Fall of Baghdad ( 1917 ) The British Indian Army fought the Ottoman Empire in the First World War . On 11 March 1917 , after a series of defeats , it captured Baghdad after a two - year campaign . Arrival of General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude . After the surrender of the Kut garrison on 29 April 1916 , the British Army in Mesopotamia underwent a major overhaul . A new commander , Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude was given the job of restoring Britain ' s military reputation . General Maude spent the rest of 1916 rebuilding his army . Most of his troops were recruited in India and then sent by sea to Basra . While these troops were being trained , British military engineers built a field railway from the coast up to Basra and beyond . General Maude also obtained a small force of armed river boats and river supply ships . The British launched their new campaign on 13 December 1916 . The British had some 50 , 000 well - trained and well - equipped troops : mostly British India troops of the Indian Expeditionary Force D together with the 13th ( Western ) Division of the British Army forming the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force . The Indian divisions of the Indian III Corps ( also called the Tigris Corps ) included British Army units . The Ottoman forces were smaller , perhaps around 25 , 000 strong under the overall command of Khalil Pasha . March on Baghdad . There were no setbacks for the British on this campaign . General Maude proceeded cautiously , advancing on both sides of the Tigris River . He earned his nickname " Systematic Joe " . The Ottoman forces contested a fortified place called the Khadairi Bend which the British captured after two weeks of siege work ( 6 January to 19 January 1917 ) . The British then had to force the Ottoman forces out of a strong defensive line along the Hai River . This took them two more weeks ( from 25 January till 4 February ) . Another Ottoman position , called Dahra Bend , was taken on 16 February . Finally , the British re - captured Kut on 24 February 1917 in the Second Battle of Kut . The local Ottoman commander , Karabekir Bey , did not let his army become trapped in Kut , as General Townshend had been in the First Battle of Kut . The march on Baghdad resumed on 5 March 1917 . Three days later , Maude ' s corps reached the Diyala River on the outskirts of the city . Khalil Pasha chose to defend Baghdad at the confluence of the Diyala and the Tigris , some 35 miles south of Baghdad . The Ottoman troops resisted the initial British assault on 9 March . General Maude then shifted the majority of his army north . He believed that he could outflank the Ottoman positions and strike directly for Baghdad . Khalil Pasha responded by shifting his army out of its defensive positions to mirror the move of the British on the other side of the river . A single regiment was left to hold the original Diyala River defences . The British crushed this regiment with a sudden assault on 10 March 1917 . This sudden defeat unnerved Khalil Pasha and he ordered his army to retreat north to Baghdad . The Ottoman authorities then ordered the evacuation of Baghdad at 8 p . m . on 10 March . But the situation was rapidly moving beyond Khalil Pasha ' s control . The British followed close on the heels of the Ottoman troops and captured Baghdad without a fight on 11 March 1917 . The British troops were greeted with enthusiasm by the residents . A week later , General Maude issued the Proclamation of Baghdad , which included the line , " Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies , but as liberators " . Some 9 , 000 Ottoman troops were caught in the confusion and became prisoners of the British . The British were worried that the Ottoman government might try to flood the Tigris plain . As it happened , this fear was unfounded . The Ottoman troops never attempted to flood the area . Consequences . This was clearly a victory for the British and yet another defeat for the Ottoman government . The humiliation for the British due to the loss of Kut had been partially rectified . The Ottoman government was forced to end its military operations in Persia and try to build up a new army to prevent the British from moving on to capture Mosul . The capture of Baghdad , a provincial capital , also meant that the first Ottoman province had fallen under British control . Although this was good news , it caused a great deal of bureaucratic fighting between the British government in London and the British government in India . Once he captured Baghdad , Maude was the " de facto " Governor of Mesopotamia from Basra to Baghdad . Sir Percy Cox , the Tigris Corps Political Officer , attempted to issue a proclamation stating that the province was under joint British - Indian administration . But London ordered Cox not to issue his proclamation , and came out with its own proclamation asking Arab leaders to aid the British administration . At the same time , the Indian colonial government had different ideas . After all , they had been the prime movers behind Mesopotamia in the first place . The British government in India wanted this new area placed under its direct control . This power struggle led to the creation of the Mesopotamian Administration Committee , under the leadership of Lord Curzon . Its main task was to determine who would govern the Basra and Baghdad provinces . Its ruling was a British , not Anglo - Indian , administration for Basra and an Arab authority for Baghdad .