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diff --git a/old/13665.txt b/old/13665.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..518280f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13665.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4693 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, War in the Garden of Eden, by Kermit +Roosevelt + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: War in the Garden of Eden + +Author: Kermit Roosevelt + +Release Date: October 11, 2004 [eBook #13665] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN*** + + +E-text prepared by Michael Ciesielski and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 13665-h.htm or 13665-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/6/13665/13665-h/13665-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/6/13665/13665-h.zip) + + + + + +WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN + +by + +KERMIT ROOSEVELT + +Captain Motor Machine-Gun Corps, British Expeditionary Forces +Captain Field Artillery, American Expeditionary Forces + +Illustrated from Photographs by the Author + +New York + +1919 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Kermit Roosevelt. From the drawing by John S. +Sargent, July 8, 1917] + + + +To + +The Memory of My Father + + + + +Contents + + I. OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA + II. THE TIGRIS FRONT + III. PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON + IV. SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT + V. THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES + VI. BAGHDAD SKETCHES + VII. THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT +VIII. BACK THROUGH PALESTINE + IX. WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY + + + + +Illustrations + +Kermit Roosevelt +Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting +Ashar Creek at Busra +Golden Dome of Samarra +Rafting down from Tekrit +Captured Turkish camel corps +Towing an armored car across a river +Reconnaissance +The Lion of Babylon +A dragon on the palace wall +Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car +A Mesopotamian garage +A water-wheel on the Euphrates +A "Red Crescent" ambulance +A jeweller's booth in the bazaar +Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge +The Kurd and his wife +Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds +Kirkuk +A street in Jerusalem +Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto + + + + +I + +OFF FOR MESOPOTAMIA + + +It was at Taranto that we embarked for +Mesopotamia. Reinforcements were sent out +from England in one of two ways--either all +the way round the Cape of Good Hope, or by +train through France and Italy down to the +desolate little seaport of Taranto, and thence +by transport over to Egypt, through the Suez +Canal, and on down the Red Sea to the Indian +Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The latter +method was by far the shorter, but the submarine +situation in the Mediterranean was +such that convoying troops was a matter of +great difficulty. Taranto is an ancient Greek +town, situated at the mouth of a landlocked +harbor, the entrance to which is a narrow +channel, certainly not more than two hundred +yards across. The old part of the town is +built on a hill, and the alleys and runways +winding among the great stone dwellings serve +as streets. As is the case with maritime towns, +it is along the wharfs that the most interest +centres. During one afternoon I wandered +through the old town and listened to the fisherfolk +singing as they overhauled and mended +their nets. Grouped around a stone archway +sat six or seven women and girls. They were +evidently members of one family--a grandmother, +her daughters, and their children. +The old woman, wild, dark, and hawk-featured, +was blind, and as she knitted she chanted +some verses. I could only understand occasional +words and phrases, but it was evidently +a long epic. At intervals her listeners would +break out in comments as they worked, but, +like "Othere, the old sea-captain," she "neither +paused nor stirred." + +There are few things more desolate than +even the best situated "rest-camps"--the long +lines of tents set out with military precision, +the trampled grass, and the board walks; but +the one at Taranto where we awaited embarkation +was peculiarly dismal even for a rest-camp. +So it happened that when Admiral Mark +Kerr, the commander of the Mediterranean +fleet, invited me to be his guest aboard H.M.S. +_Queen_ until the transport should sail, it was +in every way an opportunity to be appreciated. +In the British Empire the navy is the "senior +service," and I soon found that the tradition +for the hospitality and cultivation of its officers +was more than justified. The admiral had +travelled, and read, and written, and no more +pleasant evenings could be imagined than +those spent in listening to his stories of the +famous writers, statesmen, and artists who +were numbered among his friends. He had +always been a great enthusiast for the development +of aerial warfare, and he was recently +in Nova Scotia in command of the giant Handley-Page +machine which was awaiting favorable +weather conditions in order to attempt the nonstop +transatlantic flight. Among his poems +stands out the "Prayer of Empire," which, +oddly enough, the former German Emperor +greatly admired, ordering it distributed +throughout the imperial navy! The Kaiser's +feelings toward the admiral have suffered an +abrupt change, but they would have been +even more hostile had England profited by +his warnings: + + "There's no menace in preparedness, no threat in being strong, + If the people's brain be healthy and they think no thought of wrong." + +After four or five most agreeable days aboard the _Queen_ the word came to +embark, and I was duly transferred to the _Saxon_, an old Union Castle +liner that was to run us straight through to Busra. + +As we steamed out of the harbor we were joined by two diminutive Japanese +destroyers which were to convoy us. The menace of the submarine being +particularly felt in the Adriatic, the transports travelled only by night +during the first part of the voyage. To a landsman it was incomprehensible +how it was possible for us to pursue our zigzag course in the inky +blackness and avoid collisions, particularly when it was borne in mind +that our ship was English and our convoyers were Japanese. During the +afternoon we were drilled in the method of abandoning ship, and I was put +in charge of a lifeboat and a certain section of the ropes that were to be +used in our descent over the side into the water. Between twelve and one +o'clock that night we were awakened by three blasts, the preconcerted +danger-signal. Slipping into my life-jacket, I groped my way to my station +on deck. The men were filing up in perfect order and with no show of +excitement. A ship's officer passed and said he had heard that we had +been torpedoed and were taking in water. For fifteen or twenty minutes we +knew nothing further. A Scotch captain who had charge of the next boat to +me came over and whispered: "It looks as if we'd go down. I have just seen +a rat run out along the ropes into my boat!" That particular rat had not +been properly brought up, for shortly afterward we were told that we were +not sinking. We had been rammed amidships by one of the escorting +destroyers, but the breach was above the water-line. We heard later that +the destroyer, though badly smashed up, managed to make land in safety. + +We laid up two days in a harbor on the Albanian coast, spending the time +pleasantly enough in swimming and sailing, while we waited for a new +escort. Another night's run put us in Navarino Bay. The grandfather of +Lieutenant Finch Hatton, one of the officers on board, commanded the +Allied forces in the famous battle fought here in 1827, when the Turkish +fleet was vanquished and the independence of Greece assured. + +Several days more brought us to Port Said, and after a short delay we +pushed on through the canal and into the Red Sea. It was August, and when +one talks of the Red Sea in August there is no further need for comment. +The _Saxon_ had not been built for the tropics. She had no fans, nor +ventilating system such as we have on the United Fruit boats. Some +unusually intelligent stokers had deserted at Port Said, and as we were in +consequence short-handed, it was suggested that any volunteers would be +given a try. Finch Hatton and I felt that our years in the tropics should +qualify us, and that the exercise would improve our dispositions. We got +the exercise. Never have I felt anything as hot, and I have spent August +in Yuma, Arizona, and been in Italian Somaliland and the Amazon Valley. +The shovels and the handles of the wheelbarrows blistered our hands. + +[Illustration: Map of Mesopotamia showing region of the fighting. Inset, +showing relative position of Mesopotamia and other countries.] + +We had a number of cases of heat-stroke, and the hospital facilities on a +crowded transport can never be all that might be desired. The first +military burial at sea was deeply impressive. There was a lane of Tommies +drawn up with their rifles reversed and heads bowed; the short, classic +burial service was read, and the body, wrapped in the Union Jack, slid +down over the stern of the ship. Then the bugles rang out in the haunting, +mournful strains of the "Last Post," and the service ended with all +singing "Abide With Me." + +We sweltered along down the Red Sea and around into the Indian Ocean. We +wished to call at Aden in order to disembark some of our sick, but were +ordered to continue on without touching. Our duties were light, and we +spent the time playing cards and reading. The Tommies played "house" from +dawn till dark. It is a game of the lotto variety. Each man has a paper +with numbers written on squares; one of them draws from a bag slips of +paper also marked with numbers, calls them out, and those having the +number he calls cover it, until all the numbers on their paper have been +covered. The first one to finish wins, and collects a penny from each of +the losers. The caller drones out the numbers with a monotony only +equalled by the brain-fever bird, and quite as disastrous to the nerves. +There are certain conventional nicknames: number one is always "Kelley's +eye," eleven is "legs eleven," sixty-six is "clickety click," and the +highest number is "top o' the 'ouse." There is another game that would be +much in vogue were it not for the vigilance of the officers. It is known +as "crown and anchor," and the advantage lies so strongly in favor of the +banker that he cannot fail to make a good income, and therefore the game +is forbidden under the severest penalties. + +As we passed through the Strait of Ormuz memories of the early days of +European supremacy in the East crowded back, for I had read many a +vellum-covered volume in Portuguese about the early struggles for +supremacy in the gulf. One in particular interested me. The Portuguese +were hemmed in at Ormuz by a greatly superior English force. The expected +reinforcements never arrived, and at length their resources sank so low, +and they suffered in addition, or in consequence, so greatly from disease +that they decided to sail forth and give battle. This they did, but before +they joined in fight the ships of the two admirals sailed up near each +other--the Portuguese commander sent the British a gorgeous scarlet +ceremonial cloak, the British responded by sending him a handsomely +embossed sword. The British admiral donned the cloak, the Portuguese +grasped the sword; a page brought each a cup of wine; they pledged each +other, threw the goblets into the sea, and fell to. The British were +victorious. Times indeed have sadly changed in the last three hundred +years! + +I was much struck with the accuracy of the geographical descriptions in +Camoens' letters and odes. He is the greatest of the Portuguese poets and +wrote the larger part of his master-epic, "The Lusiad," while exiled in +India. For seventeen years he led an adventurous life in the East; and it +is easy to recognize many harbors and stretches of coast line from his +inimitable portrayal. + +Busra, our destination, lies about sixty miles from the mouth of the Shatt +el Arab, which is the name given to the combined Tigris and Euphrates +after their junction at Kurna, another fifty or sixty miles above. At the +entrance to the river lies a sand-bar, effectively blocking access to +boats of as great draft as the _Saxon_. We therefore transshipped to some +British India vessels, and exceedingly comfortable we found them, designed +as they were for tropic runs. We steamed up past the Island of Abadan, +where stand the refineries of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It is hard to +overestimate the important part that company has played in the conduct of +the Mesopotamian campaign. Motor transport was nowhere else a greater +necessity. There was no possibility of living on the country; at first, +at all events. General Dickson, the director of local resources, later set +in to so build up and encourage agriculture that the army should +eventually be supported, in the staples of life, by local produce. +Transportation was ever a hard nut to crack. Railroads were built, but +though the nature of the country called for little grading, obtaining +rails, except in small quantities, was impossible. The ones brought were +chiefly secured by taking up the double track of Indian railways. This +process naturally had a limit, and only lines of prime importance could be +laid down. Thus you could go by rail from Busra to Amara, and from Kut to +Baghdad, but the stretch between Amara and Kut had never been built, up to +the time I left the country. General Maude once told me that pressure was +being continually brought by the high command in England or India to have +that connecting-link built, but that he was convinced that the rails would +be far more essential elsewhere, and had no intention of yielding. + +I don't know the total number of motor vehicles, but there were more than +five thousand Fords alone. On several occasions small columns of infantry +were transported in Fords, five men and the driver to a car. Indians of +every caste and religion were turned into drivers, and although it seemed +sufficiently out of place to come across wizened, khaki-clad Indo-Chinese +driving lorries in France, the incongruity was even more marked when one +beheld a great bearded Sikh with his turbaned head bent over the +steering-wheel of a Ford. + +Modern Busra stands on the banks of Ashar Creek. The ancient city whence +Sinbad the sailor set forth is now seven or eight miles inland, buried +under the shifting sands of the desert. Busra was a seaport not so many +hundreds of years ago. Before that again, Kurna was a seaport, and the two +rivers probably only joined in the ocean, but they have gradually enlarged +the continent and forced back the sea. The present rate of encroachment +amounts, I was told, to nearly twelve feet a year. + +The modern town has increased many fold with the advent of the +Expeditionary Force, and much of the improvement is of a necessarily +permanent nature; in particular the wharfs and roads. Indeed, one of the +most striking features of the Mesopotamian campaign is the permanency of +the improvements made by the British. In order to conquer the country it +was necessary to develop it,--build railways and bridges and roads and +telegraph systems,--and it has all been done in a substantial manner. It +is impossible to contemplate with equanimity the possibility of the +country reverting to a rule where all this progress would soon disappear +and the former stagnancy and injustice again hold sway. + +[Illustration: Ashar Creek at Busra] + +As soon as we landed I wandered off to the bazaar--"suq" is what the Arab +calls it. In Busra there are a number of excellent ones. By that I don't +mean that there are art treasures of the East to be found in them, for +almost everything could be duplicated at a better price in New York. It is +the grouping of wares, the mode of sale, and, above all, the salesmen and +buyers that make a bazaar--the old bearded Persian sitting cross-legged in +his booth, the motley crowd jostling through the narrow, vaulted +passageway, the veiled women, the hawk-featured, turbaned men, the Jews, +the Chaldeans, the Arabs, the Armenians, the stalwart Kurds, and through +it all a leaven of khaki-clad Indians, purchasing for the regimental mess. +All these and an ever-present exotic, intangible something are what the +bazaar means. Close by the entrance stood a booth festooned with lamps and +lanterns of every sort, with above it scrawled "Aladdin-Ibn-Said." My +Arabic was not at that time sufficient to enable me to discover from the +owner whether he claimed illustrious ancestry or had merely been named +after a patron saint. + +A few days after landing at Busra we embarked on a paddle-wheel boat to +pursue our way up-stream the five hundred intervening miles to Baghdad. +Along the banks of the river stretched endless miles of date-palms. We +watched the Arabs at their work of fertilizing them, for in this country +these palms have to depend on human agency to transfer the pollen. At +Kurna we entered the Garden of Eden, and one could quite appreciate the +feelings of the disgusted Tommy who exclaimed: "If this is the Garden, it +wouldn't take no bloody angel with a flaming sword to turn me back." The +direct descendant of the Tree is pointed out; whether its properties are +inherited I never heard, but certainly the native would have little to +learn by eating the fruit. + +Above Kurna the river is no longer lined with continuous palm-groves; +desert and swamps take their place--the abode of the amphibious, nomadic, +marsh Arab. An unruly customer he is apt to prove himself, and when he is +"wanted" by the officials, he retires to his watery fastnesses, where he +can remain in complete safety unless betrayed by his comrades. On the +banks of the Tigris stands Ezra's tomb. It is kept in good repair through +every vicissitude of rule, for it is a holy place to Moslem and Jew and +Christian alike. + +The third night brought us to Amara. The evening was cool and pleasant +after the scorching heat of the day, and Finch Hatton and I thought that +we would go ashore for a stroll through the town. As we proceeded down the +bank toward the bridge, I caught sight of a sentry walking his post. His +appearance was so very important and efficient that I slipped behind my +companion to give him a chance to explain us. "Halt! Who goes there?" +"Friend," replied Finch Hatton. "Advance, friend, and give the +countersign." F.H. started to advance, followed by a still suspicious me, +and rightly so, for the Tommy, evidently member of a recent draft, came +forward to meet us with lowered bayonet, remarking in a businesslike +manner: "There isn't any countersign." + +Except for the gunboats and monitors, all river traffic is controlled by +the Inland Water Transport Service. The officers are recruited from all +the world over. I firmly believe that no river of any importance could be +mentioned but what an officer of the I.W.T. could be found who had +navigated it. The great requisite for transports on the Tigris was a very +light draft, and to fill the requirements boats were requisitioned ranging +from penny steamers of the Thames to river-craft of the Irrawaddy. Now in +bringing a penny steamer from London to Busra the submarine is one of the +lesser perils, and in supplying the wants of the Expeditionary Force more +than eighty vessels were lost at sea, frequently with all aboard. + +As was the custom, we had a barge lashed to either side. These barges are +laden with troops, or horses, or supplies. In our case we had the first +Bengal regiment--a new experiment, undertaken for political reasons. The +Bengali is the Indian who most readily takes to European learning. +Rabindranath Tagore is probably the most widely known member of the race. +They go to Calcutta University and learn a smattering of English and +absorb a certain amount of undigested general knowledge and theory. These +partially educated Bengalis form the Babu class, and many are employed in +the railways. They delight in complicated phraseology, and this coupled +with their accent and seesaw manner of speaking supply the English a +constant source of caricature. As a race they are inclined to be vain and +boastful, and are ever ready to nurse a grievance against the British +Government, feeling that they have been provided with an education but no +means of support. The government felt that it might help to calm them if a +regiment were recruited and sent to Mesopotamia. How they would do in +actual fighting had never been demonstrated up to the time I left the +country, but they take readily to drill, and it was amusing to hear them +ordering each other about in their clipped English. They were used for +garrisoning Baghdad. + +After we left Amara we continued our winding course up-stream. A boat +several hours ahead may be seen only a few hundred yards distant across +the desert. The banks are so flat and level that it looks as if the other +vessels were steaming along on land. The Arab river-craft was most +picturesque. At sunset a mahela, bearing down with filled sail, might +have been the model for Maxfield Parrish's _Pirate Ship_. The Arab women +ran along the bank beside us, carrying baskets of eggs and chickens, and +occasionally melons. They were possessed of surprising endurance, and +would accompany us indefinitely, heavily laden as they were. Their robes +trailed in the wind as they jumped ditches, screaming out their wares +without a moment's pause. An Indian of the boat's crew was haggling with a +woman about a chicken. He threw her an eight-anna piece. She picked up the +money but would not hand him the chicken, holding out for her original +price. He jumped ashore, intending to take the chicken. She had a few +yards' start and made the most of it. In and out they chased, over hedge +and ditch, down the bank and up again. Several times he almost had her. +She never for a moment ceased screeching--an operation which seemed to +affect her wind not a particle. At the end of fifteen minutes the Indian +gave up amid the delighted jeers of his comrades, and returned shamefaced +and breathless to jump aboard the boat as we bumped against the bank on +rounding a curve. + +One evening we halted where, not many months before, the last of the +battles of Sunnaiyat had been fought. There for months the British had +been held back, while their beleaguered comrades in Kut could hear the +roar of the artillery and hope against hope for the relief that never +reached them. It was one phase of the campaign that closely approximated +the gruelling trench warfare in France. The last unsuccessful attack was +launched a week before the capitulation of the garrison, and it was almost +a year later before the position was eventually taken. The front-line +trenches were but a short distance apart, and each side had developed a +strong and elaborate system of defense. One flank was protected by an +impassable marsh and the other by the river. When we passed, the field +presented an unusually gruesome appearance even for a battle-field, for +the wandering desert Arabs had been at work, and they do not clean up as +thoroughly as the African hyena. A number had paid the penalty through +tampering with unexploded grenades and "dud" shells, and left their own +bones to be scattered around among the dead they had been looting. The +trenches were a veritable Golgotha with skulls everywhere and dismembered +legs still clad with puttees and boots. + +At Kut we disembarked to do the remaining hundred miles to Baghdad by rail +instead of winding along for double the distance by river, with a good +chance of being hung up for hours, or even days, on some shifting +sand-bar. At first sight Kut is as unpromising a spot as can well be +imagined, with its scorching heat and its sand and the desolate +mud-houses, but in spite of appearances it is an important and thriving +little town, and daily becoming of more consequence. + +The railroad runs across the desert, following approximately the old +caravan route to Baghdad. A little over half-way the line passes the +remaining arch of the great hall of Ctesiphon. This hall is one hundred +and forty-eight feet long by seventy-six broad. The arch stands +eighty-five feet high. Around it, beneath the mounds of desert sand, lies +all that remains of the ancient city. As a matter of fact the city is by +no means ancient as such things go in Mesopotamia, dating as it does from +the third century B.C., when it was founded by the successors of Alexander +the Great. + +My first night in Baghdad I spent in General Maude's house, on the +river-bank. The general was a striking soldierly figure of a man, standing +well over six feet. His military career was long and brilliant. His first +service was in the Coldstream Guards. He distinguished himself in South +Africa. Early in the present war he was severely wounded in France. Upon +recovering he took over the Thirteenth Division, which he commanded in the +disastrous Gallipoli campaign, and later brought out to Mesopotamia. When +he reached the East the situation was by no means a happy one for the +British. General Townshend was surrounded in Kut, and the morale of the +Turk was excellent after the successes he had met with in Gallipoli. In +the end of August, 1916, four months after the fall of Kut, General Maude +took over the command of the Mesopotamian forces. On the 11th of March of +the following year he occupied Baghdad, thereby re-establishing completely +the British prestige in the Orient. One of Germany's most serious +miscalculations was with regard to the Indian situation. She felt +confident that, working through Persia and Afghanistan, she could stir up +sufficient trouble, possibly to completely overthrow British rule, but +certainly to keep the English so occupied with uprisings as to force them +to send troops to India rather than withdraw them thence for use +elsewhere. The utter miscarriage of Germany's plans is, indeed, a fine +tribute to Great Britain. The Emir of Afghanistan did probably more than +any single native to thwart German treachery and intrigue, and every +friend of the Allied cause must have read of his recent assassination with +a very real regret. + +When General Maude took over the command, the effect of the Holy War that, +at the Kaiser's instigation, was being preached in the mosques had not as +yet been determined. This jehad, as it was called, proposed to unite all +"True Believers" against the invading Christians, and give the war a +strongly religious aspect. The Germans hoped by this means to spread +mutiny among the Mohammedan troops, which formed such an appreciable +element of the British forces, as well as to fire the fury of the Turks +and win as many of the Arabs to their side as possible. The Arab +thoroughly disliked both sides. The Turk oppressed him, but did so in an +Oriental, and hence more or less comprehensible, manner. The English gave +him justice, but it was an Occidental justice that he couldn't at first +understand or appreciate, and he was distinctly inclined to mistrust it. +In course of time he would come to realize its advantages. Under Turkish +rule the Arab was oppressed by the Turk, but then he in turn could oppress +the Jew, the Chaldean, and Nestorian Christians, and the wretched +Armenian. Under British rule he suddenly found these latter on an equal +footing with him, and he felt that this did not compensate the lifting +from his shoulders of the Turkish burden. Then, too, when a race has been +long oppressed and downtrodden, and suddenly finds itself on an equality +with its oppressor, it is apt to become arrogant and overbearing. This is +exactly what happened, and there was bad feeling on all sides in +consequence. However, real fundamental justice is appreciated the world +over, once the native has been educated up to it, and can trust in its +continuity. + +The complex nature of the problems facing the army commander can be +readily seen. He was an indefatigable worker and an unsurpassed organizer. +The only criticism I ever heard was that he attended too much to the +details himself and did not take his subordinates sufficiently into his +confidence. A brilliant leader, beloved by his troops, his loss was a +severe blow to the Allied cause. + +Baghdad is often referred to as the great example of the shattered +illusion. We most of us have read the _Arabian Nights_ at an early age, +and think of the abode of the caliphs as a dream city, steeped in what we +have been brought up to think of as the luxury, romance, and glamour of +the East. Now glamour is a delicate substance. In the all-searching glare +of the Mesopotamian sun it is apt to appear merely tawdry. Still, a goodly +number of years spent in wandering about in foreign lands had prepared me +for a depreciation of the "stuff that dreams are made of," and I was not +disappointed. It is unfortunate that the normal way to approach is from +the south, and that that view of the city is flat and uninteresting. +Coming, as I several times had occasion to, from the north, one first +catches sight of great groves of date-palms, with the tall minarets of the +Mosque of Kazimain towering above them; then a forest of minarets and blue +domes, with here and there some graceful palm rising above the flat roofs +of Baghdad. In the evening when the setting sun strikes the towers and the +tiled roofs, and the harsh lights are softened, one is again in the land +of Haroun-el-Raschid. + +The great covered bazaars are at all times capable of "eating the hours," +as the natives say. One could sit indefinitely in a coffee-house and watch +the throngs go by--the stalwart Kurdish porter with his impossible loads, +the veiled women, the unveiled Christian or lower-class Arab women, the +native police, the British Tommy, the kilted Scot, the desert Arab, all +these and many more types wandered past. Then there was the gold and +silver market, where the Jewish and Armenian artificers squatted beside +their charcoal fires and haggled endlessly with their customers. These +latter were almost entirely women, and they came both to buy and sell, +bringing old bracelets and anklets, and probably spending the proceeds on +something newer that had taken their fancy. The workmanship was almost +invariably poor and rough. Most of the women had their babies with them, +little mites decked out in cheap finery and with their eyelids thickly +painted. The red dye from their caps streaked their faces, the flies +settled on them at will, and they had never been washed. When one thought +of the way one's own children were cared for, it seemed impossible that a +sufficient number of these little ones could survive to carry on the +race. The infant mortality must be great, though the children one sees +look fat and thriving. + +Baghdad is not an old city. Although there was probably a village on the +site time out of mind, it does not come into any prominence until the +eighth century of our era. As the residence of the Abasside caliphs it +rapidly assumed an important position. The culmination of its magnificence +was reached in the end of the eighth century, under the rule of the +world-famous Haroun-el-Raschid. It long continued to be a centre of +commerce and industry, though suffering fearfully from the various sieges +and conquests which it underwent. In 1258 the Mongols, under a grandson of +the great Genghis Khan, captured the city and held it for a hundred years, +until ousted by the Tartars under Tamberlane. It was plundered in turn by +one Mongol horde after another until the Turks, under Murad the Fourth, +eventually secured it. Naturally, after being the scene of so much looting +and such massacres, there is little left of the original city of the +caliphs. Then, too, in Mesopotamia there is practically no stone, and +everything was built of brick, which readily lapses back to its original +state. For this reason the invaders easily razed a conquered town, and +Mesopotamia, so often called the "cradle of the world," retains but little +trace of the races and civilizations that have succeeded each other in +ruling the land. When the Tigris was low at the end of the summer season, +we used to dig out from its bank great bricks eighteen inches square, on +which was still distinctly traced the seal of Nebuchadnezzar. These, +possibly the remnants of a quay, were all that remained of the times +before the advent of the caliphs. + + + + +II + +THE TIGRIS FRONT + + +A few days after reaching Baghdad I left for Samarra, which was at that +time the Tigris front. I was attached to the Royal Engineers, and my +immediate commander was Major Morin, D.S.O., an able officer with an +enviable record in France and Mesopotamia. The advance army of the Tigris +was the Third Indian Army Corps, under the command of General Cobbe, a +possessor of the coveted, and invariably merited, Victoria Cross. The +Engineers were efficiently commanded by General Swiney. The seventy miles +of railroad from Baghdad to Samarra were built by the Germans, being the +only Mesopotamian portion of the much-talked-of Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway, +completed before the war. It was admirably constructed, with an excellent +road-bed, heavy rails and steel cross-ties made by Krupp. In