The Command

by Christopher Nicole

  I would not be truthful were I to pretend that to have a white-skinned man at my mercy is not a source of pleasure to me. To hear one of your soldiers beg and scream, to watch the horror in his eyes as he realizes what I and my women are about to do to him, is a thrill I can never overcome. To have you, naked and bound, at my feet, my Mackinder, would be the greatest experience of my life. Do you not suppose you will one day be sent to India?

  But I have promised never to harm you. Do you know, when I said that, I was serious. As I was serious when I invited you to my bed. That too I regret. It would have made it doubly pleasurable to slice away your manhood afterwards.

  Go fight and win your war, Mackinder. Having lived with the Turks I do not doubt you will. And then return to your green and pleasant England, and your wife and family, and dream of me. Because you will, my Mackinder. I am a woman of whom men dream, throughout eternity.

  The letter was unsigned, presumably so that it could never be used in evidence against her. But he would not have used it in evidence anyway. He crumpled it into a ball and then set a match to it. Reynolds, coming into his room while the little fire was still burning, gave him an old-fashioned look but said nothing.

  Murdoch watched the paper dissolve into ashes. Sleep tight, my bloodthirsty princess, he thought. I will come to India, one of these days. And I will seek you out. And yes, now I have decided: I will attend your hanging.

  The next day, the orders came to move out. The advance on Baghdad would begin.

  *

  General Maude now mustered a combat strength of one hundred and sixty-six thousand men, of whom two-thirds were Indians. Every preparation had been made, and the advance was to be on both sides of the Tigris, with the main force following the east bank. Communication between the two parts of the army was maintained by a flotilla of gunboats which cruised slowly up the river. There was a brigade of armoured cars, but insufficient cavalry was the only weakness. A regiment of Indian lancers led the march on the west bank, the dragoons followed the familiar road on the east.

  The army moved slowly, not more than five miles a day, the general being careful to protect his men from the heat of the midday sun; he wanted a fully effective force when he encountered the Turks. Christmas came and went, and the new year arrived. ‘The year of victory,’ Maude told his officers. He was totally confident. And for a while it seemed as if the Turks were not going to fight at all. Murdoch’s dragoons, ranging in front of the main force, came across abandoned cantonments north of Amara, and north too of where they had camped when they had encountered Chand Bibi’s caravan. But this sham warfare came to an end when they sighted the minarets of Kut, and were fired upon. An extensive reconnaissance indicated that the Turks were dug in before the town in considerable force, concentrated on the east bank of the river, which some miles below Kut made a right-angled bend to the west.

  ‘Very good, gentlemen,’ Maude said, surveying the maps spread out on the table before his tent and around which his senior officers were gathered. ‘The enemy anticipates a frontal assault or an assault on his left flank. He is relying on the river to prevent any turning movement on his right. Well, he is going to get everything he asked for. General Maitland, you will take your division and the Royal Western Dragoons, and perform a flank march to the north. You will approach Kut via the Hawr al Suwavqivah lake, and then advance to the south-west with every evidence of assaulting the town from the rear. You will do enough to force the enemy to commit troops to oppose you, but you will proceed with caution, and once fully engaged, retreat to a previously chosen position. Understood?’

  The Major-General nodded.

  ‘General Lake,’ Maude continued, ‘once the Turks turn their attention to the east, you will launch your division in a frontal assault on the town itself. Your attack, with the second and third divisions, will be pushed home sufficiently to fix the Turkish defence. Once this has been done, I and the main body will cross the river and join our forces on the other side, and bypass the town altogether. Our objective is Baghdad. Halil Pasha will have to be besieged in Kut or leave the city to its fate and pull out. Understood?’

  The officers nodded.

  ‘Very good. The first division and the cavalry will move off at dawn. I expect your attack to commence at dawn four days from now. It will mean some forced marching, but now we must make haste. Understood?’

  ‘Understood, sir,’ Maitland acknowledged.

  *

  ‘Action at last,’ Peter Ramage said. ‘Thank God for that.’

