“D” FORCE (MESOPOTAMIA) IN THE GREAT WAR

The British engagement in Mesopotamia ( today’s Iraq) in the Great War was almost as disastrous, and certainly as difficult, as its recent 21st century conflict in the same area. Although the Turkish enemy collapsed at the end of the war, the initial British commitment led to one of the greatest colonial defeats of the era, the surrender of General Townshend’s garrison at Kut-al-Amara in 1915, and the subsequent suffering and deaths of many Indian and British troops in brutal Turkish captivity. This concise little book tells the complete story of the campaign in less than 100 pages, from the geo-political reasons behind Ottoman Turkey’s entry to the war on the German side through to its collapse in 1918. This is the story of a forgotten campaign which still has relevance today.