Dayhoff Soundtrack: This Day in History - Siege of Kut Al Amara, 29 April 1916

Friday, April 29, 2016

This Day in History - Siege of Kut Al Amara, 29 April 1916

According to James Morris, a British historian, the loss of Kut was "the most abject capitulation in Britain’s military history."

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“….The Gallipoli campaign ended on January 8 1916 with a re-embarkation of Dunkirk proportions. By then, Kut, a collection of flyblown hovels, with Townshend and his men inside, had been surrounded for more than a month: included in the 13,500 penned inside were some 3,500 Indian non-combatants and 2,000 sick and wounded. There were also 6,000 Arabs to be fed.

They held out in freezing cold and then torrential rain against infantry assault, sniper fire, shelling, and bombing, until a relief force could get near enough for the defenders to risk breaking out. It never happened. Three attempts were made to relieve Kut. Each failed, at a total cost of 23,000 casualties. Food began to run out, and many of the Indian troops could or would not eat what meat there was. The defenders' draught animals, the oxen, were the first to go, followed by their horses, camels, and finally, starlings, cats, dogs and even hedgehogs.

Kut was the first siege in which aircraft dropped supplies: these ranged from money to millstones to keep the garrison's flour mill going (and thus the Indians' supply of chapatis). But the Turks and their German officers were able to send up more and better aircraft, and too few friendly planes could get through to avert starvation. Repeated attempts to supply Kut by river were also repulsed. Desperate to keep his men alive, Townshend suggested - and the government endorsed - a ransom of £2m (about £67m today) for the defenders to go free. The Turks, elated by Gallipoli and able to switch troops from there to Kut, refused.

Finally, on April 29, when vegetarian Indians were down to seven ounces of grain a day, Kut capitulated…” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/20/iraq.features11

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