Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Pages in good condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> What sort of man was Townshend of Kut? Was “Chitral Charlie” possessed of one of the few original minds among the generals of the first World War or was he merely a flamboyant opportunist seeking advancement by every means that came to hand? Was this banjo- playing general with his career-long barrage of letters to High Places suggest- ing commands and promotions for which he was eminently suited a military ver- sion of Arnold Bennett’s “Card” or was he more truly the gallant defender of Chitral the inspired general who harried the Turks from Basra to Ctesiphon in the brilliantly inventive campaign of “Town- shend’s Regatta”? Was he the stalwart hero of besieged Kut who inspired the devotion of all who served under him- or the callous “honoured guest” of the Turks who stood by while thousands of Kut’s defenders died in terrible captivity? These contrasts have always befogged any assessment of Townshend one of the most intriguing personalities of his time. Only now with unrestricted access to hitherto unpublished Townshend letters and his copious diaries has A. J. Barker been able to define the many facets of a career which stretched from commands in Egypt in the expedition to relieve Gordon at Khartoum in India South Africa Burma and Paris to the early glory of the Mesopotamian cam- paign and the bitterness of Townshend’s post-war failure as an MP and self- appointed emissary to the Turks of Mustafa Kemal. (SP)