Mesopotamian campaign

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Mesopotamian campaign
Part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I
British and Indian machine gunners, Mesopotamia, 1917.
Date 6 November 1914 – 14 November 1918 (4 years, 1 week and 1 day) Location Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) Result Allied victory Territorial changes Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire
Belligerents
United Kingdom  India  Australia  New Zealand Kuwait (1914)[1] Assyrian volunteers	Ottoman Empire Al-Muntafiq Union Kurdish tribes Arab tribes  Germany Jam'iya al-Nahda al-Islamiya (1918)
Commanders and leaders
John Nixon Percy Lake Stanley Maude † Charles Townshend (POW) George Younghusband Mubarak Al-Sabah Agha Petros Malik Khoshaba	Kâzım Karabekir Colmar von der Goltz † Nureddin Pasha Halil Pasha Sulaiman al-Askeri † Ali İhsan Pasha (POW) Ajmí as-Sadun
Strength
889,702 (total)[2] 447,531 (peak)[3][4]	c. 450,000[5]
Casualties and losses
~85,200 battle casualties[6] 11,008 killed 5,281 died of wounds 2,341 missing 12,879 captured 53,697 wounded 16,712 died of disease 154,343 evacuated sick Total: 256,000 casualties	~89,500 battle casualties 13,069 killed 56,000 wounded or died of wounds 22,404 captured ~235,000 deserted, sick or dead to disease Total: 325,000 casualties[7]

The Mesopotamian campaign or Mesopotamian front (Turkish: Irak Cephesi) was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I fought between the British Empire, with troops from Britain, Australia and the vast majority from the British Raj, against the Central Powers, mostly the Ottoman Empire. It started after the British Fao Landing in 1914, which sought to protect Anglo-Persian oil fields in Khuzestan and the Shatt al-Arab. The front later evolved into a larger campaign that sought to capture the city of Baghdad and divert Ottoman forces from other fronts. It ended with the Armistice of Mudros in 1918, leading to the cession of Iraq (then Mesopotamia) and further partition of the Ottoman Empire.

The British advanced from Al-Faw to the city of Basra to secure British oil fields in nearby Persia (now Iran). Following the landings, British forces won a string of victories along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, including the repulse of an Ottoman attempt to retake Basra at the Battle of Shaiba. The advance stalled when the British reached the town of Kut south of the city of Baghdad in December 1915. The Siege of Kut led to the defeat of the British force, later called "the worst defeat of the Allies in World War I".^[8] The British re-organised and began a new campaign to take Baghdad. Despite fierce Ottoman resistance, Baghdad was captured in March 1917 and the Ottomans suffered more defeats until the Armistice at Mudros.

The campaign ended with a British mandate over Mesopotamia being established and change of the balance of power following the Ottoman expulsion from the region. In Turkey, elements of the Misak-ı Millî the last Ottoman parliament still claimed parts of modern Iraq such as Mosul as being Turkish, leading to Allied occupation of Constantinople. The British mandate over Mesopotamia later failed as an Iraqi revolt fuelled by discontent with the British administration took place in 1920, leading to the Cairo Conference in 1921. It was decided a Hashemite kingdom under British influence would be established in the region with Faisal as its first monarch.