their retreat +the Turks had been too hurried to accomplish much in the way of +destruction other than burning down a few stations and blowing up the +water-towers. The rolling-stock had been left largely intact. There were +no passenger-coaches, and you travelled either by flat or box car. Every +one followed the Indian custom of carrying with them their bedding-rolls, +and leather-covered wash-basin containing their washing-kit, as well as +one of the comfortable rhoorkhee chairs. In consequence, although for +travel by boat or train nothing was provided, there was no discomfort +entailed. The trains were fitted out with anti-aircraft guns, for the +Turkish aeroplanes occasionally tried to "lay eggs," a by no means easy +affair with a moving train as a target. Whatever the reason was, and I +never succeeded in discovering it, the trains invariably left Baghdad in +the wee small hours, and as the station was on the right bank across the +river from the main town, and the boat bridges were cut during the night, +we used generally, when returning to the front, to spend the first part of +the night sleeping on the station platform. Generals or exalted staff +officers could usually succeed in having a car assigned to them, and +hauled up from the yard in time for them to go straight to bed in it. +Frequently their trip was postponed, and an omniscient sergeant-major +would indicate the car to the judiciously friendly, who could then enjoy a +solid night's sleep. The run took anywhere from eight to twelve hours; but +when sitting among the grain-bags on an open car, or comfortably ensconced +in a chair in a "covered goods," with _Vingt Ans Apres_, the time passed +pleasantly enough in spite of the withering heat. + +While still a good number of miles away from Samarra we would catch sight +of the sun glinting on the golden dome of the mosque, built over the cleft +where the twelfth Imam, the Imam Mahdi, is supposed to have disappeared, +and from which he is one day to reappear to establish the true faith upon +earth. Many Arabs have appeared claiming to be the Mahdi, and caused +trouble in a greater or less degree according to the extent of their +following. The most troublous one in our day was the man who besieged +Kharthoum and captured General "Chinese" Gordon and his men. Twenty-five +years later, when I passed through the Sudan, there were scarcely any men +of middle age left, for they had been wiped out almost to a man under the +fearful rule of the Mahdi, a rule which might have served as prototype to +the Germans in Belgium. + +[Illustration: Golden Dome of Samarra] + +[Illustration: Rafting down from Tekrit] + +Samarra is very ancient, and has passed through periods of great +depression and equally great expansion. It was here in A.D. 363 that the +Roman Emperor Julian died from wounds received in the defeat of his forces +at Ctesiphon. The golden age lasted about forty years, beginning in 836, +when the Caliph Hutasim transferred his capital thither from Baghdad. +During that time the city extended for twenty-one miles along the +river-bank, with glorious palaces, the ruins of some of which still stand. +The present-day town has sadly shrunk from its former grandeur, but still +has an impressive look with its great walls and massive gateways. The +houses nearest the walls are in ruins or uninhabited; but in peacetime the +great reputation that the climate of Samarra possesses for salubrity draws +to it many Baghdad families who come to pass the summer months. A good +percentage of the inhabitants are Persians, for the eleventh and twelfth +Shiah Imams are buried on the site of the largest mosque. The two main +sects of Moslems are the Sunnis and the Shiahs; the former regard the +three caliphs who followed Mohammed as his legitimate successors, +whereas the latter hold them to be usurpers, and believe that his +cousin and son-in-law, Ali, husband of Fatimah, together with their sons +Husein and Hasan, are the prophet's true inheritors. Ali was assassinated +near Nejef, which city is sacred to his memory, and his son Husein was +killed at Kerbela; so these two cities are the greatest of the Shiah +shrines. The Turks belong almost without exception to the Sunni sect, +whereas the Persians and a large percentage of the Arabs inhabiting +Mesopotamia are Shiahs. + +The country around Samarra is not unlike in character the southern part of +Arizona and northern Sonora. There are the same barren hills and the same +glaring heat. The soil is not sand, but a fine dust which permeates +everything, even the steel uniform-cases which I had always regarded as +proof against all conditions. The parching effect was so great that it was +not only necessary to keep all leather objects thoroughly oiled but the +covers of my books cracked and curled up until I hit upon the plan of +greasing them well also. In the alluvial lowlands trench-digging was a +simple affair, but along the hills we found a pebbly conglomerate that +gave much trouble. + +Opinion was divided as to whether the Turk would attempt to advance down +the Tigris. Things had gone badly with our forces in Palestine at the +first battle of Gaza; but here we had an exceedingly strong position, and +the consensus of opinion seemed to be that the enemy would think twice +before he stormed it. Their base was at Tekrit, almost thirty miles away. +However, about ten miles distant stood a small village called Daur, which +the Turks held in considerable force. Between Daur and Samarra there was +nothing but desert, with gazelles and jackals the only permanent +inhabitants. Into this no man's land both sides sent patrols, who met in +occasional skirmishes. For reconnaissance work we used light-armored +motor-cars, known throughout the army as Lam cars, a name formed by the +initial letters of their titles. These cars were Rolls-Royces, and with +their armor-plate weighed between three and three-quarters and four tons. +They were proof against the ordinary bullet but not against the +armor-piercing. When I came out to Mesopotamia I intended to lay my plans +for a transfer to the cavalry, but after I had seen the cars at work I +changed about and asked to be seconded to that branch of the service. + +A short while after my arrival our aeroplanes brought in word that the +Turks were massing at Daur, and General Cobbe decided that when they +launched forth he would go and meet them. Accordingly, we all moved out +one night, expecting to give "Abdul," as the Tommies called him, a +surprise. Whether it was that we started too early and their aeroplanes +saw us, or whether they were only making a feint, we never found out; but +at all events the enemy fell back, and save for some advance-guard +skirmishing and a few prisoners, we drew a blank. We were not prepared to +attack the Daur position, and so returned to Samarra to await +developments. + +Meanwhile I busied myself searching for an Arab servant. Seven or eight +years previous, when with my father in Africa, I had learned Swahili, and +although I had forgotten a great deal of it, still I found it a help in +taking up Arabic. Most of the officers had either British or Indian +servants; in the former case they were known as batmen, and in the latter +as bearers; but I decided to follow suit with the minority and get an +Arab, and therefore learn Arabic instead of Hindustanee, for the former +would be of vastly more general use. The town commandant, Captain Grieve +of the Black Watch, after many attempts at length produced a native who +seemed, at any rate, more promising than the others that offered +themselves. Yusuf was a sturdy, rather surly-looking youth of about +eighteen. Evidently not a pure Arab, he claimed various admixtures as the +fancy took him, the general preference being Kurd. I always felt that +there was almost certainly a good percentage of Turk. His father had been +a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish army, and at first I was loath +to take him along on advances and attacks, for he would have been shown +little mercy had he fallen into enemy hands. He was, however, insistent on +asking to go with me, and I never saw him show any concern under fire. He +spoke, in varying degrees of fluency, Kurdish, Persian, and Turkish, and +was of great use to me for that reason. He became by degrees a very +faithful and trustworthy follower, his great weakness being that he was a +one-man's man, and although he would do anything for me, he was of little +general use in an officers' mess. + +I had two horses, one a black mare that I called Soda, which means black +in Arabic, and the other a hard-headed bay gelding that was game to go +all day, totally unaffected by shell-fire, but exceedingly stubborn about +choosing the direction in which he went. After numerous changes I came +across an excellent syce to look after them. He was a wild, unkempt +figure, with a long black beard--a dervish by profession, and certainly +gave no one any reason to believe that he was more than half-witted. +Indeed, almost all dervishes are in a greater or less degree insane; it is +probably due to that that they have become dervishes, for the native +regards the insane as under the protection of God. Dervishes go around +practically naked, usually wearing only a few skins flung over the +shoulder, and carrying a large begging-bowl. In addition they carry a +long, sharp, iron bodkin, with a wooden ball at the end, having very much +the appearance of a fool's bauble. They lead an easy life. When they take +a fancy to a house, they settle down near the gate, and the owner has to +support them as long as the whim takes them to stay there. To use force +against a dervish would be looked upon as an exceedingly unpropitious +affair to the true believer. Then, too, I have little doubt but that they +are capable of making good use of their steel bodkins. Why my dervish +wished to give up his easy-going profession and take over the charge of my +horses I never fully determined, but it must have been because he really +loved horses and found that as a dervish pure and simple he had very +little to do with them. When he arrived he was dressed in a very ancient +gunny-sack, and it was not without much regret at the desecration that I +provided him with an outfit of the regulation khaki. + +My duties took me on long rides about the country. Here, and throughout +Mesopotamia, the great antiquity of this "cradle of the world" kept ever +impressing itself upon one, consciously or subconsciously. Everywhere were +ruins; occasionally a wall still reared itself clear of the all-enveloping +dust, but generally all that remained were great mounds, where the desert +had crept in and claimed its own, covering palace, house, and market, +temple, synagogue, mosque, or church with its everlasting mantle. Often +the streets could still be traced, but oftener not. The weight of ages was +ever present as one rode among the ruins of these once busy, prosperous +cities, now long dead and buried, how long no one knew, for frequently +their very names were forgotten. Babylon, Ur of the Chaldees, Istabulat, +Nineveh, and many more great cities of history are now nothing but names +given to desert mounds. + +Close by Samarra stands a strange corkscrew tower, known by the natives as +the Malwiyah. It is about a hundred and sixty feet high, built of brick, +with a path of varying width winding up around the outside. No one knew +its purpose, and estimates of its antiquity varied by several thousand +years. One fairly well-substantiated story told that it had been the +custom to kill prisoners by hurling them off its top. We found it +exceedingly useful as an observation-post. In the same manner we used +Julian's tomb, a great mound rising up in the desert some five or six +miles up-stream of the town. The legend is that when the Roman Emperor +died of his wounds his soldiers, impressing the natives, built this as a +mausoleum; but there is no ground whatever for this belief, for it would +have been physically impossible for a harassed or retreating army to have +performed a task of such magnitude. The natives call it "The Granary," and +claim that that was its original use. Before the war the Germans had +started in excavating, and discovered shafts leading deep down, and on top +the foundations of a palace. Around its foot may be traced roadways and +circular plots, and especially when seen from an aeroplane it looks as if +there had at one time been an elaborate system of gardens. + +We were continually getting false rumors about the movements of the Turks. +We had believed that it would be impossible for them to execute a flank +movement, at any rate in sufficient strength to be a serious menace, for +from all the reports we could get, the wells were few and far between. +Nevertheless, there was a great deal of excitement and some concern when +one afternoon our aeroplanes came in with the report that they had seen a +body of Turks that they estimated at from six to eight thousand marching +round our right flank. The plane was sent straight back with instructions +to verify most carefully the statement, and be sure that it was really men +they had seen. They returned at dark with no alteration of their original +report. As can well be imagined, that night was a crowded one for us, and +the feeling ran high when next morning the enemy turned out to be several +enormous herds of sheep. + +As part consequence of this we were ordered to make a thorough water +reconnaissance, with a view of ascertaining how large a force could be +watered on a march around our flank. I went off in an armored car with +Captain Marshall of the Intelligence Service. Marshall had spent many +years in Mesopotamia shipping liquorice to the American Tobacco Company, +and he was known and trusted by the Arabs all along the Tigris from Kurna +to Mosul. He spoke the language most fluently, but with an accent that +left no doubt of his Caledonian home. We had with us a couple of old +sheiks, and it was their first ride in an automobile. It was easy to see +that one of them was having difficulty in maintaining his dignity, but I +was not quite sure of the reason until we stopped a moment and he fairly +flew out of the car. It didn't seem possible that a man able to ride +ninety miles at a stretch on a camel, could be made ill by the motion of +an automobile. However, such was the case, and we had great difficulty in +getting him back into the car. We discovered far more wells than we had +been led to believe existed, but not enough to make a flank attack a very +serious menace. + +The mirage played all sorts of tricks, and the balloon observers grew to +be very cautious in their assertions. In the early days of the campaign, +at the battle of Shaiba Bund, a friendly mirage saved the British forces +from what would have proved a very serious defeat. Suleiman Askari was +commanding the Turkish forces, and things were faring badly with the +British, when of a sudden to their amazement they found that the Turks +were in full retreat. Their commanders had caught sight of the mirage of +what was merely an ambulance and supply train, but it was so magnified +that they believed it to be a very large body of reinforcements. The +report ran that when Suleiman was told of his mistake, his chagrin was so +great that he committed suicide. + +It was at length decided to advance on the Turkish forces at Daur. General +Brooking had just made a most successful attack on the Euphrates front, +capturing the town of Ramadie, with almost five thousand prisoners. It was +believed to be the intention of the army commander to try to relieve the +pressure against General Allenby's forces in Palestine by attacking the +enemy on all three of their Mesopotamian fronts. Accordingly, we were +ordered to march out after sunset one night, prepared to attack the enemy +position at daybreak. During a short halt by the last rays of the setting +sun I caught sight of a number of Mohammedan soldiers prostrating +themselves toward Mecca in their evening prayers, while their Christian or +pagan comrades looked stolidly on. It was late October, and although the +days were still very hot and oppressive, the nights were almost bitterly +cold. A night-march is always a disagreeable business. The head of the +column checks and halts, and those in the rear have no idea whether it is +an involuntary stop for a few minutes, or whether they are to halt for an +hour or more, owing to some complication of orders. So we stood shivering, +and longed for a smoke, but of course that was strictly forbidden, for the +cigarettes of an army would form a very good indication of its whereabouts +on a dark night. All night we marched and halted, and started on again; +the dust choked us, and the hours seemed interminable, until at last at +two in the morning word was passed along that we could have an hour's +sleep. The greater part of the year in Mesopotamia the regulation army +dress consisted of a tunic and "shorts." These are long trousers cut off +just above the knee, and the wearer may either use wrap puttees, or +leather leggings, or golf stockings. They are a great help in the heat, +as may easily be understood, and they allow, of course, much freer knee +action, particularly when your clothes are wet. The reverse side of the +medal reads that when you try to sleep without a blanket on a cold night, +you find that your knees are uncomfortably exposed. Still we were, most of +us, so drunk with sleep that it would have taken more than that to keep us +awake. At three we resumed our march, and attacked just at dawn. The enemy +had abandoned the first-line positions, and we met with but little +resistance in the second. Our cavalry, which was concentrated at several +points in nullahs (dry river-beds), suffered at the hands of the hostile +aircraft. The Turk had evidently determined to fall back to Tekrit without +putting up a serious defense. They certainly could have given us a much +worse time than they did, for they had dug in well and scientifically. +Among the prisoners we took there were some that proved to be very worth +while. These Turkish officers were, as a whole a good lot--well dressed +and well educated. Many spoke French. There is an excellent gunnery school +at Constantinople, and one of the officers we captured had been a senior +instructor there for many years. We had with us among our intelligence +officers a Captain Bettelheim, born in Constantinople of Belgian +parentage. He had served with the Turks against the Italians and with the +British against the Boers. This gunnery officer turned out to be an old +comrade of his in the Italian War. Many of the officers we got knew him, +for he had been chief of police in Constantinople. Apparently none of them +bore him the slightest ill-will when they found him serving against them. + +Among the supplies we captured at Daur were a lot of our own rifles and +ammunition that the Arabs had stolen and sold to the Turks. It was +impossible to entirely stop this, guard our dumps as best we could. On +dark nights they would creep right into camp, and it was never safe to +have the hospital barges tie up to the banks for the night on their way +down the river. On many occasions the Arabs crawled aboard and finished +off the wounded. There was only one thing to be said for the Arab, and +that was that he played no favorite, but attacked, as a rule, whichever +side came handier. We were told, and I believe it to be true, that during +the fighting at Sunnaiyat the Turks sent over to know if we would agree +to a three days' truce, during which time we should join forces against +the Arabs, who were watching on the flank to pick off stragglers or ration +convoys. + +That night we bivouacked at Daur, and were unmolested except for the enemy +aircraft that came over and "laid eggs." Next morning we advanced on +Tekrit. Our orders were to make a feint, and if we found that the Turk +meant to stay and fight it out seriously, we were to fall back. Some +gazelles got into the no man's land between us and the Turk, and in the +midst of the firing ran gracefully up the line, stopping every now and +then to stare about in amazement. Later on in the Argonne forest in France +we had the same thing happen with some wild boars. The enemy seemed in no +way inclined to evacuate Tekrit, so in accordance with instructions we +returned to our previous night's encampment at Daur. On the way back we +passed an old "arabana," a Turkish coupe, standing abandoned in the +desert, with a couple of dead horses by it. It may have been used by some +Turkish general in the retreat of two days before. It was the sort of +coupe one associates entirely with well-kept parks and crowded city +streets, and the incongruity of its lonely isolation amid the sand-dunes +caused an amused ripple of comment. + +Our instructions were to march back to Samarra early next morning, but +shortly before midnight orders came through from General Maude for us to +advance again upon Tekrit and take it. Next day we halted and took stock +in view of the new orders. The cavalry again suffered at the hands of the +Turkish aircraft. I went to corps headquarters in the afternoon, and a +crowd of "red tabs," as the staff-officers were called, were seated around +a little table having the inevitable tea. A number of the generals had +come in to discuss the plan of attack for the following day. Suddenly a +Turk aeroplane made its appearance, flying quite low, and dropping bombs +at regular intervals. It dropped two, and then a third on a little hill in +a straight line from the staff conclave. It looked as if the next would be +a direct hit, and the staff did the only wise thing, and took cover as +flat on the ground as nature would allow; but the Hun's spacing was bad, +and the next bomb fell some little way beyond. I remember our glee at +what we regarded as a capital joke on the staff. The line-officer's humor +becomes a trifle robust where the "gilded staff" is concerned, +notwithstanding the fact that most staff-officers have seen active and +distinguished service in the line. + +Our anti-aircraft guns--"Archies" we called them--were mounted on trucks, +and on account of their weight had some difficulty getting up. I shall not +soon forget our delight when they lumbered into view, for although I never +happened personally to see an aeroplane brought down by an "Archie," there +was no doubt about it but that they did not bomb us with the same +equanimity when our anti-aircrafts were at hand. + +[Illustration: Captured Turkish camel corps] + +That night we marched out on Tekrit, and as dawn was breaking were ready +to attack. As the mist cleared, an alarming but ludicrous sight met our +eyes. On the extreme right some caterpillar tractors hauling our "heavies" +were advancing straight on Tekrit, as if they had taken themselves for +tanks. They were not long in discovering their mistake, and amid a mixed +salvo they clumsily turned and made off at their best pace, which was not +more than three miles an hour. Luckily, they soon got under some +excellent defilade, but not until they had suffered heavily. + +Our artillery did some good work, but while we were waiting to attack we +suffered rather heavily. We had to advance over a wide stretch of open +country to reach the Turkish first lines. By nightfall the second line of +trenches was practically all in our hands. Meanwhile the cavalry had +circled way around the flank up-stream of Tekrit to cut the enemy off if +he attempted to retreat. The town is on the right bank of the Tigris, and +we had a small force that had come up from Samarra on the left bank, for +we had no means of ferrying troops across. Our casualties during the day +had amounted to about two thousand. The Seaforths had suffered heavily, +but no more so than some of the native regiments. In Mesopotamia there +were many changes in the standing of the Indian battalions. The +Maharattas, for instance, had never previously been regarded as anything +at all unusual, but they have now a very distinguished record to take +pride in. The general feeling was that the Gurkhas did not quite live up +to their reputation. But the Indian troops as a whole did so exceedingly +well that there is little purpose in making comparisons amongst them. At +this time, so I was informed, the Expeditionary Force, counting all +branches, totalled about a million, and a very large percentage of this +came from India. We drew our supplies from India and Australia, and it is +interesting to note that we preferred the Australian canned beef and +mutton (bully beef and bully mutton, as it was called) to the American. + +At dusk the fighting died down, and we were told to hold on and go over at +daybreak. As I was making my way back to headquarters a general pounced +upon me and told me to get quickly into a car and go as rapidly as +possible to Daur to bring up a motor ration-convoy with fodder for the +cavalry horses and food for the riders. A Ford car happened to pass by, +and he stopped it and shoved me in, with some last hurried injunction. It +was quite fifteen miles back, and the country was so cut up by nullahs or +ravines that in most places it was inadvisable to leave the road, which +was, of course, jammed with a double stream of transport of every +description. When we were three or four miles from Daur a tire blew out. +The driver had used his last spare, so there was nothing to do but keep +going on the rim. The car was of the delivery-wagon type--"pill-boxes" +were what they were known as--and while we were stopped taking stock I +happened to catch sight of a good-sized bedding-roll behind. "Some one's +out of luck," said I to the driver; "whose roll is it?" "The corps +commander's, sir," was his reply. After exhausting my limited vocabulary, +I realized that it was far too late to stop another motor and send this +one back, so I just kept going. Across the bed of one more ravine, the +sand up to the hubs, and we were in the Daur camp. I managed to rank some +one out of a spare tire and started back again. My driver proved unable to +drive at night, at all events at a pace that would put us anywhere before +dawn, so I was forced to take the wheel. By the time I had the convoy +properly located I was rather despondent of the corps commander's temper, +even should I eventually reach him that night, which seemed a remote +chance, for the best any one could do was give me the rough location on a +map. Still, taking my luminous compass, I set out to steer a cross-country +course. I ran into five or six small groups of ambulances filled with +wounded, trying to find their way to Daur, and completely lost. Most had +given up--some were unknowingly headed back for Tekrit. I could do no more +than give them the right direction, which I knew they had no chance of +holding. Of course I could have no headlights, and the ditches were many, +but in some miraculous way, more through good luck than good management, I +did find corps headquarters, and what was better still, the general's +reprimand took the form of bread and ham and a stiff peg of whiskey--the +first food I had had since before daylight. + +During the night the Turks evacuated the town. Their forces were certainly +mobile. They could cover the most surprising distances, and live on almost +nothing. We marched in and occupied. White flags were flying from all the +houses, which were not nearly so much damaged from the bombardment as one +would have supposed. This was invariably the case; indeed, it is +surprising to see how much shelling a town can undergo without noticeable +effect. It takes a long time to level a town in the way it has been done +in northern France. In this region the banks of the river average about +one hundred and fifty feet in height, and Tekrit is built at the junction +of two ravines. No two streets are on the same level; sometimes the roofs +of the houses on a lower level serve as the streets for the houses above. +Many of the booths in the bazaar were open and transacting business when +we arrived, an excellent proof of how firmly the Arabs believed in British +fair dealing. Our men bought cigarettes, matches, and vegetables. Yusuf +had lived here three or four years, so I despatched him to get chickens +and eggs for the mess. I ran into Marshall, who was on his way to dine +with the mayor, who had turned out to be an old friend of his. He asked me +to join him, and we climbed up to a very comfortable house, built around a +large courtyard. It was the best meal we had either of us had in +days--great pilaus of rice, excellent chicken, and fresh unleavened bread. +This bread looks like a very large and thin griddle-cake. The Arab uses it +as a plate. Eating with your hands is at first rather difficult. Before +falling to, a ewer is brought around to you, and you are supplied with +soap--a servant pours water from the ewer over your hands, and then gives +you a towel. After eating, the same process is gone through with. There +are certain formalities that must be regarded--one of them being that you +must not eat or drink with your left hand. + +In Tekrit we did not find as much in the way of supplies and ammunition as +we had hoped. The Turk had destroyed the greater part of his store. We did +find great quantities of wood, and in that barren, treeless country it was +worth a lot. Most of the inhabitants of Tekrit are raftsmen by profession. +Their rafts have been made in the same manner since before the days of +Xerxes and Darius. Inflated goatskins are used as a basis for a platform +of poles, cut in the up-stream forests. On these, starting from Diarbekr +or Mosul, they float down all their goods. When they reach Tekrit they +leave the poles there, and start up-stream on foot, carrying their +deflated goatskins. The Turks used this method a great deal bringing down +their supplies. In pre-war days the rafts, keleks as they are called, +would often come straight through to Baghdad, but many were always broken +up at Tekrit, for there is a desert route running across to Hit on the +Euphrates, and the supplies from up-river were taken across this in camel +caravans. + +The aerodrome lay six or seven miles above the town, and I was anxious to +see it and the comfortable billets the Germans had built themselves. I +found a friend whose duties required motor transportation, and we set off +in his car. A dust-storm was raging, and we had some difficulty in finding +our way through the network of trenches. Once outside, the storm became +worse, and we could only see a few yards in front of us. We got completely +lost, and after nearly running over the edge of the bluff, gave up the +attempt, and slowly worked our way back. + +When we started off on the advance I was reading Xenophon's _Anabasis_. On +the day when we were ordered to march on Tekrit a captain of the Royal +Flying Corps, an ex-master at Eton, was in the mess, and when I told him +that I was nearly out of reading matter, he said that next time he came +over he would drop me Plutarch's _Lives_. I asked him to drop it at corps +headquarters, and that a friend of mine there would see that I got it. The +next day in the heat of the fighting a plane came over low, signalling +that it was dropping a message. As the streamer fell close by, there was a +rush to pick it up and learn how the attack was progressing. Fortunately, +I was far away when the packet was opened and found to contain the book +that the pilot had promised to drop for me. + +After we had been occupying the town for a few days, orders came through +to prepare to fall back on Samarra. The line of communication was so long +that it was impossible to maintain us, except at too great a cost to the +transportation facilities possessed by the Expeditionary Forces. Eight or +ten months later, when we had more rails in hand, a line was laid to +Tekrit, which had been abandoned by the Turks under the threat of our +advance to Kirkuk, in the Persian hills. It was difficult to explain to +the men, particularly to the Indians, the necessity for falling back. All +they could understand was that we had taken the town at no small cost, and +now we were about to give it up. + +For several days I was busy helping to prepare rafts to take down the +timber and such other captured supplies as were worth removing. The river +was low, leaving a broad stretch of beach below the town, and to this we +brought down the poles. Several camels had died near the water, probably +from the results of our shelling, and the hot weather soon made them very +unpleasant companions. The first day was bad enough; the second was worse. +The natives were not in the least affected. They brought their washing and +worked among them--they came down and drew their drinking-water from the +river, either beside the camels or down-stream of them, with complete +indifference. It is true this water percolates drop by drop through large, +porous clay pots before it is drunk, but even so, it would have seemed +that they would have preferred its coming from up-stream of the derelict +"ships of the desert." On the third day, to their mild surprise, we +managed with infinite difficulty to tow the camels out through the shallow +water into the main stream. + +We finally got our rafts built, over eighty in number, and arranged for +enough Arab pilots to take care of half of them. On the remainder we put +Indian sepoys. They made quite a fleet when we finally got them all +started down-stream. Two were broken up in the rapids near Daur, the rest +reached Samarra in safety on the second day. + +We had a pleasant camp on the