IOR/L/MIL/17/5/3301

The volume contains a chronological list of brief summaries of papers relating to the activities of the Indian Expeditionary Force D (also known as the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force) between 1 and 15 June 1918. This is accompanied by appendices containing copies and extracts of these papers, which include: letters, telegrams, notes, reports, tables, and memoranda.

An index to the contents of this volume can be found at folios 3-29. The volume concerns:

• Appreciations [reports] and intelligence summaries from the Directorate of Military Operations dated 3 June 1918 (ff 65-67), 10 June 1918 (ff 237-238)
• Supplies, particularly of tinned fruit, tents, and railway equipment
• Reports from the Royal Flying Corps of machines in service and pilots available
• The movements and aims of Dunsterforce
• Crop forecasts and machinery requirements for the harvest in Mesopotamia
• Movement of ships and loads transported
• Lists of officers sailing from England for Basrah [Basra] and India
• Movements of the Turkish [Ottoman] Army
• Reports on health and sanitary conditions, including bilharzia and beriberi
• Progress of railway communications
• Personnel requirements and reinforcements
• Censorship of letters
• The Ottoman Bank
• Movements and composition of labour corps
• Information about the situation in Baku and Tflis [Tbilisi]
• A monthly report on dairies dated 8 May 1918 (ff 147-152)
• A report by Major-General Sir Francis Edward Freeland entitled ‘On the Working and Future Development of the Port of Basra and of the River and Railway Communications in Mesopotamia, April 1918’ (ff 284-323).

The following tables appear:

• Strength return and summaries of Force D on 4 May 1918 (ff 36-38), 20 April 1918 (ff 78-90), 11 May 1918 (ff 166-168), 27 April 1918 (ff 188-203)
• Weekly return of the sick and wounded on 4 May 1918 (ff 48-49), 11 May 1918 (ff 153-154), 12 May 1918 (ff 258-259)
• State of supplies on 27 May 1918 (ff 55-57), 31 May 1918 (ff 176-177), 7 June 1918 (ff 272-273)
• Ration strength of Force D on 11 May 1918 (ff 70-73), 4 May 1918 (ff 181-187), 18 May 1918 (ff 260-263)
• Distribution of the Turkish Army on 4 June 1918 (ff 95-105), 11 June 1918 (ff 246-255)
• Distribution of Force D on 11 May 1918 (ff 116-135), 25 May 1918 (ff 223-232)
• Statement of animal transport and vehicles on 1 May 1918 (ff 217-222).