Product Description

This edited diary is Colonel Bill Spackman's extraordinary personal record of his experiences as the Medical Officer of an Indian Infantry battalion during the Mesopotamian Campaign 1914 - 1916. In particular he describes the harrowing events of the five month siege of Kut and, after the surrender of the 10,000 strong garrison in April 1916, the hardships of the 1,000 mile forced march to Anatolia in Turkey. As a doctor he witnessed at first hand suffering the and deaths of many POWs, both British and Indian.

The book goes on the record life in Turkish captivity which was relatively relaxed and fortunately, in sharp contrast to their earlier experiences.

Written with humorous understatement and infinite good sense Captured at Kut : Prisoner of the Turks is a gripping read and will appeal strongly not just to Great War enthusiasts but all who enjoy reading of the triumph of men over extreme adversity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #440384 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent account
I am really pleased so see another work covering the trials of the British and Indian troops in action and subsequent captivity in Mesopotamia. It has been a terribly neglected campaign and "Captured at Kut" is a fine addition to our understanding of he conflict.

William "Bill" Collis Spackman was the RAMC Medical Officer attached to the 48th Pioneers of the Indian Army. He saw service at Basra, in the extraordinary water crossings and battles at Qurna and Shaiba, and followed General Charles Townshend up the Tigris to Amara, Kut and the very gates of Baghdad itself. His testimony, based on diaries, is one of the few that provides personal insight into the dreadful defeat of Townshend's force at Ctesiphon and the harum-scarum withdrawal back to Kut-al-Amara and many months of siege.

While Spackman's coverage of the military actions is perceptive and sympathetic, his diaries are perhaps most compelling when it comes to describing the conditions at Kut during the siege and in captivity once it falls. Many readers may be unaware of the appalling treatment of the thousands of men captured once Townshend surrendered, British attampts to break the siege having failed with heavy losses. A very great proportion of the captives perished on a forced march of many hundreds of miles across northern Iraq and into Anatolian Turkey. Spackman was most fortunate to avoid this; his role as a British MO led to special circumstances allowing him not to accompany the marches, but to be held in one or two locations where he - with few facilities, medicines or equipment - treated the sick and the lame before they were sent on. Gradually as the final troops are marched north, he is left behind and spends many months almost isolated, seemingly the only British officer left in the area. His own treatment is thankfully not of the brutal kind administered to so many of the Kut captives, but of sheer neglect and incompetence by the Turks. Increasingly lonely, he has a quite fascinating and atomospheric tale to tell. There are wonderful stories of times in the markets and villages, mixing with all manner of odd and sometimes shifty characters. His own personality and humanity mark these diaries as something special, and they are well selected and edited by his nephew, Tony.

A remarkable work and one that I heartily recommend.

Perceptive, first hand account of defeat and imprisonment
This is a first-class account by one of the few men who survived the desperate (and unnnecessary) siege of Kut in 1916, and subsequent miserable imprisonment at the hands of the Turks. Written originally as a diary, the account concentrates on the tactical and day-to-day aspects of life as a Regimental Medical Officer in the abortive offensive towards Baghdad, the retreat to and siege of Kut, followed by capture and more than two years as a prisoner of a rapidly unravelling Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless Spackman provides regular glimpses through the eye of a regimental officer of the overall strategic dimension to the campaign, the views and attitudes of his (British) peers and muted though sharp observations on the character of Major General Townsend, whose criminal ineptitude resulted in the siege of Kut and who thereafter enjoyed a comfortable imprisonment as a 'guest' of the Turks while many thousands of his benighted soldiers died on their long march to prison camps in Anatolia, victims of a complex mixture of barbarity and official (British and Turkish) indifference to their plight. These personal observations of the campaign and its aftermath nicely complement British accounts of the siege such as those by Wilcox, Barker and Millar. A number of excellent survivor stories emerged after the war but these are now long out of print. Spackman's nephew - Tony - is to be congratulated for bringing his uncle's original (unpublished) manuscript to print.