Iraq was known as Mesopotamia until 1920
A Turkish Howitzer at Hareira, Palestine 1917
Wadi Rum, Jordan. T. E. Lawrence crossed the Arabian Desert here in 1917
An Indian Army Camp in Mesopotamia by Richard Carline
Near Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan today
Mount Kilimanjaro, site of a battle in World War I
Struma Military Cemetery, Greece, containing burials of men who died in the Salonika campaign

Away from the Western Front

While the British, French and German armies struggled in the trenches of the Western Front, the post-war world was being shaped elsewhere. The 'Away from the Western Front' project, which has been completed successfully, explored the heritage of this often-overlooked aspect of the First World War. British men and women were sent to places far away from the Western Front, often serving alongside troops from the former British Empire, especially those in the Indian Army which recruited from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal.

British soldiers at Kut-al-Amara, April 1916

Campaigns, Personal Stories, Topics & Archive

We investigate the campaigns fought in battlefields such as Salonika and the Balkans; the Middle East regions including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Palestine and Syria; Italy and Africa, as well as telling the stories of some of those who served in them.