pportunity to prove it.

If the Turks had made their position almost impregnable on land, they
had neglected nothing to prevent the British from gaining any
advantage on the Tigris. The river was blocked at different points by
lines of sunken dhows, while across the water, and a little above it,
was stretched a great wire cable. Special care had been taken to
protect the Turkish guns from being destroyed. Each one of them was
placed in such position that nothing less than a direct hit by a
howitzer shell could damage it.

On September 26, 27, and 28, 1915, a column under General Fry, by
ceaseless effort day and night, had managed to work its way up to
within four hundred yards of the Turkish barbed-wire entanglements,
round what was known from its shape as the Horseshoe Marsh. The troops
went forward slowly under continual shell fire and hail of rifle
bullets, digging themselves in as they advanced. The British guns in
the open could not check the Turkish artillery, which increased in
intensity as the British troops continued to advance. The nature of
the ground was decidedly to the advantage of the attackers, for at
intervals there were deep, firm-bottomed trenches that afforded
excellent cover. If the Turks had been provided with good ammunition
the British would have lost vastly more men than they did. It is said
that the Turkish shrapnel was of such poor quality that the British
troops passed unscathed through it, only being wounded when they were
hit by cases and fuses. All told, the British suffered ninety
casualties in this attack on the enemy round the Horseshoe Marsh. The
main object of this operation was to hold the Turkish attention at a
point where they hoped to be attacked while more important work was
going forward elsewhere.

A second column under General Delamain, which had crossed the Tigris
from the south side, marched all night of September 27, 1915, and
reached their new attacking position on a neck of dry land between two
marshes where the Turks were intrenched at five o'clock in the morning
of September 28, 1915. Advancing cautiously for a mile between the two
marshes, Delamain's column came in sight of the enemy's intrenchments.
Before the fight opened General Townshend directed General Houghton to
lead a detachment of Delamain's force around the marsh to the north
and make a flank attack on the Turkish intrenchments. That Nuredin
Pasha should have left his northern flank exposed to a turning