The Kadoka press and Kadoka reporter. [volume] (Kadoka, S.D.) 1910-1923, 1918-07-26
SAVED BY MIRAGE
How British Army Escaped De-
feat in Mesopotamia.
Turkish Commander Saw What He Be-
lieVed Were Re-enforcements Com
ing TO Aid Enemy and Or
dered Retreat.

! We went on toward nowhere. intend-
| Ing to make wide detOur and come
! into old BaSra city by the ZObeir gate
in the south wall, Eleanor +. Egan
writes in the Saturday Evening Post.
/ There was no dust out there; only
/ hard-packed sand, out of which the
/ fierce hammering sun struck a myriad
/ glinting. eye-searlng sparks. But it
! WAS beautiful beyond words to de-
scribe. We spun along at fifty miles
an hour with cool, clean breeze in
our faces Then just over a slight rise
in the sparkling plain | saw my first
mirage. Ii was impossible TO believe
| it was a mirage and not really the
! beautiful lake that ii secmed-a lake
dotted with wooded islands and
fringed In places with deep green for
eSts.
! / have seen mirages in other deserts
in other lands, but have never seen
anything like the Mesopotamian mi
rage. We drove straight on and 1t
| came so close that l was sure I could
| see a ripple on its surface. Then sud
] denly it went away off, and where Ii
had been our skidproof tires were hum
ming on the hard-paCked sand and
| saw that the wooded islands had been
created out of nothing but patches Of
camel thorn and that the trees of the
! forests were tufts Of dry grass not
/ more than six inches high.
/ Off on the far horizon camel car
/ avian was swinging slowly along and
/ the camels looked like some mammoth
! prehistoric beasts, while in another
/ direction what we took TO he camels
! turned out to be string of dimnutive
/ dOnkeys under pack saddles laden with
! bales of the desert grass roots that the
Arabs use for fuel.
The mirage has played an interest
/ ing part in the Mcsopotamlan cam
! paigns. In some places it is practi-
/ cally continuous the year round, and 1t
/ adds greatly to the difficulties of an
! army in action. 1t is seldom mistaken
for anything but what 1t is. of course.
| but 1t does curious things to distance
and to objects both animate and mani
mate incidentally it renders the ac-
curate adjustment of gun ranges al
most altogether impossible.
One of the most curious incidents Of
the whole war happened in connection
with mirage and on the very spot
over which l drove that first day out
in the desert.
The battle of Shaiba was one Of the
hardest-fought battles in the whole
Mespot campaign and victory for
while was anybody's. 1t was going
very badly for the British, their losses
being heavier than they could stand
for long And though the Turks were
in overwhelmingly superior numbers
it was going very badly for them as
well. This the British officer COM
mandlng did not realize and he was
just on the point of giving an order for
retirement-whCh would have been
fatal to the British in Mesopotamia-
when to his establishment he discoy-
cred that the Turks were in full re-
treat. What a moment.
The desert was full of mirage and
the Turkish COMMUNICATIVE really
ought to have been more familiar with
local phenomena - saw approaching
from the southeast what looked to him
like heavy rc-enforcements. 1t was
nothing but supply and ambulance
train magnfied and multiplied by the
deceptive desert atmosphere When
he ordered an immediate retreat his
already unnerved troops stampeded
and his 'dcmorGlized rear guard was
bounded and haraSscd by great bands
of nomad Arabs all the way TO Kha-
misscyeh, nearly ninety miles away.
He learned the truth few days later
and committed suicide