bluffs below Tekrit--high-enough above the +plain to be free of the ordinary dust-storms, and the prospect of +returning to Samarra was scarcely more pleasant to us than to the men. +Five days after we had taken the town, we turned our backs on it and +marched slowly back to rail-head. + + + + +III + +PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON + + +We returned to find Samarra buried in dust and more desolate than ever. A +few days later came the first rain-storm. After a night's downpour the air +was radiantly clear, and it was joy to ride off on the rounds, no longer +like Zeus, enveloped in a cloud. + +It was a relief to see the heat-stroke camps broken up. During the summer +months our ranks were fearfully thinned through the sun. Although it was +the British troops that suffered most, the Indians were by no means +immune. Before the camps were properly organized the percentage of +mortality was exceedingly large, for the only effective treatment +necessitates the use of much ice. The patient runs a temperature which it +was impossible to control until the ice-making machines were installed. +The camps were situated in the coolest and most comfortable places, but in +spite of everything, death was a frequent result, and recoveries were apt +to be only partial. Men who had had a bad stroke were rarely of any +further use in the country. + +Another sickness of the hot season which now began to claim less victims +was sand-fly fever. This fever, which, as its name indicates, was +contracted from the bites of sand-flies, varied widely in virulence. +Sometimes it was so severe that the victim had to be evacuated to India; +as a rule he went no farther than a base hospital at Baghdad or Amara. + +One of the things about which the Tommy felt most keenly in the +Mesopotamian campaign was that there was no such thing as a "Cushy +Blighty." To take you to "Blighty" a wound must mean permanent +disablement, otherwise you either convalesced in the country or, at best, +were sent to India. In the same manner there were no short leaves, for +there was nowhere to go. At the most rapid rate of travelling it took two +weeks to get to India, and once there, although the people did everything +possible in the way of entertaining, the enlisted man found little to make +him less homesick than he had been in Mesopotamia. Transportation was so +difficult and the trip so long that only under very exceptional +circumstances was leave to England given. One spring it was announced +that officers wishing to get either married or divorced could apply for +leave with good hopes of success. Many applied, but a number returned +without having fulfilled either condition, so that the following year no +leaves were given upon those grounds. The army commander put all divorce +cases into the hands of an officer whose civil occupation had been the +law, and who arranged them without the necessity of granting home leave. + +A week after our return to Samarra a rumor started that General Maude was +down with cholera. For some time past there had been sporadic cases, +though not enough to be counted an epidemic. The sepoys had suffered +chiefly, but not exclusively, for the British ranks also supplied a quota +of victims. An officer on the staff of the military governor of Baghdad +had recently died. We heard that the army commander had the virulent form, +and knew there could be no chance of his recovery. The announcement of his +death was a heavy blow to all, and many were the gloomy forebodings. The +whole army had implicit confidence in their leader, and deeply mourned his +loss. The usual rumors of foul play and poison went the rounds, but I +soon after heard Colonel Wilcox--in pre-war days an able and renowned +practitioner of Harley Street--say that it was an undoubted case of +cholera. The colonel had attended General Maude throughout the illness. +The general had never taken the cholera prophylactic, although Colonel +Wilcox had on many occasions urged him to do so, the last time being only +a few days before the disease developed. + +[Illustration: Towing an armored car across a river] + +[Illustration: Reconnaissance] + +General Marshall, who had commanded General Maude's old division, the +Thirteenth, took over. The Seventeenth lost General Gillman, who thereupon +became chief of staff. This was a great loss to his division, for he was +the idol of the men, but the interest of the Expeditionary Force was +naturally and justly given precedence. + +In due course my transfer to the Motor Machine-Gun Corps came through +approved, and I was assigned to the Fourteenth battery of light-armored +motor-cars, commanded by Captain Nigel Somerset, whose grandfather, Lord +Raglan, had died, nursed by Florence Nightingale, while in command of the +British forces in the Crimean War. Somerset himself was in the infantry at +the outbreak of the war and had been twice wounded in France. He was an +excellent leader, possessing as he did dash, judgment, and personal +magnetism. A battery was composed of eight armored cars, subdivided into +four sections. There was a continually varying number of tenders and +workshop lorries. The fighting cars were Rolls-Royces, the others Napiers +and Fords. + +At that time there were only four batteries in the country. We were army +troops--that is to say, we were not attached to any individual brigade, or +division, or corps, but were temporarily assigned first here and then +there, as the need arose. + +In attacks we worked in co-operation with the cavalry. Although on +occasions they tried to use us as tanks, it was not successful, for our +armor-plate was too light. We were also employed in raiding, and in +quelling Arab uprisings. This latter use threw us into close touch with +the political officers. These were a most interesting lot of men. They +were recruited in part from the army, but largely from civil life. They +took over the civil administration of the conquered territory and +judiciously upheld native justice. Many remarkable characters were +numbered among them--men who had devoted a lifetime to the study of the +intricacies of Oriental diplomacy. They were distinguished by the white +tabs on the collars of their regulation uniforms; but white was by no +means invariably the sign of peace, for many of the political officers +were killed, and more than once in isolated towns in unsettled districts +they sustained sieges that lasted for several days. We often took a +political officer out with us on a raid or reconnaissance, finding his +knowledge of the language and customs of great assistance. Sir Percy Cox +was at the head, with the title "Chief Political Officer" and the rank of +general. His career in the Persian Gulf has been as distinguished as it is +long, and his handling of the very delicate situations arising in +Mesopotamia has called forth the unstinted praise of soldier and civilian +alike. + +Ably assisting him, and head of the Arab bureau, was Miss Gertrude Bell, +the only woman, other than the nursing sisters, officially connected with +the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Forces. Miss Bell speaks Arabic fluently +and correctly. She first became interested in the East when visiting her +uncle at Teheran, where he was British minister. She has made noteworthy +expeditions in Syria and Mesopotamia, and has written a number of +admirable books, among which are _Armurath to Armurath_ and _The Desert +and the Sown_. The undeniable position which she holds must appear doubly +remarkable when the Mohammedan official attitude toward women is borne in +mind. Miss Bell has worked steadily and without a leave in this trying +climate, and her tact and judgment have contributed to the British success +to a degree that can scarcely be overestimated. + +The headquarters of the various batteries were in Baghdad. There we had +our permanent billets, and stores. We would often be ordered out in +sections to be away varying lengths of time, though rarely more than a +couple of months. The workshops' officer stayed in permanent charge and +had the difficult task of keeping all the cars in repair. The supply of +spare parts was so uncertain that much skill and ingenuity were called +for, and possessed to a full degree by Lieutenant Linnell of the +Fourteenth. + +A few days after I joined I set off with Somerset and one of the battery +officers, Lieutenant Smith, formerly of the Black Watch. We were ordered +to do some patrolling near the ruins of Babylon. Kerbela and Nejef, in the +quality of great Shiah shrines, had never been particularly friendly to +the Turks, who were Sunnis--but the desert tribes are almost invariably +Sunnis, and this coupled with their natural instinct for raiding and +plundering made them eager to take advantage of any interregnum of +authority. We organized a sort of native mounted police, but they were +more picturesque than effective. They were armed with weapons of varying +age and origin--not one was more recent than the middle of the last +century. Now the Budus, the wild desert folk, were frequently equipped +with rifles they had stolen from us, so in a contest the odds were +anything but even. + +We took up our quarters at Museyib, a small town on the banks of the +Euphrates, six or eight miles above the Hindiyah Barrage, a dam finished a +few years before, and designed to irrigate a large tract of potentially +rich country. We patrolled out to Mohamediyah, a village on the caravan +desert route to Baghdad, and thence down to Hilleh, around which stand the +ruins of ancient Babylon. The rainy season was just beginning, and it was +obvious that the patrolling could not be continuous, for a twelve-hour +rain would make the country impassable to our heavy cars for two or three +days. We were fortunate in having pleasant company in the officers of a +Punjabi infantry battalion and an Indian cavalry regiment. Having +commandeered an ancient caravan-serai for garage and billets, we set to +work to clean it out and make it as waterproof as circumstances would +permit. An oil-drum with a length of iron telegraph-pole stuck in its top +provided a serviceable stove, and when it rained we played bridge or read. + +I was ever ready to reduce my kit to any extent in order to have space for +some books, and Voltaire's _Charles XII_ was the first called upon to +carry me to another part of the world from that in which I at the moment +found myself. I always kept a volume of some sort in my pocket, and during +halts I would read in the shade cast by the turret of my car. The two +volumes of Layard's _Early Adventures_ proved a great success. The writer, +the great Assyriologist, is better known as the author of _Nineveh and +Babylon_. The book I was reading had been written when he was in his early +twenties, but published for the first time forty years later. Layard +started life as a solicitor's clerk in London, but upon being offered a +post in India he had accepted and proceeded thither overland. On reaching +Baghdad he made a side-trip into Kurdistan, and became so enamored of the +life of the tribesmen that he lived there with them on and off for two +years--years filled with adventure of the most thrilling sort. + +I had finished a translation of Xenophon shortly before and found it a +very different book than when I was plodding drearily through it in the +original at school. Here it was all vivid and real before my eyes, with +the scene of the great battle of Cunaxa only a few miles from Museyib. +Babylon was in sight of the valiant Greeks, but all through the loss of a +leader it was never to be theirs. On the ground itself one could +appreciate how great a masterpiece the retreat really was, and the +hardiness of the soldiers which caused Xenophon to regard as a "snow +sickness" the starvation and utter weariness which made the numbed men lie +down and die in the snow of the Anatolian highlands. He remarks naively +that if you could build a fire and give them something hot to eat, the +sickness was dispelled! + +The rain continued to fall and the mud became deeper and deeper. It was +all the Arabs could do to get their produce into market. The bazaar was +not large, but was always thronged. I used to sit in one of the +coffee-houses and drink coffee or tea and smoke the long-stemmed +water-pipe, the narghile. My Arabic was now sufficiently fluent for +ordinary conversation, and in these clubs of the Arab I could hear all the +gossip. Bazaar rumors always told of our advances long before they were +officially given out. Once in Baghdad I heard of an attack we had +launched. On going around to G.H.Q. I mentioned the rumor, and found that +it was not yet known there, but shortly after was confirmed. I had already +in Africa met with the "native wireless," and it will be remembered how in +the Civil War the plantation negroes were often the first to get news of +the battles. It is something that I have never heard satisfactorily +explained. + +In the coffee-houses, besides smoking and gossiping, we also played games, +either chess or backgammon or munkula. This last is an exceedingly +primitive and ancient game--it must date almost as far back as jackstones +or knucklebones. I have seen the natives in Central Africa and the Indians +in the far interior of Brazil playing it in almost identical form. In +Mesopotamia the board was a log of wood sliced in two and hinged together. +In either half five or six holes were scooped out, and the game consisted +in dropping cowrie shells or pebbles into the holes. When the number in a +particular hollow came to a certain amount with the addition of the one +dropped in, you won the contents. + +In most places the coffee was served in Arab fashion, not Turkish. In the +latter case it is sweet and thick and the tiny cup is half full of +grounds; in the former the coffee is clear and bitter and of unsurpassable +flavor. The diminutive cup is filled several times, but each time there is +only a mouthful poured in. Tea is served in small glasses, without milk, +but with lots of sugar. The spoons in the glasses are pierced with holes +like tea-strainers so that the tea may be stirred without spilling it. + +There was in particular one booth I could never tire watching. The old man +who owned it was a vender of pickles. In rows before him were bottles and +jars and bowls containing pickles of all colors--red, yellow, green, +purple, white, and even blue. Above his head were festoons of gayly +painted peppers. He had a long gray beard, wore a green turban and a +flowing robe with a gold-braided waistcoat. In the half-lights of the +crowded, covered bazaar his was a setting in which Dulac would have +revelled. + +At Museyib we led a peaceful, uneventful existence--completely shut in by +the mud. We had several bazaar rumors about proposed attacks upon the +engineers who were surveying for a railroad that was to be built to Hilleh +for the purpose of transporting the grain-crop to the capital. Nothing +materialized, however. The conditions were too poor to induce even the +easily encouraged Arabs to raid. One morning when I was wandering around +the gardens on the outskirts of the town I came across some jackals and +shot one with my Webley revolver. It was running and I fired a number of +times, and got back to town to find that my shooting had started all sorts +of excitement and reports of uprisings. + +Christmas came and the different officers' messes organized celebrations. +The mess we had joined was largely Scotch, so we decided we must make a +haggis, that "chieftain of the pudden race." The ingredients, save for the +whiskey, were scarcely orthodox, but if it was not a success, at least no +one admitted it. + +As soon as the weather cleared we made a run to Kerbela--a lovely town, +with miles of gardens surrounding it and two great mosques. The bazaar was +particularly attractive--plentifully supplied with everything. We got +quantities of the deliciously flavored pistachio-nuts which were difficult +to obtain elsewhere, as well as all sorts of fruit and vegetables. There +were no troops stationed in the vicinity, so the prices were lower than +usual. The orders were that we should go about in armed bands, but I never +saw any marked indication of hostility. The British, true to the +remarkable tact and tolerance that contributes so largely to their success +in dealing with native races, posted Mohammedan sepoys as guards on the +mosques, and no one but Moslems could even go into the courtyards. If this +had not been done, there would have been many disturbances and uprisings, +for the Arabs and Persians felt so strongly on the question that they +regarded with marked hostility those who even gazed into the mosque +courtyards. Why it is so different in Constantinople I do not know, but +there was certainly no hostility shown us in Santa Sophia nor in the +mosque of Omar in Jerusalem. Be that as it may, forbidden fruit is always +sweet, and the Tommies were inclined to force an entrance. During a change +of guard a Tommy who had his curiosity and initiative stimulated through +recourse to arrick, the fiery liquor distilled from dates, stole into the +most holy mosque in Kerbela. By a miracle he was got out unharmed, but for +a few hours a general uprising with an attendant massacre of unbelievers +was feared. + +The great mosque lost much of its dignity through an atrocious clock-tower +standing in the courtyard in front of it. It had evidently been found too +expensive to cover this tower with a golden scale to shine in the sun, so +some ingenious architect hit upon the plan of papering it with flattened +kerosene-tins. It must have glinted gloriously at first, but weather and +rain had rusted the cans and they presented but a sorry spectacle. From +the thousand and one uses to which these oil-cans have been put by the +native, one is inclined to think that the greatest benefit that has been +conferred on the natives by modern civilization is from the hands of the +Standard Oil Company. + +There were a fair number of Indians living in Kerbela before the war, for +devout Shiahs are anxious to be buried near the martyred sons of Ali, and +when they are unable to move to Kerbela in their lifetime they frequently +make provisions that their remains may be transported thither. The British +found it a convenient abode for native rulers whom they were forced to +depose but still continued to pension. + +[Illustration: The Lion of Babylon] + +[Illustration: A dragon on the palace wall] + +Hilleh, which stands near the ruins of ancient Babylon, is a modern town +very much like Museyib. I never had a chance to study the ruins at any +length. Several times we went over the part that had been excavated by the +Germans immediately before the war. I understand that this is believed to +be the great palace where Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall. It +is built of bricks, each one of which is stamped in cuneiform characters. +There are very fine bas-reliefs of animals, both mythical and real. In the +centre is the great stone lion, massively impressive, standing over the +prostrate form of a man. The lion has suffered from fire and man; there +have even been chips made in it recently by Arab rifles, probably not +wantonly, but in some skirmish. Standing alone in its majesty in the midst +of ruin and desolation amid the black tents of a people totally unable to +construct or even appreciate anything of a like nature, it gave one +much to think over and moralize about. The ruins of Babylon have been +excavated only in very small part; there are great isolated mounds which +have never been touched, and you can still pick up in the sand bits of +statuary, and the cylinders that were used as seal-rings. The great city +of Seleucia on the Tigris was built largely with bricks and masonry +brought by barge from the ruins of Babylon through the canal that joined +the two rivers. + +The prophecy of Isaiah has fallen true: + + And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' + excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. + + It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from + generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent + there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. + + But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses + shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, + and satyrs shall dance there. + + And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate + houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is + near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. + +A few days after Christmas, we were ordered to return to Baghdad. The +going was still bad. We had a Ford tender in advance to find and warn us +of the softest spots. Once it got into the middle of such a bottomless bog +that, after trying everything else, I hit upon the idea of rolling it out. +It was built all enclosed like a bread-van, and we turned it over and over +until we had it clear of the mud. We had hard work with the heavy +cars--sometimes we could tow one out with another, but frequently that +only resulted in getting the two stuck. Once when the cars were badly +bogged I went to a near-by Arab village to get help. I told the head man +that I wanted bundles of brush to throw in front of the cars in order to +make some sort of a foundation to pass them over. He at once started +turning out his people to aid us, but after he had got a number of loads +under way he caught sight of one of his wives, who, instead of coming to +our assistance, was washing some clothes in a copper caldron by the fire. +There followed a scene which demonstrated that even an Arab is by no means +always lord of his own household. The wife refused to budge; the Arab +railed and stormed, but she went calmly on with her washing, paying no +more attention to his fury than if he were a fractious, unreasonable +child. At length, driven to a white heat of rage, the head man upset the +caldron into the fire with his foot. The woman, without a word, got up and +stalked into a near-by hut, from which she refused to emerge. There was +nothing for her discomfited adversary to do but go on with his rounds. + +By manoeuvring and digging and towing we managed to make seven miles after +fourteen hours' work that first day. Night found us close beside an Arab +village, from which I got a great bowl of buffalo milk to put into the +men's coffee. Early in the morning we were off again. The going was so +much better that we were able to make Baghdad at ten o'clock in the +evening. + + + + +IV + +SKIRMISHES AND RECONNAISSANCES ALONG THE KURDISH FRONT + + +We spent a few days making repairs and outfitting before starting off +again. This time our destination was Deli Abbas, the headquarters of the +Thirteenth Division. The town is situated in the plains below the +foot-hills of the Persian Mountains, on the banks of the Khalis Canal, +some seventy miles north-east of Baghdad. At dawn we passed out of the +north gate, close to where General Maude is buried, and whirled across the +desert for thirty miles to Bakuba, a prosperous city on the banks of the +Diyala. From the junction of the greater Zab down to Kurna, where the +Euphrates joins, this stream is the most important affluent of the Tigris. +It was one of those bright, sparkling mornings on which merely to be alive +and breathe is a joy. We passed a number of caravans, bringing carpets and +rugs from Persia, or fruit and vegetables from the rich agricultural +district around Bakuba. The silks manufactured here are of a fine quality +and well known throughout the country. + +After passing the big aerodrome near the town, the going became very bad; +we struggled along through the village of Deltawa, in and out of +unfathomable ditches. The rivers were in flood, and we ran into lakes and +swamps that we cautiously skirted. Dark overtook us in the middle of a +network of bogs, but we came upon an outpost of Welsh Fusiliers and spent +the night with them. We had smashed the bottom plate of one of the cars, +so that all the oil ran out of the crank-case, but with a side of the +ever-useful kerosene tin we patched the car up temporarily and pushed off +at early dawn. Our route wound through groves of palms surrounding the +tumble-down tomb of some holy man, occasional collections of squalid +little huts, and in the intervening "despoblado" we would catch sight of a +jackal crouching in the hollow or slinking off through the scrub. Deli +Abbas proved a half-deserted straggling town which gave evidence of having +once seen prosperous days. Some Turkish aeroplanes heralded our arrival. + +In front of us rose the Jebel Hamrin--Red Hills--beyond them the +snow-clad peaks of the Kurdish Range. A few months previous we had +captured the passes over the Jebel, and we were now busy repairing and +improving the roads--in particular that across the Abu Hajjar, not for +nothing named by the Arabs the "Father of Stones." Whenever the going +permitted we went out on reconnaissances--rekkos, as we called them. They +varied but slightly; the one I went on the day after reaching Deli Abbas +might serve as model. We started at daybreak and ran to a little village +called Ain Lailah, the Spring of Night, a lovely name for the small clump +of palm-trees tucked away unexpectedly in a hollow among barren +foot-hills. There we picked up a surveyor--an officer whose business it +was to make maps for the army. We passed through great herds of camels, +some with small children perched on their backs, who joggled about like +sailors on a storm-tossed ship, as the camels made away from the cars. +There were villages of the shapeless black tents of the nomads huddled in +among the desolate dunes. We picked up a Turk deserter who was trying to +reach our lines. He said that his six comrades had been killed by Arabs. +Shortly afterward we ran into a cavalry patrol, but the men escaped over +some very broken ground before we could satisfactorily come to terms with +them. It was lucky for the deserter that we found him before they did, for +his shrift would have been short. We got back to camp at half past eight, +having covered ninety-two miles in our windings--a good day's work. + +Each section had two motorcycles attached to it--jackals, as one of the +generals called them, in apt reference to the way in which jackals +accompany a lion when hunting. The cyclists rode ahead to spy out the +country and the best course to follow. When we got into action they would +drop behind, and we used them to send messages back to camp. The best +motorcyclist we had was a Swiss named Milson. He was of part English +descent, and came at once from Switzerland at the outbreak of the war to +enlist. When he joined he spoke only broken English but was an exceedingly +intelligent man and had been attending a technical college. I have never +seen a more skilful rider; he could get his cycle along through the mud +when we were forced to carry the others, and no one was more cool and +unconcerned under fire. The personnel of the battery left nothing to be +desired. One was proud to serve among such a fine set of men. Corporal +Summers drove the car in which I usually rode, and I have never met with a +better driver or one who understood his car so thoroughly, and possessed +that intangible sympathy with it which is the gift of a few, but can be +never attained. + +We were still in the rainy season. We had to travel as light as possible, +and all we could bring were forty-pounder tents, which correspond to the +American dog-tent. Very low, they withstood in remarkable fashion the +periodical hurricanes of wind and rain. They kept us fairly dry, too, for +we were careful to ditch them well. There was room for two men to sleep in +the turret of a Rolls, and they could spread a tarpaulin over the top to +keep the rain from coming in through the various openings. The balance of +the men had a communal tent or slept in the tenders. The larger tents in +the near-by camps blew down frequently, but with us it happened only +occasionally. There are happier moments than those spent in the inky +blackness amid a torrential deluge, when you try to extricate yourself +from the wet, clinging folds of falling canvas. + +Time hung heavily when the weather was bad, and we were cooped up inside +our tents without even a hostile aeroplane to shoot at. One day when the +going was too poor to take out the heavy cars, I set off in a tender to +visit another section of the battery that was stationed thirty or forty +miles away in the direction of Persia, close by a town called Kizil Robat. +We had a rough trip, with several difficult fords to cross. It was only +through working with the icy water above our waists that we won through +the worst, amid the shouts of "Shabash, Sahib!" ("Well done!") from the +onlooking Indian troops. I reached the camp to find the section absent on +a reconnaissance, for the country was better drained than that over which +we were working. A few minutes later one of the cyclists came in with the +news that the cars were under heavy fire about twenty-five miles away and +one of them was badly bogged. I immediately loaded all the surplus men and +eight Punjabis from a near-by regiment into the tenders. We reached the +scene just after the disabled car had been abandoned. Some of the Turks +were concealed in a village two hundred and fifty yards away; the rest +were behind some high irrigation embankments. The free car had been +unable to circle around or flank them because of the nature of the +terrain. The men had not known that the village was occupied and had +bogged down almost at the same time that the Turks opened fire. By +breaking down an irrigation ditch the enemy succeeded in further flooding +the locality where the automobile was trapped. The Turks made it hot for +the men when they tried to dig out the car. The bullets spattered about +them. It was difficult to tell how many Turks we accounted for. As dark +came on, the occupants of the disabled car abandoned it and joined the +other one, which was standing off the enemy but had lost all four tires +and was running on its rims. We held a consultation and decided to stay +where we were until dawn. We had scarcely made the decision when one of +our cyclists arrived with orders from the brigade commander to return +immediately. Although exceedingly loath to leave the armored car, we had +no other course than to obey. + +It was after midnight by the time we made back to camp. We were told that +a small attack had been planned for the morning, and that then we could go +out with the troops and recover our car, using some artillery horses to +drag it free. The troops soon began filing past, but we didn't pull out +till three o'clock, by which time we were reinforced by an armored car +from another battery. We were held back behind the advanced cavalry until +daylight, and felt certain that the Turks would have either destroyed or +succeeded in removing our car. Nor were we wrong, for just as we breasted +the hill that brought the scene of yesterday's engagement into view, we +saw the smoke of an explosion and the men running back into the village. +We cleared the village with the help of a squadron of the Twenty-First +cavalry, and found that the car had been almost freed during the night. It +was a bad wreck, but we were able to tow it. I wished to have a reckoning +with the village head man, and walked to an isolated group of houses a few +hundred yards to the left of the village. As I neared them a lively +fusillade opened and I had to take refuge in a convenient irrigation +ditch. The country was so broken that it was impossible for us to operate, +so we towed the car back to camp. + +[Illustration: Hauling out a badly bogged fighting car] + +[Illustration: A Mesopotamian garage] + +Our section from Deli Abbas was moved up to take the place of the one that +had been engaged, which now returned to Baghdad. We were camped at +Mirjana, a few miles north of Kizil Robat, on the Diyala River. A pontoon +bridge was thrown across and the cars were taken over to the right bank, +where we bivouacked with a machine-gun company and a battalion of native +infantry. The bed of the river was very wide, and although throughout the +greater part of the year the water flowed only through the narrow main +channel, in the time of the spring floods the whole distance was a riotous +yellow torrent. We had no sooner got the cars across than the river began +to rise. During the first night part of the bridge was carried away, and +the rest was withdrawn. The rise continued; trees and brush were swept +racing past. We made several fruitless attempts to get across in the +clumsy pontoons, but finally gave it up, resigning ourselves to being +marooned. We put ourselves on short rations and waited for the river to +fall. If the Turks had used any intelligence they could have gathered us +in with the greatest ease, in spite of our excellent line of trenches. On +the fourth day of our isolation the river subsided as rapidly as it had +risen. + +We had good patrolling conditions, and each day we made long circuits. +Sometimes we would run into a body of enemy cavalry and have a skirmish +with them. Again we would come upon an infantry outpost and manoeuvre +about in an effort to damage it. The enemy set traps for us, digging big +holes in the road and covering them over with matting on which they +scattered dirt to make the surface appear normal. The nearest town +occupied by the Turks was Kara Tepe, distant from Mirjana eight or ten +miles as the crow flies. In the debatable