Sir John Nixon | |
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![]() Sir John Nixon | |
Born | 16 August 1857 Brentford, Middlesex, England |
Died | 15 December 1921 64) St. Raphaël, France | (aged
Allegiance | ![]() |
Service | Indian Army |
Rank | Lieutenant-General |
Commands | Bangalore Brigade 7th (Meerut) Division 1st (Peshawar) Division Southern Army, India Northern Army, India |
Battles / wars | Second Anglo-Afghan War Second Boer War World War I |
Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |
General Sir John Eccles Nixon GCMG KCB (16 August 1857 – 15 December 1921) was a senior commander of the British Indian Army. He gave the orders for the ultimately disastrous first British Expedition against Baghdad during the First World War.
Educated at Rossall School and then the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Nixon was commissioned into the 75th Regiment of Foot in 1875. [1] He transferred to the Bengal Staff Corps in 1878 and was posted to the 18th Bengal Lancers and then served in the Second Anglo-Afghan War where he was mentioned in despatches. [1] [2] He also took part in the Mahsud Waziri expedition in 1881, was promoted to captain on 10 September 1886, [3] and served in the Chitral Relief Force in 1895, [1] following which he was promoted to major on 10 September 1895. [3] He was Chief Staff Officer of the Tochi Field Force in 1897, [1] and later served as an Assistant Quartermaster General (in charge of intelligence) at Indian Headquarters. [4]
Nixon served as a Cavalry Brigade Commander during the Second Boer War, was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 10 September 1901, and mentioned in despatches (dated 8 April 1902 [5] ). In recognition of services during the war, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the South Africa honours list published on 26 June 1902. [6] Following the war, he became Assistant Quartermaster General (Intelligence) in India in 1902. [1] He became commander of the Bangalore Brigade in 1903, Inspector General of Cavalry in India 1906 and General Officer Commanding 7th (Meerut) Division in May 1908. [7] He went on to be General Officer Commanding 1st (Peshawar) Division in 1910 and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Army in India in 1912. [1]
Nixon was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Army in India in February 1915. [1] Two months later he became Commander of an Expeditionary Force sent to Mesopotamia. [1] He ordered an aggressive plan to take Baghdad. [1] The British forces in India for nearly a century had operated with little or no direction from London. Following in this tradition, Nixon's aggressive stance in Mesopotamia was not submitted for approval from London. It was approved in New Delhi, and that was enough.
The advance into Mesopotamia met with initial success. The local Ottoman forces, mostly Arab troops under the overall command of Khalil Pasha in Baghdad and locally under Nur-Ud Din Pasha were not very well equipped nor experienced. As far as the Ottoman leader Enver Pasha was concerned, Mesopotamia was the least important campaign in the theatre, so the Caucasus, the Sinai, and the Dardanelles campaigns had priority when men and materiel were being allocated.
From January 1915 until November, the British advanced up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The furthest advance was by General Townshend's 6th (Poona) Division which captured Kut on 26 September 1915. At this point, Townshend's forces were just about halfway between Basra and Baghdad and he wanted to call a halt. But in a rash of communications Nixon ordered a continuation of the expedition and so the 6th Poona division headed up river. By this time the Ottoman Army had brought a retired military expert into command - Baron von der Goltz - and sent experienced Turkish troops from Anatolia to defend Baghdad.
