of the Maidens. My spelling of these
+names differs from that found on many maps. It would be a great
+convenience if some common method could be agreed upon. At present the
+map-makers conform only in a unanimous desire to each use a different
+transliteration.
+
+Kizil Robat is an attractive town. I spent some pleasant mornings
+wandering about it with the mayor, Jameel Bey, a fine-looking Kurdish
+chieftain of the Jaf tribe. He owned a lovely garden with date-palms,
+oranges, pomegranates, and figs. Tattered Kurds were working on the
+irrigation ditches, and a heap of rags lying below the wall in the sun
+changed itself into a small boy, just as I was about to step on it.
+Jameel's son was as white, with as rosy cheeks, as any American baby.
+
+Harry Bowen, brother-in-law of General Cobbe, was the political officer
+in charge of Kizil Robat. He spoke excellent Arabic and was much respected
+by the natives. His house was an oasis in which I could always look
+forward to a pleasant talk, an excellent native dinner, and some
+interesting book to carry off. Although the town was small, there were
+three good Turkish baths. One of them belonged to Jameel Bey, but, judging
+from the children tending babies while squatting in the entrance portico,
+was generally given over to the distaff side and its friends. The one
+which we patronized, while not so grand a building, had an old Persian who
+understood the art of massage thoroughly, and there was nothing more
+restful after a number of days' hard work with the cars.
+
+In the end of February there passed through Kizil Robat the last
+contingent of our former Russian Allies. They were Cossacks--a
+fine-looking lot as they rode along perched on their small chunky saddles
+atop of their unkempt but hardy ponies. When Russia went out of the war
+they asked permission to keep on fighting with us. They were a good deal
+of a problem, for they had no idea whatever of discipline, and it was most
+difficult to keep them in hand and stop them from pillaging the natives
+indiscriminately. They had been completely cut off from Russia for a long
+time but were now on their way back. A very intelligent woman doctor and a
+number of nurses who had been with them were sick with smallpox in one of
+our hospitals in Baghdad. When they recovered they were sent to India, for
+it was not feasible to repatriate them by way of Persia. When the Russians
+first established connection with us, some armored cars were sent to bring
+in the Cossack general, whose name we were told was Leslie. We were
+unprepared to find that he spoke no English! It turned out that his
+ancestors had gone over from Scotland to the court of Peter the Great.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES
+
+
+Early in March we got orders to return to Baghdad, where all the armored
+cars were to be concentrated preparatory to an attack on the Euphrates
+front. There was much speculation as to our mission. Some said that we
+were to break through and establish connection with General Allenby's
+forces in Palestine. While I know nothing about it authoritatively, it is
+certain that if the state of affairs in France had not called for the
+withdrawal from the East of all the troops that could be spared, the
+attack that was launched in October would have taken place in March. We
+could then have advanced up the Euphrates, and it would have been entirely
+practical to cross over the desert in the cars by way of Tadmor.
+
+When we got word to come in, the roads were in fearful shape and the rain
+was falling in torrents, but we were so afraid that we might miss the
+attack that we salvaged everything not essential and started to fight our
+way through the mud. It was a slow and wearisome process, but we managed
+to get as far as Bakuba by evening. The river was rising in one of its
+periodical floods and we found that the pontoon bridge had been cut half
+an hour before our arrival. No one could predict how long the flood would
+last, but the river rarely went down sufficiently to allow the bridge to
+be replaced within a week. At that time the railroad went only as far as
+Bakuba, and crossed the river on a wooden trestle, so I decided to try to
+load the motors on a flat car and get across the Diyala in that way.
+
+After having made arrangements to do this I wandered off into the bazaar
+to get something to eat. In native fashion I first bought a big flap of
+bread from an old woman, and then went to a pickle booth to get some
+beets, which I wrapped in my bread. Next I proceeded to a meat-shop and
+ordered some lamb kababs roasted. The meat is cut in pellets, spitted on
+rods six or eight inches long, and lain over the glowing charcoal embers.
+In the shop there are long tables with benches beside them. The customer
+spreads his former purchases, and when his kababs are ready he eats his
+dinner. He next proceeds to a coffee-house, where he has a couple of
+glasses of tea and three or four diminutive cups of coffee to top off, and
+the meal is finished. The Arab eats sparingly as a rule, but when he gives
+or attends a banquet he stuffs himself to his utmost capacity.
+
+Next morning we loaded our cars successfully and started off by rail for
+Baghdad, some thirty miles away. The railroad wound across the desert,
+with here and there a water-tank with a company from a native regiment
+guarding it. As we stopped at one particularly desolate spot, a young
+officer came running up and asked if we would have tea with him. He took
+us to his tent, where everything was ready, for he apparently always met
+the two trains that passed through daily. Poor fellow, he was only a
+little over twenty, and desperately lonely and homesick. Many of the young
+officers who were wounded in France were sent to India with the idea that
+they could be training men and getting on to the methods of the Indian
+army while yet recuperating and unfit to go back to the front. They were
+shipped out with a new draft when they had fully recovered. This boy had
+only been a month in the country, and ten days before had been sent off in
+charge of his Sikh company to do this wearisome guard duty.
+
+We spent a few days in Baghdad refitting. The cars were to go out
+camouflaged to resemble supply-trucks, for every precaution was taken to
+prevent the Turks from realizing that we were massing men for an attack.
+The night before we were to start, word came in that the political officer
+at Nejef had been murdered, and the town was in revolt. We were ordered to
+send a section there immediately, so Lieutenant Ballingal's was chosen,
+while the rest of us left next morning with the balance of the battery for
+Hit. The first part of the route lay across the desert to Falujah, a
+prosperous agricultural town on the Euphrates. Rail-head lies just beyond
+at a place known as Tel El Dhubban--the "Hill of the Flies." From there on
+supplies were brought forward by motor transport, or in Arab barges,
+called shakturs. We crossed the river on a bridge of boats and continued
+up along the bank to Ramadie. Here I stayed over, detailed to escort the
+army commander on a tour of inspection.
+
+The smaller towns along the Euphrates are far more attractive than those
+on the Tigris. The country seems more developed, and most inviting
+gardens surround the villages. Hit, which lies twenty miles up-stream of
+Ramadie, is an exception. It is of ancient origin and built upon a hill,
+with a lovely view of the river. It has not a vestige of green on it, but
+stands out bleak and harsh in contrast to the palm-groves fringing the
+bank. The bitumen wells near by have been worked for five thousand years
+and are responsible for the town being a centre of boat manufacture. With
+the bitumen, the gufas and mahelas are "pitched without and within," in
+the identical manner in which we are told that the ark was built. The jars
+in which the women of the town draw water from the river, instead of being
+of copper or earthenware as elsewhere, are here made of pitched
+wicker-work. The smell of the boiling bitumen and the sulphur springs is
+trying to a stranger, although the natives regard it as salubrious, and
+maintain that through it the town is saved from cholera epidemics. We had
+captured Hit a few weeks previously, and the aeroplanes flying low over
+the town had reported the disagreeable smell, attributing it to dirt and
+filth. "Eyewitness," the official newspaper correspondent, mentioned this
+in despatches, and when I was passing through, a proclamation of apology
+was being prepared to soothe the outraged and slandered townsfolk.
+
+[Illustration: A water-wheel on the Euphrates]
+
+After taking the army commander back to rail-head, we retraced our steps
+with all speed to Hit, and thence the eight miles up-stream to Salahiyeh.
+The road beyond Hit was in fearful shape, and the engineers were working
+night and day to keep it open and in some way passable. In the proposed
+attack we were to jump off from Salahiyeh, and it was here that the
+armored cars were assembled. Our camp was close to a Turkish hospital.
+There were two great crescents and stars laid out for a signal to warn our
+aeroplanes not to drop bombs. One of the crescents was made of turf and
+the other of limestone. The batteries took turns in making the
+reconnaissances, in the course of which they would come in for a good deal
+of shelling. The road was unpleasant, because the camels and transport
+animals that had been killed during the Turkish retreat from Hit were by
+now very high. For some unknown reason there were no jackals or vultures
+to form a sanitary section. After reconnoitring the enemy positions and
+noting the progress they were making in constructing their defenses, we
+would make a long circuit back to camp.
+
+One unoccupied morning I went over to an island on the river. Its cool,
+restful look had attracted me on the day I arrived, and it quite fulfilled
+its promise. Indeed, it was the only place I came across in Mesopotamia
+that might have been a surviving fragment of the Garden of Eden. It was
+nearly a mile long, and scattered about on it were seven or eight
+thick-walled and well-fortified houses. The entire island was one great
+palm-grove, with pomegranates, apricots, figs, orange-trees, and
+grape-vines growing beneath the palms. The grass at the foot of the trees
+was dotted with blue and pink flowers. Here and there were fields of
+spring wheat. The water-ditches which irrigated the island were filled by
+giant water-wheels, thirty to fifty feet in diameter. These "naurs" have
+been well described in the Bible, and I doubt if they have since been
+modified in a single item. There are sometimes as many as sixteen in a
+row. As they scoop the water up in the gourd-shaped earthenware jars bound
+to their rims, they shriek and groan on their giant wooden axles.
+
+On the night of March 25 we got word that the long-expected attack would
+take place next morning. We had the cars ready to move out by three. Since
+midnight shadowy files had been passing on their way forward to get into
+position. One of our batteries went with the infantry to advance against
+the main fortified position at Khan Baghdadi. The rest of us went with the
+cavalry around the flank to cut the Turks off if they tried to retreat
+up-stream. We were well on our way at daybreak. The country was so broken
+up with ravines and dry river-beds that we knew we had a long, hard march
+ahead of us. Our maps were poor. A German officer that we captured had in
+some manner got hold of our latest map, and noting that we had omitted
+entirely a very large ravine, became convinced that any enveloping
+movement we attempted would prove a failure. As it happened, we came close
+to making the blunder he had anticipated, for we started to advance down
+to the river along the bank of a nullah which would have taken us to Khan
+Baghdadi instead of eight or ten miles above it, as we wished. I think it
+was our aeroplanes that set us straight. I was in charge of the tenders
+with supplies and spares, and spent most of the time in the leading
+Napier lorry. Occasionally I slipped into an armored car to go off
+somewhere on a separate mission. The Turks had doubtless anticipated a
+flanking movement and kept shelling us to a certain extent, but we could
+hear that they were occupying themselves chiefly with the straight
+attacking force. By afternoon we had turned in toward the river and our
+cavalry was soon engaged. The country was too broken for the cars to get
+in any really effective work. By nightfall we hoped we were approximately
+where we should be, and after making our dispositions as well as the
+circumstances would permit, we lay down beside the cars and were soon
+sound asleep. At midnight we were awakened by the bullets chipping the
+rocks and stones among which we were sleeping. A night attack was
+evidently under way, and it is always an eerie sensation. We correctly
+surmised that the Turks were in retreat from Khan Baghdadi and had run
+into our outposts. In a few minutes we were replying in volume, and the
+rat-tat-tats of the machine-guns on either side were continuous. The enemy
+must have greatly overestimated our numbers, for in a short time small
+groups started surrendering, and before things had quieted we had twelve
+hundred prisoners. The cavalry formed a rough prison-camp and we turned in
+again to wait for daylight.
+
+At dawn we started to reconnoitre our position to find out just how
+matters stood. We came upon a body of two thousand of the enemy which had
+been held up by us in the night and had retreated a short distance to wait
+till it became light before surrendering. Among them were a number of
+German officers. They were all of them well equipped with machine-guns and
+rifles. Their intrenching tools and medical supplies were of Austrian
+manufacture, as were also the rolling kitchens. These last were of an
+exceedingly practical design. While we were taking stock of our capture we
+got word that Khan Baghdadi had been occupied and a good number of
+prisoners taken. We were instructed to press on and take Haditha, thirty
+miles above Khan Baghdadi. It was hoped that we might recapture Colonel
+Tennant, who was in command of the Royal Flying Corps forces in
+Mesopotamia. He had been shot down at Khan Baghdadi the day before the
+attack. We learned from prisoners that he had been sent up-stream
+immediately, on his way to Aleppo, but it was thought that he might have
+been held over at Haditha or at Ana.
+
+We found that a lot of the enemy had got by between us and the river and
+had then swung back into the road. We met with little opposition, save
+from occasional bands of stragglers who concealed themselves behind rocks
+and sniped at us. Numbers surrendered without resistance as we caught up
+with them. We disarmed them and ordered them to walk back until they fell
+in with our cavalry, or the infantry, which was being brought forward in
+trucks. As we bowled along in pursuit the scene reminded me of
+descriptions in the novels of Sienkiewicz or Erckmann-Chatrian. The road
+was littered with equipment of every sort, disabled pack-animals, and dead
+or dying Turks. It was hard to see the wounded withering in the increasing
+heat--the dead were better off. We reached the heights overlooking Haditha
+to find that the garrison was in full retreat. Most of it had left the
+night before. Those remaining opened fire upon us, but in a half-hearted
+way, that was not calculated to inflict much loss. Many of the inhabitants
+of the town lived in burrows in the hillsides. Some of these caves had
+been filled with ammunition. The enemy had fired all their dumps, and
+rocks were flying about. We endeavored to save as much of the material as
+was possible. We were particularly anxious to get all papers dealing with
+the Arabs, to enable us to check up which were our friends and which of
+the ones behind our lines were dealing treacherously with us. We
+recaptured a lot of medical equipment and some ammunition that had been
+taken from our forces during the Gallipoli campaign.
+
+Haditha is thirty-five miles from Khan Baghdadi, and Ana is an equal
+distance beyond. It was decided that we should push on to a big bridge
+shown on the map as eight miles this side of Ana. We were to endeavor to
+secure this before the Turks could destroy it, and cross over to bivouac
+on the far side. The road was in fair shape. Many of the small bridges
+were of recent construction. We soon found that our map was exceedingly
+inaccurate. Our aeroplanes were doing a lot of damage to the fleeing
+Turks, and as we began to catch up with larger groups we had some sharp
+engagements. The desert Arabs hovered like vultures in the distance
+waiting for nightfall to cover them in their looting.
+
+That night we camped near the bridge. At dusk the Red Cross ambulances and
+some cavalry caught up. The latter had had a long, hard two days, with
+little to eat for the men and less for the horses, but both were standing
+up wonderfully. They were the Seventh Hussars and just as they reached us
+we recaptured one of their sergeants who had been made prisoner on the
+previous night. He had covered forty miles on foot, but the Turks had
+treated him decently and he had come through in good shape. We always felt
+that the Turk was a clean fighter. Our officers he treated well as long as
+he had anything to give or share with them. With the enlisted men he was
+not so considerate, but I am inclined to think that it was because he was
+not accustomed to bother his head much about his own rank and file, so it
+never occurred to him to consider ours. The Turkish private would thrive
+on what was starvation issue to our men. The attitude of many of the
+Turkish officers was amusing, if exasperating. They seemed to take it for
+granted that they would be treated with every consideration due an honored
+guest. They would complain bitterly about not being supplied with coffee,
+although at the time we might be totally without it ourselves and far
+from any source of supply. The German prisoners were apt to cringe at
+first, but as soon as they found they were not to be oppressed became
+arrogant and overbearing. At different times we retook men that had been
+captives for varying lengths of time. I remember a Tommy, from the
+Manchesters, if I am not mistaken, who had been taken before Kut fell, but
+had soon after made his escape and lived among the Kurdish tribesmen for
+seven or eight months before he found his way back to us. Quite a number
+of Indians who had been set to work on the construction of the
+Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway between Nisibin and Mosul made good their escape
+and struggled through to our lines.
+
+It was a great relief when the Red Cross lorries came in and we could turn
+over the wounded to them. All night long they journeyed back and forth
+transporting such as could stand the trip to the main evacuation camp at
+Haditha.
+
+By daybreak we were once more under way. Under cover of darkness the Arabs
+had pillaged the abandoned supplies, in some cases killing the wounded
+Turks. The transport animals of the enemy and their cavalry horses were
+in very bad shape. They had evidently been hard put to it to bring through
+sufficient fodder during the wet winter months when the roads were so deep
+in mud as to be all but impassable. Instead of being distant from Ana the
+eight miles that we had measured on the map, we found that we were
+seventeen, but we made it without any serious hindrance. The town was most
+attractive, embowered in gardens which skirt the river's edge for a
+distance of four or five miles. In addition to the usual palms and
+fruit-trees there were great gnarled olives, the first I had seen in
+Mesopotamia, as were also the almond-trees. It must be of great antiquity,
+for the prophet Isaiah speaks of it as a place where kings had reigned,
+but from which, even in his time, the grandeur had departed.
+
+The greater part of the enemy had already abandoned the town, but we
+captured the Turkish governor and a good number of the garrison, and many
+that had escaped from Haditha. The disaster at Khan Baghdadi had only been
+reported the afternoon before, as we had of course cut all the telegraph
+wires, and the governor had not thought it possible we would continue the
+pursuit so far. He had spent most of his life in Hungary and had been
+given this post only a few months previous to our advance. From the
+prisoners we had taken at Haditha we had extracted conflicting estimates
+as to the time when Colonel Tennant, the commander of our air forces, had
+been sent on, and from those we took at Ana we received equally varying
+accounts. The cars had been ordered to push on in search of the colonel as
+long as sufficient gasolene remained to bring them back. Captain Todd with
+the Eighth Battery was in the lead when some thirty miles north of Ana
+they caught sight of a group of camels surrounded by horsemen. A couple of
+belts from the machine-guns scattered the escort, and Colonel Tennant and
+his companion, Major Hobart, were soon safe in the turret of one of the
+cars.
+
+From some of our Turkish captives we heard about a large gold convoy which
+had been sent back from Ana; some said one day, and others two, before our
+arrival. The supply of fuel that we had brought in the tenders was almost
+exhausted, so that it would be necessary to procure more in order to
+continue the pursuit. Major Thompson, who was in command of the
+armored-car detachment, instructed me to take all the tenders and go back
+as far as was necessary to find a petrol dump from which I could draw a
+thousand gallons. I emptied the trucks and loaded them with such of the
+wounded as could stand the jolting they were bound to receive because of
+the speed at which I must travel. I also took a few of the more important
+prisoners, among them the governor of Ana. He was a cultivated middle-aged
+man who spoke no Arabic but quite good French. It was mid-afternoon when
+we started, and I hadn't the most remote idea where I would find a
+sufficient quantity of petrol. During the run back we were sniped at
+occasionally by Turks who were still hiding in the hills. A small but
+determined force could have completely halted the cars in a number of
+different places where the road wound through narrow rock-crowned gorges,
+or along ledges cut in the hillside and hemmed in by the river. In such
+spots the advance of the armored cars could either have been completely
+checked, or at all events seriously hampered and delayed, merely by
+rolling great boulders down on top of us.
+
+When we had retraced our steps for about sixty miles I was lucky enough
+to get wind of an enemy petrol dump that our men had discovered. It was a
+special aeroplane supply and the colonel of the infantry regiment who was
+guarding it had been instructed to allow none of it to be used for
+automobiles. He showed his desire to co-operate and his ability to read
+the spirit rather than the letter of a command by letting me load my
+tenders. The L.A.M. batteries were well regarded and we everywhere
+encountered a willingness to meet us more than half-way and aid us in the
+thousand and one points that make so much difference in obtaining results.
+
+By the time that we had everything in readiness for our return run it was
+long after dark and the men were exhausted. I managed to get some tea, but
+naturally no sugar or milk. The strong steaming brew served to wash down
+the scanty supply of cold bully beef. Fortunately it was a brilliant
+starlit night, but even so it was difficult to avoid ditches and washouts,
+and the road seemed interminable. Not long after we left we ran into a
+couple of armored cars that had been detailed to bring the rescued
+aviators back, after they had been reoutfitted and supplied as far as our
+limited resources would permit. During the halt I found that my sergeant
+had produced from somewhere or other an emergency rum ration which he was
+issuing. An old-army, experienced sergeant always managed to hold over a
+reserve from former issues for just such occasions as this, when it would
+be of inestimable value. I had been driving all day and had the greatest
+difficulty in keeping awake. Twice I dozed off. Once I awakened just as
+the car started over the edge of an embankment; the other time a large
+rock in the road brought me back to the world. It was two o'clock in the
+morning when we wearily crept into Ana.
+
+The expedition to capture the gold convoy was to start at four, so after
+two hours' sleep I bundled into one of the Rolls-Royces and the column
+swung out into the road. Through the mist loomed the sinister,
+businesslike outlines of the armored car ahead of me. Captain Carr of the
+Thirteenth L.A.M.B.'s[1] was in command of the expedition. Unless we were
+in action or in a locality where we momentarily expected to be under fire
+from rifle or machine-gun, the officer commanding the car and his N.C.O.
+stood in the well behind the turret, steadying themselves with leather
+loops riveted to its sides. On long runs the tool-boxes on either side of
+the well formed convenient seats. When the car became engaged the crew
+would get inside, pulling the steel doors shut. The slits through which
+the driver and the man next him looked could be made still smaller when
+the firing was heavy, and the peep-holes at either side and in the rear
+had slides which could be closed. The largest aperture was that around the
+tube of the gun. Splinters of lead came in continuously, and sometimes
+chance directed a bullet to an opening. One of our drivers was shot
+straight through the head near Ramadie. The bottom of the car was of wood,
+and bullets would ricochet up through it, but to have had it made of steel
+would have added too much weight. The large gasolene-tank behind was
+usually protected by plating, but even so was fairly vulnerable. A
+reserve-tank holding ten gallons was built inside the turret. We almost
+invariably had trouble with the feed-pipes leading from it. During the
+great heat of the summer the inside of the turret was a veritable fiery
+furnace, with the pedals so hot that they scorched the feet.
+
+[Footnote 1: Light Armored Motor Battery.]
+
+Forty miles above Ana we came upon a large khan. These road-houses are
+built at intervals along the main caravan routes. Their plan is simple:
+four walls with two tiers of rooms or booths built into them, enclosing an
+open court in which the camels and horses are tethered during the night.
+The whole is strongly made to resist the inroads of the desert tribesmen.
+As we drove to the heavy gate, a wild clamor met our ears from a confused
+jumble of Jewish and Armenian merchants that had taken refuge within. Some
+of them had left Ana on their way to Aleppo before the news of the fall of
+Khan Baghdadi had reached the town. Others had been despatched by the
+Turks when the news of our advance arrived. All had been to a greater or
+lesser degree plundered by the Arabs. Most of the baggage animals had been
+run off, and the merchants were powerless to move. The women were weeping
+and imploring help, and the children tumbled about among the confused
+heaps of merchandise. Some of the Armenians had relations in Baghdad about
+whom I was able to give them bits of information. All begged permission to
+go back to Ana and thence to the capital. We, of course, had no means of
+supplying them with transportation, and any attempt to recapture their
+lost property was out of the question.
+
+A few miles on we made out a troop of Arabs hurrying inland, a mile or so
+away from us, across a couple of ravines. They had some of the stolen
+camels and were laden down with plunder. Two of our cars made a fruitless
+attempt to come to terms with them, but only succeeded in placing a few
+well-aimed bursts from their machine-guns among them.
+
+We now began to come up with bands of Turks. We ran across a number of
+isolated stragglers who had been stripped by the Arabs. A few had been
+killed. They as a rule surrendered without any hesitation. We disarmed
+them and told them to walk back toward Ana. Several times we had short
+engagements with Turkish cavalry. As a general thing the ground was so
+very broken up that it was impossible to manoeuvre. I was riding a good
+deal of the time in the Ford tender that we had brought along with a few
+supplies, and when one of the tires blew out I waited behind to replace
+it. The armored cars had quite a start and we raced along to catch them.
+In my hurry I failed to notice that they had left the road in pursuit of a
+troop of cavalry, so when we sighted a large square building of the sort
+the Turks use as barracks, I made sure that the cars had been there before
+me. We drove up to the door and I jumped out and shoved it open. In the
+yard were some infantry and a few cavalry. I had only my stick--my Webley
+revolver was still in its holster. There was nothing to do but put on a
+bold front, so I shouted in Arabic to the man I took to be the officer in
+command, telling him to surrender, and trying to act as if our forces were
+just outside. I think he must have been more surprised than I was, for he
+did so immediately, turning over the post to me. Eldridge, the Ford
+driver, had succeeded in disengaging the rifle that he had strapped in
+beside him, and we made the rounds under the escort of our captive.
+
+One wing of the post was used as a hospital, under the charge of an
+intelligent little Armenian. He seemed well informed about the war, and
+asked the question that was the universal wail of all the Armenians we
+encountered: "When would Great Britain free their country, and would she
+make it an independent state?" There was a definite limit to the number of
+prisoners we could manage to carry back, but I offered the doctor to
+include him. His answer was to go to his trunk and produce a picture of
+his wife and little daughter. They were, he told me, in Constantinople,
+and it was now two years since he had had leave, so that as his turn was
+due, he would wait on the chance of seeing his family.
+
+When the cars came up we set off again in pursuit of the elusive gold
+convoy. We could get no accurate information concerning it. Some said it
+was behind, others ahead. We never ran it down. It may well be that it was
+concealed in a ravine near the road a few yards from where we passed. Just
+short of a town called Abu Kemal we caught three Germans. They were in
+terror when we took them, and afterward said that they had expected to be
+shot. Under decent treatment they soon became so insolent that they had to
+be brought up short.
+
+[Illustration: A "Red Crescent" ambulance]
+
+During the run back to Ana we picked up the more important of our
+prisoners and took them with us. Twenty-two were all we could manage. I
+was running one of the big cars. It was always a surprise to see how easy
+they were to handle in spite of the weight of the armor-plate. We each
+took great pride in the car in which we generally rode. All had names. In
+the Fourteenth one section had "Silver Dart" and "Silver Ghost" and
+another "Gray Terror" and "Gray Knight." The car in which I rode a
+great deal of the time met its fate only a few days before the armistice,
+long after I had gone to France. Two direct hits from an Austrian
+"eighty-eight" ended its career.
+
+It was after midnight when we got back to our camp in a palm-garden in
+Ana. Although we had not succeeded in capturing the gold convoy, we had
+brought in a number of valuable prisoners, and among other things I had
+found some papers belonging to a German political agent whom we had
+captured. These contained much information about the Arab situation, and
+through them it was all but proved that the German was the direct
+instigator of the murder of the political officer at Nejef. An amusing
+sidelight was thrown in the letters addressed by Arab sheiks through this
+agent to the Kaiser thanking him for the iron crosses they had been
+awarded. There must have been an underlying grim humor in distributing
+crosses to the Mohammedan Arabs in recognition of their efforts to
+withstand the advance into the Holy Land of the Christian invaders.
+
+On our arrival at Ana we were told that orders had come through that the
+town be evacuated on the following morning. Preparations were made to
+blow up the ammunition dump, which was fortunately concentrated in a
+series of buildings that joined each other. We warned the inhabitants and
+advised them to hide in the caves along the hillsides. We ourselves went
+back to the camp which we had occupied near the bridge the night before
+entering Ana. During the afternoon Major Edye, a political officer, turned
+up, travelling alone with an Arab attendant. He pitched his camp,
+consisting of a saddle and blanket, close beside us. He was an
+extraordinarily interesting man, with a great gift for languages. In the
+course of a year or so's wandering in Abyssinia he had learned both
+ancient and modern Abyssinian. There was a famous German Orientalist with
+whom he corresponded in the pre-war days. He had mailed him a letter just
+at the outbreak, which, written in ancient Abyssinian, must have been a
+good deal of a puzzle to the censors.
+
+The main explosion, taking place at the appointed time, was succeeded by
+smaller ones, which continued at gradually lengthening intervals
+throughout the night. General Cassels, who had commanded the cavalry
+brigade so ably throughout the advance, wished to return to Ana on the
+following morning in order to check up the thoroughness with which the
+dump had been destroyed. He took an escort of armored cars, and as I was
+the only one in the batteries who could speak Arabic, my services were
+requisitioned. As we approached the town the rattle of the small-arms
+ammunition sounded like a Fourth of July celebration. The general noticed
+that I had a kodak and asked me to go out into the dump and take some
+photographs. There was nothing to do but put on a bold front, but I have
+spent happier moments than those in which I edged my way gingerly over the
+smoking heaps to a ruined wall from which I could get a good view for my
+camera. As I came back a large shell exploded and we hastily moved the
+cars farther away.
+
+I went to the mayor's house to find out how the town had fared. He was a
+solemn old Arab, and showed me the damage done by the shells with an
+absolutely expressionless face. The houses within a fair radius had been
+riddled, but the natives had taken our warning and no one had been killed.
+After a cup of coffee in a lovely garden on the river-bank, I came back
+to the cars and we ran on through to Haditha. Here we were to remain for a
+week or ten days to permit the evacuation of the captured supplies.
+
+Thus far we had been having good luck with the weather, but it now began
+to threaten rain. We crawled beneath the cars with our blankets and took
+such precautions as were possible, but it availed us little when a
+veritable hurricane blew up at midnight. I was washed out from under my
+car, but before dark I had marked down a deserted hut, and thither I
+groped my way. Although it was abandoned by the Arabs, living traces of
+their occupancy remained. Still, even that was preferable to the rain, and
+the roof proved unexpectedly water-tight.
+
+All next day the storm continued. The Wadi Hauran, a large ravine reaching
+back into the desert for a hundred and fifty miles, became a boiling
+torrent. When we crossed over, it was as dry as a bone. A heavy lorry on
+which an anti-aircraft gun was mounted had been swirled away and smashed
+to bits. The ration question had been difficult all along, but now any
+further supply was temporarily out of the question.
+
+Oddly enough, I was the only member of the brigade occupying Haditha who
+could speak enough Arabic to be of any use, so I was sent to look up the
+local mayor to see whether there was any food to be purchased. The town is
+built on a long island equidistant from either bank. We ferried across in
+barges. The native method was simpler. They inflated goatskins, removed
+their clothes, which they had fastened in a bundle on top of their heads,
+and with one hand on the goatskin they paddled and drifted over. By
+starting from the head of the island they could reach the shore opposite
+the down-stream end. The bobbing heads of the dignified old graybeards of
+the community looked most ludicrous. On landing they would solemnly don
+their clothes, deflate the skins, and go their way.
+
+The mayor proved both intelligent and agreeable. The food situation was
+such that it was obviously impossible for him to offer us any serious
+help. We held a conclave in the guest-house, sitting cross-legged among
+the cushions. In the centre a servant roasted coffee-beans on the large
+shovel-spoon that they use for that purpose. The representative village
+worthies impressed me greatly. The desert Arabs are always held to be
+vastly superior to their kinsmen of the town, and it is undoubtedly true
+as a general rule; nevertheless, the elders of Haditha were an unusually
+fine group of men. We got a few eggs, which were a most desirable luxury
+after a steady diet of black unsweetened tea and canned beef. We happened
+to have a sufficient supply of tea to permit us to make an appreciated
+gift to the village.
+
+My shoes had collapsed a few days before and I borrowed a pair from a Turk
+who had no further use for them. These were several sizes too large and
+fashioned in an oblong shape of mathematical exactness. Even in the motor
+machine-gun service, there is little that exceeds one's shoes in
+importance, and I was looking forward with almost equal eagerness to a
+square meal and a pair of my own shoes. The supply of reading-matter had
+fallen very low. I had only Disraeli's _Tancred_, about which I found
+myself unable to share Lady Burton's feelings, and a French account of a
+voyage from Baghdad to Aleppo in 1808. The author, Louis Jacques Rousseau,
+a cousin of the great Jean Jacques, belonged to a family of noted
+Orientalists. Born in Persia, and married to the daughter of the Dutch
+consul-general to that country, he was admirably equipped for the
+distinguished diplomatic career that lay before him in the East and in
+northern Africa. His treatises on the archæological remains that he met
+with on his many voyages are intelligent and thorough. The river towns
+have changed but little in the last hundred years, and the sketch of Hit
+might have been made only yesterday.
+
+Within three days after the rise, the waters of the Wadi Hauran subsided
+sufficiently for us to cross, and I received orders to return to Baghdad.
+The rain had brought about a change in the desert since we passed through
+on our way up. The lines of Paterson, the Australian poet, kept running
+through my head:
+
+    "For the rain and drought and sunshine make no changes in the street,
+    In the sullen line of buildings and the ceaseless tramp of feet,
+    But the bush hath moods and changes, as the seasons rise and fall,
+    And the men who know the bushland they are loyal through it all."
+
+The formerly arid floor of the desert was carpeted with a soft green, with
+myriads of little flowers, all small, but delicately fashioned. There
+were poppies, dwarf daisies, expanses of buttercups, forget-me-nots, and
+diminutive red flowers whose name I did not know. It started raining
+again, and we only just succeeded in winning our way through to Baghdad
+before the road became impassable.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+BAGHDAD SKETCHES
+
+
+Although never in Baghdad for long at a time, I generally had occasion to
+spend four or five days there every other month. The life in any city is
+complex and interesting, but here it was especially so. We were among a
+totally foreign people, but the ever-felt intangible barrier of color was
+not present. For many of the opportunities to mingle with the natives I
+was indebted to Oscar Heizer, the American consul. Mr. Heizer has been
+twenty-five years in the Levant, the greater part of which time he has
+spent in the neighborhood of Constantinople. The outbreak of the war found
+him stationed at one of the principal ports of the Black Sea. There he
+witnessed part of the terrible Armenian massacres, when vast herds of the
+wretched people were driven inland to perish of starvation by the
+roadsides. Quiet and unassuming, but ever ready to act with speed and
+decision, he was a universal favorite with native and foreigner alike.
+
+With him I used to ferry across the river for tea with the Asadulla Khan,
+the Persian consul. The house consisted of three wings built around a
+garden. The fourth side was the river-bank. The court was a jungle of
+flowering fruit-trees, alive with birds of different kinds, all singing
+garrulously without pause. There we would sit sipping sherbet, and
+cracking nuts, among which salted watermelon seeds figured prominently.
+Coffee and sweets of many and devious kinds were served, with arrack and
+Scotch whiskey for those who had no religious scruples. The Koran's
+injunction against strong drink was not very conscientiously observed by
+the majority, and even those who did not drink in public, rarely abstained
+in private. Only the very conservative--and these were more often to be
+found in the smaller towns--rigorously obeyed the prophet's commands. It
+was pleasant to smoke in the shade and watch the varied river-craft
+slipping by. The public bellams plied to and fro, rowed by the swart
+owners, while against them jostled the gufas--built like the coracles of
+ancient Britain--a round basket coated with pitch. No Anglo-Saxon can see
+them without thinking of the nursery rhyme of the "wise men of Gotham who
+went to sea in a tub." These gufas were some of them twenty-five feet in
+diameter, and carried surprising loads--sometimes sheep and cattle
+alone--sometimes men and women--often both indiscriminately mingled.
+Propelling a gufa was an art in itself, for in the hands of the
+uninitiated it merely spun around without advancing a foot in the desired
+direction. The natives used long round-bladed paddles, and made good time
+across the river. Crossing over in one was a democratic affair, especially
+when the women were returning from market with knots of struggling
+chickens slung over their shoulders.
+
+Asadulla Khan's profile always reminded me of an Inca idol that I once got
+in Peru. Among his scribes were several men of culture who discoursed most
+sagely on Persian literature; on Sadi and Hafiz, both of whom they held to
+be superior to Omar Khayyam. I tried through many channels to secure a
+manuscript of the "Rubaiyat," but all I succeeded in obtaining was a
+lithograph copy with no place or date of publication; merely the remark
+that it had been printed during the cold months. I was told that the
+writings of Omar Khayyam were regarded as immoral and for that reason were
+not to be found in religious households. My Persian friends would quote
+at length from Sadi's _Gulistan_ or _Rose Garden_, and go into raptures
+over its beauty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Below the consulate was a landing-place, and when we were ready to leave
+we would go down to the river-bank preceded by our servants carrying
+lanterns. They would call "Abu bellam" until a boat appeared. The term
+"abu" always amused me. Its literal meaning is "father." In the bazaars a
+shop-owner was always hailed as "father" of whatever wares he had for
+sale. I remember one fat old man who sold porous earthenware
+jars--customers invariably addressed him as "Abu hub"--"Father of
+water-coolers."
+
+My best friend among the natives was a Kurdish chief named Hamdi Bey
+Baban. His father had been captured and taken to Constantinople. After
+living there a number of years in semicaptivity he died--by poison it was
+said. Hamdi was not allowed to return to Kurdistan until after he was a
+grown man and had almost forgotten his native language. He spoke and read
+both French and English. Eventually permission was granted him to live in
+Baghdad as long as he kept out of the Kurdish hills, so he set off by
+motor accompanied only by a French chauffeur. Gasolene was sent ahead by
+camel caravan to be left for him at selected points. The journey was not
+without incident, for the villagers had never before seen an automobile
+and regarded it as a devil; often stones were thrown at them, and on one
+occasion they were mobbed and Hamdi only escaped by driving full speed
+through the crowd.
+
+His existence in Baghdad had been subject to sudden upheavals. Once he was
+arrested and convoyed back to Constantinople; and just before the advance
+of the British his life was in great danger. Naturally enough he had
+little love for the Turk and staked everything on the final victory of the
+Allies.
+
+He intended writing a book on the history of his family, in which he was
+much interested. For material he was constantly purchasing books and
+manuscripts. In the East many well-known histories still exist only in
+manuscript form, and when a man wishes to build up a library he engages
+scribes and sends them to the place where a famous manuscript is kept with
+an order to make a copy. In the same way Hamdi Bey had men busied
+transcribing rare chronicles dealing with the career of his family--extant
+in but one or two examples in mosques. He once presented me with a large
+manuscript in Persian in which his family is mentioned, the mention taking
+the form of a statement to the effect that seventeen of them had had their
+heads removed!
+
+Next to various small tradesmen with whom I used to gossip, drink coffee,
+and play dominoes, my best Arab friend was Abdul Kader Pasha, a striking
+old man who had been a faithful ally to the British through thick and
+thin. The dinners at his house on the river-bank were feasts such as one
+reads of in ancient history. Course succeeded course without any definite
+plan; any one of them would have made a large and delicious meal in
+itself. True to Arab custom, the son of the house never sat down at table
+with his father, although before and after dinner he talked and smoked
+with us.
+
+[Illustration: A jeweller's booth in the bazaar]
+
+I had a number of good friends among the Armenians. There was not one of
+them but had some near relation, frequently a parent or a brother or
+sister, still among the Turks. Sometimes they knew them to be dead, more
+frequently they could only hope that such was the case and there was no
+further suffering to be endured. Many of these Armenians belonged to
+prominent families, numbering among their members men who had held the
+most important government posts in Constantinople. The secretary of the
+treasury was almost invariably an Armenian, for the race outstrips the
+Jews in its money touch.
+
+With one family I dined quite often--the usual interminable Oriental feast
+varying only from the Arab or Turkish dinners in a few special national
+dishes. All, excepting the aged grandmother, spoke French, and the
+daughters had a thorough grounding in the literature. Such English books
+as they knew they had read in French translations. The house was
+attractively furnished, with really beautiful rugs and old silverware. The
+younger generation played bridge, and the girls were always well dressed
+in European fashion. Whence the clothes came was a mystery, for nothing
+could have been brought in since the war, and even in ante-bellum days
+foreign clothes of that grade could never have been stocked but must have
+been imported in individual orders. The evenings were thoroughly
+enjoyable, for everything was in such marked contrast to our every-day
+life. It must be remembered that these few Armenians were the only women
+with whom we could talk and laugh in Occidental fashion.
+
+By far the best-informed and cleverest Arab was Père Anastase. He was a
+Catholic, and under the supervision of the Political Department edited the
+local Arab paper. All his life he had worked building up a
+library--gathering rare books throughout Syria and Mesopotamia. He was
+himself an author of no small reputation. Just before the British took
+Baghdad the Germans pillaged his collection, sending the more valuable
+books to Constantinople and Berlin, and turning the rest over to the
+populace. The soldiers made great bonfires of many--others found their way
+to the bazaars, where he was later able to repurchase some of them. When
+talking of the sacking of his house, Père Anastase would work himself into
+a white heat of fury and his eyes would flash as he bitterly cursed the
+vandals who had destroyed his treasures.
+
+It was in Baghdad that I first ran into Major E.B. Soane, whose _Through
+Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise_ is a classic. Soane was born in
+southern France, his mother French and his father English. The latter
+walked across the United States from ocean to ocean in the early forties,
+so Soane came by his roving, adventurous spirit naturally. When still but
+little more than a boy he went out to work in the Anglo-Persian Bank, and
+immediately interested himself in the language and literature of the
+country. Some of his holidays he spent in the British Museum translating
+and cataloguing Persian manuscripts. Becoming interested in the Kurds, he
+spent a number of years among them, learning their languages and customs
+and joining in their raids.
+
+As soon as we got a foothold in the Kurdish Hills, Soane was sent up to
+administer the captured territory. His headquarters were at Khanikin,
+twenty-five miles from Kizil Robat and but a short distance from the
+Persian frontier. One morning during the time that I was stationed in that
+district I motored over to see him. It was a glorious day. The cloud
+effects were most beautiful, towering in billows of white above the snow
+peaks, against a background of deepest blue. The road wound in and out
+among the barren foot-hills until suddenly as I topped a rise I saw right
+below a great clump of palm-trees, with houses showing through here and
+there--the whole divided by a lovely river bestridden by an old seven-arch
+bridge. I picked my way through the narrow streets, scattering ragged
+Kurds right and left; past part of the covered bazaar, until I came to a
+house with a large courtyard, thronged with a motley array of Kurdish
+irregulars, armed with every sort of weapon. It was there that Soane
+administered his stern but practical justice, for he thoroughly understood
+how to handle these men.
+
+The district had suffered fearfully, for it had been occupied in turn by
+Turk and Russian, and then Turk again, before we took it over, and the
+unfortunate natives had been pillaged and robbed mercilessly. Thousands
+starved to death. When I was at Deli Abbas ghastly bands of ragged
+skeletons would come through to us begging food and work. Soane turned a
+large khan on the outskirts of the town into a poorhouse, and here he
+lodged the starving women and children that drifted in from all over
+Kurdistan. It was a fearful assemblage of scarecrows. As they got better
+he selected women from among them to whom he turned over the
+administration of the khan. They divided the unfortunates in gangs, and
+supervised the issue of dates on which they were fed. Such as were
+physically able were employed in cleaning the town. The Kurds are a fine,
+self-respecting race and it was easy to understand Soane's enthusiasm for
+them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Baghdad you lived either in the cellars or on the housetops. The former
+were called serdabs. A large chimney, cowled to face the prevailing wind,
+served for ventilation, and on the hottest days one was cool and
+comfortable. We slept on the roofs, and often dined there, too. Since the
+town was the General Headquarters of the Expeditionary Force, one was
+always sure to meet many friends. A comfortable and well-run officers'
+club was installed, as well as warrant officers' and enlisted men's clubs.
+
+Occasionally race meetings were planned and the various divisions would
+send representatives. Frank Wooton, the well-known jockey, was a
+despatch-rider, and usually succeeded in getting leave enough to allow him
+to ride some general's horses. An Arab race formed part of the programme.
+Once a wild tribesman who had secured a handsome lead almost lost the
+race by taking off his cloak and waving it round his head as he gave
+ear-piercing shouts of triumph. The Arab riding second was less emotional
+and attended better to the business in hand, but his horse was not quite
+good enough to make the difference.
+
+The scene at the race-course was a gay one. The color was chiefly
+contributed by the Jewesses who wore their hooded silk cloaks of lively
+hue--green or pink or yellow. The only crowd that I saw to vie with it was
+one which watched the prisoners taken at Ramadie march through the town.
+Turkish propaganda, circulated in the bazaars, gave out that instead of
+taking the prisoners we claimed, we had in reality suffered a defeat, and
+it was decided that the sight of the captive Turks would have a salutary
+effect upon the townsmen. Looking down from a housetop the red fezzes and
+the gay-colored abas made the crowd look like a vast field of poppies.
+
+When I was at Samarra an amusing incident took place in connection with a
+number of officers' wives who were captured at Ramadie. The army commander
+didn't wish to ship them off to India and Burma with their husbands, so he
+sent them up to Samarra with instructions that they be returned across
+the lines to the Turks. After many aeroplane messages were exchanged it
+was agreed that we should leave them at a designated hill and that the
+Turks would later come for them. Meanwhile we had arranged quarters for
+them, trying to do everything in a manner that would be in harmony with
+the Turkish convenances. When the wives were escorted forth to be turned
+back to their countrymen, they were all weeping bitterly. Whether it was
+that the Turk in his casual manner decided that one day was as good as
+another, or whether he felt that he had no particular use for these
+particular women, we never knew, but at all events twenty-four hours later
+one of our patrols came upon the prisoners still forlornly waiting. We
+shipped them back to Baghdad.
+
+Occasionally I would go to one of the Arab theatres. The plays were
+generally burlesques, for the Arab has a keen sense of humor and greatly
+appreciates a joke. Most of the puns were too involved for me to follow,
+but there was always a certain amount of slap-stick comedy that could be
+readily understood. Then there was dancing--as a whole monotonous and
+mediocre; but there was one old man who was a remarkable performer, and
+would have been appreciated on any stage in the world. The topical songs
+invariably amused me--they were so universal in spirit. The chorus of one
+which was a great hit ran: "Haido, haido, rahweni passak!" "I say, I say,
+show me your pass." There had been much trouble with spies and every one
+was required to provide himself with a certificate of good conduct and to
+show it on demand. It was to this that the song referred.
+
+Captain C.G. Lloyd was my companion on many rambles among the natives. He
+had been stationed in Burma and India for many years, and was a good
+Persian scholar. Like every one who has knocked about to any extent among
+native peoples, his career had not been lacking in incident. I remember on
+one occasion asking him why it was that he never joined me in a cup of
+coffee when we stopped at a coffee-house. He replied that he had always
+been wary of coffee since a man with him was poisoned by a cup which was
+intended for him.
+
+I always looked forward to a trip to Baghdad, for it gave me a chance to
+mingle in a totally different life from that which daily surrounded me,
+and temporarily, at least, forget about the war in which the world was
+plunged. Still, the morning set to leave invariably found me equally glad
+to shove off once more into the great expanses of the desert.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT
+
+
+When I reached headquarters after the attack on the Euphrates front, I was
+expecting to hear that my transfer to France had gone through and receive
+orders to proceed thither immediately. It had always been my intention to
+try to join the American army once it began to take a real part in the
+war, and for some time past I had been casting about in my mind for the
+best method to carry out my plans. When affairs looked so very black for
+the Allied forces in March and April, 1918, I decided that France was the
+place where every one, who could by any possibility manage it, should be.
+General Gillman, the chief of staff, had on more than one occasion shown
+himself a good friend, and I determined to once more task his kindness. He
+said that he thought he could arrange for my transfer to France, and that
+once there I could work out the best way of getting into the American
+army.
+
+Everything went well, and I was daily expecting my orders, when Major
+Thompson, who commanded the brigade of armored cars, sent for me and told
+me that an advance was being planned on the Kurdish front. Only two
+batteries were to be taken--the Eighth and the Thirteenth--but he said
+that he would like to have me go along in command of the supply-train. Of
+course I jumped at the chance, as the attack promised to be most
+interesting.
+
+We were told to be ready to move on an hour's notice. For several days the
+weather held us back. The rain, helped out by the melting snow from the
+mountains, caused the rivers to rise in flood. The Tigris rose sixteen
+feet in a night. The lower bridge was broken and washed away. Everything
+possible was done to reinforce the upper bridge, but it was hourly
+expected to give way under the strain of the whirling yellow waters. The
+old Arab rivermen said that they could tell by the color just which of the
+tributaries were in spate. When they saw or thought they saw a new
+admixture, they would shake their heads and say: "Such and such a river
+is now also in flood--the Tigris will rise still further."
+
+On the night of April 24 we at length got our orders and at six o'clock
+the following morning we set out, prepared to run through to Ain Leilah.
+The country was indeed changed since I passed through six weeks before.
+The desert had blossomed. We ran through miles and miles of clover; the
+sweet smell seemed so wholesomely American, recalling home and family, and
+the meadows of Long Island. The brilliant red poppies were more in keeping
+with the country; and we passed by Indian cavalry reinforcements with the
+scarlet flowers stuck in their black hair and twined in the head-stalls of
+the horses.
+
+As we approached the hills they looked less bleak--a soft green clothed
+the hollows, and the little oasis of Ain Leilah no longer stood out in the
+same marked contrast as when last I visited it. The roads were in good
+shape, and we reached camp at four in the afternoon. I took one of the
+tenders and set off to look up some old friends in the regiments near by.
+As I passed a group of Arabs that had just finished work on the roads, I
+noticed that they were playing a game that was new to me. A stake was
+driven into the ground, with a horsehair rope ten or twelve feet in length
+attached to it. An old man had hold of the end of the rope. About the
+stake were piled some clothes, and the Arabs were standing around in a
+circle just out of reach of the man with the rope. The object was to dart
+in and snatch up something from the heap without the old man who was on
+guard catching you. They were enjoying themselves hugely--the oldest
+graybeards behaving as if they were children--a very pleasant side of the
+Arab.
+
+Our instructions were to be ready to pull out before daybreak. The mission
+was, as usual, a flanking one. The direct attack was to be delivered on
+Kara Tepe, and, if that were successful, upon Kifri. We were to intercept
+the arrival of reinforcements, or cut off the retreat of the garrisons, as
+the case might be.
+
+In the early morning hours the country was lovely--rolling grass land
+"with a hint of hills behind"--miles of daisies with clusters of blood-red
+poppies scattered through them--and occasional hollows carpeted with a
+brilliant blue flower. In the river courses there were numbers of
+brilliantly hued birds--the gayest colors I saw in Mesopotamia with the
+exception of the vivid arsenic-green birds around Ana on the Euphrates.
+In one place I thought that the ground was covered with red flowers, but a
+close inspection proved it to be myriads of tiny red insects swarming on
+the grass stems.
+
+Column marching is slow and wearisome, and after the sun rose the heat
+became intense. The dust smothered us; there was not a breath of air to
+rid us of it for even a moment. The miles seemed interminable. At noon we
+halted beside a narrow stream known as Oil River--a common name in this
+part of the country where oil abounds and the water is heavily impregnated
+with it. For drinking it was abominable--and almost spoiled the tea upon
+which we relied for a staple. A few miles beyond, the engineers found a
+suitable location to throw a bridge across the creek. The main body was
+halted at a place known as Umr Maidan and we were sent over the bridge to
+form across the main road leading from Kara Tepe back into the Turkish
+territory.
+
+It was nightfall before we had effected a crossing, and we groped our way
+along until we came upon the road. It was impossible to do very much in
+the way of selecting a position, but we arranged the cars as best we
+could. When you were off at large in the desert you were what the army
+called "Out in the blue," and that was certainly our situation on the
+night of April 26. We all expected that we would intercept traffic going
+one way or the other, but the night passed without incident or excitement.
+
+[Illustration: Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge]
+
+By four in the morning we were once more feeling our way along through the
+darkness. As it lightened we came under observation by the Turks, who
+started in to shell us. We learned from our aeroplanes that Kifri had been
+evacuated; the garrison was falling back along a road running parallel to
+the one on which we were, separated by eight or ten miles of broken
+country. By this time our cavalry had caught up with us. They pushed off
+across country to intercept the Turks. We attempted to do likewise but it
+was more difficult, and what with dodging in and out to avoid a ravine
+here or a hill there, we made little headway. At length we struck a road
+that led in approximately the direction whither we wished to go. It was
+already early afternoon before, upon topping a rise, we caught sight of a
+good-sized body of Turks marching on a road which ran along the base of
+a range of steep, stony hills. We put on as much speed as was possible,
+and headed north to try to intercept them. The cavalry were coming from
+the south, and while we were circling around they charged in upon the
+Turks. It was a stirring scene. The powerful Indians sat their horses with
+the utmost grace. Their drawn sabres flashed in the sun. As they came to
+close quarters the turbaned heads bent forward and we could hear the
+shouts and high-pitched cries of triumph as the riders slashed at the foe.
+The wounded and dead testified to their skill as swordsmen. The whole
+sight reminded me more of the battle books I read as a boy than anything I
+saw in the war. About six hundred prisoners were taken, but many of the
+Turks escaped to the mountains and lay among the rocks, whence they could
+snipe at us with impunity. They were a tenacious lot, for all next day
+when we were using the road below the hills they continued to shoot at us
+from the places whence it was impossible to dislodge them.
+
+While the prisoners were being brought in we caught sight of one of our
+aeroplanes crashing. Making our way over to it we found that neither the
+pilot nor the observer was seriously hurt. Flying in Mesopotamia was made
+unusually difficult by the climatic conditions. The planes were designed
+for work in France and during the summer months the heat and dryness
+warped the propeller blades and indeed all the wooden parts. Then, too,
+the fine dust would get into the machinery when the aviator was taxiing
+for a start. Many pilots coming out from France with brilliant records met
+an early and untimely end because they could not realize how very
+different the conditions were. I remember one poor young fellow who set
+off on a reconnaissance without the food and water he was required by
+regulations to carry. He got lost and ran out of gasolene--being forced to
+land out in the desert. The armored cars went off in search of him, and on
+the second morning after he had come down they found his body near their
+bivouac. He had evidently got that far during the night and died of
+exhaustion and exposure practically within hearing. He was stripped of his
+clothes; whether this had been done by himself or by the tribesmen was
+never determined. A death of this sort always seems so much sadder than
+being legitimately killed in combat. The L.A.M. batteries were in close
+touch with the Royal Flying Corps, for when news came in that a plane was
+down in the desert or some part of the debatable land, we would be
+detailed to go out in search of the occupants. A notice printed in Arabic,
+Persian, Turkish, and Kurdish was fastened into each aeroplane informing
+the reader of the reward that would be paid him if the pilot were brought
+in safety to the British lines. This was done in case a plane got lost and
+was driven down out of its course among the tribesmen.
+
+The night of the 27th we bivouacked once more "out in the blue." Dawn
+found me on my way back to Umr Maidan to lay in a new supply of gasolene.
+I made a rapid trip and caught up with the armored cars in action in a
+large swampy plain. The grass was very high and the ground so soft that it
+was difficult to accomplish anything. Two or three small hills offered
+vantage-points, but they were not neglected by the Turk, and among those
+that fell was the colonel of the Twenty-First cavalry--the regiment that
+had acquitted itself so well in the charge of the day before.
+
+We were ten miles from Tuz Khurmartli, the next important town held by
+the enemy now that Kifri had been taken. It was thither that the Turks had
+been retreating when we cut them off. Finding that we were unable to
+operate effectively where we were, it was decided that we should make our
+way across to the Kifri-Kirkuk road and advance along it to make a frontal
+attack upon Tuz. Our orders were to proceed to a deserted village known as
+Kulawand, and wait there for the command to advance. When we got to the
+road we found the hills still occupied by camel-guns and machine-guns. We
+replied ineffectively, for we had no means of dislodging them, nor did the
+cavalry when they came up. Kulawand we found to be a fair-sized native
+village unoccupied save for a single hut full of old women and children.
+Here we waited until nightfall for the orders that never came. I sat under
+a ruined wall reading alternatively Camoens' _Lusiad_ and _David Harum_
+until darkness fell.
+
+During the night some infantry came up, both native and British. They had
+had stiff marching during the last few days, and were done up, but very
+cheerful at the prospect of an attack on the morrow. They had some hard
+fighting ahead of them. The King's Own in particular distinguished itself
+in taking a stubbornly contested and strongly held hill.
+
+At dawn we were under way. We had heard reports during the night that the
+Turks had evacuated Tuz--but it was not long before we found that such was
+not the case. They were still there and showed every evidence of staying.
+A small village five or six miles to the southwest was also bitterly
+contested. Our cavalry did some excellent work, capturing small hills held
+with machine-guns.
+
+We advanced down the road beside the hills. A mile before reaching Tuz we
+ran into the Aq Su, a large stream flowing through a narrow cleft in the
+hills. Fortunately the river was very low, and there were several places
+where it was spread out over such a wide bed that it seemed as if it might
+be possible to get the cars across. I emptied a Ford van and set out to do
+some prospecting. First I went up-stream, which was toward the mountains,
+but I could not go far, for there was an ancient fort situated at the
+mouth of the gorge, and it had not been evacuated. Finding a likely
+looking place a little below, I made a cast and just succeeded in getting
+through. It was easy to see that it would not be possible for the
+low-swung Rolls to cross under their own power, for the fly-wheel would
+throw the water up into the motor. There was nothing to do but send back
+for artillery horses to pull the armored cars across.
+
+Meanwhile, as our artillery had practically ceased firing on the town and
+the Turks seemed to have entirely evacuated it, I thought that I would go
+up and take over and see whether there had not been some valuable
+documents left behind. I drove along past some abandoned artillery into
+the main street. A number of Turkish soldiers came up to surrender and I
+told them to have the Reis Beledia--the town mayor--report to me. When he
+came I directed him to take me to the quarters of the Turkish commanding
+general. As we drove through the covered bazaar everything was closed.
+Scarcely anybody was in the streets--but I could see the inhabitants
+peeping out from behind lattices. It was a good thing to have the old
+mayor along, for he served as an excellent hostage, and I kept close watch
+upon him. He brought me to a prosperous, neat-looking house with heavy
+wooden doors. In response to his summons an old woman came and ushered us
+into a large, cool room, well furnished and with beautiful Kurdish rugs.
+There we found four young girls, who, it was explained to me, formed the
+Turkish general's "field harem." He had left in too much of a hurry to
+take them with him. They were Kurds and Circassians, or Georgians--and the
+general had shown no lack of taste in his selection! True to the tradition
+of the Garden of Eden, this harem proved disastrous to a brother officer
+who, having heard of my capture, sent me "priority" over the field service
+lines a ribald message as to its disposition. "Priority" wires are sent
+only on affairs of the greatest importance, and when I left the country my
+friend was slated to explain matters before a court martial. There were no
+papers of any great value to be found, and I told the mayor to take me to
+the more important ammunition and supply dumps. By the time I had located
+these some cavalry had come in, and I went back to the river to help get
+the fighting cars across.
+
+Once we had these safely over we set out in pursuit of the Turks. The next
+town of importance was a ramshackle mud-walled affair called Tauq, twenty
+miles beyond, on the far side of a river known as the Tauq Chai. The
+leading cars pursued to within sight of the town and came in for a good
+deal of shelling.
+
+The Turks we captured were in far poorer shape than those we had recently
+taken on the Euphrates front. Their shoes were worn out, they were very
+ragged, and, what was of greater significance, they were badly nourished.
+The length of their line of communications had evidently severely strained
+them. Supplies had to come overland all the way from Nisibin, which is
+more than a hundred miles beyond Mosul. The broken country made the
+transportation a difficult problem to solve. It was a miracle that they
+had the morale to fight as they did under such disadvantageous conditions.
+
+Here, as throughout the campaign, it was a continual source of pride to
+see the way in which our soldiers behaved to the natives. I never heard of
+a case in which man, woman, or child was wrongfully treated. Minor
+offenses were sometimes committed, but these were quickly righted. No
+doubt there were isolated instances of wrong-doing, for in such a large
+army there are bound to be degenerate individuals from whose conduct it is
+unfair to judge the whole.
+
+That night we encamped in the outskirts of Tuz, not far from the Turkish
+aerodrome. Next morning one of the batteries was ordered to reconnoitre as
+far as the town--pursuing a different route than that taken on the
+previous day. The commanding officer asked me to go along because of my
+knowledge of Arabic. The road followed the telegraph-lines, and part of
+the time that was the only way in which we could distinguish it from the
+surrounding country. Of course, the map was hopelessly incorrect. The
+villages were not even rightly named. A great deal of reconnoitring was
+called for, and in one village we had to knock the corner off a mud house
+to enable us to make a sharp right-angle turn. The natives were in pitiful
+condition. The Turks had not only taken all their crops, but even the
+grain that should be reserved to sow for the following year. The sheep had
+been killed in the lambing season, so the flocks were sadly depleted. Such
+standing grain as there was left looked flourishing. The wheat waved above
+the cars.
+
+As we came out of a deep, broad ravine that had caused us much delay and
+difficulty, we caught sight of an attractive town situated on a steep,
+flat-topped hill. Upon drawing near, a fine-looking, white-bearded Arab
+rode up on a small gray mare. He said that he was the head man of the
+town; that he hated the Turks, and would like to be of any assistance
+possible to us. I asked him if the enemy had evacuated Tauq. He replied
+that they had. I then asked him if he were positive about it. He offered
+to accompany us to prove it. The trail was so bad that we could not go
+fast, and he rode along beside us at a hand-gallop.
+
+When we came to the river in front of the town we found that it was
+impossible to get the armored cars across. The Turks had evidently fallen
+back, but not far, for they were dropping in shells with regularity. Our
+Arab friend told us that there was a bridge six miles up-stream, but it
+was too late for us to attempt it, and we turned back to Tuz after
+arranging with Sheikh Muttar to meet us in the morning.
+
+[Illustration: The Kurd and his wife]
+
+[Illustration: Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds]
+
+Next day we found him waiting for us as he had promised. With him were two
+handsome Kurds. One of them had his wife perched behind him on the horse's
+crupper. Together they undertook to guide us up to the bridge. It was
+invariably difficult to find out from natives whether or not a road was
+passable for motor-cars. They were accustomed to think only in terms of
+horses or men, and could not realize that a bad washout might be
+impassable for automobiles. Curiously enough, even those natives whom we
+had taken along with us on several reconnaissances as guides could not be
+trusted to give an opinion as to the feasibility of a proposed route. We
+experienced no little trouble in following our guides to the bridge,
+although we afterward discovered a good road that cut off from the main
+trail about half-way between Tuz and Tauq.
+
+When we reached the bridge we found it to be a solid, well-built affair of
+recent construction. The retreating Turks had tried to blow it up, but the
+most vital charges had failed to go off, so the damage done would not be
+sufficiently serious to stop our passage, after six or seven hours'
+preliminary work. We immediately sent back for the engineers, and put in
+the time while waiting by taking a much-needed bath in the rapids beneath
+one of the side arches. Every one who has wandered about in the waste
+places of the world can recall certain swims that will always stand out in
+his memory. Perhaps they have been after a long and arduous hunt--perhaps
+at the end of a weary march. Our plunge in the Tauq Chai took its place
+among these.
+
+In the late afternoon we drove back to Tuz. Our camp there was anything
+but cheerful, for swarms of starving townsfolk hovered on the outskirts
+ready to pounce on any refuse that the men threw away. Discarded tin cans
+were cleaned out until the insides shone like mirrors. The men gave away
+everything they could possibly spare from their rations. As the news
+spread, the starving mountain Kurds began straggling in; and the gruesome
+band made one glad to leave camp early and return after dark. Our line of
+communication was so extended that it was impossible to attempt any relief
+work.
+
+The following morning we crossed over the bridge with little trouble, but
+ran into a lot of difficulty when we tried to make our way down to the
+town. A couple of miles above the main town there is a small settlement
+grouped on a hill around the mosque of Zain El Abidin. The "mutabelli," or
+keeper of the shrine, is an important personage in the community, so when
+he appeared riding a richly caparisoned stallion and offered to accompany
+us to the town, we welcomed the opportunity of going in under such good
+auspices. We decided to take Seyid Mustapha, for that was his name, in one
+of the Ford vans with us. It was comparatively easy to get the light car
+up over the precipitous, rocky trail; and eventually one of the fighting
+cars succeeded in following. I was driving, with Mustapha beside me. In
+front of us on a white horse galloped the Seyid's attendant singing and
+shouting and proclaiming our arrival. We stopped at Mustapha's house for a
+cup of coffee and a discussion of events. The information which we secured
+from him afterward proved unusually correct. I took him on with us to the
+town so that he could identify the head man and see that we got hold of
+the right people. Our reception was by no means cordial, although after we
+had talked a little and explained what we were after, the mayor became
+cheerful and expansive. He had a jovial, rotund face, covered in large
+part by a bushy beard, and would have done excellently as a model for
+Silenus. In the town were a handful of Turkish stragglers--among them a
+stalwart Greek who spoke a little English. He said that he had been
+impressed into service by the Turks and was most anxious to join our
+forces.
+
+We found large stores of ammunition and other supplies, among them a
+wireless set. What interested us most, I am afraid, was the quantity of
+chickens that we saw strutting about. A few of them and a good supply of
+eggs found their way to the automobiles in short order. We were always
+very particular about paying for whatever we took, and seeing that the men
+did likewise; our reputation went before us, and the native, as a rule,
+took it for granted that we would pay. It was up to the officers to see
+that the prices were not exorbitant. We always used Indian currency--the
+rupee and the anna. In normal times a rupee is about a third of a dollar.
+Throughout the occupied area Turkish currency also circulated, but the
+native invariably preferred to be paid in Indian. Curiously enough, even
+on entering towns like Tauq, we found the inhabitants eager for payment in
+rupees. I was told that in the money market in Baghdad a British advance
+would be heralded by a slump in Turkish exchange. Paper rupees were almost
+everywhere as readily accepted as silver, but paper liras and piasters
+were soon of so little value that they were no longer in circulation.
+
+When we got back to camp I found a wire informing me that I had been
+transferred to the American army, and ordering me to report at once to
+Baghdad to be sent to France. Major Thompson asked me if I would delay my
+return until the end of the advance. It was rumored that we would continue
+to push on and would attack Kirkuk. Many felt that the difficulty that was
+already being experienced in rationing us would preclude our thrusting
+farther. Still, I made up my mind that as long as the major wished it and
+would wire for permission I would stay a few days longer on the chance of
+the attack continuing.
+
+On the morning of the 3d we moved camp to the far side of the Tauq Chai
+bridge. When the tenders were unloaded I started back to bring up a supply
+of gasolene, with the purpose of making a dump in case we were called upon
+for a further advance. I was told that the nearest supply from which I
+could draw was at Umr Maidan; and the prospect of running back, a distance
+of seventy miles, was not cheerful. When I got as far as Tuz I found a
+friend in charge of the dump there, and he let me draw what I wanted, so I
+turned back to try to get to the bridge by dark. One car after another
+got in trouble; first it was a puncture, then it was a tricky carburetor
+that refused to be put to rights; towing-ropes were called into
+requisition, but the best had been left behind, and those we had were
+rotted, and broke on every hill. Lastly a broken axle put one of the
+tenders definitely out of commission, and, of course, I had to wait behind
+with it. To add to everything, a veritable hurricane set in, with thunder
+and lightning and torrents of rain. The wind blew so hard that I thought
+the car would be toppled over. What made us more gloomy than anything else
+was the thought of all the dry river courses that would be roaring floods
+by morning, and probably hold up the ration supply indefinitely.
+
+Two days later the orders for which we had been waiting came through. We
+were to march upon a town called Taza Khurmatli, lying fifteen miles
+beyond Tauq and ten short of Kirkuk. If we met with no opposition there we
+were to push straight on. From all we could hear Taza was occupied only by
+cavalry, which would probably fall back without contesting our advance.
+The cars had been out on reconnaissance near the town for the last two
+days, and had come in for artillery and machine-gun fire; but it was
+believed that the Turks had everything ready to withdraw their guns on our
+approach.
+
+In the gray light that preceded dawn we saw shadowy columns of infantry
+and artillery and cavalry passing by our camp. The costumes of the
+different regiments made a break in the drab monotony. The Mesopotamian
+Expeditionary Force was composed of varied components. Steel helmets could
+be worn only in winter. In many of the native regiments the British
+officers wore tasselled pugrees, and long tunics that were really shirts,
+and an adaption of the native custom of wearing the shirt-tails outside
+the trousers. The Gurkhas were supplied with pith helmets. It was
+generally claimed that this was unnecessary, but the authorities felt that
+coming from a cold, high climate they would be as much affected by the
+Mesopotamian sun as were Europeans. The presence of the Indian troops
+brought about unusual additions to the dry "General Routine Orders" issued
+by general headquarters. One of them, referring to a religious festival of
+the Sikhs, ran:
+
+"The following cable message received from Sunder Signh Hagetha,
+Amritsar, addressed to Sikhs in Mesopotamian force:
+
+"To our most Dear Brothers now serving the Benign King-Emperor oversea,
+the chief Khalsa Dewan tenders hearty and sincere greetings on the
+auspicious Gurpurb of First Guru. You are upholding the name and fame of
+Gurupurb. Our hearts are with you and our prayers are that Satguru and
+Akalpurkh may ever be with you and lead you to victory and return home
+safe, after vanquishing the King-Emperor's foes, with honor and flying
+colors."
+
+The British Empire was well and loyally served by her Indian subjects, and
+by none more faithfully than the Sikhs.
+
+We let the column get well started before we shoved off in our cars. The
+trail was wide enough to pass without interfering; and long before we were
+in sight of Taza we had taken our place ahead. As was foreseen, the enemy
+evacuated the town with scarce a show of resistance. I set off to
+interview the local head man. In the spring all the upper Mesopotamian
+towns are inundated by flocks of storks, but I have never seen them in
+greater force than in Taza. On almost every housetop were a couple,
+throwing their heads back and clattering their beaks in the odd way that
+gives them their onomatopoetic Arabic name of Lak-Lak. It sounded like the
+rattle of machine-guns; so much so that on entering the village, for the
+first second I thought that the Turks were opening up on us. No native
+will molest a stork; to do so is considered to the last degree
+inauspicious.
+
+There was but little water in the river running by Taza, and we managed to
+get the cars through under their own power. A few miles farther on lay a
+broad watercourse, dry in the main, but with the centre channel too deep
+to negotiate, so there was nothing to be done without the help of the
+artillery horses. The Turks were shelling the vicinity of the crossing, so
+we drew back a short distance and sent word that we were held up waiting
+for assistance to get us over.
+
+Once we had reached the far side we set out to pick our way round Kirkuk
+to get astride the road leading thence to Altun Kupri. This is the main
+route from Baghdad to Mosul, the chief city on the upper Tigris, across
+the river from the ruins of Nineveh. It was a difficult task finding a way
+practicable for the cars, as the ground was still soft from the recent
+rains. It was impossible to keep defiladed from Turkish observation, but
+we did not supply them with much in the way of a target. At length we got
+round to the road, and started to advance down it to Kirkuk. The town, in
+common with so many others in that part of the country, is built on a
+hill. The Hamawand Kurds are inveterate raiders, and good fortifications
+are needed to withstand them. As we came out upon the road we caught sight
+of our cavalry preparing to attack. The Turks were putting up a stout
+resistance, with darkness fast coming to their aid. After approaching
+close to the town, we were ordered to return to a deserted village for the
+night, prepared to go through in the early morning.
+
+The co-ordinates of the village were given, and we easily found it on the
+map; but it was quite another proposition to locate it physically. To add
+to our difficulties, the sky clouded over and pitchy blackness settled
+down. It soon started to rain, so we felt that the best we could do was
+select as likely a spot as came to hand and wait for morning. I made up my
+mind that the front seat of a van, uncomfortable and cramped as it was,
+would prove the best bed for the night. My estimate was correct, for at
+midnight the light drizzle, that was scarcely more than a Scotch mist,
+turned into a wild, torrential downpour that all but washed away my
+companions. The waterproof flap that I had rigged withstood the onslaughts
+of wind and rain in a fashion that was as gratifying as it was unexpected.
+The vivid flashes of lightning showed the little dry ravine beside us
+converted into a roaring, swirling torrent. The water was rushing past
+beneath the cars, half-way up to their hubs. A large field hospital had
+been set up close to the banks of the stream at Taza. We afterward heard
+that the river had risen so rapidly that many of the tents and a few
+ambulances were washed away.
+
+By morning it had settled down into a steady, businesslike downpour. We
+found that we were inextricably caught in among some low hills. There was
+not the slightest chance of moving the fighting cars; they were bogged
+down to the axle. There was no alternative other than to wait until the
+rain stopped and the mud dried. Fortunately our emergency rations were
+still untouched.
+
+Our infantry went over at dawn, and won through into the town. If it had
+not been for the rain we would have made some important captures. As it
+was, the Turks destroyed the bridge across the Hasa Su and retreated to
+Altun Kupri by the road on the farther bank. From a hill near by we
+watched everything, powerless to help in any way.
+
+At noon the sky unexpectedly cleared and the sun came out. We unloaded a
+Ford van, and with much pushing and no little spade work managed to get it
+down to a road running in the direction of Kirkuk. We found the surface
+equal to the light car, and slowly made our way to the outskirts of the
+town, with occasional halts where digging and shoving were required. We
+satisfied ourselves that, given a little sun, we could bring the armored
+cars out of their bog and through to the town.
+
+[Illustration: Kirkuk]
+
+Next morning, in spite of the fact that more rain had fallen during the
+night, I set to work on my tenders, and at length succeeded in putting
+them all in Kirkuk. We were billeted in the citadel, a finely built,
+substantial affair, with a courtyard that we could turn into a good
+garage. The Turks had left in great haste, and, although they had
+attempted a wholesale destruction of everything that they could not
+take, they had been only partially successful. In my room I found a
+quantity of pamphlets describing the American army--with diagrams of
+insignia, and pictures of fully equipped soldiers of the different
+branches of the service. There was also a map of the United States showing
+the population by States. The text was, of course, in Turkish and the
+printing excellently done. What the purpose might be I could not make out.
+
+The wherefore of another booklet was more obvious. It was an illustrated
+account of alleged British atrocities. Most of the pictures purported to
+have been taken in the Sudan, and showed decapitated negroes. Some I am
+convinced were pictures of the Armenian massacres that the Turks had
+themselves taken and in a thrifty moment put to this useful purpose. This
+pamphlet was printed at the press in Kirkuk.
+
+There were a number of excellent buildings--mainly workshops and armories,
+but the best was the hospital. The long corridors and deep windows of the
+wards looked very cool. An up-to-date impression was given by the
+individual patient charts, with the headings for the different diagnoses
+printed in Turkish and French. The doctors were mainly Armenians. The
+occupants were all suffering from malnutrition, and there was a great deal
+of starvation in the town.
+
+I did not wish to return to Baghdad until I could be certain that we were
+not going to advance upon Altun Kupri. The engineers patched up the
+bridge, and we took the cars over to the other side and went off on a
+reconnaissance to ascertain how strongly the town was being held. The long
+bridge from which it gets its name could easily be destroyed, and crossing
+over the river would be no light matter. The surrounding mountains limited
+the avenue of attack. Altogether it would not be an easy nut to crack, and
+the Turks had evidently determined on a stand. What decided the army
+commander to make any further attempt to advance was most probably the
+great length of the line of communications, and the recent floods had made
+worse conditions which were bad enough at the best. The ration supply had
+fallen very low, and it seemed impossible to hold even Kirkuk unless the
+rail-head could be advanced materially.
+
+I put in all my odd moments wandering about the bazaars. The day after
+the fall the merchants opened their booths and transacted business as
+usual. The population was composed of many races, chiefly Turcoman, Kurd,
+and Arab. There were also Armenians, Chaldeans, Syrians, and Jews. The
+latter were exceedingly prosperous. Arabic and Kurdish and Turkish were
+all three spoken. Kirkuk is of very ancient origin--but of its early
+history little is known. The natives point out a mound which they claim to
+be Daniel's tomb. Two others are shown as belonging to Shadrach and
+Meshech; that of the third of the famous trio has been lost. There are
+many artificial hills in the neighborhood, and doubtless in course of time
+it will prove a fruitful hunting-ground for archæologists. As far as I
+could learn no serious excavating has hitherto been undertaken in the
+vicinity.
