| By Author | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Title | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Language |
|
Download this book: [ ASCII ] Look for this book on Amazon Tweet |
Title: The Thirteenth Hussars in the Great War
Author: Durand, Henry Mortimer
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Thirteenth Hussars in the Great War" ***
book was produced from images made available by the
HathiTrust Digital Library.)
The Thirteenth Hussars in the Great War
[Illustration:
_From a photograph by The Mendoza Galleries._
_Lt. Col. J. J. Richardson. D.S.O. Commanding 13^{th} Hussars from
August 1915 to the present time._]
The
Thirteenth Hussars in the
Great War
BY
THE RIGHT HON.
SIR H. MORTIMER DURAND
G.C.M.G., K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E.
_WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS_
William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London
1921
_ALL RIGHTS RESERVED_
_DEDICATION_
To the Unfading Memory of the
_OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, AND MEN OF THE REGIMENT WHO LAID
DOWN THEIR LIVES DURING THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918_.
“I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.”
--(_Ode to Duty_, by the late Sir CECIL SPRING RICE,
G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O.)
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. CAVALRY BEFORE THE GREAT WAR 3
III. EARLIER HISTORY OF THE REGIMENT 17
IV. 1910-1914--OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT WAR 42
V. THE INDIAN ARMY--BEGINNING OF WAR 55
VI. VOYAGE TO FRANCE 60
VII. 1915 IN FRANCE 67
VIII. 1916 89
IX. MESOPOTAMIA 98
X. SUMMER IN LOWER MESOPOTAMIA 109
XI. MARCH TO THE FRONT--MAUDE’S PLAN OF CAMPAIGN 124
XII. DECEMBER 12, 1916-FEBRUARY 24, 1917--FIGHTING ON THE
TIGRIS 140
XIII. THE RECAPTURE OF KUT--RETREAT OF THE TURKS 158
XIV. THE FIGHT AT LAJJ, 5TH MARCH 1917 173
XV. OCCUPATION OF BAGHDAD 200
XVI. OPERATIONS IMMEDIATELY AFTER CAPTURE OF BAGHDAD 216
XVII. THE SUMMER OF 1917 229
XVIII. AUTUMN OF 1917--RAMADIE, MENDALI, TEKRIT 235
XIX. WINTER OF 1917-18 262
XX. THE SUMMER OF 1918--KULAWAND AND TUZ KERMATLI 272
XXI. THE AUTUMN OF 1918--LAST BATTLE WITH THE TURKS--CLOSE
OF THE WAR IN MESOPOTAMIA 291
XXII. SCOPE AND MEANING OF THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN--THE
SHARE IN IT OF THE THIRTEENTH HUSSARS 319
XXIII. RETURN TO ENGLAND--CONCLUSION 326
APPENDICES 329
INDEX 378
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PHOTOGRAVURE.
Lieut.-Col. J. J. Richardson, D.S.O., Commanding Thirteenth
Hussars from August 1915 to the Present Time _Frontispiece_
COLOURED PLATES.
Officer of the 13th Light Dragoons, 1830-1836 _To face page_ 34
Officer of the 13th Light Dragoons (undress), 1830-1836 ” 36
Before the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, 25th October
1854 ” 38
13th Light Dragoons, 1853 ” 40
Festubert ” 68
Mesopotamia ” 104
Xmas Card sent to the Regiment, 1916 ” 142
“Caprice” and Foal: Born May 1920 ” 178
Tuz Kharmatli, 29th April 1918 ” 280
The Storming of Richardson’s Bluff, 29th October 1918 ” 302
HALF-TONE PLATES.
The Drum Horse--at the Durbar _To face page_ 42
“D” Squadron--at the Durbar ” 44
The Queen at Agra ” 46
The Escort at Agra, 1st and 3rd Troops of Squadron “D” ” 48
Draft of Men and Horses detailed for the 8th Hussars, September
1914--The Band at the last Church Parade before leaving India,
November 1914 ” 52
Embarking at Bombay, November 1914 ” 56
The Departure from Bombay, 19th November 1914 ” 58
In the Suez Canal, December 1914 ” 60
In the Suez Canal, December 1914 ” 62
Major T. H. S. Marchant, D.S.O.--Col. A. Symons, C.M.G.--Major
W. A. Kennard, D.S.O.--Bt. Col. W. Pepys, D.S.O.--Lieut.-Col.
E. F. Twist ” 64
Bt. Lieut.-Col. E. J. Carter--Major R. F. Cox--Capt. Lord
Huntingfield--Capt. Norman Neill, Brig.-Major, 7th British
Cavalry Brigade--Bt. Major R. S. Hamilton-Grace, G.S.O.,
2nd Hdqrs. Cav. Corps--Capt. F. C. Covell--Bt. Major H.
Ll. Jones, D.S.O. ” 66
Capt. J. N. Lumley, M.C.--Capt. J. I. Chrystall, M.C.--Capt.
E. H. Stocker--Lieut. G. R. Watson-Smyth--Capt. J. H.
Hind--Capt. J. L. M. Barrett--Capt. J. A. Jeffrey, M.C. ” 70
2nd January to 21st February 1915: Billets of Captains Eve and
Jackson at Enquingatte--Capt. W. H. Eve--Capt. T. K. Jackson
and Lieut. J. V. Dawson--Trenches at Enquingatte dug by “D”
Squadron--School at Enquingatte where Lieut. J. V. Dawson
was billeted ” 72
February and March 1915: Farriers, “D” Squadron--Officers of
“D” Squadron--Major R. F. Cox--Officers of “D” Squadron ” 74
In the Sandpit, March 1915 ” 76
In the Sandpit, March 1915 ” 78
Hurdle Shelters, Bois du Reveillon, 15th March 1915--Billets at
Warnes, April 1915 ” 80
“D” Squadron Billets, Ochtezeele, May 1915--Quarters of “D”
Squadron at Witternesse, 6th to 19th May 1915--Quarters of
“B” Squadron, Ochtezeele, May 1915--The Chateau: Quarters
of “A” Squadron at Witternesse, June 1915--“Rags” and
“Stilts,” Ochtezeele, 3rd May 1915--On Lingham Rifle-range,
June 1915 ” 82
“D” Squadron Quarters and Mess at Bettencourt, August and September
1915--Captain Eve’s Dug-out at Authuille, September
1915--Lieut. J. V. Dawson in his Dug-out at Authuille, September
1915 ” 84
Lieut. J. I. Chrystall at Bemaville, October 1915--Hounds at
L’Abbaye, 31st March 1916 ” 88
“Caprice,” 1915--At Martainneville, March 1916 ” 90
At Feuquières, April 1916 ” 92
Lieut. Basil H. Williams, M.C.--Lieut. M. H. C. Doll--Lieut.
T. E. Lawson-Smith--Capt. J. O. Oakes--Capt. A. M.
Sassoon, O.B.E., M.C.--Lieut. W. P. Crawford-Greene--Capt.
S. V. Kennedy, M.C. ” 94
The _Islanda_ ” 96
Basra: Arab Policeman--Negro Waterman--Kurdish Water-carrier--Persian
Policeman ” 110
Basra: Basra Fort--A Creek--H. Robinson Bridge--Sindbad’s
Tower ” 112
Bridge over Ashar Creek--Huts under Construction--Ashar: Bullock
Transport--The Square, Basra _To face page_ 114
Makina: Sergeant G. Cook’s Grave--Breakfast on the March ” 122
On the Tigris ” 124
On the Banks of the Tigris ” 126
The River Front, Amara--Pontoon Bridge, Amara ” 128
Amara: The Bazaar--View from House-top--Maheilas ” 130
On the March ” 136
Lieut. B. E. H. Judkins--Lieut. R. Gore--Lieut R. C. Hill,
M.B.E.--Bt. Major Charles Steele--Lieut. M. C. Kennedy--Capt.
C. H. Gowan, M.C.--Lieut. J. W. Blyth, D.C.M. ” 138
On the Tigris--January and February 1917 ” 140
River Fort, Hai Town--On the Tigris ” 146
Lieut. D. A. Stirling--Lieut. J. A. Lord--2nd Lieut. J. F.
Munster--Sergt. W. D. Tassie, D.C.M.--S.S.-M. J. Brearley,
D.C.M. ” 150
Bussoorie: Lieut. Munster’s Grave--Graves of Lieut. Munster,
Private Killick, and a Corporal of the 14th Hussars--Private
Killick’s Grave ” 152
Captain Eve’s Charger “Follow Me” ” 156
H.M.S. _Tarantula_--Private Massey’s “Oracle,” otherwise
Coracle ” 164
Turkish Prisoners, February and March 1917--Aeroplane attached
to 7th Cavalry Brigade ” 168
Halts on the March ” 170
Sergt. P. Chipperfield--Sergt. H. Knapman--Capt. W. H. Eve--Pte.
A. Wallhead--Pte. Alfred Jones, D.C.M. ” 172
Lieut. G. R. Pedder--Lieut. E. F. Pinnington--2nd Lieut. G.
Lynch-Staunton--Lce.-Cpl. A. W. Watkins, D.C.M.--Sergt.
F. Spanton ” 174
Sergt.-Tptr. J. S. Styles--Sergt. G. Anderson--2nd Lieut. E. V.
Rolfe--Sergt. W. Gilbert--Sergt. A. Harrison ” 176
Lieut. A. M. Le Patourel--Capt. H. C. D. FitzGibbon, M.C.--Capt.
A. Vlasto, M.C., R.A.M.C.--Capt. H. G. T. Newton--Lieut.
J. H. Hirsch--Pte. J. L. Roberts, D.C.M. ” 180
Scene of the Fight at Lajj, 5th March 1917 ” 184
Scene of the Charge at Lajj, 5th March 1917--“Caprice” with
Pte. C. Hogg, who found her in May 1918, after she had been
“missing” for Fourteen Months ” 186
Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Men of the Thirteenth
Hussars who fell at Lajj, in Mesopotamia, on Monday, the 5th
of March 1917 ” 198
One of the Entrances to the Mosque at Khazimain--Ctesiphon ” 200
Capt. J. V. Dawson--Lieut. G. L. M. Welstead--2nd Lieut. J.
O. P. Clarkson--Lce.-Cpl. G. W. Bowie, D.C.M.--The Rev.
H. Cooke, C.F., M.C. ” 202
“B” Squadron on the way to the Diala--Crossing the Diala--Watering
in the Diala _To face page_ 204
The Grave in Baghdad Cemetery ” 206
Baghdad: Turkish Barracks--Army Commander’s House--British,
American, and French Consulates ” 208
A Typical Water-lift--A Persian Water-wheel near Baghdad ” 210
Turkish Cavalry Barracks outside Baghdad used as a Hospital--View
of Baghdad from Roof ” 212
The Regiment entering into Occupation of the Turkish Cavalry
Barracks at Baghdad, 13th March 1917 ” 214
Baghdad: Clock Tower in Turkish Infantry Barracks Square--A
Street in Baghdad--Framework of Hangar in Baghdad ” 216
Baghdad: Inside Turkish Cavalry Barracks ” 218
Baghdad: G.H.Q.--Hospital Ship ” 220
Baghdad: Storks--The North Gate from Inside--The Tramway,
Baghdad to Khazimain ” 222
The Diala and Khalis Canal Campaign: Departure from Baghdad--Dead
Turks--Captured Arabs awaiting Execution ” 224
Lieut. E. Bristol--Lieut. A. E. Annett--Lieut. C. A. F.
Wingfield--Major and Q.-M. A. Cooke--Lieut. W. Madgin--Lieut.
A. Williams--Lieut. L. A. Ormrod ” 228
Chaldari Camp, 1917 ” 230
Chaldari Summer Camp, 1917--The Regimental Mess ” 232
Lieut. W. G. Newman--S.S.-M. (afterwards Lieut.) C. M.
Douthwaite--Lieut. G. F. Earle--Lieut. J. W. Biggar--Lieut.
C. W. Jemmett--R.Q.-M.S. H. J. Edwards--Lieut.
A. H. Wood ” 234
F.S.-M. A. Bald--S.S.-M. A. Potter--R.S.-M. S. F. Seekins,
M.C.--Sergt. W. H. Tetheridge, D.C.M.--Cpl. J. Stevens,
D.C.M.--Cpl. G. Rayner, D.C.M. ” 240
Lieut. T. Williams-Taylor--Lieut. M. G. Hartigan, M.C.--Capt.
S. O. Robinson--S.S.-M. F. J. Tegg--Pte. F. G. Jasper ” 246
Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Men of Squadrons “B” and
“C” who fell in the Charge at Tekrit, Monday, 5th November
1917 ” 248
The Grave at Tekrit ” 254
Sergt. John Gray--Lieut. D. J. E. Norton, M.C.--Capt. F.
Norman Payne--Sergt. A. S. Newman--Pte. Wm. Thomson ” 256
Baghdad Cemetery--Capt. F. Norman Payne’s Grave in Baghdad
Cemetery ” 260
2nd Lieut. A. C. Barrington--Lieut. M. R. Farrer--Lieut. F. G.
Lawrence--Lieut. E. Goodman--Lieut. W. W. N. Davies--2nd
Lieut. E. P. Barrett--Lieut. H. G. Keswick ” 262
Capt. G. W. Rose, R.A.M.C.--Capt. E. Wordley, R.A.M.C.--Capt.
D. M. Methven (21st Lancers)--Lieut. A. C. J. Elkan--Lieut.
J. Hampson ” 268
S.Q.-M.S. S. B. Haines, D.C.M.--R.S.-M. (late Lieut.) M.
Churchhouse--Sergt. S. G. Strawbridge, D.C.M.-Lieut.
W. J. L. Norwood--2nd Lieut. J. H. Lucas _To face page_ 272
After the Charge at Kulawand--Prisoners taken at Kulawand ” 274
Capt. D. W. Godfree, M.C. (21st Lancers)--Lieut. H. Macdonald,
M.C.--Lieut. C. A. G. M‘Lagan--Capt. B. W. D. Cochrane--Sgt.
W. Matthews, M.M.--Lieut. L. Osmond ” 278
Lieut.-Col. J. J. Richardson, D.S.O., after a Hard Day at
Tuz--Machine-guns captured by the Regiment at Tuz ” 282
Guns captured at Tuz--The Bridge at Mosul and the
_Baghdad_ ” 286
Lieut.-Col. J. J. Richardson, D.S.O., September 1918 ” 292
Sergt. R. Holloway--Lce.-Sergt. Wm. Leeman--S.-Sergt. J. F.
Couch, D.C.M.--2nd Lieut. G. R. Russell--Cpl. A. Vinall,
D.C.M. ” 300
On the Way Home ” 326
A Group of Officers of the Regiment, taken in October 1920 by
Elliott & Fry ” 328
The Memorial Tablet in All Saints’ Garrison Church, Aldershot:
Dedicated and Unveiled 2nd August 1920 ” 372
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT.
PAGE
Map of India 34
Germany and her Confederates 99
The Advance from Basra 124
Sketch-plan of a Perimeter Camp 125
Sketch of British Position on Tigris, December 1916 137
The Advance on Baghdad 159
Sketch-plan of Turkish Trench System 175
Baghdad and Field of Operations, 1917-1918 201
Sketch of Position at Battle of Tekrit, 5th November 1917 259
Approximate Sketch of Richardson’s Bluff Position 292
* * * * *
Thanks are tendered to Messrs. Elliott & Fry, to Messrs. Gale & Polden,
and others, for permission to copy some of the portraits reproduced in
this work.
The Thirteenth Hussars in the Great War.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The main object of this book is to give an account of the services
rendered by the Thirteenth Hussars during the last ten years,
especially in the war which has just come to an end.
The earlier history of the Regiment has already been written, and very
fully written. On this subject the standard authority must always be
Barrett’s valuable work, which takes up the story from the beginning
and carries it on to 1910, a period of nearly two hundred years. In
order that readers of the present narrative may start with a general
knowledge of the Regiment and its past, a chapter relating to this
period has been introduced. As will be seen, it touches upon most of
the wars waged by Great Britain since the days of Marlborough. But it
is a mere summary, chiefly drawn from Barrett, and contains little new
matter.
In ordinary circumstances this summary would open the book, but any
account of the part played by a British Cavalry regiment in the late
war must of necessity have some bearing upon the larger question of the
part likely to be played by the mounted arm in any wars of the future;
and just now this question is of special interest, for it has been
freely asserted that recent changes in military conditions, notably
the vast increase in the size of armies and the development of the
aeroplane, have made Cavalry an obsolete and useless arm; and it is
important for us to know whether they have done so, or are likely to do
so. Therefore it has been thought desirable to give at the beginning
a brief review of the history of Cavalry before this war, and at the
close a few remarks upon the lessons of the war with regard to the
value of the arm under present conditions.
Perhaps the services of the Thirteenth Hussars will not lose in
interest if considered to some extent from this point of view.
CHAPTER II.
CAVALRY BEFORE THE GREAT WAR.
For thousands of years the horse has been the companion of man in war.
It is significant that when Job gives us his wonderful description of
the strong things of earth and sea and air, he speaks of the horse in
this connection, as rejoicing in the sound of the trumpet, and smelling
the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
“He goeth out to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not
dismayed; neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth
against him, the flashing spear and the javelin. He swalloweth the
ground with fierceness and rage.” And in many passages of the Bible,
in poetry and in narrative, we have mention of the chariot and the
horseman.
Representations of them are to be found in the carvings and tablets of
long-vanished dynasties and nations. To take a single instance, they
are shown in Assyrian carvings dating nearly a thousand years before
Christ, which can be seen now in the British Museum.
Apparently the chariot came into the field earlier than the horseman
usually so called, and the first use of the horse in war was to take
up to the front in chariots warriors who got down to fight on foot, as
the Greek chiefs did in the siege of Troy. But ere long Scythians or
other nomads learned to mount the horse himself, and then began that
close conjunction and sympathy between man and horse which made the two
almost one creature, the Centaur of the fable.
The subject has been touched by many writers. There is perhaps no
need to consider here the uses and gradual disappearance of the
war-chariot. For present purposes it is sufficient to note that long
before the historical age the armed hosts of the great Eastern Empires
were composed in part of mounted men, who marched, and often fought,
on horseback. The chariots and the people attached to them may have
been the first “Cavalry”; but the word as used in this book refers to
mounted men only--riders,--and riders who did some part at least of
their fighting from the backs of horses.
If the use of mounted men in war began in the East, to which Western
nations owe so much, including even their religion, it soon extended
to Europe. In the first conflict between East and West on a large
scale of which we have any real knowledge, nearly five hundred years
before Christ, the Persian invaders of Greece found that the Greeks
had little Cavalry to oppose to the thousands of horsemen whom they
brought with them. The men of Athens and Sparta fought on foot at
Marathon and Thermopylæ. Even at Mount Cithæron, where Masistius in his
golden cuirass charged and died, the Greek army was an army of footmen.
Nevertheless there were some horsemen in Greece even then, especially
on the plains of Thessaly; and the frieze of the Parthenon, of not much
later date, shows helmeted Greek soldiers riding spirited horses. The
horses are small, apparently not more than thirteen or at most fourteen
hands, and are ridden barebacked, but they are evidently war horses.
Then we have Xenophon’s well-known treatise on Cavalry, a thoroughly
practical work, which must have been written in the first half of the
next century; and after that the organisation of the Greek Cavalry is
fairly well known.
It was Alexander the Great who first showed what horsemen could do in
war if properly trained and led. Until his time Cavalry seem to have
fought mostly in loose swarms, rather as skirmishers and bowmen than
as solid squadrons using the weight of the horse itself to overthrow
and destroy bodies of footmen. He saw the value of “shock tactics,” and
taught his Cavalry to use them, so that when he invaded Persia in 334
B.C. the famous horsemen of Persia went down again and again
before his fiery onsets. They had themselves, according to Herodotus,
some notion of charging in squadron on the battlefield, but they had
never seen Cavalry used in mass, and neither they nor the Persian foot
could stand against it.
In the impetuous rapidity of all his movements, especially perhaps in
the closeness and vigour of his pursuits, Alexander was in fact a model
leader of horse, and his conquests were largely due to his Cavalry,
which he not only wielded with dash and power against the Cavalry of
the enemy, but kept thoroughly in hand even after a successful charge,
and threw into the scale wherever they might be most required to help
his foot soldiers.
Ever since those days, for more than twenty centuries, the history of
war on land has been the history of a struggle for pre-eminence between
horsemen and footmen. The rivalry has been complicated by the invention
of Artillery, and of late years by the development of fighting in the
air; but it has gone on unceasingly, and can hardly be said to have
come to an end even now. In the course of it there has often been a
tendency to lose sight of the fact that combined effort for one purpose
by all arms, and not rivalry between them, is the secret of success
in war. But the long dispute and its vicissitudes form an interesting
study.
By the Romans the effective use of Cavalry was for a long time not
well understood. Though they had their “Equites” from early days, they
got to rely more and more for serious fighting upon their wonderful
legions, and it was not until the Punic Wars that they learned their
lesson. Hannibal, like Alexander, was a born leader of horse, and when
a hundred years after Alexander’s death he invaded Italy by way of
the Alps, he at once taught Western Europe what Alexander had taught
the Greeks and Persians, that in the existing condition of military
armament, Cavalry well trained and boldly used in masses could do great
things on the battlefield. The successive victories which he gained in
Italy, with very inferior numbers, over the proud and confident troops
of Rome, were due in large measure to his skilful use of his horsemen.
At Cannæ, for example, his wild Numidian light horse, riding without
saddle or reins, and his heavier squadrons from Spain and the North,
began by driving off the weak Roman Cavalry opposed to them, and then,
wheeling inwards upon the rear of the advancing legions, enclosed them
in a circle of steel from which there was no escape. Fifty thousand
of them are said to have fallen, and for a time Rome seemed to be,
perhaps really was, at his mercy. Every one knows the story of his long
struggle against hopeless odds, and of his final defeat. When at last
he was conquered the superiority in horsemen had passed to the Romans,
and he was overwhelmed and crushed by his own methods. He had taught
his enemies to fight.[1]
As time went on they forgot in a measure the lesson they had learnt
from him, and they suffered some heavy reverses in consequence--for
example, in their wars with the Parthians which stopped their expansion
eastward; but happily such enemies were rare, and gradually the legions
won for Rome the empire of the Western world. It lasted as long as
the spirit and discipline of their incomparable Infantry remained
unimpaired.
In the closing centuries of Imperial Rome the bulk of her enemies
marched against her on horseback, and her own armies came to be
composed more and more of Cavalry. Her last great battle was against
Attila the Hun, whose people lived on their horses. It was a victory;
but it was a Cavalry victory, and won by the help of the Goths. Her
Infantry had long since failed her, and the Imperial City had been
herself in the hands of the Barbarians. Her fall had been due to the
woeful corruption and degeneration of the legions, not to any inherent
superiority of the horseman over the footman; but the fact remains that
at this time Cavalry was everywhere regarded as the more important arm
of the two.
There followed a long period during which the predominance of the
horseman grew more and more undisputed. With the collapse of Rome
scientific warfare on a large scale became a lost art, and in the
disorderly welter of the Dark Ages the fighting power of the footman,
which depends so much upon organisation and discipline, sank lower
and lower. To deal it a final blow came, a thousand years or so after
Christ, the institution of Chivalry, which to a considerable extent
undermined national feeling and exalted in its place the individual
prowess of the Knight. Having its origin in a praiseworthy attempt to
set up a higher standard of right and wrong, to resist cruelty and
injustice, to honour woman as she should be honoured, and to make
courage and courtesy the aim of men, it did much good, and has left
to succeeding ages some noble aspirations and examples. Even now
there is surely no better thing one can say of a man than that he is
chivalrous--_chevaleresque_--like a knight of old. The horseman had
given his name to a new social order and a splendid ideal. In practice
Chivalry was not always what it should have been, but the glamour of
it lies upon all our poetry and literature. Even the free-lance or the
moss-trooper, unprincipled ruffian as he often was, remains to our eyes
a picturesque figure. There is still a gleam on his helmet and spear
that time cannot take away. The war-horse and his rider had reached in
those days the climax of their power and reputation.
Then, very gradually, came a change in the opposite direction. The
knights and their retainers had been practically the only fighting men
who counted, and were accustomed to ride down with ease and contempt
any footmen who ventured to stand against them. Bows and arrows and
axes and knives seemed of little avail against the spearman with
his almost impenetrable armour and his thundering steed. As Colonel
Maude puts it, “the knight in full armour had borne about the same
relation to the infantry as an ironclad nowadays bears to a fleet of
Chinese junks.” But little by little it began to be recognised, first
it is said in the Crusades, when the knights had to take or defend
fortresses and otherwise fight on foot, that there were operations
in war for which the heavily armoured horseman was not well fitted.
Bodies of footmen began to be raised again for such purposes, and even
to be brought into the open field as archers or cross-bowmen for use
in broken ground. They often suffered horribly, but now and then they
gained some successes, and as time went on they developed greater skill
and confidence. Eventually, at Crécy and Poictiers and Agincourt, the
English archers, with their cloth-yard shafts and their bristling
defence of pointed stakes, won astonishing victories over the Chivalry
of France, and proved to Europe that the horseman was no longer
invincible on the battlefield. The lesson had very nearly been taught
by the English three hundred years earlier, on the field of Hastings;
but the time had not then come. Lured from their stockades, the footmen
had been cut to pieces, and the French Cavalry had conquered England.
At Crécy the English footmen turned the tables. And elsewhere, about
the same period, the Swiss Infantry won almost equal honour.
The Cavalry of Europe nevertheless fought hard for their old
pre-eminence, and it was long before they could be brought to see that
they would never again be the undisputed masters in battle. But it was
a lesson they had to learn. As time went on they found their charges
repelled by serried squares of pikemen, from which came showers of
arrows and cross-bolts; and later the invention of firearms weighted
the scale still further against them. The only offensive weapons of the
horsemen were the weight of their horses and the lance or sword; and if
the horses failed to break the rows of eighteen-foot pikes, the _arme
blanche_ could do nothing. At last, after many attempts by the Cavalry
to meet these new conditions, by using firearms themselves and other
devices, it came to be generally recognised that against confident and
steady infantry armed with the pike, deliberate frontal assault by
horsemen was practically hopeless, and that for the future Cavalry must
depend to some extent upon surprise and stratagem to give them victory.
The defence had in some measure triumphed over the attack, and the
essentially offensive arm had lost its pride of place.
This is not to say that for the future Cavalry was to be useless on
the battlefield--far from it. The range of the unwieldy arquebus, or
of the smooth-bore musket which followed it, was not so great as to
keep Cavalry out of striking distance; and their speed, if they were
led with decision and dash, would yet give them many opportunities
of riding down the footmen. They could no longer do so whenever they
pleased, but they were still a formidable part of the fighting line.
This was shown very clearly in our own Civil War. The armies of both
King and Parliament were largely composed of horsemen, and in fight
after fight it was they who were most conspicuous. Finally, the
emergence of a great leader of Cavalry turned the scale in favour of
the Roundheads. Cromwell’s Ironsides, thoroughly trained, and used as
in old days the Cavalry of Alexander and Hannibal had been used, not
only with dash but with coolness and self-control, proved too strong
for the Royalists, cavaliers though they were. Unlike Prince Rupert,
Cromwell kept his horsemen firmly in hand, throwing them into the fight
wherever they were most required, and the result was to make him master
of England.
On the Continent too Cavalry was still largely used in battle. The
Turkish horsemen were numerous and formidable. Before our civil
conflicts, in the Thirty Years’ War, Gustavus Adolphus had wielded
Cavalry with much effect, and while Cromwell was fighting in England
the great Condé had sprung into fame by the achievement of his horsemen
at Rocroy. Under him and other commanders the French Cavalry gained an
enduring reputation, and the same may be said for the Germans under
Pappenheim and Montecuculi. The Infantry was now perhaps the leading
arm in battle, and it was growing stronger as its firearm improved,
while the rise of a more or less effective Artillery was adding to the
difficulties of the Cavalry attack; but at the close of the seventeenth
century the horseman was still a power in the field.
Throughout the first half of the eighteenth century this state of
things continued. In Marlborough’s wars Cavalry was used in large
numbers, and with great effect. At Blenheim, and other notable fights,
his horsemen practically decided the issue between him and the French
Marshals. How important the arm was considered may be judged from the
fact that at Ramilies the forces on both sides were little stronger
in foot than in horse. Between them the opposing armies numbered only
75,000 Infantry to 64,000 Cavalry.
About the same time Charles XII. of Sweden was also using Cavalry
in large numbers; and when, under Peter the Great, Russia began to
make her mark among the military powers of the world, not the least
formidable part of her army was the Cavalry, which, including the
afterwards famous Cossacks, amounted at one time to more than 80,000
men.
Then came the crowning period for Cavalry in modern war. In spite of
their recognised place on the battlefield, and their many successes,
the horsemen of the European armies had not until the middle of the
eighteenth century attained to a full comprehension of their possible
influence. Awed to some extent by the reputation which the Infantry had
gained at their expense in the course of the last three centuries,
the Cavalry had become a less swift and dashing arm. They had learnt
to rely in large measure upon their fire, and even to fight dismounted
as dragoons. “In fact,” according to their historian Denison, “the
cavalry of all European States had degenerated into unwieldy masses
of horsemen, who, unable to move at speed, charged at a slow trot and
fought only with pistol and carbine.” Even so they were more mobile
than Infantry, and had great achievements to their credit; but they had
failed to see that a recent change in armaments had thrown the game
into their hands. The Infantry, growing over-confident, had discarded
the long pike for the bayonet--a very poor substitute--and the Cavalry
had once more a chance of riding down their enemy in fair fight by the
speed and weight of their horses. Their power was now to be taught them
by a keen-sighted soldier, Frederick the Great of Prussia.
When he came to the throne in 1740, and began the career of
unscrupulous aggression which was to make Prussia one of the leading
nations of Europe, he soon saw that his Cavalry was not all it should
have been. “They were,” says Denison, “large men mounted upon powerful
horses, and carefully trained to fire in line both on foot and on
horseback,” but they were quite incapable of rapid movement, and
never attacked Infantry by the ancient method. “His first change was
to prohibit absolutely the use of firearms mounted, and to rely upon
the charge at full speed, sword in hand.” Marlborough had shown the
advantage of using great bodies of Cavalry in mass, and Marshal Saxe
had advocated their being taught to move at speed for a mile or more
in good order. Frederick now took over both ideas, and by careful and
incessant training evolved a Cavalry which was capable of manœuvring
in thousands together at full pace, even over rough ground, without
disorder or loss of control. Such a force, led by men like Seidlitz
and Ziethen, proved to be almost irresistible. Against Austrians and
Russians and Frenchmen alike, it had astonishing success. “Out of
twenty-two great battles fought by Frederick, his Cavalry won at least
fifteen of them. Cavalry at this time reached its zenith.”
Frederick’s system was copied by all the great military nations of
Europe, and at the close of the eighteenth century the influence of
horsemen in the field was greater than it had ever been since the
battle of Crécy.
Then came Napoleon, and though the Cavalry had not such a pre-eminent
place in his armies as in those of Frederick the Great, for it was
not as efficient, yet it was used in vast numbers and at times with
tremendous effect. Murat was perhaps the most conspicuous figure among
all Napoleon’s Marshals, and other Cavalry leaders made great names for
themselves. At Marengo, at Austerlitz, and in many more of Napoleon’s
famous battles, the French horsemen won undying renown; and if at last
his Cuirassiers had to recoil before the fire of the British squares at
Waterloo, every one knows with what magnificent courage and devotion
they strove again and again to cut their way to victory.
Among Napoleon’s enemies too, Prussian and Austrian, Russian and
British, the Cavalry did much fine work throughout; and it is not
perhaps too much to say that the Russian horsemen, especially the
Cossacks, by destroying his famous squadrons in the great retreat,
were among the most notable causes of his downfall. This much is
certain, that when he fell the Cavalry of Europe held a high place in
the battlefield. Infantry had become the backbone of most armies, and
the power of Artillery had vastly increased, but Cavalry was still a
powerful and necessary arm.
Then came another marked change in the conditions of war. A generation
after the Conqueror’s death the rifle took the place of the smooth-bore
musket in the hands of the Infantry, and the same principle was applied
to cannon. The result was that the power of firearms was greatly
increased in range and accuracy, and that the value of Cavalry in
battle was proportionately lowered. Soon afterwards the introduction
of breech-loading gave the rifled weapons a vastly greater rapidity
of fire, which also told heavily against the mounted arm. It was one
thing for Cavalry to remain out of range, a few hundred yards away, and
then to charge against the slow and inaccurate fire of a smooth-bore
musket. It was a very different thing for them to advance from a much
greater distance, against a rifle which not only carried three times
as far as the musket, but shot straight, and could be loaded in a
quarter of the time. From the middle of the nineteenth century it began
to be held, at all events in France and England, that the chance of a
successful attack by Cavalry armed only with the sword or lance upon
Infantry in the battlefield, except under very unusual circumstances,
was practically at an end. It seemed a fatal blow to the system of
Frederick, and to the hope of the horseman in his long rivalry with the
foot soldier.
That conclusion was not shaken by the wars waged by European nations
during the remainder of the century. Some successes were gained by
Cavalry in various parts of the world outside Europe. For example, the
British Cavalry did fine work against the Sikhs in 1846 and 1849; a
Persian square was broken and destroyed by a charge of British Indian
Cavalry in 1856; and British Cavalry were very useful in the Mutiny
soon afterwards, and against the Chinese; but neither in the Crimea,
nor in the war between France and Austria in 1859, nor in the war
between Prussia and Austria in 1866, nor in the Franco-German War of
1870, nor in the Russian War against Turkey a few years later, could
the Cavalry claim to have struck such blows in battle as they had
been used to strike in the days of Napoleon. Colonel Henderson in
that fascinating book, ‘The Science of War,’ writing of the “shock
tactics” lately prevailing, reviews the achievements of Cavalry under
that system. “Such is the record,” he says: “one great tactical
success gained at Custozza; a retreating army saved from annihilation
at Königgratz; and five minor successes, which may or may not have
influenced the ultimate issue--not one single instance of an effective
and sustained pursuit; not one single instance, except Custozza, and
there the Infantry was armed with muzzle-loaders, of a charge decisive
of the battle; not one single instance of Infantry being scattered and
cut down in panic-flight; not one single instance of a force larger
than a brigade intervening at a critical moment. And how many failures!
How often were the Cavalry dashed vainly in reckless gallantry against
the hail of a thin line of rifles! How often were great masses held
back inactive, without drawing a sabre or firing a shot, while the
battle was decided by the infantry and the guns!”
Truly, the day of Cavalry seemed to be over, and this was the opinion
frequently expressed at the end of the century. Their day was not over.
It will probably have been noticed that so far we have been dealing
only or mainly with the question of Cavalry on the battlefield. But
their work lies not only on the battlefield--indeed, it may be doubted
whether their work there, however great, has not always been of less
value than the services they have been able to render in other ways.
The operations of war are generally treated by military writers as
consisting of two distinct branches--those leading up to battle, and
those of battle itself. The former are of great variety and scope,
involving all the preparations and manœuvres which will result in
bringing upon the battlefield an army with “every possible advantage
of numbers, ground, supplies, and _moral_” over the army of the enemy.
These operations are the province of “strategy.” The operations of the
battle itself, when the opposed armies have actually come into touch,
are the province of “tactics.” The latter are the more picturesque, and
naturally appeal to the fighting spirit of the soldier; but the former
are often, if not usually, of the greater importance to the issue of a
war. “Strategy,” says Henderson, “is at least one half, and the more
important half, of the art of war”; and he says elsewhere: “An army may
even be almost uniformly victorious in battle, and yet ultimately be
compelled to yield.”
Now it may safely be asserted that with regard to strategical
operations there has never been any serious question as to the great
value of Cavalry in any war confined to the land. To quote Colonel
Denison, in “their fitness for scouting, reconnoitring, raiding,
&c., Cavalry have always been the foremost arm and without rival. In
covering an advance, in pursuing a retreating foe, their capacity
has always been unequalled.” Henderson, himself an Infantry officer,
states that “the Cavalry is _par excellence_ the strategical arm,”
that “it depends on the Cavalry, and on the Cavalry alone, whether the
Commander of an army marches blindfold through the ‘fog of war,’ or
whether it is the opposing General who is reduced to that disastrous
plight.” And Von Bernhardi, discussing the future of Cavalry, says, “It
is in the strategical handling of the Cavalry that by far the greatest
possibilities lie.” He admits that on the battlefield and in retreat
their rôle can only be a subordinate one. “But for reconnaissance and
screening, for operations against the enemy’s communications, for
the pursuit of a beaten enemy, and all similar operations of warfare,
the Cavalry is, and remains, the principal arm.” These passages were
written before the aeroplane was used in war, but they show clearly
that until then--that is, throughout the nineteenth century--Cavalry
was still as necessary as ever for the proper working of a campaign.
And further, it may be pointed out that even with regard to the
battlefield, horsemen armed and trained in a different way might
conceivably be of greater use than horsemen depending solely or mainly
upon shock and the _arme blanche_.
This was proved, though the majority of Continental soldiers would
never open their eyes to the fact, by the fighting in the American
Civil War. Henderson, with clearer vision, writes of this great
conflict: “So brilliant were the achievements of the Cavalry, Federal
and Confederate, that in the minds of military students they have
tended in a certain measure to obscure the work of the other arms.”
No doubt many of these achievements were rather of a strategical than
a tactical nature, but many were not. The American Cavalry was from
first to last constantly used for actual fighting, and in numberless
instances its value as a battle arm was amply demonstrated. It
would be impossible to enumerate them here, but Henderson expressly
declares, for example, that “there is no finer instance ... of
effective intervention (by Cavalry) on the field of battle than
Sheridan’s handling of his divisions, an incident most unaccountably
overlooked by European tacticians, when Early’s army was broken into
fragments, principally by the vigour of the Cavalry, in the valley of
the Shenandoah.” The fact was that, adapting themselves to the new
conditions brought about by rifled firearms, the Americans had created
a mounted service which could fight both on foot and on horseback,
with the rifle or the sword or the pistol; “they used fire and _l’arme
blanche_ in the closest and most effective combination, against both
Cavalry and Infantry.” Assuredly Cavalry was not yet a negligible arm
in battle.
The closing years of the century saw the beginning of another war in
which the horse and his rider were again very prominent. The Boers, who
made so gallant and protracted a fight against the vast resources of
England, were all mounted men, and it was not until the British forces
opposed to them also consisted in a large measure of mounted men that
their resistance was broken down. They differed in many respects from
the American Cavalry. The latter were trained to fight on foot if
necessary, but preferred fighting on horseback whenever they could,
though they fought with the pistol rather than the sword. The Boers
fought mainly, almost entirely, on foot. Their arms and training were
inconsistent with fighting from the saddle. They were in fact rather
mobile riflemen than anything else. Nevertheless the fact remains
that they were mounted men, and that a large part of their value
lay in their being so. For many of the essential duties of Cavalry,
for scouting and collecting information, for raids on their enemy’s
communications, for the capture of his trains and guns, for covering
a retirement, they were exceptionally well fitted. Henderson, writing
of the duties of Cavalry, says: “But most important perhaps of all
its functions are the manœuvres which so threaten the enemy’s line of
retreat that he is compelled to evacuate his position, and those which
cut off his last avenue of escape. A Cavalry skilfully handled, as at
Appomattox or Paardeberg, may bring about the crowning triumph of grand
tactics--viz., the hemming in of a force so closely that it has either
to attack at a disadvantage or surrender.” The example of Paardeberg
is one in which the triumph was due to the British Cavalry, but the
Boers had some triumphs of the same kind, for instance at Nicholson’s
Nek, and they were very near to gaining one which might have shaken the
Empire. If Ladysmith had fallen, with its garrison of 12,000 men, as
at one time seemed probable, the disaster would undoubtedly have been
due in the main to the mobility of the Boers, whose rapid movements
on horseback enabled them not only to drive in and besiege White’s
troops, but afterwards to hold up for months, with inferior numbers,
Buller’s relieving force, while still maintaining their grip on the
starving garrison. In fact it may be said that even on the actual
field of battle they fought partly as Cavalry--Von Bernhardi goes
so far as to say “exclusively as Cavalry,”--for though they almost
invariably dismounted to use their rifles, yet it was by the speed of
their horses that they were able to extend their flanks, and, galloping
out to any threatened point, form a fresh front against any turning
movement. Our slow-moving Infantry had no chance of getting round and
enveloping them, but was forced time after time to undertake desperate
frontal attacks upon the lines, often more or less entrenched, which
their rapidity of manœuvre had made it possible for them to take up.
Altogether, the fighting value of the 50,000 Burghers with whom Paul
Kruger set out to defy Great Britain, was doubled or trebled by the
fact that they were mounted men. It made them in their own country, and
perhaps would have made them anywhere, a formidable fighting force.
This was not clearly understood on the Continent of Europe, but it
was understood in England. It had a great effect upon the views of
our leading soldiers with regard to the future of Cavalry, and the
subsequent Russo-Japanese War did not in any way contradict the lessons
drawn from the campaigns in America and South Africa.
To sum up this chapter, it may be said with confidence that when the
Great War broke out the value of Cavalry, both as a strategical arm
and on the field of battle, had been demonstrated by the experience of
three thousand years. During that time it had fluctuated, especially
with regard to the battlefield, but it had always been great. For some
centuries, especially since the development of efficient firearms, the
tendency had been for the Infantry to oust the horsemen from their
pride of place in the actual shock of armies, and by the end of the
nineteenth century the supremacy of the Infantry in this respect had
been generally acknowledged. But even so it had not been shown that
Cavalry, properly armed and trained, were incapable of joining with
effect in the decision of battles, and the American and South African
Wars had given reason to believe that it certainly could do so. Its
great strategical value was not disputed. Clearly, therefore, Cavalry
was still a necessary and important part of any efficient army--one of
the most important. Whether for strategical duties or for full victory
in battle, the other arms could not do without the horsemen.
No doubt the value of Cavalry might be altered in the future, as it had
been in the past, by new developments in the art of war, but such was
the position at that time.
We may now turn to the Thirteenth Hussars.
CHAPTER III.
EARLIER HISTORY OF THE REGIMENT.
Before the war of 1914 the Regiment now known as the Thirteenth Hussars
had, like most Regiments of the British Army, served in various parts
of the world. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it
had borne a part in nine wars of one kind or another, and had made
acquaintance not only with the Continent of Europe, but with Asia,
America, and Africa.
The Regiment was raised in the year 1715. The Duke of Marlborough was
then still living, but his long series of victories had been brought to
a close by the Treaty of Utrecht two years before, and thirty thousand
of the veterans who had won them for him had been ruthlessly disbanded.
After the accession of George I., in 1714, it was seen that this step
had been a hasty and dangerous one, for the Jacobite party was strong,
and the reduction of the small British Army had given them fresh hopes.
It soon became evident that the exiled Stuarts meant to take advantage
of their opportunity, and the British Government was obliged to raise
fresh troops in place of those so recently thrown away. Among the new
Regiments were to be several of Dragoons, and in July 1715 the raising
of one of these was entrusted to Brigadier Richard Munden, an officer
on half-pay who had served with some distinction under Marlborough.
It appears that Munden had no difficulty in finding recruits, for
within three months the Regiment had been raised, and was assembled
at Northampton. There it received orders to march to Leeds, and soon
afterwards Brigadier Munden was informed that his Regiment, with
others, was to be under the orders of Major-General Wills, whom
His Majesty had appointed “to command several of his forces on an
expedition.”
At this time a Dragoon Regiment in the British Army consisted of
6 troops, and its strength was between 200 and 300, including 19
“Commission” officers. It was not a Regiment of “Horse,” though it was
mounted, and regarded as Cavalry. The men were armed with the same
firearm as the Infantry, or practically the same, and were expected to
fight on foot as well as on horseback. This, it will be remembered, was
the period when European Cavalry depended largely on their fire, and
had not been trained to the system of Frederick the Great, the charge
at speed with the _arme blanche_. The officers of Munden’s Dragoons,
including Munden himself, had almost all served in Regiments of Foot.
The Regiment was “officially declared to be a disciplined force
belonging to the regular army on 31st October 1715.” It had not to wait
long before seeing service, for early in November General Wills learned
that the Jacobite “rebels” were over the Scottish border, and marching
on Lancaster. He at once drew together his forces at Manchester, and
marched thence to Wigan. On the 12th November Munden’s Dragoons were in
presence of their first enemy, who had advanced as far as Preston, and
was in occupation of the town.
It is significant that when General Wills left Wigan with his force to
attack the rebels, the order of march was as follows: The advance-guard
consisted of fifty musketeers and fifty dismounted dragoons. After the
advance-guard came a Regiment of Foot, then three Brigades of Cavalry
consisting of one Regiment of “Horse” and five of Dragoons. Evidently
Cavalry was not regarded as the eyes of an army.
The action which followed was at first indecisive. The enemy, superior
in numbers, and aided by some guns and barricades, repulsed one or two
attacks made by Infantry and dismounted Dragoons. But on the following
day General Carpenter having come up with three more Regiments of
Dragoons, the rebels gave in and surrendered. Their assailants had
lost in all one hundred and thirty killed and wounded, so the fighting
had not been very severe. Nevertheless Preston was an affair of some
importance, for with the indecisive battle of Sheriffmuir, fought
the same day by other troops, it sufficed to put an end to the First
Jacobite Rebellion and to establish the House of Hanover on the British
throne. Munden’s Dragoons had only four wounded during the fight, but
they seem to have behaved well. Munden himself is said to have led a
storming party, and to have been thanked for his gallant conduct. After
the fight, the Regiment seems to have been employed in escorting to
jail the unfortunate prisoners, whose fate was a sad one.
It may be noted that among the troops who served at Preston was
Dormer’s Regiment of Dragoons, afterwards the Fourteenth Hussars. Thus
began a comradeship between the two Regiments which was afterwards very
close.
Then followed for Munden’s Dragoons, who about this time became known
as the Thirteenth Dragoons, a long period of peace service. In 1718
there was again a reduction of the Army, and some Regiments having been
disbanded in Ireland, the Thirteenth were sent over to take the place
of one of them. The Irish military establishment was then separate
from the British. The pay of the troops was somewhat less, and their
circumstances in other respects were very unsatisfactory. It was
forbidden to enlist any native of the country, so that men were hard
to get, and the barrack accommodation was so scanty that the troops
were scattered about in small detachments, to the woeful detriment of
their discipline and efficiency. It apparently became the custom for
officers to overstay their leave, or absent themselves without leave,
and everything got slack in proportion. It was possibly not the fault
of the Regiments that their arms were in most cases insufficient and
bad; but in every way their condition was deplorable. The Thirteenth
Dragoons seem to have suffered like the rest, and probably when their
Colonel, Munden, was transferred to another Regiment in 1722, they were
not in a very efficient condition.
Munden was one of the officers who followed the body of the great Duke
of Marlborough when he was borne to his grave in Westminster Abbey. He
died himself, a Major-General, three years later, and Colonel William
Stanhope became Colonel of the Thirteenth. This officer, afterwards the
Earl of Harrington, was appointed a Secretary of State in 1730.
The stay of the Regiment in Ireland came to an end in 1742, when it was
transferred to Great Britain, and in the following year the command of
it was bestowed upon Lieut.-Colonel James Gardiner of the Inniskilling
Dragoons, then serving in Germany. Thus when the Second Jacobite
Rebellion took place, in 1745, the Thirteenth, under this well-known
officer, was among the Regiments at the immediate disposal of the
Government, and was fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to find itself
engaged once more on active service.
When Bonnie Prince Charlie unfurled his standard at Glenfinnan, Sir
John Cope, the British General commanding in Scotland, was very weak in
the number and quality of his troops. He had no gunners to man his few
guns, and the force at his disposal to meet the advancing rebel army,
after providing some small garrisons, amounted to about twenty-five
companies of foot and two Regiments of Dragoons. One of these two was
the Thirteenth. Provisions and transport were very scarce.
It is a curious coincidence that the Regiment came to blows with its
second enemy at another Preston, this time in Scotland. Close to it
was the house of their Colonel, Gardiner. The Thirteenth had had some
trying work during the preceding weeks, when Cope withdrew his small
force from Inverness to Dunbar, abandoning Edinburgh to the rebels;
and the Regiment was not in good condition, many men and horses being
physically unfit for duty.
The result of the battle is well known. The enemy, chiefly Highlanders,
attacked on the early morning of 18th September. Cope having no
gunners, a Lieut.-Colonel Whiteford and an old Master Gunner of the
name of Griffiths fired a few rounds from the guns and cohorns, “none
of whose shells would burst,” and then the guns were rushed by the
Highlanders. It was a fine chance for the Cavalry, as the rebels were
in confusion, but the chance was not taken. To tell the simple truth,
neither of the two Dragoon Regiments, Hamilton’s or Gardiner’s, which
seem to have numbered six hundred men between them, could be induced to
charge, and their only inclination was to gallop off the field. By the
exertions of their officers and other gentlemen, about three-quarters
of them were stopped, and brought into Berwick next day; but it must
be admitted that their behaviour was anything but creditable, and
the battle ended in the total defeat of the King’s force. This much
is to be said in favour of the Regiments, that their officers fought
gallantly. The ill-fated Gardiner, who was seriously ill, was wounded
at the beginning of the engagement; and later, when his men refused
to charge, he received several other wounds, from which he died. His
Lieutenant-Colonel, Whitney, was also wounded in trying to rally the
men. But the fight of “Prestonpans” was certainly what Brigadier Fowke
called it, “an unhappy affair.”
After Gardiner’s death the command of the Thirteenth was given to
Colonel Ligonier, a brave officer who had served under Marlborough, and
in the following January it took part in another battle and another
defeat at Falkirk Muir. The same two Regiments of Dragoons which had
been engaged at Prestonpans, and another, Cobham’s, formed at Falkirk
a Brigade of Cavalry under Ligonier’s orders. This affair was not
so discreditable as the former. The Cavalry, very gallantly led by
Ligonier, did charge the enemy, and it is said penetrated their first
line. But they failed to break the second line, and the charge ended
in a confused retreat. Lieut.-Colonel Whitney, wounded at Prestonpans,
was killed, and the gallant Ligonier also paid for his courage with
his life. Suffering from an attack of pleurisy, he insisted on getting
out of bed to command his Brigade in the battle, which was fought in
a storm of wind and rain. His exertions in rallying the Dragoons and
covering the retreat during the following night were too much for him,
and a week later he died.
The Thirteenth saw no further fighting. When the Duke of Cumberland
broke the Highland clans at Culloden and put an end to the rebellion,
the Regiment was not present. It had been left in Edinburgh to patrol
the roads, and intercept any communications between the English and
Scottish Jacobites. Its share in the campaign, therefore, had not been
a very satisfactory one. Perhaps it was not to be blamed for the second
defeat at Falkirk, but certainly it had not won much distinction on the
battlefield.
All that can be said is that no troops are likely to do well in the
great ordeal of war unless their discipline and general condition have
been steadily maintained in peace. History abounds in such lessons. The
Regiment was to do great things later under more favourable conditions,
and win a fine name for itself as a fighting corps. Its time was not
yet come.
In 1748 the Thirteenth was once more transferred to Ireland, and there
it remained for a second score of years. A Dragoon Regiment at this
time seems to have been very weak in numbers, considerably under two
hundred all told, officers and men, with one hundred and fifty horses.
The prohibition against Irishmen had apparently been withdrawn, and
by 1767 the men were almost all Irish. But none were Roman Catholics,
the enlistment of these being still absolutely forbidden. The men
were fine, most of them from five foot nine to five foot eleven,
and “tolerably well appointed.” The officers too were mostly Irish.
The barrack accommodation was still very poor, and the Regiment was
scattered in detachments as before. The arms were very bad at times.
About 1777 the Thirteenth were converted into Light Dragoons, and much
smaller men were enlisted. The example of Frederick the Great was now
being followed on the Continent, and Cavalry was being trained for
greater speed and hand-to-hand fighting. The Infantry firearm of the
Thirteenth gave place to a short carbine, and some changes were made
in the uniform, the old three-cornered hat making way for a Cavalry
helmet. Bayonets were still carried, but evidently there was some idea
of making the Dragoon more of a horseman and less of a foot soldier.
Nevertheless the state of the British Cavalry at that time as to
equipment and drill was very antiquated. “The military value of their
training,” says Barrett, “was practically _nil_.” And, to add to their
disadvantages, they were now cursed with the system of “proprietary
Colonels.” How this system came about is not clear, but towards the
end of the eighteenth century it was in full force. In Munden’s day
the Colonel had been “the active officer in command, and always
present, unless on leave, whether at home or in the field.” Sixty years
later, when the old traditions of Marlborough’s time had been lost,
the Regiment was really commanded by the Lieutenant-Colonel, while
the Colonel had become an absentee, seeing the Regiment perhaps once
or twice a year. Yet it was in a sense looked upon as his private
property. “The system,” says Barrett, “was a bad one. To bad Colonels
were due the crying abuses of the pay system as well as those of the
clothing system--the systematic robbery of the soldier, the mean frauds
by which an income was literally swindled out of Government or sweated
off the backs of the men; and the abuse of the power of the lash was
owing to the same cause.” In 1787 the Colonel of the Thirteenth, a
member of Parliament, “lived mainly in London while the Regiment was
in Ireland.” Arms were bad, desertions frequent, and the duties of
the Regiment consisted chiefly of hunting down members of the various
lawless societies in Ireland, Whiteboys and Peep-o’-Day Boys, and the
like. In spite of all these heartbreaking drawbacks the regimental
officers seem to have done something to make the men efficient, for
at times the reports of inspecting Generals are good enough, though
evidently the standard was not high; and in 1794, no doubt because of
the French Revolution and the outbreak of war on the Continent, the
strength had been increased to 446 men and 393 horses.
The Thirteenth, however, was not yet to be employed in the Continental
war. It was now, after its two campaigns against the Jacobites,
followed by fifty years of peace duty, to have its first taste of
service abroad, but this was not to be in warfare against a civilised
enemy.
In the island of Jamaica the “Maroons,” originally runaway negro
slaves, had long been giving trouble, and it had now become urgently
necessary to suppress them. They held a difficult mountain country,
full of densely wooded glens, from which they had been wont for many
years to raid the lowlands and plantations, plundering and murdering.
After some partial settlements they had again risen, and had openly
defied the white men to war. Their numbers were not large, perhaps
1200 all told, but as Great Britain was already fighting the French in
the West Indies the complication was serious, and Lord Balcarres, the
Governor, was assembling a considerable force to blockade the revolted
highlands.
It is remarkable to find, considering the nature of the ground, that in
addition to three Regiments of Infantry and some local militia, this
force was to consist of five Dragoon Regiments, of which two were the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Light Dragoons.
The Thirteenth was brought over from Ireland to England in 1795, and a
couple of troops sailed for Jamaica in advance, the remainder of the
Regiment remaining in England until the following February, when, on
the 9th of the month, the Headquarters sailed in the _Concord_, which
formed part of a fleet numbering more than five hundred sail. In spite
of all the circumstances of its peace service, the Regiment seems
then to have been in a condition of discipline and efficiency very
creditable to officers and men. Fortunate that this was so, for both
were soon to be severely tested. A violent storm scattered the fleet
three days after sailing, and in the Bay of Biscay the _Concord_ took
fire, some pitch used for fumigation having been upset by the rolling
of the vessel, and blazed up. As the fire was immediately over nineteen
casks of powder, the danger was great. It is pleasant to read how the
ship’s company behaved in this sudden contingency. The Captain, who
was writing in his cabin, ran on deck “with his pen across his mouth.”
An officer was sent down to the hold to cover the powder barrels with
wet blankets and mattresses. “Scores of men, with their mattresses
held in front of them,” threw themselves on the flames and smothered
them, while the officer below spread a sailcloth over the barrels and
kept it wet under a shower of sparks from the deck above. Eventually,
after really heroic exertions, the fire was brought under, and the ship
escaped destruction. Soon afterwards she sprang a leak, and had to put
back to Cove, but all damage was set to rights in a few days, and on
the 26th February the fleet put to sea again. This time all went well,
and on the 1st April the fleet was assembled in Barbadoes.
After a short stay there, the Thirteenth was sent on to San Domingo,
in which island it remained for some months, helping to put down a
rising of brigands. While doing this work the Regiment, which till
then had been very healthy, was attacked by the scourge of the West
Indies--yellow fever. Much has been written about the awful ravages
of the disease in those days. It is only necessary to say here that
the Thirteenth suffered as others did. Men died daily, and at last the
Regiment was so reduced that it had to apply to the Fifty-sixth Foot
for help to bury its dead. How many were left alive does not appear,
but by the end of the year the remains of the Regiment had arrived in
Jamaica.
It is not easy to follow in detail the course of the campaign against
the Maroons; but it seems that though only two troops of the Thirteenth
were employed in it, the command of the whole expedition was eventually
given to Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. George Walpole of this Regiment, and
that after some hard jungle fighting and mutual ambuscades the Maroons
surrendered to him, on a promise that they should not be deported. The
Jamaica Government broke this engagement, and voted Walpole a sword of
honour, which in the circumstances was naturally declined.
The Regiment remained in the West Indies until August 1798, when,
after transferring some 95 men to the Jamaica Dragoons, all that were
left, 52 in number, chiefly non-commissioned officers, sailed under
the command of a Lieutenant for England. Of these 52, many were found
on arrival to be totally unfit for service, and were invalided. Most
of those not immediately invalided were “completely exhausted and worn
out,” and were gradually discharged. The Regiment had in fact ceased
to exist. During the two years and six months of its absence, though
it had lost only one man killed in action, it had left behind it,
dead of disease, 19 officers, 7 quartermasters, 2 volunteers, and 287
non-commissioned officers and men. Such were the conditions of service
at that time in the West Indies.
But the war with France was now in full course, and Cavalry was
necessary, so the Commander-in-Chief gave orders that the Thirteenth be
augmented to a strength of 641 men with the same number of horses. As
practically nothing remained of the old Regiment but a few officers,
this meant raising a new one. Nevertheless, by August 1799, the task
had been accomplished, and two years later the strength had reached
902. The short-lived Peace of Amiens in 1802 caused it to be reduced
again, after the custom of the times, by about one-half, but the
reduction was as short-lived as the peace, and in 1805, when Napoleon
had assembled his great army at Boulogne for the invasion of England,
the Regiment stood at the highest strength it ever reached, 1064
men, and the same number of horses. From this time on until 1810 the
Thirteenth was kept at home. It was then no longer an Irish Regiment,
but a trace of its old connection remained in the fact that it now had
as one of its squadron commanders Colonel Patrick Doherty, who had
sailed with it for the West Indies in 1796, and that two of his sons
were serving in his squadron.
So far the war record of the Thirteenth can hardly be said to have
been fortunate. In the ninety-five years of their existence they had
served with no special distinction in the two Jacobite rebellions, and
in one campaign abroad, where their chief enemies had been climate and
disease. But this long period of inglorious and yet trying service was
now over. In the next five years, before their first century came to an
end, they were to cross swords again and again with the finest soldiers
in the world, to learn the lessons of war under the greatest of English
commanders, and to win for themselves imperishable renown.
In February 1810 the Regiment was ordered to prepare 8 troops for
immediate service abroad, and before the end of the month they were
on board ship. They left behind 2 troops in depot at Chichester, and
parted with their Commanding Officer, Colonel Bolton, who had done much
to raise and shape the new Regiment after the West Indian campaign.
He had just been promoted, and was succeeded by Colonel Head from the
Twelfth Dragoons. The 8 troops for active service each numbered 85 men
and 85 horses, or 680 men with officers. Before the end of March they
had disembarked at Lisbon.
The Thirteenth were about to take part in the famous Peninsular War.
Wellington had already given the French some rude shocks in this
quarter, and was soon to establish his reputation as one of the first
soldiers in Europe. He had clearly recognised the power of offence
given to Great Britain by her Navy, which was now supreme, and he
believed that by clinging on to a foothold in Portugal, he would in
time be able to deal a heavy blow to the military strength of Napoleon,
which must be strained by a protracted struggle at this distant point
of the Empire. It was a fine conception, and the event proved that he
had judged correctly. But at the moment his prospects seemed to be very
doubtful, if not hopeless. Napoleon had large armies in Spain, fully
300,000 men, commanded by some of his most famous Marshals, while the
British force in Portugal was not a tenth of that number, and badly
organised. The Spaniards were evidently incapable of defending their
country, or of giving any effective help in defending it; and Portugal
was not strong enough, or united enough, to do much against such an
enemy. Wellington himself was as yet a man of no great weight in
Europe, a mere sepoy General, to use Napoleon’s words, who was regarded
as fit only to fight Asiatics. He was thwarted and decried in England,
where such successes as he had gained were minimised by party rancour.
Some of his countrymen even wished to omit his name from the vote of
thanks accorded to the troops under his command, and the force itself
was full of complaints and discontent, chiefly on the part of the
officers. It belonged to an Army which had been discredited by almost
constant failure since the War of American Independence. Even in its
own country it was not highly regarded. And if the British Infantry
was now beginning, under Wellington’s command, to win some measure of
the reputation it was soon to gain as the best in Europe, the British
Cavalry was, both in numbers and training, greatly inferior to the
magnificent squadrons of France. When the Thirteenth landed in Lisbon
there seemed little likelihood of a brilliant future for them. Happily
the British soldier is not greatly disturbed by the prestige of his
enemies, and individually both men and horses were better than the
French. Above all, our troops had now a leader whose indomitable spirit
was proof against all discouragements.
The Thirteenth were soon in the thick of the fighting, but at first
they seem to have been rather helpless. It is recorded that in July
of that year, 1810, the Regiment for the first time found itself in
bivouac, “and both the officers and men were perfectly ignorant what to
do.... Nobody knew what was to be done for food, forage, &c. Provisions
were served out to the men by the Commissary, but how to cook them was
another matter.” They were soon taught how to find shelter and feed
themselves, but this was the doubtful beginning of a campaign in which
they were to oppose the war-seasoned troops of Napoleon. Nevertheless,
within a few weeks of that date some of them had twice successfully
encountered the enemy’s horsemen, a troop of the Thirteenth on the
second occasion charging through and capturing more than fifty French
Dragoons.
After this, during the summer, the Regiment suffered severely from
sickness, which, however, did not prevent them from being present at
the battle of Busaco on the 26th September 1810, when Masséna was met
and severely checked in his famous invasion of Portugal. They were not
actually engaged, but were observing the plain in the left rear of the
force while the battle was fought. As every one knows, Masséna was
eventually stopped by the lines of Torres Vedras, and had to retreat.
During the autumn and winter the Thirteenth remained in the country not
far from Lisbon, watching the French and learning their work in many a
rough march.
For some time it is said French and English Dragoons lay on opposite
sides of the Tagus, and the retreat being for the time at an end, the
Thirteenth used to have frequent field-days on a plain by the river.
The vedettes by mutual arrangement refrained from firing on each
other, and the French officers used to come and look on, sometimes
when the river was low exchanging conversation with their friendly
enemies. It was in some ways a chivalrous warfare, in which, however,
the unfortunate Portuguese suffered terribly from the wasting of the
country and exhaustion of supplies.
Then, in the spring of 1811, the enemy retired to the northward and
westward; and a force under Marshal Beresford was sent to intercept
communications from the south. The Thirteenth formed part of this
force, and while under Beresford’s orders it had the luck to be
engaged in a brilliant affair which has since formed the subject of
much controversy. The town of Campo Mayor had been taken by the French
under Latour Maubourg, and was occupied by a force of 1200 Infantry
and over 800 Cavalry, with some Horse Artillery and a battery train of
sixteen heavy guns. On Beresford’s approach this force evacuated Campo
Mayor and retreated on Badajos, ten miles away. The British Cavalry
was sent in pursuit and overtook the enemy. The action that ensued is
not altogether easy to understand; but the Thirteenth charged, and
after some very gallant hand-to-hand fighting, broke the opposing
French Cavalry, pursuing them up to the gates of Badajos, capturing
the whole siege train, with great quantities of waggons and stores,
and leaving the rest of the garrison to be followed up and secured
by Beresford’s heavy Cavalry and guns. The Thirteenth were naturally
pleased and proud at their success against a very superior enemy; but,
by a mistake which was not fully explained at the time, the advance
was stopped, and the Thirteenth given up for lost. They rejoined the
force in safety; but Beresford, misled by false information, believed
they had shown want of discipline after the charge, and reported in
that sense. Wellington, at a distance, and as Fortescue says, “always
justly sensitive over the ungovernable ardour of his Cavalry,” accepted
Beresford’s view, and referred to the Thirteenth in stinging words.
“Their conduct,” he wrote, “was that of a rabble, galloping as fast
as their horses could carry them over a plain after an enemy to which
they could do no mischief after they were broken.... If the Thirteenth
Dragoons are again guilty of this conduct, I shall take their horses
from them, and send the officers and men to do duty at Lisbon.” This
threat was not communicated to the Regiment, Beresford having meanwhile
learnt something of the truth; but the Thirteenth were nevertheless
severely censured for impetuosity and want of discipline. This censure,
as may be supposed, they deeply resented. Napier, in his ‘History of
the Peninsular War,’ says that “the unsparing admiration of the whole
army consoled them.” No doubt to some extent it did, but not entirely.
Fortescue, after a detailed examination of the incident, sums it up
as follows: “Of the performance of the Thirteenth, who did not exceed
200 men, in defeating twice or thrice their numbers single-handed, it
is difficult to speak too highly. Indeed, I know of nothing finer in
the history of the British Cavalry.”... “But more important than all
was the admission of the French that they could not stand before the
British Cavalry.” Yet, owing to the mistakes of their superiors, the
Thirteenth never received for their feat the honour they deserved, or
indeed, officially, anything but blame. It was a signal instance of the
ill-fortune which sometimes attends upon the noblest conduct.
Whatever may be said of this, the Thirteenth had, at all events, the
satisfaction of knowing that they had been thoroughly successful. They
were not always to be so, for on the 5th April, less than a fortnight
later, a troop of the regiment was surprised by French Cavalry during
the night. They were not on outpost duty, having been regularly
relieved, and they supposed that their front had been secured by
the relieving squadron, a body of Portuguese Cavalry under British
officers. The men of the Thirteenth had eaten nothing for two days, and
were faint for want of food. After getting a meal, they lay down by
their horses, and were sleeping peacefully when the French, who were
retiring and came upon them by chance, dashed suddenly among them with
the sabre. Two officers and twenty men escaped in the darkness, but the
other two officers with practically all the rest of the men were taken
prisoners. It is characteristic of warfare in those days that among
them was the wife of one of the troopers.
Then there was another turn of the wheel. Ten days after the surprise
it was reported that a body of French Cavalry was at Los Santos,
levying contributions. The British Cavalry advanced to attack them,
and Marshal Beresford himself rode with the Thirteenth, whom he had
so severely censured less than a month before. A sharp fight ensued,
ending in the rout of the enemy, who were pursued for about nine miles
and lost some hundreds of prisoners. The loss of the Thirteenth was
very small.
The next month saw the bloody battle of Albuera, which forms the
subject of one of Napier’s most famous chapters. During the day the
Thirteenth were employed in holding off the enemy’s Cavalry. They were
exposed to severe fire from Infantry and guns, but were successful in
carrying out their duty without heavy loss.
There was much hard work for the Thirteenth during the remainder of
this year, 1811, and one incident is noteworthy. On the 21st November,
Lieutenant King, a fine young officer, was shot by Spanish guerillas
when carrying a flag of truce to the fortress of Badajos. His body was
recovered by the French and buried with all military honours on the
ramparts, General Philippon assembling the whole garrison under arms
for the purpose.
During 1812 the Thirteenth again saw some rough service. They shared in
the advance to Madrid and Alva de Tormes, and then in the retreat back
to Portugal, during which their horses suffered terribly from hardship
and starvation.
In April 1813 the British army advanced again, and again reached Alva
de Tormes. In June the French took up their position at Vittoria, and
the famous battle ensued. The share of the Thirteenth in this combat
was interesting. After some sharp fighting they captured King Joseph’s
carriages and equipment, and then pressed on in pursuit of the beaten
enemy, whose losses were great, including over a hundred and fifty
guns. Vittoria was in fact the break-up of Napoleon’s power in Spain,
for many of his commanders and troops had been withdrawn the year
before to strengthen his army for the Russian campaign, and he was
never able to replace them.
Then followed the march to the French frontier and the battles of the
Pyrenees. In November the Thirteenth crossed the border.
The winter was a hard one for the Cavalry. Hilly country intersected by
deep ravines, exhausted of supplies, and obstinately defended by Soult
and his veterans, was a rough scene for outpost duty. There were many
small affairs, especially between foraging parties. The weather was
very bad, and the troops had constantly to bivouac in the mud, under
torrents of rain, sometimes in snow. There was often no corn or straw
for the horses, nothing procurable but gorse, which, pounded and made
into a sort of paste, Irish fashion, just kept the poor beasts alive.
One incident which occurred near Orthes, on the 27th February 1814, is
striking. The Thirteenth there came in contact with Soult’s Cavalry,
and charged. At their head rode their Lieutenant-Colonel, Patrick
Doherty, with his sons, Captain and Lieutenant Doherty, three abreast.
The charge was completely successful, and many prisoners were taken,
among them two officers.
Napier has told us how, through the spring of 1814, that fierce
fighting went on, in snow and rain and misery--the French, now
overmatched, losing battle after battle and many thousands of men, but
still, under their indomitable leader Soult, turning to bay again and
again. Then at last came the battle of Toulouse, and the white cockade
began to show itself, and on the 13th April it was known that peace
had been declared. Napoleon had fallen. Soult fought on for five days
more, but then it was announced in general orders that hostilities had
ceased, and the British Cavalry in pursuit beyond Toulouse desisted
from further action.
The Thirteenth had fought almost without interruption for four years,
in the long struggle that began at Lisbon and ended at Toulouse. They
now had a few weeks’ rest, and it was badly needed. Numbers of horses,
worn out by want and hard work, had to be destroyed, and the men were
in rags. No clothing had been issued during the winter. “Overalls
patched with cloth of all sorts of colours, and most frequently of red
oilskin--fragments of baggage-wrappers by the way--were universal or
almost so.” They were indeed “The Ragged Brigade,” as they and their
old comrades of the Fourteenth had been named. But, starting in May,
they marched up through France, and arriving at Boulogne on the 5th
July, embarked for England. By the 8th July the Regiment had all been
landed in Ramsgate. During an absence of four years and five months
the Thirteenth had marched 6000 miles, and had been engaged in twelve
battles and thirty-two “affairs,” many sharply contested. They had lost
by death six officers and 270 men. But the Regiment had now made its
mark, and was thenceforward one of the foremost fighting corps of the
British Cavalry.
After their return from France the Thirteenth spent some months in
England and Ireland, but their enjoyment of peace was short. In
February 1815 Napoleon escaped from Elba, and war again broke out.
On the 20th April, having meanwhile received royal authority to bear
on its guidons and appointments the word “Peninsula,” the Regiment
was ordered to prepare six troops for immediate service, and soon
afterwards the number was increased to ten. In May the Thirteenth were
in Ostend (with twenty-eight women and nine children), and by the end
of the month they formed part of a force of 6000 Cavalry, under Lord
Uxbridge, which was inspected by Wellington and Blücher.
Then followed Quatre Bras and Waterloo. The movements of the Thirteenth
up to the morning of the decisive battle are of no special interest,
but it seems that having been ordered to join a Brigade consisting
of the Seventh and Fifteenth Hussars under Major-General Grant, the
Regiment arrived at Quatre Bras on the night of the 16th June, and
shared in the retreat of the 17th June to Waterloo. It was a dreary
day, for the rain was heavy and they got no food--a bad preparation for
the coming battle. Then followed “a dreadful rainy night, every man
in the Cavalry wet to the skin,” and at four o’clock in the morning
of the 18th, the Thirteenth “turned out and formed on the field of
battle in wet corn and a cold morning without anything to eat.”
Their commanding officer, the gallant old veteran Colonel Doherty,
had broken down and was lying ill in Brussels, so the Regiment was
commanded on the 18th by Lieut.-Colonel Boyse. The Brigade to which
it belonged was posted on the right centre of the army, in rear of
Byng’s Brigade of Guards, who held the house and garden of Hougomont.
From this position the Thirteenth witnessed the furious fighting which
ensued between the Guards and their French assailants, and they came
themselves under heavy Artillery fire, which caused them some loss.
Colonel Boyse had his horse killed under him by a cannon-shot, and
was severely hurt, the command devolving on Major Lawrence. Two other
officers were wounded. There was also severe and repeated Cavalry
fighting, in which the Thirteenth did their share, charging more than
once the enemy’s horsemen, and on one occasion dispersing a square
of French Infantry. In this fighting they lost three officers killed
or mortally wounded,[2] and two more wounded by sabre cuts. Towards
evening the French made another desperate attack with both Cavalry and
Infantry, and the Thirteenth charged again, losing three more officers
wounded, among whom were both the Doherty brothers. Before the enemy
finally gave way almost every officer of the Regiment had lost one
horse at least, and Major Lawrence had lost three. When at last the
French broke, the Brigade was sent in pursuit, and pressed the routed
enemy until nine o’clock. Then it was halted, and the pursuit was
handed over to the Prussians. “The last charge,” wrote an officer of
the Thirteenth, “was literally riding over men and horses, who lay in
heaps.” And the account goes on to say that “when the Regiment mustered
after the action at 10 P.M. that night, we had only 65 men
left out of 260 who went into the field in the morning.”
Many rejoined later, and these figures do not represent the actual
losses as afterwards ascertained, but so far as can be judged the total
of killed and wounded was close upon a hundred, of whom eleven were
officers.
After Waterloo, the Thirteenth marched to Paris, where they remained
some weeks, and then they were sent northward again. At or near
Hazebrouck, a name now so familiar, they remained some months. In May
1816 the Regiment returned to England, arriving at Dover on the night
of the 13th. During the past year it had lost in killed, died, and
discharged, 3 officers and 65 men.
With Waterloo ended the first century of the Regiment’s service. If
ninety-five years of it had been rather colourless, the last five had
certainly been as full of fighting as any one could have desired.
[Illustration: INDIA]
For about three years after its return the Thirteenth remained in
England. The times which followed the war were bad, and the Regiment
was often employed maintaining order among the civil population, always
a detestable duty for soldiers, but nothing of note occurred. On the
9th February 1819 the Regiment sailed for India, and for the next
twenty years it rested peacefully in Eastern cantonments.
[Illustration: OFFICER OF THE 13TH LIGHT HUSSARS
1830-1836]
In India, as well as in Europe, the beginning of the century had been
a time of hard fighting in various fields, and when the Thirteenth
went out, the supremacy of the British among the Indian country powers
had hardly been established. It was only sixteen years since Sir Arthur
Wellesley had routed the Maratha armies at Assaye, and gained his first
great victory. After that time other powers had challenged the British,
and been with difficulty overthrown. Even in 1819 there remained
serious elements of disorder, and it was not until seven years later
that a period of complete peace began. Nevertheless, it may be said
that the period of general war closed in Asia as in Europe soon after
the fall of Napoleon.
The Thirteenth at all events had no fighting to do. They were sent
to the extreme south of India, where the name of their old chief was
very familiar, and the provinces about Bangalore, where they were
quartered, had many fighting traditions; but nothing occurred to test
the spirit of the Regiment. In that very pleasant place, and other
stations not far distant, the Thirteenth remained year after year, with
little to disturb them except inspections and reviews, enjoying plenty
of sport, after the manner of British Cavalry Regiments in the East,
and maintaining their efficiency in so far as it could be maintained
without service in the field. In 1832 a formidable plot was discovered
for a native rising in Bangalore. The Thirteenth with a British
Infantry Regiment, the Sixty-Second, and a detachment of European
Artillery, were to be suddenly attacked at night and massacred, after
which the conspirators hoped that a general mutiny of the Native Army
would follow. But the plot was revealed by a faithful native officer,
and was crushed without any fighting.
Nevertheless it had shown that there was disaffection among the Indian
population, and a few years later this came to a head. In 1839 it
was found that a certain Mahomedan chief, the Nawab of Karnul, had
collected in secret a large quantity of military stores, including
some “hundreds” of guns, and that he had in his employ a considerable
number of sturdy fighting men, Arabs, Rohillas, and Pathans from the
North-West of India--the turbulent mercenaries who had for generations
made India a vast battlefield. The matter was considered so serious
that a force of 6000 men, of which two squadrons of the Thirteenth
formed part, was sent to Karnul. Action had been taken in time, and
the fighting on the part of the enemy at Karnul and the neighbouring
village of Zorapur, though brave enough, was soon over. A few British
officers and men were killed and wounded. The Thirteenth lost more than
thirty men, chiefly from cholera, on this expedition, but none by the
sword. It was one of the countless forgotten skirmishes upon which the
Indian Empire has been built up.[3]
Early in 1840, after twenty-one years spent in the country, the
Thirteenth sailed for home. They had seen little fighting, but those
were days when India claimed a terrible toll from British troops,
and during the short march from Bangalore to the coast at Madras the
Regiment lost from cholera forty more men, as well as many women
and children. Cholera is no longer the scourge that it was to our
countrymen, but the thousands of graves that one finds scattered over
the face of the land, often in the loneliest places, are a sad reminder
of the price Great Britain has paid for her Eastern dominion.
