The Leicestershires beyond BaghdadThompson, Edward John
History
The Leicestershires beyond Baghdad
Thompson, Edward John
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Iraq
The previous day two wounded Turks, a machine-gun officer and a Red
Crescent orderly, had arrived in the aid-post. The latter helped nobly
with the wounded, so I had a note sent down with them, that they had
earned good treatment. The officer had a friend from the same military
college in Stamboul, which friend had a ghastly shell-wound in his
back. What happened, I think, was this. When his friend was knocked
out, the unwounded officer--they were both boys, well under
twenty--brought up a medical orderly. All three were then overwhelmed
by our rush, and in the confusion the unwounded men kept with the
other, to see that he got treatment when opportunity came. So they
slipped into my aid-post, where they stopped all night, making no offer
to escape. I sent a message to Brigade, but their reply, a verbal one
which did not reach me till next evening, was that they had better stay
where they were. The unwounded officer's silent anxiety for his friend
was most touching, and I pushed the latter away with the midnight
convoy. Next morning I sent both officer and orderly to the nearest
prisoners' camp; but the sergeant-in-charge returned them, with word
that he took only wounded prisoners. So I had to keep them. Weir, the
staff-captain, joined me, and we talked to the officer in French while
we waited for the divisional second line to come up. We were puzzled as
to why the Turks left a position so strong as Istabulat before being
actually driven out. The officer's reply was, 'Because of the _tiar_'
(aeroplane). I cannot follow this, unless, misunderstanding us, he was
referring to this second day's fight and the aeroplane brought down at
the beginning. Perhaps, being afraid to send up any other 'planes, they
were deceived as to our number. He insisted that we had had three
divisions in action, and was mortified when we told him the truth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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