or
weakness of the British force, may well have looked forward to an easy
victory. But the many successes gained by British arms during the
campaign in Mesopotamia had not failed to impress the Turkish troops
and the tribesmen, their allies, with a wholesome respect for British
valor. If General Townshend had been reenforced by another division
that might easily have been spared to him from the army that had been
in training in India for ten months previous, he could have smashed
the Turks at Ctesiphon and conquered Mesopotamia. As it was, the
British victory was all but complete. An entire Turkish division was
destroyed. They took 1,600 prisoners and large quantities of arms and
ammunition. But these successes had been dearly won. Some of the
British battalions lost half their men. According to the best
authorities the British casualties totaled 4,567, of whom 643 were
killed, 3,330 wounded, and 594 men not accounted for. According to the
Turkish accounts of the Battle of Ctesiphon, which emanated from
Constantinople, the British had 170,000 men in action, and their
losses exceeded 5,000. This estimate of General Townshend's strength
was far from the truth. At no time did the British commander's troops
number more than 25,000, and 16,000 men would be a liberal estimate of
his striking force.

A graphic description of what followed the battle is furnished by a
letter home, written by an officer who participated in the struggle.

"The cold of the night, want of water, the collecting of the wounded,
gave little rest to the men, though many snatched a few hours' sleep
in the trenches among the dead. Dawn of November 23, 1915, broke with
a tearing wind and a dust storm which obscured the landscape for some
hours, and then the air, becoming clearer, allowed us to take in the
scene of the fight. Whatever losses we suffered the Turks must have
suffered even more severely. They had fought desperately to the end,
knowing that to attempt to escape over the open ground was to court
instant death. The trenches were full of their dead, and here and
there a little pile of men showed where a lucky shell had fallen.
Ctesiphon loomed through the dust before us, still intact for all the
stream of shell which had passed it, for our gunners had been asked
not to hit the ancient monument.

"The early part of the morning was occupied in clearing to the rear
the transport which had come up to the first line during the night. At
about ten