On return to England the Regiment was very weak, for in addition to its
losses from disease, it had left behind many men who had volunteered
for other Regiments in India; but it was soon in good order again. It
was to be replaced in India by the Fourteenth, and in 1841 the two
Regiments, “The Ragged Brigade” of the Peninsular War, met again in
Canterbury. There can have been few officers in either who had served
together in that war, but the old traditions were still alive, and in
remembrance of them the Fourteenth presented to the sister Regiment
their mess-table, which had been originally captured by the Thirteenth
at Vittoria with King Joseph’s household.
During the next ten years and more the Thirteenth served in the United
Kingdom, and there is little to record of their doings. In 1852 they
formed part of the troops who followed the funeral of their old chief,
the Duke of Wellington, and in the next year they attended the first
camp of exercise held in England. The Duke had originated the idea. The
camp was a success, and proved to be the precursor of many more such
gatherings. But something more than camps of exercise was now before
the Regiment. In 1854 came war with Russia, and the Thirteenth were
warned for service in the field. By the middle of May they had sailed
for the East. It is memorable that they were now once more commanded
by a Lieut.-Colonel Doherty.
[Illustration: OFFICER OF THE 13TH LIGHT HUSSARS
(_undress_)
1830-1836]
The Regiment had some rough work in European Turkey before going on
to the Crimea; but in September 1854 it landed at Eupatoria with
the Allied forces, and on the 19th of that month it marched towards
Sebastopol as part of the Light Brigade under Lord Cardigan. The
opening day of the march brought the Thirteenth under fire, and they
had a few casualties, which were, it is said, the first in the British
army. The enemy withdrew with some loss, and on the following day the
whole of the Allied armies, British, French, and Turkish, advanced to
the banks of the Alma.
Every one knows the story of the battle which ensued--how the Allies
attacked the Russian troops holding the heights across the stream, the
British redcoats on the left, the dark masses of the French and Turks
on the right; and how, after some stubborn fighting, the Russians were
driven off the heights upon the plain beyond. The Light Brigade had
little to do during the attack. Their position was on the left front of
the British army, where they remained all the afternoon, watching the
development of the struggle, and facing large bodies of Russian Cavalry
and guns which threatened the flank of our advance. They never did more
than threaten, and the Light Brigade had no fighting, though there was
some slight loss from Artillery fire. When finally the Russians were
driven off the heights, the British Cavalry was sent in pursuit, and
crossing the stream at a gallop, pressed up and over the hills, to see
below them the beaten enemy in full retreat. Some prisoners were made,
and the Russian rearguard was watched as long as daylight lasted, but
nothing of much importance occurred. The battle had been won, and the
Russians had suffered heavily, but the bulk of their troops maintained
some order, and there was no general rout. The Thirteenth spent the
night in bivouac, on ground which had to be cleared of many dead.
There followed a month of comparative freedom from fighting, while the
Allied armies closed on Sebastopol and took up their position for a
siege. The work of the Cavalry was constant, in exploring the country
and watching the enemy, but until the 25th October no serious encounter
took place. Then occurred the famous battle of Balaclava.
It was a day on which, to an exceptional extent, Cavalry shared in the
actual shock of battle, and not only as horsemen against horsemen, but
in conflict with other arms. The Russian Cavalry, far more numerous
than the British, were the assailants, but it may safely be said that
at the end of the day, heavy as our losses had been, and unnecessarily
heavy, the British horsemen had established for themselves a personal
superiority which was never again challenged.
The action began about daybreak, the Russians advancing in great
force to attack certain outlying redoubts held by Turks, which were
incapable of much resistance. The Light Brigade and a troop of British
Horse Artillery moved out to support the defence, but the redoubts
fell quickly and were soon in Russian hands. Then the Russian Cavalry,
some three thousand or more in number, with over thirty guns, advanced
to complete the Russian success, and to threaten Balaclava itself,
which, although of vital importance to our army, was for want of
numbers very weakly held. First a body of the enemy’s horsemen came on
boldly against the 93rd Highlanders, who, with some men of the Guards,
received them steadily and drove them off by a couple of volleys at
close quarters. Then the main body of the enemy’s horse came up unseen
by our own Cavalry, and suddenly appeared on the heights within a few
hundred yards of Scarlett’s Heavy Brigade, which was advancing in
imperfect formation through the tents and picket ropes of the camp to
support the 93rd. Fortunately the Russians, instead of launching their
Cavalry mass upon our greatly outnumbered squadrons, came slowly down
the slope, and halted--and then the Heavy Brigade dashed into their
ranks. Within ten minutes the great mass, nearly three thousand strong,
had been riven by successive charges and scattered over the plain with
a loss of 400 men, and Scarlett’s troopers, a fifth of their number,
rode back in triumph.
This feat was performed under the eyes of the Light Brigade, who sat
on their horses, impatiently expecting the order to advance and join
in the fight, or at all events in the pursuit of the broken enemy.
According to Colonel Tremayne, then a Captain in the Thirteenth, some
squadrons instinctively fronted that way; and it seems likely enough
that if the Light Brigade had charged the enemy in flank while they
were engaged with Scarlett’s men, great execution might have been
done; but Lord Cardigan considered that his orders forbade him to move,
and the opportunity was not taken.
[Illustration: BEFORE THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALACLAVA
25TH OCTOBER 1854]
Then followed the separate attack about which so much has been written.
It appeared to the British Commander-in-Chief that the Russians were
about to carry off the guns captured in the lost redoubts, and he
directed the Cavalry to advance rapidly and try to prevent them. What
exactly the Light Brigade was ordered or meant to do has been a matter
of endless controversy; but this much is certain, that 673 officers and
men, of five Regiments, charged a Russian battery in position at the
end of a valley a mile or more in length, other Russian batteries and
bodies of Infantry being on the sides of the valley, and some Russian
Lancers and Hussars in rear of the battery attacked. The Thirteenth,
now reduced to a strength of 8 officers and a little more than a
hundred men, were with the Seventeenth Lancers in the front line.
Behind them came the Eleventh, Fourth, and Eighth Hussars. In front of
all, straight into the enemy’s guns, rode the Commander of the Brigade,
Lord Cardigan. He had been much criticised for habitually sleeping on
board his yacht, which lay in the harbour below, and other allegations
were made against him, but there was at all events no question as to
his courage. The charge was a mad one, due to some misconception.
The Brigade reached its objective, but was practically destroyed in
the course of the charge and return. When the remnants of the Light
Brigade re-formed in rear of the Heavy Brigade, which had not been sent
in, it was seen that the losses had been ruinous. The Thirteenth was
represented by 1 wounded officer and 14 men. Others rejoined later,
but the Regiment lost that day 3 officers and 11 others killed, 12
men taken prisoners, and 30 wounded. The officer in command, Captain
Oldham, was among the killed. It was a fatal ride, and the Brigade was
sacrificed to little purpose; but officers and men had obeyed their
orders with splendid devotion, and it is no wonder that among the
Regiments which formed the Brigade the memory of “Balaclava Day” is
held in everlasting honour.
The Thirteenth was present a few days later at the bloody battle of
Inkerman, where it had no chance of doing anything, and then went
through the miseries of the Crimean winter, when men and horses
suffered terribly from want of food and clothing. In February the
effective strength of the Regiment, exclusive of officers, was
5 mounted men--namely, 1 sergeant, 1 trumpeter, and 3 privates.
Lieut.-Colonel Doherty, who had been absent, ill, on the day of the
famous charge, was now fit for service again, but that was the strength
of his command. During the ensuing spring and summer, successive drafts
brought up the number, and when the battle of the Tchernaya was fought
in August 1855, the Thirteenth turned out 200 strong. They came, it is
said, very near disaster again that day in consequence of an order by
the Sardinian General della Marmora, to whom their services had been
lent, and were only saved by the interposition of Marshal Pelissier
from another hopeless charge at a Russian battery. After the fall of
Sebastopol the Regiment had some more hard work in small expeditions,
but no more severe fighting. On the 27th May 1856, they were back at
Portsmouth.
After their return from the Crimea, the Thirteenth had ten years of
peace service in the United Kingdom. There is nothing memorable about
this period except that in 1861 or 1862 they became Hussars instead of
Light Dragoons.
In 1866 the Regiment was suddenly ordered to Canada, where the Fenian
conspiracy had given rise to some excitement; but the invasion proved
a fiasco, and the Thirteenth saw no active service. They returned to
England in 1869.
In 1870 the Thirteenth were once more ordered out to India, and there
they remained for fourteen years. This time they were not sent to the
south of the great peninsula, but to the north, to Hindustan proper,
where there was more chance of stirring times. India, as one of the
best of its Viceroys used to say, is a country where “the bottom is
always dropping out of the bucket,” and the task of putting matters to
rights generally falls to the troops in the north, where the bulk of
the British garrison is always kept.
There was in fact some active work for the northern army while the
Thirteenth formed a part of it, for in 1878 occurred the Second Afghan
War, in the course of which there was much fighting in Kabul and
Kandahar. But the Thirteenth had not the good fortune to see it. They
were, it is true, sent to Kandahar in 1880, remaining across the border
about a year, but in that part of the country the fighting was over,
and they returned to India.
[Illustration: 13TH LIGHT DRAGOONS 1854]
In 1884 the Thirteenth left India for home again, but they were sent by
way of South Africa, where, in Natal, they spent a year. From Natal
they returned to England. In the United Kingdom they spent the next
fourteen years.
Thus it appears that from 1856 to 1899, forty-three years, the
Regiment never had the good fortune to see a shot fired in anger. But
a considerable part of that time was spent in various parts of the
world, in Canada, Asia, and Africa, and the experience gained in such
service is not without value. If at times prolonged absence from home
may entail a certain loss of smartness, it has its compensations.
In the autumn of 1899 the Boer republics issued their ultimatum to
Great Britain, and crossed the border of Natal. The Thirteenth was
among the Regiments immediately sent out to strengthen the British
forces in South Africa; and as by the time it arrived Sir George White
was besieged in Ladysmith, it was ordered to join General Buller’s
relieving force in Natal. On the 12th December it was included in Lord
Dundonald’s Cavalry Brigade. Three days later occurred Buller’s attempt
to force the passage of the Tugela at Colenso, and the Thirteenth was
in action throughout the day. The Adjutant, it may be observed, Captain
Tremayne, was the son of one of the eight officers who charged at
Balaclava. From this time until the 3rd March, the Thirteenth shared
all the rough fighting that took place in trying to break through
the strong semicircle of hills held by the Boers. Then the relieving
force entered Ladysmith in triumph. After that the Thirteenth served
throughout the war, and saw much hard work.
It was not until October 1902 that they returned to England, after an
absence of nearly three years. In the course of the campaign they had
lost eighty men killed in action or by disease, while four officers and
forty-six men had been wounded, and a large number invalided home. The
Regiment fully maintained its reputation, and received many honours.
Two uneventful years in England followed, and then for the third time
the Thirteenth were sent out to India, where they were still serving in
1910. With the beginning of that year Barrett’s history of the Regiment
ends. It had then been in existence nearly 200 years, and had served in
nine wars, among which were the Peninsular War, the Waterloo Campaign,
the Crimean War, and the South African War. In all of these it had done
well and distinguished itself. Its reputation, whether in war or peace,
stood high.
CHAPTER IV.
1910-1914--OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT WAR.
In the beginning of 1910 the Thirteenth Hussars had been more than
five years in India, and again in the south, where their first Indian
service had passed. The military station of Secunderabad, in the
dominions of His Highness the Nizam, the greatest of the Mahomedan
Chiefs of India, had long been one of the strategical points at which
a considerable force of all arms was kept, and a British Cavalry
regiment almost always formed part of the garrison. It is, or was then,
as Indian stations go, one of the pleasantest and most sociable, with
some sport to be got in the neighbourhood; and, owing to the size of
the garrison, there was plenty of amusement, as well as work, in the
Cantonment itself. The Nizam and those about him were always friendly
and hospitable.
The Thirteenth were not to be in Secunderabad much longer, but in May,
while they were still there, occurred the lamented death of King Edward
VII., and the accession of King George. On the 9th May the officers
of the Regiment, with a party of non-commissioned officers and men,
attended at the British Residency at Hyderabad, the capital of the
Nizam’s dominions, and there heard read the proclamation announcing the
beginning of a new reign. It was to prove one of the most memorable in
the history of India.
[Illustration: THE DRUM HORSE--AT THE DURBAR]
During the remainder of the hot season, which in the East is
necessarily the slack season so far as military training is concerned,
the regimental records contain notice of little beyond routine
occurrences and sport of various kinds, the football and polo and
tent-pegging with which men and officers while away the heat and tedium
of an Indian summer. Then, as the heat slackened and another working
season began, the Regiment received orders to move from the south of
India to the north, to a station nearly a thousand miles away, among
a totally different population and surroundings. The Thirteenth left
Secunderabad in the middle of October, carrying with them the hearty
good wishes of the garrison, and of the General Commanding the Cavalry
Brigade, who warmly praised their work and discipline, and expressed
his confidence that they would maintain in the north of India the good
name they had borne in the south.
Arriving in the northern plains by train, they marched to their new
station, meeting on the line of march the Seventeenth Lancers, with
whom they had charged at Balaclava more than fifty years earlier. The
two Regiments had not met since. The Thirteenth entertained the Lancers
to a camp-fire concert, and then they went their ways again.
Meerut, where the Thirteenth were now to be quartered, was a well-known
and favourite station. It was memorable as the place at which occurred
the first serious outbreak of the Mutiny of 1857, since which time it
had, from its central position and nearness to the ancient capital of
Delhi, continued to be a large military station. In 1910 the memories
of the Mutiny had grown dim, but Meerut was still an important place
from a military point of view. It lay in the centre of “Hindustan,” the
great northern block of territory which has been the seat of countless
Empires, Hindu and Mahomedan--the real India upon which the vast Indian
Peninsula has in a measure depended for thousands of years. In its
broad plains and teeming cities was always concentrated the military
power of succeeding conquerors, and the British, when they took the
place of the Moghuls, had, like their predecessors, massed their
strength on these northern plains.
Meerut, it may be noticed, was also a centre of sport, the site of
an annual polo tournament, and within reach of good shooting and
“pig-sticking.” The Thirteenth arrived just in time to join in the polo
tournament, and to be soundly beaten by their Balaclava comrades of the
Seventeenth Lancers. They were also beaten soon afterwards at another
tournament at Lucknow, this time by the Rifle Brigade; but every one
cannot win, and the Thirteenth were at all events to the fore in every
kind of sport.
Meanwhile the usual work of military training began again--drill
and swimming camps, and marches, and musketry, and inspections, and
much more--the steady hard work of which civilians as a rule have no
knowledge, but very real and useful work for all that, as the old Army
was to show in the dark days which were coming.
Then followed the summer of 1911, and in the autumn the 13th received
news of the death of their Colonel-in-Chief, General Sir Baker Russell.
He was succeeded by General Sir Robert Baden-Powell.
But this year, 1911, was not to close with another round of customary
training. King George had shown from the first, as his father and Queen
Victoria had shown before him, a keen interest in his Indian Empire. As
Prince of Wales he had visited the country already; now he had decided
to visit it again as King-Emperor, and to take his seat in person upon
the Imperial throne. It was a momentous decision, and was to have a
great effect upon the Chiefs and people of India--how great an effect
those only can know who have studied and in some measure understood the
traditions and feelings which thousands of years of kingly rule have
implanted in the Indian mind. Happily King George understood, and had
resolved to take the unprecedented step of leaving England for months
to gratify the desire of his Indian subjects. In the whole history of
India no such ceremonial had ever been held, for vast as the Empire of
the Moghuls had been, it had never embraced the whole of the Eastern
dominions now under the British Crown, nor had it formed part of a
wider Empire extending to all the continents of the world.
[Illustration: D SQUADRON--AT THE DURBAR]
Among the preparations being made to invest the ceremonial with due
pomp and splendour, was the assembly at the Imperial Camp of a military
force drawn from the Army of India. The occasion was not primarily a
military one, and the numbers of the force were limited; but 50,000
troops, British and Indian, were being drawn together to represent the
armed might of the greatest power in the East, and to show that if ever
he chose, the British Emperor of India would be able to throw into the
scale of any world-conflict an army in which the military efficiency
of the West would be blended with the loyal devotion and numbers of
the Indian fighting races. Among the Regiments which had the honour of
being included in the representative force at Delhi was the Thirteenth
Hussars.
The various pageants which took place have been described in detail
by Fortescue, the historian of the British Army, who accompanied the
King to India. The great Durbar at which the King took his seat upon
the throne was a wonderful scene, all classes of the Indian population
joining to do him honour, from the humblest to the great feudatory
chiefs and their retainers, blazing with jewels and gorgeous clothing
and antique armour. The Thirteenth did their part among the soldiers,
of whom Fortescue says: “The troops formed the most essential part of
the pageant.” Besides the Durbar, there were many other interesting
ceremonies and amusements--the presentation of colours, receptions,
polo and football matches, and so on. But the whole did not last many
days. The vast encampment, covering twenty-five square miles, which
had risen as if by magic, with its myriads of tents and its luxurious
gardens, from the solitude of a barren plain, was gone before the end
of the year. The Chiefs of India marched away with their brilliant
retinues, the troops and the people were scattered in every direction,
and the plains about Delhi relapsed into something like their old
lonely peace. But before he went the King had announced with dramatic
suddenness, to the astonishment of the great assembly, that Delhi was
again to be the capital of India, and that the British Empire, which
had risen from the sea, and had hitherto had a seaport for its capital,
was for the future to be centred, as former Empires had been, on the
plains of Hindustan, surrounded by the territories of the Indian chiefs
and the lands of the great Indian fighting races. It was a landmark in
the history of India.
To the officers and men of a British Cavalry Regiment the full
significance of the ceremonial could hardly perhaps be apparent, and
certainly they could not foresee the world-war which was soon to show
how fortunate in its consequences had been the King’s act in coming
to India at the beginning of his reign. Pageants are hardly to the
mind of a soldier. Still, the Thirteenth had their part in it, and
did well what they had to do. The Regiment was conspicuous among
those reviewed by the King, and at the close of the ceremonial it was
selected for the honour of furnishing a squadron to escort the Queen
during her visit to another ancient capital, Agra. The squadron was
under the command of Captain W. H. Eve. Fortescue writes of it: “We had
remarked the Regiment at Delhi; but even so we were not quite prepared
for what we saw on that Sunday. All the officers of the suite agreed
that the escort was the most perfect they had ever seen, so admirably
were the distance and the dressing preserved. This may seem to be a
small matter, but such details count for much in the discipline of a
regiment, for those that are careful in small matters are unlikely to
be careless in great. Moreover, it is a real pleasure in this imperfect
world to see anything faultlessly done.”
Fortescue’s words may perhaps seem exaggerated: smartness and
discipline are not necessarily the same thing. But they are nearly
allied, and there is perhaps no greater mistake made by civilians in
judging soldiers than the contempt for drill and “the barrack-yard”
which is so readily expressed. Henderson writes in ‘The Science
of War’: “It is unfortunately to be apprehended that few, except
professional soldiers, understand the nature or the value of
discipline.” And he shows very clearly how necessary is the “habit of
obedience” for efficient action in war. It was not for nothing that
the great American soldier Stonewall Jackson began his career in the
Civil War by drilling his undisciplined soldiery until he made himself
detested by the officers and men who afterwards learnt to worship him.
His brigade stood “like a stone wall” in their first battle when all
was melting around them, and earned him the splendid nickname which has
become immortal. History teems with instances of the supreme value of
the trained soldier in war. Never was it shown more conspicuously than
in that wonderful month of the retreat from Mons, when the little army
of British regulars went back day after day before the overwhelming
numbers of their enemy, only to turn on him at the end and prove to
him that in spite of all their losses and sufferings their spirit and
efficiency were still unbroken. “It is open to those in whose ears the
very name of discipline smacks of slavery, to assert that a powerful
instinct of obedience dwarfs the intellect, turns the man into a
machine, and rusts his power of reasoning; and in this there is a
shadow of truth, but it is only a shadow.” It is a question which has
been often debated, and in which, _primâ facie_, the contemptuous
critic seems to have much right on his side; but to few who have seen
war will his view commend itself. The Regiment which shows up well in
the manœuvres of the parade-ground will rarely fail to show itself
efficient in the field. Like everything else, the principle is capable
of abuse, and may be carried too far, but it is a sound principle in
the main. Certainly the squadron which won Fortescue’s admiration went
very straight when it was tried a few years later in something more
than escort duty.
[Illustration: THE QUEEN AT AGRA]
The Durbar and its attendant ceremonies at an end, the Thirteenth
marched back to Meerut, and the old life of military training and sport
began again. There were rifle meetings and inspections, drill and
manœuvres, courses in musketry and signalling and machine-guns, polo
and races; and then the hot weather of India came once more with its
blinding sandstorms and weary nights of heat, when sleep was hard to
get and life seemed hardly worth living. There was some sickness too,
and the terrible spectre of plague cast its shadow over the Regiment.
The men faced the shadow cheerily enough, playing football and hockey
and having boxing competitions after the manner of the British soldier;
but one or two died, and the Regiment had to be inoculated. The
officers kept themselves fit with polo and the swimming-bath. July
brought some welcome rain, two or three good showers a week, and the
Review report of the General Commanding the Northern Army was received:
“A fine regiment, fit for service.” But it was a trying time, as an
Indian hot weather in the plains always is. India is a picturesque
country, full of beauty and romance for those who have eyes to see,
but it has its drawbacks. English women face them as well as men. The
following extracts are from the letters of a lady who decided to brave
the heat with the Regiment.
_February 15, 1912._--“The weather has suddenly got very hot.... The
Inter-Regimental week starts on the 4th of next month, and goes on for
about a fortnight. To feel I’ve got to entertain people for a fortnight
is a nightmare!--this place doesn’t suit me, and I never feel well.
At the last moment ---- may be sent up to the hills with the invalid
party, but it doesn’t look like it, and he’s not down for a day’s leave
of any description.”
_February 21, 1912._--“We have heard nothing about the Regiment being
moved this year, so I suppose we shall stay on here. I have decided to
try and stick out the hot weather with ----. I should like to have come
home, but if I do ---- won’t go away at all by himself, and if I have
to go away and go somewhere to a hill station he will come too if he
can get any leave. Of course every one tells me that no woman can do a
hot weather here, but I shall try....”
_April 3._--“We have had a nice cool week, for which everybody is very
thankful. There was a terrific thunderstorm at the end of last week,
and the temperature dropped from 103 to 83, so you can imagine it was a
change. We all shivered, but it was lovely. It is warming up again now,
and the last two days have been 100 or over in the shade in the middle
of the day.
“The early routine has started now and ---- has to be up at 4.45, and
gets done about 10.30, when he comes in and has breakfast. We generally
lie down in the afternoon and try and sleep, getting up about 4 for
tea, before going to polo or playing tennis. Nearly every one has gone
away on leave, and the place is very empty and desolate.”
_April 18._--“There is no news to tell you from here--the hot weather
is always a dreary time of forced inaction and perpetual discomfort. We
are sleeping out of doors every night now with no sheets or blankets
to cover us, so you can imagine it is pretty warm. One generally falls
into a dead sleep just before the dawn, which is the only cool time
during the twenty-four hours. I change my clothes five times during the
day--it is one form of exercise. We are both keeping fit, which is the
great thing....
“We had a terrific sandstorm here on Tuesday. We could see it coming
for miles as the sky was a bright yellow; unfortunately we were caught
in it as we were out driving; it was filthy, and we got covered from
head to foot with sand. The storm lasted two hours, but we didn’t get
a drop of rain. If only we had had some rain it would have been cooler
for a few days.”
So it went on for many months longer, through the blazing hot
weather and the sultry depressing rains. Then began another cold season.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE ESCORT AT AGRA. 1ST AND 3RD TROOPS OF SQUADRON D]
On the 1st November the Thirteenth won the final in the Meerut Polo
Tournament, after a desperate struggle with the King’s Dragoon Guards.
An officer of the Regiment who had been studying the more scientific
parts of his profession left for the Staff College at Camberley.[4]
There was a Cavalry concentration camp, where a considerable mounted
force was assembled for Divisional training, followed by manœuvres
of several Divisions together. In the midst of all this soldier work
the year was closed by an incident which startled and shocked India.
It had been arranged that on the 23rd of December the Viceroy, Lord
Hardinge, was to make a State entry into the new capital, and some of
the Thirteenth had been sent to join in the ceremonial. The Regimental
Diary records very briefly that “a dastardly outrage occurred, a bomb
being thrown at the Viceroy, which resulted in his serious injury.”
It was a painful commentary upon the enthusiastic greeting which had
been given to the King-Emperor on the same spot just a year before,
and a reminder that in India there exists always a root of sedition
and danger which must not be disregarded. Peace in India is armed
vigilance. But happily disloyal sentiment is confined to a small
minority, and the heart of the great Empire is sound. So Englishmen
felt. They showed a fine example of coolness and moderation in face of
the treacherous attempt at murder, and all went on again as before. If
the traitors had expected to intimidate the white man they were wholly
mistaken.
On the 1st of January 1913, ceremonial parades were as usual held
throughout the country to celebrate the assumption by Queen Victoria,
more than thirty years before, of the title of Empress of India, and
over the momentarily troubled waters the ship of Empire sailed forward
undisturbed upon its stately way.
During the rest of the year there was from the point of view of the
Thirteenth nothing of much importance to record. The Regimental Diary
mentions that the English system of messing was introduced for the
first time in India; that “C” Squadron won a silver challenge cup
for shooting open to all squadrons, batteries, and companies in the
Division; and that there was a short spell of “experimental training”
in camp, when the Regiment lived entirely on the resources of the
neighbouring country. Beyond these incidents, the Diary touches
upon little but the doings of the men at cricket and boxing, and
“skill-at-arms” competitions, and hockey and football tournaments.
Hot work they must have been, for there is this entry referring to
the months of July and August: “During these two months the average
temperature was about 98. The weather was very trying and injurious to
health, mainly due to the rain, followed immediately by sunshine, which
caused vapours to rise from the ground.” To every one who has served
in India this quaintly worded sentence brings back a familiar picture.
The British soldier who has “heard the réveillé from Birr to Bareilly”
knows only too well the dreariness of the late summer, when the faces
of the women and children grow white in the reek from the rain-sodden
ground.
On the 25th of October, Balaclava Day, the first “Old Comrades Dinner”
was held in London, and the Diary notes that among those present were
two Balaclava veterans.
With this month of October 1913, began the last working season of the
old order. Everything then seemed peaceful enough, and no one thought
that before a year had passed England would be fighting desperately
in the greatest war of all time. For the Thirteenth Hussars attention
was focussed on the usual incidents of an Indian “cold weather.” The
Diary records that the regimental machine-gun detachment distinguished
itself at the Meerut Rifle Meeting by winning a match open to all
India, and that there were some tactical field-days with V Battery of
the Horse Artillery. The Regiment was to be associated with V Battery
in much hard fighting before they had done with each other. Finally,
at the close of the cold season, the Commander-in-Chief in India came
down to Meerut, and there was a “Garrison Ceremonial Parade,” in which
the Thirteenth took part. All went well with them, and the inspection
was entirely satisfactory. It was the last they were to undergo before
being tested by the ordeal of war.
In the summer of 1914 came the fateful news of the murders at Serajevo,
and before long it began to be seen that events were tending towards
a great European conflict into which England might possibly be drawn.
Every one remembers the excitement of the month that followed. In
India, as elsewhere all over the world, it was intense. After so many
years of peace, or at all events so many years in which England had
looked on at European wars without bearing any part in them, it was
difficult for Englishmen to believe that the long-standing German
menace had really come to a head, and that “The Day” was upon us. It
seemed more probable that England would again stand aside, and that
whatever the Continental nations might do, no British Army would be
sent to shed its blood on European battlefields. Even when Germany
turned upon France, and it became certain that we should see war close
to our own shores--war by which our own deepest interests must be
endangered--it seemed doubtful whether England would take upon herself
the tremendous responsibility of throwing her sword into the scale.
Until the 4th of August the issue remained in suspense. Then the doubt
came to an end, and on the following day it was known all over the
British Empire that the old country had chosen the path of honour.
In no part of the Empire had the suspense been more acute than in
India, which was full of martial traditions, and, in spite of local
treason here and there, full also of goodwill to the British Crown.
The sudden knowledge that Great Britain was at war stilled at once
the voice of sedition, and was the signal for an outburst of loyalty
on the part of Chiefs and people which astonished our enemies, if
not ourselves, though it was no new thing;[5] and it need hardly be
said that in the military cantonments scattered over the face of the
country, where the soldiers of the King’s Army, British and Indian,
were gathered in constant readiness for war, the announcement was
received with joy and eager hope. They might not be privileged to join
in the central conflict on the battlefields of Europe, but surely they
would have some share in the fighting, some chance of service and
honour.
Meerut was no exception, and among all the King’s Regiments there was
none which looked forward to the war more eagerly and hopefully than
the Thirteenth, with its memories of the Peninsula and Waterloo and
Balaclava. Some days before war was declared all officers on leave
in the country had been urgently recalled, and when on the 5th of
August the Regiment learnt from a telegram to the Meerut Club that the
sword had been drawn, it was ready for immediate service. On the 9th
of August the Meerut Division was ordered to mobilise. Then followed
some weeks of anxiety, during which the Thirteenth were alternately
elated and cast down by contradictory rumours. Early in September they
received orders to prepare a large draft of men and horses for the
Eighth Hussars, which threw them into the depths of depression; then
they got, but could hardly rely upon, private reports that they were
not to be left in India. It was a trying time.
Meanwhile it had been raining hard, and this added to the general
depression. Polo became impossible, and neither officers nor men had
anything to relieve the tedium of waiting. The following extracts from
the letters of a junior officer may be worth quoting:--
_Lieutenant G. R. Watson Smyth--August 9-12._--“I do not know whether
this letter will ever reach you, or where I shall be if it does. At the
present moment we are awaiting the order to mobilise: it is sure to
arrive at any moment now if the Regiment is to go on service. We don’t
know if it is decided to take the Meerut Cavalry Brigade, but ... it is
possible that the infantry of the Division may be taken. Whether they
will be taken to garrison Egypt or to fight at home is another matter.
As I said, though, we are just waiting for the telegraphic order before
we start shoeing our horses and sharpening our swords....
“It is now two and a half hours since we should have got our orders,
and I am beginning to fear that we shall not get them....
“I have just gone to the Club, and a wire has come in saying that the
Brigade is not for it. Rotten luck....
“The Native Regiments here are in a sort of fever of excitement, and
are longing to have a go at somebody....
“Skinner’s Horse are in Meerut with us now. They are an extraordinarily
good and very sporting lot.[6]
“There has only been one day’s polo for the last month, as all the
grounds are under water, and the rain never stopped long enough to let
them dry....”
[Illustration: DRAFT OF MEN AND HORSES DETAILED FOR THE 8TH HUSSARS
SEPTEMBER 1914]
[Illustration: THE BAND AT THE LAST CHURCH PARADE BEFORE LEAVING INDIA
NOVEMBER 1914]
_August 30._--“We are carrying on in the same way as if there were no
war in the world.... It really is a bit too thick that here are we, the
most efficient Cavalry in the world, stuck in this horrid country....
Not a hope of our going to war. We have just heard that they are
mobilising three other Brigades, and that the Viceroy is coming with
the Court to live at Meerut this cold weather. His escort is one
British Cavalry and one British Infantry Regiment with a battery of
horse guns. This means that we shall stay here and do escort to him the
whole time that the war is on....”
_September 17._--“We are becoming deadened to joy or sorrow. It is a
perfectly horrible existence, and unfortunately there is no hope of its
changing for the better.
“We have had six inches of rain since midnight, and it is still
raining--the country will probably be flooded....
“There is a small polo tournament coming off here next week; it ought
to give us something to think about, but I am afraid that no one can
raise any enthusiasm about anything, as we are all bored stiff.”
_October 8._--“There is as usual nothing to say this mail except that
our chances of getting out look blacker than ever....
“I think I told you that we have been having a little polo tournament
on the American system. I am glad to say that we won it....
“We are going into camp with the squadron on Saturday for a fortnight.
It will be bad, but a lot better than barracks.”
_October 12._--“I am writing this in our squadron camp.... We have made
friends with the local Nabob, and he has lent us an elephant to go out
shooting on. It is rather fun shooting off his back, as one never knows
what the next shot will be at: it may be a buck or quail or partridge
or snipe, or anything. He is a jolly good retriever and will pick up
anything that is dead, but he hates to if it is only wounded.... The
old man who lent us the hathi (elephant), has just come in to complain
that two of our men have shot two peacocks, which are sacred birds to
Hindus. As there are very strict orders against shooting peacocks ... I
hope that they get it in the neck. They are both in my troop.”
That is an old cause of trouble. The British soldier finds it hard
to resist at times the temptation to shoot a wild peacock, and add a
“turkey” to his rations; but the Government of India is rightly strict
on the subject. It is an instance of the care one has to take to avoid
hurting Indian feelings.
_India, October 25, 1914._--“As perhaps you may guess from the
above vague address, we are off to the war.... We got the order
at 4 A.M. ... to pack up and come in to barracks at once
as the Regiment was mobilising. We had everything packed up by 5
A.M., and the squadron left at 5.30. Considering that this was
all done in the dark and that it was raining as well, I think that it
is rather a good show.... They limit our kit to 35 lbs., which is only
two blankets, a change of clothes, an extra pair of boots, and a valise
to carry the lot--not very much to sleep in with a temperature of 20 or
30....
“It is rather a coincidence that we got the order to mobilise on
Balaclava day, isn’t it?”
Balaclava day! Sixty years had passed, and the thought of it was still
ready to the minds of those who were now taking the Regiment into
another war. That is what a feat of arms in which his Regiment shared
means to the soldier--an ever-living memory and example.
The suspense was over. “It is great news,” wrote the Captain commanding
the squadron, “far better than we dared hope for, and you may imagine
how we are all feeling.” He was the same officer who had commanded the
Queen’s escort three years before--the model escort. Now he was going
to show whether the men who had won so much admiration in a pageant of
peace time would do equally well in the field.
Nothing remained but to complete the number of men and horses, both now
below strength in consequence of the draft lately sent to the Eighth
Hussars, and to make the final arrangements for a quick departure. Men
and horses were found from other regiments, and during the first ten
days of November the packing and preparations were completed. Officers
disposed of their horses and furniture; many of the polo ponies were
taken over by the Remount Department for service as Infantry officers’
chargers; the regimental mess was closed; the heavy baggage and
valuable books were sent to England; and the Regiment’s period of peace
service in India was at an end.
CHAPTER V.
THE INDIAN ARMY--BEGINNING OF WAR.
The Empire of India, with its population of more than three hundred
millions, is held by an army which, compared with the hosts of European
nations, is a small one. Great Britain has never had in India much more
than seventy thousand British troops, not one man to four thousand of
the population--a conclusive proof, if any were needed, of the fact
that British rule in India is based rather on the goodwill of the
Indians than on force. No doubt in the last resort the white soldier
is the mainstay of the Government against sedition and revolt; but if
sedition and revolt were ever more than partial they would need a much
larger garrison to suppress them. Three hundred millions of people
would not be indefinitely “kept down” by an army of seventy thousand
foreigners, however brave and well disciplined. The truth is that
the British supremacy in India, though it has at times involved hard
fighting, was founded upon the consent and active co-operation of the
Indian races, and is maintained by the same means.
Not only is the number of British troops in India comparatively
small, but the British Government has not feared to raise and keep up
alongside of them an army of Indian regular troops twice as strong, and
to arm and make efficient for war other bodies of men drawn from the
population, notably some fine contingents of soldiery in the Feudatory
chiefships. Altogether it may perhaps be roughly computed that at the
outbreak of the War in 1914 the Crown had at its disposal in India,
counting local volunteers, perhaps a hundred thousand armed white men
and two hundred thousand Indians. This force had to maintain internal
order throughout a country as large as all Europe excluding Russia,
and to defend the frontiers against any aggression from without. It was
regarded, and organised, not as two armies sundered by the colour-line
and mutually suspicious of one another, but as one army in which the
white regiments and Indian regiments served side by side, as they had
served for many generations in many wars, mutually trusting one another
and fighting as comrades against any enemy who might threaten the
interests of the Indian Empire.
Some of these enemies had been fought at a great distance from
India--in China, in Persia, in Egypt, and in other countries across
the sea; but until now Indian troops had not been employed in the
battlefields of Europe. More than a hundred years before a great
“sepoy General,” who had learnt his trade in India, had commanded
British armies against the soldiers of Napoleon; and countless other
British officers and men had served both in India and Europe. India
had, in fact, to quote Henderson’s ‘Science of War,’ been “the great
training-ground” of the British Army. And Indian troops had at times,
in Asia and Africa, crossed swords with European enemies. Nevertheless,
the Indian Army, as such, had not fought in Europe, and the British
officers who commanded Indian soldiers had not often served, even
individually, in European wars. No Indian soldiery fought in the
Peninsular War, or at Waterloo, or in the Crimea, or even in the Boer
War, though a contingent of white troops from India did go out to South
Africa then, and saved Natal. England, in fact, had hitherto regarded
the Indian Army, and the vast reserves of Indian races on which that
Army could draw, as a source of strength only for her outlying wars,
not as a portion of the Imperial power upon which she could rely if
attacked in Europe. That may be said in spite of the fact that on one
occasion the far-sighted Beaconsfield had as a demonstration brought a
few Indian troops to the Mediterranean.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: EMBARKING AT BOMBAY. NOVEMBER 1914]
Unluckily, it may be observed here, this view, and other reasons,
prevented the Indian Army in recent times from being brought up to
the mark required for scientific warfare in Europe. While the Home
Army was being modernised and improved in every way after the Sudan
campaigns and the Boer War, the Indian Army was left without similar
attention. It was quite fit for Asiatic warfare, but in training, arms,
and equipment, its splendid officers and men found themselves at a
great disadvantage when employed against European troops of the latest
model.
This, however, was not understood by Great Britain.
Now that she found herself involved in a conflict with the greatest
military power the world has ever seen, and woefully short of British
troops in England to support the comparatively small force she could
send to the help of France, her eyes turned to her great dependency;
and fully assured of the loyalty of India, in spite of the seditious
movements of the past few years, she decided to make use of the reserve
of trained strength she had hitherto set aside, and to let the Army
in India, British and Indian, have its share in fighting the common
enemy on European soil. It was a bold decision, full of important
consequences for India and for the Empire; but it was taken, and the
call was sent out.
So, when the Thirteenth Hussars received their orders for the front,
they were summoned not as an individual Regiment of British Cavalry,
but as part of the Meerut Cavalry Brigade, made up of one British and
two Indian Regiments, the 3rd and 18th. This Brigade in its turn formed
part of an Indian Cavalry Division, the 2nd, and the 2nd Division
formed part of an Indian Cavalry Corps.
On the 13th of November the Thirteenth left Meerut by train, in three
detachments, and went down to Bombay, where they were to embark.
What their destination was they did not know for certain, but it was
believed to be somewhere west of Suez. As a fact, their destination was
Marseilles, but during the two days they remained in Bombay waiting to
embark, they received no definite news of this.
Bombay, the great western port of India, with its magnificent harbour
and wooded hills and teeming city, was at this time a very busy scene.
It had originally come to Charles II. as a portion of the dowry of
Catherine of Braganza, and had been transferred by him to the East
India Company for an annual payment of £10, a striking exemplification
of the almost magical development of the British Empire in India. Now
it was of great value as a commercial port, and as the harbour from
which the Indian Government was to carry on the activities entailed
by the war. But a Regiment embarking for service had little time for
thinking of such matters, for there was much to be done in the two
days that elapsed before the troops went on board. On the 17th of
November everything was ready, and the embarkation began. Many of the
horses were piteously frightened at their novel experience, some of
them “screaming like children” as they were slung up into the air and
lowered into the hold; but they soon got over their terror, and the men
worked splendidly in the Indian heat, the sweat streaming down their
faces and through their coats. Before night men and horses were all
safely on board, and there had been no mishaps.
The strength of the Regiment when it embarked, under the command of
Lieut.-Colonel Symons, was 20 officers,[7] including the Medical
Officer, 499 other ranks, including the Assistant-Surgeon, 560 horses,
and 1 pony. Several officers were on leave in England, and some of
them were expected to join later; but others had already gone to the
Front, of whom 2 had been killed and 2 wounded.[8] The Regiment was
distributed in two transports--Headquarters and three squadrons, “A,”
“B,” and “D,” on board the _Dunluce Castle_, “C” Squadron and the
machine-gun detachment on board the _Risaldar_. During the 18th of
November the vessels remained at anchor, for they were to form part of
a convoy, and some of the other ships were not quite ready to sail; but
on the 19th all was in order, and then at 9 o’clock in the morning the
whole convoy, to the number of 26, weighed anchor and steamed slowly
out over the sunlit waters of the harbour. Outside, the convoy stopped
to pick up a few more ships joining from another port, and then the
whole formed up, six abreast, and, led by an escorting cruiser, sailed
away to the westward. It was a fine sight, though a sad one for the
women of the Regiment, who were left behind on shore. Many of them had
looked their last upon their men. But that is war.
[Illustration: THE DEPARTURE FROM BOMBAY. 19TH NOVEMBER 1914]
It was a striking incident that the convoy was escorted from Bombay by
the _Dupleix_, a French man-of-war. In the old days, when the French
and English were fighting out their long struggle for the mastery
of India, the English had no more dangerous enemy than Dupleix, who
tried to raise against them a confederacy of Indian powers, and as
some believe taught them the use of Indian soldiery trained after the
manner of Europe. Sea-power, which he did not understand, baffled all
his efforts and decided the struggle in favour of England. Now, if the
spirit of the great Frenchman had returned to the shores of India, he
would have seen the same sea-power again triumphantly exerted, and
would have watched his own countrymen, in a vessel which bore his name,
joining with his old enemies to convey to the shores of France, for the
help of France, thousands of Indian soldiery drilled and disciplined
after his own fashion. If he could have gone with them he might have
seen another and even more striking example of the irony of fate. He
might have seen on the shores of the Channel the figure of another and
greater Frenchman, looking down from his lofty column, not upon the
ranks of his veterans gathered together for the invasion of England,
but upon the tents of numberless British encampments full of Englishmen
assembled on French soil to fight for France. A hundred years before,
English sea-power had foiled his vast schemes of conquest. “Those
far-distant, storm-beaten ships upon which the Grand Army never
looked, stood between it and the dominion of the world.” And they had
prevailed. Now English sea-power was fighting on the side of the Army
of France, and the old enemies combined were to bring down in ruin
another scheme of universal empire.
CHAPTER VI.
VOYAGE TO FRANCE.
The voyage of the Thirteenth across the Indian Ocean was not disturbed
by any hostile attack or demonstration, nor by bad weather, and the
six-abreast formation was kept until the convoy was near Aden, when a
new formation in two lines ahead, or two ships abreast, was taken up.
Shortly after passing Aden the _Dupleix_ parted company to coal at the
French port of Jibuti, and her place was taken by the _Northbrook_, a
vessel of the Royal Indian Marine. So far all had gone well.
The wife of an officer of the Thirteenth had left Bombay for England in
a passenger steamer a day or two after the Regiment, and she writes in
a letter of the time: “On Saturday, 28th of November, we caught sight
of our Indian convoy at about nine in the morning. An Admiral asked the
Captain to go quite close, as there were so many wives on board whose
husbands were in the convoy. So he very kindly altered his course, and
we went quite close so that we were able to pick out the different
ships, and could actually through glasses see the ships with horses on
board.” It was a courteous act, and no doubt gave pleasure, if a rather
pathetic pleasure, to all concerned.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: IN THE SUEZ CANAL. DECEMBER 1914]
Though matters had gone well, the voyage had not been altogether
without suffering for man and beast. Even at the best season of the
year the heat in the Eastern seas can be very trying, and though
British troops going on service were no longer exposed to the horrible
discomforts of Crimean days, but conveyed in such splendid vessels as
those of the Union-Castle Line, the Thirteenth had some unpleasant
times. An officer wrote to his wife: “You know what the weather has
been like, but you can have no conception of what it has been below
in the horse decks: absolute hell. All across the Arabian Sea it was
dead calm and a following wind, and the first day and a half in the
Red Sea was even worse. We have worked like slaves with the horses,
off and on all day: men stripped, officers in shirt sleeves, and all
pouring with sweat; the horses panting for breath, and all we could do
by continually moving them, sluicing with vinegar and water, and all
sorts of things, to keep them alive. It was heart-breaking. I hope I’ll
never go through such a time again.... All the days in the Arabian Sea
seemed to get hotter and hotter, and the horses worse and worse; and
the first day in the Red Sea, last Friday the 20th, was worse still,
and one of my best horses, No. 133, 4th Troop, a nice bay from Saugar,
with pink rings round his eyes, died from heat-stroke. Then one of ‘B’
Squadron died, and it was desperate. Two or three times they have had
the ship round in a circle, to face the wind and try and get some air
below for the horses, and it has been a great relief.... You wouldn’t
believe how tame all the horses are now. You can do anything with them.
Poor devils, they have had a frightful time. Saturday again was very
hot, but the wind gradually came round ahead, and by evening there
was a good breeze; and yesterday and to-day has been lovely: a stiff
breeze ahead and quite cool. It is like heaven, and the horses are like
different creatures and picking up fast. It is sure to last now, I
think, right in to Suez, and I hope our troubles are over.... The men
have worked like slaves, and so have we for that matter.”
Another officer, Lieutenant Watson Smyth, writes of the start at
Bombay, after five or six hours spent in slinging horses into the hold:
“At 8.30 I went down to the horse deck, and never have I met such heat.
The horses were packed in pens of five, and were all, all over in a
white lather; The temperature was taken by the Vet. and it was 133.
This is 6 degrees more than the highest recorded in India, so you can
see it was real hot....”
_November 29, 1914._--“It has been very hot indeed the last few days,
and the horses are feeling it very much. Only two have died so far....
I think I said that most of my squadron are in the fore-hold, and the
other squadrons are on the decks above it round the hatchway, so that
if anything has to be taken out of their decks by a crane it has to be
hung over the hold while being hoisted. One of the horses I mentioned
died in one of their decks, and when slung up to be dropped overboard,
slipped out of the sling and fell forty feet into the hold. Luckily he
only grazed one of our horses, another half-inch and it would have been
killed. I have decided to take that horse for a charger, as if he can
have an escape like that nothing else is likely to hurt him.”
It was a rough experience, and not a very good preparation for the cold
of a winter in Northern France; but for the moment the discomfort was
over, and throughout the voyage not many horses died. The Thirteenth
lost four or five in all. Three-quarters of the troop horses were
Indian country-breds, and the rest Australians, and therefore also
accustomed to some heat. But the country-breds were rather light for
British Cavalry, and hardly fitted at best to face snow and wet.
The Thirteenth found the banks of the Suez Canal lined with troops,
largely Indian, who were expecting an attack from the Turkish army
gathered in the desert to the north, but no attack came while the
convoy was in the Canal.
Meanwhile, though still ignorant of their destination and very anxious
to know it, they were cheered by a letter from an officer who had seen
some fighting on the French Front. “He says the German Cavalry won’t
face ours at all, and that their Infantry shoot rottenly. He says their
Artillery, machine-guns, aeroplanes--anything mechanical, in fact--are
perfect--and nearly all the casualties are from gun-fire. He says,
man for man they are no match for us, and it is all simply a question
of numbers. He says the patrol-work of the German Cavalry is too
childish.” This confident letter was not altogether wrong in its views,
as was afterwards shown by Lord French’s despatches and other evidence.
Needless to say, the Thirteenth longed to be face to face with the
famous Uhlans.[9]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: IN THE SUEZ CANAL. DECEMBER 1914]
Port Said was full of troops and of French cruisers and destroyers, a
very bright and busy scene. There the Thirteenth at last learnt their
destination. What they had longed for had come. They were to go on
to Marseilles, and from there to the Western Front. It was to be real
work, against a European enemy.
The passage across the Mediterranean, if rough, was uneventful, and by
the middle of December the Regiment was landed on French soil. “We have
arrived all fit and well and jolly,” Captain Eve wrote, “and have had a
very busy day.... It is beautifully mild and fine. All the horses are
well, and mine flourishing.”
The next day the Regiment went on by rail to Orleans. It was an
interesting journey, and the French people all along the line gave
the Regiment a hearty welcome. “French Red Cross people at all large
stations, and lots of soldiers: also lots of enthusiasm, singing,
giving the men country wine, and so on. They gave us cigarettes,
coffee, tea, flowers, and so on, and were all very nice. Altogether it
was very interesting and I enjoyed it. I had to give one badge away to
a girl who asked for it, and to kiss another’s hand, which I hated. The
men made a tremendous noise, but behaved very well indeed, except that
two or three of mine got rather drunk on the last night. But it was
very difficult for them. I find I can get on a little with my French if
I am not hurried....”
That entry was very English, and very English too the thoughts of
hunting stirred up by the French _campagne_: “We came a round-about
way, not straight, and at one part came through some awfully nice
country just like home, say the Duke’s country, enclosed property, and
some stone-wall country too, and small coverts, and hilly. I got quite
excited looking out at it.”
But the journey was soon over. A little after midnight, on the 17th
of December, the Regiment arrived at a siding near their camp: “It
was bitterly cold, with a white frost and icy wind, and we had to
turn out, detrain, and load up all our kit, saddles, and arms on to
motor lorries, and then march, leading our horses six miles out to
our camp here in pitch darkness.... We left the station about 2.45
A.M., and reached camp about 5 A.M., and groped about
till we somehow got our lines down.” It was not a pleasant beginning
to their soldiering in France, a curious contrast to the heat of the
Red Sea--“the worst and coldest camp, I think, I have ever seen,
about six inches deep in liquid mud, on the top of an exposed hill,
with a bitter wind blowing. We are in tents, V.[10] and I sharing an
80-lb. one. We are very warm and comfortable, lots of warm straw on
the ground, and our valises on top of it, and the men are in tents
too, but the poor unfortunate horses are having a terrible time....
They stand always in a bog. The watering-place, about three-quarters
of a mile away, is literally up to your knees nearly in liquid mud.”
Lance-Corporal Bowie’s diary says of the arrival at Orleans: “Here we
detrained at once in the midst of a terrific hailstorm, afterwards
saddling up and leading our horses through the city to the village of
La-Source, a distance of nine miles. Our stay at this camp proved to be
a very severe test for both men and horses, as we were still clothed
in our Indian khaki; at the same time it rained heavily for hours, and
was also bitterly cold. The place in which the rough water-troughs had
been fitted up, being in a valley, became practically a sea of mud, in
places reaching up to our horses’ bellies.”
At this camp the Regiment found some more of their officers awaiting
them, which brought them up to full strength again.
After two or three days they moved to a slightly more sheltered place,
and the weather began to change. By Christmas Day it was bitterly cold,
but bright and still, with a warm sun, and all was going better. Plenty
of warm clothing was being served out to the men, and it was possible
to get exercise again; and the food was excellent, good meat and
vegetables, and tobacco. The warm clothing indeed was more than the men
and horses could carry, and the quantity of blankets and other things
had to be reduced to a more reasonable and serviceable scale. To quote
Lance-Corporal Bowie again: “On Christmas Day 1914, every one received
a post-card photo of the King and Queen, and also a gift from Princess
Mary, which consisted of a pipe and an embossed brass box containing
tobacco and cigarettes. A majority of us also received a Christmas
parcel, which we owed to the generosity of the ladies connected with
the Regiment, at the same time being completely overloaded with warm
underwear, woollen cardigans, waistcoats, mittens, &c. But the waste
of our new kits which we were compelled to obtain before leaving India
was disgraceful, almost everything being burnt with the exception
of some which we had dumped at Marseilles, which, needless to say, we
never saw again. On the morning of the 31st of December we were all
very glad to march out of this muddy camp, an incident worthy of note
being that the men were so overloaded with kit (many of them having on
two of almost everything as regards underclothing, having nowhere else
to carry it), that they found it an awful struggle to mount, feeling
more like a well-dressed Christmas-tree than a cavalryman. However,
having all got mounted, we marched direct to Orleans Station, where we
at once entrained for Berguette (Pas-de-Calais), where we arrived at 3
A.M. on 1st January 1915. Detraining here, we marched up to a
village called Enquin-les-Mines, a distance of some kilometres, where
we were allotted billets which consisted of old barns, &c., for the
men, whilst we made our horses comfortable under archways, &c.”
[Illustration: Major T. H. S. MARCHANT, D.S.O.]
[Illustration: Col. A. SYMONS, C.M.G.]
[Illustration: Major W. A. KENNARD, D.S.O.
(_Died of pneumonia, December 1918, at Etaples_)]
[Illustration: Bt. Col. W. PEPYS, D.S.O.]
[Illustration: Lieut.-Col. E. F. TWIST
(_Wounded at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
Certainly the British soldier in this war was equipped and fed as he
had never been before, and the Thirteenth ended the year very happily
on the whole. It was a contrast to their winter in the Crimea sixty
years earlier.
Christmas good wishes and photographs from the King and Queen and
Princess Mary came to assure them that they were not forgotten in
England. And if the prayer of Their Majesties, “May God protect you and
bring you home safe!” was not to be fulfilled for all of them, they
faced what was to come with confidence and eagerness, longing only for
more stirring work, and a chance of doing their share of honourable
service.
It was a pause in the fighting then. The great retreat on Paris and
the battle of the Marne were over, and the baffled enemy had made his
first attempt to strike out to the westward for the Channel ports. He
had been stopped after desperate fighting by the wasted regiments of
our little army, and the troops on both sides were settling down into
the long trench warfare of the next four years. The British part of the
line was woefully short of men, and guns and munitions of all kinds;
and to those who knew the real state of affairs the outlook was very
dark, for in England there were no trained reserves to send to the
Front--plenty of brave men, but no soldiers. Happily the country did
not know in what peril its army was, and contingents were coming from
India and Canada and Australia and New Zealand, and the confidence of
the men at the Front was unfailing, and all hoped that the worst was
over. It seems wonderful now that such confidence should have prevailed
at the Front, and so little real anxiety in England; but the fighting
men were full of the belief that they were man for man so superior to
the enemy that he could never break through. Such gloomy faces as there
were could be found only in England, not among the fighting men. In
spite of snow and mud and suffering of all kinds, there was no gloom
with them.
[Illustration: Bt. Lieut-Col. E. J. CARTER]
[Illustration: Major R. F. COX]
[Illustration: Capt. LORD HUNTINGFIELD]
[Illustration: Capt. NORMAN NEILL
Brig.-Major, 7th British Cavalry Brigade
(_Killed at Zwarteleen, 6th November 1914_)]
[Illustration: Bt. Major R. S. HAMILTON-GRACE
G.S.O. 2nd Hdqrs. Cav. Corps
(_Killed in Motor accident at Burgues, 4th August 1915_)]
[Illustration: Capt. F. C. COVELL]
[Illustration: Bt. Major H. LL. JONES, D.S.O.
(_Wounded in France with 4th Dragoon Guards, 28th October 1914_)]
CHAPTER VII.
1915 IN FRANCE.
The Regiment was now at full strength, officers and men and horses,
and keen for a share in the fighting. The horses had suffered to some
extent from the change of climate in the past six weeks, but only
required a little rest and feeding-up. The men seemed fit and ready for
anything.
But though all hoped for Cavalry work in the near future, and a chance
at the Uhlans, this was not to come yet. The enemy’s horsemen were no
longer to be found in the extreme front, and the fighting was being
done by our guns and Infantry, which were deficient in numbers and
very hard pressed. The British Cavalry, therefore, though kept as
far as possible efficient for their own work in case a chance should
occur, had to be utilised to some extent to help the out-numbered
foot-soldiers in the trenches; and during the first few days of the new
year the officers and men of the Thirteenth, while undergoing Cavalry
inspection and training, were hard at work perfecting themselves in
their new duties. They had not long to wait.
Before the middle of January they had been taken up to the firing line
to be “shot over.” “On the 12th,” writes Lance-Corporal Bowie, “we were
informed that we were to take our places in the trenches as infantry,
having been armed with the new H. V. rifle and bayonet, and having had
plenty of practice in bayonet-fighting, which was quite a new thing
for the Cavalry, we were pretty confident of being able to do anything
that was required of us dismounted. So leaving only sufficient men
behind to attend to the horses, we started off the next morning in the
highest spirits for Béthune, our conveyances being the good old London
motor-buses, complete with their own drivers and conductors. Arriving
there at 5 P.M., we marched direct to the trenches, just in
front of the village of Festubert, a distance of thirteen kilometres,
relieving the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. We remained in these trenches
until 6 P.M. the following evening, when we were relieved by
the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, many of our fellows having to be
lifted out of the trenches owing to being cramped with standing in the
mud and water for so long. On each man receiving a tot of rum, we at
once marched back to Béthune.... On arriving at the market square in
Béthune, many men fell from sheer exhaustion. Meeting the buses again,
we had some hot coffee and returned directly back to our billets, which
we were very thankful to reach about 2 A.M. on the 15th of
January 1915. One of the most remarkable features of this, our first
time in the trenches, was the fact that we did not sustain a single
casualty, although we were subjected to a continual bombardment the
whole time, the Huns’ shooting being fairly good(?), but their shells
were very bad, many burying themselves in the mud and failing to
explode at all.”
[Illustration: FESTUBERT
(From the picture presented to the Regiment by Brig.-Gen. A. Symons,
C.M.G.)]
Such was the first introduction of the Thirteenth to actual fighting
in the Great War. It was very different from what they had hoped--a
dreary struggle of endurance against mud and cold, on foot, instead of
the stirring hand-to-hand work in the saddle for which a cavalryman
naturally longs; but the account shows the cheery spirit in which the
men took to their uncongenial duty. Needless to say, the officers set
them a good example. One of them, Lieutenant Watson Smyth (14th January
1915), writes: “We got up at Enquingatte, where we were billeted, at 6
A.M. on Wednesday, and at 8 had a three-mile march to another
village, Estrée Blanche, where the whole Brigade was concentrated.
At about 10.30 along came a fleet of motor omnibuses (London General
Company), and halted along the line of troops. We were then told off,
and twenty-five men and one officer went in each bus. The buses have
the glass out of the windows and the space is boarded up, otherwise
they are the same, except that the outside advertisements are painted
over, and the whole bus is dark grey (please excuse my writing, but
we are under shell-fire--75 mm. shrapnel--and I am expecting one
through the roof any minute). To go on, we left in our buses at 11
A.M. Soon after starting, one skidded into the ditch and had
to be jacked and dug out, but this got to be quite a common occurrence
later in the trip. At about 1 P.M. we arrived at Béthune,
about seven miles from the trenches. We stayed there for an hour, and
had our lunch while the men had their dinners. At about 2.30 we got
going again, this time on our flat feet, and marched about four and a
half miles to a village, Festubert, where we halted. Here we all got
a drink of beer, followed by coffee and rum. At 4.45 P.M.
we started again, and this time went right on up to just behind the
trenches. Here I, with eight men who had volunteered for the job, went
on to ----, about 400 yards in front of our machine-guns, which were
on the left of our line.... When I got up to it we were challenged
by the post of the Regiment that we were relieving, and then I went
up to them. I asked if they were all right. In a very despondent
voice he replied, ‘I’ve two men nearly dead with cold: they are both
unconscious, and I don’t know how I’ll get them back.’ Just at that
moment one more man went over flop. I thought this was a jolly start,
as I was going to be there all night and these fellows had been there
in the day. We had great trouble to get them out, as the trench was
knee-deep in the most holding mud I had ever met. It beat Wadhurst clay
by three stone and a distance. Another difficulty was the fact that
the Germans, who were about 600 yards in front, or perhaps a bit more
(people are talking all round me, and I keep writing what I hear),
kept on sending up ‘Very’ lights and star-shells, which lit up the
whole place far better than it was lit up in the daytime. Owing to the
snipers, who were lying up all over the place, we had to drop flat as
soon as we saw the light going up, and stay there for about a minute
after it had gone. Then I got into the trench, which was bisected by a
stream which was just over knee-deep. I put four men one side, and four
with myself the near side. I had orders to keep on sniping all night so
as to annoy the Germans, so I had one man of each four on sentry for
an hour at a time, with orders to shoot about once every five minutes.
Of course I could not sleep myself, but I lay down in the wet mud.
The trench was over ankle-deep in mud and water, and only just long
enough to hold us all. About midnight it got most damnably cold, and
I issued the men milk chocolate, and gave them each a tot of rum from
a flask I’d got. The snipers kept on shooting at us, but mostly went
over, though a few bullets did hit the trench. One horrid fellow, whom
we called Bert, was behind us somewhere, and made me very angry. At 3
A.M. we heard the devil of a battle going on a long way off,
machine-firing guns going rapid, and a rattle of musketry. This went
on for half an hour, and then one or more of our big guns somewhere
behind us started firing occasional shots. It made a most colossal
row, although it must have been at least half a mile away. At about
5 A.M. we saw the relief coming up, halted it and saw that
it was all right, got out of the trench, ... then we went back to the
road behind us and walked along it for about 500 yards till we came to
the house that the squadron was billeted in. There we got some tea and
more rum, and a bit of bully and biscuit, and the men thawed out. The
squadron had been in the trenches all night, and had been relieved, as
I was, just before dawn. I do not think I ever appreciated a house and
a fire so much before as after that twelve hours of water and mud....
The dotted lines show where the snipers were firing. There was one
called Fritz who used to fire across the road about every ten minutes.
I am sending you one of his bullets. We sat in the house until 10
A.M., when the Germans began to shell the place. The first
shell (shrapnel out of captured French guns) burst about 80 feet in
front of a group of us, me included, and the bullets went all round us
without touching anybody--it was really rather a lucky escape. After
that we cleared off to the bomb-proof at the back of the house where
I am now. Another shell burst as we were going into the shelter, and
scattered all round, but again missed everybody....”
[Illustration: Capt. J. N. LUMLEY, M.C.]
[Illustration: Capt. J. I. CHRYSTALL, M.C.]
[Illustration: Capt. F. H. STOCKER]
[Illustration: Lieut. G. R WATSON-SMYTH
(_Wounded near Lillers, 14th July 1915_)]
[Illustration: Capt. J. H. HIND]
[Illustration: Capt. J. L. M. BARRETT]
[Illustration: Capt. J. A. JEFFREY, M.C.]
_January 15, 1915._--“We are now back in billets, having done only
twenty-four hours in the trenches. We stayed in our bombproof till
about 3 P.M., although they had stopped shelling the
village.... We found that two shells had gone through the room we
had been sitting in and had burst in it. They had only knocked holes
in the walls and scattered a lot of plaster and stuff about. We had
our transport packed by 4.30 P.M. and fell in at 5 in the
dark.... I had to wait so as to take the patrol of the relieving
regiment down to where I had been.... On the way, up went a star-shell,
and down I flopped in about six inches of water. As soon as the
light had gone--phut!--and a bullet from Fritz hit the ground about
15 yards over. I lay a little flatter, with my back crawling with
apprehension--phut!--and another went about 10 yards in front. I lay
flatter still--phut!--and another hit the ground about 10 yards behind.
I thought this was nice, as he must now be able to see me, and the
next shot ought to get me, so I lay very flat and cursed all Germans.
But he didn’t fire again, so after a bit I got up and splashed (I’ve
never made such a noise before, at least so I thought) forward to the
patrol. They also were so cold that they could hardly stand, so I had
to stand on the bank and lug them out to the usual accompaniment of
star-shell, Very lights, and snipers.... We got into our billets at
3 A.M., and I was in bed and asleep at 3.20. We were all in
a most filthy mess outside, owing to the mud and water that we had
been lying in, and inside our clothes owing to the cod-liver oil that
we were anointed with from our feet up to our waists.... It is fine
stuff to keep the cold out. I was wearing Cording boots with two pairs
of socks, the inside pair vaselined, and the outside pair oiled, and
puttees over the top of the boots. Although I had been several times
in water over my knees, I never got my feet cold or wet.... The only
casualty in the Brigade was one sowar of the ----, killed. He got
scared at a Very light, and stood up in the open staring at it, so
of course a sniper shot him and he died. I don’t expect we shall do
any more trenches for a bit: this effort was only due to the Corps
Commander, who wanted to have us shot over. I think it did every one a
lot of good: it has certainly taught me that shrapnel is not half so
awful as one thinks, and that one can lie out with only a coat on in a
puddle all through a winter night, and be none the worse for it, and
also that a whack of rum has an entirely beneficial effect.”
_January 16._--“The patrol of the Regiment that relieved mine saw two
dead Germans about 500 feet in front, and so of course all the men who
were with me are claiming that they killed them, and the first blood of
the Regiment is theirs.... The men I had with me were all hard nuts,
and when not on sentry lay down in the water and went to sleep. They
had their British warms (_i.e._, coats with a flannel lining that
reaches to the knee) and mackintoshes, so that they were fairly warm
and dry, except for their legs. Their feet got very cold, though the
vaseline helped a lot.... It was quite an experience, and although I
was most beastly uncomfortable all the time, I wouldn’t have missed
it for anything. I must say that I never expected that the first time
people fired shots in anger at me, and I was retaliating, that my only
thought would be how to keep warm, and also not to go to sleep.... One
rather amusing thing happened while we were in reserve in the village.
Our Colonel got an idea that a sniper was concealed in one of the
houses (there were no inhabitants left), and so ordered ‘X’ Squadron
to make a house-to-house search. A party consisting of twenty men and
one young officer started off with loaded rifles, fixed bayonets,
fingers on the trigger--officers waving revolvers. Suddenly they saw a
man on a haystack: immediately pandemonium ensued--rifles going rapid,
men charging, revolvers going off, wild confusion. Suddenly the fire
stopped, and a perfectly _furious_ officer leaped off the haystack,
rushed at the officer, and started, ‘You ... ’ for about five minutes.
He then saw the squadron leader, rushed at him, and dragged him off to
the Colonel. He then said he’d been on that haystack for five weeks,
that all the Germans in Northern France had been shooting at him, as he
was in an extraordinarily good place for observing fire, and then these
---- did their best--a d--d poor one at only 20 yards--to lay him out.
As we had not been warned he was there, I think it was quite natural to
plug him. He really was the angriest man I have ever seen.”
War has its humours, and it is well to be able to enjoy them.
For a month or so after that first experience there seem to have
been no more nights in the front trenches for the Thirteenth, but
some parties were told off for trench-digging, and there was much
Cavalry-training of one kind or another, with occasional orders to
“stand to” and be ready to move at very short notice. These orders of
course gave rise at first to much excitement, and eager hopes of some
real Cavalry-fighting, but they never came to anything. Perhaps the
best way of showing what the Regiment was doing during the remainder
of this year, 1915, is to quote some more extracts from letters and
diaries.
[Illustration: BILLETS OF CAPTAINS EVE AND JACKSON AT ENQUINGATTE]
[Illustration: CAPT. W. H. EVE]
[Illustration: CAPT. T. K. JACKSON AND LT. J. V. DAWSON]
[Illustration: TRENCHES AT ENQUINGATTE DUG BY D SQUADRON]
[Illustration: SCHOOL AT ENQUINGATTE WHERE LT. J. V. DAWSON WAS
BILLETED]
_Lieutenant Watson Smyth--February 6._--“When I got back I found my
squadron ‘standing to,’ and ready to move at fifteen minutes’ notice.
However, that has now been cancelled, and we are now living in the
same old peaceable way. We had a sham fight this morning to practise
dismounted action. I and my troop had to run along a dry stream-bed for
about three-quarters of a mile. I was nearly dead at the end of it, but
my troop were even more done, so on the whole I was rather pleased....
I do not think it is likely that we shall move for some time, as it
is absolutely impossible for Cavalry to move once they get off the
roads.... I have just finished my evening task of letter censoring.
That is not a nice job as it takes a long time, and I don’t much care
about reading other people’s letters, especially such extraordinarily
dull ones as the average soldier writes.”
_February 17._--“In the afternoon it began to snow, and it snowed as
hard as it could all the evening and most of the night. We had been
going to have a Divisional route-march the next day (Thursday), but
that night the orders were cancelled. On Thursday we found it just
possible to ride our horses, but only just as the roads were deep in
snow, and it was balling badly.... We are rather badly off for water
in these billets: I do not mean that there is not enough--the whole
place is soaking--but none of it is very good. I rather think that that
is one of the causes of our horses not looking as well as they might.
Watering is almost as important as feeding, isn’t it?... Horses are my
special care, but it’s rather disheartening having these beastly little
country-breds to look after.”
It may be observed that the Indian country-bred is not accustomed to a
Western winter and heavy snow. Nor were the men of the Indian Regiments
in the Brigade, to whom such weather was as trying as the extreme heat
of India is to English troops.
“I had one horse get his leg broken by a kick from his neighbour two
nights ago. It was smashed clean in two about four inches above the
knee. Must have been some kick, as the bone is pretty thick at that
part. I had him shot where he stood, hitched on one of the draft
horses, and pulled him about 200 feet into a field over the way, and
the defaulters buried him in the afternoon. A six-foot grave for a
horse takes a bit of digging, and fairly made ’em sweat. It nearly
killed an old fat reservist, who was doing defaulter for getting drunk
on the way up from the Base. However, if he has a few more to bury, he
will be an easier man to mount.”
_February 27._--“To-day we had the coldest day we have had in France.
We paraded at 9 A.M. and did a Brigade scheme. I hated every
minute of it, and so did our wretched horses. We were out from 9 till
1.45, and most of the time in a snowstorm on the side of a hill....
“My first servant, Farmer, is a tiger for work. I discovered the other
day that he had been working at a big butcher’s in Jermyn Street
before he joined the Army. As I also found some young pigs in one of
the farms, I took him down to pick out a nice sucking-pig. He chose
one, and I bought it for eight francs, and we are all going to eat it
to-night: Farmer was great at cleaning, and scalding, and killing it.
It was a most comic affair, as there were about thirteen little pigs,
the lady of the farm, Farmer, and self in a covered sty about 12′ × 8′
× 6′ high. We were all talking at once, a child was howling, the pigs
were screaming, and we were all trying to catch a different piglet.
At length, however, we succeeded in collaring the right one, and I’ve
never heard any animal make such a colossal noise as this little beast
did when he was carried off. I nearly died with laughing, as just as
we were coming off the road we met the General riding down. He was
frightfully tickled....”
It appears from Major Cox’s diary that “during the month of February
a semi-station routine of Brigade route-marches, Brigade field-days,
lectures on various subjects, and squadron schemes, was carried out.
“Quite a lot of snow fell during the month, and cold frosty weather was
the rule.”
March opened with a very sad accident to the battery of Horse
Artillery, V Battery, which formed part of the Brigade.
[Illustration: FEBRUARY AND MARCH 1915
FARRIERS, D SQUADRON
OFFICERS OF D SQUADRON
MAJOR R. F. COX
OFFICERS OF D SQUADRON
TAKEN AT WARNES, MARCH 1915]
According to Major Cox’s diary, “A trench-mortar bomb exploded during
instruction, mortally wounding Major Goldie commanding the battery, two
subalterns, and twelve men. Forty-one N.C.O.’s and men were wounded. As
bad luck would have it, the whole of the battery was assembled round
the trench-mortar when the explosion took place.” All officers
of the Thirteenth who could attend the funeral did so, and it was
distressing to think of so many brave men killed and wounded, not by
the enemy in fight, but by an accident of the kind.
This happened in Serny, a village adjoining Enquin.
_Lieutenant Watson Smyth--March 7._--“To-day we had to find thirteen
men a troop to go and dig trenches: they left at 6 A.M., and
aren’t expected back till 8.30 P.M. This left us, allowing for
servants, sick, &c., about six men a troop for duty. We spent our time
tidying up and straightening out the billets, and have been at it all
day.”
_Lieutenant Chrystall--March 16._--“We have been on the move and
bivouacking every night in a wood, so have had no time to write.
We were in the advance to Neuve Chapelle, but were not used.... We
always travel by night owing to hostile aircraft being about, and the
consequence is sleep is impossible.”
_Captain W. H. Eve--March 16._--“I got your letter in hospital at St
Omer.... I was in a terrible funk they would send me off home, as I
knew what that would mean--two or three weeks perhaps, and then to
Aldershot to wait my turn to come out. So I got at the doctors at once,
and they said I should be kept there and go straight back to duty as
soon as possible. I was very relieved....
“Then rumours began to come through of this forward movement of ours
between Armentières and La Bassée, and the hospital had to get ready
for one thousand extra cases, though holding five hundred usually. So
we knew something was on, and could also hear the big guns at times. At
last on Thursday the 11th they told me I could leave hospital next day.
Of course this is much too soon really, and would not be done in peace
time. But now it is different.
“I went off to get my movement orders and asked ‘Any news?’ They
said, ‘Haig has sent for his Cavalry.’ We are Haig’s Cavalry--1st
Army--and you can imagine the state I was in. Next day I left by
train--8.24--having slipped out of hospital without even having my
things disinfected.... All the Indian Cavalry Corps was crowded up
there [Berguette?], mostly in billets, but our Brigade in bivouac in a
wood--all in reserve. We had done nothing so far, and I was relieved.
I was fearfully anxious lest I should be too late.... Well, now you
will have seen by the papers we have done pretty well, but I fancy
somehow we haven’t done all we thought we might. I don’t understand it,
and we don’t know the truth; but they said if we had got as far as we
hoped, the British Cavalry Corps, which had been brought up too, was
to have gone round the north of Lille, and we the Indian Cavalry Corps
round the south, and had a cut at the Germans behind. But, anyhow,
apparently the thing didn’t quite come off, for on Sunday the 14th we
got orders to march back here to billets. We were very sick indeed; it
looked as though we had missed our chance by so little. But, of course,
we really know nothing. We marched back Sunday night and are now about
a couple of miles from the station where we detrained when we came back
from Orleans, about twenty miles still behind the line.... How long we
shall be here I haven’t the least idea. We have to be ready to move
at two hours’ notice, but that may not mean anything. It is a dull
and trying business this, but we must be patient. We have quite nice
billets here.”
Another account of the move is given by Lieutenant Watson Smyth: “At
12.30 A.M. on the morning of the 11th we were woke up and
told that the squadron was parading at 3 A.M. We were, of
course, sleeping in our clothes, as everything was packed, and we had
had orders to be ready to move at one hour’s notice. On being woke up
I went to sleep again till 2.15, when I got up, put my coat and boots
on, and went out to hurry up my troop.... We started to trot about
4.30 A.M. and trotted steadily until 8.30, except for two
very short halts of about three minutes each, when we had just time
to look round our horses. On coming to we turned out of the town, and
the head of the squadron turned out of the road into a large sand-pit:
this was found to be just large enough for a squadron, so the rest of
the regiment was bivouacked in the wood. (I forgot to say that the
sand-pit was in a wood.) We had easily the best place, as it was quite
out of the wind and, better still, entirely free from mud.... The
horses were perfectly happy, and so were the men. The latter dug holes
running into the side of the pit, put a hurdle over the entrance, and
were quite warm inside. We had very nice weather, sunny and so warm,
and had nothing to do except listen to the rumble of the guns at
Neuve Chapelle.... We stayed in our sand-pit for three days, and then
one day got orders to move at 2 P.M.; about 1 P.M.,
however, these orders were cancelled, so we thought we might get
another night in peace. This was rather too much to expect, and we were
not very surprised when we were told to parade at 7.45 P.M.
We did so, and had a perfectly ghastly march back to where we are now.
We walked for hours on our horses, and then dismounted, and led the
brutes for three and a half miles. It’s no fun walking on one’s flat
feet when in marching order--_i.e._, belt, revolver, spare ammunition,
compass, haversack, field-glasses, knife, and water-bottle. We then
lost ourselves for a bit, and every one lost their tempers, and cursed
everybody junior to themselves, and their horses, and the roads, and
the staff. Eventually we hit our village about 2 A.M....
[Illustration]
[Illustration: IN THE SANDPIT. MARCH 1915]
“We got orders to-day, and are off into the blue to-morrow.
