Sketch of attack on the Sannaiyat Position, Mesopotamia, 22 April 1916

Pencil sketch by Captain (later Field Marshal Sir) Claude Auchinleck, Officiating Adjutant of 62nd Punjabis, dated Masons Mounds 11 May 1916.

British attempts to capture Baghdad were frustrated by the Turkish Army's dogged resistance, as a result of which Major General CVF Townshend and his troops, many of them Indian, were obliged to fall back to Kut-al-Amara, where they were besieged by the Turks. Three attempts were made during April 1916 to break through the Turkish position at Sannaiyat in order to relieve them. After the last attack (on 22 April) failed, Townshend was obliged to surrender on 29 April.