The Turks we captured were in far poorer shape than those we had recently
taken on the Euphrates front. Their shoes were worn out, they were very
ragged, and, what was of greater significance, they were badly nourished.
The length of their line of communications had evidently severely strained
them. Supplies had to come overland all the way from Nisibin, which is
more than a hundred miles beyond Mosul. The broken country made the
transportation a difficult problem to solve. It was a miracle that they
had the morale to fight as they did under such disadvantageous conditions.

Here, as throughout the campaign, it was a continual source of pride to
see the way in which our soldiers behaved to the natives. I never heard of
a case in which man, woman, or child was wrongfully treated. Minor
offenses were sometimes committed, but these were quickly righted. No
doubt there were isolated instances of wrong-doing, for in such a large
army there are bound to be degenerate individuals from whose conduct it is
unfair to judge the whole.

That night we encamped in the outskirts of Tuz, not far from the Turkish
aerodrome. Next morning one of the batteries was ordered to reconnoitre as
far as the town--pursuing a different route than that taken on the
previous day. The commanding officer asked me to go along because of my
knowledge of Arabic. The road followed the telegraph-lines, and part of
the time that was the only way in which we could distinguish it from the
surrounding country. Of course, the map was hopelessly incorrect. The
villages were not even rightly named. A great deal of reconnoitring was
called for, and in one village we had to knock the corner off a mud house
to enable us to make a sharp right-angle turn. The natives were in pitiful
condition. The Turks had not only taken all their crops, but even the
grain that should be reserved to sow for the following year. The sheep had
been killed in the lambing season, so the flocks were sadly depleted. Such