land were a number of native +villages, and such inhabitants as remained in them led an unpleasantly +eventful existence. In the morning they would be visited by a Turkish +patrol, which would be displaced by us in our rounds. Perhaps in the +evening a band of wild mountainy Kurds would blow in and run off some of +their few remaining sheep. Then the Turks would return and accuse them of +having given us information, and carry off some hostages or possibly beat +a couple of them for having received us, although goodness knows they had +little enough choice in the matter. There was one old sheik with whom I +used often to sit and gossip while an attendant was roasting the berries +for our coffee over the near-by fire. He was ever asking why we couldn't +make an advance and put his village safely behind our lines, so that the +children could grow fat and the herds graze unharmed. In this country +Kurdish and Turkish were spoken as frequently as Arabic, and many of the +names of places were Turkish--such as Kara Tepe, which means Black +Mountain, and Kizil Robat, the Tomb of the Maidens. My spelling of these +names differs from that found on many maps. It would be a great +convenience if some common method could be agreed upon. At present the +map-makers conform only in a unanimous desire to each use a different +transliteration. + +Kizil Robat is an attractive town. I spent some pleasant mornings +wandering about it with the mayor, Jameel Bey, a fine-looking Kurdish +chieftain of the Jaf tribe. He owned a lovely garden with date-palms, +oranges, pomegranates, and figs. Tattered Kurds were working on the +irrigation ditches, and a heap of rags lying below the wall in the sun +changed itself into a small boy, just as I was about to step on it. +Jameel's son was as white, with as rosy cheeks, as any American baby. + +Harry Bowen, brother-in-law of General Cobbe, was the political officer +in charge of Kizil Robat. He spoke excellent Arabic and was much respected +by the natives. His house was an oasis in which I could always look +forward to a pleasant talk, an excellent native dinner, and some +interesting book to carry off. Although the town was small, there were +three good Turkish baths. One of them belonged to Jameel Bey, but, judging +from the children tending babies while squatting in the entrance portico, +was generally given over to the distaff side and its friends. The one +which we patronized, while not so grand a building, had an old Persian who +understood the art of massage thoroughly, and there was nothing more +restful after a number of days' hard work with the cars. + +In the end of February there passed through Kizil Robat the last +contingent of our former Russian Allies. They were Cossacks--a +fine-looking lot as they rode along perched on their small chunky saddles +atop of their unkempt but hardy ponies. When Russia went out of the war +they asked permission to keep on fighting with us. They were a good deal +of a problem, for they had no idea whatever of discipline, and it was most +difficult to keep them in hand and stop them from pillaging the natives +indiscriminately. They had been completely cut off from Russia for a long +time but were now on their way back. A very intelligent woman doctor and a +number of nurses who had been with them were sick with smallpox in one of +our hospitals in Baghdad. When they recovered they were sent to India, for +it was not feasible to repatriate them by way of Persia. When the Russians +first established connection with us, some armored cars were sent to bring +in the Cossack general, whose name we were told was Leslie. We were +unprepared to find that he spoke no English! It turned out that his +ancestors had gone over from Scotland to the court of Peter the Great. + + + + +V + +THE ADVANCE ON THE EUPHRATES + + +Early in March we got orders to return to Baghdad, where all the armored +cars were to be concentrated preparatory to an attack on the Euphrates +front. There was much speculation as to our mission. Some said that we +were to break through and establish connection with General Allenby's +forces in Palestine. While I know nothing about it authoritatively, it is +certain that if the state of affairs in France had not called for the +withdrawal from the East of all the troops that could be spared, the +attack that was launched in October would have taken place in March. We +could then have advanced up the Euphrates, and it would have been entirely +practical to cross over the desert in the cars by way of Tadmor. + +When we got word to come in, the roads were in fearful shape and the rain +was falling in torrents, but we were so afraid that we might miss the +attack that we salvaged everything not essential and started to fight our +way through the mud. It was a slow and wearisome process, but we managed +to get as far as Bakuba by evening. The river was rising in one of its +periodical floods and we found that the pontoon bridge had been cut half +an hour before our arrival. No one could predict how long the flood would +last, but the river rarely went down sufficiently to allow the bridge to +be replaced within a week. At that time the railroad went only as far as +Bakuba, and crossed the river on a wooden trestle, so I decided to try to +load the motors on a flat car and get across the Diyala in that way. + +After having made arrangements to do this I wandered off into the bazaar +to get something to eat. In native fashion I first bought a big flap of +bread from an old woman, and then went to a pickle booth to get some +beets, which I wrapped in my bread. Next I proceeded to a meat-shop and +ordered some lamb kababs roasted. The meat is cut in pellets, spitted on +rods six or eight inches long, and lain over the glowing charcoal embers. +In the shop there are long tables with benches beside them. The customer +spreads his former purchases, and when his kababs are ready he eats his +dinner. He next proceeds to a coffee-house, where he has a couple of +glasses of tea and three or four diminutive cups of coffee to top off, and +the meal is finished. The Arab eats sparingly as a rule, but when he gives +or attends a banquet he stuffs himself to his utmost capacity. + +Next morning we loaded our cars successfully and started off by rail for +Baghdad, some thirty miles away. The railroad wound across the desert, +with here and there a water-tank with a company from a native regiment +guarding it. As we stopped at one particularly desolate spot, a young +officer came running up and asked if we would have tea with him. He took +us to his tent, where everything was ready, for he apparently always met +the two trains that passed through daily. Poor fellow, he was only a +little over twenty, and desperately lonely and homesick. Many of the young +officers who were wounded in France were sent to India with the idea that +they could be training men and getting on to the methods of the Indian +army while yet recuperating and unfit to go back to the front. They were +shipped out with a new draft when they had fully recovered. This boy had +only been a month in the country, and ten days before had been sent off in +charge of his Sikh company to do this wearisome guard duty. + +We spent a few days in Baghdad refitting. The cars were to go out +camouflaged to resemble supply-trucks, for every precaution was taken to +prevent the Turks from realizing that we were massing men for an attack. +The night before we were to start, word came in that the political officer +at Nejef had been murdered, and the town was in revolt. We were ordered to +send a section there immediately, so Lieutenant Ballingal's was chosen, +while the rest of us left next morning with the balance of the battery for +Hit. The first part of the route lay across the desert to Falujah, a +prosperous agricultural town on the Euphrates. Rail-head lies just beyond +at a place known as Tel El Dhubban--the "Hill of the Flies." From there on +supplies were brought forward by motor transport, or in Arab barges, +called shakturs. We crossed the river on a bridge of boats and continued +up along the bank to Ramadie. Here I stayed over, detailed to escort the +army commander on a tour of inspection. + +The smaller towns along the Euphrates are far more attractive than those +on the Tigris. The country seems more developed, and most inviting +gardens surround the villages. Hit, which lies twenty miles up-stream of +Ramadie, is an exception. It is of ancient origin and built upon a hill, +with a lovely view of the river. It has not a vestige of green on it, but +stands out bleak and harsh in contrast to the palm-groves fringing the +bank. The bitumen wells near by have been worked for five thousand years +and are responsible for the town being a centre of boat manufacture. With +the bitumen, the gufas and mahelas are "pitched without and within," in +the identical manner in which we are told that the ark was built. The jars +in which the women of the town draw water from the river, instead of being +of copper or earthenware as elsewhere, are here made of pitched +wicker-work. The smell of the boiling bitumen and the sulphur springs is +trying to a stranger, although the natives regard it as salubrious, and +maintain that through it the town is saved from cholera epidemics. We had +captured Hit a few weeks previously, and the aeroplanes flying low over +the town had reported the disagreeable smell, attributing it to dirt and +filth. "Eyewitness," the official newspaper correspondent, mentioned this +in despatches, and when I was passing through, a proclamation of apology +was being prepared to soothe the outraged and slandered townsfolk. + +[Illustration: A water-wheel on the Euphrates] + +After taking the army commander back to rail-head, we retraced our steps +with all speed to Hit, and thence the eight miles up-stream to Salahiyeh. +The road beyond Hit was in fearful shape, and the engineers were working +night and day to keep it open and in some way passable. In the proposed +attack we were to jump off from Salahiyeh, and it was here that the +armored cars were assembled. Our camp was close to a Turkish hospital. +There were two great crescents and stars laid out for a signal to warn our +aeroplanes not to drop bombs. One of the crescents was made of turf and +the other of limestone. The batteries took turns in making the +reconnaissances, in the course of which they would come in for a good deal +of shelling. The road was unpleasant, because the camels and transport +animals that had been killed during the Turkish retreat from Hit were by +now very high. For some unknown reason there were no jackals or vultures +to form a sanitary section. After reconnoitring the enemy positions and +noting the progress they were making in constructing their defenses, we +would make a long circuit back to camp. + +One unoccupied morning I went over to an island on the river. Its cool, +restful look had attracted me on the day I arrived, and it quite fulfilled +its promise. Indeed, it was the only place I came across in Mesopotamia +that might have been a surviving fragment of the Garden of Eden. It was +nearly a mile long, and scattered about on it were seven or eight +thick-walled and well-fortified houses. The entire island was one great +palm-grove, with pomegranates, apricots, figs, orange-trees, and +grape-vines growing beneath the palms. The grass at the foot of the trees +was dotted with blue and pink flowers. Here and there were fields of +spring wheat. The water-ditches which irrigated the island were filled by +giant water-wheels, thirty to fifty feet in diameter. These "naurs" have +been well described in the Bible, and I doubt if they have since been +modified in a single item. There are sometimes as many as sixteen in a +row. As they scoop the water up in the gourd-shaped earthenware jars bound +to their rims, they shriek and groan on their giant wooden axles. + +On the night of March 25 we got word that the long-expected attack would +take place next morning. We had the cars ready to move out by three. Since +midnight shadowy files had been passing on their way forward to get into +position. One of our batteries went with the infantry to advance against +the main fortified position at Khan Baghdadi. The rest of us went with the +cavalry around the flank to cut the Turks off if they tried to retreat +up-stream. We were well on our way at daybreak. The country was so broken +up with ravines and dry river-beds that we knew we had a long, hard march +ahead of us. Our maps were poor. A German officer that we captured had in +some manner got hold of our latest map, and noting that we had omitted +entirely a very large ravine, became convinced that any enveloping +movement we attempted would prove a failure. As it happened, we came close +to making the blunder he had anticipated, for we started to advance down +to the river along the bank of a nullah which would have taken us to Khan +Baghdadi instead of eight or ten miles above it, as we wished. I think it +was our aeroplanes that set us straight. I was in charge of the tenders +with supplies and spares, and spent most of the time in the leading +Napier lorry. Occasionally I slipped into an armored car to go off +somewhere on a separate mission. The Turks had doubtless anticipated a +flanking movement and kept shelling us to a certain extent, but we could +hear that they were occupying themselves chiefly with the straight +attacking force. By afternoon we had turned in toward the river and our +cavalry was soon engaged. The country was too broken for the cars to get +in any really effective work. By nightfall we hoped we were approximately +where we should be, and after making our dispositions as well as the +circumstances would permit, we lay down beside the cars and were soon +sound asleep. At midnight we were awakened by the bullets chipping the +rocks and stones among which we were sleeping. A night attack was +evidently under way, and it is always an eerie sensation. We correctly +surmised that the Turks were in retreat from Khan Baghdadi and had run +into our outposts. In a few minutes we were replying in volume, and the +rat-tat-tats of the machine-guns on either side were continuous. The enemy +must have greatly overestimated our numbers, for in a short time small +groups started surrendering, and before things had quieted we had twelve +hundred prisoners. The cavalry formed a rough prison-camp and we turned in +again to wait for daylight. + +At dawn we started to reconnoitre our position to find out just how +matters stood. We came upon a body of two thousand of the enemy which had +been held up by us in the night and had retreated a short distance to wait +till it became light before surrendering. Among them were a number of +German officers. They were all of them well equipped with machine-guns and +rifles. Their intrenching tools and medical supplies were of Austrian +manufacture, as were also the rolling kitchens. These last were of an +exceedingly practical design. While we were taking stock of our capture we +got word that Khan Baghdadi had been occupied and a good number of +prisoners taken. We were instructed to press on and take Haditha, thirty +miles above Khan Baghdadi. It was hoped that we might recapture Colonel +Tennant, who was in command of the Royal Flying Corps forces in +Mesopotamia. He had been shot down at Khan Baghdadi the day before the +attack. We learned from prisoners that he had been sent up-stream +immediately, on his way to Aleppo, but it was thought that he might have +been held over at Haditha or at Ana. + +We found that a lot of the enemy had got by between us and the river and +had then swung back into the road. We met with little opposition, save +from occasional bands of stragglers who concealed themselves behind rocks +and sniped at us. Numbers surrendered without resistance as we caught up +with them. We disarmed them and ordered them to walk back until they fell +in with our cavalry, or the infantry, which was being brought forward in +trucks. As we bowled along in pursuit the scene reminded me of +descriptions in the novels of Sienkiewicz or Erckmann-Chatrian. The road +was littered with equipment of every sort, disabled pack-animals, and dead +or dying Turks. It was hard to see the wounded withering in the increasing +heat--the dead were better off. We reached the heights overlooking Haditha +to find that the garrison was in full retreat. Most of it had left the +night before. Those remaining opened fire upon us, but in a half-hearted +way, that was not calculated to inflict much loss. Many of the inhabitants +of the town lived in burrows in the hillsides. Some of these caves had +been filled with ammunition. The enemy had fired all their dumps, and +rocks were flying about. We endeavored to save as much of the material as +was possible. We were particularly anxious to get all papers dealing with +the Arabs, to enable us to check up which were our friends and which of +the ones behind our lines were dealing treacherously with us. We +recaptured a lot of medical equipment and some ammunition that had been +taken from our forces during the Gallipoli campaign. + +Haditha is thirty-five miles from Khan Baghdadi, and Ana is an equal +distance beyond. It was decided that we should push on to a big bridge +shown on the map as eight miles this side of Ana. We were to endeavor to +secure this before the Turks could destroy it, and cross over to bivouac +on the far side. The road was in fair shape. Many of the small bridges +were of recent construction. We soon found that our map was exceedingly +inaccurate. Our aeroplanes were doing a lot of damage to the fleeing +Turks, and as we began to catch up with larger groups we had some sharp +engagements. The desert Arabs hovered like vultures in the distance +waiting for nightfall to cover them in their looting. + +That night we camped near the bridge. At dusk the Red Cross ambulances and +some cavalry caught up. The latter had had a long, hard two days, with +little to eat for the men and less for the horses, but both were standing +up wonderfully. They were the Seventh Hussars and just as they reached us +we recaptured one of their sergeants who had been made prisoner on the +previous night. He had covered forty miles on foot, but the Turks had +treated him decently and he had come through in good shape. We always felt +that the Turk was a clean fighter. Our officers he treated well as long as +he had anything to give or share with them. With the enlisted men he was +not so considerate, but I am inclined to think that it was because he was +not accustomed to bother his head much about his own rank and file, so it +never occurred to him to consider ours. The Turkish private would thrive +on what was starvation issue to our men. The attitude of many of the +Turkish officers was amusing, if exasperating. They seemed to take it for +granted that they would be treated with every consideration due an honored +guest. They would complain bitterly about not being supplied with coffee, +although at the time we might be totally without it ourselves and far +from any source of supply. The German prisoners were apt to cringe at +first, but as soon as they found they were not to be oppressed became +arrogant and overbearing. At different times we retook men that had been +captives for varying lengths of time. I remember a Tommy, from the +Manchesters, if I am not mistaken, who had been taken before Kut fell, but +had soon after made his escape and lived among the Kurdish tribesmen for +seven or eight months before he found his way back to us. Quite a number +of Indians who had been set to work on the construction of the +Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway between Nisibin and Mosul made good their escape +and struggled through to our lines. + +It was a great relief when the Red Cross lorries came in and we could turn +over the wounded to them. All night long they journeyed back and forth +transporting such as could stand the trip to the main evacuation camp at +Haditha. + +By daybreak we were once more under way. Under cover of darkness the Arabs +had pillaged the abandoned supplies, in some cases killing the wounded +Turks. The transport animals of the enemy and their cavalry horses were +in very bad shape. They had evidently been hard put to it to bring through +sufficient fodder during the wet winter months when the roads were so deep +in mud as to be all but impassable. Instead of being distant from Ana the +eight miles that we had measured on the map, we found that we were +seventeen, but we made it without any serious hindrance. The town was most +attractive, embowered in gardens which skirt the river's edge for a +distance of four or five miles. In addition to the usual palms and +fruit-trees there were great gnarled olives, the first I had seen in +Mesopotamia, as were also the almond-trees. It must be of great antiquity, +for the prophet Isaiah speaks of it as a place where kings had reigned, +but from which, even in his time, the grandeur had departed. + +The greater part of the enemy had already abandoned the town, but we +captured the Turkish governor and a good number of the garrison, and many +that had escaped from Haditha. The disaster at Khan Baghdadi had only been +reported the afternoon before, as we had of course cut all the telegraph +wires, and the governor had not thought it possible we would continue the +pursuit so far. He had spent most of his life in Hungary and had been +given this post only a few months previous to our advance. From the +prisoners we had taken at Haditha we had extracted conflicting estimates +as to the time when Colonel Tennant, the commander of our air forces, had +been sent on, and from those we took at Ana we received equally varying +accounts. The cars had been ordered to push on in search of the colonel as +long as sufficient gasolene remained to bring them back. Captain Todd with +the Eighth Battery was in the lead when some thirty miles north of Ana +they caught sight of a group of camels surrounded by horsemen. A couple of +belts from the machine-guns scattered the escort, and Colonel Tennant and +his companion, Major Hobart, were soon safe in the turret of one of the +cars. + +From some of our Turkish captives we heard about a large gold convoy which +had been sent back from Ana; some said one day, and others two, before our +arrival. The supply of fuel that we had brought in the tenders was almost +exhausted, so that it would be necessary to procure more in order to +continue the pursuit. Major Thompson, who was in command of the +armored-car detachment, instructed me to take all the tenders and go back +as far as was necessary to find a petrol dump from which I could draw a +thousand gallons. I emptied the trucks and loaded them with such of the +wounded as could stand the jolting they were bound to receive because of +the speed at which I must travel. I also took a few of the more important +prisoners, among them the governor of Ana. He was a cultivated middle-aged +man who spoke no Arabic but quite good French. It was mid-afternoon when +we started, and I hadn't the most remote idea where I would find a +sufficient quantity of petrol. During the run back we were sniped at +occasionally by Turks who were still hiding in the hills. A small but +determined force could have completely halted the cars in a number of +different places where the road wound through narrow rock-crowned gorges, +or along ledges cut in the hillside and hemmed in by the river. In such +spots the advance of the armored cars could either have been completely +checked, or at all events seriously hampered and delayed, merely by +rolling great boulders down on top of us. + +When we had retraced our steps for about sixty miles I was lucky enough +to get wind of an enemy petrol dump that our men had discovered. It was a +special aeroplane supply and the colonel of the infantry regiment who was +guarding it had been instructed to allow none of it to be used for +automobiles. He showed his desire to co-operate and his ability to read +the spirit rather than the letter of a command by letting me load my +tenders. The L.A.M. batteries were well regarded and we everywhere +encountered a willingness to meet us more than half-way and aid us in the +thousand and one points that make so much difference in obtaining results. + +By the time that we had everything in readiness for our return run it was +long after dark and the men were exhausted. I managed to get some tea, but +naturally no sugar or milk. The strong steaming brew served to wash down +the scanty supply of cold bully beef. Fortunately it was a brilliant +starlit night, but even so it was difficult to avoid ditches and washouts, +and the road seemed interminable. Not long after we left we ran into a +couple of armored cars that had been detailed to bring the rescued +aviators back, after they had been reoutfitted and supplied as far as our +limited resources would permit. During the halt I found that my sergeant +had produced from somewhere or other an emergency rum ration which he was +issuing. An old-army, experienced sergeant always managed to hold over a +reserve from former issues for just such occasions as this, when it would +be of inestimable value. I had been driving all day and had the greatest +difficulty in keeping awake. Twice I dozed off. Once I awakened just as +the car started over the edge of an embankment; the other time a large +rock in the road brought me back to the world. It was two o'clock in the +morning when we wearily crept into Ana. + +The expedition to capture the gold convoy was to start at four, so after +two hours' sleep I bundled into one of the Rolls-Royces and the column +swung out into the road. Through the mist loomed the sinister, +businesslike outlines of the armored car ahead of me. Captain Carr of the +Thirteenth L.A.M.B.'s[1] was in command of the expedition. Unless we were +in action or in a locality where we momentarily expected to be under fire +from rifle or machine-gun, the officer commanding the car and his N.C.O. +stood in the well behind the turret, steadying themselves with leather +loops riveted to its sides. On long runs the tool-boxes on either side of +the well formed convenient seats. When the car became engaged the crew +would get inside, pulling the steel doors shut. The slits through which +the driver and the man next him looked could be made still smaller when +the firing was heavy, and the peep-holes at either side and in the rear +had slides which could be closed. The largest aperture was that around the +tube of the gun. Splinters of lead came in continuously, and sometimes +chance directed a bullet to an opening. One of our drivers was shot +straight through the head near Ramadie. The bottom of the car was of wood, +and bullets would ricochet up through it, but to have had it made of steel +would have added too much weight. The large gasolene-tank behind was +usually protected by plating, but even so was fairly vulnerable. A +reserve-tank holding ten gallons was built inside the turret. We almost +invariably had trouble with the feed-pipes leading from it. During the +great heat of the summer the inside of the turret was a veritable fiery +furnace, with the pedals so hot that they scorched the feet. + +[Footnote 1: Light Armored Motor Battery.] + +Forty miles above Ana we came upon a large khan. These road-houses are +built at intervals along the main caravan routes. Their plan is simple: +four walls with two tiers of rooms or booths built into them, enclosing an +open court in which the camels and horses are tethered during the night. +The whole is strongly made to resist the inroads of the desert tribesmen. +As we drove to the heavy gate, a wild clamor met our ears from a confused +jumble of Jewish and Armenian merchants that had taken refuge within. Some +of them had left Ana on their way to Aleppo before the news of the fall of +Khan Baghdadi had reached the town. Others had been despatched by the +Turks when the news of our advance arrived. All had been to a greater or +lesser degree plundered by the Arabs. Most of the baggage animals had been +run off, and the merchants were powerless to move. The women were weeping +and imploring help, and the children tumbled about among the confused +heaps of merchandise. Some of the Armenians had relations in Baghdad about +whom I was able to give them bits of information. All begged permission to +go back to Ana and thence to the capital. We, of course, had no means of +supplying them with transportation, and any attempt to recapture their +lost property was out of the question. + +A few miles on we made out a troop of Arabs hurrying inland, a mile or so +away from us, across a couple of ravines. They had some of the stolen +camels and were laden down with plunder. Two of our cars made a fruitless +attempt to come to terms with them, but only succeeded in placing a few +well-aimed bursts from their machine-guns among them. + +We now began to come up with bands of Turks. We ran across a number of +isolated stragglers who had been stripped by the Arabs. A few had been +killed. They as a rule surrendered without any hesitation. We disarmed +them and told them to walk back toward Ana. Several times we had short +engagements with Turkish cavalry. As a general thing the ground was so +very broken up that it was impossible to manoeuvre. I was riding a good +deal of the time in the Ford tender that we had brought along with a few +supplies, and when one of the tires blew out I waited behind to replace +it. The armored cars had quite a start and we raced along to catch them. +In my hurry I failed to notice that they had left the road in pursuit of a +troop of cavalry, so when we sighted a large square building of the sort +the Turks use as barracks, I made sure that the cars had been there before +me. We drove up to the door and I jumped out and shoved it open. In the +yard were some infantry and a few cavalry. I had only my stick--my Webley +revolver was still in its holster. There was nothing to do but put on a +bold front, so I shouted in Arabic to the man I took to be the officer in +command, telling him to surrender, and trying to act as if our forces were +just outside. I think he must have been more surprised than I was, for he +did so immediately, turning over the post to me. Eldridge, the Ford +driver, had succeeded in disengaging the rifle that he had strapped in +beside him, and we made the rounds under the escort of our captive. + +One wing of the post was used as a hospital, under the charge of an +intelligent little Armenian. He seemed well informed about the war, and +asked the question that was the universal wail of all the Armenians we +encountered: "When would Great Britain free their country, and would she +make it an independent state?" There was a definite limit to the number of +prisoners we could manage to carry back, but I offered the doctor to +include him. His answer was to go to his trunk and produce a picture of +his wife and little daughter. They were, he told me, in Constantinople, +and it was now two years since he had had leave, so that as his turn was +due, he would wait on the chance of seeing his family. + +When the cars came up we set off again in pursuit of the elusive gold +convoy. We could get no accurate information concerning it. Some said it +was behind, others ahead. We never ran it down. It may well be that it was +concealed in a ravine near the road a few yards from where we passed. Just +short of a town called Abu Kemal we caught three Germans. They were in +terror when we took them, and afterward said that they had expected to be +shot. Under decent treatment they soon became so insolent that they had to +be brought up short. + +[Illustration: A "Red Crescent" ambulance] + +During the run back to Ana we picked up the more important of our +prisoners and took them with us. Twenty-two were all we could manage. I +was running one of the big cars. It was always a surprise to see how easy +they were to handle in spite of the weight of the armor-plate. We each +took great pride in the car in which we generally rode. All had names. In +the Fourteenth one section had "Silver Dart" and "Silver Ghost" and +another "Gray Terror" and "Gray Knight." The car in which I rode a +great deal of the time met its fate only a few days before the armistice, +long after I had gone to France. Two direct hits from an Austrian +"eighty-eight" ended its career. + +It was after midnight when we got back to our camp in a palm-garden in +Ana. Although we had not succeeded in capturing the gold convoy, we had +brought in a number of valuable prisoners, and among other things I had +found some papers belonging to a German political agent whom we had +captured. These contained much information about the Arab situation, and +through them it was all but proved that the German was the direct +instigator of the murder of the political officer at Nejef. An amusing +sidelight was thrown in the letters addressed by Arab sheiks through this +agent to the Kaiser thanking him for the iron crosses they had been +awarded. There must have been an underlying grim humor in distributing +crosses to the Mohammedan Arabs in recognition of their efforts to +withstand the advance into the Holy Land of the Christian invaders. + +On our arrival at Ana we were told that orders had come through that the +town be evacuated on the following morning. Preparations were made to +blow up the ammunition dump, which was fortunately concentrated in a +series of buildings that joined each other. We warned the inhabitants and +advised