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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
T he experiences related in the following pages are simply the individual fortunes of a subaltern of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers who had his first taste of fighting at the battle of Ctesiphon, and was afterwards taken prisoner by the Turks with the rest of the Kut Garrison, ultimately succeeding in escaping from Asia Minor. It is not intended to generalize in any way, since an individual, unless of exalted rank, sees as a rule only his own small environment and cannot pretend to speak fo
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
CTESIPHON I n India, in the early days of the war, a newly gazetted subaltern of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers was sent for a month's preliminary training to one of the few remaining British regular battalions. Afterwards he was attached to an Indian Regiment, and, if fortunate, went on service with the same battalion. A great number, however, were sent off to join other units in the field. In this way I found myself arriving in Basra on October 2nd, 1915, with a draft for a regiment [1] o
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
KUT I f the Turks had hurried up, they would have come upon us without properly dug trenches and we should have been taken at a great disadvantage. As it was, however, by the time they did arrive, we were dug in and had a good front line trench, although most of the support and communication trenches still had to be dug. After the first two or three days, all trench work had to be done at night, as conditions by daylight were not healthy. Life was not particularly pleasant during any part of the
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
FROM KUT TO KASTAMUNI O n April 29th, Kut surrendered, and it was with sad feelings that we watched two Turkish battalions marching in at midday. The bitter thought that they should have worsted us in the end, together with the knowledge of the useless sacrifice of life by our friends down-stream, was present to all; but there was also a great feeling of relief that the siege was now over, and we had not realized until this moment how severe the strain had been. We believed the Turks would treat
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
LIFE IN KASTAMUNI July 1916— August 1917 O n arrival in Kastamuni, we were divided into two groups, one being accommodated in a large building, formerly a Greek school, with one or two adjacent houses, and the other in a number of houses in a street lower down the hill. Both places were on the edge of the town in the Greek quarter. The schoolhouse was perched high up and commanded a splendid view across the town in the valley towards the hills, beyond which lay the Black Sea—only some 40 miles a
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
ESCAPE FROM KASTAMUNI R eturning to events in Kastamuni, in November 1916 a little more housing accommodation had become available for us, and as a result I found myself sharing a good room with Keeling, a lieutenant in the I.A.R.O. One evening, soon afterwards, I asked him if he would make an effort with me to reach the Russians if, as we hoped, they should advance further west from their lines, which were then running due south to Erzinjan from a point a little way west of Trebizond. He replie
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
THE FIRST NIGHT I t was not the easiest thing in the world to hold our meetings, accomplish our sewing and complete the sail without being interrupted by other people or giving the show away. Our excuses for keeping many people out of our room must have seemed rather thin on many occasions, and certainly gave rise to suspicion in one quarter. One day the interpreter Napoleon came to the door, but luckily suspected nothing and departed. Napoleon had been of great service to us after the wretched
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
ON THE HILLS W e made a breakfast from condensed milk and a small ration of biscuit and some cheese. We dared not make a fire, as people were working on the crops not very far away. After this we took it in turns to keep watch at the top edge of the wood. From this point a fine view could be had across the ridges back towards Kastamuni, although the town itself was hidden in the valley. One track was clearly visible and it was along this we expected to see signs of pursuit, if any; but there was
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
SLOW PROGRESS W e all felt dreadfully tired as well as thirsty. The past two nights had told on us; and without proper sleep and sufficient food we were not in the best trim for a third night of mountaineering. After getting back to the track, we had to climb up the side of the ravine, which was steep and rocky. Resting every few yards, we eventually reached the top and turned up-stream. The point where we had descended the gully must have been in almost the narrowest part of the gorge, and we c
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
BLUFFING THE PEASANTS N ext morning we were off at the first streak of dawn, after a very cold night. We were in a narrow valley, and look where we would we could not find the track we had seen not long before halting the previous night. The hills were too steep and wooded to make it possible to get along low down by the stream, so there was no other course open except to start climbing again in the hope of meeting the track at a higher level. This we succeeded in doing after toiling up some dis
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
REACHING THE COAST W e made it to be 30 miles in a straight line to the sea from the spot where we now lay and hoped to do the distance in three days. After the chaoush's hospitality at breakfast we scarcely felt inclined for another meal till the afternoon, when we made tea, and then packed up, intending to follow up a track beside a stream which flowed down from the range we had now determined to cross. Descending our hill, we came to a small village, and thought it would be just as well to se
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
RECAPTURED I n the afternoon, we sewed together the two halves of the sail and cut a handle for our axe head so as to be as ready as possible in the event of discovering a boat. After making a stew from some beans we had gathered in a field on the hill that morning, we packed up and set off, full of hope and excitement. The question of going across to the wooded hill arose again when we got clear of the wood, but it was thrown out, and, bitterly did we regret it next day. Turning down to the sho
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