General Nixon was sufficiently confident to embark with only his headquarters company and proceed upriver, hoping to be in Baghdad by Christmas. However, in late November, when news reached him that Townshend's forces had fought an inconclusive battle at Ctesiphon and were retreating to Kut, Nixon turned back towards Basra. His paddle steamer then came under attack from both sides of the river and ran aground. A sitting target, with only bales of straw around the deck for protection, casualties mounted until the Commander in Chief of Mesopotamia ran up a white flag and invited his attackers to parley. They turned out to be Arabs who had changed sides as the tide of war had turned the Turks' way. Nixon had to pay over a huge sum before he was allowed to continue to Basra. Everyone on board the steamer was treated to coffee but sworn to secrecy on pain of death. [8]
Baron von der Goltz with his Ottoman army reached Kut a week behind the British. At this point, Townshend asked for permission to withdraw from Kut and, in another mistake, General Nixon refused. While Townshend's cavalry and some Royal Flying Corps assets were sent down the river, the vast majority of the 6th Poona Division stayed and dug in at Kut. Nixon had ordered transports and reinforcements from London. But by December 1915, the relief force was still in the Suez region. In three very specific memos Nixon expressed grave concerns at a worsening situation, and expressed deep urgency. The continuing prevarication and delay in Whitehall deliberating on the best course of action: was the threat that serious? Would one divisional reinforcement do, or would at least two be necessary? Nixon could not have known that almost all of Townshend's military communications were being intercepted by the enemy. Increasingly all sides of the British military establishment were operating with blinkers on. Nixon's apologists, that included the first historian of the Mesopotamian campaigns, Field Marshal Robertson, have pointed out that the War Office was undergoing extensive Imperial reorganization, amidst a critical time on the Western Front. The expedition had been authorized by the Viceroy of India in conjunction with the India Office. In future all military operations would be conducted by the joint commands of the War Office. The upheaval led to a change in the Imperial General Staff, and Cabinet war policy that had a delaying impact upon General Nixon's command. [9]
The issue of supplies for the defenders at Kut became critical. Once withdrawal became impossible, Major-General Townshend reported that he only had enough supplies for a month. In fact, his garrison held out for five months, though at reduced rations. The supply problem caused Nixon to rapidly gather his remaining divisions and launch a hasty effort to break the siege.
The relief force, under the local command of Lieutenant-General Aylmer began its efforts in early January, 1916. They forced the Ottomans out of two fortified positions (Sheikh Sa'ad and Wadi) while suffering significant casualties. However, the Battle of Hanna was a complete failure. The British troops never even reached the Ottoman defensive positions at a loss of 2,700 casualties.
Nixon had to take the blame for the looming disaster at Kut and the inability of his army to rectify the situation and so he was removed from command (officially it was due to ill-health). He was replaced by General Sir Percy Lake, who would also fail to rescue the garrison at Kut and be removed from command for his failure. The stress and fatigue became too great for Nixon himself. In the new year he had suffered a mental collapse, and in March 1916 asked to be retired from active duty. He returned to India.
In 1917 an official commission reported on the failure at Kut. Nixon was found principally responsible for the failure of the Mesopotamian Expedition. [1] This ended Nixon's military career and he died just four years later in 1921. [10]
The siege of Kut Al Amara, also known as the first battle of Kut, was the besieging of an 8,000-strong British Army garrison in the town of Kut, 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad, by the Ottoman Army. In 1915, its population was around 6,500. Following the surrender of the garrison on 29 April 1916, the survivors of the siege were marched to imprisonment at Aleppo, during which many died. Historian Christopher Catherwood has called the siege "the worst defeat of the Allies in World War I". Ten months later, the British Indian Army, consisting almost entirely of newly recruited troops from Western India, conquered Kut, Baghdad and other regions in between in the fall of Baghdad.
Lieutenant-General Sir Fenton John Aylmer, 13th Baronet, was an Anglo-Irish British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross. He was in command of the first failed efforts to break the siege of Kut in 1916. From a military background, Aylmer was commissioned into the Indian Army, and immediately involved in fierce fighting on the north-west frontier. In a singularly heroic action, still in his twenties, he helped rescue Townshend's garrison at Chitral, spearheading the relief column. For his valorous conduct he was awarded the Victoria Cross, and rapid promotion through the officer class.
Major General Sir Charles John Melliss, was a British Army officer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A staff officer in the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War, he was captured after the Siege of Kut.
The Battle of Ctesiphon was fought in November 1915 by the British Empire, against the Ottoman Empire, within the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I.
The Mesopotamian campaign or Mesopotamian front was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I fought between the Allies represented by the British Empire, troops from Britain, Australia and the vast majority from British Raj, against the Central Powers, mostly the Ottoman Empire. It started after British amphibious landings in 1914 which sought to protect Anglo-Persian oil fields in Khuzestan and the Shatt al-Arab. However, the front later evolved into a larger campaign that sought to capture the key city of Baghdad and divert Ottoman forces from other fronts. It ended with the Armistice of Mudros in 1918, leading to the cession of Iraq and further partition of the Ottoman Empire.