+
+The bazaars were well filled with goods of every sort. I picked up one or
+two excellent rugs for very little, and a few odds and ends, dating from
+Seleucid times, that had been unearthed by Arab laborers in their gardens
+or brick-kilns. There were some truck-gardens in the outskirts, and we
+traded fresh vegetables for some of our issue rations. There are few
+greater luxuries when one has been living on canned foods for a long
+time. I saw several ibex heads nailed up over the doors of houses. The
+owners told me that they were to be found in the near-by mountains, but
+were not plentiful. There is little large game left in Mesopotamia, and
+that mainly in the mountains. I once saw a striped hyena. It is a
+nocturnal animal, and they may be common, although I never came across but
+the one, which I caught sight of slinking among the ruins of Istabulat,
+south of Samarra, one evening when I was riding back to camp. Gazelle were
+fairly numerous, and we occasionally shot one for venison. It was on the
+plains between Kizil Robat and Kara Tepe that I saw the largest bands.
+Judging from ancient bas-reliefs lions must at one time have been very
+plentiful. In the forties of the last century Sir Henry Layard speaks of
+coming across them frequently in the hill country; and later still, in the
+early eighties, a fellow countryman, Mr. Fogg, in his _Land of the Arabian
+Nights_, mentions that the English captain of a river steamer had recently
+killed four lions, shooting from the deck of his boat. Rousseau speaks of
+meeting, near Hit, a man who had been badly mauled by a lion, and was
+going to town to have his wounds cared for. Leopards and bears are to be
+met with in the higher mountain regions, and wild boars are common in many
+districts. They inhabit the thickets along the river-banks, in country
+that would permit of much sound sport in the shape of pig-sticking.
+
+Game-birds are found in abundance; both greater and lesser bustard; black
+and gray partridges, quail, geese, duck, and snipe. A week's leave could
+be made provide good shooting and a welcome addition to the usual fare
+when the wanderer returned. Every sort of shotgun was requisitioned, from
+antiquated muzzle-loaders bought in the bazaar to the most modern
+creations of Purdy sent out from India by parcel-post.
+
+After waiting a few days further, to be certain that an attack would not
+be unexpectedly ordered, I set out on my return trip to Baghdad. The river
+at Taza was still up, but I borrowed six mules from an accommodating
+galloping ambulance, and pulled the car across. We went by way of Kifri, a
+clean, stone-built town that we found all but empty. The food situation
+had become so critical that the inhabitants had drifted off, some to our
+lines, others to Persia, and still others to Kirkuk and Mosul. Near Kifri
+are some coal-mines about which we had heard much. It is the only place in
+the country where coal is worked, and we were hoping that we might put it
+to good use. Our experts, however, reported that it was of very poor
+quality and worth practically nothing.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+BACK THROUGH PALESTINE
+
+
+Several days later I embarked at Baghdad on one of the river boats. I took
+Yusuf with me to Busra to put me aboard the transport for Egypt. It was
+the first time he had ever been that far down-stream, and he showed a fine
+contempt for everything he saw, comparing it in most disparaging terms to
+his own desolate native town of Samarra. The cheapness, variety, and
+plenty of the food in the bazaars of Busra were the only things that he
+allowed in any way to impress him.
+
+I was fortunate enough to run into some old friends, and through one of
+them met General Sutton, who most kindly and opportunely rescued me from
+the dreary "Rest-Camp" and took me to his house. While I was waiting for a
+chance to get a place on a transport, he one morning asked me to go with
+him to Zobeir, where he was to dedicate a hospital. Zobeir is a desert
+town of ten thousand or so inhabitants, situated fifteen miles inland
+from Busra. The climate is supposed to be more healthful, and many of the
+rich and important residents of the river town have houses there to which
+they retire during the summer months. To an outsider any comparison would
+seem only a refinement of degrees of suffocation. The heat of all the
+coastal towns of the Persian Gulf is terrific.
+
+Zobeir is a desert town, with its ideals and feelings true to the
+inheritance of the tribesmen. It is a market for the caravans of central
+Arabia. A good idea of the Turkish feeling toward it may be gathered from
+the fact that the inhabitants were exempt from military service. This was
+a clear admission on the part of the Turk that he could not cope with the
+situation, and thought it wisest not to attempt something which he had no
+hope of putting through. It was, therefore, a great triumph for the
+British and a sure wedge into the confidence of the desert folk when the
+hospital was opened, for any people that can introduce so marked an
+innovation among the hidebound desert communities must have won their
+confidence and respect in a remarkable degree. Ibrahim, the hereditary
+Sheikh of Zobeir, himself contributed largely to the fund for the
+endowment. It was arranged that Doctor Borrie, who among his other duties
+ran the civil hospital at Busra, should periodically include Zobeir in his
+rounds. The Sheikh showed us over the building. It was cool, comfortable,
+and very sanitary. The Indian who was to be resident physician had every
+appearance of intelligence and proficiency. Old Ibrahim gave us a large
+banquet of the orthodox type. There was a sheep roasted whole, and dishes
+of every sort of meat and vegetable marshalled upon the table, which
+fairly groaned beneath their weight. We had innumerable speeches. General
+Sutton made an excellent address, which an interpreter translated into
+Arabic. Our Arabian hosts were long-winded, and the recognized local
+orator was so classical in his phrases and forms and tenses that it was
+impossible to do more than get the general drift of what he said. Luckily
+I had in my pocket a copy of the _Lusiads_, which I surreptitiously read
+when the speeches became hopelessly long drawn out.
+
+I was allotted space on a British India, boat, the _Torrilla_, that was to
+take to Egypt a field artillery regiment of the Third Division. As we
+dropped down-stream and I watched a disconsolate Yusuf standing on the
+dock, I felt that another chapter had closed--an interesting one at that.
+I was not left long to muse on what the next would bring forth before
+there was a cry of "fire"; and from where I was standing in the
+smoking-room I could see, through the open hatchways, the soldiers
+hurrying about below decks. As the ship was well ballasted with
+ammunition, anything that happened would, take place quickly, and only
+those on the spot could hope to control events, so I stayed where I was. A
+few minutes later the fire was reported out.
+
+The long two weeks' trip through the Persian Gulf and round to the Red Sea
+was monotonously peaceful. Being "unattached," I had no regular duties.
+Occasionally I attended "stables," and wandered around the horse lines.
+The great heat below decks had far less effect upon the horses than would
+be supposed. Of course, they were well cared for, and many were seasoned
+veterans that had taken more than one long sea voyage. If I am not
+mistaken, only one was lost on the trip.
+
+Most of the time I lay back in my rhoorkhee chair and read whatever I
+could find in the ship's library. The wireless broke down a few days
+after we left Busra, so we got no news whatever of the outer world, and
+soon ceased to speculate on what might be happening in France.
+
+At length, on the morning of June 4, we dropped anchor in Suez harbor. We
+had hoped that the _Torrilla_ would run through the canal to Port Said,
+but the disembarkation officer told us that we were all to be unloaded at
+Suez and proceed by rail. When I reached Alexandria I learned that a
+convoy had just sailed and there would not be another for two weeks at
+earliest. Sir Reginald Wingate, who had long been a family friend, was the
+British High Commissioner. Lady Wingate and he with the utmost hospitality
+insisted on my moving out to the residency to wait for my sailing.
+
+When I left for Mesopotamia Lord Derby had given me a letter to General
+Allenby which I had never had an opportunity to present. Sir Reginald
+suggested that I could not do better than make use of this enforced delay
+by going up to Palestine. The railway was already running to Jerusalem and
+you could go straight through from Cairo with but one change. At Kantara
+you crossed the canal and entered the military zone. Leaving there at
+half past eleven in the evening the train reached Ludd, which was general
+headquarters, at seven the following morning.
+
+Every one that I had ever met who knew General Allenby was wildly
+enthusiastic about him, and you had only to be with him a few minutes to
+realize how thoroughly justified their enthusiasm was. He represented the
+very highest type of the British soldier, and more need not be said. On
+the morning on which I arrived an attack was in progress and we could hear
+the drumming of the guns. The commander-in-chief placed a car at my
+disposal and I went around visiting old friends that I had made in
+Mesopotamia or still earlier in England, before the war. Among the latter
+was Colonel Ronald Storrs, the military governor of Jerusalem. With him I
+spent several days. Life in the Holy City seemed but little changed by the
+war. There was an interesting innovation in the Church of the Nativity at
+Bethlehem. The different Christian religious sects, in particular the
+Greek and Latin Catholics, were prone to come to blows in the church, and
+bloodshed and death had more than once been the result. To obviate this
+it had been the custom to have a regular relief of Turkish soldiers
+stationed in the church. Their place was now taken by British and French
+and Italians. Each nationality in rotation furnished the guard for a day.
+At the festival of the distribution of the Sacred Fire from the Church of
+the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem there were usually a number of accidents
+caused by the anxiety to reach the portal whence the fire was given out.
+The commander-in-chief particularly complimented Colonel Storrs upon the
+orderly way in which this ceremony was conducted under his régime. The
+population of Jerusalem is exceedingly mixed--and the percentage of
+fanatics is of course disproportionately large. There are many groups that
+have been gathered together and brought out to the Holy Land with
+distinctly unusual purposes. One such always had an empty seat at their
+table and confidently expected that Christ would some day appear to occupy
+it. The long-haired Russian and Polish Jews with their felt hats and
+shabby frock coats were to be met with everywhere. In the street where the
+Jews meet to lament the departed glory of Jerusalem an incongruous and
+ludicrous element was added by a few Jews, their bowed heads covered with
+ancient derby hats, wailing with undefeated zeal.
+
+[Illustration: A street in Jerusalem]
+
+It is a mournful fact that the one really fine building in Jerusalem
+should be the Mosque of Omar--the famous "Dome of the Rock." This is built
+on the legendary site of the temple of Solomon, and the mosaics lining the
+inside of the dome are the most beautiful I have ever seen. The simplicity
+is what is really most felt, doubly so because the Christian holy places
+are garish and tawdry, with tin-foil and flowers and ornate carving. It is
+to be hoped that the Christians will some day unite and clean out all the
+dreary offerings and knickknacks that clutter the Church of the Holy
+Sepulchre. Moslems hold the Mosque of Omar second in sanctity only to the
+great mosque in the holy city of Mecca. It is curious, therefore, that
+they should not object to Christians entering it. Mohammedans enter
+barefoot, but we fastened large yellow slippers over our shoes, and that
+was regarded as filling all requirements. Storrs pointed out to me that it
+was quite unnecessary to remove our hats, for that is not a sign of
+respect with Moslems, and they keep on their red fezzes. The mosque was
+built by the Caliph Abd el Melek, about fifty years after Omar had
+captured Jerusalem in 636 A.D. Many of the stones used in building it came
+from the temple of Jupiter. In the centre lies the famous rock, some sixty
+feet in diameter, and rising six or seven feet above the floor of the
+mosque. To Mohammedans it is more sacred than anything else in the world
+save the Black Stone at Mecca. Tradition says that it was here that
+Abraham and Melchizedek sacrificed to Jehovah, and Abraham brought Isaac
+as an offering. Scientists find grounds for the belief that it was the
+altar of the temple in the traces of a channel for carrying off the blood
+of the victims. The Crusaders believed the mosque to be the original
+temple of Solomon, and, according to their own reports, rededicated it
+with the massacre of more than ten thousand Moslems who had fled thither
+for refuge. The wrought-iron screen that they placed around the rock still
+remains. The cavern below is the traditional place of worship of many of
+the great characters of the Old Testament, such as David and Solomon and
+Elijah. From it Mohammed made his night journey to heaven, borne on his
+steed El Burak. In the floor of the cavern is an opening covered with a
+slab of stone, and said to go down to the centre of the world and be a
+medium for communicating with the souls of the departed.
+
+The military governor has been at work to better the sanitary conditions
+in Jerusalem. Hitherto the only water used by the townsfolk had been the
+rain-water which they gathered in tanks. Some years ago it was proposed to
+bring water to the city in pipes, some of which were already laid before
+the inhabitants decided that such an innovation could not be tolerated.
+The British have put in a pipe-line, and oddly enough it runs to the same
+reservoir whence Pontius Pilate started to bring water by means of an
+aqueduct. They have also built some excellent roads through the
+surrounding hills. Here, as in Mesopotamia, one was struck by the
+permanent nature of the improvements that are being made. Even to people
+absorbed in their own jealousies and rivalries the advantages that they
+were deriving from their liberation from Turkish rule must have been
+exceedingly apparent.
+
+The situation in Palestine differed in many ways from that in Mesopotamia,
+but in none more markedly than in the benefits derived from the
+propinquity of Egypt. Occasional leaves were granted to Cairo and
+Alexandria and they afforded the relaxation of a complete change of
+surroundings. I have never seen Cairo gayer. Shepherd's Hotel was open and
+crowded--and the dances as pleasant as any that could be given in London.
+The beaches at Ramleh, near Alexandria, were bright with crowds of
+bathers, and the change afforded the "men from up the line" must have
+proved of inestimable value in keeping the army contented. There were
+beaches especially reserved for non-commissioned officers and others for
+the privates--while in Cairo sightseeing tours were made to the pyramids
+and what the guide-books describe as "other points of interest."
+
+When I left Mesopotamia I made up my mind that there was one man in
+Palestine whom I would use every effort to see if I were held over waiting
+for a sailing. This man was Major A.B. Paterson, known to every Australian
+as "Banjo" Paterson. His two most widely read books are _The Man from
+Snowy River_ and _Rio Grande's Last Race_; both had been for years
+companions of the entire family at home and sources for daily quotations,
+so I had always hoped to some day meet their author. I knew that he had
+fought in the South African War, and I heard that he was with the
+Australian forces in Palestine. As soon as I landed I asked every
+Australian officer that I met where Major Paterson was, for locating an
+individual member of an expeditionary force, no matter how well known he
+may be, is not always easy. Every one knew him. I remember well when I
+inquired at the Australian headquarters in Cairo how the man I asked
+turned to a comrade and said: "Say, where's 'Banjo' now? He's at Moascar,
+isn't he?" Whether they had ever met him personally or not he was "Banjo"
+to one and all.
+
+On my return to Alexandria I stopped at Moascar, which was the main depot
+of the Australian Remount Service, and there I found him. He is a man of
+about sixty, with long mustaches and strong aquiline features--very like
+the type of American plainsman that Frederic Remington so well portrayed.
+He has lived everything that he has written. At different periods of his
+life he has dived for pearls in the islands, herded sheep, broken broncos,
+and known every chance and change of Australian station life. The
+Australians told me that when he was at his prime he was regarded as the
+best rider in Australia. A recent feat about which I heard much mention
+was when he drove three hundred mules straight through Cairo without
+losing a single animal, conclusively proving his argument against those
+who had contested that such a thing could not be done. Although he has
+often been in England, Major Paterson has never come to the United States.
+He told me that among American writers he cared most for the works of Joel
+Chandler Harris and O. Henry--an odd combination!
+
+While in Egypt I met a man about whom I had heard much, a man whose career
+was unsurpassed in interest and in the amount accomplished by the
+individual. Before the war Colonel Lawrence was engaged in archæological
+research under Professor Hogarth of Oxford University. Their most
+important work was in connection with the excavation of a buried city in
+Palestine. At the outbreak of hostilities Professor Hogarth joined the
+Naval Intelligence and rendered invaluable services to the Egyptian
+Expeditionary Forces. Lawrence had an excellent grounding in Arabic and
+decided to try to organize the desert tribes into bands that would raid
+the Turkish outposts and smash their lines of communication. He
+established a body-guard of reckless semioutlaws, men that in the old days
+in our West would have been known as "bad men." They became devoted to him
+and he felt that he could count upon their remaining faithful should any
+of the tribes with which he was raiding meditate treachery. He dressed in
+Arab costume, but as a whole made no effort to conceal his nationality.
+His method consisted in leading a tribe off on a wild foray to break the
+railway, blow up bridges, and carry off the Turkish supplies. Swooping
+down from out the open desert like hawks, they would strike once and be
+off before the Turks could collect themselves. Lawrence explained that he
+had to succeed, for if he failed to carry off any booty, his reputation
+among the tribesmen was dead--and no one would follow him thereafter. What
+he found hardest on these raids was killing the wounded--but the dread of
+falling into the hands of the Turks was so great that before starting it
+was necessary to make a compact to kill all that were too badly injured to
+be carried away on the camels. The Turks offered for Colonel Lawrence's
+capture a reward of ten thousand pounds if dead and twenty thousand
+pounds if alive. His added value in the latter condition was due to the
+benefit that the enemy expected to derive from his public execution. No
+one who has not tried it can realize what a long ride on a camel means,
+and although Lawrence was eager to take with him an Englishman who would
+know the best methods of blowing up bridges and buildings, he could never
+find any one who was able to stand the strain of a long journey on camel
+back.
+
+Lawrence told me that he couldn't last much longer, things had broken
+altogether too well for him, and they could not continue to do so.
+Scarcely more than thirty years of age, with a clean-shaven, boyish face,
+short and slender in build, if one met him casually among a lot of other
+officers it would not have been easy to single him out as the great power
+among the Arabs that he on every occasion proved himself to be. Lawrence
+always greatly admired the Arabs--appreciating their many-sidedness--their
+virility--their ferocity--their intellect and their sensitiveness. I
+remember well one of the stories which he told me. It was, I believe, when
+he was on a long raid in the course of which he went right into the
+outskirts of Damascus--then miles behind the Turkish lines. They halted at
+a ruined palace in the desert. The Arabs led him through the various
+rooms, explaining that each was scented with a different perfume. Although
+Lawrence could smell nothing, they claimed that one room had the odor of
+ambergris--another of roses--and a third of jasmine;--at length they came
+to a large and particularly ruinous room. "This," they said, "has the
+finest scent of all--the smell of the wind and the sun." I last saw
+Colonel Lawrence in Paris, whither he had brought the son of the King of
+the Hedjaz to attend the Peace Conference.
+
+When I got back to Alexandria I found that the sailing of the convoy had
+been still further delayed. Three vessels out of the last one to leave had
+been sunk, involving a considerable loss of life. The channel leading from
+the harbor out to sea is narrow and must be followed well beyond the
+entrance, so that the submarines had an excellent chance to lay in wait
+for outgoing boats. The greatest secrecy was observed with regard to the
+date of leaving and destination--and of course troops were embarked and
+held in the harbor for several days so as to avoid as far as possible any
+notice being given to the lurking enemy by spies on shore.
+
+The transports were filled with units that were being hurried off to stem
+the German tide in France, so casual officers were placed on the
+accompanying destroyers and cruisers. I was allotted to a little Japanese
+destroyer, the _Umi_. She was of only about six hundred and fifty tons
+burden, for this class of boat in the Japanese navy is far smaller than in
+ours. She was as neat as a pin, as were also the crew. The officers were
+most friendly and did everything possible to make things comfortable for a
+landsman in their limited quarters. The first meal on board we all used
+knives and forks, but thereafter they were only supplied to me, while the
+Japanese fell back upon their chop-sticks. It was a never-failing source
+of interest to watch their skill in eating under the most difficult
+circumstances. One morning when the boat was dancing about even more than
+usual, I came into breakfast to find the steward bringing in some rather
+underdone fried eggs, and thought that at last I would see the ship's
+officers stumped in the use of their chop-sticks. Not a bit of it; they
+had disposed of the eggs in the most unsurpassed manner and were off to
+their duties before I myself had finished eating.
+
+[Illustration: Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto]
+
+We left Alexandria with an escort of aeroplanes to see us safely started,
+while an observation balloon made fast to a cruiser accompanied us on the
+first part of our journey. The precautions were not in vain, for two
+submarines were sighted a short time after we cleared the harbor. The
+traditional Japanese efficiency was well borne out by the speed with which
+our crew prepared for action. Every member was in his appointed place and
+the guns were stripped for action in an incredibly short time after the
+warning signal. It was when we were nearing the shores of Italy that I had
+best opportunity to see the destroyers at work. We sighted a submarine
+which let fly at one of the troopers--the torpedo passing its bow and
+barely missing the boat beyond it. Quick as a flash the Japanese were
+after it--swerving in and out like terriers chasing a rat, and letting
+drive as long as it was visible. We cast around for the better part of an
+hour, dropping overboard depth charges which shook the little craft as the
+explosion sent great funnels of water aloft. The familiar harbor of
+Taranto was a welcome sight when we at length herded our charges in
+through the narrow entrance and swung alongside the wharf where the
+destroyers were to take in a supply of fuel preparatory to starting out
+again on their interminable and arduous task.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY
+
+I
+
+
+My transfer to the American army appointed me as captain of field
+artillery instead of infantry, as I had wished. Just how the mistake
+occurred I never determined, but once in the field artillery I found that
+to shift back would take an uncertain length of time, and that even after
+it was effected I would be obliged to take a course at some school before
+going up to the line. It therefore seemed advisable to go immediately, as
+instructed, to the artillery school, at Saumur. The management was half
+French and half American. Colonel MacDonald and Colonel Cross were the
+Americans in charge, and the high reputation of the school bore testimony
+to their efficiency. It was the intention of headquarters gradually to
+replace all the French instructors with Americans, but when I was there
+the former predominated. It was of course necessary to wait until our
+officers had learned by actual experience the use of the French guns with
+which our army was supplied. When men are being taught what to do in
+combat conditions they apply themselves more attentively and absorb far
+more when they feel that the officer teaching them has had to test, under
+enemy fire, the theories he is expounding. The school was for both
+officers and candidates. The latter were generally chosen from among the
+non-commissioned officers serving at the front; I afterward sent men down
+from my battery. The first part of the course was difficult for those who
+had either never had much mathematical training or had had it so long ago
+that they were hopelessly out of practice. A number of excellent sergeants
+and corporals did not have the necessary grounding to enable them to pass
+the examinations. They should never have been sent, for it merely put them
+in an awkward and humiliating position--although no stigma could possibly
+be attached to them for having failed.
+
+The French officer commanding the field work was Major de Caraman. His
+long and distinguished service in the front lines, combined with his
+initiative and ever-ready tact, made him an invaluable agent in welding
+the ideas and methods of France and America. His house was always filled
+with Americans, and how much his hospitality meant to those whose ties
+were across the ocean must have been experienced to be appreciated. The
+homes of France were ever thrown open to us, and the sincere and simple
+good-will with which we were received has put us under a lasting debt
+which we should be only too glad to cherish and acknowledge.
+
+Saumur is a delightful old town in the heart of the château country. The
+river Loire runs through it, and along the banks are the caves in some of
+which have been found the paintings made by prehistoric man picturing the
+beasts with which he struggled for supremacy in the dim dark ages. The
+same caves are many of them inhabited, and their owners may well look with
+scorn upon the châteaux and baronial castles of whose antiquity it is
+customary to boast. There is an impressive castle built on a hill
+dominating the town, and in one of the churches is hung an array of
+tapestries of unsurpassed color and design. The country round about
+invited rambling, and the excellent roads made it easy; particularly
+delightful were the strolls along the river-banks, where patient
+fisherfolk of every sex and age sat unperturbed by the fact that they
+never seemed to catch anything. One old lady with a sunbonnet was always
+to be seen seated on a three-legged stool in the same corner amid the
+rocks. She had a rusty black umbrella which she would open when the rays
+of the sun became too searching.
+
+The buildings which were provided for the artillery course had formerly
+been used by the cavalry school, probably the best known in the world.
+Before the war army officers of every important nation in the Occident and
+Orient were sent by their governments to follow the course and learn the
+method of instruction. My old friend Fitzhugh Lee was one of those sent by
+the United States, and I found his record as a horseman still alive and
+fresh in the memory of many of the townspeople.
+
+Soon after the termination of my period of instruction I was in command of
+C Battery of the Seventh Field Artillery in the Argonne fighting. I was
+standing one morning in the desolate, shell-ridden town of Landres et St.
+George watching a column of "dough-boys" coming up the road; at their head
+limped a battered Dodge car, and as it neared me I recognized my elder
+brother Ted, sitting on the back seat in deep discussion with his
+adjutant. I had believed him to be safely at the staff school in Langres
+recuperating from a wound, but he had been offered the chance to come up
+in command of his old regiment, the Twenty-Sixth, and although registered
+as only "good for light duty in the service of supply," he had made his
+way back to the division. While we were talking another car came up and
+out from it jumped my brother-in-law, Colonel Richard Derby--at that time
+division surgeon of the Second Division. We were the only three members of
+the family left in active service since my brother Quentin, the aviator,
+was brought down over the enemy lines, and Archie, severely wounded in leg
+and arm, had been evacuated to the United States. I well remember how once
+when Colonel Derby introduced me to General Lejeune, who was commanding
+his division, the general, instead of making some remark about my father,
+said: "I shall always be glad to meet a relative of a man with Colonel
+Derby's record."
+
+On the 11th of November we had just returned to our original sector after
+attacking Sedan. None of us placed much confidence in an armistice being
+signed. We felt that the German would never accept the terms, but were
+confident that by late spring or early summer we would be able to bring
+about an unconditional surrender. When the firing ceased and the news came
+through that the enemy had capitulated, there was no great show of
+excitement. We were all too weary to be much stirred by anything that
+could occur. For the past two weeks we had been switched hither and yon,
+with little sleep and less food, and a constant decrease in our personnel
+and horses that was never entirely made good but grew steadily more
+serious. The only bursts of enthusiasm that I heard were occasioned by the
+automobile trucks and staff cars passing by after dark with their
+headlights blazing. The joyous shouts of "Lights out!" testified that the
+reign of darkness was over. Soon the men began building fires and
+gathering about them, calling "Lights out!" as each new blaze started--a
+joke which seemed a never-failing source of amusement.
+
+We heard that we were to march into Germany in the wake of the evacuating
+army and occupy one of the bridge-heads. All this came through in vague
+and unconfirmed form, but in a few days we were hauled back out of the
+line to a desolate mass of ruins which had once been the village of
+Bantheville. We were told that we would have five days here, during which
+we would be reoutfitted in every particular. Our horses were in fearful
+shape--constant work in the rain and mud with very meagre allowance of
+fodder had worn down the toughest old campaigners among them. During the
+weary, endless night march on Sedan I often saw two horses leaning against
+each other in utter exhaustion--as if it were by that means alone that
+they kept on their feet. We were told to indent for everything that we
+needed to make our batteries complete as prescribed in the organization
+charts, but we followed instructions without any very blind faith in
+results--nor did our lack of trust prove unwarranted, for we got
+practically nothing for which we had applied.
+
+There were some colored troops near by engaged in repairing the roads, and
+a number of us determined to get up a quartet to sing for the men. We went
+to where the negroes had built themselves shelters from corrugated-iron
+sheets and miscellaneous bits of wreckage from the town. We collected
+three quarters of our quartet and were directed to the mess-shack for the
+fourth. As we approached I could hear sounds of altercation and a voice
+that we placed immediately as that of our quarry arose in indignant
+warning: "If yo' doan' leggo that mess-kit I'll lay a barrage down on
+yo'!" A platform was improvised near a blazing fire of pine boards and we
+had some excellent clogging and singing. The big basso had evidently a
+strong feeling for his steel helmet, and it undoubtedly added to his
+picturesqueness--setting off his features with his teeth and eyes gleaming
+in the firelight.
+
+On the evening of the second day orders came to move off on the following
+morning. We were obliged to discard much material, for although the two
+days' rest and food had distinctly helped out the horse situation, we had
+many animals that could barely drag themselves along, much less a loaded
+caisson, and our instructions were to on no account salvage ammunition. We
+could spare but one horse for riding--my little mare--and she was no use
+for pulling. She was a wise little animal with excellent gaits and great
+endurance. We were forced to leave, behind another mare that I had ridden
+a good deal on reconnaissances, and that used to amuse me by her
+unalterable determination to stick to cover. It was almost most impossible
+to get her to cut across a field; she preferred to skirt the woods and had
+no intention of exposing herself on any sky-line. In spite of her caution
+it was on account of wounds that she had eventually to be abandoned. I
+trust that the salvage parties found her and that she is now reaping the
+reward of her foresight.
+
+We were a sorry-looking outfit as we marched away from Bantheville. My
+lieutenants had lost their bedding-rolls and extra clothes long since--as
+every one did, for it was impossible to keep your belongings with you--and
+although authorized dumps were provided and we were told that anything
+left behind would be cared for, we would be moved to another sector
+without a chance to collect our excess and practically everything would
+have disappeared by the time the opportunity came to visit the cache. But
+although the horses and accoutrements were in bad shape, the men were fit
+for any task, and more than ready to take on whatever situation might
+arise.
+
+Our destination was Malancourt, no great distance away, but the roads
+were so jammed with traffic that it was long after dark before we reached
+the bleak, wind-swept hillside that had been allotted to us. It was
+bitterly cold and we groped about among the shattered barbed-wire
+entanglements searching for wood to light a fire. There was no difficulty
+in finding shell-craters in which to sleep--the ground was so pockmarked
+with them that it seemed impossible that it could have been done by human
+agency.
+
+This country had been an "active" area during practically all the war, and
+the towns had been battered and beaten down first by the Boche and then by
+the French, and lately we ourselves had taken a hand in the further
+demolition of the ruins. Many a village was recognizable from the
+encompassing waste only by the sign-board stuck in a mound announcing its
+name. The next day's march took us through Esné, Montzeville, and
+Bethainville, and on down to the Verdun-Paris highway. We passed by
+historic "Dead Man's Hill," and not far from there we saw the mute
+reminders of an attack that brought the whole scene vividly back. There
+were nine or ten tanks, of types varying from the little Renault to the
+powerful battleship sort. All had been halted by direct hits, some while
+still far from their objective, others after they had reached the wire
+entanglements, and there was one that was already astride of the
+first-line trench. The continual sight of ruined towns and desolated
+countryside becomes very oppressive, and it was a relief when we began to
+pass through villages in which many of the houses were still left
+standing; it seemed like coming into a new world.
+
+At ten in the evening I got the battery into Balaicourt. A strong wind was
+blowing and the cold was intense, so I set off to try to find billets for
+the men where they could be at least partly sheltered. The town was all
+but deserted by its inhabitants, and we managed to provide every one with
+some degree of cover. Getting back into billets is particularly welcome in
+very cold or rainy weather, and we all were glad to be held over a day on
+the wholly mythical plea of refitting. Although the time would not be
+sufficient to make any appreciable effort in the way of cleaning harness
+or _matériel_, the men could at any rate heat water to wash their clothes
+and themselves.
+
+The next day's march we regarded as our first in the advance into Germany
+to which we had so long looked forward. We found the great Verdun highway
+which had played such an important part in the defense that broke the back
+of the Hun to be in excellent shape and a pleasant change from the
+shell-pitted roads to which we had become accustomed. It was not without a
+thrill that I rode, at the head of my battery, through the missive south
+gate of Verdun, and followed the winding streets of the old city through
+to the opposite portal. Before we had gone many miles the road crossed a
+portion of the far-famed Hindenburg line which had here remained intact
+until evacuated by the Boche a few days previously under the terms of the
+armistice.
+
+We made a short halt where a negro engineer regiment was at work making
+the road passable. A most hospitable officer strolled up and asked if I
+wanted anything to eat, which when you are in the army may be classified
+with Goldberg's "foolish questions." A sturdy coal-black cook brought me
+soup and roast beef and coffee, and never have I appreciated the culinary
+arts of the finest French chef as I did that meal, for the food had been
+cooked, not merely thrown into one of the tureens of a rolling kitchen,
+which was as much as we had recently been able to hope for.
+
+The negro cook looked as if he would have been able to emulate his French
+confrère of whom Major de Caraman told me. The Frenchman was on his way to
+an outpost with a steaming caldron of soup. He must have lost the way, for
+he unexpectedly found himself confronted by a German who ordered him to
+surrender. For reply the cook slammed the soup-dish over his adversary's
+head and marched him back a prisoner. His prowess was rewarded with a
+Croix de Guerre.
+
+It was interesting to see the German system of defense when it was still
+intact and had not been shattered by our artillery preparation as it was
+when taken in an attack. The wire entanglements were miles in depth, and
+the great trees by the roadside were mined. This was done by cutting a
+groove three or four inches broad and of an equal depth and filling it
+with packages of explosive. I suppose the purpose was to block the road in
+case of retreat. Only a few of the mines had been set off.
+
+Passing through several towns that no longer existed we came to Etain,
+where many buildings were still standing though completely gutted. The
+cellars had been converted into dugouts with passages and ramifications
+added. We were billeted in some German huts on the outskirts. They were
+well dug in and comfortably fitted out, so we were ready to stay over a
+few days, as we had been told we should, but at midnight orders were sent
+round to be prepared to march out early.
+
+The country was lovely and gave little sign of the Boche occupation except
+that it was totally deserted and when we passed through villages all the
+signs were in German. There was but little originality displayed in naming
+the streets--you could be sure that you would find a Hindenburg Strasse
+and a Kronprinz Strasse, and there was usually one called after the
+Kaiser. The mile-posts at the crossroads had been mostly replaced, but
+occasionally we found battered metal plaques of the Automobile Touring
+Club of France. Ever since we left Verdun we had been meeting bands of
+released prisoners, Italians and Russians chiefly, with a few French and
+English mingled. They were worn and underfed--their clothes were in rags.
+A few had combined and were pulling their scanty belongings on little
+cars, such as children make out of soap-boxes. The motor-trucks returning
+to our base after bringing up the rations would take back as many as they
+could carry.
+
+We came across scarcely any civilians until we reached Bouligny, a once
+busy and prosperous manufacturing town. A few of the inhabitants had been
+allowed to remain throughout the enemy occupation and small groups of
+those that had been removed were by now trickling in. The invader had
+destroyed property in the most ruthless manner, and the buildings were
+gutted. The domestic habits of the Hun were always to me inexplicable--he
+evidently preferred to live in the midst of his own filth, and many times
+have I seen recently captured châteaux that had been converted into
+veritable pigsties.
+
+The inhabitants went wild at our entry--in the little villages they came
+out carrying wreaths and threw confetti and flowers as they shouted the
+"Marseillaise." The infantry, marching in advance, bore the brunt of the
+celebrations. What interested me most were the bands of small children,
+many of them certainly not over five, dancing along the streets singing
+their national anthem. It must have been taught them in secret. In the
+midst of a band were often an American soldier or two, in full swing,
+thoroughly enjoying themselves. The enthusiasm was all of it natural and
+uninspired by alcohol, for the Germans had taken with them everything to
+drink that they had been unable to finish.
+
+Bouligny is not an attractive place--few manufacturing towns are--but we
+got the men well billeted under water-tight roofs, and we were able to
+heat water for washing. My striker found a large caldron and I luxuriated
+in a steaming bath, the first in over a month, and, what was more, I had
+some clean clothes to pull on when I got out.
+
+One evening, when returning from a near-by village, I met a frock-coated
+civilian who inquired of me in German the way to Etain. I asked him who he
+was and what he wanted. He answered that he was a German but was tired of
+his country and wished to go almost anywhere else. He seemed altogether
+too apparent to be a spy, and even if he were I could not make out any
+object that he could gain. I have often wondered what became of him.
+
+The Boches had evidently not expected to give up their conquests, for they
+had built an enormous stone-and-brick fountain in the centre of the town,
+and chiselled its name, "Hindenburg Brunnen." Above the German canteen or
+commissary shop was a great wooden board with "Gott strafe England"--a
+curious proof of how bitterly the Huns hated Great Britain, for there were
+no British troops in the sectors in front of this part of the invaded
+territory.
+
+We worked hard "policing up" ourselves and our equipment during the few
+days we stayed at Bouligny. One morning all the townsfolk turned out in
+their best clothes, which had been buried in the cellars or hidden behind
+the rafters in the attics, to greet the President and Madame Poincaré, who
+were visiting the most important of the liberated towns. It was good to
+hear the cheering and watch the beaming faces.
+
+On November 21 we resumed our march. Close to the border we came upon a
+large German cemetery, artistically laid out, with a group of massive
+statuary in the centre. There were some heroic-size granite statues of
+Boche soldiers in full kit with helmet and all, that were particularly
+fine. As we passed the stones marking the boundary-line between France
+and Lorraine there was a tangible feeling of making history, and it was
+not without a thrill that we entered Aumetz and heard the old people greet
+us in French while the children could speak only German. The town was gay
+with the colors of France--produced from goodness knows where. Children
+were balancing themselves on the barrels of abandoned German cannon and
+climbing about the huge camouflaged trucks. We were now where France,
+Luxemburg, and Lorraine meet, and all day we skirted the borders of first
+one and then the other, halting for the night at the French town of
+Villerupt. The people went wild when we rode in--we were the first
+soldiers of the Allies they had seen, for the Germans entered immediately
+after the declaration of war, and the only poilus the townsfolk saw were
+those that were brought in as prisoners. We were welcomed in the town
+hall--the German champagne was abominable but the reception was
+whole-hearted and the speeches were sincere in their jubilation.
+
+I was billeted with the mayor, Monsieur Georges. After dinner he produced
+two grimy bottles of Pol Roger--he said that he had been forced to change
+their hiding-place four times, and had just dug them up in his cellar.
+They were destined for the night of liberation. Monsieur Georges was thin
+and worn; he had spent two years in prison in solitary confinement for
+having given a French prisoner some bread. His eighteen-year-old daughter
+was imprisoned for a year because she had not informed the authorities as
+to what her father had done. No one in the family would learn a single
+word of German. They said that all French civilians were forced to salute
+the Germans, and each Sunday every one was compelled to appear in the
+market-place for general muster. The description of the departure of their
+hated oppressors was vivid--the men behind the lines knew the full portent
+of events and were sullen and crestfallen, but the soldiers fresh from the
+front believed that Germany had won and was dictating her own terms; they
+came through with wreaths hung on their bayonets singing songs of victory.
+
+I had often wondered how justly the food supplies sent by America for the
+inhabitants of the invaded districts were distributed. Monsieur Georges
+assured me that the Germans were scrupulously careful in this matter,
+because they feared that if they were not, the supplies would no longer
+be sent, and this would of course encroach upon their own resources, for
+even the Hun could not utterly starve to death the captured French
+civilians. The mayor told me of the joy the shipments brought and how when
+the people went to draw their rations they called it "going to America."
+We sat talking until far into the night before I retired to the luxury of
+a real bed with clean linen sheets. There was no trouble whatever in
+billeting the men--the townsmen were quarrelling as to who should have
+them.
+
+Next morning, with great regret at so soon leaving our willing hosts, we
+marched off into the little Duchy of Luxemburg. We passed through the
+thriving city of Esch with its great iron-mines. The streets were gay with
+flags, there were almost as many Italian as French, for there is a large
+Italian colony, the members of which are employed in mining and smelting.
+Brass bands paraded in our honor, and we were later met by them in many of
+the smaller towns. The shops seemed well filled, but the prices were very
+high. The Germans seemed to have left the Luxemburgers very much to
+themselves, and I have little doubt but that they would have been at least
+as pleased to welcome victorious Boches had affairs taken a different
+turn. Still they were glad to see us, for it meant the end of the
+isolation in which they had been living and the eventual advent of
+foodstuffs.
+
+As we rode along, the countryside was lovely and the smiling fields and
+hillsides made "excursions and alarums" seem remote indeed. It felt
+unnatural to pass through a village with unscarred church spires and
+houses all intact--such a change from battered, glorious France.
+
+We were immediately in the wake of the German army, and taken by and large
+they must have been retiring in good order, for they left little behind.
+Our first night we spent at the village of Syren, eight kilometres from
+the capital of the Duchy. Billeting was not so easy now, for we were
+ordered to treat the inhabitants as neutrals, and when they objected we
+couldn't handle the situation as we did later on in Germany. No one likes
+to have soldiers or civilians quartered on him, and the Luxemburgers were
+friendly to us only as a matter of policy. Fortunately, the chalk marks of
+the Boche billeting officers had not been washed off the doors, and these
+told us how many men had been lodged in a given house.
+
+In my lodging I was accorded a most friendly reception, for my hostess
+was French. Her nephew had come up from Paris to visit her a few months
+before the outbreak of the war, and had been unable to get back to France.
+To avoid the dreaded internment camp he had successfully passed as a
+Luxemburger. In the regiment there were a number of men whose parents came
+from the Duchy; these and a few more who spoke German acquired a sudden
+popularity among their comrades. They would make friends with some of the
+villagers and arrange to turn over their rations so that they would be
+cooked by the housewife and eaten with the luxurious accompaniment of
+chair and table. The diplomat would invite a few friends to enjoy with him
+the welcome change from the "slum" ladled out of the caldrons of the
+battery rolling kitchen. I had always supposed that I had in my battery a
+large number of men who could speak German--a glance over the pay-roll
+would certainly leave that impression--but when I came to test it out, I
+found that I had but four men who spoke sufficiently well to be of any use
+as interpreters.
+
+Next morning we made a winding, roundabout march to Trintange. Here we
+were instructed to settle down for a week or ten days' halt, and many
+worse places might have been chosen. The country was very broken, with
+hills and ravines. Little patches of woodland and streams dashing down
+rocky channels on their way to join the Moselle reminded one of Rock Creek
+Park in Washington. The weather couldn't be bettered; sharp and cold in
+the early morning with a heavy hoarfrost spreading its white mantle over
+everything, then out would come the sun, and the hills would be shrouded
+in mist.
+
+My billeting officer had arranged matters well, so we were comfortably
+installed and in good shape to "police up" for the final leg of the march
+to Coblenz. I had now my full allowance of officers--Lieutenants Furness,
+Brown, Middleditch, and Pearce. In active warfare discipline while
+stricter in some ways is more lax in others, and there were many small
+points that required furbishing. Close order drill on foot is always a
+great help in stiffening up the men, and such essentials as instruction in
+driving and in fitting harness required much attention. In the American
+army much less responsibility is given to the sergeants and corporals than
+in the British, but even so the spirit and efficiency of an organization
+must depend largely on its non-commissioned officers. We were fortunate in
+having an unusually fine lot--Sergeant Cushing was a veteran of the
+Spanish War. He had been a sailor for many years, and after he left the
+sea he became chief game warden of Massachusetts. In time of stress he was
+a tower of strength and could be counted upon to set his men an example of
+cool and judicious daring. The first sergeant, Armstrong, was an old
+regular army man, and his knowledge of drill and routine was invaluable to
+us. He thoroughly understood his profession, and was remarkably successful
+in training raw men. Sergeants Grumbling, Kubelis, and Bauer were all of
+them excellent men, and could be relied upon to perform their duty with
+conscientious thoroughness under the most trying conditions.
+
+One afternoon I went in to Luxemburg with Colonel Collins, the battalion
+commander. The town looks thoroughly mediæval as you approach. It might
+well have been over its castle wall that Kingsley's knight spurred his
+horse on his last leap; as a matter of fact the village of Altenahr, where
+the poet laid the scene, is not so many miles away. The town is built
+along the ragged cliffs lining a deep, rocky canyon spanned by old stone
+bridges. The massive entrance-gates open upon passages tunnelled through
+the hills, and although the modern part of the town boasts broad streets
+and squares, there are many narrow passageways winding around the ancient
+quarter.
+
+I went into a large bookstore to replenish my library, and was struck by
+the supply of post-cards of Marshal Foch and Kitchener and the King and
+Queen of Belgium. All had been printed in Leipzig, and when I asked the
+bookseller how that could be, he replied that he got them from the German
+commercial travellers. He said that he had himself been surprised at the
+samples shown him, but the salesman had remarked that he thought such
+post-cards would have a good sale in Luxemburg, and if such were the case
+"business was business," and he was prepared to supply them. There was
+even one of King Albert standing with drawn sword, saying: "You shall not
+violate the sacred soil of my country." A publication that also interested
+me was a weekly paper brought out in Hamburg and written in English. It
+was filled with jokes, beneath which were German notes explaining any
+difficult or idiomatic words and phrases. With all their hatred of England
+the Huns still continued to learn English.
+
+Thanksgiving Day came along, and we set to work to provide some sort of a
+special feast for the men. It was most difficult to do so, for the
+exchange had not as yet been regulated and the lowest rate at which we
+could get marks was at a franc, and usually it was a franc and a quarter.
+Some one opportunely arrived from Paris with a few hundred marks that he
+had bought at sixty centimes. For the officers we got a suckling pig,
+which Mess Sergeant Braun roasted in the priest's oven. He even put the
+traditional baked apple in its mouth, a necessary adjunct, the purpose of
+which I have never discovered, and such stuffing as he made has never been
+equalled. We washed it down with excellent Moselle wine, for we were but a
+couple of miles from the vineyards along the river. In the afternoon I
+borrowed a bicycle from the burgomaster and trailed over to Elmen, where I
+found my brother just about to sit down to his Thanksgiving dinner served
+up by two faithful Chinamen, who had come to his regiment in a draft from
+the West Coast. After doing full justice to his fare I wended my way back
+to Trintange in the rain and dark.
+
+The next day we paid the men. For some it was the first time in ten
+months. To draw pay it was necessary to sign the pay-roll at the end of
+one month and be on hand at the end of the following month to receive the
+money. No one could sign unless his service record was at hand, and as
+this was forwarded to the hospital "through military channels" when a man
+was evacuated sick or wounded, it rarely reached his unit until several
+months after he returned. It may easily be seen why it was that an
+enlisted man often went for months without being able to draw his pay.
+This meant not only a hardship to him while he was without money, but, it
+also followed that when he got it he had a greater amount than he could
+possibly need, and was more than apt to gamble or drink away his sudden
+accession of wealth. We always tried to make a man who had drawn a lot of
+back pay deposit it or send it home. Mr. Harlow, the Y.M.C.A. secretary
+attached to the regiment, helped us a great deal in getting the money
+transferred to the United States. The men, unless they could spend their
+earnings immediately, would start a game of craps and in a few days all
+the available cash would have found its way into the pocket of the
+luckiest man. They would throw for appallingly high stakes. On this
+particular pay-day we knew that the supply of wine and beer in the village
+was not sufficient to cause any serious trouble, and orders were given
+that no cognac or hard liquor should be sold. A few always managed to get
+it--all precautions to the contrary notwithstanding.
+
+II
+
+On the 1st of December we once more resumed our march and at Wormeldange
+crossed over the Moselle River into Hunland. The streets of the first town
+through which we passed were lined with civilians, many of them only just
+out of uniform, and they scowled at us as we rode by, muttering below
+their breath. A short way out and we began to meet men still in the
+field-gray uniform; they smiled and tried to make advances but our men
+paid no attention. When we reached Onsdorf, which was our destination, the
+billeting officer reported that he had met with no difficulty.
+
+The inhabitants were most effusive and anxious to please in every way. Of
+course they were not Prussians, and no doubt were heartily tired and sick
+of war, but here, as throughout, their attitude was most distasteful to
+us--it was so totally lacking in dignity. We could not tell how much they
+were acting on their own initiative and to what extent they were following
+instructions. Probably there was something of both back of their conduct.
+Warnings had been issued that the Germans were reported to be planning a
+wholesale poisoning of American officers, but I never saw anything to
+substantiate the belief.
+
+Next morning we struck across to the Saar River and followed it down to
+its junction with the Moselle. The woods and ravines were lovely, but from
+the practical standpoint the going was very hard upon the horses. We
+marched down through Treves, the oldest town in Germany, with a population
+of about thirty thousand. In the fourth century of our era Ausonius
+referred to it as "Rome beyond the Alps," and the extent and variety of
+the Roman remains would seem to justify the epithet. We were halted for
+some time beside the most remarkable of these, the Porta Nigra, a huge
+fortified gateway, dating from the first century A.D. The cathedral is an
+impressive conglomeration of the architecture of many different
+centuries--the oldest portion being a part of a Roman basilica of the
+fourth century, while the latest additions of any magnitude were made in
+the thirteenth. Most famous among its treasures is the "holy coat of
+Treves," believed by the devout to be the seamless garment worn by Christ
+at the crucifixion. The predominant religion of the neighborhood is the
+Roman Catholic, and on the occasions when the coat is exhibited the town
+is thronged by countless pilgrims.
+
+Leaving Treves we continued down along the river-bank to Rawen Kaulin,
+where we turned inland for a few miles and I was assigned to a village
+known as Eitelsbach. The inhabitants were badly frightened when we rode
+in--most of the men hid and the women stood on the door-steps weeping. I
+suppose they expected to be treated in the manner that they had behaved to
+the French and Belgians, and as they would have done by us had the
+situation been reversed. When they found they were not to be oppressed
+they became servile and fawning. I had my officers' mess in the
+schoolmaster's house. He had been a non-commissioned officer of infantry,
+and yet he wanted to send his daughters in to play the piano for us after
+dinner. We would have despised the German less if he had been able to
+"hate" a little more after he was beaten and not so bitterly while he felt
+he was winning.
+
+The country through which we marched during the next few days was most
+beautiful. We followed the winding course of the river, making many a
+double "S" turn. The steep hills came right to the bank; frequently the
+road was cut into their sides. A village was tucked in wherever a bit of
+level plain between the foot of the hill and the river permitted. When the
+slopes gave a southern exposure they were covered with grape-vines,
+planted with the utmost precision and regularity. Every corner and cranny
+among the rocks was utilized. The original planting must have been
+difficult, for the soil was covered with slabs of shale. The cultivator
+should develop excellent lungs in scaling those hillsides. The leaves had
+fallen and the bare vines varied in hue from sepia brown to wine color,
+with occasional patches of evergreen to set off the whole. Once or twice
+the road left the river to cut across over the mountains, and it cost our
+horses much exertion to drag the limbers up the steep, slippery trail. It
+was curious to notice the difference between those who dwelt along the
+bank and the inhabitants of the upland plateau. The latter appeared
+distinctly more "outlandish" and less sleek and prosperous. The highlands
+we found veiled in mist, and as I looked back at the dim outlines of horse
+and man and caisson, it seemed as if I were leading a ghost battery.
+
+We were in the heart of the wine country, and to any one who had enjoyed a
+good bottle of Moselle such names as Berncastel and Piesport had long been
+familiar. In the former town I was amused on passing by a large millinery
+store to see the proprietor's name was Jacob Astor. The little villages
+inevitably recalled the fairy-tales of Hans Andersen and the Grimm
+brothers. The raftered houses had timbered balconies that all but met
+across the crooked, winding streets through which we clattered over the
+cobblestones. Capping many of the beams were gargoyles, demons, and
+dwarfs, and a galaxy of strange creatures were carved on the ends of the
+gables that jutted out every which way. The houses often had the date
+they were built and the initials of the couple that built them over the
+front door, frequently with some device. I saw no dates that went further
+back than the late sixteen hundreds, though many of the houses doubtless
+were built before then. The doors in some cases were beautifully carved
+and weathered. The old pumps and wells, the stone bridges, and the little
+wayside shrines took one back through the centuries. To judge by the
+records carved on wall and house, high floods are no very uncommon
+occurrence--the highest I noticed was in 1685, while the last one of
+importance was credited to 1892.
+
+We were much surprised at the well-fed appearance of the population, both
+old and young, for we had heard so much of food shortages, and the Germans
+when they surrendered had laid such stress upon it. As far as we could
+judge; food was more plentiful than in France. Rubber and leather were
+very scarce, many of the women wore army boots, and the shoes displayed in
+shop-windows appeared made of some composition resembling pasteboard. The
+coffee was evidently ground from the berry of some native bush, and its
+taste in no way resembled the real. Cigars were camouflaged
+cabbage-leaves, with little or no flavor, and the beer sadly fallen off
+from its pre-war glory. Still, in all the essentials of life the
+inhabitants appeared to be making out far better than we had been given to
+believe.
+
+We met with very little trouble. There were a few instances where people
+tried to stand out against having men billeted in their houses, but we of
+course paid no attention except that we saw to it that they got more men
+than they would have under ordinary circumstances. Every now and then we
+would have amusing side-lights upon the war news on which the more
+ignorant Boches had been fed. A man upon whom several of my sergeants were
+quartered asked them if the Zeppelins had done much damage to New York;
+and whether Boston and Philadelphia had yet been evacuated by the
+Germans--he had heard that both cities had been taken and that Washington
+was threatened and its fall imminent.
+
+Our men behaved exceedingly well. Of course there were individual cases of
+drunkenness, but very few considering that we were in a country where the
+wine was cheap and schnapps plentiful. There were the inevitable
+A.W.O.L.'s and a number of minor offenses, but I found that by making the
+prisoner's life very unattractive--seeing to it that they performed
+distasteful "fatigues," giving them heavy packs to carry when we marched,
+and allowing them nothing that could be construed as a delicacy--I soon
+reformed the few men that were chronically shiftless or untidy or late.
+When not in cantonments the trouble with putting men under arrest is that
+too often it only means that they lead an easier life than their comrades,
+and it takes some ingenuity to correct this situation. Whenever it was in
+any way possible an offender was dealt with in the battery and I never let
+it go further, for I found it made for much better spirit in a unit.
+
+The men were a fine lot, and such thoroughgoing Americans, no matter from
+what country their parents had come. One of my buglers had landed in the
+United States only in 1913; he had been born and brought up on the
+confines of Germany and Austria, and yet when a large German of whom he
+was asking the way said, "You speak the language well--your parents must
+be German," the unhesitating reply was: "Well, my mother was of German
+descent!" The battery call read like a League of Nations, but no one could
+have found any cause of complaint in lack of loyalty to the United
+States.
+
+The twelfth day after we had crossed over the river from Luxemburg found
+us marching into Coblenz. We were quartered in large brick barracks in the
+outskirts of the city. The departing Germans had left them in very bad
+shape, and Hercules would have felt that cleaning the Augean stables was a
+light task in comparison. However, we set to work without delay and soon
+had both men and horses well housed. Life in the town was following its
+normal course; the stores were well stocked and seemed to be doing a
+thriving trade. We went into a café where a good orchestra was playing and
+had some very mediocre war beer, and then I set off in search of the
+Turkish bath of which I was much in need. The one I found was in charge of
+an ex-submarine sailor, and when I was shut in the steam-room I wondered
+if he were going to try any "frightfulness," for I was the only person in
+the bath. My last one had been in a wine-vat a full week before, and I was
+ready to risk anything for the luxury of a good soak.
+
+Orders to march usually reached us at midnight--why, I do not know; but we
+would turn in with the belief that we would not move on the following
+day, and the next we knew an orderly from regimental headquarters would
+wake us with marching instructions, and in no happy frame of mind we would
+grumblingly tumble out to issue the necessary commands. Coblenz proved no
+exception to this rule. As we got under way, a fine rain was falling that
+was not long in permeating everything. Through the misty dripping town the
+"caissons went rolling along," and out across the Pfaffendorf bridge, with
+the dim outlines of the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein towering above us. The
+men were drowsy and cold. I heard a few disparaging comments on the size
+of the Rhine. They had heard so much talk about it that they had expected
+to find it at least as large as the Mississippi. We found the slippery
+stones of the street ascending from the river most difficult to negotiate,
+but at length everything was safely up, and we struck off toward the
+bridge-head position which we were to occupy for we knew not how long. The
+Huns had torn down the sign-posts at the crossroads; with what intent I
+cannot imagine, for the roads were not complicated and were clearly
+indicated on the maps, and the only purpose that the sign-posts could
+serve was to satisfy a curiosity too idle to cause us to calculate by map
+how far we had come or what distance lay still before us. A number of
+great stone slabs attracted our attention; they had been put up toward the
+close of the eighteenth century and indicated the distance in hours. I
+remember one that proclaimed it was three hours to Coblenz and eighteen to
+Frankfort. I have never seen elsewhere these records of an age when time
+did not mean money.
+
+The march was in the nature of an anticlimax, for we had thought always of
+Coblenz as our goal, and the good fortune in which we had played as
+regarded weather during our march down the valley of the Moselle had made
+us supercritical concerning such details as a long, wearisome slogging
+through the mud in clumsy, water-logged clothes. At length we reached the
+little village of Niederelbert and found that Lieutenant Brown, whose turn
+it was as billeting officer, had settled us so satisfactorily that in a
+short time we were all comfortably steaming before stoves, thawing out our
+cramped joints.
+
+With the exception of Lieutenant Furness my officers belonged to the
+Reserve Corps, and we none of us looked forward to a long tour of garrison
+duty on the Rhine or anywhere else. Furness, who had particularly
+distinguished himself in liaison work with the infantry, held a temporary
+commission in the regular army, but he was eager to go back to civil life
+at the earliest opportunity. In Germany the prospect was doubly gloomy,
+for there would be no intercourse with the natives such as in France had
+lightened many a weary moment. Several days later regimental headquarters
+coveted our village and we were moved a few miles off across the hills to
+Holler. We set to work to make ourselves as snug and comfortable as
+possible. I had as striker a little fellow of Finnish extraction name
+Jahoola, an excellent man in every way, who took the best of care of my
+horse and always managed to fix up my billet far better than the
+circumstances would seem to permit.
+
+The days that followed presented little variety once the novelty of the
+occupation had worn off. The men continued to behave in exemplary fashion,
+and the Boche gave little trouble. As soon as we took up our quarters we
+made the villagers clean up the streets and yards until they possessed a
+model town, and thereafter we "policed up" every untidiness of which we
+might be the cause, and kept the inhabitants up to the mark in what
+concerned them. The head of the house in which I was lodged in
+Niederelbert told me that his son had been a captain in the army but had
+deserted a fortnight before the armistice and reached home in civilian
+clothes three weeks in advance of the retreating army. Of course he was
+not an officer before the war--not of the old military school, but the
+fact that he and his family were proud of it spoke of a weakening
+discipline and morale.
+
+Now that we had settled down to a routine existence I was doubly glad of
+such books as I had been able to bring along. Of these, O. Henry was the
+most popular. The little shilling editions were read until they fell to
+pieces, and in this he held the same position as in the British army. I
+had been puzzled at this popularity among the English, for much of his
+slang must have been worse than Greek to them. I also had _Charles
+O'Malley_ and _Harry Lorrequer_, Dumas' _Dame de Monsereau_ and _Monte
+Cristo_, Flaubert's _Education Sentimentale_, Gibbon's _Rise and Fall_,
+and Borrow's _Zincali_. These with the Oxford Books of French and English
+verse and a few Portuguese and Spanish novels comprised my library, a
+large one considering the circumstances. It was always possible to get
+books through the mail, although they were generally many months en route.
+
+Soon after we reached the bridge-head, officers of the regular army began
+turning up from the various schools whither they had been sent as
+instructors. We all hoped to be released in this manner, for we felt that
+the garrison duty should be undertaken by the regulars, whose life
+business it is, in order to allow the men who had left their trades and
+professions to return to their normal and necessary work. In the meantime
+we set out to familiarize ourselves with the country and keep our units in
+such shape that should any unforeseen event arise we would be in a
+position to meet it. The horses required particular attention, but one
+felt rewarded on seeing their improvement. There were many cases of mange
+which we had been hitherto unable to properly isolate, and good fodder in
+adequate quantity was an innovation.
+
+For the men we had mounted and unmounted drill, and spent much time in
+getting the accoutrements into condition for inspection. During part of
+the march up rations had been short, and for a number of days were very
+problematical. Sufficient boots and clothing were also lacking and we had
+had to get along as best we could without. Now that we were stationary our
+wants were supplied, and the worst hardship for the men was the lack of
+recreation. A reading-room was opened and a piano was procured, but there
+was really no place to send them on short passes; nothing for them to do
+on an afternoon off. When I left, trips down the Rhine were being planned,
+and I am sure they proved beneficial in solving the problem of legitimate
+relaxation and amusement.
+
+My father had sent my brother and myself some money to use in trying to
+make Christmas a feast-day for the men. It was difficult to get anything,
+but the Y.M.C.A. very kindly helped me out in procuring, chocolates and
+cigarettes, and I managed to buy a couple of calves and a few
+semi-delicacies in the local market. While not an Arabian Night feast, we
+had the most essential adjunct in the good spirits of the men, who had
+been schooled by their varied and eventful existence of the past eighteen
+months to make the most of things.
+
+In the middle of January my brother and I left for Paris. I was very sorry
+to leave the battery, for we had been through much together, but in common
+with most reserve officers I felt that, now that the fighting was over,
+there was only one thing to be desired and that was to get back to my wife
+and children. The train made light of the distance over which it had taken
+us so long to march, and the familiar sight of the friendly French towns
+was never more welcome. After several months on duty in France and Italy,
+I sailed on a transport from Brest, but not for the wonderful home-coming
+to which I had so long looked forward.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN***
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+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of War in the Garden of Eden, by Kermit Roosevelt</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, War in the Garden of Eden, by Kermit
+Roosevelt</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: War in the Garden of Eden</p>
+<p>Author: Kermit Roosevelt</p>
+<p>Release Date: October 11, 2004  [eBook #13665]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN***</p>
+<br><br><h3>E-text prepared by Michael Ciesielski<br>
+            and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br>
+            (https://www.pgdp.net)</h3><br><br>
+<hr class="pg" noshade>
+<br><br><br><br><br><a name='Page_i'></a><a name='Page_ii'></a>
+
+
+
+
+<h1><a name='Page_iii'></a>War in the Garden of Eden</h1>
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+<h2>Kermit Roosevelt</h2>
+<h3>Captain Motor Machine-Gun Corps<br />
+British Expeditionary Forces<br />
+<br />
+Captain Field Artillery<br />
+American Expeditionary Forces</h3>
+<br />
+<h4>Illustrated from Photographs by the Author</h4>
+<br />
+<h5>New York<br />
+1919</h5><a name='Page_iv'></a><a name='Page_v'></a>
+
+
+
+<hr  />
+<h2>To</h2>
+
+<h3>The Memory of My Father</h3>
+<hr  />
+<a name='Frontispiece'></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/1.jpg"><img src="./images/1_th.jpg"
+alt="Kermit Roosevelt"></a></p><p class="ctr">Kermit Roosevelt</p>
+<p class="ctr">From the drawing by John S. Sargent, July 8, 1917</p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='Contents'></a><h2><a name='Page_vi'></a><a name='Page_vii'></a>Contents</h2>
+
+
+<table align='center' border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents'>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><a href='#I'>OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_3'>3</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><a href='#II'>THE TIGRIS FRONT</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><a href='#III'>PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><a href='#IV'>SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_85'>85</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><a href='#V'>THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_101'>101</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><a href='#VI'>BAGHDAD SKETCHES</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></td><td align='right'></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><a href='#VII'>THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_153'>153</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><a href='#VIII'>BACK THROUGH PALESTINE</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_189'>189</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><a href='#IX'>WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_211'>211</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<a name='Page_viii'></a><a name='Page_ix'></a>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='Illustrations'></a><h2>Illustrations</h2>
+
+
+<table align='center' border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Illustrations'>
+<tr><td align='left'>Kermit Roosevelt</td><td align='right'><a href='#Frontispiece'>Frontispiece</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_8'>8</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Ashar Creek at Busra</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_14'>14</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Golden Dome of Samarra</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_34'>34</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Rafting down from Tekrit</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_34'>34</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Captured Turkish camel corps</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Towing an armored car across a river</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Reconnaissance</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Lion of Babylon</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A dragon on the palace wall</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Mesopotamian garage</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A water-wheel on the Euphrates</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_106'>106</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A &quot;Red Crescent&quot; ambulance</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_124'>124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A jeweller's booth in the bazaar</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_140'>140</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_158'>158</a><a name='Page_x'></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Kurd and his wife</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_168'>168</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_168'>168</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Kirkuk</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_180'>180</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A street in Jerusalem</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_196'>196</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_206'>206</a></td></tr></table>
+<br />
+<a name='Page_1'></a><a name='Page_2'></a><a name='Page_3'></a>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='I'></a><h2>I</h2>
+
+<h3>OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>It was at Taranto that we embarked for
+Mesopotamia. Reinforcements were sent out
+from England in one of two ways&mdash;either all
+the way round the Cape of Good Hope, or by
+train through France and Italy down to the
+desolate little seaport of Taranto, and thence
+by transport over to Egypt, through the Suez
+Canal, and on down the Red Sea to the Indian
+Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The latter
+method was by far the shorter, but the submarine
+situation in the Mediterranean was
+such that convoying troops was a matter of
+great difficulty. Taranto is an ancient Greek
+town, situated at the mouth of a landlocked
+harbor, the entrance to which is a narrow
+channel, certainly not more than two hundred
+yards across. The old part of the town is
+built on a hill, and the alleys and runways
+winding among the great stone dwellings serve
+as streets. As is the case with maritime towns,
+<a name='Page_4'></a>it is along the wharfs that the most interest
+centres. During one afternoon I wandered
+through the old town and listened to the fisherfolk
+singing as they overhauled and mended
+their nets. Grouped around a stone archway
+sat six or seven women and girls. They were
+evidently members of one family&mdash;a grandmother,
+her daughters, and their children.
+The old woman, wild, dark, and hawk-featured,
+was blind, and as she knitted she chanted
+some verses. I could only understand occasional
+words and phrases, but it was evidently
+a long epic. At intervals her listeners would
+break out in comments as they worked, but,
+like &quot;Othere, the old sea-captain,&quot; she &quot;neither
+paused nor stirred.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There are few things more desolate than
+even the best situated &quot;rest-camps&quot;&mdash;the long
+lines of tents set out with military precision,
+the trampled grass, and the board walks; but
+the one at Taranto where we awaited embarkation
+was peculiarly dismal even for a rest-camp.
+So it happened that when Admiral Mark
+Kerr, the commander of the Mediterranean
+fleet, invited me to be his guest aboard H.M.S.
+<i>Queen</i> until the transport should sail, it was
+in every way an opportunity to be appreciated.<a name='Page_5'></a>
+In the British Empire the navy is the &quot;senior
+service,&quot; and I soon found that the tradition
+for the hospitality and cultivation of its officers
+was more than justified. The admiral had
+travelled, and read, and written, and no more
+pleasant evenings could be imagined than
+those spent in listening to his stories of the
+famous writers, statesmen, and artists who
+were numbered among his friends. He had
+always been a great enthusiast for the development
+of aerial warfare, and he was recently
+in Nova Scotia in command of the giant Handley-Page
+machine which was awaiting favorable
+weather conditions in order to attempt the nonstop
+transatlantic flight. Among his poems
+stands out the &quot;Prayer of Empire,&quot; which,
+oddly enough, the former German Emperor
+greatly admired, ordering it distributed
+throughout the imperial navy! The Kaiser's
+feelings toward the admiral have suffered an
+abrupt change, but they would have been
+even more hostile had England profited by
+his warnings:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span>&quot;<i>There's no menace in preparedness, no threat in being strong,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>If the people's brain be healthy and they think no thought of wrong.</i>&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div><a name='Page_6'></a>
+
+<p>After four or five most agreeable days aboard
+the <i>Queen</i> the word came to embark, and I
+was duly transferred to the <i>Saxon</i>, an old
+Union Castle liner that was to run us straight
+through to Busra.</p>
+
+<p>As we steamed out of the harbor we were
+joined by two diminutive Japanese destroyers
+which were to convoy us. The menace of the
+submarine being particularly felt in the Adriatic,
+the transports travelled only by night
+during the first part of the voyage. To a landsman
+it was incomprehensible how it was possible
+for us to pursue our zigzag course in the
+inky blackness and avoid collisions, particularly
+when it was borne in mind that our ship was
+English and our convoyers were Japanese. During
+the afternoon we were drilled in the method
+of abandoning ship, and I was put in charge of a
+lifeboat and a certain section of the ropes that
+were to be used in our descent over the side into
+the water. Between twelve and one o'clock that
+night we were awakened by three blasts, the
+preconcerted danger-signal. Slipping into my
+life-jacket, I groped my way to my station on
+deck. The men were filing up in perfect order
+and with no show of excitement. A ship's
+officer passed and said he had heard that we
+<a name='Page_7'></a>had been torpedoed and were taking in water.
+For fifteen or twenty minutes we knew nothing
+further. A Scotch captain who had charge of
+the next boat to me came over and whispered:
+&quot;It looks as if we'd go down. I have just seen
+a rat run out along the ropes into my boat!&quot;
+That particular rat had not been properly
+brought up, for shortly afterward we were
+told that we were not sinking. We had been
+rammed amidships by one of the escorting
+destroyers, but the breach was above the
+water-line. We heard later that the destroyer,
+though badly smashed up, managed to make
+land in safety.</p>
+
+<p>We laid up two days in a harbor on the
+Albanian coast, spending the time pleasantly
+enough in swimming and sailing, while we
+waited for a new escort. Another night's run
+put us in Navarino Bay. The grandfather of
+Lieutenant Finch Hatton, one of the officers
+on board, commanded the Allied forces in the
+famous battle fought here in 1827, when the
+Turkish fleet was vanquished and the independence
+of Greece assured.</p>
+
+<p>Several days more brought us to Port Said,
+and after a short delay we pushed on through
+the canal and into the Red Sea. It was<a name='Page_8'></a>
+August, and when one talks of the Red Sea
+in August there is no further need for comment.
+The <i>Saxon</i> had not been built for the
+tropics. She had no fans, nor ventilating
+system such as we have on the United Fruit
+boats. Some unusually intelligent stokers had
+deserted at Port Said, and as we were in consequence
+short-handed, it was suggested that
+any volunteers would be given a try. Finch
+Hatton and I felt that our years in the tropics
+should qualify us, and that the exercise would
+improve our dispositions. We got the exercise.
+Never have I felt anything as hot, and
+I have spent August in Yuma, Arizona, and
+been in Italian Somaliland and the Amazon
+Valley. The shovels and the handles of the
+wheelbarrows blistered our hands.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/2.jpg"><img src="./images/2_th.jpg"
+alt="Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting"></a></p><p class="ctr">Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting</p>
+<p class="ctr">Inset, showing relative position of Mesopotamia and other countries</p>
+
+<p>We had a number of cases of heat-stroke,
+and the hospital facilities on a crowded transport
+can never be all that might be desired.
+The first military burial at sea was deeply impressive.
+There was a lane of Tommies drawn
+up with their rifles reversed and heads bowed;
+the short, classic burial service was read, and
+the body, wrapped in the Union Jack, slid
+down over the stern of the ship. Then the
+bugles rang out in the haunting, mournful
+<a name='Page_9'></a>strains of the &quot;Last Post,&quot; and the service
+ended with all singing &quot;Abide With Me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>We sweltered along down the Red Sea and
+around into the Indian Ocean. We wished to
+call at Aden in order to disembark some of our
+sick, but were ordered to continue on without
+touching. Our duties were light, and we
+spent the time playing cards and reading.
+The Tommies played &quot;house&quot; from dawn till
+dark. It is a game of the lotto variety.
+Each man has a paper with numbers written
+on squares; one of them draws from a bag
+slips of paper also marked with numbers, calls
+them out, and those having the number he
+calls cover it, until all the numbers on their
+paper have been covered. The first one to
+finish wins, and collects a penny from each of
+the losers. The caller drones out the numbers
+with a monotony only equalled by the
+brain-fever bird, and quite as disastrous to the
+nerves. There are certain conventional nicknames:
+number one is always &quot;Kelley's eye,&quot;
+eleven is &quot;legs eleven,&quot; sixty-six is &quot;clickety
+click,&quot; and the highest number is &quot;top o' the
+'ouse.&quot; There is another game that would be
+much in vogue were it not for the vigilance
+of the officers. It is known as &quot;crown and
+<a name='Page_10'></a>anchor,&quot; and the advantage lies so strongly in
+favor of the banker that he cannot fail to make
+a good income, and therefore the game is forbidden
+under the severest penalties.</p>
+
+<p>As we passed through the Strait of Ormuz
+memories of the early days of European supremacy
+in the East crowded back, for I had read
+many a vellum-covered volume in Portuguese
+about the early struggles for supremacy in the
+gulf. One in particular interested me. The Portuguese
+were hemmed in at Ormuz by a greatly
+superior English force. The expected reinforcements
+never arrived, and at length their
+resources sank so low, and they suffered in
+addition, or in consequence, so greatly from
+disease that they decided to sail forth and give
+battle. This they did, but before they joined
+in fight the ships of the two admirals sailed
+up near each other&mdash;the Portuguese commander
+sent the British a gorgeous scarlet ceremonial
+cloak, the British responded by sending him
+a handsomely embossed sword. The British
+admiral donned the cloak, the Portuguese
+grasped the sword; a page brought each a
+cup of wine; they pledged each other, threw
+the goblets into the sea, and fell to. The
+British were victorious. Times indeed have
+<a name='Page_11'></a>sadly changed in the last three hundred years!</p>
+
+<p>I was much struck with the accuracy of the
+geographical descriptions in Camoens' letters
+and odes. He is the greatest of the Portuguese
+poets and wrote the larger part of his master-epic,
+&quot;The Lusiad,&quot; while exiled in India. For
+seventeen years he led an adventurous life in
+the East; and it is easy to recognize many harbors
+and stretches of coast line from his inimitable
+portrayal.</p>
+
+<p>Busra, our destination, lies about sixty miles
+from the mouth of the Shatt el Arab, which is
+the name given to the combined Tigris and
+Euphrates after their junction at Kurna, another
+fifty or sixty miles above. At the entrance
+to the river lies a sand-bar, effectively blocking
+access to boats of as great draft as the
+<i>Saxon</i>. We therefore transshipped to some
+British India vessels, and exceedingly comfortable
+we found them, designed as they were for
+tropic runs. We steamed up past the Island
+of Abadan, where stand the refineries of the
+Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It is hard to
+overestimate the important part that company
+has played in the conduct of the Mesopotamian
+campaign. Motor transport was nowhere else
+a greater necessity. There was no possi<a name='Page_12'></a>bility
+of living on the country; at first, at
+all events. General Dickson, the director of
+local resources, later set in to so build up
+and encourage agriculture that the army should
+eventually be supported, in the staples of life,
+by local produce. Transportation was ever
+a hard nut to crack. Railroads were built,
+but though the nature of the country called
+for little grading, obtaining rails, except in
+small quantities, was impossible. The ones
+brought were chiefly secured by taking up the
+double track of Indian railways. This process
+naturally had a limit, and only lines of prime
+importance could be laid down. Thus you
+could go by rail from Busra to Amara, and from
+Kut to Baghdad, but the stretch between
+Amara and Kut had never been built, up to
+the time I left the country. General Maude
+once told me that pressure was being continually
+brought by the high command in England
+or India to have that connecting-link built, but
+that he was convinced that the rails would be
+far more essential elsewhere, and had no intention
+of yielding.</p>
+
+<p>I don't know the total number of motor
+vehicles, but there were more than five thousand
+Fords alone. On several occasions small
+<a name='Page_13'></a>columns of infantry were transported in Fords,
+five men and the driver to a car. Indians of
+every caste and religion were turned into drivers,
+and although it seemed sufficiently out of
+place to come across wizened, khaki-clad Indo-Chinese
+driving lorries in France, the incongruity
+was even more marked when one beheld
+a great bearded Sikh with his turbaned
+head bent over the steering-wheel of a Ford.</p>
+
+<p>Modern Busra stands on the banks of Ashar
+Creek. The ancient city whence Sinbad the
+sailor set forth is now seven or eight miles inland,
+buried under the shifting sands of the
+desert. Busra was a seaport not so many
+hundreds of years ago. Before that again,
+Kurna was a seaport, and the two rivers probably
+only joined in the ocean, but they have
+gradually enlarged the continent and forced
+back the sea. The present rate of encroachment
+amounts, I was told, to nearly twelve
+feet a year.</p>
+
+<p>The modern town has increased many fold
+with the advent of the Expeditionary Force,
+and much of the improvement is of a necessarily
+permanent nature; in particular the
+wharfs and roads. Indeed, one of the most
+striking features of the Mesopotamian cam<a name='Page_14'></a>paign
+is the permanency of the improvements
+made by the British. In order to conquer the
+country it was necessary to develop it,&mdash;build
+railways and bridges and roads and telegraph
+systems,&mdash;and it has all been done in a
+substantial manner. It is impossible to contemplate
+with equanimity the possibility of the
+country reverting to a rule where all this
+progress would soon disappear and the former
+stagnancy and injustice again hold sway.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/3.jpg"><img src="./images/3_th.jpg"
+alt="Ashar Creek at Busra"></a></p><p class="ctr">Ashar Creek at Busra</p>
+
+<p>As soon as we landed I wandered off to the
+bazaar&mdash;&quot;suq&quot; is what the Arab calls it. In
+Busra there are a number of excellent ones.
