Chapter I: Preface

No one can be more alive than I am to the fact that of the making of war books there is no end, nor can anyone hear mentally more plainly than I do how, at each fresh appearance of a work dealing with the world tragedy of the past five years, weary reviewers and jaded public alike exclaim, "What? Yet another!" Why, then, have I added this of mine to the already so formidable list?

Well, chiefly because in the beginning of 1918 Fate and the War Office sent me into a field of operations almost unknown and unheeded of the average home-keeping Briton--viz., that of North-West Persia, in the land lying towards the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea; and my experiences there led me into bypaths of the Great War so unusual as to seem well worth describing, quite apart from the military importance of the movements of which they were but a minute part.

However, in the latter aspect, too, I hope my book will serve as a useful footnote to the history of the gigantic struggle now happily ended.

The story of the Persian campaign needed to be told, and I am glad to add my humble quota to the recital. It is the story of a little force operating far {vi} away from the limelight, unknown to the people at home, and seemingly forgotten a great part of the time even by the authorities themselves. It was to this force--commanded by General Dunsterville, and hence known to those who knew it at all as "Dunsterforce"--that I was attached, and it is about it that I have written here. I have tried to make clear what the "Dunsterforce" was, why it was sent out, and how far it succeeded in accomplishing its mission. In order to do this I have been obliged to treat rather fully both of local geography and politics. For here we had no clear-cut campaign in which all the people of one country were in arms against all the people of another country. No! It was a very mixed-up and complicated business, as anyone who troubles to read what I have written will readily see.

Then, again, it was a war waged distinctly off the beaten track. During its progress we came across tribes to whom Great Britain was as some legendary land in another solar sphere--tribes to whom the aeroplane and the automobile were undreamed-of marvels--tribes, finally, whose habitat and modes of life and thought are almost as unknown to the average European as his are to them. For this reason I have devoted some space to descriptions of places and people as I saw them.

A word should perhaps be said as to how and why I happened to be there at all.

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War has figured very largely in my life. For the past twenty years, as Special Correspondent of the _Daily Chronicle_, I have been privileged to be present at most of the world's great upheavals, both military and political.

From July, 1914, on, for some eighteen months, I followed the fortunes of the Entente armies in the field as a war chronicler, first in Serbia, next in Belgium, and afterwards in Italy and Greece--a poor journalistic Lazarus picking up such crumbs of news as fell from the overladen table of Dives, the Censor. But I was not happy, because I felt I was not doing my "bit" as effectively as I might; so I followed the example of millions of other citizens of the Empire and joined the army. Detailed to the Intelligence Corps, I was sent first to Roumania, then to Russia. Escaping from the "Red Terror" in Petrograd, I finally found myself one day embarking for the remote land of Iran as Special Service Officer with "Dunsterforce"--at which point this chronicle begins.

THE AUTHOR.

PARIS,
_October_, 1919.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

THE START OF THE "HUSH-HUSH" BRIGADE

A mystery expedition--Tower of London conference--From Flanders mud to Eastern dust--An Imperial forlorn hope--Some fine fighting types--The amphibious purser--In the submarine zone--Our Japanese escort

CHAPTER II

EGYPT TO THE PERSIAN GULF

Afloat in an insect-house--Captain Kettle in command--Overcrowding and small-pox--The s.s. _Tower of Babel_--A shark scare--Koweit

CHAPTER III

THE CITY OF SINBAD

Arrival at Basra--A city of filth--Transformation by the British--Introducing sport to the natives--The Arabs and the cinema

CHAPTER IV

AT A PERSIAN WEDDING

Visit to the Sheikh of Mohammerah--A Persian banquet

CHAPTER V

UP THE TIGRIS TO KUT

Work of the river flotilla--Thames steamboats on the Tigris--The waterway through the desert--The renaissance of Amarah--The river's jazz-step course--The old Kut and the new--In Townshend's old headquarters--Turks' monument to short-lived triumph

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CHAPTER VI

BAGDAD

Arabian nights and motor-cars--The old and the new in Bagdad--"Noah's dinghy"--Bible history illustrated--At a famous tomb-mosque

CHAPTER VII

EARLY HISTORY OF DUNSTERVILLE's FORCE

Jealousy and muddle--The dash for the Caspian--Holding on hundreds of miles from anywhere--A 700-mile raid that failed--The cockpit of the Middle East--Some recent politics in Persia--How our way to the Caspian was barred

CHAPTER VIII

OFF TO PERSIA

Au revoir to Bagdad--The forts on the frontier--Customs house for the dead--A land of desolation and death--A city of the past--An underground mess--Methods of rifle thieves

CHAPTER IX

THROUGH MUD TO KIRIND

A city of starving cave-dwellers--An American woman's mission to the wild--A sect of salamanders--Profiteering among the Persians--A callous nation--Wireless orders to sit tight--Awaiting attack--The "mountain tiger"

CHAPTER X

KIRIND TO KERMANSHAH

Pillage and famine--A land of mud--The Chikar Zabar Pass--Wandering Dervishes--Poor hotel accommodation--A "Hunger Battalion"--A city of the past