“Our night march the other day was extraordinarily impressive, as we
could see the flashes of the guns, and the searchlights swinging round,
and the star-shell, and Very lights lighting up the whole horizon. The
noise of the horses’ hoofs on the pavé was not enough to drown the
thunder of the guns, and at one time we distinctly heard the crackle of
rifle and machine-gun fire.”
_March 18._--“We paraded at 8 this morning and started to march to
----, where we are going to be billeted. About 10 we halted and
dismounted.... I tied up the horses, off-saddled, and let the men
fall out to visit the town. At 12.30 I watered and fed the horses,
and succeeded in stealing a bale of hay (100 lbs.) off a lorry that
foolishly halted about ten yards from the horses. That pleased me and
the horses a lot. I am now sitting on a tree-trunk near the horses
writing this.”
_March 27._--“I found a dead motor-cyclist to-day: he had tried to take
a corner far too fast in our billets, and had hit a tree and knocked
his head in. I am now hoping to be able to ‘make’ the bike, as except
for its front forks and wheel it is in excellent condition and would be
very useful.”
During this month there was much trench-digging, and Major Cox says,
“Brigade field-days and regimental schemes were carried on similar to
the routine in an Indian station.” It was doubtless necessary, but as
instruction in Infantry work was going on at the same time the men were
extremely hard worked.
The month closed with a visit from the Honorary Colonel, General Sir
R. S. Baden-Powell, who happened to be in France on a short tour. An
inspection of the Regiment was held, and a short address was made
by Sir Robert, who also presented to the Regiment a large number of
cigarette-cases.
_Captain W. H. Eve--April 2._--“The Indian Cavalry Corps has been
nicknamed ‘The Iron Rations,’ because they are only to be used in the
last extremity. I believe this is all over the place, and am afraid it
may be a little true, though let’s hope not. Anyhow, it’s very funny
and very clever of whoever thought of it. You see the iron rations
(tinned meat and biscuit) carried by each man is only supposed to be
used in the last extremity.”
_April 19._--“We are very busy all training more or less as in peace,
and occasionally digging trenches; but one can find out no news or
anything of what’s likely to happen, and can only be patient. We are
all very fit and flourishing and doing ourselves grand.”
_Lieutenant Watson Smyth--April 23._--“Wild excitement has possessed
us for the last four hours, but it is now dying down, and in fact is
nearly dead. It all started by our getting some wild story of Ypres,
and asphyxiating gas, and the French, and standing-to. We were just
starting out on a Brigade scheme, but this was abandoned, and we came
back to billets and commenced furiously to pack. We are now feverishly
unpacking. It really is extraordinary the rumours that get about out
here; it is only very seldom that one meets any one who really knows
anything worth knowing, and will tell what it is.
“It is a very good thing for every one to have these occasional bursts
of energy, as one learns a lot about packing, and how things are lost,
&c. To-day, of course, I got caught short of forage. Some one had
stolen one of my sacks of oats.... I had to buy a sack of oats and feed
on oat straw instead of hay. That is the advantage of a country-bred,
he will eat anything, and his example makes the walers and English join
in. I wish we could get a move on: these are excellent billets, but I
want to see a German before peace is declared!”
[Illustration: IN THE SANDPIT. MARCH 1915]
_Captain W. H. Eve--April 30._--“The weather is simply lovely now,
has been these last few days, and to-day has been as hot as summer.
It is very lucky, for we are (all the men and horses) in the open.
We ourselves have got into a barn, where we make ourselves very
comfortable with lots of straw. I have celebrated my birthday by having
a bath. I always carry the indiarubber one in my saddle-bags, and
wouldn’t be without it for anything. Well, I can’t tell you where we
are exactly, but we have moved twice since I last wrote, owing to this
scrap which is still going on near Ypres.... We are sitting tight again
now, listening and waiting. The only thing we see is our own captive
balloons, and occasionally a Taube (German aeroplane) coming over and
being shelled by our guns. You know, of course, the scrap that is going
on now, but the papers make it out a much more important thing than it
really is. It is a very weak point round Ypres, because (first) it is a
salient, and (secondly) our junction with the French is near here....
But all goes well, so much so that I fancy we shall move back in a day
or two--where, I don’t know in the least. I expect that now we shall be
continually up and down the line on this game--mobile reserve until our
time really comes.
“In this fight our casualties have been very heavy--ours, I believe,
about 18,000, but we have our line all right.... It’s hard this
waiting, but we must be patient. There is nothing in the least to worry
about, nor is it the important affair the papers make out.
“We are all tremendously cheery, jolly, and fit.... The horses are
feeling the benefit of the better weather and are a joy to me now,
looking better every day. Of course I seize every opportunity of
grazing them in somebody else’s fields with the good spring grass
coming up. I have never felt fitter in my life. There are crowds all
round, but the worst of it is one can’t go more than a few hundred
yards from one’s billet, as we always have to be ready to turn out at
once.
“The old lady at our last billet insisted on embracing us when we left
with all kinds of good wishes.”
The billets, of course, varied greatly, some being very good
indeed--one where the officers of the Regiment or squadron were
actually provided with beds and “linen sheets,”--others very dirty
and bad. Lieutenant Chrystall writes on the 19th of May: “It is very
wet and muddy, and we are at present in a coal-mining village, and
everything as you may imagine filthy. Last night I slept next my
skipper on the road with my head between two spokes of a cart-wheel,
and Eve’s between the next. Cobbles are not very springy or soft!”
_Captain W. H. Eve--May 27._--“You say you are watching for news of
the Cavalry. Well, you have it now in the Casualties List. That is
the British Cavalry. It is, I think, wicked, for they are men we
can’t replace, but the fact is they can’t trust any but the very best
up there at Ypres, and that’s why they sent for the Cavalry. They
get their chance and are used, but we, poor devils! ... never get a
chance.... Our turn will come some day.[11] Up there we are holding on
and shall do so, but it costs good men. We sit back here well within
sound of the guns, and go on with more or less peace-training and try
to be patient. Whenever there is a big show on, off we go up behind
the line, and every time we think our time has really come; but every
time we come back again in a few days--a sort of mobile reserve, that’s
all. We are known out here as the ‘Iron Ration,’ only to be used in the
last emergency! We went up like this during Neuve Chapelle into Belgium
during the fighting round Ypres, and the other day near La Bassée.
We are back here again, now very comfortable in a pretty straggling
village.... We are all very fit and flourishing, but rather fed up with
our own share of the proceedings.”
Sometimes the Regiment, or part of it, got a change of work.
_Lieutenant Watson Smyth--May 28._--“The day before yesterday the
bathing season started and we had (the squadron and officers) gone
into the baths at Aire.... We were all just nicely in the water, which
wasn’t very cold, when a heated bicycle orderly dashed up and said,
‘“B” Squadron to return to billets at once.’ We couldn’t think what it
was for.... Yesterday (after a twenty-mile night march) I went for my
orders and discovered that I am ‘Corps Cavalry,’ and that my duties are
to send patrols out in the Corps area to look out for spies, collect
stragglers, control the traffic at various points, and, in general, be
a sort of mounted police. It is, I believe, an excellent job, and quite
good fun. Of course the roads are being shelled now and then, but
the people I relieved had only one casualty, and he was gas-poisoned by
a shell. In case of a push I have to find posts at cross-roads, &c., to
direct ammunition and supplies to the various places that they want to
go to. It is very nice being on one’s own, as I am now. The Squadron
Headquarters are about six miles off, so I shan’t be worried by any
one.”
[Illustration: HURDLE SHELTERS, BOIS DU REVEILLON. 15TH MARCH 1915.]
[Illustration: BILLETS AT WARNES. APRIL 1915.]
_Captain W. H. Eve--May 29._--“The British Cavalry are out [of the
trenches] now, came out last night, and I think, though am not quite
certain, that the 1st Division of this Corps has gone in. If this
is so, we may perhaps get our turn next. No one would choose trench
fighting, but there’s nothing else just at the present.
“Here we are just peace soldiering. ‘A’ squadron have their sports on
this afternoon and we have ours next week. ‘B’ squadron has gone off
to do Divisional Cavalry--chiefly orderly--duties to various Infantry
Divisions. I envy them, as it is a change, and they are nearer the
centre of things.”
_Lieutenant Chrystall--June 15._--“On Sunday last (June 13) I had the
honour of acting as Escort to the King of the Belgians when he reviewed
the Indian Cavalry here. It was quite a decent show for war-time.”
_Captain W. H. Eve--June 16._--“We have had rumours of a possible
move, but otherwise are carrying on as usual. Lovely weather, and we
are playing polo this evening, which is a great thing--having got some
sticks and balls out. We have got a Horse-Show (Cavalry Corps) on
Thursday 24th, which ought to be very good.”
_Lieutenant Watson Smyth--July 13._--I may have got the date wrong,
but the day is Sunday. As far as I can see, there is no likelihood of
our doing anything for a bit. The Regiment is digging trenches about
three miles in rear of the line; we go up for four days and then come
back for eight. In that eight we do exercise every day except one, when
there is a Brigade route-march.”
_Captain W. H. Eve--July 11._--“There is very little news from here,
as you will have gathered from the papers. Kitchener was out here and
came and inspected us last Thursday. He told us (what none of us knew
before) that his father was in the Regiment. We have been fairly busy,
and now have about seventy per cent of the men away trench-digging for
a week. Three of my officers and most of my men are gone--went up in
motor-buses yesterday, and with the few men left I have my work cut out
to exercise and look after the horses.”
_Lieutenant Watson Smyth--July 13._--We are now up at ----,--at least
seventy men and two officers per squadron are--digging the second-line
trenches. We are about 2000 yards from the Huns, and they can see us
nicely, thank you.... They shelled the second party yesterday and
killed two men of ‘D’ Squadron,[12] very bad luck, as they have shelled
the trenches lots of times before and never yet hit anybody. I had
fever all yesterday. I don’t know why I got it, but I’m all right
now....
“We go up in two parties; one goes up at 7 A.M. and digs from
8.30 to 12.30; the other goes up at 11 and digs from 12.30 to 4.30.
It is not very interesting work, but it is better to be up here than
back with the Regiment. There is only one man to about eight horses,
and the result is that every one is working all day getting the horses
exercised, fed, and rubbed over.
“We are up here for a week, we came up last Saturday and go away
next Saturday; as usual, we travel in motor-buses. On a fine day,
after a little rain to lay the dust, this is rather a pleasant way of
travelling....
“The Colonel (Symons) has just been ordered to the W.O. I suppose he is
wanted for the Staff. If he is taken from the Regiment, I don’t know
who will get command.”
The writer was wounded two days later. “It was rather a rotten way of
getting hit, standing in a great deep trench, thinking I was quite
safe, when suddenly we heard whe--bang, and I found my foot had gone
numb. I said, ‘Anybody hit?’ and all the men said ‘No,’ so I told them
I was.” Lieutenant Watson Smyth goes on to describe his various moves
until he reached some days later the British Red Cross Hospital at
Rouen. “I had quite a good night, and woke up just before arriving here
at 6 A.M.... I showed the doctor a label tied to my pyjamas,
giving details of what was wrong. He told the bearer which ward to take
me to, and off I went.... At 9 A.M. I was carted off to the
X-ray room, and my foot and back were each taken from two positions....
[Illustration: D SQUADRON BILLETS, OCHTEZEELE
MAY 1915]
[Illustration: QUARTERS OF D SQUADRON AT WITTERNESSE
6TH TO 19TH MAY 1915]
[Illustration: QUARTERS OF B SQUADRON, OCHTEZEELE
MAY 1915]
[Illustration: THE CHATEAU--QUARTERS OF A SQUADRON AT WITTERNESSE. JUNE
1915]
[Illustration: “RAGS” AND “STILTS,” OCHTEZEELE
3RD MAY 1915]
[Illustration: ON LINGHAM RIFLE RANGE
JUNE 1915]
“In the operation they got about sixty pieces out of my foot, and a few
work themselves out every dressing-day.”
Not a word of complaint.
_August 2._--“The Regiment’s total casualties for the three weeks it
was digging were four killed, two died of wounds, eight wounded. No
other officers were hit, but one was buried one day, and badly shaken
in consequence....
_August 3_ and _4_.--“I had a visitor to-day, a Miss Holt, who is
working at Lady Mabelle Egerton’s canteen at Rouen. She was very nice
and cheery and did me a lot of good. They had one hour’s notice a
few days ago that 3000 men and 40 officers would want breakfast at 3
A.M. There were only three of them on duty that night, but
they managed it all right. That shows that the canteen is useful, and
the workers work, I think....
“Dr Augier is exceedingly pleased at the appearance of my foot, ... but
says that I must resign myself to not using it for three months.”
_August 5._--“Another chap in my Regiment has just come into the
hospital. I have never seen him, as he joined the Regiment after I was
hit. He tells me that the Regiment have been shifted down south and
have taken over, or are going to take over, some French trenches there
for a bit. I do not understand it, but he’s quite sure of his facts. I
should have thought that they had sufficient Infantry out here now to
hold the line, but I expect that they are fairly quiet trenches, and
they want to make the Indian Cavalry Corps work.”
_August 5_ and _6_.--“The Regiment is now either in, or just going into
the trenches for a fortnight.... It is a pity to have missed that....
“I have discovered that I am one of the show-cases here. They show
visitors my X-ray photo, and then bring them along and show them me. I
dislike that. All the doctors seem to think it a marvellous case.”
_Captain W. H. Eve--August 22._--“I understand absolutely what you say
about wanting a trophy. I hope too I’ll get something some day, but
I won’t bring anything I haven’t got myself, and I have never seen a
German yet. Isn’t it too dreadful, but it’s the truth.
“Richardson has got the Regiment, and I can tell you I am glad.”
_Lieutenant Chrystall--September 7._--“I have been out on several night
patrols, crawling through the grass towards the German trenches; and
it is very jumpy work, as you never know when you may bump into one of
their patrols.”
_September 20._--“The powers that be thought that a certain old house
in No Man’s Land ought to be occupied, and certain snipers caught who
used to frequent the place and fire into our lines. Well, we occupied
it one day and night and held it all day, when just after dark we were
attacked in force. I at the time was holding a conference with the C.O.
at his post, and all of a sudden the sentry on the outpost let off
his rifle. This was the herald of a dozen bombs being hurled into our
place, and the opening of a machine-gun and several rifles. There we
were, ten of us, cooped up in an outhouse 12 × 12, firing like billy
O through the window and door at the flashes of the Boche guns about
fifteen yards away. This was kept up for about ten minutes. When we had
just given up all for lost they ceased firing: we did likewise, and
as we were in an awkward and tight corner we got out of it and held a
bridge on a road. The Germans also retired, and as we afterwards found,
left four dead, while we had only two wounded--a really miraculous
escape, as bullets were crashing through the windows and splintering
the panelling in the door, and bombs hitting the brick-work.”
_Captain W. H. Eve--October 9._--“We are trying to be patient, knowing
very little and hoping for the best. A few days after I got back
from leave we were moved off, at the beginning of our offensive, the
22nd [September] to be exact, and were kept in constant readiness
for nearly ten days. We were all cramped up in a tiny dirty little
village, with all our poor horses in the open, a bad place, with
a rotten water-supply, and we had wet cold weather too. Of course
we were desperately excited, but we weren’t allowed to know much.
Then on the 1st we moved on here where we are now, and where we are
more comfortable than we have ever been before, in a large village,
ourselves, the Third, and Brigade Headquarters, and very nicely
situated, and good country. I was very lucky in the area allotted to my
squadron, and have got the whole of my men and horses comfortably snug
under cover, and it is a real pleasure to see my horses.... Of news we
know no more than you do from the papers, and, as I say, have simply
to try and be patient, and trust the powers that be, and hope for the
very best....
[Illustration: D SQUADRON QUARTERS AND MESS AT BETTENCOURT. AUGUST AND
SEPTEMBER 1915]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: CAPTAIN EVE’S DUG-OUT AT AUTHUILLE
SEPTEMBER 1915]
[Illustration: LT. J. V. DAWSON IN HIS DUG-OUT AT AUTHUILLE. SEPTEMBER
1915]
“Meanwhile they seem desperately hard up for officers for some of the
Infantry--more senior officers, that is--and have lately been sending
all round the Cavalry for fellows to volunteer to take command of
battalions and companies.... The other day the Colonel asked me if I
would care to take promotion to Lieut.-Colonel to command a battalion
of infantry, and they have been asking others also. I refused, but
for a man who is ambitious irrespective of what brand of the service
he gets his promotion in, you can see it is a tremendous chance....
But I doubt if they will get many men to volunteer for it.... It is
extraordinary though, and to me seems such a very short-sighted policy,
for when our time comes where will they find _our_ officers?”
That was the problem which many Cavalry officers had to face, and it
is not surprising that most of them, loving their own branch of the
service, and still believing, or at least hoping, that the Cavalry
would yet get their chance, should have shrunk from sacrificing their
Cavalry training, even for such promotion. It was a clear proof of the
great straits to which the losses of the war had brought the Infantry,
on whom the brunt had fallen. The letter goes on:--
“News from Russia appears to me all good, and it does look as though
the tide were turning at last, and the Germans had shot their bolt, and
were up against it.... It’s such a huge thing this war, and there is
such a tremendous lot one wants to know, and so very little one does
know. But I feel as confident as ever, as I think we all do out here.”
They all did throughout, happily for England.
_October 10._--“Nearly every house of a little better class one goes
into here has a stuffed fox in it. I can’t understand why, and they are
such an eyesore to me.”
_October 12._--“One of the Poona Horse told me he had had a great ride
after a really good pig this morning, only couldn’t get him as he had
only his sword. I had heard there are some in these woods, but hadn’t
seen any myself so far.”
_October 13._--“Here we are in our new quarters at Villers.... Coming
up here from the river valley we passed the most lovely coverts--all
the trees turning fast, and with the sun on them simply looking
perfect.”
_October 14._--“How I long for us to get a real move on. The thought of
another winter sitting doing nothing like last is maddening. It can’t
be. I feel we must push and push and push. And here are we drivelling
about doing these silly field-days and ‘pretending’ always.”
_October 15._--“A confidential memo. came round yesterday asking for
recommendations among N.C.O.’s for the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille
Militaire. The first is for gallantry, and the other more like our
long-service and good-conduct. It is rather funny for us who have done
practically nothing.”
_October 17._--“Then there was a lecture from the Colonel [Richardson]
about drinking in the Regiment, and very well indeed he spoke too.”
_October 25._--“Exercise. Balaclava sing-song for the men.”
_November 16._--“This morning there were about four inches of snow
on the ground, and it was still falling hard up to about 11 o’clock.
During the morning we sent a challenge to ‘A’ Squadron, saying
diplomatic relations were broken off ... and a state of war would
exist from 2 P.M. So at 2 we marched the squadron down, and I
divided them into two parties, one doing a frontal attack, which drew
‘A’ from their village. When they were hard at it with snow-balls I
brought the remainder, followed by the M.G., in on their flank, and we
had a royal battle, and it was great fun. The men loved it.”
But it was far from being all snow-balling and play.
_November 25._--“You can see what it is trying to make us do two jobs
at the same time, Cavalry and Infantry. The men are simply worked off
their legs and haven’t a minute all day.... We do all our Cavalry
parades, all these Infantry ones, route-marches, afternoon parades,
fatigues, evening classes, &c., &c., and they complain if the men don’t
turn out smartly on parade. In spite of all this we are to organise
games, and let the men train for cross-country runs and so on. Whenever
can they possibly have the time? And ... I must help the country people
in their farming in my spare time.”
_December 19._--“We marched to our new area on Friday last and got a
very bad village to start with, Marival; then yesterday we moved to a
neighbouring one, where we now are, and got ourselves very comfortable
indeed.... We have managed to hire a large room in a farmhouse here,
which we are going to fit up as a reading and recreation room for
the men.... This will make a good deal of difference to them. They
have a very dull and wretched time, little else but work and dirt. We
shall be able to give them a good spread at Christmas, have ordered
puddings, bought a whole pig, and are getting fruit and vegetables, at
sales, this week. They will have a good feed anyhow. Your cigarettes
will be really welcome and appreciated, there is nothing they want or
appreciate so much....
“What the future may hold we don’t know; but though there is little
news from here, things are very satisfactory all along our front, and
we are very much on top of our friends the Germans. I have it first
hand from Oakes and Annett of my squadron, who are just back from a
month spent in the trenches with different Infantry regiments....
“Haig’s appointment out here will, I think, make little or no
difference. He is one of French’s men, and both are first-class.”
_December 27._--“It has blown continuously for days with a great deal
of rain.... I think we made the men pretty cheery and comfortable here.
They had a great feed, and very much appreciated all the things that
were sent to them. I issued all their presents on Christmas Eve, a
parcel for each from the Regimental Comfort’s Committee, also from two
old comrades, smokes from some newspapers, matches, match-cases and
cards from ----, mittens from ----, and cigarettes from ----, so they
didn’t do so badly altogether. And they have more stuff to be given
out later, two more goes of puddings sent by various newspapers, &c.,
sweets, and so on. I am spreading them out, leaving a week.
“We ran off a Divisional Marathon race, six miles, here on Christmas
morning, and the Regiment was second. We went down to eat our dinner
with ‘A’ Squadron, Tom Marchant’s crowd, in the evening, and had a
cheery time. ‘A’ Squadron and ourselves share the same village, and
they have got the chateau as a mess. It is a large, fine old place,
but not properly kept up, like most of them about here. The owner is
in the Army, and only the old mother, the Dowager Marquise, is living
there now. She came and dined with us....
“We are all very well and flourishing, and are managing to get a lot
of football, &c., arranged for the men now--so their life won’t be so
bad. This is rotten weather for the trenches. Wet is the worst for
them, nearly always up to their knees, and often deeper in places.
Cold weather they don’t feel nearly so much, owing to the depth of the
trenches.”
So ended for the Thirteenth their first year of war service on the
Western Front. It had been in some ways a year of disappointment.
Though they had had some turns in the trenches, involving a few
casualties, the Regiment had seen no active work as Cavalry. But if
hope deferred had brought them some heart-sickness, there was hope
still, and they entered upon another year under fairly cheerful
conditions.
[Illustration: LT. J. I. CHRYSTALL AT BEMAVILLE. OCTOBER 1915]
[Illustration: HOUNDS AT L’ABBAYE. 31ST MARCH 1916]
CHAPTER VIII.
1916.
The year 1916 opened, as the last had closed, without any exciting
event for the Indian Cavalry Corps. There was heavy fighting for the
Infantry and guns, and the more hopeful spirits in the Thirteenth
Hussars still believed, or tried to believe, that their chance would
come sooner or later, but there seemed to be no immediate prospect of
it.
Meanwhile the old routine went on.
_Captain W. H. Eve--February 6, 1916._--“We are still busy, though
rather dull, at our ordinary training, ... but the men get a lot of
games, &c., too--football, running, and so on. We have been having
pretty good weather, much drier, and nothing to complain of. It has
been a wonderfully fine winter so far, but it isn’t over yet. Things
are very forward--too forward, I am afraid.
“All the land is under crops, which interferes terribly with our
field-work.
“Oakes (2nd in command, ‘D’ Squadron) is at present in hospital with
a kick on the shin (football), but otherwise we are all very well and
flourishing.”
_March 19._--“There is little or no news from here except that our
proposed move is, I think, postponed for a time. I am sending another
digging party away to-day and one comes back. I expect we shall always
have a certain number of men away now, digging in second line. We are
all very fit and flourishing.”
It was a necessary measure of precaution to have lines of trench behind
the fighting line. All hoped to go forward, but in case of overwhelming
German attacks, strong intrenched positions on which troops could fall
back were an obvious need. The letter goes on:--
“I attended a trench-warfare class for a week about a fortnight ago,
which was a change, but taught me very little.
“The weather is all in our favour for work, but it means that in this
closely cultivated country it is almost impossible to find ground to
work over, now that they are so busy with the spring work on the land.”
“During this time,” writes Lance-Corporal Bowie, “we had many
inspections, the chief one being by General Remington, commanding
the Indian Cavalry Corps in the new year.... The Regiment not being
required in the actual firing line at this time, many men were sent
on various courses of instruction, such as M.M.P.’s, signalling,
pigeon-flying, intelligence, &c. On January 31st a party left by
motor-buses for the village of ----, to construct trenches, &c., being
relieved on March 14th by another party. On March 26th we proceeded
to Feuquières-en-Vimes. From here the Regiment left for St Riquier
on April the 4th to commence Divisional training, after which we
returned to Feuquières on the 18th, meanwhile continuing to relieve our
parties in trench-digging.... Later we again proceeded to St Riquier
to take part in the Corps training, after which we again returned to
Feuquières. The remainder of our stay here was occupied by sports,
horse-shows, &c., the chief event being an International Horse Show
held at Oisemont in May. This event was marked by the attendance of
many noted French Generals and the 3rd French Army Corps from Verdun.
Immediately afterwards we again proceeded to St Riquier to take part in
the Grand Manœuvres.”
It all reads more like peace-time than the middle of the greatest of
wars. But such was the condition of things for the Cavalry of the
Allied and enemy armies on the Western Front. The extension of the
front from the sea to Switzerland, and the development of the great
line of trenches which covered it, had put an end to all open warfare.
The contending hosts were locked in a desperate struggle, which swayed
backwards and forwards over a few miles of devastated and blood-soaked
ground, giving no opening for the sweeping movements of horsemen. Month
by month it became more and more evident that there was no immediate
likelihood of this state of things being changed. Neither side seemed
strong enough to tear a gap in the opposing line and let through a
flood of horsemen into its rear. Till that could be done there could be
no chance for the Cavalry as Cavalry.
[Illustration: “CAPRICE.” 1915]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: AT MARTAINNEVILLE. MARCH 1916]
Meanwhile the war was developing all over the world, especially
in Africa and Asia, and in some quarters the conditions were very
different from those obtaining in the densely-peopled districts of
the main front, where the colossal armies stood face to face. On
two other fronts especially, where Great Britain was opposed to the
Turks, horsemen had room to move and were badly needed. In Egypt and
Palestine, and in Mesopotamia and Persia, the armies engaged were not
in such numbers as to cover the whole ground and reduce the war to the
likeness of a gigantic siege. Even there, on the broad plains of Asia,
trenches and aeroplanes were to some extent in use, and did much to
limit the operations of Cavalry; but they were not all-important. There
was still room for open warfare and turning movements and surprise.
And for service in those countries, with their comparatively dry
climates and hard soil and great heat, the Indian soldier was specially
fitted--much better fitted, to tell the truth, than for the cold and
mud of Europe. It was therefore decided in the early part of 1916, when
trained white troops were beginning to pour out of England in great
numbers, that the work of the Indian Army on the European front was
done, and that for the future, with its numerous and excellent Cavalry,
it could be more usefully employed in other theatres of war.[13]
It has always been the custom to send on service with Indian troops
a certain proportion of white men, and much as the white troops were
needed in Europe, it was felt that the custom must be maintained in
this case. The Indian Regiments now sent to fight in Africa and Asia
were therefore mixed as usual with British Regiments. The officers
of the Indian Regiments had every confidence in the troops they led;
but it would have been a tremendous test to send Indian soldiers
unsupported by British troops to face the renowned fighting men of
Turkey, organised and directed by Germans, and equipped with all the
latest appliances of modern war. The strain would have been increased
by the fact that the number of British officers serving with an Indian
Regiment is always small--probably not half the number serving with a
British Regiment.
As to the Thirteenth, they were warned in the middle of June to prepare
for service in the East, and there were persistent rumours that the
destination of the Brigade would be Mesopotamia, where a serious
reverse had lately been inflicted upon British arms by the capture of
General Townshend and ten thousand men at Kut.
These rumours were well founded, for the nation rightly felt that such
a humiliation must be wiped out, and the Meerut Brigade, including
the Thirteenth Hussars, was among the troops selected to retrieve the
position.
“It was on the 17th day of June,” writes Private C. T. Massey, “that
my Regiment, the Thirteenth Hussars, who were at that time digging
trenches for cables behind the lines in France, received orders to get
ready to return to their billets at Chessy, a little village a few
miles distant from the town of Abbeville. We heard that the Regiment
was under orders for leaving the country, and rumours were flying all
over the place: some said Salonika, others said India, whilst others
said Basra, a modern town of 10,000 inhabitants on the right bank
of the river Tigris in Mesopotamia, and the last one proved to be
correct.... On arriving in billets we found great excitement prevailed,
and every one said we were leaving for Mesopotamia. Every one was in
the best of spirits and glad to be leaving France, where Cavalry were
inactive.”
That was the right spirit in which to take the move; and though no
doubt there had been much disappointment among officers and men with
the fact that in France “Cavalry were inactive,” it would not be easy
to find among all their letters and diaries bearing on this time a
word of murmuring or regret at the prospect of turning their backs
on England again, and entering upon another term of distant Eastern
service. The universal feeling was one of satisfaction at being sent to
some other theatre of war where Cavalry would come into its own.
Private Massey’s diary goes on to describe the voyage out.
“On the 19th we were officially informed that the Regiment was leaving
France for Mesopotamia, and the same day we left for the railhead at
Pont Rémy, a fairly large station.... Whilst waiting, a train-load
of Belgian soldiers passed through and we gave them a rousing cheer....
All was soon ready, and at 6 the train moved off. We were travelling
all day the 20th and the 21st, and on the morning of the 22nd we
arrived at Marseilles, and after detraining with our horses, limber,
and equipment, proceeded towards La Valentine Camp. We remained in the
camp until the 27th, which we left at 7.30 that day, and proceeded to
the docks at Marseilles.”
[Illustration: AT FEUQUIÈRES, APRIL 1916]
It appears from the Regimental Diary that the Regiment embarked 30
officers and 582 other ranks. Private Massey goes on:--
“We handed over our horses to a native regiment. I gave my old horse
(No. 62) a few pats on the neck, as he had been a good old horse, and
he had carried me hundreds of miles, and I was sorry to lose him. We
afterwards went on board the _Kalyan_, and I was put on guard over the
steps leading to the bridge; others were put on submarine guard, and
every precaution was taken to prevent the ship being torpedoed.... On
the 31st we were issued out with Indian khaki, as it was getting very
hot the farther we went south. The next few days the sea became very
rough, and on 2nd July I was sick after tea.
“On the 3rd we arrived at Port Said after a very uneventful voyage. On
the voyage across we received the news by wireless every day, so we
knew that the great offensive had begun. We watched the coaling of the
boat, during the afternoon of the 3rd, and it struck me as a mild form
of slavery, to see the natives coaling the ship: they work like devils,
and all for a few annas a day. Native boys swim round the ship, diving
for pennies which we threw them from the deck.
“When we woke at réveillé on the following morning the boat was already
on the move down the Canal.... Towards night we sailed past Port Suez,
but we could not see much of it; but it looked magnificent with the
streets lighted up, and it seemed to stretch a long way along the coast.
“After sailing down the Red Sea for several days we entered the Indian
Ocean. We saw large shoals of flying-fish in the Red Sea, also other
big fish.
“We had an uneventful voyage across the Indian Ocean, and arrived
outside Bombay at about 9 A.M. on the 15th of July. On the
16th we went into dock soon after réveillé, disembarked, and marched
to Colaba Camp, about four miles from the docks. I went with several
others to the swimming-baths, and for the first time in my life managed
to swim a few yards. I was so fond of the salt water that I was in it
again that night, aided by the light of the moon.”
Lance-Corporal Bowie, already quoted, strikes the same note about the
horses. “Here” (at Marseilles), he writes in his diary, “our horses
were taken from us, many of us being very sorry to part with some
splendid horses which we had brought with us from India, and which
had carried us so well all the time in France.” In that respect the
officers were more fortunate than the men. Though it was not thought
desirable to send the troop-horses back again to the East, the officers
were allowed to take their chargers--about 100 in all,--a great boon.
_June 26, 1916._--“All has gone well,” writes the officer commanding
“D” Squadron, “and I am taking all my three children with me.” And
later from Marseilles he mentions “the glad news that we are taking our
own children with us.... We have handed over a certain number of the
best of the walers and country-breds to the 30th, including, I am sorry
to say, ‘Jean,’ and the remainder all go to the depot to-morrow when we
depart.... All the Regiment will be together, and the ‘children’ with
us too. It could hardly be better, all things considered.”
From Port Said again: “All is well. It’s the usual dull routine, but
better than I remember it before in these parts. The great mercy for
me is having the children with us. They give me an interest and are
most comfortable--tons of room, two or three stalls for each, and very
flourishing so far. ‘Caprice’ was off her feed and with a temperature
yesterday afternoon, but only for a little while, and is as fit as
anything to-day.”
It is satisfactory to know that for the most part they arrived safely
in India, and, though none the better for their voyage, were able to do
good service afterwards.
In spite of all it was not an exhilarating voyage. Very little was
known to the Regiment about the prospect before them, and not much
about what was going on in France.
[Illustration: Lieut. BASH. H. WILLIAMS, M.C.
(_Wounded in France with 11th Hussars, 31st October 1914_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. M. H. C. DOLL
(_Wounded near Authuille, 11th September 1915_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. T. E. LAWSON-SMITH
(_Killed with the 11th Hussars, near Messiner, 1st November, 1914_)]
[Illustration: Capt. J. O. OAKES]
[Illustration: Capt. A. M. SASSOON, O.B.E., M.C.]
[Illustration: Lieut. W. P. CRAWFORD-GREENE]
[Illustration: Capt. S. V. KENNEDY, M.C.]
_Captain Eve--Suez._--“As soon as we arrived yesterday we heard
the push had started and that we had got through on a front of
twenty-five miles, but we didn’t get the telegrams with any details
till the afternoon: let us only pray we may do as well as we hope.”
Alas! it was a vain prayer. There were to be many “pushes” before the
final one two years later.
_July 14._--“We get to the end of our march to-morrow. I needn’t
tell you how glad we shall be. It has seemed desperately long--very
different to when going the other way. We are all very fit and
flourishing.”
A later letter describes the voyage in more detail, and may be worth
quoting as an example of war-time voyages. “We went by ourselves, but
had various kinds of escorts through the Mediterranean: sometimes a
destroyer, sometimes a sham tramp steamer, really of course armed with
guns, and sometimes with no visible escort at all; and we went the
most peculiar way, all round the west and south sides of Corsica and
Sardinia, south of Malta, north of Crete, then south and zigzagged
about a lot before making Port Said. I believe a ship was sunk off the
north-east corner of Crete not long before us. I think our sham tramp
steamers are the most lovely things. Of course we had all lights out,
ports closed, no smoking after dark, and great discomfort, and heaps
of guards and submarine look-outs, and it was very hot but mostly very
calm. However, all this ended at Port Said, where also they took off
our gun and gunners.... We left at 10 P.M. and went through
the Canal very slowly, stopping a long time in the lakes. The camps and
trenches had increased enormously, the most perfect trenches now, and
huge camps. It is quite a sight, very strong, and there must be a large
force in Egypt now. They looked wonderfully fit, and yelled to us to
know where we were going, but we would not say.”
Arrived at Bombay, the Regiment was informed that it was definitely
for Mesopotamia, and the news was received with the greatest pleasure,
as doubtful rumours had been in circulation. They had, in fact, been
better founded than most rumours, for shortly before the arrival of the
Thirteenth, it had been decided that the Brigade was not to leave the
country again. The Thirteenth were to return to Meerut, and the Seventh
Hussars were to take their place with the Mesopotamia force. Why this
decision was altered does not appear, but report said that the Seventh
were wanted on the North-West Frontier, where trouble was brewing, and
the Thirteenth were taken for Mesopotamia after all. Nevertheless,
the old Meerut Brigade was broken up, the 3rd Skinner’s Horse and 30th
Cavalry being retained in India, to their intense disappointment. The
3rd and the Thirteenth Hussars had lain alongside one another for five
years, and it was with special regret that they said good-bye to each
other. The place of the two native regiments was taken by the 13th and
14th Indian Lancers. The Meerut Brigade now became the 7th Cavalry
Brigade of the Mesopotamia Field Force. It retained with it V Battery
of Horse Artillery, which had suffered so severely in France.
Meanwhile the Regiment had lost the services of some officers from
illness. Second-Lieutenant Guy Pedder writes on the 4th of July,
evidently from the Suez Canal, though after the manner of the time his
letter is dated only “on ship going out”:--
“Four officers have fallen out now--Covell in France, Kennedy at
Marseilles, Munster at Port Said, and Wingfield at the next stop....
I wonder where we will get our first letters, &c.; it will be rather
interesting. We travel very slowly along here, and stop at each lake as
far as I can make out! There are no more submarine guards to be done,
thank goodness. I was on eight hours each day, four by day and four
by night. Saw a paper yesterday which said we had got the first-line
trenches over sixteen mile frontage--wonder if the push is going on as
well as was expected.”
_July 14._--“I expect the first news you will have got of me will be
the cable I sent from Port Said; we haven’t put into harbour since
then, but were able to drop some letters to a small boat just opposite
Suez, but I don’t know whether you will get that letter. We hope to
reach Bombay to-morrow; if so, this letter will just catch the mail,
and I will cable to you to-morrow.
“Of course we got out of the danger zone when we got to Port Said. It
was very hot, but very interesting in the Canal. Then followed the
Gulf, which was calm and dull for four days. Then we got into the Sea,
and the so-called terrible monsoon; but it wasn’t a bit terrible,
although the ship rolled like anything for four days; lots of fellows
were sick, and felt very bad, but I was as fit as anything all the
time, and smoked cigars and pipes, &c.
[Illustration: THE “ISLANDA”]
“No one knows our final destination up to date, but I fancy we will
be in India for a couple of months at least, and then go on. I am
looking forward to seeing India awfully, and hope we stay there for a
short time at any rate.... I have enjoyed the voyage very much, but am
just getting bored with it to-day, and want to see a paper and hear
the war news: of course we have had none for over a week. This is a
topping ship, but we have come along very slowly to save coal. They
feed us very well. We had to run for it once in the Mediterranean, but
we did not know it at the time, only guessed. It has been very much
too rough to play cricket, but to-day it is much calmer. We’ve had two
frightfully heavy rainstorms. Only two horses have died, and both mine
are all right. I sang several times after dinner, and on the whole I
think the time has flown. I am longing to hear about the Western Front.
There is an excellent library on board, and I must have read twenty
books, &c.”
_Bombay, Royal Bombay Yacht Club--July 17._--“This is an extraordinary
place, and awfully pretty by night; Daniell (the Staff Captain) gave a
large dinner-party here last night, and very nice it was too. I went to
the Cathedral yesterday evening after a very busy day, and this morning
I have been rushing round shopping. You hardly see two people dressed
alike here. This is a ripping Club, and we are all honorary members,
Indian Expeditionary Force (D). To-day’s paper tells us a little about
the part played by what would have been us in the West!”
The hope of staying a short time and seeing India was not to be
fulfilled. The state of affairs in Mesopotamia admitted of no delay,
and it was soon known that the Regiment was to embark at once for
Basra. It was to be carried in two vessels, the _Islanda_ and _Chilka_,
the former taking “A” and “D” Squadrons, less one troop of “D,” under
Captain Eve, and the latter the Headquarters and remainder of the
Regiment under Colonel Richardson.
By the 19th of July both ships had sailed.
CHAPTER IX.
MESOPOTAMIA.
The campaign in which the Thirteenth Hussars were now to share was of
great importance to England, and not without importance to the decision
of the world-war. It may be well to say something here on the subject.
The designs of Germany in bringing about, after many years of elaborate
preparation, the conflict of 1914, were not fully understood until they
were laid bare in Chéradame’s book, ‘The German Plot Unmasked,’ which
was published in 1916, with an Introduction by Lord Cromer. Though
England was the greatest of Asiatic powers, and more concerned in the
march of events in the East than any other nation of Europe, except
possibly Russia, she had to learn from a Frenchman how her Eastern
Empire was threatened by Germany--just as she had formerly had to
learn from an American sailor, though she was the greatest of maritime
nations, the influence of sea-power upon History.
To put it in a few words, Germany aimed, as Napoleon had aimed a
century earlier, not only at supreme dominion in Europe, but at supreme
dominion throughout the world. To effect this aim she had brought
about the alliance with Austria, which placed at her disposal the
whole resources of the great central European block, about a hundred
and twenty millions of people highly organised for war, and had
also succeeded in establishing her paramount influence over Turkey,
which meant not only another twenty millions of people, but a vast
territory stretching very nearly from the frontiers of Austria across
the Bosphorus and far into Asia. The inclusion in the alliance of
the comparatively small but powerful state of Bulgaria practically
completed Germany’s line of communication with Turkey, and made her in
fact dominant from the Baltic to Constantinople, and on through Asia
Minor to Arabia. A great strategic line of railway had been designed,
and in part constructed, which was to run from Constantinople to
Baghdad, and was to be continued to a terminus on the shores of the
Persian Gulf.
[Illustration: “GERMANY AND HER CONFEDERATES”]
Italy was a doubtful ally, but was nominally with Germany too, and
might at least be regarded as neutral.
The German scheme was to deal first with the two great Continental
powers which stood in Germany’s way, France and Russia. If they could
be attacked and overthrown, as she believed they could be, by a swift
onslaught upon each of them in turn, the Continent of Europe would
be at her feet. It was calculated that England would be neither
willing nor able to interfere in their behalf before their fate was
sealed. Then, with France and Russia powerless, or even possibly
enlisted as vassal States, Germany would turn upon the only power
which stood between her and the dominion of the world--England. Having
a contemptibly small Army, and no allies in Europe, England would
either come to heel without fighting, or would be attacked in India
and overwhelmed, probably with the help of the Indians themselves.
Her fleet would not be able to help her against vast armies, German
and other, marching upon the Indian frontier from Asiatic Turkey, and
the few hundred thousand trained men she could put into line would be
swamped by ten times their numbers. Afterwards, if America or Japan
or China gave any trouble, it would be easy enough to deal with them.
The only powers that really counted were the three great European
powers--France and Russia with their trained armies, and England with
her trained fleet.
It was an ambitious scheme, but not one that could be regarded as
visionary. It did not take sufficient account of England’s sea-power;
but undoubtedly if France and Russia had both been struck down,
and England had been left standing alone, he would have been a
very fearless Englishman who could have faced the future without
apprehension. Even supposing that no immediate attack upon England
had followed, her prospect of holding her own indefinitely against a
Germany rapidly outgrowing her in population and wealth would not have
been promising. The silent deposition of the naval power of France by
that of Germany in the course of a few years before the War had been a
striking lesson. But as a matter of fact a great attack upon England
was undoubtedly contemplated. “Der Tag” was to have come, and come soon.
Can any one feel sure that if England had stood by while France and
Russia were overwhelmed she could afterwards have successfully resisted
that attack? The Boer War had shown that at the beginning of the
century a combination of the Continental powers against her was not
improbable. Would it have been less probable fifteen or twenty years
later, when the sea strength of those powers compared with her own had
vastly increased, and when France and Russia had been incensed against
her by her failure to help them in their time of need? And if all the
navies of Europe had joined against her, could she have drawn for help
on India and the Dominions beyond the seas? Would she not have found
it hard enough to protect her own coasts? Happily for her she did not
stand aside, and that issue was never put to the test. Unready for war
as she was, and unwilling, she struck with sure instinct before it was
too late.
Even so, though England threw in her lot with Russia and France, the
struggle was not an unequal one, and, as everyone knows, there were
times when it seemed that the Allies might lose the war, or at all
events fail to make more than a drawn fight of it. Their latent numbers
and resources were greater, but the enemy enjoyed the immense advantage
of having chosen his own time, when he was ready and they were not. He
had also the advantage of united command and of the central position,
whilst the Allies were widely separated. These advantages very nearly
outbalanced latent numbers and resources. Eventually they proved
insufficient to do so, but they nearly succeeded. Nothing prevented
Germany winning but the fact that she had to put out all her armed
power at once, and to fight England then, instead of reserving her
Turkish strength for a separate duel with England later.
How formidable her Turkish strength was, a glance at the map will
show. Not only were the Turks a great military nation, with warlike
traditions and a population capable of raising two millions of fighting
men, but Turkey stood across the Straits between Europe and Asia, and
while guarding them could throw her weight freely upon the East. India
was England’s most sensitive point, the one where she was exposed to
military aggression by land. Strike her there, the Kaiser thought, as
Napoleon had thought before him, and the clay feet of the great image
would crumble under her.
Between Europe and the Indian frontier lies a stretch of country 2500
miles in breadth, held by three independent powers, Turkey, Persia,
and Afghanistan.[14] All these powers are Mahomedan, and of the three
Turkey is, or was in 1914, by far the most powerful. Not only was
she the strongest from a military point of view, but in the eyes of
countless millions of Mahomedans the Sultan of Turkey was the head of
the faith, the true successor of the Prophet; and he was entirely in
German hands. His power extended over a thousand miles, to the frontier
of Persia, which was not only weak, but at the moment unlikely to
use such strength as she had on England’s side. Turks and Persians
certainly did not belong to the same sect of the Mahomedan faith, and
had often been enemies in the past. But the Persians after all were
Mussulmans, and their religious sympathies in any quarrel between
Mahomedans and Christians were sure to be against the Christians.
Persia held a thousand miles more of the space between Europe and
India. Beyond her again to the eastward, right up to the Indian border,
lay the third of the independent powers--Afghanistan. The external
relations of Afghanistan were supposed to be under British control,
and her ruler enjoyed a British subsidy. But his people were turbulent
and fanatical, and belonged for the most part to the same religious
division of Islam as the Turks. They were believed to have little love
for the British, who had more than once invaded their country. Finally,
along the Indian border itself, and inside India, there were perhaps
seventy millions of Mahomedans, some belonging to wild mountain tribes,
constantly at war against the British, and most of the rest inclined
to acknowledge the religious supremacy of the Sultan. These Mahomedans
had, as a rule, served the British Government with fidelity, and formed
a considerable part of the Indian Army. But they too were of the faith.
Surely the Germans had some ground for hoping that if the Turks made
a vigorous push towards India from their own Asiatic territory, their
armies, organised and commanded by German officers, and supported by a
hot religious propaganda, would succeed in doing much evil to England.
They might, perhaps, succeed in sweeping the independent Mahomedan
States with them into a great invasion of India. In any case they would
seriously disturb the country, and probably stir up a Mahomedan revolt
with which England would find it hard to deal. If backed by a great
German army they would be irresistible.
The Kaiser was not far wrong. Even though by joining France and Russia
in 1914 England disarranged the German calculations, and brought on
the Eastern conflict prematurely from a German point of view, it was
shown that there had been good reason for the Kaiser’s confidence.
Turkey under German direction proved strong enough, even without
the help of a German army in the East, not only to repulse a great
Anglo-French attack upon her in the Dardanelles, but to inflict much
loss upon England in Western Asia, and with the aid of a strong
politico-religious propaganda, to cause sensible trouble on the Indian
border. In the end she failed, and the blow which was to have brought
about the overthrow of England in India resulted in the complete
collapse of the Turkish Empire: India, instead of being a source of
weakness to England, turned out to be a great addition to her military
power. But before this result was reached there were four years of
hard fighting, and at times the issue seemed to be very doubtful.
Unquestionably, the Anglo-Turkish conflict was a matter of great
moment, and the result of it seriously affected the success of the
whole German scheme.
It is interesting to consider in some farther detail what was the
strategical position of Turkey with regard to war in Asia when she
elected to draw the sword. The original home of the Ottoman Turks
was on the Asiatic side of the Straits, and it was there that in
this century, if not always, the main strength of the Ottoman Empire
has lain. Asia Minor was the great recruiting ground for the Turkish
armies, and the great central base from which she could strike out
eastward. Assuming that her alliances in Europe, and the possession of
the immensely strong position on the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles,
made her practically secure on the western side, as proved to be the
case, the value of the Asia Minor base for action eastward was very
great indeed. There she could place the bulk of her large army, and
from there she could throw her weight upon the distant possessions of
the Allies, where they were incapable of much mutual help,--upon the
Russians in the Caucasus on her left--upon Persia, and possibly through
Persia upon India in the centre--upon Egypt on her right. The Allies,
hard pressed in Europe, and therefore comparatively weak on these
extremities of the great semicircle, seemed to be at an almost hopeless
disadvantage in meeting the blows she might strike, outwards as it
were from the handle of an open fan towards the end of the spokes. Her
fronts in Asia were three--Armenia, Persia, Palestine; and it seemed
that from her inner position she could act with greater effect upon
each of these fronts than the scattered Allies could do, acting from
the outside inwards.
On the central of the three fronts the Turks were perhaps in a
specially strong position, for they had an established secondary base
in Mesopotamia, with its famous capital Baghdad, to which extended,
though with one or two gaps, the great strategical railway from
Constantinople. Beyond Baghdad they held the lines of the Euphrates
and Tigris rivers, and could push eastward into Persia by the highroad
which from time immemorial has seen the march of conquering armies
eastwards and westwards,--the armies of the Persians for Marathon and
Platæa--the armies of Alexander the Great on their way to India--and
numberless others before and since.
But what German and Turk alike failed to understand, or at all events
to appreciate at its full value, was the sea-power of England.
Sea-power had in old days given Rome the mastery over Carthage, and in
later times it had enabled England to wear out Napoleon. It was to be
the deciding factor now in the overthrow of the Turkish Empire, and
with the Turkish Empire, of the great German scheme of world domination.
For recognising at once the great danger to India of letting the Turks
push forward into Persia, and possibly into Afghanistan, recognising
also the value of the Persian oil-fields and other British interests
in that ancient country, Great Britain had determined not to await
Turkish and German aggression on its Indian frontier, but to meet
the threat with a bold offensive on Turkish soil. Directly it became
certain that Turkey had thrown in her lot with the Central Powers, in
the autumn of 1914, an expeditionary force sailed from India for the
Persian Gulf, and seized the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab, by which the
Tigris and Euphrates pour into the sea. The objects of this expedition
were at first limited. The protection of the oil-wells, of such
importance to our Navy, and the blocking of the German strategical
railway through Baghdad, were all that was immediately contemplated.
But the comparatively easy success of the Indian force, mainly composed
of native Indian soldiery, in defeating the Turkish troops near the
coast, encouraged the British commanders to push on up the rivers into
Mesopotamia. In 1915, a year after the outbreak of war, a force under
General Townshend had taken Kut-el-Amara, three hundred miles from
the sea, and the attack on the Dardanelles being on the point of open
failure, it was decided that as a counterblast to this failure Great
Britain should strike a great blow in the East by marching to Baghdad
and conquering all Turkish Arabia.
[Illustration: MESOPOTAMIA]
It was an important decision, and full of interest in many ways.
Mesopotamia is the cradle of history, sacred and profane. It is the
legendary site of the Garden of Eden, and from its plains, from Ur of
the Chaldees, the Patriarch Abraham set out with his flocks and herds
for the Holy Land. After his day it was the site of great empires.
Babylon lies in the centre of it, Nineveh not far to the north,
Shushan a few score miles to the east. It has seen Grecian and Roman
armies as well as Asiatic hosts, and the first explosion of the new
Mahomedan faith was across its plains to Ctesiphon, and Persia, and
Syria. Baghdad soon arose as the Mahomedan capital, and became famous
throughout the world. Undoubtedly, to attack Turkey in Mesopotamia was
to cover India and Persia from attack on her part; and to beat her
out of Baghdad was to strike her a blow which would resound all over
the world. She would perhaps exhaust herself in trying to recover her
position there, as Napoleon exhausted himself trying to recover from
a similar sea-borne blow in Spain. From the time when Townshend was
ordered to advance on Baghdad, the Mesopotamian Front became one of the
important theatres on which the Great War was being played.
As a fighting ground, Mesopotamia had some advantages for Great
Britain, and some great drawbacks. The southern part of it came down to
the sea, and communications with India and England were therefore open.
Everything required for the conduct of war could be supplied. Moreover,
though the climate of Mesopotamia was hot in summer, it was perhaps, as
before remarked, better suited for the Indian soldiery, who formed the
bulk of the British forces, than what Europeans would consider a more
healthy climate, the temperate climate of Northern France. Its plains
too were free from the geographical obstacles of mountainous countries.
Right up to Baghdad they were flat and bare, very different from the
wild fighting grounds of the Indian frontier, with their rocky peaks
and forest-clad hillsides and rushing torrents.
On the other hand, the summer heat in Mesopotamia was excessive, even
for Indians, and desperately trying to white men, while in winter
the wind and cold were at times severe. Moreover, the very flatness
of the Mesopotamian plains was a difficulty. The great rivers which
wound across them were in the rainy season swollen by the melting
snows of their upper courses, until they overflowed their banks, and
caused vast inundations and swamps impassable for troops. The march of
military forces in the hot season, with the thermometer in tents at
120° or more, was too deadly to face, and movement in the flood season
was impossible; so the real fighting season was almost limited to the
time from the end of the heat till the filling of the rivers--that is,
from about the middle of October to the middle of March.
At all other times, and indeed at all times, the rivers themselves
were the chief means of communication for troops and supplies; and
boats of any carrying power were few. Even when armed movement on
land was possible, any advance against an enemy in position was a
formidable task, for the flat ground afforded not a vestige of cover,
and troops had often to go forward to the assault of trenches over
ground as smooth and bare as a billiard-table, perhaps up to their
knees in mud, with deep swamps on each side preventing any attempt at a
turning movement. Mud, indeed, proved to be a more formidable obstacle
than mountains and ravines. Troops could not advance over it with any
freedom or swiftness, and they could not camp in it without misery and
loss; nor could they be fed in large numbers, for it made the transport
of supplies very difficult. Then the whole country, though not really
friendly to the Turks, was inhabited by Arabs who were anything but
friendly to an invader. Whether in the marshy lands near the rivers or
on the dry plains beyond, they were always hanging on the flanks of
an advancing or retreating force, their desert horsemen as elusive as
the “web-footed” men of the marshes, swift to gather and as swift to
vanish in the mirage of an enchanted land where all seemed fantastic
and unreal. With stubborn Turkish soldiery, organised by Germans,
intrenched in large numbers along the river lines, and supported by
larger numbers of these irregular auxiliaries on every side, the
country was no easy field of action for a British army.
Nevertheless, in spite of all difficulties of climate and ground, the
British expeditionary force had by the autumn of 1915 established
itself in control of the river mouths, with a considerable Turkish
province in its hands. Then, in an evil hour, came the decision to
advance on Baghdad, and a single British Division was pushed forward.
It was a very daring if not an insane project, and it failed. Before
the end of the year the unfortunate Division found itself besieged by
superior forces at Kut-el-Amara, and in the following April, after a
siege of five months, a starving British force of more than 10,000
men, nearly 3000 of them white men, was marched away by the Turks into
bitter captivity.
This was the heaviest blow that had ever been dealt to British arms and
British prestige in Asia. Not only had 10,000 men been taken prisoners,
but the Turks had inflicted upon other British forces trying to relieve
them a series of bloody repulses. Struggling forward, time after
time, with splendid devotion over the muddy flats, in vain attempts
to drive from strong lines of trenches an enemy superior in numbers,
our soldiery, white and black, had lost over 20,000 men in killed and
wounded, and had been forced to admit that for the time they could do
no more. The Turks had won a striking success, the measure of which to
Great Britain was the loss of an Army Corps.
But, much to its credit, the British nation refused to accept the
defeat in Mesopotamia as a final one. Though staggered by it and the
still greater repulse at the Dardanelles, England resolved that the
Turks should yet be conquered. Smarting from her defeats, she was not
wholly just to the leaders who had done all that men could do to effect
impossibilities. Some honourable reputations were sacrificed, and
wrong done to brave and capable soldiers. But at least her resolution
did not fail. Her legions, rapidly increasing not only on the soil of
the British Islands but throughout the Empire, and made available by
her sea-power for employment all over the world, were poured upon the
Turkish frontiers. The Turks had dealt her two stunning blows; but
brave fighters as they had shown themselves to be, they were to learn,
as Germany learnt, that it is not prudent for any nation to rouse the
English.
In Mesopotamia the military chiefs who had failed in their attempts to
reach Kut before its garrison was starved into surrender, were relieved
of their commands, and the Mesopotamian force was entrusted to General
Maude, who, unlike them, was now given time to collect a large army,
properly organised and equipped, and was helped in his task by every
possible means both in India and in England. Troops were sent to him
in numbers sufficient to let him meet the Turks on at least equal
terms, and immense efforts were put forth to give him the necessary
equipment for scientific modern warfare, and the transport necessary
for effective action. Roads and railways were established, and above
all, a great fleet of river steamers was gathered from various parts
of the world, in order that he might be able to use to the full the
natural highways of the country. During the whole summer of 1916 these
preparations were steadily pushed on, with a view to another advance
when the hot weather would be over.
It was to this country, and during this pause in the conflict, that
the Thirteenth were diverted from their work in France. The diversion
was of course a disappointment. The Regiment could no longer hope to
join in the coming triumph on the Western Front. Not for them the
grand pursuit to the Rhine, and on over German country to the gates
of Berlin, and the final march Unter den Linden. It was hard to give
up such a prospect. But it has been shown in what spirit the order
was received. They were soldiers, and their duty was to do their best
wherever they might be most useful to the country. If they were more
wanted in the East than on the Western Front, so be it.
And, after all, perhaps it might be as well for themselves. The coming
triumph in Europe might be long postponed, might even turn out to be
one for the Infantry and guns alone. In the plains of Mesopotamia they
might reasonably look for some Cavalry ground--for some chance of
striking a blow on horseback and justifying their existence. There,
at all events, they would not have the work and the honour altogether
taken out of their hands by the airmen, who were to them what the eagle
was to the horse, and find themselves chafing in impotence while the
enemy defied them from the shelter of his trench lines, against which
they were as useless as unarmed men. Mesopotamia held out some hope to
the cavalryman who still believed in his arm. He might yet get home
with lance and sabre, and take his revenge upon the footmen who had
so long held him at a distance with fortifications and “villainous
saltpetre.” Asia had always been the land of the horseman. Surely it
would be so again.
And he was not wrong. Both in Mesopotamia and in Palestine, horsemen
were to strike heavy blows before the war ended.
CHAPTER X.
SUMMER IN LOWER MESOPOTAMIA.
The voyage of the Thirteenth to Mesopotamia was uneventful but not
altogether pleasant, as any one can understand who has been on board
ship in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf in the month of July. A few
extracts from diaries and letters will give some idea of it.
_Private Massey, “D” Squadron--Diary._--“Réveillé was at 3
A.M. on the morning of the 18th, and I was ordered to stay
behind and load the rifles and swords on the motor-lorry, and went down
to the docks on it afterwards, so I was saved a march of about four
miles. After reaching the docks, the Regiment commenced to embark the
horses and mules. All were soon on board, and at 11 o’clock the ship,
the _Islanda_, set sail, and it was a voyage I shall never forget....”
_July 23, 1916._--“During the voyage we had the horses to water, feed,
and clean out their stalls, which involved a great deal of hard work,
besides which we had to get their forage out of the hold, and carry it
through no end of awkward gangways, and up and down flights of stairs.
Added to this was the awful food we had issued: there was only half
enough to supply the wants of the men, and what there was was unfit
to eat. The mutton we had served up had always to be killed the same
morning. The sheep were herded together in the bow of the ship, and
though they had shelter from the burning sun the poor animals were
nothing but skin and bone: little wonder we could get no meat off the
bones at meal-time. Complaints were made, but it was of little use.
Often at breakfast the porridge was spoilt in the cooking. I remember
we were issued out with presents from the ‘Ladies from the Presidency
of Bombay,’ which included cake, toffee, and games, but there was so
few given to each troop that the three sections in the troops decided
to toss for it, and our section won the games--deuced little comfort
for a man with an empty belly. I myself was so weak that I made sure
my knees would give way under the weight of my body, but the worst
was yet to come. We continued sailing all day of the 24th, and in the
early morning of the 25th July we arrived in close vicinity to the port
of embarkation [_sic_], and after waiting for an hour or two moved
alongside of the bank, and stopped against a sort of promenade which
reached out into deep water. Every one was glad to see land once again,
as it meant the chance of a decent meal anyway, for those who had
money. The sun was now beginning to make itself felt.[15]
“After we had anchored we commenced to disembark the horses and mules.
It was a slow and dangerous job, as horses were led down a gangway from
the ship to the land. Finally, the painful job being finished, we next
commenced to unload the saddles, after having tied up the horses in a
hurdles plot. I myself was stall guard, and I had had to work in the
blazing sun all morning. I had to get into an empty stall to attend to
the horse next to it, and put my topee down on the deck so that I could
get under the entrance, and the horse put his foot on it, smashing the
topee to bits.
“After we had finished the saddles it was getting late, but there was a
lot of hard work to do yet, and I do not remember stopping for meals;
even if we did, it was doubtless the same as the proceeding [_sic_]
days.
“Late at night, and lighted by lamps, we commenced to unload limbers
and guns, also two aeroplanes, from the hold of the ship. Before
commencing, we were issued with a pint of beer each, and what was
left over was taken down in a ship’s jug: thus we were able to get a
refresher now and again, and it did us a great deal of good. It was 4
A.M. of the 26th before we had finished. Réveillé was at 5
o’clock, so we had an hour in which to rest.
[Illustration: ARAB POLICEMAN]
[Illustration: NEGRO WATERMAN]
[Illustration: KURDISH WATER CARRIER]
[Illustration: PERSIAN POLICEMAN]
BASRA
“We lay down on the tables, the benches, and the floor; the hour soon
went, when we got up, and proceeded to unload kit and equipment, then
had breakfast, and then commenced to water the horses, and immediately
prepared to leave for the camp, which was about four miles away.”
Such was Private Massey’s remembrance of the voyage, and if he grumbled
a little, as is the way of the British soldier when he is not fighting,
it must be admitted that he did a long day’s work for his “shilling and
grub.” No forty-hours week for him on a six-pound wage.
Lance-Corporal Bowie’s account of the voyage is short: “The voyage to
Basrah was uneventful, one horse only being lost from the effect of the
heat”; and his Colonel sums it up in exactly the same words.
Another officer writes before the start, giving such news as Bombay
could supply about Mesopotamia. The port was full of sick and wounded
officers and men sent back from there. Their reports were not
unfavourable.
_Captain Eve._--“I gather it is hot and unpleasant just now, but quite
all right. Vegetables and fruits are the great want.... There is a lot
of shooting, they say, and pig, and there is also excellent fishing, so
we ought to have some fun.” But evidently the heat was not negligible,
for “We were all issued with Cawnpore topees instead of our helmets, as
they say they are necessary for Mesopotamia, and I drew one like the
men’s. We wear the Regimental colours on them....
“To-morrow I start at six, when 236 horses arrive by train from
Deolali, where they have been collected from all over the place. I
expect most of them will be partly trained anyhow. There will be half
for ‘D’ and half for ‘A,’ and I shall simply take the first 118 and
let ‘A’ have the other 118. We can pick them out properly if we decide
to at the other end. There are also 75 mules arriving--the whole of
the Regimental transport--so there will be plenty to do, and I shall
be quite content. We shall have to work to-morrow morning. They will
be here by six, have breakfast, and then start away, and the ship has
to be out of the docks by eleven.... There is practically no room for
exercise at all, but it is only a short voyage. I do hope we have luck
and don’t lose many....”
_July 23, 1916._--“All is really well, all of us and the horses very
fit and flourishing. I am so pleased, and hoping with luck to get all
safely ashore.... It was a wickedly hot night the one I wrote to you
in the docks. I got to bed about 12.45, but could not sleep a wink,
with the heat and the noise and thinking about next day. I got up
again about 4.45 and was down before 6, and we worked like anything;
the men were first-class, and we had no trouble with horses or mules,
and were all aboard by 11 A.M. It was extraordinarily lucky
I went round myself the evening before, for I found both the ramps
leading below for the horses from the upper deck were made too low to
let anything but a pony in. Of course I made trouble and had to have
both altered.... Things worked beautifully.... 25 chargers and 235
horses and 84 mules.... The mules we put on board first, a very mixed
lot, mostly in poor condition, some very big, some small, but I think
they will be all right. The horses we simply took straight from the
train on board.... They seem to be all walers,[16] and a small lot on
the whole--some very weedy and light of bone, not many common ones, and
a few showing a lot of quality; very few though showing much scope or
size, and the majority of them in distinctly poor light condition. They
look very healthy, and well in their coats....
“We could hardly be more comfortable than we are on this ship. She is
the best for horses I have ever seen--the men are very comfortable, and
so are we.... There is a lovely head breeze and it is blowing right
through the ship, and it isn’t at all bad below, and all is as well as
possible, and if only it goes on like this we shall, I hope, bring all
in safe and well. Every one said it would be terrible....
“To-day we might get wireless news from Aden or from B.[17] How I do
hope we may. You can’t tell how we want news.... This evening we are
going to have a men’s concert on the boat deck, 8 to 9.30....
“We are as fit as fleas, sweating like anything of course, but I don’t
seem to feel it and am ever so fit, and never been so comfortable and
content on a voyage.... Every one wears shorts, and they are a great
comfort....”
[Illustration: BASRA FORT]
[Illustration: A CREEK]
[Illustration: H. ROBINSON BRIDGE]
[Illustration: SINDBAD’S TOWER]
BASRA
_July 25._--“Everything has worked most awfully well, and we are
now, 7.45 A.M., well on our way up the river.... Last night
was terribly hot. I went below myself about 1 o’clock, and a lot of
horses were blowing badly and we had them out in the hatchways. But
they got through the night well.... There is a most lovely fresh head
breeze, and it is as cool as anything. The river here is wide, and
we are able to full-speed ahead, but so far it is the most terrible
unhealthy-looking place--palm groves very low lying, mud, and sand. Of
course this is only the delta. It ought to be much more interesting
farther up....
“I can’t write proper letters from here, because I am told all
officers’ letters are invariably opened and read right through by the
Censor....
“We anchored about 1 P.M., and then moved on about 3.15 to
our berth, and got tied up about 4.30 to the most ramshackle wooden
pier--everything truly Eastern, you know what I mean. Luckily there was
a good bridge down the river. I disembarked the horses, all down one
gangway, in about 1 hour 20 minutes, and put them in sort of railed
paddocks on shore. It was very hot. We then got to work at baggage, all
the regimental transport, &c., a terrible long, slow business, and we
worked the whole night, and I lay down for three-quarters of an hour.
The men and we slept on board, a guard with the horses on shore. They
came off all fit and well, only two with any temperature. The rest of
the Regiment came in a few hours later and started disembarking too.
They lost one horse _en route_. I saw the Colonel, who seemed very
content. We were at it from 4 next morning, and finally got all ashore
about 7.30.”
So the voyage ended, and the Thirteenth were safely landed in
Mesopotamia, just twenty-eight days after leaving Marseilles. But the
first few months in the country were not agreeable. The heat was great,
and there was no news or excitement of any kind, nothing to do but to
get the men and the new horses fit for the campaign, if there was to
be a campaign, when the weather allowed of movement. For the present
the Turks were not giving any trouble. Since the capture of Kut they
had seemed content to sit quiet, waiting for the British to try another
attack if so disposed. Meanwhile, they strengthened the defensive
positions on the Tigris, from which they had inflicted so many bloody
repulses upon the invaders of their country, and hoped to inflict more.
They did not realise that affairs had changed, that troops and guns
and equipment of all kinds were pouring in from the sea, and that the
attack when it came would be a very different matter from the hasty
frontal assaults in the mud, by small forces, which they had beaten
off before. The British War Office had now taken over from the Indian
Government the control of the expedition, and the whole resources of
England were being set in motion to provide the British force with
all the things necessary for modern war, and above all, with ample
transport for land and river.
The Thirteenth at first suffered considerably. The letter-book from
which I have quoted goes on to speak of the move from shipboard into
camp.
_Captain Eve._--“It was very hot, and we got in about 11 to find our
camp on the edge of the desert, about three miles off and a mile
from the river. All of us in the usual E. P. large Indian tents,[18]
horses in the open, all pretty uncomfortable at first. The men felt
it terribly, and about eight or ten of D went down with heat-stroke
on the way up, including Sergeant Hill. Pearson was knocked over the
night before on the ship and went to hospital, as did all the men, of
course. Next day we spent getting straight more or less, and only led
the horses out. They felt the heat terribly, and poor Mam’zelle and one
or two horses in the squadron died, and several others in the Regiment
too. It was very heart-breaking. Three men in the squadron died, and
two or three others in the Regiment.... I must go and get inoculated
for cholera now. Back again. The horses are a moderate lot, still they
were much better than I expected. I had hardly any men the first few
days, and we were very hard worked. The men simply went down like flies
with the heat. It was partly after the long time without exercise....
“The rest of the day has been wretched--a blinding filthy sand and
desert storm, everything smothered in layers of filth.... Every one
remarks on how well I look. Things were uncomfortable at first, and
most people seemed to feel the heat very much; but I never did, and
have been ever so fit all along and with a tremendous appetite.
[Illustration: BRIDGE OVER ASHAR CREEK]
[Illustration: HUTS UNDER CONSTRUCTION]
[Illustration: ASHAR--BULLOCK TRANSPORT]
[Illustration: THE SQUARE, BASRA]
“They have now built long matting-roofed stables for the horses, who
are improving visibly.... The dust is simply unbelievable. The only
thing beyond desert is date-palm groves, but I am certain here at any
rate it is healthy. We have a field force canteen quite close, so
while we are here shan’t need any of our weekly supplies, but shall
keep everything in reserve. Also the rations are very good, both
porridge and bacon and fresh meat quite often, and things like dried
apricots, figs, &c., and potatoes. We can buy bread here. The ration is
all biscuit....”
The officer commanding the Regiment, Colonel Richardson, dismisses the
period in a very few words. “Our arrival,” he writes, “coincided with
a severe heat-wave, and during the first four days about forty cases
of heat-stroke occurred, of which ten proved fatal. For the next three
months we were stationary in this camp, training and acclimatising
horses and men. The men lived in E. P. tents, and after the first
fortnight suffered comparatively little from the heat, the cool nights
proving a great boon to every one. The chief maladies with which we had
to contend were fever, diarrhœa, and septic sores.”
Private Massey’s account of the heat-wave is as follows:--
“In the blazing heat of a tropical sun we started, each man leading two
horses, besides two haversacks, bandolier containing ninety rounds of
ball ammunition, a water-bottle, and a rifle and bayonet.
“On and on we trekked, men falling out by the way with heat-stroke,
many stark mad, and men were told off to hold the poor devils down,
whilst the motor ambulances raced away with them to hospital at
Ashar.... On getting into camp we tied up the horses, and after
stables the squadron leader, Captain Eve, told us we had had a very
hard time getting off the boat, and thanked us for what we had done,
telling us that such things were likely to happen on active service.
The same night the orderly corporal reported Private Tarr had died in
hospital.... We were glad to get into the tents, and lie down, and
drink lots of iced water.
“Next day, the 27th, Private Killackey was reported dead. Many others
went sick the next few days, some of them dying....
“Thus ended the month of July, but from this time onwards things began
to get better, and the men were getting better food, but there was
a big percentage of sick amongst the Regiment, and men occasionally
became delirious.”
It certainly was a rough beginning, but the men seem to have
acclimatised rapidly. The Regiment had considerable work in training
the hastily provided remounts, some of which stampeded and got lost;
but by the end of September the training was completed, and the
Thirteenth were almost fit for active service again. In October some
regimental and Brigade drills and musketry put on the final polish.
Doubtless the fine physique of the men had much to do with their quick
return to health. Just before they landed to face the Mesopotamian
heat, one of their officers had written:--
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--July 24._--“It was 100° in the shade
this morning, but they say they often get 118° and 120° where we are
going, and of course the trouble is, there isn’t much shade, so it is
generally 150° to 160°....
“All the men wear next to nothing, probably a thin vest and a thin pair
of pants: I never realised before what a magnificent lot of men they
are, their physique is marvellous; of course, they ought to be, as they
are the original old Army plus K.’s best men....
“There is a decent breeze this morning, and it’s just like a heat from
an oven striking you in the face!...”
Some further letters from officers of the Regiment will show how the
summer passed.
_Captain Eve--August 3._--“Here we are likely to remain for the next
six weeks or so, training our horses and getting them fit. We are under
canvas, and the horses in straw-matting stabling.... It is of course
very hot, but it is very dry heat, and the nights are cool.... Dust and
sand-storms are the worst thing....
“I have got young Pedder, a very nice fellow, transferred to me, and am
now full up again with officers and have a very good squadron....”
_2nd Lieutenant Pedder--August 3._--“We are staying here for at least
two months in a desert about four miles from where we disembarked....
I have got no news: there is none out here, every day is precisely
the same as the one before.... There’s a hot sand-storm raging this
morning: we get it pretty regularly every day. I have got hold of one
very nice new horse; of course all these horses are untrained, so we
have an awful job with them. Yes, Stirling is all right, and Munster,
who fell out at Port Said, has rejoined us.”
_Captain Eve--August 3._--“We all wear neck-shades on our Cawnpore
helmets, and all wear spine-pads and short sleeves. Later we shall wear
our coats, but now no one does, and the men have khaki shorts too....
“I bought what they call a chágal in Bombay, a canvas bag for water,
which you hang up full, and which keeps cool. We have all had them
issued to us as well, so we are well off. They are invaluable, and
the drinking-water is good, and we mostly live on that, some with
lime-juice and tea....
“You have no idea the dust, heat, and discomfort in which I write. If
the letter arrives in a mucky state you will know. You don’t know what
a sand-storm is like, and that with real heat and all the sand turning
to dirty mud under one’s hands and arms when one was sweating, and
one’s indelible pencil staining one all over for the same reason.”
The heat, apparently, was more than uncomfortable, for in spite of
the writer’s hearty appetite and contentment, and the sober joys of
the “chágal” (which, by the way, rhymes approximately with “gargle,”
as “jangal” becomes “jungle”), his letters for the next fortnight are
written from hospital in Basra. Still they are contented enough.
“I shall be very comfortable indeed here, and shall stop till both my
complaints are really right. This is a nice high, big, cool building
right on the river, with electric fans, and light, and all that sort of
thing--in fact, civilised comforts.”
The Thirteenth were certainly fortunate in that way, that they came to
Mesopotamia too late to share the horrible discomforts and sufferings
endured by the sick and wounded during the campaigns of 1914 and 1915,
before the medical arrangements had been fully organised.
“The General came to see me last evening, and sat talking a long time.
I thought it so nice of him. But he really is simply charming....
“I feel fairly well this morning--just a bit weak and tired, of course.
The great thing is the comfort here. A tent in the desert is not a
paradise when you are feeling ill.”
_Lieutenant Munster--August 4._--“The heat is not as bad as I expected.
Dust is the great trouble at the moment....
“I do not think I can compare this place to anything I have ever seen.
There are little creeks off the river, and the banks are covered with
date-palms, but a little way from the river there is nothing but dust.
“A few Bombay shops have opened branches in the town, and we can get
most things that we want--of course, at a high price.”
Lieutenant Munster must have had a contented disposition in regard to
climate, for another officer writes:--
_Lieutenant Chrystall--August 4._--“We are close to the Garden of
Eden. We cannot go outside from 9 till 5 owing to the heat, which is
now 120° in the shade. The flies and mosquitoes are positively awful,
and sand-storms are the order every day; water is at a premium and is
rationed out, so you see everything in the Garden is not lovely.”
_Captain Eve--August 16._--“First all is well--no need to worry. I am
convalescent, as I knew I soon should be, and am now (moved yesterday)
in the Officers’ Convalescent Hospital, about four miles down the river
from Basra, and feeling very fit and well. I expect I shall be here a
week; it’s a really nice place--large two-storied bungalow facing on
the river: I don’t intend going back till I am really fit.
“There is no news at all here: one is buried in an absolute backwater,
and there is nothing at all going on out here, not a shot being fired
by us or the Turks, I believe. Occasionally there are Arabs to be dealt
with, but that’s all. They are always scrapping either among themselves
or with some one else.... I believe we shall do no more fighting with
the Turk--that he’ll most probably have chucked it before the time when
we could do anything real here comes along. I look upon this just as
an exile like India.... Sometimes it is hard to be really keen about
the training one does, feeling as I do about things here, though there
is really tons to be done.... I wish one could know more, but I will
always be hopeful, and, oh! I pray for the end, though I hardly see it
in sight yet. But one never knows.”
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--August 17._--“We had a small stampede here
the other day, 3 troops clearing off into the desert; however, after
many searchings we have retrieved all except 7 horses. The Shemal
(strong north wind which covers everything with dust) is still going
strong (supposed to last 40 days--it has been on 21 days now). We get a
fortnight’s intense heat, then it gradually gets cold, and in December
there is a freezing wind which goes through you apparently. You would
laugh to see us walking about in the daytime (when we have to) in
stockings, shorts, shirts, sunshade, spine-protector, goggles, and a
large umbrella, khaki!”
