Indian Expeditionary Force "D" in Bahrain

On 23 October 1914 transports carrying Brigadier-General Walter Delamain’s 16th Indian Brigade, the vanguard of Indian Expeditionary Force “D”, dropped anchor off Bahrain. The brigade had sailed from Bombay on 16 October together with a convoy bound for Egypt, and at sea, in accordance with secret orders, it separated from it and headed for the Persian Gulf.

Bahrain, ruled by Sheikh Isa ibn Ali of the Al Khalifa dynasty, was under British protection. The sheikh was informed of the plans only the day before the troops arrived. He received the news favourably, and quarters were even being prepared on the island for several thousand soldiers. In the end, however, the brigade stayed on board ship. About 5,000 soldiers and more than a thousand animals spent some ten days on the crowded transports in the stifling heat.

The halt was dictated by politics. The Ottoman Empire was formally still neutral, and the entry of British troops into the Shatt al-Arab before the outbreak of war could have given the Turks a pretext to start it. Delamain was therefore to wait at a safe distance, ready to act quickly. British warships had already been guarding the mouth of the river and the refinery at Abadan for several weeks.

At the beginning of November, after the Ottoman fleet’s attack on Russian ports on the Black Sea, the brigade left Bahrain and sailed north. On 6 November, after a bombardment from the ships, its first units landed at Fao (Al-Faw) at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab and took the Turkish fort there. Thus began the Mesopotamian campaign.