This Day in History: 1916-04-29
After a siege of 143 days the key garrison town of Kut-el-Amara surrendered to the Turks. The Garrison included 2,500 British and 6,000 Indian soldiers. The losses incurred by the forces attempting to relieve them (which included the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Goorkhas) between January and April 1916 totalled nearly 20,000. The Regimental History reported ‘Large numbers died of wounds and sickness through the hopelessly inadequate medical arrangements, which with the transport deficiencies formed the subject of a very great scandal’.