A map of the Russian-Turkish front from Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918, a 1930s German history of the war illustrated with hand-pasted cigarette cards, showing the Turkish Empire in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas and the Persian Gulf. To the west is Egypt, a British dominion; to the east Persia. Erzerum in Turkey and Kars in Russia were the great fortresses on the frontier.
Mittelmeer: Mediterranean SeaSchwarzes M: Black SeaKasp. M.: Caspian SeaKleinasien: Asia MinorTürkei: TurkeyRussland: RussiaMesopot.: MesopotamiaPersien: PersiaAgypten: EgyptKairo: CairoStellungen der: Positions of theTürken Jan. 1915. . .August 1916Russen Mai 1915 . . . Frühjahr 1916Engländer: November 1914 . . . Ende 1917Herbst 1918Positions of theTurks Jan. 1915 . . . August 1916Russians May 1915 . . . spring 1916English: November 1914 . . . the end of 1917autumn 1918
"On 25 October [1915] Nixon received the despatch sanctioning the advance on Baghdad, but it was four days before he passed orders on to Townshend, telling him he wished the advance to begin by 14 November. By that date, the build-up at Aziziya, begun on 5 October with the landing of the 18th Brigade, was complete. Townshend's force now numbered approximately 13,500 including engineers and rear-echelon personnel, with thirty-five guns, and was supported by a new gunboat, HMS Firefly, together with Comet, Shaitan and Sumana, and horse-barges mounting 4.7-in naval guns and 5-in howitzers, towed by Shushan and Mahsoudi. The expedition's advanced guard had by now occupied Kutuniya and reconnaissance parties had gone on to Baghdadiya and Zor. On 15 November Townshend more more men up to Kutuniya, and by 19 November his entire main force had reached Zor."
The British, protecting an oil pipeline that ran from Ahwaz and the oil fields in Persia to Basra, a commercial and communications center on the Persian Gulf, expanded their foothold in Mesopotamia, a province of the Ottoman Empire, as the war went on. General Nixon commanded British-Indian forces in Mesopotamia; Townsend the army tasked with taking Baghdad, expanding Britain's territory up the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East by Roger Ford, page 40, copyright © Roger Ford 2010, publisher: Pegasus Books, publication date: 2010
1915-11-19, 1915, November, Mesopotamia
