Second Battle of Kut

Battle of Kut
Part of the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I

Situation at Kut on 22 February 1917.
Date23 February 1917
Location
Kut, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq)
32°30′20″N 45°49′29″E / 32.505556°N 45.824722°E / 32.505556; 45.824722
Result British-Indian victory
Belligerents

 British Empire

 Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Frederick Maude Ottoman Empire Kâzım Karabekir Bey
Strength
50,000[1] 17,000[1]
Second Battle of Kut is located in Iraq
Second Battle of Kut
Location within Iraq

The Second Battle of Kut was fought on 23 February 1917, between British and Ottoman forces at Kut, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).

The battle was part of the British advance to Baghdad begun in December 1916 by a 50,000-man British force (mainly from British India) organised in two army corps.

The British, led by Frederick Stanley Maude, recaptured the city, but the Ottoman garrison there did not get trapped inside (as had happened to Townshend's troops in the previous year when the Ottomans had besieged Kut in the siege of Kut): the Ottoman commander, Kâzım Karabekir Bey, managed a good-order retreat from the town of his remaining soldiers (about 2,500), pursued by a British fluvial flotilla along the Tigris River.

The British advance wore off on 27 February at Aziziyeh, some 100 kilometers (62 mi) beyond Kut. After three days' worth of supplies had been accumulated, Maude continued his march toward Baghdad.