Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend - Siege of Kut

Siege of Kut

The siege of Kut was a drawn out and bitter affair for the British army. General Townshend sent reports about his supplies to his commander, General Nixon, which (in the event) proved to be false. He reported that he only had supplies for a month at full ration. Actually, his troops finally ran out of supplies near the end of April 1916, almost five months longer than he had reported. This led the British in Basra to hastily send a relief expedition, which was defeated by the unexpected strong Ottoman defences (expertly directed by Baron von der Goltz).

The later relief expeditions fared little better. The British relief forces reached a point just 10 miles (16 km) from Kut but repeated assaults on Turkish positions failed to dislodge the defenders. The last effort---after three weeks of desperate attacks---took place on 22 April 1916, but it ended in failure. On the other side, the Ottoman commander, Baron von der Goltz, did not live to see his triumph. He died, supposedly from typhoid, on 16 April 1916.

General Townshend surrendered 29 April 1916. He himself was well treated by his Ottoman captors. He lived in comfort near Istanbul for the remainder of the war, on a small island. He was given use of a Turkish navy yacht and had receptions in his honour at the royal Turkish court. He was given the KCB for his command at Kut while he was a POW in 1917. The German journalist and newspaper editor Friedrich Schrader, himself married to a British national, reported that Townshend appeared personally in the office of his newspaper "Osmanischer Lloyd" to receive the cable from London notifying him about the award. At the end of the war, Townshend was involved in the negotiations which resulted in the Turkish armistice in October 1918.