Qualla: Battle of Qurna https://qualla.com/battle-of-qurna en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/battle-of-qurna-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Qurna https://qualla.com/battle-of-qurna Battle of Qurna: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-qurna/ Photo credit Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski, Public domain. The town of Qurna sits where the Tigris meets the Euphrates, a geographic fact that has shaped its fate for millennia. Local tradition holds this is the site of the biblical Garden of Eden. In December 1914, the garden became a battlefield. Ottoman forces retreating from the fall of Basra dug in at Qurna, recognizing that anyone controlling the confluence of Mesopotamia's two great rivers controlled the region. For six days, British and Indian soldiers tried to cross those rivers under fire. When they finally outmaneuvered the defenders, the Ottoman governor surrendered unconditionally, and Britain's grip on southern Mesopotamia was secured for the duration of the war.

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Image: Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/battle-of-qurna-wp/tj98-battle-of-qurna-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Qurna: Oil, Empire, and the Road North https://qualla.com/battle-of-qurna/ Photo credit Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski, Public domain. The British did not come to Mesopotamia for its history. They came for oil. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company's refinery at Abadan, just across the border in Persia, supplied fuel for the Royal Navy, and its security was a strategic imperative from the moment the Ottoman Empire enter...

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Image: Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/battle-of-qurna-wp/tj98-battle-of-qurna-oil-empire-and-the-road-north.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Qurna: Six Days at the Confluence https://qualla.com/battle-of-qurna/ Photo credit Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski, Public domain. Major General Charles Irwin Fry commanded the British force of about 2,100 soldiers. On December 3, two Indian battalions, the 104th Wellesley's Rifles and the 110th Mahratta Light Infantry, advanced alongside a double company of the Norfolk Regiment. Royal Navy gunboats on the E...

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Image: Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/battle-of-qurna-wp/tj98-battle-of-qurna-six-days-at-the-confluence.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Qurna: The Gunboat Negotiation https://qualla.com/battle-of-qurna/ Photo credit Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski, Public domain. On December 8, Fry changed tactics. He sent the 104th and 110th Infantry upstream along the Tigris to find a crossing point north of the town. They found one, and in doing so cut off the Ottoman garrison's only line of retreat. With gunboats maintaining a steady bombardment from ...

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Image: Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/battle-of-qurna-wp/tj98-battle-of-qurna-the-gunboat-negotiation.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Qurna: The Cost and the Consequence https://qualla.com/battle-of-qurna/ Photo credit Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski, Public domain. British and Indian casualties were 27 soldiers killed and 242 wounded. Two sailors died and 10 were wounded. The numbers were modest by the standards of the Western Front, where tens of thousands were already falling in a single engagement. Historians have sometimes classified Qu...

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Image: Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/battle-of-qurna-wp/tj98-battle-of-qurna-the-cost-and-the-consequence.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Qurna: The Rivers Remember https://qualla.com/battle-of-qurna/ Photo credit Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski, Public domain. Qurna, known today as al-Qurnah, remains a small town in Basra Governorate. The confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates still defines it. The rivers merge here to form the Shatt al-Arab, which flows southeast to the Persian Gulf. The surrounding landscape has changed dramatically ...

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Image: Arnold Lüschwitz-Koreffski | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/j/9/8/battle-of-qurna-wp/tj98-battle-of-qurna-the-rivers-remember.mp3 0:06 6 full