Book excerpt: This Indian Army Regiment fought in the campaign in Mesopotamia (today s Iraq) from April 1915. It took part in the battle of Shaiba, the advance to Ctesiphon, and the retreat to Kut-al-Amara that followed. Along with the other units involved in that disastrous episode, the 24th was effectively destroyed in the subsequent siege, and the survivors were compelled to surrender when General Sir Charles Townshend capitulated in April 1916. One chapter is devoted to the appalling sufferings of these men in Turkish captivity. The Regiment was subsequently reformed with new personnel and again served in Mesopotamia - and later in Salonika, south Russia and Anatolia between 1917 and 1920. In 1922 it was retitled the 4/14th Punjab regiment. This is a rare record of one of the Great War s worst disasters.