New Britain herald., 1917-04-27
DUST CURTAIN AID
 IN TAKING BAGDAD
Artillery Made Possible Crossing
 of River by Raising Cloud

valley was an important factor in the taking of Bagdad by the British army. It was 8 dust storm, so thick that one could not see four feet in front of him, that enabled the engineers to bridge the Diala river. where the Turks made their last stand.
 The last battle before Bagdad is likely to become historic mainly on account of the fighting at the crossing of the Diala, about eleven miles from Bagdad. It was necessary to cross opposite the village of Diala, where the stream is about 120 yards wide, in the face of an enemy sheltered behind thick houses, walls, and gardens, armed with machine guns and rifles. There were two days of very desperate fighting before the crossing was effected.
 The attack on the night of March was checked, but the quality of courage shown has never been sur passed in war. Immediately the first pontoon was lowered over the ramp, the whole launching party was shot down in 8 few seconds. It was bright moonlight, and the Turks had con- centrated their machine guns in the houses on the opposite bank. A second pontoon reached the middle of the stream when a terrific fusillade was opened on it. The crew of i've rowers and ten rif1emen was killed, and the boat fioated downstream. A third boat got nearly across the river but was bombed and sunk. All the crew was killed, but there was no holding back.
 
 Facing Certain Death.
 The orders still held to secure the passage. Crew after crew pushed off to an obvious and certain death. The second and third groups of pon- toon crews were exterminated in the same way, and their pontoons drifted out into the Tigris to float past the British camp in the daylight with the freight of. dead. The pontoon parties were volunteers so chosen that all battalions of the brigade would share the honors of the night. The loss of all the available pontoons finally stopped the efforts to cross the river.
 On the second night the attempt was resumed with equal gallantry. But this time the attack was pre- ceded by a bombardment. Register ing by artillery had been impossible on the first day in the speed of the pnrs.-i+ It was the artillery barrage that finally secu. odS the troops their 1 the shells themselves but the dust storm raised by them l The dust, fine particles of dried l Tigris mud, was so thick that it formed curtain behind which ten boats were able to cross. Afterwards, in the clear moonlight. when the guns were waiting for ann intuition and the dust curtain had lifted, the conditions of the preceding night were reestablished. Succeed ing crossing parties were extermt- mated, and pontoons drifted away, but a footing had been secured. The crew of one pontoon which lost its way in the dust cloud, failed to make the bank in time. Directly the air cleared, a machine gun was opened on them, and the rowers were shot down and the pontoon drifted back to the shore. A sergeant called for volunteers to get the wounded out of the boat, and a party of twelve men went over the river bank. Every man of them, as we'll as the crew of the boat, was killed.
 Sixty Cut Of From Comrades.
 Sixty men had gained foothold on the other bank of the Diala. They got together and started bombing along the bank. They were soon heavily pressed by the Turks on both Hanks, and found themselves between two clumps of woods. Here they dis covered a providential natural posi- tion. A break in the river levee had been repaired by new levee built in half moon on the landward side This ormed a perfect lunette. The sixty soldiers, surrounded on all sides but the water. held 1t through the night, all the next day, and the next night against repeated and determined attacks.
 The attacks were delivered in the dark and at dawn. The Turks only attacked once in the daylight, as the British machine guns on the other bank swept the ground in front of the position. Twenty yards west of the lunette there was a thin grove of mulberries and palms. The pontoon position was most vulnerable on this side and it was here that the Turk ish attacks were most frequent. Brit ish artillery fire, intermittent day and night, on the wood, afforded some protection. The whole affair was visible to the British troops on the south side, who encountered their comrades by shouting. Attempts were made to get a cable across by means of a rocket, in order to pass the little band of sixty more am- nifi0n the 9ff0nontS successful. Twice during the nights of March g and 10 the Turks were on top of tha na ranet hut were driven hack