_Captain Eve--August 21._--“The rest of the Brigade is arriving at
once, but I doubt if we shall leave here for a month yet. It is dull,
but really a good thing, for there is such a lot to be done, with all
new horses and so on, and then one wants to get all one’s men well
acclimatised. As it is, there are a good many still in hospital, but
they’ll mostly be coming out soon.
“Lake, who has been in command out here, leaves to-day ... and I
believe we are to get Cobbe, lately on the Staff with us, the Indian
Cavalry Corps, in France.[19]
“The worst of the hot weather is about over, and it is slowly getting
cooler now. It is anyhow infinitely better than India. Here at the base
we are doing ourselves pretty well. It is up at the Front when trouble
begins, owing to the great shortcomings in the transport.”
_August 23._--“First, I am out of hospital, and back at work with the
Regiment, and ever so fit and well. Next, I have got Caprice,[20] and
was riding her this morning.... Caprice is of course looking a bit
pulled down and poor, but has still good stuff on her, and is very
lively, and bright, and hungry, and searching me for sugar, which I
haven’t got here.”
No, the end was not in sight yet, nor would be for two years longer,
and meanwhile the Turk was to do much stiff fighting, and the writer
was to ride Caprice yet through some long days of it.
_Lieutenant Chrystall--August 24._--“The heat is very bad to-day, and
you find me writing this under a mosquito-net at 3 P.M. The
flies are awful, and without a net writing would be impossible. I am
lying practically stark naked, and am sweating buckets! Bathing is
carried on in a very primitive form. I stand on a sack (after dark, of
course) and simply sponge myself all over from a horse bucket--it is
the best one can do, and it really is not half bad.”
_Captain Eve--August 30._--“Still a very large sick list among the men,
but the weather is better and the nights cool.... Of course all the
middle of the days one can do absolutely nothing. That is one of the
great trials of the East to me....
“We have nothing definite about moving yet, nothing but rumours. The
great difficulties out here are transport and supply, and at this time
of year the river is at its lowest, which, of course, makes great extra
trouble.”
These Mesopotamian rivers, the only real lines of communication, were
in fact very difficult to use. In the hot season they became so shallow
that even flat-bottomed steamers of small draught found it hard to
avoid sticking on their innumerable loops and sand-banks. At the same
time, though there was some dry ground, troops could not march on
account of the heat. When, on the contrary, it rained, the dry ground
rapidly turned to deep alluvial mud, or was even covered with water,
while the rivers became too swift for boats unless very powerful and
handy.
_Lieutenant Munster--August 31._--“We carry out the same routine--early
parade, and then slack about in the tent till about 5 o’clock. Some
people shoot in the evening. I believe there are some pigeons about.
There is moderate fishing here as well.... Perhaps I shall begin to
learn to knock a polo-ball about soon. A few people play in the desert
in a rough sort of way.”
_September 7._--“We are still at the base. I have just got a pony. We
are each allowed one to carry pack-saddles, and they have been selected
with a view to polo: probably we shall play quite a lot later on.”
Poor boy. His experience of polo was to be a very short one.
_Lieutenant Chrystall--September 7._--“We are getting much cooler
weather now--although the desert is not the ideal spot to live in....
The nights are generally good.”
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--September 14._--“Last Monday it was 112°
in the shade in our hut, and yesterday it was never higher than 89°,
and dropped to 45° at night; everybody turned into bed early, and
most people pulled their beds into their tents and then slept in
a blanket.... It is much cooler now altogether, and at night one
realises how cold it is going to be in six weeks or so....”
_Lieutenant Chrystall--September 26._--“We have just got a patent
fly-trap in the mess, a Japanese thing which slowly revolves a wooden
wheel on which you place sugar and lime-juice: the flies are gradually
dropped over into a cage. This is a great invention and catches them by
the handful.... Our sick list is diminishing now, I am glad to say, as
it does make work so hard for the men, having about five horses to look
after. This country is remarkably good for horses, and they do very
well except for a sort of biliary fever.”
_2nd Lieutenant J. O. P. Clarkson--Amara, Mesopotamia--October
15._--“I’ve been sent up here on a course for a few days. I came up by
river. We passed Ezra’s tomb: there is not very much to see really; we
were allowed inside, but had to take our shoes off. The boat was rather
wide, rather like a Thames paddle-steamer, except they have a second
storey to them, and are open all round. They are boats that used to be
on the Irawaddi before the War. We churned up the river, with a barge
in tow on either side, and in this manner we went right up-stream. We
often bumped into the banks of the river, especially at the turns, and
there are some very nasty ones. Some were absolutely hairpin turns, and
some were lively S-bends, so between the two we had quite a lovely time
bumping into the banks. After we had got a short way up the Tigris we
went at a walking pace for a whole day--that was in the narrows. There
are plenty of Arab villages, and the whole population would turn out
offering us chickens and eggs. We had the band of the 104th going up on
the same boat, so we had music every evening. The Arabs used to love
the band, and would run alongside the boat and jump and dance and shout
and clap their hands. One evening when the band was playing we came
across a large band of Arabs building a railway or something; anyway
when they heard the music they didn’t exactly ‘down tools,’ but picked
them up, stopped work, and came rushing up and down and waved their
spades, &c., in the air.
“We are billeted in an Arab house, and on the other side is the Club,
which has been well organised. There are several concert troupes here,
and they are very good.”
_Captain Eve--October 18._--“We have not moved yet, but I hope and
think we shan’t be long. It is still very hot in the afternoons, but
the mornings are good now, and so are the nights. We are very busy and
all very fit, but very heartily sick of this place, and looking forward
to a move, and to the march, which should be great fun--they always
are--and to the chance of some good shooting _en route_. We are ready,
but have no orders yet. The river is still very low, but should rise a
foot next month. This makes all the difference. This whole campaign is
a question of transport and supplies--the great difficulty of getting
the latter.
“I don’t expect we go farther than Amara, a ten days’ march, at
present, as that is, I fancy, the farthest point which full supplies
reach yet. But anyhow that will be part way, and a welcome change.
This spot is, of course, the worst out here for climate. It is degrees
cooler and healthier farther up. Still we have a very small sick list
now, though we have lost a lot of men since we got here.
“Horses do wonderfully well here, and look, and are, as fit as fleas.
Of course they are on a full and very good ration here, so they ought
to do well. It’s for their sakes entirely that I don’t want to go
farther up than full supplies are getting to. I can imagine no greater
misery than seeing one’s horses slowly starving on half rations....
I go on the river in the evening sometimes, generally in a _bellum_
(native boat) ... something like a gondola, worked by punting or
paddles. The river is full of life these days, tremendous activity, and
there is always something to see. Also it’s a great relief after the
desert.”
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--October 25._--“Anniversary of Balaclava,
1854. To-day is a whole holiday, as the Regiment took part in the
charge of the Light Brigade. This evening there’s a hockey match,
officers _v._ sergeants. I am playing, but rather funk it, as I’m so
stiff after playing ‘D _v._ B’ Squadron yesterday. It was a draw, 0--0.
We went out grouse-shooting this morning.”
[Illustration: MAKINA--SERGT. G. COOK’S GRAVE
(DIED FROM EFFECTS OF HEAT, 27TH JULY 1916)]
[Illustration: BREAKFAST ON THE MARCH]
_Lieutenant Chrystall--October 30._--“Our messing arrangements out here
are rather funny. I have to beg, borrow, or steal firewood, as there
is absolutely not a stick in the country; everything has to come from
India, even firewood. Then meat is awfully scarce, and of course tough,
like leather. You also see me chasing a poor unfortunate misshapen
chicken, and falling over a tent rope in endeavouring to collar it, in
true ‘Rugger’ style.”
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--November 2._--“We really are moving
to-morrow and have got a long march in front of us. It is very hot
again, but the nights are very cold. Just been given (every officer
gets one on going up-country) a sackful of war gifts--thick pyjamas,
boots, fly-nets, shaving-soap, books, eatables, &c., &c.--ripping
things.... Played polo for the Regiment yesterday, and a very good
farewell concert last night.”
So ended the summer training in camp, and the comparative inaction for
the Thirteenth. Much of all this may seem trivial, and no real part of
the doings of the Regiment in the Great War. But war, and especially a
war of such magnitude, cannot be all fighting. The greater part of any
campaign is made up of comparatively peaceful days, during which the
soldier sees no shot fired. They are none the less an important time,
full of work, and yet not without rest and pleasure, all of which have
much to do with his fitness when the fighting days come upon him. The
months spent in the desert camp at Basra, far from the front, had not
been wasted. The end of them found the Thirteenth in good health and
spirits, with men hardened to the climate and horses properly trained.
They had two trying years in front of them, years in which they were to
see much rough fighting and hardship. It was fortunate for them that
they had had this breathing space before being thrown into the actual
conflict.
CHAPTER XI.
MARCH TO THE FRONT--MAUDE’S PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.
On the 3rd of November, the 7th Cavalry Brigade marched out of their
desert camp and set their faces northward. The Brigade marched in four
echelons, of which the Hussars formed the fourth.
[Illustration: _THE ADVANCE FROM BASRA_
SCALE ABOUT 100 MILES TO THE INCH]
[Illustration: ON THE TIGRIS]
There was nothing particularly exciting about the march. It was a
pleasant change from the life of a stationary camp, and the Regiment
passed some interesting places on the Mesopotamian rivers, among them
the alleged site of the Garden of Eden, near the junction of the Tigris
and Euphrates--a dreary spot now. “No wonder the Twelve Apostles
deserted,” was, according to General MacMunn, a British soldier’s
comment on seeing it. Farther up on the bank of the Tigris was Ezra’s
tomb. “The most beautiful of all vignettes is the hedge-sparrow
dome ... set in a small grove of palms.” Throughout this country,
and Persia, the little blue-tiled domes under a cloudless sky are a
familiar feature. And all along the line of march were points which
had acquired some fame in the recent campaigns, before the Thirteenth
joined the Expeditionary Force. Here and there some enterprising
sportsmen found a little game, which went to swell the camp pot. But
there was no fighting--the Turks being still to the northward and still
inactive, awaiting attack, while the Arab natives of the country gave
no trouble beyond occasionally trying to steal rifles at night, which
made it necessary to keep a careful watch and form specially arranged
night camps.
The following extracts from letters give a more personal touch, and
show the daily course of affairs on the way up.
_Captain W. H. Eve--November 1, 1916._--“We have finally got our
orders.... Each day we march in the morning of course, and we camp on
arrival in a square--what is called a perimeter camp. The plan for
ours is, [Illustration] AH, BH, CH, DH show the Hotchkiss guns of each
squadron. We take over more than 300 remounts to lead up with us as far
as Amara. They come here immediately before we start. The squadron
gets 80 as its share. It will mean pretty hard work for the unfortunate
men. We have got any amount of transport--in fact I hardly know how we
shall fill it.... So we shall travel in tremendous comfort, and cart
along all our luxuries, such as tables, chairs, &c.... The horses do
look well. My own are pictures, and the whole squadron is a pleasure to
go round.”
_November 6._--“I have to write to-day to catch the mail from this
place, Kurna, where we are just settling down, 1.15 P.M., with
a very nice camp in some palm-trees by the river. I am enjoying myself
now, though the first couple of days were uncomfortable.... We had
taken over a batch of remounts before we started, 80 per squadron--all
but half a dozen great cart-horses for gunners. They are very quiet,
most of them, but it means nearly double work for the men, and they
have all to be led with halters only, and lots of the men are leading
two, so you can imagine what it is like. How thankful I shall be when
we drop them at Amara.... Those that are not heavy draught are ponies
for infantry chargers.
“Saturday was a horrid day, cloudy, strong south wind, and trying to
rain, and very sticky; ... yesterday, Sunday, was the same sort of
day.... We had a long bridge of boats to cross over the old Euphrates
into Kurna, and that took time.... This is far and away the nicest camp
we have had, in fact the only nice one, and we are very comfortable
here.... We are on the right bank west still, but cross to the other
before we get to Amara. The palms end here, and there is corn, &c.,
on the banks. The new railway is here close beside us, this section
apparently about finished, but I don’t know how far. We are getting our
soda-waters refilled at the hospital here.”
The new railway was one of the many works undertaken to strengthen
the communications of the army, and make it movable and feedable when
the time for the advance should come. With a railway behind him,
and a fleet of river steamers, the new General was to be in a very
different position from his unfortunate predecessors, pressing on with
insufficient numbers and supplies in desperate endeavours to relieve
the starving garrison of Kut.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: ON THE BANKS OF THE TIGRIS]
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--Garden of Eden--November 6._--“Just got
in and hear there is a mail out at 7 to-morrow, so just a short
line to tell you I am very fit. This morning we started at 9 and did
not get here till 3.30. I had a bathe, and then went for three or
four miles with a gun to see if I could find any partridges or snipe,
but saw nothing. This is our fourth day’s march, and we are at last
in Mesopotamia proper (_i.e._, land in between the two rivers). It’s
awfully pretty here, and we are right on the Tigris. Yesterday Box
(Jeffrey) and I got permission to walk from the second camp to the
third in the hopes of getting some shooting; we started off one and
a half hours before the Regiment, and got in one hour after it, and
walked about fifteen miles. I enjoyed it very much, but we saw only
four brace of partridges, and got two and a half brace. At the next
camp I believe there is some good duck-shooting.
“The march is rather spoilt as we’ve got 300 remounts to lead, and so
it just doubles the amount of work for the men; however, we drop the
remounts in six days’ time at Amara.
“Yesterday it actually rained, or tried to, for 2 or 3 minutes. I
haven’t put up my 80-lb. tent yet this march; it’s perfect sleeping out
in the open still, as long as one has three or four blankets on one’s
camp-bed, as I do.
“Dinner!
“Later. Perfect night to-night; have been for a stroll on the river
promenade; very tired, so must turn in as réveillé is at 5.30
to-morrow. Boiling hot again to-day, very fit but very tired, so
night-night.”
_Amara, November 12._--“Just a very hurried line, as post goes at 7
to-morrow, to say I am very fit, after 150 miles; we have been just
ten days getting to Amara. I have hardly marched with the Regiment
at all, as each day I and one or two others have got leave to shoot
independently on to the next camp; to-day, for instance, Twist,
Jeffrey, and I left the last camp at eight and shot our way here,
getting about fifty head. I got 5 brace of partridges, 4 couple of
snipe, 5 sand-grouse, and 1 duck--a great day. We arrived here two
hours after the Regiment, whom we never saw once on the way.... This
seems a topping place, but we go on another six miles to-morrow and
join the Brigade: how long we shall be there no one knows at present.
I have enjoyed the march like anything, bar one or two nights when we
struck thousands of mosquitoes. Thank goodness we have handed over all
the remounts we had to bring up here and which delayed us so. The last
two or three days I have been wading about in shorts after duck and
snipe. It is very cold at night now, but still very hot between 12 and
3. Had a tremendous dinner to-night--soup, whole partridge and peas,
boiled mutton, onion sauce and beans, tinned peaches and rice, a snipe,
followed by a cigar and a bowl of cocoa.... The sand-grouse came over
to-day in swarms and blackened the whole sky, most of them much too
high; must turn in now as I am dead tired.”
_Captain W. H. Eve--Amara--November 12._--... “To-day we have marched
fifteen miles to this place and didn’t get in till about 1.30, and
then went straight on to the Remount Depot and handed over the
remounts--thank goodness! It’s been rather a rotten march so far,
spoilt by these remounts, which have made a terrible lot of work and
caused us to march very slowly, only at a walk, and it has been very
hard indeed on the men and very tiring for all of us.... The flies and
mosquitoes at some of our camps have been wicked. I should think this
is quite a nice place [Amara], but have hardly had time to see. Our
shooting has been spoilt by our being the last lot of four, and now we
can only shoot with an escort, which I shall hate, so I don’t suppose
we shall do very much. They say there aren’t any pig to be found till
the rains, when they all get flooded out into the desert. We have been
through all sorts of country, a lot very dreary dry marsh, but some
very nice, like moorland, short turf and thick scrub. Hardly any just
sandy desert since the first few days.
_November 14._--... “We left the dirty camp at Amara at 8.30 yesterday
and marched out here, about 6½ miles up-stream, just on the bend of the
river. This is a really nice camp. The country is short heathy turf
covered with camel thorn, but all very dry and hard now, and on the
opposite bank are gardens and palm groves.... The camp is really as in
peace-time, and they have trumpet-calls and all that sort of thing.
There are no enemy near except Arab rifle thieves.... I suppose we
shall start regular work here very soon, but we shan’t be able to do so
much with the horses, as they only get 3 lb. of hay, the rest _bhoosa_
(chopped straw), and only 10 or 11 lb. of grain--uncrushed barley and
bran.... I am so cosy and comfortable in my 80-lb. tent--the same as
we had in India. We have moved the whole of our tents and the mess
right up on to the river bank, where all the officers now are, and we
have fixed up one mess-tent with the river side of it up horizontally
and open to the river, and it is very nice.... We are under orders
to hold ourselves in readiness to move from to-morrow, but no orders
have come, so I’m afraid we are not off yet. But a big native boat has
been secured for the Brigade in which some of the heavy kit is being
carried.”
[Illustration: THE RIVER FRONT, AMARA]
[Illustration: PONTOON BRIDGE, AMARA]
_November 15._--“Away to the east you can plainly see the Persian
foothills about forty miles off.
“We are all right so far for rations ourselves, getting fresh meat
quite often, and a full allowance; but our unfortunate horses are now
on three-quarter rations of grain only, and that uncrushed barley, and
hardly any hay, with a little chopped straw in turn. We hope when the
railway is finished this may be put right, but it is bad at present,
and means we dare do very little with them. The railway is finished in
great parts, and they hoped would be through this month. Let’s only
hope so....
“The nights are cold, but the days still hot, much more so than I
expected. That’s what makes the climate trying, the tremendous changes
during the twenty-four hours. But I think it’s very healthy up here,
and we are all very fit and flourishing, and hardly any sickness among
the men either. My only anxiety is my poor horses.
“They have got canteens going now both here [and] at the Front, so we
can replenish always, and are doing ourselves quite well.”
_Lieutenant Chrystall--November 19._--“We have passed through the
Garden of Eden, and a sterile beastly place it looks; and how old Adam
existed Heaven only knows, for there is nothing to eat except dates and
dust! The next place we passed of interest was the tomb of Ezra, one
of the minor prophets? ’Tis a great place of pilgrimage for the Jews.
One finds the reading of the Old Testament very interesting, as all the
parts round about here are mentioned therein, and also all the customs,
&c., and one can see many Abrahams and Ishmaels with the flocks and
herds moving over the desert and round the banks of the river.”
_Captain S. O. Robinson--November 19._--“Since I last wrote we have
moved up the river some distance.... I believe that we are going up
farther in a day or two--_i.e._, if they can supply us. Our horses are
on half-rations at present, but the men are well fed.
“I bought a cheap shot-gun in Bombay before we started, and it has been
very useful. There are plenty of sand-grouse and partridge about, which
make a very useful addition to the pot. The flies are worse than ever.”
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--November 19._--“This letter ought to
reach you just before Christmas, so here are the best wishes for a
happy Christmas. I have certainly never written those words before
on as hot a day as to-day, ... and though I’ve written to Bombay
for a thousand cartridges I don’t know when I shall get them, and I
am practically out now, like every one else; it’s a rotten state of
affairs, as there are now thousands of ducks, geese, grouse, and the
farther one gets up-country naturally the shorter the rations get and
game is invaluable.... From the number of troops coming up-country, I
should think there ought to be a fairly good show out here, but it is
impossible to say. I am very fit, and am sleeping in my tent on the
edge of the Tigris, and have a swim when I get up at 7 every morning.
I went into the Bazaar at Amara two days ago and tried to find some
curios to send home, and am sending a pair of Arab stirrups and perhaps
a bed quilt.... Played polo last night and went out shooting this
morning, and am going again this evening.... I enjoyed the march up
here awfully, and am looking forward to going on. Very fit, no news
whatever.”
_November 26._--“A very tiny line to thank you for that ripping
waistcoat. I wear it every evening. I am sending home some stirrups,
but am keeping the bed quilt as it is so nice and warm.... Yesterday
I got a beautiful hare, and we are having it to-night ... in fact, we
are pretty well living on game, and have partridges and bacon even
for breakfast ... but it will be more difficult to cater when our
cartridges are finished. Am very fit, and have got rid of a filthy
cold I had for a week, and have handed it on to Eve. The men are very
excited, as they think they are at last going to have a show.”
The Regiment marched from Amara on the 28th November and was moving
steadily up the river Tigris towards the Front. Captain Eve writes on
the 1st December:--
[Illustration: THE BAZAAR]
[Illustration: VIEW FROM HOUSETOP]
[Illustration: MAHEILAS
AMARA]
“This march is as nice as the other one was nasty, and I am
thoroughly enjoying it, and the men are as cheery as crickets. The
General and Foster have gone on in front by boat, so the Colonel is
commanding the Brigade and Twist the Regiment. Also having no remounts
now to lead, we are able to trot along and march a decent pace, and we
go largely across country. It has nearly all so far been heathy country
with low thorn-scrub and lots of ditches, and it is excellent for the
men and horses.... We camp in a huge square, always the same way.... We
usually get in between 11.30 and 12, and then to stables, water, and
feed. In the afternoon shooting, &c., but I haven’t been out, for I
have only one cartridge left. That is my only grouse.... Of course we
have patrols all round the camp at night and no one is allowed outside.
Also at 5 every evening we all parade round the edge of the camp in
the places we should occupy in case of attack. The only thing to be
carefully watched for is Arab rifle thieves. I sleep with my pistol
inside my flea-bag with me.... Here we are about as close as we ever
get to the Persian hills--about twenty miles--and they are very clear
and look so nice when one is in a flat plain, though they look very
barren and bare. We aren’t on the river bank here, though quite close.
There is generally something to be seen on the river, and the monitors
look very workmanlike, and I like seeing them....”
_Arab Village--December 8._--“Here we are at our destination and all
well.... Maude, who commands out here, came and saw us march in....
General Headquarters is also here and some other Divisions. The
trenches are about 8000 yards forward from here. We had an aeroplane
over yesterday--a great shooting but no luck, so I expect they know of
our arrival by now. We have two pontoon bridges over the river here,
and there are other camps on the north side as well.... A light railway
runs up from Sheikh Saad to the trenches.”
At last, therefore, the Thirteenth had reached the real Front. The
Regiment was then in excellent health and spirits, and in full
numerical strength. The list of officers shows Lieut.-Colonel J. J.
Richardson in command, Major E. F. Twist second in command, four
Captains, six Lieutenants, and sixteen 2nd Lieutenants--a young lot,
but perhaps none the worse for that. At Arab Village the newly-arrived
7th Brigade and the 6th Brigade, which had been in the country over
a year, were formed into a Cavalry Division under Brigadier-General
Crocker. The 6th Brigade consisted of the Fourteenth Hussars and the
21st and 22nd Indian Cavalry. So, after a lapse of a hundred years, the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth, the old Ragged Brigade of the Peninsular
War, were again together on service, but some thousands of miles away
from Europe.
It has been noted that Lieut.-General Maude, who now commanded the army
in Mesopotamia, had met the 7th Brigade as it marched into the camp at
Arab Village, and that his own Headquarters were there also.
General Maude had succeeded General Lake some months earlier, and had
now made all his preparations for a renewed advance against the Turkish
army, which ever since the fall of Kut in April had flaunted its
victorious banners in face of the British invaders of Mesopotamia, and
not only defied them to retake the place, but threatened to strike out
beyond them at Persia and India.
Before giving an account of the memorable campaign that followed, in
which the Thirteenth Hussars bore an honourable part, it may be well,
at the risk of some repetition, to explain more fully how matters stood
when the advance began.
It has been said that the military power of the Turks in Asia was in
fact the Eastern wing of the great combination organised by Germany
for the conquest of the world. In Europe the Germans, Austrians, and
Bulgarians were to overthrow and conquer the main armies of the Allies.
In Asia the Turks, aided by German officers and military resources,
were to strike out eastward and beat down such forces as the Allies
could spare to meet them. Russia was to be attacked in the Caucasus,
Russia and England were to be attacked in Persia, which was the
highroad to India also, and England was to be attacked in Egypt. The
Turkish armies, consisting of several hundred thousand men, securely
based upon Asia Minor, were thus to act upon three great Asiatic
fronts--the Caucasus on their left, Persia in the centre, Egypt on the
right.
Their lines of communication were no doubt long and imperfect, for
their railways were not complete; but holding the inner position, the
handle of the fan as it were, they were very favourably situated
in comparison with the Allies, who had to meet them by acting
disconnectedly from outside the semicircle formed by the open fan,
while the Turks could strike from inside along the spokes.
In 1914 and 1915 and 1916 there had been fighting on all three fronts
of the semicircle--on the Russian frontier towards the Caucasus, the
Turkish left; in Persia and Mesopotamia, the Turkish centre; on the
frontier of Egypt, the Turkish right. The fighting had fluctuated, but
it may be said roughly that on the two wings, towards the Caucasus and
towards Egypt, the position was stationary. The Turks had held their
own. In the centre they had pushed into Persia and gained some partial
success, but as an offset against this, British forces coming from
India by sea had landed in the Turkish province contiguous to Persia,
and had overrun a considerable part of it. Even here, however, the
most recent phase of the war had ended in favour of the Turks. They
had repulsed a rash advance on the part of the British, and, shutting
up in Kut the force which made it, had beaten off with great slaughter
all British attempts at relief, and had finally captured a British
Division of 10,000 men. The total loss inflicted upon the British in
these operations had been over 30,000. In December 1916, therefore, the
prospects of the Turks on their central front were not unpromising.
Though they had not conquered Persia, still less succeeded in seriously
threatening India, they had made matters very unpleasant for the
British in Asia, and inflicted a severe blow upon British prestige.
During the hot weather of 1916 both sides had been preparing for a
renewal of the conflict upon this front, and the campaign was now about
to open.
Judging from a variety of indications, it seems clear that the Turks
and their German advisers had decided that the plan of the coming
campaign in Asia should be as follows. On their two wings, towards the
Caucasus and towards Egypt, the Turks were to content themselves with
holding their own, or gaining such success as could be gained without
any serious drain on their resources. There was not any vital object to
be attained by an advance in force upon these fronts; or at all events
a determined advance upon the central front offered a greater chance of
decisive results. If Persia could be again invaded, with real success
this time, and a Turkish army, or at least a vigorous propaganda,
could be pushed on from Persia through Afghanistan to the Indian
frontier, the great object of the Asiatic war, which was the overthrow
of the British in India, might yet be secured. In comparison with that
object nothing else mattered. The Turkish weight, therefore, was to be
thrown upon the central front.
But this much being decided, there remained the question how, exactly,
the blow was to be struck. Was the British force in Mesopotamia to be
destroyed as a preliminary to a further advance into Persia, or were
the two operations to be attempted at the same time, or could the
British in Mesopotamia be left alone for the moment and an advance
into Persia, into their rear, be made without attacking them directly?
From the great city of Baghdad, the capital of Turkish Arabia, and the
immediate base for operations on the central front, it was possible
to avoid the Mesopotamian route, and to strike at Persia by a more
northerly line. Which of the three schemes was the best to adopt? The
question seems to have been considered in detail.
Eventually it was decided that the third was the most promising. The
argument which prevailed with the Turks or their German advisers seems
to have been that the British army in Mesopotamia, though lately
worsted in its onslaught on prepared positions, was a formidable enemy
to attack in the field, and one moreover who was being reinforced from
England and India. Such an attack would be a very serious and at best
a lengthy operation. It would be better to avoid a direct attack, to
make such threats and demonstrations in Mesopotamia as would suffice
to keep the British in apprehension of a Turkish offensive, and to
leave them facing the positions from which they had suffered so many
repulses at the beginning of the year. They would probably be careful
about assaulting those positions again, and if in the meantime a
Turkish force were to invade Persia, they would probably have to
expend their strength in meeting it there. A considerable number of
troops was therefore prepared for an advance on the Persian frontier
by northerly routes, while the Turks in Mesopotamia were reinforced to
such an extent only as seemed sufficient for the maintenance of their
main positions on the Tigris, and for threatening demonstrations on the
Euphrates.
It must be admitted that this reasoning was strategically not unsound,
and that against a timid or over-cautious commander it might well
have succeeded. Happily for Great Britain, the new British leader,
General Maude, was a man who combined reasonable caution with the
knowledge that war cannot be successfully waged without incurring some
risks; and happily also, the summer months when active warfare was
impossible had been utilised by the British War Office to reinforce
and equip his army with such vigour and thoroughness that it had
become a much more formidable weapon than the Turks imagined. Not only
had additional troops been poured into Mesopotamia from France and
elsewhere, until the numerical superiority had passed to the British,
but in other respects the force had been completely reorganised. By
the end of the summer light railways had been pushed forward, river
steamers in great numbers had been collected from various parts of the
world, stores of food and supplies of all kinds had been sent up the
Tigris and Euphrates, the ports and the rivers themselves had been
vastly developed for traffic. By the end of October General Maude
had been able to move his headquarters from the base at Basra to the
neighbourhood of the Turkish positions, in the knowledge that the
difficulties of transport had been overcome, and that he had now under
his hand a force of troops superior in numbers to his enemy, and sure
for the future of food and all necessary supplies. It had been a great
effort, and his own exertions had been incessant, but the worst was
over. In a few weeks more, when the weather became fit for campaigning,
he would be able to go forward with every hope of success. Early in
December, when he brought together his Cavalry Division on the Tigris,
the time had almost come.
What General Maude had then to consider, and had doubtless considered
very carefully during the three months which had elapsed since he took
over command in Mesopotamia, was his own plan of campaign. He knew
that the country looked to him to retake Kut and re-establish the
reputation of British arms in Asia, which the surrender of a British
Division, and the bloody repulses we had suffered in trying to relieve
it, had undoubtedly tarnished. That meant a renewed attack upon the
Turks in their strong positions on the Tigris, which the army under his
command was eager to undertake. And he now knew, or believed he knew,
that the enemy intended to advance into Persia in his rear, where the
British forces were small and the Russians not much stronger, while
the Persians themselves were in very doubtful mood. He could hope for
little co-operation on the part of the Russians, either there or on the
side of the Caucasus, for Russia was in serious difficulties; nor could
he hope for any help from the British forces in Egypt. They apparently
had enough on their hands, and in any case they were separated from
him by the Arabian desert. On both flanks of their great Asiatic
battle-front the Turks were practically safe. For success against them
he must depend solely upon the forces under his own command in the
centre of Asia. And since the Allies in Europe were barely holding
their own, he must have felt as Jervis felt when he sighted the Spanish
fleet off St Vincent, that England had great need of a victory at that
moment.
It is evident from what General Maude has left on record that he had
from the first contemplated the action he eventually took. On this
point it is well to let him speak for himself.
_Despatch of April 10, 1917._--“Briefly put,” he says, “the enemy’s
plan appeared to be to contain our main forces on the Tigris, whilst
a vigorous campaign, which would directly threaten India, was being
developed in Persia. There were indications, too, of an impending move
down the Euphrates towards Nasariyeh. To disseminate our troops in
order to safeguard the various conflicting interests involved would
have relegated us to a passive defensive everywhere, and it seemed
clear from the outset that the true solution of the problem was a
resolute offensive, with concentrated forces, on the Tigris, thus
effectively threatening Baghdad, the centre from which the enemy’s
columns were operating. Such a stroke pursued with energy and success
would, it was felt, automatically relieve the pressure in Persia and on
the Euphrates, and preserve quiet in all districts with the security of
which we were charged.
“This, then, was the principle which guided the subsequent operations,
which may be conveniently grouped into phases as follows:--
“_First._--Preliminary preparations from 28th August to 12th December.”
[Illustration: ON THE MARCH]
It would be confusing to follow up at this point General Maude’s
summary of his operations, but enough of it has been given to show that
from the time he took command he contemplated a “resolute offensive” on
the Tigris, threatening Baghdad, and that his preliminary preparations
for that movement were steadily pushed on until the 12th December, when
all was ready.
The immediate field of conflict on the Tigris, and the positions
occupied by the conflicting armies, are shown in the accompanying
sketch-map.
[Illustration: SKETCH OF BRITISH POSITION ON TIGRIS DECEMBER 1916.
_A.B.C.D.E._
SCALE ABOUT 8·1 MILES TO THE INCH]
The Turks were astride the river. On the north or left bank they held
the same positions as they had occupied since the fall of Kut. At
Sannaiyat the enemy awaited attack in the same formidable labyrinth of
trenches, flanked by marsh and river, from which in the early part of
the year he had three times repelled the desperate onslaught of our
troops. “Since then he had strengthened and elaborated this trench
system, and a series of successive positions extended back as far as
Kut, fifteen miles in the rear. The river bank from Sannaiyat to Kut
was also intrenched.” On the south or right bank of the river the enemy
was not so far forward. He had, on this side, withdrawn to a line of
intrenched defences which curved from a point on the Tigris, only
about three miles east of Kut, to a point on the Hai stream, and thence
round again to the Tigris west of Kut. The Hai stream was also held for
some miles southward with posts and mounted Arab auxiliaries.
The British troops held the north bank of the Tigris up to the Turkish
trenches at Sannaiyat, and the south bank for about eleven miles
farther up-stream. Thus, as General Maude points out, the British
were strategically better situated than the enemy, for while their
flanks were secure the withdrawal of the enemy’s troops on the south
bank seemed to offer a chance for a blow sooner or later at his
communications on the north bank, which would mean the retreat or
capture of the force at Sannaiyat.
In these circumstances it was decided that the proper course was,
first, to secure possession of the Hai stream, then to clear the
enemy’s trench systems on the right bank of the Tigris, and finally
to cross the Tigris as far west as possible. This idea of a turning
movement by the south was not a new one, for during the British
operations for the relief of Kut more than one attempt had been made
to seize the Hai; but the British forces had been too weak, and the
attempts had failed. Now, as shown above, General Maude’s army was
better fitted in numbers and equipment to make the attempt with success.
It may be as well to note here what was the composition of the army.
Speaking generally, it may be said that about two-thirds of it
consisted of Indians, drawn from various races, the remaining third
being British. The Indians were not regarded in Europe, or by the
Turks, as equal to the British, nor were they--for European warfare at
all events. Nevertheless, they had faced the Turks well in previous
fighting, and as shown in an earlier chapter, they had won some credit
even on the European Front, under great disadvantages. They were, in
fact, excellent soldiers, and the Cavalry had a special reputation.
The British troops were as good as possible, largely drawn from the
old Regular Army, with additions from “Kitchener’s men.” They were all
in high spirits, and eager to get at the enemy. This was certainly the
case in the Thirteenth Hussars, where the men were very keen to go
forward.
[Illustration: Lieut. B. E. H. JUDKINS]
[Illustration: Lieut. R. GORE]
[Illustration: Lieut. R. C. HILL, M.B.E.]
[Illustration: Bt.-Major CHARLES STEELE]
[Illustration: Lieut. M. C. KENNEDY]
[Illustration: Capt. C. H. GOWAN, M.C.]
[Illustration: Lieut. J. W. BLYTH, D.C.M.]
On the 12th December the final orders were given. Lieut.-General Cobbe,
with a strong force of Infantry and Artillery, was to hold the enemy
to his positions on the north bank of the Tigris, and picket the south
bank nearly up to the Turkish positions on that side, while the Cavalry
and a force under Lieut.-General Marshall were by a surprise march to
secure and intrench a position on the Hai. Everything was to be got
ready that night for the opening of the campaign on the morrow.
It is curious to note, by the way, that on the 12th December, the
day before the advance, a detail which seems to have given special
satisfaction to the British troops was the permission to shave the
moustache. Private Massey’s diary has the following entry: “On the
12th it came in the orders from the Regimental Office that we could
shave the hair off our top lip if we wished. Many a time have I
heard the men grousing and grumbling because it was against orders
to shave the top lip. A great many took advantage of this order,
and Captain Eve appeared on parade with his moustache shaved off.
I fetched a pair of scissors, and after cutting the hair on my
top lip quite short, I shaved it off, and I felt much healthier
and cleaner.” So the Thirteenth, or many of them, went into the
Mesopotamian fighting after the manner of their forefathers in the
days of Napoleon--“bien rasés.”
CHAPTER XII.
DECEMBER 12, 1916-FEBRUARY 24, 1917--FIGHTING ON THE TIGRIS.
During the night of the 12th December the last preparations were
completed. General Marshall concentrated his troops in the forward area
from which he was to march on the Hai stream, and General Cobbe got
ready to bombard the Turkish trenches on the north of the Tigris, so as
to give the impression that the British intended once more to attack
Sannaiyat.
On the 13th the bombardment opened, and the new campaign had begun.
General Maude himself moved his Headquarters some miles forward, and
after dark General Marshall’s force, with the Cavalry on their left,
struck out across country for the Hai.
The night march was carried out without mishap. At 6 A.M.
on the morning of the 14th the column had reached its objective
unobserved; and the enemy, taken by surprise, made no stand in defence
of the stream. It was crossed by General Marshall at Atab, and by the
Cavalry a little farther south at Basrujiyeh. The first move of the
campaign had been a complete success.
The Thirteenth had borne their part in the night march, and owing to
the completeness of the surprise had sustained no casualties. They got
over the stream unopposed, and without any difficulty, for in their
Colonel’s words it was “almost a dry bed,” and after an hour’s rest for
watering and feeding the horses they marched northwards up the right
bank of the stream with the Cavalry Division, while General Marshall’s
Infantry marched up the left bank, the Turks retiring upon their
intrenched position covering Kut. The force was, according to Private
Massey, shelled by the gunboat _Firefly_, which the Turks had taken
during Townshend’s retreat on Kut, but without result.
[Illustration: ON THE TIGRIS--JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 1917]
But if the enemy had permitted thus easily the seizure by the British
of a point on the Hai, they were none the less determined to cling
tenaciously to the several strong positions which they still held on
the south bank of the Tigris, and two months of severe fighting were
yet to take place before they could be dislodged from the last of
these. During that time the main fighting had, of course, to be done
by the Infantry and guns, but the Cavalry was constantly engaged in
covering their flanks, “in reconnaissances, in harassing the enemy’s
communications west of the Hai, and in raids, capturing stock and
grain.” The letters and diaries of the Thirteenth will be quoted as
before to show the work of the mounted arm, and their share in it.
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--December 19, 1916._--“We are standing-to at
the moment, all packed up ready to move, securing the first opportunity
I have had of writing since we started scrapping. We left that camp
from where I last wrote[21] on the evening of the 13th, and marched all
night and came under Arab fire about 8.30 next morning. We marched on
and on, but my squadron did not get any show, as we were on flank guard
out of it all. We got to a very famous spot in this part of the world
and we had got the Turks pushed back a few miles. We got to bed very
cold and very empty about 10 o’clock, the wretched horses having had
their saddles on for 27 hours. Next morning I woke up at 5 and found
our transport had got up and a ripping hot breakfast was ready for us.
We had had practically nothing since midnight the night before. We
marched off again about 8, but did not do much all day (a very long and
tiring one). The Regiment only had a couple of casualties, and we were
shelled a bit. Next day was much the same, getting back after dark.
Then Sunday we were told we were going to have a day’s rest; however,
about 9 o’clock, Pearson and I were sent out with two troops to report
on some mounted troops right away in the distance. We galloped out and
got as close as we dare and reported about 800 Arabs, and galloped
back, the battery having got our range firing over our heads, to find
the whole Regiment were out, and as D had turned [out] quickest we
formed the advance-guard. We went about five miles at a tremendous
pace but could not catch them, and then were told to act as rearguard
to the Regiment, which was moving back to camp, and then the fun began.
Directly we turned homewards on came any number of what we thought were
Arabs shooting at us from long range, and making it very unpleasant;
however, we did our job and got back all right with only three men
hit, two slightly; five horses, three killed. We found out afterwards
that we were up against a mixed force of Turks and Arabs. I thought
the firing was too unpleasantly good for Arabs. Yesterday we went out
in force and waited about all day, but never got a show. Directly we
turned homewards we were shelled. The Regiment was extremely lucky, no
one hit. Two shells burst only a few yards from me and my troop, but no
one was hit and the horses only made a slight fuss for a second or two.
My men were excellent under fire.... This sort of fighting is better
than in France, as though there is not so much cover there is more room
and space, and of course there is not nearly so much shelling. We could
not possibly camp at night so close to the line in France as we do
here. I hear our English mail is on its way from its last standing camp
from where I last wrote, and is being brought up by camels. I am more
than grateful for that waistcoat, especially in the evening and first
thing in the morning, when we get an icy cold wind. During the day the
weather is perfect, just like spring at home.”
_Captain W. H. Eve--December 19._--“These Arabs and Turkish Cavalry
are wretched brutes to fight. They won’t let you get near them. Then
directly you start home away from them they attack and worry.... It
always seems to be the way. Luckily as a rule they are apparently
pretty bad shots. I am rather hopeless of ever being able to get at
them mounted, but I shall try, and we may get the Infantry out of their
trenches one day. But there’s nothing to worry about, we are right on
top of them. The job is to get near them.”
_Lieutenant Munster--December 19._--“We left our camp a week ago and
have been skirmishing about ever since. So far we have had only very
slight casualties, and it does not appear to me as though we Cavalry
should become heavily engaged. Up to now we have been occupied in
keeping the Arabs from interfering with operations against the Turks.
We are quite comfortable, and on full rations. There seems to be no
difficulty about supplies. The weather has not broken yet. Our horses
are having a hard time just now.”
[Illustration:
THE HUSSARS
OF THE
THIRTEENTH NARVA REGIMENT
OF RUSSIA
SEND MOST FRATERNAL GREETINGS TO
THEIR VALIANT AND NOBLE COMRADES
OF THE
THIRTEENTH REGIMENT OF HUSSARS
PROUD AND HAPPY IN BEING UNITED
WITH THEM IN CORDIAL COOPERATION
AGAINST A COMMON ENEMY.
THE RUSSIAN FRONT 1916.
XMAS CARD SENT TO THE REGIMENT, 1916]
Private Massey writes in his diary regarding these casualties: “As the
bullets which the Arabs use are as big as a man’s little finger, with
flattened nose just rounded off, they make a big noise going through
the air, as well as making terrible wounds.” The horses suffered most.
_Lieutenant Chrystall._--“We have been doing, as you will no doubt have
seen by the papers, a little fighting, and have been doing a lot of
night marching on ‘operation scale,’ which means waterproof sheet, one
blanket, and biscuits and bully, and out all day. Our horses at times
have been forty-four hours without water, which of course is very hard.
Well, we were bemoaning our fate when we were ordered out on Christmas
Eve morning for an all-night show, and thinking we will never have any
Christmas dinner at all. We returned to camp about 3 P.M. on
Christmas Day and found a much-belated Christmas parcel awaiting us,
and all your splendid parcels. We had a meal fit for a king, and we had
to thank all you good people for it.”
_Captain W. H. Eve--December 27._--“Personally I see no show ever for
us, and am sorry I ever joined the Cavalry.... I have no delusions
about it now.... I shall never get a gallop with my squadron....”
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--December 30._--“We are back again in the
same camp as we started out from for this show,[22] and got back just
in time, as it has rained almost ever since. We are pretty comfortable
in our tents, after much digging. I mean, we dig out the inside of
our tents, and make a trench all round to keep the water out. You
achieve three things by doing this: (1) your tent is much warmer; (2)
you have much more room and do not bump your head every time you turn
round; (3) you keep dry.... We can’t possibly move up again for another
show until the sun comes out and dries the mud, which is ankle-deep
now. (Thank goodness! I was able to buy a pair of gum-boots from our
Ordnance here.) Ormrod, Hill, and Lord arrived with a draft. They
marched up-country and brought us some horses which we wanted badly.
One night the Arabs scored over them well. Ormrod had his gun stolen
out of his tent, Hill and Lord had all their kit taken, including
bedding, valises, &c., and the sentries were on duty all round and
within a few yards of the spot! The Arab is a marvellous thief.... The
actual Christmas parcels have not arrived yet; all the same, we had
a wonderful Christmas dinner only about three miles from Kut--soup,
fish, mutton, and vegetables (we got the mutton after raiding an Arab
Fort on Christmas Eve), champagne, two bottles for six of us (gift
from Lord Curzon, I believe), an enormous plum-pudding which I bought
at the E.F.C.[23] before we left here, also there was a Christmas cake
and pudding given by telegraph. There is an E.F.C. up here now, but
owing to transport difficulties it runs out of everything you want
very quickly; but the best thing of all is our regimental coffee-shop
(the only one in Mesopotamia, I believe). Even right up here it is
open again, and you can buy anything from getting soda-water bottles
refilled to buying assorted chocolates.... A tremendous thunderstorm is
raging as I write, and it is coming down in buckets; to-morrow the mud
will be knee-deep.”
_2nd Lieutenant J. O. P. Clarkson--December 30._--“Here’s a good story
and true. One of our monitors had been up to an advanced position
to shell the Turks, but had got heavily shelled itself. After a few
days of this they tried to pull the Turks’ leg a bit. They rigged a
_mahailla_ (Arab boat) with funnels and mast to represent a monitor,
towed it up during the night, and the next day put it into position,
burning oily rags and brown paper to represent its being under steam.
It was not shelled. They towed it up higher still. It was not shelled.
The next day a notice appeared from the Turkish trenches, and it ran,
“Your real monitors amuse us, but your dummy one is superb.”
_Lieutenant Munster--December 30._--“Still here and still raining.
There can hardly be any doubt that we shall not be moved at present,
the mud is so awful. I used to think the mud at Aldershot could not be
surpassed, but now I am inclined to think Mesopotamia beats it. We have
to build little mud walls round our tents to keep the water out. I did
not build mine deep enough, and as a result I think I had a foot and a
half of water in my tent. It came just two or three inches short of
the level of my bed. I woke up and saw my boots and clothes floating
about.”
_January 4, 1917._--“We have been in our permanent camp about ten days
now, and are quite likely to be here all the winter. After the winter
come the floods, and before the floods have gone down the great heat
comes on, so that October, November, and December are considered to be
the only fighting months of the year. This year active operations did
not start until December 14th, and the Cavalry withdrew to permanent
billets on December 26th.”
_Captain W. H. Eve--January 17._--“I got your letter of December 3rd
when we got back here to standing camp the day before yesterday. We are
still all whole and flourishing, and I am very fit indeed. We left the
base November 3rd.... The ‘show’ was to start on the 14th,[24] and we
marched from here on the evening of the 13th. From the papers you will
probably have gathered more or less what we did to start with.
“We were on the left or outer flank of the Infantry attack, away on the
south. Marched all night, crossed the river Hai (nearly dry then) at
dawn on the 14th; meeting with no opposition, then turned north up its
western bank, and kept pace with the Infantry attack.
“Our part of the show was a success, a complete surprise to the enemy
apparently, and in fact we didn’t run into any of them for some time.
We had a little sniping from Arabs and a few Turk Cavalry, but no real
fighting. We had a longish trek though, about twenty-six hours for our
horses under saddle, as we did not get back to doss down by the river
until about 9 P.M., 14th.
“The next two days we spent in reconnaissance wide on the flank, had
long days for the horses, no water from morning till night (luckily
cool weather), but we had no fighting, only got shelled once or twice.”
_Sunday._--“I had a little scrap with the squadron. We got a sight of
about 800 Arabs and Turks, and the Regiment, which was for duty that
day, turned out after them. We could not catch them, but on going home
had a rearguard fight, which devolved on my squadron, and wherein they
pleased me.
“This rearguard business, the worst and most unsatisfactory to do, is
the Arabs’ great game. We had two or three more days’ reconnaissance.
We accomplished nothing, and then were sent on a show to try and bridge
the river Tigris higher up. This was a failure, and we rather got it in
the neck, so you won’t see anything of it in the papers. The Regiment
that day was in reserve, so I saw very little of it, but of course I
know what happened.
“On Christmas Eve we went off to deal with a hostile Arab chief down
south. That meant another night march, and so on. But we found the
bird had flown, and had to content ourselves with sacking his fort and
village, and collecting what cattle and sheep we could.
“We got back here on Boxing Day, and it then rained for a week or more,
and we lived in mud. But here, of course, we are in permanent camp and
under canvas. I must say that so far we have been more than lucky with
our weather when out.
“On the 7th we left here again, only got back on the 15th, during which
time we were trekking about again, chasing after Arabs, and eventually
were chased by them, as usual, on our way home. I had really no
fighting.... I have told you all this about ourselves, though it is not
in the least important, just to show you the sort of life we lead.”
During this week the Regiment marched down to “Hai Town,” a
considerable place on the Hai stream, and collected some supplies
and Arab arms. Private Massey gives a sad account of the soldiers’
disappointment at the loss of a good meal in a deserted village.
“Here we seized several fowls and killed a few calves, taking
only their livers, kidneys, and hearts, which we carried in our
water-buckets. We camped close to the village for the night. After
unsaddling our horses and watering and feeding were over, we lit a fire
and commenced to cook the spoils of victory. But alas! when the water
was nearly boiling for tea, and the livers and kidneys were frizzling
in the mess-tins over a hot fire, the order was given, ‘Fall in for
line picket!’ Of course that was enough to test the temper and patience
of a parson, let alone a soldier, and a steady stream of expletives
could be heard as we sloped arms and marched away. That night I had
biscuits and bully, a poor substitute for fried liver and kidneys.”
[Illustration: RIVER FORT, HAI TOWN]
[Illustration: ON THE TIGRIS]
It was hard, but Private Massey and his “messing-in chum,” M‘Nulty,
had better luck a few days later at another village, and the diary
triumphantly records how, “During the night M‘Nulty managed to get
several livers, kidneys, and hearts from the slaughtering place, and we
had fried liver and kidneys served up hot before réveillé next morning,
as well as a mess-tin full of hot cocoa, made from tablets I had sent
from England.”
_Private Hugh H. Mortimer--January 18._--“Round about the back of
beyond. Yours of the 5th ulto. duly to hand about five or six days
ago. I say about, because one has no idea as to days and dates, &c.,
out here, Sundays included. Sometimes we get a volunteer Church parade
when things are quiet, but that has been very seldom of late. The
last one we had, last Sunday but one, I volunteered for one the night
before, but what ho! the parade was for 11 A.M., and we had
been on the trek reconnoitring and Arab-chasing five hours by then. We
are quite seasoned hands at these quick turn-outs now; often we’re all
bivouacked down, giving it the bells in Snore Land, unless it happens
to be your turn for guard, then somebody strolls round in a quiet
hurry, kicks the sergeant in the ribs, and whispers, ‘Turn out at once;
parade two hundred yards west of camp midnight.’ The kicks, &c., are
passed on, and we are all saddled up, transport packed, &c., &c., and
perhaps three or four miles away in less than an hour, and all that
done in the dark, and no noise above a whisper, unless somebody gets a
kick in the seat from a bobbery horse, and then there is some excuse
for letting it rip.
“Yes, one day is much of a muchness with the next, unless it is that
one has no time to think about what day it happens to be. Often I have
asked five or six chaps the date to put in a letter, and then had to
consult the orderly sergeant at the finish. Still, I don’t suppose it
would make any difference to one’s destination if one happened to snuff
it on a Friday or Sunday. We get in bags of warm spots now ever since
we came right up, about two months ago. Sort of places that make the
short hairs stand out on the back of the neck, and wonder if the next
12-pounder or so on has your number on it. I thought I knew a bit of
what it feels to sit in a trench with them coming over in France, but
galloping about in open country with shrapnel flying about licks it
hollow. I saw one drop in a machine-gun section about fifteen yards on
my right some fortnight ago, and that one bagged four men and three
horses, and then several pieces hummed past me.... Then again the cod
was galloping across a hail-storm for a mile from cover to cover. I
took the Hotchkiss gun across--I am a nob at Hotchkiss guns now--and
the remainder of the section followed some thirty yards behind at
the canter. We got five shrapnel quick, and not more than thirty or
forty yards away, and two of them in front of me and one behind the
two parties. I looked round after the thud, having a good horse, and
you talk about dust-flying--well, I thought ‘There’s only me in this
section now,’ and made a lightning spurt for a deep donga, dropped
into it with a crash, and pulled up. About six seconds afterwards two
more crashes, and there appeared the rest of the team, a bit pale
and smiling rather sickly smiles, but not a scratch on either men or
horses, so you may judge of the luck of the mob. The worst of this
country is, you can’t depend on the district for any supplies like you
can in France; after we’ve had nothing but a couple of biscuits and one
12-oz. tin of bully from day to day for several days, when we get out
of touch with the ration stands, that just seems to be the time when
one could do with about four good sit-down knife-and-fork square meals
per diem. When it’s like that I go up two extra holes in my belt and
try not to think of steak and chips or anything in that line. Never
mind, I will make it all up when and if I get home. Roll on that time
too. Have just received a letter from Fannie, and she says people at
home say, ‘Oh, he’s safe in Mesopotoom,’ but by the H.P. I never felt
unsafer in France, Somme or no Somme. You may think that it’s generally
understood that the last round is for yourself, before being taken
alive by Arabs, although the Turks seem to fight very fair, and there
are no tanks to walk behind and no trenches to bob down in.”
_Lieutenant Chrystall--January 20._--“To-day we were within one and a
half miles of Kut. ‘So near and yet so far,’ and we hear to-day some
trenches have been taken, so things are looking up a bit. To-day we
got a splendid ration of beef, a sirloin, probably the first one ever
seen in Mesopotamia.... One has to be very drastic with these people,
the women being just as bad as the men. If you do not take strong steps
they will shoot you in the back, even if they have shown the white
flag, which they usually do when we are advancing, but when retiring
they shoot at you.”
_Captain Eve--January 20._--“When we approached our objective, the big
native town [Hai Town], they came out with a white flag and pretended
to be friendly, and we treated them as such, and _bought_ supplies
and things from them, and of course they made a fortune out of us....
Then Sunday, the 14th, we started back. As soon as we had left, our
rearguard was heavily attacked (native regiments), and we had some
casualties, and were very much delayed, and the Regiment sent to their
support, but had very little to do.”
_January 26._--“I wish I could tell you _really_ all about things out
here, but it is quite impossible. Only I do wish now above all else
that I could have gone to Infantry or gunners. I have slowly but surely
come to the conviction that we are years out of date, and entirely or
almost entirely useless, and will never take a real part again.”
_2nd Lieutenant J. O. P. Clarkson--February 2._--“Since my last letter
we have done quite a bit. First we tried to go round the Pushtikuh
Mountains,[25] so early one morning we started off in order to cross
the bridge. It took us over two hours to get across, and then we were
the leading unit of the 2nd Brigade. We went past a fort to the Wadi
river for water, and then pushed on to try and cross the marsh. But
we got hopelessly bogged, at least the guns and the transport did,
although they had double teams in as it was. Meanwhile we were all
anxiously looking at the sky, as there was a devil of a storm coming
up. So those people who had crossed the marsh had to recross it again.
We camped down just off the marsh, and had scarcely got the lines
down when it started to pour with rain. We crawled into our valises
(no tents), and slept, and woke up soaking, boots full of water and
thoroughly wet. It was still raining. We got up at 5 A.M.,
and had to wait until they had got all the waggons out of the marsh,
some having been left there the evening before. We waited about five
hours. Luckily it then turned out fine, and we started back. Our things
were more or less dry by the time we got into our camp by the fort
about twelve or sixteen miles from the Arab village. We got back to our
permanent camp about 2 P.M. next day. The going after that
rain was very heavy, and both men and horses came in very tired. We had
a very short rest and now are out again.”
The Regiment had returned on the 27th January to the Hai river, and
from there during the following week made several reconnaissances to
the westward, beyond Kut, where the Turks had a bridge across the
Tigris, and some strong intrenched positions on the south bank. They
had been dislodged from some points lower down, but still held on
desperately to the westerly bends of the river in order to protect from
attack the line of communications of their main force in Sannaiyat.
Until the 4th February the Thirteenth, though at times under heavy
fire from rifles and machine-guns and artillery, got off practically
without loss. Then there was a sharp fight, in which the Cavalry was
called upon to act dismounted in conjunction with the Infantry, and the
Thirteenth had some casualties. An officer was killed and two wounded,
with a few non-commissioned officers and men.
The officer killed, Lieutenant Munster, was much respected in the
Regiment, “a very gallant, zealous, and capable officer,” as his
Colonel reported. All accounts agree in describing him as a man of
exceptional character, who, though young, had already made his mark.
Quiet and reserved, with strong religious views, he was spoken of
in unusual language by many of those about him. “I am not good at
expressing myself,” one of them wrote, “but I may say his daily life
was one which I shall try to follow: it was one of doing good to his
fellow-men; my admiration for him was unbounded, and my grief worse and
more intense than I ever felt in my life.” His death seems to have been
due to his unselfish devotion, for having led his men forward and seen
all of them under cover preparing for another rush, he walked across
the open to avoid exposing one of them in sending a message to another
officer, and was shot through the heart. Such was the fire at the
moment that his Colonel said: “I judged it inexpedient to attempt to
recover his body, and to remove a brother officer, Mr Williams Taylor,
and some men who were wounded, until after dark.”
[Illustration: Lieut. D. A. STIRLING]
[Illustration: Lieut. J. A. LORD
(_Wounded at Imam Mahdi, 25th February 1917_)]
[Illustration: 2nd Lieut. J. F. MUNSTER
(_Killed at Shumran Bend, 4th February 1917_)]
[Illustration: Sergt. W. D. TASSIE, D.C.M.]
[Illustration: S.S.-M. J. BREARLEY, D.C.M.]
Nor were they the only two to distinguish themselves on this day.
Captain Robinson, commanding “B” Squadron, had been wounded in
leading the advance shortly before, and Sergeant Tassie of “D” Squadron
received the D.C.M. for his coolness and courage in bringing up
ammunition when the transport animals were shot down.
Other officers of the Regiment also showed great courage on this day,
and it is a temptation to record what was afterwards written of them by
an eye-witness--a Captain in one of the Indian regiments of the Brigade.
“Our Brigade was ordered to attack dismounted, Hussars on the left,
ourselves in the centre, with Watson’s Horse echeloned to the right
rear. This meant that the Hussars had to advance across the open with
no cover, whilst we had the cover afforded by the high banks of the
nullah. After an advance of about 1400 yards the fire became so heavy
that the Hussars decided to left-shoulder and make for the nullah, with
the object of working down it and thus coming to assaulting distance.
Their casualties had been pretty heavy. They eventually made the nullah
in advance of our line, and cleared out some advanced patrols of Turks
who were holding it there.
“Captain Willis and I were now sent down by my C.O. to gain touch with
the Hussars by working down the nullah.
“I met Captain Newton and asked him who was commanding. He said he was
for the moment, because Captain Eve and Captain Steele were outside,
and he was reorganising the men preparatory to making a further
advance.[26] Just as he spoke a renewed burst of machine-gun and rifle
fire made me look over the top to see what was happening. I saw Eve and
Steele helping in a wounded man who had been hit in the leg. The man
had an arm round each of their necks. The Turks furiously opened up at
them, and I don’t know how they got away, for the ground all round was
being thrown up by bullets.
“I don’t think Eve realised he was doing anything exceptional, his only
concern seemed to be getting the man in without giving him pain. What
struck me most was the cool way he handed the man in, carefully caught
up the thong of his crop, which he always carried, and then jumped
down into the nullah under a perfect hail of machine-gun bullets. He
turned to me as if nothing in the world had happened, and we discussed
the situation.[27]
“A few minutes later I went back and brought my squadron forward.
“By this time the C.O. of the Hussars and my own C.O. had arrived, and
we all went down the nullah together.
“When we were talking to Eve, a man came up and said that a private of
the Hussars was lying about forty yards outside the nullah and shouting
for help. My C.O. turned to me and said, ‘See if you can get him in,’
but Eve said, ‘Nonsense, he is a man in my squadron.’ So he and Captain
Jeffrey immediately left the cover and finally found the man. The man
had only had his arm shattered, so after Eve had spoken to him he got
up and they all came in safely....
“Eve realised that it was impossible to leave these wounded men until
dark, because we anticipated a counter-attack about dusk, and it was
necessary to be hampered as little as possible then.... Also the
presence of numerous Arab irregulars made the possibility of leaving
our wounded out of the question....
“It was one of the most gallant things I have ever seen, and was just
typical of Eve. I know he did not give it another thought, and only
considered he had done his duty, but that too is only typical of the
man.”
Captain Eve’s own comment upon the day was short:--
“It went very well,” he writes, “but we weren’t allowed to hold on to
what we had got, which rather took the gilt off the gingerbread. We had
bad luck in officers, as you will have seen, Bob [Captain Robinson]
and Williams Taylor being both hit, and poor Munster being killed. But
the casualties among the men were very light, and in fact we were very
lucky.
“This was undoubtedly from our own point of view the most satisfactory
day we have had, though it was only a side-show.”
[Illustration: LT. MUNSTER’S GRAVE]
[Illustration: GRAVES OF LT. MUNSTER, PRIVATE KILLICK, AND A CORPORAL
OF THE 14TH HUSSARS]
[Illustration: PRIVATE KILLICK’S GRAVE]
BUSSOORIE
A letter of the 6th February gives a more detailed account.
_Captain Eve--February 6._--“We came under pretty hot rifle and
Maxim-gun fire, but not shell-fire. They shelled the guns and the
horses in rear but not us. Well, the men are something to be proud of.
They just advanced as they should. It was really just like a day on the
sand-hills at Meerut. We had very few casualties in our advance, that
is among the men, and the Turks did not wait for us in their advanced
position, nor again in their first line, which was a big and deep dry
canal. We got it fairly hot from enfilade Maxim-gun fire just before we
got to this, but we got there all right.... All this time I had been
with ‘C’ and ‘D’, the others on my left and behind. Then after we had
got settled in our trench ‘B’ came in, and at last ‘A’, and I found I
was commanding the lot. I also found poor old ‘B’ had dropped into it
badly, Bob shot through the leg (slight), Williams Taylor badly in the
thigh, and Munster killed. Barrett was therefore commanding, and only
Hill left with them. The rest were all right, though Williams of ‘A’
had a bullet through his hat which made a furrow along the back of his
head. I then found our flanks were in the air as neither of the other
Regiments was up; but the Turks made no attempt to counter-attack,
and we were pretty safe, except that one of their Maxim guns kept
firing down the trench. So I couldn’t go any farther without support,
and reported by signal. Presently one of the others came up on our
right, and our guns got very busy. Then the only bad thing that I saw
happened. They tried to send our ammunition pack-horses up to us across
the open. They got to within about 200 yards, and then got properly
caught by Maxim-gun fire. The men got hit and the horses loose, and
then the poor beasts stood, just being shot to death, one going after
another. Sergeant Tassie on his own, and I think young Stirling did
too, ran out to them across the open, and succeeded in getting one in,
and he then went back and brought in ammunition off a horse that had
been killed. It was a very fine thing, and I have pushed in his name
for a D.C.M....
“The Colonel was delighted with the Regiment, and so was the
Brigade.... The men were very pleased with themselves, and I with them.
They were just first-class.... Poor old Munster was shot right through
the chest and killed instantly. He was such a nice man--very shy and
reserved, but a real good sort, and every one is so sorry.
“My best bit of news of all is that Tassie has got the D.C.M. I know
how pleased you will be.... He wears the ribbon, but I hope will have
it presented in public some time. I am pleased and proud about it.
“Williams had another bullet clean through his helmet on Friday. He was
trying to snipe a sniper, and was successful too--killed his man.”
_February 16._--“Yesterday, Thursday, we started at 5, breakfast at
4 A.M.--out to the same ground on the left flank. We kept
the horses well back, and I was left in charge of them, and had a
desperately dull day. However, I missed nothing, as the Division had
very little to do except for the gunners. But it was a real good
day--the Infantry did well, in fact it was quite a little victory.
We completely cleared the south bank--took 1500 prisoners, including
fifty officers, two battalion commanders among them, and killed a great
number, including most of those trying to get back across the river, as
we sank the whole of their pontoons and coracles while crossing. Also
we got three of their aeroplanes. It was a good show altogether, and
finishes this stage of the operations. The next, as you can see, must
be to force the passage of the river and clear them out of Kut on the
north.
“This will mean heavy fighting.”
Private Massey, after describing how the enemy tried to get across “in
pontoon boats and oracles,” says: “They looked a dejected lot indeed,
clothed in rags, no boots, and they had had very little food for some
time. They eagerly took cigarettes offered them, and went limping off
to the river dock for removal to the prisoners’ camp, resembling as
they went a tribe of lame and ragged beggars. But the Turk has a stout
heart, is as brave as a lion, and will fight like the very devil on a
handful of dates and a morsel of flour.”
Pity that with all his fine qualities, which appeal so strongly to the
British soldier, he has not yet learnt to treat his prisoners without
brutality.
_Captain Eve--February 16._--“I don’t suppose we shall be wanted until
we have the crossing secure, but after that we may have some fun....
We, of course, have had nothing to do with it really, but then we are
only Cavalry.”
_February 19._--“We were in camp two days afterwards (after the action
on the 4th), then were out on a foraging expedition on the 7th. On the
9th we were out on reconnaissance again all day and half the night,
then had two or three days very bad weather, and on the 14th and 15th
had two very long days and nights.
“But the last one was the final successful show which cleared out the
Turks from this southern bank altogether. It was quite a good show, but
we were sitting out wide on the flank all the time, and had really very
little to do with it, and could see nothing. Still, it is quite good,
and one feels something is accomplished at last. Now we have far the
hardest part in front of us, but we shall do the job all right before
long.
“Since the 15th we have been left in peace, and very glad of it we
were. The horses begin to look a little better already.
“I have told you all this just to give you an idea how we are worked.
Most days we are fifteen to twenty hours under saddle, and short
and irregular water, besides long distances, and much night work,
worst of all. Our unfortunate horses began to look like shadows, but
are recovering a little now, and we have had one batch of very nice
remounts, though we are still about one hundred short.
“All the men are very fit indeed, and so are we. It is desperately cold
at times, but we are managing by degrees to get our tents out from the
permanent camp.
“My squadron, of which I am now again in command, Twist having rejoined
for duty, has sunk from six of us to four, as Pearson has left us to
join probably the Australians, and Pardon is laid by with a badly
sprained ankle.
“I expect we shall be busy again in a few days. We have been
extraordinarily lucky in the weather, take it all round, and I should
think Maude will take advantage of it while it lasts. Let’s hope so.”
_February 21._--“I am starting my chat to-day because we are going out
to-morrow, so I make certain of catching the mail. We shall have had a
six days’ easy--haven’t been out since Thursday, the 15th, and it has
been very nice. To-morrow I fancy the next stage of the proceedings is
to start, probably crossing to the north. I don’t imagine we shall have
anything to do but sit on the flank at first, and until the Infantry as
usual have done the work....
“I started to write to mother after my chat to you last Friday evening,
and then a most terrific thunderstorm with heavy hail and a gale of
wind suddenly came on, and we had to turn out and stand to the horses,
only just in time to stop a stampede. In fact, for a minute or two
after we were with them, I thought they might go. I got to mine, Follow
Me and Caprice tangled up together. We held them all right, but it
was pretty miserable--pitch dark, blowing a hurricane, and hail you
couldn’t face. The men were top hole. When the storm passed, we got the
lines down again (in water) and made all secure. We were, of course,
wet through, and I then found our tent flooded out, beds in an inch
of water, &c.... It blew and rained hard in the night, and the poor
wretched men were wet through and in the open, all flooded or mud. Box
and I kept dry in our tent, and it held all right against the wind....
“The men, as a matter of fact, have got into the way of making
themselves the most cosy little dug-outs. They dig down and cover up
with their waterproof sheets. They are wonders--never have any of them
sick--two rubbed heels is my total sick in the squadron, and yet in
permanent camp there would probably be a sick-list of ten....
“The river has risen tremendously the last few days, and is only a few
feet from the top. Let’s hope it does not rise any more or we shall
be completely flooded out.... I have got thirteen extra men out from
permanent camp, and with the new horses can turn out something like a
respectable squadron.... I am still short of horses, could do with any
amount more like the last lot. Do you remember how in peace time it was
always too many horses and no men? And now it is the exact opposite,
just when horses are wanted.”[28]
[Illustration: CAPTAIN EVE’S CHARGER “FOLLOW ME”
(DIED AT SEA ON THE WAY HOME IN APRIL 1919)]
_February 23._--“Well, we didn’t go out on Thursday, yesterday, the
whole show being postponed owing to the river having risen too much. It
has since fallen, and the show started early this morning, and so far
is going very well indeed, and we are standing-to in readiness.
“Besides this show, we have taken a great part of the first and
second lines of the Sannaiyat position and repulsed five or six
counter-attacks, so all is very well....
“Payne overheard the following between two of the men the other day.
‘That there Major Fry, ’e’s been made a Colonel.’ ‘What, ’im? _What’s_
wrong with him?’ I think it good enough for ‘Punch’ if only one could
draw a picture for it....”
General Maude had certainly been lucky in the weather, the winter
floods not having yet made the river impassable, and he was taking
full advantage of his chances. The “quite good show” of the 15th
had been the last of a series of carefully-planned and hard-fought
Infantry attacks, which had gradually torn away the Turkish hold from
point after point upon the south bank of the Tigris. The enemy was now
thrown across the river, and in desperate anxiety for his long line
of communications. They were still covered by a swollen river more
than three hundred yards broad, but they were not safe from a resolute
attack, and after some skilful feinting here and there the blow was
about to be driven home.
Maude was not the man to lose an hour. On the 23rd of February, just
before daybreak, some Infantry, English and Goorkha, were ferried
across the Tigris at the Shamran bend, west of Kut, and after hard
fighting succeeded in establishing themselves on the northern bank.
Before dark the same afternoon a bridge had been completed. The end of
the long suspense had come. The Turks had fought stubbornly for more
than two months, but their line of communications had now been struck,
and their main force must go or be captured.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE RECAPTURE OF KUT--RETREAT OF THE TURKS.
At the same time that the Tigris was being crossed westward of Kut, the
Turkish intrenchments at Sannaiyat were fiercely attacked in front,
and the brave defenders, learning that the river defence had fallen
behind them, at last gave way. On the 24th the maze of trenches which
had resisted so many onslaughts was carried with a rush, and sweeping
on rapidly the British troops replaced the British flag on the walls of
Kut. On the same morning the British Cavalry poured across the bridge
from the southern bank in pursuit of the retreating enemy, and the
British gunboats pressed up the river again to join in his destruction.
There was reason to hope that he had held on too long, and that his
stubborn troops were doomed to be taken or destroyed.
This hope proved to be delusive. The Turks had to retreat very rapidly
to extricate themselves in time, and they lost heavily in doing so;
but they, or the bulk of them, did succeed in getting away. Many were
slain, and some thousands remained in British hands, but by steady and
determined rearguard fighting they checked their pursuers, and when
they reached Azizieh, a hundred miles off, half way to Baghdad,[29]
they were still a military force, if a defeated one.
The share of the Thirteenth in the victory and pursuit was not all that
they hoped it might have been. Some eager spirits among them chafed
at the caution with which the Cavalry was handled and the pursuit
carried on. But nevertheless the mounted men, although unable to storm
entrenchments held by a resolute enemy, had throughout done much to
cover and facilitate the operations of the Infantry and guns, and they
now did all that mounted men could do to harass the retreat. If it did
not mean converting the retreat into a complete rout, and annihilating
a Turkish army, it was a material contribution towards that end.
After three days of steady pressure, during which the Cavalry lost a
good many men, they had pushed the Turks over a long stretch of road,
capturing prisoners and guns and booty of all kinds; and if they were
stopped there, half-way to Baghdad, it was only because they had got in
advance of their supplies and of the supporting Infantry.
[Illustration: _THE ADVANCE ON BAGHDAD_
SCALE ABOUT 25 MILES TO THE INCH]
The following extracts from letters and journals tell the story in
greater detail.
_Lieut.-Colonel Richardson, D.S.O._--“On the 24th of February we
left camp about an hour before daylight, reached Shumran, where a
pontoon had been thrown across the Tigris the previous day by the
Sappers and Infantry, crossed the river about 9 A.M., and
gradually moved up to behind the Dahra Ridge, which at that time was
the most advanced point held by our infantry. At noon we found what
we thought was an opening in the Turkish line, went through it, and
made a big left-handed sweep, until we were brought to a standstill
by the Turkish rearguard, strongly intrenched. We were engaged with
this till after dark, when we returned to bivouac, which we reached
about 1 A.M. We were in the saddle again at daybreak on
the 25th, and took up the pursuit of the Turks, who had left their
intrenchments. At about midday we located their rearguard in position
about Imam Mahdi, on the north bank of the Tigris, and the Regiment was
ordered to attack dismounted, with the 14th Lancers on our left. We
were closely engaged with the Turks until about 5 P.M., when
orders were received to withdraw. Then we found that our casualties had
been heavy, but mostly in wounded, the numbers being approximately one
officer, Lieutenant Lord, and thirty-six men wounded. That night again
we reached our bivouac after midnight, and were again on the move at
daylight.
“On this day, 26th February, the Regiment was in reserve and not
engaged. We bivouacked where we stood that night, and at daybreak took
up the pursuit of the Turks, who were now in full retreat. Before
midday we had taken some 300 prisoners, and had found six field-guns
of large calibre, which had been left by the Turks. After that we
replenished our nose-bags from a captured barge well stocked with
barley, and followed the road taken by the retreating Turks, which was
strewn with rifles, bayonets, small-arm ammunition, trench-mortars, to
which the draft cattle were still harnessed, hundreds of 5.9 shells,
carts full of implements, and even a motor-car. We bivouacked at dark
some six miles from Azizieh.”
In General Maude’s despatch giving a summary of these operations is the
following passage:--
“Our gunboats were in touch with and shelled the retreating enemy
during most of the 27th, and his retirement was harassed by the Cavalry
until after dark, when his troops were streaming through Azizieh in
great confusion.” General Maude adds that since crossing the Tigris his
force had captured 4000 prisoners, of whom 188 were officers, and great
quantities of guns and stores. But now the pursuit, in which the Navy
and the Cavalry had co-operated in an unusual way, was broken off. The
Turkish army had made good its hasty retreat, and was for the moment
free to get away unmolested.
“We bivouacked at dark,” says Colonel Richardson, “some six miles
from Azizieh, and next day received orders to retire about ten miles,
in order to allow supplies, which we had outrun, and the infantry,
to come up. On our way back we collected all that was possible of
the ammunition and stores that might be useful to us. On the 28th of
February we spent a very welcome rest day in camp. On the 1st of March
we marched to Azizieh, where a halt was ordered.”
In fact, the Infantry having fallen behind, or rather, perhaps,
having been kept back by the difficulty of bringing up sufficient
supplies, there was a pause of five days during which the British
force was closed up and got ready for a farther advance. Baghdad now
lay immediately ahead, but as the Turks were not in such a condition
of rout that they could be hunted through the great town _l’épée aux
reins_, it was necessary to move with the force thoroughly together,
and not to risk a check.
The following are further extracts from letters and diaries:--
_Private Massey--February 24, 1917._--“On the 24th, réveillé was at 2
A.M., and we turned out on parade at 4.30 A.M. The
previous night the Engineers had thrown a bridge across at Shamran
bend, and early this morning, the 24th,[30] the Infantry had succeeded
in getting across, and we followed soon after.
“The Turks, seeing their danger, had retreated the previous night,
leaving only a rearguard to delay our advance, and cover the retreat
of their main body.... After crossing the pontoon-bridge we formed
troop, and went along in extended order, until we got close in on the
enemy’s rearguard. Here we dismounted and brought the Hotchkiss guns
into action, and V Battery opened a heavy fire on the retreating enemy.
The Infantry must have been heavily engaged, as many of their wounded
were at the advanced dressing station, close to the bridge-head, and
we passed several dead. During the afternoon we reached Dahra Barracks
(Turkish), which were littered with Turkish dead. Still pressing on
towards nightfall, we came in touch with an enemy flank patrol, and
opened fire on them with rifles, Hotchkiss guns, and artillery. It was
now very late at night, so we returned back to Dahra Barracks for food
and water for the horses. It was about 2 A.M. when we made
down our beds and lay down for the night. When we had been in bed about
half an hour, the order came for the 1st and 3rd Troops to saddle up
at once, and I heard Mr Payne, the officer in charge, tell the troop
sergeant that we were going out on the flank, on reconnaissance. On
hearing the order, we jumped out of bed, saddled up our horses, and in
a few minutes we were off in the early morning dusk. We were all tired
and very sleepy, as we had only had half an hour’s sleep, but we had a
rattling good officer in charge of us, always giving commands in a fine
soldierly manner, and a leader in whom we all had confidence.[31]
“As we neared the trenches we had fired on late the night before, we
met a Turk, who gave himself up. Later on we came upon two Turkish
officers, who gave up their revolvers and a valuable telephone
instrument. On reaching the trenches, we found a dead Turk and one
wounded man. We bound up his wound, laid him down, and gave him some
cigarettes, and then put up his rifle to let the R.A.M.C. men know he
was there, and when we came back later he was gone.