+By that I don't mean that there are art treasures
+of the East to be found in them, for almost
+everything could be duplicated at a better
+price in New York. It is the grouping of
+wares, the mode of sale, and, above all, the
+salesmen and buyers that make a bazaar&mdash;the
+old bearded Persian sitting cross-legged in
+his booth, the motley crowd jostling through
+the narrow, vaulted passageway, the veiled
+women, the hawk-featured, turbaned men, the
+Jews, the Chaldeans, the Arabs, the Armenians,
+the stalwart Kurds, and through it all a leaven
+of khaki-clad Indians, purchasing for the regimental
+mess. All these and an ever-present
+<a name='Page_15'></a>exotic, intangible something are what the
+bazaar means. Close by the entrance stood
+a booth festooned with lamps and lanterns of
+every sort, with above it scrawled &quot;Aladdin-Ibn-Said.&quot;
+My Arabic was not at that time
+sufficient to enable me to discover from the
+owner whether he claimed illustrious ancestry
+or had merely been named after a patron saint.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after landing at Busra we embarked
+on a paddle-wheel boat to pursue our
+way up-stream the five hundred intervening
+miles to Baghdad. Along the banks of the
+river stretched endless miles of date-palms.
+We watched the Arabs at their work of fertilizing
+them, for in this country these palms
+have to depend on human agency to transfer
+the pollen. At Kurna we entered the Garden
+of Eden, and one could quite appreciate the
+feelings of the disgusted Tommy who exclaimed:
+&quot;If this is the Garden, it wouldn't
+take no bloody angel with a flaming sword to
+turn me back.&quot; The direct descendant of the
+Tree is pointed out; whether its properties
+are inherited I never heard, but certainly the
+native would have little to learn by eating the
+fruit.</p>
+
+<p>Above Kurna the river is no longer lined
+<a name='Page_16'></a>with continuous palm-groves; desert and
+swamps take their place&mdash;the abode of the
+amphibious, nomadic, marsh Arab. An unruly
+customer he is apt to prove himself, and
+when he is &quot;wanted&quot; by the officials, he retires
+to his watery fastnesses, where he can
+remain in complete safety unless betrayed by
+his comrades. On the banks of the Tigris
+stands Ezra's tomb. It is kept in good repair
+through every vicissitude of rule, for it is a
+holy place to Moslem and Jew and Christian
+alike.</p>
+
+<p>The third night brought us to Amara. The
+evening was cool and pleasant after the scorching
+heat of the day, and Finch Hatton and I
+thought that we would go ashore for a stroll
+through the town. As we proceeded down
+the bank toward the bridge, I caught sight of
+a sentry walking his post. His appearance was
+so very important and efficient that I slipped
+behind my companion to give him a chance
+to explain us. &quot;Halt! Who goes there?&quot;
+&quot;Friend,&quot; replied Finch Hatton. &quot;Advance,
+friend, and give the countersign.&quot; F.H. started
+to advance, followed by a still suspicious me,
+and rightly so, for the Tommy, evidently member
+of a recent draft, came forward to meet us
+<a name='Page_17'></a>with lowered bayonet, remarking in a businesslike
+manner: &quot;There isn't any countersign.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Except for the gunboats and monitors, all
+river traffic is controlled by the Inland Water
+Transport Service. The officers are recruited
+from all the world over. I firmly believe that
+no river of any importance could be mentioned
+but what an officer of the I.W.T. could be
+found who had navigated it. The great requisite
+for transports on the Tigris was a
+very light draft, and to fill the requirements
+boats were requisitioned ranging from penny
+steamers of the Thames to river-craft of the
+Irrawaddy. Now in bringing a penny steamer
+from London to Busra the submarine is one of
+the lesser perils, and in supplying the wants of
+the Expeditionary Force more than eighty vessels
+were lost at sea, frequently with all aboard.</p>
+
+<p>As was the custom, we had a barge lashed
+to either side. These barges are laden with
+troops, or horses, or supplies. In our case we
+had the first Bengal regiment&mdash;a new experiment,
+undertaken for political reasons. The
+Bengali is the Indian who most readily takes
+to European learning. Rabindranath Tagore
+is probably the most widely known member of
+the race. They go to Calcutta University and
+<a name='Page_18'></a>learn a smattering of English and absorb a
+certain amount of undigested general knowledge
+and theory. These partially educated
+Bengalis form the Babu class, and many are
+employed in the railways. They delight in
+complicated phraseology, and this coupled with
+their accent and seesaw manner of speaking
+supply the English a constant source of caricature.
+As a race they are inclined to be vain
+and boastful, and are ever ready to nurse a
+grievance against the British Government,
+feeling that they have been provided with an
+education but no means of support. The
+government felt that it might help to calm
+them if a regiment were recruited and sent to
+Mesopotamia. How they would do in actual
+fighting had never been demonstrated up to
+the time I left the country, but they take readily
+to drill, and it was amusing to hear them ordering
+each other about in their clipped English.
+They were used for garrisoning Baghdad.</p>
+
+<p>After we left Amara we continued our winding
+course up-stream. A boat several hours
+ahead may be seen only a few hundred yards
+distant across the desert. The banks are so
+flat and level that it looks as if the other vessels
+were steaming along on land. The Arab
+river-craft was most picturesque. At sunset
+<a name='Page_19'></a>a mahela, bearing down with filled sail, might
+have been the model for Maxfield Parrish's
+<i>Pirate Ship</i>. The Arab women ran along the
+bank beside us, carrying baskets of eggs and
+chickens, and occasionally melons. They were
+possessed of surprising endurance, and would
+accompany us indefinitely, heavily laden as
+they were. Their robes trailed in the wind
+as they jumped ditches, screaming out their
+wares without a moment's pause. An Indian
+of the boat's crew was haggling with a woman
+about a chicken. He threw her an eight-anna
+piece. She picked up the money but would
+not hand him the chicken, holding out for her
+original price. He jumped ashore, intending
+to take the chicken. She had a few yards'
+start and made the most of it. In and out
+they chased, over hedge and ditch, down the
+bank and up again. Several times he almost
+had her. She never for a moment ceased
+screeching&mdash;an operation which seemed to
+affect her wind not a particle. At the end of
+fifteen minutes the Indian gave up amid the
+delighted jeers of his comrades, and returned
+shamefaced and breathless to jump aboard the
+boat as we bumped against the bank on rounding
+a curve.</p>
+
+<p>One evening we halted where, not many
+<a name='Page_20'></a>months before, the last of the battles of Sunnaiyat
+had been fought. There for months the
+British had been held back, while their beleaguered
+comrades in Kut could hear the roar
+of the artillery and hope against hope for the
+relief that never reached them. It was one
+phase of the campaign that closely approximated
+the gruelling trench warfare in France.
+The last unsuccessful attack was launched a
+week before the capitulation of the garrison,
+and it was almost a year later before the
+position was eventually taken. The front-line
+trenches were but a short distance apart, and
+each side had developed a strong and elaborate
+system of defense. One flank was protected
+by an impassable marsh and the other by the
+river. When we passed, the field presented an
+unusually gruesome appearance even for a
+battle-field, for the wandering desert Arabs
+had been at work, and they do not clean up
+as thoroughly as the African hyena. A number
+had paid the penalty through tampering
+with unexploded grenades and &quot;dud&quot; shells,
+and left their own bones to be scattered around
+among the dead they had been looting. The
+trenches were a veritable Golgotha with skulls
+everywhere and dismembered legs still clad
+with puttees and boots.</p><a name='Page_21'></a>
+
+<p>At Kut we disembarked to do the remaining
+hundred miles to Baghdad by rail instead
+of winding along for double the distance by
+river, with a good chance of being hung up for
+hours, or even days, on some shifting sand-bar.
+At first sight Kut is as unpromising a spot as
+can well be imagined, with its scorching heat
+and its sand and the desolate mud-houses,
+but in spite of appearances it is an important
+and thriving little town, and daily becoming
+of more consequence.</p>
+
+<p>The railroad runs across the desert, following
+approximately the old caravan route to Baghdad.
+A little over half-way the line passes the
+remaining arch of the great hall of Ctesiphon.
+This hall is one hundred and forty-eight feet
+long by seventy-six broad. The arch stands
+eighty-five feet high. Around it, beneath the
+mounds of desert sand, lies all that remains of
+the ancient city. As a matter of fact the city
+is by no means ancient as such things go in
+Mesopotamia, dating as it does from the third
+century B.C., when it was founded by the
+successors of Alexander the Great.</p>
+
+<p>My first night in Baghdad I spent in General
+Maude's house, on the river-bank. The
+general was a striking soldierly figure of a
+man, standing well over six feet. His military
+<a name='Page_22'></a>career was long and brilliant. His first service
+was in the Coldstream Guards. He distinguished
+himself in South Africa. Early in the
+present war he was severely wounded in France.
+Upon recovering he took over the Thirteenth
+Division, which he commanded in the disastrous
+Gallipoli campaign, and later brought
+out to Mesopotamia. When he reached the
+East the situation was by no means a happy
+one for the British. General Townshend was
+surrounded in Kut, and the morale of the Turk
+was excellent after the successes he had met
+with in Gallipoli. In the end of August, 1916,
+four months after the fall of Kut, General
+Maude took over the command of the Mesopotamian
+forces. On the 11th of March of the
+following year he occupied Baghdad, thereby
+re-establishing completely the British prestige
+in the Orient. One of Germany's most serious
+miscalculations was with regard to the Indian
+situation. She felt confident that, working
+through Persia and Afghanistan, she could
+stir up sufficient trouble, possibly to completely
+overthrow British rule, but certainly to keep
+the English so occupied with uprisings as to
+force them to send troops to India rather than
+withdraw them thence for use elsewhere. The
+<a name='Page_23'></a>utter miscarriage of Germany's plans is, indeed,
+a fine tribute to Great Britain. The
+Emir of Afghanistan did probably more than
+any single native to thwart German treachery
+and intrigue, and every friend of the Allied
+cause must have read of his recent assassination
+with a very real regret.</p>
+
+<p>When General Maude took over the command,
+the effect of the Holy War that, at the
+Kaiser's instigation, was being preached in
+the mosques had not as yet been determined.
+This jehad, as it was called, proposed to unite
+all &quot;True Believers&quot; against the invading
+Christians, and give the war a strongly religious
+aspect. The Germans hoped by this
+means to spread mutiny among the Mohammedan
+troops, which formed such an appreciable
+element of the British forces, as well as to
+fire the fury of the Turks and win as many of
+the Arabs to their side as possible. The Arab
+thoroughly disliked both sides. The Turk
+oppressed him, but did so in an Oriental, and
+hence more or less comprehensible, manner.
+The English gave him justice, but it was an
+Occidental justice that he couldn't at first
+understand or appreciate, and he was distinctly
+inclined to mistrust it. In course of
+<a name='Page_24'></a>time he would come to realize its advantages.
+Under Turkish rule the Arab was oppressed
+by the Turk, but then he in turn could oppress
+the Jew, the Chaldean, and Nestorian
+Christians, and the wretched Armenian. Under
+British rule he suddenly found these latter
+on an equal footing with him, and he felt that
+this did not compensate the lifting from his
+shoulders of the Turkish burden. Then, too,
+when a race has been long oppressed and downtrodden,
+and suddenly finds itself on an equality
+with its oppressor, it is apt to become arrogant
+and overbearing. This is exactly what
+happened, and there was bad feeling on all
+sides in consequence. However, real fundamental
+justice is appreciated the world over,
+once the native has been educated up to it,
+and can trust in its continuity.</p>
+
+<p>The complex nature of the problems facing
+the army commander can be readily seen.
+He was an indefatigable worker and an unsurpassed
+organizer. The only criticism I ever
+heard was that he attended too much to the
+details himself and did not take his subordinates
+sufficiently into his confidence. A brilliant
+leader, beloved by his troops, his loss
+was a severe blow to the Allied cause.</p><a name='Page_25'></a>
+
+<p>Baghdad is often referred to as the great
+example of the shattered illusion. We most
+of us have read the <i>Arabian Nights</i> at an early
+age, and think of the abode of the caliphs as a
+dream city, steeped in what we have been
+brought up to think of as the luxury, romance,
+and glamour of the East. Now glamour is a
+delicate substance. In the all-searching glare
+of the Mesopotamian sun it is apt to appear
+merely tawdry. Still, a goodly number of
+years spent in wandering about in foreign
+lands had prepared me for a depreciation of
+the &quot;stuff that dreams are made of,&quot; and I
+was not disappointed. It is unfortunate that
+the normal way to approach is from the south,
+and that that view of the city is flat and uninteresting.
+Coming, as I several times had
+occasion to, from the north, one first catches
+sight of great groves of date-palms, with the
+tall minarets of the Mosque of Kazimain towering
+above them; then a forest of minarets
+and blue domes, with here and there some
+graceful palm rising above the flat roofs of
+Baghdad. In the evening when the setting sun
+strikes the towers and the tiled roofs, and the
+harsh lights are softened, one is again in the
+land of Haroun-el-Raschid.</p><a name='Page_26'></a>
+
+<p>The great covered bazaars are at all times
+capable of &quot;eating the hours,&quot; as the natives
+say. One could sit indefinitely in a coffee-house
+and watch the throngs go by&mdash;the stalwart
+Kurdish porter with his impossible loads,
+the veiled women, the unveiled Christian or
+lower-class Arab women, the native police,
+the British Tommy, the kilted Scot, the desert
+Arab, all these and many more types wandered
+past. Then there was the gold and silver
+market, where the Jewish and Armenian artificers
+squatted beside their charcoal fires and
+haggled endlessly with their customers. These
+latter were almost entirely women, and they
+came both to buy and sell, bringing old bracelets
+and anklets, and probably spending the
+proceeds on something newer that had taken
+their fancy. The workmanship was almost
+invariably poor and rough. Most of the
+women had their babies with them, little mites
+decked out in cheap finery and with their eyelids
+thickly painted. The red dye from their
+caps streaked their faces, the flies settled on
+them at will, and they had never been washed.
+When one thought of the way one's own children
+were cared for, it seemed impossible that
+a sufficient number of these little ones could
+<a name='Page_27'></a>survive to carry on the race. The infant mortality
+must be great, though the children one
+sees look fat and thriving.</p>
+
+<p>Baghdad is not an old city. Although there
+was probably a village on the site time out of
+mind, it does not come into any prominence
+until the eighth century of our era. As the
+residence of the Abasside caliphs it rapidly
+assumed an important position. The culmination
+of its magnificence was reached in the end
+of the eighth century, under the rule of the
+world-famous Haroun-el-Raschid. It long continued
+to be a centre of commerce and industry,
+though suffering fearfully from the various
+sieges and conquests which it underwent. In
+1258 the Mongols, under a grandson of the great
+Genghis Khan, captured the city and held it
+for a hundred years, until ousted by the Tartars
+under Tamberlane. It was plundered in
+turn by one Mongol horde after another until
+the Turks, under Murad the Fourth, eventually
+secured it. Naturally, after being the scene
+of so much looting and such massacres, there is
+little left of the original city of the caliphs.
+Then, too, in Mesopotamia there is practically
+no stone, and everything was built of brick,
+which readily lapses back to its original state.<a name='Page_28'></a>
+For this reason the invaders easily razed a
+conquered town, and Mesopotamia, so often
+called the &quot;cradle of the world,&quot; retains but
+little trace of the races and civilizations that
+have succeeded each other in ruling the land.
+When the Tigris was low at the end of the
+summer season, we used to dig out from its
+bank great bricks eighteen inches square, on
+which was still distinctly traced the seal of
+Nebuchadnezzar. These, possibly the remnants
+of a quay, were all that remained of the
+times before the advent of the caliphs.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='II'></a><h2><a name='Page_29'></a><a name='Page_30'></a><a name='Page_31'></a>II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TIGRIS FRONT</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>A few days after reaching Baghdad I left
+for Samarra, which was at that time the Tigris
+front. I was attached to the Royal Engineers,
+and my immediate commander was Major
+Morin, D.S.O., an able officer with an enviable
+record in France and Mesopotamia. The
+advance army of the Tigris was the Third Indian
+Army Corps, under the command of
+General Cobbe, a possessor of the coveted,
+and invariably merited, Victoria Cross. The
+Engineers were efficiently commanded by General
+Swiney. The seventy miles of railroad
+from Baghdad to Samarra were built by
+the Germans, being the only Mesopotamian
+portion of the much-talked-of Berlin-to-Baghdad
+Railway, completed before the war. It
+was admirably constructed, with an excellent
+road-bed, heavy rails and steel cross-ties made
+by Krupp. In their retreat the Turks had
+been too hurried to accomplish much in the
+<a name='Page_32'></a>way of destruction other than burning down
+a few stations and blowing up the water-towers.
+The rolling-stock had been left largely intact.
+There were no passenger-coaches, and
+you travelled either by flat or box car. Every
+one followed the Indian custom of carrying
+with them their bedding-rolls, and leather-covered
+wash-basin containing their washing-kit,
+as well as one of the comfortable rhoorkhee
+chairs. In consequence, although for travel
+by boat or train nothing was provided, there
+was no discomfort entailed. The trains were
+fitted out with anti-aircraft guns, for the Turkish
+aeroplanes occasionally tried to &quot;lay eggs,&quot;
+a by no means easy affair with a moving train
+as a target. Whatever the reason was, and I
+never succeeded in discovering it, the trains
+invariably left Baghdad in the wee small
+hours, and as the station was on the right
+bank across the river from the main town, and
+the boat bridges were cut during the night, we
+used generally, when returning to the front,
+to spend the first part of the night sleeping on
+the station platform. Generals or exalted staff
+officers could usually succeed in having a car
+assigned to them, and hauled up from the yard
+in time for them to go straight to bed in it.<a name='Page_33'></a>
+Frequently their trip was postponed, and an
+omniscient sergeant-major would indicate the
+car to the judiciously friendly, who could then
+enjoy a solid night's sleep. The run took
+anywhere from eight to twelve hours; but when
+sitting among the grain-bags on an open car,
+or comfortably ensconced in a chair in a &quot;covered
+goods,&quot; with <i>Vingt Ans Apr&egrave;s</i>, the time
+passed pleasantly enough in spite of the withering
+heat.</p>
+
+<p>While still a good number of miles away
+from Samarra we would catch sight of the sun
+glinting on the golden dome of the mosque,
+built over the cleft where the twelfth Imam,
+the Imam Mahdi, is supposed to have disappeared,
+and from which he is one day to
+reappear to establish the true faith upon earth.
+Many Arabs have appeared claiming to be the
+Mahdi, and caused trouble in a greater or less
+degree according to the extent of their following.
+The most troublous one in our day was
+the man who besieged Kharthoum and captured
+General &quot;Chinese&quot; Gordon and his men.
+Twenty-five years later, when I passed through
+the Sudan, there were scarcely any men of
+middle age left, for they had been wiped out
+almost to a man under the fearful rule of the<a name='Page_34'></a>
+Mahdi, a rule which might have served as
+prototype to the Germans in Belgium.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/4.jpg"><img src="./images/4_th.jpg"
+alt="Golden Dome of Samarra"></a></p><p class="ctr">Golden Dome of Samarra</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/5.jpg"><img src="./images/5_th.jpg"
+alt="Rafting down from Tekrit"></a></p><p class="ctr">Rafting down from Tekrit</p>
+
+<p>Samarra is very ancient, and has passed
+through periods of great depression and equally
+great expansion. It was here in A.D. 363
+that the Roman Emperor Julian died from
+wounds received in the defeat of his forces at
+Ctesiphon. The golden age lasted about forty
+years, beginning in 836, when the Caliph Hutasim
+transferred his capital thither from
+Baghdad. During that time the city extended
+for twenty-one miles along the river-bank,
+with glorious palaces, the ruins of some of
+which still stand. The present-day town has
+sadly shrunk from its former grandeur, but still
+has an impressive look with its great walls and
+massive gateways. The houses nearest the
+walls are in ruins or uninhabited; but in peacetime
+the great reputation that the climate of
+Samarra possesses for salubrity draws to it
+many Baghdad families who come to pass the
+summer months. A good percentage of the
+inhabitants are Persians, for the eleventh and
+twelfth Shiah Imams are buried on the site
+of the largest mosque. The two main sects
+of Moslems are the Sunnis and the Shiahs;
+the former regard the three caliphs who followed
+Mohammed as his legitimate successors,
+<a name='Page_35'></a>whereas the latter hold them to be usurpers,
+and believe that his cousin and son-in-law, Ali,
+husband of Fatimah, together with their sons
+Husein and Hasan, are the prophet's true
+inheritors. Ali was assassinated near Nejef,
+which city is sacred to his memory, and his
+son Husein was killed at Kerbela; so these
+two cities are the greatest of the Shiah shrines.
+The Turks belong almost without exception
+to the Sunni sect, whereas the Persians and a
+large percentage of the Arabs inhabiting Mesopotamia
+are Shiahs.</p>
+
+<p>The country around Samarra is not unlike
+in character the southern part of Arizona and
+northern Sonora. There are the same barren
+hills and the same glaring heat. The soil is
+not sand, but a fine dust which permeates
+everything, even the steel uniform-cases which
+I had always regarded as proof against all conditions.
+The parching effect was so great
+that it was not only necessary to keep all
+leather objects thoroughly oiled but the covers
+of my books cracked and curled up until I
+hit upon the plan of greasing them well also.
+In the alluvial lowlands trench-digging was a
+simple affair, but along the hills we found a
+pebbly conglomerate that gave much trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Opinion was divided as to whether the Turk
+<a name='Page_36'></a>would attempt to advance down the Tigris.
+Things had gone badly with our forces in Palestine
+at the first battle of Gaza; but here we
+had an exceedingly strong position, and the
+consensus of opinion seemed to be that the
+enemy would think twice before he stormed it.
+Their base was at Tekrit, almost thirty miles
+away. However, about ten miles distant stood
+a small village called Daur, which the Turks
+held in considerable force. Between Daur
+and Samarra there was nothing but desert,
+with gazelles and jackals the only permanent
+inhabitants. Into this no man's land both
+sides sent patrols, who met in occasional skirmishes.
+For reconnaissance work we used
+light-armored motor-cars, known throughout
+the army as Lam cars, a name formed by the
+initial letters of their titles. These cars were
+Rolls-Royces, and with their armor-plate
+weighed between three and three-quarters and
+four tons. They were proof against the ordinary
+bullet but not against the armor-piercing.
+When I came out to Mesopotamia I intended
+to lay my plans for a transfer to the cavalry,
+but after I had seen the cars at work I
+changed about and asked to be seconded to
+that branch of the service.</p><a name='Page_37'></a>
+
+<p>A short while after my arrival our aeroplanes
+brought in word that the Turks were massing
+at Daur, and General Cobbe decided that when
+they launched forth he would go and meet
+them. Accordingly, we all moved out one
+night, expecting to give &quot;Abdul,&quot; as the
+Tommies called him, a surprise. Whether it
+was that we started too early and their aeroplanes
+saw us, or whether they were only
+making a feint, we never found out; but at all
+events the enemy fell back, and save for some
+advance-guard skirmishing and a few prisoners,
+we drew a blank. We were not prepared
+to attack the Daur position, and so returned
+to Samarra to await developments.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I busied myself searching for an
+Arab servant. Seven or eight years previous,
+when with my father in Africa, I had learned
+Swahili, and although I had forgotten a great
+deal of it, still I found it a help in taking up
+Arabic. Most of the officers had either British
+or Indian servants; in the former case they
+were known as batmen, and in the latter as
+bearers; but I decided to follow suit with the
+minority and get an Arab, and therefore learn
+Arabic instead of Hindustanee, for the former
+would be of vastly more general use. The town
+<a name='Page_38'></a>commandant, Captain Grieve of the Black
+Watch, after many attempts at length produced
+a native who seemed, at any rate, more
+promising than the others that offered themselves.
+Yusuf was a sturdy, rather surly-looking
+youth of about eighteen. Evidently not a pure
+Arab, he claimed various admixtures as the
+fancy took him, the general preference being
+Kurd. I always felt that there was almost certainly
+a good percentage of Turk. His father
+had been a non-commissioned officer in the
+Turkish army, and at first I was loath to take
+him along on advances and attacks, for he
+would have been shown little mercy had he
+fallen into enemy hands. He was, however, insistent
+on asking to go with me, and I never
+saw him show any concern under fire. He
+spoke, in varying degrees of fluency, Kurdish,
+Persian, and Turkish, and was of great use to
+me for that reason. He became by degrees a
+very faithful and trustworthy follower, his
+great weakness being that he was a one-man's
+man, and although he would do anything for
+me, he was of little general use in an officers'
+mess.</p>
+
+<p>I had two horses, one a black mare that I
+called Soda, which means black in Arabic, and
+<a name='Page_39'></a>the other a hard-headed bay gelding that was
+game to go all day, totally unaffected by shell-fire,
+but exceedingly stubborn about choosing
+the direction in which he went. After numerous
+changes I came across an excellent syce
+to look after them. He was a wild, unkempt
+figure, with a long black beard&mdash;a dervish by
+profession, and certainly gave no one any
+reason to believe that he was more than half-witted.
+Indeed, almost all dervishes are in
+a greater or less degree insane; it is probably
+due to that that they have become dervishes,
+for the native regards the insane as under
+the protection of God. Dervishes go around
+practically naked, usually wearing only a few
+skins flung over the shoulder, and carrying a
+large begging-bowl. In addition they carry a
+long, sharp, iron bodkin, with a wooden ball
+at the end, having very much the appearance
+of a fool's bauble. They lead an easy life.
+When they take a fancy to a house, they settle
+down near the gate, and the owner has to support
+them as long as the whim takes them to
+stay there. To use force against a dervish
+would be looked upon as an exceedingly unpropitious
+affair to the true believer. Then,
+too, I have little doubt but that they are
+<a name='Page_40'></a>capable of making good use of their steel bodkins.
+Why my dervish wished to give up
+his easy-going profession and take over the
+charge of my horses I never fully determined,
+but it must have been because he really loved
+horses and found that as a dervish pure and
+simple he had very little to do with them.
+When he arrived he was dressed in a very
+ancient gunny-sack, and it was not without
+much regret at the desecration that I provided
+him with an outfit of the regulation khaki.</p>
+
+<p>My duties took me on long rides about
+the country. Here, and throughout Mesopotamia,
+the great antiquity of this &quot;cradle
+of the world&quot; kept ever impressing itself upon
+one, consciously or subconsciously. Everywhere
+were ruins; occasionally a wall still
+reared itself clear of the all-enveloping dust,
+but generally all that remained were great
+mounds, where the desert had crept in and
+claimed its own, covering palace, house, and
+market, temple, synagogue, mosque, or church
+with its everlasting mantle. Often the streets
+could still be traced, but oftener not. The
+weight of ages was ever present as one rode
+among the ruins of these once busy, prosperous
+cities, now long dead and buried, how long
+<a name='Page_41'></a>no one knew, for frequently their very names
+were forgotten. Babylon, Ur of the Chaldees,
+Istabulat, Nineveh, and many more great cities
+of history are now nothing but names given to
+desert mounds.</p>
+
+<p>Close by Samarra stands a strange corkscrew
+tower, known by the natives as the Malwiyah.
+It is about a hundred and sixty feet
+high, built of brick, with a path of varying
+width winding up around the outside. No
+one knew its purpose, and estimates of its antiquity
+varied by several thousand years. One
+fairly well-substantiated story told that it had
+been the custom to kill prisoners by hurling
+them off its top. We found it exceedingly useful
+as an observation-post. In the same manner
+we used Julian's tomb, a great mound rising
+up in the desert some five or six miles up-stream
+of the town. The legend is that when
+the Roman Emperor died of his wounds his
+soldiers, impressing the natives, built this as a
+mausoleum; but there is no ground whatever
+for this belief, for it would have been physically
+impossible for a harassed or retreating army
+to have performed a task of such magnitude.
+The natives call it &quot;The Granary,&quot; and claim
+that that was its original use. Before the war
+<a name='Page_42'></a>the Germans had started in excavating, and
+discovered shafts leading deep down, and on
+top the foundations of a palace. Around its
+foot may be traced roadways and circular
+plots, and especially when seen from an aeroplane
+it looks as if there had at one time been
+an elaborate system of gardens.</p>
+
+<p>We were continually getting false rumors
+about the movements of the Turks. We had
+believed that it would be impossible for them
+to execute a flank movement, at any rate in
+sufficient strength to be a serious menace, for
+from all the reports we could get, the wells
+were few and far between. Nevertheless, there
+was a great deal of excitement and some concern
+when one afternoon our aeroplanes came
+in with the report that they had seen a body
+of Turks that they estimated at from six
+to eight thousand marching round our right
+flank. The plane was sent straight back with
+instructions to verify most carefully the statement,
+and be sure that it was really men they
+had seen. They returned at dark with no alteration
+of their original report. As can well be
+imagined, that night was a crowded one for us,
+and the feeling ran high when next morning the
+enemy turned out to be several enormous herds
+of sheep.</p><a name='Page_43'></a>
+
+<p>As part consequence of this we were ordered
+to make a thorough water reconnaissance, with
+a view of ascertaining how large a force could
+be watered on a march around our flank. I
+went off in an armored car with Captain Marshall
+of the Intelligence Service. Marshall had
+spent many years in Mesopotamia shipping
+liquorice to the American Tobacco Company,
+and he was known and trusted by the Arabs all
+along the Tigris from Kurna to Mosul. He
+spoke the language most fluently, but with an
+accent that left no doubt of his Caledonian
+home. We had with us a couple of old sheiks,
+and it was their first ride in an automobile. It
+was easy to see that one of them was having
+difficulty in maintaining his dignity, but I was
+not quite sure of the reason until we stopped
+a moment and he fairly flew out of the car.
+It didn't seem possible that a man able to ride
+ninety miles at a stretch on a camel, could be
+made ill by the motion of an automobile.
+However, such was the case, and we had great
+difficulty in getting him back into the car.
+We discovered far more wells than we had
+been led to believe existed, but not enough to
+make a flank attack a very serious menace.</p>
+
+<p>The mirage played all sorts of tricks, and
+the balloon observers grew to be very cautious
+<a name='Page_44'></a>in their assertions. In the early days of the
+campaign, at the battle of Shaiba Bund, a
+friendly mirage saved the British forces from
+what would have proved a very serious defeat.
+Suleiman Askari was commanding the Turkish
+forces, and things were faring badly with the
+British, when of a sudden to their amazement
+they found that the Turks were in full retreat.
+Their commanders had caught sight of the
+mirage of what was merely an ambulance and
+supply train, but it was so magnified that they
+believed it to be a very large body of reinforcements.
+The report ran that when Suleiman
+was told of his mistake, his chagrin was so
+great that he committed suicide.</p>
+
+<p>It was at length decided to advance on the
+Turkish forces at Daur. General Brooking
+had just made a most successful attack on
+the Euphrates front, capturing the town of
+Ramadie, with almost five thousand prisoners.
+It was believed to be the intention of the army
+commander to try to relieve the pressure
+against General Allenby's forces in Palestine
+by attacking the enemy on all three of their
+Mesopotamian fronts. Accordingly, we were
+ordered to march out after sunset one night,
+prepared to attack the enemy position at day<a name='Page_45'></a>break.
+During a short halt by the last rays of
+the setting sun I caught sight of a number of
+Mohammedan soldiers prostrating themselves
+toward Mecca in their evening prayers, while
+their Christian or pagan comrades looked stolidly
+on. It was late October, and although the
+days were still very hot and oppressive, the
+nights were almost bitterly cold. A night-march
+is always a disagreeable business. The
+head of the column checks and halts, and those
+in the rear have no idea whether it is an involuntary
+stop for a few minutes, or whether
+they are to halt for an hour or more, owing to
+some complication of orders. So we stood
+shivering, and longed for a smoke, but of course
+that was strictly forbidden, for the cigarettes
+of an army would form a very good indication
+of its whereabouts on a dark night. All night
+we marched and halted, and started on again;
+the dust choked us, and the hours seemed interminable,
+until at last at two in the morning
+word was passed along that we could have an
+hour's sleep. The greater part of the year in
+Mesopotamia the regulation army dress consisted
+of a tunic and &quot;shorts.&quot; These are
+long trousers cut off just above the knee, and the
+wearer may either use wrap puttees, or leather
+<a name='Page_46'></a>leggings, or golf stockings. They are a great
+help in the heat, as may easily be understood,
+and they allow, of course, much freer knee
+action, particularly when your clothes are wet.
+The reverse side of the medal reads that when
+you try to sleep without a blanket on a cold
+night, you find that your knees are uncomfortably
+exposed. Still we were, most of us,
+so drunk with sleep that it would have taken
+more than that to keep us awake. At three
+we resumed our march, and attacked just at
+dawn. The enemy had abandoned the first-line
+positions, and we met with but little resistance
+in the second. Our cavalry, which
+was concentrated at several points in nullahs
+(dry river-beds), suffered at the hands of the
+hostile aircraft. The Turk had evidently determined
+to fall back to Tekrit without putting
+up a serious defense. They certainly could
+have given us a much worse time than they
+did, for they had dug in well and scientifically.
+Among the prisoners we took there were some
+that proved to be very worth while. These
+Turkish officers were, as a whole a good lot&mdash;well
+dressed and well educated. Many
+spoke French. There is an excellent gunnery
+school at Constantinople, and one of the officers
+<a name='Page_47'></a>we captured had been a senior instructor there
+for many years. We had with us among our
+intelligence officers a Captain Bettelheim, born
+in Constantinople of Belgian parentage. He
+had served with the Turks against the Italians
+and with the British against the Boers. This
+gunnery officer turned out to be an old comrade
+of his in the Italian War. Many of the
+officers we got knew him, for he had been
+chief of police in Constantinople. Apparently
+none of them bore him the slightest ill-will
+when they found him serving against them.</p>
+
+<p>Among the supplies we captured at Daur
+were a lot of our own rifles and ammunition
+that the Arabs had stolen and sold to the Turks.
+It was impossible to entirely stop this, guard
+our dumps as best we could. On dark nights
+they would creep right into camp, and it was
+never safe to have the hospital barges tie up
+to the banks for the night on their way down
+the river. On many occasions the Arabs
+crawled aboard and finished off the wounded.
+There was only one thing to be said for the
+Arab, and that was that he played no favorite,
+but attacked, as a rule, whichever side came
+handier. We were told, and I believe it to
+be true, that during the fighting at Sunnaiyat
+<a name='Page_48'></a>the Turks sent over to know if we would agree
+to a three days' truce, during which time we
+should join forces against the Arabs, who were
+watching on the flank to pick off stragglers or
+ration convoys.</p>
+
+<p>That night we bivouacked at Daur, and were
+unmolested except for the enemy aircraft that
+came over and &quot;laid eggs.&quot; Next morning we
+advanced on Tekrit. Our orders were to make
+a feint, and if we found that the Turk meant
+to stay and fight it out seriously, we were to
+fall back. Some gazelles got into the no man's
+land between us and the Turk, and in the
+midst of the firing ran gracefully up the line,
+stopping every now and then to stare about
+in amazement. Later on in the Argonne forest
+in France we had the same thing happen
+with some wild boars. The enemy seemed in
+no way inclined to evacuate Tekrit, so in accordance
+with instructions we returned to our
+previous night's encampment at Daur. On
+the way back we passed an old &quot;arabana,&quot; a
+Turkish coup&eacute;, standing abandoned in the
+desert, with a couple of dead horses by it. It
+may have been used by some Turkish general
+in the retreat of two days before. It was the
+sort of coup&eacute; one associates entirely with well-<a name='Page_49'></a>kept
+parks and crowded city streets, and the
+incongruity of its lonely isolation amid the
+sand-dunes caused an amused ripple of comment.</p>
+
+<p>Our instructions were to march back to
+Samarra early next morning, but shortly before
+midnight orders came through from General
+Maude for us to advance again upon
+Tekrit and take it. Next day we halted and
+took stock in view of the new orders. The
+cavalry again suffered at the hands of the
+Turkish aircraft. I went to corps headquarters
+in the afternoon, and a crowd of &quot;red tabs,&quot;
+as the staff-officers were called, were seated
+around a little table having the inevitable tea.
+A number of the generals had come in to discuss
+the plan of attack for the following day.
+Suddenly a Turk aeroplane made its appearance,
+flying quite low, and dropping bombs
+at regular intervals. It dropped two, and
+then a third on a little hill in a straight line
+from the staff conclave. It looked as if the
+next would be a direct hit, and the staff did
+the only wise thing, and took cover as flat
+on the ground as nature would allow; but the
+Hun's spacing was bad, and the next bomb
+fell some little way beyond. I remember
+<a name='Page_50'></a>our glee at what we regarded as a capital
+joke on the staff. The line-officer's humor
+becomes a trifle robust where the &quot;gilded
+staff&quot; is concerned, notwithstanding the fact
+that most staff-officers have seen active and
+distinguished service in the line.</p>
+
+<p>Our anti-aircraft guns&mdash;&quot;Archies&quot; we called
+them&mdash;were mounted on trucks, and on account
+of their weight had some difficulty getting up.
+I shall not soon forget our delight when they
+lumbered into view, for although I never happened
+personally to see an aeroplane brought
+down by an &quot;Archie,&quot; there was no doubt
+about it but that they did not bomb us with
+the same equanimity when our anti-aircrafts
+were at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/6.jpg"><img src="./images/6_th.jpg"
+alt="Captured Turkish camel corps"></a></p><p class="ctr">Captured Turkish camel corps</p>
+
+<p>That night we marched out on Tekrit, and
+as dawn was breaking were ready to attack.
+As the mist cleared, an alarming but ludicrous
+sight met our eyes. On the extreme right
+some caterpillar tractors hauling our &quot;heavies&quot;
+were advancing straight on Tekrit, as if they
+had taken themselves for tanks. They were
+not long in discovering their mistake, and
+amid a mixed salvo they clumsily turned and
+made off at their best pace, which was not
+more than three miles an hour. Luckily, they
+<a name='Page_51'></a>soon got under some excellent defilade, but
+not until they had suffered heavily.</p>
+
+<p>Our artillery did some good work, but while
+we were waiting to attack we suffered rather
+heavily. We had to advance over a wide
+stretch of open country to reach the Turkish
+first lines. By nightfall the second line of
+trenches was practically all in our hands.
+Meanwhile the cavalry had circled way around
+the flank up-stream of Tekrit to cut the enemy
+off if he attempted to retreat. The town is on
+the right bank of the Tigris, and we had a small
+force that had come up from Samarra on the
+left bank, for we had no means of ferrying
+troops across. Our casualties during the day
+had amounted to about two thousand. The
+Seaforths had suffered heavily, but no more
+so than some of the native regiments. In
+Mesopotamia there were many changes in the
+standing of the Indian battalions. The Maharattas,
+for instance, had never previously
+been regarded as anything at all unusual, but
+they have now a very distinguished record to
+take pride in. The general feeling was that
+the Gurkhas did not quite live up to their
+reputation. But the Indian troops as a whole
+did so exceedingly well that there is little
+<a name='Page_52'></a>purpose in making comparisons amongst them.
+At this time, so I was informed, the Expeditionary
+Force, counting all branches, totalled
+about a million, and a very large percentage
+of this came from India. We drew our supplies
+from India and Australia, and it is interesting
+to note that we preferred the Australian
+canned beef and mutton (bully beef and bully
+mutton, as it was called) to the American.</p>
+
+<p>At dusk the fighting died down, and we
+were told to hold on and go over at daybreak.
+As I was making my way back to headquarters
+a general pounced upon me and told me to get
+quickly into a car and go as rapidly as
+possible to Daur to bring up a motor ration-convoy
+with fodder for the cavalry horses
+and food for the riders. A Ford car happened
+to pass by, and he stopped it and shoved me
+in, with some last hurried injunction. It was
+quite fifteen miles back, and the country was
+so cut up by nullahs or ravines that in most
+places it was inadvisable to leave the road,
+which was, of course, jammed with a double
+stream of transport of every description.
+When we were three or four miles from Daur
+a tire blew out. The driver had used his last
+spare, so there was nothing to do but keep
+<a name='Page_53'></a>going on the rim. The car was of the delivery-wagon
+type&mdash;&quot;pill-boxes&quot; were what they
+were known as&mdash;and while we were stopped
+taking stock I happened to catch sight of a
+good-sized bedding-roll behind. &quot;Some one's
+out of luck,&quot; said I to the driver; &quot;whose roll
+is it?&quot; &quot;The corps commander's, sir,&quot; was
+his reply. After exhausting my limited vocabulary,
+I realized that it was far too late to
+stop another motor and send this one back, so
+I just kept going. Across the bed of one more
+ravine, the sand up to the hubs, and we were
+in the Daur camp. I managed to rank some
+one out of a spare tire and started back again.
+My driver proved unable to drive at night,
+at all events at a pace that would put us anywhere
+before dawn, so I was forced to take
+the wheel. By the time I had the convoy
+properly located I was rather despondent of
+the corps commander's temper, even should I
+eventually reach him that night, which seemed
+a remote chance, for the best any one could do
+was give me the rough location on a map.
+Still, taking my luminous compass, I set out to
+steer a cross-country course. I ran into five
+or six small groups of ambulances filled with
+wounded, trying to find their way to Daur,
+<a name='Page_54'></a>and completely lost. Most had given up&mdash;some
+were unknowingly headed back for
+Tekrit. I could do no more than give them
+the right direction, which I knew they had no
+chance of holding. Of course I could have no
+headlights, and the ditches were many, but
+in some miraculous way, more through good
+luck than good management, I did find corps
+headquarters, and what was better still, the
+general's reprimand took the form of bread and
+ham and a stiff peg of whiskey&mdash;the first food
+I had had since before daylight.</p>
+
+<p>During the night the Turks evacuated the
+town. Their forces were certainly mobile.
+They could cover the most surprising distances,
+and live on almost nothing. We marched in
+and occupied. White flags were flying from
+all the houses, which were not nearly so much
+damaged from the bombardment as one would
+have supposed. This was invariably the case;
+indeed, it is surprising to see how much shelling
+a town can undergo without noticeable effect.
+It takes a long time to level a town in the way
+it has been done in northern France. In this
+region the banks of the river average about one
+hundred and fifty feet in height, and Tekrit is
+built at the junction of two ravines. No two
+<a name='Page_55'></a>streets are on the same level; sometimes the
+roofs of the houses on a lower level serve as
+the streets for the houses above. Many of the
+booths in the bazaar were open and transacting
+business when we arrived, an excellent
+proof of how firmly the Arabs believed in British
+fair dealing. Our men bought cigarettes,
+matches, and vegetables. Yusuf had lived
+here three or four years, so I despatched him
+to get chickens and eggs for the mess. I ran
+into Marshall, who was on his way to dine
+with the mayor, who had turned out to be an
+old friend of his. He asked me to join him,
+and we climbed up to a very comfortable
+house, built around a large courtyard. It was
+the best meal we had either of us had in days&mdash;great
+pilaus of rice, excellent chicken, and
+fresh unleavened bread. This bread looks like
+a very large and thin griddle-cake. The Arab
+uses it as a plate. Eating with your hands is
+at first rather difficult. Before falling to, a ewer
+is brought around to you, and you are supplied
+with soap&mdash;a servant pours water from
+the ewer over your hands, and then gives you
+a towel. After eating, the same process is
+gone through with. There are certain formalities
+that must be regarded&mdash;one of them being
+<a name='Page_56'></a>that you must not eat or drink with your left
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>In Tekrit we did not find as much in the way
+of supplies and ammunition as we had hoped.
+The Turk had destroyed the greater part of
+his store. We did find great quantities of
+wood, and in that barren, treeless country it
+was worth a lot. Most of the inhabitants of
+Tekrit are raftsmen by profession. Their
+rafts have been made in the same manner
+since before the days of Xerxes and Darius.
+Inflated goatskins are used as a basis for a
+platform of poles, cut in the up-stream forests.
+On these, starting from Diarbekr or Mosul,
+they float down all their goods. When they
+reach Tekrit they leave the poles there, and
+start up-stream on foot, carrying their deflated
+goatskins. The Turks used this method a
+great deal bringing down their supplies. In
+pre-war days the rafts, keleks as they are
+called, would often come straight through to
+Baghdad, but many were always broken up
+at Tekrit, for there is a desert route running
+across to Hit on the Euphrates, and the supplies
+from up-river were taken across this in
+camel caravans.</p>
+
+<p>The aerodrome lay six or seven miles above
+<a name='Page_57'></a>the town, and I was anxious to see it and the
+comfortable billets the Germans had built
+themselves. I found a friend whose duties
+required motor transportation, and we set off
+in his car. A dust-storm was raging, and we
+had some difficulty in finding our way through
+the network of trenches. Once outside, the
+storm became worse, and we could only see a
+few yards in front of us. We got completely
+lost, and after nearly running over the edge
+of the bluff, gave up the attempt, and slowly
+worked our way back.</p>
+
+<p>When we started off on the advance I was
+reading Xenophon's <i>Anabasis</i>. On the day
+when we were ordered to march on Tekrit a
+captain of the Royal Flying Corps, an ex-master
+at Eton, was in the mess, and when I
+told him that I was nearly out of reading matter,
+he said that next time he came over he
+would drop me Plutarch's <i>Lives</i>. I asked him
+to drop it at corps headquarters, and that a
+friend of mine there would see that I got it.
+The next day in the heat of the fighting a
+plane came over low, signalling that it was
+dropping a message. As the streamer fell
+close by, there was a rush to pick it up and
+learn how the attack was progressing. Fortu<a name='Page_58'></a>nately,
+I was far away when the packet was
+opened and found to contain the book that
+the pilot had promised to drop for me.</p>
+
+<p>After we had been occupying the town for a
+few days, orders came through to prepare to
+fall back on Samarra. The line of communication
+was so long that it was impossible to
+maintain us, except at too great a cost to the
+transportation facilities possessed by the Expeditionary
+Forces. Eight or ten months later,
+when we had more rails in hand, a line was
+laid to Tekrit, which had been abandoned by
+the Turks under the threat of our advance
+to Kirkuk, in the Persian hills. It was difficult
+to explain to the men, particularly to the
+Indians, the necessity for falling back. All
+they could understand was that we had taken
+the town at no small cost, and now we were
+about to give it up.</p>
+
+<p>For several days I was busy helping to prepare
+rafts to take down the timber and such
+other captured supplies as were worth removing.
+The river was low, leaving a broad stretch
+of beach below the town, and to this we brought
+down the poles. Several camels had died near
+the water, probably from the results of our
+shelling, and the hot weather soon made them
+<a name='Page_59'></a>very unpleasant companions. The first day
+was bad enough; the second was worse. The
+natives were not in the least affected. They
+brought their washing and worked among them&mdash;they
+came down and drew their drinking-water
+from the river, either beside the camels
+or down-stream of them, with complete indifference.
+It is true this water percolates drop by
+drop through large, porous clay pots before it
+is drunk, but even so, it would have seemed
+that they would have preferred its coming from
+up-stream of the derelict &quot;ships of the desert.&quot;
+On the third day, to their mild surprise, we
+managed with infinite difficulty to tow the
+camels out through the shallow water into the
+main stream.</p>
+
+<p>We finally got our rafts built, over eighty in
+number, and arranged for enough Arab pilots
+to take care of half of them. On the remainder
+we put Indian sepoys. They made quite
+a fleet when we finally got them all started
+down-stream. Two were broken up in the
+rapids near Daur, the rest reached Samarra in
+safety on the second day.</p>
+
+<p>We had a pleasant camp on the bluffs below
+Tekrit&mdash;high-enough above the plain to
+be free of the ordinary dust-storms, and the
+<a name='Page_60'></a>prospect of returning to Samarra was scarcely
+more pleasant to us than to the men. Five
+days after we had taken the town, we turned
+our backs on it and marched slowly back to
+rail-head.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='III'></a><h2><a name='Page_61'></a><a name='Page_62'></a><a name='Page_63'></a>III</h2>
+
+<h3>PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>We returned to find Samarra buried in dust
+and more desolate than ever. A few days
+later came the first rain-storm. After a night's
+downpour the air was radiantly clear, and it
+was joy to ride off on the rounds, no longer
+like Zeus, enveloped in a cloud.</p>
+
+<p>It was a relief to see the heat-stroke camps
+broken up. During the summer months our
+ranks were fearfully thinned through the sun.
+Although it was the British troops that suffered
+most, the Indians were by no means immune.
+Before the camps were properly organized the
+percentage of mortality was exceedingly large,
+for the only effective treatment necessitates
+the use of much ice. The patient runs a temperature
+which it was impossible to control
+until the ice-making machines were installed.
+The camps were situated in the coolest and
+most comfortable places, but in spite of everything,
+death was a frequent result, and recoveries
+were apt to be only partial. Men who had
+<a name='Page_64'></a>had a bad stroke were rarely of any further use
+in the country.</p>
+
+<p>Another sickness of the hot season which
+now began to claim less victims was sand-fly
+fever. This fever, which, as its name indicates,
+was contracted from the bites of sand-flies,
+varied widely in virulence. Sometimes
+it was so severe that the victim had to be
+evacuated to India; as a rule he went no
+farther than a base hospital at Baghdad or
+Amara.</p>
+
+<p>One of the things about which the Tommy
+felt most keenly in the Mesopotamian campaign
+was that there was no such thing as a
+&quot;Cushy Blighty.&quot; To take you to &quot;Blighty&quot;
+a wound must mean permanent disablement,
+otherwise you either convalesced in the country
+or, at best, were sent to India. In the
+same manner there were no short leaves, for
+there was nowhere to go. At the most rapid
+rate of travelling it took two weeks to get to
+India, and once there, although the people
+did everything possible in the way of entertaining,
+the enlisted man found little to make him
+less homesick than he had been in Mesopotamia.
+Transportation was so difficult and the trip so
+long that only under very exceptional circum<a name='Page_65'></a>stances
+was leave to England given. One
+spring it was announced that officers wishing
+to get either married or divorced could apply
+for leave with good hopes of success. Many
+applied, but a number returned without having
+fulfilled either condition, so that the following
+year no leaves were given upon those grounds.
+The army commander put all divorce cases
+into the hands of an officer whose civil occupation
+had been the law, and who arranged them
+without the necessity of granting home leave.</p>
+
+<p>A week after our return to Samarra a rumor
+started that General Maude was down with
+cholera. For some time past there had been sporadic
+cases, though not enough to be counted
+an epidemic. The sepoys had suffered chiefly,
+but not exclusively, for the British ranks also
+supplied a quota of victims. An officer on the
+staff of the military governor of Baghdad had
+recently died. We heard that the army commander
+had the virulent form, and knew there
+could be no chance of his recovery. The announcement
+of his death was a heavy blow to
+all, and many were the gloomy forebodings.
+The whole army had implicit confidence in their
+leader, and deeply mourned his loss. The
+usual rumors of foul play and poison went the
+<a name='Page_66'></a>rounds, but I soon after heard Colonel Wilcox&mdash;in
+pre-war days an able and renowned practitioner
+of Harley Street&mdash;say that it was an
+undoubted case of cholera. The colonel had attended
+General Maude throughout the illness.
+The general had never taken the cholera prophylactic,
+although Colonel Wilcox had on
+many occasions urged him to do so, the last
+time being only a few days before the disease
+developed.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/7.jpg"><img src="./images/7_th.jpg"
+alt="Towing an armored car across a river"></a></p><p class="ctr">Towing an armored car across a river</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/8.jpg"><img src="./images/8_th.jpg"
+alt="Reconnaissance"></a></p><p class="ctr">Reconnaissance</p>
+
+<p>General Marshall, who had commanded
+General Maude's old division, the Thirteenth,
+took over. The Seventeenth lost General
+Gillman, who thereupon became chief of staff.
+This was a great loss to his division, for he was
+the idol of the men, but the interest of the
+Expeditionary Force was naturally and justly
+given precedence.</p>
+
+<p>In due course my transfer to the Motor
+Machine-Gun Corps came through approved,
+and I was assigned to the Fourteenth battery
+of light-armored motor-cars, commanded by
+Captain Nigel Somerset, whose grandfather,
+Lord Raglan, had died, nursed by Florence
+Nightingale, while in command of the British
+forces in the Crimean War. Somerset himself
+was in the infantry at the outbreak of the war
+<a name='Page_67'></a>and had been twice wounded in France. He
+was an excellent leader, possessing as he did
+dash, judgment, and personal magnetism. A
+battery was composed of eight armored cars,
+subdivided into four sections. There was a
+continually varying number of tenders and
+workshop lorries. The fighting cars were Rolls-Royces,
+the others Napiers and Fords.</p>
+
+<p>At that time there were only four batteries
+in the country. We were army troops&mdash;that
+is to say, we were not attached to any individual
+brigade, or division, or corps, but were temporarily
+assigned first here and then there, as
+the need arose.</p>
+
+<p>In attacks we worked in co-operation with
+the cavalry. Although on occasions they tried
+to use us as tanks, it was not successful, for
+our armor-plate was too light. We were also
+employed in raiding, and in quelling Arab uprisings.
+This latter use threw us into close
+touch with the political officers. These were
+a most interesting lot of men. They were recruited
+in part from the army, but largely from
+civil life. They took over the civil administration
+of the conquered territory and judiciously
+upheld native justice. Many remarkable
+characters were numbered among them&mdash;men
+<a name='Page_68'></a>who had devoted a lifetime to the study of the
+intricacies of Oriental diplomacy. They were
+distinguished by the white tabs on the collars
+of their regulation uniforms; but white was by
+no means invariably the sign of peace, for many
+of the political officers were killed, and more
+than once in isolated towns in unsettled districts
+they sustained sieges that lasted for
+several days. We often took a political officer
+out with us on a raid or reconnaissance, finding
+his knowledge of the language and customs
+of great assistance. Sir Percy Cox was at the
+head, with the title &quot;Chief Political Officer&quot;
+and the rank of general. His career in the
+Persian Gulf has been as distinguished as it is
+long, and his handling of the very delicate situations
+arising in Mesopotamia has called forth
+the unstinted praise of soldier and civilian alike.</p>
+
+<p>Ably assisting him, and head of the Arab
+bureau, was Miss Gertrude Bell, the only
+woman, other than the nursing sisters, officially
+connected with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary
+Forces. Miss Bell speaks Arabic fluently
+and correctly. She first became interested in
+the East when visiting her uncle at Teheran,
+where he was British minister. She has made
+noteworthy expeditions in Syria and Mesopo<a name='Page_69'></a>tamia,
+and has written a number of admirable
+books, among which are <i>Armurath to Armurath</i>
+and <i>The Desert and the Sown</i>. The undeniable
+position which she holds must appear doubly
+remarkable when the Mohammedan official attitude
+toward women is borne in mind. Miss
+Bell has worked steadily and without a leave
+in this trying climate, and her tact and judgment
+have contributed to the British success
+to a degree that can scarcely be overestimated.</p>
+
+<p>The headquarters of the various batteries
+were in Baghdad. There we had our permanent
+billets, and stores. We would often be
+ordered out in sections to be away varying
+lengths of time, though rarely more than a
+couple of months. The workshops' officer
+stayed in permanent charge and had the difficult
+task of keeping all the cars in repair. The
+supply of spare parts was so uncertain that
+much skill and ingenuity were called for, and
+possessed to a full degree by Lieutenant Linnell
+of the Fourteenth.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after I joined I set off with Somerset
+and one of the battery officers, Lieutenant
+Smith, formerly of the Black Watch. We were
+ordered to do some patrolling near the ruins of
+Babylon. Kerbela and Nejef, in the quality
+<a name='Page_70'></a>of great Shiah shrines, had never been particularly
+friendly to the Turks, who were Sunnis&mdash;but
+the desert tribes are almost invariably
+Sunnis, and this coupled with their natural
+instinct for raiding and plundering made them
+eager to take advantage of any interregnum
+of authority. We organized a sort of native
+mounted police, but they were more picturesque
+than effective. They were armed with weapons
+of varying age and origin&mdash;not one was
+more recent than the middle of the last century.
+Now the Budus, the wild desert folk, were frequently
+equipped with rifles they had stolen
+from us, so in a contest the odds were anything
+but even.</p>
+
+<p>We took up our quarters at Museyib, a small
+town on the banks of the Euphrates, six or
+eight miles above the Hindiyah Barrage, a dam
+finished a few years before, and designed to
+irrigate a large tract of potentially rich country.
+We patrolled out to Mohamediyah, a
+village on the caravan desert route to Baghdad,
+and thence down to Hilleh, around which stand
+the ruins of ancient Babylon. The rainy season
+was just beginning, and it was obvious that
+the patrolling could not be continuous, for a
+twelve-hour rain would make the country
+<a name='Page_71'></a>impassable to our heavy cars for two or three
+days. We were fortunate in having pleasant
+company in the officers of a Punjabi infantry
+battalion and an Indian cavalry regiment.
+Having commandeered an ancient caravan-serai
+for garage and billets, we set to work to
+clean it out and make it as waterproof as circumstances
+would permit. An oil-drum with
+a length of iron telegraph-pole stuck in its
+top provided a serviceable stove, and when
+it rained we played bridge or read.</p>
+
+<p>I was ever ready to reduce my kit to any
+extent in order to have space for some books,
+and Voltaire's <i>Charles XII</i> was the first called
+upon to carry me to another part of the world
+from that in which I at the moment found
+myself. I always kept a volume of some sort
+in my pocket, and during halts I would read in
+the shade cast by the turret of my car. The
+two volumes of Layard's <i>Early Adventures</i>
+proved a great success. The writer, the great
+Assyriologist, is better known as the author of
+<i>Nineveh and Babylon</i>. The book I was reading
+had been written when he was in his early
+twenties, but published for the first time forty
+years later. Layard started life as a solicitor's
+clerk in London, but upon being offered a post
+<a name='Page_72'></a>in India he had accepted and proceeded
+thither overland. On reaching Baghdad he
+made a side-trip into Kurdistan, and became so
+enamored of the life of the tribesmen that he
+lived there with them on and off for two years&mdash;years
+filled with adventure of the most thrilling
+sort.</p>
+
+<p>I had finished a translation of Xenophon
+shortly before and found it a very different
+book than when I was plodding drearily
+through it in the original at school. Here it
+was all vivid and real before my eyes, with the
+scene of the great battle of Cunaxa only a few
+miles from Museyib. Babylon was in sight of
+the valiant Greeks, but all through the loss of a
+leader it was never to be theirs. On the ground
+itself one could appreciate how great a masterpiece
+the retreat really was, and the hardiness
+of the soldiers which caused Xenophon to regard
+as a &quot;snow sickness&quot; the starvation and
+utter weariness which made the numbed men
+lie down and die in the snow of the Anatolian
+highlands. He remarks na&iuml;vely that if you
+could build a fire and give them something hot
+to eat, the sickness was dispelled!</p>
+
+<p>The rain continued to fall and the mud became
+deeper and deeper. It was all the Arabs
+<a name='Page_73'></a>could do to get their produce into market. The
+bazaar was not large, but was always thronged.
+I used to sit in one of the coffee-houses and
+drink coffee or tea and smoke the long-stemmed
+water-pipe, the narghile. My Arabic was now
+sufficiently fluent for ordinary conversation,
+and in these clubs of the Arab I could hear
+all the gossip. Bazaar rumors always told of
+our advances long before they were officially
+given out. Once in Baghdad I heard of an
+attack we had launched. On going around
+to G.H.Q. I mentioned the rumor, and found
+that it was not yet known there, but shortly
+after was confirmed. I had already in Africa
+met with the &quot;native wireless,&quot; and it will be
+remembered how in the Civil War the plantation
+negroes were often the first to get news of
+the battles. It is something that I have never
+heard satisfactorily explained.</p>
+
+<p>In the coffee-houses, besides smoking and
+gossiping, we also played games, either chess
+or backgammon or munkula. This last is an
+exceedingly primitive and ancient game&mdash;it
+must date almost as far back as jackstones or
+knucklebones. I have seen the natives in
+Central Africa and the Indians in the far
+interior of Brazil playing it in almost identical
+<a name='Page_74'></a>form. In Mesopotamia the board was a log
+of wood sliced in two and hinged together.
+In either half five or six holes were scooped out,
+and the game consisted in dropping cowrie
+shells or pebbles into the holes. When the
+number in a particular hollow came to a certain
+amount with the addition of the one
+dropped in, you won the contents.</p>
+
+<p>In most places the coffee was served in Arab
+fashion, not Turkish. In the latter case it is
+sweet and thick and the tiny cup is half full
+of grounds; in the former the coffee is clear and
+bitter and of unsurpassable flavor. The diminutive
+cup is filled several times, but each
+time there is only a mouthful poured in. Tea
+is served in small glasses, without milk, but with
+lots of sugar. The spoons in the glasses are
+pierced with holes like tea-strainers so that the
+tea may be stirred without spilling it.</p>
+
+<p>There was in particular one booth I could
+never tire watching. The old man who owned
+it was a vender of pickles. In rows before him
+were bottles and jars and bowls containing
+pickles of all colors&mdash;red, yellow, green, purple,
+white, and even blue. Above his head were
+festoons of gayly painted peppers. He had a
+long gray beard, wore a green turban and a
+<a name='Page_75'></a>flowing robe with a gold-braided waistcoat.
+In the half-lights of the crowded, covered bazaar
+his was a setting in which Dulac would
+have revelled.</p>
+
+<p>At Museyib we led a peaceful, uneventful
+existence&mdash;completely shut in by the mud.
+We had several bazaar rumors about proposed
+attacks upon the engineers who were surveying
+for a railroad that was to be built to Hilleh
+for the purpose of transporting the grain-crop
+to the capital. Nothing materialized, however.
+The conditions were too poor to induce even
+the easily encouraged Arabs to raid. One
+morning when I was wandering around the
+gardens on the outskirts of the town I came
+across some jackals and shot one with my
+Webley revolver. It was running and I fired
+a number of times, and got back to town to
+find that my shooting had started all sorts of
+excitement and reports of uprisings.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas came and the different officers'
+messes organized celebrations. The mess we
+had joined was largely Scotch, so we decided
+we must make a haggis, that &quot;chieftain of the
+pudden race.&quot; The ingredients, save for the
+whiskey, were scarcely orthodox, but if it was
+not a success, at least no one admitted it.</p><a name='Page_76'></a>
+
+<p>As soon as the weather cleared we made a
+run to Kerbela&mdash;a lovely town, with miles of
+gardens surrounding it and two great mosques.
+The bazaar was particularly attractive&mdash;plentifully
+supplied with everything. We got quantities
+of the deliciously flavored pistachio-nuts
+which were difficult to obtain elsewhere, as
+well as all sorts of fruit and vegetables. There
+were no troops stationed in the vicinity, so the
+prices were lower than usual. The orders were
+that we should go about in armed bands, but
+I never saw any marked indication of hostility.
+The British, true to the remarkable tact and
+tolerance that contributes so largely to their
+success in dealing with native races, posted Mohammedan
+sepoys as guards on the mosques,
+and no one but Moslems could even go into
+the courtyards. If this had not been done,
+there would have been many disturbances
+and uprisings, for the Arabs and Persians
+felt so strongly on the question that they regarded
+with marked hostility those who even
+gazed into the mosque courtyards. Why it is
+so different in Constantinople I do not know,
+but there was certainly no hostility shown us
+in Santa Sophia nor in the mosque of Omar in
+Jerusalem. Be that as it may, forbidden fruit
+<a name='Page_77'></a>is always sweet, and the Tommies were inclined
+to force an entrance. During a change of
+guard a Tommy who had his curiosity and
+initiative stimulated through recourse to arrick,
+the fiery liquor distilled from dates, stole into
+the most holy mosque in Kerbela. By a
+miracle he was got out unharmed, but for a
+few hours a general uprising with an attendant
+massacre of unbelievers was feared.</p>
+
+<p>The great mosque lost much of its dignity
+through an atrocious clock-tower standing in
+the courtyard in front of it. It had evidently
+been found too expensive to cover this tower
+with a golden scale to shine in the sun, so some
+ingenious architect hit upon the plan of papering
+it with flattened kerosene-tins. It must
+have glinted gloriously at first, but weather and
+rain had rusted the cans and they presented but
+a sorry spectacle. From the thousand and one
+uses to which these oil-cans have been put by
+the native, one is inclined to think that the
+greatest benefit that has been conferred on the
+natives by modern civilization is from the hands
+of the Standard Oil Company.</p>
+
+<p>There were a fair number of Indians living in
+Kerbela before the war, for devout Shiahs are
+anxious to be buried near the martyred sons of<a name='Page_78'></a>
+Ali, and when they are unable to move to Kerbela
+in their lifetime they frequently make
+provisions that their remains may be transported
+thither. The British found it a convenient
+abode for native rulers whom they
+were forced to depose but still continued to
+pension.</p>
+
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/9.jpg"><img src="./images/9_th.jpg"
+alt="The Lion of Babylon"></a></p><p class="ctr">The Lion of Babylon</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/10.jpg"><img src="./images/10_th.jpg"
+alt="A dragon on the palace wall"></a></p><p class="ctr">A dragon on the palace wall</p>
+
+<p>Hilleh, which stands near the ruins of ancient
+Babylon, is a modern town very much like
+Museyib. I never had a chance to study the
+ruins at any length. Several times we went
+over the part that had been excavated by the
+Germans immediately before the war. I understand
+that this is believed to be the great palace
+where Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the
+wall. It is built of bricks, each one of which
+is stamped in cuneiform characters. There are
+very fine bas-reliefs of animals, both mythical
+and real. In the centre is the great stone lion,
+massively impressive, standing over the prostrate
+form of a man. The lion has suffered
+from fire and man; there have even been
+chips made in it recently by Arab rifles, probably
+not wantonly, but in some skirmish.
+Standing alone in its majesty in the midst of
+ruin and desolation amid the black tents of
+a people totally unable to construct or even
+<a name='Page_79'></a>appreciate anything of a like nature, it gave
+one much to think over and moralize about.
+The ruins of Babylon have been excavated
+only in very small part; there are great isolated
+mounds which have never been touched,
+and you can still pick up in the sand bits of
+statuary, and the cylinders that were used as
+seal-rings. The great city of Seleucia on the
+Tigris was built largely with bricks and masonry
+brought by barge from the ruins of Babylon
+through the canal that joined the two rivers.</p>
+
+<p>The prophecy of Isaiah has fallen true:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of
+the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew
+Sodom and Gomorrah.</p>
+
+<p>It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt
+in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian
+pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make
+their fold there.</p>
+
+<p>But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their
+houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall
+dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.</p>
+
+<p>And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their
+desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces:
+and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be
+prolonged.</p></div>
+
+<p>A few days after Christmas, we were ordered
+to return to Baghdad. The going was still
+<a name='Page_80'></a>bad. We had a Ford tender in advance to
+find and warn us of the softest spots. Once
+it got into the middle of such a bottomless bog
+that, after trying everything else, I hit upon the
+idea of rolling it out. It was built all enclosed
+like a bread-van, and we turned it over and
+over until we had it clear of the mud. We
+had hard work with the heavy cars&mdash;sometimes
+we could tow one out with another,
+but frequently that only resulted in getting the
+two stuck. Once when the cars were badly
+bogged I went to a near-by Arab village to get
+help. I told the head man that I wanted bundles
+of brush to throw in front of the cars in
+order to make some sort of a foundation to
+pass them over. He at once started turning
+out his people to aid us, but after he had got
+a number of loads under way he caught sight of
+one of his wives, who, instead of coming to
+our assistance, was washing some clothes in a
+copper caldron by the fire. There followed a
+scene which demonstrated that even an Arab
+is by no means always lord of his own household.
+The wife refused to budge; the Arab
+railed and stormed, but she went calmly on
+with her washing, paying no more attention to
+his fury than if he were a fractious, unreasona<a name='Page_81'></a>ble
+child. At length, driven to a white heat of
+rage, the head man upset the caldron into the
+fire with his foot. The woman, without a word,
+got up and stalked into a near-by hut, from
+which she refused to emerge. There was nothing
+for her discomfited adversary to do but go
+on with his rounds.</p>
+
+<p>By man&oelig;uvring and digging and towing we
+managed to make seven miles after fourteen
+hours' work that first day. Night found us
+close beside an Arab village, from which I got
+a great bowl of buffalo milk to put into the
+men's coffee. Early in the morning we were
+off again. The going was so much better that
+we were able to make Baghdad at ten o'clock
+in the evening.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='IV'></a><h2><a name='Page_82'></a><a name='Page_83'></a><a name='Page_84'></a><a name='Page_85'></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h3>SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>We spent a few days making repairs and
+outfitting before starting off again. This time
+our destination was Deli Abbas, the headquarters
+of the Thirteenth Division. The
+town is situated in the plains below the foot-hills
+of the Persian Mountains, on the banks
+of the Khalis Canal, some seventy miles north-east
+of Baghdad. At dawn we passed out of
+the north gate, close to where General Maude
+is buried, and whirled across the desert for
+thirty miles to Bakuba, a prosperous city on
+the banks of the Diyala. From the junction
+of the greater Zab down to Kurna, where the
+Euphrates joins, this stream is the most important
+affluent of the Tigris. It was one of
+those bright, sparkling mornings on which
+merely to be alive and breathe is a joy. We
+passed a number of caravans, bringing carpets
+and rugs from Persia, or fruit and vegetables
+from the rich agricultural district around<a name='Page_86'></a>
+Bakuba. The silks manufactured here are of
+a fine quality and well known throughout the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>After passing the big aerodrome near the
+town, the going became very bad; we struggled
+along through the village of Deltawa, in and
+out of unfathomable ditches. The rivers were
+in flood, and we ran into lakes and swamps
+that we cautiously skirted. Dark overtook
+us in the middle of a network of bogs, but we
+came upon an outpost of Welsh Fusiliers and
+spent the night with them. We had smashed
+the bottom plate of one of the cars, so that all
+the oil ran out of the crank-case, but with a
+side of the ever-useful kerosene tin we patched
+the car up temporarily and pushed off at early
+dawn. Our route wound through groves of
+palms surrounding the tumble-down tomb of
+some holy man, occasional collections of squalid
+little huts, and in the intervening &quot;despoblado&quot;
+we would catch sight of a jackal crouching in
+the hollow or slinking off through the scrub.
+Deli Abbas proved a half-deserted straggling
+town which gave evidence of having once seen
+prosperous days. Some Turkish aeroplanes
+heralded our arrival.</p>
+
+<p>In front of us rose the Jebel Hamrin&mdash;Red<a name='Page_87'></a>
+Hills&mdash;beyond them the snow-clad peaks of
+the Kurdish Range. A few months previous
+we had captured the passes over the Jebel, and
+we were now busy repairing and improving
+the roads&mdash;in particular that across the Abu
+Hajjar, not for nothing named by the Arabs
+the &quot;Father of Stones.&quot; Whenever the going
+permitted we went out on reconnaissances&mdash;rekkos,
+as we called them. They varied but
+slightly; the one I went on the day after
+reaching Deli Abbas might serve as model.
+We started at daybreak and ran to a little
+village called Ain Lailah, the Spring of Night,
+a lovely name for the small clump of palm-trees
+tucked away unexpectedly in a hollow
+among barren foot-hills. There we picked up
+a surveyor&mdash;an officer whose business it was to
+make maps for the army. We passed through
+great herds of camels, some with small children
+perched on their backs, who joggled about
+like sailors on a storm-tossed ship, as the
+camels made away from the cars. There were
+villages of the shapeless black tents of the
+nomads huddled in among the desolate dunes.
+We picked up a Turk deserter who was trying
+to reach our lines. He said that his six
+comrades had been killed by Arabs. Shortly
+<a name='Page_88'></a>afterward we ran into a cavalry patrol, but
+the men escaped over some very broken ground
+before we could satisfactorily come to terms
+with them. It was lucky for the deserter that
+we found him before they did, for his shrift
+would have been short. We got back to camp
+at half past eight, having covered ninety-two
+miles in our windings&mdash;a good day's work.</p>
+
+<p>Each section had two motorcycles attached to
+it&mdash;jackals, as one of the generals called them,
+in apt reference to the way in which jackals accompany
+a lion when hunting. The cyclists
+rode ahead to spy out the country and the best
+course to follow. When we got into action they
+would drop behind, and we used them to send
+messages back to camp. The best motorcyclist
+we had was a Swiss named Milson. He
+was of part English descent, and came at once
+from Switzerland at the outbreak of the war to
+enlist. When he joined he spoke only broken
+English but was an exceedingly intelligent
+man and had been attending a technical college.
+I have never seen a more skilful rider;
+he could get his cycle along through the mud
+when we were forced to carry the others, and
+no one was more cool and unconcerned under
+fire. The personnel of the battery left nothing
+<a name='Page_89'></a>to be desired. One was proud to serve among
+such a fine set of men. Corporal Summers
+drove the car in which I usually rode, and
+I have never met with a better driver or one
+who understood his car so thoroughly, and
+possessed that intangible sympathy with it
+which is the gift of a few, but can be never
+attained.</p>
+
+<p>We were still in the rainy season. We had
+to travel as light as possible, and all we could
+bring were forty-pounder tents, which correspond
+to the American dog-tent. Very low,
+they withstood in remarkable fashion the
+periodical hurricanes of wind and rain. They
+kept us fairly dry, too, for we were careful to
+ditch them well. There was room for two men
+to sleep in the turret of a Rolls, and they
+could spread a tarpaulin over the top to keep
+the rain from coming in through the various
+openings. The balance of the men had a communal
+tent or slept in the tenders. The
+larger tents in the near-by camps blew down
+frequently, but with us it happened only occasionally.
+There are happier moments than
+those spent in the inky blackness amid a torrential
+deluge, when you try to extricate yourself
+from the wet, clinging folds of falling canvas.</p><a name='Page_90'></a>
+
+<p>Time hung heavily when the weather was
+bad, and we were cooped up inside our tents
+without even a hostile aeroplane to shoot at.