The fall of Baghdad occurred during the Mesopotamian campaign, fought between the forces of the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, was a British soldier who during the World War I led an overreaching military campaign in Mesopotamia. His troops were besieged and captured at the Siege of Kut, which was possibly the worst defeat suffered by the Allies.
The Battle of Dujaila was fought on 8 March 1916, between British and Ottoman forces during the First World War. The Ottoman forces, led by Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz were besieging Kut, when the Anglo-Indian relief force, led by Lieutenant-General Fenton Aylmer, attempted to relieve the city. The attempt failed, and Aylmer lost 3,500 men.
Lieutenant General Sir William Raine Marshall was a British Army officer who in November 1917 succeeded Sir Stanley Maude as commander-in-chief of the British forces in Mesopotamia. He kept that position until the end of the First World War.
General Sir Beauchamp Duff, was a Scottish officer with a distinguished career in the British Indian Army. He served as Commander-in-Chief of India during the First World War. His role in the disastrous expedition to Mesopotamia was criticised, helping to end a long career.
Field Marshal Sir Arthur Arnold Barrett, was a British officer of the Indian Army. He saw action at the Siege of the Sherpur Cantonment in December 1879 and at the Battle of Kandahar in September 1880 during the Second Anglo-Afghan War and went on to serve in the Hunza-Nagar Campaign in 1891. During the First World War he was General Officer Commanding the Poona Division which successfully took Basra in Mesopotamia in November 1914 and then Al-Qurnah in Mesopotamia in December 1914. He spent the rest of the War commanding the Northern Army in which role he took part in operations against the Mahsuds in Spring 1917. He saw action again as the senior British officer on the ground during the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919 before retiring in May 1920.
The 6th (Poona) Division was a division of the British Indian Army. It was formed in 1903, following the Kitchener reforms of the Indian Army.
The Battle of Wadi, occurring on 13 January 1916, was an unsuccessful attempt by British forces fighting in Mesopotamia during World War I to relieve beleaguered forces under Sir Charles Townshend then under siege by the Ottoman Sixth Army at Kut-al-Amara.
The First Battle of Hanna was a World War I battle fought on the Mesopotamian front on 21 January 1916 between Ottoman Army and Anglo-Indian forces.
The Battle of Es Sinn was a World War I military engagement between Anglo-Indian and Ottoman forces.
The Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad occurred between 6–8 January 1916 during the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War. The battle took place along the banks of the Tigris River between the Anglo-Indian Tigris Corps and elements of the Ottoman Sixth Army. The engagement was the first in a series of assaults by the Tigris Corps to try to break through the Ottoman lines to relieve the besieged garrison at Kut.
William Henry Beach was a senior British Army officer who played an important role in the campaign in Mesopotamia 1915 to 1918.
The Battle of Amara, also known as the Second Battle of Qurna, was a military engagement between the forces of the British and Ottoman Empires during the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I. The battle took place in the flooded marshes and islands along the Tigris river between the towns of Qurna and Amara and resulted in the British capture of Amara and rout of Ottoman forces in the area.
The Battle of Nasiriyah was a battle in World War I that took place in the Mesopotamian city of Nasiriyah between British and Ottoman forces in July 1915. It was a pivotal battle in the Mesopotamian campaign of World War I and saw 5,000 British and Indian troops face off against a Turkish garrison of a similar number. British and Indian forces under the command of Lieutenant General Sir George Frederick Gorringe attacked Nasiriyah with the intention of protecting the British stronghold of Basra and destroying a major Turkish supply center in the region. British forces defeated the Turkish forces in Nasiriyah and it became the latest addition to a long string of successes against Ottoman forces in the campaign, coming right after the capture of Amara and the Battle of Qurna.
The command of Charles Townshend in the Mesopotamian Campaign which led to the siege of Kut has been the object of much controversy. Townshend successfully led his "Regetta up the Tigris" to come very close to Baghdad, but was defeated. Townshend's behavior in Ottoman captivity has been especially controversial.