“We were now not many miles away from Kut and Sannaiyat, but on the
north side of it this time. We had watched Kut from the south side
so long that it seemed impossible we could be where we were then. We
could see the 13th Division coming through Sannaiyat, and we afterwards
passed through what had been a Turkish camping-ground, and kettles,
dishes, and pans lay all over the place.
“We returned back to camp about midday, and heard that the officer in
charge had been complimented for the reports he had sent in, and which
had enabled the Division we left behind at Dahra Barracks to turn
out at 5 A.M. that morning, and continue the pursuit of the
retreating enemy. After watering and feeding our horses we commenced to
feed ourselves. Porridge was made, and bacon and tea were made, and we
had a hearty meal, after which we rested; but the place was beginning
to smell, as the dead Turks had not yet been buried....”
_February 26._--“Next morning we moved on to where we knew the
Regiment had camped, but on arrival the Regiment had again gone on,
but we went with the transport as escort. This was on the 26th, and on
arriving in camp at night, we heard that the Regiment had been heavily
engaged with the enemy’s rearguard, and Sergt.-Major Goddard, S.Q.M.S.
Edwards, Sergeants Bell and Hill, had been wounded, Private Davis of
‘C’ Squadron killed, and thirty-three wounded.... About 5 P.M.
we again went on, intending to overtake and rejoin the Regiment, which
we failed to do, until they were forced to call a halt as they were out
of rations, and had eaten their iron ration. This will give any one who
reads this an idea of the speed with which the Turkish rearguard was
pursued and continually harassed and defeated.
“We reached camp at one o’clock the next morning, the 27th.... On the
way up we had passed much abandoned booty, as the enemy, being hotly
pursued, had to leave it to escape capture. There were guns of the
18-pounder class, as well as small camel guns which fired a shell not
much bigger than a man’s two fists. Thousands of rounds of artillery
ammunition was lying strewn all along the track of the beaten enemy.
Rifles and small-arm ammunition, equipment transport carts, and even a
motor-car of German manufacture....
“At night we rejoined the Regiment, who hadn’t a biscuit left, but
heard they had captured a Turkish barge, with a cargo of grain,
flour, candles, dates, and supplies of all descriptions, so they had
grain for the horses and food for the men. The transport arrived in
camp, but they only had enough for one day’s march; and although the
paddle-steamers followed us up, we were now a day’s march ahead of the
dumping-ground, and two days’ march in front of the Infantry.”
_February 28._--“So next day, the 28th February, we retired back
a day’s march, and came upon the food columns on the bend of the
river.... On the 1st of March we remained in camp all day.... We got on
board the captured barge that morning, bringing away whole-meal flour,
dates, surgical bandages, and took off a lot of corn for the horses.
M‘Nulty and Moss made chupattees of the flour, baking corned-beef and
dates and making pies, and we all had a good feed....
_March 3._--“On the 3rd réveillé was at 5.30. After attending to our
mounts we had breakfast, and then a big party of men, of which I was
one, were ordered to stand-to for fatigue. We were marched down to
the river, a distance of two or three hundred yards, and commenced to
unload barges, which had arrived that morning with stores of all kinds,
shells and bullets, and food for man and beast. We soon transformed
the bleak ground on the bend of the river into a vast dumping-ground,
and hundreds of tons of corn were soon stacked in heaps on shore....
At 8 P.M. that night we were again unloading a barge which we
completely emptied of its cargo. We had no rest that day, but we knew
we had done some good work.”
_March 4._--“Next day, the 4th, we remained in camp all day. During the
afternoon we heard that the General was holding a parade to decorate
men who were recommended for bravery on the field. We were afterwards
to get ready to move on the morrow, as a report brought in by airmen
reported a body of Turks holding trenches a day’s march up the Tigris
close to where they had a pontoon-bridge across.”
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--March 2._--“What do you think of it all?
No doubt the papers have been shouting about old Mespot lately. When
I wrote my last letter I little thought we should be quite so far on
the next time I wrote. I think the rout of the Turks must have been a
complete surprise for even our authorities....
“We went through the Infantry and crossed the Tigris above Kut at 9
A.M., Saturday, 24th. Curiously enough, I met Masson, who used
to be at Pat’s at Repton with me. He had been building the bridge. We
didn’t do much that day, as we were held up when we tried to get round
their flank; however, next day we went a long reconnaissance. I got a
small batch of prisoners, and then we attacked the Turks’ position. I
was commanding the squadron, as Eve was commanding a wing. We advanced
about 1½ mile across the open under very heavy rifle-fire and shrapnel.
I lost both my sergeant-majors and two sergeants, besides others.
The Regiment lost 35 and only 1 officer (Lord): how we got out of it
I don’t know, as hardly any one came out without a bullet through
his coat, topee, or something. I tell you I lay pretty flat when we
weren’t advancing or retiring, but there was not a bit of cover! We
camped down about 2 A.M., and were off again about 6 and went
about 30 miles, but the Turks had cleared early next morning. We took
about 300 prisoners and 6 heavy guns, and the road was littered with
ammunition, kit, shells, carts, dead animals, &c. The prisoners were in
a very bad way and could hardly walk....
[Illustration: H.M.S. “TARANTULA”
“A TRIED AND TRUSTY FRIEND OF THE REGIMENT”]
[Illustration: PRIVATE MASSEY’S “ORACLE,” OTHERWISE CORACLE]
“Luckily the weather has been perfect, except it has frozen every
night, and is quite cold in the day. I brought all my bedding on my
spare horse, but of course we haven’t got any tents. None of us got the
chance of a wash or shave for four days, so you would have laughed if
you had seen us. I am awfully fit. Hope the next letter I write to you
will be Baghdad: it’s under fifty miles from here. Best love to all.
“The monitors did excellent work and recaptured the _Firefly_ and other
boats.”
_2nd Lieutenant J. O. P. Clarkson--March 3._--“We started early in the
morning[32] and trekked to the Tigris west of Kut. The Infantry had
established themselves on the other bank, so we crossed in the early
morning and followed them up. When they had cleared the trenches we
went through to harass the enemy’s retreat.... The next day we went
in on what was supposed to be the retreating enemy, and found it was
the main body, consisting of about 5000 men.... The next night we
bivouacked by a water-hole in the desert. We had some armoured cars
with us, and one of them got into difficulties a very short way off
some Turkish guns, but the next morning was still intact. The next day
we again went on and captured 400 prisoners and 12 guns, 6 of which
were 5.9 howitzers, and one man found the breech-blocks, which had
been buried in another place. By this time we were getting very short
of food for the horses, but luckily we found a barge laden with grain
that had been captured, so we filled up again.... We are now at a place
about half-way between Kut and Baghdad. The Navy here--_i.e._, the
monitors--did great work. They rushed on ahead, and got right into the
thick of it, firing 6-inch shrapnel at the Turk at a range of 400 to
600 yards. Every gun on board was worked, and in every direction. They
captured several boats and barges, and what used to be the _Firefly_.
The Turks captured it at Kut, and have used it against us ever since,
and in a few days it is going to come up and shell the Turk. The litter
that was left behind by the Turks was awful--rags, clothes, camp
furniture, ammunition of every description, and bombs, shells--in fact
a bit of everything. We recaptured half a dozen of our fellows who had
been captured the day before, and they had their boots and overcoats
taken from them, as the Turks are very short of both. They even strip
their own dead as well as our own for the clothes they can get off them.
“I also found a Constantinople paper which was written in French, and
which said the Germans had gained a great defensive victory on the
Somme against the English because--and here came long explanations.
Also that Verdun was as good as lost to the French, &c. I was also
shown some post-cards from Germany, but they were very badly written,
and I could not decipher them. There was also an ‘Illustratte Zeitung’
there, with wonderful pictures showing how grateful the Pole was for
the German liberation scheme.”
(Lieutenant Clarkson read and spoke fluently both French and German.)
_Captain W. H. Eve--March 2._--“Well, things are going _really_ well,
and we are now forty-five miles short of Baghdad, and resting a day or
two. The difficulty is again supplies....
“I wrote you Friday last, February 23rd, and we moved at 4.15 next
morning, 24th. The fight at the river-crossing had gone very well,
and we were sent over the bridge which our sappers had built about 9
A.M. The Infantry were still pretty busy further forward, and
we waited about for three or four hours and watered. Then we really
thought our chance was coming of getting them in the open, but their
rearguard put up a very fine fight, and got into nullahs and ditches,
and our show ended in a dismounted fight, and we weren’t able to turn
them out, and so it ended at dark. The squadron was out on flank guard
and had next to nothing to do, and only one man wounded, and one of
Payne’s chargers, his best of course, killed. We camped north of the
river, but weren’t in till midnight, and I can tell you we were tired
then. We had had nothing to eat, and there were no rations up, so we
turned in straight off. It had been a very hot day.
“Well, the Turks’ rearguard cleared off in the night and we had got
Kut. For they had evacuated it directly we got the crossing of the
river, to escape being bottled up there. Meanwhile the other Corps had
taken Sannaiyat, but the remnants of the Turks got away from there
too. The Turk rearguard really did well. I did hope and think our day
might have come, but it was not to be. All the same there was nothing
to grumble at, for we had got Sannaiyat and Kut, and the whole of the
Turks were retreating as fast as ever they could.
“Our monitors came up the river as soon as Sannaiyat was taken, and
passed through our bridge early the next day. Then--that is, Sunday
25th--the pursuit started. We managed to get some food early in
the morning and left camp at 7. I was advance-guard, but we saw no
Turks till the afternoon, except a few scattered prisoners which we
rounded up. In the afternoon the other Brigade on our left found their
rearguard and sent for us to help. They were in a very strong position,
Infantry and Artillery, and we were sent in dismounted. The Regiment
was on the left, ‘B’ and ‘C’ in front, and ‘A’ and ‘D’ in support,
under me. We were very weak in numbers, only about 100 in the firing
line from the Regiment, and they were much too strong for us. We went
on, of course, but finally got held up, and we had a warm time. I
took the support line up to within about 100 yards of the front (two
squadrons). The Turks were shooting very well--rifle, Maxim guns, and
their guns too--and people behind thought we should be about wiped out.
But ‘V’ behind us helped us no end, and when orders came to retire we
got out of it better than I expected, just before dark. ‘B’ and ‘C’
came back through me, and I then came, but by degrees. The men, all of
them, were topping. We had heavy casualties, but only a very few killed.
“Only half of ‘D’ was there, as Payne with the other two troops had
been out on a reconnaissance all the night before, and so had been
left behind to come on with the supply column. Even so I lost both
sergeant-majors, two sergeants, and a corporal wounded--no one killed.
Sergt.-Major Edwards was only lightly hit in the leg and will soon be
back at duty, but Sergt.-Major Goddard was very badly shot through
the middle, and I am afraid was bad: I haven’t been able to find out
anything about him since, either, except that he was easier when
he left the field ambulance. Sergeants Bell and Hill were both shot
through the face, and Corporal Heathman through both legs. Lord was
wounded, the only officer casualty. We were lucky to get out as lightly
as we did. The monitors helped us too. I only had one horse very
slightly hit, but shells fell right amongst them and they were very
lucky indeed, too. It’s an extraordinary thing: if you are going to be
hit, you’re going to be, and if you’re not, you’re not, and that’s all
about it. I was touched--my clothes--by bits of shrapnel, and I got
a bullet through my revolver holster and then through my coat--near
enough, but I wasn’t touched. Corporal Watkins, my signaller, had two
or three through his clothes, one of which was stopped in his pocket by
his pocket-book.
“I rode Follow Me till danger threatened on the Saturday, and then
Caprice, and on this day, the Sunday, I rode Follow Me. We didn’t get
back to camp till 11.30, but we got food all right then.
“We had to go back, no support ready to push these people out.”
_Monday 26._--“Left camp 7.30 and marched across the desert to strike
the river much higher up--a long march, and wicked going for the guns
in places. I rode Caprice. We found the Turkish rearguard in the
afternoon--again very strongly posted. We were rear Regiment of the
rear Brigade and did nothing, and the other Brigade found them too
strong. But the Infantry were steadily coming up, and the monitors were
topping, going ahead like anything and giving the Turks beans. They
captured prisoners and destroyed Turkish ships, and did no end of good
work. We had a day’s food with us, and just lay down where we were for
the night. It rained, but not much, luckily, but was bitterly cold.
“We advanced next morning, 27th (New College grind), at 7
A.M., but of course the Turk had gone by then. However, we
rounded up about 240 prisoners, a hospital, and a battery of six
5.9-inch guns. We wasted a lot of time over this instead of pushing on,
and in the end got no distance that day, and the infantry were only
a few miles behind us.... It drove me mad. The Turks were obviously
running like smoke--abandoning guns, ammunition-carts, and equipment of
all sorts, and yet we didn’t push on. It’s beyond me altogether.
[Illustration: TURKISH PRISONERS. FEBRUARY AND MARCH 1917]
[Illustration: AEROPLANE ATTACHED TO 7TH CAVALRY BRIGADE]
“A little farther on we found two large barges loaded with corn and
all sorts of things. These were providential, for we filled all our
nose-bags and corn-sacks and got a little loot ourselves as well. I
took a Turkish trumpet, but I don’t suppose I shall keep it. But we got
useful things like chickens, ducks, candles, dates, sugar, &c. We then
marched on about eight miles more and camped in the desert just before
dark. I rode Caprice and Follow Me. Later in the evening Payne, with
the other two troops, turned up with the welcome supplies at last, and
also our regimental transport. The road of the retreat was a sight,
every conceivable thing abandoned.
“Next day no supplies at all could be got forward, so we marched _back_
the eight miles to where the captured barges were, and had a really
welcome afternoon’s rest there. _I_ had the most glorious hot bath in
a huge iron bath we got off one of the barges. I can tell you we were
dirty. We left in the small hours of Saturday, and this was Wednesday,
and you can’t imagine how dirty we were.”
“We marched again next morning, Thursday, March 1st, and came about
seventeen miles to where we are now--a most delightful camp, right on
the river bank.
“Two of the monitors are here. They _have_ done well. They have
recaptured the _Firefly_ captured from us in the retreat last year,
have taken a battery of guns here, and been up level with the Turkish
infantry in their retreat and inflicted tremendous losses. They have
sunk a lot of ships and taken over 2000 prisoners. And all this when
you think they are unarmoured--only supposed to be proof against
rifle-fire, and had all those heavy guns against them.
“I believe since the push started here we have taken 7000 prisoners,
and their other casualties have been very heavy indeed, as we know
from their dead. We believe we have only a remnant in front of us.
Personally, I shouldn’t be in the least surprised if we march into
Baghdad almost straight, when we get going again....
“It is lovely weather and we are all as fit as fleas, not a man sick.
The horses, poor devils, of course, are showing it, and I have one or
two tender backs and withers, but not many. They are just A1....
“It is a lovely day to-day, and the horses are spending the whole of it
grazing, while we are cleaning up, &c. I have had a real useful morning
at it, and have also mended my own breeches. In a few minutes I am
going to have a hot bath. I hope we shall get letters away somehow by
the supply people going back empty. Whether this will catch this mail
is a different thing, but you will understand, and if you get my wire
you will know all is well, anyhow. I am most awfully fit--couldn’t be
better....
“I shouldn’t be the least surprised if we get there now with hardly
any fighting at all; as it is, we have done little enough of it. The
Infantry do nearly all of it, and the monitors have _really_ done the
pursuit, which we ought to have done. I do hope we go on to-morrow. I
fret at every day’s delay.”
These passages have been given as they stand, for they show the
generous impulse of a real soldier to award all due credit to other
Services. And in truth it would be difficult to say too much for the
resolute unwearied fighting of the Infantry during the two months’
struggle on the Tigris, or for the dash and courage of the sailors
in following up the pursuit. Nevertheless it is necessary to make
allowances for the impatience of a fiery spirit always longing for a
chance. Others had done well, very well, but the horsemen had done all
that horsemen could do--and that was not little.
“We were bucked enough last night, and then we got the great news
from France to crown all. It is only a telephone message as yet--no
details--just saying the Germans have retired three miles on the
Ancre.... We know nothing, not even of our own doings. I expect the
papers at home have made the most of our success here, with very big
headlines, &c., until the news from France comes to overshadow it. We
do want news so badly.”
That was the feeling at every part of the vast battlefield. In Europe
and Asia and Africa and all over the seven seas millions of men were
fighting for the Empire and doing their duty nobly, but “we do want
news so badly” was the cry that went up from all of them, and they
had to be content with very little, to find comfort and help in the
smallest successes reported in a few vague words over the uncertain
wires.
At the moment all was going well with the Thirteenth. They were not
strong in numbers, for they had had casualties at times since the
beginning of the advance, and had besides lost many horses from
the wear and tear of the campaign. Captain Eve’s squadron had been
reduced to working as three troops instead of four, and had no senior
non-commissioned officers left. But the men and horses were doing well,
and the officers the same.
[Illustration: HALTS ON THE MARCH]
“Lord is all right,--I mean going on all right. I helped to do him
up. He had a very narrow shave, the bullet entering just above the
collar-bone and coming out under his arm, only just missing the big
artery there. Otherwise we are all most awfully flourishing. Twist
seems quite all right now.... Sergeant Chipperfield is acting squadron
sergeant-major, and very good indeed he is.... Payne I like better and
better, and think I was more than lucky to get him. I am a better judge
of horses than men, anyhow, first go off.... I am so sorry that Payne
missed our show on Sunday, though I am glad he is still here safe, as
he might not have been, of course, had he been there.”
Another letter, written on the 3rd March, sums up the operations of
the last week and the position as it then stood. At the risk of some
repetition it seems as well to give it.
“Well, we had known pretty well for a week beforehand that a serious
attempt was going to be made to put a pontoon across the Tigris above
Kut as soon as the height of the river, which was then in flood from
the recent rains, permitted, and this was done on the 23rd February;
and during that night a Division was put over, and we followed on
their heels next day, the 24th, and in the afternoon found a gap in
the line of defence they were putting up to cover the retreat of the
fighting troops from the Sannaiyat position, from which the big guns
had been retired some days. The delay in getting the pontoon over the
river, due to the flood, had, however, given the Turks just enough
time to get the survivors from Sannaiyat--where the fighting has been
very severe and bitter, and where the deep trenches were literally
filled with dead--away, and when we got through it was only to bump up
against their rearguard, who were well handled and fought so well that
we had to force them back, after three days’ fighting, from position
to position, and until the Navy came along with their monitors and
flyboats, and turned the retirement into a rout. The Turks then left so
quickly that they abandoned guns, trench-mortars, doctors and hospital
staff, a motor-car, shells, wounded, and many unwounded men who could
not keep up, to fall into our hands or the hands of the Arabs, who
kill, strip, and loot Turks and British alike, especially when wounded.
Among the prisoners were a few German officers, and a few were also
found among the dead. We were ordered to stop the pursuit three days
ago by the Army Commander, as we had finished our supplies and were
getting far from our base, so have been waiting by the river for the
barges to come up; these began to arrive last night, and are coming up
fast, so we may expect soon to be on the move again. We are now some
forty-five miles from Baghdad, and our friend the Turk may put up a
fight at Ctesiphon, although this is very doubtful unless he has been
strongly reinforced, which seems unlikely....
“The weather has on the whole been most lenient to us, for although the
cold at night has been intense and the winds strong and bitter, we have
only had a small shower of rain, and the days are now getting quite
warm. The men are well and cheery, and the horses, which a few days ago
were footsore and weary, are picking up and ready for more work. The
Regiment has fought very well, and our casualty list--about forty in
the last ten days--is comparatively small.”
Such was the state of affairs when the Thirteenth received orders that
the advance was to be resumed on the 5th March. The writer of that
letter had longed for one gallop with his squadron. He was to get it at
last. But before his confident words reached those for whom they were
written his fiery spirit was at rest for ever.
[Illustration: Sergt. P. CHIPPERFIELD
(_Died, 6th March 1917, of wound received at Lajj_)]
[Illustration: Sergt. H. KNAPMAN
(_Killed at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: Capt. W. H. EVE
(_Killed at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: Pte. A. WALLHEAD
(_Killed at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: Pte. ALFRED JONES, D.C.M.
(_Killed at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
CHAPTER XIV.
THE FIGHT AT LAJJ, 5TH MARCH 1917.
“On the fifth,” writes Sir Stanley Maude in his despatch upon the
advance to Baghdad, “the supply situation having been rapidly
readjusted, Lieutenant-General Marshall marched to Zeur (eighteen
miles), preceded by the Cavalry, which moved seven miles farther
to Lajj. Here the Turkish rearguard was found in an intrenched
position, very difficult to locate by reason of a dense dust-storm
that was blowing and a network of nalas,[33] with which the country
is intersected. The Cavalry was hotly engaged with the enemy in this
locality throughout the day, and took some prisoners. A noticeable
feature of the day’s work was a brilliant charge made, mounted, by the
Hussars straight into the Turkish trenches. The enemy retreated during
the night.”
Such is the brief official account of an action which was one of the
most memorable in the history of the Thirteenth. In accordance with the
custom of the times, when extreme reserve marked the despatches of the
military commanders, no details are given, and the very number of the
Regiment which made the “brilliant charge” is omitted. This reserve was
probably necessary, yet the charge was a gallant feat of arms, and, if
not a triumphant success, none the less creditable to the valour and
discipline of the Regiment. News of it would have stirred the heart of
the nation.
Extracts from several accounts by those who were present will be given
hereafter; and it will be seen that they are not always in exact
agreement. They reflect in some measure the rush and confusion which
must always attend a Cavalry charge, and perhaps on that account
they give a better picture of it than can be given by any attempt at
a general narrative. The pace of galloping horses and the extent of
ground covered make it impossible for any horseman sharing in a charge
to note all the incidents that occurred, and it is equally impossible
for him to remember in precise sequence all that he did see.
Nevertheless, it seems necessary to state briefly what happened on this
day as far as one can judge from the varying and sometimes conflicting
stories. Their discrepancies after all are mainly on points of detail,
and a fairly accurate view of the whole affair can be formed by
comparing them. The following facts appear to be free from any serious
doubt.
On the 5th of March, shortly before daybreak, the Cavalry Division
marched from Azizieh, the rest of General Marshall’s force coming
on behind them. The line of advance lay along the north bank of the
Tigris, mostly over flat ground, with some low sand-hills on the right,
away from the river. Somewhere between 9 and 10 o’clock the head of the
force reached the village of Zeur,[34] and there the Cavalry watered
their horses. Half an hour or so later they pushed on for Lajj, while
the rest of the force halted for the night.
Lajj was the point on the river where General Townshend had left his
flotilla and his hospitals before the battle of Ctesiphon in November
1915; and it was rumoured that the Turks intended to make another stand
now upon the old field where General Townshend’s advance had been
checked.
At first there was no sign of an enemy, and the Cavalry moved forward
unmolested. The 7th Brigade was leading in the usual march formation,
the 13th Lancers, Watson’s Horse, in front. Soon after the start,
reports came in from some aeroplanes and armoured cars which had gone
on to reconnoitre, to the effect that the country ahead was clear
except for a Turkish convoy with a small escort of Infantry, which was
retiring in the direction of Baghdad. After advancing another mile or
two, the Brigade came in sight of some scattered parties of Turks, and
the Thirteenth Hussars were ordered to come up abreast of Watson’s
Horse, which were under fire. They did so, “A” and “B” Squadrons
advancing dismounted, and remaining for a quarter of an hour or
so in action. During that time they lost 2nd Lieutenant Welstead and
several men, wounded by rifle-fire from concealed Turks.
[Illustration: Lieut. G. R. PEDDER
(_Wounded at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. E. F. PINNINGTON
(_Wounded and taken prisoner at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: 2nd Lieut. G. LYNCH-STAUNTON
(_Killed at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: L/Cpl. A. W. WATKINS, D.C.M.
(_Wounded at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: Sergt. F. SPANTON
(_Taken prisoner at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
It was then about 11.30 o’clock, and the day was a bad one for
seeing. A strong east wind had risen at the backs of the Cavalry, and
was sending along in front of them the “dense dust-storm” of which
General Maude speaks in his despatch. Through this and the mirage the
Thirteenth could make out, not very clearly, the supposed convoy, two
miles or more away.
[Illustration]
Their commanding officer now called up his four squadron leaders, and
sending “C” Squadron under Captain Steele out to the right to cover his
exposed flank, ordered the rest of the Regiment to advance in echelon
of squadrons extended. The ground was flat and covered with low scrub.
“D” Squadron, which led, was under Captain Eve, “B” under Lieutenant
Dawson, “A” under Captain Newton.
The Regiment had hardly got into the formation order when a Turkish
shell burst on its left, and rifle-fire opened from some hidden
trenches on broken ground ahead of the leading squadron. No enemy guns
or Infantry were then visible, nothing but the convoy and its escort
in the distance; but they were evidently there, and it was impossible
to say in what strength. As the aeroplanes had not made out any
considerable body of them, they were presumably few, so it was decided
that the Thirteenth should ride them down, and if possible gallop the
convoy. The three squadrons accordingly drew swords and advanced at a
trot, when it immediately became clear that they had in front of them
not only scattered bands of Turks, but Infantry in concealed trenches
with machine-guns and Artillery.
The order was then given to charge, and the eager horsemen swept
forward with a cheer. A first low trench or water-cut was taken at a
gallop, and some scores of Turks who held it threw up their hands, but
as the squadron galloped on, some of these men seized their rifles
again and fired into our men from behind, while in front the charging
lines were met by a blaze of musketry which emptied many saddles, and
broke the weight of the onset. Many brave men pressed on to the edge of
the farther trenches, and even in places over them, but they found they
could do little against Infantry in such numbers and on such ground.
Their Colonel saw that the attempt to ride through was hopeless, and
wheeling his three squadrons to the right at a gallop, and then to
the right again, he withdrew them some distance until they were in
comparative safety near the point from which they had started.
They were still under fire, but the remains of the squadrons rallied at
once, and dismounted by order. The horses were sent away to the rear,
and the troopers advanced on foot and occupied the trench which they
had first taken. Leaving them there in the hope of another advance,
or at all events of recovering their dead and wounded from the ground
ahead of them, their Colonel went back to consult with the Brigadier
and bring up support.
He returned soon afterwards, but only to be wounded by a Turkish
bullet, and to find that the remnants of the three squadrons were too
weak to push back the Turks and could hardly hold their own. They
remained until dark in the Turkish trench. The rest of the 7th Brigade
was similarly unable to advance, but held its ground in spite of a
bombardment from about twenty concealed guns and a heavy rifle-fire,
until the 6th Brigade worked round the enemy’s left and threatened his
line of retreat. Such of the wounded as could be found in the darkness
were then brought in.
[Illustration: Sergt.-Tptr. J. S. STYLES
(_Killed at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: Sergt. G. ANDERSON
(_Killed at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: 2nd Lieut. E. V. ROLFE
(_Killed at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: Sergt. W. GILBERT
(_Taken prisoner at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: Sergt. A. HARRISON
(_Killed at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
So ended this day. The Thirteenth had shown a fine example of
combined dash and steadiness. They had charged boldly over broken
ground, and immediately after the charge had re-formed and gone forward
again on foot, as ready to fight as ever in spite of their heavy
losses. For they had lost heavily. Of the officers who had led the
Regiment into the charge, three had been killed, one disabled and taken
prisoner, and five wounded. Of other ranks, twenty-five had been killed
and fifty-two wounded. Among the wounded officers were the Colonel and
the second in command. The senior squadron leader was dead, and another
was badly wounded. One squadron leader only came out of the charge
unhurt. In all, about one-half of the officers and men who rode at the
Turkish trenches were killed or wounded.
Of the three officers who died in the charge, the most prominent was
the Captain of the leading squadron, Eve, who fell sword in hand among
the Turkish Infantry. Many of his brother officers have borne witness
to his courage and character. No braver soldier ever rode in the
Thirteenth, and none was more beloved. The other two were newly joined
2nd Lieutenants, Rolfe and Lynch Staunton, who had not seen a shot
fired before that day.
The following are extracts from letters and diaries bearing on the
story of the fight. As the narrative in the text has been taken mainly
from Colonel Richardson’s account and the Regimental Diary, others are
quoted before these.
_From Lance-Corporal Watkins, D.C.M., to the Hon. Mr Justice Eve._--“I
was with your son, the (late) Captain W. H. Eve, on the 5th of March,
when he was killed, and I was wounded almost directly afterwards.
“I was his signaller in most of the engagements in which we took part,
and I should like to state, sir (although I am not in a proper position
to do so), that he was the bravest man I have ever seen under fire, and
under whom it was my good fortune to serve.”
_May 23, 1917._--“On the 5th of March 1917 we had been on the move
since early morning after three days’ rest, and about 3 or 4 o’clock in
the afternoon we had word back from the advance-guard to say that they
had got in touch with the Turks.
“We formed up, and your son, who (as I expect you know) was squadron
leader of ‘D’ Squadron, received some orders from officer commanding
Regiment, and we were ordered to advance.
“We went along at a canter, myself and Trumpeter Wren (he was
afterwards killed) riding behind the officer commanding squadron.
“I noticed Captain Eve pulling his sword out of the scabbard, and
shortly afterwards we all followed suit and we started to gallop.
“The squadron then had orders to wheel to the left, and Captain Eve,
who had gone towards the right flank, dropped behind and I stayed with
him.
“We followed behind the remainder, and I saw a Turk just in front of me
put his rifle to his shoulder, and was going to fire at Captain Eve,
but I just managed to get there in time to prevent him from doing so.
“Soon afterwards I saw a pal of mine (Private Jones, D.C.M.) lying on
the ground badly wounded, so I dismounted and tried to get him out
of it as best I could, and I then lost sight of Captain Eve and the
remainder of the squadron.
“I did my best for my pal, but his wound was fatal, and I could not get
him on my horse, so I looked about me to see if I could get help.
“I saw Captain Eve about twenty or thirty yards [off?] taking about
twenty Turks prisoners at the point of his sword. He must have seen me,
as he left the prisoners and came over towards me and told me to get
mounted and draw my sword and go along with him.
“There were about fifteen or twenty Turks in a nullah a short distance
from us, and they were firing at us and the other men lying about
wounded and otherwise.
“We galloped towards them; Captain Eve jumped over to the other side of
the nullah, and I remained this side.
“The odds were strongly against us, but I think we did a good deal of
damage to the Turks, before your son fell from his horse, right into
the centre of the Turks.
“I cannot say whether he was shot or if he had been bayoneted, but I
did not see him move after that, so he must have been killed outright.
[Illustration: CAPRICE AND FOAL BORN MAY 1920
(_From the picture by_ George Paige Esq.)]
“His horse galloped away, and I was told later that it had seven
bullet-wounds in its neck.[35] I was left by myself then, and I
really did not know what to do, so I looked over my shoulder to
see if there was any one near to give me a hand, when I saw a Turk
about five yards away ready to fire at me, and before I had time to do
anything I got a bullet through my left arm close to the shoulder; the
same bullet broke the blade of my sword, which was in my right hand.
My horse took me back out of it, as I was too dazed to do anything
myself; and if it had not been for ‘Chicko,’ I should not have been
alive to-day. I was told later that Captain Eve, when found, still had
his sword tightly grasped in his hand, and I am sure it will be some
consolation to you to know that he died a hero fighting to the last.
“I may also mention several occasions before that in which he proved
himself one of the bravest.
“He rescued a wounded man from out in the open under very heavy fire
and at close range, and on the 25th of February 1917, in a dismounted
attack on the Turks, he bandaged several wounded men up, regardless of
the danger to himself in being exposed to heavy fire in the open.
“A bullet [hit?] him on that day, but luckily it hit his revolver-belt,
and glanced off without doing him any harm.
“I was lying by the side of him at the time, and he said to me,
‘Watkins, I think we are both marked men,’ as I had been hit three
times without causing any wound.
“One bullet passed through the sleeve of my tunic, and another stopped
in my pocket, in a book that I carried, after passing through my
pay-book; and I also got hit with a shell-case on my foot, which only
caused a slight bruise, and I was able to carry on.
“I hope you will not think, sir, that I am trying to flatter myself in
this letter, and making you think I am a hero, but I have only put down
how things happened, and let you know as best I could how your son met
his untimely death.”
_Major Twist--March 1917._--“I feel I must write and say how we shall
miss dear old Billy. You will have heard how he met his death from
those who were actually with him at the moment, and though I was quite
close to him I suppose the dust and confusion of the charge, and also
my being myself wounded, prevented my seeing him killed. He was, I
know, most gallantly leading his squadron, and fell from his horse
without a word. I believe if he had been asked to choose, this was
the death he would have chosen, and I remember him often saying that
if he had to die he would like to be killed on his horse. His men are
heartbroken, and it was a sad day for the Regiment when we lost him.”
_Captain E. Wingfield Digby, V Battery, R.H.A._--“Well, here we
are just outside Baghdad.... The saddest part of the whole show to
me is poor old Eve’s death--he was just one of the best fellows on
earth--anyway he lost his life charging the Turk (intrenched). I
believe he took his man, and was then shot through the head from
below--the bullet entering under his chin. The Thirteenth lost pretty
heavily that day; we got very heavily shelled too--lost all our layers
casualties, and a direct hit on one gun and one waggon,--it was a very
dusty day and high wind, and one couldn’t see a yard. And when the wind
dropped and mirage lifted in the evening, the Turks could easily see us
in the open, and fired at us from three different directions.”
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--March 15._--“I am afraid the only comfort I
can give you is that he was killed instantaneously, and also mounted,
in a brilliant charge--a death which I know he would have preferred to
all others.
“I remember him telling me at Makina that personally he didn’t think a
man could have a finer death than in jumping a large fence out hunting,
but his was infinitely finer leading his squadron (I was directly
behind him) straight at a small nullah full of Turks. He was probably
shot by a Turk not more than two or three yards off. I did not see his
body afterwards, as I was hit myself very shortly afterwards; but Mr
Payne did, I believe, and no doubt he will have written to you.
“It is most awfully sad, and I shall feel it all the more when I get
back to the squadron and he isn’t there. I never saw a braver or more
fearless person than he was: he almost made it impossible for any one
under him to be afraid.”
[Illustration: Capt. H. C. D. FITZGIBBON, M.C.
(_Wounded near Deli Abbas, 8th April 1917_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. A. M. LE PATOUREL.]
[Illustration: Capt. A. VEANTO, M.C., R.A.M.C.]
[Illustration: Capt. H. G. T. NEWTON
(_Accidentally drowned in Tigris, 25th April 1917_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. J. H. HIRSCH]
[Illustration: Pte. J. L. ROBERTS, D.C.M.
(_Died, 20th April 1917, of wounds received near Deli Abbas_)]
_Lieutenant Fitzgibbon--March 21._--“I have seen by the way what no
other Regiment has seen or done in this war--that is to say, the
Regiment formed line and charged! It was a damned fine effort, but
rather a mad one. We had been given wrong information by aeroplanes,
and ran our heads against the most beautiful trenches full of Turks I
have ever seen. The old Turk just sat back and waited for us, and, by
God! he let us have it. The noise was something impossible to describe:
how the devil we any of us ever got out of it I still do not know.
The dust did us in, but also saved us. Well, we eventually got out of
it, rallied, dismounted, and attacked on our flat feet, and had the
satisfaction of seeing the Turk evacuate his position at nightfall. We
rather got a dusting though.
“My squadron (‘A’) went into action very weak from previous casualties,
and we went in sixty-six strong and came out thirty-three. Fourteen
officers of the Regiment were knocked out and five killed. Newton and I
scraped out of it safely.
“We had a good many shows besides this one, but none so good. It is
something to be the only Regiment to have charged as a Regiment, and it
did jolly well. We were the first Cavalry Regiment to enter Baghdad. We
have lost our Colonel and also the second in command, Twist; the senior
squadron leader was killed--such a nice fellow, Eve, shot through his
head. I was the first to find his body, and took his things off him. It
was very sad.”[36]
_Colour-Sergeant F. Spanton, “B” Squadron._--“After a few minutes
we were galloping towards the enemy with drawn swords, at a fair
pace. We were well received by the Turks, who blazed away at us as
hard as they could, and when we got close some of their shots took
effect, and one or two spare horses were galloping about. After we
had crossed the first trench my horse was apparently hit and pitched
over, causing me to be thrown. I landed between the lines of Turks,
and remained quiet, waiting to see what would happen next. The Turks
now had turned about, and were firing over me into the rear of the
squadrons. The Regiment changed direction to the right, and passed
out of my view; the Turks got out of the trenches and continued to
send a hail of bullets after the disappearing squadrons. I watched
this as I lay on the ground, weighing my chances of rejoining the
Regiment. The Turks in front of me were now retiring, and moving to
the left of the trench, and I thought if I remained quiet they would
all probably pass me by unnoticed, and then I could get back to my
squadron again. But no such luck: as the tail-end of the Turks passed
by, one fellow stopped when he saw me, and raising his rifle to his
shoulder he fired point-blank--but missed--the bullet not coming so
near as the one that had cut the belt of my haversack in half a few
minutes before. This man, evidently disgusted with his bad shooting,
walked hurriedly away, so once again I thought my chances of getting
back were good; but a group of three men coming along a little later
came to see who I was, and lugged me off to a dug-out. I had hurt my
knee rather badly when I was thrown, and couldn’t get along over fast;
this annoyed the Turks, as we were still under a heavy fire from the
British machine-guns, so they jabbed me in the back with the butt of
a rifle as a signal to hurry.... Sergeant Gilbert was brought up to
where I was, and duly deprived of his possessions. After a few minutes
Lieutenant Pennington[37] was brought in. He was holding his wrist: he
had been badly hit in the forearm, the bone being broken. I tied him
up with my field-dressing, and made a plug for him until we could find
a dressing station. In the meantime, Private Morrison had been brought
in, and he also was shot through the arm and was bleeding freely. We
were now hurried off, and came to a dressing station, where the wounds
of Lieutenant Pennington and Private Morrison were dressed. We were
now handed over to an escort, who had instructions to take us to the
Headquarters, 18th Turkish Division, for interrogation. The escort made
a wide chukker to get to the Headquarters. After a while they called a
halt, and motioned us to sit down. Now they thought was the best time
to change clothes. They commenced with Lieutenant Pennington, taking
his puttees and spurs, and tried very hard to get a gold ring off a
finger on his broken arm, which must have caused him considerable pain;
but being unsuccessful they let him alone, and turned their attention
to Private Morrison, whom they robbed of almost everything; next they
came to me and took what the others had left.... Now they turned to
Sergeant Gilbert and served him in a like manner. After they had
got all they could out of us they continued to walk to G.H.Q., where
eventually we arrived. Here we were interviewed by an interpreter,
who spoke excellent English, and who was wonderfully informed, but I
am afraid the satisfaction he got from us was little. I spoke to him
about my clothes and possessions being stolen by the soldiers, but he
said nothing could be done, as they were allowed to do it. Two Turkish
soldiers fighting for possession of my revolver were interrupted by
an officer, who thrashed them both and took it himself. The Turks
were still retiring and we were sent to travel with a Field Ambulance
Section.”
It will be seen that there was some measure of mercy shown by the
fighting Turks towards the men who fell into their hands, but Sergeant
Spanton’s diary goes on to describe the lives and sufferings of the
British and Indian prisoners during their captivity, and the story is
painful reading.
2nd Lieutenant Pinnington, who was wounded and taken prisoner at Lajj,
had joined the Regiment only a fortnight earlier with 2nd Lieutenant
Rolfe, after a long voyage from England by way of the Cape and India.
More fortunate than his companion, he lived to be exchanged to England
within a year. His account of the fight at Lajj is as follows:--
“The 7th Brigade, to which the Thirteenth belonged, led the way, one
of the Indian Regiments--Watson’s Horse--furnishing the advanced and
flank guards. The Division had been on the march several hours when
the news filtered through that a Turkish convoy, escorted by a company
of Infantry, had been sighted a mile or two ahead. The job of rounding
up this convoy was assigned to the Thirteenth, and the Regiment drew
ahead in the formation known as echelon of squadrons. We had not gone
far when the whizz of bullets greeted our ears, and the order came to
dismount for action--presumably owing to the impossibility, on account
of the dust, of seeing what actually did lie in front of us. A lull in
the dust-storm served to assure our leader that whatever opposition
there was could be ridden down, and accordingly, after advancing a
short distance dismounted, and snapping away with Hotchkiss gun and
rifle, we were summarily recalled, ordered to mount, draw swords, and
finally charge. Shells by this time were bursting overhead, and the
storm of bullets through which we rode gave the lie to the report
that, with the exception of the convoy and its escort, all was clear
ahead. We were quickly on top of a line of Turks who had abandoned
their trench and were scurrying back to join their comrades in the rear
lines. The horrible screeching told its own weird tale of the fate
they met. In the onrush I got ‘winged’ and was left, as I ultimately
learned to my cost, a few yards from the Turkish main-line trench. As I
stood there dazed amid the dust, I saw another squadron come galloping
up. It was a sight I shall not readily forget. The leader to the fore
with sword aloft, the line of panting horses, the grim eager faces
of the men, the flashing swords--I thought of Lady Butler’s painting
‘Floreat Etona,’ and marvelled at seeing the living parallel. Captain
Eve was the leader, and as he approached ‘with a swiftness not to
be conceived,’ I shook my right arm, which was hanging limply by my
side, and shouted, ‘This thing’s shattered.’ ‘Hard lines, old boy.
Never mind,’ he called back, and was gone. The line had passed and
disappeared in the dust.
“When once again the dust had settled, the Turks, observing that the
attack was for the moment over, sallied forth from their trenches to
pay attention to the casualties. An Arab relieved me of my possessions
and led me to an officer in the trench. This officer, on seeing me
approach, forsook the machine-gun he had been manipulating and shook my
uninjured member warmly--a thing which no good Mahomedan should have
done, as such contact with the ‘infidel’ is forbidden in terms of Koran
regulations. Some one applied a tourniquet to my arm, which was still
dripping, and I was taken to a bend in the trench where I came across
Sergeants Gilbert and Spanton, and Trooper Morrison, the only other
survivors amongst those who had fallen into Turkish hands. The horses
of the two sergeants had been shot down, and Morrison was suffering
from a wound in the forearm. We were led out of the trench and across
the open country to the Headquarters of the Turkish forces (instead of
rounding up a convoy the Thirteenth had ridden through a Division),
and in the course of our journey to the rear had ample opportunity
of realising how much nastier is the effect of British shrapnel than
that of the Turk. Arrived at Headquarters, we were separated and
interrogated in a very polite manner by one who spoke English
fluently. In this interrogation, to my surprise and the credit of the
enemy, there was not the slightest suggestion of coercion to extract
information. After a few hours’ rest, Morrison and I, with some wounded
Turkish soldiery, were given seats in a rickety waggon, and with
Sergeants Gilbert and Spanton marching behind, we set out. It was early
the next morning that the palm groves of Baghdad, topped by the domes
and minarets of the city’s many mosques, came to sight. At Baghdad,
Morrison and I were taken direct to a hospital, where a Jewish doctor,
Alalou by name, dressed our wounds and gave us food and drink.”
[Illustration: SCENE OF THE FIGHT AT LAJJ. 5TH MARCH 1917]
Lieutenant Pinnington was afterwards sent on to Mosul, and he writes:
“It is perhaps worthy of mention that on many occasions during my
imprisonment there I received compliments from Turkish officers on the
bravery of the British Cavalry in making their ill-fated charge on the
4th [? 5th] March.”
Captain Newton, the one squadron leader who came out unwounded from
the “ill-fated” charge, evidently took much the same view of it as his
subordinate. The entry in his diary for the 5th March is as follows:--
“Marched 4.45 past Zeur almost to Lajj, where enemy reported. Tried to
take them on mounted, but found them intrenched and very strong, and
had rather a bad time. Retired a bit, and came into action dismounted,
and held on all day. Awful job getting wounded away at dusk. Eve, Lynch
Staunton, and Rolfe killed. Pinnington missing. Colonel, Twist, Dawson,
Pedder, Welstead wounded. Total casualties eighty-seven. Retired to
biv. near Lajj bend, getting in soon after 10. An awful day, wind and
dust terrible. A little rain at night. Took sixty-six men into action,
and brought out thirty-three.”
In a letter of the 21st March 1917, Captain Newton gives a somewhat
longer account.
“The poor old Regiment has been through some pretty troublous times,
and has been pretty well knocked about, but it’s done most awfully
well, and got a great chit for itself....
“I last wrote on Saturday the 3rd. They gave us a rest next day. We got
orders to parade at 4.45 A.M. (on the 5th), and it was awfully
cold and dark turning out. We had an uneventful march for some time,
but quite unexpectedly came in touch with the enemy in the middle of
the morning. We came into action against them, and there seemed to be
very few, so the Colonel decided to ride them down. Then we found that
we were wrong! There were a few scattered Turks in nullahs who ran away
or held up their hands as we rode over them, but just behind were some
beautifully concealed and very well-dug trenches, and we fairly caught
it from rifles and machine-guns. We rode right up to them though, and
even in places across them, but we couldn’t do anything, and had to
rally and go about, and eventually came into action dismounted. It was
a pretty tough business though, as one did not know where any one was.
Young Welstead was hit in the arm before we charged, and Twist during
it. Billy,[38] Vavie,[39] Lynch Staunton, Rolfe, and Pinnington could
not be accounted for at first, but later in the day we got forward a
bit and found poor old Billy’s body, and Vavie lying out wounded, and
several other wounded men. Poor Billy was shot through the head, and
death must have been instantaneous. He must have been shot in the very
act of jumping a nullah, as his body was lying in it as he had fallen
with his sword by his hand. Vavie was very badly hit in the knee, and
must have had an awful day, as we couldn’t move him till after dark,
and the Turks had been at him and taken all his equipment off, and
even the rings off his fingers, I believe. Rolfe’s body we found after
dark, and Lynch Staunton’s next morning. Pinnington we have no news
of, and he must be a prisoner, as his body was never found. When we
had established ourselves in a nullah to hold on we continued to have
a few casualties, as we had very little cover. Young Pedder got one
through the shoulder, and soon after that Jimmy (the Colonel) got one
through the arm. Then my troubles began, and I found myself in sole
command of such as there were of three squadrons. ‘C’ were not with
us, and it was not till much later that we got news that they were
away on our right, though they had had a few casualties. We hung on
all day, and I had a pretty anxious time, as there were an awful lot
of Turks in front of us, and I couldn’t make out what they were going
to do. We had frightened them pretty badly, and they cleared off after
dark. We collected all we could find and brought them in; but we had
no stretchers, and it was pretty hard work, and there were a lot of
snipers at us all the time. Vavie was splendidly plucky. He was one of
the worst cases, and we got him in on a ground sheet, and although I
knew he was in agony he kept quite cheery, and would only apologise for
the trouble he was giving us.
[Illustration: SCENE OF THE CHARGE AT LAJJ. 5TH MARCH 1917]
[Illustration: “CAPRICE” WITH PTE. C. HOGG, WHO FOUND HER IN MAY 1918
AFTER SHE HAD BEEN “MISSING” FOR 14 MONTHS]
“I was simply dead-beat when we got back to the horses. I don’t think
I ever felt so done up in my life before. We reached bivouac about 10
P.M., and I was overjoyed to find Charles[40] safe and sound,
and to find I was only second in command and not commanding officer.”
_2nd Lieutenant F. N. Payne to his Wife--March 13-16._--“At last I am
able to write to you, and very lucky I am to be alive to do so, for we
have been through a terrible time, and suffered heavy losses....
“On March 5th the Cavalry, pushing on ahead of the army, ran into the
enemy again at Lajj, thirty miles below Baghdad. The aeroplanes and
armoured cars reported that they were about 300 strong, and protecting
a convoy that was trying to get away safely, so we were given orders
to round them up and bring them in, while the rest of the Division
attacked the convoy. Our Regiment was sent round the right flank to
get behind their trenches, the river being on the left. We started
out in extended order, and gradually worked up to them, when about
a hundred Turks seeing us coming, walked out of the nullah they had
been firing at us from, and the Colonel gave ‘Draw swords-charge.’ The
hundred dropped their arms and surrendered. We charged through them,
and ran into their concealed trenches that were packed with a solid
mass of Turks, and three thousand rifles from all directions, together
with shrapnel and bombs, came pouring into us, and eighty-two of our
good fellows went down. We had to get out the best way we could, and
retire about a mile with what was left, and get away the remaining
horses and advance on foot, for we had to recover our wounded at all
costs: they were left all over the place as their horses reared and
plunged till they toppled out of their saddles. Then came the worst
part of all. I rallied all the men near me, after finding I was not
killed or even wounded, and forty of us all told and cut off from any
possible help kept the Turks in their trenches, and in about three
hours made good the nullah, and held it till dark with our Hotchkiss
gun and twenty rifles. We, of course, all expected to be wiped out,
which would have been an easy matter, but they were satisfied to stay
where they were except for a number of the boldest who walked out
and stripped our wounded. I killed two of them myself, but we could
not stop them, and that day the Turk seemed to return to his ancient
savagery, for we found they had murdered several of our chaps that were
lying helpless. Poor Eve was killed instantly, to the sorrow of every
man in the Regiment: he always wanted to die in a charge, but we do
want him so badly, and it seems such a shame that he isn’t there to
enjoy the victory in Baghdad. Dawson was very lucky to come off with
his life--he fell right up against one of their sniper’s holes and
couldn’t move with a shattered knee, and the Turks had taken everything
off him, but couldn’t get his ring off, so threatened to shoot him as
they had done to seven others alongside him, together with the brave
chap who tried to carry him in.[41] Eight of us worked our way up the
nullah, and held them off till dark, when we got him out of the open.
We had had nothing to eat or drink since 3 that morning, and had three
miles of ploughed land to carry sixteen men in without stretchers, and
fired on all the time. Some got hit several times on the way back.
When we called the roll in the darkness, we found that thirty-two had
been killed and twenty-six wounded. The Colonel, who is the bravest
man next to Eve, was hit only at the very last: he was always to be
seen in the thickest, carrying up ammunition and encouraging the men
with a smile on his face, and you could hardly see him for the dust of
bullets hitting the ground round him. The second in command was hit,
Eve killed, and three young officers who had just joined killed. Pedder
got a nice one through the shoulder, and two others wounded, so that
Jeffrey and myself found ourselves alone in the squadron, absolutely
staggered at being alive. I lost most of my men--all the best, of
course--and have now only thirteen: we had to make two troops out of
what was left of the four. When we moved on and saw the position, we
stood aghast that it was possible, and the army commanders of the
Infantry when they came on, sent messages of their deep admiration
and gratitude for the work we had done that would have delayed them
considerably. I believe our Colonel is to be decorated later on, and we
are having our reward now in that ‘For Valour’ our Regiment was chosen
to garrison Baghdad when it fell.
“There were some very sad cases in these chaps that were killed.
Out of five new officers that had joined and not been under fire
before, three were killed and one wounded, and none of them more than
twenty-one years of age. Only a few minutes before we went into the
charge, and were halted awaiting orders, Eve called out one of my
men[42] to present him with the D.C.M. for extraordinarily fearless
bravery in the last show that had just been sanctioned that morning,
and I promised to send a cable home for him if we got up alongside
any of the gunboats. Another fellow, a great big, rough, hard-working
fellow, remarked that if we could have one in the troop we could just
as easy have two, and he was going to get it in the next show we got
into or die in the attempt. I saw him try: he rode past me yelling
and whooping and ran his sword through the foremost Turk, only to be
bowled over the next second. When I went out later to find him, my
sergeant, who had a shattered thigh, told me not to risk myself any
further, as he had seen a Turk blow his brains out, as they had also
done with the boy who had just won his medal. I have finished up after
being in fifty shows without a scratch: they’ve whistled past my nose,
through my coat and everywhere, killed four of my horses, one after
another, and never touched me. You may call it providential or the
hand of God. I don’t know what it is other than miraculous good luck,
for it’s not right to think that I should be spared when such good
fellows as Eve are struck down, and all three poor new chaps, who had
never heard the terrible swish of a bullet pass their heads before,
to meet death the first time. It doesn’t seem right that I should
be spared.... I had absolutely no thought whatever about my soul or
the hereafter, in fact everybody seemed to be in a state of pleasant
anticipation. When Eve galloped by me and I looked to him for orders he
had a beautiful smile and just sailed along, and I waved my men on to
follow him, and next second his soul had left his body. I don’t believe
he had a thought of death, or that it meant anything to him. I know
only when we had breathing-space in all these occasions did I worry
about anything, and that was how you would get along, and whether I
had left everything satisfactory.... Lynch Staunton, whose father was
a Senator from Hamilton, was one of the six new subalterns who hadn’t
been under fire before.... Poor fellow, he rode right down into the
Turk trench and walked his horse along it over the Turks, that were as
thick as gooseberries, as much as to say you are my prisoners; and they
certainly would have been, had not that murderous fire from their main
position bowled him over. They took him prisoner, but we found his body
next day: they had dressed his wound, but later decided he would be a
hindrance to carry along, so murdered him and took everything off him.”
2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder, one of those wounded in the fight, writes
to his mother from the hospital at Amara: “No doubt you will have
heard by now how we ran into it on the 5th, but in case you haven’t
I will try and give you a rough idea of what happened. After camping
at Azizieh for four or five days (I wrote to you from there), the
Cavalry Division moved at 5 A.M. (we were centre Regiment of
the leading Brigade) on March 5th with orders to camp at Lajj, which
was about twenty-six miles away, the flying people having reported all
clear. After we had gone about twenty miles we halted and watered, and
fed on the river bank, three monitors steaming past us up-river, and an
aeroplane over our heads--quite a dramatic picture. At 10.30 we moved
off again, and almost immediately a sand-storm started, the strong wind
taking all our dust out in front of us. We went about five miles, when
one of our armoured cars brought in a Turkish officer, and the news
that there were a few of the enemy scattered about, who were probably
only waiting for us to collect them as prisoners (like the lot we took
in the pursuit), so we got orders to move out to the right to verify
this or collect prisoners. Eve told us this, and quickly changed on to
his favourite mare. Three squadrons moved out to the right, the fourth
(‘C,’ Stirling’s and Ormrod’s squadron) right out to the flank; ‘A,’
‘B,’ and ‘D’ then advanced in line of troop column extended and almost
immediately came under heavy rifle-fire. We walked about half a mile
and then trotted; the dust was awful and you couldn’t see more than
one hundred to two hundred yards in front; all of a sudden, through
the dust, I could see a lot of Turks in the open and in a nullah. Eve
gave the order, ‘Draw swords--form line--gallop,’ and before we knew
where we were we were into them. Some stood up and surrendered, others
lay flat on their backs and shot at us at two or three yards’ range;
two fellows let off their rifles right in my face, but missed both
Matches[43] and me. There was a small nullah at the part of the line
where ‘D’ charged, and the Turk lying flat was pretty well safe, but we
got a certain number; the noise was tremendous, bullets from revolvers,
rifles, and machine-guns cracking all round. Beyond the first nullah,
and running at right angles to it, was another much deeper, and we gave
the Turks holding it a splendid target. I lost sight of Eve, who was
just in front of me at the first nullah, but his orderly who was shot
(wounded)[44] close by him, tells me he was shot from two yards’ range,
as he was bending down to charge a group of Turks. At any rate, he must
have been killed instantaneously.
“There were a great many dead horses and empty saddles by now, and
I tried to rally all the men who were near me; it was extremely
difficult, as we were under very heavy fire at very short range; there
was deafening noise and a hard wind blowing, and if you collected men
in bunches, the bunches would very soon have a machine-gun on to them,
so what men I got under hand I kept extended, and galloped a fair way
back and handed over the horses and went up dismounted. The Turks’ guns
had now got our range and were very annoying, but their shells were
bad, or I should not be writing to you now. I met Jeffrey, and we all
went on by short rushes together, until we met the Colonel, who told us
roughly where to go, and we got into the nullah we had first charged,
and there we held on till dark, when we collected the wounded, who
were lying out in front. I was hit clean through the shoulder about 2
P.M., having got through the charge and dismounted attack, and
when I was sitting in the nullah talking to the Colonel, who got hit in
the arm very shortly after me.
“We had nine officers casualties--two killed, Eve and Rolfe (from
Aldershot, first time under fire), two missing, believed wounded and
prisoners, Lynch Staunton and Pinnington (just joined from ‘A’), and
five wounded, Twist, Colonel, Dawson, Welstead, and self. ‘A,’ ‘B,’
and ‘D’ lost very heavily. ‘D’ had thirteen wounded and thirteen
killed, and I think we got off lighter than ‘A’ or ‘B.’ Dawson is the
worst hit of us five; the Turks robbed him of everything, even taking
his water-bottle and ring--we left him at Sheikh Saad, and I hope he
won’t have to lose a foot. Poor old Thirteenth, we fairly ran into it.
My troop sergeant and best corporal were killed, new sergeant-major
badly hit. And now I hear we have crossed the river again to the right
bank, and are three miles west of Baghdad. I wish I was with the
Regiment--it’s sickening....
“Later. News has just arrived Baghdad has fallen, only five days after
I was hit: isn’t it sickening I was not there?...
“I am awfully sorry about poor Billy Eve, but he died just the death
he would have preferred, certainly a very noble one. He was one of
the most fearless people under heavy fire I have so far seen, always
rushing about looking after any one who was hit.”
It need hardly be pointed out that 2nd Lieutenant Pedder, being when he
wrote in hospital at a distance from the front, was not in a position
to get the most accurate information about casualties or other matters
connected with the Regiment. The Regimental Diary, written by the
Adjutant, states the casualties as follows:--
“Killed, 3 officers; 22 British other ranks.
Wounded, 5 officers; 52 British other ranks.
Missing, 1 officer; 4 British other ranks.
Horses, 54 killed; 36 wounded.”
This gives the total of casualties at nine officers and seventy-eight
other ranks--of whom four officers and twenty-six other ranks were
killed or missing. How many wounded died of their wounds does not
appear, but none among the officers. The horse casualties were ninety,
of which fifty-four were killed.
The following is an account of the day given by Private Massey of “D”
Squadron in his diary of the war:--
“Next morning, the 5th of March (a day to be remembered in the annals
of the Thirteenth Hussars), we moved off about 5 A.M. and
proceeded up the Tigris, in the teeth of a terrible sand-storm, which
blinded both horses and men, and through which we could only see 80 to
100 yards ahead of us. Suddenly, out to our front, we heard the sound
of rifle-fire, and bullets whizzed amongst us. The report came through
that a Turkish convoy was attempting to get away, and it was decided to
make an attempt to capture it. Still under fire, the order was given to
‘draw swords,’ and we continued to trot on in extended order. As we got
nearer, the fire became heavier, and the whizz-whizz of the bullets,
as they flew in amongst us, told us we were in for ‘hot stuff.’ Then
we got the order to canter, and when within a hundred yards of the
Turks (whom we could now see through the sand-storm lining the parapet
of the first-line trench) the order to ‘charge’ was given. Digging
in our spurs, and with a loud shout, we charged the Turks in their
trenches. Seeing us on top of them, the whole front line surrendered,
holding up their arms, and some were waving white flags. The order was
given to bring the left shoulder round, and immediately we commenced
doing so, the enemy’s guns opened on us with shrapnel; and he also
had a second line 800 yards behind his first one, and we came under a
heavy machine-gun and rifle fire, and our losses were rather heavy. On
wheeling out of action, but still under fire, the Colonel rallied his
men. The order was given ‘dismounted action,’ and No. 3’s of sections
led the section’s horses to the rear, while Nos. 1, 2, and 4 of the
sections formed line and charged with fixed bayonets. I went to the
rear with the gun-section’s horses, and many wounded men were being
helped to the first-aid dressing station.
“I had gone all through the charge, riding my own horse, and leading
the horse carrying the Hotchkiss gun. I saw M‘Nulty at my side during
the charge with his revolver in his hand. He was very excited and
shouted across to me, ‘Come on, Charlie’; a second later he fell shot
in the head. My section-corporal was wounded in the elbow, and his
horse had a nasty shrapnel wound in its neck. That I got through it all
without a scratch seems hardly believable. Riderless horses, and horses
carrying automatic rifles were galloping madly about, and I was told
that I was the only one who had stuck to my led horse all through the
charge.
“But the Turks played a dirty game on us, even those who had
surrendered in the first-line trench fired on us when we had passed
over them; and several men, whilst dressing our wounded where they had
fallen, were shot at point-blank range in the head.
“But to return to my former subject: after the rally, and when a
halt was called with the led horses well out of rifle-range, and
knowing that the section-corporal was wounded, and that they would
probably want the gun and ammunition up in the firing line, I
decided to volunteer to return with it to the trenches. I asked the
sergeant-major, and he gave me permission to take it up. I was about
to start up with it, when I saw Private Galloway, who had caught a
gun-horse which had got loose in the charge, leading it up towards
the firing-line on foot. I thought that a much better way, and though
one could not go so fast leading as riding one and leading, it had
the advantage of offering a much smaller target for the enemy’s
machine-gunners. I told the sergeant-major my opinion, and he took my
riding-horse from me, and I started to lead the gun-horse towards our
fellows in the enemy’s captured first line. On coming in view of the
enemy, he opened on me with a machine-gun, and bullets were kicking up
the dust at my feet, and buzzing round the horse and myself. I passed
close to Corporal Taylor, who was lying wounded on the ground waiting
for the Field Ambulance to fetch him in. He shouted to me to clear off
to the right, as he had already been wounded once. I didn’t think I was
drawing the enemy’s fire on him until he reminded me of the fact. After
that I began to run, and seeing me coming up with the gun, two N.C.O.’s
rushed out and hurriedly took off the ammunition. They didn’t want the
gun, and gave me a stern order to ‘get away as quickly as you can.’ I
then started to run back with the gun-horse. When I had gone a dozen
yards I remembered that I had left my rifle behind, and turned round to
go back and fetch it, but the sergeant told me to go on and leave it.
It was certainly a hot corner, and perhaps it was best I did.
“I then started to run back as fast as I could go, as the Turks knew
I was bringing up ammunition as well as I did, and meant to make it
hot for me, but I got back quite safely. On the way down I passed the
Colonel talking to a wounded man.
“As soon as I had got back, however, Sergeant-Major Tassie called me,
and ordered me to go up to the line again with more ammunition. I again
started for the first-line trench. I arrived in safety, and having
put it down was told to stay in the trench. Here we hung on till
nightfall, as the wounded on the field pinned us to the trench. Several
were killed in the trench by rifle-fire, and the Turks heavily shelled
V Battery, knocking out a gun and limber and killing several men.
Whilst in the trenches the Colonel and Major Twist (second in command)
were both wounded,[45] and the command fell on Captain Newton of ‘A’
Squadron.
“Towards night the Turks retired, so we collected the wounded, and
slowly, very slowly we returned to camp, three miles to the rear, the
end of a hard and terrible day. On arriving in, after taking over our
horses we watered at the river-side.”
The writer proceeds to describe how in trying to get a bucket of water,
he was carried away by the stream and nearly drowned. He was rescued,
and the day’s entry finishes: “After getting into bed it started to
rain, so I put on M‘Nulty’s cape and British warm, laying it all over
the bed, as I knew poor Mac would never want his any more.”
To close the story of the fight at Lajj, the Colonel’s account of it is
given in his own words. He had commanded the Regiment throughout the
day, had led it in its charge, and after rallying it when the charge
was over had taken it into action again dismounted. Conspicuous for his
courage among many brave men, he had won the admiration of all; and the
wound which disabled him towards the close of the action was happily
not severe enough to prevent his commanding the Regiment again.
_Colonel Richardson._--“The following extracts are taken from a letter
written home about the middle of March, when events were fresh in my
memory:--
“We started on the 5th of March, leaving camp an hour before dawn, and
our orders were to march the Infantry to Zeur, twelve or fourteen miles
on, and the Cavalry to Lajj, about six miles farther on still. Our
Brigade, the Seventh, were leading, and we made Zeur, where we watered
and fed the horses a little before 10, and we marched again at 10.30.
Soon after we started armoured-car reports came in to say that there
was a small convoy ahead of us proceeding in the direction of Baghdad
with an escort of about 250 Infantry, and that otherwise the country
was quite clear. The formation of our Brigade was the usual formation,
with the 13th Lancers (Watson’s Horse) leading and finding one squadron
advance-guard, and one squadron each on right and left flanks; then
the Machine Gun Squadron, Thirteenth Hussars and 14th Lancers, and V
Battery R.H.A. We had gone about two miles when our Brigadier ordered
me to take the Regiment up abreast of Watson’s Horse with a squadron
as advance-guard, and soon afterwards pointed out what he took to be
the convoy on the march, and hinted that we might be able to get in
on it with the sword and round it up. And so, having had a good look
at this supposed convoy, which was about two and a half miles to our
right front, I called up the squadron leaders, explained the situation
to them, and sending ‘C’ Squadron well out to the right or exposed
flank to work to the north of some small hillocks, I ordered ‘D,’ ‘B,’
and ‘A’ Squadrons in that order to advance in echelon of squadrons
extended. (I should say here that the day was an exceptionally bad one
for visibility, as a strong east wind had got up and was carrying along
with us all the dust we raised and a good deal more, which filled the
air and made it difficult to clearly distinguish things.) Of course
a Regiment in this order covers a lot of ground and takes a certain
amount of time to get its formation, and even before the formation was
complete a shell bursting on our left warned me that we were seen, and
that the enemy had at least one gun, and made me wonder whether the
convoy was just a convoy, or whether it was not a gun or two with their
ammunition-carts. At this time too, rifle-fire was opened on us from
apparently a trench, for no Infantry were then visible, a few hundred
yards to the front of the leading squadron; at the same time I heard
rifle-fire well away to our left, showing that the advance-guard was
coming into touch with the enemy. All this convinced me that we were up
against a much bigger thing than the scattered bands of Turks reported
by the aeroplanes and armoured cars, but already the leading squadron
was on top of the first line of Turks, and the latter, about forty
or fifty in number, were already running for all they were worth, or
standing with their hands up. Some of these latter, I am told, picked
up their rifles after we had passed and fired into our backs, but very
few of that first lot reached their friends; they were either “stuck”
or taken prisoners. In the meantime our impetus had carried us on two
or three hundred yards, and into a very heavy rifle and machine-gun
fire, from what I took to be a big nullah or water-cut some eight
hundred yards to our front. Men and horses were dropping right and
left, so I tried to wheel them right-handed and backwards until we had
crossed the trench, or as it proved, small water-cut, from which the
Turks had first opened fire on us. Having crossed that, I halted the
remnants of the three squadrons (‘C’ Squadron was still operating by
itself out on the right) some three or four hundred yards farther on,
dismounted them, sent the horses back out of rifle-range, and advanced
on foot until we had reached this trench originally held by the Turks,
and which was still full of their equipment and rifles. I may say
here that the test to which I put these squadrons--viz., of halting
and dismounting under fire, and when the squadrons were all mixed up
and actually retiring at a gallop, albeit a slow one--was a very high
one, and the way in which they responded was beyond all praise. It was
only when we reached the Turkish trench that we were able to take a
breather and take stock, and then only did I fully realise the cost
of our ride. Major Twist, I heard, was hit, though slightly; Captain
Eve was missing, and it was feared killed; Captain Dawson missing,
Lieutenants Rolfe, Pinnington, and Lynch Staunton missing, and Welstead
hit; my trumpet-major killed, and my orderly badly wounded, and a
number of sergeants and men missing. It was patent to me that the men
who were missing must be lying, if hit, between us and the big nullah
in which the Turks were, and that our only chance of getting to them
was to draw the Turks out of this nullah, and it was very soon apparent
that we could not do this by a frontal advance without considerable
reinforcements: so I went back to Brigade Headquarters to consult with
the Brigadier, and pointed out to him that I thought the quickest and
cheapest method was to outflank the Turkish position to the northward.
He said he would consult with the Divisional Commander, and in the
meantime sent up two squadrons of the 14th Lancers to fill the gap
between us and the advance-guard of Watson’s Horse. Soon afterwards I
heard that the 6th Brigade was being sent to find the left flank of
the Turks, and I believe they did find it, but late in the afternoon,
showing that we could not be up against much less than a Turkish
Division, and that I believe was corroborated later. In the meantime
we hung on to our line, but were quite unable to advance, and it was
whilst sitting in this shallow water-cut that about 4.45 P.M.
I was hit by a rifle bullet in the right forearm. At the clearing
hospital I was able to ascertain from the books that night and next
morning the approximate extent of our casualties from wounds, and since
then I have had a few corrections and additions to make, with the
result that I can append a pretty accurate list as under:--
Killed--Captain Eve, 2nd Lieutenants Rolfe and Lynch Staunton.
Wounded--Major Twist, Captain Dawson, Lieutenant Pedder, 2nd Lieutenant
Welstead, and myself.
Missing--2nd Lieutenant Pinnington (reported a prisoner of war).
Killed--25 N.C.O.’s and men. Wounded--80.
“The wounded men are all most extraordinarily cheery, tremendously
pleased with themselves, and keen as can be to get fit and go back
to the Regiment; and I am glad to say that quite 50 per cent of the
wounded cases are very slight, and if not already discharged from
hospital, are likely to be there only a few days longer.
“At about 4.30 or 5 o’clock the enemy opened a heavy bombardment with
about twenty guns, knocked out one if not two of the guns of V Battery
by direct hits, and at the same time opened heavy rifle-fire, and
it looked as if they intended to make a strong counter-attack. The
event, however, proved otherwise, for as soon as darkness fell, about
6.30, they withdrew from their positions in haste; we were able to get
all our wounded in, and eventually retired a few miles to the river.
Next day the advance was resumed, and we were then able to judge the
strength of the position, where the Turks evidently had intended to
put up a big rearguard fight, and it became apparent that the shelling
of ‘S’ Battery of the 6th Brigade from their left rear had caused
the Turks to realise the danger in which they were of being cut off,
and had consequently hastened their retreat. The Regiment received
congratulations from many Divisional and Brigade Commanders for the
fine show they had put up on this occasion, and it naturally was very
pleasing to us to realise that we had effected good work, and that our
heavy casualties had not been altogether in vain.”
[Illustration: _Officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 13th
Hussars who fell at Lajj, in Mesopotamia, on Monday, the 5th of March,
1917._]
General Maude’s view of the action is given in a letter to Colonel
Symons: “Your old Regiment did spendidly during the advance here, and
particularly on the 5th inst., when they made a mounted charge and got
well into the Turks, although they lost heavily in doing so, as they
got hung up in some trench systems.”
It may be noted that the loss in killed and wounded suffered by the
Thirteenth at Lajj was greater than in the famous charge of the Light
Brigade at Balaclava. The comparative nearness to England, the dramatic
setting, and other circumstances, combined to make Balaclava a name of
glory. The charge of the Light Brigade will always be for Englishmen
one of the most splendid deeds in the history of the race. Lajj is,
and is likely to remain for the nation in general, a name almost
unknown. But to the Thirteenth it will always be one of the Regiment’s
great days, for the level sands by the Tigris saw that morning in the
dust-storm a death ride just as brave and devoted as the one which has
become immortal.
CHAPTER XV.
OCCUPATION OF BAGHDAD.
The 5th of March, however glorious, had been a heavy day for the
Thirteenth, and their ranks were sadly thinned.
But the Thirteenth formed only one unit of a pursuing army, and the
Cavalry had to push on without delay to follow up the retreating Turks.
At dawn on the 6th, therefore, the Regiment was again on the march.
One squadron, the one which had been commanded by Eve, remained for
some hours with the transport in Lajj, to bury the dead and make
further search for any wounded who might still be lying on the field.
While they did so their Colonel, and all the wounded officers and
men who had been brought in, were embarked and sent down the river
to hospitals in rear of the army. The dead were buried together in a
nullah on the field.
The rest of the Regiment, under command of Captain Steele, marched
out weak in numbers, but still fit for further efforts, and proud of
themselves. Their goal, Baghdad, now lay only thirty or forty miles
ahead of them, and in common with the whole army they were eager to see
the hard fighting of the past three months crowned by the capture of
the famous city.
They had not long to wait, for only five days later the British flag
was flying on the citadel of the Turks; but before that happened the
brave enemy was to make one more stand, and take a further toll of
British lives.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE ENTRANCES TO THE MOSQUE AT KHAZIMAIN]
[Illustration: CTESIPHON]
On the first day of the advance the Cavalry met with no serious
opposition. They were tormented by another dust-storm and shelled by
the retreating enemy, but they suffered little loss and made some
prisoners. The line of march lay over the battlefield of Ctesiphon.
This position, says General Maude, though strongly intrenched, was
found unoccupied. “There was evidence that the enemy had intended to
hold it, but the rapidity of our advance had evidently prevented him
from doing so.” The Cavalry believed that their swift and resolute
attack at Lajj had accelerated the Turkish retreat and spared the army
a possibly serious rearguard action there or at Ctesiphon, and it seems
not unlikely that they were right. At all events Ctesiphon was not
held, and the Cavalry bivouacked that night some miles beyond it, at
Bawi.
[Illustration: _BAGHDAD AND FIELD OF OPERATIONS_
_1917-1918_
SCALE ABOUT 50 MILES TO THE INCH]
But, however this may be, the next day showed that the Turks still
meant to fight. About eight miles below Baghdad a considerable river,
the Diala, runs into the Tigris from the north, and bars advance up
the left bank, along which lies the road to Baghdad. The Turks had
destroyed the bridge over the Diala, and as the river was at that time
about 120 yards broad, with a strong current, it was a formidable
obstacle. The enemy was not apparently in great strength, but he had
more than once shown that he could conceal his troops with effect;
and whether his Infantry was in strength or not, the farther bank was
“defended by numerous guns and machine-guns, skilfully sited,” while
the ground in front of them was absolutely flat, with no cover. To
force a passage was therefore no easy matter, and no attempt to do so
was made that day.
The fighting that followed during the next three nights and days
was desperate, and there is no incident in the whole campaign more
creditable to the British Infantry than the repeated attempts to
establish a footing on the right bank of the Diala. How attempt after
attempt was foiled with heavy loss, the Turks destroying our pontoons
and slaying the brave men who manned them, and how seventy of the Loyal
North Lancashire got across in spite of all, and held their ground for
twenty-two hours, and were at last relieved, has been told by others.
It is a fine story. But not until the 10th of March was the Diala in
British hands. The Turk had made a gallant stand in defence of the City
of the Khalifs.
In this fighting the Cavalry had no direct share; but their work
meanwhile had been hard and useful. When the advance along the left
hand of the Tigris was held up by the Turks, it was decided to send a
force across the Tigris with the view of turning the Diala position and
getting at Baghdad from the south and west. Accordingly on the 8th of
March a bridge was thrown across the Tigris, and the Cavalry, followed
by an Infantry force, passed over to the right bank.
[Illustration: Capt. J. V. DAWSON
(_Very severely wounded at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. G. L. M. WELSTEAD
(_Wounded at Lajj, 5th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: 2nd Lieut. J. O. P. CLARKSON
(_Killed near Jager’s Tomb, 10th March 1917_)]
[Illustration: L. Cpl. G. W. BOWIE, D.C.M.]
[Illustration: The Rev. H. COOKE, C.F., M.C.]
During that night the force marched in a north-westerly direction
towards a place called Shawa Khan, which the Turks were reported to
be holding. The march was much impeded by ravines and water-cuts, and
was necessarily slow; but the Turks offered no serious opposition, and
during the morning of the 9th Shawa Khan was occupied, the enemy
retiring to another position a mile or two farther back. This also was
approached and attacked, but was still in Turkish hands at sunset.
The Cavalry during the earlier part of the day had been operating on
the left flank of the force, away from the Tigris, but the horses being
in distress for want of water, it was temporarily withdrawn to the
river bank in the afternoon. In spite of some shelling and rifle-fire
the Cavalry had suffered little loss, and the Thirteenth had till then
had no casualties; but while watering their horses they were annoyed by
some sniping from the opposite bank, and a promising young officer, 2nd
Lieutenant Clarkson, was unfortunately killed--shot through the heart.
He was the fifth officer of the Regiment who had been killed since the
campaign began.
That night the enemy evacuated their position and the force pushed on.
