Second Battle of Kut

Second Battle of Kut
Part of the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I
Situation at Kut on 22 February 1917.
Date 23 February 1917 Location Kut, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) Result British and Indian victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom India	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Frederick Maude	Kâzım Karabekir Bey
Strength
50,000	17,000
Casualties and losses
under 1,000 casualties	more than 3,000 casualties
Location within Iraq

United Kingdom

The Second Battle of Kut was fought on 23 February 1917, between British and Ottoman forces at Kut, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).

The battle was part of the British advance to Baghdad begun in December 1916 by a 50,000-man British force (mainly from British India) organised in two army corps.

The British, led by Frederick Stanley Maude, recaptured the city, but the Ottoman garrison there did not get trapped inside (as had happened to Townshend's troops in the previous year when the Ottomans had besieged Kut in the Siege of Kut): the Ottoman commander, Kâzım Karabekir Bey, managed a good-order retreat from the town of his remaining soldiers (about 2,500), pursued by a British fluvial flotilla along the Tigris River.

The British advance wore off on 27 February at Aziziyeh, some 100 kilometers (62 mi) beyond Kut. After three days' worth of supplies had been accumulated, Maude continued his march toward Baghdad.

Siege of Kut