English: Iraq: Al Basrah, Basra. Informal group portrait of from left; Captain Henry Alloysius Petre of the Australian Flying Corps, Captain Thomas Walter White (later POW) of the Australian Flying Corps, Lieutenant H Christian of the 119th Infantry Indian Army and Lieutenant George Pinnock Merz of the Australian Flying Corps, Officers of the Half Flight and a local boy. Several Australian units served in the Middle East. In May 1915, at the request of the Indian Government, the first Half Flight of the Australian Flying Corps was despatched to Basra where, combining with a similar unit from India, it formed for some time the sole flying force of the expedition. Nearly half of the skilled personnel of this small contingent, officers and mechanics, lost their lives in fighting or as prisoners in Turkey after the surrender of General Townshend's force at Kut el Amara.