“On the morning of the 10th,” says General Maude, “our troops were
again engaged with the Turkish rearguard within three miles of Baghdad,
and our Cavalry patrols reached a point two miles west of Baghdad
railway station, where they were checked by the enemy’s fire. A gale
and blinding dust-storm limited vision to a few yards, and under
these conditions reconnaissance and co-ordination of movements became
difficult. The dry wind and dust and the absence of water away from the
river added greatly to the discomfort of the troops and animals. About
midnight patrols reported the enemy to be retiring. The dust-storm
was still raging, but following the Decanville Railway as a guide our
troops occupied Baghdad railway station at 5.55 A.M., and it
was ascertained that the enemy on the right bank had retired up-stream
of Baghdad. Troops detailed in advance occupied the city, and the
Cavalry moved on Kadhimain, some four miles west of Baghdad, where they
secured some prisoners.”
Meanwhile the force on the left bank of the Tigris, having forced
the Diala, had also pushed on, and on this same morning, the 11th of
March, they also entered Baghdad. The British flag was hoisted over the
citadel; and the town, which was being looted and set on fire by Arabs
and Kurds, was rapidly reduced to order. In the afternoon the gunboat
flotilla with General Maude on board came up the river in line-ahead
formation, and anchored off the British Residency. The capture of
Baghdad was complete.
Thus ended, in triumphant success, General Maude’s advance upon the
capital of Mesopotamia. It had meant three months of severe and at
times desperate fighting, during which the British force had lost
heavily. But it had meant also the utter defeat of the Turks on their
central front in Asia, and the restoration of British prestige in the
East.
Indeed, it meant much more; and in writing this history of the
Thirteenth it seems desirable to point out the full effect and
significance of the victory in which they shared.
The recapture of Kut a fortnight earlier had already produced a
striking effect. The ‘Times History of the War’ referred to this in
strong terms:--
“Nor,” it said, “was the effect confined to the Middle East. The
Commander of the French armies telegraphed his warm and sincere
congratulations on ‘this splendid feat of arms,’ and the defeat of the
Turks made a great impression everywhere. Of its immediate practical
result upon the course of the War in Asia there could be no question.
Within a week the Turkish forces which had invaded Northern Persia
were in full retreat for their own border, and the projected Turkish
movements on the Euphrates were given up. In fact, the ambitious
offensive of the enemy upon this central front in Asia had collapsed
like a pricked bladder. The principle of a concentrated advance on the
Tigris had already been justified.”
Now Baghdad had followed Kut, and the immediate result of the second
capture is thus described in the same ‘History’:--
[Illustration: B SQUADRON ON THE WAY TO THE DIALA]
[Illustration: CROSSING THE DIALA]
[Illustration: WATERING IN THE DIALA]
“So fell Baghdad, the immediate base of Turkish warfare in Persia and
Mesopotamia, and one of the most famous cities in all the East. If the
recapture of Kut had produced a great effect, it need hardly be said
that the fall of Baghdad made an impression vastly greater. In Germany
it was described with unusual frankness as ‘a deplorable event,’ and
on the Bosphorus the news of it was received with something like
consternation; while among the Allies and all who sympathised with
them it was hailed as a striking victory and an auspicious opening to
the campaigns of 1917. Indeed, considering that the Asiatic theatre
of war was after all a secondary one, and that the capture of an
Asiatic city could hardly have any material bearing on the issue of the
European conflict, the weight attached to the British success seemed
almost disproportionate. But it must be remembered that the conception
of a great advance eastward by way of Turkey in Asia was a fundamental
part of the German scheme of world-politics, and that the seizure by
Great Britain of the eastern end of the Constantinople-Baghdad railway
meant a heavy blow to this scheme.”
These words were written in 1917, within a few months of General
Maude’s entry into Baghdad. The subsequent course of the war was to
show that far from having over-estimated the value of that success, the
writer might have said more. Now that the war has come to an end, there
can be no doubt that the blow struck by the British in Mesopotamia,
together with the almost concurrent victory of General Allenby in
Palestine, had a material effect upon the whole issue of the war. By
themselves they could not have brought about the complete triumph of
the Allied cause. Nothing but the defeat of the Germans in the west
of Europe could do that. But they meant, if duly followed up, the
collapse of the Turkish military power, and the striking out of the
Turkish Empire from the great confederacy. That meant the maiming of
the German scheme of world-conquest. Without the aid of Turkey as a
vassal, the Kaiser’s dream of a vast Eastern dominion could never be
fulfilled. And dominion in the East was no small part, some even think
it was the more important part, of his scheme of world-conquest. This,
however, is perhaps to say too much, and in any case, great as was the
effect of the fall of Baghdad, much fighting had yet to be done, even
in Mesopotamia, before the Turks finally recognised that they were
not strong enough to stand alone against the British Empire. They had
received a heavy blow, but they were not yet conquered.
To return to the Thirteenth Hussars and their share in the work of the
Baghdad campaign, the following extracts from letters and diaries may
be of interest.
The Regimental Diary shows that on the 6th March, the day after the
fight at Lajj, the Thirteenth marched off at 6 A.M. with the
Cavalry Division, and marched “without incident to Bawi (four miles
north of Ctesiphon),” where they bivouacked. The next day the Cavalry
“moved in direction of Diala river” and “came under shell-fire,” but
apparently suffered no casualties. “Retired and bivouacked near Bawi.”
On the 8th the Cavalry Division marched “with object of turning right
flank of Turkish position.” At 5 P.M. the Division was all
across the Tigris and “march continued all throughout night.” On the
9th, at 8.15, “shelled near Khair-el-Kharabeh,” and at ten o’clock
“took up position on left flank of Infantry.” There the Regiment
remained two hours, when they “withdrew and retired to water,” on
the banks of the Tigris at 1.50 P.M. “Sniping by enemy
from opposite bank.” In the afternoon the Cavalry returned to their
former position and bivouacked. “Transport shelled during the day,
but no damage done.” On the 10th some of the Cavalry advanced towards
Kadhimain, to the north-west of Baghdad; but there appears to have been
no incident to report except “wind very high during the day.” Finally,
on the 11th, the Diary has the following entries:--
“4 A.M. Stood to.
“8 A.M. Marched with Division to Khair-el-Kharabeh, where the
Regiment received orders to proceed to Baghdad.
“12.45. Entered Baghdad. Proceeded to bridge across Tigris, which had
been destroyed by enemy prior to evacuation.[46]
“2 P.M. Returned to a palm bagh[47] on outskirts of town,
where ‘A’ and ‘C’ Squadrons bivouacked. ‘B’ and ‘D’ Squadrons proceed
to Kazimain.”
“The Regiment was attached to the 35th Infantry Brigade for garrison
duty.”
In these curt and unemotional words the Diary describes the march from
Lajj and the entry into Baghdad. It would not appear from this that the
Thirteenth had any fighting during these six days, or was much excited
by the capture of the city. But Regimental Diaries are not given to
unnecessary eloquence. As a matter of fact we know that the Regiment
lost an officer killed, and it believed that it had been specially
selected, as a reward for its conduct at Lajj, to be the first Cavalry
Regiment to enter Baghdad, and to form part of the garrison. The
compliment was evidently appreciated.
[Illustration: THE GRAVES IN BAGHDAD CEMETERY]
One young officer of the Regiment, 2nd Lieutenant Payne, speaks as if
the work had been hard, and not free from fighting, even after Lajj.
He had passed some years in Canada, and had perhaps learnt there to be
more outspoken than the very reserved British officer generally is.
“Since that date” (3rd March), he writes on the 13th, “we have been
fighting day and night without any rest or sleep, till men and horses
dropped with exhaustion, and had Baghdad not fallen the day before
yesterday there would have been few of the Thirteenth left to tell the
tale.” His letter goes on to describe various incidents of the past
week. The following are extracts:--
“Next morning, 4 A.M.,[48] the Division had to move on, and
our squadron was left as escort to the transport, which didn’t leave
till the afternoon, so we took our men back to the awful battlefield to
see if we could pick up any men alive, and to bury the dead. We buried
sixteen men and three officers in the same grave, but got nothing in
personal effects, as they had been stripped, some of them naked. All
the time we were working we had to keep a Hotchkiss gun going to keep
off the Arabs, who were coming in fast to pick up loot, of which there
was tons in the way of arms and saddlery.[49]...
“That same night we passed through another strong point at Ctesiphon
that they had not stopped to defend, and in the moonlight I rode over
to see the great arch of Ctesiphon that is supposed to have been
built in the time of Nebuchadnezzar or one of those birds. It has a
great façade of about 200 feet high that opens into a courtyard, and
alongside is this wonderful arched roof that looks as though it had
been a banqueting-hall.”
The writer is a little out in his dates, but the majority of his
countrymen knew not much more about the matter than he did.
“The enemy had gone back to their last and strongest position above
Diala, where there is a fork in the river. We weren’t successful in
smashing that place, so our Division and half the Infantry crossed the
river with the intention of striking the railway north of the city,
and we were out three days and nights without any rest, trying to
force a way round, and the farther we went the farther we had to come
for water, as it was death for men and horses to be cut off from the
river. In forcing our way down to water on the morning of the 12th[50]
we lost an officer and man, being sniped from the other side of the
river. We were all done up, no sleep, little food, and the horses
dropping under us after three weeks’ fierce fighting, and slowly making
our way to carry on the attack on the flank of the Infantry, which
always necessitated the enemy widening his front and weakening his
strength, when news came that the Black Watch entered Baghdad at 5.30
A.M.
“It was too good to believe, but then orders were passed down, ‘The
Thirteenth Hussars will report at once to G.H.Q. at railway station
for orders _re_ garrisoning town.’ There was new life in all of us
at once; we hadn’t had a sight of Baghdad and didn’t think we were
likely to for an age, but the next minute we were hoofing it at a trot
along the highroad that had been used for hundreds of centuries, over
trenches that the Turks had held the night before, and over dead bodies
of both attackers and attacked. But we got into the city. One seething
mass of Arabs greeted us; the same scum that the day before would have
delivered up any of our wounded to the Turks now brazenly brought out
wounded Turks to us that were not able to get away in the rush, dirty
devils always ready to join in with the winning side, but always with
an eye to scrupper the unfortunate of either if they can catch him
unprotected.
[Illustration: TURKISH BARRACKS]
[Illustration: ARMY COMMANDER’S HOUSE]
[Illustration: BRITISH, AMERICAN, AND FRENCH CONSULATES]
BAGHDAD
“After standing by for an hour or so Jeffrey was told to take two
squadrons and one squadron of machine-gunners to protect Kazimain,
three miles up to (?) the river. So I found myself in command of ‘D’
Squadron, and here we are in the lap of luxury (Eastern). Kazimain
is where all the pilgrims come to the great mosque, and is entirely
composed of caravanserai sort of hotel quarters: there are 5000 of
these buildings. We are quartered in the biggest, and even the men
are able to have a wooden bedstead to lie on each. It is a big square
building with a courtyard in the middle, in which we have picketed over
250 horses comfortably. Jeffrey and I and the Intelligence Officer
have a large stone-floored room with four bedsteads in it; there are
no windows, of course, but you let down great heavy wooden shutters
when the sun is too hot. The Sheikh (elder of the town) brought in
beautiful carpets and bedding for us, and the women and children in
hordes followed us in the street, all making a tinkly sort of yodelling
song. They are in terror of the Turks coming in, and sacking the place,
and taking their women. We weren’t looking our best by any means: no
change of clothes, unshaven, and unwashed for five days, the dust from
the storms begrimed into our skins, and our clothes in rags. But to-day
we are all happy and clean. The men, who haven’t had a bath or change
since January 24th,[51] can now be seen having their boots polished
by Arab children, and strutting about like lords; they do so love to
have something to order about. You would laugh to see them when we take
prisoners: they make them hold their stirrup-irons while they mount
their horses, and hand them their coats to put on--anything for the
sake of exercising power....
“However, it was all too good to be true--to go to sleep and not get
up till daylight, and have your sleep out, was too good to last more
than two days, and we have orders to turn the job over to an Infantry
battalion, and rejoin the remainder of the Regiment in Baghdad, where
we go into the Cavalry barracks, which no doubt will be just as nice:
but the heavenly paradise of it all here, with the river alongside,
and all the water you like, fresh good green stuff, and milk. This
is buffalo milk, but quite good, and we get lettuces, onions, and
mutton--in fact, we don’t have to open a tin of any sort. Our bread is
_chupatti_, the round flat things which the Jews make....”
War certainly teaches a man to be content with the essential things of
life.
“The Mosque here is most beautiful--that is, the outside, for no
infidel is allowed inside the gate.[52] It is simply enormous, and
faced with silver till it reaches the roof and four towers, which are
gold.
“I went down the Bazaar yesterday afternoon, and bought a pair of
saddle-bags for five rupees. They are made of the very finest carpet of
true colours, bound with leather; it’s a shame to use them on a horse,
but my other ones are in rags from carrying so many tinned foods.... I
have never carried anything in the way of loot about with me, nor let
my men do so, because it is such an incentive for the Turk to put a
bullet through you if you are wounded, and he finds them on you; but
now the Mesopotamia War is over so far as we are concerned, and we
shall live like human beings again under cover from the sun and cold
nights, and be able to think of such things. The rest of the Cavalry
Division are getting three days’ rest before pursuing the enemy farther
up. We, as far as we know, are to be in Baghdad for a while at least....
“Late evening. I have just been taking a stroll round the town in case
we don’t see it again. The officers are allowed to go in pairs armed,
but we haven’t dared to let the men out yet; they have been in trouble
already, climbing their way on the roof to the quarters of the Sheikh
and pinching bedding; also there are intermittent shots fired now and
again from mysterious spots, and there has to be a house-to-house
search for any stray Turks in hiding. We went through endless streets
with the houses almost touching across to each other. Every window is
glassless, but securely barred, and great wooden shutters slide down
to shut out the hot sun. Down by the river the Eastern picturesqueness
is very novel,--to see the Arabs lifting water by appliances that have
been used as long as the world was peopled; the coracles (round boats)
spinning round and round as they in time get across the stream: they
are allowed to spin, as it lessens the resistance to the current. To
get alongside the water and amongst the palms with their green crop
underneath is wonderful after weeks of the desert. I don’t know of
anything more depressing and hopeless than to--as we often and often
had to--be going all day in the broiling sun and dust and wind, and
find it hopeless to try and get to the river, and must camp where we
are, the horses unwatered, and every one finished their water-bottles,
and knowing that you’ve got to be on the move at 4 A.M. again,
with the expectation of meeting the enemy.”
Surely the soldier on service earns his pay.
[Illustration: A TYPICAL WATER LIFT]
[Illustration: A PERSIAN WATER WHEEL NEAR BAGHDAD]
_March 14._--“We turned out of our delightful quarters at Kazimain
this morning, and have now taken over the Cavalry barracks in
Baghdad--a horrible, flyey, and hot place that is nothing more than
bare mud walls and filth, since the outside Arabs have stripped it of
everything. These brutes got in and looted the Bazaar clean; the
civil population always expect that to happen on such occasions, and
just sit calmly by and watch them wreck their shops.... I am writing
this in agony from the flies. There are five other chaps in this bare
stone-floored room with me who have their heads buried under their
blankets, having given up any attempt at reading or writing....
“We found absolutely nothing in the town. The Bazaar, as the multitude
of dusty and smelly arcades are called, are rows and rows of little
cubby holes with the meanest supplies of merchandise, and as they
were all ransacked when the Turks left, we could buy nothing at all.
The whole town is most disappointing, even were it not half in ruins:
everywhere is dilapidation and dirt....
“Gowan, whose father was a member for Vancouver, is in charge of the
armoured cars we have attached to the Cavalry; he is an extraordinary
daring chap, and when in France with the 7th Battalion had the back of
his skull blown away--which he carries in his pocket--had a bayonet
through his stomach, and was discharged from the Canadian Army as
no further use--is now the admiration of every one for his daring
exploits!”
Lance-Corporal Bowie’s diary, from which quotations have already been
made in earlier chapters, tells the story of the advance from Lajj to
Baghdad in very concise terms.
“On the following day, the 6th,[53] we carried the pursuit of the Turks
past Ctesiphon. A very bad sand-storm raged during this day, making
our progress very difficult. We bivouacked that night near Bawi, and
the next day was spent in a well-earned rest, while a pontoon bridge
was being thrown across the Tigris, which, during the day, Turkish
airmen tried very hard to destroy by bombing, but only succeeded
in hitting one of our ammunition waggons, killing the entire team,
drivers, and everything within a radius of 300 yards. The following day
we crossed the Tigris without opposition, whilst the Infantry fought
their way across the Diala river some miles farther up. We at once
made a long night-march to get at the enemy’s left flank, which we
attacked, forcing him back a distance of some two miles, bivouacking
that night on the ground from which we had driven the enemy. During
the same [day?] one of our officers was killed while we were watering
our horses in the face of the enemy’s fire. The following morning we
started to blow up a railway bridge, but had to abandon this enterprise
owing to a terrific sand-storm which overtook us. After a few more
hours’ rest we proceeded on our way to Baghdad, where we encountered
no opposition, our Infantry having driven out the last of the enemy’s
rearguard during the earlier part of the morning, the Thirteenth
Hussars being the first of the Cavalry to enter the city, which we did
about 11 A.M. on the 11th March. The following morning the
pursuing Cavalry took Khasmain, whilst the Thirteenth Hussars remained
bivouacked in a large orchard. Having been selected to garrison the
city, we crossed the Tigris on the morning of the 14th, and took up our
quarters in the old Turkish Cavalry barracks, which were situated just
outside the citadel. These we found to be in a filthy condition, and
infested with vermin. Happily our stay here was very brief....”
Captain Newton’s diary is also very concise, but as an example of a
day’s work during the advance, the following entry of the 10th March
may be quoted. After noting on the 9th “horses and men done,” the diary
goes on:--
_Saturday, 10th._--“Saddled up at 5.30. Brigade off to water Jaffer’s
Tomb. Left with ‘A’ and ‘B’ (right wing) to escort Divisional troops.
Two troops sent off on search for some missing R.E.’s and wireless.
Sent with remainder to escort 6th Brigade second line down river
to refill. Awful dust. Found dead R.E.’s in pontoon, and punished
Arabs. Went back to where we had left Division leaving 4.30. Found
Division 9.15. Awful trek in dust. Then moved to Hilawiyni in gale and
dust-storm. Reached bivouac 12.30. To bed 2.30. Orders to be saddled up
by 6.”
_Sunday, 11th._--“Réveillé, 4. Gale still blowing....”
In a letter written from Baghdad the same writer gives a summary of the
whole march from Lajj.
“We had a longish trek next day (the 6th), but saw nothing of the
enemy, and we bivouacked about 6, but had no transport, so not much
food. Transport came in about midnight, but I’d got my blankets with
me and was fast asleep by 9 o’clock. We marched at 6 A.M.,
a bitter cold morning, but our mess-boxes had turned up with the
transport, so we started with our tummies good and full.
[Illustration: TURKISH CAVALRY BARRACKS OUTSIDE BAGHDAD USED AS A
HOSPITAL]
[Illustration: VIEW OF BAGHDAD FROM ROOF]
“We spent an idle day, sitting about a good deal while reconnaissances
went out; but it was a long day, and we didn’t get in till 9.30 in the
evening, to find a grand dinner waiting for us. It was midnight again
before I got to bed, as there were a lot of things to do. Next morning
we were up at 4.30 and ready to move at 6, but then heard we shouldn’t
move till about 1, and then cross to the other side of the river again.
We lunched at 11.30, but didn’t move off till 2.30, and it was about 6
before we were across the bridge. We trekked about all next day, and
in the evening heard we were to go on, and we did, but came up against
the Turk positions and couldn’t get on, so came back to bivouac, thank
goodness, as men and horses were nearly done in. It was while we were
watering in the afternoon that poor young Clarkson was shot dead by a
sniper, the only casualty we had that day, and most awfully hard luck.”
Such is too often the lot of the soldier on service--long, dreary,
uneventful days with no excitement, nothing but discomfort and fatigue;
and then, suddenly, the call to show what his training has done for
him, and perhaps to give up his life for his country. That is what
sets apart and ennobles the profession of the soldier and sailor--the
constant readiness to face death. Women with their quick perceptions
understand and are grateful, nor do they alone understand. In spite of
all prejudices and jealousies, men too know in their hearts that the
first honour is due to those among them whose choice and pride it is to
guard the nation with their lives.
“We were up at 4 A.M. and ready to move at 5.30. We didn’t
move till about 8, and then I was sent with two squadrons to escort
transport to refilling-point. It was not a particularly hard day’s
work, but it was another long day. It was 9 P.M. before I
found the Division again with my transport, and then we trekked on in
an awful dust-storm, and eventually reached our bivouac about 12.30. I
got to bed at 2.30, was called at 4.30, and we trekked at 8. We crawled
along, every one, men and horses, dead to the world, did a bit of Arab
strafing, and at 10.30 received the news that the Infantry were going
into Baghdad, and that the Regiment was to march in to form part of
the garrison. My word, we were proud and pleased, and every one just
brightened up, and we were as cheery as anything. We entered the town
on the side of the river, but couldn’t cross till a bridge had been
built. However, ‘B’ and ‘D’ were sent off to occupy Khazimain, a town
about six miles away and a great religious centre, and ‘A’ and ‘C’
were told to camp in a delightful garden, all green and shady with
date-palms and orange-trees. It was just like coming into fairyland
after the time we have been in the desert, and we felt so peaceful and
happy. Directly after we had fed I went to bed, and slept and slept and
slept till 7.30! It was grand.”
Private Massey, of ‘D’ Squadron, has also left an account of the march
from Lajj from the point of view of the trooper. He describes how the
Regiment marched nearly to the Diala river, and how on the 8th March
the Cavalry crossed to the right bank of the Tigris.
“It was now beginning to get dusk. All that night, and during the early
hours of the 9th, we continued marching, going in a north-westerly
direction. We crossed many big nullahs, which we found great difficulty
in crossing. When daylight broke we found ourselves within a few miles
of Baghdad, and according to rumour we were to attempt to cut the
railway above Baghdad, to prevent the Turks getting their rolling-stock
away. We were heavily shelled during the day, but our Regiment escaped
without casualties. We proceeded to water late in the afternoon, and
it took us a long time to reach it as the river was a long way off.
We were sniped at on our way, and on reaching the river we had to go
down to get water in buckets under the fire of a sniper on the left
bank of the river. Lieutenant Clarkson, of the M.G. Brigade, brought a
machine-gun into position on the bank, and stood up trying to find the
sniper with his glasses. He was instantly shot through the heart and
fell down dead.
“When we had finished watering, we moved into a big garden with a large
wind-wall round it. Here we had something to eat, a piece of biscuit
and a bit of bully. The horses were very badly done up, but we soon
moved on again. Where we camped that night is more than I can say, as
for the next few days I lost all sense of our position, as we seemed to
be all over the show, here, there, and everywhere. Anyway, we camped
somewhere in the desert that night, close up to the firing line.
[Illustration: THE REGIMENT ENTERING INTO OCCUPATION OF THE TURKISH
CAVALRY BARRACKS AT BAGHDAD. 13TH MARCH 1917]
“The transport was shelled coming in, and suffered several casualties
amongst native drivers. We had six hours in bed.”
_March 10._--“Réveillé on the 10th was at 4 A.M. We fed the
horses and had breakfast, and afterwards saddled up and went to water.
Two troops were put to guard a signalling-post all day which was on
the top of a high mound, close to where the Turks had had trenches
the previous day, and from where we had been fired on. It was pitch
dark when we moved off, very late at night, and the worst sand-storm
in which it has ever been my luck to be in came on. It was a terrible
experience, and I never want to experience such a storm again. How we
reached camp, or who led us in, I couldn’t say, but it ceased when we
reached camp. Got in after midnight, with nothing to eat and drink, and
réveillé ordered at 3.30 A.M. next morning. Transport late at
arriving in. Lay down in our clothes and one blanket for a few hours,
and slept like the war-worn soldiers we undoubtedly were.”
_March 11._--“On the 11th we started off again early in the direction
of Baghdad, and met several parties of Arabs who were fleeing from
the city on entry of the British that morning.... After proceeding
a little farther, word was passed down the line that we were going
to be the first Cavalry Regiment to enter Baghdad. As we neared the
entrance other regiments stood aside, and we passed on and at last
met a battalion of the Black Watch, who had been the first Regiment
to enter Baghdad. After proceeding a bit farther, we came to Baghdad
station, and here we halted for half an hour. We then mounted again,
and proceeded round the end of the railway.... We were now entering
the city, but with the exception of a few snipers all was quiet. White
flags were everywhere, and after riding through several streets we
called a halt close to some Cavalry barracks, which we entered soon
after. Only two squadrons went in, however, as there was not enough
room for the Regiment. The barrack rooms above the stables were roomy
and airy, but filthy.... On the 14th the Regiment moved into fresh
barracks on the left bank of the river.”
There for the present we may leave the Thirteenth to get a little rest,
and to regain as far as possible the cleanness and smartness which had
suffered during the rough work of the march. Their goal was reached,
and they were part of the force which had occupied the enemy’s famous
citadel.
CHAPTER XVI.
OPERATIONS IMMEDIATELY AFTER CAPTURE OF BAGHDAD.
Baghdad had been captured, and a heavy blow struck at the Turks--a
heavier blow perhaps than any one understood at the time; but much
remained to be done before the British Commander in Mesopotamia could
give his troops the full repose they needed.
In the first place, the Turkish force which he had beaten at Kut and
driven through Baghdad must be pursued in its retirement northwards
until it was destroyed or hunted away out of reach. General Maude was
too good a soldier not to know that the annihilation of the enemy’s
armed force, rather than the capture of any city, was the real object
to be kept before him. And the necessity of a rapid pursuit to the
north, up the line of the Tigris, was all the more urgent because of
the near approach of the flood season. Control of the river “bunds,”
or dams, and irrigation works up-stream of the city must be secured,
or it would be possible for the Turks to cause extensive inundations,
not only crippling the movement of the British army, but doing serious
mischief in other ways.
Then it was important for the security of the military position that
the surrounding country on all sides, not only to the north, should be
cleared of Turkish troops for a considerable distance, so as to allow
of the pacification of the neighbouring Arabs, and the free collection
of supplies. To the westward there were Turkish troops on the Upper
Euphrates, which threatened mischief down the course of that river
on the British flank and rear. To the eastward, on the Diala, it was
believed that there were also some Turkish troops, dominating a tract
rich in crops and forage.
[Illustration: BAGHDAD--CLOCK TOWER IN TURKISH INFANTRY BARRACKS SQUARE]
[Illustration: A STREET IN BAGHDAD]
[Illustration: FRAMEWORK OF HANGAR IN BAGHDAD]
Moreover, General Maude had to keep in mind the great strategical
considerations involved--the exertion of continued pressure on the
Turkish base in Asia Minor, and the possibility of co-operating not
only with the Russians on the right, who were driving or following the
Turkish invading force out of Persia, but in a measure with General
Allenby in Palestine. The Russians, though weak, were comparatively
near, and it might be feasible actually to join hands with them.
Palestine was far away, out of reach, behind the great Arabian desert;
but the harder the Turks were pressed on their central front, the less
strength they would be able to spare for their right.
General Maude’s plan of operations therefore, after the capture of
Baghdad, was to follow up that blow without delay by pushing out three
strong columns. One was to strike at the Euphrates westward, and occupy
Feluja on that river, thirty-five miles from Baghdad; another was to
press the pursuit to the northward, up the line of the Tigris and of
the Baghdad Railway; the third was to move out north-east towards the
Persian frontier, so as to secure the rich Diala district, and if
possible, with the help of the Russians, to crush the Turkish force
retreating from Persia.
During the short campaign which followed, all these objects were in a
measure attained. By the 19th March the western column had established
itself on the Euphrates, and thus commanded the whole course of the
river down to the sea, clearing Maude’s left and rear from Turkish
pressure. The northern column had a hard fight at Mushaidi, twenty
miles up the railway line, where the retreating Tigris force turned to
bay, with the result that it was, on the 14th and 15th March, driven
from its intrenchments and completely beaten, streaming away to the
north in confusion. The eastern column at the same time surprised and
occupied Baquba, a point on the Diala thirty miles from Baghdad.
It was with this eastern column that the 7th Cavalry Brigade was
connected; and indeed during the remainder of the war, which was to
last for more than a year and a half yet, the Brigade was chiefly
employed in the country to the east of the Tigris.
The Thirteenth Hussars were left at the close of the last chapter in
occupation of the Turkish Cavalry barracks in Baghdad, resting after
their severe exertions. But their rest was short, for on the 23rd of
March, by which time they were becoming tired of the heat and the dirt
and the flies, they were warned for active service again, and on the
following day they rejoined the Brigade at Baquba. The Regiment was now
in good condition, men and horses restored and fit for service, and the
prospect of further work in the open was hailed with pleasure.
General Maude’s despatches of 1917 show what the work was. The Turks,
heavily defeated as they had been, were by no means inclined as yet to
give up the game as lost, and the British forces east of the Tigris
soon found that the enemy was still capable not only of resistance, but
of determined attempts at offensive action. His troops consisted of
two main sections, the 13th Corps, which was retiring from Persia, and
the 18th Corps lately beaten on the Tigris, but rallied and reinforced
in a few days from the Turkish reserves in the North. These two Corps
began to act in co-operation, and to threaten attacks upon the British
eastern and northern columns. It was an excellent example of the
tenacity of the Turks, and of their quick recovery after defeat.
“About the 26th of March,” writes General Maude, “there were
indications that a converging movement was being made by part of the
13th Corps down the right bank of the Diala from Deli Abbas, and by the
18th Corps along the left bank of the Tigris ... apparently with the
intention of assisting the withdrawal of the 13th Corps from before the
Russians.” These advances were resisted by the British northern and
eastern columns, the former driving back the 18th Corps northwards, and
the latter dealing with the 13th Corps. “On the 27th the enemy made a
determined attempt to move down the right bank of the Diala ... but
our Cavalry, skilfully handled in some difficult ground, resisted the
enemy’s advance from successive positions, inflicting severe losses,
and finally checked the forward movement that evening. Next day the
enemy fell back towards Deli Abbas, followed up by our Cavalry.”
[Illustration: INSIDE TURKISH CAVALRY BARRACKS, BAGHDAD]
On the 2nd of April the British and Russians joined hands. From that
time until the end of the month there was some stiff fighting all
over the country, and the troops suffered severely from the heat, the
constant dust-storms, and the difficulty at times of getting water. The
work of the Cavalry was incessant and very arduous, now in trying to
get round into the enemy’s line of retreat, now in falling back before
him and luring him on into a position where the Infantry could close on
him, and always in covering the front and flanks of the columns. There
was no conflict of the nature of that at Lajj, no mounted charge into
the enemy’s troops, but there was steady hard work, of great value to
the army; and of this the Thirteenth had to do its full share. General
Maude, who refers repeatedly to the Cavalry in his despatches, sums up
in the following words the effects of the operations in this part of
the country:--
“As a result of the fighting during the month of April the enemy’s 13th
and 18th Corps had been driven back on divergent lines.... The 13th
Corps had twice taken the offensive, with results disastrous to itself,
and the 18th Corps had been defeated and driven from its selected
positions on four occasions. Our total captures for the month amounted
to some 3000 prisoners and 17 guns, besides a considerable quantity of
rolling-stock and booty of all kinds. The objectives which we had set
out to reach had been secured, and the spirit of the enemy’s troops had
been broken.”
Coming so soon after the winter advance and the capture of Baghdad,
this was a good piece of work, and creditable to all the soldiery
concerned, whose spirit never faltered. Indeed, according to their
General, “as conditions became more trying, the spirit of the troops
seemed to rise,” and to the end their discipline, gallantry in action,
and endurance were as conspicuous as ever. But their exertions had of
course imposed a heavy strain upon them, and now that the enemy was for
the time powerless for further trouble, General Maude determined to
give them the rest they needed.
“The increasing heat,” he writes, “now rendered it necessary that the
troops should be redistributed for the hot weather, and that every
provision possible under existing conditions should be made with a view
to guarding against the trying period which was rapidly approaching.
Whilst it was necessary to hold the positions which had been so bravely
won, and to strengthen them defensively, the bulk of the troops were
withdrawn into reserve and distributed in suitable camps along the
river banks, where they could obtain the benefit of such breezes as
were available, and where a liberal supply of water for drinking,
bathing, and washing was obtainable.”
The Thirteenth, among other regiments, were allotted one of these
standing camps, a shady grove of palm-trees on the eastern bank of the
Tigris at Chaldari, about nine miles above Baghdad, and very thankful
men and officers were to settle down in it.
Nevertheless, it may be observed, the Regiment did not begin to enjoy
its comparative peace and comfort until nearer the end of May than the
end of April. They marched into Chaldari on the 14th of May, but on
the 16th they marched out again for another week’s hard work under the
blazing sun. Though the two Turkish Army Corps had ceased fighting,
the Arab tribes on the upper reaches of the rivers above Baghdad had
been giving trouble, and before settling down for the summer it was
found necessary to punish them for some of their misdeeds. Columns were
accordingly sent against them, and to one of these, which operated on
the Tigris, the Thirteenth were attached. Some tribes were duly brought
to book, and the troops did not get back to camp until the 24th May,
when the heat had become tremendous. But the tribesmen had learnt that
British troops could move against them whatever the temperature might
be, and the lesson was a very salutary one.
The following extracts give the story of these two months, March 24th
to May 24th, from a more personal point of view.
_Lance-Corporal Bowie--Diary._--Lance-Corporal Bowie’s remarks about
the Cavalry barracks in Baghdad have been quoted in the preceding
chapter. His diary goes on:--
[Illustration: G.H.Q.]
[Illustration: HOSPITAL SHIP
BAGHDAD]
“Happily our stay here was very brief, every one being very thankful
to leave these so-called barracks, which we did on the morning of
the 23rd, rejoining our Brigade. The next morning we recommenced our
pursuit of the enemy, who were located by Captain Robinson (with ‘C’
and ‘D’ Squadrons as a patrol) on the banks of the Diala river the
following evening. We attacked them at dawn the following morning, and
for the next four days our two Brigades were hotly engaged with the
enemy, who were finally driven back on to Deli Abbas at the foot of
the Jebel Hamrin Range. We bivouacked some ten miles back, and there
formed a line of outposts. Meanwhile the enemy had apparently retired
right up into the hills. On April 8th, our Brigade moved out from
behind the huge mound where we had been under cover and marched down
to the river Diala, which was some ten miles distant, to refill our
water-carts and let the men do their washing and have a much-needed dip
in the river while the horses were grazing. After a pleasant day here,
during which our patrols saw no signs of the enemy, we went back to the
mound. On the following morning, the 9th, the Regiment left the Brigade
to make a reconnaissance of Deli Abbas. We had not travelled very far
before we encountered no less than seven columns of the enemy, who had
marched down from the hills during the night. This force proved to be
the 13th Army Corps, some 28,000 strong. The Regiment immediately took
up a position with all Hotchkiss guns, on a long low mound situated a
few miles S.W. of Deli Abbas, and from here we were able to inflict
heavy losses on the enemy, owing to their eagerness to surround and
annihilate what they took to be an isolated Regiment. In this action
Lieutenant Fitz-Gibbon, although wounded himself, succeeded in getting
all our Hotchkiss guns safely out of action, when we were in danger
of envelopment, and were forced to retire amidst a perfect hail of
lead and shell. Meanwhile the remainder of our Brigade and the 6th
Brigade had deployed for action. Now commenced what proved to be one
of the hardest fights in which the Cavalry had yet been engaged, the
enemy trying their hardest to effect an enveloping movement by forced
marches. This object we were only able to defeat by a most stubborn
‘rearguard action,’ which we had to maintain until the arrival of our
main force. Our two Brigades engaged them all day, and by nightfall
our outposts were on the Serri, some eight miles from the mound where
we had first come into contact with the enemy. Early the following
morning they renewed the attack with increased violence, and slowly
forced us back the whole day to the Tomb of ----, some few miles north
of Deltawa, where they succeeded in getting well round our left flank,
and were slowly enveloping us, when we received the most welcome news
that our Infantry had arrived, and had succeeded by forced marches
in getting well round the enemy’s right flank, which considerably
relieved the strain from us. Our outposts on this night, the 11th,
were about one mile south of the Tomb. Early the following morning we,
co-operating with our Infantry, made a very strong attack and succeeded
in driving the enemy from their position at Chaliyeh, where they left
315 dead on the field after a very fierce engagement. Renewing the
attack at dawn the following morning, we forced the enemy back again to
a small village called Serai Lik, where they again left the field full
of their dead and wounded: some 200 dead and 900 wounded were counted.
The following morning we again attacked the enemy, whom we completely
routed, and after a very short stand they speedily retired on to Deli
Abbas, a village situated right at the foot of the Jabel Hamrin range
of hills. For two more days we continued to harass the enemy’s flanks
until their main force had retired right up into the hills again. Our
Infantry now formed a line of outposts some few miles from Deli Abbas,
whilst on the 17th inst. the Cavalry marched back to the village of
Deltawa, where we went into bivouac. Here it was decided to form the
Regiment into two composite squadrons, owing to the great number of
casualties we had sustained amongst both men and horses through wounds,
sickness, &c. This was done on the morning of the 19th inst., and the
remaining men and horses were sent into bivouac at a small village
called Sindiyeh, some few miles farther back. In this district the Arab
rifle thieves were very active, and on several occasions succeeded
in getting clear away with rifles, in spite of the utmost vigilance,
during the time we had a bivouac near that village. During the next
fortnight the Regiment remained in bivouac at Deltawa, at the same time
making wide reconnaissances between the line held by our Infantry, who
had ‘dug in’ near the Serri, and the foot of the Jebel Hamrin Range.
During these we occasionally came into contact with enemy patrols, with
whom we had several sharp skirmishes. It was during one of these that
Private Keany of ‘C’ Squadron was captured while carrying despatches.
“On May 4th we received orders to march down to Chaldari and there
pitch our summer camp. We accordingly marched to Sa Salekh and from
here to Chaldari, where we proceeded to erect our summer camp on the
left bank of the Tigris some nine miles north of Baghdad. On the camp
being completed, we went into it on the 13th inst., and on the same day
the following awards appeared in our Regimental Orders for gallantry in
our action of 9th April: Lieutenant Fitz-Gibbon the M.C. and Private
Roberts the D.C.M. Private Roberts died from the wounds he received
the day following the action.[54]
[Illustration: BAGHDAD--STORKS]
[Illustration: BAGHDAD--THE NORTH GATE FROM INSIDE]
[Illustration: THE TRAMWAY--BAGHDAD TO KHAZIMAIN]
“Three days after this, the 16th inst., the Regiment received sudden
orders to turn out at 4.30 P.M. on an Arab strafe. It was made
known to us later that these Arabs had literally cut to pieces the
whole of a British survey party, consisting of three British officers
and their orderlies, and some sixteen native soldiers who were their
escort.
“We marched at 4.30 and crossed the river at Baghdad. We bivouacked
that night some ten miles east of it. Marching again at daybreak, we
encountered a terrific sand-storm which made the going very difficult,
nevertheless we succeeded in covering some thirty-nine miles over the
waterless desert before bivouacking for the night.
“Continuing again early the following morning, we trekked another
eighteen miles or so in the direction of Mushada, when a halt was made.
Reconnoitring from here, we located the Arabs some distance from the
village. We rested until dawn the 19th inst., when we attacked them and
inflicted heavy casualties amongst them, at the same time driving them
before us on to General Cobbe’s column, which had marched down from
Samarrah. This column exacted a terrible revenge for those murders,
and literally mowed them down with machine-gun fire. We inflicted some
3000 casualties in all amongst this huge band of Bedouin Arabs. This
incident had a wonderful effect on the Arabs throughout the country,
and no doubt prevented them from committing many similar outrages.
“On the conclusion of this we marched back to our camp at Chaldari.”
_Private C. T. Massey, ‘D’ Squadron--March 24._--“On the 24th we
turned out to graze, and while the horses were grazing Private Cox
came up with the order to ‘turn in and stand to.’ We moved off in a
north-easterly direction about midday, after buying oranges and limes
from Arabs on the square. We rejoined the portion of the Regiment that
moved off earlier in the day, at a camp next morning, the 25th.
“We were now on the right bank of the river Diala, and I kept no notes
of daily events, but we had many severe engagements with the enemy.
It was on Easter Sunday or Monday that we met the Turkish army coming
out of the Jebel Hamrin Range. We were then at Deli Abbas. It was the
1st and 3rd troops of ‘D’ Squadron which bore the first shock of the
Turkish attack, but we were greatly outnumbered, and retired only in
the nick of time under a hail of bullets. A few horses came down; one
man was killed and two wounded. My riding-horse got away, so I jumped
on top of the pack-horse, but the gun-case had not been properly
strapped up and the Hotchkiss gun fell out; but No. 5 on the gun, a
man named Cartwright, who was riding behind, dismounted and picked
it up, and I halted and it was put in the case again. We continued
to retreat for several days, but it was part of a clever scheme; the
Infantry meant to get in between them and the hills from which they
came. The Infantry, however, came up too close, and the Turks retired
again, before our Infantry could get behind them, but they suffered
heavy losses in the retreat back to the hills. It was during these
twenty-five days on the Diala that our horses suffered more than in the
whole fighting up from Kut. We could only water once a day, and many a
time I have felt faint from thirst and chewed grass for moisture, as
well as wild oats and barley.”
A few days later the writer was sent on leave to India, and his diary
comes to an end.
_Letter from 2nd Lieutenant F. Norman Payne--March 25, 1917._--“After
the Regiment getting nicely settled down to their garrison work they
were suddenly ordered away, and are now seventy miles beyond Baghdad.
“Poor chaps may be out weeks and weeks, and already have been five
weeks without any kit, it all still being at Bassouia Camp.[55] The
boats coming up river are fully laden and won’t stop to pick up
anything like that.”
[Illustration: DEPARTURE FROM BAGHDAD]
[Illustration: DEAD TURKS]
[Illustration: CAPTURED ARABS AWAITING EXECUTION
THE DIALA AND KHALIS CANAL CAMPAIGN]
* * * * *
_From Private Hugh H. Mortimer to his Mother, April 3, 1917._
ON THE TREK, 3. 4. 17.
“MY DEAREST MOTHER,--No doubt you all thought my last letter a
bit of a hash, which it verily was, but if you only knew the conditions
under which I wrote it you’d think I was lucky to get it off as
it was. I wrote part of it in Baghdad, as I was in the City Military
Police for a week, and could not manage to post it then, so I had to
take it with me when the order came to get on the move again. Do you
think they could do without the Thirteenth Hussars here when there’s
any dirty work to be done? Not likely. We got the job as Cavalry
garrison in the capital because we’d distinguished ourselves on the
drive-up, and incidentally lost more than half, but when reinforcements
came up and not many of them, out we had to go again: the Cavalry
Division could not manage without us.
“We’ve been living mainly on fresh air, biscuits, dates, and water,
with an occasional bully or fresh-meat stew when we can buy or pinch
a sheep from Mr Arab. Lor’ knows where we are now, but we can’t be
far from the Russians; in fact, I believe one column of ours is in
communication with them. Our aeroplanes have been over to ’em several
times.
“Well, that’s that. We have had some very exciting little times since
we left B. [Baghdad?], and I thought it was all up when ten of us, all
that’s left of the 4th troop, ‘C’ squadron, had to go out twelve miles
in advance on reconnaissance, as we got cut off by their Cavalry twice,
and had to gallop miles for life and ford a canal, known as Kelly’s
Canal,[56] about eight feet deep. Still we got back none much the worse.
“Have you ever experienced the thrill one gets when something happens
to lift one out of the blackest depths of depression, &c.? Well, it was
like this, I hadn’t got a fag or shred of baccy, and hadn’t had a smoke
for days; was browned off to the eyebrows on bully and biscuit diet
with occasional spoonful of jam thrown in here and there--more then
than now--and was trying to snatch forty winks--we were having a rest
day--under my saddle with flies and mosquitoes buzzing around, sweating
like a bull with the heat of the aft’noon even with one thin shirt on,
when a bloke kicked my feet and shouted, ‘Cheero, Morty, mail’s up.’
“Please keep the newspaper cuttings of all our doings out here. Now
don’t forget that, as I shall love to read ’em over afterwards, and we
don’t get much news of our own doings out here.
“I think I shall manage to wangle the ten-shilling note as soon as we
get settled somewhere, sometime. Please thank ---- and ---- and all
other well-wishers and contributors for me separately and individually.
“Yes, I received a very nice little parcel from St Silas’s, but have
not had any time at all to acknowledge it, as you can guess by your
mail, which always takes precedence with me.... I expect we shall
be slackening off out here shortly as ’tis getting very hot again,
especially from about 10 A.M. to 4 P.M., when every
effort is an effort and one sweats rivers, lying down--in fact,
it’s really worse lying down than knocking slowly, one doesn’t seem
to notice the heat so much then. We have to make bivouacs with our
blankets thrown across swords and twigs stuck in the ground to get a
little shelter from the sun, as there is next to no shadow here, and
the sun is nearly overhead again. Roll on, we’ve just about got J. Turk
beat to the wide now, so it’s about time we had a long rest. Then we
are made to clean and polish everything up, and it’s some job that, as
all steelwork is eaten in with rust, and everything more or less the
same since we came on service.
“Well, my candle has just given me the wink and I’m finishing this by
moonlight, so cheerio to all of you. Hope you are all in the pink....
Take great care of yourself, mother, love, and all the others as well.
Am fit as a fiddle myself when I can get enough to eat.”
Private Mortimer was decorated soon afterwards with the Military
Medal for bravery in action, and after reading his letter one is not
surprised to hear it.
The Regiment, it may be observed, though weak in men, and still weaker
in horses, was now strong in officers again. Colonel Richardson and
others wounded at Lajj had returned, and though one or two more had
since been hit, they were doing well. But one, unhappily, had lost his
life in a very sad way: Captain Newton, who had commanded a squadron at
Lajj, and had afterwards gone through the April fighting, was drowned
in the Tigris on the night of the 25th.
He stepped overboard in the darkness from a river steamer, and though
life-belts were thrown out at once he was swept away by the current,
which was very strong. A boat was lowered, but could find no trace
of him. Captain Newton’s death was much deplored. An officer on the
staff of the Division, in a private letter to his own people, writes
of him: “Poor Tiger Newton is dead. He walked overboard and fell into
the Tigris on his way to India on leave.... He is a great loss to the
Thirteenth Hussars, where he was immensely popular. He was a splendid
character, was greatly esteemed by all who came in contact with him,
and exercised great influence in his Regiment.” His Colonel wrote:
“Quite apart from my personal sorrow, I know how grieved the whole
Regiment will be, for both officers and men were very fond of him.”
And General Jones, who had commanded the Brigade at Lajj, wrote of him
as follows: “At the fighting at Lajj, where the Thirteenth Hussars had
such heavy losses, he was the Senior Officer left of the squadrons in
the most advanced line, and was in constant communication with me by
telephone after the charge. It was an anxious time for most of us, and
perhaps especially for me, as I was commanding the Brigade. Nothing
cheered me so much as his cheery voice. We were momentarily expecting
a counter-attack in greatly superior strength, and our Battery was
stricken silent; but he never lost heart, and I am sure his example
went far in putting heart into his men, if such was necessary. It did
me good anyhow. It was also greatly due to him that at dusk we were
able to carry away the officers and men who were lying wounded between
the lines. Had he been alive now, his name would have gone in for a
Mention in Despatches. He died as many others have died, but he has not
lived in vain.”
In other letters mention is made of “his outspoken Christian life,” and
he is described as “one whom everybody loved.”
It may be noted that in the meantime one of the Thirteenth subalterns,
2nd Lieutenant J. H. Hirsch, had passed through a very tragic
experience, being on board the _Cameronian_ transport, on the way to
join, with several men of the Regiment, when she was torpedoed in the
Mediterranean. His letter describing the affair shows that “there
was no panic,” all the men going quietly to their posts on deck, and
setting to work to lower the boats. The two destroyers which formed
the escort “were simply wonderful--the rate they came alongside! When
we were hit they dashed round, making a smoke-screen. Then they dashed
round the boats and rafts and swimmers, like two old hens guarding
their young, picking up men when it was possible, who were shouting for
help. A lot we passed were drowned, as they had put their life-belts
on wrong....”
Then the submarine was sighted. The writer was by that time on board
one of the destroyers. “The other destroyer had signalled there was a
submarine near us, so the guns were manned, and we saw the wake of the
beast, so we fired and only just missed.” Luckily the shot was enough
to drive away the submarine, otherwise the slaughter might have been
terrible, for, according to Lieutenant Hirsch, “there were about 1200
men on the destroyer and about 50 officers,” and she was, of course,
exposing herself to great danger in trying to save life. However, no
second torpedo was fired, and after circling round the wreckage for
some hours after the ship had gone down, the destroyers made for Malta,
and in spite of a “very, very rough” sea, succeeded in getting there
safely next day. But 140 lives were lost, among them the lives of eight
privates of the Thirteenth.
[Illustration: Lieut. E. BRISTOL]
[Illustration: Lieut. A. E. ANNETT]
[Illustration: Lieut. C. A. F. WINGFIELD]
[Illustration: Major and Q.M. A. COOKE]
[Illustration: Lieut. W. MADGIN]
[Illustration: Lieut. A. WILLIAMS]
[Illustration: Lieut. L. A. ORMROD]
CHAPTER XVII.
THE SUMMER OF 1917.
The summer of 1917 was comparatively quiet; General Maude writes of it
in the following words:--
“For the remaining five months of the period under review the heat was
considerable, and during the latter part of June, July, and beginning
of August it was intense. Consequently, movements could not be
undertaken by either side without grave risk of incurring substantial
casualties from heat-stroke and heat exhaustion. The troops enjoyed
a well-earned respite from the continuous fighting in which they had
been engaged during the five months terminating in April, but they were
by no means idle. Our hold over the area was made secure, defensive
positions and pivots were prepared, and training was carried on in the
early mornings and late evenings as the temperature permitted. Manly
sports, too, which are so essential to the wellbeing of the soldier,
especially when temporarily inactive in the military sense, were freely
indulged in, with beneficial results to the health and future fitness
of the army for service in the field. Arrangements had been made for a
proportion of the troops to proceed to India on leave during the summer
months, and those who had been on service for a considerable time
derived much benefit from the change and rest thus obtained.”
India during the hot-weather months is not usually regarded by
Englishmen as a pleasant country, but no doubt its settled cantonments
and civilised cities were preferable to camp-life in Mesopotamia, and
its cool “hill stations” were a godsend to men worn out with exposure
to the fierce heat of the Arab plains.
General Maude’s remark that the troops who remained in Mesopotamia
were “by no means idle” is well within the mark, for not only were
a considerable part of them engaged during the month of May in such
punitive expeditions against the Arabs as the one mentioned in Chapter
XVI., but at some points these expeditions extended into June and even
the beginning of July, when, as he says, the heat was intense. Nor were
such minor movements the only operations which the troops were called
upon to undertake. In June the Russians reported that in consequence
of the increasing heat they had found it necessary to evacuate the
line of the Diala river, and they withdrew across the Persian border
from which they had advanced. This necessitated the occupation of the
district by a British force, and in August this force had to drive back
a body of Turkish troops. Moreover, in July it was thought necessary to
push a column forward on the line of the Euphrates, and there was some
fighting with the Turks in this direction, fighting which was stopped
only by “a blinding dust-storm” and “the commencement of an abnormal
heat-wave.” On both flanks of the army, therefore, the troops had
active work to do in the summer months.
Nevertheless the bulk of the British troops about Baghdad did no doubt
enjoy a peaceful summer in their standing camps along the banks of
the Tigris; and this was the case with the Thirteenth, who were left
undisturbed among the palm groves at Chaldari. There they rested and
recruited their strength for any further campaigning that might occur
when the summer was over. Before that time arrived the regiment was
thoroughly fit for service again--its numbers full, in officers, men,
and horses, and its health excellent.
The following brief extracts from letters and diaries seem to be all
that is available for this peaceful interlude in their Mesopotamian war
record.
_Captain S. O. Robinson--May 13, 1917._--“It is too hot to fight out
here now, and we are sitting down for the hot weather after a very
successful winter campaign. I expect people at home look upon this as a
side-show, which of course it is compared with Europe, but all the same
there has been plenty of hard fighting, under most difficult and trying
conditions.
[Illustration: CHALDARI CAMP. 1917]
“Those at the top, responsible for running the show, have run it very
well indeed.
“I have not had any letters from any of you for weeks, but expect
letters will turn up eventually; the advance was so rapid that they are
bound to have gone wrong.”
_2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--June 7._--“Just been told I may go on the
next leave to India; if so, I shall sail from Basra on the 18th, and
will probably go up to Mussoori or some hill station....
“Our routine at present is: 5.30-7, training remounts; 7-8, stables,
and nothing else all day but lie in a tent and get bored, so I shall
be very pleased to get away. It’s not really hot yet, but quite hot
enough to stay in a tent all day. Absolutely no news.... Well, cheerio,
GUY. No letter from you for three weeks.”
2nd Lieutenant Pedder had returned shortly before from hospital, on
recovery from his wound received at Lajj.
_2nd Lieutenant F. N. Payne--July._--“The Cavalry have a splendid camp
all along the river. They have an ice-barge, cinema, ice-cream shop
with many coloured drinks, polo, bathing, and fishing, so that it is
ten per cent cooler than in Baghdad. They can dress as they please, and
are pretty comfortable.
“Most of the officers have had mud walls built round their roomy tents.”
A pleasant picture, and a contrast to the earlier phases of the
Mesopotamian War, when our ill-equipped and out-numbered troops were
struggling with all the initial difficulties and hardships, or vainly
throwing away their lives in desperate assaults on the Turkish trenches
to relieve Kut.
_2nd Lieutenant Pedder--August 28._--“Here I am back again and very
fit. Most of the people here are very fed up. They had one very hot
spell, otherwise the heat hasn’t been too bad, and they have got plenty
of ice and soda, &c. It is still pretty warm, but much pleasanter than
Basra or being on the river coming up....
“Robinson lent me a very good book the other day, ‘In Mesopotamia,’ by
Martin Swayne.
“We are giving a concert to-night, and each mess has got at least three
guests.
“In a week’s time the Division is holding a race-meeting. I am not
riding, as I have had no time to train my horses....
“A week after our meeting there’s to be a huge regatta at Baghdad, and
then I suppose war, at least I certainly hope not before then.”
_September 4._--“Many thanks for your letter, dated July 8th, which
arrived a week ago. We won’t get another mail for another week, when we
expect the Colonel, who arrived Basra on the 1st.
“Hurrah, it’s getting cooler. However, when it gets cool we’ll move,
and I don’t know which is preferable--heat and peace, or pleasant
climate and fighting: I wouldn’t vote for either.
“I got back just in time for the Cavalry Division Race Meeting, but not
early enough to train ‘Matches’ for the Lajj Cup. The meeting was a
great success. The Regiment did awfully well--won three events out of
six. Ormrod won the big event, Baghdad Cup given by Maude; Hartigan won
the Kut Cup, and was second in the Lajj Cup; and Peat, who is now my
servant and was Eve’s, won the Br. Ranks open, a very fine performance,
as there were forty-two starters, and it was a flat six furlongs. Our
Brigade showed its superiority by winning every event.
“They are starting a great Sporting Club at Baghdad with its grounds 1½
miles outside, where there will be golf, tennis, cricket, racing (?),
polo, and boating. It’s a great scheme, and will be a godsend if we are
stuck here after cessation of hostilities.
“Did you see the Colonel has got D.S.O. now as well as Croix de Guerre,
also FitzGibbon has got M.C. as well as Italian Medal?
“I go out shooting occasionally, but there’s not much.... It’s still
too hot to go out or do anything before 5; however, it’s not as
unbearable as it was.”
_Captain S. O. Robinson--September 10._--“It is still very hot here in
the middle of the day, and when you do get any wind it is generally
accompanied with dust.
“We are expecting a large draft of men this week, and shall be very
glad to get them, as we are very short at present.”
_September 18._--“We have had a dust-storm for the last three days,
which is very unpleasant, but the wind usually drops at night. I am
writing this in a mud hut, so am out of it for the time being.
“The British army is more or less settling down in the occupied portion
of this country. I only hope we shan’t get a rude shock.
[Illustration: CHALDARI SUMMER CAMP, 1917]
[Illustration: THE REGIMENTAL MESS]
“We have quite transformed the ancient capital of the Caliphs. It is
now a modern Eastern town, quite a different place to what it was six
months ago.”
The following extract is from the diary of Lance-Corporal Bowie,
continued from the extract in Chapter XVI.
“On the conclusion of this[57] we marched back to our camp at Chaldari,
and here commenced our summer routine and the training of remounts, and
drafts of men from England for the next operations.
“On the 31st May the Cavalry Brigades were inspected by Lieut.-General
Sir Stanley Maude, who, after making us a very stirring speech
congratulating us on the splendid work we had done during the advance
on Baghdad, presented the awards which had been won by men of our
machine-gun squadron at Baghela in our action of the 25th February,
S.Q.M.S. Luff, Sergeant Bush, and Lance-Corporal Lonsdale all receiving
the Military Medal for gallantry there.
“On 16th August we held a boxing competition at Chaldari for the
Cavalry, the most notable event being the fight between Private Wells,
Thirteenth Hussars, _versus_ Private Harriss, Fourteenth Hussars, when
Wells added greatly to his reputation by gaining the verdict over
Harriss, who was at one time the Bantam Champion of India.
“Some little time after this, the Regiment was invited by the Sheikh
of a neighbouring Arab village to beat up his estate for wild boar.
This we accepted, and all ranks had a most enjoyable day’s sport in
consequence.
“It was during our stay here that the first Baghdad Racing Meeting was
held. It was on September 1st, and this proved a great day for us,
some of our own horses winning some most exciting races. Six races
there were, numerous entries, big fields, and a band to enliven the
proceedings. There were twenty runners for the Kut Cup, which was won
by ‘Whiskers,’ belonging to Lieutenant Ormrod, and ridden by Lieutenant
Hartigan, both of the Thirteenth Hussars, and almost as many for the
Baghdad Cup, a two-mile steeple-chase, which was won by ‘Venus,’ owned
and ridden by Lieutenant Ormrod. For the Lajj Cup another big field
turned out; this was won by ‘Flying Heckle,’ owned by Major Daniels,
and there were more than a score of runners for the Deli Abbas Cup.
This was won by ‘Percival,’ a horse owned and ridden by Lieutenant
Denning. Dearly, indeed, are these cups prized by their fortunate
possessors, who were presented with them by Lieutenant-General Sir
Stanley Maude at the conclusion of the day’s sport.
“Shortly after this, on September 10th, we held our first Baghdad
Regatta. This was a very small affair, but contained many popular
events, such as pontoon races, launch races, gufa races, dinghy races,
and tilting competitions. One race in particular which we were very
proud to carry off was the gufa race. In this we gained both first and
second place, beating all other competitors by several hundred yards.
It should be here explained that a gufa is nothing more or less than
a large circular basket about 3 feet in depth and 8 feet in diameter,
covered with skin. This race was really the tit-bit of the day’s sport,
much amusement being caused by our frantic efforts to propel such an
unwieldy craft on such a river as the Tigris.”
So ends Lance-Corporal Bowie’s diary for the summer. It must be
admitted that if the Thirteenth had shown themselves forward in action
they were not behindhand in sport. The two things do not perhaps always
go together, but it is remarkable how often they do.
[Illustration: Lieut. W. G. NEWMAN]
[Illustration: S.S.-M. (afterwards Lieut.) C. M. DORTHWAITE]
[Illustration: Lieut. G. F. EARLE]
[Illustration: Lieut. J. W. BIGGAR]
[Illustration: Lieut. C. W. JEMMETT]
[Illustration: R.Q.-M.S. H. J. EDWARDS
(_Wounded at Iman Mahdi, 25th February 1917_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. A. H. WOOD]
CHAPTER XVIII.
AUTUMN OF 1917--RAMADIE, MENDALI, TEKRIT.
When the summer of 1917 drew towards an end, and the weather began to
grow more suitable for action in the field, General Maude had worked
out his scheme for further operations, and was ready to move.
His force was now facing due north, towards the distant Turkish base
in Asia Minor, and it was evident that this must be the main line of
warfare during the ensuing winter--the line of the Tigris still, but
the Upper Tigris as it comes down from the Northern Highlands. For
the moment, however, the Turks on this line were giving no trouble.
Hard hit by the fighting in April, they had remained for some months
content to hold the river down to Tekrit, more than a hundred miles
above Baghdad; and before committing himself to an advance upon this
position, which was strong and well prepared for defence, General Maude
decided to secure both his flanks so as to be quite free from trouble
when delivering his main blow.
Facing his left, on the Euphrates, the enemy had a considerable body
of troops at Ramadie, a few miles beyond the British advanced posts;
and on his extreme right the Turkish 13th Corps, falling back before
the Russians from Persia, but not closely pressed, seemed inclined to
assume a threatening attitude. In September he struck simultaneously in
both directions.
On the Euphrates a considerable force of Infantry with one of his
Cavalry Brigades, including the Fourteenth Hussars, advanced on
Ramadie and carried out a very successful attack. The end of it was
that the Turkish force was not only beaten but completely surrounded,
the Cavalry getting round into their rear and cutting their line of
retreat. In these circumstances they were forced to surrender, and more
than three thousand prisoners fell into General Maude’s hands.
At the same time another force, with the Cavalry Brigade to which the
Thirteenth belonged, pushed out eastward and seized Mendali, close to
the Persian border. They made no large capture there, for the enemy
did not attempt to hold it, but they drove him off and established
themselves right up to Persian territory.
It will be seen from the map on page 201 that in this part of the
country, to the north-east of Baghdad, a range of hills, the Jebel
Hamrin, cuts across the district lying between the Tigris and the Diala
rivers, and even extends beyond the Diala southward. This range, a mass
of difficult highlands, was held by the Turks, and was a formidable
obstacle to any advance against them, while from its lower spurs issued
a great system of canals upon which depended the fertile tracts below.
To complete the expulsion of the Turks from these tracts, rich in
supplies, and to prepare for a further advance in the future, General
Maude’s right-hand force now pushed on and seized the head works of
the canals, penetrating some way into the Jebel Hamrin. There they
established themselves, opening up the country with great labour by
bridging the canals and making roads. General Marshall, who commanded
the force, writes that “seventy-five bridges of various sizes were
built in this area alone, and the Jebel Hamrin, which prior to our
occupation was a roadless tangle of hills, was gradually pierced by
a very complete and convenient number of roads suitable for wheeled
traffic.”[58]
Thus both on the Euphrates and on the Diala, to left and right, General
Maude had freed himself from immediate enemy pressure. It remained to
deal with the Turks to the north on the Tigris.
These, consisting of his old enemy the 18th Corps, greatly reinforced,
had not been passive spectators of the British movements on the two
flanks. They did not move in time to prevent or hamper these movements,
but in the middle of October 1917 they pushed down the Tigris for a
considerable distance below their strong intrenched position at Tekrit,
and assumed a threatening attitude. General Maude at once struck
at them in front, and bringing in the Cavalry from his wings, tried
at the same time to work round their flanks, the result being that
they retired again to Tekrit, and there gave battle. It was a strong
position--“an intricate system of trenches, many of which had been well
and deeply dug, with numerous machine-gun emplacements”; and, as every
one knows, the Turks in such a position are among the most tenacious
soldiers in the world.
Nevertheless, on the 5th of November they were attacked and completely
defeated, losing 2000 men, of whom 300 were killed and though the brunt
of the trench-fighting fell of course upon the Infantry, the Cavalry
did their share. General Marshall, who was in immediate command,
records that in the afternoon “a spirited attack by the Infantry
coupled with a charge by the Cavalry Brigade on the flank, threw back
the Turks in disorder, who fled panic-stricken.” Most of them got away
under cover of strong rearguard positions, prepared beforehand, which
held up the British pursuit. Still, it was a very successful action,
and during the night the Turks, after burning a large quantity of
ammunition and stores, withdrew the whole of their forces to a point
forty miles up the river.
At Tekrit, for the second time in the Mesopotamian campaign, the
Thirteenth, or two squadrons of them, got an opportunity of attacking
on horseback, sword in hand, which is always the chance the Cavalry
soldier longs to get. They lost an excellent officer, Captain Robinson,
who was commanding the two squadrons concerned, and was killed in
the charge. Another officer, Lieutenant Williams-Taylor, was wounded
and taken prisoner. Their total loss was six killed and twenty-two
wounded--only a fourth of the loss sustained at Lajj eight months
before, but still a sensible one for two weak squadrons. It was a fine
affair, and the Regiment was proud of itself.
After the action, and the rapid retreat of the Turks, the main portion
of the troops on this line were brought back to a better position, but
Tekrit was held and was never again in Turkish hands.
Unhappily, this was the last battle fought by the army of Mesopotamia
while under the command of General Maude. On the 18th of November,
at the height of his success and reputation, he died of cholera in
Baghdad, and not only for the troops he had led to victory, but for
the nation, his death was a real misfortune. Few men have been more
beloved by those who served under him, or more trusted as a bold
and yet careful commander. He was no doubt more fortunate than his
predecessors, in that he was given a large and thoroughly equipped
force to do the work demanded of him, while they had been called upon
to achieve victory with troops insufficient in number and very badly
equipped, but this in no way detracts from his merits. He was not like
them, asked to do impossibilities, but what he was asked to do was not
easy, and he did it thoroughly well.
The following extracts are from papers bearing upon the fight at Tekrit
from the point of view of the Thirteenth Hussars.
_By Lieutenant T. Williams-Taylor._
“TEKRIT, _November 5th, 1917_.
“In the afternoon we advanced under fairly heavy shell-fire, but with
few casualties, and dismounted in a depression of the ground about
half a mile from the Turkish position. There was plenty of firing, but
we were under good cover. The Infantry were attacking on our right
nearer the river and town of Tekrit. At first we were ordered to
attack dismounted, and had just prepared to do so when the order was
countermanded.
“We sat about smoking and watching the progress of the fight to our
right and half right. Then ‘B’ Squadron was ordered to mount. Robinson
told me he had orders to go in with the sword. We formed up under
cover, the composition of the squadron being roughly as follows:--
“Three troops (2nd, 3rd, and 4th) less the Hotchkiss guns and gunners
not armed with the sword.
Captain Robinson Squadron leader.
Mr Hartigan Second troop.
Mr Jones Third troop.
and myself Second in command.
“The total strength could not have been more than forty swords (this
total I have arrived at after discussing it with Sergeant-Major Potter,
who was then S.S.M. of ‘B’ Squadron).
“We trotted out in squadron column, and soon came under heavy but
inaccurate rifle and M.G. fire. We then formed line and extended. It
was impossible to see what was going on in front owing to the smoke
and dust. Captain Robinson brought the squadron to a walk, while
Alston and I went out to see what was in front of us. We had only to
gallop a short way to see the enemy position. It looked formidable
with well-made trenches and machine-guns, and more Turks than we
could count. We also saw our own Infantry to our right. I reported to
Robinson, who galloped off half left to see what was going on there.
He soon disappeared into the dust. Our position was now unpleasant,
advancing at a walk over perfectly flat ground under heavy and
increasing fire from rifles, machine-guns, and guns, so I brought the
right shoulders up until we were following Robinson’s line, and gave
the order to charge. This was the last I saw of the squadron, as I
was a considerable distance in front trying to keep in touch with the
squadron leader.
“I crossed the front-line trench and found that the Turks were very
demoralised, and I could not get near any of them. I then went on and
crossed another trench (a communication trench) and had a go at a Turk
who was half in and half out of the trench. He was very low down,
and my horse jumped, so though I got him I don’t suppose it killed
him. I found Robinson surrounded by some thirty or forty Turks. They
apparently had been paralysed with fear, which was now working off when
they saw only two of us. Robinson turned his horse and galloped at
them, but was shot down point-blank. I followed him when he started to
gallop, but my horse was shot and came down (just by Robinson, who died
almost instantly), pinning me down underneath him. We exchanged shots
with each other for some time at a range of about five yards, and I got
a bullet through the shoulder, and shortly afterwards a clout on the
back of the head from a rifle-butt, and some minor injuries.
“I was unconscious for a time, and came to, to find the Turks looting
me. They got my pistol, glasses, &c., when a Turkish officer came
running up firing his revolver off in the air and shouting at them.
They departed into the trench under a shower of what I suppose was
abuse from the officer, who was now firing at them, but did not seem
to hit anybody. The Turk then came up to me and asked in bad French if
I was an officer. He then made me a long speech, and told me he was a
captain most distinguished of the M.G. Corps, and that he was pleased
to meet me, and that he was a Socialist from Constantinople, &c., &c.
I thanked him and told him I was glad to meet him, and that I was also
very distinguished, but would be able to chat better if he took my dead
horse off me, which he did under a very heavy fire from our people.
He was very good indeed, and had my various damages seen to there and
then in the trench. He subsequently took me back to the Turkish C.O. of
the Regiment, where I had coffee and cigarettes before going on to the
Field Ambulance. I found out that there were some four thousand Turks
at the point where we charged.”
_Lance-Corporal Bowie’s Diary._
“On September 25th we marched out to commence operations again, our
first march being to Conningham Post, some 12 miles distant. The next
day we marched on to Baquba. Here we took the opportunity of giving
our horses a good swim in the Diali river, which runs by the side of
the village. Early the following morning we moved on to Belad-Rus and
after resting here for a few hours we made a night march at about 8.30
P.M. on to Mandali, a village situated right at the foot of
the Jabel Hamrin hills. This place we attacked at dawn, and speedily
discovered that it was held by a very small force of Turkish Cavalry,
about one squadron, who, needless to say, did not waste any time with
us, but took to their heels and succeeded in escaping through the pass
into Persia, where, as we discovered later, they fell into the hands of
the Kurds, those very fierce tribesmen who never lose an opportunity
of revenging themselves for former outrages they have suffered at the
hands of the Turks. Our chief capture here was some 300 camels, which
are the enemy’s chief means of transport in this country.
[Illustration: F.S.M. A. BALD]
[Illustration: R.S.M. S. F. SEEKINS, M.C.]
[Illustration: S.S.M. A. POTTER]
[Illustration: Sgt. W. H. TETHERIDGE, D.C.M.]
[Illustration: Cpl. J. STEVENS, D.C.M.]
[Illustration: Cpl. G. RAYNER, D.C.M.]
“We went into bivouac near this village and remained there for about 14
days, while at the same time we made daily reconnaissances well into
the surrounding country. During this period we were forced to live on
the country, our transport failing to arrive with our much-needed
rations for some unaccountable reason, and our fare consisted mainly of
dates and oranges, which, fortunately for us, were very plentiful in
that district. Even our horses had to be rationed with these dates.
“On October 18th we left Mandali and made a forced march on to
Kizil-Robart, making a short halt at the Salt Water Lake in the Jabel
Hamrin hills, some 23 miles distant, to refresh our horses; we marched
again at dawn and covered another 17 miles at a very fast pace. We
came into contact with the enemy a few miles south of the village. We
at once deployed for action and engaged them, and at the conclusion
of a very severe day’s fighting we had driven them back on to the
village. Renewing our attack early the following morning, we succeeded
in driving them out of it, and finally captured the village at about
11.45 A.M. on the 20th instant. Leaving our Infantry to occupy
this place, the following three days we devoted to reconnoitring the
surrounding country.
“On the 23rd instant the following names appeared in our Regimental
Orders for conspicuous gallantry in our action at Lajj on March 5th:
S.S.M. Brearly, Cpl. Bowie, L.-Cpl. Stevens, L.-Cpl. Watkins, and S.S.
Couch. All were awarded the D.C.M., and a very proud Regiment we were
on this day.
“The following morning we left bivouac and marched through the pass,
leading our horses owing to the very rough nature of the ground.
Mounting at the farther end we marched on to Sharaban, where we
bivouacked for the night. The following day we moved off to Baquba,
where we arrived at about 4 P.M. It was whilst here that
we celebrated the anniversary of the Balaclava Charge, in which the
Regiment took part. Making an early start the next morning, we marched
on to Sadiyah. Crossing the river Tigris at midday, we bivouacked at a
spot which afterwards proved to be the site of our winter camp. We were
not destined to rest here very long, however, as two days later we were
ordered out to take part in some operations on this side of the river.
We marched out on the 29th instant, and bivouacked at Sinajah some 15
miles distant. From this place all our movements had to be made under
cover of darkness. Marching again on the night of the 30th, we rested
at Istabulat, from which we made another night march on to Samarrah,
arriving there at about 10 A.M. on November 1st. Here we
rested until 8 P.M., when we marched again to a point some
12 miles west of Daur. We waited here until dawn, when we commenced
an elaborate demonstration, whilst our Infantry were attacking Daur
from the south. During this day we came under a considerable amount
of shell-fire, and here the Regiment was subjected to a very severe
test, while our Colonel displayed the utmost coolness and courage in
manœuvring us at the walk in the very face of the enemy’s Artillery,
in order to draw their fire and thereby enable our observers to locate
their batteries.
“Our casualties during the demonstration amounted to 1 killed[59] and
5 wounded, whilst later on the same evening an enemy airman tried hard
to inflict further casualties amongst us by bombing, but fortunately
without success.
“On reaching bivouac that night we received the stimulating news that
our Infantry, under General Cobb, had succeeded in capturing Daur;
after attacking a strong trench system of a 9-mile perimetre encircling
Tekrit, they had defeated the Turks after heavy fighting, capturing
some 319 prisoners and the river boat _Julnar_, which was aground near
by. This steamer was captured from us by the Turks in our attempt to
reach Kut with provisions for General Townshend and his heroic force in
April 1915.
“The following day, November 3rd, whilst resting in bivouac, we were
again bombed by the enemy airmen, but, luckily for us, the majority
of our horses were being watered at the river at the time, and this
undoubtedly saved us from a stampede, our casualties this time being 10
of our transport mules which were killed outright, and one man slightly
wounded.
“On the night of the 4th we again moved up, marching on to Tekrit,
which is on the river, some 5 miles north of Daur. Here the Turks
had installed themselves in a very strong position. Whilst ‘standing
to’ at dawn awaiting the order to attack, we were once more bombed
by enemy airmen, but luckily without result. A short time after this
we commenced our attack against the enemy’s right flank, whilst our
Infantry engaged them frontally. We fought our way by a succession of
bounds up to a large hollow, which afforded us excellent cover, and
was situated some 1500 yards from the enemy’s main position. Having
a short breather here to refresh both man and horse, we suddenly
received the order to mount, and galloping over the top we, under a
splendid moving curtain of fire from our Artillery, drew our swords
and charged straight into the enemy’s trenches, passing through our
own Infantry on the way, who cheered us madly. We took their first and
penetrated into their second line of defences, where we dispersed a
considerable number of their reinforcements who were being massed for
a counter-attack, inflicting on them heavy losses. An incident which
enraged us beyond measure was the tactics which the Turks resorted to
on this and previous occasions when we had attacked them in a similar
manner. Immediately on us charging their front line, they would throw
down their arms and cry for quarter, which on us lifting our swords
and granting, thus leaving them to surrender to our supports while we
charged on to their second line, they would deliberately regain their
rifles and fire into our backs. On realising this treachery again, we
wheeled about and literally cut our way through this treacherous mass,
and it is thought that any who may have escaped our avenging swords
were brought down by our Hotchkiss gunners, who maintained a steady
fire on our left flank throughout the action.
“On regaining the deep nullah from which we commenced our charge, the
roll was called and it was found that our total casualties were 6
killed and 22 wounded. Amongst the killed was one of our most popular
officers, Captain S. O. Robinson, the leader of ‘B’ Squadron, whilst
Lt. Williams-Taylor, being wounded, was captured, together with Pte.
Kasper of ‘C’ Squadron.
“Having secured sufficient horses from the native Regiments to replace
our heavy casualties, we rejoined the 6th Brigade and bivouacked some
10 miles back on the right bank of the river, which we were more than
glad to sight again, men and horses having fought and worked for over
70 hours on the desert without any fresh water. We had a well-earned
rest here the following day, and we received many congratulations from
various Corps and Divisional commanders for the work we had done and
its moral effect on the enemy. We commenced our march back to Sadiyah
on the morning of the 7th instant, doing easy marches owing to the
exhausted condition of our horses. We arrived at Sadiyah at noon on the
12th instant, whilst on the 18th the following names appeared in our
Regimental Orders for gallantry in our last engagement: Lts. Norton and
Jones both winning the M.C., Sgt. Tetheridge the D.C.M., whilst Sgt.
Matthews, Pte. Corbyn, and Pte. Mortimer all won the M.M.”
_From Lieutenant Chrystall, October 7, 1917._
“We are out on operations again now, as I expect you will have seen;
a good show has been managed, and Johnny Turk is not feeling too well
just now. We have practically wiped out one of their divisions, and
how he is going to do anything more in this part I don’t know, except
perhaps beyond raids on communications, &c.
