Battle of Basra (1914)
1914 a WWI battle in Iraq (British vs Ottoman)
The Battle of Basra was a battle of World War I which took place south of the city of Basra, in Ottoman Iraq, between British and Ottoman troops from November 11 to November 22, 1914. The battle resulted in the British capture of Basra.
Background
Once the Ottoman Empire entered the war against the allies, the completion of the Berlin–Baghdad railway became a threat to the allies, as the actual origin was Hamburg and the intended terminus Basra. This route from the North Sea to the Indian Ocean posed a major threat to the British Empire which acted promptly to seize Basra and blockade Hamburg.
After the capture of Fao by the British, the Ottoman army began to converge on Basra. The British had the mission of securing the Persian oil fields by capturing Basra, and they advanced up the river towards Basra.
The battle
On November 7, 1914, British troops began the march from Fao to Basra. The Ottomans attacked the British camp at dawn on November 11, but were defeated. The Ottomans prepared defensive positions at Saihan, and on November 15 the British attacked. The Ottomans were beaten, suffering 250 casualties and the British continued to advance.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Battle of Basra (1914)” is 1914 a WWI battle in Iraq (British vs Ottoman). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Battle, Basra and battle, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1327145. Authority coordinates are 30.417, 48.017. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1914.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Basra (1914)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.