sentences:  In December, 1915, during the Siege of Kut, the British commanding officer, Major General Charles Townshend, ordered Leachman to save the British cavalry by breaking out and riding south.This he did and the cavalry were the only British unit to escape before the fall of the city to the Ottomans.Leachman was close to Gertrude Bell's friend Fahad Bey and fought with the Muntafiq tribal federation.