In 1914 Mesopotamia, as Iraq was then known, was a Turkish Ottoman possession. Turkey, eager to hold onto its crumbling empire, threw in its lot with Germany and went to War with Britain and France and her allies. The War in the Middle East against Turkey, with the exception of Gallipoli is largely forgotten. However there was a long campaign in Mesopotamia in which Irish troops played a part. Then, too, oil was an influence in the conflict.
Eager to protect oil fields in British-dominated Persia, now Iran, the British army landed an expeditionary force in Southern Mesopotamia in November 1914.
Led by an ambitious and egotistical British general called Charles Townshend, these troops succeeded in driving Turkish forces North toward Baghdad in a series of skirmishes. Chasing the fleeing Turks up the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, Townshend overstretched his supply lines and when, in November 191,5 the Turks finally turned and faced him he suffered a resounding defeat only 20 miles short of Baghdad, and was forced to retreat to the fortress of Kut, where he and his 11,500 troops and countless civilians were subsequently besieged.
Connaught Rangers
In December British and Indian troops were dispatched from the trenches of France to Mesopotamia to relieve Kut. Among them were the Connaught Rangers. Made of almost exclusively of Irishmen from the West of Ireland, the 1st Battalion of the Connaught Rangers were a regular army unit with years of service in India behind them. But most of the old sweats who had served in India had been killed or wounded in the trenches of Flanders and the battalion was beefed up with new idealistic recruits.
One such man was Private John McDonnell from the townland of Callowbrack near Newport, Co Mayo. Like many before him, he had left his home and found work in Northern England. In November 1914, inspired by the recruitment speech of John Redmond, he had enlisted in the Connaught Rangers at Leeds Town Hall. By September 1915 he was on the Western front. He had hardly adapted to the harsh life in the trenches in France when his battalion was given orders to prepare to leave France for the East. On December 11th, 1915 he was among a thousand or so officers and men of the Connaught Rangers who embarked at Marseilles.
On January 10th, 1916, after 30 days at sea, the Rangers disembarked at Basra in the swamps of southern Iraq. Immediately they set off on a six-day journey in paddle steamers up the Tigris River to the front lines at Kut. On January 21st, 1916 the Connaught Rangers, along with other British and Indian units, attacked the Turkish lines surrounding Kut. Driving rain, unfamiliar terrain and a determined enemy proved disastrous. British losses were estimated at 2,741.
Mounting losses
For the next three months numerous and costly attempts were made to break through the Turkish lines and reach the garrison at Kut. The Irishmen went into action again and again with ever mounting losses. On March 11th John McDonnell was severely wounded in the fighting. He was luckier than 17 of his comrades, who were killed the same day.
For John McDonnell the war was now over. Mentioned in dispatches for bravery, he had to face a long and painful journey by boat down the Tigris to the British Base Hospital at Amarah. From there it was back to Basra and then evacuation to India.
In late April cholera epidemic broke out amongst the ranks of the Connaught Rangers and within a few days most of the battalion was stricken.
Hundreds of men fell ill with the awful symptoms of dysentery and many died, including their chaplain, Father John Hartigan, a Jesuit from Croom, Co Limerick. The last-ditch attempts to reach Kut ended in failure and finally a starving Townshend surrendered on April 28th, 1916. His men were marched off to captivity in Turkey, many of them to perish on route, the majority never to be seen again.
It was around this time that the sick and demoralised Irish troops received news of the Easter Rising, which had begun four days before Kut surrendered.
The Connaught Rangers remained in Mesopotamia all through the rest of 1916. It was a depressing and lonely station. The weather, with blazing heat in summer and freezing rain in winter, encouraged disease. The troops were plagued with mosquitoes and flies. There was no chance of home leave even when wounded or sick, as all the wounded were evacuated to India. Hostile natives preyed on the living and the dead. In January 1917, a new and well-planned British advance began and Kut finally fell into British hands on February 25th, 1917. The Connaught Rangers marched into Baghdad on March 11th, the Turkish army retreating before them.
War cemeteries
The Rangers finally left Mesopotamia in April 1918 and were dispatched to Egypt. They left behind 285 of their fallen comrades. These, mainly young, Irishmen are commemorated in Commonwealth war cemeteries at Basra, Amarah and Baghdad which were vandalised during the Gulf War in 1991. It was only recently the Commonwealth War Graves Committee was able to repair the memorials and headstones. However, it seems very likely that with the threat of a renewed war these cemeteries are again being desecrated.
John McDonnell returned to his native Mayo, a forgotten hero of a forgotten campaign. But post-war Ireland was not a happy place for Irishmen who had fought for "the enemy" and he returned to Leeds, where he married and raised a family. He died there in 1950.
As war threatens Iraq once again, let us remember the men who, over 90 years ago, fought another war they thought to be right but whom history has long forgotten.