“We are living on the country now, and very rough fare it is
too--sand-grouse, dates, and rough grass, with a little bhoosa, sort of
chaff barley.”
_Operations leading up to the battle and capture of Tekrit, November
1917._
_By Colonel J. J. Richardson._
“After continuous trekking since the 17th October, including the
enveloping manœuvres, which resulted in the evacuation by the Turks
of the Jeb-el-Hamrin on the left bank of the Diala river, and of
Kizil Robart, we reached Sadiyah on the Tigris on Friday, October
26th, and encamped on the right bank about a mile from the remainder
of the Division. Owing to smallpox--contracted by men who had been
assisting the L.P.O. at Mandali--having broken out in the Brigade,
we were segregated, and we were looking forward to a well-earned and
much-needed rest, to making up our equipment and to getting our winter
clothing.
“But on Sunday the 28th we received orders to proceed by night marches
to Samarra. We were joined by the Division at Istabulat on the 31st,
and marched that night for Samarra and bivouacked for the day in the
old Izakhi Canal.
“On the night of the 1st-2nd November we marched to a position west of
Daur, co-operating with the 7th Division in driving the enemy out of
this place, and bivouacked that night at Daur.
“Daur is a very strong natural position, being protected by the broken
and undulating ground rising to the plateau some 50 feet high to
the westward, and having, owing to the same ground, a covered way of
retreat to Tekrit, some ten miles to the north.
“At 7 A.M. on the morning of the 3rd the Division marched
out to reconnoitre Aujah-Tekrit, and came under artillery fire at the
former place; the 7th Brigade continued its march to carry out its
task of testing the strength in which the trenches to the west and
north-west were held by the enemy, and drew sufficient fire to enable
the G.O.C. to report them held in strength. The Regiment suffered
some seven casualties, of which one proved fatal, from shell-fire. We
returned to bivouac at Daur that evening, reaching camp about 7.30
P.M.
“On the night of the 4th-5th the Division made a night march to a
position west of Tekrit to co-operate on the 5th with the Infantry in
their assault at that place.
“The Brigade was detailed to work close on the left flank of the
Infantry, and the Regiment was held in reserve all day. This gave us
an opportunity of watching from a good point of vantage the systematic
advances of the Infantry behind an intense artillery barrage, and it
was good to see them (in this case Punjabi Infantry) advancing shoulder
to shoulder, slowly and deliberately, to the assault. What most struck
me as a spectator was the apparent immunity from casualties of this
system, although next day we learnt that they had had their fair share
of casualties.
“The two native Cavalry Regiments of the Brigade--with the exception of
two squadrons--had been operating on foot against the trenches to the
west of Tekrit, and the 6th Brigade had been acting as a flank-guard
some way to the north and north-west, and by its presence there had
prevented an enemy Division, which had been marching presumably from
Khanal Kharninah, from joining hands with the force holding the Tekrit
position.
“About 4.45 P.M. General Norton decided that the time had
come when we could materially assist the Infantry, and ordered me to
send a squadron mounted to find the enemy first-line trench at a point
about 1½ miles to the north-west of Imam Arbain, which was almost
the only conspicuous landmark, and from there to sweep right-handed
up the trench towards the left flank of our Infantry, who appeared
to be assaulting the trenches between them and the Imam, from a
south-westerly direction. I accordingly ordered Captain Robinson to
take his Squadron (‘B’) for this duty, and Lieutenant Norton to hold
his Squadron (‘C’) in readiness to support ‘B.’ When ‘B’ was well under
way, ‘C’ Squadron was ordered out, and soon afterwards the Brigadier
ordered me to take out the two remaining Squadrons in support. This I
did, ‘D’ Squadron leading, and as we approached the trench line swords
were drawn. I had meantime lost sight in the dust, and in the failing
light, of the two leading squadrons, but saw about 100 or 150 men on
foot on some rising ground, whom I took to be Turks who had held up
their hands to the two leading squadrons, and I turned towards them,
intending to round them up and prevent them from taking up their rifles
again, as our experience at Lajj taught me they were apt to do. As I
drew nearer, however, I saw they were our own Infantry, and seeing a
British officer I rode up to him and asked him the situation.
“He told me that the two squadrons had gone on to our left front, and
that there was a party of about 50 or 100 Turks some 200 yards straight
ahead. I decided to go for these, and we passed a squadron of Indian
Cavalry (13th Lancers) on our left as we advanced at a slow gallop with
our left on a communication trench running much in the same direction
I was pursuing. A good deal of rifle fire was being poured into us,
and, from the sound of it at very close range, probably from the
communication trench, but personally I saw no body of Turks nearer than
1000 yards.
[Illustration: Lieut. T. WILLIAMS-TAYLOR
(_Wounded at Shumran Bend, 4th February 1917; wounded and taken
prisoner at Tekrit, 5th November 1917_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. M. G. HARTIGAN, M.C.]
[Illustration: Capt. S. O. ROBINSON
(_Wounded at Shumran Bend, 4th February 1917. Killed at Tekrit, 5th
November 1917_)]
[Illustration: S.S.-M. F. J. TEGG
(_Killed at Tekrit, 5th November 1917_)]
[Illustration: Pte. F. G. JASPER
(_Killed at Tekrit, 5th November 1917_)]
“Meanwhile we had crossed some three lines of fire trenches in which
a few wounded Turks were lying, and on my left I saw the two leading
squadrons returning from their ride. They were then about 400 yards
away, and the light had become so bad that I distinctly saw the flashes
from the enemy artillery some 2000 yards ahead of us. I had already
gone far beyond the objective given us by the Brigadier, and now that I
had found the two leading squadrons, I was chiefly concerned in getting
the Regiment out of action whilst the light remained. I accordingly had
‘Rally to the Right’ sounded on the trumpet, in the hope of drawing ‘B’
and ‘C’ Squadrons to me, but they were too far off to hear the sound
in the din of the firing, so I wheeled to the right again and returned
to the neighbourhood of the first-line trench. I was then in rear
of the squadrons, and seeing a few men struggling back with wounded
comrades and wounded horses, I sent out a message to Major Twist to
retire the horses out of range, then to dismount the men and bring them
up dismounted to cover the retirement of any stragglers who had been
wounded or unhorsed. I myself stayed with the R.S.M. (Seekins), the
Trumpet-Major, and a few men to give a hand to a few men who had got
left with wounded comrades and horses.
“After allowing about half an hour for any stragglers to rejoin,
I retired the men on to their horses and we rejoined the Brigade.
Here I learned that Captain Robinson had been killed, Lieutenant
Williams-Taylor and some seven N.C.O.’s and men were missing. ‘C’
Squadron had 22 horses killed and ‘B’ 9; in addition, we had about 19
men wounded; my orderly was hit in the chin, and his horse through the
neck. One man, Pte. Thomson, died of wounds _en route_ to bivouac at
Aujah Nullah, which we reached about midnight.
“Here I will interpose an account of the doings of ‘B’ and ‘C’
Squadrons, as gathered from reports by officers and men.
“‘B’ Squadron rode straight to the point to which they were directed
without opposition, and Captain Robinson, finding our Infantry in
position, there halted and waited until ‘C’ Squadron came up; then
he explained the situation to Lieutenant Norton, and his decision to
lead the two squadrons against a mass of Turks, 300 to 400 in number
(estimated), who could be seen some 1000 or 1200 yards away to his left
and left front,--and I may say here in parenthesis, that his decision
to go beyond the objective given by the Brigadier was eminently
the right one, if not the only one: our mission was to assist the
Infantry, and that was the only way in which he could do it under the
altered circumstances, so the two squadrons wheeled to the left and
rode to the north-west, one on either side of a long--and I think the
first-line--trench. They went through the Turks, and in this advance
Captain Robinson was killed, shot through the head by one of the four
Turks whom he was trying to take on with his sword. His Trumpeter,
Maguire, claims to have shot this particular Turk with his revolver.
Having gone through the mass of the Turks, they turned about 1200 or
1500 yards from where they started, and rode through the Turks again,
and they claim to have accounted for at least a man per man. It was
soon after this that I saw them returning, and they pulled up near
our Infantry and came under Major Twist’s orders. The men were much
elated with their ‘ride,’ and our losses were, comparatively speaking,
extremely light, as the rifle and machine-gun fire was very heavy, and
as they returned, they came under fire from two or three batteries--at
a low estimate. At one time when I was looking, I saw the sky thick
with bursting shrapnel, but it was all very high, and the gunners must
have been firing wildly. It must be remembered, too, that by this time
the dusk was becoming the dark.
“Next day, the 6th November, we learnt that the Turks had completely
evacuated Tekrit during the night, so I sent an officer’s patrol,
under Lieutenant Stirling, to go over the battlefield and to gather
what information they could about our dead and wounded. On its return
I learnt that our Infantry had buried six dead, presumably belonging
to the Regiment, although they could not be identified, as the Turks
had stripped them completely, even to their identity discs; so on the
following day, the 7th, I obtained permission to take a party for the
purpose of burying all our men together, and succeeded in getting the
Divisional Padre--Ryan--to accompany it. We only succeeded in finding
four bodies--viz., those of Captain Robinson, Sergeants Gray and
Newman, and Private Francomb, and these we collected and buried, and
the Padre read the burial service over them. We also found Lieutenant
Williams-Taylor’s horse, dead, where it fell, and from its position,
and from the report of the man who saw him lying under it, pinned by
its weight to the ground, I felt confident in assuming that he had been
taken prisoner by the Turks.
_Note added on 6th February 1918._--“This assumption has been confirmed
by wire received to-day from London, and I have every hope of hearing
soon that S.S.M. Tegg is also alive, but a prisoner of war.
[Illustration: 13th HUSSARS.
The Charge of Squadrons B and C at Tekrit in Mesopotamia on Monday, the
5th of November, 1917.
S.S.M. F. J. TEGG.
Capt. S. O. ROBINSON.
Sergt. A. S. NEWMAN.
Sergt. JOHN GRAY.
IN
UNFADING
MEMORY
Pte. F. G. JASPER.
Pte. WM. THOMSON.
1914 Staff.
13224 Pte.
MICHAEL MACDONNELL
Served with the 6th Dragoon
Guards in S. Africa,
1900-1902.
(_No portrait available._)
Pte. WM. FRANCOMB.
“Then the cavalry came in on the extreme left. They went in with
the point, jumped the trenches and scattered the Turks who were
fleeing in confusion after being driven from their trenches in the
assaults by the infantry. This charge was carried through 1,000
yards beyond the trench held by our infantry when machine-gun and
field-gun fire was encountered at close range. The cavalry wheeled
about and covered their withdrawal by dismounted action.”
_The Times_, 15th Nov., 1917.
Extract from a letter of one who took part in the charge:
“The most pleasant part was to hear our infantry cheering us as we
cleared the trenches and galloped between them and the Turks.”]
“I will conclude this short account of an incident which deserves a
prominent place in the annals of the Regiment, by giving a list of the
‘immediate rewards’ which were bestowed by the Commander-in-Chief on
individuals for various acts of gallantry performed on the afternoon of
the 5th November. These were:--
Lieutenant D. J. E. Norton }
” H. R. Jones } _The Military Cross._
Sergt. Tetheridge _Distinguished Conduct Medal._
Sergt. Matthews }
Pte. Corbyn } _The Military Medal._
” Mortimer }
LIST OF CASUALTIES FOR THE PERIOD UNDER REVIEW.
_Killed._
Captain S. O. Robinson November 5, 1917.
Pte. Tunnicliffe, J. November 3, 1917.
Sergt. Newman, A. S. November 5, 1917.
” Gray, J. November 5, 1917.
Pte. Francomb, A. W. November 5, 1917.
_Died of Wounds._
Pte. Thomson, W. November 5, 1917.
_Missing._
Lieut. T. Williams-Taylor November 5, 1917.
(Who has since been reported Prisoner of War in Turkey.)
S.Q.M.S. (Atg. S.S.M.) Tegg, F. J. November 5, 1917.
Pte. Jasper, F. G. November 5, 1917.
” MacDonnell, M. November 5, 1917.
_Wounded._
November 3, 1917.
L.-Cpl. O’Connor, J.
Pte. Liddle, A.
” Miller.
” Barker, J. H.
” Beales, H. J.
November 4, 1917.
Pte. Bell.
” Bennett, W.
November 5, 1917.
L.-Cpl. Reaves, A. E.
” Lindsey, H.
Cpl. Hudson, H.
Pte. Stubbs, R.
” Jeffrey, J.
” Halstead, C.
” Manby, E.
” Byrne, J.
” Williams, D. G.
Cpl. Leutchford, W.
Tpr. Burder, H. A.
Pte. Viney, A. V.
” Taylor, C. E.
” Delaney, C.
” Ward, A. J. F.
” Andrews, F.
” Hibbett, A.
” Wilson.
” Stewart, H. W.
_Extract from letter from Lieut.-Colonel J. J. Richardson to
General Symons, C.M.G., dated 7th Cavalry Brigade, M.E.F., November
9, 1917._
“DEAR SYMONS,--Altho’ this letter may seem to you to be
rather belated you must make allowances, for we have been on trek ‘on
operation scale’ continually since the 17th of last month.... By great
good fortune we bivouacked at Baghdad on Balaclava Day, and I was able
to get (from the E.F. canteen) a bottle of beer a man and ½ a bottle of
‘pop’ per officer.
“We have just completed, and are returning to our base from, the
operations against Tekrit, where the Rgt. again distinguished itself in
a mounted charge against the Turks entrenched, and enabled the complete
capture of the strong position to be consummated before nightfall.
Our losses, altho’ they include the loss of Bob Robinson (killed),
were extraordinarily--and to me unaccountably--light, being 1 officer
and 5 O.R. killed, 1 officer and 2 O.R. missing, and 16 O.R. wounded.
The missing include Williams-Taylor and S.S.M. Tegg, but I have very
great hopes that the former and possibly the latter will prove to
be prisoners of war. Two days later I was able to collect and bury
together and hold a service over the corpses of Robinson, Sgts. Gray
and Newman, and Pte. Francomb. We claim to have accounted for at least
100 Turks, and Sgt. Gray’s sword was thick with blood up to the hilt.
“Please let General B.P. and as many present and past 13ths know
this, and that I feel confident they will hear nothing but good of
the Rgt. The men were simply splendid, and _ipso facto_ the officers
also.--Yours sincerely,
(Signed)
J. J. RICHARDSON.”
_From Colonel Richardson to Sir Frederick Williams-Taylor._
“7TH CAVALRY BRIGADE, M.E.F.,
_12th November 1917_.
“DEAR SIR FREDERICK,--Many thanks for your kind letter of
August 27th, which has been forwarded to me from home, and reached me
last night; many thanks also for your kind offer to help financially
in the publication of the record of the Regiment in this War; I have
noted this, although I do not--at present--anticipate that any appeal
with this object will be made.
“We arrived back from the operations which resulted in the capture of
Tekrit yesterday, and I was on the point of writing you an account
of our share in them and of the charge in which your son Travers was
wounded. The Army Commander has interested himself personally in the
case of your son, and will, I have no doubt, have cabled you fully and
given you the reasons why we think we are justified in thinking his
fate to be no worse than that of a prisoner of war.
“Well, about 4.45 P.M. on the 5th November, the Regiment was
being held in reserve, so that should an opportunity arise to assist
the Infantry who had been assaulting the Turkish trenches all day, we
might be put in without delay, and our Brigadier evidently thought the
moment had arrived, so he ordered me to send out a squadron to find the
first line of trenches and to sweep up it towards the Imam, which was
the most conspicuous mark; ‘B’ Squadron was the first for duty, so I
gave Captain Robinson his orders, and the squadron went out. No sooner
were they started than I received orders to send a second squadron,
and ‘C’ Squadron, under Lieutenant Norton, was sent out. I at once
received orders to take out the remaining two squadrons in support;
this I did, but the first two squadrons had got such a good start of
me that what followed I had to learn from the survivors of the charge.
It seems that on approaching that point of the first-line trench which
had been given him as an objective, Robinson realised that it had been
evacuated by the enemy, who had retired in a N.W. direction, and that
the left flank of our Infantry were also approaching that point; he
therefore halted his squadron, and when ‘C’ Squadron had overtaken
him, he explained to Norton the situation, and his decision--which
incidentally was the true soldier’s instinct, and from a military point
of view quite correct--to attack the mass of the enemy, a few hundred
in number, who could be seen retiring in the open about 1200 yards to
his left flank. Accordingly the two squadrons wheeled to the left, and
almost in line, galloped along, one on either side of a long trench,
which had several strong points, at one of which Robinson was killed,
shot through the back of the head; and your son was last seen pinned
to the ground by his horse, which had been shot, and trying to load
his automatic pistol, and surrounded by a number of Turks. The man who
saw this said he also thought that Travers was wounded, but there is
only his evidence on this point. When the squadrons had got back to the
neighbourhood of our Infantry line they were dismounted and advanced
about 200 yards, with a view to covering the escape of any of our
men who had been unhorsed or slightly wounded; but it was now almost
quite dark, and after allowing a reasonable time for any stragglers to
rejoin, I ordered a retirement on the Brigade.
“The Turks retired during the night, and our Infantry next morning went
over the ground, and buried six bodies, including Robinson’s; they were
unable to identify these as the Turks had stripped them of everything,
including identity discs; I however sent a party that day, Tuesday,
to ascertain what was possible about our missing, and they identified
the bodies of Captain Robinson, Sergts. Newman and Gray, and Pte.
Francomb. Two bodies, buried by our Infantry, they were unable to find,
and so remained unidentified; but I think we are more than justified
in presuming, under the circumstances, that Travers was made prisoner
of war by the Turks, wounded perhaps but not necessarily so, and
personally I have every hope of hearing in course of time through our
Red Cross and the Red Crescent Associations that he is safe and well in
the hands of the Turks.
“I will say no more at present beyond expressing our universal regret
at losing so popular and so capable an officer, and our great sympathy
with you in the painful suspense which the uncertainty of Travers’ fate
must impose upon you.--Believe me, yours sincerely,
(Signed)
J. J. RICHARDSON.”
_Extracts from letter from Lieutenant Guy Pedder to his Sister, 15th
November 1917._
“At last we are back at rest, so I will try and give you a sort of
account of our doings of late. We have been on the go now for just on 8
weeks, so you can imagine how topping it is to get back into a decent
camp with a tent to yourself, &c. This morning I had a cup of tea and a
biscuit when I was called, followed by a boiling-hot bath and a change
of clothes--what luxury!... The mail goes out to-night....
“Our Brigade left Childari about Sept. 25th, a week after the other
Brigade had gone out on the Ramadie stunt, which was a great success,
the Fourteenth doing very well, but losing their C.O., and Medd Bridges
is now commanding them.
“After four long marches during very hot weather (Robinson went down
with heat-stroke, but rejoined a fortnight later), we took Mandali,
some 100 miles N.E. of Childari up on the Persian boundary, after very
little opposition and no casualties.
“We stayed there almost three weeks, during which time we had a certain
amount of patrol-work, &c., to do. Then, after two long marches N.W.,
we took part in an affair in the right flank to kick the Turks out of
a pass over the Jubal Hamrin--it was quite a relief to get among some
hills, and away from miles and miles of flat desert. We had very few
casualties, and kicked the Turks out more by surprise and rapidity
of movement than by fighting. The last morning the Brigade covered
15 miles in 1¼ hours!!--a pretty hot and uncomfortable pace in full
marching order over rough ground. We then denied Qusil Robart to the
Turks for three days, and got shelled a bit; however, it was all very
chusie until we were suddenly hustled back to the Tigris, _viâ_ Bacuba,
to a more central camp, so we don’t know what happened on the right
flank since we left.
“We took about five days to get here, and were then told that we should
be here for 21 days, the Brigade having covered some 400 miles in under
five weeks. Our three weeks’ rest developed into two days, when the
Division which had reassembled were hustled up N. on the right bank;
we reached Samara after three very cold and unpleasant night marches,
and were very weary, so we lay hidden in a nullah all the fourth day
without any shade. We moved again at 7 P.M. for our fourth
night march, and after covering some 27 miles found ourselves right out
on the left flank [of the Infantry], who captured Daur that day, whilst
we demonstrated only on the flank and got a bit shelled; however, we
underwent a new experience to us, but a very old one to Londoners, as
Fritz came over and dropped some bombs--very unpleasant being bombed by
an aeroplane; you feel so helpless standing in an open desert holding
your horse’s head. We camped just S. of Daur, and next day had to go
right out on the Infantry’s left flank whilst they captured Aujah,
and there we had to reconnoitre the enemy’s position at Tekrit--a
long march there and back; we were shot at a good deal, but were very
lucky, and had under a dozen casualties in the Rgt., and only one man
actually killed. We got back late that night, and were woken up at 7
A.M. next morning by Fritz dropping bombs on our Div. camp,
which he repeated again that evening, when luckily nearly all the
horses were down at the river watering. The Rgt. had only three or four
casualties from these bombs, but it was a horrid sensation hearing the
bomb come tearing through the air, and not knowing where to expect the
crash. That night we moved at 10 P.M. (another night march)
for the battle of Tekrit.
“We were sent well out on the left flank, where we stayed all the
morning, and from where we saw our Infantry take two lines of trenches
under cover of a heavy artillery barrage, and also where we were
bombed again twice. This time I actually could see the bombs leave the
aeroplane, and watch them drop right up to the moment of exploding
on striking the ground. About 3 P.M. we were moved right up
on the Infantry’s flank, and stayed in some hidden ground. At 4.39
the Infantry attacked, and a ¼ hour later we were galloping through
our Infantry, who cheered us like mad, towards the Turks. Robinson’s
squadron led, followed by ‘C’; then about 1000 yards behind ‘C’ the
Colonel took us--‘D’ followed by ‘A.’ ‘B’ and ‘C’ got right into the
Turks and beyond, or as much into them as you can expect, considering
the place was full of deep trenches (we who were some way behind ‘B’
and ‘C’ crossed four lines of trenches), and Bob was killed at the
farthermost point reached by the charge--instantaneously--shot through
the head. We got his body and buried it the next day after the Turks
had cleared off. Williams-Taylor, also in ‘B,’ was last seen lying
wounded under his dead horse. However, as his body was nowhere to be
found next day, we hope, and have reason to, that he is alive and a
prisoner. ‘D’ was the third squadron in the charge, and though we
crossed four trenches we never actually reached the Turks, whom we saw
just in front; and when the Colonel, who was leading us, saw ‘B’ and
‘C’ galloping back, he gave the order to retire and took us some way
back where we got into dismounted action. My horse (not Matches, whom
I was resting) was badly cut through the stifle, just as we got the
order to retire--however, he just managed to get me back and out of it,
altho’ he had to jump four trenches; he was a very good young horse,
and I was sorry to lose him. The Rgt. was again very fortunate, as the
rifle-fire, altho’ of course (why, I don’t know) not at all on the same
scale as at Lajj, was quite unpleasant enough. We only had some 28
casualties and 60 horses. Personally, I don’t think the game was worth
the candle, especially when you think of Bob, the best fellow in the
Rgt.; but other people don’t all seem to agree with me, and the Corps
Commander gave the Division great praise for our assistance all that
night, and the Rgt. got it doubly from the Brigade Division. The most
pleasant part was to hear our Infantry cheering us as we cleared the
trenches, and galloped between them and the Turk.
[Illustration:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY
OF THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS, MEN
OF THE
13TH HUSSARS
WHO FELL IN ACTION AT THIS SPOT ON THE
5TH NOVEMBER 1917
CAPTAIN S. O. ROBINSON
N^{O.} 6993 SERGT. J. GRAY
-- 4791 -- A. H. NEWMAN.
-- 5882 P^{TE} A. W. FRANCOMBE.
THE GRAVE AT TEKRIT]
“Now we are back in that central position, for a few weeks’ rest, I
hope, I mentioned before on the Tigris.
“We charged at 4.45 P.M. on 5th Nov., exactly three years
since I left for the 11th, and didn’t get back into a camp, having
collected wounded, &c., until 2 in the morning. We took six days to get
back here, and the last night I had a tragedy, as the Arabs came into
our camp and stole my saddle-bags, which were full of kit.
“Robinson was far and away the best fellow in the Rgt., and it’s a
tremendous blow to me....
“Hind has just joined us--also two new officers with a draft.”
_From Colonel Richardson, 7th Brigade, M.E.F., 13th November 1917._
“I must just write you a short line to let you know how your brother,
Captain S. O. Robinson, or Bob as we all loved to call him, died. I
shall hope later on to send you a more detailed account of the action,
but in the meantime an abbreviated account must suffice.
“On November 5th the Cavalry Division was co-operating with the
Infantry in the attack on Tekrit, and at 4.45 or thereabouts in the
afternoon, I received orders to send a squadron to charge the Turkish
trenches on the left of our Infantry. Bob’s squadron, ‘B,’ was the
first for duty, and I sent it, and soon afterwards sent ‘C’ Squadron
in support; these two squadrons rode up to the Turkish front-line
trench, found it evacuated, found the left flank of our Infantry, with
a mass of Turks estimated at 3 or 4 hundred retiring in the open to the
N.W. or left front. Bob at once, with the instinct of a true soldier,
decided to charge these Turks, and proceeded to do so with the two
squadrons.
“When they reached the big mass of Turks, a mêlée naturally occurred.
Bob was seen taking on four Turks with his sword, and was shot through
the head by one of them; he was killed instantaneously (incidentally
his trumpeter, Maguire, from whom we gather this description, claims to
have shot this particular Turk with his revolver). The squadron went
on a couple of hundred yards or so, then turned, and came through the
Turks again, and eventually reached our lines in safety. By this time
it was dusk, and after dark the Turks retired; next day our Infantry
came up, and found several bodies stripped, even of their identity
discs, and buried them lightly in the trenches. We had gone back that
night to bivouac some miles, but on Tuesday (6th) I sent a small party
to go over the ground to ascertain what they could; this party found
and identified Bob’s body and that of three others of our men, and next
day, the 7th, I went myself with the C. of E. Padre, Lt. Stirling, and
5 men, collected all the bodies, buried them deep, and the Padre read
the burial service over them. We could not mark the spot, but we took
records of the exact position where they were buried.
“Major Twist is writing, and will see to his effects in the Regiment.
“In offering you all my deepest sympathy in your loss, I should like
to add that his loss will be most keenly felt in the Regiment, and by
many outside of it. If his brother officers loved him for his kindness
and simplicity of character, his men adored him for the same qualities
and for his justness, and I personally mourn the loss of a true friend;
but he died the death of a gallant soldier fighting sword in hand
against superior odds, a death that few Cavalry officers can ever hope
to meet--to so few is it given,--an end that will live long in the
history of the Regiment, if not in the history of the Army. R.I.P.”
[Illustration: Sergt. JOHN GRAY
(_Killed at Tekrit, 5th November 1917_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. D. J. E. NORTON, M.C.]
[Illustration: Capt. F. NORMAN PAYNE
(_Died of cholera in Baghdad, 14th November 1917_)]
[Illustration: Sergt. A. S. NEWMAN
(_Killed at Tekrit, 5th November 1917_)]
[Illustration: Pte. WM. THOMSON
(_Killed at Tekrit, 5th November 1917_)]
_From Captain Chrystall, 14th November 1917._
“I herewith send you a short account of the part of the battle of
Tekrit, Nov. 5th, 1917, which deals with the Cavalry, and showing
how co-operation with the Infantry can be carried out even in a flat
country.
“Our troops consisted of--
1 Cav. Div. of 2 Brgds.
1 Inf. Div.
1 Inf. Brgde.
The usual division of corps artillery.
“The enemy had--
2 Inf. Div. in trenches round Tekrit.
250 sabres.
1 Inf. Div. in reserve, some 12 miles to the north.
The usual artillery and heavy guns, and 5.9’s and heavy howitzers.
“The Cav. Div. had the task of protecting the W. flank, and early in
the morning of the 5th had gained touch with the whole of the enemy’s
entrenched flank, a distance of some 6 miles. The Infantry, meanwhile,
were marching into position for an assault on the line Z-X. Owing to
the heat, and telephone wires being continually cut, this attack had
not reached farther than the first line of trenches.
“However, at 4.30 P.M., Nth Div., Nth Bde. leading, attacked,
under a heavy barrage by our guns, the trenches Z-X, 2nd and 3rd
lines. Immediately, on Infantry’s left, was the Cav. Div.--2 Regiments
of Nth Bde. at point B in position of readiness (Point B was a deep
water-course, with a bluff on the N. side), and 1 Regt. slightly N.W.
on the left, with the Nth Bde. to the N.
“On the right of these two Regiments was a subsection of M.G.’s, ‘R,’
and on the left one section ‘L.’ These M.G.’s were, until the Infantry
attack came off, firing on enemy’s trench-line X-Y, and covering the
advance of dismounted Cavalry patrols, enabling the latter to approach
to within 800 yds.--1000 yds. of enemy’s trench. During the whole
day the Turkish gunners were busy ranging on the Cavalry with heavy
field-guns, and a number of casualties resulted both in men and horses.
“As the Infantry attacked the ‘R’ section, (sub) ‘R,’ was able to bring
heavy fire in enfilade on trench at point Z, and this had the effect
of completely protecting the flank of our attacking Infantry, and it
was significant that during the whole advance to X-Z, no enemy fire
was opened from Z flank. The Infantry remarked that this co-operation
undoubtedly saved many casualties. A few moments later the Infantry had
carried the 2nd line of trenches, the Hussars and a squadron of Lancers
(Ind. Cav.) having been collected at Point B, emerged from cover, and
proceeded to push in a mounted attack on the left of our Infantry
against the enemy, who appeared to be massing (behind the 3rd and 4th
lines) for a counter-attack.
“The right subsection, M.G.’s ‘R,’ was able to cover the advance of the
Cavalry, until it crossed the trench-line, and a little beyond it. The
two left subsections covered the left flank. Ranges from 1000 to 2000
yards.
“Another subsection, ‘T,’ followed the Hussars, mounted and wheeling to
the left, came into action under very hot fire about 1500 yards from
enemy’s line, and pushed forward, its guns dismounted, the horses being
sent right back. This subsection was able to bring covering fire to
bear on the flanks of the advancing Hussars.
“During the mêlée no fire action was feasible, owing to the large
amount of dust and general compression which was inevitable.
“The whole of this action was carried out on more or less open ground,
and under continuous gun and rifle fire from enemy’s rear positions.
The enemy machine-gun fire was fairly heavy, and fired at extreme
range, as the angle of descent testified, causing casualties behind
fairly good cover to our M.G. subsections.
“No. of rounds fired, 10,500.
“Men and horses were all day without water, and did not obtain same
until midnight, at which time the Infantry had taken over from the
Cavalry. Please find attached sketch of position.”
[Illustration]
_Extract from letter written by Private Hugh H. Mortimer, M.M.,
relating to the charge at Tekrit, 5th November 1917, for which he
received the M.M._
“I must have the luck of the devil, as my horse got a
flesh-wound--bullet--in the leg, but is practically all right again now.
“We’ve got six honours in the Regt., my squadron leader and a Lt. in
B--M.C.’s, a sergt. in my troop D.C.M., 2 M.M.’s in other sqdns.,
and--hold your breath--they’ve given me one--Military Medal. So I
suppose you’ll have to put that in ‘The Times’ now--eh! what! It
seemed to be nothing to me when I was in it. We charged about 300
Infantry on the road and in the trenches, with machine-guns and
artillery behind ’em. We caught ’em weak--just about 100 of us--2 weak
sqdns.--in the mist of dusk--and, my God! it seemed as if we were
riding into Hades. Funny thing tho’, I didn’t have wind up then, was
feeling rather elated cos we’d waited, and moved about, practically all
day, for a real rut at them, and been bombed from aeroplanes, shelled
and sniped, till we were just itching to get at ’em. Well, they got
pukka wind up when we got in amongst ’em, and started firing wildly,
some trying to use bayonets, others holding up their mitts and shouting
‘Kamerad.’ Then we got order to rally as we weren’t strong enough for
pursuit. Starting to come back, I spotted a youngster badly wounded in
the foot and horse shot, so I dismounted and put him up on my steed,
which was too bobbery to carry the two of us. He got back O.K. Then my
fun started. I had my revolver and about 14 rounds and began to think
about getting back somehow myself, when I spotted a chum of mine lying
about 60 yards from the trenches. Well, two of us tried to get him out
of it, but he would not have it--thigh shattered, blood in spurts, mad
with pain. J. Turk, seeing us retiring, heartened up again and potted
at us like blazes, shrapnel, machine-guns, and every bally thing. At
the finish I had to leave him, to my sorrow, altho’ we got him away
afterwards. Still he suffered a hell of a lot from exposure, as the
devils came out and stripped him--he’d be unconscious by then--in the
dark. I hear that he’s very bad in hospital, but likely to recover.
“I haven’t got the gong yet, owing, I suppose, to Gen. Maude’s death,
but they’ve made as much fuss over it as if we were--millions of
V.C.’s. I’ve shaken hands with two Generals, and been in about half a
dozen parades till I’m fairly fed up, and nearly said, ‘Keep the old
gong and let’s have a bit of peace.’
“Well, I’ll think about drying up now. Am in the pink and quite fit;
hope you are all the same, and that you, dear mother, are carrying on.”
[Illustration: BAGHDAD CEMETERY]
[Illustration: CAPT. F. NORMAN PAYNE’S GRAVE IN BAGHDAD CEMETERY]
_Extract of letter from Colonel Richardson, dated 7th Cavalry Brigade,
M.E.F., 15th November 1917._
”... We have just got back into camp for a short rest to re-equip,
reclothe, and rehorse after two months of continuous trekking--we
estimate that we have covered at least 500 miles since September
22nd--which culminated in a big battle on the 5th of this month, in
which the Regiment again charged Turkish trenches, and two of the
squadrons did very brilliant work.
“I have to report with great regret the death yesterday in Baghdad
from cholera of Captain Payne, who last winter, you may remember,
was in Billy’s squadron, and whose letters to his wife were of great
interest.”
CHAPTER XIX.
WINTER OF 1917-18.
After the lamented death of General Maude the command of the British
army in Mesopotamia devolved upon Lieut.-General Sir W. R. Marshall,
K.C.B., K.C.S.I., who had been one of the two corps commanders during
the advance on Baghdad.
In a despatch giving an account of the operations of the force during
the winter which followed General Maude’s death, General Marshall
explains in a few words the situation with which he had to deal when
he took over charge. After paying a warm tribute to the work and
character of his dead Chief, he writes: “When, therefore, I had the
honour of being appointed as his successor, the _moral_ of the army was
magnificent, while organisation and training had reached a high level
of efficiency. The Turkish army, on the contrary, was low in _moral_,
and desertions from it were numerous and frequent; on the Tigris and
Euphrates they had retreated out of rapid striking distance, and only
on our right flank was there a good opportunity of hitting them.”
[Illustration: 2nd Lieut. A. C. BARRINGTON]
[Illustration: Lieut. M. R. FARRER]
[Illustration: Lieut. F. G. LAWRENCE]
[Illustration: Lieut. E. GOODMAN]
[Illustration: Lieut. W. W. N. DAVIES]
[Illustration: 2nd Lieut. E. P. BARRETT]
[Illustration: Lieut. H. G. KESWICK]
General Marshall does not take up at this point the consideration of
any general questions outside the immediate purview of the Mesopotamian
force, but it may be observed here that the state of affairs in the
various theatres of war had of late greatly altered. The collapse
of Russia had made an immense difference in Europe, and also in
Asia, where Great Britain was now left practically alone in face of
the Turkish military power; and on the left of the great Turkish
battle-line the enemy had made a notable advance, threatening the
Caucasus and Northern Persia. On the other hand, it had now become
fairly clear that the long strain of the war was telling on the Turks,
who, it must be remembered, had entered into it when still shaken
by their recent defeat at the hands of Bulgaria. The defence of the
Dardanelles, too, though successful, had tried them more than the
world suspected, and they had not shown themselves capable of throwing
forward from their base in Asia Minor, either against General Allenby
in Palestine on their right, or against General Maude on their centre,
such masses of troops as some had expected. Indeed, on both these
fronts, the British now seemed to be numerically superior. But to
revert to the operations on the latter front.
In the circumstances presented to General Marshall he decided to attack
at once, while the weather was favourable, the Turkish 13th Corps, in
the country north-east of Baghdad, which had been so roughly handled
earlier in the year. The attack was successful; the Turks in this part
of the country were driven northwards with loss through Kara Tepe and
Kifri, and the British hold on the great main road into Persia was
securely established, whilst further progress was made in the Jebel
Hamrin range. The Turks gave considerable trouble by flooding some
tracts of land, and they, of course, resisted the British columns; but
the fighting was not very severe, and it was soon over. On the 8th of
December the bulk of the troops on this side were withdrawn into winter
camps. It will be understood that they had now reached high rough
country, where winter campaigning was not easy, and the enemy in this
quarter also had got out of reach.
The winter months were spent by General Marshall in developing supply
districts, in thoroughly opening up and establishing military control
over the Lower Euphrates, from the neighbourhood of Baghdad to the sea,
in relieving the state of famine to which the Turks had reduced some
of the western provinces of Persia, and in numerous minor operations
at various points of his widely extended charge. These, he writes,
consisted generally of reconnaissances by Cavalry and light-armoured
motor-cars, and of bombing raids by the Flying Corps. It was a winter
of consistent rain in the lowlands, with snow on the higher ground,
which made military movements difficult and threw a heavy strain on the
lines of communication.
On the other hand, as General Marshall reports, “by the middle of
December 1917 ... the military position had completely changed owing to
the magnificent successes gained by General Allenby in Palestine,” and
this greatly strengthened his hands. Much, therefore, was accomplished.
Finally, when the weather began to improve with the early spring,
it was decided that another blow must be struck at the Turks on the
left--that is, on the Upper Euphrates. In this quarter they had been
reinforced, and during the months of December and January they began
pushing their patrols down stream from Hit, where the bulk of their
troops were concentrated. General Marshall gave orders that a column
should march on Hit and drive away the Turks, and that it should be
aided in doing so by a Brigade of Cavalry. Hit was occupied on the 9th
of March, and the Turks fell back to a stronger position some miles
up the river. Here again they were attacked, and this time with great
effect. As at Ramadie, in September, the Cavalry succeeded in getting
right round into the Turkish rear and cutting off their retreat. By the
30th of March the Turkish force had been completely beaten, and the
remains of it had fled to a great distance, leaving over five thousand
prisoners in British hands.
The Thirteenth Hussars had no share in what General Marshall calls
“the magnificent work done by the Cavalry Brigade” on this occasion.
After their exertions in the autumn and early winter they were given
a rest, and remained from the middle of December 1917 until April
of the following year at a winter camp on the Tigris forty miles
above Baghdad. There they found plenty to do in training drafts and
remounts and other work of the kind, for the Regiment had suffered
considerable loss in men and horses and equipment; but for about four
months they saw no more fighting or marching, and were able to enjoy a
comparatively quiet time with some sport and amusement.
A few extracts relating to this period are given below.
* * * * *
_Extract from letter from Lieutenant G. R. Pedder, dated 4th December
1917._
“We are very messed about again--right on the right flank, and are at
[? Chai Khanna]. I am very fit. It’s pretty cold at night now on these
stunts, and I shan’t be sorry when we get back to our permanent camp.
“There are lots of geese, duck, and grouse up here; but you get no time
to go out shooting, but get shot at yourself most of the time.
“I expect Jeffrey is well on the way back by now. The daytime is
perfect now, and it is scarcely necessary to wear a topee.”
* * * * *
_From Captain Chrystall._
”_5th December 1917._
“We have been out on operations nearly a week, after a few days’ rest
in camp. As I write this we are on outpost against the Turks in the
hills, and our R.H.A. is shelling their positions, and we are getting
a few in R.S.V.P.! I am feeling very fit now in spite of the cold,
which has been very severe the last two or three nights. We are being
relieved some time this afternoon by another Brigade, and shall be back
into camp and have a little more comfort. Whilst out here, miles away
from Baghdad, a wireless message came for me, making an appointment at
the dentist!--in Baghdad to-day, a thing I had asked for about a week
ago. A great thing war is now; fancy receiving this about 120 miles out
in the blue and whilst in action.”
* * * * *
”_29th December 1917._
“I spent a very happy Xmas, and was able to arrange quite a decent
dinner for the men. We are now in winter quarters, refitting and
training again: it is so nice to have a comfortable tent to sleep in
and on a bed. The weather has been very cold, 12 degrees of frost on 2
days last week, and snow down to the bottom of the foot-hills. The army
is very well done out here now. We had frozen beef and plum-pudding and
even potatoes in rations for Xmas day. We ourselves managed to secure
a real live turkey from a neighbouring village. All you people at home
must be far worse off for food than we are, and your experiences of
air-raids cannot be any too pleasant.
“I have been playing football this afternoon for the Indian ranks of
the squadron, and got a severe kick on the ankle for my pains; it will
lay me up for a day or two.”
* * * * *
_Extract from letter from Lieutenant G. R. Pedder, dated 18th December
1917._
“We have been back here about a fortnight now, and I don’t think
we shall move again till after Xmas, at least I hope so, as it is
frightfully cold at night now, much colder than this time last year;
also, I am riding in the Baghdad Plate on the 27th and the Grand
Handicap, also 7 furlongs, on the 29th, and I am showing ‘Matches’
in the Horse Show on the 30th. There’s absolutely no news whatever.
Moreover, we haven’t got an English mail for over a month now. It must
have been sunk.
‘A’ and ‘D’ have amalgamated messes, and it is much pleasanter than
having a squadron mess.
“Fitzgibbon and Le Patourel have gone into Baghdad for a week, as only
eight officers are allowed to go there for Xmas, and those eight are
all competitors--Hartigan, Keswick, Self, Welstead, Stirling, Ormrod,
Norton, Twist.
“I am riding ‘The Witch’ in two races, the horse my servant rode and
won on during the first meeting. Box (Lieutenant Jeffrey) hasn’t got
back yet.”
* * * * *
_Extract from letter from Lieutenant G. R. Pedder, dated 19th December
1917._
“Here we are back again after what ended up in quite a mild show,
although at first we all thought it was going to be a very murky
business.
“It has turned frightfully cold. This morning I woke up to find a thick
layer of ice on the water in my water-bucket inside the tent. Thank
goodness we are back here in our standing camp, with tents galore and
plenty of clothes and food to help keep out the cold. Personally I like
it, although you have got to wear a thick greatcoat all day.
“The Colonel is down river, sick with an ulcer or something, so Twist
is commanding.
“There is a tremendous show on in Baghdad for Xmas this year. Two days’
racing, 26th and 27th--I am entering two horses for three races,--a
duck shoot, which I shall also attend, or hope to, golf tournament,
cricket, footer, hockey, &c., &c. Of course, if the rain comes it will
all probably be off.”
* * * * *
_Extract from Lance-Corporal Bowie’s Diary._
“Some 12 days later, on the 30th instant, we received sudden orders
to intercept a force of the enemy who were advancing through the
Sakaltutan Pass. After having covered some 60 miles in that direction
we came into contact with the 13th Turkish Army Corps again at about
6 P.M. on the evening of the 2nd December. We immediately
deployed and attacked them, and, after having driven in their outposts,
we succeeded in advancing close up to the mouth of the Pass, where the
Brigade held them until about 12 noon the following day, when we were
relieved by the 6th Cavalry Brigade who had been resting in bivouac
some 10 miles back. Simultaneously with this action our Infantry,
under Lieut.-General Egerton, had advanced up the right bank of the
Diala river and had cleared the whole area south of Qarah Tappah, and
were advancing to attack the Turks at the other end of the Pass. The
following morning we crossed the Shatt-el-Adhaim river and advanced up
the right bank as far as Abu-Ghuraib, where we threatened the Turkish
right flank, after which we returned in the afternoon and relieved the
6th Cavalry Brigade, who were still holding the Pass. This Brigade were
bombed in their bivouac early the next morning by two enemy airmen;
this prevented them from relieving us for some hours. Meanwhile,
General Egerton’s force, co-operating with us, had attacked the enemy
in the rear, inflicting heavy casualties among them. The enemy thus
being attacked at both ends, he succeeded in escaping over the hills
(no small feat in itself), under cover of the night. The Russian force
of Cossacks under Lieut.-Colonel Bicharakoff co-operated with us on the
right flank throughout these operations. The total British captures
were 6 Turkish officers, including a Brigadier Commander, 121 other
ranks, and 2 guns.
“On the morning of the 6th we commenced our march back to Sadiyah,
going into bivouac for the night after doing some 12 miles. The
following morning we sent out patrols to attack and disperse some
small enemy detachments who were reported to be in the vicinity by
our airmen. An exceptionally bad sand-storm raged the whole of this
day, during which we remained in bivouac. On our patrols returning
and reporting all clear, we continued our march for some 25 miles,
bivouacking for the night at Sinajah. Crossing the Tigris early
the following morning, we arrived at our former camp at about 2
P.M. on the 9th instant.
“A few days later we were issued with our winter clothing, and about
this time, too, the enemy airmen became very active, and bombed in turn
Sammara, Akab, Baghdad, and many of our camps in between these places.
They inflicted so many casualties among our troops that elaborate
precautions were taken against surprise attacks. A system of trenches
was connected all round the Cavalry horse lines, which enabled us in
the event of attack to untie our horses from the lines, turn them
about, and take cover ourselves in the trenches whilst holding them.
These precautions undoubtedly saved us from a stampede when the enemy
airmen paid us New Year Day’s visit and bombed us incessantly until
their supplies became exhausted. They then flew merrily away in spite
of all our batteries’ efforts and the 2 Archies, which were dug in down
by the river bank to protect us from these raids.
“Just previous to this raid, towards the end of December, we received
the good news that our Infantry had occupied Khaniquin without
opposition on the 7th December, and also that our troops in Palestine,
under General Allenby, had captured Jerusalem on the same date.
Whilst on January 2nd we received word that our troops had occupied
Qasr-i-Shirin without opposition.
“On January 15th the Fourteenth Hussars left the 6th Cavalry
Brigade which was with us at the time, under the command of General
Dunsterville, to operate in the neighbourhood of Baku, which is
situated on the borders of the Black Sea.
“On the 19th instant the Regiment held some sports, which were the
commencement of a series of sports and games, organised to help break
the monotony of camp life in this country, which so depresses one’s
spirit, especially at this time of the year. On this day some excellent
sports were witnessed, everybody doing their utmost to be left in for
the finals, which were to be held on the 27th instant, whilst in the
evening our Concert Party gave a show which proved a great success.
The following day our football team played the team of the monitor
_Mantis_, which was anchored close to our camp at the time, the result
of the match being 1 goal to _nil_ in our favour. We invited the
whole of the crew to dinner at our camp in the evening, every one
spending a jolly time in consequence.
[Illustration: Capt. G. W. ROSE, R.A.M.C.]
[Illustration: Capt. E. WORDLEY, R.A.M.C.]
[Illustration: Capt. D. M. METHVEN
(21st Lancers)]
[Illustration: Lieut. A. C. J. ELKAN]
[Illustration: Lieut. J. HAMPSON]
“The following day we were again visited by enemy airmen, but our
batteries and Hotchkiss guns opened such a rapid and effective fire
that after vainly trying to bomb us for some time they finally flew off
in disgust, amidst the frantic cheers of the boys who were interested
spectators.
“Soon after this we commenced our sports, in which every event was most
keenly contested, and at the conclusion of the two days the results
were as follows: Individual Tent-Pegging was won by our R.S.M., Mr
Seekins; Skill at Arms by S.Q.M.S. Higgs; the best troop-horse was C98,
ridden by Pte. Shaw; Officers Jumping went to Mr Macdonald; the Section
Tent-Pegging to ‘B’ Squadron. In the dismounted events, the 100 yards
was won by L.-Cpl. Carter in very good time, while the 1½ mile relay
race was won rather easily by the team of ‘C’ Squadron, which included
Sgt. Burgess, Sgt. Moss, L.-Cpl. Carter, L.-Cpl. Smithers, L.-Cpl.
Bush, and Pte. Bowie. The tug-of-war was won by the ‘D’ Squadron team
after an exceptionally fine pull, which concluded the programme. At
about 8 P.M. the same evening our party gave another concert,
this time to the whole Division, being assisted in their efforts by
some of the crew of the monitor. This show proved a great success,
every one thoroughly enjoying a good evening’s entertainment. On
January 26th some Divisional races were held on a course we had made
some 2 miles west of our camp, the ground here being splendidly suited
for our purpose, being as flat as a billiard-table for many miles.
“On January 27th General Dunsterville’s force left Baghdad, the
following officers and N.C.O.’s from our Regiment accompanying the
force: Captain Annett, Lt. Cochrane, Sgt. Vernon, Sgt. Taylor, and Sgt.
Saunders.
“Commencing on February 22nd, a 3-days’ race meeting was held at Akab
by the 17th Infantry Division. The Regiment entered several horses,
only one of which was successful--namely, Captain Blythe’s Army
Pattern; while our Concert Party gave a show there on the nights of the
22nd and 23rd, which were greatly admired by all who witnessed them,
the G.O.C. of that Division sending a letter of congratulation to our
Colonel in having such a talented party. Shortly after this, on the
28th inst., the Cavalry Division held some athletic sports, in which
several of the events were open to all comers. In this the Regiment
secured several prizes--namely, 1st in the 100 yards for officers, Mr
Osmond; the team of ‘C’ Squadron, L.-Cpl. Carter, L.-Cpl. Bush, Pte.
Jones, and Pte. Bowie gaining 2nd prize in the Relay Race. L.-Cpl.
Bush also 2nd in the Obstacle Race, while another 2nd prize was won by
Pte. Bowie in the Open Mile, our tug-of-war team of ‘C’ Squadron being
knocked out in the semi-final after a very game struggle. On March 4th
we turned out a Rugby 15 to play the Australian Wireless Section’s 15,
who had played so far an unbeaten record, and after a most exciting
game the match ending in a draw, neither side being able to score.
“The following day being the anniversary of our charge at Lajj, the
Regiment held a singing competition in the evening. This proved to
be highly amusing, judging by the vociferous cheering which greeted
the competitors’ efforts, the first prize for sentimental songs being
won by Sgt. Burgess, and the first for comic by Pte. Bowie. At the
conclusion of this, our Colonel made a speech in honour of our comrades
who fell in the ‘Charge.’ On reading the names out the Colonel was
almost overcome with emotion, and it was only with difficulty that he
was able to complete.
“About this time we received the news that our forces operating on the
Euphrates river had captured Hit on the 7th inst., and on the night of
the 9th the enemy had evacuated Sahilijah, abandoning 2 mountain guns
and much ammunition.
“On the 14th the 2nd Baghdad Race Meeting was held, also the
semi-finals and finals of football, hockey, polo, golf, and boxing
tournaments were contested during the week. Our football team was
knocked out in the third round by the 25th Machine-gun Squadron, by one
goal to _nil_, after a hard-fought game. The outstanding feature of
this tournament was the match between the Worcesters and the Buffs, the
first game they played being of 60 minutes’ duration; but as neither
side was able to score extra time was allowed, and they played on for
three periods of 20 minutes each, and again neither side was able to
gain the advantage. The match was then postponed until the following
day. On the replay, which lasted with extra time, some 2 hours and 40
minutes with still no score being registered, both teams withdrew
from the tournament. The Regiment ran several horses in the racing,
Lt. Ormrod’s ‘Venus’ again winning the Baghdad Cup. This time she was
ridden by Frank Wootten, the famous jockey, who happened to be in
Baghdad at the time.
“Some little time after this we received the news that our Column,
commanded by Major-General Brooking, operating on the Euphrates
river, had, on the 26th inst., attacked the 50th Turkish Division at
Khan Baghdadi. The Cavalry cutting off the enemy’s retreat along the
Aleppo Road, they surrendered with their Commander, the total captures
being 18 Germans, including 2 officers, 212 Turkish officers, and
5236 Turkish other ranks, 12 guns, 57 machine-guns, 2 German wireless
stations. During the six days’ fighting they pursued the fugitives
of this force to a point some 73 miles north of Awah, destroying in
this village some 300,000 rounds of gun ammunition and some 3¼ million
rounds of rifle ammunition.
“On April 9th some Divisional Races were held on the racecourse near
our camp, and in these several of our horses proved successful, Lt.
Ormrod’s ‘Venus’ winning the ½-mile steeple-chase, and ‘Whiskers’
by the same owner was first past the post in the 6 furlongs, but
on an objection being raised was disqualified later. Mr Welstead’s
‘Nightshade’ with its owner up won the sixth race, while Mr Jones’
‘B3,’ ridden by Sgt. Holloway, won the Novices’ Flat Race.
“On the following day we received the welcome news that leave to India
was granted, and a party consisting of 2 officers and 12 men left the
same day _en route_ for India to enjoy a well-earned 28 days’ furlough.
“A few days later, on April 14th, we commenced an Inter-Football
Tournament. The first game was between ‘B’ and ‘D’ Squadrons; this
resulted in a win for ‘B’ by 2 goals to _nil_. The next match was
between ‘A’ and ‘C’ Squadrons, and this was a win for ‘A’ by 2 goals to
1, while the following day ‘B’ played ‘A.’ This match was very keenly
contested and aroused great excitement, the result, after extra time
had been allowed, being a draw of 1 goal each. Replaying again the
following day, the result this time was a draw of 2 goals, and this
also after extra time.”
CHAPTER XX.
THE SUMMER OF 1918--KULAWAND AND TUZ KERMATLI.
The season of military operations in the country to the north-east of
Baghdad, where the British and Turks now faced each other, may be said
to begin with the month of April, and in that month General Marshall’s
troops were ready to move again.
Before any movements on a large scale began, however, General Marshall
had to deal with two troublesome complications, one on his left and one
on his right.
To the left, in the Mahomedan holy cities of Nejef and Kerbela, beyond
the Euphrates, the British invasion of Mesopotamia had naturally caused
some excitement, and this had been fostered by German intrigues and
gold. The holy cities do not belong to the same branch of Islam as the
Turks, being “Shia,” not “Sunni,” or, as one might say, Protestant,
not Catholic; and having been very carefully treated by the British
they had shown a friendly spirit enough. Still they were Mahomedan,
and contained some fanatical elements. In the month of January British
troops had been attacked near Nejef, and a few weeks later the British
political officer was murdered. Some punishment had to be inflicted for
these offences, and though General Marshall would not attack the sacred
town, it was blockaded and called upon to deliver up the murderers.
Happily the well-behaved inhabitants, under the guidance of their
religious leaders, decided to accept the British terms, and the whole
affair was satisfactorily settled.
[Illustration: S.Q.-M.S. S. B. HAINES, D.C.M.]
[Illustration: R.S.-M. (late Lieutenant) M. CHURCHHOUSE]
[Illustration: Sgt. S. G. STRAWBRIDGE, D.C.M.]
[Illustration: Lieut. W. J. L. NORWOOD]
[Illustration: 2nd Lieut. J. H. LUCAS]
At the same time as this trouble arose to the westward, some Persian
tribes on the east began to respond to the incitement and gold of
German emissaries, and it was found necessary, as General Marshall
says, to “give them a lesson.” But this trouble also proved to be
short-lived. Friendly tribesmen took action against the malcontents,
and with the aid of a small British column completely defeated them.
They lost heavily, “and our aeroplanes turned their defeat into a rout.”
In the meantime, while these complications were being put straight,
General Marshall had worked out his scheme of action against the Turks,
and had decided that they should again be attacked to the north-east
of Baghdad, so as to drive them farther away and make the Persian line
of communication more secure. His intention was to expel them from the
area about Kara Tepe, Kifri, and Tuz Kermatli, which will be found
marked on the sketch-map, p. 201, and to occupy those points, thus
turning and subjugating the troublesome range of Jebel Hamrin.
It was a difficult operation if the Turks fought well, and General
Marshall’s scheme of action was carefully worked out. Several columns
were to move from different points, and it is not easy to follow in
detail the movements of each. It will suffice to say that during the
latter part of April and the earlier part of May 1918, in spite of
mountainous ground and torrents of rain, which caused heavy floods
in the rivers and washed away temporary bridges--in spite too of
some stubborn fighting on the part of the enemy--the whole area was
completely cleared and the country was occupied as far north as Kirkuk,
one hundred and thirty miles from the railhead and considerably
more than that distance from Baghdad. The British losses were very
small--only twenty-six killed and two hundred and ten wounded--while
the Turks lost heavily, over three thousand in prisoners alone.
General Marshall had good reason to be satisfied with this result.
“Owing,” he says, “to the distance covered by these operations, and
to the bad weather which prevailed throughout, the work of the troops
was very arduous, and I have nothing but admiration for the good work
put in by all arms and the excellent co-operation which was maintained
between them.” This co-operation included much continuous work done
by the Cavalry, and on at least two occasions they had the chance of
attacking the enemy as Cavalry, mounted and sword in hand.
On both these occasions the Thirteenth were well to the fore. They
were no longer with their own Brigade, but had temporarily taken the
place of their old comrades of the Fourteenth Hussars in the 6th
Brigade, then commanded by Brigadier-General Holland Pryor. General
Marshall describes the first action in the following words: “The 6th
Cavalry Brigade ... after an arduous night march overtook the Turks
who had ... taken up a defensive position at Kulawand.... Feigning
a frontal attack, whilst gradually working round the enemy’s right
flank, our Cavalry cut the enemy’s lines of retreat and then charged
right through his Infantry, killing some two hundred, including two
battalion commanders, and capturing 565 prisoners, a mountain-gun,
and considerable booty.” This was a fine performance, and brought the
Regiment much credit. It was followed up by some skilful manœuvring
which induced the Turks to hold a position at Tuz Kermatli, where a
day or two later there was another considerable action. Here again the
Cavalry did well, and the Thirteenth got another chance. This time the
actual charge was a smaller affair, confined to a couple of troops
under Lieutenant Macdonald, but it was spirited and successful, the
two troops galloping a nest of machine-guns, and taking a considerable
number of prisoners with little loss to themselves.
On the 7th of May Kirkuk was taken, and the short campaign came to an
end. “Difficulties of supply,” says General Marshall, “due to distance
and state of ground, now made it imperative to stop further pursuit,”
and a few days later most of the British troops were withdrawn to their
summer camps. The Thirteenth returned to their old camp at Chaldari,
near Baghdad, arriving on the 22nd of May, and there they remained
throughout the summer months.
It proved to be an important and anxious time for the Commander of the
Army, as a force under Major-General Dunsterville was sent into Persia,
and eventually crossed the Caspian to Baku, where there was some
severe fighting. There was much work to be done also in Mesopotamia
itself, and so far as the climate permitted, military training went
on steadily, a special feature being the development of schools of
instruction. But owing to the extreme heat the summer was for the bulk
of the troops a period of inactivity, and it was found possible to
send a large number of officers and men on leave to India. They wanted
all the rest they could get, for they still had some hard marching
and fighting before them, and the Thirteenth, in their pleasant camp at
Chaldari, thoroughly enjoyed the respite.
[Illustration: AFTER THE CHARGE AT KULAWAND]
[Illustration: PRISONERS TAKEN AT KULAWAND]
The following extracts refer chiefly to their doings at Kulawand and
Tuz.
_Extracts from narratives by Captain Gowan, enclosed in a letter from
Colonel Richardson, dated 27th July 1918._
”_April 26-27, 1918._--The column moved at midnight and marched till
4.45 A.M., arriving at Tel Sharif at that time. The road was
difficult to find in many places, and in the numerous nullahs which
were crossed the going was deep. When the position had been fixed at
dawn, the column moved forward for 2 miles, and then fed at 6 a.m.
After ½ an hour halt the Regiment with advance-guard of C. and C.
moved to M. 27 Central, and halted till 9 A.M. At that time
the Regiment was ordered to move on the Kulawund position, and with
L.A.M. cars and Lewis guns and Ford vans turn it from the W. end by
enfilade fire. Some difficulty was found in locating the position,
and it was not till 11.30 that it was reached and found unoccupied.
The L.A.M. cars and Fords had been unable to get forward owing to
water-logged country and nullahs. A number of Turks with some tents
were seen to be in position on the Tuz-Kifri road, close to the hills,
and their numbers were estimated by an aeroplane at 250. By 12 noon
the G.O.C. Brigade had moved forward, and arrangements were made for a
simultaneous attack by the 3 Regiments. At about 12.20 a move forward
was made, the Brigade advancing in line of column of wings, in the
order 22nd, 21st, 13th from the right. I understand that both Indian
Cavalry Regiments advanced in line whilst we were in column of wings:
I am not sure whether the 22nd had all four squadrons or only two. The
Regiment had ‘C’ and ‘D’ Squadrons in front line under Captain Godfree,
‘B’ and half ‘A’ in the second, at about 200 yards’ distance, the
remaining troop of ‘A’ being left as guard to our left flank, dressing
station, &c., and the H.G. guns being sent to the flanks. The leading
wing on nearing the road shouldered to the right and were in a position
to co-operate with the 21st Cav. when Captain Godfree received orders
from the Brigade to take no further part in the attack, but to join
the Headquarters near Kulawund village. While he did this the 2nd
Wing, leaving a troop of ‘A’ as escort to the Regimental Aid Post,
moved to the Kifri-Tuz road and scattered along it to the left or Tuz
direction, and succeeded in collecting about 50 prisoners. Two or three
machine-guns were in action against us until we were within 300 yards
of the road, and were replied to by the H.G. troop of ‘D’ Squadron from
our left flank. A number of the enemy succeeded in getting away into
the ridge of hills E. of the road where Cavalry could not pursue, and
after despatching the prisoners to Brigade H.Q. the wing rallied and
moved to a mound at the edge of the Kulawund position. From captured
officers’ statements it was clear that this Cavalry attack took the
enemy entirely by surprise. The enemy troops engaged consisted of the
5th Regiment, which had received orders on the evening of the 26th to
withdraw from Tuz. Expecting only an Infantry attack, on the following
morning they evacuated their positions without undue haste, and after
halting several hours ... were on their way to Tuz on the 27th, when
they were overtaken.
“_April 29._--We drew back and circled to the W. behind the battery,
and were ordered to get touch with the 21st and 22nd Cav. and then
attempt to get across the Tuz-Tan road to stop the enemy’s retreat.
Moving W., it was found that the 22nd and 21st were held up by a nest
of M. guns on a small knoll. At the time of our arrival these were not
directed on us, and appeared to have left their position. Two troops of
‘B’ were accordingly pushed forward, and led off so as to leave this
knoll on their right. After a short distance they came under M.G. fire,
and 2nd Lt. MacDonald wheeled the two troops to the right, thus putting
his own troop in front and that of Sgt. Brencher in rear. He galloped
the hill and took it--the enemy, except two, escaping being sabred by
putting their hands up when the men were on them. This action opened
the way across the plain, and the three Regiments, 21st, 13th, 22nd
from the right, moved across, meeting small bodies of the enemy, and
killing or taking them prisoners.”
_Letter from Colonel Richardson to Sir R. S. Baden-Powell._
“7TH CAVALRY BRIGADE, M.E.F.,
IN THE FIELD, _1st May 1918_.
”MY DEAR GENERAL,--Your note with enclosures regarding
Regimental Monuments and Gravestones reached me only a few days ago,
when we were already on the trek of our present stunt....
“I am sorry to say I quite forget the contents of my letter to Symons
to which you refer, but I imagine it dealt with our part in the battle
of Tekrit; since that time we have been almost continuously in one
camp, on the Tigris, about 40 miles above Baghdad, and although for
more than four months we did not have a shot fired in anger we were
far from idle--_i.e._, when the wet weather made it possible to be
otherwise. Not only were we able to put in a lot of much-needed--on
account of the numerous officers and other reinforcements during the
past six months--instruction in equitation and elementary and secondary
drill and training, but we were able to have games and sports--both
mounted and dismounted--for the men, and polo for the officers; we also
had the opportunity of getting fitter than at any time since we have
been in this country, and I doubt very much whether men or horses have
ever been fitter physically than when we started out, ten days ago, for
this stunt. Only one Brigade of Cavalry is being utilised, and it is
not the one to which we properly belong, but we are taking the place
of the 14th, who are scattered about on an independent mission. Our
march to the rendezvous was not propitious, as we were dogged by heavy
rain and thunder, which made life on operation scale, without tents, a
delusion and a snare for four days, but we got through with only one
case of pneumonia. Once we got started on this stunt--the object of
which has been to clear the whole of our northeasterly front of the
enemy--we began to get into a country of magnificent crops and glorious
grazing, in which the horses have been revelling, and growing visibly
bigger. The operations themselves have partaken more of the nature of
South African drives, and Johnny Turk was, I think, caught napping
by the largeness of the scale of the operations, and he has been so
badly fed lately that he could not travel sufficiently quickly to
escape us; however, he put up, as he always does, a jolly good fight
when cornered, and as we were unable to close the fourth side to the
square--_i.e._, on the north, where a steep ledge of rock, backed by
hilly country, discounted our mobility--a good few got away. However,
we have accounted for nearly 2000 prisoners, ten large and very many
machine guns, and our casualties have been less than 250 (in the whole
force), so I suppose we may reckon the operations as having been fairly
successful. Of course, from the nature of things, the principal rôle
fell to the Cavalry, and even the Pan-Infantry men were fain to admit
that we have done it well. On the first day we came into touch with
the enemy--mostly troops retiring from outside positions, from which
they had been driven by the Infantry; but, covered by the garrison and
guns of the aforesaid rocky ledge, the three Regiments of the Brigade
galloped in two lines of wings over about 1½ miles of country towards
the ledge, and swung right-handed along the foot of it, the net result
being about 600 prisoners and several machine-guns. The next day there
was a pause, as the main position, which was pretty well served by big
guns, still remained, and we could not hope to take it without the help
of the Infantry; but next morning the latter came through our outposts,
and we concentrated on the left flank and began the advance, which I
may fairly claim the Regiment initiated, which put the finishing touch
to the operations. A good few of the enemy no doubt escaped through the
hill country, and perhaps he got a gun or two away, but certainly a
thousand prisoners and ten guns fell into our hands.
[Illustration: Capt. D. W. GODFREE, M.C.
(21st Lancers)]
[Illustration: Lieut. H. MACDONALD, M.C.
(_Murdered 14th July 1919 at Amadia by Kurdish gendarmes_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. C. A. G. MCLAGAN
(_Wounded at Tus Kermatli, 21st April 1918_)]
[Illustration: Capt. B. W. D. COCHRANE]
[Illustration: Sergt. W. MATTHEWS, M.M.
(_Killed at Tus Kermatli, 28th April 1918_)]
[Illustration: Lieut. L. OSMOND]
“When I claim that the Regiment initiated the final advance, I must
explain the situation in more detail: over night 2 squadrons were
on outpost duty on the left bank of the river, and two troops of a
third squadron were away with the first batch of 500 prisoners; the
balance of the Regiment with which I was, was on the right of the
Cavalry Brigade, advancing up the right bank of the river; we were
held up at dusk by the enemy in an entrenched position, and remained
where we stood all night; soon after daybreak the Infantry took over
our line, and the Brigadier sent me off to the left flank to try
and get across the path of the retiring enemy. I found that the two
Regiments of Indian Cavalry had been trying to advance with the
same object for a couple of hours, but were held up by small parties
of enemy entrenched on knolls and well supplied with machine-guns. I
determined to advance, and put one of my few remaining sabre troops
into the scouting line under MacDonald, a lad who only joined us 6 or
8 months ago. When we got about 800 yards from the nearest knoll he
met very heavy machine-gun fire, but as it was apparently directed
against his left flank, he at once gathered his troops to the right,
and following a circular path he galloped the hill, taking the gunners
in flank and reverse, and in less than five minutes had the whole
party of Turks killed or marching as prisoners to the rear, and 4
machine-guns captured. He had only one man badly wounded. It was, I
think, without exception the quickest and prettiest--not to say the
most successful--small piece of work it has been my fortune to witness.
This little episode put great heart into the Indians, and thereafter it
was almost a race for the foot-hills; all opposition went like a house
of cards, and it was only a question of mopping up. I, on behalf of the
Regiment and MacDonald, have received congratulations on all sides,
and the Brigade and Divisional Commanders have promised to support my
recommendation for immediate rewards, so I hope MacDonald and his troop
may get the honours they have earned so well.
“With the exception of Twist and of my Adjutant Gowan, I have no other
officers with pre-war training and experience, but we have been most
exceptionally lucky in our temporary officers; for this, I think,
I have to thank Ronnie Brook chiefly, and he would, I am sure, be
interested to see the account of the operations, should you have it
copied.--With all good wishes, yours sincerely,
(Signed)
J. J. RICHARDSON.
“_P.S._--The following coincidence of special interest has come
to light. Among material captured by MacDonald on the knoll was a
signaller’s telescope, which he gave to his signaller, Sgt. Burgess.
The latter at once recognised it as the one he himself lost at Lajj on
March 5th last year, when his horse was shot and he had to abandon his
gun.”
_Letter from Colonel Richardson, dated 7th Cavalry Brigade, M.E.F., 3rd
May 1918._
“For the last fortnight we have been operating with the other Brigade
in place of Col. Bridge’s Regiment, which is engaged on an independent
mission....
“The Regiment has seen some smart fighting, including two charges, in
the past week, and the outstanding feature of the operations, which
has been very successful, and of which I am sending an account to B.P.
[Sir Robert Baden-Powell], has been a gallant and brilliant charge by a
troop of the 13th under MacDonald, a Scotch lad who joined us about 6
months ago.
“It is a matter of greatest pride, mingled with pleasant surprise to
me, how they continue to roll up with these first-rate performances,
once the opportunity presents itself, and I only hope I may never let
them down.”
_Extract from letter from Colonel Richardson, dated 7th Cavalry
Brigade, M.E.F., 25th May 1918._
“After writing to you on the third of this month we continued our drive
northwards for a matter of about 60 miles, the Turks pursuing their
usual tactics--_i.e._, holding us up at strong positions with their
big guns until dark enabled them to get away their valuable papers and
other important stuff. In this way we made them evacuate the country as
far north as Altum Kupri.
“I do not hesitate to give names now, as I see Reuter has published the
message from Candler, the correspondent, in almost the identical words
that I gave him--he was messing with us during that period--which is
within striking distance, not more than 70 miles, of Mosul, the big
Turkish base.
“Owing to the difficulties of transport we had been on half rations,
but we got most glorious grazing for the horses in most places, so they
did not suffer much until we struck the Jebel Hamrin with its brackish
water and no grazing. Right up there the climate was really good, and
we could work all day, though, of course, it was hottish, and on one or
two nights we got wet through, for, of course, we had no tents. But in
this case also, as soon as we struck the Jebel Hamrin on our return,
the sun became very powerful and the sand-flies very bad.
[Illustration: TUZ KHARMATLI, 29TH APRIL 1918]
“However, the operations were very interesting, although the Regiment
had no opportunity of doing more than ordinary work, because Johnny
Turk declined to come to grips; but as the Brigade put it: ‘You did
just what I wanted you to, I could not ask you to do more,’ I don’t
think we had any cause to grumble....
“When I wrote you from Mendali, in October, that we were short of
food, I referred only to mess stores and extras; rations have always
been good, especially when we were within measurable distance of the
railway, when we got most excellent frozen beef. Indeed, I expect we
are being much better fed than you poor people.”
_Extract from Lance-Corporal Bowie’s Diary._
[Illustration: LT.-COL. J. J. RICHARDSON, D.S.O., AFTER A HARD DAY AT
TUZ]
[Illustration: MACHINE GUNS CAPTURED BY THE REGIMENT AT TUZ]
“Fate decreed that we were not to finish this tournament, as on the
following morning we were ordered out to take part in operations
again. This was the 18th of April, and we had to leave camp some few
hours later than ordered; owing to the extremely bad weather and the
high floods having broken the pontoon bridge over the river, it was
impossible to cross the Tigris till midday. Heavy rain continued to
fall throughout the day, which made the going very difficult, and we
finally arrived at Baqubah at about 8 P.M., where we picketed
down for the night. Our transport arrived in at 9.15 P.M.
Every one being so thoroughly wet through, and the weather being so
bitterly cold, a rum issue was ordered, after which we were fortunately
able to obtain shelter for the night in a rest-camp near by. Owing
to the heavy rains which had fallen the column did not march for
Abu-Jisrah until 10.30 A.M. the following morning, and after
some very heavy going we made that place at about 3.30 P.M.
Our transport experienced great difficulty in getting along, and did
not arrive until some two hours later. The heavy rains continued
throughout the night. The following morning, April 20th, it was found
impossible to move in consequence of the exceedingly heavy rains,
which continued till 2 P.M., and made the ground a perfect
quagmire, and absolutely impossible for wheels, the men during these
two days having a most uncomfortable time owing to the impossibility
of erecting any sort of shelter. An incident worthy of note here
was an impromptu football match, played amid a perfect sea of mud,
in which the ball not infrequently became imbedded, whilst the rain
poured down in torrents. All this, however, did not deter the players,
who, after a most strenuous game, did obtain some little warmth from
this exercise. At 11.30 A.M. on the morning of the 21st
instant we continued our march to Sharaban, where we arrived about 4
P.M. Here we joined up with the 6th Cavalry Brigade, who were
in bivouac there. During the next two days we remained in bivouac,
whilst we endeavoured to free ourselves of some of the mud with which
every one was plastered, grazing our horses meanwhile. Here also our
squadrons were arranged to conform with the formation of the 6th
Brigade; each squadron was to consist of three sabre troops and one
Hotchkiss-gun troop. On the morning of April 24th the Regiment paraded
at 9.30 A.M., but owing to heavy rain falling again we did
not move off until 11 A.M., when we marched at the head of
the Brigade crossing the Cutthroat and Auction Bridges; we halted
at Ruz for a short time, and marching on again we crossed the Table
Mountain Bridge over the Diala river at 1.30 P.M. Here we
watered and fed our horses, afterwards moving off again with the 22nd
Native Cavalry, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Young. We marched on to
Abu-Haiar, arriving there about 5.30 P.M., and bivouacking
for the night. The following morning at 11 A.M. we marched
to Ain-Lailah, which we reached at 3.30 P.M. We bivouacked
that night about 1½ miles south of the Pass. The Column commenced
marching through the Pass at 3 A.M. the following morning,
but the Regiment being Rear Guard did not march through till 7.30
A.M., and then proceeding on to the Nahrin river, where we
watered and fed our horses. Resuming our march till 11 A.M.,
we joined the remainder of the Column, who were in bivouac at 12.15
P.M. Here one troop proceeded to reconnoitre the road over
which we were to make a night march the same night, after which they
returned to bivouac at dusk. Marching again at midnight, the Column
proceeded to Tel-Sharia, arriving at about 4.45 A.M. The road
was very difficult to find in many places, and the nullahs which we
had to cross were very deep, many being almost full of water, owing
to the recent heavy rains. After our patrols had located the enemy
at dawn the Column moved forward some 2 miles and halted till 6.30
A.M., when the Regiment was ordered to advance another mile
and halt. At 9 A.M. we received the order to advance on to
the Kulawand position: accompanied by our armoured cars and some Lewis
guns mounted on Ford cars, we proceeded to attack it at the west end.
We experienced great difficulty in gaining the position, not through an
enemy resistance, which strangely enough was not offered, but through
the water-logged condition of the country and the very deep nullahs,
and owing to this our armoured cars and Ford cars were unable to
continue the advance. On us eventually gaining the position we found
it to be unoccupied. The enemy, having retired during the night, were
located by our airmen a little later, who reported them to be holding
a position on the Tuz-Kifri road, close up to the foot of the hills.
Although we had no support within 20 miles of us, it was decided to
attack them at once. Having worked our way up to some large Moards [?
mounds] some 1¾ miles from their main position, we took cover here to
give [? save] our horses. Some few minutes later we drew our swords
and trotted into the plain where the 10 squadrons were formed into an
extended line in the formation of a scythe. As we rode on at this pace
parties of the Turks started running down the road, while other groups
took up positions in the rough ground and water-cuts, or kneeling in
the high corn opened fire on us. Here the Turks showed some of their
old spirit in the stand they made, but the sudden flash of our swords
in the sun which made a wide arc of light seemed to take the heart out
of them, and their fire was wild and high, and our casualties few. Our
artillery kept up a creeping barrage on the village as we attacked,
and our line maintaining this pace until within some 500 yards of the
enemy, when we lowered our swords and charged into them. Our aeroplanes
which took part in the action flew very low and increased the enemy’s
confusion with bombs and machine-gun fire. Over 150 Turks were killed
and 538 prisoners were taken, also 2 mountain-guns, very few of them
escaping in the hills. Meanwhile Kifri-ain-Faris and Chanan-Keurri
had been occupied by our other columns without opposition, and our
movements were so rapid that 2 battalions of the enemy had to take
to the hills in order to escape the net we were spreading for them.