+One day when the going was too poor to take
+out the heavy cars, I set off in a tender to
+visit another section of the battery that was
+stationed thirty or forty miles away in the
+direction of Persia, close by a town called Kizil
+Robat. We had a rough trip, with several
+difficult fords to cross. It was only through
+working with the icy water above our waists
+that we won through the worst, amid the
+shouts of &quot;Shabash, Sahib!&quot; (&quot;Well done!&quot;)
+from the onlooking Indian troops. I reached
+the camp to find the section absent on a reconnaissance,
+for the country was better drained
+than that over which we were working. A few
+minutes later one of the cyclists came in with
+the news that the cars were under heavy fire
+about twenty-five miles away and one of them
+was badly bogged. I immediately loaded all
+the surplus men and eight Punjabis from a
+near-by regiment into the tenders. We reached
+the scene just after the disabled car had been
+abandoned. Some of the Turks were concealed
+in a village two hundred and fifty yards
+away; the rest were behind some high irriga<a name='Page_91'></a>tion
+embankments. The free car had been
+unable to circle around or flank them because
+of the nature of the terrain. The men had not
+known that the village was occupied and had
+bogged down almost at the same time that the
+Turks opened fire. By breaking down an irrigation
+ditch the enemy succeeded in further
+flooding the locality where the automobile was
+trapped. The Turks made it hot for the men
+when they tried to dig out the car. The bullets
+spattered about them. It was difficult to tell
+how many Turks we accounted for. As dark
+came on, the occupants of the disabled car
+abandoned it and joined the other one, which
+was standing off the enemy but had lost all four
+tires and was running on its rims. We held a
+consultation and decided to stay where we were
+until dawn. We had scarcely made the decision
+when one of our cyclists arrived with orders
+from the brigade commander to return immediately.
+Although exceedingly loath to leave
+the armored car, we had no other course than
+to obey.</p>
+
+<p>It was after midnight by the time we made
+back to camp. We were told that a small
+attack had been planned for the morning, and
+that then we could go out with the troops and
+<a name='Page_92'></a>recover our car, using some artillery horses
+to drag it free. The troops soon began filing
+past, but we didn't pull out till three o'clock,
+by which time we were reinforced by an armored
+car from another battery. We were held back
+behind the advanced cavalry until daylight,
+and felt certain that the Turks would have
+either destroyed or succeeded in removing our
+car. Nor were we wrong, for just as we breasted
+the hill that brought the scene of yesterday's
+engagement into view, we saw the smoke of an
+explosion and the men running back into the
+village. We cleared the village with the help
+of a squadron of the Twenty-First cavalry,
+and found that the car had been almost freed
+during the night. It was a bad wreck, but we
+were able to tow it. I wished to have a reckoning
+with the village head man, and walked to
+an isolated group of houses a few hundred yards
+to the left of the village. As I neared them a
+lively fusillade opened and I had to take
+refuge in a convenient irrigation ditch. The
+country was so broken that it was impossible
+for us to operate, so we towed the car back to
+camp.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/11.jpg"><img src="./images/11_th.jpg"
+alt="Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car"></a></p><p class="ctr">Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/12.jpg"><img src="./images/12_th.jpg"
+alt="A Mesopotamian garage"></a></p><p class="ctr">A Mesopotamian garage</p>
+
+<p>Our section from Deli Abbas was moved up
+to take the place of the one that had been en<a name='Page_93'></a>gaged,
+which now returned to Baghdad. We
+were camped at Mirjana, a few miles north
+of Kizil Robat, on the Diyala River. A pontoon
+bridge was thrown across and the cars
+were taken over to the right bank, where we
+bivouacked with a machine-gun company and a
+battalion of native infantry. The bed of the
+river was very wide, and although throughout
+the greater part of the year the water flowed
+only through the narrow main channel, in the
+time of the spring floods the whole distance
+was a riotous yellow torrent. We had no sooner
+got the cars across than the river began to rise.
+During the first night part of the bridge was
+carried away, and the rest was withdrawn.
+The rise continued; trees and brush were swept
+racing past. We made several fruitless attempts
+to get across in the clumsy pontoons,
+but finally gave it up, resigning ourselves to
+being marooned. We put ourselves on short
+rations and waited for the river to fall. If
+the Turks had used any intelligence they could
+have gathered us in with the greatest ease, in
+spite of our excellent line of trenches. On the
+fourth day of our isolation the river subsided as
+rapidly as it had risen.</p>
+
+<p>We had good patrolling conditions, and each
+<a name='Page_94'></a>day we made long circuits. Sometimes we
+would run into a body of enemy cavalry and
+have a skirmish with them. Again we would
+come upon an infantry outpost and man&oelig;uvre
+about in an effort to damage it. The enemy
+set traps for us, digging big holes in the road
+and covering them over with matting on which
+they scattered dirt to make the surface appear
+normal. The nearest town occupied by the
+Turks was Kara Tepe, distant from Mirjana
+eight or ten miles as the crow flies. In the debatable
+land were a number of native villages,
+and such inhabitants as remained in them led
+an unpleasantly eventful existence. In the
+morning they would be visited by a Turkish
+patrol, which would be displaced by us in our
+rounds. Perhaps in the evening a band of
+wild mountainy Kurds would blow in and run
+off some of their few remaining sheep. Then
+the Turks would return and accuse them of having
+given us information, and carry off some
+hostages or possibly beat a couple of them for
+having received us, although goodness knows
+they had little enough choice in the matter.
+There was one old sheik with whom I used
+often to sit and gossip while an attendant was
+roasting the berries for our coffee over the near-<a name='Page_95'></a>by
+fire. He was ever asking why we couldn't
+make an advance and put his village safely behind
+our lines, so that the children could grow
+fat and the herds graze unharmed. In this
+country Kurdish and Turkish were spoken as
+frequently as Arabic, and many of the names of
+places were Turkish&mdash;such as Kara Tepe,
+which means Black Mountain, and Kizil Robat,
+the Tomb of the Maidens. My spelling of
+these names differs from that found on many
+maps. It would be a great convenience if some
+common method could be agreed upon. At
+present the map-makers conform only in a
+unanimous desire to each use a different transliteration.</p>
+
+<p>Kizil Robat is an attractive town. I spent
+some pleasant mornings wandering about it
+with the mayor, Jameel Bey, a fine-looking
+Kurdish chieftain of the Jaf tribe. He owned
+a lovely garden with date-palms, oranges,
+pomegranates, and figs. Tattered Kurds were
+working on the irrigation ditches, and a heap of
+rags lying below the wall in the sun changed
+itself into a small boy, just as I was about to
+step on it. Jameel's son was as white, with
+as rosy cheeks, as any American baby.</p>
+
+<p>Harry Bowen, brother-in-law of General<a name='Page_96'></a>
+Cobbe, was the political officer in charge of
+Kizil Robat. He spoke excellent Arabic and
+was much respected by the natives. His
+house was an oasis in which I could always look
+forward to a pleasant talk, an excellent native
+dinner, and some interesting book to carry off.
+Although the town was small, there were three
+good Turkish baths. One of them belonged to
+Jameel Bey, but, judging from the children
+tending babies while squatting in the entrance
+portico, was generally given over to the distaff
+side and its friends. The one which we patronized,
+while not so grand a building, had an
+old Persian who understood the art of massage
+thoroughly, and there was nothing more restful
+after a number of days' hard work with
+the cars.</p>
+
+<p>In the end of February there passed through
+Kizil Robat the last contingent of our former
+Russian Allies. They were Cossacks&mdash;a fine-looking
+lot as they rode along perched on their
+small chunky saddles atop of their unkempt but
+hardy ponies. When Russia went out of the
+war they asked permission to keep on fighting
+with us. They were a good deal of a problem,
+for they had no idea whatever of discipline,
+and it was most difficult to keep them in hand
+<a name='Page_97'></a>and stop them from pillaging the natives indiscriminately.
+They had been completely
+cut off from Russia for a long time but were
+now on their way back. A very intelligent
+woman doctor and a number of nurses who had
+been with them were sick with smallpox in one
+of our hospitals in Baghdad. When they recovered
+they were sent to India, for it was not
+feasible to repatriate them by way of Persia.
+When the Russians first established connection
+with us, some armored cars were sent to bring in
+the Cossack general, whose name we were told
+was Leslie. We were unprepared to find that
+he spoke no English! It turned out that his
+ancestors had gone over from Scotland to the
+court of Peter the Great.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='V'></a><h2><a name='Page_98'></a><a name='Page_99'></a><a name='Page_100'></a><a name='Page_101'></a>V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Early in March we got orders to return to
+Baghdad, where all the armored cars were to
+be concentrated preparatory to an attack on
+the Euphrates front. There was much speculation
+as to our mission. Some said that we
+were to break through and establish connection
+with General Allenby's forces in Palestine.
+While I know nothing about it authoritatively,
+it is certain that if the state of affairs in France
+had not called for the withdrawal from the East
+of all the troops that could be spared, the attack
+that was launched in October would have
+taken place in March. We could then have
+advanced up the Euphrates, and it would have
+been entirely practical to cross over the desert
+in the cars by way of Tadmor.</p>
+
+<p>When we got word to come in, the roads were
+in fearful shape and the rain was falling in torrents,
+but we were so afraid that we might miss
+the attack that we salvaged everything not
+essential and started to fight our way through
+<a name='Page_102'></a>the mud. It was a slow and wearisome process,
+but we managed to get as far as Bakuba
+by evening. The river was rising in one of its
+periodical floods and we found that the pontoon
+bridge had been cut half an hour before our
+arrival. No one could predict how long the
+flood would last, but the river rarely went down
+sufficiently to allow the bridge to be replaced
+within a week. At that time the railroad went
+only as far as Bakuba, and crossed the river
+on a wooden trestle, so I decided to try to load
+the motors on a flat car and get across the
+Diyala in that way.</p>
+
+<p>After having made arrangements to do this
+I wandered off into the bazaar to get something
+to eat. In native fashion I first bought
+a big flap of bread from an old woman, and then
+went to a pickle booth to get some beets, which
+I wrapped in my bread. Next I proceeded to
+a meat-shop and ordered some lamb kababs
+roasted. The meat is cut in pellets, spitted
+on rods six or eight inches long, and lain over
+the glowing charcoal embers. In the shop
+there are long tables with benches beside them.
+The customer spreads his former purchases,
+and when his kababs are ready he eats his
+dinner. He next proceeds to a coffee-house,
+<a name='Page_103'></a>where he has a couple of glasses of tea and
+three or four diminutive cups of coffee to top
+off, and the meal is finished. The Arab eats
+sparingly as a rule, but when he gives or attends
+a banquet he stuffs himself to his utmost
+capacity.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we loaded our cars successfully
+and started off by rail for Baghdad, some thirty
+miles away. The railroad wound across the
+desert, with here and there a water-tank with
+a company from a native regiment guarding
+it. As we stopped at one particularly desolate
+spot, a young officer came running up and asked
+if we would have tea with him. He took us
+to his tent, where everything was ready, for
+he apparently always met the two trains that
+passed through daily. Poor fellow, he was only
+a little over twenty, and desperately lonely and
+homesick. Many of the young officers who
+were wounded in France were sent to India
+with the idea that they could be training men
+and getting on to the methods of the Indian
+army while yet recuperating and unfit to go
+back to the front. They were shipped out with
+a new draft when they had fully recovered.
+This boy had only been a month in the country,
+and ten days before had been sent off in
+<a name='Page_104'></a>charge of his Sikh company to do this wearisome
+guard duty.</p>
+
+<p>We spent a few days in Baghdad refitting.
+The cars were to go out camouflaged to resemble
+supply-trucks, for every precaution was
+taken to prevent the Turks from realizing that
+we were massing men for an attack. The
+night before we were to start, word came in
+that the political officer at Nejef had been
+murdered, and the town was in revolt. We
+were ordered to send a section there immediately,
+so Lieutenant Ballingal's was chosen,
+while the rest of us left next morning with the
+balance of the battery for Hit. The first part
+of the route lay across the desert to Falujah, a
+prosperous agricultural town on the Euphrates.
+Rail-head lies just beyond at a place known as
+Tel El Dhubban&mdash;the &quot;Hill of the Flies.&quot;
+From there on supplies were brought forward
+by motor transport, or in Arab barges, called
+shakturs. We crossed the river on a bridge
+of boats and continued up along the bank to
+Ramadie. Here I stayed over, detailed to
+escort the army commander on a tour of inspection.</p>
+
+<p>The smaller towns along the Euphrates are
+far more attractive than those on the Tigris.<a name='Page_105'></a>
+The country seems more developed, and most
+inviting gardens surround the villages. Hit,
+which lies twenty miles up-stream of Ramadie,
+is an exception. It is of ancient origin and
+built upon a hill, with a lovely view of the river.
+It has not a vestige of green on it, but stands
+out bleak and harsh in contrast to the palm-groves
+fringing the bank. The bitumen wells
+near by have been worked for five thousand
+years and are responsible for the town being a
+centre of boat manufacture. With the bitumen,
+the gufas and mahelas are &quot;pitched without
+and within,&quot; in the identical manner in
+which we are told that the ark was built. The
+jars in which the women of the town draw water
+from the river, instead of being of copper or
+earthenware as elsewhere, are here made of
+pitched wicker-work. The smell of the boiling
+bitumen and the sulphur springs is trying to
+a stranger, although the natives regard it as
+salubrious, and maintain that through it the
+town is saved from cholera epidemics. We
+had captured Hit a few weeks previously, and
+the aeroplanes flying low over the town had
+reported the disagreeable smell, attributing it
+to dirt and filth. &quot;Eyewitness,&quot; the official
+newspaper correspondent, mentioned this in
+<a name='Page_106'></a>despatches, and when I was passing through, a
+proclamation of apology was being prepared
+to soothe the outraged and slandered townsfolk.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/13.jpg"><img src="./images/13_th.jpg"
+alt="A water-wheel on the Euphrates"></a></p><p class="ctr">A water-wheel on the Euphrates</p>
+
+<p>After taking the army commander back to
+rail-head, we retraced our steps with all speed
+to Hit, and thence the eight miles up-stream
+to Salahiyeh. The road beyond Hit was in
+fearful shape, and the engineers were working
+night and day to keep it open and in some way
+passable. In the proposed attack we were
+to jump off from Salahiyeh, and it was here
+that the armored cars were assembled. Our
+camp was close to a Turkish hospital. There
+were two great crescents and stars laid out for
+a signal to warn our aeroplanes not to drop
+bombs. One of the crescents was made of turf
+and the other of limestone. The batteries
+took turns in making the reconnaissances,
+in the course of which they would come in for
+a good deal of shelling. The road was unpleasant,
+because the camels and transport
+animals that had been killed during the
+Turkish retreat from Hit were by now very
+high. For some unknown reason there were
+no jackals or vultures to form a sanitary section.
+After reconnoitring the enemy positions
+and noting the progress they were making in
+<a name='Page_107'></a>constructing their defenses, we would make a
+long circuit back to camp.</p>
+
+<p>One unoccupied morning I went over to an
+island on the river. Its cool, restful look had
+attracted me on the day I arrived, and it quite
+fulfilled its promise. Indeed, it was the only
+place I came across in Mesopotamia that
+might have been a surviving fragment of the
+Garden of Eden. It was nearly a mile long,
+and scattered about on it were seven or eight
+thick-walled and well-fortified houses. The
+entire island was one great palm-grove, with
+pomegranates, apricots, figs, orange-trees, and
+grape-vines growing beneath the palms. The
+grass at the foot of the trees was dotted with
+blue and pink flowers. Here and there were
+fields of spring wheat. The water-ditches
+which irrigated the island were filled by giant
+water-wheels, thirty to fifty feet in diameter.
+These &quot;naurs&quot; have been well described in the
+Bible, and I doubt if they have since been modified
+in a single item. There are sometimes as
+many as sixteen in a row. As they scoop the
+water up in the gourd-shaped earthenware jars
+bound to their rims, they shriek and groan
+on their giant wooden axles.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of March 25 we got word
+<a name='Page_108'></a>that the long-expected attack would take
+place next morning. We had the cars ready
+to move out by three. Since midnight shadowy
+files had been passing on their way forward
+to get into position. One of our batteries
+went with the infantry to advance against
+the main fortified position at Khan Baghdadi.
+The rest of us went with the cavalry around the
+flank to cut the Turks off if they tried to retreat
+up-stream. We were well on our way at
+daybreak. The country was so broken up
+with ravines and dry river-beds that we knew
+we had a long, hard march ahead of us. Our
+maps were poor. A German officer that we
+captured had in some manner got hold of our
+latest map, and noting that we had omitted
+entirely a very large ravine, became convinced
+that any enveloping movement we attempted
+would prove a failure. As it happened, we
+came close to making the blunder he had anticipated,
+for we started to advance down to the
+river along the bank of a nullah which would
+have taken us to Khan Baghdadi instead of
+eight or ten miles above it, as we wished. I
+think it was our aeroplanes that set us straight.
+I was in charge of the tenders with supplies
+and spares, and spent most of the time in the
+<a name='Page_109'></a>leading Napier lorry. Occasionally I slipped
+into an armored car to go off somewhere on a
+separate mission. The Turks had doubtless
+anticipated a flanking movement and kept
+shelling us to a certain extent, but we could hear
+that they were occupying themselves chiefly
+with the straight attacking force. By afternoon
+we had turned in toward the river and
+our cavalry was soon engaged. The country
+was too broken for the cars to get in any really
+effective work. By nightfall we hoped we
+were approximately where we should be, and
+after making our dispositions as well as the
+circumstances would permit, we lay down
+beside the cars and were soon sound asleep.
+At midnight we were awakened by the bullets
+chipping the rocks and stones among which we
+were sleeping. A night attack was evidently
+under way, and it is always an eerie sensation.
+We correctly surmised that the Turks were in
+retreat from Khan Baghdadi and had run into
+our outposts. In a few minutes we were replying
+in volume, and the rat-tat-tats of the
+machine-guns on either side were continuous.
+The enemy must have greatly overestimated
+our numbers, for in a short time small groups
+started surrendering, and before things had
+<a name='Page_110'></a>quieted we had twelve hundred prisoners.
+The cavalry formed a rough prison-camp and
+we turned in again to wait for daylight.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn we started to reconnoitre our position
+to find out just how matters stood. We
+came upon a body of two thousand of the
+enemy which had been held up by us in the
+night and had retreated a short distance to
+wait till it became light before surrendering.
+Among them were a number of German officers.
+They were all of them well equipped with
+machine-guns and rifles. Their intrenching
+tools and medical supplies were of Austrian
+manufacture, as were also the rolling kitchens.
+These last were of an exceedingly practical
+design. While we were taking stock of our
+capture we got word that Khan Baghdadi had
+been occupied and a good number of prisoners
+taken. We were instructed to press on and
+take Haditha, thirty miles above Khan Baghdadi.
+It was hoped that we might recapture
+Colonel Tennant, who was in command of the
+Royal Flying Corps forces in Mesopotamia.
+He had been shot down at Khan Baghdadi
+the day before the attack. We learned from
+prisoners that he had been sent up-stream
+immediately, on his way to Aleppo, but it
+<a name='Page_111'></a>was thought that he might have been held
+over at Haditha or at Ana.</p>
+
+<p>We found that a lot of the enemy had got
+by between us and the river and had then
+swung back into the road. We met with little
+opposition, save from occasional bands of stragglers
+who concealed themselves behind rocks
+and sniped at us. Numbers surrendered without
+resistance as we caught up with them. We
+disarmed them and ordered them to walk back
+until they fell in with our cavalry, or the infantry,
+which was being brought forward in
+trucks. As we bowled along in pursuit the
+scene reminded me of descriptions in the novels
+of Sienkiewicz or Erckmann-Chatrian. The
+road was littered with equipment of every
+sort, disabled pack-animals, and dead or dying
+Turks. It was hard to see the wounded withering
+in the increasing heat&mdash;the dead were better
+off. We reached the heights overlooking Haditha
+to find that the garrison was in full retreat.
+Most of it had left the night before. Those
+remaining opened fire upon us, but in a half-hearted
+way, that was not calculated to inflict
+much loss. Many of the inhabitants of
+the town lived in burrows in the hillsides.
+Some of these caves had been filled with am<a name='Page_112'></a>munition.
+The enemy had fired all their
+dumps, and rocks were flying about. We endeavored
+to save as much of the material as
+was possible. We were particularly anxious to
+get all papers dealing with the Arabs, to enable
+us to check up which were our friends and which
+of the ones behind our lines were dealing treacherously
+with us. We recaptured a lot of medical
+equipment and some ammunition that
+had been taken from our forces during the
+Gallipoli campaign.</p>
+
+<p>Haditha is thirty-five miles from Khan Baghdadi,
+and Ana is an equal distance beyond.
+It was decided that we should push on to a
+big bridge shown on the map as eight miles
+this side of Ana. We were to endeavor to
+secure this before the Turks could destroy it,
+and cross over to bivouac on the far side. The
+road was in fair shape. Many of the small
+bridges were of recent construction. We soon
+found that our map was exceedingly inaccurate.
+Our aeroplanes were doing a lot of damage to
+the fleeing Turks, and as we began to catch up
+with larger groups we had some sharp engagements.
+The desert Arabs hovered like vultures
+in the distance waiting for nightfall to cover
+them in their looting.</p><a name='Page_113'></a>
+
+<p>That night we camped near the bridge. At
+dusk the Red Cross ambulances and some
+cavalry caught up. The latter had had a long,
+hard two days, with little to eat for the men
+and less for the horses, but both were standing
+up wonderfully. They were the Seventh Hussars
+and just as they reached us we recaptured
+one of their sergeants who had been made
+prisoner on the previous night. He had covered
+forty miles on foot, but the Turks had
+treated him decently and he had come through
+in good shape. We always felt that the Turk
+was a clean fighter. Our officers he treated
+well as long as he had anything to give or share
+with them. With the enlisted men he was not
+so considerate, but I am inclined to think that
+it was because he was not accustomed to bother
+his head much about his own rank and file, so
+it never occurred to him to consider ours.
+The Turkish private would thrive on what was
+starvation issue to our men. The attitude of
+many of the Turkish officers was amusing, if exasperating.
+They seemed to take it for granted
+that they would be treated with every consideration
+due an honored guest. They would
+complain bitterly about not being supplied
+with coffee, although at the time we might be
+<a name='Page_114'></a>totally without it ourselves and far from any
+source of supply. The German prisoners were
+apt to cringe at first, but as soon as they found
+they were not to be oppressed became arrogant
+and overbearing. At different times we retook
+men that had been captives for varying
+lengths of time. I remember a Tommy, from
+the Manchesters, if I am not mistaken, who
+had been taken before Kut fell, but had soon
+after made his escape and lived among the
+Kurdish tribesmen for seven or eight months
+before he found his way back to us. Quite a
+number of Indians who had been set to work
+on the construction of the Berlin-to-Baghdad
+Railway between Nisibin and Mosul made
+good their escape and struggled through to
+our lines.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great relief when the Red Cross
+lorries came in and we could turn over the
+wounded to them. All night long they journeyed
+back and forth transporting such as
+could stand the trip to the main evacuation
+camp at Haditha.</p>
+
+<p>By daybreak we were once more under way.
+Under cover of darkness the Arabs had pillaged
+the abandoned supplies, in some cases killing
+the wounded Turks. The transport animals
+<a name='Page_115'></a>of the enemy and their cavalry horses were in
+very bad shape. They had evidently been
+hard put to it to bring through sufficient fodder
+during the wet winter months when the roads
+were so deep in mud as to be all but impassable.
+Instead of being distant from Ana the eight
+miles that we had measured on the map, we
+found that we were seventeen, but we made it
+without any serious hindrance. The town was
+most attractive, embowered in gardens which
+skirt the river's edge for a distance of four or
+five miles. In addition to the usual palms and
+fruit-trees there were great gnarled olives, the
+first I had seen in Mesopotamia, as were also
+the almond-trees. It must be of great antiquity,
+for the prophet Isaiah speaks of it as
+a place where kings had reigned, but from
+which, even in his time, the grandeur had departed.</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of the enemy had already
+abandoned the town, but we captured the Turkish
+governor and a good number of the garrison,
+and many that had escaped from Haditha.
+The disaster at Khan Baghdadi had only been
+reported the afternoon before, as we had of
+course cut all the telegraph wires, and the
+governor had not thought it possible we would
+<a name='Page_116'></a>continue the pursuit so far. He had spent
+most of his life in Hungary and had been given
+this post only a few months previous to our
+advance. From the prisoners we had taken at
+Haditha we had extracted conflicting estimates
+as to the time when Colonel Tennant, the
+commander of our air forces, had been sent on,
+and from those we took at Ana we received
+equally varying accounts. The cars had been
+ordered to push on in search of the colonel as
+long as sufficient gasolene remained to bring
+them back. Captain Todd with the Eighth
+Battery was in the lead when some thirty miles
+north of Ana they caught sight of a group of
+camels surrounded by horsemen. A couple of
+belts from the machine-guns scattered the
+escort, and Colonel Tennant and his companion,
+Major Hobart, were soon safe in the turret
+of one of the cars.</p>
+
+<p>From some of our Turkish captives we
+heard about a large gold convoy which had been
+sent back from Ana; some said one day, and
+others two, before our arrival. The supply of
+fuel that we had brought in the tenders was
+almost exhausted, so that it would be necessary
+to procure more in order to continue the pursuit.
+Major Thompson, who was in command
+<a name='Page_117'></a>of the armored-car detachment, instructed me
+to take all the tenders and go back as far as
+was necessary to find a petrol dump from which
+I could draw a thousand gallons. I emptied
+the trucks and loaded them with such of the
+wounded as could stand the jolting they were
+bound to receive because of the speed at which
+I must travel. I also took a few of the more
+important prisoners, among them the governor
+of Ana. He was a cultivated middle-aged
+man who spoke no Arabic but quite good
+French. It was mid-afternoon when we started,
+and I hadn't the most remote idea where I
+would find a sufficient quantity of petrol. During
+the run back we were sniped at occasionally
+by Turks who were still hiding in the hills. A
+small but determined force could have completely
+halted the cars in a number of different
+places where the road wound through narrow
+rock-crowned gorges, or along ledges cut in
+the hillside and hemmed in by the river. In
+such spots the advance of the armored cars
+could either have been completely checked, or
+at all events seriously hampered and delayed,
+merely by rolling great boulders down on top
+of us.</p>
+
+<p>When we had retraced our steps for about
+<a name='Page_118'></a>sixty miles I was lucky enough to get wind of
+an enemy petrol dump that our men had discovered.
+It was a special aeroplane supply
+and the colonel of the infantry regiment who
+was guarding it had been instructed to allow
+none of it to be used for automobiles. He
+showed his desire to co-operate and his ability
+to read the spirit rather than the letter of a
+command by letting me load my tenders. The
+L.A.M. batteries were well regarded and we
+everywhere encountered a willingness to meet
+us more than half-way and aid us in the thousand
+and one points that make so much difference
+in obtaining results.</p>
+
+<p>By the time that we had everything in readiness
+for our return run it was long after dark
+and the men were exhausted. I managed to
+get some tea, but naturally no sugar or milk.
+The strong steaming brew served to wash down
+the scanty supply of cold bully beef. Fortunately
+it was a brilliant starlit night, but even
+so it was difficult to avoid ditches and washouts,
+and the road seemed interminable. Not long
+after we left we ran into a couple of armored
+cars that had been detailed to bring the rescued
+aviators back, after they had been reoutfitted
+and supplied as far as our limited resources
+<a name='Page_119'></a>would permit. During the halt I found that
+my sergeant had produced from somewhere or
+other an emergency rum ration which he was
+issuing. An old-army, experienced sergeant
+always managed to hold over a reserve from
+former issues for just such occasions as this,
+when it would be of inestimable value. I had
+been driving all day and had the greatest difficulty
+in keeping awake. Twice I dozed off.
+Once I awakened just as the car started over
+the edge of an embankment; the other time
+a large rock in the road brought me back to
+the world. It was two o'clock in the morning
+when we wearily crept into Ana.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition to capture the gold convoy
+was to start at four, so after two hours' sleep
+I bundled into one of the Rolls-Royces and
+the column swung out into the road. Through
+the mist loomed the sinister, businesslike outlines
+of the armored car ahead of me. Captain
+Carr of the Thirteenth L.A.M.B.'s<a name='FNanchor_1_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_1'><sup>[1]</sup></a> was in
+command of the expedition. Unless we were
+in action or in a locality where we momentarily
+expected to be under fire from rifle or machine-gun,
+the officer commanding the car and his
+N.C.O. stood in the well behind the turret,
+<a name='Page_120'></a>steadying themselves with leather loops riveted
+to its sides. On long runs the tool-boxes on
+either side of the well formed convenient seats.
+When the car became engaged the crew would
+get inside, pulling the steel doors shut. The
+slits through which the driver and the man
+next him looked could be made still smaller
+when the firing was heavy, and the peep-holes
+at either side and in the rear had slides which
+could be closed. The largest aperture was that
+around the tube of the gun. Splinters of lead
+came in continuously, and sometimes chance
+directed a bullet to an opening. One of our
+drivers was shot straight through the head
+near Ramadie. The bottom of the car was of
+wood, and bullets would ricochet up through
+it, but to have had it made of steel would have
+added too much weight. The large gasolene-tank
+behind was usually protected by plating,
+but even so was fairly vulnerable. A reserve-tank
+holding ten gallons was built inside the
+turret. We almost invariably had trouble
+with the feed-pipes leading from it. During
+the great heat of the summer the inside of the
+turret was a veritable fiery furnace, with the
+pedals so hot that they scorched the feet.</p>
+
+<p>Forty miles above Ana we came upon a large
+khan. These road-houses are built at intervals
+<a name='Page_121'></a>along the main caravan routes. Their plan is
+simple: four walls with two tiers of rooms or
+booths built into them, enclosing an open court
+in which the camels and horses are tethered
+during the night. The whole is strongly made
+to resist the inroads of the desert tribesmen.
+As we drove to the heavy gate, a wild clamor
+met our ears from a confused jumble of Jewish
+and Armenian merchants that had taken refuge
+within. Some of them had left Ana on their
+way to Aleppo before the news of the fall of
+Khan Baghdadi had reached the town. Others
+had been despatched by the Turks when the
+news of our advance arrived. All had been to
+a greater or lesser degree plundered by the
+Arabs. Most of the baggage animals had been
+run off, and the merchants were powerless to
+move. The women were weeping and imploring
+help, and the children tumbled about among
+the confused heaps of merchandise. Some of
+the Armenians had relations in Baghdad about
+whom I was able to give them bits of information.
+All begged permission to go back to
+Ana and thence to the capital. We, of course,
+had no means of supplying them with transportation,
+and any attempt to recapture their
+lost property was out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>A few miles on we made out a troop of Arabs
+<a name='Page_122'></a>hurrying inland, a mile or so away from us,
+across a couple of ravines. They had some of
+the stolen camels and were laden down with
+plunder. Two of our cars made a fruitless attempt
+to come to terms with them, but only
+succeeded in placing a few well-aimed bursts
+from their machine-guns among them.</p>
+
+<p>We now began to come up with bands of
+Turks. We ran across a number of isolated
+stragglers who had been stripped by the Arabs.
+A few had been killed. They as a rule surrendered
+without any hesitation. We disarmed
+them and told them to walk back toward Ana.
+Several times we had short engagements with
+Turkish cavalry. As a general thing the ground
+was so very broken up that it was impossible
+to man&oelig;uvre. I was riding a good deal of
+the time in the Ford tender that we had brought
+along with a few supplies, and when one of the
+tires blew out I waited behind to replace it.
+The armored cars had quite a start and we
+raced along to catch them. In my hurry I
+failed to notice that they had left the road in
+pursuit of a troop of cavalry, so when we
+sighted a large square building of the sort the
+Turks use as barracks, I made sure that the
+cars had been there before me. We drove up
+<a name='Page_123'></a>to the door and I jumped out and shoved it
+open. In the yard were some infantry and a
+few cavalry. I had only my stick&mdash;my Webley
+revolver was still in its holster. There was
+nothing to do but put on a bold front, so I
+shouted in Arabic to the man I took to be the
+officer in command, telling him to surrender,
+and trying to act as if our forces were just outside.
+I think he must have been more surprised
+than I was, for he did so immediately,
+turning over the post to me. Eldridge, the
+Ford driver, had succeeded in disengaging the
+rifle that he had strapped in beside him, and
+we made the rounds under the escort of our
+captive.</p>
+
+<p>One wing of the post was used as a hospital,
+under the charge of an intelligent little Armenian.
+He seemed well informed about the war,
+and asked the question that was the universal
+wail of all the Armenians we encountered:
+&quot;When would Great Britain free their country,
+and would she make it an independent state?&quot;
+There was a definite limit to the number of
+prisoners we could manage to carry back, but
+I offered the doctor to include him. His answer
+was to go to his trunk and produce a
+picture of his wife and little daughter. They
+<a name='Page_124'></a>were, he told me, in Constantinople, and it was
+now two years since he had had leave, so that
+as his turn was due, he would wait on the
+chance of seeing his family.</p>
+
+<p>When the cars came up we set off again in
+pursuit of the elusive gold convoy. We could
+get no accurate information concerning it.
+Some said it was behind, others ahead. We
+never ran it down. It may well be that it
+was concealed in a ravine near the road a
+few yards from where we passed. Just short
+of a town called Abu Kemal we caught three
+Germans. They were in terror when we took
+them, and afterward said that they had expected
+to be shot. Under decent treatment
+they soon became so insolent that they had to
+be brought up short.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/14.jpg"><img src="./images/14_th.jpg"
+alt="A &quot;Red Crescent&quot; ambulance"></a></p><p class="ctr">A &quot;Red Crescent&quot; ambulance</p>
+
+<p>During the run back to Ana we picked up
+the more important of our prisoners and took
+them with us. Twenty-two were all we could
+manage. I was running one of the big cars.
+It was always a surprise to see how easy they
+were to handle in spite of the weight of the
+armor-plate. We each took great pride in
+the car in which we generally rode. All had
+names. In the Fourteenth one section had
+&quot;Silver Dart&quot; and &quot;Silver Ghost&quot; and another<a name='Page_125'></a>
+&quot;Gray Terror&quot; and &quot;Gray Knight.&quot; The car
+in which I rode a great deal of the time met its
+fate only a few days before the armistice,
+long after I had gone to France. Two direct
+hits from an Austrian &quot;eighty-eight&quot; ended its
+career.</p>
+
+<p>It was after midnight when we got back to
+our camp in a palm-garden in Ana. Although
+we had not succeeded in capturing the gold convoy,
+we had brought in a number of valuable
+prisoners, and among other things I had found
+some papers belonging to a German political
+agent whom we had captured. These contained
+much information about the Arab situation,
+and through them it was all but proved
+that the German was the direct instigator of
+the murder of the political officer at Nejef.
+An amusing sidelight was thrown in the letters
+addressed by Arab sheiks through this agent
+to the Kaiser thanking him for the iron crosses
+they had been awarded. There must have
+been an underlying grim humor in distributing
+crosses to the Mohammedan Arabs in recognition
+of their efforts to withstand the advance
+into the Holy Land of the Christian invaders.</p>
+
+<p>On our arrival at Ana we were told that
+orders had come through that the town be
+<a name='Page_126'></a>evacuated on the following morning. Preparations
+were made to blow up the ammunition
+dump, which was fortunately concentrated
+in a series of buildings that joined each other.
+We warned the inhabitants and advised them
+to hide in the caves along the hillsides. We
+ourselves went back to the camp which we
+had occupied near the bridge the night before
+entering Ana. During the afternoon Major
+Edye, a political officer, turned up, travelling
+alone with an Arab attendant. He pitched his
+camp, consisting of a saddle and blanket, close
+beside us. He was an extraordinarily interesting
+man, with a great gift for languages. In the
+course of a year or so's wandering in Abyssinia
+he had learned both ancient and modern Abyssinian.
+There was a famous German Orientalist
+with whom he corresponded in the pre-war days.
+He had mailed him a letter just at the outbreak,
+which, written in ancient Abyssinian,
+must have been a good deal of a puzzle to the
+censors.</p>
+
+<p>The main explosion, taking place at the appointed
+time, was succeeded by smaller ones,
+which continued at gradually lengthening intervals
+throughout the night. General Cassels,
+who had commanded the cavalry brigade so
+<a name='Page_127'></a>ably throughout the advance, wished to return
+to Ana on the following morning in order to
+check up the thoroughness with which the
+dump had been destroyed. He took an escort
+of armored cars, and as I was the only one in
+the batteries who could speak Arabic, my services
+were requisitioned. As we approached
+the town the rattle of the small-arms ammunition
+sounded like a Fourth of July celebration.
+The general noticed that I had a kodak and
+asked me to go out into the dump and take
+some photographs. There was nothing to do
+but put on a bold front, but I have spent happier
+moments than those in which I edged my
+way gingerly over the smoking heaps to a
+ruined wall from which I could get a good view
+for my camera. As I came back a large shell
+exploded and we hastily moved the cars farther
+away.</p>
+
+<p>I went to the mayor's house to find out how
+the town had fared. He was a solemn old
+Arab, and showed me the damage done by the
+shells with an absolutely expressionless face.
+The houses within a fair radius had been riddled,
+but the natives had taken our warning
+and no one had been killed. After a cup of
+coffee in a lovely garden on the river-bank,<a name='Page_128'></a>
+I came back to the cars and we ran on through
+to Haditha. Here we were to remain for a
+week or ten days to permit the evacuation of
+the captured supplies.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far we had been having good luck with
+the weather, but it now began to threaten rain.
+We crawled beneath the cars with our blankets
+and took such precautions as were possible,
+but it availed us little when a veritable hurricane
+blew up at midnight. I was washed out
+from under my car, but before dark I had
+marked down a deserted hut, and thither I
+groped my way. Although it was abandoned
+by the Arabs, living traces of their occupancy
+remained. Still, even that was preferable to
+the rain, and the roof proved unexpectedly
+water-tight.</p>
+
+<p>All next day the storm continued. The
+Wadi Hauran, a large ravine reaching back
+into the desert for a hundred and fifty miles,
+became a boiling torrent. When we crossed
+over, it was as dry as a bone. A heavy lorry
+on which an anti-aircraft gun was mounted
+had been swirled away and smashed to bits.
+The ration question had been difficult all along,
+but now any further supply was temporarily
+out of the question.</p><a name='Page_129'></a>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, I was the only member of the
+brigade occupying Haditha who could speak
+enough Arabic to be of any use, so I was sent
+to look up the local mayor to see whether there
+was any food to be purchased. The town is
+built on a long island equidistant from either
+bank. We ferried across in barges. The native
+method was simpler. They inflated goatskins,
+removed their clothes, which they had
+fastened in a bundle on top of their heads, and
+with one hand on the goatskin they paddled
+and drifted over. By starting from the head of
+the island they could reach the shore opposite
+the down-stream end. The bobbing heads of
+the dignified old graybeards of the community
+looked most ludicrous. On landing they would
+solemnly don their clothes, deflate the skins,
+and go their way.</p>
+
+<p>The mayor proved both intelligent and agreeable.
+The food situation was such that it was
+obviously impossible for him to offer us any
+serious help. We held a conclave in the guest-house,
+sitting cross-legged among the cushions.
+In the centre a servant roasted coffee-beans on
+the large shovel-spoon that they use for that
+purpose. The representative village worthies
+impressed me greatly. The desert Arabs are
+<a name='Page_130'></a>always held to be vastly superior to their kinsmen
+of the town, and it is undoubtedly true as
+a general rule; nevertheless, the elders of Haditha
+were an unusually fine group of men. We
+got a few eggs, which were a most desirable
+luxury after a steady diet of black unsweetened
+tea and canned beef. We happened to have a
+sufficient supply of tea to permit us to make an
+appreciated gift to the village.</p>
+
+<p>My shoes had collapsed a few days before
+and I borrowed a pair from a Turk who had no
+further use for them. These were several sizes
+too large and fashioned in an oblong shape of
+mathematical exactness. Even in the motor
+machine-gun service, there is little that exceeds
+one's shoes in importance, and I was looking
+forward with almost equal eagerness to a square
+meal and a pair of my own shoes. The supply
+of reading-matter had fallen very low. I had
+only Disraeli's <i>Tancred</i>, about which I found
+myself unable to share Lady Burton's feelings,
+and a French account of a voyage from Baghdad
+to Aleppo in 1808. The author, Louis
+Jacques Rousseau, a cousin of the great Jean
+Jacques, belonged to a family of noted Orientalists.
+Born in Persia, and married to the
+daughter of the Dutch consul-general to that
+<a name='Page_131'></a>country, he was admirably equipped for the
+distinguished diplomatic career that lay before
+him in the East and in northern Africa.
+His treatises on the arch&aelig;ological remains that
+he met with on his many voyages are intelligent
+and thorough. The river towns have
+changed but little in the last hundred years,
+and the sketch of Hit might have been made
+only yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>Within three days after the rise, the waters
+of the Wadi Hauran subsided sufficiently for
+us to cross, and I received orders to return to
+Baghdad. The rain had brought about a
+change in the desert since we passed through
+on our way up. The lines of Paterson, the
+Australian poet, kept running through my head:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><i>&quot;For the rain and drought and sunshine make no changes in the street,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>In the sullen line of buildings and the ceaseless tramp of feet,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>But the bush hath moods and changes, as the seasons rise and fall,</i><br /></span>
+<span><i>And the men who know the bushland they are loyal through it all.&quot;</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The formerly arid floor of the desert was carpeted
+with a soft green, with myriads of little
+flowers, all small, but delicately fashioned.<a name='Page_132'></a>
+There were poppies, dwarf daisies, expanses of
+buttercups, forget-me-nots, and diminutive red
+flowers whose name I did not know. It started
+raining again, and we only just succeeded in
+winning our way through to Baghdad before
+the road became impassable.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<a name='Footnote_1_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_1'>[1]</a><div class='note'><p> Light Armored Motor Battery.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='VI'></a><h2><a name='Page_133'></a><a name='Page_134'></a><a name='Page_135'></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>BAGHDAD SKETCHES</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Although never in Baghdad for long at a
+time, I generally had occasion to spend four
+or five days there every other month. The
+life in any city is complex and interesting, but
+here it was especially so. We were among a
+totally foreign people, but the ever-felt intangible
+barrier of color was not present. For many
+of the opportunities to mingle with the natives
+I was indebted to Oscar Heizer, the American
+consul. Mr. Heizer has been twenty-five
+years in the Levant, the greater part of which
+time he has spent in the neighborhood of Constantinople.
+The outbreak of the war found
+him stationed at one of the principal ports of
+the Black Sea. There he witnessed part of the
+terrible Armenian massacres, when vast herds
+of the wretched people were driven inland to
+perish of starvation by the roadsides. Quiet
+and unassuming, but ever ready to act with
+speed and decision, he was a universal favorite
+with native and foreigner alike.</p><a name='Page_136'></a>
+
+<p>With him I used to ferry across the river for
+tea with the Asadulla Khan, the Persian consul.
+The house consisted of three wings built
+around a garden. The fourth side was the
+river-bank. The court was a jungle of flowering
+fruit-trees, alive with birds of different
+kinds, all singing garrulously without pause.
+There we would sit sipping sherbet, and cracking
+nuts, among which salted watermelon seeds
+figured prominently. Coffee and sweets of
+many and devious kinds were served, with
+arrack and Scotch whiskey for those who had
+no religious scruples. The Koran's injunction
+against strong drink was not very conscientiously
+observed by the majority, and even
+those who did not drink in public, rarely abstained
+in private. Only the very conservative&mdash;and
+these were more often to be found in the
+smaller towns&mdash;rigorously obeyed the prophet's
+commands. It was pleasant to smoke in the
+shade and watch the varied river-craft slipping
+by. The public bellams plied to and fro, rowed
+by the swart owners, while against them jostled
+the gufas&mdash;built like the coracles of ancient
+Britain&mdash;a round basket coated with pitch.
+No Anglo-Saxon can see them without thinking
+of the nursery rhyme of the &quot;wise men of<a name='Page_137'></a>
+Gotham who went to sea in a tub.&quot; These
+gufas were some of them twenty-five feet in
+diameter, and carried surprising loads&mdash;sometimes
+sheep and cattle alone&mdash;sometimes men
+and women&mdash;often both indiscriminately mingled.
+Propelling a gufa was an art in itself, for
+in the hands of the uninitiated it merely spun
+around without advancing a foot in the desired
+direction. The natives used long round-bladed
+paddles, and made good time across
+the river. Crossing over in one was a democratic
+affair, especially when the women were
+returning from market with knots of struggling
+chickens slung over their shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Asadulla Khan's profile always reminded me
+of an Inca idol that I once got in Peru. Among
+his scribes were several men of culture who
+discoursed most sagely on Persian literature;
+on Sadi and Hafiz, both of whom they held to
+be superior to Omar Khayyam. I tried through
+many channels to secure a manuscript of the
+&quot;Rubaiyat,&quot; but all I succeeded in obtaining
+was a lithograph copy with no place or date of
+publication; merely the remark that it had
+been printed during the cold months. I was
+told that the writings of Omar Khayyam were
+regarded as immoral and for that reason were
+<a name='Page_138'></a>not to be found in religious households. My
+Persian friends would quote at length from
+Sadi's <i>Gulistan</i> or <i>Rose Garden</i>, and go into
+raptures over its beauty.</p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>Below the consulate was a landing-place, and
+when we were ready to leave we would go down
+to the river-bank preceded by our servants
+carrying lanterns. They would call &quot;Abu
+bellam&quot; until a boat appeared. The term
+&quot;abu&quot; always amused me. Its literal meaning
+is &quot;father.&quot; In the bazaars a shop-owner was
+always hailed as &quot;father&quot; of whatever wares
+he had for sale. I remember one fat old man
+who sold porous earthenware jars&mdash;customers
+invariably addressed him as &quot;Abu hub&quot;&mdash;&quot;Father
+of water-coolers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>My best friend among the natives was a
+Kurdish chief named Hamdi Bey Baban. His
+father had been captured and taken to Constantinople.
+After living there a number of
+years in semicaptivity he died&mdash;by poison it
+was said. Hamdi was not allowed to return to
+Kurdistan until after he was a grown man and
+had almost forgotten his native language. He
+spoke and read both French and English.
+Eventually permission was granted him to live
+<a name='Page_139'></a>in Baghdad as long as he kept out of the Kurdish
+hills, so he set off by motor accompanied
+only by a French chauffeur. Gasolene was sent
+ahead by camel caravan to be left for him at
+selected points. The journey was not without
+incident, for the villagers had never before seen
+an automobile and regarded it as a devil;
+often stones were thrown at them, and on one
+occasion they were mobbed and Hamdi only
+escaped by driving full speed through the
+crowd.</p>
+
+<p>His existence in Baghdad had been subject
+to sudden upheavals. Once he was arrested
+and convoyed back to Constantinople; and
+just before the advance of the British his life
+was in great danger. Naturally enough he
+had little love for the Turk and staked everything
+on the final victory of the Allies.</p>
+
+<p>He intended writing a book on the history of
+his family, in which he was much interested.
+For material he was constantly purchasing
+books and manuscripts. In the East many
+well-known histories still exist only in manuscript
+form, and when a man wishes to build
+up a library he engages scribes and sends them
+to the place where a famous manuscript is kept
+with an order to make a copy. In the same
+<a name='Page_140'></a>way Hamdi Bey had men busied transcribing
+rare chronicles dealing with the career of his
+family&mdash;extant in but one or two examples in
+mosques. He once presented me with a large
+manuscript in Persian in which his family is
+mentioned, the mention taking the form of a
+statement to the effect that seventeen of them
+had had their heads removed!</p>
+
+<p>Next to various small tradesmen with whom
+I used to gossip, drink coffee, and play dominoes,
+my best Arab friend was Abdul Kader
+Pasha, a striking old man who had been a
+faithful ally to the British through thick and
+thin. The dinners at his house on the river-bank
+were feasts such as one reads of in ancient
+history. Course succeeded course without
+any definite plan; any one of them would
+have made a large and delicious meal in itself.
+True to Arab custom, the son of the house
+never sat down at table with his father, although
+before and after dinner he talked and
+smoked with us.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/15.jpg"><img src="./images/15_th.jpg"
+alt="A jeweller's booth in the bazaar"></a></p><p class="ctr">A jeweller's booth in the bazaar</p>
+
+<p>I had a number of good friends among the
+Armenians. There was not one of them but
+had some near relation, frequently a parent
+or a brother or sister, still among the Turks.
+Sometimes they knew them to be dead, more
+<a name='Page_141'></a>frequently they could only hope that such was
+the case and there was no further suffering to
+be endured. Many of these Armenians belonged
+to prominent families, numbering among
+their members men who had held the most
+important government posts in Constantinople.
+The secretary of the treasury was
+almost invariably an Armenian, for the race
+outstrips the Jews in its money touch.</p>
+
+<p>With one family I dined quite often&mdash;the
+usual interminable Oriental feast varying only
+from the Arab or Turkish dinners in a few special
+national dishes. All, excepting the aged
+grandmother, spoke French, and the daughters
+had a thorough grounding in the literature.
+Such English books as they knew they had
+read in French translations. The house was
+attractively furnished, with really beautiful
+rugs and old silverware. The younger generation
+played bridge, and the girls were always
+well dressed in European fashion. Whence the
+clothes came was a mystery, for nothing could
+have been brought in since the war, and even
+in ante-bellum days foreign clothes of that
+grade could never have been stocked but must
+have been imported in individual orders. The
+evenings were thoroughly enjoyable, for every<a name='Page_142'></a>thing
+was in such marked contrast to our
+every-day life. It must be remembered that
+these few Armenians were the only women with
+whom we could talk and laugh in Occidental
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>By far the best-informed and cleverest Arab
+was P&egrave;re Anastase. He was a Catholic, and
+under the supervision of the Political Department
+edited the local Arab paper. All his
+life he had worked building up a library&mdash;gathering
+rare books throughout Syria and
+Mesopotamia. He was himself an author of
+no small reputation. Just before the British
+took Baghdad the Germans pillaged his collection,
+sending the more valuable books to
+Constantinople and Berlin, and turning the
+rest over to the populace. The soldiers made
+great bonfires of many&mdash;others found their
+way to the bazaars, where he was later able to
+repurchase some of them. When talking of the
+sacking of his house, P&egrave;re Anastase would work
+himself into a white heat of fury and his eyes
+would flash as he bitterly cursed the vandals
+who had destroyed his treasures.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Baghdad that I first ran into Major
+E.B. Soane, whose <i>Through Mesopotamia and
+Kurdistan in Disguise</i> is a classic. Soane was
+<a name='Page_143'></a>born in southern France, his mother French
+and his father English. The latter walked
+across the United States from ocean to ocean
+in the early forties, so Soane came by his roving,
+adventurous spirit naturally. When still
+but little more than a boy he went out to work
+in the Anglo-Persian Bank, and immediately
+interested himself in the language and literature
+of the country. Some of his holidays he
+spent in the British Museum translating and
+cataloguing Persian manuscripts. Becoming
+interested in the Kurds, he spent a number of
+years among them, learning their languages
+and customs and joining in their raids.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as we got a foothold in the Kurdish
+Hills, Soane was sent up to administer the captured
+territory. His headquarters were at
+Khanikin, twenty-five miles from Kizil Robat
+and but a short distance from the Persian frontier.
+One morning during the time that I was
+stationed in that district I motored over to see
+him. It was a glorious day. The cloud effects
+were most beautiful, towering in billows of
+white above the snow peaks, against a background
+of deepest blue. The road wound in
+and out among the barren foot-hills until suddenly
+as I topped a rise I saw right below a
+<a name='Page_144'></a>great clump of palm-trees, with houses showing
+through here and there&mdash;the whole divided by
+a lovely river bestridden by an old seven-arch
+bridge. I picked my way through the narrow
+streets, scattering ragged Kurds right and left;
+past part of the covered bazaar, until I came
+to a house with a large courtyard, thronged
+with a motley array of Kurdish irregulars,
+armed with every sort of weapon. It was there
+that Soane administered his stern but practical
+justice, for he thoroughly understood how
+to handle these men.</p>
+
+<p>The district had suffered fearfully, for it had
+been occupied in turn by Turk and Russian,
+and then Turk again, before we took it over,
+and the unfortunate natives had been pillaged
+and robbed mercilessly. Thousands starved to
+death. When I was at Deli Abbas ghastly
+bands of ragged skeletons would come through
+to us begging food and work. Soane turned a
+large khan on the outskirts of the town into a
+poorhouse, and here he lodged the starving
+women and children that drifted in from all
+over Kurdistan. It was a fearful assemblage
+of scarecrows. As they got better he selected
+women from among them to whom he turned
+over the administration of the khan. They
+<a name='Page_145'></a>divided the unfortunates in gangs, and supervised
+the issue of dates on which they were fed.
+Such as were physically able were employed
+in cleaning the town. The Kurds are a fine,
+self-respecting race and it was easy to understand
+Soane's enthusiasm for them.</p>
+
+<hr  />
+
+<p>In Baghdad you lived either in the cellars
+or on the housetops. The former were called
+serdabs. A large chimney, cowled to face the
+prevailing wind, served for ventilation, and on
+the hottest days one was cool and comfortable.
+We slept on the roofs, and often dined there,
+too. Since the town was the General Headquarters
+of the Expeditionary Force, one was
+always sure to meet many friends. A comfortable
+and well-run officers' club was installed,
+as well as warrant officers' and enlisted
+men's clubs.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally race meetings were planned and
+the various divisions would send representatives.
+Frank Wooton, the well-known jockey,
+was a despatch-rider, and usually succeeded in
+getting leave enough to allow him to ride some
+general's horses. An Arab race formed part of
+the programme. Once a wild tribesman who
+had secured a handsome lead almost lost the
+<a name='Page_146'></a>race by taking off his cloak and waving it
+round his head as he gave ear-piercing shouts
+of triumph. The Arab riding second was less
+emotional and attended better to the business
+in hand, but his horse was not quite good
+enough to make the difference.</p>
+
+<p>The scene at the race-course was a gay one.
+The color was chiefly contributed by the Jewesses
+who wore their hooded silk cloaks of
+lively hue&mdash;green or pink or yellow. The only
+crowd that I saw to vie with it was one which
+watched the prisoners taken at Ramadie march
+through the town. Turkish propaganda, circulated
+in the bazaars, gave out that instead
+of taking the prisoners we claimed, we had in
+reality suffered a defeat, and it was decided
+that the sight of the captive Turks would have
+a salutary effect upon the townsmen. Looking
+down from a housetop the red fezzes and the
+gay-colored abas made the crowd look like a
+vast field of poppies.</p>
+
+<p>When I was at Samarra an amusing incident
+took place in connection with a number of
+officers' wives who were captured at Ramadie.
+The army commander didn't wish to ship them
+off to India and Burma with their husbands,
+so he sent them up to Samarra with instruc<a name='Page_147'></a>tions
+that they be returned across the lines to
+the Turks. After many aeroplane messages
+were exchanged it was agreed that we should
+leave them at a designated hill and that the
+Turks would later come for them. Meanwhile
+we had arranged quarters for them, trying to
+do everything in a manner that would be in
+harmony with the Turkish convenances. When
+the wives were escorted forth to be turned
+back to their countrymen, they were all weeping
+bitterly. Whether it was that the Turk
+in his casual manner decided that one day
+was as good as another, or whether he felt
+that he had no particular use for these particular
+women, we never knew, but at all
+events twenty-four hours later one of our patrols
+came upon the prisoners still forlornly
+waiting. We shipped them back to Baghdad.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally I would go to one of the Arab
+theatres. The plays were generally burlesques,
+for the Arab has a keen sense of humor and
+greatly appreciates a joke. Most of the puns
+were too involved for me to follow, but there
+was always a certain amount of slap-stick
+comedy that could be readily understood.
+Then there was dancing&mdash;as a whole monotonous
+and mediocre; but there was one old man
+<a name='Page_148'></a>who was a remarkable performer, and would
+have been appreciated on any stage in the
+world. The topical songs invariably amused
+me&mdash;they were so universal in spirit. The
+chorus of one which was a great hit ran:
+&quot;Haido, haido, rahweni passak!&quot; &quot;I say, I
+say, show me your pass.&quot; There had been
+much trouble with spies and every one was
+required to provide himself with a certificate
+of good conduct and to show it on demand.
+It was to this that the song referred.</p>
+
+<p>Captain C.G. Lloyd was my companion on
+many rambles among the natives. He had
+been stationed in Burma and India for many
+years, and was a good Persian scholar. Like
+every one who has knocked about to any extent
+among native peoples, his career had not been
+lacking in incident. I remember on one occasion
+asking him why it was that he never
+joined me in a cup of coffee when we stopped
+at a coffee-house. He replied that he had always
+been wary of coffee since a man with
+him was poisoned by a cup which was intended
+for him.</p>
+
+<p>I always looked forward to a trip to Baghdad,
+for it gave me a chance to mingle in a
+totally different life from that which daily
+<a name='Page_149'></a>surrounded me, and temporarily, at least, forget
+about the war in which the world was
+plunged. Still, the morning set to leave invariably
+found me equally glad to shove off
+once more into the great expanses of the
+desert.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='VII'></a><h2><a name='Page_150'></a><a name='Page_151'></a><a name='Page_152'></a><a name='Page_153'></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>When I reached headquarters after the attack
+on the Euphrates front, I was expecting
+to hear that my transfer to France had gone
+through and receive orders to proceed thither
+immediately. It had always been my intention
+to try to join the American army once it
+began to take a real part in the war, and for
+some time past I had been casting about in
+my mind for the best method to carry out my
+plans. When affairs looked so very black for
+the Allied forces in March and April, 1918, I
+decided that France was the place where every
+one, who could by any possibility manage it,
+should be. General Gillman, the chief of
+staff, had on more than one occasion shown
+himself a good friend, and I determined to
+once more task his kindness. He said that he
+thought he could arrange for my transfer to
+France, and that once there I could work out
+<a name='Page_154'></a>the best way of getting into the American
+army.</p>
+
+<p>Everything went well, and I was daily expecting
+my orders, when Major Thompson,
+who commanded the brigade of armored cars,
+sent for me and told me that an advance was
+being planned on the Kurdish front. Only
+two batteries were to be taken&mdash;the Eighth
+and the Thirteenth&mdash;but he said that he would
+like to have me go along in command of
+the supply-train. Of course I jumped at the
+chance, as the attack promised to be most interesting.</p>
+
+<p>We were told to be ready to move on an
+hour's notice. For several days the weather
+held us back. The rain, helped out by the
+melting snow from the mountains, caused the
+rivers to rise in flood. The Tigris rose sixteen
+feet in a night. The lower bridge was broken
+and washed away. Everything possible was
+done to reinforce the upper bridge, but it was
+hourly expected to give way under the strain
+of the whirling yellow waters. The old Arab
+rivermen said that they could tell by the color
+just which of the tributaries were in spate.
+When they saw or thought they saw a new admixture,
+they would shake their heads and
+<a name='Page_155'></a>say: &quot;Such and such a river is now also in
+flood&mdash;the Tigris will rise still further.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>On the night of April 24 we at length got
+our orders and at six o'clock the following
+morning we set out, prepared to run through
+to Ain Leilah. The country was indeed
+changed since I passed through six weeks
+before. The desert had blossomed. We ran
+through miles and miles of clover; the sweet
+smell seemed so wholesomely American, recalling
+home and family, and the meadows of
+Long Island. The brilliant red poppies were
+more in keeping with the country; and we
+passed by Indian cavalry reinforcements with
+the scarlet flowers stuck in their black hair
+and twined in the head-stalls of the horses.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached the hills they looked less
+bleak&mdash;a soft green clothed the hollows, and
+the little oasis of Ain Leilah no longer stood out
+in the same marked contrast as when last I
+visited it. The roads were in good shape, and
+we reached camp at four in the afternoon. I
+took one of the tenders and set off to look up
+some old friends in the regiments near by. As
+I passed a group of Arabs that had just finished
+work on the roads, I noticed that they
+were playing a game that was new to me. A
+<a name='Page_156'></a>stake was driven into the ground, with a
+horsehair rope ten or twelve feet in length attached
+to it. An old man had hold of the end
+of the rope. About the stake were piled some
+clothes, and the Arabs were standing around
+in a circle just out of reach of the man with the
+rope. The object was to dart in and snatch
+up something from the heap without the old
+man who was on guard catching you. They
+were enjoying themselves hugely&mdash;the oldest
+graybeards behaving as if they were children&mdash;a
+very pleasant side of the Arab.</p>
+
+<p>Our instructions were to be ready to pull
+out before daybreak. The mission was, as
+usual, a flanking one. The direct attack was to
+be delivered on Kara Tepe, and, if that were
+successful, upon Kifri. We were to intercept
+the arrival of reinforcements, or cut off the
+retreat of the garrisons, as the case might be.</p>
+
+<p>In the early morning hours the country was
+lovely&mdash;rolling grass land &quot;with a hint of hills
+behind&quot;&mdash;miles of daisies with clusters of
+blood-red poppies scattered through them&mdash;and
+occasional hollows carpeted with a brilliant
+blue flower. In the river courses there
+were numbers of brilliantly hued birds&mdash;the
+gayest colors I saw in Mesopotamia with the
+<a name='Page_157'></a>exception of the vivid arsenic-green birds
+around Ana on the Euphrates. In one place I
+thought that the ground was covered with red
+flowers, but a close inspection proved it to be
+myriads of tiny red insects swarming on the
+grass stems.</p>
+
+<p>Column marching is slow and wearisome, and
+after the sun rose the heat became intense.
+The dust smothered us; there was not a breath
+of air to rid us of it for even a moment. The
+miles seemed interminable. At noon we halted
+beside a narrow stream known as Oil River&mdash;a
+common name in this part of the country where
+oil abounds and the water is heavily impregnated
+with it. For drinking it was abominable&mdash;and
+almost spoiled the tea upon which
+we relied for a staple. A few miles beyond, the
+engineers found a suitable location to throw a
+bridge across the creek. The main body was
+halted at a place known as Umr Maidan and
+we were sent over the bridge to form across
+the main road leading from Kara Tepe back
+into the Turkish territory.</p>
+
+<p>It was nightfall before we had effected a
+crossing, and we groped our way along until
+we came upon the road. It was impossible to
+do very much in the way of selecting a posi<a name='Page_158'></a>tion,
+but we arranged the cars as best we could.
+When you were off at large in the desert you
+were what the army called &quot;Out in the blue,&quot;
+and that was certainly our situation on the
+night of April 26. We all expected that we
+would intercept traffic going one way or the
+other, but the night passed without incident
+or excitement.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/16.jpg"><img src="./images/16_th.jpg"
+alt="Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge"></a></p><p class="ctr">Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge</p>
+
+<p>By four in the morning we were once more
+feeling our way along through the darkness.
+As it lightened we came under observation by
+the Turks, who started in to shell us. We
+learned from our aeroplanes that Kifri had
+been evacuated; the garrison was falling back
+along a road running parallel to the one on
+which we were, separated by eight or ten miles
+of broken country. By this time our cavalry
+had caught up with us. They pushed off across
+country to intercept the Turks. We attempted
+to do likewise but it was more difficult, and
+what with dodging in and out to avoid a ravine
+here or a hill there, we made little headway.
+At length we struck a road that led in approximately
+the direction whither we wished to go.
+It was already early afternoon before, upon
+topping a rise, we caught sight of a good-sized
+body of Turks marching on a road which ran
+<a name='Page_159'></a>along the base of a range of steep, stony hills.
+We put on as much speed as was possible, and
+headed north to try to intercept them. The
+cavalry were coming from the south, and while
+we were circling around they charged in upon
+the Turks. It was a stirring scene. The powerful
+Indians sat their horses with the utmost
+grace. Their drawn sabres flashed in the sun.
+As they came to close quarters the turbaned
+heads bent forward and we could hear the
+shouts and high-pitched cries of triumph as
+the riders slashed at the foe. The wounded
+and dead testified to their skill as swordsmen.
+The whole sight reminded me more of the battle
+books I read as a boy than anything I saw
+in the war. About six hundred prisoners were
+taken, but many of the Turks escaped to the
+mountains and lay among the rocks, whence
+they could snipe at us with impunity. They
+were a tenacious lot, for all next day when we
+were using the road below the hills they continued
+to shoot at us from the places whence
+it was impossible to dislodge them.</p>
+
+<p>While the prisoners were being brought in
+we caught sight of one of our aeroplanes crashing.
+Making our way over to it we found that
+neither the pilot nor the observer was seri<a name='Page_160'></a>ously
+hurt. Flying in Mesopotamia was made
+unusually difficult by the climatic conditions.
+The planes were designed for work in France
+and during the summer months the heat and
+dryness warped the propeller blades and indeed
+all the wooden parts. Then, too, the fine
+dust would get into the machinery when the
+aviator was taxiing for a start. Many pilots
+coming out from France with brilliant records
+met an early and untimely end because they
+could not realize how very different the conditions
+were. I remember one poor young
+fellow who set off on a reconnaissance without
+the food and water he was required by regulations
+to carry. He got lost and ran out of
+gasolene&mdash;being forced to land out in the
+desert. The armored cars went off in search
+of him, and on the second morning after he
+had come down they found his body near their
+bivouac. He had evidently got that far during
+the night and died of exhaustion and exposure
+practically within hearing. He was stripped
+of his clothes; whether this had been done by
+himself or by the tribesmen was never determined.
+A death of this sort always seems
+so much sadder than being legitimately killed in
+combat. The L.A.M. batteries were in close
+<a name='Page_161'></a>touch with the Royal Flying Corps, for when
+news came in that a plane was down in the
+desert or some part of the debatable land, we
+would be detailed to go out in search of the
+occupants. A notice printed in Arabic, Persian,
+Turkish, and Kurdish was fastened into
+each aeroplane informing the reader of the reward
+that would be paid him if the pilot were
+brought in safety to the British lines. This
+was done in case a plane got lost and was
+driven down out of its course among the
+tribesmen.</p>
+
+<p>The night of the 27th we bivouacked once
+more &quot;out in the blue.&quot; Dawn found me
+on my way back to Umr Maidan to lay in
+a new supply of gasolene. I made a rapid
+trip and caught up with the armored cars
+in action in a large swampy plain. The grass
+was very high and the ground so soft that
+it was difficult to accomplish anything. Two
+or three small hills offered vantage-points, but
+they were not neglected by the Turk, and
+among those that fell was the colonel of the
+Twenty-First cavalry&mdash;the regiment that had
+acquitted itself so well in the charge of the day
+before.</p>
+
+<p>We were ten miles from Tuz Khurmartli,
+<a name='Page_162'></a>the next important town held by the enemy
+now that Kifri had been taken. It was thither
+that the Turks had been retreating when we
+cut them off. Finding that we were unable to
+operate effectively where we were, it was decided
+that we should make our way across to
+the Kifri-Kirkuk road and advance along it to
+make a frontal attack upon Tuz. Our orders
+were to proceed to a deserted village known as
+Kulawand, and wait there for the command to
+advance. When we got to the road we found
+the hills still occupied by camel-guns and
+machine-guns. We replied ineffectively, for
+we had no means of dislodging them, nor did
+the cavalry when they came up. Kulawand
+we found to be a fair-sized native village unoccupied
+save for a single hut full of old women
+and children. Here we waited until nightfall
+for the orders that never came. I sat under a
+ruined wall reading alternatively Camoens'
+<i>Lusiad</i> and <i>David Harum</i> until darkness fell.</p>
+
+<p>During the night some infantry came up,
+both native and British. They had had stiff
+marching during the last few days, and were
+done up, but very cheerful at the prospect of
+an attack on the morrow. They had some hard
+fighting ahead of them. The King's Own in
+<a name='Page_163'></a>particular distinguished itself in taking a
+stubbornly contested and strongly held hill.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn we were under way. We had heard
+reports during the night that the Turks had
+evacuated Tuz&mdash;but it was not long before we
+found that such was not the case. They were
+still there and showed every evidence of staying.
+A small village five or six miles to the
+southwest was also bitterly contested. Our
+cavalry did some excellent work, capturing
+small hills held with machine-guns.</p>
+
+<p>We advanced down the road beside the hills.
+A mile before reaching Tuz we ran into the
+Aq Su, a large stream flowing through a narrow
+cleft in the hills. Fortunately the river
+was very low, and there were several places
+where it was spread out over such a wide bed
+that it seemed as if it might be possible to get
+the cars across. I emptied a Ford van and
+set out to do some prospecting. First I went
+up-stream, which was toward the mountains,
+but I could not go far, for there was an ancient
+fort situated at the mouth of the gorge, and it
+had not been evacuated. Finding a likely looking
+place a little below, I made a cast and just
+succeeded in getting through. It was easy to
+see that it would not be possible for the low-<a name='Page_164'></a>swung
+Rolls to cross under their own power,
+for the fly-wheel would throw the water up
+into the motor. There was nothing to do but
+send back for artillery horses to pull the armored
+cars across.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, as our artillery had practically
+ceased firing on the town and the Turks
+seemed to have entirely evacuated it, I thought
+that I would go up and take over and see
+whether there had not been some valuable
+documents left behind. I drove along past
+some abandoned artillery into the main street.
+A number of Turkish soldiers came up to surrender
+and I told them to have the Reis Beledia&mdash;the
+town mayor&mdash;report to me. When
+he came I directed him to take me to the quarters
+of the Turkish commanding general. As
+we drove through the covered bazaar everything
+was closed. Scarcely anybody was in
+the streets&mdash;but I could see the inhabitants
+peeping out from behind lattices. It was a
+good thing to have the old mayor along, for
+he served as an excellent hostage, and I kept
+close watch upon him. He brought me to a
+prosperous, neat-looking house with heavy
+wooden doors. In response to his summons
+an old woman came and ushered us into a
+<a name='Page_165'></a>large, cool room, well furnished and with beautiful
+Kurdish rugs. There we found four young
+girls, who, it was explained to me, formed the
+Turkish general's &quot;field harem.&quot; He had
+left in too much of a hurry to take them with
+him. They were Kurds and Circassians, or
+Georgians&mdash;and the general had shown no lack
+of taste in his selection! True to the tradition
+of the Garden of Eden, this harem proved
+disastrous to a brother officer who, having
+heard of my capture, sent me &quot;priority&quot; over
+the field service lines a ribald message as to
+its disposition. &quot;Priority&quot; wires are sent only
+on affairs of the greatest importance, and when
+I left the country my friend was slated to explain
+matters before a court martial. There
+were no papers of any great value to be found,
+and I told the mayor to take me to the more
+important ammunition and supply dumps.
+By the time I had located these some cavalry
+had come in, and I went back to the river to
+help get the fighting cars across.</p>
+
+<p>Once we had these safely over we set out in
+pursuit of the Turks. The next town of importance
+was a ramshackle mud-walled affair
+called Tauq, twenty miles beyond, on the far
+side of a river known as the Tauq Chai. The
+<a name='Page_166'></a>leading cars pursued to within sight of the
+town and came in for a good deal of shelling.</p>
+
+<p>The Turks we captured were in far poorer
+shape than those we had recently taken on the
+Euphrates front. Their shoes were worn out,
+they were very ragged, and, what was of greater
+significance, they were badly nourished. The
+length of their line of communications had
+evidently severely strained them. Supplies had
+to come overland all the way from Nisibin,
+which is more than a hundred miles beyond Mosul.
+The broken country made the transportation
+a difficult problem to solve. It was a miracle
+that they had the morale to fight as they
+did under such disadvantageous conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Here, as throughout the campaign, it was a
+continual source of pride to see the way in
+which our soldiers behaved to the natives. I
+never heard of a case in which man, woman, or
+child was wrongfully treated. Minor offenses
+were sometimes committed, but these were
+quickly righted. No doubt there were isolated
+instances of wrong-doing, for in such a large
+army there are bound to be degenerate individuals
+from whose conduct it is unfair to
+judge the whole.</p>
+
+<p>That night we encamped in the outskirts of<a name='Page_167'></a>
+Tuz, not far from the Turkish aerodrome.
+Next morning one of the batteries was ordered
+to reconnoitre as far as the town&mdash;pursuing a
+different route than that taken on the previous
+day. The commanding officer asked me to go
+along because of my knowledge of Arabic.
+The road followed the telegraph-lines, and part
+of the time that was the only way in which
+we could distinguish it from the surrounding
+country. Of course, the map was hopelessly
+incorrect. The villages were not even rightly
+named. A great deal of reconnoitring was
+called for, and in one village we had to knock
+the corner off a mud house to enable us to make
+a sharp right-angle turn. The natives were in
+pitiful condition. The Turks had not only
+taken all their crops, but even the grain that
+should be reserved to sow for the following
+year. The sheep had been killed in the lambing
+season, so the flocks were sadly depleted.
+Such standing grain as there was left looked
+flourishing. The wheat waved above the cars.</p>
+
+<p>As we came out of a deep, broad ravine that
+had caused us much delay and difficulty, we
+caught sight of an attractive town situated on
+a steep, flat-topped hill. Upon drawing near,
+a fine-looking, white-bearded Arab rode up on
+<a name='Page_168'></a>a small gray mare. He said that he was the
+head man of the town; that he hated the Turks,
+and would like to be of any assistance possible
+to us. I asked him if the enemy had evacuated
+Tauq. He replied that they had. I then asked
+him if he were positive about it. He offered
+to accompany us to prove it. The trail was
+so bad that we could not go fast, and he rode
+along beside us at a hand-gallop.</p>
+
+<p>When we came to the river in front of the
+town we found that it was impossible to get
+the armored cars across. The Turks had evidently
+fallen back, but not far, for they were
+dropping in shells with regularity. Our Arab
+friend told us that there was a bridge six
+miles up-stream, but it was too late for us to
+attempt it, and we turned back to Tuz after
+arranging with Sheikh Muttar to meet us in
+the morning.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/17.jpg"><img src="./images/17_th.jpg"
+alt="The Kurd and his wife"></a></p><p class="ctr">The Kurd and his wife</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/18.jpg"><img src="./images/18_th.jpg"
+alt="Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds"></a></p><p class="ctr">Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds</p>
+
+<p>Next day we found him waiting for us as
+he had promised. With him were two handsome
+Kurds. One of them had his wife perched
+behind him on the horse's crupper. Together
+they undertook to guide us up to the bridge.
+It was invariably difficult to find out from
+natives whether or not a road was passable
+for motor-cars. They were accustomed to
+<a name='Page_169'></a>think only in terms of horses or men, and could
+not realize that a bad washout might be impassable
+for automobiles. Curiously enough,
+even those natives whom we had taken along
+with us on several reconnaissances as guides
+could not be trusted to give an opinion as to
+the feasibility of a proposed route. We experienced
+no little trouble in following our
+guides to the bridge, although we afterward
+discovered a good road that cut off from the
+main trail about half-way between Tuz and
+Tauq.</p>
+
+<p>When we reached the bridge we found it to
+be a solid, well-built affair of recent construction.
+The retreating Turks had tried to blow
+it up, but the most vital charges had failed to
+go off, so the damage done would not be sufficiently
+serious to stop our passage, after six
+or seven hours' preliminary work. We immediately
+sent back for the engineers, and put
+in the time while waiting by taking a much-needed
+bath in the rapids beneath one of the
+side arches. Every one who has wandered
+about in the waste places of the world can recall
+certain swims that will always stand out
+in his memory. Perhaps they have been after
+a long and arduous hunt&mdash;perhaps at the end
+<a name='Page_170'></a>of a weary march. Our plunge in the Tauq
+Chai took its place among these.</p>
+
+<p>In the late afternoon we drove back to Tuz.
