ut on September 29th they drove the enemy
from the city and took possession. More than two thousand prisoners were
taken. The town was found thoroughly fortified, with an elaborate
system of trenches extending for miles, built in the true German
fashion. Its capture was the end of the summer campaign.

[Illustration: THE MESOPOTAMIAN SECTOR, WHERE THE BRITISH ROUTED THE
TURKISH ARMY]

The British now had at last made up their minds to push on to Bagdad.
General Townshend, whose work so far had been admirable, protested, but
Sir John Nixon, and the Indian military authorities, were strongly in
favor of the expedition. By October, Turkey was able to gather a large
army. She was fighting in Transcaucasia, Egypt, Gallipoli and
Mesopotamia. Little was going on in the first three of these fronts,
and she was able therefore to send to Mesopotamia almost a quarter of a
million men.

To meet these, General Townshend had barely fifteen thousand men, of
whom only one-third were white soldiers. He was backed by a flotilla of
boats of almost every kind,--river boats, motor launches, paddle
steamers, native punts. The British army was almost worn out by the
fighting during the intense heat of the previous summer. But their
success had given them confidence.

In the early days of October the advance began. For some days it
proceeded with no serious fighting. On the 23d of October it reached
Azizie, and was halted by a Turkish force numbering about four thousand.
These were soon routed, and the advance continued until General
Townshend arrived at Lajj, about seven miles from Ctesiphon, where the
Turks were found heavily intrenched and in great numbers. Ctesiphon was
a famous old city which had been the battle ground of Romans and
Parthians, but was now mainly ruins. In these ruins, however, the Turks
found admirable shelter for nests of machine guns. On the 21st of
November General Townshend made his attack.

The Turks occupied two lines of intrenchments, and had about twenty
thousand men, the English about twelve thousand. General Townshend's
plan was to divide his army into three columns. The first was to attack
the center of the first Turkish position. A second was directed at the
left of that position, and a third was to swing widely around and come
in on the rear of the Turkish force. This plan was entirely successful,
but the Turkish army was not routed, and retreated fighting desperately
to its second line. There it was re