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Fall of Baghdad
Part of the Mesopotamian campaign of World War I
General Maude's entry into Baghdad, 11 March 1917
Date 8–11 March 1917 Location Diyala River, just below Baghdad, Mesopotamia (now Iraq) Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  India  Australia	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Frederick Maude	Halil Pasha
Strength
I Corps III Corps (70,000 men)	Sixth Army (25,000 men)
Casualties and losses
Unknown	9,000+ captured

The fall of Baghdad (11 March 1917) occurred during the Mesopotamian campaign, fought between the forces of the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

Arrival of General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude

After the surrender of the Kut garrison on 29 April 1916, the British Army in Mesopotamia underwent a major overhaul. A new commander, Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, was given the job of restoring Britain's military reputation.

General Maude spent the rest of 1916 rebuilding his army. Most of his troops were recruited in India and then sent by sea to Basra. While these troops were being trained, British military engineers built a field railway from the coast up to Basra and beyond. General Maude also obtained a small force of armed river boats and river supply ships.

The British launched their new campaign on 13 December 1916. The British had some 50,000 well-trained and well-equipped troops: mostly British India troops of the Indian Expeditionary Force D together with the 13th (Western) Division of the British Army forming the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force. The Indian divisions of the Indian III Corps (also called the Tigris Corps) included British Army units. The Ottoman forces were smaller, perhaps around 25,000 strong under the overall command of General Khalil Pasha.

March on Baghdad

There were no setbacks for the British on this campaign. General Maude proceeded cautiously, advancing on both sides of the Tigris River. He earned his nickname Systematic Joe. The Ottoman forces contested a fortified place called the Khadairi Bend which the British captured after two weeks of siege work (6 January to 19 January 1917). The British then had to force the Ottoman forces out of a strong defensive line along the Hai River. This took them two more weeks (from 25 January till 4 February). Another Ottoman position, called Dahra Bend, was taken on 16 February. Finally, the British re-captured Kut on 24 February 1917 in the Second Battle of Kut.

The local Ottoman commander, Karabekir Bey, did not let his army become trapped in Kut, as General Townshend had been in the First Battle of Kut.

The march on Baghdad resumed on 5 March 1917. Three days later, Maude's corps reached the Diyala River on the outskirts of the city.

Khalil Pasha chose to defend Baghdad at the confluence of the Diyala and the Tigris, some 35 miles south of Baghdad. The Ottoman troops resisted the initial British assault on 9 March. General Maude then shifted the majority of his army north. He believed that he could outflank the Ottoman positions and strike directly for Baghdad. Khalil Pasha responded by shifting his army out of its defensive positions to mirror the move of the British on the other side of the river. A single regiment was left to hold the original Diyala River defences. The British crushed this regiment with a sudden assault on 10 March 1917. This sudden defeat unnerved Khalil Pasha and he ordered his army to retreat north to Baghdad.

The Ottoman authorities ordered the evacuation of Baghdad at 8 p.m. on 10 March, but the situation was rapidly moving beyond Khalil Pasha's control. The British followed close on the heels of the Ottoman troops and captured Baghdad without a fight on 11 March. A week later, General Maude issued the Proclamation of Baghdad, which included the line, "Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators". Some 9,000 Ottoman troops were caught in the confusion and became prisoners of the British.

The British were worried that the Ottoman government might try to flood the Tigris plain. As it happened, this fear was unfounded. The Ottoman troops never attempted to flood the area.

Consequences

The result was a decisive victory for the British and yet another defeat for the Ottoman government. The humiliation for the British due to the loss of Kut had been partially rectified. The Ottoman government was forced to end its military operations in Persia and try to build up a new army to prevent the British from moving on to capture Mosul.

The British had captured Basra Vilayet near the start of the war in 1914, and had now taken the provincial capital of Baghdad Vilayet. Although good news for the British forces, this caused a great deal of bureaucratic fighting between the British government in London and the British government in India over how to manage the region.

Once he captured Baghdad, Maude was the de facto Governor of Mesopotamia from Basra to Baghdad. Sir Percy Cox, the Tigris Corps Political Officer, attempted to issue a proclamation stating that the province was under joint British-Indian administration, but London ordered Cox not to issue his proclamation and came out with its own proclamation asking Arab leaders to aid the British administration instead.

At the same time, the Indian colonial government had different ideas. After all, they had been the prime movers behind Mesopotamia in the first place. The British government in India wanted this new area placed under its direct control.

