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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:42:40 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:42:40 -0700 |
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diff --git a/13665-h/13665-h.htm b/13665-h/13665-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a35b96 --- /dev/null +++ b/13665-h/13665-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6606 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of War in the Garden of Eden, by Kermit Roosevelt</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + img {border: none;} + .ctr {text-align: center;} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + hr.pg { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 9pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13665 ***</div> +<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 "Red Crescent" 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—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—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."</p> + +<p>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. +<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 "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:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"<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>"<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: +"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.</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 "Last Post," and the service +ended with all singing "Abide With Me."</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 "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 +<a name='Page_10'></a>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.</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—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, +"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.</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,—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.</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—"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 +<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 "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.</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: +"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.</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—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.</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. "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 +<a name='Page_17'></a>with lowered bayonet, remarking in a businesslike +manner: "There isn't any countersign."</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—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—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 "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.</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 "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 +<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 "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.</p><a name='Page_26'></a> + +<p>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 +<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 "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.</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 "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.<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 "covered +goods," with <i>Vingt Ans Après</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 "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<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 "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.</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—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 "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 +<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 "The Granary," 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 "shorts." 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—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 "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-<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 "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 +<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 "gilded +staff" is concerned, notwithstanding the fact +that most staff-officers have seen active and +distinguished service in the line.</p> + +<p>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.</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 "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 +<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—"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, +<a name='Page_54'></a>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.</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—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 +<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—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.</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—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 +"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 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—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.</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—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—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 "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.</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—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.</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—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 "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!</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 "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.</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—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—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—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 "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.</p><a name='Page_76'></a> + +<p>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 +<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—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 manœuvring 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 "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.</p> + +<p>In front of us rose the Jebel Hamrin—Red<a name='Page_87'></a> +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 +<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—a good day's work.</p> + +<p>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 +<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 "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 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 manœuvre +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—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—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—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.</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 "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 +<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 "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.</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—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 manœuvre. 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—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: +"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 +<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 "Red Crescent" ambulance"></a></p><p class="ctr">A "Red Crescent" 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 +"Silver Dart" and "Silver Ghost" and another<a name='Page_125'></a> +"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.</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 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.</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>"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."</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—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<a name='Page_137'></a> +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.</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 +"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 +<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 "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."</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—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—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—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 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.</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—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—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—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—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.</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—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.</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: "Such and such a river is now also in +flood—the Tigris will rise still further."</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—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—the oldest +graybeards behaving as if they were children—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—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 +<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—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.</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 "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.</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—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 "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.</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—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—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 +<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 "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.</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—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—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 "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 +<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—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—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 "General +Routine Orders" issued by general headquarters. +One of them, referring to a religious +festival of the Sikhs, ran:</p> + +<p>"The following cable message received from<a name='Page_176'></a> +Sunder Signh Hagetha, Amritsar, addressed to +Sikhs in Mesopotamian force:</p> + +<p>"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."</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—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—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—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.</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 "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 +<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—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.</p> + +<p>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.</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 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<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—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<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—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."</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 "Banjo" 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: "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.</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—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—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 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 +<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 "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 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—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 +<a name='Page_204'></a>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.</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—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—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<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—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 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 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 "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."</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 "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.</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—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.</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: "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.</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—my little mare—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—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.</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—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 "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 +<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>matériel</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 "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 +<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 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.</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—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 +<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—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.</p> + +<p>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 +<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—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.</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, "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.</p> + +<p>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.</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—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.</p> + +<p>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, +<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—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 "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.</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 "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.</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 "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.</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 "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 or<a name='Page_234'></a>ganization +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.</p> + +<p>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 +<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 "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 +<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 "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 +<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—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—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 "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 +<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—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.</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—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 "hate" 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 "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 +<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 +"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.</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—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—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—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.</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, "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 +<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 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.</p> + +<p>Orders to march usually reached us at midnight—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 "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 +<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 "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.</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> diff --git a/13665-h/images/1.jpg b/13665-h/images/1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1107465 --- /dev/null +++ b/13665-h/images/1.jpg diff --git a/13665-h/images/10.jpg b/13665-h/images/10.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4f8d24 --- /dev/null +++ b/13665-h/images/10.jpg diff --git a/13665-h/images/10_th.jpg b/13665-h/images/10_th.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b177369 --- /dev/null +++ b/13665-h/images/10_th.jpg diff --git a/13665-h/images/11.jpg b/13665-h/images/11.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..21d9c7d --- /dev/null +++ b/13665-h/images/11.jpg diff --git a/13665-h/images/11_th.jpg 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