RESCUED W e had several visits from the Arab officers, and they very kindly gave us a share of their food, which consisted chiefly of a vegetable stew. The following morning we were given a bread ration for five days and told to get ready at once. Tip was not fit to move, but they would not listen to us and dragged him out. We found a small pony had been brought, so Tip mounted this and we set off with a guard of a sergeant and eight privates; our former friend, the chaoush from Kusafet, was not
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
IN HIDING WITH THE TURKS T hroughout the following weeks our new friends did all they could to make us as comfortable as circumstances would permit, and we can never be sufficiently grateful to them for thus enabling us to leave captivity and reach home. They would never listen to any offers of payment, saying they did not wish to be taken for men who had rescued us for money. Going back to the morning of our first acquaintance, we left the guard standing in the road while we, with all their amm
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
CONTINUED DELAYS O n the afternoon of September 2nd, the third day in this wood, Bihgar Bey and Musa arrived, and announced that the friends from Boiabad had also come and that we should move on towards the sea. One of the new-comers had arrived with them at our lair, this being a stout fellow whom we always referred to as the Fat Boy: he was in fact the only pure Turk amongst them, the others all being of Circassian extraction. As it grew dark we moved off picking up some others of the akhardas
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
THREE DAYS ON THE BLACK SEA T here had been a certain amount of going and coming amongst the akhardash during the days we spent in this wood, but on September 19th Bihgar Bey arrived and declared everything was arranged. A boat said to be quite new had been purchased for 400 liras. This sum had been paid in hard cash, gold and silver, a fact of more interest than might appear since at this time not a single coin of any description was to be seen in the bazaars in Turkey. Notes had been issued do
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
THE CRIMEA AND HOME A t dawn on the fourth day, September 25th, the land was very clear and we could see a lofty headland which ran steeply down to the sea. An hour or two later, we could make out houses and then it became clear that we were approaching some seaside resort. All through the previous two days, after we had taken charge of the steering, the akhardash had continually inquired whether the "road" was "good" and they were now more than satisfied that we knew the best way over the sea.
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
FRIENDS IN CAPTIVITY T his story would not be complete without recording the deaths of Captain R. J. Tipton, R.F.C., and Captain R. T. Sweet, D.S.O., 2/7th Ghurka Rifles. Tipton, after very few days at home, reported again for duty and would not rest content until he had obtained leave to fly and fight over the German lines. For this purpose he had refused his majority. On March 9th he was severely wounded in a fight with a Hun whom he brought down. With great courage and skill he brought his ow
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Divisional Troops
Divisional Troops
17th Coy., S. & M. 34th (Poona) Signalling Co. Sirmoor Sappers (Imperial Service). 1 Squadron 7th Hariana Lancers. 48th Pioneers. 63rd, 76th, 82nd Batteries, R.F.A. 18 guns, 18 pdr. 104th Battery, R.G.A. 2 4" guns. 84th Battery, R.G.A. 4 5" guns. Volunteer Battery. 4 15 pdr. guns. "S" Battery, R.H.A., left behind 2 14 pdr. guns. Naval Detachment. 4 4.7" pdr. guns. H.M.S. Samarra : 2 3 pdr. guns; 1 13 pdr. gun. Machine Gun Battery (6 guns). Supply and Transport, including Jeypore Transpor
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Medical Service
Medical Service
One British General Hospital. One Indian General Hospital. 3 Field Ambulances. Losses: Killed and died of wounds, 1,025. Died of disease, and missing, 803. Arab population of Kut (?) 3,700. Animals (horses and mules) before killing for food, 3,000....
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APPENDIX B
APPENDIX B
Copy of translation of pamphlets thrown over from Turkish trenches towards our line during the earlier part of the siege and picked up between the two old lines when these had been evacuated on Jan. 21st. Oh dear Indian Brethren , You understand the fact well that God has created this war for the sake of setting India free from the hands of the cruel English. That is the reason why all the Rajahs and Nawabs with the help of Brave Indian soldiers are at present creating disturbances in all parts
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Rations at end of Siege
Rations at end of Siege
All except meat and ginger dropped by aeroplane. Now that the Great War is definitely over it is necessary to get it adequately chronicled. Of necessity we must have comprehensive surveys of the war, formal histories in many volumes; but the real history of the great conflict is to be found not so much in these, as in the vital pieces of descriptive literature which our fighting men have struck off, often while the drama was being enacted before their eyes. It is with the object of getting toget
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THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES HAVE ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED
THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES HAVE ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED
" The book has many fine pages in it. "— Evening News. TEMPORARY CRUSADERS. By Cecil Summers , author of "Temporary Heroes." Crown 8vo. 4/- net. A further volume by the author of the very successful "Temporary Heroes," describing his experiences in France, Palestine, Egypt and Italy. " A cheery, chatty chronicle. The author has a keen eye for the humour of circumstance and a most beguiling way." — Morning Post. Bright and exhilarating. It is sure to be read widely. "— Scotsman. "" Even more h
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THE FOLLOWING ARE IN IMMEDIATE PREPARATION:
THE FOLLOWING ARE IN IMMEDIATE PREPARATION:
TALES OF A TROOPER. By A. Clutha Mackenzie. Crown 8vo. These tales convey in the most living manner the experiences and sensations of a typical Anzac en route to the war, then landed at Gallipoli, and finally "knocked out" in the terrible battle for the ridge. A PRISONER IN TURKEY. By John Still , author of "Poems in Captivity," etc. Crown 8vo. The author of this remarkable book was largely instrumental in conveying to the British Government, by messages, in an ingenious code of his own inventio
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