This power struggle led to the creation of the Mesopotamian Administration Committee, under the leadership of Lord Curzon. Its main task was to determine who would govern the Basra and Baghdad provinces. Its ruling was a British, not Anglo-Indian, administration for Basra and an Arab authority for Baghdad. The temporary government here would eventually evolve into the British Mandate for Mesopotamia and Mandatory Iraq.

Notes

1. The proclamation of Baghdad, Sir Stanley Maude, Harper's Magazine

References

• Moberly, Frederick James (1923). Military Operations The campaign in Mesopotamia. Official History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. 1. London: HM Stationery Office.
• Moberly, Frederick James (1927). Military Operations The campaign in Mesopotamia. Official History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. 4. London: HM Stationery Office.
• Reichsarchiv, ed. (1938). Die Kriegsführung im Herbst 1916 und im Winter 1916/17 vom Wechsel in der Obersten Heeresleitung bis zum Entschluß zum Rückzug in die Siegfried-Stellung. Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918. Vol. XI. Berlin: Mittler & Sohn.
• Fromkin, David (2001). A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-6884-8.
• Bruce, A. (n.d.). 17 February – 11 March 1917 – The Capture of Baghdad. . An Illustrated Companion to the First World War.
• Duffy, M. (2002). Battles: The Capture of Baghdad, 1917. The First World War. Retrieved 17 August 2005.
• Official Dispatch about the Operations Leading to the Fall of Baghdad, General Maude.
• Report about the capture of Baghdad, Manchester Guardian.

Further reading

• Barker, A. J. The Bastard War: The Mesopotamian Campaign of 1914–1918. New York: Dial Press, 1967. OCLC 2118235

v t e Ottoman battles in the 20th century
Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912)	Preveza Tobruk Benghazi Kunfuda Bay Derna Beirut Rhodes Zanzur
Balkan Wars (1912–1913)	Sarantaporo Yenidje Kırcalı (Kardzhali) Beşpınar (Pente Pigadia) Sorovich Kumanovo Kirk Kilise İşkodra (Scutari) Lüleburgaz 1st Edirne (Adrianople) Prilep Himara Monastir 1st Çatalca Varna (Kaliakra) Merhamli İmroz (Elli) Korytsa Lemnos 2nd Edirne (Adrianople) Bolayır Şarköy Bizani 2nd Çatalca
First World War (1914–1918)	Köprüköy (Bergmann) Sarikamish Ardahan Suez Canal Naval operations Katya Seddülbayır (Cape Helles) Kumkale 1st Arıburnu (Anzac Cove) Baby 700 1st Kirte Battle of Dilman 2nd Arıburnu (2nd Anzac Cove) 2nd Kirte No.3 Post 3rd Arıburnu (3rd Anzac Cove) 3rd Kirte Zığındere Manzikert Kara Killisse Kirte Bağları (Krithia Vineyard) Kanlısırt (Lone Pine) Anafartalar Conkbayır Sarıbayır Kılıçbayır (The Nek) Hill 60 Yusufçuktepe (Scimitar Hill) Selman’ı Pak (Ctesiphon) 1st Kut Sağ Sahil Erzurum offensive Wadi Felahiye (Hanna) Sabis Trebizond Mecca Erzincan Aqaba Bitlis Romani Bir el Abd Yanbu Magdhaba Rafa Nekhl Bir el Hassana 2nd Kut Samarrah Jebel Hamlin 1st Gaza 2nd Gaza Istabulat Aqaba Ramadi Wadi Musa Beersheba Khuweilfe 3rd Gaza Baghdad Hareira and Sheria Wadi el Hesi Huj Mughar Ridge Ayun Kara Jerusalem Jaffa Jericho Tell 'Asur Khan Baghdadi Hijla 1st Amman Berukin and 1st Arara 2nd Transjordan Abaran Sardarabad Karakilisa Goychay Aghsu Kurdamir Binagadi Baku Arsuf German Expedition Abu Tellul 2nd Arara Megiddo Tabsor Tulkarm Afulah and Beisan Nazareth Jenin Haifa Samakh Tiberias Irbid Jisr Benat Yakub Kaukab Damascus Kiswe Jisr ed Damieh Sharqat Aleppo Khan Ayash 2nd Amman Haritan
For the battles before 1900 see List of battles involving the Ottoman Empire

• Conflicts in 1917
• 1917 in Ottoman Iraq
• 1910s in Baghdad
• Battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom
• Battles of the Mesopotamian campaign
• Battles of World War I involving the Ottoman Empire
• Battles of World War I involving British India
• Sieges of Baghdad
• March 1917 events
• Sieges of World War I
• Sieges involving Australia
• Sieges involving the Ottoman Empire
• Sieges involving the United Kingdom
• Battles of World War I involving Australia
• Baghdad vilayet