them to hide in the caves along the hillsides. We ourselves went +back to the camp which we had occupied near the bridge the night before +entering Ana. During the afternoon Major Edye, a political officer, turned +up, travelling alone with an Arab attendant. He pitched his camp, +consisting of a saddle and blanket, close beside us. He was an +extraordinarily interesting man, with a great gift for languages. In the +course of a year or so's wandering in Abyssinia he had learned both +ancient and modern Abyssinian. There was a famous German Orientalist with +whom he corresponded in the pre-war days. He had mailed him a letter just +at the outbreak, which, written in ancient Abyssinian, must have been a +good deal of a puzzle to the censors. + +The main explosion, taking place at the appointed time, was succeeded by +smaller ones, which continued at gradually lengthening intervals +throughout the night. General Cassels, who had commanded the cavalry +brigade so ably throughout the advance, wished to return to Ana on the +following morning in order to check up the thoroughness with which the +dump had been destroyed. He took an escort of armored cars, and as I was +the only one in the batteries who could speak Arabic, my services were +requisitioned. As we approached the town the rattle of the small-arms +ammunition sounded like a Fourth of July celebration. The general noticed +that I had a kodak and asked me to go out into the dump and take some +photographs. There was nothing to do but put on a bold front, but I have +spent happier moments than those in which I edged my way gingerly over the +smoking heaps to a ruined wall from which I could get a good view for my +camera. As I came back a large shell exploded and we hastily moved the +cars farther away. + +I went to the mayor's house to find out how the town had fared. He was a +solemn old Arab, and showed me the damage done by the shells with an +absolutely expressionless face. The houses within a fair radius had been +riddled, but the natives had taken our warning and no one had been killed. +After a cup of coffee in a lovely garden on the river-bank, I came back +to the cars and we ran on through to Haditha. Here we were to remain for a +week or ten days to permit the evacuation of the captured supplies. + +Thus far we had been having good luck with the weather, but it now began +to threaten rain. We crawled beneath the cars with our blankets and took +such precautions as were possible, but it availed us little when a +veritable hurricane blew up at midnight. I was washed out from under my +car, but before dark I had marked down a deserted hut, and thither I +groped my way. Although it was abandoned by the Arabs, living traces of +their occupancy remained. Still, even that was preferable to the rain, and +the roof proved unexpectedly water-tight. + +All next day the storm continued. The Wadi Hauran, a large ravine reaching +back into the desert for a hundred and fifty miles, became a boiling +torrent. When we crossed over, it was as dry as a bone. A heavy lorry on +which an anti-aircraft gun was mounted had been swirled away and smashed +to bits. The ration question had been difficult all along, but now any +further supply was temporarily out of the question. + +Oddly enough, I was the only member of the brigade occupying Haditha who +could speak enough Arabic to be of any use, so I was sent to look up the +local mayor to see whether there was any food to be purchased. The town is +built on a long island equidistant from either bank. We ferried across in +barges. The native method was simpler. They inflated goatskins, removed +their clothes, which they had fastened in a bundle on top of their heads, +and with one hand on the goatskin they paddled and drifted over. By +starting from the head of the island they could reach the shore opposite +the down-stream end. The bobbing heads of the dignified old graybeards of +the community looked most ludicrous. On landing they would solemnly don +their clothes, deflate the skins, and go their way. + +The mayor proved both intelligent and agreeable. The food situation was +such that it was obviously impossible for him to offer us any serious +help. We held a conclave in the guest-house, sitting cross-legged among +the cushions. In the centre a servant roasted coffee-beans on the large +shovel-spoon that they use for that purpose. The representative village +worthies impressed me greatly. The desert Arabs are always held to be +vastly superior to their kinsmen of the town, and it is undoubtedly true +as a general rule; nevertheless, the elders of Haditha were an unusually +fine group of men. We got a few eggs, which were a most desirable luxury +after a steady diet of black unsweetened tea and canned beef. We happened +to have a sufficient supply of tea to permit us to make an appreciated +gift to the village. + +My shoes had collapsed a few days before and I borrowed a pair from a Turk +who had no further use for them. These were several sizes too large and +fashioned in an oblong shape of mathematical exactness. Even in the motor +machine-gun service, there is little that exceeds one's shoes in +importance, and I was looking forward with almost equal eagerness to a +square meal and a pair of my own shoes. The supply of reading-matter had +fallen very low. I had only Disraeli's _Tancred_, about which I found +myself unable to share Lady Burton's feelings, and a French account of a +voyage from Baghdad to Aleppo in 1808. The author, Louis Jacques Rousseau, +a cousin of the great Jean Jacques, belonged to a family of noted +Orientalists. Born in Persia, and married to the daughter of the Dutch +consul-general to that country, he was admirably equipped for the +distinguished diplomatic career that lay before him in the East and in +northern Africa. His treatises on the archaeological remains that he met +with on his many voyages are intelligent and thorough. The river towns +have changed but little in the last hundred years, and the sketch of Hit +might have been made only yesterday. + +Within three days after the rise, the waters of the Wadi Hauran subsided +sufficiently for us to cross, and I received orders to return to Baghdad. +The rain had brought about a change in the desert since we passed through +on our way up. The lines of Paterson, the Australian poet, kept running +through my head: + + "For the rain and drought and sunshine make no changes in the street, + In the sullen line of buildings and the ceaseless tramp of feet, + But the bush hath moods and changes, as the seasons rise and fall, + And the men who know the bushland they are loyal through it all." + +The formerly arid floor of the desert was carpeted with a soft green, with +myriads of little flowers, all small, but delicately fashioned. There +were poppies, dwarf daisies, expanses of buttercups, forget-me-nots, and +diminutive red flowers whose name I did not know. It started raining +again, and we only just succeeded in winning our way through to Baghdad +before the road became impassable. + + + + +VI + +BAGHDAD SKETCHES + + +Although never in Baghdad for long at a time, I generally had occasion to +spend four or five days there every other month. The life in any city is +complex and interesting, but here it was especially so. We were among a +totally foreign people, but the ever-felt intangible barrier of color was +not present. For many of the opportunities to mingle with the natives I +was indebted to Oscar Heizer, the American consul. Mr. Heizer has been +twenty-five years in the Levant, the greater part of which time he has +spent in the neighborhood of Constantinople. The outbreak of the war found +him stationed at one of the principal ports of the Black Sea. There he +witnessed part of the terrible Armenian massacres, when vast herds of the +wretched people were driven inland to perish of starvation by the +roadsides. Quiet and unassuming, but ever ready to act with speed and +decision, he was a universal favorite with native and foreigner alike. + +With him I used to ferry across the river for tea with the Asadulla Khan, +the Persian consul. The house consisted of three wings built around a +garden. The fourth side was the river-bank. The court was a jungle of +flowering fruit-trees, alive with birds of different kinds, all singing +garrulously without pause. There we would sit sipping sherbet, and +cracking nuts, among which salted watermelon seeds figured prominently. +Coffee and sweets of many and devious kinds were served, with arrack and +Scotch whiskey for those who had no religious scruples. The Koran's +injunction against strong drink was not very conscientiously observed by +the majority, and even those who did not drink in public, rarely abstained +in private. Only the very conservative--and these were more often to be +found in the smaller towns--rigorously obeyed the prophet's commands. It +was pleasant to smoke in the shade and watch the varied river-craft +slipping by. The public bellams plied to and fro, rowed by the swart +owners, while against them jostled the gufas--built like the coracles of +ancient Britain--a round basket coated with pitch. No Anglo-Saxon can see +them without thinking of the nursery rhyme of the "wise men of Gotham who +went to sea in a tub." These gufas were some of them twenty-five feet in +diameter, and carried surprising loads--sometimes sheep and cattle +alone--sometimes men and women--often both indiscriminately mingled. +Propelling a gufa was an art in itself, for in the hands of the +uninitiated it merely spun around without advancing a foot in the desired +direction. The natives used long round-bladed paddles, and made good time +across the river. Crossing over in one was a democratic affair, especially +when the women were returning from market with knots of struggling +chickens slung over their shoulders. + +Asadulla Khan's profile always reminded me of an Inca idol that I once got +in Peru. Among his scribes were several men of culture who discoursed most +sagely on Persian literature; on Sadi and Hafiz, both of whom they held to +be superior to Omar Khayyam. I tried through many channels to secure a +manuscript of the "Rubaiyat," but all I succeeded in obtaining was a +lithograph copy with no place or date of publication; merely the remark +that it had been printed during the cold months. I was told that the +writings of Omar Khayyam were regarded as immoral and for that reason were +not to be found in religious households. My Persian friends would quote +at length from Sadi's _Gulistan_ or _Rose Garden_, and go into raptures +over its beauty. + + * * * * * + +Below the consulate was a landing-place, and when we were ready to leave +we would go down to the river-bank preceded by our servants carrying +lanterns. They would call "Abu bellam" until a boat appeared. The term +"abu" always amused me. Its literal meaning is "father." In the bazaars a +shop-owner was always hailed as "father" of whatever wares he had for +sale. I remember one fat old man who sold porous earthenware +jars--customers invariably addressed him as "Abu hub"--"Father of +water-coolers." + +My best friend among the natives was a Kurdish chief named Hamdi Bey +Baban. His father had been captured and taken to Constantinople. After +living there a number of years in semicaptivity he died--by poison it was +said. Hamdi was not allowed to return to Kurdistan until after he was a +grown man and had almost forgotten his native language. He spoke and read +both French and English. Eventually permission was granted him to live in +Baghdad as long as he kept out of the Kurdish hills, so he set off by +motor accompanied only by a French chauffeur. Gasolene was sent ahead by +camel caravan to be left for him at selected points. The journey was not +without incident, for the villagers had never before seen an automobile +and regarded it as a devil; often stones were thrown at them, and on one +occasion they were mobbed and Hamdi only escaped by driving full speed +through the crowd. + +His existence in Baghdad had been subject to sudden upheavals. Once he was +arrested and convoyed back to Constantinople; and just before the advance +of the British his life was in great danger. Naturally enough he had +little love for the Turk and staked everything on the final victory of the +Allies. + +He intended writing a book on the history of his family, in which he was +much interested. For material he was constantly purchasing books and +manuscripts. In the East many well-known histories still exist only in +manuscript form, and when a man wishes to build up a library he engages +scribes and sends them to the place where a famous manuscript is kept with +an order to make a copy. In the same way Hamdi Bey had men busied +transcribing rare chronicles dealing with the career of his family--extant +in but one or two examples in mosques. He once presented me with a large +manuscript in Persian in which his family is mentioned, the mention taking +the form of a statement to the effect that seventeen of them had had their +heads removed! + +Next to various small tradesmen with whom I used to gossip, drink coffee, +and play dominoes, my best Arab friend was Abdul Kader Pasha, a striking +old man who had been a faithful ally to the British through thick and +thin. The dinners at his house on the river-bank were feasts such as one +reads of in ancient history. Course succeeded course without any definite +plan; any one of them would have made a large and delicious meal in +itself. True to Arab custom, the son of the house never sat down at table +with his father, although before and after dinner he talked and smoked +with us. + +[Illustration: A jeweller's booth in the bazaar] + +I had a number of good friends among the Armenians. There was not one of +them but had some near relation, frequently a parent or a brother or +sister, still among the Turks. Sometimes they knew them to be dead, more +frequently they could only hope that such was the case and there was no +further suffering to be endured. Many of these Armenians belonged to +prominent families, numbering among their members men who had held the +most important government posts in Constantinople. The secretary of the +treasury was almost invariably an Armenian, for the race outstrips the +Jews in its money touch. + +With one family I dined quite often--the usual interminable Oriental feast +varying only from the Arab or Turkish dinners in a few special national +dishes. All, excepting the aged grandmother, spoke French, and the +daughters had a thorough grounding in the literature. Such English books +as they knew they had read in French translations. The house was +attractively furnished, with really beautiful rugs and old silverware. The +younger generation played bridge, and the girls were always well dressed +in European fashion. Whence the clothes came was a mystery, for nothing +could have been brought in since the war, and even in ante-bellum days +foreign clothes of that grade could never have been stocked but must have +been imported in individual orders. The evenings were thoroughly +enjoyable, for everything was in such marked contrast to our every-day +life. It must be remembered that these few Armenians were the only women +with whom we could talk and laugh in Occidental fashion. + +By far the best-informed and cleverest Arab was Pere Anastase. He was a +Catholic, and under the supervision of the Political Department edited the +local Arab paper. All his life he had worked building up a +library--gathering rare books throughout Syria and Mesopotamia. He was +himself an author of no small reputation. Just before the British took +Baghdad the Germans pillaged his collection, sending the more valuable +books to Constantinople and Berlin, and turning the rest over to the +populace. The soldiers made great bonfires of many--others found their way +to the bazaars, where he was later able to repurchase some of them. When +talking of the sacking of his house, Pere Anastase would work himself into +a white heat of fury and his eyes would flash as he bitterly cursed the +vandals who had destroyed his treasures. + +It was in Baghdad that I first ran into Major E.B. Soane, whose _Through +Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise_ is a classic. Soane was born in +southern France, his mother French and his father English. The latter +walked across the United States from ocean to ocean in the early forties, +so Soane came by his roving, adventurous spirit naturally. When still but +little more than a boy he went out to work in the Anglo-Persian Bank, and +immediately interested himself in the language and literature of the +country. Some of his holidays he spent in the British Museum translating +and cataloguing Persian manuscripts. Becoming interested in the Kurds, he +spent a number of years among them, learning their languages and customs +and joining in their raids. + +As soon as we got a foothold in the Kurdish Hills, Soane was sent up to +administer the captured territory. His headquarters were at Khanikin, +twenty-five miles from Kizil Robat and but a short distance from the +Persian frontier. One morning during the time that I was stationed in that +district I motored over to see him. It was a glorious day. The cloud +effects were most beautiful, towering in billows of white above the snow +peaks, against a background of deepest blue. The road wound in and out +among the barren foot-hills until suddenly as I topped a rise I saw right +below a great clump of palm-trees, with houses showing through here and +there--the whole divided by a lovely river bestridden by an old seven-arch +bridge. I picked my way through the narrow streets, scattering ragged +Kurds right and left; past part of the covered bazaar, until I came to a +house with a large courtyard, thronged with a motley array of Kurdish +irregulars, armed with every sort of weapon. It was there that Soane +administered his stern but practical justice, for he thoroughly understood +how to handle these men. + +The district had suffered fearfully, for it had been occupied in turn by +Turk and Russian, and then Turk again, before we took it over, and the +unfortunate natives had been pillaged and robbed mercilessly. Thousands +starved to death. When I was at Deli Abbas ghastly bands of ragged +skeletons would come through to us begging food and work. Soane turned a +large khan on the outskirts of the town into a poorhouse, and here he +lodged the starving women and children that drifted in from all over +Kurdistan. It was a fearful assemblage of scarecrows. As they got better +he selected women from among them to whom he turned over the +administration of the khan. They divided the unfortunates in gangs, and +supervised the issue of dates on which they were fed. Such as were +physically able were employed in cleaning the town. The Kurds are a fine, +self-respecting race and it was easy to understand Soane's enthusiasm for +them. + + * * * * * + +In Baghdad you lived either in the cellars or on the housetops. The former +were called serdabs. A large chimney, cowled to face the prevailing wind, +served for ventilation, and on the hottest days one was cool and +comfortable. We slept on the roofs, and often dined there, too. Since the +town was the General Headquarters of the Expeditionary Force, one was +always sure to meet many friends. A comfortable and well-run officers' +club was installed, as well as warrant officers' and enlisted men's clubs. + +Occasionally race meetings were planned and the various divisions would +send representatives. Frank Wooton, the well-known jockey, was a +despatch-rider, and usually succeeded in getting leave enough to allow him +to ride some general's horses. An Arab race formed part of the programme. +Once a wild tribesman who had secured a handsome lead almost lost the +race by taking off his cloak and waving it round his head as he gave +ear-piercing shouts of triumph. The Arab riding second was less emotional +and attended better to the business in hand, but his horse was not quite +good enough to make the difference. + +The scene at the race-course was a gay one. The color was chiefly +contributed by the Jewesses who wore their hooded silk cloaks of lively +hue--green or pink or yellow. The only crowd that I saw to vie with it was +one which watched the prisoners taken at Ramadie march through the town. +Turkish propaganda, circulated in the bazaars, gave out that instead of +taking the prisoners we claimed, we had in reality suffered a defeat, and +it was decided that the sight of the captive Turks would have a salutary +effect upon the townsmen. Looking down from a housetop the red fezzes and +the gay-colored abas made the crowd look like a vast field of poppies. + +When I was at Samarra an amusing incident took place in connection with a +number of officers' wives who were captured at Ramadie. The army commander +didn't wish to ship them off to India and Burma with their husbands, so he +sent them up to Samarra with instructions that they be returned across +the lines to the Turks. After many aeroplane messages were exchanged it +was agreed that we should leave them at a designated hill and that the +Turks would later come for them. Meanwhile we had arranged quarters for +them, trying to do everything in a manner that would be in harmony with +the Turkish convenances. When the wives were escorted forth to be turned +back to their countrymen, they were all weeping bitterly. Whether it was +that the Turk in his casual manner decided that one day was as good as +another, or whether he felt that he had no particular use for these +particular women, we never knew, but at all events twenty-four hours later +one of our patrols came upon the prisoners still forlornly waiting. We +shipped them back to Baghdad. + +Occasionally I would go to one of the Arab theatres. The plays were +generally burlesques, for the Arab has a keen sense of humor and greatly +appreciates a joke. Most of the puns were too involved for me to follow, +but there was always a certain amount of slap-stick comedy that could be +readily understood. Then there was dancing--as a whole monotonous and +mediocre; but there was one old man who was a remarkable performer, and +would have been appreciated on any stage in the world. The topical songs +invariably amused me--they were so universal in spirit. The chorus of one +which was a great hit ran: "Haido, haido, rahweni passak!" "I say, I say, +show me your pass." There had been much trouble with spies and every one +was required to provide himself with a certificate of good conduct and to +show it on demand. It was to this that the song referred. + +Captain C.G. Lloyd was my companion on many rambles among the natives. He +had been stationed in Burma and India for many years, and was a good +Persian scholar. Like every one who has knocked about to any extent among +native peoples, his career had not been lacking in incident. I remember on +one occasion asking him why it was that he never joined me in a cup of +coffee when we stopped at a coffee-house. He replied that he had always +been wary of coffee since a man with him was poisoned by a cup which was +intended for him. + +I always looked forward to a trip to Baghdad, for it gave me a chance to +mingle in a totally different life from that which daily surrounded me, +and temporarily, at least, forget about the war in which the world was +plunged. Still, the morning set to leave invariably found me equally glad +to shove off once more into the great expanses of the desert. + + + + +VII + +THE ATTACK ON THE PERSIAN FRONT + + +When I reached headquarters after the attack on the Euphrates front, I was +expecting to hear that my transfer to France had gone through and receive +orders to proceed thither immediately. It had always been my intention to +try to join the American army once it began to take a real part in the +war, and for some time past I had been casting about in my mind for the +best method to carry out my plans. When affairs looked so very black for +the Allied forces in March and April, 1918, I decided that France was the +place where every one, who could by any possibility manage it, should be. +General Gillman, the chief of staff, had on more than one occasion shown +himself a good friend, and I determined to once more task his kindness. He +said that he thought he could arrange for my transfer to France, and that +once there I could work out the best way of getting into the American +army. + +Everything went well, and I was daily expecting my orders, when Major +Thompson, who commanded the brigade of armored cars, sent for me and told +me that an advance was being planned on the Kurdish front. Only two +batteries were to be taken--the Eighth and the Thirteenth--but he said +that he would like to have me go along in command of the supply-train. Of +course I jumped at the chance, as the attack promised to be most +interesting. + +We were told to be ready to move on an hour's notice. For several days the +weather held us back. The rain, helped out by the melting snow from the +mountains, caused the rivers to rise in flood. The Tigris rose sixteen +feet in a night. The lower bridge was broken and washed away. Everything +possible was done to reinforce the upper bridge, but it was hourly +expected to give way under the strain of the whirling yellow waters. The +old Arab rivermen said that they could tell by the color just which of the +tributaries were in spate. When they saw or thought they saw a new +admixture, they would shake their heads and say: "Such and such a river +is now also in flood--the Tigris will rise still further." + +On the night of April 24 we at length got our orders and at six o'clock +the following morning we set out, prepared to run through to Ain Leilah. +The country was indeed changed since I passed through six weeks before. +The desert had blossomed. We ran through miles and miles of clover; the +sweet smell seemed so wholesomely American, recalling home and family, and +the meadows of Long Island. The brilliant red poppies were more in keeping +with the country; and we passed by Indian cavalry reinforcements with the +scarlet flowers stuck in their black hair and twined in the head-stalls of +the horses. + +As we approached the hills they looked less bleak--a soft green clothed +the hollows, and the little oasis of Ain Leilah no longer stood out in the +same marked contrast as when last I visited it. The roads were in good +shape, and we reached camp at four in the afternoon. I took one of the +tenders and set off to look up some old friends in the regiments near by. +As I passed a group of Arabs that had just finished work on the roads, I +noticed that they were playing a game that was new to me. A stake was +driven into the ground, with a horsehair rope ten or twelve feet in length +attached to it. An old man had hold of the end of the rope. About the +stake were piled some clothes, and the Arabs were standing around in a +circle just out of reach of the man with the rope. The object was to dart +in and snatch up something from the heap without the old man who was on +guard catching you. They were enjoying themselves hugely--the oldest +graybeards behaving as if they were children--a very pleasant side of the +Arab. + +Our instructions were to be ready to pull out before daybreak. The mission +was, as usual, a flanking one. The direct attack was to be delivered on +Kara Tepe, and, if that were successful, upon Kifri. We were to intercept +the arrival of reinforcements, or cut off the retreat of the garrisons, as +the case might be. + +In the early morning hours the country was lovely--rolling grass land +"with a hint of hills behind"--miles of daisies with clusters of blood-red +poppies scattered through them--and occasional hollows carpeted with a +brilliant blue flower. In the river courses there were numbers of +brilliantly hued birds--the gayest colors I saw in Mesopotamia with the +exception of the vivid arsenic-green birds around Ana on the Euphrates. +In one place I thought that the ground was covered with red flowers, but a +close inspection proved it to be myriads of tiny red insects swarming on +the grass stems. + +Column marching is slow and wearisome, and after the sun rose the heat +became intense. The dust smothered us; there was not a breath of air to +rid us of it for even a moment. The miles seemed interminable. At noon we +halted beside a narrow stream known as Oil River--a common name in this +part of the country where oil abounds and the water is heavily impregnated +with it. For drinking it was abominable--and almost spoiled the tea upon +which we relied for a staple. A few miles beyond, the engineers found a +suitable location to throw a bridge across the creek. The main body was +halted at a place known as Umr Maidan and we were sent over the bridge to +form across the main road leading from Kara Tepe back into the Turkish +territory. + +It was nightfall before we had effected a crossing, and we groped our way +along until we came upon the road. It was impossible to do very much in +the way of selecting a position, but we arranged the cars as best we +could. When you were off at large in the desert you were what the army +called "Out in the blue," and that was certainly our situation on the +night of April 26. We all expected that we would intercept traffic going +one way or the other, but the night passed without incident or excitement. + +[Illustration: Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge] + +By four in the morning we were once more feeling our way along through the +darkness. As it lightened we came under observation by the Turks, who +started in to shell us. We learned from our aeroplanes that Kifri had been +evacuated; the garrison was falling back along a road running parallel to +the one on which we were, separated by eight or ten miles of broken +country. By this time our cavalry had caught up with us. They pushed off +across country to intercept the Turks. We attempted to do likewise but it +was more difficult, and what with dodging in and out to avoid a ravine +here or a hill there, we made little headway. At length we struck a road +that led in approximately the direction whither we wished to go. It was +already early afternoon before, upon topping a rise, we caught sight of a +good-sized body of Turks marching on a road which ran along the base of +a range of steep, stony hills. We put on as much speed as was possible, +and headed north to try to intercept them. The cavalry were coming from +the south, and while we were circling around they charged in upon the +Turks. It was a stirring scene. The powerful Indians sat their horses with +the utmost grace. Their drawn sabres flashed in the sun. As they came to +close quarters the turbaned heads bent forward and we could hear the +shouts and high-pitched cries of triumph as the riders slashed at the foe. +The wounded and dead testified to their skill as swordsmen. The whole +sight reminded me more of the battle books I read as a boy than anything I +saw in the war. About six hundred prisoners were taken, but many of the +Turks escaped to the mountains and lay among the rocks, whence they could +snipe at us with impunity. They were a tenacious lot, for all next day +when we were using the road below the hills they continued to shoot at us +from the places whence it was impossible to dislodge them. + +While the prisoners were being brought in we caught sight of one of our +aeroplanes crashing. Making our way over to it we found that neither the +pilot nor the observer was seriously hurt. Flying in Mesopotamia was made +unusually difficult by the climatic conditions. The planes were designed +for work in France and during the summer months the heat and dryness +warped the propeller blades and indeed all the wooden parts. Then, too, +the fine dust would get into the machinery when the aviator was taxiing +for a start. Many pilots coming out from France with brilliant records met +an early and untimely end because they could not realize how very +different the conditions were. I remember one poor young fellow who set +off on a reconnaissance without the food and water he was required by +regulations to carry. He got lost and ran out of gasolene--being forced to +land out in the desert. The armored cars went off in search of him, and on +the second morning after he had come down they found his body near their +bivouac. He had evidently got that far during the night and died of +exhaustion and exposure practically within hearing. He was stripped of his +clothes; whether this had been done by himself or by the tribesmen was +never determined. A death of this sort always seems so much sadder than +being legitimately killed in combat. The L.A.M. batteries were in close +touch with the Royal Flying Corps, for when news came in that a plane was +down in the desert or some part of the debatable land, we would be +detailed to go out in search of the occupants. A notice printed in Arabic, +Persian, Turkish, and Kurdish was fastened into each aeroplane informing +the reader of the reward that would be paid him if the pilot were brought +in safety to the British lines. This was done in case a plane got lost and +was driven down out of its course among the tribesmen. + +The night of the 27th we bivouacked once more "out in the blue." Dawn +found me on my way back to Umr Maidan to lay in a new supply of gasolene. +I made a rapid trip and caught up with the armored cars in action in a +large swampy plain. The grass was very high and the ground so soft that it +was difficult to accomplish anything. Two or three small