PRISONER OF WAR
If the Gallipoli Campaign against the Turks in 1915 was a debacle, the less well known Mesopotamian campaign (in modern day Iraq) aimed at capturing Baghdad in 1915-16 was an utter catastrophe.
A combined British/Indian force of 13,000 men, underestimating the Turkish defences, the difficult terrain and the relentless heat, failed to reach Baghdad, fell back to Kut el Amara, was surrounded by the enemy and besieged for 146 days. After surrendering in April 1916, the remains of the allied force was marched 700 miles north to Anatolia, suffering appalling casualties due to extreme heat, poor food, disease and cruel treatment. Of the original 13,000 allied forces only 2,000 survived captivity.
Ex Princes Hill student James Munro, a 23 year old chauffeur, enlisted in July 1915, joined the Australian Flying Unit’s 1st Reinforcements and had the misfortune to become part of the small Australian contribution to the Mesopotamian campaign. In September 1915 a group of Australian airmen, ground crew and mechanics (but no planes) called a “Half Flight” was sent to India and then on to Basra to support a small force of British aviators in the advance on Baghdad. During the siege of Kut el Amara, when things became hopeless, the few British planes were flown away to safety. But more than 40 of the aircrew and mechanics were left behind and captured. Of these, nine were Australian Flying Corps personnel of whom only two survived their ordeals.
Names of the prisoners of war held by the Turks eventually trickled back to Australia and some communication became possible via the Red Cross.
In October 1917 one of James Munro’s mates, now a prisoner of war, wrote this letter:
Dear Mrs Munro
Your letter of the 5 March to hand. I am sorry to say that Jim died on 13th October 16, at Adana Hospital. The cause of death was Abscess in the throat. I have his Testament. He often spoke of you and his child. He was a good fellow. My deepest sympathy in bereavement,
James Sloss (No.11 J.McK.Sloss, Flying Corps, P. of W.)
After the war Munro’s commanding officer, Captain L. W. White, wrote that “Practically all deaths of the Kut-el-Amara prisoners may be attributed to the hardships of the march to Anatolia and neglect and cruelty on the part of the Turks.”
At least Munro died in a hospital, receiving some care in his final days. What he didn’t know at the time of his death, fortunately, was that seven days earlier, half a world away, his only son, four year old Geoffrey Munro, had died of meningococcal septicaemia in the Melbourne Children’s Hospital.
A decade later, in 1927, the relatives of James Munro were informed of James’ resting place:
“His remains were originally interred in (the) Prisoner of War Cemetery, Adana, Asia Minor, and later, following the concentration of British War Graves in this area, removed to Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq, where a special memorial headstone will be erected over Grave 11, Row “X”, Plot 21.
Yours Faithfully, Captain Base Records 25 Oct 1927.”
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission still cares for the Baghdad North Gate Cemetery, but with all that’s gone on in Baghdad in recent years, one wonders if James Munro’s memorial headstone still stands.
(by James Bell, 2016)