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Updated: May 28, 2025
February 14 Von Bernstorff sails for Germany. Feb. 25 British under Gen. Maude capture Kut-el-Amara; submarine sinks liner Laconia without warning; many lost including two Americans. Feb. 26 President Wilson asks congress for authority to arm American merchantships. Feb. 28 Secretary Lansing makes public Zimmerman note to Mexico, proposing Mexican-Japanese-German alliance.
The Turks were evidently taken by surprise, for a lively stampede followed. On March 6, 1916, General Aylmer marched up the Tigris to the Turkish position at Es Sinn, which is only seven miles from Kut-el-Amara. This is a Turkish stronghold and was carried by General Townshend on his way to the Kut.
Turkish opposition in Asia Minor was swiftly broken down, and steps were taken by the Russians to relieve the British force which had been beleagured by the Turks at Kut-el-Amara, in Mesopatamia, 150 miles from Erzerum. On February 27-28 the Turks hastily evacuated the important Black Sea port of Trebizond and neighboring cities before the victorious Russian advance.
Kut-el-Amara, where General Townshend and his troops were so long besieged, stands on the left bank of the Tigris, almost at the water's level, with sloping sand hills rising to the north. The desert beyond the river is broken here and there by deep nullahs which, when they are filled with water after a rainfall, are valuable defensive features of the country.
No attempt was made by them to force the issue, except that on March 23, 1916, the English general reported that his camp at Kut-el-Amara had been subjected to intermittent bombardment by Turkish airships and guns during March 21, 22, and 23, 1916. No serious damage, however, was inflicted.
The fattest horses and mules were retained as food for forty days. "Kut-el-Amara was searched as with a fine tooth comb and considerable stores of grain were discovered beneath houses. These were commandeered, the inhabitants previously self-supporting receiving the same ration as the soldiers and Sepoys.
Aside from this fear of strong reenforcements, the Turkish commanders were straining every effort to capture the British force shut up in Kut-el-Amara, and thus secure a great victory that could not fail to have far-reaching military and political effects both in Turkey and throughout the whole warring world.
After holding out against the Turks at Kut-el-Amara, in Mesopotamia, for 143 days, General Townshend, the British commander, was compelled, through exhaustion of his supplies, to surrender his force of 9,000 officers and men, on April 28. This force included about 2,000 English and 7,000 Indian troops, many being on the sick list.
Although this undertaking was carried out most courageously in the face of the Turkish guns commanding the entire stretch of the Tigris between Sanna-i-Yat and the Turkish lines below Kut-el-Amara, it miscarried, for the boat went aground near Magasis, about four miles below Kut-el-Amara. Another desperate effort to get at least some supplies to Kut by means of aeroplanes also failed.
Having had his lines of communication cut off ever since December 3, 1915, it was now almost five months since he had been forced to support the lives of some 10,000 men from the meager supplies which they had with them at the time of their hurried retreat from Ctesiphon to Kut-el-Amara, which were only slightly increased by whatever stores had been found at the latter place.
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