Mesopotamia 1914-15

A superb account of the Great War in the Middle East

Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) was the scene of much bitter fighting during the First World War between the forces of the Ottoman Turkish Empire and the troops of the British Empire. Although, the Middle Eastern theatre of the war is regarded as a ‘side-show’ to the greater conflict in Europe the fighting, nevertheless, claimed approaching 600,000 casualties on both sides. The principal consideration in the region was, as it is today, oil and the challenges to fighting in the areas bordered by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers included outbreaks of virulent disease and the logistic issues created by operating in a terrain of both swamps and deserts. This book, written by an officer of the 1st Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and based on his personal experiences, has been long out of print and has made been possible in this Leonaur edition by the permission and cooperation of the author’s family. This is a particularly well written book which takes the reader into the realities of campaigning with the British infantry in Mesopotamia up to the hard-fought stalemate which was the Battle of Ctesiphon, during which almost 50% of the battalion became casualties including the author who was seriously wounded. Birch Reynardson complemented his text with sketch maps and with his own excellent photographs. These (with additional photographs, maps and other material) have been enhanced and enlarged for this edition. This book is highly regarded in bibliographies of the Mesopotamian Campaign and indeed, no library on the subject can be said to be complete without it.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.