o support the assaulting
battalions as occasion offered. The first-line transport with the
reserve ammunition halted near the culvert through which we had
crossed the railway, but both our reserve ammunition and our Aide Post
were brought forward as the attack developed.

[Illustration: Indian Cavalry Watering At Arab Village.]

[Illustration: Landing Stores At Arab Village.]

[Illustration: The Great Bund Built To Keep Back The Marsh At
Falahiyah.]

[Illustration: The Liquorice Factory, Kut.]

[Illustration: The River At Kut.]

[Illustration: Drawing Water At Kut.]

[Illustration: View From The Kut Minaret Towards The Hai.]

[Illustration: Kut.]

[Illustration: Progress Is Being Made At Kut, It Now Has Its
Municipality.]

[Illustration: Townshend's Trenches, Kut.]

[Illustration: Looking Towards Kut.]

[Illustration: The Kut Minaret.]

At 3-30 p.m. we advanced, and soon had passed the two field batteries
covering our front, and reached, without opposition, the lines of the
first brigade extended on the east side of the railway. About four
o'clock our patrols reported that the enemy was holding not only the
main ridge that joins Sugar Loaf Hill with the railway embankment, but
also a broken line of low sandhills a few hundred yards in front of
the main position. At the same time some shrapnel burst over our
leading platoons, and a party of Turks, directly on our left, opened
long-range rifle fire. The battalion halted under cover of some
sandhills, the final orders were issued, and half a company and two
machine-guns were sent to clear the enemy firing from our left flank.

Happily the latter retired at once when fired on, and the battalion
advanced in perfect order, the small columns extending into line as
the enemy's rifle fire grew more and more severe. The Turkish
batteries now kept up a regular fire of both shrapnel and
high-explosive shell, but these detonated badly, and our losses on
this account were small. A _rafale_ of shrapnel will of course destroy
any infantry moving in the open, but intermittent shelling, although
it appears to be terribly destructive, will not stop resolute troops
determined to press forward. But the farther we advanced the more
evident it became that Sugar Loaf Hill was the key of the position. It
stood seven or eight hundred yards west of the railway, and the
enemy's riflemen from the entrenchments on top brought a deadly
enfilade fire to bear on our advancing lines.