Between Yorktown in 1781 and Singapore in 1942, the fall of Kut in 1916 stands as perhaps the single most significant setback to British arms. Though overshadowed that year by the mammoth contests at Verdun and the Somme, the surrender of 9,000 British and Indian troops in a squalid town on the Tigris River sent shock waves through the British Empire. Coming on the heels of the debacle at Gallipoli, the surrender of the Kut garrison stunned leaders in London who feared the double defeats at the hands of the Ottoman Turks would undermine Britain's imperial rule over millions of Muslims. And, though largely unknown to Americans, the siege of Kut remains a dark, unhappy episode in the proud record of the British army.
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