Free Scorpion Sunset by Catrin Collier Page B

they’ll be no worse off than Major Cleck-Heaton and I were, along with the rest of our sick on the journey downstream.’
    â€˜I’m billeted with a medic. He said most of the men who were sent downstream from Kut, the survivors that is, will be discharged back to Blighty as unfit to return to active service,’ Reggie Brooke observed.
    â€˜Says something for our stamina, Colonel Perry,’ Cleck-Heaton enthused. ‘Can’t keep a good man down, or from doing his duty. Someone has to go upstream to teach the Turks our surrender at Kut was down to chance, not superior soldiering.’
    â€˜It was down to the abysmal leadership of the Force sent to extricate us, Cleck-Heaton,’ Perry was vehement. ‘If the Relief Force had a general worthy of the name, the Expeditionary Force would have been spirited out of Kut in January and we would never have been forced to surrender to the infidel.’
    â€˜Things will be different when we go upstream. Next objective Baghdad, and once we take that the bloody Turk will have to leave Mesopotamia and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in peace and keep their noses out of British business,’ Cleck-Heaton added.
    â€˜You think the Turks will surrender when we take Baghdad, Colonel Perry?’ Grace asked hopefully.
    â€˜The Turks will surrender all right – in Mesopotamia, but even when we overcome them here, they’ll carry on fighting this sideshow elsewhere in the Middle East. Bloody as it is, it is a sideshow. I attended a debriefing in HQ this afternoon, and we all agreed that whatever we accomplish here will be minor in the scheme of a world war. The Turks won’t surrender until the Germans capitulate. When the Germans surrender it will have a skittle effect and the Ottoman Empire and all its Johnny Turk soldiers will follow suit but until then the infidel will fight on, even after we drive them back into Turkey.’
    â€˜And our POWs, sir?’ Bowditch asked. ‘Can we trust the Turks to treat them well, even when we’re pushing them back into Turkey?’
    â€˜No doubt about it,’ Cleck-Heaton signalled to the waiter to refill his glass. ‘The Turks have agreed to abide by the Hague Convention. Our men will remain prisoners but in the best of oriental tradition they will be treated as honoured guests. The enemy make poor soldiers but they are gentlemen. They not only gave every one of our officers but also our ranks cigarettes when we surrendered. There’s no need to concern ourselves about the men who were marched into captivity. They’ll be feather bedded.’
    Perry wondered if Cleck-Heaton hadn’t seen, or had simply chosen not to see, the Turkish rank and file inflicting blows on the men who’d been forced to surrender, looting their pitifully few possessions and stealing their shirts, underclothes, and boots.
    Grace and Bowditch exchanged glances. ‘If you’ll excuse us, sir, sir, we’re dining with ladies in the Basra club.’
    â€˜A gentleman never keeps a lady waiting,’ Cleck-Heaton agreed. ‘Nurses?’
    â€˜Yes, sir,’ Grace smiled. ‘An influx of new blood came in on the boat last week. Some of them are quite presentable.’
    â€˜No lady for you, Brooke?’ Cleck-Heaton asked as Brooke raised a finger to the waiter.
    â€˜No, sir. I’ve drawn night duty in the wireless office tonight.’ He turned to the orderly. ‘Another round of drinks, for the colonel, the major, and myself, on my tab.’
    The orderly looked to Perry and Cleck-Heaton. ‘Whisky, sir, sir?’
    Perry and Cleck-Heaton nodded.
    â€˜During your debriefing did you receive any inkling as to when we’ll begin the advance on Baghdad, sir?’ Cleck-Heaton asked Perry.
    â€˜Only “soon”. Do you have better information, Brooke?’
    â€˜Everyone’s waiting on Gorringe. They’re expecting better things of him than they did