+Our camp there was anything but cheerful,
+for swarms of starving townsfolk hovered on
+the outskirts ready to pounce on any refuse
+that the men threw away. Discarded tin cans
+were cleaned out until the insides shone like
+mirrors. The men gave away everything they
+could possibly spare from their rations. As
+the news spread, the starving mountain Kurds
+began straggling in; and the gruesome band
+made one glad to leave camp early and return
+after dark. Our line of communication was so
+extended that it was impossible to attempt any
+relief work.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning we crossed over the
+bridge with little trouble, but ran into a lot of
+difficulty when we tried to make our way down
+to the town. A couple of miles above the main
+town there is a small settlement grouped on a
+hill around the mosque of Zain El Abidin.
+The &quot;mutabelli,&quot; or keeper of the shrine, is
+an important personage in the community, so
+when he appeared riding a richly caparisoned
+stallion and offered to accompany us to the
+town, we welcomed the opportunity of going
+<a name='Page_171'></a>in under such good auspices. We decided to
+take Seyid Mustapha, for that was his name, in
+one of the Ford vans with us. It was comparatively
+easy to get the light car up over the precipitous,
+rocky trail; and eventually one of the
+fighting cars succeeded in following. I was
+driving, with Mustapha beside me. In front
+of us on a white horse galloped the Seyid's
+attendant singing and shouting and proclaiming
+our arrival. We stopped at Mustapha's
+house for a cup of coffee and a discussion of
+events. The information which we secured
+from him afterward proved unusually correct.
+I took him on with us to the town so that he
+could identify the head man and see that we
+got hold of the right people. Our reception
+was by no means cordial, although after we
+had talked a little and explained what we were
+after, the mayor became cheerful and expansive.
+He had a jovial, rotund face, covered
+in large part by a bushy beard, and would
+have done excellently as a model for Silenus.
+In the town were a handful of Turkish stragglers&mdash;among
+them a stalwart Greek who
+spoke a little English. He said that he had
+been impressed into service by the Turks and
+was most anxious to join our forces.</p><a name='Page_172'></a>
+
+<p>We found large stores of ammunition and
+other supplies, among them a wireless set.
+What interested us most, I am afraid, was the
+quantity of chickens that we saw strutting
+about. A few of them and a good supply of
+eggs found their way to the automobiles in
+short order. We were always very particular
+about paying for whatever we took, and seeing
+that the men did likewise; our reputation
+went before us, and the native, as a rule, took
+it for granted that we would pay. It was up
+to the officers to see that the prices were not
+exorbitant. We always used Indian currency&mdash;the
+rupee and the anna. In normal times
+a rupee is about a third of a dollar. Throughout
+the occupied area Turkish currency also
+circulated, but the native invariably preferred
+to be paid in Indian. Curiously enough, even
+on entering towns like Tauq, we found the
+inhabitants eager for payment in rupees. I
+was told that in the money market in Baghdad
+a British advance would be heralded by a
+slump in Turkish exchange. Paper rupees
+were almost everywhere as readily accepted
+as silver, but paper liras and piasters were
+soon of so little value that they were no longer
+in circulation.</p><a name='Page_173'></a>
+
+<p>When we got back to camp I found a wire
+informing me that I had been transferred to
+the American army, and ordering me to report
+at once to Baghdad to be sent to France.
+Major Thompson asked me if I would delay
+my return until the end of the advance. It
+was rumored that we would continue to push
+on and would attack Kirkuk. Many felt that
+the difficulty that was already being experienced
+in rationing us would preclude our
+thrusting farther. Still, I made up my mind
+that as long as the major wished it and would
+wire for permission I would stay a few days
+longer on the chance of the attack continuing.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 3d we moved camp
+to the far side of the Tauq Chai bridge. When
+the tenders were unloaded I started back to
+bring up a supply of gasolene, with the purpose
+of making a dump in case we were called upon
+for a further advance. I was told that the
+nearest supply from which I could draw was
+at Umr Maidan; and the prospect of running
+back, a distance of seventy miles, was not
+cheerful. When I got as far as Tuz I found
+a friend in charge of the dump there, and he
+let me draw what I wanted, so I turned back
+to try to get to the bridge by dark. One car
+<a name='Page_174'></a>after another got in trouble; first it was a
+puncture, then it was a tricky carburetor that
+refused to be put to rights; towing-ropes were
+called into requisition, but the best had been
+left behind, and those we had were rotted,
+and broke on every hill. Lastly a broken axle
+put one of the tenders definitely out of commission,
+and, of course, I had to wait behind
+with it. To add to everything, a veritable
+hurricane set in, with thunder and lightning
+and torrents of rain. The wind blew so hard
+that I thought the car would be toppled over.
+What made us more gloomy than anything else
+was the thought of all the dry river courses
+that would be roaring floods by morning, and
+probably hold up the ration supply indefinitely.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later the orders for which we had
+been waiting came through. We were to
+march upon a town called Taza Khurmatli,
+lying fifteen miles beyond Tauq and ten short
+of Kirkuk. If we met with no opposition there
+we were to push straight on. From all we
+could hear Taza was occupied only by cavalry,
+which would probably fall back without contesting
+our advance. The cars had been out
+on reconnaissance near the town for the last
+<a name='Page_175'></a>two days, and had come in for artillery and
+machine-gun fire; but it was believed that the
+Turks had everything ready to withdraw their
+guns on our approach.</p>
+
+<p>In the gray light that preceded dawn we
+saw shadowy columns of infantry and artillery
+and cavalry passing by our camp. The costumes
+of the different regiments made a break
+in the drab monotony. The Mesopotamian
+Expeditionary Force was composed of varied
+components. Steel helmets could be worn only
+in winter. In many of the native regiments
+the British officers wore tasselled pugrees,
+and long tunics that were really shirts, and an
+adaption of the native custom of wearing the
+shirt-tails outside the trousers. The Gurkhas
+were supplied with pith helmets. It was generally
+claimed that this was unnecessary, but
+the authorities felt that coming from a cold,
+high climate they would be as much affected
+by the Mesopotamian sun as were Europeans.
+The presence of the Indian troops brought
+about unusual additions to the dry &quot;General
+Routine Orders&quot; issued by general headquarters.
+One of them, referring to a religious
+festival of the Sikhs, ran:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The following cable message received from<a name='Page_176'></a>
+Sunder Signh Hagetha, Amritsar, addressed to
+Sikhs in Mesopotamian force:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To our most Dear Brothers now serving
+the Benign King-Emperor oversea, the chief
+Khalsa Dewan tenders hearty and sincere
+greetings on the auspicious Gurpurb of First
+Guru. You are upholding the name and fame
+of Gurupurb. Our hearts are with you and
+our prayers are that Satguru and Akalpurkh
+may ever be with you and lead you to victory
+and return home safe, after vanquishing the
+King-Emperor's foes, with honor and flying
+colors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The British Empire was well and loyally
+served by her Indian subjects, and by none
+more faithfully than the Sikhs.</p>
+
+<p>We let the column get well started before we
+shoved off in our cars. The trail was wide
+enough to pass without interfering; and long
+before we were in sight of Taza we had taken
+our place ahead. As was foreseen, the enemy
+evacuated the town with scarce a show of resistance.
+I set off to interview the local head
+man. In the spring all the upper Mesopotamian
+towns are inundated by flocks of storks, but
+I have never seen them in greater force than
+in Taza. On almost every housetop were a
+<a name='Page_177'></a>couple, throwing their heads back and clattering
+their beaks in the odd way that gives
+them their onomatopoetic Arabic name of
+Lak-Lak. It sounded like the rattle of machine-guns;
+so much so that on entering the
+village, for the first second I thought that the
+Turks were opening up on us. No native will
+molest a stork; to do so is considered to the
+last degree inauspicious.</p>
+
+<p>There was but little water in the river running
+by Taza, and we managed to get the cars
+through under their own power. A few miles
+farther on lay a broad watercourse, dry in the
+main, but with the centre channel too deep to
+negotiate, so there was nothing to be done
+without the help of the artillery horses. The
+Turks were shelling the vicinity of the crossing,
+so we drew back a short distance and sent
+word that we were held up waiting for assistance
+to get us over.</p>
+
+<p>Once we had reached the far side we set out
+to pick our way round Kirkuk to get astride
+the road leading thence to Altun Kupri. This
+is the main route from Baghdad to Mosul, the
+chief city on the upper Tigris, across the river
+from the ruins of Nineveh. It was a difficult
+task finding a way practicable for the cars, as
+<a name='Page_178'></a>the ground was still soft from the recent rains.
+It was impossible to keep defiladed from Turkish
+observation, but we did not supply them
+with much in the way of a target. At length
+we got round to the road, and started to advance
+down it to Kirkuk. The town, in common
+with so many others in that part of the
+country, is built on a hill. The Hamawand
+Kurds are inveterate raiders, and good fortifications
+are needed to withstand them. As we
+came out upon the road we caught sight of our
+cavalry preparing to attack. The Turks were
+putting up a stout resistance, with darkness
+fast coming to their aid. After approaching
+close to the town, we were ordered to return to
+a deserted village for the night, prepared to go
+through in the early morning.</p>
+
+<p>The co-ordinates of the village were given,
+and we easily found it on the map; but it was
+quite another proposition to locate it physically.
+To add to our difficulties, the sky clouded
+over and pitchy blackness settled down. It
+soon started to rain, so we felt that the best we
+could do was select as likely a spot as came to
+hand and wait for morning. I made up my
+mind that the front seat of a van, uncomfortable
+and cramped as it was, would prove the
+<a name='Page_179'></a>best bed for the night. My estimate was
+correct, for at midnight the light drizzle, that
+was scarcely more than a Scotch mist, turned
+into a wild, torrential downpour that all but
+washed away my companions. The waterproof
+flap that I had rigged withstood the onslaughts
+of wind and rain in a fashion that
+was as gratifying as it was unexpected. The
+vivid flashes of lightning showed the little dry
+ravine beside us converted into a roaring,
+swirling torrent. The water was rushing past
+beneath the cars, half-way up to their hubs.
+A large field hospital had been set up close
+to the banks of the stream at Taza. We afterward
+heard that the river had risen so rapidly
+that many of the tents and a few ambulances
+were washed away.</p>
+
+<p>By morning it had settled down into a
+steady, businesslike downpour. We found
+that we were inextricably caught in among
+some low hills. There was not the slightest
+chance of moving the fighting cars; they were
+bogged down to the axle. There was no alternative
+other than to wait until the rain
+stopped and the mud dried. Fortunately our
+emergency rations were still untouched.</p>
+
+<p>Our infantry went over at dawn, and won
+<a name='Page_180'></a>through into the town. If it had not been for
+the rain we would have made some important
+captures. As it was, the Turks destroyed the
+bridge across the Hasa Su and retreated to
+Altun Kupri by the road on the farther bank.
+From a hill near by we watched everything,
+powerless to help in any way.</p>
+
+<p>At noon the sky unexpectedly cleared and
+the sun came out. We unloaded a Ford van,
+and with much pushing and no little spade
+work managed to get it down to a road running
+in the direction of Kirkuk. We found the
+surface equal to the light car, and slowly made
+our way to the outskirts of the town, with occasional
+halts where digging and shoving were
+required. We satisfied ourselves that, given a
+little sun, we could bring the armored cars out
+of their bog and through to the town.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/19.jpg"><img src="./images/19_th.jpg"
+alt="Kirkuk"></a></p><p class="ctr">Kirkuk</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, in spite of the fact that more
+rain had fallen during the night, I set to work
+on my tenders, and at length succeeded in
+putting them all in Kirkuk. We were billeted
+in the citadel, a finely built, substantial affair,
+with a courtyard that we could turn into a
+good garage. The Turks had left in great haste,
+and, although they had attempted a wholesale
+destruction of everything that they could
+<a name='Page_181'></a>not take, they had been only partially successful.
+In my room I found a quantity of pamphlets
+describing the American army&mdash;with diagrams
+of insignia, and pictures of fully equipped
+soldiers of the different branches of the service.
+There was also a map of the United States
+showing the population by States. The text
+was, of course, in Turkish and the printing
+excellently done. What the purpose might be
+I could not make out.</p>
+
+<p>The wherefore of another booklet was more
+obvious. It was an illustrated account of alleged
+British atrocities. Most of the pictures
+purported to have been taken in the Sudan,
+and showed decapitated negroes. Some I am
+convinced were pictures of the Armenian
+massacres that the Turks had themselves taken
+and in a thrifty moment put to this useful purpose.
+This pamphlet was printed at the press
+in Kirkuk.</p>
+
+<p>There were a number of excellent buildings&mdash;mainly
+workshops and armories, but the best
+was the hospital. The long corridors and deep
+windows of the wards looked very cool. An
+up-to-date impression was given by the individual
+patient charts, with the headings for
+the different diagnoses printed in Turkish and<a name='Page_182'></a>
+French. The doctors were mainly Armenians.
+The occupants were all suffering from malnutrition,
+and there was a great deal of starvation
+in the town.</p>
+
+<p>I did not wish to return to Baghdad until I
+could be certain that we were not going to advance
+upon Altun Kupri. The engineers
+patched up the bridge, and we took the cars
+over to the other side and went off on a reconnaissance
+to ascertain how strongly the town
+was being held. The long bridge from which
+it gets its name could easily be destroyed, and
+crossing over the river would be no light matter.
+The surrounding mountains limited the
+avenue of attack. Altogether it would not be
+an easy nut to crack, and the Turks had evidently
+determined on a stand. What decided
+the army commander to make any further
+attempt to advance was most probably the
+great length of the line of communications,
+and the recent floods had made worse conditions
+which were bad enough at the best.
+The ration supply had fallen very low, and it
+seemed impossible to hold even Kirkuk unless
+the rail-head could be advanced materially.</p>
+
+<p>I put in all my odd moments wandering about
+<a name='Page_183'></a>the bazaars. The day after the fall the merchants
+opened their booths and transacted
+business as usual. The population was composed
+of many races, chiefly Turcoman, Kurd,
+and Arab. There were also Armenians, Chaldeans,
+Syrians, and Jews. The latter were exceedingly
+prosperous. Arabic and Kurdish
+and Turkish were all three spoken. Kirkuk
+is of very ancient origin&mdash;but of its early history
+little is known. The natives point out a
+mound which they claim to be Daniel's tomb.
+Two others are shown as belonging to Shadrach
+and Meshech; that of the third of the
+famous trio has been lost. There are many
+artificial hills in the neighborhood, and doubtless
+in course of time it will prove a fruitful
+hunting-ground for arch&aelig;ologists. As far as
+I could learn no serious excavating has hitherto
+been undertaken in the vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>The bazaars were well filled with goods of
+every sort. I picked up one or two excellent
+rugs for very little, and a few odds and ends,
+dating from Seleucid times, that had been unearthed
+by Arab laborers in their gardens or
+brick-kilns. There were some truck-gardens
+in the outskirts, and we traded fresh vegetables
+for some of our issue rations. There are few
+<a name='Page_184'></a>greater luxuries when one has been living on
+canned foods for a long time. I saw several
+ibex heads nailed up over the doors of houses.
+The owners told me that they were to be found
+in the near-by mountains, but were not plentiful.
+There is little large game left in Mesopotamia,
+and that mainly in the mountains. I once
+saw a striped hyena. It is a nocturnal animal,
+and they may be common, although I never
+came across but the one, which I caught sight
+of slinking among the ruins of Istabulat, south
+of Samarra, one evening when I was riding back
+to camp. Gazelle were fairly numerous, and
+we occasionally shot one for venison. It was
+on the plains between Kizil Robat and Kara
+Tepe that I saw the largest bands. Judging
+from ancient bas-reliefs lions must at one time
+have been very plentiful. In the forties of the
+last century Sir Henry Layard speaks of coming
+across them frequently in the hill country;
+and later still, in the early eighties, a fellow
+countryman, Mr. Fogg, in his <i>Land of the
+Arabian Nights</i>, mentions that the English
+captain of a river steamer had recently killed
+four lions, shooting from the deck of his boat.
+Rousseau speaks of meeting, near Hit, a man
+who had been badly mauled by a lion, and
+<a name='Page_185'></a>was going to town to have his wounds cared
+for. Leopards and bears are to be met with
+in the higher mountain regions, and wild boars
+are common in many districts. They inhabit
+the thickets along the river-banks, in country
+that would permit of much sound sport in
+the shape of pig-sticking.</p>
+
+<p>Game-birds are found in abundance; both
+greater and lesser bustard; black and gray
+partridges, quail, geese, duck, and snipe. A
+week's leave could be made provide good
+shooting and a welcome addition to the usual
+fare when the wanderer returned. Every sort
+of shotgun was requisitioned, from antiquated
+muzzle-loaders bought in the bazaar to the
+most modern creations of Purdy sent out from
+India by parcel-post.</p>
+
+<p>After waiting a few days further, to be certain
+that an attack would not be unexpectedly
+ordered, I set out on my return trip to Baghdad.
+The river at Taza was still up, but I borrowed
+six mules from an accommodating galloping
+ambulance, and pulled the car across.
+We went by way of Kifri, a clean, stone-built
+town that we found all but empty. The food
+situation had become so critical that the inhabitants
+had drifted off, some to our lines,
+<a name='Page_186'></a>others to Persia, and still others to Kirkuk and
+Mosul. Near Kifri are some coal-mines about
+which we had heard much. It is the only place
+in the country where coal is worked, and we
+were hoping that we might put it to good use.
+Our experts, however, reported that it was
+of very poor quality and worth practically
+nothing.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='VIII'></a><h2><a name='Page_187'></a><a name='Page_188'></a><a name='Page_189'></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>BACK THROUGH PALESTINE</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Several days later I embarked at Baghdad
+on one of the river boats. I took Yusuf with
+me to Busra to put me aboard the transport
+for Egypt. It was the first time he had ever
+been that far down-stream, and he showed a
+fine contempt for everything he saw, comparing
+it in most disparaging terms to his own
+desolate native town of Samarra. The cheapness,
+variety, and plenty of the food in the
+bazaars of Busra were the only things that he
+allowed in any way to impress him.</p>
+
+<p>I was fortunate enough to run into some
+old friends, and through one of them met
+General Sutton, who most kindly and opportunely
+rescued me from the dreary &quot;Rest-Camp&quot;
+and took me to his house. While I
+was waiting for a chance to get a place on a
+transport, he one morning asked me to go with
+him to Zobeir, where he was to dedicate a hospital.
+Zobeir is a desert town of ten thousand
+or so inhabitants, situated fifteen miles inland
+<a name='Page_190'></a>from Busra. The climate is supposed to be
+more healthful, and many of the rich and important
+residents of the river town have houses
+there to which they retire during the summer
+months. To an outsider any comparison
+would seem only a refinement of degrees of
+suffocation. The heat of all the coastal towns
+of the Persian Gulf is terrific.</p>
+
+<p>Zobeir is a desert town, with its ideals and
+feelings true to the inheritance of the tribesmen.
+It is a market for the caravans of central
+Arabia. A good idea of the Turkish feeling toward
+it may be gathered from the fact that
+the inhabitants were exempt from military service.
+This was a clear admission on the part
+of the Turk that he could not cope with the
+situation, and thought it wisest not to attempt
+something which he had no hope of putting
+through. It was, therefore, a great triumph
+for the British and a sure wedge into the confidence
+of the desert folk when the hospital
+was opened, for any people that can introduce
+so marked an innovation among the hidebound
+desert communities must have won
+their confidence and respect in a remarkable degree.
+Ibrahim, the hereditary Sheikh of Zobeir,
+himself contributed largely to the fund for
+<a name='Page_191'></a>the endowment. It was arranged that Doctor
+Borrie, who among his other duties ran the
+civil hospital at Busra, should periodically include
+Zobeir in his rounds. The Sheikh showed
+us over the building. It was cool, comfortable,
+and very sanitary. The Indian who was
+to be resident physician had every appearance
+of intelligence and proficiency. Old
+Ibrahim gave us a large banquet of the orthodox
+type. There was a sheep roasted whole,
+and dishes of every sort of meat and vegetable
+marshalled upon the table, which fairly groaned
+beneath their weight. We had innumerable
+speeches. General Sutton made an excellent
+address, which an interpreter translated into
+Arabic. Our Arabian hosts were long-winded,
+and the recognized local orator was so classical
+in his phrases and forms and tenses that it was
+impossible to do more than get the general
+drift of what he said. Luckily I had in my
+pocket a copy of the <i>Lusiads</i>, which I surreptitiously
+read when the speeches became hopelessly
+long drawn out.</p>
+
+<p>I was allotted space on a British India, boat,
+the <i>Torrilla</i>, that was to take to Egypt a field
+artillery regiment of the Third Division. As
+we dropped down-stream and I watched a
+<a name='Page_192'></a>disconsolate Yusuf standing on the dock, I
+felt that another chapter had closed&mdash;an interesting
+one at that. I was not left long to
+muse on what the next would bring forth before
+there was a cry of &quot;fire&quot;; and from where
+I was standing in the smoking-room I could
+see, through the open hatchways, the soldiers
+hurrying about below decks. As the ship was
+well ballasted with ammunition, anything that
+happened would, take place quickly, and only
+those on the spot could hope to control events,
+so I stayed where I was. A few minutes later
+the fire was reported out.</p>
+
+<p>The long two weeks' trip through the Persian
+Gulf and round to the Red Sea was monotonously
+peaceful. Being &quot;unattached,&quot; I had
+no regular duties. Occasionally I attended
+&quot;stables,&quot; and wandered around the horse
+lines. The great heat below decks had far less
+effect upon the horses than would be supposed.
+Of course, they were well cared for, and many
+were seasoned veterans that had taken more
+than one long sea voyage. If I am not mistaken,
+only one was lost on the trip.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the time I lay back in my rhoorkhee
+chair and read whatever I could find in the
+ship's library. The wireless broke down a few
+<a name='Page_193'></a>days after we left Busra, so we got no news
+whatever of the outer world, and soon ceased
+to speculate on what might be happening in
+France.</p>
+
+<p>At length, on the morning of June 4, we
+dropped anchor in Suez harbor. We had
+hoped that the <i>Torrilla</i> would run through the
+canal to Port Said, but the disembarkation
+officer told us that we were all to be unloaded
+at Suez and proceed by rail. When I reached
+Alexandria I learned that a convoy had just
+sailed and there would not be another for two
+weeks at earliest. Sir Reginald Wingate, who
+had long been a family friend, was the British
+High Commissioner. Lady Wingate and he
+with the utmost hospitality insisted on my
+moving out to the residency to wait for my
+sailing.</p>
+
+<p>When I left for Mesopotamia Lord Derby
+had given me a letter to General Allenby
+which I had never had an opportunity to present.
+Sir Reginald suggested that I could not
+do better than make use of this enforced delay
+by going up to Palestine. The railway was
+already running to Jerusalem and you could
+go straight through from Cairo with but one
+change. At Kantara you crossed the canal
+<a name='Page_194'></a>and entered the military zone. Leaving there
+at half past eleven in the evening the train
+reached Ludd, which was general headquarters,
+at seven the following morning.</p>
+
+<p>Every one that I had ever met who knew
+General Allenby was wildly enthusiastic about
+him, and you had only to be with him a few
+minutes to realize how thoroughly justified
+their enthusiasm was. He represented the
+very highest type of the British soldier, and
+more need not be said. On the morning on
+which I arrived an attack was in progress and
+we could hear the drumming of the guns.
+The commander-in-chief placed a car at my
+disposal and I went around visiting old friends
+that I had made in Mesopotamia or still
+earlier in England, before the war. Among the
+latter was Colonel Ronald Storrs, the military
+governor of Jerusalem. With him I spent several
+days. Life in the Holy City seemed but
+little changed by the war. There was an interesting
+innovation in the Church of the Nativity
+at Bethlehem. The different Christian
+religious sects, in particular the Greek and
+Latin Catholics, were prone to come to blows
+in the church, and bloodshed and death had
+more than once been the result. To obviate
+<a name='Page_195'></a>this it had been the custom to have a regular
+relief of Turkish soldiers stationed in the
+church. Their place was now taken by British
+and French and Italians. Each nationality in
+rotation furnished the guard for a day. At
+the festival of the distribution of the Sacred
+Fire from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
+Jerusalem there were usually a number of
+accidents caused by the anxiety to reach the
+portal whence the fire was given out. The
+commander-in-chief particularly complimented
+Colonel Storrs upon the orderly way in which
+this ceremony was conducted under his r&eacute;gime.
+The population of Jerusalem is exceedingly
+mixed&mdash;and the percentage of fanatics is of
+course disproportionately large. There are
+many groups that have been gathered together
+and brought out to the Holy Land with distinctly
+unusual purposes. One such always
+had an empty seat at their table and confidently
+expected that Christ would some day
+appear to occupy it. The long-haired Russian
+and Polish Jews with their felt hats and shabby
+frock coats were to be met with everywhere.
+In the street where the Jews meet to lament
+the departed glory of Jerusalem an incongruous
+and ludicrous element was added by a few<a name='Page_196'></a>
+Jews, their bowed heads covered with ancient
+derby hats, wailing with undefeated zeal.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/20.jpg"><img src="./images/20_th.jpg"
+alt="A street in Jerusalem"></a></p><p class="ctr">A street in Jerusalem</p>
+
+<p>It is a mournful fact that the one really fine
+building in Jerusalem should be the Mosque
+of Omar&mdash;the famous &quot;Dome of the Rock.&quot;
+This is built on the legendary site of the temple
+of Solomon, and the mosaics lining the inside
+of the dome are the most beautiful I have ever
+seen. The simplicity is what is really most
+felt, doubly so because the Christian holy
+places are garish and tawdry, with tin-foil
+and flowers and ornate carving. It is to be
+hoped that the Christians will some day unite
+and clean out all the dreary offerings and
+knickknacks that clutter the Church of the
+Holy Sepulchre. Moslems hold the Mosque
+of Omar second in sanctity only to the great
+mosque in the holy city of Mecca. It is curious,
+therefore, that they should not object to
+Christians entering it. Mohammedans enter
+barefoot, but we fastened large yellow slippers
+over our shoes, and that was regarded as filling
+all requirements. Storrs pointed out to me
+that it was quite unnecessary to remove our
+hats, for that is not a sign of respect with
+Moslems, and they keep on their red fezzes.
+The mosque was built by the Caliph Abd el<a name='Page_197'></a>
+Melek, about fifty years after Omar had captured
+Jerusalem in 636 A.D. Many of the
+stones used in building it came from the temple
+of Jupiter. In the centre lies the famous
+rock, some sixty feet in diameter, and rising
+six or seven feet above the floor of the mosque.
+To Mohammedans it is more sacred than anything
+else in the world save the Black Stone
+at Mecca. Tradition says that it was here
+that Abraham and Melchizedek sacrificed to
+Jehovah, and Abraham brought Isaac as an
+offering. Scientists find grounds for the belief
+that it was the altar of the temple in the
+traces of a channel for carrying off the blood
+of the victims. The Crusaders believed the
+mosque to be the original temple of Solomon,
+and, according to their own reports, rededicated
+it with the massacre of more than ten
+thousand Moslems who had fled thither for
+refuge. The wrought-iron screen that they
+placed around the rock still remains. The
+cavern below is the traditional place of worship
+of many of the great characters of the
+Old Testament, such as David and Solomon
+and Elijah. From it Mohammed made his
+night journey to heaven, borne on his steed
+El Burak. In the floor of the cavern is an
+<a name='Page_198'></a>opening covered with a slab of stone, and said
+to go down to the centre of the world and be
+a medium for communicating with the souls
+of the departed.</p>
+
+<p>The military governor has been at work to
+better the sanitary conditions in Jerusalem.
+Hitherto the only water used by the townsfolk
+had been the rain-water which they gathered in
+tanks. Some years ago it was proposed to
+bring water to the city in pipes, some of which
+were already laid before the inhabitants decided
+that such an innovation could not be tolerated.
+The British have put in a pipe-line, and oddly
+enough it runs to the same reservoir whence
+Pontius Pilate started to bring water by means
+of an aqueduct. They have also built some
+excellent roads through the surrounding hills.
+Here, as in Mesopotamia, one was struck by
+the permanent nature of the improvements
+that are being made. Even to people absorbed
+in their own jealousies and rivalries the advantages
+that they were deriving from their
+liberation from Turkish rule must have been
+exceedingly apparent.</p>
+
+<p>The situation in Palestine differed in many
+ways from that in Mesopotamia, but in none
+more markedly than in the benefits derived
+<a name='Page_199'></a>from the propinquity of Egypt. Occasional
+leaves were granted to Cairo and Alexandria
+and they afforded the relaxation of a complete
+change of surroundings. I have never seen
+Cairo gayer. Shepherd's Hotel was open and
+crowded&mdash;and the dances as pleasant as any
+that could be given in London. The beaches
+at Ramleh, near Alexandria, were bright with
+crowds of bathers, and the change afforded the
+&quot;men from up the line&quot; must have proved of
+inestimable value in keeping the army contented.
+There were beaches especially reserved
+for non-commissioned officers and others
+for the privates&mdash;while in Cairo sightseeing
+tours were made to the pyramids and what the
+guide-books describe as &quot;other points of interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When I left Mesopotamia I made up my
+mind that there was one man in Palestine whom
+I would use every effort to see if I were held
+over waiting for a sailing. This man was
+Major A.B. Paterson, known to every Australian
+as &quot;Banjo&quot; Paterson. His two most
+widely read books are <i>The Man from Snowy
+River</i> and <i>Rio Grande's Last Race</i>; both had
+been for years companions of the entire family
+at home and sources for daily quotations,
+<a name='Page_200'></a>so I had always hoped to some day meet their
+author. I knew that he had fought in the
+South African War, and I heard that he was
+with the Australian forces in Palestine. As
+soon as I landed I asked every Australian
+officer that I met where Major Paterson was,
+for locating an individual member of an expeditionary
+force, no matter how well known he
+may be, is not always easy. Every one knew
+him. I remember well when I inquired at the
+Australian headquarters in Cairo how the man
+I asked turned to a comrade and said: &quot;Say,
+where's 'Banjo' now? He's at Moascar, isn't
+he?&quot; Whether they had ever met him personally
+or not he was &quot;Banjo&quot; to one and all.</p>
+
+<p>On my return to Alexandria I stopped at
+Moascar, which was the main depot of the
+Australian Remount Service, and there I found
+him. He is a man of about sixty, with long
+mustaches and strong aquiline features&mdash;very
+like the type of American plainsman that
+Frederic Remington so well portrayed. He
+has lived everything that he has written. At
+different periods of his life he has dived for
+pearls in the islands, herded sheep, broken
+broncos, and known every chance and change
+of Australian station life. The Australians told
+<a name='Page_201'></a>me that when he was at his prime he was regarded
+as the best rider in Australia. A recent
+feat about which I heard much mention was
+when he drove three hundred mules straight
+through Cairo without losing a single animal,
+conclusively proving his argument against
+those who had contested that such a thing
+could not be done. Although he has often been
+in England, Major Paterson has never come
+to the United States. He told me that among
+American writers he cared most for the works
+of Joel Chandler Harris and O. Henry&mdash;an
+odd combination!</p>
+
+<p>While in Egypt I met a man about whom I
+had heard much, a man whose career was unsurpassed
+in interest and in the amount accomplished
+by the individual. Before the war
+Colonel Lawrence was engaged in arch&aelig;ological
+research under Professor Hogarth of Oxford
+University. Their most important work was
+in connection with the excavation of a buried
+city in Palestine. At the outbreak of hostilities
+Professor Hogarth joined the Naval Intelligence
+and rendered invaluable services to
+the Egyptian Expeditionary Forces. Lawrence
+had an excellent grounding in Arabic and decided
+to try to organize the desert tribes into
+<a name='Page_202'></a>bands that would raid the Turkish outposts
+and smash their lines of communication. He
+established a body-guard of reckless semioutlaws,
+men that in the old days in our West
+would have been known as &quot;bad men.&quot; They
+became devoted to him and he felt that he
+could count upon their remaining faithful
+should any of the tribes with which he was
+raiding meditate treachery. He dressed in
+Arab costume, but as a whole made no effort
+to conceal his nationality. His method consisted
+in leading a tribe off on a wild foray to
+break the railway, blow up bridges, and carry
+off the Turkish supplies. Swooping down from
+out the open desert like hawks, they would
+strike once and be off before the Turks could
+collect themselves. Lawrence explained that
+he had to succeed, for if he failed to carry off
+any booty, his reputation among the tribesmen
+was dead&mdash;and no one would follow him
+thereafter. What he found hardest on these
+raids was killing the wounded&mdash;but the dread
+of falling into the hands of the Turks was so
+great that before starting it was necessary to
+make a compact to kill all that were too badly
+injured to be carried away on the camels.
+The Turks offered for Colonel Lawrence's cap<a name='Page_203'></a>ture
+a reward of ten thousand pounds if dead
+and twenty thousand pounds if alive. His
+added value in the latter condition was due
+to the benefit that the enemy expected to derive
+from his public execution. No one who
+has not tried it can realize what a long ride on
+a camel means, and although Lawrence was
+eager to take with him an Englishman who
+would know the best methods of blowing up
+bridges and buildings, he could never find any
+one who was able to stand the strain of a long
+journey on camel back.</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence told me that he couldn't last
+much longer, things had broken altogether too
+well for him, and they could not continue to
+do so. Scarcely more than thirty years of age,
+with a clean-shaven, boyish face, short and slender
+in build, if one met him casually among a lot
+of other officers it would not have been easy to
+single him out as the great power among the
+Arabs that he on every occasion proved himself
+to be. Lawrence always greatly admired
+the Arabs&mdash;appreciating their many-sidedness&mdash;their
+virility&mdash;their ferocity&mdash;their intellect
+and their sensitiveness. I remember well one
+of the stories which he told me. It was, I
+believe, when he was on a long raid in the
+<a name='Page_204'></a>course of which he went right into the outskirts
+of Damascus&mdash;then miles behind the
+Turkish lines. They halted at a ruined palace
+in the desert. The Arabs led him through the
+various rooms, explaining that each was scented
+with a different perfume. Although Lawrence
+could smell nothing, they claimed that one room
+had the odor of ambergris&mdash;another of roses&mdash;and
+a third of jasmine;&mdash;at length they came to
+a large and particularly ruinous room. &quot;This,&quot;
+they said, &quot;has the finest scent of all&mdash;the smell
+of the wind and the sun.&quot; I last saw Colonel
+Lawrence in Paris, whither he had brought the
+son of the King of the Hedjaz to attend the
+Peace Conference.</p>
+
+<p>When I got back to Alexandria I found that
+the sailing of the convoy had been still further
+delayed. Three vessels out of the last
+one to leave had been sunk, involving a considerable
+loss of life. The channel leading
+from the harbor out to sea is narrow and must
+be followed well beyond the entrance, so that
+the submarines had an excellent chance to lay
+in wait for outgoing boats. The greatest
+secrecy was observed with regard to the date
+of leaving and destination&mdash;and of course
+troops were embarked and held in the harbor
+<a name='Page_205'></a>for several days so as to avoid as far as possible
+any notice being given to the lurking
+enemy by spies on shore.</p>
+
+<p>The transports were filled with units that
+were being hurried off to stem the German tide
+in France, so casual officers were placed on the
+accompanying destroyers and cruisers. I was
+allotted to a little Japanese destroyer, the <i>Umi</i>.
+She was of only about six hundred and fifty
+tons burden, for this class of boat in the Japanese
+navy is far smaller than in ours. She was
+as neat as a pin, as were also the crew. The
+officers were most friendly and did everything
+possible to make things comfortable for a
+landsman in their limited quarters. The first
+meal on board we all used knives and forks, but
+thereafter they were only supplied to me, while
+the Japanese fell back upon their chop-sticks.
+It was a never-failing source of interest to
+watch their skill in eating under the most
+difficult circumstances. One morning when the
+boat was dancing about even more than usual,
+I came into breakfast to find the steward
+bringing in some rather underdone fried eggs,
+and thought that at last I would see the ship's
+officers stumped in the use of their chop-sticks.
+Not a bit of it; they had disposed of the eggs
+<a name='Page_206'></a>in the most unsurpassed manner and were off
+to their duties before I myself had finished
+eating.</p>
+
+<p class="ctr"><a href="./images/21.jpg"><img src="./images/21_th.jpg"
+alt="Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto"></a></p><p class="ctr">Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto</p>
+
+<p>We left Alexandria with an escort of aeroplanes
+to see us safely started, while an observation
+balloon made fast to a cruiser accompanied
+us on the first part of our journey. The
+precautions were not in vain, for two submarines
+were sighted a short time after we cleared
+the harbor. The traditional Japanese efficiency
+was well borne out by the speed with which
+our crew prepared for action. Every member
+was in his appointed place and the guns were
+stripped for action in an incredibly short time
+after the warning signal. It was when we were
+nearing the shores of Italy that I had best opportunity
+to see the destroyers at work. We
+sighted a submarine which let fly at one of the
+troopers&mdash;the torpedo passing its bow and
+barely missing the boat beyond it. Quick as a
+flash the Japanese were after it&mdash;swerving in
+and out like terriers chasing a rat, and letting
+drive as long as it was visible. We cast
+around for the better part of an hour, dropping
+overboard depth charges which shook the
+little craft as the explosion sent great funnels
+of water aloft. The familiar harbor of<a name='Page_207'></a>
+Taranto was a welcome sight when we at
+length herded our charges in through the narrow
+entrance and swung alongside the wharf
+where the destroyers were to take in a supply
+of fuel preparatory to starting out again on
+their interminable and arduous task.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name='IX'></a><h2><a name='Page_208'></a><a name='Page_209'></a><a name='Page_210'></a><a name='Page_211'></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY</h3>
+
+<h4>I</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>My transfer to the American army appointed
+me as captain of field artillery instead of
+infantry, as I had wished. Just how the mistake
+occurred I never determined, but once
+in the field artillery I found that to shift back
+would take an uncertain length of time, and
+that even after it was effected I would be
+obliged to take a course at some school before
+going up to the line. It therefore seemed advisable
+to go immediately, as instructed, to the
+artillery school, at Saumur. The management
+was half French and half American. Colonel
+MacDonald and Colonel Cross were the Americans
+in charge, and the high reputation of the
+school bore testimony to their efficiency. It
+was the intention of headquarters gradually
+to replace all the French instructors with Americans,
+but when I was there the former pre<a name='Page_212'></a>dominated.
+It was of course necessary to
+wait until our officers had learned by actual
+experience the use of the French guns with
+which our army was supplied. When men are
+being taught what to do in combat conditions
+they apply themselves more attentively and
+absorb far more when they feel that the
+officer teaching them has had to test, under
+enemy fire, the theories he is expounding.
+The school was for both officers and candidates.
+The latter were generally chosen from
+among the non-commissioned officers serving
+at the front; I afterward sent men down from
+my battery. The first part of the course was
+difficult for those who had either never had
+much mathematical training or had had it so
+long ago that they were hopelessly out of practice.
+A number of excellent sergeants and
+corporals did not have the necessary grounding
+to enable them to pass the examinations. They
+should never have been sent, for it merely put
+them in an awkward and humiliating position&mdash;although
+no stigma could possibly be attached
+to them for having failed.</p>
+
+<p>The French officer commanding the field
+work was Major de Caraman. His long and
+distinguished service in the front lines, com<a name='Page_213'></a>bined
+with his initiative and ever-ready tact,
+made him an invaluable agent in welding the
+ideas and methods of France and America.
+His house was always filled with Americans,
+and how much his hospitality meant to those
+whose ties were across the ocean must have
+been experienced to be appreciated. The
+homes of France were ever thrown open to us,
+and the sincere and simple good-will with which
+we were received has put us under a lasting
+debt which we should be only too glad to
+cherish and acknowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Saumur is a delightful old town in the heart
+of the ch&acirc;teau country. The river Loire runs
+through it, and along the banks are the caves
+in some of which have been found the paintings
+made by prehistoric man picturing the
+beasts with which he struggled for supremacy
+in the dim dark ages. The same caves are
+many of them inhabited, and their owners may
+well look with scorn upon the ch&acirc;teaux and
+baronial castles of whose antiquity it is customary
+to boast. There is an impressive castle
+built on a hill dominating the town, and in one
+of the churches is hung an array of tapestries
+of unsurpassed color and design. The country
+round about invited rambling, and the excel<a name='Page_214'></a>lent
+roads made it easy; particularly delightful
+were the strolls along the river-banks, where
+patient fisherfolk of every sex and age sat unperturbed
+by the fact that they never seemed
+to catch anything. One old lady with a sunbonnet
+was always to be seen seated on a
+three-legged stool in the same corner amid the
+rocks. She had a rusty black umbrella which
+she would open when the rays of the sun became
+too searching.</p>
+
+<p>The buildings which were provided for the
+artillery course had formerly been used by the
+cavalry school, probably the best known in
+the world. Before the war army officers of
+every important nation in the Occident and
+Orient were sent by their governments to follow
+the course and learn the method of instruction.
+My old friend Fitzhugh Lee was
+one of those sent by the United States, and I
+found his record as a horseman still alive and
+fresh in the memory of many of the townspeople.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the termination of my period of
+instruction I was in command of C Battery
+of the Seventh Field Artillery in the Argonne
+fighting. I was standing one morning in the
+desolate, shell-ridden town of Landres et St.<a name='Page_215'></a>
+George watching a column of &quot;dough-boys&quot;
+coming up the road; at their head limped a
+battered Dodge car, and as it neared me I
+recognized my elder brother Ted, sitting on the
+back seat in deep discussion with his adjutant.
+I had believed him to be safely at the staff school
+in Langres recuperating from a wound, but he
+had been offered the chance to come up in
+command of his old regiment, the Twenty-Sixth,
+and although registered as only &quot;good
+for light duty in the service of supply,&quot; he had
+made his way back to the division. While we
+were talking another car came up and out from
+it jumped my brother-in-law, Colonel Richard
+Derby&mdash;at that time division surgeon of the
+Second Division. We were the only three
+members of the family left in active service
+since my brother Quentin, the aviator, was
+brought down over the enemy lines, and
+Archie, severely wounded in leg and arm, had
+been evacuated to the United States. I well
+remember how once when Colonel Derby introduced
+me to General Lejeune, who was
+commanding his division, the general, instead
+of making some remark about my father, said:
+&quot;I shall always be glad to meet a relative of a
+man with Colonel Derby's record.&quot;</p><a name='Page_216'></a>
+
+<p>On the 11th of November we had just
+returned to our original sector after attacking
+Sedan. None of us placed much confidence in
+an armistice being signed. We felt that the
+German would never accept the terms, but
+were confident that by late spring or early summer
+we would be able to bring about an unconditional
+surrender. When the firing ceased
+and the news came through that the enemy had
+capitulated, there was no great show of excitement.
+We were all too weary to be much
+stirred by anything that could occur. For the
+past two weeks we had been switched hither
+and yon, with little sleep and less food, and a
+constant decrease in our personnel and horses
+that was never entirely made good but grew
+steadily more serious. The only bursts of
+enthusiasm that I heard were occasioned by
+the automobile trucks and staff cars passing
+by after dark with their headlights blazing.
+The joyous shouts of &quot;Lights out!&quot; testified
+that the reign of darkness was over. Soon
+the men began building fires and gathering
+about them, calling &quot;Lights out!&quot; as each
+new blaze started&mdash;a joke which seemed a
+never-failing source of amusement.</p>
+
+<p>We heard that we were to march into Ger<a name='Page_217'></a>many
+in the wake of the evacuating army and
+occupy one of the bridge-heads. All this came
+through in vague and unconfirmed form, but
+in a few days we were hauled back out of the
+line to a desolate mass of ruins which had once
+been the village of Bantheville. We were told
+that we would have five days here, during
+which we would be reoutfitted in every particular.
+Our horses were in fearful shape&mdash;constant
+work in the rain and mud with very
+meagre allowance of fodder had worn down the
+toughest old campaigners among them. During
+the weary, endless night march on Sedan I
+often saw two horses leaning against each other
+in utter exhaustion&mdash;as if it were by that means
+alone that they kept on their feet. We were
+told to indent for everything that we needed
+to make our batteries complete as prescribed
+in the organization charts, but we followed instructions
+without any very blind faith in results&mdash;nor
+did our lack of trust prove unwarranted,
+for we got practically nothing for which
+we had applied.</p>
+
+<p>There were some colored troops near by engaged
+in repairing the roads, and a number of
+us determined to get up a quartet to sing for
+the men. We went to where the negroes had
+<a name='Page_218'></a>built themselves shelters from corrugated-iron
+sheets and miscellaneous bits of wreckage from
+the town. We collected three quarters of our
+quartet and were directed to the mess-shack
+for the fourth. As we approached I could hear
+sounds of altercation and a voice that we
+placed immediately as that of our quarry arose
+in indignant warning: &quot;If yo' doan' leggo that
+mess-kit I'll lay a barrage down on yo'!&quot; A
+platform was improvised near a blazing fire of
+pine boards and we had some excellent clogging
+and singing. The big basso had evidently
+a strong feeling for his steel helmet, and it undoubtedly
+added to his picturesqueness&mdash;setting
+off his features with his teeth and eyes
+gleaming in the firelight.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the second day orders
+came to move off on the following morning.
+We were obliged to discard much material, for
+although the two days' rest and food had distinctly
+helped out the horse situation, we had
+many animals that could barely drag themselves
+along, much less a loaded caisson, and
+our instructions were to on no account salvage
+ammunition. We could spare but one horse
+for riding&mdash;my little mare&mdash;and she was no
+use for pulling. She was a wise little animal
+with excellent gaits and great endurance. We
+<a name='Page_219'></a>were forced to leave, behind another mare that
+I had ridden a good deal on reconnaissances,
+and that used to amuse me by her unalterable
+determination to stick to cover. It was almost
+most impossible to get her to cut across a
+field; she preferred to skirt the woods and had
+no intention of exposing herself on any sky-line.
+In spite of her caution it was on account of
+wounds that she had eventually to be abandoned.
+I trust that the salvage parties found
+her and that she is now reaping the reward of
+her foresight.</p>
+
+<p>We were a sorry-looking outfit as we marched
+away from Bantheville. My lieutenants had
+lost their bedding-rolls and extra clothes long
+since&mdash;as every one did, for it was impossible
+to keep your belongings with you&mdash;and although
+authorized dumps were provided and
+we were told that anything left behind would
+be cared for, we would be moved to another
+sector without a chance to collect our excess
+and practically everything would have disappeared
+by the time the opportunity came to
+visit the cache. But although the horses and
+accoutrements were in bad shape, the men were
+fit for any task, and more than ready to take on
+whatever situation might arise.</p>
+
+<p>Our destination was Malancourt, no great
+<a name='Page_220'></a>distance away, but the roads were so jammed
+with traffic that it was long after dark before
+we reached the bleak, wind-swept hillside that
+had been allotted to us. It was bitterly cold
+and we groped about among the shattered
+barbed-wire entanglements searching for wood
+to light a fire. There was no difficulty in finding
+shell-craters in which to sleep&mdash;the ground
+was so pockmarked with them that it seemed
+impossible that it could have been done by
+human agency.</p>
+
+<p>This country had been an &quot;active&quot; area
+during practically all the war, and the towns
+had been battered and beaten down first by
+the Boche and then by the French, and lately
+we ourselves had taken a hand in the further
+demolition of the ruins. Many a village was
+recognizable from the encompassing waste
+only by the sign-board stuck in a mound announcing
+its name. The next day's march took
+us through Esn&eacute;, Montzeville, and Bethainville,
+and on down to the Verdun-Paris highway.
+We passed by historic &quot;Dead Man's
+Hill,&quot; and not far from there we saw the mute
+reminders of an attack that brought the whole
+scene vividly back. There were nine or ten
+tanks, of types varying from the little Renault
+<a name='Page_221'></a>to the powerful battleship sort. All had been
+halted by direct hits, some while still far from
+their objective, others after they had reached
+the wire entanglements, and there was one
+that was already astride of the first-line
+trench. The continual sight of ruined towns
+and desolated countryside becomes very oppressive,
+and it was a relief when we began to
+pass through villages in which many of the
+houses were still left standing; it seemed like
+coming into a new world.</p>
+
+<p>At ten in the evening I got the battery into
+Balaicourt. A strong wind was blowing and
+the cold was intense, so I set off to try to find
+billets for the men where they could be at
+least partly sheltered. The town was all but
+deserted by its inhabitants, and we managed
+to provide every one with some degree of
+cover. Getting back into billets is particularly
+welcome in very cold or rainy weather, and we
+all were glad to be held over a day on the
+wholly mythical plea of refitting. Although the
+time would not be sufficient to make any appreciable
+effort in the way of cleaning harness
+or <i>mat&eacute;riel</i>, the men could at any rate heat
+water to wash their clothes and themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The next day's march we regarded as our
+<a name='Page_222'></a>first in the advance into Germany to which
+we had so long looked forward. We found
+the great Verdun highway which had played
+such an important part in the defense that
+broke the back of the Hun to be in excellent
+shape and a pleasant change from the shell-pitted
+roads to which we had become accustomed.
+It was not without a thrill that I rode,
+at the head of my battery, through the missive
+south gate of Verdun, and followed the winding
+streets of the old city through to the opposite
+portal. Before we had gone many miles the
+road crossed a portion of the far-famed Hindenburg
+line which had here remained intact
+until evacuated by the Boche a few days previously
+under the terms of the armistice.</p>
+
+<p>We made a short halt where a negro engineer
+regiment was at work making the road
+passable. A most hospitable officer strolled
+up and asked if I wanted anything to eat, which
+when you are in the army may be classified
+with Goldberg's &quot;foolish questions.&quot; A sturdy
+coal-black cook brought me soup and roast beef
+and coffee, and never have I appreciated the
+culinary arts of the finest French chef as I did
+that meal, for the food had been cooked, not
+merely thrown into one of the tureens of a
+<a name='Page_223'></a>rolling kitchen, which was as much as we had
+recently been able to hope for.</p>
+
+<p>The negro cook looked as if he would have
+been able to emulate his French confr&egrave;re of
+whom Major de Caraman told me. The
+Frenchman was on his way to an outpost with
+a steaming caldron of soup. He must have
+lost the way, for he unexpectedly found himself
+confronted by a German who ordered him
+to surrender. For reply the cook slammed
+the soup-dish over his adversary's head and
+marched him back a prisoner. His prowess
+was rewarded with a Croix de Guerre.</p>
+
+<p>It was interesting to see the German system
+of defense when it was still intact and had not
+been shattered by our artillery preparation as
+it was when taken in an attack. The wire
+entanglements were miles in depth, and the
+great trees by the roadside were mined. This
+was done by cutting a groove three or four
+inches broad and of an equal depth and filling
+it with packages of explosive. I suppose the
+purpose was to block the road in case of retreat.
+Only a few of the mines had been set
+off.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through several towns that no longer
+existed we came to Etain, where many build<a name='Page_224'></a>ings
+were still standing though completely
+gutted. The cellars had been converted into
+dugouts with passages and ramifications added.
+We were billeted in some German huts on the
+outskirts. They were well dug in and comfortably
+fitted out, so we were ready to stay
+over a few days, as we had been told we should,
+but at midnight orders were sent round to be
+prepared to march out early.</p>
+
+<p>The country was lovely and gave little sign
+of the Boche occupation except that it was
+totally deserted and when we passed through
+villages all the signs were in German. There
+was but little originality displayed in naming
+the streets&mdash;you could be sure that you would
+find a Hindenburg Strasse and a Kronprinz
+Strasse, and there was usually one called after
+the Kaiser. The mile-posts at the crossroads
+had been mostly replaced, but occasionally we
+found battered metal plaques of the Automobile
+Touring Club of France. Ever since we
+left Verdun we had been meeting bands of released
+prisoners, Italians and Russians chiefly,
+with a few French and English mingled. They
+were worn and underfed&mdash;their clothes were in
+rags. A few had combined and were pulling
+their scanty belongings on little cars, such as
+<a name='Page_225'></a>children make out of soap-boxes. The motor-trucks
+returning to our base after bringing up
+the rations would take back as many as they
+could carry.</p>
+
+<p>We came across scarcely any civilians until
+we reached Bouligny, a once busy and prosperous
+manufacturing town. A few of the inhabitants
+had been allowed to remain throughout
+the enemy occupation and small groups of
+those that had been removed were by now
+trickling in. The invader had destroyed property
+in the most ruthless manner, and the
+buildings were gutted. The domestic habits
+of the Hun were always to me inexplicable&mdash;he
+evidently preferred to live in the midst of his
+own filth, and many times have I seen recently
+captured ch&acirc;teaux that had been converted
+into veritable pigsties.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants went wild at our entry&mdash;in
+the little villages they came out carrying
+wreaths and threw confetti and flowers as they
+shouted the &quot;Marseillaise.&quot; The infantry,
+marching in advance, bore the brunt of the
+celebrations. What interested me most were
+the bands of small children, many of them certainly
+not over five, dancing along the streets
+singing their national anthem. It must have
+<a name='Page_226'></a>been taught them in secret. In the midst of a
+band were often an American soldier or two,
+in full swing, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
+The enthusiasm was all of it natural and uninspired
+by alcohol, for the Germans had taken
+with them everything to drink that they had
+been unable to finish.</p>
+
+<p>Bouligny is not an attractive place&mdash;few
+manufacturing towns are&mdash;but we got the men
+well billeted under water-tight roofs, and we
+were able to heat water for washing. My
+striker found a large caldron and I luxuriated
+in a steaming bath, the first in over a month,
+and, what was more, I had some clean clothes
+to pull on when I got out.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, when returning from a near-by
+village, I met a frock-coated civilian who inquired
+of me in German the way to Etain. I
+asked him who he was and what he wanted.
+He answered that he was a German but was
+tired of his country and wished to go almost
+anywhere else. He seemed altogether too apparent
+to be a spy, and even if he were I could
+not make out any object that he could gain.
+I have often wondered what became of him.</p>
+
+<p>The Boches had evidently not expected to
+give up their conquests, for they had built an
+<a name='Page_227'></a>enormous stone-and-brick fountain in the centre
+of the town, and chiselled its name, &quot;Hindenburg
+Brunnen.&quot; Above the German canteen
+or commissary shop was a great wooden
+board with &quot;Gott strafe England&quot;&mdash;a curious
+proof of how bitterly the Huns hated Great
+Britain, for there were no British troops in the
+sectors in front of this part of the invaded
+territory.</p>
+
+<p>We worked hard &quot;policing up&quot; ourselves
+and our equipment during the few days we
+stayed at Bouligny. One morning all the
+townsfolk turned out in their best clothes,
+which had been buried in the cellars or hidden
+behind the rafters in the attics, to greet the
+President and Madame Poincar&eacute;, who were
+visiting the most important of the liberated
+towns. It was good to hear the cheering and
+watch the beaming faces.</p>
+
+<p>On November 21 we resumed our march.
+Close to the border we came upon a large German
+cemetery, artistically laid out, with a
+group of massive statuary in the centre. There
+were some heroic-size granite statues of Boche
+soldiers in full kit with helmet and all, that were
+particularly fine. As we passed the stones
+marking the boundary-line between France
+<a name='Page_228'></a>and Lorraine there was a tangible feeling of
+making history, and it was not without a
+thrill that we entered Aumetz and heard the
+old people greet us in French while the children
+could speak only German. The town was
+gay with the colors of France&mdash;produced from
+goodness knows where. Children were balancing
+themselves on the barrels of abandoned
+German cannon and climbing about
+the huge camouflaged trucks. We were now
+where France, Luxemburg, and Lorraine meet,
+and all day we skirted the borders of first one
+and then the other, halting for the night at the
+French town of Villerupt. The people went
+wild when we rode in&mdash;we were the first soldiers
+of the Allies they had seen, for the Germans
+entered immediately after the declaration
+of war, and the only poilus the townsfolk
+saw were those that were brought in as prisoners.
+We were welcomed in the town hall&mdash;the
+German champagne was abominable but the
+reception was whole-hearted and the speeches
+were sincere in their jubilation.</p>
+
+<p>I was billeted with the mayor, Monsieur
+Georges. After dinner he produced two grimy
+bottles of Pol Roger&mdash;he said that he had been
+forced to change their hiding-place four times,
+<a name='Page_229'></a>and had just dug them up in his cellar. They
+were destined for the night of liberation.
+Monsieur Georges was thin and worn; he had
+spent two years in prison in solitary confinement
+for having given a French prisoner some
+bread. His eighteen-year-old daughter was
+imprisoned for a year because she had not informed
+the authorities as to what her father
+had done. No one in the family would learn a
+single word of German. They said that all
+French civilians were forced to salute the
+Germans, and each Sunday every one was compelled
+to appear in the market-place for general
+muster. The description of the departure
+of their hated oppressors was vivid&mdash;the men
+behind the lines knew the full portent of events
+and were sullen and crestfallen, but the soldiers
+fresh from the front believed that Germany
+had won and was dictating her own terms;
+they came through with wreaths hung on their
+bayonets singing songs of victory.</p>
+
+<p>I had often wondered how justly the food
+supplies sent by America for the inhabitants
+of the invaded districts were distributed.
+Monsieur Georges assured me that the Germans
+were scrupulously careful in this matter,
+because they feared that if they were not, the
+<a name='Page_230'></a>supplies would no longer be sent, and this
+would of course encroach upon their own resources,
+for even the Hun could not utterly
+starve to death the captured French civilians.
+The mayor told me of the joy the shipments
+brought and how when the people went to
+draw their rations they called it &quot;going to
+America.&quot; We sat talking until far into the
+night before I retired to the luxury of a real
+bed with clean linen sheets. There was no
+trouble whatever in billeting the men&mdash;the
+townsmen were quarrelling as to who should
+have them.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, with great regret at so soon
+leaving our willing hosts, we marched off into
+the little Duchy of Luxemburg. We passed
+through the thriving city of Esch with its
+great iron-mines. The streets were gay with
+flags, there were almost as many Italian as
+French, for there is a large Italian colony, the
+members of which are employed in mining and
+smelting. Brass bands paraded in our honor,
+and we were later met by them in many of the
+smaller towns. The shops seemed well filled,
+but the prices were very high. The Germans
+seemed to have left the Luxemburgers very
+much to themselves, and I have little doubt
+but that they would have been at least as
+<a name='Page_231'></a>pleased to welcome victorious Boches had affairs
+taken a different turn. Still they were
+glad to see us, for it meant the end of the isolation
+in which they had been living and the
+eventual advent of foodstuffs.</p>
+
+<p>As we rode along, the countryside was lovely
+and the smiling fields and hillsides made &quot;excursions
+and alarums&quot; seem remote indeed. It
+felt unnatural to pass through a village with
+unscarred church spires and houses all intact&mdash;such
+a change from battered, glorious France.</p>
+
+<p>We were immediately in the wake of the
+German army, and taken by and large they
+must have been retiring in good order, for they
+left little behind. Our first night we spent at
+the village of Syren, eight kilometres from the
+capital of the Duchy. Billeting was not so
+easy now, for we were ordered to treat the inhabitants
+as neutrals, and when they objected
+we couldn't handle the situation as we did
+later on in Germany. No one likes to have
+soldiers or civilians quartered on him, and the
+Luxemburgers were friendly to us only as a
+matter of policy. Fortunately, the chalk marks
+of the Boche billeting officers had not been
+washed off the doors, and these told us how
+many men had been lodged in a given house.</p>
+
+<p>In my lodging I was accorded a most friendly
+<a name='Page_232'></a>reception, for my hostess was French. Her
+nephew had come up from Paris to visit her a
+few months before the outbreak of the war,
+and had been unable to get back to France.
+To avoid the dreaded internment camp he had
+successfully passed as a Luxemburger. In the
+regiment there were a number of men whose
+parents came from the Duchy; these and a
+few more who spoke German acquired a sudden
+popularity among their comrades. They
+would make friends with some of the villagers
+and arrange to turn over their rations so that
+they would be cooked by the housewife and
+eaten with the luxurious accompaniment of
+chair and table. The diplomat would invite
+a few friends to enjoy with him the welcome
+change from the &quot;slum&quot; ladled out of the caldrons
+of the battery rolling kitchen. I had always
+supposed that I had in my battery a large
+number of men who could speak German&mdash;a
+glance over the pay-roll would certainly leave
+that impression&mdash;but when I came to test it
+out, I found that I had but four men who spoke
+sufficiently well to be of any use as interpreters.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we made a winding, roundabout
+march to Trintange. Here we were instructed
+to settle down for a week or ten days'<a name='Page_233'></a>
+halt, and many worse places might have been
+chosen. The country was very broken, with
+hills and ravines. Little patches of woodland
+and streams dashing down rocky channels on
+their way to join the Moselle reminded one of
+Rock Creek Park in Washington. The weather
+couldn't be bettered; sharp and cold in the
+early morning with a heavy hoarfrost spreading
+its white mantle over everything, then out
+would come the sun, and the hills would be
+shrouded in mist.</p>
+
+<p>My billeting officer had arranged matters
+well, so we were comfortably installed and in
+good shape to &quot;police up&quot; for the final leg of
+the march to Coblenz. I had now my full
+allowance of officers&mdash;Lieutenants Furness,
+Brown, Middleditch, and Pearce. In active
+warfare discipline while stricter in some ways
+is more lax in others, and there were many
+small points that required furbishing. Close
+order drill on foot is always a great help in
+stiffening up the men, and such essentials as
+instruction in driving and in fitting harness
+required much attention. In the American
+army much less responsibility is given to the
+sergeants and corporals than in the British,
+but even so the spirit and efficiency of an or<a name='Page_234'></a>ganization
+must depend largely on its non-commissioned
+officers. We were fortunate in
+having an unusually fine lot&mdash;Sergeant Cushing
+was a veteran of the Spanish War. He had
+been a sailor for many years, and after he left
+the sea he became chief game warden of Massachusetts.
+In time of stress he was a tower of
+strength and could be counted upon to set his
+men an example of cool and judicious daring.
+The first sergeant, Armstrong, was an old
+regular army man, and his knowledge of drill
+and routine was invaluable to us. He thoroughly
+understood his profession, and was remarkably
+successful in training raw men.
+Sergeants Grumbling, Kubelis, and Bauer were
+all of them excellent men, and could be relied
+upon to perform their duty with conscientious
+thoroughness under the most trying conditions.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon I went in to Luxemburg with
+Colonel Collins, the battalion commander.
+The town looks thoroughly medi&aelig;val as you
+approach. It might well have been over its
+castle wall that Kingsley's knight spurred his
+horse on his last leap; as a matter of fact the
+village of Altenahr, where the poet laid the
+scene, is not so many miles away. The town
+<a name='Page_235'></a>is built along the ragged cliffs lining a deep,
+rocky canyon spanned by old stone bridges.
+The massive entrance-gates open upon passages
+tunnelled through the hills, and although
+the modern part of the town boasts broad
+streets and squares, there are many narrow
+passageways winding around the ancient
+quarter.</p>
+
+<p>I went into a large bookstore to replenish
+my library, and was struck by the supply of
+post-cards of Marshal Foch and Kitchener and
+the King and Queen of Belgium. All had been
+printed in Leipzig, and when I asked the bookseller
+how that could be, he replied that he got
+them from the German commercial travellers.
+He said that he had himself been surprised at
+the samples shown him, but the salesman had
+remarked that he thought such post-cards
+would have a good sale in Luxemburg, and if
+such were the case &quot;business was business,&quot;
+and he was prepared to supply them. There
+was even one of King Albert standing with
+drawn sword, saying: &quot;You shall not violate
+the sacred soil of my country.&quot; A publication
+that also interested me was a weekly paper
+brought out in Hamburg and written in English.
+It was filled with jokes, beneath which
+<a name='Page_236'></a>were German notes explaining any difficult or
+idiomatic words and phrases. With all their
+hatred of England the Huns still continued to
+learn English.</p>
+
+<p>Thanksgiving Day came along, and we set
+to work to provide some sort of a special feast
+for the men. It was most difficult to do so, for
+the exchange had not as yet been regulated
+and the lowest rate at which we could get marks
+was at a franc, and usually it was a franc
+and a quarter. Some one opportunely arrived
+from Paris with a few hundred marks that he
+had bought at sixty centimes. For the officers
+we got a suckling pig, which Mess Sergeant
+Braun roasted in the priest's oven. He even
+put the traditional baked apple in its mouth,
+a necessary adjunct, the purpose of which I
+have never discovered, and such stuffing as he
+made has never been equalled. We washed it
+down with excellent Moselle wine, for we were
+but a couple of miles from the vineyards along
+the river. In the afternoon I borrowed a
+bicycle from the burgomaster and trailed over
+to Elmen, where I found my brother just about
+to sit down to his Thanksgiving dinner served
+up by two faithful Chinamen, who had come
+to his regiment in a draft from the West Coast.<a name='Page_237'></a>
+After doing full justice to his fare I wended my
+way back to Trintange in the rain and dark.</p>
+
+<p>The next day we paid the men. For some it
+was the first time in ten months. To draw
+pay it was necessary to sign the pay-roll at the
+end of one month and be on hand at the end
+of the following month to receive the money.
+No one could sign unless his service record
+was at hand, and as this was forwarded to
+the hospital &quot;through military channels&quot; when
+a man was evacuated sick or wounded, it
+rarely reached his unit until several months
+after he returned. It may easily be seen why
+it was that an enlisted man often went for
+months without being able to draw his pay.
+This meant not only a hardship to him while
+he was without money, but, it also followed
+that when he got it he had a greater amount
+than he could possibly need, and was more
+than apt to gamble or drink away his sudden
+accession of wealth. We always tried to make
+a man who had drawn a lot of back pay deposit
+it or send it home. Mr. Harlow, the
+Y.M.C.A. secretary attached to the regiment,
+helped us a great deal in getting the
+money transferred to the United States. The
+men, unless they could spend their earnings
+<a name='Page_238'></a>immediately, would start a game of craps and
+in a few days all the available cash would have
+found its way into the pocket of the luckiest
+man. They would throw for appallingly
+high stakes. On this particular pay-day we
+knew that the supply of wine and beer in the
+village was not sufficient to cause any serious
+trouble, and orders were given that no cognac
+or hard liquor should be sold. A few always
+managed to get it&mdash;all precautions to the contrary
+notwithstanding.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>II</h4>
+
+<p>On the 1st of December we once more resumed
+our march and at Wormeldange crossed
+over the Moselle River into Hunland. The
+streets of the first town through which we
+passed were lined with civilians, many of them
+only just out of uniform, and they scowled at
+us as we rode by, muttering below their breath.
+A short way out and we began to meet men
+still in the field-gray uniform; they smiled and
+tried to make advances but our men paid no
+attention. When we reached Onsdorf, which
+was our destination, the billeting officer reported
+that he had met with no difficulty.</p><a name='Page_239'></a>
+
+<p>The inhabitants were most effusive and anxious
+to please in every way. Of course they were
+not Prussians, and no doubt were heartily
+tired and sick of war, but here, as throughout,
+their attitude was most distasteful to us&mdash;it
+was so totally lacking in dignity. We could
+not tell how much they were acting on their
+own initiative and to what extent they were following
+instructions. Probably there was something
+of both back of their conduct. Warnings
+had been issued that the Germans were
+reported to be planning a wholesale poisoning
+of American officers, but I never saw anything
+to substantiate the belief.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we struck across to the Saar
+River and followed it down to its junction with
+the Moselle. The woods and ravines were
+lovely, but from the practical standpoint the
+going was very hard upon the horses. We
+marched down through Treves, the oldest town
+in Germany, with a population of about thirty
+thousand. In the fourth century of our era
+Ausonius referred to it as &quot;Rome beyond the
+Alps,&quot; and the extent and variety of the Roman
+remains would seem to justify the epithet.
+We were halted for some time beside the most
+remarkable of these, the Porta Nigra, a huge
+<a name='Page_240'></a>fortified gateway, dating from the first century
+A.D. The cathedral is an impressive
+conglomeration of the architecture of many different
+centuries&mdash;the oldest portion being a
+part of a Roman basilica of the fourth century,
+while the latest additions of any magnitude
+were made in the thirteenth. Most famous
+among its treasures is the &quot;holy coat of
+Treves,&quot; believed by the devout to be the
+seamless garment worn by Christ at the crucifixion.
+The predominant religion of the neighborhood
+is the Roman Catholic, and on the
+occasions when the coat is exhibited the town
+is thronged by countless pilgrims.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Treves we continued down along
+the river-bank to Rawen Kaulin, where we
+turned inland for a few miles and I was assigned
+to a village known as Eitelsbach. The
+inhabitants were badly frightened when we
+rode in&mdash;most of the men hid and the women
+stood on the door-steps weeping. I suppose
+they expected to be treated in the manner
+that they had behaved to the French and
+Belgians, and as they would have done by us
+had the situation been reversed. When they
+found they were not to be oppressed they became
+servile and fawning. I had my officers'<a name='Page_241'></a>
+mess in the schoolmaster's house. He had
+been a non-commissioned officer of infantry,
+and yet he wanted to send his daughters in to
+play the piano for us after dinner. We would
+have despised the German less if he had been
+able to &quot;hate&quot; a little more after he was beaten
+and not so bitterly while he felt he was winning.</p>
+
+<p>The country through which we marched during
+the next few days was most beautiful. We
+followed the winding course of the river, making
+many a double &quot;S&quot; turn. The steep hills
+came right to the bank; frequently the road
+was cut into their sides. A village was tucked
+in wherever a bit of level plain between the
+foot of the hill and the river permitted. When
+the slopes gave a southern exposure they were
+covered with grape-vines, planted with the
+utmost precision and regularity. Every corner
+and cranny among the rocks was utilized.
+The original planting must have been difficult,
+for the soil was covered with slabs of shale.
+The cultivator should develop excellent lungs
+in scaling those hillsides. The leaves had fallen
+and the bare vines varied in hue from sepia
+brown to wine color, with occasional patches
+of evergreen to set off the whole. Once or
+twice the road left the river to cut across over
+<a name='Page_242'></a>the mountains, and it cost our horses much
+exertion to drag the limbers up the steep,
+slippery trail. It was curious to notice the
+difference between those who dwelt along the
+bank and the inhabitants of the upland plateau.
+The latter appeared distinctly more
+&quot;outlandish&quot; and less sleek and prosperous.
+The highlands we found veiled in mist, and as
+I looked back at the dim outlines of horse and
+man and caisson, it seemed as if I were leading
+a ghost battery.</p>
+
+<p>We were in the heart of the wine country, and
+to any one who had enjoyed a good bottle of
+Moselle such names as Berncastel and Piesport
+had long been familiar. In the former town I
+was amused on passing by a large millinery
+store to see the proprietor's name was Jacob
+Astor. The little villages inevitably recalled
+the fairy-tales of Hans Andersen and the
+Grimm brothers. The raftered houses had
+timbered balconies that all but met across the
+crooked, winding streets through which we
+clattered over the cobblestones. Capping
+many of the beams were gargoyles, demons, and
+dwarfs, and a galaxy of strange creatures were
+carved on the ends of the gables that jutted
+out every which way. The houses often had
+<a name='Page_243'></a>the date they were built and the initials of the
+couple that built them over the front door,
+frequently with some device. I saw no dates
+that went further back than the late sixteen
+hundreds, though many of the houses doubtless
+were built before then. The doors in some
+cases were beautifully carved and weathered.
+The old pumps and wells, the stone bridges,
+and the little wayside shrines took one back
+through the centuries. To judge by the records
+carved on wall and house, high floods are
+no very uncommon occurrence&mdash;the highest I
+noticed was in 1685, while the last one of importance
+was credited to 1892.</p>
+
+<p>We were much surprised at the well-fed appearance
+of the population, both old and young,
+for we had heard so much of food shortages,
+and the Germans when they surrendered had
+laid such stress upon it. As far as we could
+judge; food was more plentiful than in France.
+Rubber and leather were very scarce, many of
+the women wore army boots, and the shoes
+displayed in shop-windows appeared made of
+some composition resembling pasteboard. The
+coffee was evidently ground from the berry of
+some native bush, and its taste in no way resembled
+the real. Cigars were camouflaged
+<a name='Page_244'></a>cabbage-leaves, with little or no flavor, and
+the beer sadly fallen off from its pre-war glory.
+Still, in all the essentials of life the inhabitants
+appeared to be making out far better than we
+had been given to believe.</p>
+
+<p>We met with very little trouble. There were
+a few instances where people tried to stand out
+against having men billeted in their houses,
+but we of course paid no attention except
+that we saw to it that they got more men than
+they would have under ordinary circumstances.
+Every now and then we would have amusing
+side-lights upon the war news on which the
+more ignorant Boches had been fed. A man
+upon whom several of my sergeants were quartered
+asked them if the Zeppelins had done
+much damage to New York; and whether Boston
+and Philadelphia had yet been evacuated
+by the Germans&mdash;he had heard that both cities
+had been taken and that Washington was
+threatened and its fall imminent.</p>
+
+<p>Our men behaved exceedingly well. Of
+course there were individual cases of drunkenness,
+but very few considering that we were
+in a country where the wine was cheap and
+schnapps plentiful. There were the inevitable
+A.W.O.L.'s and a number of minor offenses,
+<a name='Page_245'></a>but I found that by making the prisoner's life
+very unattractive&mdash;seeing to it that they performed
+distasteful &quot;fatigues,&quot; giving them
+heavy packs to carry when we marched, and
+allowing them nothing that could be construed
+as a delicacy&mdash;I soon reformed the few men
+that were chronically shiftless or untidy or late.
+When not in cantonments the trouble with
+putting men under arrest is that too often it
+only means that they lead an easier life than
+their comrades, and it takes some ingenuity
+to correct this situation. Whenever it was in
+any way possible an offender was dealt with
+in the battery and I never let it go further, for
+I found it made for much better spirit in a unit.</p>
+
+<p>The men were a fine lot, and such thoroughgoing
+Americans, no matter from what country
+their parents had come. One of my buglers
+had landed in the United States only in 1913;
+he had been born and brought up on the confines
+of Germany and Austria, and yet when a
+large German of whom he was asking the way
+said, &quot;You speak the language well&mdash;your
+parents must be German,&quot; the unhesitating
+reply was: &quot;Well, my mother was of German
+descent!&quot; The battery call read like a League
+of Nations, but no one could have found any
+<a name='Page_246'></a>cause of complaint in lack of loyalty to the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>The twelfth day after we had crossed over
+the river from Luxemburg found us marching
+into Coblenz. We were quartered in large
+brick barracks in the outskirts of the city.
+The departing Germans had left them in very
+bad shape, and Hercules would have felt that
+cleaning the Augean stables was a light task in
+comparison. However, we set to work without
+delay and soon had both men and horses
+well housed. Life in the town was following
+its normal course; the stores were well stocked
+and seemed to be doing a thriving trade. We
+went into a caf&eacute; where a good orchestra was
+playing and had some very mediocre war beer,
+and then I set off in search of the Turkish bath
+of which I was much in need. The one I found
+was in charge of an ex-submarine sailor, and
+when I was shut in the steam-room I wondered
+if he were going to try any &quot;frightfulness,&quot;
+for I was the only person in the bath.
+My last one had been in a wine-vat a full week
+before, and I was ready to risk anything for
+the luxury of a good soak.</p>
+
+<p>Orders to march usually reached us at midnight&mdash;why,
+I do not know; but we would turn
+<a name='Page_247'></a>in with the belief that we would not move on
+the following day, and the next we knew an
+orderly from regimental headquarters would
+wake us with marching instructions, and in no
+happy frame of mind we would grumblingly
+tumble out to issue the necessary commands.