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CHAPTER XI

A CITY OF FAMINE

In ancient Hamadan--With Dunsterville at last--His precarious position--"Patriots" as profiteers--Victims of famine--Driven to cannibalism--Women kill their children for food--Trial and execution--Famine relief schemes--Deathblow to the Democrats--"Stalky"

CHAPTER XII

DUNSTERVILLE STRIKES AFRESH

Official hindrances--A fresh blow for the Caucasus--The long road to Tabriz--A strategic centre--A Turkish invasion--Rising of Christian tribes--A local Joan of Arc--The British project

CHAPTER XIII

THE RACE FOR TABRIZ

A scratch pack for a great adventure--Wagstaff of Persia--Among the Afshars--Guests of the chief--Capture of Zinjan--Peace and profiteering

CHAPTER XIV

CAPTURE OF MIANEH

Armoured car causes consternation--Reconnoitring the road--Flying column sets out--An easy capture at the gates of Tabriz--Tribesmen raid the armoured car--And have a thin time--Turks get the wind up

CHAPTER XV

LIFE IN MIANEH

Training local levies--A city of parasites and rogues--A knave turns philanthropist--Turks getting active--Osborne's comic opera force--Jelus appeal for help--An aeroplane to the rescue--The democrats impressed--Women worried by aviator's "shorts"--Skirmishes on the Tabriz road--Reinforcements at last

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CHAPTER XVI

THE FIGHT AT TIKMADASH

Treachery of our irregulars--Turkish machine gun in the village--Headquarters under fire--Native levies break and bolt--British force withdrawn--Turks proclaim a Holy War--Cochrane's demonstration--In search of the missing force--Natives mutiny--A quick cure for "cholera"--A Turkish patrol captured--Meeting with Cochrane--A forced retreat--Our natives desert--A difficult night march--Arrival at Turkmanchai--Turks encircling us--A fresh retirement

CHAPTER XVII

EVACUATION OF MIANEH

We have a chilly reception--Our popularity wanes--Preparation for further retirement--Back to the Kuflan Kuh Pass--Our defensive position--Turks make a frontal attack--Our line overrun--Gallantry of Hants and Worcesters--Pursuit by Turks--Armoured cars save the situation--Prisoners escape from Turks--Persians as fighters

CHAPTER XVIII

CRUSHING A PLOT

Anti-British activities--Headquarters at Hamadan--Plans to seize ringleaders--Midnight arrests--How the Governor was entrapped

CHAPTER XIX

THE FIRST EXPEDITION TO BAKU

Kuchik Khan bars the road--Turk and Russian movements--Kuchik Khan's force broken up--Bicherakoff reaches Baku--British armoured car crews in Russian uniforms--Fighting around Baku--Baku abandoned--Captain Crossing charges six-inch guns

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CHAPTER XX

THE NEW DASH TO BAKU

Treachery in the town--Jungalis attack Resht--Armoured cars in street-fighting--Baku tires of Bolshevism--British summoned to the rescue--Dunsterville sets out--Position at Baku on arrival--British officers' advice ignored--Turkish attacks--Pressing through the defences--Baku again evacuated

CHAPTER XXI

THE TURKS AND THE CHRISTIAN TRIBES

Guerrilla warfare--Who the Nestorian and other Christian tribes are--Turkish massacres--Russian withdrawal and its effect--British intervention

CHAPTER XXII

IN KURDISTAN

The last phase--Dunsterforce ceases to exist--The end of Turkish opposition--Off to Bijar--The Kurdish tribes--Raids on Bijar--Moved on by a policeman--Governor and poet

CHAPTER XXIII

THE END OF HOSTILITIES

Types of Empire defenders--Local feeling--Dealing with Kurdish raiders--An embarrassing offer of marriage--Prestige by aeroplane--Anniversary of Hossain the Martyr--News of the Armistice--Local waverers come down on our side of the fence--Releasing civil prisoners--Farewell of Bajar--Down country to the sea and home

APPENDIX

THE WORK OF THE DUNSTERFORCE ARMOURED CAR BRIGADE

INDEX

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE ROAD TO BIRKANDI ... _frontispiece_

BRITISH-TRAINED PERSIAN POLICE

HÔTEL D'EUROPE AT RESHT

STONE BRIDGE AT SIAH RUD

TYPICAL PERSIAN VILLAGE

PERSIAN TRANSPORT

DARIUS INSCRIPTIONS AT BISITUN

CARAVANSERAI, BISITUN

DRILLING JEHUS AT HAMADAN

ROAD NEAR RUDBAR

NORTH GATE OF KASVIN

DRILLING ARMENIANS AT BAKU

GROUP OF STAFFORDS AT BALADADAR STATION

SIX-INCH HOWITZER IN ACTION AT BAKU

GENERAL VIEW OF SCENE FOLLOWING THE ARMENIAN RETIREMENT

HARVESTING IN PERSIA

_Map ... facing page_ 1

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WITH THE PERSIAN EXPEDITION