General Townshend's reports to his commander General Nixon (now back in Basra) spoke of a shortage of supplies, in language exaggerated to the point of being misleading. These supplies, purportedly enough for a month at full ration, only ran out in April 1916, almost five months later. The dire reports fed the London press's portrayal of Townshend as a hero surrounded by Oriental hordes and in desperate circumstances, as he had been during the Siege of Chitral 21 years before; they also induced the British government to hastily dispatch a military relief force from Basra, under the command of Sir Fenton Aylmer. Aylmer found Kut surrounded by unexpectedly strong Ottoman defences under the direction of the newly arrived Prussian Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz, and badly stretched supply lines left the British with a shortage of artillery shells. All attempts to break the siege ended in failure. Heavy rains added to the discomfort of both armies, turning the ground to mud.