  General Maitland called a conference to let everyone know his plans. ‘We don’t have too much time, so we are going to travel light,’ he announced. ‘No baggage train on the march. We sleep rough. And we take rations for five days only. The train will follow and we will fall back on it after engaging the enemy. If necessary. I know this is a feint,’ he said, ‘but it has to be a realistic one. And...’ He winked at his officers. ‘One never knows when a feint can become the real thing. Colonel Mackinder, you’ll form a cavalry screen. I have no doubt the Turks will be keeping an eye on us, but we shall let them do that. Chase them off if they approach too closely, or show signs of concentrating. Otherwise, we just march to our position, and see what we find there. Thank you, gentlemen.’

  Assembly was blown at three, and the men mounted up. The dragoons rode out first, followed by the infantry and the two batteries of field artillery, drawn by mules. The operation reminded Murdoch of many he had carried out in South Africa. He did not doubt the ultimate result. He was only sorry Chand Bibi was safely away in Kashmir.

  It was February, and bitterly cold at night to be sleeping in the open, but equally, hot as soon as the day had warmed up. They covered five miles the first day, and the same the second. On this second day Turkish horsemen were observed away to the north by the advance guard, keeping them under surveillance, but, as instructed, the dragoons ignored them and they melted away. On the third day the order of march was switched to the west; Kut was now actually south-west of them. Murdoch put out a right and left flank guard as well as an advance guard, but still Turkish patrols merely kept them in sight. However, they could not doubt that their movements were being reported to the enemy command.

  The land was flat, but uneven, a hundred wadis to the mile. It was also surprisingly fertile, and they passed many plantations, the men being strictly forbidden to loot as the Arabs came out to gawk at them. Equally was it largely lacking in natural defensive features, until riders returned from Destry’s troop, this day acting as an advance guard a mile in front of the main body, to say that they had encountered the remains of an old canal, mostly dry but presenting a reasonable natural obstacle, and had been fired upon from the west bank. Murdoch rode forward with Prendergast, and inspected the situation through binoculars. There was no doubt that a Turkish force was dug in on the far side, and with reason — the minarets of Kut were once again visible in the distance, more than ten miles away, but shimmering in the afternoon heat.

  The canal itself was a useful obstacle, the first they had encountered. It was surprisingly deep, some eight feet, and about thirty yards wide, while the sides were steep too. there was also water in the bottom. Not a great deal, but enough to make it slushy. And when the sun glinted off their glasses there was considerable firing, from both rifles and machine guns.

  ‘Dismount your men and keep the enemy under observation, Mr Destry,’ Murdoch ordered. ‘Billy, see if your radio people can raise division with their machine.’

  Radio was the latest concept in warfare: that two commands should be able to talk to each other at a distance of several miles without having to lay telephone wires.

  They returned to the regiment, where Reynolds was waiting with a cup of tea, dismounted, and the wireless telegraphers got to work. There was an enormous amount of static, but General Maitland was informed of the situation, and requested Murdoch to show himself to the enemy but not to engage until the rest of the force came up. Murdoch had his troopers mount
and move forward again, to within a mile of the canal, when again shots were exchanged. He placed his six Lewis guns and began a long-range duel, keeping his men well out of sight as far as possible. So far the dragoons had not suffered a casualty.

  There was no means of telling how many Turks were on the other side of the canal, but from the amount of fire power they commanded there seemed little doubt that there was at least a regiment, strongly emplaced, and if they were resolutely led a frontal assault would be costly. Murdoch dispatched Manly-Smith and B Troop of A Squadron, first of all back the way they had come until they were out of sight of any Turkish observation, and then north to find the canal again and discover how far the defences stretched. Then it was a matter of sitting out the night, watching for any enemy movements, and waiting for the division to arrive.

  They began straggling in at dawn, Maitland having kept them on the march all night. He himself rode up to stand beside Murdoch and survey the gradually lightening scene in front of him.

  ‘Desultory fire,’ Murdoch told him. ‘No attempt to drive us away.’

