This is the story of the daring, but flawed campaign of Major General Townsend to advance on Baghdad, against stiff Turkish resistance and 500 miles of the River Tigris as the only supply line. It brings in the subsequent British withdrawal to Kut and the siege that followed over a five month period. It develops too the forces efforts to relive the Kut garrison and the huge casualties that ensued. This book incorporates detailed research and puts great effort into investigating the events and personalities that resulted in this military campaign.  The books describes the course of military operations from November 1914 to the surrender of Kut in April 1916.  It goes on to look at the political results alongside the British Parliament forming the Mesopotamia Commission which identified what had gone wrong.

Jon Sandison, Freelance

Trapped until surrender the following April, the worst military disaster for the British since Yorktown, which had lost the American colonies, as Nash concludes in this brilliant account Mesopotamia is 'an immovable dark blot on Britain's military history.'

Military History Society May 2017

I’d definitely give this book the full five stars and recommend it unreservedly.

Read the full review here.

ARRSE

The campaign in Mesopotamia - as brilliantly chronicled by Nash - ultimately resulted in 'mission creep' of monumental proportions.

Military History

Although initially a successful invasion, despite evidence of stiffening Turkish resistance and inadequate supply lines the Expeditionary Force was disastrously ordered to advance on Baghdad under the command of the ambitious, capable but flawed Major General Charles Townshend. After a pyrrhic victory at Ctesiphon in November 1915 the British were forced to withdraw to Kut. After a five month siege Townshend had little option but to surrender due to heavy losses and inadequate supplies. Such was the humiliation and loss of life that the British Parliament ordered a Mesopotamia Commission to be set up. This attributed responsibility and blame to the toxic combination of incompetent leadership and wholesale military misjudgement. This fine book re-examines the circumstances and personalities that brought about the disastrous and costly outcome to a classic example of ‘mission creep’.

Pennant, November 2016