Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Third Supplement.djvu/399

 after the fall of Mr. Balfour's government became deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general of coast defences at Plymouth (1906–1908). From this time forward Maude continued to hold staff appointments. He served on the staff of the second London territorial division (1908–1909) and as assistant director of the territorial forces at the War Office (1909–1912). Here he had much to do with the inauguration of the territorial force, which he foresaw from the first must be used overseas in the event of war. In 1912 he went as general staff officer to the fifth division at the Curragh and in 1914 he joined the training directorate at the War Office.

On the outbreak of the European War in 1914 Maude joined the staff of the Third Army Corps under General (Sir) William Pulteney, reaching France during the retreat from Mons; after that, he took part in the battles of the Marne, the Aisne, and Armentières, and in the fighting on the Lys. In October he became brigadier-general of the fourteenth brigade then engaged in the battle of La Bassée. He took part in the counter-attack at Neuve Chapelle, but during the rest of his tenure of command the brigade was engaged in trench warfare. From La Bassée it went north to Wulverghem and thence to Neuve Eglise, Kemmel, and St. Eloi. At the last place Maude was wounded, and obliged to return to England in November. He was given the C.B. in April 1915, and rejoined the brigade in May, but only remained in France another six weeks. In July he was promoted major-general and appointed to command the thirty-first division then forming in Nottinghamshire; in August, however, he was sent to assume command of the thirteenth division at the Dardanelles.

Maude found the thirteenth division, at Anzac Cove, shattered by losses sustained in the battles for the possession of the Sari Bair heights; its total strength scarcely amounted to that of a single brigade, and none of the artillery was with the division. From Anzac it went to Suvla Bay, and after three weeks in reserve took over the front at Salajik. When the tenth division left Suvla for Salonika in October, the important Chocolate Hill position came under Maude's control. In December definite instructions arrived for the evacuation of Suvla and Anzac. After the withdrawal from Suvla the thirteenth division was sent to Helles, which was abandoned in January 1916, Maude being almost the last to leave the shore. Thus he took a prominent part in two operations which were described by the enemy as masterpieces for which there had been no precedent.

From the Dardanelles Maude's division went to Egypt, whence it was ordered to Mesopotamia and sailed in February 1916 for Basra. In March Maude proceeded to assemble his division at Sheikh Sa‘ad, where he fortunately found excellent training ground to exercise his troops before their departure for the front. The division was intended to reinforce the Tigris Corps under Major-General Gorringe, with which Sir Percy Lake, the commander-in-chief, planned to attempt the relief of Major-General Townshend, besieged at Kut el Amara. On 5 April an attack launched by the thirteenth division captured the Turkish trenches at Hannah and Felahieh, but the seventh division was unsuccessful at Sanna-i-yat. Three days later Maude attempted to take Sanna-i-yat, but was equally unsuccessful. The third division captured the Turkish trenches at Beit Aiessa, but was heavily counter-attacked at night. Maude came to its aid, but failed to improve its position. A last attempt to take Sanna-i-yat was made by the seventh division, aided by Maude's artillery and machine guns, but this also failed, and after an unsuccessful attempt to reprovision Townshend by running a steamer through to Kut, it was adjudged that no more could be done. Kut surrendered on 29 April.

For the next few months little occurred on the Tigris. In July Maude, though nearly the junior major-general in Mesopotamia, was appointed to command the Tigris Corps, and in August, on the departure of Lake, assumed command of the army in Mesopotamia. For his services as a divisional commander he received the K.C.B. For the next three and a half months he devoted himself to preparations for the advance on Bagdad. His force was divided into two corps under Major-Generals (Sir) Alexander Cobbe and (Sir) William Marshall. On 13 December the first corps bombarded the Sanna-i-yat position and the third corps obtained a footing on the Hai river. This was consolidated and followed by the capture of the Hai bridgehead by the third and the clearance of the Khaidri bend by the first corps. No pause took place in the offensive, and on 15 February 1917 the Turks were cleared out of the Dahra bend. On 22 February the final attack was launched on Sanna-i-yat, the passage of the Tigris was forced at Shumran, and on 24 February the first corps occupied the whole Turkish position, and Kut was recovered. The Turks were now retreating rapidly, and 373