Members of 1/5th Hampshire Howitzer Battery at Kurna, Mesopotamia, 1915

Photograph, World War One, Mesopotamia (1914-1918), 1915.

1/5th Hampshire Howitzer Battery landed at Basra on 23 March 1915 and joined 6th Indian Division which had arrived in November 1914.

The unit fought in the Battle of Shaiba (April 1915) and took part in the advance towards Baghdad, including the Battle of Es Sinn, capture of Kut (September 1915) and Battle of Ctesiphon (November 1915). The battery was captured by the Turks following the British surrender at Kut in April 1916.

Kurna (Al Qurnah in modern Iraq) was captured from Turkish forces by the Indian Expeditionary Force supported by Royal Navy riverine forces in December 1914. The town was of strategic importance because it was situated at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers where they form the Shatt al-Arab Waterway which flows into the Persian Gulf.

From an album of 210 photographs compiled by Lieutenant Henry Curtis Gallup during his service with the 5th Hampshire Howitzer Battery (Territorial Force) in Mesopotamia during World War One (1914-1918), 1915-1916.