igris plain in
this district. A couple of miles south of Istabulat station, the
Dujail cuts through the Median Wall about a mile to the east of the
Railway, which runs from Baghdad through the Median Wall, past
Istabulat, and so on to Samarrah.

By the 18th April, the British were holding that part of the Median
Wall that runs roughly for a couple of miles eastwards from the Dujail
River to the River Tigris, other troops, also in rear of the Median
Wall, continued our line on the west bank of the Dujail, and a third
body was held in reserve. The open nature of the country, and the
difficulty of distinguishing the enemy's main position from his
advanced trenches, made the problem of attack uncommonly difficult,
and the thorough bombardment of his trenches before assault almost
impossible.

The key to the position was obviously the high double wall of the
Dujail River. These walls are a hundred to a hundred and fifty yards
wide at the top, and being very broken and uneven give some cover to
skirmishers in attack or defence. An attack along this line is also
made somewhat easier by a small ridge of sandhills that had
originally formed the walls of an old canal, which flowed in earlier
centuries between the Tigris and the Dujail. Photographs taken by our
airmen showed that the Turks had strengthened their line where it
crossed the Dujail, by building a strong redoubt on its eastern bank
some 300 yards long by 150 broad; here too were a number of machine
gun emplacements and, a little in rear, six or eight gun pits.

On the 18th a Highland Regiment pushed forward a strong patrol along
the east bank of the Dujail, an Indian Battalion doing the same on the
west bank, the two patrols working together and giving each other
mutual support. Both Regiments encountered the Turkish outposts within
six hundred yards, and after driving them some distance back, the
patrols were withdrawn at night.

As an attack on the enemy position was decided on, the Battalion
Commander suggested that a line of strong points should be constructed
about a mile ahead of our line, that when these had been made good, a
second line of strong points a further eight hundred yards in advance
should be constructed, so that by this means the final assault might
be made from a short distance to the enemy's main position, and also
by this means artillery officers would be able to locate definitely
the enemy's main trenches and the guns could be brought up wi