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The Kasaba of Kut-el-Amara, Mesopotamia, where a British Indian army was surrounded and besieged by Turkish forces from the end of 1915 until the British surrender on April 29, 1915. Photograph from 'Four Years Beneath the Crescent' by Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War.
Indian soldiers unload a wagon. The caption on the back refers to the soldiers helping the Allies by 'unloading their baggage,' but Indian soldiers fought on their own. © American Press Assciation
Beneath the crown of England, Britannia with her shield and Neptune's trident sits, flanked by the flag of the United Kingdom, and the Royal Standard. Behind her, illuminated by the British crown, is a map of the world with the British Empire in pink: Canada and Newfoundland, the United Kingdom, the Union of South Africa and British East Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand.
French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau greeting General Fernando Tamagnini, commander of Portuguese forces on the Western Front.
England's Distress: Postcard map of England and Ireland with the restricted zone Germany proclaimed around the islands, showing the ships destroyed by submarine in the 12 months beginning February 1, 1917.
"'I have hoisted white flag over town and fort. Troops commence going into camp near Shumran 2 p.m. I shall shortly destroy wireless.' . ..Nine thousand fighting men, 3,000 British and 6,000 Indians, exclusive of followers, surrendered at Kut; and it is useless to try and gloss over the disgrace which is attached, not to our soldiers, but to the politicians responsible for the disaster. There has been no surrender on the same scale in the history of the British army. The nearest parallel to it is that of Cornwallis with 7,073 officers and men in the American War of Independence." ((1), more)
"— Jacques G——, seconded for duty as inspector with the Sûreté Générale, is keeping a watch on Indians in Paris. There are wealthy native Princes who are trying to foment a rising in their country. Cases of arms destined for India have already been seized in France. And I have heard of an Indian Princess who is being closely watched by a woman police spy specially placed in the hotel as chambermaid." ((2), more)
"Monday, May 1, 1916.On April 29 the English suffered a severe reverse in Mesopotamia. General Townshend, who had occupied an entrenched position at Kut-el-Amara, on the Tigris, has been compelled to capitulate by lack of food and ammunition, after a siege of one hundred and forty-eight days; the garrison was reduced to 9,000 men.Simultaneously, a grave insurrection, fomented by German agents, has broken out in Ireland. A regular battle between the rebels and English troops has made Dublin a scene of blood and fire. Order appears to have been restored now." ((3), more)
"Clemenceau also paid a visit [to the front lines]. When they tried to prevent his going into the trenches, he retorted: 'What of it! How long have I got to live! Perhaps four or five years! And in failing health. . . . Beside, such a lot of people would be glad if anything happened to me!'Clemenceau came upon an advanced outpost who enjoined him: 'Keep quiet!' The soldier was informed: 'This is Clemenceau.' His reply was: 'Ho, ho! So it's Clemenceau, is it? Very well, let him keep quiet all the same!; This same outpost related that he was only five yards away from his opposite number in the German lines: 'For the last few days he's had a cold. He's been coughing all the time. But now he's getting better!'" ((4), more)
"O wise men, riddle me this: what if the dream come true?What if the dream come true? and if millions unborn shall dwellIn the house that I shaped in my heart, the noble house of my thought?Lord, I have staked my soul, I have staked the lives of my kinOn the truth of Thy dreadful word. Do not remember my failures,But remember this my faith." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from an account of the investiture by Turkish forces of a British-Indian army under the command of General Townshend in Kut-el-Amara, Mesopotamia by Edmund Candler, an official British observer with the Relieving Force that was unable to break the Turkish siege. Attempting to seize Baghdad, the British had been defeated at Ctesiphon on November 21, 1915, 22 miles short of their goal, and forced back to Kut where they were surrounded by increasingly strong Turkish forces. All attempts by the relieving force to break the siege failed, and only limited supplies could be dropped by aircraft. One pound rations of mule in mid-February had been reduced to four-ounce rations of horse meat that gave out in on April 21. 'During the last week of the siege the daily death-rate averaged eight British and twenty-one Indians' (p. 142).
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 128, 129, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
(2) Undated entry from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government from the end of April, 1916. In Dublin, Ireland, the first blow for independence from the British Empire during the war, the Easter Rising, was being crushed by British forces. At Kut-el-Amara in Mesopotamia, a British-Indian army surrendered to Turkish forces on April 29, and was going into harsh, ofter deadly, internment as prisoners-of-war.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 160, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(3) Attempting to seize Baghdad in Mesopotamia, the British had been defeated at Ctesiphon on November 21, 1915, 22 miles short of their goal, and forced back to Kut-al-Amara where they were surrounded by increasingly strong Turkish forces. All attempts by the relieving force to break the siege failed, and the British had surrendered on April 29, 1916. The Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, begun on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, a quiet bank holiday, was suppressed by British forces with destruction to Dublin that observers compared to cities on the Western Front. Although anticipating German arms that had been intercepted by the British, the Rising was the work of Irish men and Irish women, and Irish groups seeking independence: the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and the Irish Citizens Army.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 243, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(4) Entry from May 2, 1916 from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government. Georges Clemenceau was a member of Radical Party, and served in the French Senate. He was appointed Prime Minister in November 1917, holding the position through the end of the war.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 161, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(5) Stanza from 'The Fool', a poem by Patrick H. Pearse, executed May 3, 1916 for his role in the Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland. Pearse served as Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Irish Republic and President of the Provisional Government in the short-lived insurrection. Along with him on May 3 were executed Thomas Clarke and Thomas Macdonagh. Pearse's younger brother Willie was executed May 4.
The 1916 Poets by Edited with an Introduction by Desmond Ryan, page 21, copyright © Introduction and Selection, estate of the late Desmon Ryan 1963, publisher: Gill and Macmillan, publication date: 1995
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