Indian troops boarding bellums, Basra, 1915

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

The bulk of the British forces engaged against the Ottoman Turks in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) were from the Indian Army. Here a group from the 120th Rajputana Infantry embark on bellums, a type of small craft used in the Persian Gulf region and capable of carrying around eight people.

From an album of 121 photographs compiled by Captain C O R Mosse, 120th Rajputana Infantry.