THE FIRST IRAQ WAR 1914-1918

Britain's Mesopotamian Campaign
New Introduction by Joseph Morrison Skelly
by A.J. Barker

ISBN#978-1-929631-86-5 •

$ 22.00

When the war began, victory seemed assured as British forces easily secured the head of the Persian Gulf, a move mainly designed to protect British oil interests. The British commanding general then decided to march on to Baghdad, but his effort fell short and he was defeated at Ctesiphon and forced to retreat to Kut where the Ottoman army cut him to pieces. The British had to reorganize and by the time they swept the Turks out of Mesopotamia, they had suffered 100,000 casualties and spent the colossal sum of 350 million pounds sterling by 1918. The Ottoman army was forced to evacuate Baghdad and Enver Pasha lost Mesopotamia. As distinguished author Colonel A.J. Barker notes, the campaign began and ended under the handicap of unnecessary strategic goals, but while it was also ill conceived and ill directed it saw nevertheless some of the most courageous and tragic soldiering of the First World War.

The British campaign took place in the context of the First World War where the clash of the Central Empires and the Allies created what were thought to be the ideal conditions for such a far flung expedition in harsh and inhospitable terrain. But the strategic advantage was deemed important enough for Great Britain to seek control over a region that provided a vital transit point between the Middle East and India and the far reaches of the empire. This is military history on a grand scale written in the King’s English and a document of vital importance to understand the challenges the West continues to face in what is commonly known in history as “The Cradle of Civilization” between the Tigris and the Euphrates…