The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-06-11
HOW! l! ] ! LIE n: ]. ENGLISH l! 5! < ].
 BRIDCED TICRIS
 RIVER DESCRIBED
Turks Deluded by Attacking Force; Those Shielding
 Main Army Suffered

The Turks must have been very much in the dark as to what our next move would be when we. had cleared the Dahra bend. says a writer in a recent issue of the Manchester Guardian. M
 We held the right bank of the Tf- gris. they the left, for a distance by river bank of thirty miles from Sam na-Yat to Shumran. and their posi- ton at Sanna-i-Yet, with it's left flank ons the marsh, closed the river to us for navigation- There were bet- !. ter was of taking Sanna-irYat than by costly frontal attacks. If we could cross the river some distance highAr up and cut the enemys line of com manifestations the garrison would be left in the air without supplies. It was open to us to concentrate and cross at any given point. provided the Turk was unprepared, and to seize a foot ing for our bridgehead. The passage would have to be made at night. If daylight saw us on the north bank Che Turks would have a poor time bringing up their re-enforcements in the open under our machine gun and artillery fire.
 z Surprise was essential. Everything depended on the mystification of the Turk. He was kept intrigued all along the bank. There was night raid across the river here, the splash ing of pontoons lower down, the creaking of carts higher up, signs of movement everywhere. He discover . ed much secret activity at the mouth of the Hai- A hostile Pokker, evad- ing our aerial guard. observed that our sentries were being withdrawn from Shumran and that number of pontoons were being lowed upstream under cover Of the bank in the direc- ton of the ncorice factory. At this point there was much dumping of timber at night-all the inveitable noises of preparation exaggeratedy all the natural precautions of secrecy re- Hgiously observed. No lights were shown; no human voices heard; only the chatter of blanks and cables; while higher up where the crossing was to be the sound of unoiled wheels had become a nightly and familiar occurrence. When the Turk woke up on the morning of the 23d he saw a forest of observation ladders which had grown up in the nightall facing Kut. His suspicious were confirmed It was here that he concentrated his reserves to oppose our landing.
 It was decided to cross at three diff ferent points in the Shumran bend, and to throw the bridges across at the apex Of the peninsula. I visited No. ferry, the highest point of crossing, two days before the event. It seemed a hopeless business swollen yellow stream, 400 yards wide, with a current running five knots, and if you raised your head an inch above the scrub you drew a sniper's bullet. The Ks were to make the passage here. They had to get enough men over in ten pontoons to seize the other bank, ferry the boats back. cross again after the alarm and continue the passage until the whole battalion was over, then rush the trenches and dugouts, .scupper the riflemen and machine gun teams and throw their thin line across the bend while the bridge was building before the Turks could bring up their re- serves.
 Yet somehow on the morning there seemed more chance. slept in nullah close by, and crept up before 1t was light. The Ks had come up quietly in the dark, cool and con fident crowd. The pioneers had been preparing the ground for erri1sark- affUn. When the lasS pontoon was lowered there was just enough light to soe the other bank, but not fi- gures, if there were any there, alert and waiting for us. At half past 5 word was passed along to push off And 1t was all done with SO little noise that the sentries on the other side did not discover what was hap pening until the first boat was with in fifty yards of the shore
 Then a single rifle shot rang out Then fusillade, in which a machine gun joined from up stream. one could not quite see what was going on across the river, but soon the first pontoon 1oomed into sight 300 yards