  ‘Because they’re damned sure we are a feint,’ Maitland said. ‘We will have to disillusion them about that.’

  ‘I have a troop reconnoitring the canal,’ Murdoch said.

  ‘Good man. We’ll have our people rest up today, and be ready to commence action on schedule tomorrow morning.’

  Manly-Smith returned in the middle of the morning to say that the canal appeared to go all the way back to Baghdad, and was held further north only by patrols.

  ‘We are going to have to winkle these fellows out,’ Maitland decided. ‘All right, General Thorpe, I want you to take your brigade north-west, following the line of the canal, but at a safe distance from it. I’m afraid you will have to move out right away and make a forced march of it; your men have had a couple of hours’ rest. At first light tomorrow I wish you to cross the canal. If you meet any strong opposition I will march to your aid; if you do not, I wish your people to be in position on the west bank by eight ack emma, and to commence your march south-west as soon as possible. Either way we’ll fix those fellows over there, and have them calling for support. Should you, however, be attacked by a vastly superior force after crossing the canal but before linking up with the division, you are to go on the defensive until you receive further orders from me. This may mean recrossing the canal in order to establish a perimeter. Now, Colonel Mackinder, your dragoons will accompany General Thorpe’s brigade. You will proceed in advance to the north, and when the canal is crossed, you will screen to the west and north. Your objective is to prevent the brigade becoming so involved with superior forces it is unable to withdraw. At dawn tomorrow morning I will begin active demonstrations here with an artillery barrage. I shall make every attempt to force the canal, aided by your flank attack. If the enemy are reinforced and counter-attack, we shall withdraw to this bank and hold them. If they are not reinforced, well...’ He gave one of his characteristic winks. ‘We shall move on and see how far we can get. Good hunting, gentlemen.’

  *

  Murdoch and Thorpe marched their men out immediately, the dragoons pushing on ahead. Mulai was still their guide — Murdoch had adopted him permanently — and they walked their horses north-east for a mile before turning back to the north-west. They actually covered the ten miles before dusk, and Murdoch was able to call a halt at a water hole in a wadi and allow the men to water the tired horses and brew up some tea and have dinner in reasonable comfort. They were seething with excitement at the prospect of real action for the first time in very nearly two years. There was no sign of any enemy.

  Within an hour or two after the meal, however, many of them had fallen asleep. Murdoch paced up and down, watching the moon rise to turn the night almost bright, looking at his watch...this was not his first independent command, as he had been virtually on his own during the battle with the Somalis, but then he had known exactly what he was facing. Here he had no idea what Turkish forces might have been withdrawn from the town to face the threat from the east.

  Eventually he turned in himself, but was awakened at first light when the sky to the south lit up as the batteries opened fire, and a moment later the reverberations reached him. He had already forbidden bugle calls, but the officers and NCOs of each squadron were standing by to alert their men, and the regiment was ready in minutes. Murdoch had kept in radio contact with Thorpe’s brigade, and the weary Indians were now in position three miles behind him and also ready to cross. He was able to tell them that there were no enemy forces visible to their north — at least as yet. Now it was light enough to see quite clearly; the canal was a further half mile away. Murdoch raised his arm and A Troop of C Squadron moved out as previously instructed, cantering towards the dip. The five hundred remaining Royal Western Dragoon troopers stood by their horses and waited.

  Lieutenant Collier, in command of the advance guard, behaved perfectly, trotting his men up to the banks of the canal, surveying it as though encountering it for the first time, and then signalling his men to cross. Crouching on the side of the wadi, Murdoch and Prendergast watched him through their field glasses, and saw a spurt of dust to the right. A moment later two horsemen could be seen galloping away, one to south and the other north. But no shots had been fired.

  ‘Regiment will mount,’ Murdoch commanded.

  Harnesses jingled as the troopers swung into the saddle.