+Coblenz proved no exception to this rule. As
+we got under way, a fine rain was falling
+that was not long in permeating everything.
+Through the misty dripping town the &quot;caissons
+went rolling along,&quot; and out across the
+Pfaffendorf bridge, with the dim outlines of
+the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein towering above
+us. The men were drowsy and cold. I heard a
+few disparaging comments on the size of
+the Rhine. They had heard so much talk
+about it that they had expected to find it at
+least as large as the Mississippi. We found
+the slippery stones of the street ascending
+from the river most difficult to negotiate, but
+at length everything was safely up, and we
+struck off toward the bridge-head position
+which we were to occupy for we knew not how
+long. The Huns had torn down the sign-posts
+at the crossroads; with what intent I cannot
+imagine, for the roads were not complicated
+and were clearly indicated on the maps, and
+<a name='Page_248'></a>the only purpose that the sign-posts could
+serve was to satisfy a curiosity too idle to
+cause us to calculate by map how far we had
+come or what distance lay still before us. A
+number of great stone slabs attracted our attention;
+they had been put up toward the close
+of the eighteenth century and indicated the
+distance in hours. I remember one that proclaimed
+it was three hours to Coblenz and
+eighteen to Frankfort. I have never seen elsewhere
+these records of an age when time did
+not mean money.</p>
+
+<p>The march was in the nature of an anticlimax,
+for we had thought always of Coblenz
+as our goal, and the good fortune in which we
+had played as regarded weather during our
+march down the valley of the Moselle had made
+us supercritical concerning such details as a long,
+wearisome slogging through the mud in clumsy,
+water-logged clothes. At length we reached the
+little village of Niederelbert and found that
+Lieutenant Brown, whose turn it was as billeting
+officer, had settled us so satisfactorily
+that in a short time we were all comfortably
+steaming before stoves, thawing out our
+cramped joints.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of Lieutenant Furness
+<a name='Page_249'></a>my officers belonged to the Reserve Corps, and
+we none of us looked forward to a long tour
+of garrison duty on the Rhine or anywhere else.
+Furness, who had particularly distinguished
+himself in liaison work with the infantry, held
+a temporary commission in the regular army,
+but he was eager to go back to civil life at
+the earliest opportunity. In Germany the
+prospect was doubly gloomy, for there would
+be no intercourse with the natives such as in
+France had lightened many a weary moment.
+Several days later regimental headquarters
+coveted our village and we were moved a few
+miles off across the hills to Holler. We set
+to work to make ourselves as snug and comfortable
+as possible. I had as striker a little
+fellow of Finnish extraction name Jahoola, an
+excellent man in every way, who took the best
+of care of my horse and always managed to fix
+up my billet far better than the circumstances
+would seem to permit.</p>
+
+<p>The days that followed presented little
+variety once the novelty of the occupation had
+worn off. The men continued to behave in
+exemplary fashion, and the Boche gave little
+trouble. As soon as we took up our quarters
+we made the villagers clean up the streets and
+<a name='Page_250'></a>yards until they possessed a model town, and
+thereafter we &quot;policed up&quot; every untidiness of
+which we might be the cause, and kept the inhabitants
+up to the mark in what concerned
+them. The head of the house in which I was
+lodged in Niederelbert told me that his son
+had been a captain in the army but had deserted
+a fortnight before the armistice and
+reached home in civilian clothes three weeks
+in advance of the retreating army. Of course
+he was not an officer before the war&mdash;not of
+the old military school, but the fact that he
+and his family were proud of it spoke of a
+weakening discipline and morale.</p>
+
+<p>Now that we had settled down to a routine
+existence I was doubly glad of such books as I
+had been able to bring along. Of these, O.
+Henry was the most popular. The little shilling
+editions were read until they fell to pieces,
+and in this he held the same position as in the
+British army. I had been puzzled at this
+popularity among the English, for much of
+his slang must have been worse than Greek to
+them. I also had <i>Charles O'Malley</i> and <i>Harry
+Lorrequer</i>, Dumas' <i>Dame de Monsereau</i> and
+<i>Monte Cristo</i>, Flaubert's <i>Education Sentimentale</i>,
+Gibbon's <i>Rise and Fall</i>, and Borrow's<a name='Page_251'></a>
+<i>Zincali</i>. These with the Oxford Books of
+French and English verse and a few Portuguese
+and Spanish novels comprised my library,
+a large one considering the circumstances.
+It was always possible to get books
+through the mail, although they were generally
+many months en route.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after we reached the bridge-head, officers
+of the regular army began turning up from the
+various schools whither they had been sent as
+instructors. We all hoped to be released in
+this manner, for we felt that the garrison duty
+should be undertaken by the regulars, whose
+life business it is, in order to allow the men who
+had left their trades and professions to return
+to their normal and necessary work. In the
+meantime we set out to familiarize ourselves
+with the country and keep our units in such
+shape that should any unforeseen event arise
+we would be in a position to meet it. The
+horses required particular attention, but one
+felt rewarded on seeing their improvement.
+There were many cases of mange which we had
+been hitherto unable to properly isolate, and
+good fodder in adequate quantity was an innovation.</p>
+
+<p>For the men we had mounted and un<a name='Page_252'></a>mounted
+drill, and spent much time in getting
+the accoutrements into condition for inspection.
+During part of the march up rations
+had been short, and for a number of days were
+very problematical. Sufficient boots and clothing
+were also lacking and we had had to get
+along as best we could without. Now that we
+were stationary our wants were supplied, and
+the worst hardship for the men was the lack
+of recreation. A reading-room was opened
+and a piano was procured, but there was really
+no place to send them on short passes; nothing
+for them to do on an afternoon off. When I
+left, trips down the Rhine were being planned,
+and I am sure they proved beneficial in solving
+the problem of legitimate relaxation and
+amusement.</p>
+
+<p>My father had sent my brother and myself
+some money to use in trying to make Christmas
+a feast-day for the men. It was difficult
+to get anything, but the Y.M.C.A. very kindly
+helped me out in procuring, chocolates and
+cigarettes, and I managed to buy a couple of
+calves and a few semi-delicacies in the local
+market. While not an Arabian Night feast, we
+had the most essential adjunct in the good spirits
+of the men, who had been schooled by their
+<a name='Page_253'></a>varied and eventful existence of the past
+eighteen months to make the most of things.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of January my brother and
+I left for Paris. I was very sorry to leave
+the battery, for we had been through much
+together, but in common with most reserve
+officers I felt that, now that the fighting was
+over, there was only one thing to be desired and
+that was to get back to my wife and children.
+The train made light of the distance over
+which it had taken us so long to march, and
+the familiar sight of the friendly French towns
+was never more welcome. After several months
+on duty in France and Italy, I sailed on a
+transport from Brest, but not for the wonderful
+home-coming to which I had so long looked
+forward.</p>
+
+<a name='Page_254'></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="pg" noshade>
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@@ -0,0 +1,4693 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, War in the Garden of Eden, by Kermit
+Roosevelt
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: War in the Garden of Eden
+
+Author: Kermit Roosevelt
+
+Release Date: October 11, 2004  [eBook #13665]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Michael Ciesielski and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 13665-h.htm or 13665-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/6/13665/13665-h/13665-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/6/13665/13665-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN
+
+by
+
+KERMIT ROOSEVELT
+
+Captain Motor Machine-Gun Corps, British Expeditionary Forces
+Captain Field Artillery, American Expeditionary Forces
+
+Illustrated from Photographs by the Author
+
+New York
+
+1919
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Kermit Roosevelt. From the drawing by John S.
+Sargent, July 8, 1917]
+
+
+
+To
+
+The Memory of My Father
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+   I. OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA
+  II. THE TIGRIS FRONT
+ III. PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON
+  IV. SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT
+   V. THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES
+  VI. BAGHDAD SKETCHES
+ VII. THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT
+VIII. BACK THROUGH PALESTINE
+  IX. WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+Kermit Roosevelt
+Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting
+Ashar Creek at Busra
+Golden Dome of Samarra
+Rafting down from Tekrit
+Captured Turkish camel corps
+Towing an armored car across a river
+Reconnaissance
+The Lion of Babylon
+A dragon on the palace wall
+Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car
+A Mesopotamian garage
+A water-wheel on the Euphrates
+A "Red Crescent" ambulance
+A jeweller's booth in the bazaar
+Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge
+The Kurd and his wife
+Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds
+Kirkuk
+A street in Jerusalem
+Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA
+
+
+It was at Taranto that we embarked for
+Mesopotamia. Reinforcements were sent out
+from England in one of two ways--either all
+the way round the Cape of Good Hope, or by
+train through France and Italy down to the
+desolate little seaport of Taranto, and thence
+by transport over to Egypt, through the Suez
+Canal, and on down the Red Sea to the Indian
+Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The latter
+method was by far the shorter, but the submarine
+situation in the Mediterranean was
+such that convoying troops was a matter of
+great difficulty. Taranto is an ancient Greek
+town, situated at the mouth of a landlocked
+harbor, the entrance to which is a narrow
+channel, certainly not more than two hundred
+yards across. The old part of the town is
+built on a hill, and the alleys and runways
+winding among the great stone dwellings serve
+as streets. As is the case with maritime towns,
+it is along the wharfs that the most interest
+centres. During one afternoon I wandered
+through the old town and listened to the fisherfolk
+singing as they overhauled and mended
+their nets. Grouped around a stone archway
+sat six or seven women and girls. They were
+evidently members of one family--a grandmother,
+her daughters, and their children.
+The old woman, wild, dark, and hawk-featured,
+was blind, and as she knitted she chanted
+some verses. I could only understand occasional
+words and phrases, but it was evidently
+a long epic. At intervals her listeners would
+break out in comments as they worked, but,
+like "Othere, the old sea-captain," she "neither
+paused nor stirred."
+
+There are few things more desolate than
+even the best situated "rest-camps"--the long
+lines of tents set out with military precision,
+the trampled grass, and the board walks; but
+the one at Taranto where we awaited embarkation
+was peculiarly dismal even for a rest-camp.
+So it happened that when Admiral Mark
+Kerr, the commander of the Mediterranean
+fleet, invited me to be his guest aboard H.M.S.
+_Queen_ until the transport should sail, it was
+in every way an opportunity to be appreciated.
+In the British Empire the navy is the "senior
+service," and I soon found that the tradition
+for the hospitality and cultivation of its officers
+was more than justified. The admiral had
+travelled, and read, and written, and no more
+pleasant evenings could be imagined than
+those spent in listening to his stories of the
+famous writers, statesmen, and artists who
+were numbered among his friends. He had
+always been a great enthusiast for the development
+of aerial warfare, and he was recently
+in Nova Scotia in command of the giant Handley-Page
+machine which was awaiting favorable
+weather conditions in order to attempt the nonstop
+transatlantic flight. Among his poems
+stands out the "Prayer of Empire," which,
+oddly enough, the former German Emperor
+greatly admired, ordering it distributed
+throughout the imperial navy! The Kaiser's
+feelings toward the admiral have suffered an
+abrupt change, but they would have been
+even more hostile had England profited by
+his warnings:
+
+    "There's no menace in preparedness, no threat in being strong,
+    If the people's brain be healthy and they think no thought of wrong."
+
+After four or five most agreeable days aboard the _Queen_ the word came to
+embark, and I was duly transferred to the _Saxon_, an old Union Castle
+liner that was to run us straight through to Busra.
+
+As we steamed out of the harbor we were joined by two diminutive Japanese
+destroyers which were to convoy us. The menace of the submarine being
+particularly felt in the Adriatic, the transports travelled only by night
+during the first part of the voyage. To a landsman it was incomprehensible
+how it was possible for us to pursue our zigzag course in the inky
+blackness and avoid collisions, particularly when it was borne in mind
+that our ship was English and our convoyers were Japanese. During the
+afternoon we were drilled in the method of abandoning ship, and I was put
+in charge of a lifeboat and a certain section of the ropes that were to be
+used in our descent over the side into the water. Between twelve and one
+o'clock that night we were awakened by three blasts, the preconcerted
+danger-signal. Slipping into my life-jacket, I groped my way to my station
+on deck. The men were filing up in perfect order and with no show of
+excitement. A ship's officer passed and said he had heard that we had
+been torpedoed and were taking in water. For fifteen or twenty minutes we
+knew nothing further. A Scotch captain who had charge of the next boat to
+me came over and whispered: "It looks as if we'd go down. I have just seen
+a rat run out along the ropes into my boat!" That particular rat had not
+been properly brought up, for shortly afterward we were told that we were
+not sinking. We had been rammed amidships by one of the escorting
+destroyers, but the breach was above the water-line. We heard later that
+the destroyer, though badly smashed up, managed to make land in safety.
+
+We laid up two days in a harbor on the Albanian coast, spending the time
+pleasantly enough in swimming and sailing, while we waited for a new
+escort. Another night's run put us in Navarino Bay. The grandfather of
+Lieutenant Finch Hatton, one of the officers on board, commanded the
+Allied forces in the famous battle fought here in 1827, when the Turkish
+fleet was vanquished and the independence of Greece assured.
+
+Several days more brought us to Port Said, and after a short delay we
+pushed on through the canal and into the Red Sea. It was August, and when
+one talks of the Red Sea in August there is no further need for comment.
+The _Saxon_ had not been built for the tropics. She had no fans, nor
+ventilating system such as we have on the United Fruit boats. Some
+unusually intelligent stokers had deserted at Port Said, and as we were in
+consequence short-handed, it was suggested that any volunteers would be
+given a try. Finch Hatton and I felt that our years in the tropics should
+qualify us, and that the exercise would improve our dispositions. We got
+the exercise. Never have I felt anything as hot, and I have spent August
+in Yuma, Arizona, and been in Italian Somaliland and the Amazon Valley.
+The shovels and the handles of the wheelbarrows blistered our hands.
+
+[Illustration: Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting. Inset,
+showing relative position of Mesopotamia and other countries.]
+
+We had a number of cases of heat-stroke, and the hospital facilities on a
+crowded transport can never be all that might be desired. The first
+military burial at sea was deeply impressive. There was a lane of Tommies
+drawn up with their rifles reversed and heads bowed; the short, classic
+burial service was read, and the body, wrapped in the Union Jack, slid
+down over the stern of the ship. Then the bugles rang out in the haunting,
+mournful strains of the "Last Post," and the service ended with all
+singing "Abide With Me."
+
+We sweltered along down the Red Sea and around into the Indian Ocean. We
+wished to call at Aden in order to disembark some of our sick, but were
+ordered to continue on without touching. Our duties were light, and we
+spent the time playing cards and reading. The Tommies played "house" from
+dawn till dark. It is a game of the lotto variety. Each man has a paper
+with numbers written on squares; one of them draws from a bag slips of
+paper also marked with numbers, calls them out, and those having the
+number he calls cover it, until all the numbers on their paper have been
+covered. The first one to finish wins, and collects a penny from each of
+the losers. The caller drones out the numbers with a monotony only
+equalled by the brain-fever bird, and quite as disastrous to the nerves.
+There are certain conventional nicknames: number one is always "Kelley's
+eye," eleven is "legs eleven," sixty-six is "clickety click," and the
+highest number is "top o' the 'ouse." There is another game that would be
+much in vogue were it not for the vigilance of the officers. It is known
+as "crown and anchor," and the advantage lies so strongly in favor of the
+banker that he cannot fail to make a good income, and therefore the game
+is forbidden under the severest penalties.
+
+As we passed through the Strait of Ormuz memories of the early days of
+European supremacy in the East crowded back, for I had read many a
+vellum-covered volume in Portuguese about the early struggles for
+supremacy in the gulf. One in particular interested me. The Portuguese
+were hemmed in at Ormuz by a greatly superior English force. The expected
+reinforcements never arrived, and at length their resources sank so low,
+and they suffered in addition, or in consequence, so greatly from disease
+that they decided to sail forth and give battle. This they did, but before
+they joined in fight the ships of the two admirals sailed up near each
+other--the Portuguese commander sent the British a gorgeous scarlet
+ceremonial cloak, the British responded by sending him a handsomely
+embossed sword. The British admiral donned the cloak, the Portuguese
+grasped the sword; a page brought each a cup of wine; they pledged each
+other, threw the goblets into the sea, and fell to. The British were
+victorious. Times indeed have sadly changed in the last three hundred
+years!
+
+I was much struck with the accuracy of the geographical descriptions in
+Camoens' letters and odes. He is the greatest of the Portuguese poets and
+wrote the larger part of his master-epic, "The Lusiad," while exiled in
+India. For seventeen years he led an adventurous life in the East; and it
+is easy to recognize many harbors and stretches of coast line from his
+inimitable portrayal.
+
+Busra, our destination, lies about sixty miles from the mouth of the Shatt
+el Arab, which is the name given to the combined Tigris and Euphrates
+after their junction at Kurna, another fifty or sixty miles above. At the
+entrance to the river lies a sand-bar, effectively blocking access to
+boats of as great draft as the _Saxon_. We therefore transshipped to some
+British India vessels, and exceedingly comfortable we found them, designed
+as they were for tropic runs. We steamed up past the Island of Abadan,
+where stand the refineries of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It is hard to
+overestimate the important part that company has played in the conduct of
+the Mesopotamian campaign. Motor transport was nowhere else a greater
+necessity. There was no possibility of living on the country; at first,
+at all events. General Dickson, the director of local resources, later set
+in to so build up and encourage agriculture that the army should
+eventually be supported, in the staples of life, by local produce.
+Transportation was ever a hard nut to crack. Railroads were built, but
+though the nature of the country called for little grading, obtaining
+rails, except in small quantities, was impossible. The ones brought were
+chiefly secured by taking up the double track of Indian railways. This
+process naturally had a limit, and only lines of prime importance could be
+laid down. Thus you could go by rail from Busra to Amara, and from Kut to
+Baghdad, but the stretch between Amara and Kut had never been built, up to
+the time I left the country. General Maude once told me that pressure was
+being continually brought by the high command in England or India to have
+that connecting-link built, but that he was convinced that the rails would
+be far more essential elsewhere, and had no intention of yielding.
+
+I don't know the total number of motor vehicles, but there were more than
+five thousand Fords alone. On several occasions small columns of infantry
+were transported in Fords, five men and the driver to a car. Indians of
+every caste and religion were turned into drivers, and although it seemed
+sufficiently out of place to come across wizened, khaki-clad Indo-Chinese
+driving lorries in France, the incongruity was even more marked when one
+beheld a great bearded Sikh with his turbaned head bent over the
+steering-wheel of a Ford.
+
+Modern Busra stands on the banks of Ashar Creek. The ancient city whence
+Sinbad the sailor set forth is now seven or eight miles inland, buried
+under the shifting sands of the desert. Busra was a seaport not so many
+hundreds of years ago. Before that again, Kurna was a seaport, and the two
+rivers probably only joined in the ocean, but they have gradually enlarged
+the continent and forced back the sea. The present rate of encroachment
+amounts, I was told, to nearly twelve feet a year.
+
+The modern town has increased many fold with the advent of the
+Expeditionary Force, and much of the improvement is of a necessarily
+permanent nature; in particular the wharfs and roads. Indeed, one of the
+most striking features of the Mesopotamian campaign is the permanency of
+the improvements made by the British. In order to conquer the country it
+was necessary to develop it,--build railways and bridges and roads and
+telegraph systems,--and it has all been done in a substantial manner. It
+is impossible to contemplate with equanimity the possibility of the
+country reverting to a rule where all this progress would soon disappear
+and the former stagnancy and injustice again hold sway.
+
+[Illustration: Ashar Creek at Busra]
+
+As soon as we landed I wandered off to the bazaar--"suq" is what the Arab
+calls it. In Busra there are a number of excellent ones. By that I don't
+mean that there are art treasures of the East to be found in them, for
+almost everything could be duplicated at a better price in New York. It is
+the grouping of wares, the mode of sale, and, above all, the salesmen and
+buyers that make a bazaar--the old bearded Persian sitting cross-legged in
+his booth, the motley crowd jostling through the narrow, vaulted
+passageway, the veiled women, the hawk-featured, turbaned men, the Jews,
+the Chaldeans, the Arabs, the Armenians, the stalwart Kurds, and through
+it all a leaven of khaki-clad Indians, purchasing for the regimental mess.
+All these and an ever-present exotic, intangible something are what the
+bazaar means. Close by the entrance stood a booth festooned with lamps and
+lanterns of every sort, with above it scrawled "Aladdin-Ibn-Said." My
+Arabic was not at that time sufficient to enable me to discover from the
+owner whether he claimed illustrious ancestry or had merely been named
+after a patron saint.
+
+A few days after landing at Busra we embarked on a paddle-wheel boat to
+pursue our way up-stream the five hundred intervening miles to Baghdad.
+Along the banks of the river stretched endless miles of date-palms. We
+watched the Arabs at their work of fertilizing them, for in this country
+these palms have to depend on human agency to transfer the pollen. At
+Kurna we entered the Garden of Eden, and one could quite appreciate the
+feelings of the disgusted Tommy who exclaimed: "If this is the Garden, it
+wouldn't take no bloody angel with a flaming sword to turn me back." The
+direct descendant of the Tree is pointed out; whether its properties are
+inherited I never heard, but certainly the native would have little to
+learn by eating the fruit.
+
+Above Kurna the river is no longer lined with continuous palm-groves;
+desert and swamps take their place--the abode of the amphibious, nomadic,
+marsh Arab. An unruly customer he is apt to prove himself, and when he is
+"wanted" by the officials, he retires to his watery fastnesses, where he
+can remain in complete safety unless betrayed by his comrades. On the
+banks of the Tigris stands Ezra's tomb. It is kept in good repair through
+every vicissitude of rule, for it is a holy place to Moslem and Jew and
+Christian alike.
+
+The third night brought us to Amara. The evening was cool and pleasant
+after the scorching heat of the day, and Finch Hatton and I thought that
+we would go ashore for a stroll through the town. As we proceeded down the
+bank toward the bridge, I caught sight of a sentry walking his post. His
+appearance was so very important and efficient that I slipped behind my
+companion to give him a chance to explain us. "Halt! Who goes there?"
+"Friend," replied Finch Hatton. "Advance, friend, and give the
+countersign." F.H. started to advance, followed by a still suspicious me,
+and rightly so, for the Tommy, evidently member of a recent draft, came
+forward to meet us with lowered bayonet, remarking in a businesslike
+manner: "There isn't any countersign."
+
+Except for the gunboats and monitors, all river traffic is controlled by
+the Inland Water Transport Service. The officers are recruited from all
+the world over. I firmly believe that no river of any importance could be
+mentioned but what an officer of the I.W.T. could be found who had
+navigated it. The great requisite for transports on the Tigris was a very
+light draft, and to fill the requirements boats were requisitioned ranging
+from penny steamers of the Thames to river-craft of the Irrawaddy. Now in
+bringing a penny steamer from London to Busra the submarine is one of the
+lesser perils, and in supplying the wants of the Expeditionary Force more
+than eighty vessels were lost at sea, frequently with all aboard.
+
+As was the custom, we had a barge lashed to either side. These barges are
+laden with troops, or horses, or supplies. In our case we had the first
+Bengal regiment--a new experiment, undertaken for political reasons. The
+Bengali is the Indian who most readily takes to European learning.
+Rabindranath Tagore is probably the most widely known member of the race.
+They go to Calcutta University and learn a smattering of English and
+absorb a certain amount of undigested general knowledge and theory. These
+partially educated Bengalis form the Babu class, and many are employed in
+the railways. They delight in complicated phraseology, and this coupled
+with their accent and seesaw manner of speaking supply the English a
+constant source of caricature. As a race they are inclined to be vain and
+boastful, and are ever ready to nurse a grievance against the British
+Government, feeling that they have been provided with an education but no
+means of support. The government felt that it might help to calm them if a
+regiment were recruited and sent to Mesopotamia. How they would do in
+actual fighting had never been demonstrated up to the time I left the
+country, but they take readily to drill, and it was amusing to hear them
+ordering each other about in their clipped English. They were used for
+garrisoning Baghdad.
+
+After we left Amara we continued our winding course up-stream. A boat
+several hours ahead may be seen only a few hundred yards distant across
+the desert. The banks are so flat and level that it looks as if the other
+vessels were steaming along on land. The Arab river-craft was most
+picturesque. At sunset a mahela, bearing down with filled sail, might
+have been the model for Maxfield Parrish's _Pirate Ship_. The Arab women
+ran along the bank beside us, carrying baskets of eggs and chickens, and
+occasionally melons. They were possessed of surprising endurance, and
+would accompany us indefinitely, heavily laden as they were. Their robes
+trailed in the wind as they jumped ditches, screaming out their wares
+without a moment's pause. An Indian of the boat's crew was haggling with a
+woman about a chicken. He threw her an eight-anna piece. She picked up the
+money but would not hand him the chicken, holding out for her original
+price. He jumped ashore, intending to take the chicken. She had a few
+yards' start and made the most of it. In and out they chased, over hedge
+and ditch, down the bank and up again. Several times he almost had her.
+She never for a moment ceased screeching--an operation which seemed to
+affect her wind not a particle. At the end of fifteen minutes the Indian
+gave up amid the delighted jeers of his comrades, and returned shamefaced
+and breathless to jump aboard the boat as we bumped against the bank on
+rounding a curve.
+
+One evening we halted where, not many months before, the last of the
+battles of Sunnaiyat had been fought. There for months the British had
+been held back, while their beleaguered comrades in Kut could hear the
+roar of the artillery and hope against hope for the relief that never
+reached them. It was one phase of the campaign that closely approximated
+the gruelling trench warfare in France. The last unsuccessful attack was
+launched a week before the capitulation of the garrison, and it was almost
+a year later before the position was eventually taken. The front-line
+trenches were but a short distance apart, and each side had developed a
+strong and elaborate system of defense. One flank was protected by an
+impassable marsh and the other by the river. When we passed, the field
+presented an unusually gruesome appearance even for a battle-field, for
+the wandering desert Arabs had been at work, and they do not clean up as
+thoroughly as the African hyena. A number had paid the penalty through
+tampering with unexploded grenades and "dud" shells, and left their own
+bones to be scattered around among the dead they had been looting. The
+trenches were a veritable Golgotha with skulls everywhere and dismembered
+legs still clad with puttees and boots.
+
+At Kut we disembarked to do the remaining hundred miles to Baghdad by rail
+instead of winding along for double the distance by river, with a good
+chance of being hung up for hours, or even days, on some shifting
+sand-bar. At first sight Kut is as unpromising a spot as can well be
+imagined, with its scorching heat and its sand and the desolate
+mud-houses, but in spite of appearances it is an important and thriving
+little town, and daily becoming of more consequence.
+
+The railroad runs across the desert, following approximately the old
+caravan route to Baghdad. A little over half-way the line passes the
+remaining arch of the great hall of Ctesiphon. This hall is one hundred
+and forty-eight feet long by seventy-six broad. The arch stands
+eighty-five feet high. Around it, beneath the mounds of desert sand, lies
+all that remains of the ancient city. As a matter of fact the city is by
+no means ancient as such things go in Mesopotamia, dating as it does from
+the third century B.C., when it was founded by the successors of Alexander
+the Great.
+
+My first night in Baghdad I spent in General Maude's house, on the
+river-bank. The general was a striking soldierly figure of a man, standing
+well over six feet. His military career was long and brilliant. His first
+service was in the Coldstream Guards. He distinguished himself in South
+Africa. Early in the present war he was severely wounded in France. Upon
+recovering he took over the Thirteenth Division, which he commanded in the
+disastrous Gallipoli campaign, and later brought out to Mesopotamia. When
+he reached the East the situation was by no means a happy one for the
+British. General Townshend was surrounded in Kut, and the morale of the
+Turk was excellent after the successes he had met with in Gallipoli. In
+the end of August, 1916, four months after the fall of Kut, General Maude
+took over the command of the Mesopotamian forces. On the 11th of March of
+the following year he occupied Baghdad, thereby re-establishing completely
+the British prestige in the Orient. One of Germany's most serious
+miscalculations was with regard to the Indian situation. She felt
+confident that, working through Persia and Afghanistan, she could stir up
+sufficient trouble, possibly to completely overthrow British rule, but
+certainly to keep the English so occupied with uprisings as to force them
+to send troops to India rather than withdraw them thence for use
+elsewhere. The utter miscarriage of Germany's plans is, indeed, a fine
+tribute to Great Britain. The Emir of Afghanistan did probably more than
+any single native to thwart German treachery and intrigue, and every
+friend of the Allied cause must have read of his recent assassination with
+a very real regret.
+
+When General Maude took over the command, the effect of the Holy War that,
+at the Kaiser's instigation, was being preached in the mosques had not as
+yet been determined. This jehad, as it was called, proposed to unite all
+"True Believers" against the invading Christians, and give the war a
+strongly religious aspect. The Germans hoped by this means to spread
+mutiny among the Mohammedan troops, which formed such an appreciable
+element of the British forces, as well as to fire the fury of the Turks
+and win as many of the Arabs to their side as possible. The Arab
+thoroughly disliked both sides. The Turk oppressed him, but did so in an
+Oriental, and hence more or less comprehensible, manner. The English gave
+him justice, but it was an Occidental justice that he couldn't at first
+understand or appreciate, and he was distinctly inclined to mistrust it.
+In course of time he would come to realize its advantages. Under Turkish
+rule the Arab was oppressed by the Turk, but then he in turn could oppress
+the Jew, the Chaldean, and Nestorian Christians, and the wretched
+Armenian. Under British rule he suddenly found these latter on an equal
+footing with him, and he felt that this did not compensate the lifting
+from his shoulders of the Turkish burden. Then, too, when a race has been
+long oppressed and downtrodden, and suddenly finds itself on an equality
+with its oppressor, it is apt to become arrogant and overbearing. This is
+exactly what happened, and there was bad feeling on all sides in
+consequence. However, real fundamental justice is appreciated the world
+over, once the native has been educated up to it, and can trust in its
+continuity.
+
+The complex nature of the problems facing the army commander can be
+readily seen. He was an indefatigable worker and an unsurpassed organizer.
+The only criticism I ever heard was that he attended too much to the
+details himself and did not take his subordinates sufficiently into his
+confidence. A brilliant leader, beloved by his troops, his loss was a
+severe blow to the Allied cause.
+
+Baghdad is often referred to as the great example of the shattered
+illusion. We most of us have read the _Arabian Nights_ at an early age,
+and think of the abode of the caliphs as a dream city, steeped in what we
+have been brought up to think of as the luxury, romance, and glamour of
+the East. Now glamour is a delicate substance. In the all-searching glare
+of the Mesopotamian sun it is apt to appear merely tawdry. Still, a goodly
+number of years spent in wandering about in foreign lands had prepared me
+for a depreciation of the "stuff that dreams are made of," and I was not
+disappointed. It is unfortunate that the normal way to approach is from
+the south, and that that view of the city is flat and uninteresting.
+Coming, as I several times had occasion to, from the north, one first
+catches sight of great groves of date-palms, with the tall minarets of the
+Mosque of Kazimain towering above them; then a forest of minarets and blue
+domes, with here and there some graceful palm rising above the flat roofs
+of Baghdad. In the evening when the setting sun strikes the towers and the
+tiled roofs, and the harsh lights are softened, one is again in the land
+of Haroun-el-Raschid.
+
+The great covered bazaars are at all times capable of "eating the hours,"
+as the natives say. One could sit indefinitely in a coffee-house and watch
+the throngs go by--the stalwart Kurdish porter with his impossible loads,
+the veiled women, the unveiled Christian or lower-class Arab women, the
+native police, the British Tommy, the kilted Scot, the desert Arab, all
+these and many more types wandered past. Then there was the gold and
+silver market, where the Jewish and Armenian artificers squatted beside
+their charcoal fires and haggled endlessly with their customers. These
+latter were almost entirely women, and they came both to buy and sell,
+bringing old bracelets and anklets, and probably spending the proceeds on
+something newer that had taken their fancy. The workmanship was almost
+invariably poor and rough. Most of the women had their babies with them,
+little mites decked out in cheap finery and with their eyelids thickly
+painted. The red dye from their caps streaked their faces, the flies
+settled on them at will, and they had never been washed. When one thought
+of the way one's own children were cared for, it seemed impossible that a
+sufficient number of these little ones could survive to carry on the
+race. The infant mortality must be great, though the children one sees
+look fat and thriving.
+
+Baghdad is not an old city. Although there was probably a village on the
+site time out of mind, it does not come into any prominence until the
+eighth century of our era. As the residence of the Abasside caliphs it
+rapidly assumed an important position. The culmination of its magnificence
+was reached in the end of the eighth century, under the rule of the
+world-famous Haroun-el-Raschid. It long continued to be a centre of
+commerce and industry, though suffering fearfully from the various sieges
+and conquests which it underwent. In 1258 the Mongols, under a grandson of
+the great Genghis Khan, captured the city and held it for a hundred years,
+until ousted by the Tartars under Tamberlane. It was plundered in turn by
+one Mongol horde after another until the Turks, under Murad the Fourth,
+eventually secured it. Naturally, after being the scene of so much looting
+and such massacres, there is little left of the original city of the
+caliphs. Then, too, in Mesopotamia there is practically no stone, and
+everything was built of brick, which readily lapses back to its original
+state. For this reason the invaders easily razed a conquered town, and
+Mesopotamia, so often called the "cradle of the world," retains but little
+trace of the races and civilizations that have succeeded each other in
+ruling the land. When the Tigris was low at the end of the summer season,
+we used to dig out from its bank great bricks eighteen inches square, on
+which was still distinctly traced the seal of Nebuchadnezzar. These,
+possibly the remnants of a quay, were all that remained of the times
+before the advent of the caliphs.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE TIGRIS FRONT
+
+
+A few days after reaching Baghdad I left for Samarra, which was at that
+time the Tigris front. I was attached to the Royal Engineers, and my
+immediate commander was Major Morin, D.S.O., an able officer with an
+enviable record in France and Mesopotamia. The advance army of the Tigris
+was the Third Indian Army Corps, under the command of General Cobbe, a
+possessor of the coveted, and invariably merited, Victoria Cross. The
+Engineers were efficiently commanded by General Swiney. The seventy miles
+of railroad from Baghdad to Samarra were built by the Germans, being the
+only Mesopotamian portion of the much-talked-of Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway,
+completed before the war. It was admirably constructed, with an excellent
+road-bed, heavy rails and steel cross-ties made by Krupp. In their retreat
+the Turks had been too hurried to accomplish much in the way of
+destruction other than burning down a few stations and blowing up the
+water-towers. The rolling-stock had been left largely intact. There were
+no passenger-coaches, and you travelled either by flat or box car. Every
+one followed the Indian custom of carrying with them their bedding-rolls,
+and leather-covered wash-basin containing their washing-kit, as well as
+one of the comfortable rhoorkhee chairs. In consequence, although for
+travel by boat or train nothing was provided, there was no discomfort
+entailed. The trains were fitted out with anti-aircraft guns, for the
+Turkish aeroplanes occasionally tried to "lay eggs," a by no means easy
+affair with a moving train as a target. Whatever the reason was, and I
+never succeeded in discovering it, the trains invariably left Baghdad in
+the wee small hours, and as the station was on the right bank across the
+river from the main town, and the boat bridges were cut during the night,
+we used generally, when returning to the front, to spend the first part of
+the night sleeping on the station platform. Generals or exalted staff
+officers could usually succeed in having a car assigned to them, and
+hauled up from the yard in time for them to go straight to bed in it.
+Frequently their trip was postponed, and an omniscient sergeant-major
+would indicate the car to the judiciously friendly, who could then enjoy a
+solid night's sleep. The run took anywhere from eight to twelve hours; but
+when sitting among the grain-bags on an open car, or comfortably ensconced
+in a chair in a "covered goods," with _Vingt Ans Apres_, the time passed
+pleasantly enough in spite of the withering heat.
+
+While still a good number of miles away from Samarra we would catch sight
+of the sun glinting on the golden dome of the mosque, built over the cleft
+where the twelfth Imam, the Imam Mahdi, is supposed to have disappeared,
+and from which he is one day to reappear to establish the true faith upon
+earth. Many Arabs have appeared claiming to be the Mahdi, and caused
+trouble in a greater or less degree according to the extent of their
+following. The most troublous one in our day was the man who besieged
+Kharthoum and captured General "Chinese" Gordon and his men. Twenty-five
+years later, when I passed through the Sudan, there were scarcely any men
+of middle age left, for they had been wiped out almost to a man under the
+fearful rule of the Mahdi, a rule which might have served as prototype to
+the Germans in Belgium.
+
+[Illustration: Golden Dome of Samarra]
+
+[Illustration: Rafting down from Tekrit]
+
+Samarra is very ancient, and has passed through periods of great
+depression and equally great expansion. It was here in A.D. 363 that the
+Roman Emperor Julian died from wounds received in the defeat of his forces
+at Ctesiphon. The golden age lasted about forty years, beginning in 836,
+when the Caliph Hutasim transferred his capital thither from Baghdad.
+During that time the city extended for twenty-one miles along the
+river-bank, with glorious palaces, the ruins of some of which still stand.
+The present-day town has sadly shrunk from its former grandeur, but still
+has an impressive look with its great walls and massive gateways. The
+houses nearest the walls are in ruins or uninhabited; but in peacetime the
+great reputation that the climate of Samarra possesses for salubrity draws
+to it many Baghdad families who come to pass the summer months. A good
+percentage of the inhabitants are Persians, for the eleventh and twelfth
+Shiah Imams are buried on the site of the largest mosque. The two main
+sects of Moslems are the Sunnis and the Shiahs; the former regard the
+three caliphs who followed Mohammed as his legitimate successors,
+whereas the latter hold them to be usurpers, and believe that his
+cousin and son-in-law, Ali, husband of Fatimah, together with their sons
+Husein and Hasan, are the prophet's true inheritors. Ali was assassinated
+near Nejef, which city is sacred to his memory, and his son Husein was
+killed at Kerbela; so these two cities are the greatest of the Shiah
+shrines. The Turks belong almost without exception to the Sunni sect,
+whereas the Persians and a large percentage of the Arabs inhabiting
+Mesopotamia are Shiahs.
+
+The country around Samarra is not unlike in character the southern part of
+Arizona and northern Sonora. There are the same barren hills and the same
+glaring heat. The soil is not sand, but a fine dust which permeates
+everything, even the steel uniform-cases which I had always regarded as
+proof against all conditions. The parching effect was so great that it was
+not only necessary to keep all leather objects thoroughly oiled but the
+covers of my books cracked and curled up until I hit upon the plan of
+greasing them well also. In the alluvial lowlands trench-digging was a
+simple affair, but along the hills we found a pebbly conglomerate that
+gave much trouble.
+
+Opinion was divided as to whether the Turk would attempt to advance down
+the Tigris. Things had gone badly with our forces in Palestine at the
+first battle of Gaza; but here we had an exceedingly strong position, and
+the consensus of opinion seemed to be that the enemy would think twice
+before he stormed it. Their base was at Tekrit, almost thirty miles away.
+However, about ten miles distant stood a small village called Daur, which
+the Turks held in considerable force. Between Daur and Samarra there was
+nothing but desert, with gazelles and jackals the only permanent
+inhabitants. Into this no man's land both sides sent patrols, who met in
+occasional skirmishes. For reconnaissance work we used light-armored
+motor-cars, known throughout the army as Lam cars, a name formed by the
+initial letters of their titles. These cars were Rolls-Royces, and with
+their armor-plate weighed between three and three-quarters and four tons.
+They were proof against the ordinary bullet but not against the
+armor-piercing. When I came out to Mesopotamia I intended to lay my plans
+for a transfer to the cavalry, but after I had seen the cars at work I
+changed about and asked to be seconded to that branch of the service.
+
+A short while after my arrival our aeroplanes brought in word that the
+Turks were massing at Daur, and General Cobbe decided that when they
+launched forth he would go and meet them. Accordingly, we all moved out
+one night, expecting to give "Abdul," as the Tommies called him, a
+surprise. Whether it was that we started too early and their aeroplanes
+saw us, or whether they were only making a feint, we never found out; but
+at all events the enemy fell back, and save for some advance-guard
+skirmishing and a few prisoners, we drew a blank. We were not prepared to
+attack the Daur position, and so returned to Samarra to await
+developments.
+
+Meanwhile I busied myself searching for an Arab servant. Seven or eight
+years previous, when with my father in Africa, I had learned Swahili, and
+although I had forgotten a great deal of it, still I found it a help in
+taking up Arabic. Most of the officers had either British or Indian
+servants; in the former case they were known as batmen, and in the latter
+as bearers; but I decided to follow suit with the minority and get an
+Arab, and therefore learn Arabic instead of Hindustanee, for the former
+would be of vastly more general use. The town commandant, Captain Grieve
+of the Black Watch, after many attempts at length produced a native who
+seemed, at any rate, more promising than the others that offered
+themselves. Yusuf was a sturdy, rather surly-looking youth of about
+eighteen. Evidently not a pure Arab, he claimed various admixtures as the
+fancy took him, the general preference being Kurd. I always felt that
+there was almost certainly a good percentage of Turk. His father had been
+a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish army, and at first I was loath
+to take him along on advances and attacks, for he would have been shown
+little mercy had he fallen into enemy hands. He was, however, insistent on
+asking to go with me, and I never saw him show any concern under fire. He
+spoke, in varying degrees of fluency, Kurdish, Persian, and Turkish, and
+was of great use to me for that reason. He became by degrees a very
+faithful and trustworthy follower, his great weakness being that he was a
+one-man's man, and although he would do anything for me, he was of little
+general use in an officers' mess.
+
+I had two horses, one a black mare that I called Soda, which means black
+in Arabic, and the other a hard-headed bay gelding that was game to go
+all day, totally unaffected by shell-fire, but exceedingly stubborn about
+choosing the direction in which he went. After numerous changes I came
+across an excellent syce to look after them. He was a wild, unkempt
+figure, with a long black beard--a dervish by profession, and certainly
+gave no one any reason to believe that he was more than half-witted.
+Indeed, almost all dervishes are in a greater or less degree insane; it is
+probably due to that that they have become dervishes, for the native
+regards the insane as under the protection of God. Dervishes go around
+practically naked, usually wearing only a few skins flung over the
+shoulder, and carrying a large begging-bowl. In addition they carry a
+long, sharp, iron bodkin, with a wooden ball at the end, having very much
+the appearance of a fool's bauble. They lead an easy life. When they take
+a fancy to a house, they settle down near the gate, and the owner has to
+support them as long as the whim takes them to stay there. To use force
+against a dervish would be looked upon as an exceedingly unpropitious
+affair to the true believer. Then, too, I have little doubt but that they
+are capable of making good use of their steel bodkins. Why my dervish
+wished to give up his easy-going profession and take over the charge of my
+horses I never fully determined, but it must have been because he really
+loved horses and found that as a dervish pure and simple he had very
+little to do with them. When he arrived he was dressed in a very ancient
+gunny-sack, and it was not without much regret at the desecration that I
+provided him with an outfit of the regulation khaki.
+
+My duties took me on long rides about the country. Here, and throughout
+Mesopotamia, the great antiquity of this "cradle of the world" kept ever
+impressing itself upon one, consciously or subconsciously. Everywhere were
+ruins; occasionally a wall still reared itself clear of the all-enveloping
+dust, but generally all that remained were great mounds, where the desert
+had crept in and claimed its own, covering palace, house, and market,
+temple, synagogue, mosque, or church with its everlasting mantle. Often
+the streets could still be traced, but oftener not. The weight of ages was
+ever present as one rode among the ruins of these once busy, prosperous
+cities, now long dead and buried, how long no one knew, for frequently
+their very names were forgotten. Babylon, Ur of the Chaldees, Istabulat,
+Nineveh, and many more great cities of history are now nothing but names
+given to desert mounds.
+
+Close by Samarra stands a strange corkscrew tower, known by the natives as
+the Malwiyah. It is about a hundred and sixty feet high, built of brick,
+with a path of varying width winding up around the outside. No one knew
+its purpose, and estimates of its antiquity varied by several thousand
+years. One fairly well-substantiated story told that it had been the
+custom to kill prisoners by hurling them off its top. We found it
+exceedingly useful as an observation-post. In the same manner we used
+Julian's tomb, a great mound rising up in the desert some five or six
+miles up-stream of the town. The legend is that when the Roman Emperor
+died of his wounds his soldiers, impressing the natives, built this as a
+mausoleum; but there is no ground whatever for this belief, for it would
+have been physically impossible for a harassed or retreating army to have
+performed a task of such magnitude. The natives call it "The Granary," and
+claim that that was its original use. Before the war the Germans had
+started in excavating, and discovered shafts leading deep down, and on top
+the foundations of a palace. Around its foot may be traced roadways and
+circular plots, and especially when seen from an aeroplane it looks as if
+there had at one time been an elaborate system of gardens.
+
+We were continually getting false rumors about the movements of the Turks.
+We had believed that it would be impossible for them to execute a flank
+movement, at any rate in sufficient strength to be a serious menace, for
+from all the reports we could get, the wells were few and far between.
+Nevertheless, there was a great deal of excitement and some concern when
+one afternoon our aeroplanes came in with the report that they had seen a
+body of Turks that they estimated at from six to eight thousand marching
+round our right flank. The plane was sent straight back with instructions
+to verify most carefully the statement, and be sure that it was really men
+they had seen. They returned at dark with no alteration of their original
+report. As can well be imagined, that night was a crowded one for us, and
+the feeling ran high when next morning the enemy turned out to be several
+enormous herds of sheep.
+
+As part consequence of this we were ordered to make a thorough water
+reconnaissance, with a view of ascertaining how large a force could be
+watered on a march around our flank. I went off in an armored car with
+Captain Marshall of the Intelligence Service. Marshall had spent many
+years in Mesopotamia shipping liquorice to the American Tobacco Company,
+and he was known and trusted by the Arabs all along the Tigris from Kurna
+to Mosul. He spoke the language most fluently, but with an accent that
+left no doubt of his Caledonian home. We had with us a couple of old
+sheiks, and it was their first ride in an automobile. It was easy to see
+that one of them was having difficulty in maintaining his dignity, but I
+was not quite sure of the reason until we stopped a moment and he fairly
+flew out of the car. It didn't seem possible that a man able to ride
+ninety miles at a stretch on a camel, could be made ill by the motion of
+an automobile. However, such was the case, and we had great difficulty in
+getting him back into the car. We discovered far more wells than we had
+been led to believe existed, but not enough to make a flank attack a very
+serious menace.
+
+The mirage played all sorts of tricks, and the balloon observers grew to
+be very cautious in their assertions. In the early days of the campaign,
+at the battle of Shaiba Bund, a friendly mirage saved the British forces
+from what would have proved a very serious defeat. Suleiman Askari was
+commanding the Turkish forces, and things were faring badly with the
+British, when of a sudden to their amazement they found that the Turks
+were in full retreat. Their commanders had caught sight of the mirage of
+what was merely an ambulance and supply train, but it was so magnified
+that they believed it to be a very large body of reinforcements. The
+report ran that when Suleiman was told of his mistake, his chagrin was so
+great that he committed suicide.
+
+It was at length decided to advance on the Turkish forces at Daur. General
+Brooking had just made a most successful attack on the Euphrates front,
+capturing the town of Ramadie, with almost five thousand prisoners. It was
+believed to be the intention of the army commander to try to relieve the
+pressure against General Allenby's forces in Palestine by attacking the
+enemy on all three of their Mesopotamian fronts. Accordingly, we were
+ordered to march out after sunset one night, prepared to attack the enemy
+position at daybreak. During a short halt by the last rays of the setting
+sun I caught sight of a number of Mohammedan soldiers prostrating
+themselves toward Mecca in their evening prayers, while their Christian or
+pagan comrades looked stolidly on. It was late October, and although the
+days were still very hot and oppressive, the nights were almost bitterly
+cold. A night-march is always a disagreeable business. The head of the
+column checks and halts, and those in the rear have no idea whether it is
+an involuntary stop for a few minutes, or whether they are to halt for an
+hour or more, owing to some complication of orders. So we stood shivering,
+and longed for a smoke, but of course that was strictly forbidden, for the
+cigarettes of an army would form a very good indication of its whereabouts
+on a dark night. All night we marched and halted, and started on again;
+the dust choked us, and the hours seemed interminable, until at last at
+two in the morning word was passed along that we could have an hour's
+sleep. The greater part of the year in Mesopotamia the regulation army
+dress consisted of a tunic and "shorts." These are long trousers cut off
+just above the knee, and the wearer may either use wrap puttees, or
+leather leggings, or golf stockings. They are a great help in the heat,
+as may easily be understood, and they allow, of course, much freer knee
+action, particularly when your clothes are wet. The reverse side of the
+medal reads that when you try to sleep without a blanket on a cold night,
+you find that your knees are uncomfortably exposed. Still we were, most of
+us, so drunk with sleep that it would have taken more than that to keep us
+awake. At three we resumed our march, and attacked just at dawn. The enemy
+had abandoned the first-line positions, and we met with but little
+resistance in the second. Our cavalry, which was concentrated at several
+points in nullahs (dry river-beds), suffered at the hands of the hostile
+aircraft. The Turk had evidently determined to fall back to Tekrit without
+putting up a serious defense. They certainly could have given us a much
+worse time than they did, for they had dug in well and scientifically.
+Among the prisoners we took there were some that proved to be very worth
+while. These Turkish officers were, as a whole a good lot--well dressed
+and well educated. Many spoke French. There is an excellent gunnery school
+at Constantinople, and one of the officers we captured had been a senior
+instructor there for many years. We had with us among our intelligence
+officers a Captain Bettelheim, born in Constantinople of Belgian
+parentage. He had served with the Turks against the Italians and with the
+British against the Boers. This gunnery officer turned out to be an old
+comrade of his in the Italian War. Many of the officers we got knew him,
+for he had been chief of police in Constantinople. Apparently none of them
+bore him the slightest ill-will when they found him serving against them.
+
+Among the supplies we captured at Daur were a lot of our own rifles and
+ammunition that the Arabs had stolen and sold to the Turks. It was
+impossible to entirely stop this, guard our dumps as best we could. On
+dark nights they would creep right into camp, and it was never safe to
+have the hospital barges tie up to the banks for the night on their way
+down the river. On many occasions the Arabs crawled aboard and finished
+off the wounded. There was only one thing to be said for the Arab, and
+that was that he played no favorite, but attacked, as a rule, whichever
+side came handier. We were told, and I believe it to be true, that during
+the fighting at Sunnaiyat the Turks sent over to know if we would agree
+to a three days' truce, during which time we should join forces against
+the Arabs, who were watching on the flank to pick off stragglers or ration
+convoys.
+
+That night we bivouacked at Daur, and were unmolested except for the enemy
+aircraft that came over and "laid eggs." Next morning we advanced on
+Tekrit. Our orders were to make a feint, and if we found that the Turk
+meant to stay and fight it out seriously, we were to fall back. Some
+gazelles got into the no man's land between us and the Turk, and in the
+midst of the firing ran gracefully up the line, stopping every now and
+then to stare about in amazement. Later on in the Argonne forest in France
+we had the same thing happen with some wild boars. The enemy seemed in no
+way inclined to evacuate Tekrit, so in accordance with instructions we
+returned to our previous night's encampment at Daur. On the way back we
+passed an old "arabana," a Turkish coupe, standing abandoned in the
+desert, with a couple of dead horses by it. It may have been used by some
+Turkish general in the retreat of two days before. It was the sort of
+coupe one associates entirely with well-kept parks and crowded city
+streets, and the incongruity of its lonely isolation amid the sand-dunes
+caused an amused ripple of comment.
+
+Our instructions were to march back to Samarra early next morning, but
+shortly before midnight orders came through from General Maude for us to
+advance again upon Tekrit and take it. Next day we halted and took stock
+in view of the new orders. The cavalry again suffered at the hands of the
+Turkish aircraft. I went to corps headquarters in the afternoon, and a
+crowd of "red tabs," as the staff-officers were called, were seated around
+a little table having the inevitable tea. A number of the generals had
+come in to discuss the plan of attack for the following day. Suddenly a
+Turk aeroplane made its appearance, flying quite low, and dropping bombs
+at regular intervals. It dropped two, and then a third on a little hill in
+a straight line from the staff conclave. It looked as if the next would be
+a direct hit, and the staff did the only wise thing, and took cover as
+flat on the ground as nature would allow; but the Hun's spacing was bad,
+and the next bomb fell some little way beyond. I remember our glee at
+what we regarded as a capital joke on the staff. The line-officer's humor
+becomes a trifle robust where the "gilded staff" is concerned,
+notwithstanding the fact that most staff-officers have seen active and
+distinguished service in the line.
+
+Our anti-aircraft guns--"Archies" we called them--were mounted on trucks,
+and on account of their weight had some difficulty getting up. I shall not
+soon forget our delight when they lumbered into view, for although I never
+happened personally to see an aeroplane brought down by an "Archie," there
+was no doubt about it but that they did not bomb us with the same
+equanimity when our anti-aircrafts were at hand.
+
+[Illustration: Captured Turkish camel corps]
+
+That night we marched out on Tekrit, and as dawn was breaking were ready
+to attack. As the mist cleared, an alarming but ludicrous sight met our
+eyes. On the extreme right some caterpillar tractors hauling our "heavies"
+were advancing straight on Tekrit, as if they had taken themselves for
+tanks. They were not long in discovering their mistake, and amid a mixed
+salvo they clumsily turned and made off at their best pace, which was not
+more than three miles an hour. Luckily, they soon got under some
+excellent defilade, but not until they had suffered heavily.
+
+Our artillery did some good work, but while we were waiting to attack we
+suffered rather heavily. We had to advance over a wide stretch of open
+country to reach the Turkish first lines. By nightfall the second line of
+trenches was practically all in our hands. Meanwhile the cavalry had
+circled way around the flank up-stream of Tekrit to cut the enemy off if
+he attempted to retreat. The town is on the right bank of the Tigris, and
+we had a small force that had come up from Samarra on the left bank, for
+we had no means of ferrying troops across. Our casualties during the day
+had amounted to about two thousand. The Seaforths had suffered heavily,
+but no more so than some of the native regiments. In Mesopotamia there
+were many changes in the standing of the Indian battalions. The
+Maharattas, for instance, had never previously been regarded as anything
+at all unusual, but they have now a very distinguished record to take
+pride in. The general feeling was that the Gurkhas did not quite live up
+to their reputation. But the Indian troops as a whole did so exceedingly
+well that there is little purpose in making comparisons amongst them. At
+this time, so I was informed, the Expeditionary Force, counting all
+branches, totalled about a million, and a very large percentage of this
+came from India. We drew our supplies from India and Australia, and it is
+interesting to note that we preferred the Australian canned beef and
+mutton (bully beef and bully mutton, as it was called) to the American.
+
+At dusk the fighting died down, and we were told to hold on and go over at
+daybreak. As I was making my way back to headquarters a general pounced
+upon me and told me to get quickly into a car and go as rapidly as
+possible to Daur to bring up a motor ration-convoy with fodder for the
+cavalry horses and food for the riders. A Ford car happened to pass by,
+and he stopped it and shoved me in, with some last hurried injunction. It
+was quite fifteen miles back, and the country was so cut up by nullahs or
+ravines that in most places it was inadvisable to leave the road, which
+was, of course, jammed with a double stream of transport of every
+description. When we were three or four miles from Daur a tire blew out.
+The driver had used his last spare, so there was nothing to do but keep
+going on the rim. The car was of the delivery-wagon type--"pill-boxes"
+were what they were known as--and while we were stopped taking stock I
+happened to catch sight of a good-sized bedding-roll behind. "Some one's
+out of luck," said I to the driver; "whose roll is it?" "The corps
+commander's, sir," was his reply. After exhausting my limited vocabulary,
+I realized that it was far too late to stop another motor and send this
+one back, so I just kept going. Across the bed of one more ravine, the
+sand up to the hubs, and we were in the Daur camp. I managed to rank some
+one out of a spare tire and started back again. My driver proved unable to
+drive at night, at all events at a pace that would put us anywhere before
+dawn, so I was forced to take the wheel. By the time I had the convoy
+properly located I was rather despondent of the corps commander's temper,
+even should I eventually reach him that night, which seemed a remote
+chance, for the best any one could do was give me the rough location on a
+map. Still, taking my luminous compass, I set out to steer a cross-country
+course. I ran into five or six small groups of ambulances filled with
+wounded, trying to find their way to Daur, and completely lost. Most had
+given up--some were unknowingly headed back for Tekrit. I could do no more
+than give them the right direction, which I knew they had no chance of
+holding. Of course I could have no headlights, and the ditches were many,
+but in some miraculous way, more through good luck than good management, I
+did find corps headquarters, and what was better still, the general's
+reprimand took the form of bread and ham and a stiff peg of whiskey--the
+first food I had had since before daylight.
+
+During the night the Turks evacuated the town. Their forces were certainly
+mobile. They could cover the most surprising distances, and live on almost
+nothing. We marched in and occupied. White flags were flying from all the
+houses, which were not nearly so much damaged from the bombardment as one
+would have supposed. This was invariably the case; indeed, it is
+surprising to see how much shelling a town can undergo without noticeable
+effect. It takes a long time to level a town in the way it has been done
+in northern France. In this region the banks of the river average about
+one hundred and fifty feet in height, and Tekrit is built at the junction
+of two ravines. No two streets are on the same level; sometimes the roofs
+of the houses on a lower level serve as the streets for the houses above.
+Many of the booths in the bazaar were open and transacting business when
+we arrived, an excellent proof of how firmly the Arabs believed in British
+fair dealing. Our men bought cigarettes, matches, and vegetables. Yusuf
+had lived here three or four years, so I despatched him to get chickens
+and eggs for the mess. I ran into Marshall, who was on his way to dine
+with the mayor, who had turned out to be an old friend of his. He asked me
+to join him, and we climbed up to a very comfortable house, built around a
+large courtyard. It was the best meal we had either of us had in
+days--great pilaus of rice, excellent chicken, and fresh unleavened bread.
+This bread looks like a very large and thin griddle-cake. The Arab uses it
+as a plate. Eating with your hands is at first rather difficult. Before
+falling to, a ewer is brought around to you, and you are supplied with
+soap--a servant pours water from the ewer over your hands, and then gives
+you a towel. After eating, the same process is gone through with. There
+are certain formalities that must be regarded--one of them being that you
+must not eat or drink with your left hand.
+
+In Tekrit we did not find as much in the way of supplies and ammunition as
+we had hoped. The Turk had destroyed the greater part of his store. We did
+find great quantities of wood, and in that barren, treeless country it was
+worth a lot. Most of the inhabitants of Tekrit are raftsmen by profession.
+Their rafts have been made in the same manner since before the days of
+Xerxes and Darius. Inflated goatskins are used as a basis for a platform
+of poles, cut in the up-stream forests. On these, starting from Diarbekr
+or Mosul, they float down all their goods. When they reach Tekrit they
+leave the poles there, and start up-stream on foot, carrying their
+deflated goatskins. The Turks used this method a great deal bringing down
+their supplies. In pre-war days the rafts, keleks as they are called,
+would often come straight through to Baghdad, but many were always broken
+up at Tekrit, for there is a desert route running across to Hit on the
+Euphrates, and the supplies from up-river were taken across this in camel
+caravans.
+
+The aerodrome lay six or seven miles above the town, and I was anxious to
+see it and the comfortable billets the Germans had built themselves. I
+found a friend whose duties required motor transportation, and we set off
+in his car. A dust-storm was raging, and we had some difficulty in finding
+our way through the network of trenches. Once outside, the storm became
+worse, and we could only see a few yards in front of us. We got completely
+lost, and after nearly running over the edge of the bluff, gave up the
+attempt, and slowly worked our way back.
+
+When we started off on the advance I was reading Xenophon's _Anabasis_. On
+the day when we were ordered to march on Tekrit a captain of the Royal
+Flying Corps, an ex-master at Eton, was in the mess, and when I told him
+that I was nearly out of reading matter, he said that next time he came
+over he would drop me Plutarch's _Lives_. I asked him to drop it at corps
+headquarters, and that a friend of mine there would see that I got it. The
+next day in the heat of the fighting a plane came over low, signalling
+that it was dropping a message. As the streamer fell close by, there was a
+rush to pick it up and learn how the attack was progressing. Fortunately,
+I was far away when the packet was opened and found to contain the book
+that the pilot had promised to drop for me.
+
+After we had been occupying the town for a few days, orders came through
+to prepare to fall back on Samarra. The line of communication was so long
+that it was impossible to maintain us, except at too great a cost to the
+transportation facilities possessed by the Expeditionary Forces. Eight or
+ten months later, when we had more rails in hand, a line was laid to
+Tekrit, which had been abandoned by the Turks under the threat of our
+advance to Kirkuk, in the Persian hills. It was difficult to explain to
+the men, particularly to the Indians, the necessity for falling back. All
+they could understand was that we had taken the town at no small cost, and
+now we were about to give it up.
+
+For several days I was busy helping to prepare rafts to take down the
+timber and such other captured supplies as were worth removing. The river
+was low, leaving a broad stretch of beach below the town, and to this we
+brought down the poles. Several camels had died near the water, probably
+from the results of our shelling, and the hot weather soon made them very
+unpleasant companions. The first day was bad enough; the second was worse.
+The natives were not in the least affected. They brought their washing and
+worked among them--they came down and drew their drinking-water from the
+river, either beside the camels or down-stream of them, with complete
+indifference. It is true this water percolates drop by drop through large,
+porous clay pots before it is drunk, but even so, it would have seemed
+that they would have preferred its coming from up-stream of the derelict
+"ships of the desert." On the third day, to their mild surprise, we
+managed with infinite difficulty to tow the camels out through the shallow
+water into the main stream.
+
+We finally got our rafts built, over eighty in number, and arranged for
+enough Arab pilots to take care of half of them. On the remainder we put
+Indian sepoys. They made quite a fleet when we finally got them all
+started down-stream. Two were broken up in the rapids near Daur, the rest
+reached Samarra in safety on the second day.
+
+We had a pleasant camp on the bluffs below Tekrit--high-enough above the
+plain to be free of the ordinary dust-storms, and the prospect of
+returning to Samarra was scarcely more pleasant to us than to the men.
+Five days after we had taken the town, we turned our backs on it and
+marched slowly back to rail-head.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON
+
+
+We returned to find Samarra buried in dust and more desolate than ever. A
+few days later came the first rain-storm. After a night's downpour the air
+was radiantly clear, and it was joy to ride off on the rounds, no longer
+like Zeus, enveloped in a cloud.
+
+It was a relief to see the heat-stroke camps broken up. During the summer
+months our ranks were fearfully thinned through the sun. Although it was
+the British troops that suffered most, the Indians were by no means
+immune. Before the camps were properly organized the percentage of
+mortality was exceedingly large, for the only effective treatment
+necessitates the use of much ice. The patient runs a temperature which it
+was impossible to control until the ice-making machines were installed.
+The camps were situated in the coolest and most comfortable places, but in
+spite of everything, death was a frequent result, and recoveries were apt
+to be only partial. Men who had had a bad stroke were rarely of any
+further use in the country.
+
+Another sickness of the hot season which now began to claim less victims
+was sand-fly fever. This fever, which, as its name indicates, was
+contracted from the bites of sand-flies, varied widely in virulence.
+Sometimes it was so severe that the victim had to be evacuated to India;
+as a rule he went no farther than a base hospital at Baghdad or Amara.
+
+One of the things about which the Tommy felt most keenly in the
+Mesopotamian campaign was that there was no such thing as a "Cushy
+Blighty." To take you to "Blighty" a wound must mean permanent
+disablement, otherwise you either convalesced in the country or, at best,
+were sent to India. In the same manner there were no short leaves, for
+there was nowhere to go. At the most rapid rate of travelling it took two
+weeks to get to India, and once there, although the people did everything
+possible in the way of entertaining, the enlisted man found little to make
+him less homesick than he had been in Mesopotamia. Transportation was so
+difficult and the trip so long that only under very exceptional
+circumstances was leave to England given. One spring it was announced
+that officers wishing to get either married or divorced could apply for
+leave with good hopes of success. Many applied, but a number returned
+without having fulfilled either condition, so that the following year no
+leaves were given upon those grounds. The army commander put all divorce
+cases into the hands of an officer whose civil occupation had been the
+law, and who arranged them without the necessity of granting home leave.
+
+A week after our return to Samarra a rumor started that General Maude was
+down with cholera. For some time past there had been sporadic cases,
+though not enough to be counted an epidemic. The sepoys had suffered
+chiefly, but not exclusively, for the British ranks also supplied a quota
+of victims. An officer on the staff of the military governor of Baghdad
+had recently died. We heard that the army commander had the virulent form,
+and knew there could be no chance of his recovery. The announcement of his
+death was a heavy blow to all, and many were the gloomy forebodings. The
+whole army had implicit confidence in their leader, and deeply mourned his
+loss. The usual rumors of foul play and poison went the rounds, but I
+soon after heard Colonel Wilcox--in pre-war days an able and renowned
+practitioner of Harley Street--say that it was an undoubted case of
+cholera. The colonel had attended General Maude throughout the illness.
+The general had never taken the cholera prophylactic, although Colonel
+Wilcox had on many occasions urged him to do so, the last time being only
+a few days before the disease developed.
+
+[Illustration: Towing an armored car across a river]
+
+[Illustration: Reconnaissance]
+
+General Marshall, who had commanded General Maude's old division, the
+Thirteenth, took over. The Seventeenth lost General Gillman, who thereupon
+became chief of staff. This was a great loss to his division, for he was
+the idol of the men, but the interest of the Expeditionary Force was
+naturally and justly given precedence.
+
+In due course my transfer to the Motor Machine-Gun Corps came through
+approved, and I was assigned to the Fourteenth battery of light-armored
+motor-cars, commanded by Captain Nigel Somerset, whose grandfather, Lord
+Raglan, had died, nursed by Florence Nightingale, while in command of the
+British forces in the Crimean War. Somerset himself was in the infantry at
+the outbreak of the war and had been twice wounded in France. He was an
+excellent leader, possessing as he did dash, judgment, and personal
+magnetism. A battery was composed of eight armored cars, subdivided into
+four sections. There was a continually varying number of tenders and
+workshop lorries. The fighting cars were Rolls-Royces, the others Napiers
+and Fords.
+
+At that time there were only four batteries in the country. We were army
+troops--that is to say, we were not attached to any individual brigade, or
+division, or corps, but were temporarily assigned first here and then
+there, as the need arose.
+
+In attacks we worked in co-operation with the cavalry. Although on
+occasions they tried to use us as tanks, it was not successful, for our
+armor-plate was too light. We were also employed in raiding, and in
+quelling Arab uprisings. This latter use threw us into close touch with
+the political officers. These were a most interesting lot of men. They
+were recruited in part from the army, but largely from civil life. They
+took over the civil administration of the conquered territory and
+judiciously upheld native justice. Many remarkable characters were
+numbered among them--men who had devoted a lifetime to the study of the
+intricacies of Oriental diplomacy. They were distinguished by the white
+tabs on the collars of their regulation uniforms; but white was by no
+means invariably the sign of peace, for many of the political officers
+were killed, and more than once in isolated towns in unsettled districts
+they sustained sieges that lasted for several days. We often took a
+political officer out with us on a raid or reconnaissance, finding his
+knowledge of the language and customs of great assistance. Sir Percy Cox
+was at the head, with the title "Chief Political Officer" and the rank of
+general. His career in the Persian Gulf has been as distinguished as it is
+long, and his handling of the very delicate situations arising in
+Mesopotamia has called forth the unstinted praise of soldier and civilian
+alike.
+
+Ably assisting him, and head of the Arab bureau, was Miss Gertrude Bell,
+the only woman, other than the nursing sisters, officially connected with
+the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Forces. Miss Bell speaks Arabic fluently
+and correctly. She first became interested in the East when visiting her
+uncle at Teheran, where he was British minister. She has made noteworthy
+expeditions in Syria and Mesopotamia, and has written a number of
+admirable books, among which are _Armurath to Armurath_ and _The Desert
+and the Sown_. The undeniable position which she holds must appear doubly
+remarkable when the Mohammedan official attitude toward women is borne in
+mind. Miss Bell has worked steadily and without a leave in this trying
+climate, and her tact and judgment have contributed to the British success
+to a degree that can scarcely be overestimated.
+
+The headquarters of the various batteries were in Baghdad. There we had
+our permanent billets, and stores. We would often be ordered out in
+sections to be away varying lengths of time, though rarely more than a
+couple of months. The workshops' officer stayed in permanent charge and
+had the difficult task of keeping all the cars in repair. The supply of
+spare parts was so uncertain that much skill and ingenuity were called
+for, and possessed to a full degree by Lieutenant Linnell of the
+Fourteenth.
+
+A few days after I joined I set off with Somerset and one of the battery
+officers, Lieutenant Smith, formerly of the Black Watch. We were ordered
+to do some patrolling near the ruins of Babylon. Kerbela and Nejef, in the
+quality of great Shiah shrines, had never been particularly friendly to
+the Turks, who were Sunnis--but the desert tribes are almost invariably
+Sunnis, and this coupled with their natural instinct for raiding and
+plundering made them eager to take advantage of any interregnum of
+authority. We organized a sort of native mounted police, but they were
+more picturesque than effective. They were armed with weapons of varying
+age and origin--not one was more recent than the middle of the last
+century. Now the Budus, the wild desert folk, were frequently equipped
+with rifles they had stolen from us, so in a contest the odds were
+anything but even.
+
+We took up our quarters at Museyib, a small town on the banks of the
+Euphrates, six or eight miles above the Hindiyah Barrage, a dam finished a
+few years before, and designed to irrigate a large tract of potentially
+rich country. We patrolled out to Mohamediyah, a village on the caravan
+desert route to Baghdad, and thence down to Hilleh, around which stand the
+ruins of ancient Babylon. The rainy season was just beginning, and it was
+obvious that the patrolling could not be continuous, for a twelve-hour
+rain would make the country impassable to our heavy cars for two or three
+days. We were fortunate in having pleasant company in the officers of a
+Punjabi infantry battalion and an Indian cavalry regiment. Having
+commandeered an ancient caravan-serai for garage and billets, we set to
+work to clean it out and make it as waterproof as circumstances would
+permit. An oil-drum with a length of iron telegraph-pole stuck in its top
+provided a serviceable stove, and when it rained we played bridge or read.
+
+I was ever ready to reduce my kit to any extent in order to have space for
+some books, and Voltaire's _Charles XII_ was the first called upon to
+carry me to another part of the world from that in which I at the moment
+found myself. I always kept a volume of some sort in my pocket, and during
+halts I would read in the shade cast by the turret of my car. The two
+volumes of Layard's _Early Adventures_ proved a great success. The writer,
+the great Assyriologist, is better known as the author of _Nineveh and
+Babylon_. The book I was reading had been written when he was in his early
+twenties, but published for the first time forty years later. Layard
+started life as a solicitor's clerk in London, but upon being offered a
+post in India he had accepted and proceeded thither overland. On reaching
+Baghdad he made a side-trip into Kurdistan, and became so enamored of the
+life of the tribesmen that he lived there with them on and off for two
+years--years filled with adventure of the most thrilling sort.
+
+I had finished a translation of Xenophon shortly before and found it a
+very different book than when I was plodding drearily through it in the
+original at school. Here it was all vivid and real before my eyes, with
+the scene of the great battle of Cunaxa only a few miles from Museyib.
+Babylon was in sight of the valiant Greeks, but all through the loss of a
+leader it was never to be theirs. On the ground itself one could
+appreciate how great a masterpiece the retreat really was, and the
+hardiness of the soldiers which caused Xenophon to regard as a "snow
+sickness" the starvation and utter weariness which made the numbed men lie
+down and die in the snow of the Anatolian highlands. He remarks naively
+that if you could build a fire and give them something hot to eat, the
+sickness was dispelled!
+
+The rain continued to fall and the mud became deeper and deeper. It was
+all the Arabs could do to get their produce into market. The bazaar was
+not large, but was always thronged. I used to sit in one of the
+coffee-houses and drink coffee or tea and smoke the long-stemmed
+water-pipe, the narghile. My Arabic was now sufficiently fluent for
+ordinary conversation, and in these clubs of the Arab I could hear all the
+gossip. Bazaar rumors always told of our advances long before they were
+officially given out. Once in Baghdad I heard of an attack we had
+launched. On going around to G.H.Q. I mentioned the rumor, and found that
+it was not yet known there, but shortly after was confirmed. I had already
+in Africa met with the "native wireless," and it will be remembered how in
+the Civil War the plantation negroes were often the first to get news of
+the battles. It is something that I have never heard satisfactorily
+explained.
+
+In the coffee-houses, besides smoking and gossiping, we also played games,
+either chess or backgammon or munkula. This last is an exceedingly
+primitive and ancient game--it must date almost as far back as jackstones
+or knucklebones. I have seen the natives in Central Africa and the Indians
+in the far interior of Brazil playing it in almost identical form. In
+Mesopotamia the board was a log of wood sliced in two and hinged together.
+In either half five or six holes were scooped out, and the game consisted
+in dropping cowrie shells or pebbles into the holes. When the number in a
+particular hollow came to a certain amount with the addition of the one
+dropped in, you won the contents.
+
+In most places the coffee was served in Arab fashion, not Turkish. In the
+latter case it is sweet and thick and the tiny cup is half full of
+grounds; in the former the coffee is clear and bitter and of unsurpassable
+flavor. The diminutive cup is filled several times, but each time there is
+only a mouthful poured in. Tea is served in small glasses, without milk,
+but with lots of sugar. The spoons in the glasses are pierced with holes
+like tea-strainers so that the tea may be stirred without spilling it.
+
+There was in particular one booth I could never tire watching. The old man
+who owned it was a vender of pickles. In rows before him were bottles and
+jars and bowls containing pickles of all colors--red, yellow, green,
+purple, white, and even blue. Above his head were festoons of gayly
+painted peppers. He had a long gray beard, wore a green turban and a
+flowing robe with a gold-braided waistcoat. In the half-lights of the
+crowded, covered bazaar his was a setting in which Dulac would have
+revelled.
+
+At Museyib we led a peaceful, uneventful existence--completely shut in by
+the mud. We had several bazaar rumors about proposed attacks upon the
+engineers who were surveying for a railroad that was to be built to Hilleh
+for the purpose of transporting the grain-crop to the capital. Nothing
+materialized, however. The conditions were too poor to induce even the
+easily encouraged Arabs to raid. One morning when I was wandering around
+the gardens on the outskirts of the town I came across some jackals and
+shot one with my Webley revolver. It was running and I fired a number of
+times, and got back to town to find that my shooting had started all sorts
+of excitement and reports of uprisings.
+
+Christmas came and the different officers' messes organized celebrations.
+The mess we had joined was largely Scotch, so we decided we must make a
+haggis, that "chieftain of the pudden race." The ingredients, save for the
+whiskey, were scarcely orthodox, but if it was not a success, at least no
+one admitted it.