hills offered +vantage-points, but they were not neglected by the Turk, and among those +that fell was the colonel of the Twenty-First cavalry--the regiment that +had acquitted itself so well in the charge of the day before. + +We were ten miles from Tuz Khurmartli, the next important town held by +the enemy now that Kifri had been taken. It was thither that the Turks had +been retreating when we cut them off. Finding that we were unable to +operate effectively where we were, it was decided that we should make our +way across to the Kifri-Kirkuk road and advance along it to make a frontal +attack upon Tuz. Our orders were to proceed to a deserted village known as +Kulawand, and wait there for the command to advance. When we got to the +road we found the hills still occupied by camel-guns and machine-guns. We +replied ineffectively, for we had no means of dislodging them, nor did the +cavalry when they came up. Kulawand we found to be a fair-sized native +village unoccupied save for a single hut full of old women and children. +Here we waited until nightfall for the orders that never came. I sat under +a ruined wall reading alternatively Camoens' _Lusiad_ and _David Harum_ +until darkness fell. + +During the night some infantry came up, both native and British. They had +had stiff marching during the last few days, and were done up, but very +cheerful at the prospect of an attack on the morrow. They had some hard +fighting ahead of them. The King's Own in particular distinguished itself +in taking a stubbornly contested and strongly held hill. + +At dawn we were under way. We had heard reports during the night that the +Turks had evacuated Tuz--but it was not long before we found that such was +not the case. They were still there and showed every evidence of staying. +A small village five or six miles to the southwest was also bitterly +contested. Our cavalry did some excellent work, capturing small hills held +with machine-guns. + +We advanced down the road beside the hills. A mile before reaching Tuz we +ran into the Aq Su, a large stream flowing through a narrow cleft in the +hills. Fortunately the river was very low, and there were several places +where it was spread out over such a wide bed that it seemed as if it might +be possible to get the cars across. I emptied a Ford van and set out to do +some prospecting. First I went up-stream, which was toward the mountains, +but I could not go far, for there was an ancient fort situated at the +mouth of the gorge, and it had not been evacuated. Finding a likely +looking place a little below, I made a cast and just succeeded in getting +through. It was easy to see that it would not be possible for the +low-swung Rolls to cross under their own power, for the fly-wheel would +throw the water up into the motor. There was nothing to do but send back +for artillery horses to pull the armored cars across. + +Meanwhile, as our artillery had practically ceased firing on the town and +the Turks seemed to have entirely evacuated it, I thought that I would go +up and take over and see whether there had not been some valuable +documents left behind. I drove along past some abandoned artillery into +the main street. A number of Turkish soldiers came up to surrender and I +told them to have the Reis Beledia--the town mayor--report to me. When he +came I directed him to take me to the quarters of the Turkish commanding +general. As we drove through the covered bazaar everything was closed. +Scarcely anybody was in the streets--but I could see the inhabitants +peeping out from behind lattices. It was a good thing to have the old +mayor along, for he served as an excellent hostage, and I kept close watch +upon him. He brought me to a prosperous, neat-looking house with heavy +wooden doors. In response to his summons an old woman came and ushered us +into a large, cool room, well furnished and with beautiful Kurdish rugs. +There we found four young girls, who, it was explained to me, formed the +Turkish general's "field harem." He had left in too much of a hurry to +take them with him. They were Kurds and Circassians, or Georgians--and the +general had shown no lack of taste in his selection! True to the tradition +of the Garden of Eden, this harem proved disastrous to a brother officer +who, having heard of my capture, sent me "priority" over the field service +lines a ribald message as to its disposition. "Priority" wires are sent +only on affairs of the greatest importance, and when I left the country my +friend was slated to explain matters before a court martial. There were no +papers of any great value to be found, and I told the mayor to take me to +the more important ammunition and supply dumps. By the time I had located +these some cavalry had come in, and I went back to the river to help get +the fighting cars across. + +Once we had these safely over we set out in pursuit of the Turks. The next +town of importance was a ramshackle mud-walled affair called Tauq, twenty +miles beyond, on the far side of a river known as the Tauq Chai. The +leading cars pursued to within sight of the town and came in for a good +deal of shelling. + +The Turks we captured were in far poorer shape than those we had recently +taken on the Euphrates front. Their shoes were worn out, they were very +ragged, and, what was of greater significance, they were badly nourished. +The length of their line of communications had evidently severely strained +them. Supplies had to come overland all the way from Nisibin, which is +more than a hundred miles beyond Mosul. The broken country made the +transportation a difficult problem to solve. It was a miracle that they +had the morale to fight as they did under such disadvantageous conditions. + +Here, as throughout the campaign, it was a continual source of pride to +see the way in which our soldiers behaved to the natives. I never heard of +a case in which man, woman, or child was wrongfully treated. Minor +offenses were sometimes committed, but these were quickly righted. No +doubt there were isolated instances of wrong-doing, for in such a large +army there are bound to be degenerate individuals from whose conduct it is +unfair to judge the whole. + +That night we encamped in the outskirts of Tuz, not far from the Turkish +aerodrome. Next morning one of the batteries was ordered to reconnoitre as +far as the town--pursuing a different route than that taken on the +previous day. The commanding officer asked me to go along because of my +knowledge of Arabic. The road followed the telegraph-lines, and part of +the time that was the only way in which we could distinguish it from the +surrounding country. Of course, the map was hopelessly incorrect. The +villages were not even rightly named. A great deal of reconnoitring was +called for, and in one village we had to knock the corner off a mud house +to enable us to make a sharp right-angle turn. The natives were in pitiful +condition. The Turks had not only taken all their crops, but even the +grain that should be reserved to sow for the following year. The sheep had +been killed in the lambing season, so the flocks were sadly depleted. Such +standing grain as there was left looked flourishing. The wheat waved above +the cars. + +As we came out of a deep, broad ravine that had caused us much delay and +difficulty, we caught sight of an attractive town situated on a steep, +flat-topped hill. Upon drawing near, a fine-looking, white-bearded Arab +rode up on a small gray mare. He said that he was the head man of the +town; that he hated the Turks, and would like to be of any assistance +possible to us. I asked him if the enemy had evacuated Tauq. He replied +that they had. I then asked him if he were positive about it. He offered +to accompany us to prove it. The trail was so bad that we could not go +fast, and he rode along beside us at a hand-gallop. + +When we came to the river in front of the town we found that it was +impossible to get the armored cars across. The Turks had evidently fallen +back, but not far, for they were dropping in shells with regularity. Our +Arab friend told us that there was a bridge six miles up-stream, but it +was too late for us to attempt it, and we turned back to Tuz after +arranging with Sheikh Muttar to meet us in the morning. + +[Illustration: The Kurd and his wife] + +[Illustration: Sheik Muttar and the two Kurds] + +Next day we found him waiting for us as he had promised. With him were two +handsome Kurds. One of them had his wife perched behind him on the horse's +crupper. Together they undertook to guide us up to the bridge. It was +invariably difficult to find out from natives whether or not a road was +passable for motor-cars. They were accustomed to think only in terms of +horses or men, and could not realize that a bad washout might be +impassable for automobiles. Curiously enough, even those natives whom we +had taken along with us on several reconnaissances as guides could not be +trusted to give an opinion as to the feasibility of a proposed route. We +experienced no little trouble in following our guides to the bridge, +although we afterward discovered a good road that cut off from the main +trail about half-way between Tuz and Tauq. + +When we reached the bridge we found it to be a solid, well-built affair of +recent construction. The retreating Turks had tried to blow it up, but the +most vital charges had failed to go off, so the damage done would not be +sufficiently serious to stop our passage, after six or seven hours' +preliminary work. We immediately sent back for the engineers, and put in +the time while waiting by taking a much-needed bath in the rapids beneath +one of the side arches. Every one who has wandered about in the waste +places of the world can recall certain swims that will always stand out in +his memory. Perhaps they have been after a long and arduous hunt--perhaps +at the end of a weary march. Our plunge in the Tauq Chai took its place +among these. + +In the late afternoon we drove back to Tuz. Our camp there was anything +but cheerful, for swarms of starving townsfolk hovered on the outskirts +ready to pounce on any refuse that the men threw away. Discarded tin cans +were cleaned out until the insides shone like mirrors. The men gave away +everything they could possibly spare from their rations. As the news +spread, the starving mountain Kurds began straggling in; and the gruesome +band made one glad to leave camp early and return after dark. Our line of +communication was so extended that it was impossible to attempt any relief +work. + +The following morning we crossed over the bridge with little trouble, but +ran into a lot of difficulty when we tried to make our way down to the +town. A couple of miles above the main town there is a small settlement +grouped on a hill around the mosque of Zain El Abidin. The "mutabelli," or +keeper of the shrine, is an important personage in the community, so when +he appeared riding a richly caparisoned stallion and offered to accompany +us to the town, we welcomed the opportunity of going in under such good +auspices. We decided to take Seyid Mustapha, for that was his name, in one +of the Ford vans with us. It was comparatively easy to get the light car +up over the precipitous, rocky trail; and eventually one of the fighting +cars succeeded in following. I was driving, with Mustapha beside me. In +front of us on a white horse galloped the Seyid's attendant singing and +shouting and proclaiming our arrival. We stopped at Mustapha's house for a +cup of coffee and a discussion of events. The information which we secured +from him afterward proved unusually correct. I took him on with us to the +town so that he could identify the head man and see that we got hold of +the right people. Our reception was by no means cordial, although after we +had talked a little and explained what we were after, the mayor became +cheerful and expansive. He had a jovial, rotund face, covered in large +part by a bushy beard, and would have done excellently as a model for +Silenus. In the town were a handful of Turkish stragglers--among them a +stalwart Greek who spoke a little English. He said that he had been +impressed into service by the Turks and was most anxious to join our +forces. + +We found large stores of ammunition and other supplies, among them a +wireless set. What interested us most, I am afraid, was the quantity of +chickens that we saw strutting about. A few of them and a good supply of +eggs found their way to the automobiles in short order. We were always +very particular about paying for whatever we took, and seeing that the men +did likewise; our reputation went before us, and the native, as a rule, +took it for granted that we would pay. It was up to the officers to see +that the prices were not exorbitant. We always used Indian currency--the +rupee and the anna. In normal times a rupee is about a third of a dollar. +Throughout the occupied area Turkish currency also circulated, but the +native invariably preferred to be paid in Indian. Curiously enough, even +on entering towns like Tauq, we found the inhabitants eager for payment in +rupees. I was told that in the money market in Baghdad a British advance +would be heralded by a slump in Turkish exchange. Paper rupees were almost +everywhere as readily accepted as silver, but paper liras and piasters +were soon of so little value that they were no longer in circulation. + +When we got back to camp I found a wire informing me that I had been +transferred to the American army, and ordering me to report at once to +Baghdad to be sent to France. Major Thompson asked me if I would delay my +return until the end of the advance. It was rumored that we would continue +to push on and would attack Kirkuk. Many felt that the difficulty that was +already being experienced in rationing us would preclude our thrusting +farther. Still, I made up my mind that as long as the major wished it and +would wire for permission I would stay a few days longer on the chance of +the attack continuing. + +On the morning of the 3d we moved camp to the far side of the Tauq Chai +bridge. When the tenders were unloaded I started back to bring up a supply +of gasolene, with the purpose of making a dump in case we were called upon +for a further advance. I was told that the nearest supply from which I +could draw was at Umr Maidan; and the prospect of running back, a distance +of seventy miles, was not cheerful. When I got as far as Tuz I found a +friend in charge of the dump there, and he let me draw what I wanted, so I +turned back to try to get to the bridge by dark. One car after another +got in trouble; first it was a puncture, then it was a tricky carburetor +that refused to be put to rights; towing-ropes were called into +requisition, but the best had been left behind, and those we had were +rotted, and broke on every hill. Lastly a broken axle put one of the +tenders definitely out of commission, and, of course, I had to wait behind +with it. To add to everything, a veritable hurricane set in, with thunder +and lightning and torrents of rain. The wind blew so hard that I thought +the car would be toppled over. What made us more gloomy than anything else +was the thought of all the dry river courses that would be roaring floods +by morning, and probably hold up the ration supply indefinitely. + +Two days later the orders for which we had been waiting came through. We +were to march upon a town called Taza Khurmatli, lying fifteen miles +beyond Tauq and ten short of Kirkuk. If we met with no opposition there we +were to push straight on. From all we could hear Taza was occupied only by +cavalry, which would probably fall back without contesting our advance. +The cars had been out on reconnaissance near the town for the last two +days, and had come in for artillery and machine-gun fire; but it was +believed that the Turks had everything ready to withdraw their guns on our +approach. + +In the gray light that preceded dawn we saw shadowy columns of infantry +and artillery and cavalry passing by our camp. The costumes of the +different regiments made a break in the drab monotony. The Mesopotamian +Expeditionary Force was composed of varied components. Steel helmets could +be worn only in winter. In many of the native regiments the British +officers wore tasselled pugrees, and long tunics that were really shirts, +and an adaption of the native custom of wearing the shirt-tails outside +the trousers. The Gurkhas were supplied with pith helmets. It was +generally claimed that this was unnecessary, but the authorities felt that +coming from a cold, high climate they would be as much affected by the +Mesopotamian sun as were Europeans. The presence of the Indian troops +brought about unusual additions to the dry "General Routine Orders" issued +by general headquarters. One of them, referring to a religious festival of +the Sikhs, ran: + +"The following cable message received from Sunder Signh Hagetha, +Amritsar, addressed to Sikhs in Mesopotamian force: + +"To our most Dear Brothers now serving the Benign King-Emperor oversea, +the chief Khalsa Dewan tenders hearty and sincere greetings on the +auspicious Gurpurb of First Guru. You are upholding the name and fame of +Gurupurb. Our hearts are with you and our prayers are that Satguru and +Akalpurkh may ever be with you and lead you to victory and return home +safe, after vanquishing the King-Emperor's foes, with honor and flying +colors." + +The British Empire was well and loyally served by her Indian subjects, and +by none more faithfully than the Sikhs. + +We let the column get well started before we shoved off in our cars. The +trail was wide enough to pass without interfering; and long before we were +in sight of Taza we had taken our place ahead. As was foreseen, the enemy +evacuated the town with scarce a show of resistance. I set off to +interview the local head man. In the spring all the upper Mesopotamian +towns are inundated by flocks of storks, but I have never seen them in +greater force than in Taza. On almost every housetop were a couple, +throwing their heads back and clattering their beaks in the odd way that +gives them their onomatopoetic Arabic name of Lak-Lak. It sounded like the +rattle of machine-guns; so much so that on entering the village, for the +first second I thought that the Turks were opening up on us. No native +will molest a stork; to do so is considered to the last degree +inauspicious. + +There was but little water in the river running by Taza, and we managed to +get the cars through under their own power. A few miles farther on lay a +broad watercourse, dry in the main, but with the centre channel too deep +to negotiate, so there was nothing to be done without the help of the +artillery horses. The Turks were shelling the vicinity of the crossing, so +we drew back a short distance and sent word that we were held up waiting +for assistance to get us over. + +Once we had reached the far side we set out to pick our way round Kirkuk +to get astride the road leading thence to Altun Kupri. This is the main +route from Baghdad to Mosul, the chief city on the upper Tigris, across +the river from the ruins of Nineveh. It was a difficult task finding a way +practicable for the cars, as the ground was still soft from the recent +rains. It was impossible to keep defiladed from Turkish observation, but +we did not supply them with much in the way of a target. At length we got +round to the road, and started to advance down it to Kirkuk. The town, in +common with so many others in that part of the country, is built on a +hill. The Hamawand Kurds are inveterate raiders, and good fortifications +are needed to withstand them. As we came out upon the road we caught sight +of our cavalry preparing to attack. The Turks were putting up a stout +resistance, with darkness fast coming to their aid. After approaching +close to the town, we were ordered to return to a deserted village for the +night, prepared to go through in the early morning. + +The co-ordinates of the village were given, and we easily found it on the +map; but it was quite another proposition to locate it physically. To add +to our difficulties, the sky clouded over and pitchy blackness settled +down. It soon started to rain, so we felt that the best we could do was +select as likely a spot as came to hand and wait for morning. I made up my +mind that the front seat of a van, uncomfortable and cramped as it was, +would prove the best bed for the night. My estimate was correct, for at +midnight the light drizzle, that was scarcely more than a Scotch mist, +turned into a wild, torrential downpour that all but washed away my +companions. The waterproof flap that I had rigged withstood the onslaughts +of wind and rain in a fashion that was as gratifying as it was unexpected. +The vivid flashes of lightning showed the little dry ravine beside us +converted into a roaring, swirling torrent. The water was rushing past +beneath the cars, half-way up to their hubs. A large field hospital had +been set up close to the banks of the stream at Taza. We afterward heard +that the river had risen so rapidly that many of the tents and a few +ambulances were washed away. + +By morning it had settled down into a steady, businesslike downpour. We +found that we were inextricably caught in among some low hills. There was +not the slightest chance of moving the fighting cars; they were bogged +down to the axle. There was no alternative other than to wait until the +rain stopped and the mud dried. Fortunately our emergency rations were +still untouched. + +Our infantry went over at dawn, and won through into the town. If it had +not been for the rain we would have made some important captures. As it +was, the Turks destroyed the bridge across the Hasa Su and retreated to +Altun Kupri by the road on the farther bank. From a hill near by we +watched everything, powerless to help in any way. + +At noon the sky unexpectedly cleared and the sun came out. We unloaded a +Ford van, and with much pushing and no little spade work managed to get it +down to a road running in the direction of Kirkuk. We found the surface +equal to the light car, and slowly made our way to the outskirts of the +town, with occasional halts where digging and shoving were required. We +satisfied ourselves that, given a little sun, we could bring the armored +cars out of their bog and through to the town. + +[Illustration: Kirkuk] + +Next morning, in spite of the fact that more rain had fallen during the +night, I set to work on my tenders, and at length succeeded in putting +them all in Kirkuk. We were billeted in the citadel, a finely built, +substantial affair, with a courtyard that we could turn into a good +garage. The Turks had left in great haste, and, although they had +attempted a wholesale destruction of everything that they could not +take, they had been only partially successful. In my room I found a +quantity of pamphlets describing the American army--with diagrams of +insignia, and pictures of fully equipped soldiers of the different +branches of the service. There was also a map of the United States showing +the population by States. The text was, of course, in Turkish and the +printing excellently done. What the purpose might be I could not make out. + +The wherefore of another booklet was more obvious. It was an illustrated +account of alleged British atrocities. Most of the pictures purported to +have been taken in the Sudan, and showed decapitated negroes. Some I am +convinced were pictures of the Armenian massacres that the Turks had +themselves taken and in a thrifty moment put to this useful purpose. This +pamphlet was printed at the press in Kirkuk. + +There were a number of excellent buildings--mainly workshops and armories, +but the best was the hospital. The long corridors and deep windows of the +wards looked very cool. An up-to-date impression was given by the +individual patient charts, with the headings for the different diagnoses +printed in Turkish and French. The doctors were mainly Armenians. The +occupants were all suffering from malnutrition, and there was a great deal +of starvation in the town. + +I did not wish to return to Baghdad until I could be certain that we were +not going to advance upon Altun Kupri. The engineers patched up the +bridge, and we took the cars over to the other side and went off on a +reconnaissance to ascertain how strongly the town was being held. The long +bridge from which it gets its name could easily be destroyed, and crossing +over the river would be no light matter. The surrounding mountains limited +the avenue of attack. Altogether it would not be an easy nut to crack, and +the Turks had evidently determined on a stand. What decided the army +commander to make any further attempt to advance was most probably the +great length of the line of communications, and the recent floods had made +worse conditions which were bad enough at the best. The ration supply had +fallen very low, and it seemed impossible to hold even Kirkuk unless the +rail-head could be advanced materially. + +I put in all my odd moments wandering about the bazaars. The day after +the fall the merchants opened their booths and transacted business as +usual. The population was composed of many races, chiefly Turcoman, Kurd, +and Arab. There were also Armenians, Chaldeans, Syrians, and Jews. The +latter were exceedingly prosperous. Arabic and Kurdish and Turkish were +all three spoken. Kirkuk is of very ancient origin--but of its early +history little is known. The natives point out a mound which they claim to +be Daniel's tomb. Two others are shown as belonging to Shadrach and +Meshech; that of the third of the famous trio has been lost. There are +many artificial hills in the neighborhood, and doubtless in course of time +it will prove a fruitful hunting-ground for archaeologists. As far as I +could learn no serious excavating has hitherto been undertaken in the +vicinity. + +The bazaars were well filled with goods of every sort. I picked up one or +two excellent rugs for very little, and a few odds and ends, dating from +Seleucid times, that had been unearthed by Arab laborers in their gardens +or brick-kilns. There were some truck-gardens in the outskirts, and we +traded fresh vegetables for some of our issue rations. There are few +greater luxuries when one has been living on canned foods for a long +time. I saw several ibex heads nailed up over the doors of houses. The +owners told me that they were to be found in the near-by mountains, but +were not plentiful. There is little large game left in Mesopotamia, and +that mainly in the mountains. I once saw a striped hyena. It is a +nocturnal animal, and they may be common, although I never came across but +the one, which I caught sight of slinking among the ruins of Istabulat, +south of Samarra, one evening when I was riding back to camp. Gazelle were +fairly numerous, and we occasionally shot one for venison. It was on the +plains between Kizil Robat and Kara Tepe that I saw the largest bands. +Judging from ancient bas-reliefs lions must at one time have been very +plentiful. In the forties of the last century Sir Henry Layard speaks of +coming across them frequently in the hill country; and later still, in the +early eighties, a fellow countryman, Mr. Fogg, in his _Land of the Arabian +Nights_, mentions that the English captain of a river steamer had recently +killed four lions, shooting from the deck of his boat. Rousseau speaks of +meeting, near Hit, a man who had been badly mauled by a lion, and was +going to town to have his wounds cared for. Leopards and bears are to be +met with in the higher mountain regions, and wild boars are common in many +districts. They inhabit the thickets along the river-banks, in country +that would permit of much sound sport in the shape of pig-sticking. + +Game-birds are found in abundance; both greater and lesser bustard; black +and gray partridges, quail, geese, duck, and snipe. A week's leave could +be made provide good shooting and a welcome addition to the usual fare +when the wanderer returned. Every sort of shotgun was requisitioned, from +antiquated muzzle-loaders bought in the bazaar to the most modern +creations of Purdy sent out from India by parcel-post. + +After waiting a few days further, to be certain that an attack would not +be unexpectedly ordered, I set out on my return trip to Baghdad. The river +at Taza was still up, but I borrowed six mules from an accommodating +galloping ambulance, and pulled the car across. We went by way of Kifri, a +clean, stone-built town that we found all but empty. The food situation +had become so critical that the inhabitants had drifted off, some to our +lines, others to Persia, and still others to Kirkuk and Mosul. Near Kifri +are some coal-mines about which we had heard much. It is the only place in +the country where coal is worked, and we were hoping that we might put it +to good use. Our experts, however, reported that it was of very poor +quality and worth practically nothing. + + + + +VIII + +BACK THROUGH PALESTINE + + +Several days later I embarked at Baghdad on one of the river boats. I took +Yusuf with me to Busra to put me aboard the transport for Egypt. It was +the first time he had ever been that far down-stream, and he showed a fine +contempt for everything he saw, comparing it in most disparaging terms to +his own desolate native town of Samarra. The cheapness, variety, and +plenty of the food in the bazaars of Busra were the only things that he +allowed in any way to impress him. + +I was fortunate enough to run into some old friends, and through one of +them met General Sutton, who most kindly and opportunely rescued me from +the dreary "Rest-Camp" and took me to his house. While I was waiting for a +chance to get a place on a transport, he one morning asked me to go with +him to Zobeir, where he was to dedicate a hospital. Zobeir is a desert +town of ten thousand or so inhabitants, situated fifteen miles inland +from Busra. The climate is supposed to be more healthful, and many of the +rich and important residents of the river town have houses there to which +they retire during the summer months. To an outsider any comparison would +seem only a refinement of degrees of suffocation. The heat of all the +coastal towns of the Persian Gulf is terrific. + +Zobeir is a desert town, with its ideals and feelings true to the +inheritance of the tribesmen. It is a market for the caravans of central +Arabia. A good idea of the Turkish feeling toward it may be gathered from +the fact that the inhabitants were exempt from military service. This was +a clear admission on the part of the Turk that he could not cope with the +situation, and thought it wisest not to attempt something which he had no +hope of putting through. It was, therefore, a great triumph for the +British and a sure wedge into the confidence of the desert folk when the +hospital was opened, for any people that can introduce so marked an +innovation among the hidebound desert communities must have won their +confidence and respect in a remarkable degree. Ibrahim, the hereditary +Sheikh of Zobeir, himself contributed largely to the fund for the +endowment. It was arranged that Doctor Borrie, who among his other duties +ran the civil hospital at Busra, should periodically include Zobeir in his +rounds. The Sheikh showed us over the building. It was cool, comfortable, +and very sanitary. The Indian who was to be resident physician had every +appearance of intelligence and proficiency. Old Ibrahim gave us a large +banquet of the orthodox type. There was a sheep roasted whole, and dishes +of every sort of meat and vegetable marshalled upon the table, which +fairly groaned beneath their weight. We had innumerable speeches. General +Sutton made an excellent address, which an interpreter translated into +Arabic. Our Arabian hosts were long-winded, and the recognized local +orator was so classical in his phrases and forms and tenses that it was +impossible to do more than get the general drift of what he said. Luckily +I had in my pocket a copy of the _Lusiads_, which I surreptitiously read +when the speeches became hopelessly long drawn out. + +I was allotted space on a British India, boat, the _Torrilla_, that was to +take to Egypt a field artillery regiment of the Third Division. As we +dropped down-stream and I watched a disconsolate Yusuf standing on the +dock, I felt that another chapter had closed--an interesting one at that. +I was not left long to muse on what the next would bring forth before +there was a cry of "fire"; and from where I was standing in the +smoking-room I could see, through the open hatchways, the soldiers +hurrying about below decks. As the ship was well ballasted with +ammunition, anything that happened would, take place quickly, and only +those on the spot could hope to control events, so I stayed where I was. A +few minutes later the fire was reported out. + +The long two weeks' trip through the Persian Gulf and round to the Red Sea +was monotonously peaceful. Being "unattached," I had no regular duties. +Occasionally I attended "stables," and wandered around the horse lines. +The great heat below decks had far less effect upon the horses than would +be supposed. Of course, they were well cared for, and many were seasoned +veterans that had taken more than one long sea voyage. If I am not +mistaken, only one was lost on the trip. + +Most of the time I lay back in my rhoorkhee chair and read whatever I +could find in the ship's library. The wireless broke down a few days +after we left Busra, so we got no news whatever of the outer world, and +soon ceased to