  ‘Move out.’ Murdoch pointed at the canal, and the dragoons surged forward in three lines, in and out of the knee-deep water. Not a shot had been fired, and they were across the canal. Collier was waiting for them. ‘Good work, Mr Collier,’ Murdoch told him. ‘You’ll proceed down the west bank, one mile in advance of the main body. Captain Hunter, take C Squadron and form a flank guard one mile to the west. Captain Ramage, Captain Lowndes, column of twos.’

  ‘What about those two scouts?’ Prendergast asked.

  ‘Everything will depend on how close their main body is. We’ll have to play this one by ear, Billy.’ He raised his arm. ‘Forward.’

  By now the firing from south of them had become general, the artillery booming in the distance, the cracks of rifles and the chatter of machine guns closer at hand looming across the morning and suggesting that Thorpe’s brigade had encountered resistance. They could see the clouds of smoke above the further battlefield. The regiment had covered two miles in a few minutes when they came in sight of the Indian brigade, also across the canal, and advancing south-west; there was a good deal of firing, and clearly the Turkish force opposing them was slowly retreating. Which was according to plan, save for the possibility of a flank attack from an as yet unseen body of the enemy summoned by the two Turkish scouts. Murdoch called a halt to try to raise Thorpe on the wireless. Before he had done so, a rider came in from Hunter’s squadron.

  ‘Captain Hunter wishes to inform you, sir, that there is a large body of Turkish cavalry moving up from the south-west.’

  ‘Just what the doctor ordered. Can’t you raise brigade, Corporal?’

  ‘I think I have them, sir.’

  ‘Well, give them that information.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ Corporal Denning was soon shouting away. ‘Brigade replies, will return to the east bank and hold. Distract the enemy to cover my withdrawal, then join me. Sir,’ he repeated.

  Murdoch nodded. ‘Very good. Signal the Brigadier that his message is understood.’ He faced his officers, Hunter having also come in by now. ‘We’ll need a show of strength, or they won’t follow us. Captain Ramage, take your squadron out to within sight of the enemy, and then withdraw towards the regiment.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ Peter Ramage hurried for his horse.

  ‘We will prepare a defensive perimeter here,’ Murdoch told Lowndes, Hunter and Prendergast. Tut remember, our business is not to be overrun, only to distract. No heroics.’ He grinned at them; they all knew his reputation, and that he was in reality talking to himself.

  The Lewis guns were emplaced, and two t
roops dug in as riflemen on the western bank of the canal. The remainder of the regiment stood by the horses in the canal itself. Murdoch mounted and rode off with Prendergast to see what was happening, but before leaving he dispatched Lieutenant Rostron with B Troop of Lowndes’s Squadron to return along the canal and ensure their retreat was not impeded.

  The sounds of battle were louder than ever from south of them, but there was still no activity from Kut itself, so far as he could make out; General Maude was making absolutely sure the Turks had committed the maximum number of men to defending their left flank before commencing the second part of his attack.

  Murdoch and Billy topped a low rise and looked both south and west. Far south the smoke clouds were billowing skywards, but they were still too far away to distinguish any actual fighting; nearer at hand the Indian brigade had ceased its advance and appeared to be regrouping, but this was obviously part of Thorpe’s withdrawal plan; the firing was desultory. West they could make out Ramage’s squadron walking their horses in and out of the wadis and low hills, appearing and then disappearing again.

  ‘There!’ Prendergast pointed, and Murdoch swung his glasses and saw the dust. ‘That’s a fair number of men.’ He gave a low whistle. ‘Several thousand.’

  Murdoch was watching Ramage. But there were advance riders out, and now these could be seen returning in haste. ‘Let’s get back,’ he said.

  They cantered back to the regiment, and listened to a burst of firing from the south-west, accompanied by a deep roar, the Turkish battle cry. The men needed no reminder to stand by; everyone was keyed up. Soon they could see Ramage’s squadron, galloping back towards the canal; there were a couple of riderless horses with them. They charged past the rest of the regiment, ignoring them to conceal their position, and only then did Ramage signal his men to slow up; their horses were quite blown.