+
+As soon as the weather cleared we made a run to Kerbela--a lovely town,
+with miles of gardens surrounding it and two great mosques. The bazaar was
+particularly attractive--plentifully supplied with everything. We got
+quantities of the deliciously flavored pistachio-nuts which were difficult
+to obtain elsewhere, as well as all sorts of fruit and vegetables. There
+were no troops stationed in the vicinity, so the prices were lower than
+usual. The orders were that we should go about in armed bands, but I never
+saw any marked indication of hostility. The British, true to the
+remarkable tact and tolerance that contributes so largely to their success
+in dealing with native races, posted Mohammedan sepoys as guards on the
+mosques, and no one but Moslems could even go into the courtyards. If this
+had not been done, there would have been many disturbances and uprisings,
+for the Arabs and Persians felt so strongly on the question that they
+regarded with marked hostility those who even gazed into the mosque
+courtyards. Why it is so different in Constantinople I do not know, but
+there was certainly no hostility shown us in Santa Sophia nor in the
+mosque of Omar in Jerusalem. Be that as it may, forbidden fruit is always
+sweet, and the Tommies were inclined to force an entrance. During a change
+of guard a Tommy who had his curiosity and initiative stimulated through
+recourse to arrick, the fiery liquor distilled from dates, stole into the
+most holy mosque in Kerbela. By a miracle he was got out unharmed, but for
+a few hours a general uprising with an attendant massacre of unbelievers
+was feared.
+
+The great mosque lost much of its dignity through an atrocious clock-tower
+standing in the courtyard in front of it. It had evidently been found too
+expensive to cover this tower with a golden scale to shine in the sun, so
+some ingenious architect hit upon the plan of papering it with flattened
+kerosene-tins. It must have glinted gloriously at first, but weather and
+rain had rusted the cans and they presented but a sorry spectacle. From
+the thousand and one uses to which these oil-cans have been put by the
+native, one is inclined to think that the greatest benefit that has been
+conferred on the natives by modern civilization is from the hands of the
+Standard Oil Company.
+
+There were a fair number of Indians living in Kerbela before the war, for
+devout Shiahs are anxious to be buried near the martyred sons of Ali, and
+when they are unable to move to Kerbela in their lifetime they frequently
+make provisions that their remains may be transported thither. The British
+found it a convenient abode for native rulers whom they were forced to
+depose but still continued to pension.
+
+[Illustration: The Lion of Babylon]
+
+[Illustration: A dragon on the palace wall]
+
+Hilleh, which stands near the ruins of ancient Babylon, is a modern town
+very much like Museyib. I never had a chance to study the ruins at any
+length. Several times we went over the part that had been excavated by the
+Germans immediately before the war. I understand that this is believed to
+be the great palace where Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall. It
+is built of bricks, each one of which is stamped in cuneiform characters.
+There are very fine bas-reliefs of animals, both mythical and real. In the
+centre is the great stone lion, massively impressive, standing over the
+prostrate form of a man. The lion has suffered from fire and man; there
+have even been chips made in it recently by Arab rifles, probably not
+wantonly, but in some skirmish. Standing alone in its majesty in the midst
+of ruin and desolation amid the black tents of a people totally unable to
+construct or even appreciate anything of a like nature, it gave one
+much to think over and moralize about. The ruins of Babylon have been
+excavated only in very small part; there are great isolated mounds which
+have never been touched, and you can still pick up in the sand bits of
+statuary, and the cylinders that were used as seal-rings. The great city
+of Seleucia on the Tigris was built largely with bricks and masonry
+brought by barge from the ruins of Babylon through the canal that joined
+the two rivers.
+
+The prophecy of Isaiah has fallen true:
+
+    And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
+    excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
+
+    It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from
+    generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent
+    there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
+
+    But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses
+    shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there,
+    and satyrs shall dance there.
+
+    And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate
+    houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is
+    near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
+
+A few days after Christmas, we were ordered to return to Baghdad. The
+going was still bad. We had a Ford tender in advance to find and warn us
+of the softest spots. Once it got into the middle of such a bottomless bog
+that, after trying everything else, I hit upon the idea of rolling it out.
+It was built all enclosed like a bread-van, and we turned it over and over
+until we had it clear of the mud. We had hard work with the heavy
+cars--sometimes we could tow one out with another, but frequently that
+only resulted in getting the two stuck. Once when the cars were badly
+bogged I went to a near-by Arab village to get help. I told the head man
+that I wanted bundles of brush to throw in front of the cars in order to
+make some sort of a foundation to pass them over. He at once started
+turning out his people to aid us, but after he had got a number of loads
+under way he caught sight of one of his wives, who, instead of coming to
+our assistance, was washing some clothes in a copper caldron by the fire.
+There followed a scene which demonstrated that even an Arab is by no means
+always lord of his own household. The wife refused to budge; the Arab
+railed and stormed, but she went calmly on with her washing, paying no
+more attention to his fury than if he were a fractious, unreasonable
+child. At length, driven to a white heat of rage, the head man upset the
+caldron into the fire with his foot. The woman, without a word, got up and
+stalked into a near-by hut, from which she refused to emerge. There was
+nothing for her discomfited adversary to do but go on with his rounds.
+
+By manoeuvring and digging and towing we managed to make seven miles after
+fourteen hours' work that first day. Night found us close beside an Arab
+village, from which I got a great bowl of buffalo milk to put into the
+men's coffee. Early in the morning we were off again. The going was so
+much better that we were able to make Baghdad at ten o'clock in the
+evening.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT
+
+
+We spent a few days making repairs and outfitting before starting off
+again. This time our destination was Deli Abbas, the headquarters of the
+Thirteenth Division. The town is situated in the plains below the
+foot-hills of the Persian Mountains, on the banks of the Khalis Canal,
+some seventy miles north-east of Baghdad. At dawn we passed out of the
+north gate, close to where General Maude is buried, and whirled across the
+desert for thirty miles to Bakuba, a prosperous city on the banks of the
+Diyala. From the junction of the greater Zab down to Kurna, where the
+Euphrates joins, this stream is the most important affluent of the Tigris.
+It was one of those bright, sparkling mornings on which merely to be alive
+and breathe is a joy. We passed a number of caravans, bringing carpets and
+rugs from Persia, or fruit and vegetables from the rich agricultural
+district around Bakuba. The silks manufactured here are of a fine quality
+and well known throughout the country.
+
+After passing the big aerodrome near the town, the going became very bad;
+we struggled along through the village of Deltawa, in and out of
+unfathomable ditches. The rivers were in flood, and we ran into lakes and
+swamps that we cautiously skirted. Dark overtook us in the middle of a
+network of bogs, but we came upon an outpost of Welsh Fusiliers and spent
+the night with them. We had smashed the bottom plate of one of the cars,
+so that all the oil ran out of the crank-case, but with a side of the
+ever-useful kerosene tin we patched the car up temporarily and pushed off
+at early dawn. Our route wound through groves of palms surrounding the
+tumble-down tomb of some holy man, occasional collections of squalid
+little huts, and in the intervening "despoblado" we would catch sight of a
+jackal crouching in the hollow or slinking off through the scrub. Deli
+Abbas proved a half-deserted straggling town which gave evidence of having
+once seen prosperous days. Some Turkish aeroplanes heralded our arrival.
+
+In front of us rose the Jebel Hamrin--Red Hills--beyond them the
+snow-clad peaks of the Kurdish Range. A few months previous we had
+captured the passes over the Jebel, and we were now busy repairing and
+improving the roads--in particular that across the Abu Hajjar, not for
+nothing named by the Arabs the "Father of Stones." Whenever the going
+permitted we went out on reconnaissances--rekkos, as we called them. They
+varied but slightly; the one I went on the day after reaching Deli Abbas
+might serve as model. We started at daybreak and ran to a little village
+called Ain Lailah, the Spring of Night, a lovely name for the small clump
+of palm-trees tucked away unexpectedly in a hollow among barren
+foot-hills. There we picked up a surveyor--an officer whose business it
+was to make maps for the army. We passed through great herds of camels,
+some with small children perched on their backs, who joggled about like
+sailors on a storm-tossed ship, as the camels made away from the cars.
+There were villages of the shapeless black tents of the nomads huddled in
+among the desolate dunes. We picked up a Turk deserter who was trying to
+reach our lines. He said that his six comrades had been killed by Arabs.
+Shortly afterward we ran into a cavalry patrol, but the men escaped over
+some very broken ground before we could satisfactorily come to terms with
+them. It was lucky for the deserter that we found him before they did, for
+his shrift would have been short. We got back to camp at half past eight,
+having covered ninety-two miles in our windings--a good day's work.
+
+Each section had two motorcycles attached to it--jackals, as one of the
+generals called them, in apt reference to the way in which jackals
+accompany a lion when hunting. The cyclists rode ahead to spy out the
+country and the best course to follow. When we got into action they would
+drop behind, and we used them to send messages back to camp. The best
+motorcyclist we had was a Swiss named Milson. He was of part English
+descent, and came at once from Switzerland at the outbreak of the war to
+enlist. When he joined he spoke only broken English but was an exceedingly
+intelligent man and had been attending a technical college. I have never
+seen a more skilful rider; he could get his cycle along through the mud
+when we were forced to carry the others, and no one was more cool and
+unconcerned under fire. The personnel of the battery left nothing to be
+desired. One was proud to serve among such a fine set of men. Corporal
+Summers drove the car in which I usually rode, and I have never met with a
+better driver or one who understood his car so thoroughly, and possessed
+that intangible sympathy with it which is the gift of a few, but can be
+never attained.
+
+We were still in the rainy season. We had to travel as light as possible,
+and all we could bring were forty-pounder tents, which correspond to the
+American dog-tent. Very low, they withstood in remarkable fashion the
+periodical hurricanes of wind and rain. They kept us fairly dry, too, for
+we were careful to ditch them well. There was room for two men to sleep in
+the turret of a Rolls, and they could spread a tarpaulin over the top to
+keep the rain from coming in through the various openings. The balance of
+the men had a communal tent or slept in the tenders. The larger tents in
+the near-by camps blew down frequently, but with us it happened only
+occasionally. There are happier moments than those spent in the inky
+blackness amid a torrential deluge, when you try to extricate yourself
+from the wet, clinging folds of falling canvas.
+
+Time hung heavily when the weather was bad, and we were cooped up inside
+our tents without even a hostile aeroplane to shoot at. One day when the
+going was too poor to take out the heavy cars, I set off in a tender to
+visit another section of the battery that was stationed thirty or forty
+miles away in the direction of Persia, close by a town called Kizil Robat.
+We had a rough trip, with several difficult fords to cross. It was only
+through working with the icy water above our waists that we won through
+the worst, amid the shouts of "Shabash, Sahib!" ("Well done!") from the
+onlooking Indian troops. I reached the camp to find the section absent on
+a reconnaissance, for the country was better drained than that over which
+we were working. A few minutes later one of the cyclists came in with the
+news that the cars were under heavy fire about twenty-five miles away and
+one of them was badly bogged. I immediately loaded all the surplus men and
+eight Punjabis from a near-by regiment into the tenders. We reached the
+scene just after the disabled car had been abandoned. Some of the Turks
+were concealed in a village two hundred and fifty yards away; the rest
+were behind some high irrigation embankments. The free car had been
+unable to circle around or flank them because of the nature of the
+terrain. The men had not known that the village was occupied and had
+bogged down almost at the same time that the Turks opened fire. By
+breaking down an irrigation ditch the enemy succeeded in further flooding
+the locality where the automobile was trapped. The Turks made it hot for
+the men when they tried to dig out the car. The bullets spattered about
+them. It was difficult to tell how many Turks we accounted for. As dark
+came on, the occupants of the disabled car abandoned it and joined the
+other one, which was standing off the enemy but had lost all four tires
+and was running on its rims. We held a consultation and decided to stay
+where we were until dawn. We had scarcely made the decision when one of
+our cyclists arrived with orders from the brigade commander to return
+immediately. Although exceedingly loath to leave the armored car, we had
+no other course than to obey.
+
+It was after midnight by the time we made back to camp. We were told that
+a small attack had been planned for the morning, and that then we could go
+out with the troops and recover our car, using some artillery horses to
+drag it free. The troops soon began filing past, but we didn't pull out
+till three o'clock, by which time we were reinforced by an armored car
+from another battery. We were held back behind the advanced cavalry until
+daylight, and felt certain that the Turks would have either destroyed or
+succeeded in removing our car. Nor were we wrong, for just as we breasted
+the hill that brought the scene of yesterday's engagement into view, we
+saw the smoke of an explosion and the men running back into the village.
+We cleared the village with the help of a squadron of the Twenty-First
+cavalry, and found that the car had been almost freed during the night. It
+was a bad wreck, but we were able to tow it. I wished to have a reckoning
+with the village head man, and walked to an isolated group of houses a few
+hundred yards to the left of the village. As I neared them a lively
+fusillade opened and I had to take refuge in a convenient irrigation
+ditch. The country was so broken that it was impossible for us to operate,
+so we towed the car back to camp.
+
+[Illustration: Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car]
+
+[Illustration: A Mesopotamian garage]
+
+Our section from Deli Abbas was moved up to take the place of the one that
+had been engaged, which now returned to Baghdad. We were camped at
+Mirjana, a few miles north of Kizil Robat, on the Diyala River. A pontoon
+bridge was thrown across and the cars were taken over to the right bank,
+where we bivouacked with a machine-gun company and a battalion of native
+infantry. The bed of the river was very wide, and although throughout the
+greater part of the year the water flowed only through the narrow main
+channel, in the time of the spring floods the whole distance was a riotous
+yellow torrent. We had no sooner got the cars across than the river began
+to rise. During the first night part of the bridge was carried away, and
+the rest was withdrawn. The rise continued; trees and brush were swept
+racing past. We made several fruitless attempts to get across in the
+clumsy pontoons, but finally gave it up, resigning ourselves to being
+marooned. We put ourselves on short rations and waited for the river to
+fall. If the Turks had used any intelligence they could have gathered us
+in with the greatest ease, in spite of our excellent line of trenches. On
+the fourth day of our isolation the river subsided as rapidly as it had
+risen.
+
+We had good patrolling conditions, and each day we made long circuits.
+Sometimes we would run into a body of enemy cavalry and have a skirmish
+with them. Again we would come upon an infantry outpost and manoeuvre
+about in an effort to damage it. The enemy set traps for us, digging big
+holes in the road and covering them over with matting on which they
+scattered dirt to make the surface appear normal. The nearest town
+occupied by the Turks was Kara Tepe, distant from Mirjana eight or ten
+miles as the crow flies. In the debatable land were a number of native
+villages, and such inhabitants as remained in them led an unpleasantly
+eventful existence. In the morning they would be visited by a Turkish
+patrol, which would be displaced by us in our rounds. Perhaps in the
+evening a band of wild mountainy Kurds would blow in and run off some of
+their few remaining sheep. Then the Turks would return and accuse them of
+having given us information, and carry off some hostages or possibly beat
+a couple of them for having received us, although goodness knows they had
+little enough choice in the matter. There was one old sheik with whom I
+used often to sit and gossip while an attendant was roasting the berries
+for our coffee over the near-by fire. He was ever asking why we couldn't
+make an advance and put his village safely behind our lines, so that the
+children could grow fat and the herds graze unharmed. In this country
+Kurdish and Turkish were spoken as frequently as Arabic, and many of the
+names of places were Turkish--such as Kara Tepe, which means Black
+Mountain, and Kizil Robat, the Tomb of the Maidens. My spelling of these
+names differs from that found on many maps. It would be a great
+convenience if some common method could be agreed upon. At present the
+map-makers conform only in a unanimous desire to each use a different
+transliteration.
+
+Kizil Robat is an attractive town. I spent some pleasant mornings
+wandering about it with the mayor, Jameel Bey, a fine-looking Kurdish
+chieftain of the Jaf tribe. He owned a lovely garden with date-palms,
+oranges, pomegranates, and figs. Tattered Kurds were working on the
+irrigation ditches, and a heap of rags lying below the wall in the sun
+changed itself into a small boy, just as I was about to step on it.
+Jameel's son was as white, with as rosy cheeks, as any American baby.
+
+Harry Bowen, brother-in-law of General Cobbe, was the political officer
+in charge of Kizil Robat. He spoke excellent Arabic and was much respected
+by the natives. His house was an oasis in which I could always look
+forward to a pleasant talk, an excellent native dinner, and some
+interesting book to carry off. Although the town was small, there were
+three good Turkish baths. One of them belonged to Jameel Bey, but, judging
+from the children tending babies while squatting in the entrance portico,
+was generally given over to the distaff side and its friends. The one
+which we patronized, while not so grand a building, had an old Persian who
+understood the art of massage thoroughly, and there was nothing more
+restful after a number of days' hard work with the cars.
+
+In the end of February there passed through Kizil Robat the last
+contingent of our former Russian Allies. They were Cossacks--a
+fine-looking lot as they rode along perched on their small chunky saddles
+atop of their unkempt but hardy ponies. When Russia went out of the war
+they asked permission to keep on fighting with us. They were a good deal
+of a problem, for they had no idea whatever of discipline, and it was most
+difficult to keep them in hand and stop them from pillaging the natives
+indiscriminately. They had been completely cut off from Russia for a long
+time but were now on their way back. A very intelligent woman doctor and a
+number of nurses who had been with them were sick with smallpox in one of
+our hospitals in Baghdad. When they recovered they were sent to India, for
+it was not feasible to repatriate them by way of Persia. When the Russians
+first established connection with us, some armored cars were sent to bring
+in the Cossack general, whose name we were told was Leslie. We were
+unprepared to find that he spoke no English! It turned out that his
+ancestors had gone over from Scotland to the court of Peter the Great.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES
+
+
+Early in March we got orders to return to Baghdad, where all the armored
+cars were to be concentrated preparatory to an attack on the Euphrates
+front. There was much speculation as to our mission. Some said that we
+were to break through and establish connection with General Allenby's
+forces in Palestine. While I know nothing about it authoritatively, it is
+certain that if the state of affairs in France had not called for the
+withdrawal from the East of all the troops that could be spared, the
+attack that was launched in October would have taken place in March. We
+could then have advanced up the Euphrates, and it would have been entirely
+practical to cross over the desert in the cars by way of Tadmor.
+
+When we got word to come in, the roads were in fearful shape and the rain
+was falling in torrents, but we were so afraid that we might miss the
+attack that we salvaged everything not essential and started to fight our
+way through the mud. It was a slow and wearisome process, but we managed
+to get as far as Bakuba by evening. The river was rising in one of its
+periodical floods and we found that the pontoon bridge had been cut half
+an hour before our arrival. No one could predict how long the flood would
+last, but the river rarely went down sufficiently to allow the bridge to
+be replaced within a week. At that time the railroad went only as far as
+Bakuba, and crossed the river on a wooden trestle, so I decided to try to
+load the motors on a flat car and get across the Diyala in that way.
+
+After having made arrangements to do this I wandered off into the bazaar
+to get something to eat. In native fashion I first bought a big flap of
+bread from an old woman, and then went to a pickle booth to get some
+beets, which I wrapped in my bread. Next I proceeded to a meat-shop and
+ordered some lamb kababs roasted. The meat is cut in pellets, spitted on
+rods six or eight inches long, and lain over the glowing charcoal embers.
+In the shop there are long tables with benches beside them. The customer
+spreads his former purchases, and when his kababs are ready he eats his
+dinner. He next proceeds to a coffee-house, where he has a couple of
+glasses of tea and three or four diminutive cups of coffee to top off, and
+the meal is finished. The Arab eats sparingly as a rule, but when he gives
+or attends a banquet he stuffs himself to his utmost capacity.
+
+Next morning we loaded our cars successfully and started off by rail for
+Baghdad, some thirty miles away. The railroad wound across the desert,
+with here and there a water-tank with a company from a native regiment
+guarding it. As we stopped at one particularly desolate spot, a young
+officer came running up and asked if we would have tea with him. He took
+us to his tent, where everything was ready, for he apparently always met
+the two trains that passed through daily. Poor fellow, he was only a
+little over twenty, and desperately lonely and homesick. Many of the young
+officers who were wounded in France were sent to India with the idea that
+they could be training men and getting on to the methods of the Indian
+army while yet recuperating and unfit to go back to the front. They were
+shipped out with a new draft when they had fully recovered. This boy had
+only been a month in the country, and ten days before had been sent off in
+charge of his Sikh company to do this wearisome guard duty.
+
+We spent a few days in Baghdad refitting. The cars were to go out
+camouflaged to resemble supply-trucks, for every precaution was taken to
+prevent the Turks from realizing that we were massing men for an attack.
+The night before we were to start, word came in that the political officer
+at Nejef had been murdered, and the town was in revolt. We were ordered to
+send a section there immediately, so Lieutenant Ballingal's was chosen,
+while the rest of us left next morning with the balance of the battery for
+Hit. The first part of the route lay across the desert to Falujah, a
+prosperous agricultural town on the Euphrates. Rail-head lies just beyond
+at a place known as Tel El Dhubban--the "Hill of the Flies." From there on
+supplies were brought forward by motor transport, or in Arab barges,
+called shakturs. We crossed the river on a bridge of boats and continued
+up along the bank to Ramadie. Here I stayed over, detailed to escort the
+army commander on a tour of inspection.
+
+The smaller towns along the Euphrates are far more attractive than those
+on the Tigris. The country seems more developed, and most inviting
+gardens surround the villages. Hit, which lies twenty miles up-stream of
+Ramadie, is an exception. It is of ancient origin and built upon a hill,
+with a lovely view of the river. It has not a vestige of green on it, but
+stands out bleak and harsh in contrast to the palm-groves fringing the
+bank. The bitumen wells near by have been worked for five thousand years
+and are responsible for the town being a centre of boat manufacture. With
+the bitumen, the gufas and mahelas are "pitched without and within," in
+the identical manner in which we are told that the ark was built. The jars
+in which the women of the town draw water from the river, instead of being
+of copper or earthenware as elsewhere, are here made of pitched
+wicker-work. The smell of the boiling bitumen and the sulphur springs is
+trying to a stranger, although the natives regard it as salubrious, and
+maintain that through it the town is saved from cholera epidemics. We had
+captured Hit a few weeks previously, and the aeroplanes flying low over
+the town had reported the disagreeable smell, attributing it to dirt and
+filth. "Eyewitness," the official newspaper correspondent, mentioned this
+in despatches, and when I was passing through, a proclamation of apology
+was being prepared to soothe the outraged and slandered townsfolk.
+
+[Illustration: A water-wheel on the Euphrates]
+
+After taking the army commander back to rail-head, we retraced our steps
+with all speed to Hit, and thence the eight miles up-stream to Salahiyeh.
+The road beyond Hit was in fearful shape, and the engineers were working
+night and day to keep it open and in some way passable. In the proposed
+attack we were to jump off from Salahiyeh, and it was here that the
+armored cars were assembled. Our camp was close to a Turkish hospital.
+There were two great crescents and stars laid out for a signal to warn our
+aeroplanes not to drop bombs. One of the crescents was made of turf and
+the other of limestone. The batteries took turns in making the
+reconnaissances, in the course of which they would come in for a good deal
+of shelling. The road was unpleasant, because the camels and transport
+animals that had been killed during the Turkish retreat from Hit were by
+now very high. For some unknown reason there were no jackals or vultures
+to form a sanitary section. After reconnoitring the enemy positions and
+noting the progress they were making in constructing their defenses, we
+would make a long circuit back to camp.
+
+One unoccupied morning I went over to an island on the river. Its cool,
+restful look had attracted me on the day I arrived, and it quite fulfilled
+its promise. Indeed, it was the only place I came across in Mesopotamia
+that might have been a surviving fragment of the Garden of Eden. It was
+nearly a mile long, and scattered about on it were seven or eight
+thick-walled and well-fortified houses. The entire island was one great
+palm-grove, with pomegranates, apricots, figs, orange-trees, and
+grape-vines growing beneath the palms. The grass at the foot of the trees
+was dotted with blue and pink flowers. Here and there were fields of
+spring wheat. The water-ditches which irrigated the island were filled by
+giant water-wheels, thirty to fifty feet in diameter. These "naurs" have
+been well described in the Bible, and I doubt if they have since been
+modified in a single item. There are sometimes as many as sixteen in a
+row. As they scoop the water up in the gourd-shaped earthenware jars bound
+to their rims, they shriek and groan on their giant wooden axles.
+
+On the night of March 25 we got word that the long-expected attack would
+take place next morning. We had the cars ready to move out by three. Since
+midnight shadowy files had been passing on their way forward to get into
+position. One of our batteries went with the infantry to advance against
+the main fortified position at Khan Baghdadi. The rest of us went with the
+cavalry around the flank to cut the Turks off if they tried to retreat
+up-stream. We were well on our way at daybreak. The country was so broken
+up with ravines and dry river-beds that we knew we had a long, hard march
+ahead of us. Our maps were poor. A German officer that we captured had in
+some manner got hold of our latest map, and noting that we had omitted
+entirely a very large ravine, became convinced that any enveloping
+movement we attempted would prove a failure. As it happened, we came close
+to making the blunder he had anticipated, for we started to advance down
+to the river along the bank of a nullah which would have taken us to Khan
+Baghdadi instead of eight or ten miles above it, as we wished. I think it
+was our aeroplanes that set us straight. I was in charge of the tenders
+with supplies and spares, and spent most of the time in the leading
+Napier lorry. Occasionally I slipped into an armored car to go off
+somewhere on a separate mission. The Turks had doubtless anticipated a
+flanking movement and kept shelling us to a certain extent, but we could
+hear that they were occupying themselves chiefly with the straight
+attacking force. By afternoon we had turned in toward the river and our
+cavalry was soon engaged. The country was too broken for the cars to get
+in any really effective work. By nightfall we hoped we were approximately
+where we should be, and after making our dispositions as well as the
+circumstances would permit, we lay down beside the cars and were soon
+sound asleep. At midnight we were awakened by the bullets chipping the
+rocks and stones among which we were sleeping. A night attack was
+evidently under way, and it is always an eerie sensation. We correctly
+surmised that the Turks were in retreat from Khan Baghdadi and had run
+into our outposts. In a few minutes we were replying in volume, and the
+rat-tat-tats of the machine-guns on either side were continuous. The enemy
+must have greatly overestimated our numbers, for in a short time small
+groups started surrendering, and before things had quieted we had twelve
+hundred prisoners. The cavalry formed a rough prison-camp and we turned in
+again to wait for daylight.
+
+At dawn we started to reconnoitre our position to find out just how
+matters stood. We came upon a body of two thousand of the enemy which had
+been held up by us in the night and had retreated a short distance to wait
+till it became light before surrendering. Among them were a number of
+German officers. They were all of them well equipped with machine-guns and
+rifles. Their intrenching tools and medical supplies were of Austrian
+manufacture, as were also the rolling kitchens. These last were of an
+exceedingly practical design. While we were taking stock of our capture we
+got word that Khan Baghdadi had been occupied and a good number of
+prisoners taken. We were instructed to press on and take Haditha, thirty
+miles above Khan Baghdadi. It was hoped that we might recapture Colonel
+Tennant, who was in command of the Royal Flying Corps forces in
+Mesopotamia. He had been shot down at Khan Baghdadi the day before the
+attack. We learned from prisoners that he had been sent up-stream
+immediately, on his way to Aleppo, but it was thought that he might have
+been held over at Haditha or at Ana.
+
+We found that a lot of the enemy had got by between us and the river and
+had then swung back into the road. We met with little opposition, save
+from occasional bands of stragglers who concealed themselves behind rocks
+and sniped at us. Numbers surrendered without resistance as we caught up
+with them. We disarmed them and ordered them to walk back until they fell
+in with our cavalry, or the infantry, which was being brought forward in
+trucks. As we bowled along in pursuit the scene reminded me of
+descriptions in the novels of Sienkiewicz or Erckmann-Chatrian. The road
+was littered with equipment of every sort, disabled pack-animals, and dead
+or dying Turks. It was hard to see the wounded withering in the increasing
+heat--the dead were better off. We reached the heights overlooking Haditha
+to find that the garrison was in full retreat. Most of it had left the
+night before. Those remaining opened fire upon us, but in a half-hearted
+way, that was not calculated to inflict much loss. Many of the inhabitants
+of the town lived in burrows in the hillsides. Some of these caves had
+been filled with ammunition. The enemy had fired all their dumps, and
+rocks were flying about. We endeavored to save as much of the material as
+was possible. We were particularly anxious to get all papers dealing with
+the Arabs, to enable us to check up which were our friends and which of
+the ones behind our lines were dealing treacherously with us. We
+recaptured a lot of medical equipment and some ammunition that had been
+taken from our forces during the Gallipoli campaign.
+
+Haditha is thirty-five miles from Khan Baghdadi, and Ana is an equal
+distance beyond. It was decided that we should push on to a big bridge
+shown on the map as eight miles this side of Ana. We were to endeavor to
+secure this before the Turks could destroy it, and cross over to bivouac
+on the far side. The road was in fair shape. Many of the small bridges
+were of recent construction. We soon found that our map was exceedingly
+inaccurate. Our aeroplanes were doing a lot of damage to the fleeing
+Turks, and as we began to catch up with larger groups we had some sharp
+engagements. The desert Arabs hovered like vultures in the distance
+waiting for nightfall to cover them in their looting.
+
+That night we camped near the bridge. At dusk the Red Cross ambulances and
+some cavalry caught up. The latter had had a long, hard two days, with
+little to eat for the men and less for the horses, but both were standing
+up wonderfully. They were the Seventh Hussars and just as they reached us
+we recaptured one of their sergeants who had been made prisoner on the
+previous night. He had covered forty miles on foot, but the Turks had
+treated him decently and he had come through in good shape. We always felt
+that the Turk was a clean fighter. Our officers he treated well as long as
+he had anything to give or share with them. With the enlisted men he was
+not so considerate, but I am inclined to think that it was because he was
+not accustomed to bother his head much about his own rank and file, so it
+never occurred to him to consider ours. The Turkish private would thrive
+on what was starvation issue to our men. The attitude of many of the
+Turkish officers was amusing, if exasperating. They seemed to take it for
+granted that they would be treated with every consideration due an honored
+guest. They would complain bitterly about not being supplied with coffee,
+although at the time we might be totally without it ourselves and far
+from any source of supply. The German prisoners were apt to cringe at
+first, but as soon as they found they were not to be oppressed became
+arrogant and overbearing. At different times we retook men that had been
+captives for varying lengths of time. I remember a Tommy, from the
+Manchesters, if I am not mistaken, who had been taken before Kut fell, but
+had soon after made his escape and lived among the Kurdish tribesmen for
+seven or eight months before he found his way back to us. Quite a number
+of Indians who had been set to work on the construction of the
+Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway between Nisibin and Mosul made good their escape
+and struggled through to our lines.
+
+It was a great relief when the Red Cross lorries came in and we could turn
+over the wounded to them. All night long they journeyed back and forth
+transporting such as could stand the trip to the main evacuation camp at
+Haditha.
+
+By daybreak we were once more under way. Under cover of darkness the Arabs
+had pillaged the abandoned supplies, in some cases killing the wounded
+Turks. The transport animals of the enemy and their cavalry horses were
+in very bad shape. They had evidently been hard put to it to bring through
+sufficient fodder during the wet winter months when the roads were so deep
+in mud as to be all but impassable. Instead of being distant from Ana the
+eight miles that we had measured on the map, we found that we were
+seventeen, but we made it without any serious hindrance. The town was most
+attractive, embowered in gardens which skirt the river's edge for a
+distance of four or five miles. In addition to the usual palms and
+fruit-trees there were great gnarled olives, the first I had seen in
+Mesopotamia, as were also the almond-trees. It must be of great antiquity,
+for the prophet Isaiah speaks of it as a place where kings had reigned,
+but from which, even in his time, the grandeur had departed.
+
+The greater part of the enemy had already abandoned the town, but we
+captured the Turkish governor and a good number of the garrison, and many
+that had escaped from Haditha. The disaster at Khan Baghdadi had only been
+reported the afternoon before, as we had of course cut all the telegraph
+wires, and the governor had not thought it possible we would continue the
+pursuit so far. He had spent most of his life in Hungary and had been
+given this post only a few months previous to our advance. From the
+prisoners we had taken at Haditha we had extracted conflicting estimates
+as to the time when Colonel Tennant, the commander of our air forces, had
+been sent on, and from those we took at Ana we received equally varying
+accounts. The cars had been ordered to push on in search of the colonel as
+long as sufficient gasolene remained to bring them back. Captain Todd with
+the Eighth Battery was in the lead when some thirty miles north of Ana
+they caught sight of a group of camels surrounded by horsemen. A couple of
+belts from the machine-guns scattered the escort, and Colonel Tennant and
+his companion, Major Hobart, were soon safe in the turret of one of the
+cars.
+
+From some of our Turkish captives we heard about a large gold convoy which
+had been sent back from Ana; some said one day, and others two, before our
+arrival. The supply of fuel that we had brought in the tenders was almost
+exhausted, so that it would be necessary to procure more in order to
+continue the pursuit. Major Thompson, who was in command of the
+armored-car detachment, instructed me to take all the tenders and go back
+as far as was necessary to find a petrol dump from which I could draw a
+thousand gallons. I emptied the trucks and loaded them with such of the
+wounded as could stand the jolting they were bound to receive because of
+the speed at which I must travel. I also took a few of the more important
+prisoners, among them the governor of Ana. He was a cultivated middle-aged
+man who spoke no Arabic but quite good French. It was mid-afternoon when
+we started, and I hadn't the most remote idea where I would find a
+sufficient quantity of petrol. During the run back we were sniped at
+occasionally by Turks who were still hiding in the hills. A small but
+determined force could have completely halted the cars in a number of
+different places where the road wound through narrow rock-crowned gorges,
+or along ledges cut in the hillside and hemmed in by the river. In such
+spots the advance of the armored cars could either have been completely
+checked, or at all events seriously hampered and delayed, merely by
+rolling great boulders down on top of us.
+
+When we had retraced our steps for about sixty miles I was lucky enough
+to get wind of an enemy petrol dump that our men had discovered. It was a
+special aeroplane supply and the colonel of the infantry regiment who was
+guarding it had been instructed to allow none of it to be used for
+automobiles. He showed his desire to co-operate and his ability to read
+the spirit rather than the letter of a command by letting me load my
+tenders. The L.A.M. batteries were well regarded and we everywhere
+encountered a willingness to meet us more than half-way and aid us in the
+thousand and one points that make so much difference in obtaining results.
+
+By the time that we had everything in readiness for our return run it was
+long after dark and the men were exhausted. I managed to get some tea, but
+naturally no sugar or milk. The strong steaming brew served to wash down
+the scanty supply of cold bully beef. Fortunately it was a brilliant
+starlit night, but even so it was difficult to avoid ditches and washouts,
+and the road seemed interminable. Not long after we left we ran into a
+couple of armored cars that had been detailed to bring the rescued
+aviators back, after they had been reoutfitted and supplied as far as our
+limited resources would permit. During the halt I found that my sergeant
+had produced from somewhere or other an emergency rum ration which he was
+issuing. An old-army, experienced sergeant always managed to hold over a
+reserve from former issues for just such occasions as this, when it would
+be of inestimable value. I had been driving all day and had the greatest
+difficulty in keeping awake. Twice I dozed off. Once I awakened just as
+the car started over the edge of an embankment; the other time a large
+rock in the road brought me back to the world. It was two o'clock in the
+morning when we wearily crept into Ana.
+
+The expedition to capture the gold convoy was to start at four, so after
+two hours' sleep I bundled into one of the Rolls-Royces and the column
+swung out into the road. Through the mist loomed the sinister,
+businesslike outlines of the armored car ahead of me. Captain Carr of the
+Thirteenth L.A.M.B.'s[1] was in command of the expedition. Unless we were
+in action or in a locality where we momentarily expected to be under fire
+from rifle or machine-gun, the officer commanding the car and his N.C.O.
+stood in the well behind the turret, steadying themselves with leather
+loops riveted to its sides. On long runs the tool-boxes on either side of
+the well formed convenient seats. When the car became engaged the crew
+would get inside, pulling the steel doors shut. The slits through which
+the driver and the man next him looked could be made still smaller when
+the firing was heavy, and the peep-holes at either side and in the rear
+had slides which could be closed. The largest aperture was that around the
+tube of the gun. Splinters of lead came in continuously, and sometimes
+chance directed a bullet to an opening. One of our drivers was shot
+straight through the head near Ramadie. The bottom of the car was of wood,
+and bullets would ricochet up through it, but to have had it made of steel
+would have added too much weight. The large gasolene-tank behind was
+usually protected by plating, but even so was fairly vulnerable. A
+reserve-tank holding ten gallons was built inside the turret. We almost
+invariably had trouble with the feed-pipes leading from it. During the
+great heat of the summer the inside of the turret was a veritable fiery
+furnace, with the pedals so hot that they scorched the feet.
+
+[Footnote 1: Light Armored Motor Battery.]
+
+Forty miles above Ana we came upon a large khan. These road-houses are
+built at intervals along the main caravan routes. Their plan is simple:
+four walls with two tiers of rooms or booths built into them, enclosing an
+open court in which the camels and horses are tethered during the night.
+The whole is strongly made to resist the inroads of the desert tribesmen.
+As we drove to the heavy gate, a wild clamor met our ears from a confused
+jumble of Jewish and Armenian merchants that had taken refuge within. Some
+of them had left Ana on their way to Aleppo before the news of the fall of
+Khan Baghdadi had reached the town. Others had been despatched by the
+Turks when the news of our advance arrived. All had been to a greater or
+lesser degree plundered by the Arabs. Most of the baggage animals had been
+run off, and the merchants were powerless to move. The women were weeping
+and imploring help, and the children tumbled about among the confused
+heaps of merchandise. Some of the Armenians had relations in Baghdad about
+whom I was able to give them bits of information. All begged permission to
+go back to Ana and thence to the capital. We, of course, had no means of
+supplying them with transportation, and any attempt to recapture their
+lost property was out of the question.
+
+A few miles on we made out a troop of Arabs hurrying inland, a mile or so
+away from us, across a couple of ravines. They had some of the stolen
+camels and were laden down with plunder. Two of our cars made a fruitless
+attempt to come to terms with them, but only succeeded in placing a few
+well-aimed bursts from their machine-guns among them.
+
+We now began to come up with bands of Turks. We ran across a number of
+isolated stragglers who had been stripped by the Arabs. A few had been
+killed. They as a rule surrendered without any hesitation. We disarmed
+them and told them to walk back toward Ana. Several times we had short
+engagements with Turkish cavalry. As a general thing the ground was so
+very broken up that it was impossible to manoeuvre. I was riding a good
+deal of the time in the Ford tender that we had brought along with a few
+supplies, and when one of the tires blew out I waited behind to replace
+it. The armored cars had quite a start and we raced along to catch them.
+In my hurry I failed to notice that they had left the road in pursuit of a
+troop of cavalry, so when we sighted a large square building of the sort
+the Turks use as barracks, I made sure that the cars had been there before
+me. We drove up to the door and I jumped out and shoved it open. In the
+yard were some infantry and a few cavalry. I had only my stick--my Webley
+revolver was still in its holster. There was nothing to do but put on a
+bold front, so I shouted in Arabic to the man I took to be the officer in
+command, telling him to surrender, and trying to act as if our forces were
+just outside. I think he must have been more surprised than I was, for he
+did so immediately, turning over the post to me. Eldridge, the Ford
+driver, had succeeded in disengaging the rifle that he had strapped in
+beside him, and we made the rounds under the escort of our captive.
+
+One wing of the post was used as a hospital, under the charge of an
+intelligent little Armenian. He seemed well informed about the war, and
+asked the question that was the universal wail of all the Armenians we
+encountered: "When would Great Britain free their country, and would she
+make it an independent state?" There was a definite limit to the number of
+prisoners we could manage to carry back, but I offered the doctor to
+include him. His answer was to go to his trunk and produce a picture of
+his wife and little daughter. They were, he told me, in Constantinople,
+and it was now two years since he had had leave, so that as his turn was
+due, he would wait on the chance of seeing his family.
+
+When the cars came up we set off again in pursuit of the elusive gold
+convoy. We could get no accurate information concerning it. Some said it
+was behind, others ahead. We never ran it down. It may well be that it was
+concealed in a ravine near the road a few yards from where we passed. Just
+short of a town called Abu Kemal we caught three Germans. They were in
+terror when we took them, and afterward said that they had expected to be
+shot. Under decent treatment they soon became so insolent that they had to
+be brought up short.
+
+[Illustration: A "Red Crescent" ambulance]
+
+During the run back to Ana we picked up the more important of our
+prisoners and took them with us. Twenty-two were all we could manage. I
+was running one of the big cars. It was always a surprise to see how easy
+they were to handle in spite of the weight of the armor-plate. We each
+took great pride in the car in which we generally rode. All had names. In
+the Fourteenth one section had "Silver Dart" and "Silver Ghost" and
+another "Gray Terror" and "Gray Knight." The car in which I rode a
+great deal of the time met its fate only a few days before the armistice,
+long after I had gone to France. Two direct hits from an Austrian
+"eighty-eight" ended its career.
+
+It was after midnight when we got back to our camp in a palm-garden in
+Ana. Although we had not succeeded in capturing the gold convoy, we had
+brought in a number of valuable prisoners, and among other things I had
+found some papers belonging to a German political agent whom we had
+captured. These contained much information about the Arab situation, and
+through them it was all but proved that the German was the direct
+instigator of the murder of the political officer at Nejef. An amusing
+sidelight was thrown in the letters addressed by Arab sheiks through this
+agent to the Kaiser thanking him for the iron crosses they had been
+awarded. There must have been an underlying grim humor in distributing
+crosses to the Mohammedan Arabs in recognition of their efforts to
+withstand the advance into the Holy Land of the Christian invaders.
+
+On our arrival at Ana we were told that orders had come through that the
+town be evacuated on the following morning. Preparations were made to
+blow up the ammunition dump, which was fortunately concentrated in a
+series of buildings that joined each other. We warned the inhabitants and
+advised them to hide in the caves along the hillsides. We ourselves went
+back to the camp which we had occupied near the bridge the night before
+entering Ana. During the afternoon Major Edye, a political officer, turned
+up, travelling alone with an Arab attendant. He pitched his camp,
+consisting of a saddle and blanket, close beside us. He was an
+extraordinarily interesting man, with a great gift for languages. In the
+course of a year or so's wandering in Abyssinia he had learned both
+ancient and modern Abyssinian. There was a famous German Orientalist with
+whom he corresponded in the pre-war days. He had mailed him a letter just
+at the outbreak, which, written in ancient Abyssinian, must have been a
+good deal of a puzzle to the censors.
+
+The main explosion, taking place at the appointed time, was succeeded by
+smaller ones, which continued at gradually lengthening intervals
+throughout the night. General Cassels, who had commanded the cavalry
+brigade so ably throughout the advance, wished to return to Ana on the
+following morning in order to check up the thoroughness with which the
+dump had been destroyed. He took an escort of armored cars, and as I was
+the only one in the batteries who could speak Arabic, my services were
+requisitioned. As we approached the town the rattle of the small-arms
+ammunition sounded like a Fourth of July celebration. The general noticed
+that I had a kodak and asked me to go out into the dump and take some
+photographs. There was nothing to do but put on a bold front, but I have
+spent happier moments than those in which I edged my way gingerly over the
+smoking heaps to a ruined wall from which I could get a good view for my
+camera. As I came back a large shell exploded and we hastily moved the
+cars farther away.
+
+I went to the mayor's house to find out how the town had fared. He was a
+solemn old Arab, and showed me the damage done by the shells with an
+absolutely expressionless face. The houses within a fair radius had been
+riddled, but the natives had taken our warning and no one had been killed.
+After a cup of coffee in a lovely garden on the river-bank, I came back
+to the cars and we ran on through to Haditha. Here we were to remain for a
+week or ten days to permit the evacuation of the captured supplies.
+
+Thus far we had been having good luck with the weather, but it now began
+to threaten rain. We crawled beneath the cars with our blankets and took
+such precautions as were possible, but it availed us little when a
+veritable hurricane blew up at midnight. I was washed out from under my
+car, but before dark I had marked down a deserted hut, and thither I
+groped my way. Although it was abandoned by the Arabs, living traces of
+their occupancy remained. Still, even that was preferable to the rain, and
+the roof proved unexpectedly water-tight.
+
+All next day the storm continued. The Wadi Hauran, a large ravine reaching
+back into the desert for a hundred and fifty miles, became a boiling
+torrent. When we crossed over, it was as dry as a bone. A heavy lorry on
+which an anti-aircraft gun was mounted had been swirled away and smashed
+to bits. The ration question had been difficult all along, but now any
+further supply was temporarily out of the question.
+
+Oddly enough, I was the only member of the brigade occupying Haditha who
+could speak enough Arabic to be of any use, so I was sent to look up the
+local mayor to see whether there was any food to be purchased. The town is
+built on a long island equidistant from either bank. We ferried across in
+barges. The native method was simpler. They inflated goatskins, removed
+their clothes, which they had fastened in a bundle on top of their heads,
+and with one hand on the goatskin they paddled and drifted over. By
+starting from the head of the island they could reach the shore opposite
+the down-stream end. The bobbing heads of the dignified old graybeards of
+the community looked most ludicrous. On landing they would solemnly don
+their clothes, deflate the skins, and go their way.
+
+The mayor proved both intelligent and agreeable. The food situation was
+such that it was obviously impossible for him to offer us any serious
+help. We held a conclave in the guest-house, sitting cross-legged among
+the cushions. In the centre a servant roasted coffee-beans on the large
+shovel-spoon that they use for that purpose. The representative village
+worthies impressed me greatly. The desert Arabs are always held to be
+vastly superior to their kinsmen of the town, and it is undoubtedly true
+as a general rule; nevertheless, the elders of Haditha were an unusually
+fine group of men. We got a few eggs, which were a most desirable luxury
+after a steady diet of black unsweetened tea and canned beef. We happened
+to have a sufficient supply of tea to permit us to make an appreciated
+gift to the village.
+
+My shoes had collapsed a few days before and I borrowed a pair from a Turk
+who had no further use for them. These were several sizes too large and
+fashioned in an oblong shape of mathematical exactness. Even in the motor
+machine-gun service, there is little that exceeds one's shoes in
+importance, and I was looking forward with almost equal eagerness to a
+square meal and a pair of my own shoes. The supply of reading-matter had
+fallen very low. I had only Disraeli's _Tancred_, about which I found
+myself unable to share Lady Burton's feelings, and a French account of a
+voyage from Baghdad to Aleppo in 1808. The author, Louis Jacques Rousseau,
+a cousin of the great Jean Jacques, belonged to a family of noted
+Orientalists. Born in Persia, and married to the daughter of the Dutch
+consul-general to that country, he was admirably equipped for the
+distinguished diplomatic career that lay before him in the East and in
+northern Africa. His treatises on the archaeological remains that he met
+with on his many voyages are intelligent and thorough. The river towns
+have changed but little in the last hundred years, and the sketch of Hit
+might have been made only yesterday.
+
+Within three days after the rise, the waters of the Wadi Hauran subsided
+sufficiently for us to cross, and I received orders to return to Baghdad.
+The rain had brought about a change in the desert since we passed through
+on our way up. The lines of Paterson, the Australian poet, kept running
+through my head:
+
+    "For the rain and drought and sunshine make no changes in the street,
+    In the sullen line of buildings and the ceaseless tramp of feet,
+    But the bush hath moods and changes, as the seasons rise and fall,
+    And the men who know the bushland they are loyal through it all."
+
+The formerly arid floor of the desert was carpeted with a soft green, with
+myriads of little flowers, all small, but delicately fashioned. There
+were poppies, dwarf daisies, expanses of buttercups, forget-me-nots, and
+diminutive red flowers whose name I did not know. It started raining
+again, and we only just succeeded in winning our way through to Baghdad
+before the road became impassable.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+BAGHDAD SKETCHES
+
+
+Although never in Baghdad for long at a time, I generally had occasion to
+spend four or five days there every other month. The life in any city is
+complex and interesting, but here it was especially so. We were among a
+totally foreign people, but the ever-felt intangible barrier of color was
+not present. For many of the opportunities to mingle with the natives I
+was indebted to Oscar Heizer, the American consul. Mr. Heizer has been
+twenty-five years in the Levant, the greater part of which time he has
+spent in the neighborhood of Constantinople. The outbreak of the war found
+him stationed at one of the principal ports of the Black Sea. There he
+witnessed part of the terrible Armenian massacres, when vast herds of the
+wretched people were driven inland to perish of starvation by the
+roadsides. Quiet and unassuming, but ever ready to act with speed and
+decision, he was a universal favorite with native and foreigner alike.
+
+With him I used to ferry across the river for tea with the Asadulla Khan,
+the Persian consul. The house consisted of three wings built around a
+garden. The fourth side was the river-bank. The court was a jungle of
+flowering fruit-trees, alive with birds of different kinds, all singing
+garrulously without pause. There we would sit sipping sherbet, and
+cracking nuts, among which salted watermelon seeds figured prominently.
+Coffee and sweets of many and devious kinds were served, with arrack and
+Scotch whiskey for those who had no religious scruples. The Koran's
+injunction against strong drink was not very conscientiously observed by
+the majority, and even those who did not drink in public, rarely abstained
+in private. Only the very conservative--and these were more often to be
+found in the smaller towns--rigorously obeyed the prophet's commands. It
+was pleasant to smoke in the shade and watch the varied river-craft
+slipping by. The public bellams plied to and fro, rowed by the swart
+owners, while against them jostled the gufas--built like the coracles of
+ancient Britain--a round basket coated with pitch. No Anglo-Saxon can see
+them without thinking of the nursery rhyme of the "wise men of Gotham who
+went to sea in a tub." These gufas were some of them twenty-five feet in
+diameter, and carried surprising loads--sometimes sheep and cattle
+alone--sometimes men and women--often both indiscriminately mingled.
+Propelling a gufa was an art in itself, for in the hands of the
+uninitiated it merely spun around without advancing a foot in the desired
+direction. The natives used long round-bladed paddles, and made good time
+across the river. Crossing over in one was a democratic affair, especially
+when the women were returning from market with knots of struggling
+chickens slung over their shoulders.
+
+Asadulla Khan's profile always reminded me of an Inca idol that I once got
+in Peru. Among his scribes were several men of culture who discoursed most
+sagely on Persian literature; on Sadi and Hafiz, both of whom they held to
+be superior to Omar Khayyam. I tried through many channels to secure a
+manuscript of the "Rubaiyat," but all I succeeded in obtaining was a
+lithograph copy with no place or date of publication; merely the remark
+that it had been printed during the cold months. I was told that the
+writings of Omar Khayyam were regarded as immoral and for that reason were
+not to be found in religious households. My Persian friends would quote
+at length from Sadi's _Gulistan_ or _Rose Garden_, and go into raptures
+over its beauty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Below the consulate was a landing-place, and when we were ready to leave
+we would go down to the river-bank preceded by our servants carrying
+lanterns. They would call "Abu bellam" until a boat appeared. The term
+"abu" always amused me. Its literal meaning is "father." In the bazaars a
+shop-owner was always hailed as "father" of whatever wares he had for
+sale. I remember one fat old man who sold porous earthenware
+jars--customers invariably addressed him as "Abu hub"--"Father of
+water-coolers."
+
+My best friend among the natives was a Kurdish chief named Hamdi Bey
+Baban. His father had been captured and taken to Constantinople. After
+living there a number of years in semicaptivity he died--by poison it was
+said. Hamdi was not allowed to return to Kurdistan until after he was a
+grown man and had almost forgotten his native language. He spoke and read
+both French and English. Eventually permission was granted him to live in
+Baghdad as long as he kept out of the Kurdish hills, so he set off by
+motor accompanied only by a French chauffeur. Gasolene was sent ahead by
+camel caravan to be left for him at selected points. The journey was not
+without incident, for the villagers had never before seen an automobile
+and regarded it as a devil; often stones were thrown at them, and on one
+occasion they were mobbed and Hamdi only escaped by driving full speed
+through the crowd.
+
+His existence in Baghdad had been subject to sudden upheavals. Once he was
+arrested and convoyed back to Constantinople; and just before the advance
+of the British his life was in great danger. Naturally enough he had
+little love for the Turk and staked everything on the final victory of the
+Allies.
+
+He intended writing a book on the history of his family, in which he was
+much interested. For material he was constantly purchasing books and
+manuscripts. In the East many well-known histories still exist only in
+manuscript form, and when a man wishes to build up a library he engages
+scribes and sends them to the place where a famous manuscript is kept with
+an order to make a copy. In the same way Hamdi Bey had men busied
+transcribing rare chronicles dealing with the career of his family--extant
+in but one or two examples in mosques. He once presented me with a large
+manuscript in Persian in which his family is mentioned, the mention taking
+the form of a statement to the effect that seventeen of them had had their
+heads removed!
+
+Next to various small tradesmen with whom I used to gossip, drink coffee,
+and play dominoes, my best Arab friend was Abdul Kader Pasha, a striking
+old man who had been a faithful ally to the British through thick and
+thin. The dinners at his house on the river-bank were feasts such as one
+reads of in ancient history. Course succeeded course without any definite
+plan; any one of them would have made a large and delicious meal in
+itself. True to Arab custom, the son of the house never sat down at table
+with his father, although before and after dinner he talked and smoked
+with us.
+
+[Illustration: A jeweller's booth in the bazaar]
+
+I had a number of good friends among the Armenians. There was not one of
+them but had some near relation, frequently a parent or a brother or
+sister, still among the Turks. Sometimes they knew them to be dead, more
+frequently they could only hope that such was the case and there was no
+further suffering to be endured. Many of these Armenians belonged to
+prominent families, numbering among their members men who had held the
+most important government posts in Constantinople. The secretary of the
+treasury was almost invariably an Armenian, for the race outstrips the
+Jews in its money touch.
+
+With one family I dined quite often--the usual interminable Oriental feast
+varying only from the Arab or Turkish dinners in a few special national
+dishes. All, excepting the aged grandmother, spoke French, and the
+daughters had a thorough grounding in the literature. Such English books
+as they knew they had read in French translations. The house was
+attractively furnished, with really beautiful rugs and old silverware. The
+younger generation played bridge, and the girls were always well dressed
+in European fashion. Whence the clothes came was a mystery, for nothing
+could have been brought in since the war, and even in ante-bellum days
+foreign clothes of that grade could never have been stocked but must have
+been imported in individual orders. The evenings were thoroughly
+enjoyable, for everything was in such marked contrast to our every-day
+life. It must be remembered that these few Armenians were the only women
+with whom we could talk and laugh in Occidental fashion.
+
+By far the best-informed and cleverest Arab was Pere Anastase. He was a
+Catholic, and under the supervision of the Political Department edited the
+local Arab paper. All his life he had worked building up a
+library--gathering rare books throughout Syria and Mesopotamia. He was
+himself an author of no small reputation. Just before the British took
+Baghdad the Germans pillaged his collection, sending the more valuable
+books to Constantinople and Berlin, and turning the rest over to the
+populace. The soldiers made great bonfires of many--others found their way
+to the bazaars, where he was later able to repurchase some of them. When
+talking of the sacking of his house, Pere Anastase would work himself into
+a white heat of fury and his eyes would flash as he bitterly cursed the
+vandals who had destroyed his treasures.
+
+It was in Baghdad that I first ran into Major E.B. Soane, whose _Through
+Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise_ is a classic. Soane was born in
+southern France, his mother French and his father English. The latter
+walked across the United States from ocean to ocean in the early forties,
+so Soane came by his roving, adventurous spirit naturally. When still but
+little more than a boy he went out to work in the Anglo-Persian Bank, and
+immediately interested himself in the language and literature of the
+country. Some of his holidays he spent in the British Museum translating
+and cataloguing Persian manuscripts. Becoming interested in the Kurds, he
+spent a number of years among them, learning their languages and customs
+and joining in their raids.
+
+As soon as we got a foothold in the Kurdish Hills, Soane was sent up to
+administer the captured territory. His headquarters were at Khanikin,
+twenty-five miles from Kizil Robat and but a short distance from the
+Persian frontier. One morning during the time that I was stationed in that
+district I motored over to see him. It was a glorious day. The cloud
+effects were most beautiful, towering in billows of white above the snow
+peaks, against a background of deepest blue. The road wound in and out
+among the barren foot-hills until suddenly as I topped a rise I saw right
+below a great clump of palm-trees, with houses showing through here and
+there--the whole divided by a lovely river bestridden by an old seven-arch
+bridge. I picked my way through the narrow streets, scattering ragged
+Kurds right and left; past part of the covered bazaar, until I came to a
+house with a large courtyard, thronged with a motley array of Kurdish
+irregulars, armed with every sort of weapon. It was there that Soane
+administered his stern but practical justice, for he thoroughly understood
+how to handle these men.
+
+The district had suffered fearfully, for it had been occupied in turn by
+Turk and Russian, and then Turk again, before we took it over, and the
+unfortunate natives had been pillaged and robbed mercilessly. Thousands
+starved to death. When I was at Deli Abbas ghastly bands of ragged
+skeletons would come through to us begging food and work. Soane turned a
+large khan on the outskirts of the town into a poorhouse, and here he
+lodged the starving women and children that drifted in from all over
+Kurdistan. It was a fearful assemblage of scarecrows. As they got better
+he selected women from among them to whom he turned over the
+administration of the khan. They divided the unfortunates in gangs, and
+supervised the issue of dates on which they were fed. Such as were
+physically able were employed in cleaning the town. The Kurds are a fine,
+self-respecting race and it was easy to understand Soane's enthusiasm for
+them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Baghdad you lived either in the cellars or on the housetops. The former
+were called serdabs. A large chimney, cowled to face the prevailing wind,
+served for ventilation, and on the hottest days one was cool and
+comfortable. We slept on the roofs, and often dined there, too. Since the
+town was the General Headquarters of the Expeditionary Force, one was
+always sure to meet many friends. A comfortable and well-run officers'
+club was installed, as well as warrant officers' and enlisted men's clubs.
+
+Occasionally race meetings were planned and the various divisions would
+send representatives. Frank Wooton, the well-known jockey, was a
+despatch-rider, and usually succeeded in getting leave enough to allow him
+to ride some general's horses. An Arab race formed part of the programme.
+Once a wild tribesman who had secured a handsome lead almost lost the
+race by taking off his cloak and waving it round his head as he gave
+ear-piercing shouts of triumph. The Arab riding second was less emotional
+and attended better to the business in hand, but his horse was not quite
+good enough to make the difference.
+
+The scene at the race-course was a gay one. The color was chiefly
+contributed by the Jewesses who wore their hooded silk cloaks of lively
+hue--green or pink or yellow. The only crowd that I saw to vie with it was
+one which watched the prisoners taken at Ramadie march through the town.
+Turkish propaganda, circulated in the bazaars, gave out that instead of
+taking the prisoners we claimed, we had in reality suffered a defeat, and
+it was decided that the sight of the captive Turks would have a salutary
+effect upon the townsmen. Looking down from a housetop the red fezzes and
+the gay-colored abas made the crowd look like a vast field of poppies.
+
+When I was at Samarra an amusing incident took place in connection with a
+number of officers' wives who were captured at Ramadie. The army commander
+didn't wish to ship them off to India and Burma with their husbands, so he
+sent them up to Samarra with instructions that they be returned across
+the lines to the Turks. After many aeroplane messages were exchanged it
+was agreed that we should leave them at a designated hill and that the
+Turks would later come for them. Meanwhile we had arranged quarters for
+them, trying to do everything in a manner that would be in harmony with
+the Turkish convenances. When the wives were escorted forth to be turned
+back to their countrymen, they were all weeping bitterly. Whether it was
+that the Turk in his casual manner decided that one day was as good as
+another, or whether he felt that he had no particular use for these
+particular women, we never knew, but at all events twenty-four hours later
+one of our patrols came upon the prisoners still forlornly waiting. We
+shipped them back to Baghdad.
+
+Occasionally I would go to one of the Arab theatres. The plays were
+generally burlesques, for the Arab has a keen sense of humor and greatly
+appreciates a joke. Most of the puns were too involved for me to follow,
+but there was always a certain amount of slap-stick comedy that could be
+readily understood. Then there was dancing--as a whole monotonous and
+mediocre; but there was one old man who was a remarkable performer, and
+would have been appreciated on any stage in the world. The topical songs
+invariably amused me--they were so universal in spirit. The chorus of one
+which was a great hit ran: "Haido, haido, rahweni passak!" "I say, I say,
+show me your pass." There had been much trouble with spies and every one
+was required to provide himself with a certificate of good conduct and to
+show it on demand. It was to this that the song referred.
+
+Captain C.G. Lloyd was my companion on many rambles among the natives. He
+had been stationed in Burma and India for many years, and was a good
+Persian scholar. Like every one who has knocked about to any extent among
+native peoples, his career had not been lacking in incident. I remember on
+one occasion asking him why it was that he never joined me in a cup of
+coffee when we stopped at a coffee-house. He replied that he had always
+been wary of coffee since a man with him was poisoned by a cup which was
+intended for him.
+
+I always looked forward to a trip to Baghdad, for it gave me a chance to
+mingle in a totally different life from that which daily surrounded me,
+and temporarily, at least, forget about the war in which the world was
+plunged. Still, the morning set to leave invariably found me equally glad
+to shove off once more into the great expanses of the desert.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT
+
+
+When I reached headquarters after the attack on the Euphrates front, I was
+expecting to hear that my transfer to France had gone through and receive
+orders to proceed thither immediately. It had always been my intention to
+try to join the American army once it began to take a real part in the
+war, and for some time past I had been casting about in my mind for the
+best method to carry out my plans. When affairs looked so very black for
+the Allied forces in March and April, 1918, I decided that France was the
+place where every one, who could by any possibility manage it, should be.
+General Gillman, the chief of staff, had on more than one occasion shown
+himself a good friend, and I determined to once more task his kindness. He
+said that he thought he could arrange for my transfer to France, and that
+once there I could work out the best way of getting into the American
+army.
+
+Everything went well, and I was daily expecting my orders, when Major
+Thompson, who commanded the brigade of armored cars, sent for me and told
+me that an advance was being planned on the Kurdish front. Only two
+batteries were to be taken--the Eighth and the Thirteenth--but he said
+that he would like to have me go along in command of the supply-train. Of
+course I jumped at the chance, as the attack promised to be most
+interesting.
+
+We were told to be ready to move on an hour's notice. For several days the
+weather held us back. The rain, helped out by the melting snow from the
+mountains, caused the rivers to rise in flood. The Tigris rose sixteen
+feet in a night. The lower bridge was broken and washed away. Everything
+possible was done to reinforce the upper bridge, but it was hourly
+expected to give way under the strain of the whirling yellow waters. The
+old Arab rivermen said that they could tell by the color just which of the
+tributaries were in spate. When they saw or thought they saw a new
+admixture, they would shake their heads and say: "Such and such a river
+is now also in flood--the Tigris will rise still further."
+
+On the night of April 24 we at length got our orders and at six o'clock
+the following morning we set out, prepared to run through to Ain Leilah.
+The country was indeed changed since I passed through six weeks before.
+The desert had blossomed. We ran through miles and miles of clover; the
+sweet smell seemed so wholesomely American, recalling home and family, and
+the meadows of Long Island. The brilliant red poppies were more in keeping
+with the country; and we passed by Indian cavalry reinforcements with the
+scarlet flowers stuck in their black hair and twined in the head-stalls of
+the horses.
+
+As we approached the hills they looked less bleak--a soft green clothed
+the hollows, and the little oasis of Ain Leilah no longer stood out in the
+same marked contrast as when last I visited it. The roads were in good
+shape, and we reached camp at four in the afternoon. I took one of the
+tenders and set off to look up some old friends in the regiments near by.
+As I passed a group of Arabs that had just finished work on the roads, I
+noticed that they were playing a game that was new to me. A stake was
+driven into the ground, with a horsehair rope ten or twelve feet in length
+attached to it. An old man had hold of the end of the rope. About the
+stake were piled some clothes, and the Arabs were standing around in a
+circle just out of reach of the man with the rope. The object was to dart
+in and snatch up something from the heap without the old man who was on
+guard catching you. They were enjoying themselves hugely--the oldest
+graybeards behaving as if they were children--a very pleasant side of the
+Arab.
+
+Our instructions were to be ready to pull out before daybreak. The mission
+was, as usual, a flanking one. The direct attack was to be delivered on
+Kara Tepe, and, if that were successful, upon Kifri. We were to intercept
+the arrival of reinforcements, or cut off the retreat of the garrisons, as
+the case might be.
+
+In the early morning hours the country was lovely--rolling grass land
+"with a hint of hills behind"--miles of daisies with clusters of blood-red
+poppies scattered through them--and occasional hollows carpeted with a
+brilliant blue flower. In the river courses there were numbers of
+brilliantly hued birds--the gayest colors I saw in Mesopotamia with the
+exception of the vivid arsenic-green birds around Ana on the Euphrates.
+In one place I thought that the ground was covered with red flowers, but a
+close inspection proved it to be myriads of tiny red insects swarming on
+the grass stems.
+
+Column marching is slow and wearisome, and after the sun rose the heat
+became intense. The dust smothered us; there was not a breath of air to
+rid us of it for even a moment. The miles seemed interminable. At noon we
+halted beside a narrow stream known as Oil River--a common name in this
+part of the country where oil abounds and the water is heavily impregnated
+with it. For drinking it was abominable--and almost spoiled the tea upon
+which we relied for a staple. A few miles beyond, the engineers found a
+suitable location to throw a bridge across the creek. The main body was
+halted at a place known as Umr Maidan and we were sent over the bridge to
+form across the main road leading from Kara Tepe back into the Turkish
+territory.
+
+It was nightfall before we had effected a crossing, and we groped our way
+along until we came upon the road. It was impossible to do very much in
+the way of selecting a position, but we arranged the cars as best we
+could. When you were off at large in the desert you were what the army
+called "Out in the blue," and that was certainly our situation on the
+night of April 26. We all expected that we would intercept traffic going
+one way or the other, but the night passed without incident or excitement.
+
+[Illustration: Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge]
+
+By four in the morning we were once more feeling our way along through the
+darkness. As it lightened we came under observation by the Turks, who
+started in to shell us. We learned from our aeroplanes that Kifri had been
+evacuated; the garrison was falling back along a road running parallel to
+the one on which we were, separated by eight or ten miles of broken
+country. By this time our cavalry had caught up with us. They pushed off
+across country to intercept the Turks. We attempted to do likewise but it
+was more difficult, and what with dodging in and out to avoid a ravine
+here or a hill there, we made little headway. At length we struck a road
+that led in approximately the direction whither we wished to go. It was
+already early afternoon before, upon topping a rise, we caught sight of a
+good-sized body of Turks marching on a road which ran along the base of
+a range of steep, stony hills. We put on as much speed as was possible,
+and headed north to try to intercept them. The cavalry were coming from
+the south, and while we were circling around they charged in upon the
+Turks. It was a stirring scene. The powerful Indians sat their horses with
+the utmost grace. Their drawn sabres flashed in the sun. As they came to
+close quarters the turbaned heads bent forward and we could hear the
+shouts and high-pitched cries of triumph as the riders slashed at the foe.
+The wounded and dead testified to their skill as swordsmen. The whole
+sight reminded me more of the battle books I read as a boy than anything I
+saw in the war. About six hundred prisoners were taken, but many of the
+Turks escaped to the mountains and lay among the rocks, whence they could
+snipe at us with impunity. They were a tenacious lot, for all next day
+when we were using the road below the hills they continued to shoot at us
+from the places whence it was impossible to dislodge them.
+
+While the prisoners were being brought in we caught sight of one of our
+aeroplanes crashing. Making our way over to it we found that neither the
+pilot nor the observer was seriously hurt. Flying in Mesopotamia was made
+unusually difficult by the climatic conditions. The planes were designed
+for work in France and during the summer months the heat and dryness
+warped the propeller blades and indeed all the wooden parts. Then, too,
+the fine dust would get into the machinery when the aviator was taxiing
+for a start. Many pilots coming out from France with brilliant records met
+an early and untimely end because they could not realize how very
+different the conditions were. I remember one poor young fellow who set
+off on a reconnaissance without the food and water he was required by
+regulations to carry. He got lost and ran out of gasolene--being forced to
+land out in the desert. The armored cars went off in search of him, and on
+the second morning after he had come down they found his body near their
+bivouac. He had evidently got that far during the night and died of
+exhaustion and exposure practically within hearing. He was stripped of his
+clothes; whether this had been done by himself or by the tribesmen was
+never determined. A death of this sort always seems so much sadder than
+being legitimately killed in combat. The L.A.M. batteries were in close
+touch with the Royal Flying Corps, for when news came in that a plane was
+down in the desert or some part of the debatable land, we would be
+detailed to go out in search of the occupants. A notice printed in Arabic,
+Persian, Turkish, and Kurdish was fastened into each aeroplane informing
+the reader of the reward that would be paid him if the pilot were brought
+in safety to the British lines. This was done in case a plane got lost and
+was driven down out of its course among the tribesmen.
+
+The night of the 27th we bivouacked once more "out in the blue." Dawn
+found me on my way back to Umr Maidan to lay in a new supply of gasolene.
+I made a rapid trip and caught up with the armored cars in action in a
+large swampy plain. The grass was very high and the ground so soft that it
+was difficult to accomplish anything. Two or three small hills offered
+vantage-points, but they were not neglected by the Turk, and among those
+that fell was the colonel of the Twenty-First cavalry--the regiment that
+had acquitted itself so well in the charge of the day before.
+
+We were ten miles from Tuz Khurmartli, the next important town held by
+the enemy now that Kifri had been taken. It was thither that the Turks had
+been retreating when we cut them off. Finding that we were unable to
+operate effectively where we were, it was decided that we should make our
+way across to the Kifri-Kirkuk road and advance along it to make a frontal
+attack upon Tuz. Our orders were to proceed to a deserted village known as
+Kulawand, and wait there for the command to advance. When we got to the
+road we found the hills still occupied by camel-guns and machine-guns. We
+replied ineffectively, for we had no means of dislodging them, nor did the
+cavalry when they came up. Kulawand we found to be a fair-sized native
+village unoccupied save for a single hut full of old women and children.
+Here we waited until nightfall for the orders that never came. I sat under
+a ruined wall reading alternatively Camoens' _Lusiad_ and _David Harum_
+until darkness fell.
+
+During the night some infantry came up, both native and British. They had
+had stiff marching during the last few days, and were done up, but very
+cheerful at the prospect of an attack on the morrow. They had some hard
+fighting ahead of them. The King's Own in particular distinguished itself
+in taking a stubbornly contested and strongly held hill.
+
+At dawn we were under way. We had heard reports during the night that the
+Turks had evacuated Tuz--but it was not long before we found that such was
+not the case. They were still there and showed every evidence of staying.
+A small village five or six miles to the southwest was also bitterly
+contested. Our cavalry did some excellent work, capturing small hills held
+with machine-guns.
+
+We advanced down the road beside the hills. A mile before reaching Tuz we
+ran into the Aq Su, a large stream flowing through a narrow cleft in the
+hills. Fortunately the river was very low, and there were several places
+where it was spread out over such a wide bed that it seemed as if it might
+be possible to get the cars across. I emptied a Ford van and set out to do
+some prospecting. First I went up-stream, which was toward the mountains,
+but I could not go far, for there was an ancient fort situated at the
+mouth of the gorge, and it had not been evacuated. Finding a likely
+looking place a little below, I made a cast and just succeeded in getting
+through. It was easy to see that it would not be possible for the
+low-swung Rolls to cross under their own power, for the fly-wheel would
+throw the water up into the motor. There was nothing to do but send back
+for artillery horses to pull the armored cars across.
+
+Meanwhile, as our artillery had practically ceased firing on the town and
+the Turks seemed to have entirely evacuated it, I thought that I would go
+up and take over and see whether there had not been some valuable
+documents left behind. I drove along past some abandoned artillery into
+the main street. A number of Turkish soldiers came up to surrender and I
+told them to have the Reis Beledia--the town mayor--report to me. When he
+came I directed him to take me to the quarters of the Turkish commanding
+general. As we drove through the covered bazaar everything was closed.
+Scarcely anybody was in the streets--but I could see the inhabitants
+peeping out from behind lattices. It was a good thing to have the old
+mayor along, for he served as an excellent hostage, and I kept close watch
+upon him. He brought me to a prosperous, neat-looking house with heavy
+wooden doors. In response to his summons an old woman came and ushered us
+into a large, cool room, well furnished and with beautiful Kurdish rugs.
+There we found four young girls, who, it was explained to me, formed the
+Turkish general's "field harem." He had left in too much of a hurry to
+take them with him. They were Kurds and Circassians, or Georgians--and the
+general had shown no lack of taste in his selection! True to the tradition
+of the Garden of Eden, this harem proved disastrous to a brother officer
+who, having heard of my capture, sent me "priority" over the field service
+lines a ribald message as to its disposition. "Priority" wires are sent
+only on affairs of the greatest importance, and when I left the country my
+friend was slated to explain matters before a court martial. There were no
+papers of any great value to be found, and I told the mayor to take me to
+the more important ammunition and supply dumps. By the time I had located
+these some cavalry had come in, and I went back to the river to help get
+the fighting cars across.
+
+Once we had these safely over we set out in pursuit of the Turks. The next
+town of importance was a ramshackle mud-walled affair called Tauq, twenty
+miles beyond, on the far side of a river known as the Tauq Chai. The
+leading cars pursued to within sight of the town and came in for a good
+deal of shelling.
+
+The Turks we captured were in far poorer shape than those we had recently
+taken on the Euphrates front. Their shoes were worn out, they were very
+ragged, and, what was of greater significance, they were badly nourished.
+The length of their line of communications had evidently severely strained
+them. Supplies had to come overland all the way from Nisibin, which is
+more than a hundred miles beyond Mosul. The broken country made the
+transportation a difficult problem to solve. It was a miracle that they
+had the morale to fight as they did under such disadvantageous conditions.
+
+Here, as throughout the campaign, it was a continual source of pride to
+see the way in which our soldiers behaved to the natives. I never heard of
+a case in which man, woman, or child was wrongfully treated. Minor
+offenses were sometimes committed, but these were quickly righted. No
+doubt there were isolated instances of wrong-doing, for in such a large
+army there are bound to be degenerate individuals from whose conduct it is
+unfair to judge the whole.
+
+That night we encamped in the outskirts of Tuz, not far from the Turkish
+aerodrome. Next morning one of the batteries was ordered to reconnoitre as
+far as the town--pursuing a different route than that taken on the
+previous day. The commanding officer asked me to go along because of my
+knowledge of Arabic. The road followed the telegraph-lines, and part of
+the time that was the only way in which we could distinguish it from the
+surrounding country. Of course, the map was hopelessly incorrect. The
+villages were not even rightly named. A great deal of reconnoitring was
+called for, and in one village we had to knock the corner off a mud house
+to enable us to make a sharp right-angle turn. The natives were in pitiful
+condition. The Turks had not only taken all their crops, but even the
+grain that should be reserved to sow for the following year. The sheep had
+been killed in the lambing season, so the flocks were sadly depleted. Such
+standing grain as there was left looked flourishing. The wheat waved above
+the cars.
+
+As we came out of a deep, broad ravine that had caused us much delay and
+difficulty, we caught sight of an attractive town situated on a steep,
+flat-topped hill. Upon drawing near, a fine-looking, white-bearded Arab
+rode up on a small gray mare. He said that he was the head man of the
+town; that he hated the Turks, and would like to be of any assistance
+possible to us. I asked him if the enemy had evacuated Tauq. He replied
+that they had. I then asked him if he were positive about it. He offered
+to accompany us to prove it. The trail was so bad that we could not go
+fast, and he rode along beside us at a hand-gallop.
