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The Battle of Ctesiphon - The First World War - November 1915

Following earlier successes in the Middle East the British forces were encouraged to press on, towards Baghdad. The Capture of Baghdad would relieve pressure on Allied troops in the Dardanelles as Turkey would, in theory, need to move troops to slow or halt the advance through the Middle East.

Ctesiphon lay on the banks of the River Tigris. The Turks had dug in along the sides of the valley, in positions that would be hard for any advancing British force to see. The defenders were aided by Ctesiphon's magnificent ancient ruins. A large archway, remains of an ancient palace, provided an excellent observation post for the Turks, who could see the British force advancing well before the British were aware of the scale of the defenses.

On November 22nd the British force arrived. The commander, Townshend, divided his force into four columns. The Cavalry was ordered to outflank the entrenched Turks and head for Baghdad. The remaining troops were deployed on just one bank of the River Tigris, the other side, despite being less well defended was considered to be poor ground for launching an assault.

The first Turkish trenches were taken with heavy losses. The Cavalry though had failed to make progress around the Turkish troops and had been engaged by guns and Arab Cavalry. Despite the success in taking the Trenches t was clear that given the heavy losses suffered, the lack of sufficient reserve troops and the sense of chaos and confusion amongst the surviving troops it would be suicidal to launch an attack on the second line of Turkish trenches.

Consequently a general retreat was ordered with the aim of regrouping and launching an assault at a later stage. The retreat was a painful one. The Turks sensed the confusion amongst the British troops and gave chase. 4500 British and Indian troops were killed or wounded at the battle of Ctesiphon. The retreat lasted 13 days, with troops having to march back to Basra with limited medical supplies (A major oversight on the part of the Commanding officers, there was no field hospital as such at Ctesiphon for the wounded. As a result many went untreated for the full duration of the retreat).