speculate on what might be happening in France. + +At length, on the morning of June 4, we dropped anchor in Suez harbor. We +had hoped that the _Torrilla_ would run through the canal to Port Said, +but the disembarkation officer told us that we were all to be unloaded at +Suez and proceed by rail. When I reached Alexandria I learned that a +convoy had just sailed and there would not be another for two weeks at +earliest. Sir Reginald Wingate, who had long been a family friend, was the +British High Commissioner. Lady Wingate and he with the utmost hospitality +insisted on my moving out to the residency to wait for my sailing. + +When I left for Mesopotamia Lord Derby had given me a letter to General +Allenby which I had never had an opportunity to present. Sir Reginald +suggested that I could not do better than make use of this enforced delay +by going up to Palestine. The railway was already running to Jerusalem and +you could go straight through from Cairo with but one change. At Kantara +you crossed the canal and entered the military zone. Leaving there at +half past eleven in the evening the train reached Ludd, which was general +headquarters, at seven the following morning. + +Every one that I had ever met who knew General Allenby was wildly +enthusiastic about him, and you had only to be with him a few minutes to +realize how thoroughly justified their enthusiasm was. He represented the +very highest type of the British soldier, and more need not be said. On +the morning on which I arrived an attack was in progress and we could hear +the drumming of the guns. The commander-in-chief placed a car at my +disposal and I went around visiting old friends that I had made in +Mesopotamia or still earlier in England, before the war. Among the latter +was Colonel Ronald Storrs, the military governor of Jerusalem. With him I +spent several days. Life in the Holy City seemed but little changed by the +war. There was an interesting innovation in the Church of the Nativity at +Bethlehem. The different Christian religious sects, in particular the +Greek and Latin Catholics, were prone to come to blows in the church, and +bloodshed and death had more than once been the result. To obviate this +it had been the custom to have a regular relief of Turkish soldiers +stationed in the church. Their place was now taken by British and French +and Italians. Each nationality in rotation furnished the guard for a day. +At the festival of the distribution of the Sacred Fire from the Church of +the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem there were usually a number of accidents +caused by the anxiety to reach the portal whence the fire was given out. +The commander-in-chief particularly complimented Colonel Storrs upon the +orderly way in which this ceremony was conducted under his regime. The +population of Jerusalem is exceedingly mixed--and the percentage of +fanatics is of course disproportionately large. There are many groups that +have been gathered together and brought out to the Holy Land with +distinctly unusual purposes. One such always had an empty seat at their +table and confidently expected that Christ would some day appear to occupy +it. The long-haired Russian and Polish Jews with their felt hats and +shabby frock coats were to be met with everywhere. In the street where the +Jews meet to lament the departed glory of Jerusalem an incongruous and +ludicrous element was added by a few Jews, their bowed heads covered with +ancient derby hats, wailing with undefeated zeal. + +[Illustration: A street in Jerusalem] + +It is a mournful fact that the one really fine building in Jerusalem +should be the Mosque of Omar--the famous "Dome of the Rock." This is built +on the legendary site of the temple of Solomon, and the mosaics lining the +inside of the dome are the most beautiful I have ever seen. The simplicity +is what is really most felt, doubly so because the Christian holy places +are garish and tawdry, with tin-foil and flowers and ornate carving. It is +to be hoped that the Christians will some day unite and clean out all the +dreary offerings and knickknacks that clutter the Church of the Holy +Sepulchre. Moslems hold the Mosque of Omar second in sanctity only to the +great mosque in the holy city of Mecca. It is curious, therefore, that +they should not object to Christians entering it. Mohammedans enter +barefoot, but we fastened large yellow slippers over our shoes, and that +was regarded as filling all requirements. Storrs pointed out to me that it +was quite unnecessary to remove our hats, for that is not a sign of +respect with Moslems, and they keep on their red fezzes. The mosque was +built by the Caliph Abd el Melek, about fifty years after Omar had +captured Jerusalem in 636 A.D. Many of the stones used in building it came +from the temple of Jupiter. In the centre lies the famous rock, some sixty +feet in diameter, and rising six or seven feet above the floor of the +mosque. To Mohammedans it is more sacred than anything else in the world +save the Black Stone at Mecca. Tradition says that it was here that +Abraham and Melchizedek sacrificed to Jehovah, and Abraham brought Isaac +as an offering. Scientists find grounds for the belief that it was the +altar of the temple in the traces of a channel for carrying off the blood +of the victims. The Crusaders believed the mosque to be the original +temple of Solomon, and, according to their own reports, rededicated it +with the massacre of more than ten thousand Moslems who had fled thither +for refuge. The wrought-iron screen that they placed around the rock still +remains. The cavern below is the traditional place of worship of many of +the great characters of the Old Testament, such as David and Solomon and +Elijah. From it Mohammed made his night journey to heaven, borne on his +steed El Burak. In the floor of the cavern is an opening covered with a +slab of stone, and said to go down to the centre of the world and be a +medium for communicating with the souls of the departed. + +The military governor has been at work to better the sanitary conditions +in Jerusalem. Hitherto the only water used by the townsfolk had been the +rain-water which they gathered in tanks. Some years ago it was proposed to +bring water to the city in pipes, some of which were already laid before +the inhabitants decided that such an innovation could not be tolerated. +The British have put in a pipe-line, and oddly enough it runs to the same +reservoir whence Pontius Pilate started to bring water by means of an +aqueduct. They have also built some excellent roads through the +surrounding hills. Here, as in Mesopotamia, one was struck by the +permanent nature of the improvements that are being made. Even to people +absorbed in their own jealousies and rivalries the advantages that they +were deriving from their liberation from Turkish rule must have been +exceedingly apparent. + +The situation in Palestine differed in many ways from that in Mesopotamia, +but in none more markedly than in the benefits derived from the +propinquity of Egypt. Occasional leaves were granted to Cairo and +Alexandria and they afforded the relaxation of a complete change of +surroundings. I have never seen Cairo gayer. Shepherd's Hotel was open and +crowded--and the dances as pleasant as any that could be given in London. +The beaches at Ramleh, near Alexandria, were bright with crowds of +bathers, and the change afforded the "men from up the line" must have +proved of inestimable value in keeping the army contented. There were +beaches especially reserved for non-commissioned officers and others for +the privates--while in Cairo sightseeing tours were made to the pyramids +and what the guide-books describe as "other points of interest." + +When I left Mesopotamia I made up my mind that there was one man in +Palestine whom I would use every effort to see if I were held over waiting +for a sailing. This man was Major A.B. Paterson, known to every Australian +as "Banjo" Paterson. His two most widely read books are _The Man from +Snowy River_ and _Rio Grande's Last Race_; both had been for years +companions of the entire family at home and sources for daily quotations, +so I had always hoped to some day meet their author. I knew that he had +fought in the South African War, and I heard that he was with the +Australian forces in Palestine. As soon as I landed I asked every +Australian officer that I met where Major Paterson was, for locating an +individual member of an expeditionary force, no matter how well known he +may be, is not always easy. Every one knew him. I remember well when I +inquired at the Australian headquarters in Cairo how the man I asked +turned to a comrade and said: "Say, where's 'Banjo' now? He's at Moascar, +isn't he?" Whether they had ever met him personally or not he was "Banjo" +to one and all. + +On my return to Alexandria I stopped at Moascar, which was the main depot +of the Australian Remount Service, and there I found him. He is a man of +about sixty, with long mustaches and strong aquiline features--very like +the type of American plainsman that Frederic Remington so well portrayed. +He has lived everything that he has written. At different periods of his +life he has dived for pearls in the islands, herded sheep, broken broncos, +and known every chance and change of Australian station life. The +Australians told me that when he was at his prime he was regarded as the +best rider in Australia. A recent feat about which I heard much mention +was when he drove three hundred mules straight through Cairo without +losing a single animal, conclusively proving his argument against those +who had contested that such a thing could not be done. Although he has +often been in England, Major Paterson has never come to the United States. +He told me that among American writers he cared most for the works of Joel +Chandler Harris and O. Henry--an odd combination! + +While in Egypt I met a man about whom I had heard much, a man whose career +was unsurpassed in interest and in the amount accomplished by the +individual. Before the war Colonel Lawrence was engaged in archaeological +research under Professor Hogarth of Oxford University. Their most +important work was in connection with the excavation of a buried city in +Palestine. At the outbreak of hostilities Professor Hogarth joined the +Naval Intelligence and rendered invaluable services to the Egyptian +Expeditionary Forces. Lawrence had an excellent grounding in Arabic and +decided to try to organize the desert tribes into bands that would raid +the Turkish outposts and smash their lines of communication. He +established a body-guard of reckless semioutlaws, men that in the old days +in our West would have been known as "bad men." They became devoted to him +and he felt that he could count upon their remaining faithful should any +of the tribes with which he was raiding meditate treachery. He dressed in +Arab costume, but as a whole made no effort to conceal his nationality. +His method consisted in leading a tribe off on a wild foray to break the +railway, blow up bridges, and carry off the Turkish supplies. Swooping +down from out the open desert like hawks, they would strike once and be +off before the Turks could collect themselves. Lawrence explained that he +had to succeed, for if he failed to carry off any booty, his reputation +among the tribesmen was dead--and no one would follow him thereafter. What +he found hardest on these raids was killing the wounded--but the dread of +falling into the hands of the Turks was so great that before starting it +was necessary to make a compact to kill all that were too badly injured to +be carried away on the camels. The Turks offered for Colonel Lawrence's +capture a reward of ten thousand pounds if dead and twenty thousand +pounds if alive. His added value in the latter condition was due to the +benefit that the enemy expected to derive from his public execution. No +one who has not tried it can realize what a long ride on a camel means, +and although Lawrence was eager to take with him an Englishman who would +know the best methods of blowing up bridges and buildings, he could never +find any one who was able to stand the strain of a long journey on camel +back. + +Lawrence told me that he couldn't last much longer, things had broken +altogether too well for him, and they could not continue to do so. +Scarcely more than thirty years of age, with a clean-shaven, boyish face, +short and slender in build, if one met him casually among a lot of other +officers it would not have been easy to single him out as the great power +among the Arabs that he on every occasion proved himself to be. Lawrence +always greatly admired the Arabs--appreciating their many-sidedness--their +virility--their ferocity--their intellect and their sensitiveness. I +remember well one of the stories which he told me. It was, I believe, when +he was on a long raid in the course of which he went right into the +outskirts of Damascus--then miles behind the Turkish lines. They halted at +a ruined palace in the desert. The Arabs led him through the various +rooms, explaining that each was scented with a different perfume. Although +Lawrence could smell nothing, they claimed that one room had the odor of +ambergris--another of roses--and a third of jasmine;--at length they came +to a large and particularly ruinous room. "This," they said, "has the +finest scent of all--the smell of the wind and the sun." I last saw +Colonel Lawrence in Paris, whither he had brought the son of the King of +the Hedjaz to attend the Peace Conference. + +When I got back to Alexandria I found that the sailing of the convoy had +been still further delayed. Three vessels out of the last one to leave had +been sunk, involving a considerable loss of life. The channel leading from +the harbor out to sea is narrow and must be followed well beyond the +entrance, so that the submarines had an excellent chance to lay in wait +for outgoing boats. The greatest secrecy was observed with regard to the +date of leaving and destination--and of course troops were embarked and +held in the harbor for several days so as to avoid as far as possible any +notice being given to the lurking enemy by spies on shore. + +The transports were filled with units that were being hurried off to stem +the German tide in France, so casual officers were placed on the +accompanying destroyers and cruisers. I was allotted to a little Japanese +destroyer, the _Umi_. She was of only about six hundred and fifty tons +burden, for this class of boat in the Japanese navy is far smaller than in +ours. She was as neat as a pin, as were also the crew. The officers were +most friendly and did everything possible to make things comfortable for a +landsman in their limited quarters. The first meal on board we all used +knives and forks, but thereafter they were only supplied to me, while the +Japanese fell back upon their chop-sticks. It was a never-failing source +of interest to watch their skill in eating under the most difficult +circumstances. One morning when the boat was dancing about even more than +usual, I came into breakfast to find the steward bringing in some rather +underdone fried eggs, and thought that at last I would see the ship's +officers stumped in the use of their chop-sticks. Not a bit of it; they +had disposed of the eggs in the most unsurpassed manner and were off to +their duties before I myself had finished eating. + +[Illustration: Japanese destroyers passing through the gut at Taranto] + +We left Alexandria with an escort of aeroplanes to see us safely started, +while an observation balloon made fast to a cruiser accompanied us on the +first part of our journey. The precautions were not in vain, for two +submarines were sighted a short time after we cleared the harbor. The +traditional Japanese efficiency was well borne out by the speed with which +our crew prepared for action. Every member was in his appointed place and +the guns were stripped for action in an incredibly short time after the +warning signal. It was when we were nearing the shores of Italy that I had +best opportunity to see the destroyers at work. We sighted a submarine +which let fly at one of the troopers--the torpedo passing its bow and +barely missing the boat beyond it. Quick as a flash the Japanese were +after it--swerving in and out like terriers chasing a rat, and letting +drive as long as it was visible. We cast around for the better part of an +hour, dropping overboard depth charges which shook the little craft as the +explosion sent great funnels of water aloft. The familiar harbor of +Taranto was a welcome sight when we at length herded our charges in +through the narrow entrance and swung alongside the wharf where the +destroyers were to take in a supply of fuel preparatory to starting out +again on their interminable and arduous task. + + + + +IX + +WITH THE FIRST DIVISION IN FRANCE AND GERMANY + +I + + +My transfer to the American army appointed me as captain of field +artillery instead of infantry, as I had wished. Just how the mistake +occurred I never determined, but once in the field artillery I found that +to shift back would take an uncertain length of time, and that even after +it was effected I would be obliged to take a course at some school before +going up to the line. It therefore seemed advisable to go immediately, as +instructed, to the artillery school, at Saumur. The management was half +French and half American. Colonel MacDonald and Colonel Cross were the +Americans in charge, and the high reputation of the school bore testimony +to their efficiency. It was the intention of headquarters gradually to +replace all the French instructors with Americans, but when I was there +the former predominated. It was of course necessary to wait until our +officers had learned by actual experience the use of the French guns with +which our army was supplied. When men are being taught what to do in +combat conditions they apply themselves more attentively and absorb far +more when they feel that the officer teaching them has had to test, under +enemy fire, the theories he is expounding. The school was for both +officers and candidates. The latter were generally chosen from among the +non-commissioned officers serving at the front; I afterward sent men down +from my battery. The first part of the course was difficult for those who +had either never had much mathematical training or had had it so long ago +that they were hopelessly out of practice. A number of excellent sergeants +and corporals did not have the necessary grounding to enable them to pass +the examinations. They should never have been sent, for it merely put them +in an awkward and humiliating position--although no stigma could possibly +be attached to them for having failed. + +The French officer commanding the field work was Major de Caraman. His +long and distinguished service in the front lines, combined with his +initiative and ever-ready tact, made him an invaluable agent in welding +the ideas and methods of France and America. His house was always filled +with Americans, and how much his hospitality meant to those whose ties +were across the ocean must have been experienced to be appreciated. The +homes of France were ever thrown open to us, and the sincere and simple +good-will with which we were received has put us under a lasting debt +which we should be only too glad to cherish and acknowledge. + +Saumur is a delightful old town in the heart of the chateau country. The +river Loire runs through it, and along the banks are the caves in some of +which have been found the paintings made by prehistoric man picturing the +beasts with which he struggled for supremacy in the dim dark ages. The +same caves are many of them inhabited, and their owners may well look with +scorn upon the chateaux and baronial castles of whose antiquity it is +customary to boast. There is an impressive castle built on a hill +dominating the town, and in one of the churches is hung an array of +tapestries of unsurpassed color and design. The country round about +invited rambling, and the excellent roads made it easy; particularly +delightful were the strolls along the river-banks, where patient +fisherfolk of every sex and age sat unperturbed by the fact that they +never seemed to catch anything. One old lady with a sunbonnet was always +to be seen seated on a three-legged stool in the same corner amid the +rocks. She had a rusty black umbrella which she would open when the rays +of the sun became too searching. + +The buildings which were provided for the artillery course had formerly +been used by the cavalry school, probably the best known in the world. +Before the war army officers of every important nation in the Occident and +Orient were sent by their governments to follow the course and learn the +method of instruction. My old friend Fitzhugh Lee was one of those sent by +the United States, and I found his record as a horseman still alive and +fresh in the memory of many of the townspeople. + +Soon after the termination of my period of instruction I was in command of +C Battery of the Seventh Field Artillery in the Argonne fighting. I was +standing one morning in the desolate, shell-ridden town of Landres et St. +George watching a column of "dough-boys" coming up the road; at their head +limped a battered Dodge car, and as it neared me I recognized my elder +brother Ted, sitting on the back seat in deep discussion with his +adjutant. I had believed him to be safely at the staff school in Langres +recuperating from a wound, but he had been offered the chance to come up +in command of his old regiment, the Twenty-Sixth, and although registered +as only "good for light duty in the service of supply," he had made his +way back to the division. While we were talking another car came up and +out from it jumped my brother-in-law, Colonel Richard Derby--at that time +division surgeon of the Second Division. We were the only three members of +the family left in active service since my brother Quentin, the aviator, +was brought down over the enemy lines, and Archie, severely wounded in leg +and arm, had been evacuated to the United States. I well remember how once +when Colonel Derby introduced me to General Lejeune, who was commanding +his division, the general, instead of making some remark about my father, +said: "I shall always be glad to meet a relative of a man with Colonel +Derby's record." + +On the 11th of November we had just returned to our original sector after +attacking Sedan. None of us placed much confidence in an armistice being +signed. We felt that the German would never accept the terms, but were +confident that by late spring or early summer we would be able to bring +about an unconditional surrender. When the firing ceased and the news came +through that the enemy had capitulated, there was no great show of +excitement. We were all too weary to be much stirred by anything that +could occur. For the past two weeks we had been switched hither and yon, +with little sleep and less food, and a constant decrease in our personnel +and horses that was never entirely made good but grew steadily more +serious. The only bursts of enthusiasm that I heard were occasioned by the +automobile trucks and staff cars passing by after dark with their +headlights blazing. The joyous shouts of "Lights out!" testified that the +reign of darkness was over. Soon the men began building fires and +gathering about them, calling "Lights out!" as each new blaze started--a +joke which seemed a never-failing source of amusement. + +We heard that we were to march into Germany in the wake of the evacuating +army and occupy one of the bridge-heads. All this came through in vague +and unconfirmed form, but in a few days we were hauled back out of the +line to a desolate mass of ruins which had once been the village of +Bantheville. We were told that we would have five days here, during which +we would be reoutfitted in every particular. Our horses were in fearful +shape--constant work in the rain and mud with very meagre allowance of +fodder had worn down the toughest old campaigners among them. During the +weary, endless night march on Sedan I often saw two horses leaning against +each other in utter exhaustion--as if it were by that means alone that +they kept on their feet. We were told to indent for everything that we +needed to make our batteries complete as prescribed in the organization +charts, but we followed instructions without any very blind faith in +results--nor did our lack of trust prove unwarranted, for we got +practically nothing for which we had applied. + +There were some colored troops near by engaged in repairing the roads, and +a number of us determined to get up a quartet to sing for the men. We went +to where the negroes had built themselves shelters from corrugated-iron +sheets and miscellaneous bits of wreckage from the town. We collected +three quarters of our quartet and were directed to the mess-shack for the +fourth. As we approached I could hear sounds of altercation and a voice +that we placed immediately as that of our quarry arose in indignant +warning: "If yo' doan' leggo that mess-kit I'll lay a barrage down on +yo'!" A platform was improvised near a blazing fire of pine boards and we +had some excellent clogging and singing. The big basso had evidently a +strong feeling for his steel helmet, and it undoubtedly added to his +picturesqueness--setting off his features with his teeth and eyes gleaming +in the firelight. + +On the evening of the second day orders came to move off on the following +morning. We were obliged to discard much material, for although the two +days' rest and food had distinctly helped out the horse situation, we had +many animals that could barely drag themselves along, much less a loaded +caisson, and our instructions were to on no account salvage ammunition. We +could spare but one horse for riding--my little mare--and she was no use +for pulling. She was a wise little animal with excellent gaits and great +endurance. We were forced to leave, behind another mare that I had ridden +a good deal on reconnaissances, and that used to amuse me by her +unalterable determination to stick to cover. It was almost most impossible +to get her to cut across a field; she preferred to skirt the woods and had +no intention of exposing herself on any sky-line. In spite of her caution +it was on account of wounds that she had eventually to be abandoned. I +trust that the salvage parties found her and that she is now reaping the +reward of her foresight. + +We were a sorry-looking outfit as we marched away from Bantheville. My +lieutenants had lost their bedding-rolls and extra clothes long since--as +every one did, for it was impossible to keep your belongings with you--and +although authorized dumps were provided and we were told that anything +left behind would be cared for, we would be moved to another sector +without a chance to collect our excess and practically everything would +have disappeared by the time the opportunity came to visit the cache. But +although the horses and accoutrements were in bad shape, the men were fit +for any task, and more than ready to take on whatever situation might +arise. + +Our destination was Malancourt, no great distance away, but the roads +were so jammed with traffic that it was long after dark before we reached +the bleak, wind-swept hillside that had been allotted to us. It was +bitterly cold and we groped about among the shattered barbed-wire +entanglements searching for wood to light a fire. There was no difficulty +in finding shell-craters in which to sleep--the ground was so pockmarked +with them that it seemed impossible that it could have been done by human +agency. + +This country had been an "active" area during practically all the war, and +the towns had been battered and beaten down first by the Boche and then by +the French, and lately we ourselves had taken a hand in the further +demolition of the ruins. Many a village was recognizable from the +encompassing waste only by the sign-board stuck in a mound announcing its +name. The next day's march took us through Esne, Montzeville, and +Bethainville, and on down to the Verdun-Paris highway. We passed by +historic "Dead Man's Hill," and not far from there we saw the mute +reminders of an attack that brought the whole scene vividly back. There +were nine or ten tanks, of types varying from the little Renault to the +powerful battleship sort. All had been halted by direct hits, some while +still far from their objective, others after they had reached the wire +entanglements, and there was one that was already astride of the +first-line trench. The continual sight of ruined towns and desolated +countryside becomes very oppressive, and it was a relief when we began to +pass through villages in which many of the houses were still left +standing; it seemed like coming into a new world. + +At ten in the evening I got the battery into Balaicourt. A strong wind was +blowing and the cold was intense, so I set off to try to find billets for +the men where they could be at least partly sheltered. The town was all +but deserted by its inhabitants, and we managed to provide every one with +some degree of cover. Getting back into billets is particularly welcome in +very cold or rainy weather, and we all were glad to be held over a day on +the wholly mythical plea of refitting. Although the time would not be +sufficient to make any appreciable effort in the way of cleaning harness +or _materiel_, the men could at any rate heat water to wash their clothes +and themselves. + +The next day's march we regarded as our first in the advance into Germany +to which we had so long looked forward. We found the great Verdun highway +which had played such an important part in the defense that broke the back +of the Hun to be in excellent shape and a pleasant change from the +shell-pitted roads to which we had become accustomed. It was not without a +thrill that I rode, at the head of my battery, through the missive south +gate of Verdun, and followed the winding streets of the old city through +to the opposite portal. Before we had gone many miles the road crossed a +portion of the far-famed Hindenburg line which had here remained intact +until evacuated by the Boche a few days previously under the terms of the +armistice. + +We made a short halt where a negro engineer regiment was at work making +the road passable. A most hospitable officer strolled up and asked if I +wanted anything to eat, which when you are in the army may be classified +with Goldberg's "foolish questions." A sturdy coal-black cook brought me +soup and roast beef and coffee, and never have I appreciated the culinary +arts of the finest French chef as I did that meal, for the food had been +cooked, not merely thrown into one of the tureens of a rolling kitchen, +which was as much as we had recently been able to hope for. + +The negro cook looked as if he would have been able to emulate his French +confrere of whom Major de Caraman told me. The Frenchman was on his way to +an outpost with a steaming caldron of soup. He must have lost the way, for +he unexpectedly found himself confronted by a German who ordered him to +surrender. For reply the cook slammed the soup-dish over his adversary's +head and marched him back a prisoner. His prowess was rewarded with a +Croix de Guerre. + +It was interesting to see the German system of defense when it was still +intact and had not been shattered by our artillery preparation as it was +when taken in an attack. The wire entanglements were miles in depth, and +the great trees by the roadside were mined. This was done by cutting a +groove three or four inches broad and of an equal depth and filling it +with packages of explosive. I suppose the purpose was to block the road in +case of retreat. Only a few of the mines had been set off. + +Passing through several towns that no longer existed we came to Etain, +where many buildings were still standing though completely gutted. The +cellars had been converted into dugouts with passages and ramifications +added. We were billeted in some German huts on the outskirts. They were +well dug in and comfortably fitted out, so we were ready to stay over a +few days, as we had been told we should, but at midnight orders were sent +round to be prepared to march out early. + +The country was lovely and gave little sign of the Boche occupation except +that it was totally deserted and when we passed through villages all the +signs were in German. There was but little originality displayed in naming +the streets--you could be sure that you would find a Hindenburg Strasse +and a Kronprinz Strasse, and there was usually one called after the +Kaiser. The mile-posts at the crossroads had been mostly replaced, but +occasionally we found battered metal plaques of the Automobile Touring +Club of France. Ever since we left Verdun we had been meeting bands of +released prisoners, Italians and Russians chiefly, with a few French and +English mingled. They were worn and underfed--their clothes were in rags. +A few had combined and were pulling their scanty belongings on little +cars, such as children make out of soap-boxes. The motor-trucks returning +to our base after bringing up the rations would take back as many as they +could carry. + +We came across scarcely any civilians until we reached Bouligny, a once +busy and prosperous manufacturing town. A few of the inhabitants had been +allowed to remain throughout the enemy occupation and small groups of +those that had been removed were by now trickling in. The