_February 16._--“Yesterday, Thursday, we started at 5, breakfast at 4 A.M.--out to the same ground on the left flank. We kept the horses well back, and I was left in charge of them, and had a desperately dull day. However, I missed nothing, as the Division had very little to do except for the gunners. But it was a real good day--the Infantry did well, in fact it was quite a little victory. We completely cleared the south bank--took 1500 prisoners, including fifty officers, two battalion commanders among them, and killed a great number, including most of those trying to get back across the river, as we sank the whole of their pontoons and coracles while crossing. Also we got three of their aeroplanes. It was a good show altogether, and finishes this stage of the operations. The next, as you can see, must be to force the passage of the river and clear them out of Kut on the north. “This will mean heavy fighting.” Private Massey, after describing how the enemy tried to get across “in pontoon boats and oracles,” says: “They looked a dejected lot indeed, clothed in rags, no boots, and they had had very little food for some time. They eagerly took cigarettes offered them, and went limping off to the river dock for removal to the prisoners’ camp, resembling as they went a tribe of lame and ragged beggars. But the Turk has a stout heart, is as brave as a lion, and will fight like the very devil on a handful of dates and a morsel of flour.” Pity that with all his fine qualities, which appeal so strongly to the British soldier, he has not yet learnt to treat his prisoners without brutality. _Captain Eve--February 16._--“I don’t suppose we shall be wanted until we have the crossing secure, but after that we may have some fun.... We, of course, have had nothing to do with it really, but then we are only Cavalry.” _February 19._--“We were in camp two days afterwards (after the action on the 4th), then were out on a foraging expedition on the 7th. On the 9th we were out on reconnaissance again all day and half the night, then had two or three days very bad weather, and on the 14th and 15th had two very long days and nights. “But the last one was the final successful show which cleared out the Turks from this southern bank altogether. It was quite a good show, but we were sitting out wide on the flank all the time, and had really very little to do with it, and could see nothing. Still, it is quite good, and one feels something is accomplished at last. Now we have far the hardest part in front of us, but we shall do the job all right before long. “Since the 15th we have been left in peace, and very glad of it we were. The horses begin to look a little better already.