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Description: | Bound ts carbon copy (164pp, but pp24 - 26 are missing) of an excellent diary for May 1915 - May 1916 kept by a tea planter from Assam during his command of his own shallow draft and uniquely designed launch, the AERIAL, after she was accepted for service in the Mesopotamian campaign and recording how, after she had been shipped from India to Mesopotamia, AERIAL was employed as a hospital auxiliary boat on the River Tigris, evacuating the sick and wounded during the advance of Major General Townshend's force from Kut to Ctesiphon (September - November) and its subsequent precipitate retreat to Kut (November - December) and then with the relief force as they fought a series of unsuccessful and costly battles from Sheikh Saad to Sunnaiyat in an abortive attempt to reach Kut before the garrison was compelled to surrender to the Turks (January - April), with many detailed and very interesting entries describing what he saw and was told of the fighting ashore, the hazards of navigation on the river and coming under intermittent shell and rifle fire, the total inadequacy of the medical provision for the sick and wounded, and the shortcomings of some of the British commanders (see, for instance, 24 and 27 February and 13 March) and the execution for mutiny of some Indian soldiers (13 January).
Cataloguer RWAS
Catalogue date 2001-01 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Chalmers, T A | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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