invader had +destroyed property in the most ruthless manner, and the buildings were +gutted. The domestic habits of the Hun were always to me inexplicable--he +evidently preferred to live in the midst of his own filth, and many times +have I seen recently captured chateaux that had been converted into +veritable pigsties. + +The inhabitants went wild at our entry--in the little villages they came +out carrying wreaths and threw confetti and flowers as they shouted the +"Marseillaise." The infantry, marching in advance, bore the brunt of the +celebrations. What interested me most were the bands of small children, +many of them certainly not over five, dancing along the streets singing +their national anthem. It must have been taught them in secret. In the +midst of a band were often an American soldier or two, in full swing, +thoroughly enjoying themselves. The enthusiasm was all of it natural and +uninspired by alcohol, for the Germans had taken with them everything to +drink that they had been unable to finish. + +Bouligny is not an attractive place--few manufacturing towns are--but we +got the men well billeted under water-tight roofs, and we were able to +heat water for washing. My striker found a large caldron and I luxuriated +in a steaming bath, the first in over a month, and, what was more, I had +some clean clothes to pull on when I got out. + +One evening, when returning from a near-by village, I met a frock-coated +civilian who inquired of me in German the way to Etain. I asked him who he +was and what he wanted. He answered that he was a German but was tired of +his country and wished to go almost anywhere else. He seemed altogether +too apparent to be a spy, and even if he were I could not make out any +object that he could gain. I have often wondered what became of him. + +The Boches had evidently not expected to give up their conquests, for they +had built an enormous stone-and-brick fountain in the centre of the town, +and chiselled its name, "Hindenburg Brunnen." Above the German canteen or +commissary shop was a great wooden board with "Gott strafe England"--a +curious proof of how bitterly the Huns hated Great Britain, for there were +no British troops in the sectors in front of this part of the invaded +territory. + +We worked hard "policing up" ourselves and our equipment during the few +days we stayed at Bouligny. One morning all the townsfolk turned out in +their best clothes, which had been buried in the cellars or hidden behind +the rafters in the attics, to greet the President and Madame Poincare, who +were visiting the most important of the liberated towns. It was good to +hear the cheering and watch the beaming faces. + +On November 21 we resumed our march. Close to the border we came upon a +large German cemetery, artistically laid out, with a group of massive +statuary in the centre. There were some heroic-size granite statues of +Boche soldiers in full kit with helmet and all, that were particularly +fine. As we passed the stones marking the boundary-line between France +and Lorraine there was a tangible feeling of making history, and it was +not without a thrill that we entered Aumetz and heard the old people greet +us in French while the children could speak only German. The town was gay +with the colors of France--produced from goodness knows where. Children +were balancing themselves on the barrels of abandoned German cannon and +climbing about the huge camouflaged trucks. We were now where France, +Luxemburg, and Lorraine meet, and all day we skirted the borders of first +one and then the other, halting for the night at the French town of +Villerupt. The people went wild when we rode in--we were the first +soldiers of the Allies they had seen, for the Germans entered immediately +after the declaration of war, and the only poilus the townsfolk saw were +those that were brought in as prisoners. We were welcomed in the town +hall--the German champagne was abominable but the reception was +whole-hearted and the speeches were sincere in their jubilation. + +I was billeted with the mayor, Monsieur Georges. After dinner he produced +two grimy bottles of Pol Roger--he said that he had been forced to change +their hiding-place four times, and had just dug them up in his cellar. +They were destined for the night of liberation. Monsieur Georges was thin +and worn; he had spent two years in prison in solitary confinement for +having given a French prisoner some bread. His eighteen-year-old daughter +was imprisoned for a year because she had not informed the authorities as +to what her father had done. No one in the family would learn a single +word of German. They said that all French civilians were forced to salute +the Germans, and each Sunday every one was compelled to appear in the +market-place for general muster. The description of the departure of their +hated oppressors was vivid--the men behind the lines knew the full portent +of events and were sullen and crestfallen, but the soldiers fresh from the +front believed that Germany had won and was dictating her own terms; they +came through with wreaths hung on their bayonets singing songs of victory. + +I had often wondered how justly the food supplies sent by America for the +inhabitants of the invaded districts were distributed. Monsieur Georges +assured me that the Germans were scrupulously careful in this matter, +because they feared that if they were not, the supplies would no longer +be sent, and this would of course encroach upon their own resources, for +even the Hun could not utterly starve to death the captured French +civilians. The mayor told me of the joy the shipments brought and how when +the people went to draw their rations they called it "going to America." +We sat talking until far into the night before I retired to the luxury of +a real bed with clean linen sheets. There was no trouble whatever in +billeting the men--the townsmen were quarrelling as to who should have +them. + +Next morning, with great regret at so soon leaving our willing hosts, we +marched off into the little Duchy of Luxemburg. We passed through the +thriving city of Esch with its great iron-mines. The streets were gay with +flags, there were almost as many Italian as French, for there is a large +Italian colony, the members of which are employed in mining and smelting. +Brass bands paraded in our honor, and we were later met by them in many of +the smaller towns. The shops seemed well filled, but the prices were very +high. The Germans seemed to have left the Luxemburgers very much to +themselves, and I have little doubt but that they would have been at least +as pleased to welcome victorious Boches had affairs taken a different +turn. Still they were glad to see us, for it meant the end of the +isolation in which they had been living and the eventual advent of +foodstuffs. + +As we rode along, the countryside was lovely and the smiling fields and +hillsides made "excursions and alarums" seem remote indeed. It felt +unnatural to pass through a village with unscarred church spires and +houses all intact--such a change from battered, glorious France. + +We were immediately in the wake of the German army, and taken by and large +they must have been retiring in good order, for they left little behind. +Our first night we spent at the village of Syren, eight kilometres from +the capital of the Duchy. Billeting was not so easy now, for we were +ordered to treat the inhabitants as neutrals, and when they objected we +couldn't handle the situation as we did later on in Germany. No one likes +to have soldiers or civilians quartered on him, and the Luxemburgers were +friendly to us only as a matter of policy. Fortunately, the chalk marks of +the Boche billeting officers had not been washed off the doors, and these +told us how many men had been lodged in a given house. + +In my lodging I was accorded a most friendly reception, for my hostess +was French. Her nephew had come up from Paris to visit her a few months +before the outbreak of the war, and had been unable to get back to France. +To avoid the dreaded internment camp he had successfully passed as a +Luxemburger. In the regiment there were a number of men whose parents came +from the Duchy; these and a few more who spoke German acquired a sudden +popularity among their comrades. They would make friends with some of the +villagers and arrange to turn over their rations so that they would be +cooked by the housewife and eaten with the luxurious accompaniment of +chair and table. The diplomat would invite a few friends to enjoy with him +the welcome change from the "slum" ladled out of the caldrons of the +battery rolling kitchen. I had always supposed that I had in my battery a +large number of men who could speak German--a glance over the pay-roll +would certainly leave that impression--but when I came to test it out, I +found that I had but four men who spoke sufficiently well to be of any use +as interpreters. + +Next morning we made a winding, roundabout march to Trintange. Here we +were instructed to settle down for a week or ten days' halt, and many +worse places might have been chosen. The country was very broken, with +hills and ravines. Little patches of woodland and streams dashing down +rocky channels on their way to join the Moselle reminded one of Rock Creek +Park in Washington. The weather couldn't be bettered; sharp and cold in +the early morning with a heavy hoarfrost spreading its white mantle over +everything, then out would come the sun, and the hills would be shrouded +in mist. + +My billeting officer had arranged matters well, so we were comfortably +installed and in good shape to "police up" for the final leg of the march +to Coblenz. I had now my full allowance of officers--Lieutenants Furness, +Brown, Middleditch, and Pearce. In active warfare discipline while +stricter in some ways is more lax in others, and there were many small +points that required furbishing. Close order drill on foot is always a +great help in stiffening up the men, and such essentials as instruction in +driving and in fitting harness required much attention. In the American +army much less responsibility is given to the sergeants and corporals than +in the British, but even so the spirit and efficiency of an organization +must depend largely on its non-commissioned officers. We were fortunate in +having an unusually fine lot--Sergeant Cushing was a veteran of the +Spanish War. He had been a sailor for many years, and after he left the +sea he became chief game warden of Massachusetts. In time of stress he was +a tower of strength and could be counted upon to set his men an example of +cool and judicious daring. The first sergeant, Armstrong, was an old +regular army man, and his knowledge of drill and routine was invaluable to +us. He thoroughly understood his profession, and was remarkably successful +in training raw men. Sergeants Grumbling, Kubelis, and Bauer were all of +them excellent men, and could be relied upon to perform their duty with +conscientious thoroughness under the most trying conditions. + +One afternoon I went in to Luxemburg with Colonel Collins, the battalion +commander. The town looks thoroughly mediaeval as you approach. It might +well have been over its castle wall that Kingsley's knight spurred his +horse on his last leap; as a matter of fact the village of Altenahr, where +the poet laid the scene, is not so many miles away. The town is built +along the ragged cliffs lining a deep, rocky canyon spanned by old stone +bridges. The massive entrance-gates open upon passages tunnelled through +the hills, and although the modern part of the town boasts broad streets +and squares, there are many narrow passageways winding around the ancient +quarter. + +I went into a large bookstore to replenish my library, and was struck by +the supply of post-cards of Marshal Foch and Kitchener and the King and +Queen of Belgium. All had been printed in Leipzig, and when I asked the +bookseller how that could be, he replied that he got them from the German +commercial travellers. He said that he had himself been surprised at the +samples shown him, but the salesman had remarked that he thought such +post-cards would have a good sale in Luxemburg, and if such were the case +"business was business," and he was prepared to supply them. There was +even one of King Albert standing with drawn sword, saying: "You shall not +violate the sacred soil of my country." A publication that also interested +me was a weekly paper brought out in Hamburg and written in English. It +was filled with jokes, beneath which were German notes explaining any +difficult or idiomatic words and phrases. With all their hatred of England +the Huns still continued to learn English. + +Thanksgiving Day came along, and we set to work to provide some sort of a +special feast for the men. It was most difficult to do so, for the +exchange had not as yet been regulated and the lowest rate at which we +could get marks was at a franc, and usually it was a franc and a quarter. +Some one opportunely arrived from Paris with a few hundred marks that he +had bought at sixty centimes. For the officers we got a suckling pig, +which Mess Sergeant Braun roasted in the priest's oven. He even put the +traditional baked apple in its mouth, a necessary adjunct, the purpose of +which I have never discovered, and such stuffing as he made has never been +equalled. We washed it down with excellent Moselle wine, for we were but a +couple of miles from the vineyards along the river. In the afternoon I +borrowed a bicycle from the burgomaster and trailed over to Elmen, where I +found my brother just about to sit down to his Thanksgiving dinner served +up by two faithful Chinamen, who had come to his regiment in a draft from +the West Coast. After doing full justice to his fare I wended my way back +to Trintange in the rain and dark. + +The next day we paid the men. For some it was the first time in ten +months. To draw pay it was necessary to sign the pay-roll at the end of +one month and be on hand at the end of the following month to receive the +money. No one could sign unless his service record was at hand, and as +this was forwarded to the hospital "through military channels" when a man +was evacuated sick or wounded, it rarely reached his unit until several +months after he returned. It may easily be seen why it was that an +enlisted man often went for months without being able to draw his pay. +This meant not only a hardship to him while he was without money, but, it +also followed that when he got it he had a greater amount than he could +possibly need, and was more than apt to gamble or drink away his sudden +accession of wealth. We always tried to make a man who had drawn a lot of +back pay deposit it or send it home. Mr. Harlow, the Y.M.C.A. secretary +attached to the regiment, helped us a great deal in getting the money +transferred to the United States. The men, unless they could spend their +earnings immediately, would start a game of craps and in a few days all +the available cash would have found its way into the pocket of the +luckiest man. They would throw for appallingly high stakes. On this +particular pay-day we knew that the supply of wine and beer in the village +was not sufficient to cause any serious trouble, and orders were given +that no cognac or hard liquor should be sold. A few always managed to get +it--all precautions to the contrary notwithstanding. + +II + +On the 1st of December we once more resumed our march and at Wormeldange +crossed over the Moselle River into Hunland. The streets of the first town +through which we passed were lined with civilians, many of them only just +out of uniform, and they scowled at us as we rode by, muttering below +their breath. A short way out and we began to meet men still in the +field-gray uniform; they smiled and tried to make advances but our men +paid no attention. When we reached Onsdorf, which was our destination, the +billeting officer reported that he had met with no difficulty. + +The inhabitants were most effusive and anxious to please in every way. Of +course they were not Prussians, and no doubt were heartily tired and sick +of war, but here, as throughout, their attitude was most distasteful to +us--it was so totally lacking in dignity. We could not tell how much they +were acting on their own initiative and to what extent they were following +instructions. Probably there was something of both back of their conduct. +Warnings had been issued that the Germans were reported to be planning a +wholesale poisoning of American officers, but I never saw anything to +substantiate the belief. + +Next morning we struck across to the Saar River and followed it down to +its junction with the Moselle. The woods and ravines were lovely, but from +the practical standpoint the going was very hard upon the horses. We +marched down through Treves, the oldest town in Germany, with a population +of about thirty thousand. In the fourth century of our era Ausonius +referred to it as "Rome beyond the Alps," and the extent and variety of +the Roman remains would seem to justify the epithet. We were halted for +some time beside the most remarkable of these, the Porta Nigra, a huge +fortified gateway, dating from the first century A.D. The cathedral is an +impressive conglomeration of the architecture of many different +centuries--the oldest portion being a part of a Roman basilica of the +fourth century, while the latest additions of any magnitude were made in +the thirteenth. Most famous among its treasures is the "holy coat of +Treves," believed by the devout to be the seamless garment worn by Christ +at the crucifixion. The predominant religion of the neighborhood is the +Roman Catholic, and on the occasions when the coat is exhibited the town +is thronged by countless pilgrims. + +Leaving Treves we continued down along the river-bank to Rawen Kaulin, +where we turned inland for a few miles and I was assigned to a village +known as Eitelsbach. The inhabitants were badly frightened when we rode +in--most of the men hid and the women stood on the door-steps weeping. I +suppose they expected to be treated in the manner that they had behaved to +the French and Belgians, and as they would have done by us had the +situation been reversed. When they found they were not to be oppressed +they became servile and fawning. I had my officers' mess in the +schoolmaster's house. He had been a non-commissioned officer of infantry, +and yet he wanted to send his daughters in to play the piano for us after +dinner. We would have despised the German less if he had been able to +"hate" a little more after he was beaten and not so bitterly while he felt +he was winning. + +The country through which we marched during the next few days was most +beautiful. We followed the winding course of the river, making many a +double "S" turn. The steep hills came right to the bank; frequently the +road was cut into their sides. A village was tucked in wherever a bit of +level plain between the foot of the hill and the river permitted. When the +slopes gave a southern exposure they were covered with grape-vines, +planted with the utmost precision and regularity. Every corner and cranny +among the rocks was utilized. The original planting must have been +difficult, for the soil was covered with slabs of shale. The cultivator +should develop excellent lungs in scaling those hillsides. The leaves had +fallen and the bare vines varied in hue from sepia brown to wine color, +with occasional patches of evergreen to set off the whole. Once or twice +the road left the river to cut across over the mountains, and it cost our +horses much exertion to drag the limbers up the steep, slippery trail. It +was curious to notice the difference between those who dwelt along the +bank and the inhabitants of the upland plateau. The latter appeared +distinctly more "outlandish" and less sleek and prosperous. The highlands +we found veiled in mist, and as I looked back at the dim outlines of horse +and man and caisson, it seemed as if I were leading a ghost battery. + +We were in the heart of the wine country, and to any one who had enjoyed a +good bottle of Moselle such names as Berncastel and Piesport had long been +familiar. In the former town I was amused on passing by a large millinery +store to see the proprietor's name was Jacob Astor. The little villages +inevitably recalled the fairy-tales of Hans Andersen and the Grimm +brothers. The raftered houses had timbered balconies that all but met +across the crooked, winding streets through which we clattered over the +cobblestones. Capping many of the beams were gargoyles, demons, and +dwarfs, and a galaxy of strange creatures were carved on the ends of the +gables that jutted out every which way. The houses often had the date +they were built and the initials of the couple that built them over the +front door, frequently with some device. I saw no dates that went further +back than the late sixteen hundreds, though many of the houses doubtless +were built before then. The doors in some cases were beautifully carved +and weathered. The old pumps and wells, the stone bridges, and the little +wayside shrines took one back through the centuries. To judge by the +records carved on wall and house, high floods are no very uncommon +occurrence--the highest I noticed was in 1685, while the last one of +importance was credited to 1892. + +We were much surprised at the well-fed appearance of the population, both +old and young, for we had heard so much of food shortages, and the Germans +when they surrendered had laid such stress upon it. As far as we could +judge; food was more plentiful than in France. Rubber and leather were +very scarce, many of the women wore army boots, and the shoes displayed in +shop-windows appeared made of some composition resembling pasteboard. The +coffee was evidently ground from the berry of some native bush, and its +taste in no way resembled the real. Cigars were camouflaged +cabbage-leaves, with little or no flavor, and the beer sadly fallen off +from its pre-war glory. Still, in all the essentials of life the +inhabitants appeared to be making out far better than we had been given to +believe. + +We met with very little trouble. There were a few instances where people +tried to stand out against having men billeted in their houses, but we of +course paid no attention except that we saw to it that they got more men +than they would have under ordinary circumstances. Every now and then we +would have amusing side-lights upon the war news on which the more +ignorant Boches had been fed. A man upon whom several of my sergeants were +quartered asked them if the Zeppelins had done much damage to New York; +and whether Boston and Philadelphia had yet been evacuated by the +Germans--he had heard that both cities had been taken and that Washington +was threatened and its fall imminent. + +Our men behaved exceedingly well. Of course there were individual cases of +drunkenness, but very few considering that we were in a country where the +wine was cheap and schnapps plentiful. There were the inevitable +A.W.O.L.'s and a number of minor offenses, but I found that by making the +prisoner's life very unattractive--seeing to it that they performed +distasteful "fatigues," giving them heavy packs to carry when we marched, +and allowing them nothing that could be construed as a delicacy--I soon +reformed the few men that were chronically shiftless or untidy or late. +When not in cantonments the trouble with putting men under arrest is that +too often it only means that they lead an easier life than their comrades, +and it takes some ingenuity to correct this situation. Whenever it was in +any way possible an offender was dealt with in the battery and I never let +it go further, for I found it made for much better spirit in a unit. + +The men were a fine lot, and such thoroughgoing Americans, no matter from +what country their parents had come. One of my buglers had landed in the +United States only in 1913; he had been born and brought up on the +confines of Germany and Austria, and yet when a large German of whom he +was asking the way said, "You speak the language well--your parents must +be German," the unhesitating reply was: "Well, my mother was of German +descent!" The battery call read like a League of Nations, but no one could +have found any cause of complaint in lack of loyalty to the United +States. + +The twelfth day after we had crossed over the river from Luxemburg found +us marching into Coblenz. We were quartered in large brick barracks in the +outskirts of the city. The departing Germans had left them in very bad +shape, and Hercules would have felt that cleaning the Augean stables was a +light task in comparison. However, we set to work without delay and soon +had both men and horses well housed. Life in the town was following its +normal course; the stores were well stocked and seemed to be doing a +thriving trade. We went into a cafe where a good orchestra was playing and +had some very mediocre war beer, and then I set off in search of the +Turkish bath of which I was much in need. The one I found was in charge of +an ex-submarine sailor, and when I was shut in the steam-room I wondered +if he were going to try any "frightfulness," for I was the only person in +the bath. My last one had been in a wine-vat a full week before, and I was +ready to risk anything for the luxury of a good soak. + +Orders to march usually reached us at midnight--why, I do not know; but we +would turn in with the belief that we would not move on the following +day, and the next we knew an orderly from regimental headquarters would +wake us with marching instructions, and in no happy frame of mind we would +grumblingly tumble out to issue the necessary commands. Coblenz proved no +exception to this rule. As we got under way, a fine rain was falling that +was not long in permeating everything. Through the misty dripping town the +"caissons went rolling along," and out across the Pfaffendorf bridge, with +the dim outlines of the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein towering above us. The +men were drowsy and cold. I heard a few disparaging comments on the size +of the Rhine. They had heard so much talk about it that they had expected +to find it at least as large as the Mississippi. We found the slippery +stones of the street ascending from the river most difficult to negotiate, +but at length everything was safely up, and we struck off toward the +bridge-head position which we were to occupy for we knew not how long. The +Huns had torn down the sign-posts at the crossroads; with what intent I +cannot imagine, for the roads were not complicated and were clearly +indicated on the maps, and the only purpose that the sign-posts could +serve was to satisfy a curiosity too idle to cause us to calculate by map +how far we had come or what distance lay still before us. A number of +great stone slabs attracted our attention; they had been put up toward the +close of the eighteenth century and indicated the distance in hours. I +remember one that proclaimed it was three hours to Coblenz and eighteen to +Frankfort. I have never seen elsewhere these records of an age when time +did not mean money. + +The march was in the nature of an anticlimax, for we had thought always of +Coblenz as our goal, and the good fortune in which we had played as +regarded weather during our march down the valley of the Moselle had made +us supercritical concerning such details as a long, wearisome slogging +through the mud in clumsy, water-logged clothes. At length we reached the +little village of Niederelbert and found that Lieutenant Brown, whose turn +it was as billeting officer, had settled us so satisfactorily that in a +short time we were all comfortably steaming before stoves, thawing out our +cramped joints. + +With the exception of Lieutenant Furness my officers belonged to the +Reserve Corps, and we none of us looked forward to a long tour of garrison +duty on the Rhine or anywhere else. Furness, who had particularly +distinguished himself in liaison work with the infantry, held a temporary +commission in the regular army, but he was eager to go back to civil life +at the earliest opportunity. In Germany the prospect was doubly gloomy, +for there would be no intercourse with the natives such as in France had +lightened many a weary moment. Several days later regimental headquarters +coveted our village and we were moved a few miles off across the hills to +Holler. We set to work to make ourselves as snug and comfortable as +possible. I had as striker a little fellow of Finnish extraction name +Jahoola, an excellent man in every way, who took the best of care of my +horse and always managed to fix up my billet far better than the +circumstances would seem to permit. + +The days that followed presented little variety once the novelty of the +occupation had worn off. The men continued to behave in exemplary fashion, +and the Boche gave little trouble. As soon as we took up our quarters we +made the villagers clean up the streets and yards until they possessed a +model town, and thereafter we "policed up" every untidiness of which we +might be the cause, and kept the inhabitants up to the mark in what +concerned them. The head of the house in which I was lodged in +Niederelbert told me that his son had been a captain in the army but had +deserted a fortnight before the armistice and reached home in civilian +clothes three weeks in advance of the retreating army. Of course he was +not an officer before the war--not of the old military school, but the +fact that he and his family were proud of it spoke of a weakening +discipline and morale. + +Now that we had settled down to a routine existence I was doubly glad of +such books as I had been able to bring along. Of these, O. Henry was the +most popular. The little shilling editions were read until they fell to +pieces, and in this he held the same position as in the British army. I +had been puzzled at this popularity among the English, for much of his +slang must have been worse than Greek to them. I also had _Charles +O'Malley_ and _Harry Lorrequer_, Dumas' _Dame de Monsereau_ and _Monte +Cristo_, Flaubert's _Education Sentimentale_, Gibbon's _Rise and Fall_, +and Borrow's _Zincali_. These with the Oxford Books of French and English +verse and a few Portuguese and Spanish novels comprised my library, a +large one considering the circumstances. It was always possible to get +books through the mail, although they were generally many months en route. + +Soon after we reached the bridge-head, officers of the regular army began +turning up from the various schools whither they had been sent as +instructors. We all hoped to be released in this manner, for we felt that +the garrison duty should be undertaken by the regulars, whose life +business it is, in order to allow the men who had left their trades and +professions to return to their normal and necessary work. In the meantime +we set out to familiarize ourselves with the country and keep our units in +such shape that should any unforeseen event arise we would be in a +position to meet it. The horses required particular attention, but one +felt rewarded on seeing their improvement. There were many cases of mange +which we had been hitherto unable to properly isolate, and good fodder in +adequate quantity was an innovation. + +For the men we had mounted and unmounted drill, and spent much time in +getting the accoutrements into condition for inspection. During part of +the march up rations had been short, and for a number of days were very +problematical. Sufficient boots and clothing were also lacking and we had +had to get along as best we could without. Now that we were stationary our +wants were supplied, and the worst hardship for the men was the lack of +recreation. A reading-room was opened and a piano was procured, but there +was really no place to send them on short passes; nothing for them to do +on an afternoon off. When I left, trips down the Rhine were being planned, +and I am sure they proved beneficial in solving the problem of legitimate +relaxation and amusement. + +My father had sent my brother and myself some money to use in trying to +make Christmas a feast-day for the men. It was difficult to get anything, +but the Y.M.C.A. very kindly helped me out in procuring, chocolates and +cigarettes, and I managed to buy a couple of calves and a few +semi-delicacies in the local market. While not an Arabian Night feast, we +had the most essential adjunct in the good spirits of the men, who had +been schooled by their varied and eventful existence of the past eighteen +months to make the most of things. + +In the middle of January my brother and I left for Paris. I was very sorry +to leave the battery, for we had been through much together, but in common +with most reserve officers I felt that, now that the fighting was over, +there was only one thing to be desired and that was to get back to my wife +and children. The train made light of the distance over which it had taken +us so long to march, and the familiar sight of the friendly French towns +was never more welcome. After several months on duty in France and Italy, +I sailed on a transport from Brest, but not for the wonderful home-coming +to which I had so long looked forward. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN*** + + +******* This file should be named 13665.txt or 13665.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/6/13665 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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