An intriguing survival of a trench order book of a British commanding officer as the British forces, supported by several Indian Rifle and Punjabi regiments, advanced on Kut in early months of 1917 in the Mesopotamian Campaign.

Almost entirely addressed to Captain R.W. Dalton, Staff Captain of the 36th Brigade, who, along with regiments including the 38th Brigade, the 123rd Outram's Rifles, and the 26th and 82nd Punjabis, were part of the operations leading up to and involving the Second Battle of Kut. Most of the orders are centred around the 9th of February which was the last push to capture the liquorice factory on the western side of the Shatt al Hai which was the last remaining Turkish outpost on the opposite side of the Tigris from Kut. The Punjabi regiments suffered particularly heavy casualties during this period, with the liquorice factory eventually captured by a company of 62nd Punjabis.

What becomes clear in the reading of Dalton's orders are the chaos and poor communication between troops. At one point his stock take includes the rather dismal admittance of having 'hand grenades etc. Nil', and 16 Vickers Machine guns in total (2 of which disabled). There is almost constant repeated emphasise on preventing friendly fire: 'do not fire without getting in communication with O.C.'s of these units' and the orders get longer and longer in length as the moment of attack approaches with increasing please to focus fire on areas that will not cause friendly casualties.

A scarce survival of an essentially ephemeral item that gives a unique look into the on-the-ground action of the Mesopotamia Campaign and the heavy involvement of Indian troops.

Single sided printed trench order notebook (23 x 15.5 cm); manuscript throughout, some creasing and fraying, good.