The Siege

In the winter of 1915-16 Kut el Amarah a primitive and filthy settlement on the banks of the Tigris was the scene of the most humiliating - and possibly most futile - disaster to befall a British force until the rout of Singapore in 1942. It was here that General Townshend decided to hold out with his division of 10 000 combatant troops against a superior besieging force of Turks and Arab conscripts after his abortive attempt to capture Baghdad. The Siege of Kut lasted one hundred and forty-seven days - an epic of endurance starvation and disease - until Townshend finally surrendered.