+
+When we came to the river in front of the town we found that it was
+impossible to get the armored cars across. The Turks had evidently fallen
+back, but not far, for they were dropping in shells with regularity. Our
+Arab friend told us that there was a bridge six miles up-stream, but it
+was too late for us to attempt it, and we turned back to Tuz after
+arranging with Sheikh Muttar to meet us in the morning.
+
+[Illustration: The Kurd and his wife]
+
+[Illustration: Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds]
+
+Next day we found him waiting for us as he had promised. With him were two
+handsome Kurds. One of them had his wife perched behind him on the horse's
+crupper. Together they undertook to guide us up to the bridge. It was
+invariably difficult to find out from natives whether or not a road was
+passable for motor-cars. They were accustomed to think only in terms of
+horses or men, and could not realize that a bad washout might be
+impassable for automobiles. Curiously enough, even those natives whom we
+had taken along with us on several reconnaissances as guides could not be
+trusted to give an opinion as to the feasibility of a proposed route. We
+experienced no little trouble in following our guides to the bridge,
+although we afterward discovered a good road that cut off from the main
+trail about half-way between Tuz and Tauq.
+
+When we reached the bridge we found it to be a solid, well-built affair of
+recent construction. The retreating Turks had tried to blow it up, but the
+most vital charges had failed to go off, so the damage done would not be
+sufficiently serious to stop our passage, after six or seven hours'
+preliminary work. We immediately sent back for the engineers, and put in
+the time while waiting by taking a much-needed bath in the rapids beneath
+one of the side arches. Every one who has wandered about in the waste
+places of the world can recall certain swims that will always stand out in
+his memory. Perhaps they have been after a long and arduous hunt--perhaps
+at the end of a weary march. Our plunge in the Tauq Chai took its place
+among these.
+
+In the late afternoon we drove back to Tuz. Our camp there was anything
+but cheerful, for swarms of starving townsfolk hovered on the outskirts
+ready to pounce on any refuse that the men threw away. Discarded tin cans
+were cleaned out until the insides shone like mirrors. The men gave away
+everything they could possibly spare from their rations. As the news
+spread, the starving mountain Kurds began straggling in; and the gruesome
+band made one glad to leave camp early and return after dark. Our line of
+communication was so extended that it was impossible to attempt any relief
+work.
+
+The following morning we crossed over the bridge with little trouble, but
+ran into a lot of difficulty when we tried to make our way down to the
+town. A couple of miles above the main town there is a small settlement
+grouped on a hill around the mosque of Zain El Abidin. The "mutabelli," or
+keeper of the shrine, is an important personage in the community, so when
+he appeared riding a richly caparisoned stallion and offered to accompany
+us to the town, we welcomed the opportunity of going in under such good
+auspices. We decided to take Seyid Mustapha, for that was his name, in one
+of the Ford vans with us. It was comparatively easy to get the light car
+up over the precipitous, rocky trail; and eventually one of the fighting
+cars succeeded in following. I was driving, with Mustapha beside me. In
+front of us on a white horse galloped the Seyid's attendant singing and
+shouting and proclaiming our arrival. We stopped at Mustapha's house for a
+cup of coffee and a discussion of events. The information which we secured
+from him afterward proved unusually correct. I took him on with us to the
+town so that he could identify the head man and see that we got hold of
+the right people. Our reception was by no means cordial, although after we
+had talked a little and explained what we were after, the mayor became
+cheerful and expansive. He had a jovial, rotund face, covered in large
+part by a bushy beard, and would have done excellently as a model for
+Silenus. In the town were a handful of Turkish stragglers--among them a
+stalwart Greek who spoke a little English. He said that he had been
+impressed into service by the Turks and was most anxious to join our
+forces.
+
+We found large stores of ammunition and other supplies, among them a
+wireless set. What interested us most, I am afraid, was the quantity of
+chickens that we saw strutting about. A few of them and a good supply of
+eggs found their way to the automobiles in short order. We were always
+very particular about paying for whatever we took, and seeing that the men
+did likewise; our reputation went before us, and the native, as a rule,
+took it for granted that we would pay. It was up to the officers to see
+that the prices were not exorbitant. We always used Indian currency--the
+rupee and the anna. In normal times a rupee is about a third of a dollar.
+Throughout the occupied area Turkish currency also circulated, but the
+native invariably preferred to be paid in Indian. Curiously enough, even
+on entering towns like Tauq, we found the inhabitants eager for payment in
+rupees. I was told that in the money market in Baghdad a British advance
+would be heralded by a slump in Turkish exchange. Paper rupees were almost
+everywhere as readily accepted as silver, but paper liras and piasters
+were soon of so little value that they were no longer in circulation.
+
+When we got back to camp I found a wire informing me that I had been
+transferred to the American army, and ordering me to report at once to
+Baghdad to be sent to France. Major Thompson asked me if I would delay my
+return until the end of the advance. It was rumored that we would continue
+to push on and would attack Kirkuk. Many felt that the difficulty that was
+already being experienced in rationing us would preclude our thrusting
+farther. Still, I made up my mind that as long as the major wished it and
+would wire for permission I would stay a few days longer on the chance of
+the attack continuing.
+
+On the morning of the 3d we moved camp to the far side of the Tauq Chai
+bridge. When the tenders were unloaded I started back to bring up a supply
+of gasolene, with the purpose of making a dump in case we were called upon
+for a further advance. I was told that the nearest supply from which I
+could draw was at Umr Maidan; and the prospect of running back, a distance
+of seventy miles, was not cheerful. When I got as far as Tuz I found a
+friend in charge of the dump there, and he let me draw what I wanted, so I
+turned back to try to get to the bridge by dark. One car after another
+got in trouble; first it was a puncture, then it was a tricky carburetor
+that refused to be put to rights; towing-ropes were called into
+requisition, but the best had been left behind, and those we had were
+rotted, and broke on every hill. Lastly a broken axle put one of the
+tenders definitely out of commission, and, of course, I had to wait behind
+with it. To add to everything, a veritable hurricane set in, with thunder
+and lightning and torrents of rain. The wind blew so hard that I thought
+the car would be toppled over. What made us more gloomy than anything else
+was the thought of all the dry river courses that would be roaring floods
+by morning, and probably hold up the ration supply indefinitely.
+
+Two days later the orders for which we had been waiting came through. We
+were to march upon a town called Taza Khurmatli, lying fifteen miles
+beyond Tauq and ten short of Kirkuk. If we met with no opposition there we
+were to push straight on. From all we could hear Taza was occupied only by
+cavalry, which would probably fall back without contesting our advance.
+The cars had been out on reconnaissance near the town for the last two
+days, and had come in for artillery and machine-gun fire; but it was
+believed that the Turks had everything ready to withdraw their guns on our
+approach.
+
+In the gray light that preceded dawn we saw shadowy columns of infantry
+and artillery and cavalry passing by our camp. The costumes of the
+different regiments made a break in the drab monotony. The Mesopotamian
+Expeditionary Force was composed of varied components. Steel helmets could
+be worn only in winter. In many of the native regiments the British
+officers wore tasselled pugrees, and long tunics that were really shirts,
+and an adaption of the native custom of wearing the shirt-tails outside
+the trousers. The Gurkhas were supplied with pith helmets. It was
+generally claimed that this was unnecessary, but the authorities felt that
+coming from a cold, high climate they would be as much affected by the
+Mesopotamian sun as were Europeans. The presence of the Indian troops
+brought about unusual additions to the dry "General Routine Orders" issued
+by general headquarters. One of them, referring to a religious festival of
+the Sikhs, ran:
+
+"The following cable message received from Sunder Signh Hagetha,
+Amritsar, addressed to Sikhs in Mesopotamian force:
+
+"To our most Dear Brothers now serving the Benign King-Emperor oversea,
+the chief Khalsa Dewan tenders hearty and sincere greetings on the
+auspicious Gurpurb of First Guru. You are upholding the name and fame of
+Gurupurb. Our hearts are with you and our prayers are that Satguru and
+Akalpurkh may ever be with you and lead you to victory and return home
+safe, after vanquishing the King-Emperor's foes, with honor and flying
+colors."
+
+The British Empire was well and loyally served by her Indian subjects, and
+by none more faithfully than the Sikhs.
+
+We let the column get well started before we shoved off in our cars. The
+trail was wide enough to pass without interfering; and long before we were
+in sight of Taza we had taken our place ahead. As was foreseen, the enemy
+evacuated the town with scarce a show of resistance. I set off to
+interview the local head man. In the spring all the upper Mesopotamian
+towns are inundated by flocks of storks, but I have never seen them in
+greater force than in Taza. On almost every housetop were a couple,
+throwing their heads back and clattering their beaks in the odd way that
+gives them their onomatopoetic Arabic name of Lak-Lak. It sounded like the
+rattle of machine-guns; so much so that on entering the village, for the
+first second I thought that the Turks were opening up on us. No native
+will molest a stork; to do so is considered to the last degree
+inauspicious.
+
+There was but little water in the river running by Taza, and we managed to
+get the cars through under their own power. A few miles farther on lay a
+broad watercourse, dry in the main, but with the centre channel too deep
+to negotiate, so there was nothing to be done without the help of the
+artillery horses. The Turks were shelling the vicinity of the crossing, so
+we drew back a short distance and sent word that we were held up waiting
+for assistance to get us over.
+
+Once we had reached the far side we set out to pick our way round Kirkuk
+to get astride the road leading thence to Altun Kupri. This is the main
+route from Baghdad to Mosul, the chief city on the upper Tigris, across
+the river from the ruins of Nineveh. It was a difficult task finding a way
+practicable for the cars, as the ground was still soft from the recent
+rains. It was impossible to keep defiladed from Turkish observation, but
+we did not supply them with much in the way of a target. At length we got
+round to the road, and started to advance down it to Kirkuk. The town, in
+common with so many others in that part of the country, is built on a
+hill. The Hamawand Kurds are inveterate raiders, and good fortifications
+are needed to withstand them. As we came out upon the road we caught sight
+of our cavalry preparing to attack. The Turks were putting up a stout
+resistance, with darkness fast coming to their aid. After approaching
+close to the town, we were ordered to return to a deserted village for the
+night, prepared to go through in the early morning.
+
+The co-ordinates of the village were given, and we easily found it on the
+map; but it was quite another proposition to locate it physically. To add
+to our difficulties, the sky clouded over and pitchy blackness settled
+down. It soon started to rain, so we felt that the best we could do was
+select as likely a spot as came to hand and wait for morning. I made up my
+mind that the front seat of a van, uncomfortable and cramped as it was,
+would prove the best bed for the night. My estimate was correct, for at
+midnight the light drizzle, that was scarcely more than a Scotch mist,
+turned into a wild, torrential downpour that all but washed away my
+companions. The waterproof flap that I had rigged withstood the onslaughts
+of wind and rain in a fashion that was as gratifying as it was unexpected.
+The vivid flashes of lightning showed the little dry ravine beside us
+converted into a roaring, swirling torrent. The water was rushing past
+beneath the cars, half-way up to their hubs. A large field hospital had
+been set up close to the banks of the stream at Taza. We afterward heard
+that the river had risen so rapidly that many of the tents and a few
+ambulances were washed away.
+
+By morning it had settled down into a steady, businesslike downpour. We
+found that we were inextricably caught in among some low hills. There was
+not the slightest chance of moving the fighting cars; they were bogged
+down to the axle. There was no alternative other than to wait until the
+rain stopped and the mud dried. Fortunately our emergency rations were
+still untouched.
+
+Our infantry went over at dawn, and won through into the town. If it had
+not been for the rain we would have made some important captures. As it
+was, the Turks destroyed the bridge across the Hasa Su and retreated to
+Altun Kupri by the road on the farther bank. From a hill near by we
+watched everything, powerless to help in any way.
+
+At noon the sky unexpectedly cleared and the sun came out. We unloaded a
+Ford van, and with much pushing and no little spade work managed to get it
+down to a road running in the direction of Kirkuk. We found the surface
+equal to the light car, and slowly made our way to the outskirts of the
+town, with occasional halts where digging and shoving were required. We
+satisfied ourselves that, given a little sun, we could bring the armored
+cars out of their bog and through to the town.
+
+[Illustration: Kirkuk]
+
+Next morning, in spite of the fact that more rain had fallen during the
+night, I set to work on my tenders, and at length succeeded in putting
+them all in Kirkuk. We were billeted in the citadel, a finely built,
+substantial affair, with a courtyard that we could turn into a good
+garage. The Turks had left in great haste, and, although they had
+attempted a wholesale destruction of everything that they could not
+take, they had been only partially successful. In my room I found a
+quantity of pamphlets describing the American army--with diagrams of
+insignia, and pictures of fully equipped soldiers of the different
+branches of the service. There was also a map of the United States showing
+the population by States. The text was, of course, in Turkish and the
+printing excellently done. What the purpose might be I could not make out.
+
+The wherefore of another booklet was more obvious. It was an illustrated
+account of alleged British atrocities. Most of the pictures purported to
+have been taken in the Sudan, and showed decapitated negroes. Some I am
+convinced were pictures of the Armenian massacres that the Turks had
+themselves taken and in a thrifty moment put to this useful purpose. This
+pamphlet was printed at the press in Kirkuk.
+
+There were a number of excellent buildings--mainly workshops and armories,
+but the best was the hospital. The long corridors and deep windows of the
+wards looked very cool. An up-to-date impression was given by the
+individual patient charts, with the headings for the different diagnoses
+printed in Turkish and French. The doctors were mainly Armenians. The
+occupants were all suffering from malnutrition, and there was a great deal
+of starvation in the town.
+
+I did not wish to return to Baghdad until I could be certain that we were
+not going to advance upon Altun Kupri. The engineers patched up the
+bridge, and we took the cars over to the other side and went off on a
+reconnaissance to ascertain how strongly the town was being held. The long
+bridge from which it gets its name could easily be destroyed, and crossing
+over the river would be no light matter. The surrounding mountains limited
+the avenue of attack. Altogether it would not be an easy nut to crack, and
+the Turks had evidently determined on a stand. What decided the army
+commander to make any further attempt to advance was most probably the
+great length of the line of communications, and the recent floods had made
+worse conditions which were bad enough at the best. The ration supply had
+fallen very low, and it seemed impossible to hold even Kirkuk unless the
+rail-head could be advanced materially.
+
+I put in all my odd moments wandering about the bazaars. The day after
+the fall the merchants opened their booths and transacted business as
+usual. The population was composed of many races, chiefly Turcoman, Kurd,
+and Arab. There were also Armenians, Chaldeans, Syrians, and Jews. The
+latter were exceedingly prosperous. Arabic and Kurdish and Turkish were
+all three spoken. Kirkuk is of very ancient origin--but of its early
+history little is known. The natives point out a mound which they claim to
+be Daniel's tomb. Two others are shown as belonging to Shadrach and
+Meshech; that of the third of the famous trio has been lost. There are
+many artificial hills in the neighborhood, and doubtless in course of time
+it will prove a fruitful hunting-ground for archaeologists. As far as I
+could learn no serious excavating has hitherto been undertaken in the
+vicinity.
+
+The bazaars were well filled with goods of every sort. I picked up one or
+two excellent rugs for very little, and a few odds and ends, dating from
+Seleucid times, that had been unearthed by Arab laborers in their gardens
+or brick-kilns. There were some truck-gardens in the outskirts, and we
+traded fresh vegetables for some of our issue rations. There are few
+greater luxuries when one has been living on canned foods for a long
+time. I saw several ibex heads nailed up over the doors of houses. The
+owners told me that they were to be found in the near-by mountains, but
+were not plentiful. There is little large game left in Mesopotamia, and
+that mainly in the mountains. I once saw a striped hyena. It is a
+nocturnal animal, and they may be common, although I never came across but
+the one, which I caught sight of slinking among the ruins of Istabulat,
+south of Samarra, one evening when I was riding back to camp. Gazelle were
+fairly numerous, and we occasionally shot one for venison. It was on the
+plains between Kizil Robat and Kara Tepe that I saw the largest bands.
+Judging from ancient bas-reliefs lions must at one time have been very
+plentiful. In the forties of the last century Sir Henry Layard speaks of
+coming across them frequently in the hill country; and later still, in the
+early eighties, a fellow countryman, Mr. Fogg, in his _Land of the Arabian
+Nights_, mentions that the English captain of a river steamer had recently
+killed four lions, shooting from the deck of his boat. Rousseau speaks of
+meeting, near Hit, a man who had been badly mauled by a lion, and was
+going to town to have his wounds cared for. Leopards and bears are to be
+met with in the higher mountain regions, and wild boars are common in many
+districts. They inhabit the thickets along the river-banks, in country
+that would permit of much sound sport in the shape of pig-sticking.
+
+Game-birds are found in abundance; both greater and lesser bustard; black
+and gray partridges, quail, geese, duck, and snipe. A week's leave could
+be made provide good shooting and a welcome addition to the usual fare
+when the wanderer returned. Every sort of shotgun was requisitioned, from
+antiquated muzzle-loaders bought in the bazaar to the most modern
+creations of Purdy sent out from India by parcel-post.
+
+After waiting a few days further, to be certain that an attack would not
+be unexpectedly ordered, I set out on my return trip to Baghdad. The river
+at Taza was still up, but I borrowed six mules from an accommodating
+galloping ambulance, and pulled the car across. We went by way of Kifri, a
+clean, stone-built town that we found all but empty. The food situation
+had become so critical that the inhabitants had drifted off, some to our
+lines, others to Persia, and still others to Kirkuk and Mosul. Near Kifri
+are some coal-mines about which we had heard much. It is the only place in
+the country where coal is worked, and we were hoping that we might put it
+to good use. Our experts, however, reported that it was of very poor
+quality and worth practically nothing.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+BACK THROUGH PALESTINE
+
+
+Several days later I embarked at Baghdad on one of the river boats. I took
+Yusuf with me to Busra to put me aboard the transport for Egypt. It was
+the first time he had ever been that far down-stream, and he showed a fine
+contempt for everything he saw, comparing it in most disparaging terms to
+his own desolate native town of Samarra. The cheapness, variety, and
+plenty of the food in the bazaars of Busra were the only things that he
+allowed in any way to impress him.
+
+I was fortunate enough to run into some old friends, and through one of
+them met General Sutton, who most kindly and opportunely rescued me from
+the dreary "Rest-Camp" and took me to his house. While I was waiting for a
+chance to get a place on a transport, he one morning asked me to go with
+him to Zobeir, where he was to dedicate a hospital. Zobeir is a desert
+town of ten thousand or so inhabitants, situated fifteen miles inland
+from Busra. The climate is supposed to be more healthful, and many of the
+rich and important residents of the river town have houses there to which
+they retire during the summer months. To an outsider any comparison would
+seem only a refinement of degrees of suffocation. The heat of all the
+coastal towns of the Persian Gulf is terrific.
+
+Zobeir is a desert town, with its ideals and feelings true to the
+inheritance of the tribesmen. It is a market for the caravans of central
+Arabia. A good idea of the Turkish feeling toward it may be gathered from
+the fact that the inhabitants were exempt from military service. This was
+a clear admission on the part of the Turk that he could not cope with the
+situation, and thought it wisest not to attempt something which he had no
+hope of putting through. It was, therefore, a great triumph for the
+British and a sure wedge into the confidence of the desert folk when the
+hospital was opened, for any people that can introduce so marked an
+innovation among the hidebound desert communities must have won their
+confidence and respect in a remarkable degree. Ibrahim, the hereditary
+Sheikh of Zobeir, himself contributed largely to the fund for the
+endowment. It was arranged that Doctor Borrie, who among his other duties
+ran the civil hospital at Busra, should periodically include Zobeir in his
+rounds. The Sheikh showed us over the building. It was cool, comfortable,
+and very sanitary. The Indian who was to be resident physician had every
+appearance of intelligence and proficiency. Old Ibrahim gave us a large
+banquet of the orthodox type. There was a sheep roasted whole, and dishes
+of every sort of meat and vegetable marshalled upon the table, which
+fairly groaned beneath their weight. We had innumerable speeches. General
+Sutton made an excellent address, which an interpreter translated into
+Arabic. Our Arabian hosts were long-winded, and the recognized local
+orator was so classical in his phrases and forms and tenses that it was
+impossible to do more than get the general drift of what he said. Luckily
+I had in my pocket a copy of the _Lusiads_, which I surreptitiously read
+when the speeches became hopelessly long drawn out.
+
+I was allotted space on a British India, boat, the _Torrilla_, that was to
+take to Egypt a field artillery regiment of the Third Division. As we
+dropped down-stream and I watched a disconsolate Yusuf standing on the
+dock, I felt that another chapter had closed--an interesting one at that.
+I was not left long to muse on what the next would bring forth before
+there was a cry of "fire"; and from where I was standing in the
+smoking-room I could see, through the open hatchways, the soldiers
+hurrying about below decks. As the ship was well ballasted with
+ammunition, anything that happened would, take place quickly, and only
+those on the spot could hope to control events, so I stayed where I was. A
+few minutes later the fire was reported out.
+
+The long two weeks' trip through the Persian Gulf and round to the Red Sea
+was monotonously peaceful. Being "unattached," I had no regular duties.
+Occasionally I attended "stables," and wandered around the horse lines.
+The great heat below decks had far less effect upon the horses than would
+be supposed. Of course, they were well cared for, and many were seasoned
+veterans that had taken more than one long sea voyage. If I am not
+mistaken, only one was lost on the trip.
+
+Most of the time I lay back in my rhoorkhee chair and read whatever I
+could find in the ship's library. The wireless broke down a few days
+after we left Busra, so we got no news whatever of the outer world, and
+soon ceased to speculate on what might be happening in France.
+
+At length, on the morning of June 4, we dropped anchor in Suez harbor. We
+had hoped that the _Torrilla_ would run through the canal to Port Said,
+but the disembarkation officer told us that we were all to be unloaded at
+Suez and proceed by rail. When I reached Alexandria I learned that a
+convoy had just sailed and there would not be another for two weeks at
+earliest. Sir Reginald Wingate, who had long been a family friend, was the
+British High Commissioner. Lady Wingate and he with the utmost hospitality
+insisted on my moving out to the residency to wait for my sailing.
+
+When I left for Mesopotamia Lord Derby had given me a letter to General
+Allenby which I had never had an opportunity to present. Sir Reginald
+suggested that I could not do better than make use of this enforced delay
+by going up to Palestine. The railway was already running to Jerusalem and
+you could go straight through from Cairo with but one change. At Kantara
+you crossed the canal and entered the military zone. Leaving there at
+half past eleven in the evening the train reached Ludd, which was general
+headquarters, at seven the following morning.
+
+Every one that I had ever met who knew General Allenby was wildly
+enthusiastic about him, and you had only to be with him a few minutes to
+realize how thoroughly justified their enthusiasm was. He represented the
+very highest type of the British soldier, and more need not be said. On
+the morning on which I arrived an attack was in progress and we could hear
+the drumming of the guns. The commander-in-chief placed a car at my
+disposal and I went around visiting old friends that I had made in
+Mesopotamia or still earlier in England, before the war. Among the latter
+was Colonel Ronald Storrs, the military governor of Jerusalem. With him I
+spent several days. Life in the Holy City seemed but little changed by the
+war. There was an interesting innovation in the Church of the Nativity at
+Bethlehem. The different Christian religious sects, in particular the
+Greek and Latin Catholics, were prone to come to blows in the church, and
+bloodshed and death had more than once been the result. To obviate this
+it had been the custom to have a regular relief of Turkish soldiers
+stationed in the church. Their place was now taken by British and French
+and Italians. Each nationality in rotation furnished the guard for a day.
+At the festival of the distribution of the Sacred Fire from the Church of
+the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem there were usually a number of accidents
+caused by the anxiety to reach the portal whence the fire was given out.
+The commander-in-chief particularly complimented Colonel Storrs upon the
+orderly way in which this ceremony was conducted under his regime. The
+population of Jerusalem is exceedingly mixed--and the percentage of
+fanatics is of course disproportionately large. There are many groups that
+have been gathered together and brought out to the Holy Land with
+distinctly unusual purposes. One such always had an empty seat at their
+table and confidently expected that Christ would some day appear to occupy
+it. The long-haired Russian and Polish Jews with their felt hats and
+shabby frock coats were to be met with everywhere. In the street where the
+Jews meet to lament the departed glory of Jerusalem an incongruous and
+ludicrous element was added by a few Jews, their bowed heads covered with
+ancient derby hats, wailing with undefeated zeal.
+
+[Illustration: A street in Jerusalem]
+
+It is a mournful fact that the one really fine building in Jerusalem
+should be the Mosque of Omar--the famous "Dome of the Rock." This is built
+on the legendary site of the temple of Solomon, and the mosaics lining the
+inside of the dome are the most beautiful I have ever seen. The simplicity
+is what is really most felt, doubly so because the Christian holy places
+are garish and tawdry, with tin-foil and flowers and ornate carving. It is
+to be hoped that the Christians will some day unite and clean out all the
+dreary offerings and knickknacks that clutter the Church of the Holy
+Sepulchre. Moslems hold the Mosque of Omar second in sanctity only to the
+great mosque in the holy city of Mecca. It is curious, therefore, that
+they should not object to Christians entering it. Mohammedans enter
+barefoot, but we fastened large yellow slippers over our shoes, and that
+was regarded as filling all requirements. Storrs pointed out to me that it
+was quite unnecessary to remove our hats, for that is not a sign of
+respect with Moslems, and they keep on their red fezzes. The mosque was
+built by the Caliph Abd el Melek, about fifty years after Omar had
+captured Jerusalem in 636 A.D. Many of the stones used in building it came
+from the temple of Jupiter. In the centre lies the famous rock, some sixty
+feet in diameter, and rising six or seven feet above the floor of the
+mosque. To Mohammedans it is more sacred than anything else in the world
+save the Black Stone at Mecca. Tradition says that it was here that
+Abraham and Melchizedek sacrificed to Jehovah, and Abraham brought Isaac
+as an offering. Scientists find grounds for the belief that it was the
+altar of the temple in the traces of a channel for carrying off the blood
+of the victims. The Crusaders believed the mosque to be the original
+temple of Solomon, and, according to their own reports, rededicated it
+with the massacre of more than ten thousand Moslems who had fled thither
+for refuge. The wrought-iron screen that they placed around the rock still
+remains. The cavern below is the traditional place of worship of many of
+the great characters of the Old Testament, such as David and Solomon and
+Elijah. From it Mohammed made his night journey to heaven, borne on his
+steed El Burak. In the floor of the cavern is an opening covered with a
+slab of stone, and said to go down to the centre of the world and be a
+medium for communicating with the souls of the departed.
+
+The military governor has been at work to better the sanitary conditions
+in Jerusalem. Hitherto the only water used by the townsfolk had been the
+rain-water which they gathered in tanks. Some years ago it was proposed to
+bring water to the city in pipes, some of which were already laid before
+the inhabitants decided that such an innovation could not be tolerated.
+The British have put in a pipe-line, and oddly enough it runs to the same
+reservoir whence Pontius Pilate started to bring water by means of an
+aqueduct. They have also built some excellent roads through the
+surrounding hills. Here, as in Mesopotamia, one was struck by the
+permanent nature of the improvements that are being made. Even to people
+absorbed in their own jealousies and rivalries the advantages that they
+were deriving from their liberation from Turkish rule must have been
+exceedingly apparent.
+
+The situation in Palestine differed in many ways from that in Mesopotamia,
+but in none more markedly than in the benefits derived from the
+propinquity of Egypt. Occasional leaves were granted to Cairo and
+Alexandria and they afforded the relaxation of a complete change of
+surroundings. I have never seen Cairo gayer. Shepherd's Hotel was open and
+crowded--and the dances as pleasant as any that could be given in London.
+The beaches at Ramleh, near Alexandria, were bright with crowds of
+bathers, and the change afforded the "men from up the line" must have
+proved of inestimable value in keeping the army contented. There were
+beaches especially reserved for non-commissioned officers and others for
+the privates--while in Cairo sightseeing tours were made to the pyramids
+and what the guide-books describe as "other points of interest."
+
+When I left Mesopotamia I made up my mind that there was one man in
+Palestine whom I would use every effort to see if I were held over waiting
+for a sailing. This man was Major A.B. Paterson, known to every Australian
+as "Banjo" Paterson. His two most widely read books are _The Man from
+Snowy River_ and _Rio Grande's Last Race_; both had been for years
+companions of the entire family at home and sources for daily quotations,
+so I had always hoped to some day meet their author. I knew that he had
+fought in the South African War, and I heard that he was with the
+Australian forces in Palestine. As soon as I landed I asked every
+Australian officer that I met where Major Paterson was, for locating an
+individual member of an expeditionary force, no matter how well known he
+may be, is not always easy. Every one knew him. I remember well when I
+inquired at the Australian headquarters in Cairo how the man I asked
+turned to a comrade and said: "Say, where's 'Banjo' now? He's at Moascar,
+isn't he?" Whether they had ever met him personally or not he was "Banjo"
+to one and all.
+
+On my return to Alexandria I stopped at Moascar, which was the main depot
+of the Australian Remount Service, and there I found him. He is a man of
+about sixty, with long mustaches and strong aquiline features--very like
+the type of American plainsman that Frederic Remington so well portrayed.
+He has lived everything that he has written. At different periods of his
+life he has dived for pearls in the islands, herded sheep, broken broncos,
+and known every chance and change of Australian station life. The
+Australians told me that when he was at his prime he was regarded as the
+best rider in Australia. A recent feat about which I heard much mention
+was when he drove three hundred mules straight through Cairo without
+losing a single animal, conclusively proving his argument against those
+who had contested that such a thing could not be done. Although he has
+often been in England, Major Paterson has never come to the United States.
+He told me that among American writers he cared most for the works of Joel
+Chandler Harris and O. Henry--an odd combination!
+
+While in Egypt I met a man about whom I had heard much, a man whose career
+was unsurpassed in interest and in the amount accomplished by the
+individual. Before the war Colonel Lawrence was engaged in archaeological
+research under Professor Hogarth of Oxford University. Their most
+important work was in connection with the excavation of a buried city in
+Palestine. At the outbreak of hostilities Professor Hogarth joined the
+Naval Intelligence and rendered invaluable services to the Egyptian
+Expeditionary Forces. Lawrence had an excellent grounding in Arabic and
+decided to try to organize the desert tribes into bands that would raid
+the Turkish outposts and smash their lines of communication. He
+established a body-guard of reckless semioutlaws, men that in the old days
+in our West would have been known as "bad men." They became devoted to him
+and he felt that he could count upon their remaining faithful should any
+of the tribes with which he was raiding meditate treachery. He dressed in
+Arab costume, but as a whole made no effort to conceal his nationality.
+His method consisted in leading a tribe off on a wild foray to break the
+railway, blow up bridges, and carry off the Turkish supplies. Swooping
+down from out the open desert like hawks, they would strike once and be
+off before the Turks could collect themselves. Lawrence explained that he
+had to succeed, for if he failed to carry off any booty, his reputation
+among the tribesmen was dead--and no one would follow him thereafter. What
+he found hardest on these raids was killing the wounded--but the dread of
+falling into the hands of the Turks was so great that before starting it
+was necessary to make a compact to kill all that were too badly injured to
+be carried away on the camels. The Turks offered for Colonel Lawrence's
+capture a reward of ten thousand pounds if dead and twenty thousand
+pounds if alive. His added value in the latter condition was due to the
+benefit that the enemy expected to derive from his public execution. No
+one who has not tried it can realize what a long ride on a camel means,
+and although Lawrence was eager to take with him an Englishman who would
+know the best methods of blowing up bridges and buildings, he could never
+find any one who was able to stand the strain of a long journey on camel
+back.
+
+Lawrence told me that he couldn't last much longer, things had broken
+altogether too well for him, and they could not continue to do so.
+Scarcely more than thirty years of age, with a clean-shaven, boyish face,
+short and slender in build, if one met him casually among a lot of other
+officers it would not have been easy to single him out as the great power
+among the Arabs that he on every occasion proved himself to be. Lawrence
+always greatly admired the Arabs--appreciating their many-sidedness--their
+virility--their ferocity--their intellect and their sensitiveness. I
+remember well one of the stories which he told me. It was, I believe, when
+he was on a long raid in the course of which he went right into the
+outskirts of Damascus--then miles behind the Turkish lines. They halted at
+a ruined palace in the desert. The Arabs led him through the various
+rooms, explaining that each was scented with a different perfume. Although
+Lawrence could smell nothing, they claimed that one room had the odor of
+ambergris--another of roses--and a third of jasmine;--at length they came
+to a large and particularly ruinous room. "This," they said, "has the
+finest scent of all--the smell of the wind and the sun." I last saw
+Colonel Lawrence in Paris, whither he had brought the son of the King of
+the Hedjaz to attend the Peace Conference.
+
+When I got back to Alexandria I found that the sailing of the convoy had
+been still further delayed. Three vessels out of the last one to leave had
+been sunk, involving a considerable loss of life. The channel leading from
+the harbor out to sea is narrow and must be followed well beyond the
+entrance, so that the submarines had an excellent chance to lay in wait
+for outgoing boats. The greatest secrecy was observed with regard to the
+date of leaving and destination--and of course troops were embarked and
+held in the harbor for several days so as to avoid as far as possible any
+notice being given to the lurking enemy by spies on shore.
+
+The transports were filled with units that were being hurried off to stem
+the German tide in France, so casual officers were placed on the
+accompanying destroyers and cruisers. I was allotted to a little Japanese
+destroyer, the _Umi_. She was of only about six hundred and fifty tons
+burden, for this class of boat in the Japanese navy is far smaller than in
+ours. She was as neat as a pin, as were also the crew. The officers were
+most friendly and did everything possible to make things comfortable for a
+landsman in their limited quarters. The first meal on board we all used
+knives and forks, but thereafter they were only supplied to me, while the
+Japanese fell back upon their chop-sticks. It was a never-failing source
+of interest to watch their skill in eating under the most difficult
+circumstances. One morning when the boat was dancing about even more than
+usual, I came into breakfast to find the steward bringing in some rather
+underdone fried eggs, and thought that at last I would see the ship's
+officers stumped in the use of their chop-sticks. Not a bit of it; they
+had disposed of the eggs in the most unsurpassed manner and were off to
+their duties before I myself had finished eating.
+
+[Illustration: Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto]
+
+We left Alexandria with an escort of aeroplanes to see us safely started,
+while an observation balloon made fast to a cruiser accompanied us on the
+first part of our journey. The precautions were not in vain, for two
+submarines were sighted a short time after we cleared the harbor. The
+traditional Japanese efficiency was well borne out by the speed with which
+our crew prepared for action. Every member was in his appointed place and
+the guns were stripped for action in an incredibly short time after the
+warning signal. It was when we were nearing the shores of Italy that I had
+best opportunity to see the destroyers at work. We sighted a submarine
+which let fly at one of the troopers--the torpedo passing its bow and
+barely missing the boat beyond it. Quick as a flash the Japanese were
+after it--swerving in and out like terriers chasing a rat, and letting
+drive as long as it was visible. We cast around for the better part of an
+hour, dropping overboard depth charges which shook the little craft as the
+explosion sent great funnels of water aloft. The familiar harbor of
+Taranto was a welcome sight when we at length herded our charges in
+through the narrow entrance and swung alongside the wharf where the
+destroyers were to take in a supply of fuel preparatory to starting out
+again on their interminable and arduous task.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY
+
+I
+
+
+My transfer to the American army appointed me as captain of field
+artillery instead of infantry, as I had wished. Just how the mistake
+occurred I never determined, but once in the field artillery I found that
+to shift back would take an uncertain length of time, and that even after
+it was effected I would be obliged to take a course at some school before
+going up to the line. It therefore seemed advisable to go immediately, as
+instructed, to the artillery school, at Saumur. The management was half
+French and half American. Colonel MacDonald and Colonel Cross were the
+Americans in charge, and the high reputation of the school bore testimony
+to their efficiency. It was the intention of headquarters gradually to
+replace all the French instructors with Americans, but when I was there
+the former predominated. It was of course necessary to wait until our
+officers had learned by actual experience the use of the French guns with
+which our army was supplied. When men are being taught what to do in
+combat conditions they apply themselves more attentively and absorb far
+more when they feel that the officer teaching them has had to test, under
+enemy fire, the theories he is expounding. The school was for both
+officers and candidates. The latter were generally chosen from among the
+non-commissioned officers serving at the front; I afterward sent men down
+from my battery. The first part of the course was difficult for those who
+had either never had much mathematical training or had had it so long ago
+that they were hopelessly out of practice. A number of excellent sergeants
+and corporals did not have the necessary grounding to enable them to pass
+the examinations. They should never have been sent, for it merely put them
+in an awkward and humiliating position--although no stigma could possibly
+be attached to them for having failed.
+
+The French officer commanding the field work was Major de Caraman. His
+long and distinguished service in the front lines, combined with his
+initiative and ever-ready tact, made him an invaluable agent in welding
+the ideas and methods of France and America. His house was always filled
+with Americans, and how much his hospitality meant to those whose ties
+were across the ocean must have been experienced to be appreciated. The
+homes of France were ever thrown open to us, and the sincere and simple
+good-will with which we were received has put us under a lasting debt
+which we should be only too glad to cherish and acknowledge.
+
+Saumur is a delightful old town in the heart of the chateau country. The
+river Loire runs through it, and along the banks are the caves in some of
+which have been found the paintings made by prehistoric man picturing the
+beasts with which he struggled for supremacy in the dim dark ages. The
+same caves are many of them inhabited, and their owners may well look with
+scorn upon the chateaux and baronial castles of whose antiquity it is
+customary to boast. There is an impressive castle built on a hill
+dominating the town, and in one of the churches is hung an array of
+tapestries of unsurpassed color and design. The country round about
+invited rambling, and the excellent roads made it easy; particularly
+delightful were the strolls along the river-banks, where patient
+fisherfolk of every sex and age sat unperturbed by the fact that they
+never seemed to catch anything. One old lady with a sunbonnet was always
+to be seen seated on a three-legged stool in the same corner amid the
+rocks. She had a rusty black umbrella which she would open when the rays
+of the sun became too searching.
+
+The buildings which were provided for the artillery course had formerly
+been used by the cavalry school, probably the best known in the world.
+Before the war army officers of every important nation in the Occident and
+Orient were sent by their governments to follow the course and learn the
+method of instruction. My old friend Fitzhugh Lee was one of those sent by
+the United States, and I found his record as a horseman still alive and
+fresh in the memory of many of the townspeople.
+
+Soon after the termination of my period of instruction I was in command of
+C Battery of the Seventh Field Artillery in the Argonne fighting. I was
+standing one morning in the desolate, shell-ridden town of Landres et St.
+George watching a column of "dough-boys" coming up the road; at their head
+limped a battered Dodge car, and as it neared me I recognized my elder
+brother Ted, sitting on the back seat in deep discussion with his
+adjutant. I had believed him to be safely at the staff school in Langres
+recuperating from a wound, but he had been offered the chance to come up
+in command of his old regiment, the Twenty-Sixth, and although registered
+as only "good for light duty in the service of supply," he had made his
+way back to the division. While we were talking another car came up and
+out from it jumped my brother-in-law, Colonel Richard Derby--at that time
+division surgeon of the Second Division. We were the only three members of
+the family left in active service since my brother Quentin, the aviator,
+was brought down over the enemy lines, and Archie, severely wounded in leg
+and arm, had been evacuated to the United States. I well remember how once
+when Colonel Derby introduced me to General Lejeune, who was commanding
+his division, the general, instead of making some remark about my father,
+said: "I shall always be glad to meet a relative of a man with Colonel
+Derby's record."
+
+On the 11th of November we had just returned to our original sector after
+attacking Sedan. None of us placed much confidence in an armistice being
+signed. We felt that the German would never accept the terms, but were
+confident that by late spring or early summer we would be able to bring
+about an unconditional surrender. When the firing ceased and the news came
+through that the enemy had capitulated, there was no great show of
+excitement. We were all too weary to be much stirred by anything that
+could occur. For the past two weeks we had been switched hither and yon,
+with little sleep and less food, and a constant decrease in our personnel
+and horses that was never entirely made good but grew steadily more
+serious. The only bursts of enthusiasm that I heard were occasioned by the
+automobile trucks and staff cars passing by after dark with their
+headlights blazing. The joyous shouts of "Lights out!" testified that the
+reign of darkness was over. Soon the men began building fires and
+gathering about them, calling "Lights out!" as each new blaze started--a
+joke which seemed a never-failing source of amusement.
+
+We heard that we were to march into Germany in the wake of the evacuating
+army and occupy one of the bridge-heads. All this came through in vague
+and unconfirmed form, but in a few days we were hauled back out of the
+line to a desolate mass of ruins which had once been the village of
+Bantheville. We were told that we would have five days here, during which
+we would be reoutfitted in every particular. Our horses were in fearful
+shape--constant work in the rain and mud with very meagre allowance of
+fodder had worn down the toughest old campaigners among them. During the
+weary, endless night march on Sedan I often saw two horses leaning against
+each other in utter exhaustion--as if it were by that means alone that
+they kept on their feet. We were told to indent for everything that we
+needed to make our batteries complete as prescribed in the organization
+charts, but we followed instructions without any very blind faith in
+results--nor did our lack of trust prove unwarranted, for we got
+practically nothing for which we had applied.
+
+There were some colored troops near by engaged in repairing the roads, and
+a number of us determined to get up a quartet to sing for the men. We went
+to where the negroes had built themselves shelters from corrugated-iron
+sheets and miscellaneous bits of wreckage from the town. We collected
+three quarters of our quartet and were directed to the mess-shack for the
+fourth. As we approached I could hear sounds of altercation and a voice
+that we placed immediately as that of our quarry arose in indignant
+warning: "If yo' doan' leggo that mess-kit I'll lay a barrage down on
+yo'!" A platform was improvised near a blazing fire of pine boards and we
+had some excellent clogging and singing. The big basso had evidently a
+strong feeling for his steel helmet, and it undoubtedly added to his
+picturesqueness--setting off his features with his teeth and eyes gleaming
+in the firelight.
+
+On the evening of the second day orders came to move off on the following
+morning. We were obliged to discard much material, for although the two
+days' rest and food had distinctly helped out the horse situation, we had
+many animals that could barely drag themselves along, much less a loaded
+caisson, and our instructions were to on no account salvage ammunition. We
+could spare but one horse for riding--my little mare--and she was no use
+for pulling. She was a wise little animal with excellent gaits and great
+endurance. We were forced to leave, behind another mare that I had ridden
+a good deal on reconnaissances, and that used to amuse me by her
+unalterable determination to stick to cover. It was almost most impossible
+to get her to cut across a field; she preferred to skirt the woods and had
+no intention of exposing herself on any sky-line. In spite of her caution
+it was on account of wounds that she had eventually to be abandoned. I
+trust that the salvage parties found her and that she is now reaping the
+reward of her foresight.
+
+We were a sorry-looking outfit as we marched away from Bantheville. My
+lieutenants had lost their bedding-rolls and extra clothes long since--as
+every one did, for it was impossible to keep your belongings with you--and
+although authorized dumps were provided and we were told that anything
+left behind would be cared for, we would be moved to another sector
+without a chance to collect our excess and practically everything would
+have disappeared by the time the opportunity came to visit the cache. But
+although the horses and accoutrements were in bad shape, the men were fit
+for any task, and more than ready to take on whatever situation might
+arise.
+
+Our destination was Malancourt, no great distance away, but the roads
+were so jammed with traffic that it was long after dark before we reached
+the bleak, wind-swept hillside that had been allotted to us. It was
+bitterly cold and we groped about among the shattered barbed-wire
+entanglements searching for wood to light a fire. There was no difficulty
+in finding shell-craters in which to sleep--the ground was so pockmarked
+with them that it seemed impossible that it could have been done by human
+agency.
+
+This country had been an "active" area during practically all the war, and
+the towns had been battered and beaten down first by the Boche and then by
+the French, and lately we ourselves had taken a hand in the further
+demolition of the ruins. Many a village was recognizable from the
+encompassing waste only by the sign-board stuck in a mound announcing its
+name. The next day's march took us through Esne, Montzeville, and
+Bethainville, and on down to the Verdun-Paris highway. We passed by
+historic "Dead Man's Hill," and not far from there we saw the mute
+reminders of an attack that brought the whole scene vividly back. There
+were nine or ten tanks, of types varying from the little Renault to the
+powerful battleship sort. All had been halted by direct hits, some while
+still far from their objective, others after they had reached the wire
+entanglements, and there was one that was already astride of the
+first-line trench. The continual sight of ruined towns and desolated
+countryside becomes very oppressive, and it was a relief when we began to
+pass through villages in which many of the houses were still left
+standing; it seemed like coming into a new world.
+
+At ten in the evening I got the battery into Balaicourt. A strong wind was
+blowing and the cold was intense, so I set off to try to find billets for
+the men where they could be at least partly sheltered. The town was all
+but deserted by its inhabitants, and we managed to provide every one with
+some degree of cover. Getting back into billets is particularly welcome in
+very cold or rainy weather, and we all were glad to be held over a day on
+the wholly mythical plea of refitting. Although the time would not be
+sufficient to make any appreciable effort in the way of cleaning harness
+or _materiel_, the men could at any rate heat water to wash their clothes
+and themselves.
+
+The next day's march we regarded as our first in the advance into Germany
+to which we had so long looked forward. We found the great Verdun highway
+which had played such an important part in the defense that broke the back
+of the Hun to be in excellent shape and a pleasant change from the
+shell-pitted roads to which we had become accustomed. It was not without a
+thrill that I rode, at the head of my battery, through the missive south
+gate of Verdun, and followed the winding streets of the old city through
+to the opposite portal. Before we had gone many miles the road crossed a
+portion of the far-famed Hindenburg line which had here remained intact
+until evacuated by the Boche a few days previously under the terms of the
+armistice.
+
+We made a short halt where a negro engineer regiment was at work making
+the road passable. A most hospitable officer strolled up and asked if I
+wanted anything to eat, which when you are in the army may be classified
+with Goldberg's "foolish questions." A sturdy coal-black cook brought me
+soup and roast beef and coffee, and never have I appreciated the culinary
+arts of the finest French chef as I did that meal, for the food had been
+cooked, not merely thrown into one of the tureens of a rolling kitchen,
+which was as much as we had recently been able to hope for.
+
+The negro cook looked as if he would have been able to emulate his French
+confrere of whom Major de Caraman told me. The Frenchman was on his way to
+an outpost with a steaming caldron of soup. He must have lost the way, for
+he unexpectedly found himself confronted by a German who ordered him to
+surrender. For reply the cook slammed the soup-dish over his adversary's
+head and marched him back a prisoner. His prowess was rewarded with a
+Croix de Guerre.
+
+It was interesting to see the German system of defense when it was still
+intact and had not been shattered by our artillery preparation as it was
+when taken in an attack. The wire entanglements were miles in depth, and
+the great trees by the roadside were mined. This was done by cutting a
+groove three or four inches broad and of an equal depth and filling it
+with packages of explosive. I suppose the purpose was to block the road in
+case of retreat. Only a few of the mines had been set off.
+
+Passing through several towns that no longer existed we came to Etain,
+where many buildings were still standing though completely gutted. The
+cellars had been converted into dugouts with passages and ramifications
+added. We were billeted in some German huts on the outskirts. They were
+well dug in and comfortably fitted out, so we were ready to stay over a
+few days, as we had been told we should, but at midnight orders were sent
+round to be prepared to march out early.
+
+The country was lovely and gave little sign of the Boche occupation except
+that it was totally deserted and when we passed through villages all the
+signs were in German. There was but little originality displayed in naming
+the streets--you could be sure that you would find a Hindenburg Strasse
+and a Kronprinz Strasse, and there was usually one called after the
+Kaiser. The mile-posts at the crossroads had been mostly replaced, but
+occasionally we found battered metal plaques of the Automobile Touring
+Club of France. Ever since we left Verdun we had been meeting bands of
+released prisoners, Italians and Russians chiefly, with a few French and
+English mingled. They were worn and underfed--their clothes were in rags.
+A few had combined and were pulling their scanty belongings on little
+cars, such as children make out of soap-boxes. The motor-trucks returning
+to our base after bringing up the rations would take back as many as they
+could carry.
+
+We came across scarcely any civilians until we reached Bouligny, a once
+busy and prosperous manufacturing town. A few of the inhabitants had been
+allowed to remain throughout the enemy occupation and small groups of
+those that had been removed were by now trickling in. The invader had
+destroyed property in the most ruthless manner, and the buildings were
+gutted. The domestic habits of the Hun were always to me inexplicable--he
+evidently preferred to live in the midst of his own filth, and many times
+have I seen recently captured chateaux that had been converted into
+veritable pigsties.
+
+The inhabitants went wild at our entry--in the little villages they came
+out carrying wreaths and threw confetti and flowers as they shouted the
+"Marseillaise." The infantry, marching in advance, bore the brunt of the
+celebrations. What interested me most were the bands of small children,
+many of them certainly not over five, dancing along the streets singing
+their national anthem. It must have been taught them in secret. In the
+midst of a band were often an American soldier or two, in full swing,
+thoroughly enjoying themselves. The enthusiasm was all of it natural and
+uninspired by alcohol, for the Germans had taken with them everything to
+drink that they had been unable to finish.
+
+Bouligny is not an attractive place--few manufacturing towns are--but we
+got the men well billeted under water-tight roofs, and we were able to
+heat water for washing. My striker found a large caldron and I luxuriated
+in a steaming bath, the first in over a month, and, what was more, I had
+some clean clothes to pull on when I got out.
+
+One evening, when returning from a near-by village, I met a frock-coated
+civilian who inquired of me in German the way to Etain. I asked him who he
+was and what he wanted. He answered that he was a German but was tired of
+his country and wished to go almost anywhere else. He seemed altogether
+too apparent to be a spy, and even if he were I could not make out any
+object that he could gain. I have often wondered what became of him.
+
+The Boches had evidently not expected to give up their conquests, for they
+had built an enormous stone-and-brick fountain in the centre of the town,
+and chiselled its name, "Hindenburg Brunnen." Above the German canteen or
+commissary shop was a great wooden board with "Gott strafe England"--a
+curious proof of how bitterly the Huns hated Great Britain, for there were
+no British troops in the sectors in front of this part of the invaded
+territory.
+
+We worked hard "policing up" ourselves and our equipment during the few
+days we stayed at Bouligny. One morning all the townsfolk turned out in
+their best clothes, which had been buried in the cellars or hidden behind
+the rafters in the attics, to greet the President and Madame Poincare, who
+were visiting the most important of the liberated towns. It was good to
+hear the cheering and watch the beaming faces.
+
+On November 21 we resumed our march. Close to the border we came upon a
+large German cemetery, artistically laid out, with a group of massive
+statuary in the centre. There were some heroic-size granite statues of
+Boche soldiers in full kit with helmet and all, that were particularly
+fine. As we passed the stones marking the boundary-line between France
+and Lorraine there was a tangible feeling of making history, and it was
+not without a thrill that we entered Aumetz and heard the old people greet
+us in French while the children could speak only German. The town was gay
+with the colors of France--produced from goodness knows where. Children
+were balancing themselves on the barrels of abandoned German cannon and
+climbing about the huge camouflaged trucks. We were now where France,
+Luxemburg, and Lorraine meet, and all day we skirted the borders of first
+one and then the other, halting for the night at the French town of
+Villerupt. The people went wild when we rode in--we were the first
+soldiers of the Allies they had seen, for the Germans entered immediately
+after the declaration of war, and the only poilus the townsfolk saw were
+those that were brought in as prisoners. We were welcomed in the town
+hall--the German champagne was abominable but the reception was
+whole-hearted and the speeches were sincere in their jubilation.
+
+I was billeted with the mayor, Monsieur Georges. After dinner he produced
+two grimy bottles of Pol Roger--he said that he had been forced to change
+their hiding-place four times, and had just dug them up in his cellar.
+They were destined for the night of liberation. Monsieur Georges was thin
+and worn; he had spent two years in prison in solitary confinement for
+having given a French prisoner some bread. His eighteen-year-old daughter
+was imprisoned for a year because she had not informed the authorities as
+to what her father had done. No one in the family would learn a single
+word of German. They said that all French civilians were forced to salute
+the Germans, and each Sunday every one was compelled to appear in the
+market-place for general muster. The description of the departure of their
+hated oppressors was vivid--the men behind the lines knew the full portent
+of events and were sullen and crestfallen, but the soldiers fresh from the
+front believed that Germany had won and was dictating her own terms; they
+came through with wreaths hung on their bayonets singing songs of victory.
+
+I had often wondered how justly the food supplies sent by America for the
+inhabitants of the invaded districts were distributed. Monsieur Georges
+assured me that the Germans were scrupulously careful in this matter,
+because they feared that if they were not, the supplies would no longer
+be sent, and this would of course encroach upon their own resources, for
+even the Hun could not utterly starve to death the captured French
+civilians. The mayor told me of the joy the shipments brought and how when
+the people went to draw their rations they called it "going to America."
+We sat talking until far into the night before I retired to the luxury of
+a real bed with clean linen sheets. There was no trouble whatever in
+billeting the men--the townsmen were quarrelling as to who should have
+them.
+
+Next morning, with great regret at so soon leaving our willing hosts, we
+marched off into the little Duchy of Luxemburg. We passed through the
+thriving city of Esch with its great iron-mines. The streets were gay with
+flags, there were almost as many Italian as French, for there is a large
+Italian colony, the members of which are employed in mining and smelting.
+Brass bands paraded in our honor, and we were later met by them in many of
+the smaller towns. The shops seemed well filled, but the prices were very
+high. The Germans seemed to have left the Luxemburgers very much to
+themselves, and I have little doubt but that they would have been at least
+as pleased to welcome victorious Boches had affairs taken a different
+turn. Still they were glad to see us, for it meant the end of the
+isolation in which they had been living and the eventual advent of
+foodstuffs.
+
+As we rode along, the countryside was lovely and the smiling fields and
+hillsides made "excursions and alarums" seem remote indeed. It felt
+unnatural to pass through a village with unscarred church spires and
+houses all intact--such a change from battered, glorious France.
+
+We were immediately in the wake of the German army, and taken by and large
+they must have been retiring in good order, for they left little behind.
+Our first night we spent at the village of Syren, eight kilometres from
+the capital of the Duchy. Billeting was not so easy now, for we were
+ordered to treat the inhabitants as neutrals, and when they objected we
+couldn't handle the situation as we did later on in Germany. No one likes
+to have soldiers or civilians quartered on him, and the Luxemburgers were
+friendly to us only as a matter of policy. Fortunately, the chalk marks of
+the Boche billeting officers had not been washed off the doors, and these
+told us how many men had been lodged in a given house.
+
+In my lodging I was accorded a most friendly reception, for my hostess
+was French. Her nephew had come up from Paris to visit her a few months
+before the outbreak of the war, and had been unable to get back to France.
+To avoid the dreaded internment camp he had successfully passed as a
+Luxemburger. In the regiment there were a number of men whose parents came
+from the Duchy; these and a few more who spoke German acquired a sudden
+popularity among their comrades. They would make friends with some of the
+villagers and arrange to turn over their rations so that they would be
+cooked by the housewife and eaten with the luxurious accompaniment of
+chair and table. The diplomat would invite a few friends to enjoy with him
+the welcome change from the "slum" ladled out of the caldrons of the
+battery rolling kitchen. I had always supposed that I had in my battery a
+large number of men who could speak German--a glance over the pay-roll
+would certainly leave that impression--but when I came to test it out, I
+found that I had but four men who spoke sufficiently well to be of any use
+as interpreters.
+
+Next morning we made a winding, roundabout march to Trintange. Here we
+were instructed to settle down for a week or ten days' halt, and many
+worse places might have been chosen. The country was very broken, with
+hills and ravines. Little patches of woodland and streams dashing down
+rocky channels on their way to join the Moselle reminded one of Rock Creek
+Park in Washington. The weather couldn't be bettered; sharp and cold in
+the early morning with a heavy hoarfrost spreading its white mantle over
+everything, then out would come the sun, and the hills would be shrouded
+in mist.
+
+My billeting officer had arranged matters well, so we were comfortably
+installed and in good shape to "police up" for the final leg of the march
+to Coblenz. I had now my full allowance of officers--Lieutenants Furness,
+Brown, Middleditch, and Pearce. In active warfare discipline while
+stricter in some ways is more lax in others, and there were many small
+points that required furbishing. Close order drill on foot is always a
+great help in stiffening up the men, and such essentials as instruction in
+driving and in fitting harness required much attention. In the American
+army much less responsibility is given to the sergeants and corporals than
+in the British, but even so the spirit and efficiency of an organization
+must depend largely on its non-commissioned officers. We were fortunate in
+having an unusually fine lot--Sergeant Cushing was a veteran of the
+Spanish War. He had been a sailor for many years, and after he left the
+sea he became chief game warden of Massachusetts. In time of stress he was
+a tower of strength and could be counted upon to set his men an example of
+cool and judicious daring. The first sergeant, Armstrong, was an old
+regular army man, and his knowledge of drill and routine was invaluable to
+us. He thoroughly understood his profession, and was remarkably successful
+in training raw men. Sergeants Grumbling, Kubelis, and Bauer were all of
+them excellent men, and could be relied upon to perform their duty with
+conscientious thoroughness under the most trying conditions.
+
+One afternoon I went in to Luxemburg with Colonel Collins, the battalion
+commander. The town looks thoroughly mediaeval as you approach. It might
+well have been over its castle wall that Kingsley's knight spurred his
+horse on his last leap; as a matter of fact the village of Altenahr, where
+the poet laid the scene, is not so many miles away. The town is built
+along the ragged cliffs lining a deep, rocky canyon spanned by old stone
+bridges. The massive entrance-gates open upon passages tunnelled through
+the hills, and although the modern part of the town boasts broad streets
+and squares, there are many narrow passageways winding around the ancient
+quarter.
+
+I went into a large bookstore to replenish my library, and was struck by
+the supply of post-cards of Marshal Foch and Kitchener and the King and
+Queen of Belgium. All had been printed in Leipzig, and when I asked the
+bookseller how that could be, he replied that he got them from the German
+commercial travellers. He said that he had himself been surprised at the
+samples shown him, but the salesman had remarked that he thought such
+post-cards would have a good sale in Luxemburg, and if such were the case
+"business was business," and he was prepared to supply them. There was
+even one of King Albert standing with drawn sword, saying: "You shall not
+violate the sacred soil of my country." A publication that also interested
+me was a weekly paper brought out in Hamburg and written in English. It
+was filled with jokes, beneath which were German notes explaining any
+difficult or idiomatic words and phrases. With all their hatred of England
+the Huns still continued to learn English.
+
+Thanksgiving Day came along, and we set to work to provide some sort of a
+special feast for the men. It was most difficult to do so, for the
+exchange had not as yet been regulated and the lowest rate at which we
+could get marks was at a franc, and usually it was a franc and a quarter.
+Some one opportunely arrived from Paris with a few hundred marks that he
+had bought at sixty centimes. For the officers we got a suckling pig,
+which Mess Sergeant Braun roasted in the priest's oven. He even put the
+traditional baked apple in its mouth, a necessary adjunct, the purpose of
+which I have never discovered, and such stuffing as he made has never been
+equalled. We washed it down with excellent Moselle wine, for we were but a
+couple of miles from the vineyards along the river. In the afternoon I
+borrowed a bicycle from the burgomaster and trailed over to Elmen, where I
+found my brother just about to sit down to his Thanksgiving dinner served
+up by two faithful Chinamen, who had come to his regiment in a draft from
+the West Coast. After doing full justice to his fare I wended my way back
+to Trintange in the rain and dark.
+
+The next day we paid the men. For some it was the first time in ten
+months. To draw pay it was necessary to sign the pay-roll at the end of
+one month and be on hand at the end of the following month to receive the
+money. No one could sign unless his service record was at hand, and as
+this was forwarded to the hospital "through military channels" when a man
+was evacuated sick or wounded, it rarely reached his unit until several
+months after he returned. It may easily be seen why it was that an
+enlisted man often went for months without being able to draw his pay.
+This meant not only a hardship to him while he was without money, but, it
+also followed that when he got it he had a greater amount than he could
+possibly need, and was more than apt to gamble or drink away his sudden
+accession of wealth. We always tried to make a man who had drawn a lot of
+back pay deposit it or send it home. Mr. Harlow, the Y.M.C.A. secretary
+attached to the regiment, helped us a great deal in getting the money
+transferred to the United States. The men, unless they could spend their
+earnings immediately, would start a game of craps and in a few days all
+the available cash would have found its way into the pocket of the
+luckiest man. They would throw for appallingly high stakes. On this
+particular pay-day we knew that the supply of wine and beer in the village
+was not sufficient to cause any serious trouble, and orders were given
+that no cognac or hard liquor should be sold. A few always managed to get
+it--all precautions to the contrary notwithstanding.
+
+II
+
+On the 1st of December we once more resumed our march and at Wormeldange
+crossed over the Moselle River into Hunland. The streets of the first town
+through which we passed were lined with civilians, many of them only just
+out of uniform, and they scowled at us as we rode by, muttering below
+their breath. A short way out and we began to meet men still in the
+field-gray uniform; they smiled and tried to make advances but our men
+paid no attention. When we reached Onsdorf, which was our destination, the
+billeting officer reported that he had met with no difficulty.
+
+The inhabitants were most effusive and anxious to please in every way. Of
+course they were not Prussians, and no doubt were heartily tired and sick
+of war, but here, as throughout, their attitude was most distasteful to
+us--it was so totally lacking in dignity. We could not tell how much they
+were acting on their own initiative and to what extent they were following
+instructions. Probably there was something of both back of their conduct.
+Warnings had been issued that the Germans were reported to be planning a
+wholesale poisoning of American officers, but I never saw anything to
+substantiate the belief.
+
+Next morning we struck across to the Saar River and followed it down to
+its junction with the Moselle. The woods and ravines were lovely, but from
+the practical standpoint the going was very hard upon the horses. We
+marched down through Treves, the oldest town in Germany, with a population
+of about thirty thousand. In the fourth century of our era Ausonius
+referred to it as "Rome beyond the Alps," and the extent and variety of
+the Roman remains would seem to justify the epithet. We were halted for
+some time beside the most remarkable of these, the Porta Nigra, a huge
+fortified gateway, dating from the first century A.D. The cathedral is an
+impressive conglomeration of the architecture of many different
+centuries--the oldest portion being a part of a Roman basilica of the
+fourth century, while the latest additions of any magnitude were made in
+the thirteenth. Most famous among its treasures is the "holy coat of
+Treves," believed by the devout to be the seamless garment worn by Christ
+at the crucifixion. The predominant religion of the neighborhood is the
+Roman Catholic, and on the occasions when the coat is exhibited the town
+is thronged by countless pilgrims.
+
+Leaving Treves we continued down along the river-bank to Rawen Kaulin,
+where we turned inland for a few miles and I was assigned to a village
+known as Eitelsbach. The inhabitants were badly frightened when we rode
+in--most of the men hid and the women stood on the door-steps weeping. I
+suppose they expected to be treated in the manner that they had behaved to
+the French and Belgians, and as they would have done by us had the
+situation been reversed. When they found they were not to be oppressed
+they became servile and fawning. I had my officers' mess in the
+schoolmaster's house. He had been a non-commissioned officer of infantry,
+and yet he wanted to send his daughters in to play the piano for us after
+dinner. We would have despised the German less if he had been able to
+"hate" a little more after he was beaten and not so bitterly while he felt
+he was winning.
+
+The country through which we marched during the next few days was most
+beautiful. We followed the winding course of the river, making many a
+double "S" turn. The steep hills came right to the bank; frequently the
+road was cut into their sides. A village was tucked in wherever a bit of
+level plain between the foot of the hill and the river permitted. When the
+slopes gave a southern exposure they were covered with grape-vines,
+planted with the utmost precision and regularity. Every corner and cranny
+among the rocks was utilized. The original planting must have been
+difficult, for the soil was covered with slabs of shale. The cultivator
+should develop excellent lungs in scaling those hillsides. The leaves had
+fallen and the bare vines varied in hue from sepia brown to wine color,
+with occasional patches of evergreen to set off the whole. Once or twice
+the road left the river to cut across over the mountains, and it cost our
+horses much exertion to drag the limbers up the steep, slippery trail. It
+was curious to notice the difference between those who dwelt along the
+bank and the inhabitants of the upland plateau. The latter appeared
+distinctly more "outlandish" and less sleek and prosperous. The highlands
+we found veiled in mist, and as I looked back at the dim outlines of horse
+and man and caisson, it seemed as if I were leading a ghost battery.
+
+We were in the heart of the wine country, and to any one who had enjoyed a
+good bottle of Moselle such names as Berncastel and Piesport had long been
+familiar. In the former town I was amused on passing by a large millinery
+store to see the proprietor's name was Jacob Astor. The little villages
+inevitably recalled the fairy-tales of Hans Andersen and the Grimm
+brothers. The raftered houses had timbered balconies that all but met
+across the crooked, winding streets through which we clattered over the
+cobblestones. Capping many of the beams were gargoyles, demons, and
+dwarfs, and a galaxy of strange creatures were carved on the ends of the
+gables that jutted out every which way. The houses often had the date
+they were built and the initials of the couple that built them over the
+front door, frequently with some device. I saw no dates that went further
+back than the late sixteen hundreds, though many of the houses doubtless
+were built before then. The doors in some cases were beautifully carved
+and weathered. The old pumps and wells, the stone bridges, and the little
+wayside shrines took one back through the centuries. To judge by the
+records carved on wall and house, high floods are no very uncommon
+occurrence--the highest I noticed was in 1685, while the last one of
+importance was credited to 1892.
+
+We were much surprised at the well-fed appearance of the population, both
+old and young, for we had heard so much of food shortages, and the Germans
+when they surrendered had laid such stress upon it. As far as we could
+judge; food was more plentiful than in France. Rubber and leather were
+very scarce, many of the women wore army boots, and the shoes displayed in
+shop-windows appeared made of some composition resembling pasteboard. The
+coffee was evidently ground from the berry of some native bush, and its
+taste in no way resembled the real. Cigars were camouflaged
+cabbage-leaves, with little or no flavor, and the beer sadly fallen off
+from its pre-war glory. Still, in all the essentials of life the
+inhabitants appeared to be making out far better than we had been given to
+believe.
+
+We met with very little trouble. There were a few instances where people
+tried to stand out against having men billeted in their houses, but we of
+course paid no attention except that we saw to it that they got more men
+than they would have under ordinary circumstances. Every now and then we
+would have amusing side-lights upon the war news on which the more
+ignorant Boches had been fed. A man upon whom several of my sergeants were
+quartered asked them if the Zeppelins had done much damage to New York;
+and whether Boston and Philadelphia had yet been evacuated by the
+Germans--he had heard that both cities had been taken and that Washington
+was threatened and its fall imminent.
+
+Our men behaved exceedingly well. Of course there were individual cases of
+drunkenness, but very few considering that we were in a country where the
+wine was cheap and schnapps plentiful. There were the inevitable
+A.W.O.L.'s and a number of minor offenses, but I found that by making the
+prisoner's life very unattractive--seeing to it that they performed
+distasteful "fatigues," giving them heavy packs to carry when we marched,
+and allowing them nothing that could be construed as a delicacy--I soon
+reformed the few men that were chronically shiftless or untidy or late.
+When not in cantonments the trouble with putting men under arrest is that
+too often it only means that they lead an easier life than their comrades,
+and it takes some ingenuity to correct this situation. Whenever it was in
+any way possible an offender was dealt with in the battery and I never let
+it go further, for I found it made for much better spirit in a unit.
+
+The men were a fine lot, and such thoroughgoing Americans, no matter from
+what country their parents had come. One of my buglers had landed in the
+United States only in 1913; he had been born and brought up on the
+confines of Germany and Austria, and yet when a large German of whom he
+was asking the way said, "You speak the language well--your parents must
+be German," the unhesitating reply was: "Well, my mother was of German
+descent!" The battery call read like a League of Nations, but no one could
+have found any cause of complaint in lack of loyalty to the United
+States.
+
+The twelfth day after we had crossed over the river from Luxemburg found
+us marching into Coblenz. We were quartered in large brick barracks in the
+outskirts of the city. The departing Germans had left them in very bad
+shape, and Hercules would have felt that cleaning the Augean stables was a
+light task in comparison. However, we set to work without delay and soon
+had both men and horses well housed. Life in the town was following its
+normal course; the stores were well stocked and seemed to be doing a
+thriving trade. We went into a cafe where a good orchestra was playing and
+had some very mediocre war beer, and then I set off in search of the
+Turkish bath of which I was much in need. The one I found was in charge of
+an ex-submarine sailor, and when I was shut in the steam-room I wondered
+if he were going to try any "frightfulness," for I was the only person in
+the bath. My last one had been in a wine-vat a full week before, and I was
+ready to risk anything for the luxury of a good soak.
+
+Orders to march usually reached us at midnight--why, I do not know; but we
+would turn in with the belief that we would not move on the following
+day, and the next we knew an orderly from regimental headquarters would
+wake us with marching instructions, and in no happy frame of mind we would
+grumblingly tumble out to issue the necessary commands. Coblenz proved no
+exception to this rule. As we got under way, a fine rain was falling that
+was not long in permeating everything. Through the misty dripping town the
+"caissons went rolling along," and out across the Pfaffendorf bridge, with
+the dim outlines of the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein towering above us. The
+men were drowsy and cold. I heard a few disparaging comments on the size
+of the Rhine. They had heard so much talk about it that they had expected
+to find it at least as large as the Mississippi. We found the slippery
+stones of the street ascending from the river most difficult to negotiate,
+but at length everything was safely up, and we struck off toward the
+bridge-head position which we were to occupy for we knew not how long. The
+Huns had torn down the sign-posts at the crossroads; with what intent I
+cannot imagine, for the roads were not complicated and were clearly
+indicated on the maps, and the only purpose that the sign-posts could
+serve was to satisfy a curiosity too idle to cause us to calculate by map
+how far we had come or what distance lay still before us. A number of
+great stone slabs attracted our attention; they had been put up toward the
+close of the eighteenth century and indicated the distance in hours. I
+remember one that proclaimed it was three hours to Coblenz and eighteen to
+Frankfort. I have never seen elsewhere these records of an age when time
+did not mean money.
+
+The march was in the nature of an anticlimax, for we had thought always of
+Coblenz as our goal, and the good fortune in which we had played as
+regarded weather during our march down the valley of the Moselle had made
+us supercritical concerning such details as a long, wearisome slogging
+through the mud in clumsy, water-logged clothes. At length we reached the
+little village of Niederelbert and found that Lieutenant Brown, whose turn
+it was as billeting officer, had settled us so satisfactorily that in a
+short time we were all comfortably steaming before stoves, thawing out our
+cramped joints.
+
+With the exception of Lieutenant Furness my officers belonged to the
+Reserve Corps, and we none of us looked forward to a long tour of garrison
+duty on the Rhine or anywhere else. Furness, who had particularly
+distinguished himself in liaison work with the infantry, held a temporary
+commission in the regular army, but he was eager to go back to civil life
+at the earliest opportunity. In Germany the prospect was doubly gloomy,
+for there would be no intercourse with the natives such as in France had
+lightened many a weary moment. Several days later regimental headquarters
+coveted our village and we were moved a few miles off across the hills to
+Holler. We set to work to make ourselves as snug and comfortable as
+possible. I had as striker a little fellow of Finnish extraction name
+Jahoola, an excellent man in every way, who took the best of care of my
+horse and always managed to fix up my billet far better than the
+circumstances would seem to permit.
+
+The days that followed presented little variety once the novelty of the
+occupation had worn off. The men continued to behave in exemplary fashion,
+and the Boche gave little trouble. As soon as we took up our quarters we
+made the villagers clean up the streets and yards until they possessed a
+model town, and thereafter we "policed up" every untidiness of which we
+might be the cause, and kept the inhabitants up to the mark in what
+concerned them. The head of the house in which I was lodged in
+Niederelbert told me that his son had been a captain in the army but had
+deserted a fortnight before the armistice and reached home in civilian
+clothes three weeks in advance of the retreating army. Of course he was
+not an officer before the war--not of the old military school, but the
+fact that he and his family were proud of it spoke of a weakening
+discipline and morale.
+
+Now that we had settled down to a routine existence I was doubly glad of
+such books as I had been able to bring along. Of these, O. Henry was the
+most popular. The little shilling editions were read until they fell to
+pieces, and in this he held the same position as in the British army. I
+had been puzzled at this popularity among the English, for much of his
+slang must have been worse than Greek to them. I also had _Charles
+O'Malley_ and _Harry Lorrequer_, Dumas' _Dame de Monsereau_ and _Monte
+Cristo_, Flaubert's _Education Sentimentale_, Gibbon's _Rise and Fall_,
+and Borrow's _Zincali_. These with the Oxford Books of French and English
+verse and a few Portuguese and Spanish novels comprised my library, a
+large one considering the circumstances. It was always possible to get
+books through the mail, although they were generally many months en route.
+
+Soon after we reached the bridge-head, officers of the regular army began
+turning up from the various schools whither they had been sent as
+instructors. We all hoped to be released in this manner, for we felt that
+the garrison duty should be undertaken by the regulars, whose life
+business it is, in order to allow the men who had left their trades and
+professions to return to their normal and necessary work. In the meantime
+we set out to familiarize ourselves with the country and keep our units in
+such shape that should any unforeseen event arise we would be in a
+position to meet it. The horses required particular attention, but one
+felt rewarded on seeing their improvement. There were many cases of mange
+which we had been hitherto unable to properly isolate, and good fodder in
+adequate quantity was an innovation.
+
+For the men we had mounted and unmounted drill, and spent much time in
+getting the accoutrements into condition for inspection. During part of
+the march up rations had been short, and for a number of days were very
+problematical. Sufficient boots and clothing were also lacking and we had
+had to get along as best we could without. Now that we were stationary our
+wants were supplied, and the worst hardship for the men was the lack of
+recreation. A reading-room was opened and a piano was procured, but there
+was really no place to send them on short passes; nothing for them to do
+on an afternoon off. When I left, trips down the Rhine were being planned,
+and I am sure they proved beneficial in solving the problem of legitimate
+relaxation and amusement.
+
+My father had sent my brother and myself some money to use in trying to
+make Christmas a feast-day for the men. It was difficult to get anything,
+but the Y.M.C.A. very kindly helped me out in procuring, chocolates and
+cigarettes, and I managed to buy a couple of calves and a few
+semi-delicacies in the local market. While not an Arabian Night feast, we
+had the most essential adjunct in the good spirits of the men, who had
+been schooled by their varied and eventful existence of the past eighteen
+months to make the most of things.
+
+In the middle of January my brother and I left for Paris. I was very sorry
+to leave the battery, for we had been through much together, but in common
+with most reserve officers I felt that, now that the fighting was over,
+there was only one thing to be desired and that was to get back to my wife
+and children. The train made light of the distance over which it had taken
+us so long to march, and the familiar sight of the friendly French towns
+was never more welcome. After several months on duty in France and Italy,
+I sailed on a transport from Brest, but not for the wonderful home-coming
+to which I had so long looked forward.
+
+
+
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