We afterwards heard that this force had been robbed and disarmed by
the Kurds, who never lose an opportunity of revenging themselves
on the Turk, and even those who escaped us in the Kulawand charge
returned and surrendered to us rather than face these tribesmen.
After sending back our prisoners we moved forward to reconnoitre
Tuz, and we soon came under some very heavy accurate gun-fire until
about 4 P.M., when orders were received to withdraw. We then
moved back some ten miles and bivouacked behind our line of outposts
for the night. At 6 A.M. the following morning ‘A’ and ‘D’
Squadrons were sent to reconnoitre Tuz, the Brigade following some
half an hour later, while the 21st Cavalry were despatched to find a
ford over the river Aqsu at Khasradalah. ‘A’ and ‘D’ Squadrons soon
came under fire from Tuz and suffered some casualties. Meanwhile the
remainder moved on to Khasradalah in an endeavour to surround Tuz,
but were held up by enemy machine-guns in position on the banks of
the Aqsu river; and the armoured cars being unable to advance along
the Kifri-Tuz road, no farther advance was possible. We halted here
for the night after having crossed the river, while ‘C’ Squadron and
a section of the Machine-Gun Squadron were thrown forward on each
side of the track; ‘B’ Squadron, having all the horses, were some
1500 yards in rear down by the river. Intermittent firing was carried
on throughout the night. At 4.30 A.M. we stood to arms and
saddled up, receiving word that our 2 Infantry columns would advance
at dawn, one column advancing up the right bank of the river, and
the other up the left bank, the latter with the object of taking the
Heights of the Naffdach, east of Tuz. The enemy had been reinforced
during the night by a battalion from Tauq, and was holding a front of
7 miles, stretching from Yanhah-Buyuk to Tuz-Khurmatli, and at Tuz
they held a position covering the road and extending over the hills.
At daybreak the Hotchkiss-gun troop of ‘C’ Squadron opened fire from
the trenches on the right bank of the river, and soon came under some
pretty accurate shell-fire. Shortly after this B Battery, of the 66th
Brigade R.F.A., galloped up beside them and opened up a heavy fire on
the enemy’s position at about 6 A.M., the Infantry having
deployed for the 2 main attacks on Tanijah from the south-west, and on
Tuz from the south. We were ordered to withdraw and make a detour to
the west. We circled behind the battery to join up with the 21st and
22nd Cavalry and get across the Tuz-Tauq road to cut off the Turks,
who were already falling back before our Infantry, who were advancing
with steadiness under machine-gun and artillery fire, right up to the
guns which were in action until they were within two hundred yards of
them. Meanwhile we were held up for a time by a nest of machine-guns
some 1200 yards away on a small knoll. Two troops of the ‘B’ Squadron,
under Lt. MacDonald, were ordered out as a scout line. They led off to
the left of the knoll, and having got in line with it, wheeled sharply
to the right and charged the position in the rear and the flank, all
the enemy except two throwing up their hands to escape being cut down.
The taking of this knoll opened the way across the plain, and we
continued to advance, charging bodies of Turks here and there, either
killing them or taking them prisoners. The largest body we found was
between the Tauq road and the hills, and these put up some resistance
for a time until charged from two sides by us and the 22nd Cavalry,
the 21st Cavalry having wheeled towards Tuz to deal with other bodies,
who at that time were shelling ‘A’ and ‘D’ Squadrons, commanded by
Captain Godfree. A number of the enemy made their way over the hills
and were harassed by our fire. Soon after this the fire of the enemy
died away, and by 9.30 A.M. all opposition had collapsed, the
whole position having fallen to us inside 4 hours with a very slight
loss. 1200 prisoners were taken, 25 machine-guns, and 12 field-guns
that were in the position. The action having passed, we rested for some
time where we were, and on ‘A’ and ‘D’ Squadrons rejoining us in the
afternoon we went into bivouac opposite Tuz at about 3 P.M.
We remained in bivouac here for five days, during which we rested and
grazed our horses. Whilst here, our Brigade Commander received the
following wire from General Egerton: ‘Many congratulations to troops.
Please convey my thanks to General Caley and General Hollen-Prior for
their good work, and that of their officers and men. Cavalry charge
must have been magnificent. Please accept my repeated appreciation of
the performances of all ranks under your command.’ On the 5th May we
moved off at the head of the Brigade at 8 A.M., and after
crossing the bridge of the Tauq-Chai at about 5 P.M., we
bivouacked for the night some 2 miles north-west of it. We moved off
again at 8.30 A.M. the following morning in the direction of
Taza, when shortly after our aeroplanes reported that the enemy had
evacuated their position there. On receiving this information we were
ordered to advance to catch the retreating enemy at the village of
Taza-Kharatli. On arriving here at 11.30 A.M., after crossing
the Oazah Chia on the Kirkuk road, we found the village unoccupied.
Making a short halt here we moved off again at 1.45 P.M.,
marching on to Kirkuk. The armoured cars, after having been towed
through the river, had preceded us along the Kirkuk road. At about 3.39
P.M., nearing Balban, we came under some shell-fire at long
range, this we avoided by making a detour to the east. After sending
out patrols, who were met by a very heavy fire, we galloped forward
and dismounted for action against the enemy holding the trenches just
outside Kirkuk. Finding the enemy so strongly entrenched, we were
unable to advance, but hotly engaged them until dusk, when we were
ordered to withdraw and form an outpost line about 3 miles from the
town. This we did about 7 P.M., when a heavy storm broke
out and very heavy rains continued to fall throughout the night,
which, combined with the intense cold, made rest for us that night an
impossibility. (The following names appeared on the Order for the day
for gallantry in action: Capt. J. A. Jeffrey, Capt. A. M. Sassoon, Lt.
J. J. Crystall, and R.S.M. Seekins, all being awarded the M.C.) Our
outpost line was formed near Balban, on a track running east and west.
The night was fairly quiet, except for several loud explosions which
occurred in and near Kirkuk. The morning found the ground more or less
a quagmire, and at 6.30 A.M. we received orders to advance on
the town. ‘A’ Squadron moved off at 8 A.M., followed by the
Regiment and the 21st Cavalry some half an hour later. No resistance
was encountered, and at 10.30 A.M. the Regiment entered the
town, ‘C’ and ‘D’ Squadrons, under Capt. Godfree, moving on to the
high ground covering the north of the town. Several large hospitals
were found here, one containing 358 patients, the population being
in a starved condition. There were also several corpses of Turkish
soldiers horribly mutilated. This was said to have been done by Arabs
to avenge the raping of their women-folk. The whole place was in a
filthy condition. At 3 P.M. the Column moved out of Kirkuk and
bivouacked near Taziyan, some 3 miles down the Taza road, a heavy storm
breaking over us just as we were pegging down our horses. Meanwhile ‘C’
and ‘D’ Squadrons were sent forward to some hills some 4 miles north of
the town to harass the retreating enemy, and to protect our own main
body from attack. These two squadrons, after successfully hastening the
enemy’s retreat, reconnoitred the road to Yarvali, rejoining the Column
in bivouac about 5 P.M., bringing with them 2 prisoners.
The Column remained in bivouac the following day, and at 12.30
A.M. we received orders to send 2 squadrons to reconnoitre the
northern road to Alton-Kupri as far as Sakizli, ‘B’ and ‘D’ Squadrons
doing this commanded by Capt. Godfree. They were also accompanied by a
Company of the R.E.’s for the purpose of destroying enemy shell-dumps
which were known to be in the vicinity. Two such dumps were located
and destroyed near the village of Daraman, and at Sakizli 7 large
motor-lorries with engines destroyed were found. These contained 2
mountain-guns, 2 machine-guns, and a large quantity of shell ammunition
of various sizes. At 5 P.M. orders were received by heliograph
to proceed to Yarvali and search it for any documents the enemy may
have left. Arriving there about 8 P.M., we discovered a number
of documents, and also several aeroplane engines and drums of petrol,
and a quantity of shell ammunition. It being necessary to destroy this
material, the wing returned and bivouacked at 11 P.M. The
Column rested, and we grazed our horses all the following day, and at
6 A.M. on the 10th May we marched on Alton-Kupri with the
intention of driving the enemy over the Lesser Zab river and destroying
the bridge there. We were preceded by 2 of our armoured cars, who
at about 11.15 A.M. were held up by the enemy, who were in
position on Guk-Tappah Hill, while the road was shelled by the enemy’s
batteries in Alton-Kupri. The armoured cars succeeded in driving the
enemy from Guk-Tappah, but were quite unable to advance farther owing
to a deep canal which cut the road at this point. After observations
had been made from Guk-Tappah, the Regiment received orders to make
an encircling movement to the right, whilst the 21st Cavalry did the
same to the left. The 22nd Cavalry advancing in the centre succeeded,
by covered approaches, in getting within 2 miles of the village
which was on the farther side of the river. The Regiment experienced
considerable difficulty in advancing, owing to a considerable number of
very deep nullahs, which were full of water at the time. The village
was hidden from view by the high ground on this side of the river.
We advanced by wings ‘A’ and ‘B’ leading in extended order. After
advancing about 1 mile we were heavily shelled by mountain-guns, 14
pounders and 4.53, and considerable rifle and machine-gun fire was
opened on us by enemy Infantry who were holding a series of trenches
and rifle-pits on this side of the river. The Regiment immediately
dismounted for action. The Hotchkiss-gun troop of ‘A’ Squadron moving
forward opened a very effective fire which was well supported by our
batteries. This proved too much for the enemy, who retired to their
second line of defence. On this side the Hotchkiss-gun troop of ‘D’
Squadron advanced about 1000 yards with ‘C’ Hotchkiss-gun troop in
support. Meanwhile ‘B’ Squadron were endeavouring to get down to the
river bank, but were unsuccessful owing to the heavy rains and accurate
firing of the enemy’s batteries who were dug in on the opposite bank.
We continued to engage the enemy until about 6 P.M., when
orders were received to withdraw to Daraman. During our retirement the
enemy shelled us with increased violence, and we sustained several
casualties, but luckily the number was small in comparison with the
terrific fire we were subjected to. One troop of ‘A’ Squadron was
left near Guk-Tappah as escort to our casualties, whilst we continued
our march back till 10.45 P.M., when we bivouacked for the
night. Orders were received the next morning to return to Kirkuk. We
did not move off until 2 P.M., and arrived at our previous
bivouac near Kirkuk at about 6 P.M. The following morning a
strong patrol left bivouac at 7 A.M. to reconnoitre a vast
stretch of unexplored country between Taza and Telabw-Shahanah, whilst
the remainder of the Regiment, moving off some half an hour later
marched to Taza, some 9 miles distant, where they went into bivouac.
It was whilst here that a small, but nevertheless fierce, caste riot
broke out among the Indians who had the handling of our transport.
This necessitated the whole of the Regiment having to turn out fully
armed before it could be quelled. At 5.30 A.M. the following
morning, 13th May, the Regiment commenced to march to Cemetery, where
we were to join the 7th Cavalry Brigade again. To reach the above place
we now had to cross some hitherto unexplored country, and so far not
having received any reports from our patrol which had left us the
previous day to reconnoitre this part of the country, we had to proceed
with caution. Halting at about 10 A.M. to water and feed
our horses, we moved off again at 11.30 A.M. Meanwhile our
patrols had completed their reconnaissance, and got into communication
with us by helio, sending us a message to the effect that an enemy
column were rapidly disappearing into the hills. The Regiment not
being strong enough to intercept them, the patrol was recalled and we
continued our march, arriving at Cemetery, and joined the 7th Cavalry
Brigade at 8 P.M., after marching some 50 miles. Resting till
4 P.M. the following afternoon, we moved through the Pass to
Ain Nakhailah, some 4 miles distant, bivouacking about 1 mile south of
the salt springs there. The following morning we continued our march
on to Daur, which was some 20 miles over a waterless desert. This
proved a very trying time for us, the little water which we were able
to obtain before leaving the springs being very brackish and salty,
which, combined with the intense [heat?], produced a thirst which was
well-nigh unendurable. These arduous marches, coming on the top of our
very recent hard fighting, tested our endurance to the utmost, several
of our men falling out of their saddles from sheer weakness from want
of food and rest. The sight of the river Tigris had a noticeable and
stimulating effect on both man and horse, and on reaching the river
both were jostling each other in their frantic efforts to quench their
burning thirst. On bivouacking here many of us took the opportunity
of having a much-needed dip in the river. Our way now lay alongside
the river, and owing to the condition of both men and horses, it was
decided to finish our march by easy stages. Accordingly, at 4.30
A.M. the following morning we trekked to Samarah, a distance
of 12 miles, and bivouacked some 2 miles north of the town. Moving off
at the same time the following morning to avoid the intense noonday
heat, we marched a farther 13 miles and bivouacked at Khan Mifraji at
10.30 A.M. We trekked on to Akab, a distance of 15 miles, the
following morning, crossing the pontoon bridge over the river Adhaim,
and bivouacked about a mile distant on the other side. The morning
after this, commencing at 5 A.M., we did another 17 miles on
to Ktuwair, and went into bivouac there at about 12 noon. From here we
moved off at 4.30 A.M. and marched to Baqubah, another 16
miles distant, where we arrived at about 11.30 A.M. Trekking a
farther 12 miles the following day, we bivouacked at Conningham’s Post
at 10.30 A.M.; the following day, the 22nd May, we again moved
off at 4.30 A.M., and covered the remaining 16 miles to our
summer camp at Chaldari, where we arrived at about 11 A.M.,
our strength on marching in being 19 officers, 315 other ranks, and
445 horses. On the morrow the following was published in Regimental
Orders: ‘The Commanding Officer wishes to take the opportunity of
expressing his keen appreciation of the conduct of all ranks during the
recent operations on the north-eastern front which have so successfully
attained their object. During the course of these operations the
Regiment has encountered, apart from the enemy, many hardships and
difficulties, and it is the cheery spirit in which these hardships have
been met, and the constant courage with which these difficulties have
been overcome, that have elicited once more the Commanding Officer’s
admiration and pride.’
[Illustration: GUNS CAPTURED AT TUZ]
[Illustration: THE BRIDGE AT MOSUL AND “THE BAGHDAD”]
“The same day the General ordered that our horses were to have
three weeks’ rest. On the 25th May the following extract from a
letter to our Commanding Officer, Lt.-Col. J. J. Richardson, from
our Colonel-in-Chief, Lt.-General Sir R. S. S. Baden-Powell: ‘I was
delighted to see so many of the Regiment mentioned in despatches
the other day, and I want to offer my best congratulations and good
wishes to Twist, Steele, Barrett, Gowan, and Williams, and also to the
N.C.O.’s and men who gained distinction. It is a great delight to us
all at home to know that the Regiment has done so well.’
“The following extract also appeared in the same orders. Extract from
Order of the Day, No. 105, dated 18/5/18: ‘Awarded the M.C. Lt. H.
MacDonald. Awarded the M.M. Sgt. J. Cunningham, L.-Cpl. Kitcher, and
Pte. Owen.’ Two days later after this we received the news that Pte.
Owen had died from his wounds.”
CHAPTER XXI.
THE AUTUMN OF 1918--LAST BATTLE WITH THE TURKS--CLOSE OF THE WAR IN
MESOPOTAMIA.
The summer of 1918 having come to an end, the British army in
Mesopotamia prepared for another advance.
The general aspect of the Great War had by that time undergone a
sudden and promising change, for the Germans had failed in their
fierce offensive against the Allies on the Western Front, Austria had
shattered herself against their lines in Northern Italy, and Bulgaria
was firmly held by the Salonika force, while in Asia the exhaustion
of the Turks was now very evident. They had completely failed to stop
General Allenby’s victorious advance in Palestine and Syria, and
were hastily withdrawing troops from the Persian frontier and the
Caucasus. In Mesopotamia they were still trying to show a bold front,
but it seemed clear that they were no longer in strength sufficient
to withstand a determined attack by the large and eager British army
opposed to them.
“This, then,” says General Marshall, “seemed the moment to take the
offensive against the Turkish 6th Army, covering the approaches to
Mosul, and it was with great pleasure that on the 7th October I
received orders to carry out this movement.”
The main body of the enemy’s troops, now reduced from long fighting
and other causes to about 9000 men with 59 guns, held a formidable
position astride the Tigris, at the Fatha Gorge--some thirty-five miles
above the British railhead at Tekrit. The position had been thoroughly
prepared for defence during the past eighteen months, and was of great
natural strength. The Turkish right flank rested securely on two
ranges of rugged hills which projected into the waterless desert,
and therefore could not be turned by slow-moving Infantry. Their left
extended for about five miles along the crest of the Jebel Hamrin, and
was strongly entrenched.
[Illustration: _APPROXIMATE SKETCH OF RICHARDSONS BLUFF POSITION_]
To attack such a position by direct advance up the Tigris was a
difficult matter, and General Marshall would have preferred to move his
main force by way of Kirkuk in the north-east, but this was impossible.
A large part of his transport had been taken away by the operations
in Northern Persia and the necessity for collecting the harvest, so
that there was not enough to subsist a large body of troops at such
a distance from the railway. The only available route for the main
force, therefore, was the line of the Tigris, by which supplies could
be pushed up, and this was perforce the one selected. Even so there was
only transport enough to make mobile his Cavalry and half his Infantry.
[Illustration: LT.-COL. T. T. RICHARDSON, D.S.O. SEPTEMBER 1918]
The plan adopted was to work up the eastern bank of the river and turn
or force the enemy’s left. If that could be done, the intention
was to cut his line of retreat on Mosul by means of Cavalry working
round his left, and light-armoured motor-cars moving round his right
through the desert. A small column was sent up towards Kirkuk under
Brigadier-General Lewin to keep off any attack upon the British right.
But the reduction of the Turkish position proved to be an easier task
than any one had expected. On the night of the 23rd October, when
all was ready for the general attack on the Fatha Gorge, a British
column pushed along the crest of the Jebel Hamrin against the enemy’s
left, while the 7th Cavalry Brigade, to which the Thirteenth had now
returned, moved round the north of the range. “The vigorous action
of these two columns,” says General Marshall, “caused the Turks to
abandon the very strong Fatha position before daylight,” and to retreat
up-stream.
Then followed some days of manœuvring and fighting, the Infantry
pressing steadily upon the retreating Turks in spite of great
difficulties, for the enemy had destroyed the road through the hills on
both banks of the river, and a Brigade of Cavalry under General Cassels
trying to work round into the enemy’s rear. In this attempt the Cavalry
were successful. Moving wide of the Tigris, they rode right round the
enemy’s left, and on the 26th October, coming back to the river, they
struck a ford opposite Hadraniya, fifteen miles above Shergat, the
point where the Turks intended to make their real stand. This movement
was masked by the other Brigade, the 7th, under Brigadier-General
Norton, who demonstrated on the line of the Tigris.
The Hadraniya ford was a bad one, for it crossed three channels of the
river, one of which was nearly five feet deep, with a strong current;
but Cassels got his regiments over, and, directly he had done so, sent
one of them at a gallop to seize an important gorge five miles down
stream, between him and the Turks, who were retreating upon him. By
the morning of the 27th October the bulk of the Brigade had taken up a
strong position blocking the road to Mosul, and it had been joined by
the light motor-cars, which had got round through the desert.
It was a daring move, for Cassels had only three weak regiments of
Cavalry and a battery of Horse Artillery, while below him was the
retreating Turkish force, and above him to the north an unknown number
of Turkish reinforcements from Mosul coming down to join it. But this
was the one chance of capturing the main body of the enemy, and the
Brigade meant to hold its position at all costs until supported.
For the next two days, the 27th and 28th October, Cassels was in
serious danger, for though to conceal his weakness he boldly attacked,
he was soon attacked himself from the south by a very superior force
of Infantry and guns, which made repeated attempts to break through,
while the Turkish reinforcements from Mosul moved against his rear. But
though hard pressed he managed to hold his ground, and on the afternoon
and evening of the second day support began to arrive. First came a
battalion of Infantry which had made a forced march of thirty-three
miles from the eastward, and then after dark the 7th Cavalry Brigade,
which after a march of forty-three miles crossed the Tigris by the
difficult Hadraniya Ford. In doing so they lost several men and horses
drowned, but their arrival made all the difference. Cassels was now too
strong to be easily overwhelmed.
Still the position was critical, for the main body of the Turks, though
retreating, had not been beaten, and the British troops were nearly
worn out. The Infantry “had been marching and fighting for four days
under most arduous conditions,” while Cassels and his own Cavalry
Brigade had been continuously in action for seventy-two hours, and all
the force now at his disposal had made long marches. But if the Turkish
force was to be held, there must be no rest for the troops, in spite
of exhaustion and darkness, for the enemy saw that he was trapped, and
would be sure to fight desperately for freedom.
He certainly did so. During the night of the 28th he tried again and
again to break out northwards, and though he did not succeed, he fought
on all through the 29th, and all through the night that followed; and
some of his counter-attacks against the British Infantry who were
pressing him from the south were by no means easily stopped. It was
a splendid defence, and rightly called forth the admiration of his
assailants.
The end of the battle may best be told in General Marshall’s words:--
“Meanwhile a serious threat from Turkish reinforcements (5th Division
troops) moving down from the Mosul direction developed against Cassels’
right flank. These troops established themselves with guns and
machine-guns on the high bluffs near Hadraniya, but were promptly dealt
with by the 7th Cavalry Brigade. The Thirteenth Hussars galloped across
the open, dismounted under the bluffs, and, led by their Colonel,
carried the position by assault, many Turks being accounted for with
the bayonet.
“Mounted pursuit by the remainder of the 7th Cavalry Brigade cleared
away further menace from the north, and resulted in the capture of 1000
prisoners, with 2 guns and 12 machine-guns.
“The enemy’s avenues of escape northwards were now effectively blocked,
thanks to the skilful and resolute handling of his detachment by
General Cassels, and the firm determination of his troops, who repulsed
every attempt by the enemy to break through.
“Gripped as in a vice, with his men packed in ravines which were
raked by our guns from across the Tigris, Ismail Hakki, the Turkish
Commander, found himself in a hopeless position. All attempts to break
through had failed, communication with the Turkish Commander-in-Chief
at Mosul had been rendered impossible, and no relief was in sight.
At dawn on October 30th, just as our troops were about to renew the
attack, white flags appeared all along the Turkish lines, and later on
Ismail Hakki surrendered in person.”
So ended the last battle fought in the Great War by a Turkish army.
It had been gallantly contested, but the victory was as complete as a
victory could be. The Turkish 6th Army had been not only defeated but
captured.
Immediately after the surrender, the 7th Cavalry Brigade and armoured
cars pushed rapidly along the Mosul road and made a considerable
addition to the number of prisoners. The 14th (Indian) Lancers,
charging with the lance, captured a convoy and 500 men, while the
13th Lancers captured a Turkish battalion. Altogether the Turks lost
on the 30th October over 11,000 prisoners and 51 guns, besides great
quantities of machine-guns, animals, and military material of all kinds.
By the first of November both Cavalry Brigades had got within twelve
miles of Mosul, when they were met by a flag of truce informing them
that an armistice had been concluded between Great Britain and Turkey.
Hostilities ceased, and the long campaign in Mesopotamia had closed
with a dramatic success.
At Shergat, as elsewhere, the bulk of the close fighting had of
course been done by the Infantry, but General Marshall reported that
“the daring and brilliant leadership of the Cavalry Brigades under
Brigadier-Generals Cassels and Norton contributed largely to the final
result,” and it may safely be affirmed that no Regiment in those
Brigades had more right to be proud of its share in the work than the
Thirteenth Hussars.
The extracts appended give details of its movements during the last
period of the campaign, and especially of the affair at “Richardson’s
Bluff,” as the scene of the fight at Hadraniya came to be called.
_Account by General Norton, commanding 7th Brigade._
“The Brigade left Fathah at one o’clock on the night of the 27th-28th
October, crossed the Lesser Zab at about 8 A.M., and reached
the Hadrani-Yah Ford over the Tigris at 4.30 P.M. on the 28th,
having marched about 50 miles since 1 A.M., the last 30 under
a very hot sun, and about 70 miles in the last 36 hours.
“The leading Regiment (13th Lancers) immediately commenced to cross to
the right bank, and got over without accident, but as the ford was a
difficult one, there was considerable delay, and, by the time it came
to the turn of the 13th Hussars, it was practically dark. The ford,
which had been difficult in daylight, became positively dangerous after
dusk, and a number of men, particularly those leading pack-horses, got
into difficulties, and were carried down-stream. Hampered as they were
by their ammunition and other equipment, their situation was a very
precarious one, but most of them fortunately managed to scramble out on
one bank or the other.
“When the roll was eventually called, it was found that three men,
viz.:--
No. 8267, Lance-Corpl. Bartlett,
9196, Private Donoghue,
31571, Private Newman,
and two horses, were missing. With the exception of Private Newman,
whose dead body was found by the Infantry several days later some
distance down-stream, no trace of these men has ever been found.
“In the whole Brigade, 21 men were carried away by the strong current,
and drowned while crossing this ford.
“Only three squadrons of the Regiment crossed on this night, the
remaining squadron (‘A’ Squadron, under Lieutenant H. C. D. FitzGibbon,
M.C.) being ordered to remain on the left bank as escort to the
Battery, which could not be got across in the dark.
“The Brigade, less the battery, this squadron, and the 13th D.C.
Lancers, bivouacked on the river bank; the 13th Lancers, as soon as
they were across, had been sent forward to support the right of the
11th Brigade, which was occupying a ridge of hills S.W. of the ford,
parallel to the river, and about 3000 yards away from it.
“The night passed without incident, although there was a considerable
amount of firing from the position occupied by the 11th Brigade and the
13th D.C. Lancers.
“Before daybreak on the 29th, the Brigade was moved into a covered
position under the river bank, and orders were issued for the battery
and the remaining squadron of the 13th Hussars to cross to the right
bank as soon as there was sufficient daylight.
“The moment the squadron commenced to cross, the Turks shelled the ford
heavily and accurately from 2 guns on high ground about 3000 yards to
the N.W.
“The squadron managed to get across, fortunately without casualties,
but it was obviously impossible for the battery to do so until the
hostile fire had been subdued.
“About 7 A.M., V Battery, R.H.A., came into action on the left
bank, and the Turks shortly afterwards withdrew their guns.
“About this time a squadron of the 13th D.C. Lancers, which had been
ordered to push up the Mosul road at daybreak, encountered heavy shell
and M.G. fire, and was compelled to fall back to the Cemetery, where it
held its own with difficulty.
“It was clear now that the enemy were holding the high ground to the
N.W. in considerable force, and did not consist, as reported by aero
reconnaissances, of merely a few scattered groups of Infantry.
“Their position was on a range of hills approximately parallel to the
river, and at about 3000 yards from it. At the southern extremity of
this range was a high bluff, which will be referred to as Hadraniyah
Bluff. Farther to the south again was the range held by the 11th
Brigade and 13th D.C. Lancers, and between Hadraniyah Bluff and the
river, and some 1000 yards to the S.E. of the former, was a fair-sized
isolated hill on which was a Mahomedan cemetery.
“After a personal reconnaissance of the position, so far as was
possible, the Brigadier at 8.15 A.M. issued orders for the
13th Hussars, supported by the 24th Jat Lancers, and covered by the
fire of V Battery, R.H.A., from across the river, and the Vickers guns,
a subsection of which was now in action on the Cemetery Hill, to gallop
across the open from their covered position near the river, dismount
under the Bluff, and carry the position by a dismounted attack.
“It should be explained that the contour of the hill made it obvious,
that unless the Turks came out of their trenches, which were none too
well sited, and advanced a short distance down the hill, there must be
a considerable amount of dead ground at the foot of the slope, which
would give cover to the horses, and enable the troops to form for
the dismounted attack. It was hoped that the gun-fire would make it
impossible for the Turks to leave their trenches for the purpose of
covering this dead ground.
“On debouching from their covered position on the river bank, in
accordance with the above orders, the leading squadron at once came
under a hot fire from the Turkish machine-guns on the hill, and the
squadron leader (Captain Evans, 21st Lancers) fell severely wounded.
“This caused the squadron to lose its direction: it inclined slightly
to its left, and halted under the cover of Cemetery Hill.
“The remaining squadrons followed it, and eventually the whole Regiment
was concentrated behind this hill.
“By this time, it was clear that the guns had not yet succeeded in
subduing the Turkish fire, and the further prosecution of the attack
was held up to allow a further artillery preparation.
“Brigade Headquarters was now on Cemetery Hill, and the F.O.O. of the
Battery was also established there with his signallers.
“About this time--viz., 10 A.M.--a Field Battery, No. A/33,
R.F.A., having crossed the ford, was placed at the disposal of the
Brigadier, and came into action some 2000 yards to the S.E. of Cemetery
Hill.
“At 12.30 P.M. the Brigadier personally gave orders to
Lieut.-Colonel Richardson to renew the attack on the Bluff at 1.20
P.M., and detailed arrangements were made for the attack to be
closely supported by both Batteries and all available Vickers guns.
“In accordance with these orders, the Regiment, in column of wings
with extended files, debouched from under cover of Cemetery Hill, and
galloped straight for the Bluff. The ground was flat and open, the
only obstacle being a rather deep dry nullah about half-way, which
caused a little crowding and delay. The moment the leading squadron
debouched, the Turks opened a heavy fire with all their machine-guns,
but the accurate fire of our two batteries and the Vickers guns made it
impossible for them to leave their trenches, and the squadrons soon got
into the dead ground under the Bluff.
“During this phase of the attack, although these galloping squadrons
were absolutely exposed for at least 500 yards to the fire of 12
machine-guns and 1000 Infantry, at ranges from 1500 to 500 yards, not a
single man was hit, and only one or two horses.
“Had the Turks put down a machine-gun barrage on some point, such as
the afore-mentioned nullah, and kept it there, our casualties must
have been considerable; but they were evidently disconcerted by the
heavy shelling, and there appeared to be no central control, each
machine-gunner firing as he pleased.
“Having reached the foot of the Bluff, the Hussars lost no time in
dismounting and forming for attack. Having fixed bayonets, they swarmed
up the almost precipitous hill, gallantly led by their Commanding
Officer.
“All this time, both batteries, using ‘gun-fire,’ were bursting their
shells with beautiful accuracy along the crest of the Hill, and the
Vickers guns were also keeping up a heavy fire on the trenches.
“This barrage did not lift until the Hussars were within a few yards
of the crest, and there is no doubt that the splendid accuracy and
rapidity of fire of these guns was a most important factor in making
the attack the success it was.
“From Brigade Headquarters on Cemetery Hill, it was clear that the
Turks in the trenches, having seen the squadrons moving towards them at
a gallop, and being unable to see what was happening at the foot of the
hill, were becoming anxious. Individual men and small parties could be
seen getting out of the advanced trenches and moving to the rear, many
being caught by the barrage as they did so.
“As the barrage lifted, the Hussars, still led by their Colonel,
charged over the crest, shot or bayoneted such Turks as still
confronted them in the trenches, and then rapidly forming line to the
right, swept along the crest to deal with the Turks who were still
holding their position at the north end of the hill.
“As soon as the Hussars’ attack had gained the crest, the 13th D.C. and
14th Jat Lancers quickly mounted, and galloped round to the west and
north, captured the enemy’s two guns, and cut off the retreat of the
Infantry retiring before the attack of the 13th Hussars.
“Seeing their retreat entirely cut off, the whole Turkish force
surrendered.
“In this successful operation, 2 mountain-guns, 12 machine-guns, and
982 unwounded prisoners were taken, and there was a considerable number
of Turkish dead and wounded on the hill.
“This enemy force consisted of the whole of the 13th Regiment which had
been sent from the 5th Division in Persia to reinforce the army of Haqi
Bey.”
_Extract from Colonel Richardson’s letter to Sir R. S. Baden-Powell._
”7TH CAVALRY BRIGADE,
IN CAMP OUTSIDE MOSUL,
_4th Nov. 1918_.
”MY DEAR GENERAL,--I must send you a line to tell you of
another fine performance by the Regiment--a performance which our
Brigadier (Gen. Charles Norton), the Commanding Officers of the other
Regiments of the Brigade, and other eye-witnesses describe to me as
the finest thing they have ever seen. I myself agree that not only as
a spectacle but in its complete and immediate success it is the finest
performance put up by the Regiment during the war, but as a test
of discipline and tenacity I would place Lajj first: there we were on
the verge of annihilation, and yet managed to put up a fighting front
to the enemy; here it is true we were foiled in our first attempt,
but the sqdns. reached cover in perfect order, and the failure of the
early morning only made them the keener to score in the afternoon. I
enclose a copy of the dry sober account of the day, which I made in my
note-book two days after the occurrence, so I will only give you here
a brief outline of the events which led up to our being where we were,
and of the few days after the 29th which led us to the occupation of
Mosul.
[Illustration: Sergt. R. HOLLOWAY
(_Killed at Hadraniyeh, 29th October 1918_)]
[Illustration: L.-Sergt. WM. LEEMAN
(_Killed at Hadraniyeh, 29th October 1918_)]
[Illustration: S.-Sergt. J. F. COUCH, D.C.M.
(_Died at Chaldari, 4th July 1918_)]
[Illustration: 2nd Lieut. G. R. RUSSELL
(_Wounded at Hadraniyeh, 29th October 1918_)]
[Illustration: Cpl. A. VINALL, D.C.M.
(_Died of wounds, 31st October 1918_)]
“Since an armistice, in the nature of a complete military surrender by
Turkey, has been arranged and signed, I hardly suppose that the censor
will seriously object to numbers of Brigades and Divisions being given,
but I will not risk more deletion than is necessary for the tale.
“Well, the original objective was the reduction of the Fathah
position--a very strong natural position formed by the passage of the
Tigris through the range of hills known on the left bank as the Jebel
Hamrin and on the right bank as Jebel Makhul--about thirty miles N. of
Tekrit, held on both banks by some 3000 rifles and 40 guns. Two Cavalry
Bgds., ours and Cassels’, had made a long turning movement over the
Hamrin, and were in position to the N. and N.E. of the Turkish position
by dawn of day, and our feelings were rather mixed when we learnt
about 8 A.M. that Johnny Turk had evacuated the position a
day or two earlier, and retired mostly along the main road to Mosul
on the right bank, which ran through a series of strong natural
defensive positions against which the Infantry could make only slow
progress against the Turk, who is a past-master in the art of rearguard
fighting: so obstinate was he in holding on to a position opposite the
confluence of the Lesser Zab river with the Tigris that we were hurried
one night to the Fathah Gorge, which we bridged with a pontoon, to go
up the right bank and create a diversion in favour of our Infantry; on
arriving at Fathah, however, the position had changed--the Turk had
retired, and we were no longer required on the right bank; but in the
meantime Cassels’ Bgde. had crossed the Tigris some twenty-five miles
north of the Lesser Zab, and had taken up a position astride the line
of retreat of the Turks, and reinforcements to the latter were said to
be closing on Cassels’ rear, so after a few hours’ halt we were hurried
back to the Zab and beyond it to the ford, which we reached at dusk
on the 28th, having covered 40 miles since 1 A.M. that day.
The ford was deep and unmarked; I was riding my biggest horse, and the
water was over my knees; on many men it was up to the waist, and we
were unfortunate in losing three men, of whom no trace could be found
in the dark.
“The events of the 29th I have described in the attached account. The
Bgde. that night (29th) bivouacked on its fighting ground, and next
morning moved S.W. to a position on Cassels’ right, where about 10 a.m.
we learnt that the Turks caught between the Infantry and Cassels had
surrendered: we therefore turned our heads northward, and about 2.30
P.M. came up with the Turkish rearguard, who surrendered after
a few rounds from the battery, and the 13th Lancers pursuing brought
back a lot more, making the total captures of the Bgde. up to about
2500 for the two days.
“Next day we continued our advance northward toward Mosul, but about 11
A.M. met Turkish envoys in a car, who came to tell us that an
armistice had been signed.
“We have been on half rations or less for many days, and hardly get
a scrap of outside news, but these days must be fraught with intense
interest and excitement at home, and these details must in comparison
fade into insignificance; but, hereafter, they will be of interest
to all concerned with the Regiment, so I will not labour at further
excuses for writing.”
_Enclosure in Colonel Richardson’s letter to Sir R. S. Baden-Powell, of
the 4th November 1918._
“THE STORMING OF THE CLIFF AND PLATEAU NEAR HADRANIYAH,
AFTERWARDS CALLED (IN BRIGADE ORDERS) RICHARDSON’S BLUFF, BY THE
THIRTEENTH HUSSARS, ON THE 29TH OCTOBER 1918.
[Illustration: THE STORMING OF RICHARDSON’S BLUFF
29TH OCTOBER 1918]
“The night of the 28th-29th passed rather cheerlessly, most of the
men having got wet to the waist, and in many cases their blankets and
warm coats also having been soaked in fording the river the previous
evening, and before dawn we moved down under cover of the river
bank, where we were practically immune from the shell-fire which
was opened on us soon after daylight and continued until about 7
A.M. About this time I received orders to gallop the Regiment
and get a footing on a plateau rising almost sheer from the plain,
on which several emplacements could be seen. I asked for and got the
co-operation of V Battery, which put a strong barrage on the plateau
from 8 A.M. to 8.15 A.M., at which hour we emerged
from the river bank, supported on either flank by a subsection of 18
M.G.’s, commanded respectively by Lt. Noel and Lt. Foley. The following
is a rough sketch showing disposition of Regiment and ground to be
covered.
“As the Regiment reached the open, the four squadrons took up a diamond
formation--‘B’ Squadron under Capt. Evans, 21st Lancers, leading, ‘C’
on left flank, ‘D’ on right flank, and ‘A’ Squadron (Lt. Fitzgibbon)
bringing up the rear. I rode in the centre, and on either flank were
the Hotchkiss guns of two squadrons co-operating with the subsection of
machine-guns--_i.e._, ‘B’ and ‘D’ on right, under Lt. Parkes, and ‘A’
and ‘C’ on left, under Lt. Hartigan, M.C.
“As soon as the Regiment came into sight in the open a very hot fire
from M.G.’s, rifles, and camel guns (9-pounders) was opened on it, and
when about 1000 yds. from its objective, Capt. Evans was very seriously
wounded, and the troop leaders of the Leading Squadron led their
troops to the cover of the Cemetery Hill, where the remainder of the
Regiment quickly concentrated. I quite agreed with their action at the
time, and looking back two days afterwards with the knowledge gained
since, I am convinced that it was the right course to take. The crest
of the plateau was very much more strongly held than had ever been
anticipated, and sufficient time had not been allowed for the artillery
barrage.
“We occupied the Cemetery Hill and tried to gain ground to the west,
but the glacis was quite bare and exposed to M.G. fire from the plateau
and from trenches to the west. The Brigadier visited us about 11.30
A.M., and I suggested to him that we should try again to get
the hill if the artillery would plaster the plateau and the known
trenches until we had gained a footing on the crest. This they did with
great effect at intervals until 1.30 P.M., at which time I led
the Regiment from the cover of Cemetery Hill in two waves, ‘A’ and ‘D’
Squadrons (Mr Fitzgibbon and Capt. Jeffrey, M.C.) in the first, and
‘C’ (Mr Norton) and ‘B’ (Capt. Howey) in the second under Capt. Godfree.
“The first wave reached the foot of the bluff with only one casualty, a
man whose horse fell in jumping a deepish nullah which lay across part
of our course--dismounted to climb the almost precipitous cliff-side,
the footing on which was made the worse by the loose rolling gravel
surface; how the men scaled that cliff carrying their Hotchkiss guns
and ammunition-bags will always remain a marvel to me.
“Meantime the second wave had reached the hill, also without
casualties, and taken position on the right of the first. As we
appeared on the crest fire broke on us from all sides, but the _moral_
of the Turks had been so severely shaken by the Artillery that our
casualties were very slight, and by bringing our right forward we were
soon able to bring enfilade fire on the trenches to our front, and
about 1.45 the first white flag was hoisted. The other trenches did not
take long to follow their example, and in less than half an hour after
leaving Cemetery Hill we were in complete possession of the plateau,
and prisoners, whose numbers eventually mounted to 722, were being
marched in batches from every side to a central spot. A few undoubtedly
escaped, but the Indian Cavalry Regiments took up the pursuit and
brought back 200 or 300 and a camel gun. The booty in arms was very
large, at least 20 machine-guns and several thousands of rounds being
taken.
“Our casualties were one, Sergt. Holloway, killed, and the following
N.C.O.’s and men wounded--viz., Sergt. Barnard, Cpls. Vinall and Hill,
Ptes. Little, Patrick, and Tranter (Cpl. Vinall has since died of
wounds).
“Sergt. Leeman had been killed with the following wounded whilst we
were on Cemetery Hill: 2nd Lt. Russell, Ptes. Powell, Gerrard, and
Winter.
“Pte. Harvey was wounded by shell-fire at the ford early in the
morning, and the following were drowned whilst crossing the river on
the previous evening--viz., L.-Cpl. Bartlett, Ptes. Newman and Donoghue.
“It transpired later that the Turkish troops opposed to us on the Bluff
were the three Battns. of the 13th Regiment who had recently come down
from Lake Urmia to reinforce the troops on the Fathah position, and
that they were preparing to attack the ford at 4 P.M. that
afternoon, when our assault destroyed their plans.
“The fight was short and sharp and the victory complete; we owed our
almost complete immunity from loss to the excellent shooting of V
Battery and A 337, and it was, I must admit, some consolation to know
that the troops which brought off the coup were all British.”
_Letter from Colonel Richardson to Sir R. S. Baden-Powell, dated Mosul,
12th November 1918._
”MY DEAR GENERAL,--Herewith the sketch (from memory) of the
position assaulted by the Regiment on October 29th and the numbers of
the Regiment taking part in the assault; these were omitted from my
letter of last week; I hope before we leave these parts to get a proper
surveyed sketch of the position,--for the purposes of history.
“We heard to-day that the Armistice with the Huns had been signed
and commenced yesterday, as we take it that this is tantamount to a
surrender which is practically unconditional on their part. I hope
it may not be long before we say good-bye to this God-forgotten
country.--Yours sincerely,
(Signed) J. J. RICHARDSON.
“The numbers of the squadrons:--
Officers. N.C.O.’s and Men. Hotchkiss guns.
A 4 64 4
B 3 52 4
C 6[60] 63 4
D 4 60 4
--- --- ---
17 239 16”
_Letter from Colonel Richardson to Sir R. S. Baden-Powell, dated Zacho,
75 miles N. of Mosul, 30th November 1918._
”MY DEAR GENERAL,--Just a line in continuation of my letter of
the 12th to tell you that we have been given the following Immediate
Rewards in recognition of our work on the 29th October, viz.:--
Myself a bar to the D.S.O.
Capt. D. W. Godfree . . M.C.
Lieut. G. H. Parkes . . M.C.
Corporal Vinall (since died of wounds) . . D.C.M.
Corporal Raynor . . . D.C.M.
Lance-Corporal Viner . M.M.
Corporal Aukett M.M.
Corporal Whitington M.M.
Private Humphrey M.M.
“A batch of honours of which any Regiment may well be proud, as I think
you will agree; and indeed we are all very proud of them, and myself
not the least proud!
“We were pushed off here with 2 guns of V Battery and a subsection
of M.G. at short notice on Monday last to stop reported rioting by
retiring Turks and to see them over the border, which is only some 7 or
8 miles from here, and we did the 75 miles in 31 hours. The Turks had
heard of our coming and quitted--very wisely; we are well in the hills
here in a pretty valley, and snow-covered hills are less than 50 miles
away. Rather a change from the Baghdad temperature of July!
“On the 26th we heard that the M.M. had been awarded to Sergt. W. H.
Burgess and L.-Cpl. Lomas: these I gather are the outcome of the last
despatch.--With all good wishes, yours sincerely,
(Signed) J. J. RICHARDSON.”
_Letter from Lance-Corporal George Costello (56799) of
15th Squadron M.G.C., 7th Cavalry Brigade, to Mr and Mrs
Wallace--parents of James Wallace._
M.E.F.,
_14th November 1918_.
”DEAR MR AND MRS WALLACE,--It is with a sad heart, and with
the deepest sympathy, that I write to you of Jim’s presumed death.
Jim and I were staunch friends together ever since we were in France,
and shared one another’s hardships and joys all the way through. Some
time back ‘A’ Section was split up; Jim went to ‘C’ and I to ‘B,’ so
at the actual time of crossing the river (Tigris) we were apart, as my
section was about one hundred yards in front. From 12 midnight the
night previous to crossing, we had been marching, and crossed at 6.30
P.M. the following evening, and during that period we had
covered a distance of 57 miles, which was a pretty stiff march, and men
and horses were feeling a bit done up. When we got in the water some
of the horses were restless and started plunging and rearing. This is
what happened to Jim: I learnt it from men who were near him at the
time. His horse reared and Jim came off. The current of the river was
very swift at the time, and it was also dark. We have lost four men in
the squadron in the same way, and nothing has been heard of any of them
since. The next morning we got into action! The 13th Hussars formed
line and charged up a hill at the Turks. The hill was too steep to get
up, so when they got half-way up they did a dismounted action, and
within a quarter of an hour the Turks on the top of the hill showed the
white flag, and over one thousand surrendered; by late in the afternoon
the 7th Cavalry Brigade had beat the whole of that force, capturing
nearly three thousand prisoners. The finest piece of work the Brigade
has done during the war. I am sure poor Jim would have delighted in
it. We then proceeded on towards Mosul, and came in contact with, and
captured, two hundred and fifty reinforcements with 7 machine-guns
and some big guns. Towards the evening, with one Regiment of Indians
(14th Lancers) and one section of 16th Squadron M.G.C., we overtook and
captured between two and three miles of convoy and thirteen hundred
prisoners. We are now in Mosul. When about 20 miles from Mosul an
aeroplane dropped a message which said that the Turks had surrendered
Mosul, and that hostilities with Turkey had ceased. Jim has left behind
him a memory which one can never forget. Loved and respected by all
who knew him, as he was always ready to offer his help and sympathy
to any one in trouble. And you have cause to be proud of having had a
son who kept up the traditions of a Britisher to its highest level,
and was a true and noble soldier to the core. You might please write
to Mr Justice Eve and let him know, as I am sure that Jim would wish
it, as he held his late squadron leader, Capt. Eve, 13th Hussars, in
the highest esteem, and I know that a short time ago Jim wrote to Mr
Justice Eve thanking him for the photo. I hope that Jim’s brother who
was wounded has quite recovered by now. Well, bear up, and try and
look on it for the best, as I know that all your trouble has come in a
heap lately. I unfortunately lost my mother in an air-raid since I have
been out here.--From Jim’s old Chum, 56799, GEORGE COSTELLO.
”_P.S._--If I should gather any information I will write and let you
know at once.
“56799 L.-Cpl. COSTELLO,
15th Squadron M.G.C.,
7th Cav. Brigade,
Mesopotamia.”
_Extracts from letter from Private E. Cleary (6759 “B” Squadron) to
Miss E. FitzPatrick of Accrington, Lancashire._
”MESOPOTAMIA,
_25th November 1918_.
”DEAR LIZZIE,--I don’t know how to start answering your
letters--I have received that many from you for the last 4 days; they
all came of a rush, the reason of it was they were in the country, and
could not reach us on account of the shortage of transport....
“Well, we had some hard fighting for about a fortnight, but we managed
to get round them and capture the lot; we were very lucky, for they
nearly captured us instead, but we managed to get a good mounted charge
in on them, and that was the turning-point of our last battle out here.
Our Regt. alone captured 1300 prisoners, but it was a good job they
did surrender to us, for they could have wiped out every man of us if
we fought on, because our Regt. was not near up to strength: we lost a
good many. It was hard lines on them, for it was our last fight; they
surrendered Mosul to us the next day, and a good job too, for we were
about done; we went 2 and 3 days at a time with no rations except a
pound of dry flour per man, and you may know what a big feed one can
get out of a pound of flour (I don’t think), and that flour was ground
barley. You would laugh to see us cooking it: we used to get a bit of
tin, make a fire under it, then mix the flour up with some water into
a dough, then roll it out into little flat cakes and put it on a tin
and bake it, so you may know what nice bread it was (I don’t think),
but still I was glad of it; they kept us going all right, and even now,
although we are in Mosul, all we are living on is what we buy off the
inhabitants, but of course everything will come right again as soon as
we get settled down a bit. We were within 15 miles of Mosul when word
came through that they had surrendered the place, so we stopped where
we were until next day, and then news came through that Turkey had
packed up altogether; it was taken very quietly, every one was that
fed up, not even a cheer was given. Then we marched into the City and
took over all that was there: they had plenty of stuff--food, guns, and
men: it seemed so strange we were fighting them a few hours before,
and then all that was to be seen was our officers and their officers
shaking hands and making much of one another; but it wasn’t so in the
case of the men--if our fellows had their way they would have been
scrapping them, for we haven’t forgotten some of the tricks they done
to our fellows; but still, thank God! it is all over. Well, we had been
in Mosul for about a week when the news came through of Germany packing
up: even that was taken very quietly, for it was raining as hard as it
could, and we didn’t have a bit of shelter, so the only remarks that
were passed was, it’s a bloody good job it’s over; so that is how we
enjoyed the good news: of course every one was delighted but didn’t
show it. Well, Lizzie, you will think I have gone mad on the war, so
I will change the subject. I don’t know if you have heard much about
Mosul or not; well, it is supposed to be one of the great Sacred Cities
out here--they say it’s mentioned several times in the Bible (but as I
don’t know much about the Bible I cannot say); it is much the same as
Baghdad, but a little more up to date: there is a couple of Catholic
Chapels here; of course all Armenians are Catholics, and besides,
there is some French here too, but give me one corner of Accrington
and they can keep all this country. Just outside Mosul is the ruins
of Ninevah, the great city in olden days that was swallowed up by the
great earthquake: it is a big mound now, but there is big holes made
in it that a man can crawl through, and you can see the ruins of the
City beneath: I have been in them many a time, for we find Guards on it
every day; so that is how we pass the time away going through it. If
you ask one of the Priests they may be able to tell you about it (but
I shall be glad to see the back of it). The climate up here is just
like England--in fact it feels colder to me: it has rained ever since
we’ve been here, and I can tell you it’s none too comfortable, for
all we’ve got is one blanket and no other shelter of any kind. Well,
Lizzie, it’s time now I came to thank you for all the trouble I have
put you to; first of all, I don’t know how to thank you for getting me
that Roll of Honour, as you say it is a nice thing, but the reason I
wanted it mostly was because I had a good few mates who were on there.
God rest them! Mr Rolfe was my Troop Officer, he led us in the charge,
and the Turk that killed him was also killed by one of our fellows, so
that was one consolation; if you look on there you will see Private
Stones’ name; he came from Whally. Pte. M‘Nulty came from Birkenhead,
Pte. Cole from Halifax, and Tpr. Spicer from Dublin: he was only about
18 years old. I shall tell you all about them when I go to see you at
No. 41. It was very kind of Mr Eve for writing such a nice letter; his
son was a nice fellow and a fine leader. I seen him get killed, he was
shot right through the head. It was good of you getting them framed.
Again I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Now I must thank you for
sending Xmas card, and above all, I was most delighted at getting poor
Dan’s Memory Card. God rest his soul. It’s the only thing that grieves
me, is he did not live so as to have the pleasure of meeting him again.
I was always looking forward to having a good time with him if both of
us had the luck, but as you say God knows best.”
_Extracts from letter from Captain H. C. D. FitzGibbon, Thirteenth
Hussars._
”FIELD.
”MY DEAR OLIVE,--Well, my goodness, a lot of things have
happened since my last letter to you. Peace! what an extraordinary
word: it is hard to believe the whole thing is over. I will try and
tell you all since my last letter.
“The Brigade was in its summer camp, just a few miles north of Baghdad,
when I got back from leave. You remember I sent you a word saying we
were going out once more. The idea was to take the Fahta position.
The Turkish forces were then holding the gorge where the Tigris runs
through the Jebel Hamrin. It was supposed, and is, a very strong
position, with a desert on one side and a range of hills on the other.
He, however, did not hold all the passes, enabling us (the Cavalry)
to get over and behind his position. We night-marched round, and at
dawn attacked, but to find he did not like the look of the thing and
had gone in the night. We next met him on a rather strong position he
had taken up on the Lesser Zab. He held us up there for about three
days, and started to retreat on Mosul. We, or rather Cassels and his
Brigade (with the 7th Hussars) were rather too quick for him, and had
got between him and Mosul, dug themselves in, and held them up. A most
gallant performance. We were then hurried up to reinforce him as he was
not strong enough for the job, and would undoubtedly have failed had
we not come up. Two days after we had the lot prisoners, about 10,000.
My Regiment had rather a fine chance. About 900 Turks were holding a
fairly strong position on some hills with a very large field of fire
in front of them. We got Archies to clear up that position. The only
way to do it was mounted at the gallop over the open and dismount under
the crest of the hills. We formed up in two lines, Jeffrey’s and my
squadrons in the first line and the other two in the rear, and off we
went. Those who saw it said it was as fine a show as they had ever
seen. The line was as good as on parade. We crossed the open at full
gallop, dismounted under the crest, fixed bayonets, and before you
could say knife had a good footing on the crest. The whole thing was
so quick that the Turk was rather taken unawares, and we had cleared
up the whole position and taken the lot in no time. My squadron at the
time, the same as the others, was only sixty strong--that is to say,
about 40 dismounted men. The Colonel led the first line himself, and
got a bar to his D.S.O. for it--not bad!!!
“After that we were hurried up the Mosul road. We took another 1800
prisoners, reached a place called Hammam Ali about 15 miles south
of Mosul, and for the first time heard of the Turkish Armistice. I
then had a rather interesting time, as I went into Mosul with General
Cassels to interview the Turkish Commander. It was rather a unique
experience, the whole thing in French. To cut a long story short, they
were obliged by the terms to evacuate the Mosul Villayat. We marched
into the town, a very dirty but rather interesting place. A lot of
people speak French. We were camped outside with very few tents and a
very wet and cold climate, and no warm clothes to put on. The Regiment
was then detailed to send a squadron up to a place on the border called
Zakho, about 80 miles north of Mosul, to keep order, and here I am Lord
and Master of my little Kingdom.
“It is rather funny being so far away from everybody, but rather nice
in a way. I have got two officers with me, Stirling and Hartigan. The
first you know of, and the other, also, is one of the best. We are
living for the first time for 2½ years in a house, not a bad one at
all, and even my men have got them into a large building, so on the
whole we are rather comfy. It is very pretty; the village is in a
beautifully fertile valley, with high snow-capped mountains in front
of me. Plenty to eat and lovely _water_ to drink, and so good for
one!!! and I am the Lord and Master of the district. We are well out of
Mesopot, and well into Kurdistan. Kurdish is an extraordinary language,
but quite a lot of people speak French. Their dress is quite pretty, in
a way rather like the Dutch with big trousers. The day before I left
Mosul, news came in that Germany had thrown in. It was early in the
morning, we were in a very small tent; I was shaving at the time: it
was received with great calm and indifference. News came in later the
same day that owing to the rain carts could not get up to us, and we
were put on half rations. Less indifference was shown to this bit of
news.
“I can’t send this letter for a day or two, so will go on with it
to-morrow. Me voila encore une fois!...
“It is extraordinary to think war is over! though I am afraid it will
be a long time before they let us all go. What a lot of mothers and
wives must be thankful. I suppose the sights at home must have been
wonderful.
“I had a very interesting time yesterday. The mine only just started is
full of coal, and if worked with method I should say worth any amount
of money. The tribes in the hills are the most extraordinary thing in
the world: they know no law, and obey no master but the chief of their
tribe. Every man is armed with a rifle, and a modern one at that. Their
villages are in such places that only a goat can get at them, so they
can laugh at the whole world in general. The chief I had lunch with is
a well-known brigand who robs everybody who passes anywhere near him.
“I had rather a funny complaint last night: A man came round most
beautifully dressed, started off with a long-winded speech about the
British and how just they were, &c., ending up by saying that the
headman’s servants had found his wife in the bazaar and soundly beaten
her, and did the British allow that sort of thing?”
_The Thirteenth Hussars’ Charge at Hadraniyah, by an Eye-Witness._
“It can be given to few to watch from a vantage-point, in near
vicinity, a spirited cavalry charge. All cavalrymen live for the day
when they may take part in this most exhilarating of all the movements
of war, and next to being a participator is the privilege of seeing a
charge take place.
“At midday on October 29th, 1918, the situation near Hadraniyah was
critical--to the south, Cassels’ Brigade was still engaged delaying the
retreat of Haqui Bey’s Army; linked with him 2½ miles to the north,
Norton’s Brigade had, since dawn, been opposing the advance of the
reinforcements that were hurrying to the Turkish Commander’s assistance.
“Almost due west of Hadraniyah Ford, in crossing which at nightfall on
the 28th the Brigade had lost twenty men drowned, stands ‘Richardson’s
Bluff.’ This Bluff is the culminating point of the ridge which forms
the old bank of the Tigris; it lies some 2000 yards from the present
river bank, and rises almost precipitously from the plain to the height
of some 150 feet. Just to the south of the Bluff there is a re-entrant
in the ridge, sweeping round which the latter continues to the south,
at first at a lower elevation, but gradually rising till it reaches
Huwaish Gorge, along the edge of which was Cassels’ position. The plain
between the Bluff and the river is as flat as the palm of the hand,
save for two mounds to the south and south-east, on the nearer of
which, some 900 yards distant, is a Mahommedan cemetery. At dawn the
reconnoitring squadron of the 13th Lancers had been driven back by gun
and machine-gun fire from the Bluff, and had taken cover on Cemetery
Hill.
“At 8.15 A.M. the Thirteenth Hussars had endeavoured to gallop
the Bluff, but owing to the leading Squadron Commander, Captain Evans,
having fallen severely wounded, his squadron had lost direction and,
inclining to the left, had arrived at Cemetery Hill and relieved the
squadron of the 13th Lancers, and there it was joined by the remainder
of the Regiment.
“Shortly after this the left was prolonged by the 14th Lancers, who
were disposed so as to intercept a junction between the enemy that were
opposing the 7th Brigade and those that were engaged with Cassels.
“In support, in rear of the centre of our position, the 13th Lancers
were placed, while on the farther bank of the river, 3000 yards to
the east, was V Battery, R.H.A., in action against the enemy guns.
At 10 A.M., having forded the river, 337 A Battery, R.F.A.,
came into action in our support, from about 2000 yards to the south of
Cemetery Hill. The combined fire of the two batteries soon silenced the
enemy guns, and General Norton, realising that the Bluff was the vital
point, decided to make a further attempt to wrest it from the enemy.
“It was evident by this time that the hostile force on the Bluff was
considerably stronger than had been previously reported. Our position
on the lower ground was very precarious, and a successful decisive
attack by the Turks would have driven us into the open, rolled up
Cassels’ flank, and taken him in the rear. The terrain prevented an
accurate reconnaissance of the enemy’s position being made. It remained
for General Norton to take the responsibility of ordering a direct
attack to be made on the Bluff, supported by the guns.
“Orders were issued, the Thirteenth Hussars concentrated on their
right, while both batteries heavily shelled the enemy’s position.
“The concentration of the Thirteenth Hussars was evidently seen by the
enemy, and occasioned a heavy outburst of fire, which revealed the
fact that they were in possession of more machine-guns than up to then
had been calculated. In consequence of this General Norton ordered the
attack to be postponed while further artillery preparation took place.
“At 12.45 P.M. the General decided that further delay would be
dangerous, and that the effort must be made. Our helio winked a message
to the batteries that the Thirteenth Hussars were to attack at 1.20
P.M.; and that they were to increase their rates of fire. Both
batteries redoubled their efforts--admirably directed by Lt. Sutton (V
Battery, R.H.A.), both ranging and fuses being beautifully accurate;
they plastered the Bluff with H.E. and shrapnel. A slight delay in the
arrangements made it impossible for the attack to take place till 1.30
P.M. In the interval the Thirteenth Hussars quietly formed up
in column of wings under cover of Cemetery Hill.
“As the zero time approached urgent messages came from Major
Greenshields, commanding V Battery, that his ammunition was running
low. It was an anxious moment: on the crest of Cemetery Hill the
Brigade Headquarters Staff lay, taking what cover they could behind the
gravestones--down below the Hussars were quietly falling in, resolute
but serious, as all knew that much depended on the coming assault,
while its result was in the hands of the gods--on our left the 13th
and 14th Lancers were ready to ‘Mount’ and ‘Pursue,’ if the attack was
successful, or extricate their comrades if it was a reverse.
“On the Bluff was a veritable inferno--the H.E. bursting in black
clouds, the shrapnel in fleece-like puffs, both hurling death on the
doomed Turks--one continuous and awful roar swept the threatened area.
“Deafened by the noise and rendered dizzy by the concussion, Turks in
the advanced trenches on the crest of the hill could be seen getting
up and running in a drunken manner to the rear; some caught by bullets
while _en route_, fell; others disappeared in the burst of an H.E.
shell, and nothing remained when the black cloud cleared away.
“And then the Hussars advanced; it was a glorious sight--the first line
led by their gallant Colonel, in perfect order, as if one on a drill
parade, swept round the edge of Cemetery Hill--the pace increased--on
they went with a loud inspiring cheer. Then equally steady followed the
second line.
“The enemy’s machine-guns rattled furiously--ours replied
viciously--on, on went the Hussars--then to our horror we saw a check,
and we realised that, straight across the front of the Hussars, between
them and the Bluff, ran a nullah.
“What is going to happen? Is it too wide? Can they cross it? Another
Omdurman or Shabkadr? were among the agonising thoughts that flashed
through our minds.
“A little crowding--a horse down--then a cheer rose to our lips as
we saw the Colonel thread his way across, and then, on his heels,
scrambling, hustling, thrusting, scarcely checking, the first line
crossed and went on.
“By this time the onlookers on the Cemetery Hill were mad with
excitement, and quite oblivious of the bullets still whistling over
them, they were standing up wildly cheering on the gallant Hussars. Now
they had reached the foot of the Bluff--so close was it to us that we
could distinguish individuals.
“Off they get--fix bayonets--up the hill they scrambled, with their
Colonel still at their head; the barrage lifts beautifully in time--and
the Hussars clear the crest and, spreading like a fan, on they go. A
machine-gun is rushed--then a Hussar was seen to fall--bayonet work
begins....
”‘By God, they are counter-attacking!’ bursts from the Brigade Major’s
lips, as a party of Turks drive back a troop of the Hussars; but,
steady as rocks, the Hussars meet the new attack--a few shots, and
then the bayonet. On our left there is a thunder of hoofs--a host of
lance-pennons dotted o’er the countryside shows the 13th and 14th
Lancers are hurrying forward in support, lance in rest ready for the
pursuit. This is the final act in the drama, and then all sobriety is
forgotten; our helmets fly in the air as we cheer and cheer again, as
on all sides white flags of surrender are raised by the defeated Turks.
“From every direction, in a few minutes, small bodies of the enemy,
marshalled by the gallant Hussars, can be seen marching in--and the
affair was over.
“It was with a choke in the throat that, a few minutes later, we shook
hands with the gallant ‘Jimmy,’ and congratulated him on his splendid
success, and ourselves on having been privileged to watch and in some
way partake of it.”
_Transport fording the Tigris, 1918. Major A. Cooke, Q.M._
“On October 31st, the transport, which had been left at Huwaish on
the left bank of the river Tigris, received orders to march at 6
A.M. and join the Brigade at Quayirah.
“After marching about 4 miles the ford was reached--apparently the one
described in Lieutenant-General Sir W. R. Marshall’s despatch of 11th
April 1919, by which the 11th Cavalry Brigade, under Br.-General R. A.
Cassels, C.B., D.S.O., had crossed.
“Two channels of the river had to be crossed before reaching the
main stream. Entering the latter, the ford followed a narrow ledge
in mid-river (the water here was about 4½ feet deep) which ran for
a distance of about 500 yards up-stream; it then turned to the left
through fairly shallow water to the right bank. To the right of the
ledge the water was at least 5½ feet deep, to the left flowed the rapid
and deep main stream of the Tigris.
“If a vehicle got off the ledge into the deeper water on the right, it
was extremely difficult to get the animals to start again; but if they
got off to the left there was little or no hope of recovery.
“The crossing was commenced, taking about 15 yards interval between
vehicles. Soon there came a check; the animals of one waggon, tired of
pulling against the rush of ice-cold water, came to a standstill. The
next waggon tried to pass to the right, but got into the deeper water,
and stayed there until extra animals could be hitched in--this, in
itself, proving a most difficult task.
“The column was again got moving, but several similar stops occurred,
until a limbered waggon and a water-cart of the 14th Lancers got off
the ledge to the left and were lost, two of the four drivers and all
the mules being drowned.
“All the transport of the Regiment, except the mess-carts, crossed
without trouble; these, being very light, had great difficulty in
stemming the swift current, and one was carried off the ledge and swept
down-stream.
“The driver of this cart was Pte. Harding, a good old soldier who
was mentioned in despatches during the South African War for great
gallantry (‘Regimental History,’ volume ii. pp. 129 and 207). He was
accompanied in the cart by an Indian cook.
“Every one who saw them carried away thought they were certainly
lost. Harding, however, kept his head, and, whilst being floated down
the river at a great pace, sat and handled his reins as though he
were driving along a hard road. The horse swam with the stream, the
well-laden cart floated evenly on the water, and the whole lot went
down-stream for about 800 yards before coming to a standstill. While in
deep water, Harding gradually steered towards the bank, and at length
guided the horse to where he could just scrape his feet along the
shingly bottom, and come to a halt, standing.
“The horse was dead-beat, and it was feared that they would again be
carried away by the rush of water, when an Indian Artillery driver
rode into the river and reached the cart-horse’s head. By seizing the
rein and assisting and encouraging the horse, he eventually got it to
shallower water, where aid was forthcoming to get the cart ashore.
“It was a most daring and gallant feat on the part of the Indian
driver, and his conduct was brought to the notice of the Army
Commander. Private Harding received the cheers and congratulations of
all assembled there, and was recommended for a reward.
“This may not appear very exciting in print, but when it is remembered
that the Tigris is about 300 yards wide, with such a volume of water
rushing down that no communication by shouting is possible, except at
very short distances, and that men and animals were struggling and
drowning at the time, the writer thinks that all who read this account
will agree that fording the Tigris with the transport afforded not the
least of the many thrilling incidents of the closing days of the war.”
CHAPTER XXII.
SCOPE AND MEANING OF THE MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN. THE SHARE IN IT OF THE
THIRTEENTH HUSSARS.
The bearing of the campaign in Mesopotamia upon the issues of the Great
War has already been examined in the course of the narrative; but at
the risk of some repetition it seems desirable to sum up here the
achievements of the British in this part of the world, and to see what
effect they had upon the general situation.
No one was in a better position to give a correct view of the subject
in a few words than the Commander who had the thoroughly deserved good
fortune to complete the overthrow of the Turks and the conquest of the
country. General Marshall, in his despatch of the 1st February 1919,
writes as follows:--
“The campaign in Mesopotamia has lasted just four years. From small
beginnings, when Fort Fao was captured on November 6th, 1914, the
ration strength of the force when Mosul was occupied had grown to some
420,000, including labour battalions.
“The area of territory of the Turkish Empire which has been conquered
and occupied amounts to 114,000 square miles. The sphere of operations
has included Trans-Caucasia and Trans-Caspia, and detachments furnished
by the force are being employed over territory extending from
Deir-as-Zor on the Euphrates, 330 miles north-west of Baghdad, to Merv
in Trans-Caspia, some 1450 miles north-east of Baghdad.
“Actual captures since the beginning of the campaign amount to 45,500
prisoners and 250 guns, together with vast quantities of war material
of all descriptions.
“These results have been achieved in a country destitute of shade
in summer, and impassable owing to floods in wet weather, and are a
lasting record of the gallantry and endurance of the officers and men,
both British and Indian, who have fought uncomplainingly in spite of
heat, thirst, rain, and discomfort, for four years in Mesopotamia.”
This no doubt is a true and in some respects a striking presentment of
the case; but it is a modest one, and more might have been said without
exaggeration.
Mention has been made in earlier chapters of the scheme of world
dominion conceived by the Germans, and of the part which Turkey was to
play in it. Germany aimed not only at becoming the Paramount Power in
Europe, but at the supreme control of the East. The two things were
parts, and equally important parts, of the great conspiracy. They were,
so to speak, the twin pillars upon which the whole vast superstructure
of German dominion was to rest. For the Eastern part of the scheme
Turkey was essential. Upon the geographical situation and the military
power of Turkey, supported by German gold and German military science,
supported also by the Sultan’s influence as the spiritual head of
Islam, everything depended. Through their vassal Turkey, the Germans
were to strike down their most formidable enemy--England, whose fleet
stood between them and the dominion of the world. This is not mere
surmise. Germany made little secret of her intentions, or of the means
by which they were to be fulfilled.
When Turkey proceeded to declare war against the Allies and to carry
out her part in the German scheme, she was very soon able, after
beating off an attack on the Dardanelles, to throw her whole weight
into Asia. From the nature of things her military effort then resolved
itself into an advance upon three fronts. On her left she struck at the
Russians in the Caucasus, in the centre she struck at both Russians and
English in Persia, and hoped to work through Persia upon Afghanistan
and India. On her right she struck at England in Egypt. All these
countries--the Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan, the Indian Frontier,
Egypt--were mainly or largely Mahomedan, and the Koran was to give
weight to the blows of the Turkish sword.
Before very long Russia broke up, and England stood practically alone,
so that in Western Asia it became a duel between her and Turkey. The
struggle was fought out on all three of the Turkish fronts, but mainly
in the centre and on the Turkish right. On both these fronts England,
though dangerously weak at first, grew stronger and stronger as time
went on, until eventually she overwhelmed her enemy. Instead of being
attacked and beaten in Egypt, she advanced from Egypt and crushed
the Turkish armies in Palestine and Syria. Instead of being attacked
and beaten in Persia and India, she advanced into Mesopotamia, and
planted the British flag upon the citadels of Baghdad and Mosul. Under
these tremendous blows the Turkish military power collapsed, and with
it collapsed the Eastern part of the German world-scheme. Perhaps
more than this might be said; for the fall of Turkey was no doubt a
heavy shock and discouragement to Turkey’s masters, struggling hard
themselves to carry out their conquest of Europe. But it is enough
to know that the British armies in Mesopotamia and Palestine brought
Turkey to her knees.
It is not necessary to inquire which of the two had the leading share
in this great feat of arms. They were portions of one Imperial Army,
and though fighting hundreds of miles apart, with a vast desert between
them, they were enabled, through England’s command of the sea, to
afford each other some support. The Mesopotamian Army more than once
sent large forces round by sea to join the army in Palestine, and
Allenby’s victories in Palestine reacted with immense effect upon the
situation in Mesopotamia. It was a signal instance of the influence of
sea power in war, for it did much to neutralise the great advantage
given to Turkey by her central position against her widely-parted
enemies. The two of them, striking separately, yet in a sense together,
from their common base, the sea, overthrew and ruined her.
It was the same sea power that enabled England to make each of them
efficient in itself. Not only did the sea bring them their hundreds of
thousands of fighting men, but the sea brought them everything needed
to let their men fight with success. As to the Mesopotamian campaign,
it was, as its very name implies, a river campaign, and the utilisation
of the Turkish rivers, especially the Tigris, was the first essential
of success. Nothing was so remarkable in all the history of the
campaign as the way in which the Tigris was broken in and transformed
from an almost insuperable obstacle into a great military highway. By
a hard and sustained effort, impossible for any nation but the mistress
of the seas, the turbulent undisciplined river was tamed and enlisted
in the service of the invaders, and its carrying power was increased
nearly a thousandfold. When Maude began his advance, its surface was
swarming with steamboats that had found their way, thanks to the daring
and skill of British seamen, from the Hughli and the Irawadi and the
Thames, until they were numerous enough to carry a large army into
the heart of the Turkish Empire, and to keep it supplied with all the
multitudinous necessities of modern war.
The river steamers were supported by rapidly constructed railways and
roads, and all manner of engineering works; new irrigation channels
were made or ancient channels reopened; many of the wild Arab tribes
were gradually brought to see the advantages of order and service;
crops were raised and gathered; altogether the activities of our people
were innumerable, and the conquest of a country almost as large as the
United Kingdom went hand-in-hand with the measures necessary for making
it prosperous and contented.
What its future will be no one can say. To take over such a country,
with its turbulent population and unsettled frontiers and outlying
responsibilities of many kinds, is a formidable task; but in any case
the conquest of it, from such an enemy as the Turk, was no small
contribution to the work done by the British Empire in the Great War.
It was performed at a distance from England, among scenes unfamiliar to
Englishmen, and, partly owing to Press restrictions, it did not greatly
appeal to the country’s attention, which was naturally enough fixed
upon the progress of the conflict in Europe; but it was none the less
a great achievement, and one of which all concerned in it may well be
proud.
Among those concerned in it was the Regiment whose history forms the
subject of this book, and there remains to be considered now the part
which the Regiment played in the campaign.
The Thirteenth were perhaps fortunate in that they did not come to
Mesopotamia until 1916, when the first half, and the most trying
half, of the Mesopotamian Campaign was over. They had no part in the
earlier fighting, when the British force was small and ill-found, and
its difficulties great. They were spared the troubles and sufferings
endured by the troops who conquered the lower part of the country;
they did not march up with Townshend to the bloody field of Ctesiphon,
or share in the desperate efforts to break through to his relief when
he was shut up in Kut. When they landed at Basra all that was over.
Horrified at the losses and sufferings entailed by its attempt--one of
its customary attempts--to make a small force do the work of a large
one, the nation had suddenly woken up to the needs of Mesopotamia; and,
blaming every one but those chiefly to blame, itself and its statesmen,
was now pouring in without stint Regiments and guns and river steamers
and every kind of war material. It could not bring back to life the
thousands of men sacrificed, or undo the injustice done to some of its
best soldiers, but it was determined that the Mesopotamian force should
for the future fight with reasonable chances of success; and though its
attention was soon diverted again, it certainly made a fine effort, the
result of which was to endure. The Thirteenth came in on the turn of
the tide, and though they had before them two years of hard work and
hard fighting, they were never to know the bitterness of defeat.
Nevertheless the work was severe, and the issue of the fighting was
often doubtful for a time. That it uniformly ended in success, and
eventually in complete triumph, was proof of very high qualities in the
men who led and the men who followed. For the Turk is a stubborn enemy.
He was once acknowledged, by general consent, as the best soldier in
Europe; and if time has deprived him of some of his reputation, it
still stands deservedly high.
As in the Palestine campaign, so in Mesopotamia, the Cavalry found its
chance. There, as in all modern war, it was no doubt the Infantry and
guns which mainly decided the fate of battles; but the Cavalry had much
to do for the armies both before and after battle, in reconnaissance,
in sweeping the country for supplies, in pursuit, and in the turning
movements which at times brought about the enemy’s ruin. Even in the
actual shock of battle they were not wholly excluded from a share of
fighting and honour. Some tributes to the value of their services in
Mesopotamia have already been recorded in earlier chapters. There is
one service which perhaps has not been sufficiently brought out. The
whole plan of General Maude’s attack upon the Turkish army which faced
him on the north bank of the Tigris, when he began his advance in
December 1916, was to push up the south bank, and keep threatening
their rear from that side until they had so extended the line held by
their troops that they were no longer strong enough to hold it all
securely--to prevent his forcing a passage at some point and getting
in behind their main body. As he put it in a letter to General Symons:
“The Turks were very sticky and would not go for a long time, but
we gradually stretched them and stretched them till owing to their
casualties they were much weakened, and then we struck boldly at their
tail across the Tigris. I had been hammering at this for two months,
and the fact that they would not give up Sannaiyat, and consequently
placed themselves in the dangerous position of having a line of
communication in prolongation of their battle front, was their undoing.”
And the Cavalry had much to do with this stretching process. In his
despatch giving an account of the whole advance to Baghdad, General
Maude writes:--
“The work of the Cavalry had been difficult. The flat terrain
intersected with nalas obstructed movement without providing cover, and
the state of the country after heavy rains made progress even for short
distances laborious. The absence of water, too, away from the river,
limited its radius of action. Nevertheless its reconnaissance work and
the blows delivered against the enemy’s communications helped in no
small way to bring about that dissipation of his forces which was so
essential to our success, and the pressure applied after the passage of
the Tigris to the retreating enemy was instrumental in completing his
final rout.”
The Thirteenth, working from their camp on the Hai river, did their
full share of the Cavalry work so described.
During the subsequent march on Baghdad, to quote again General Maude’s
letter to General Symons: “Your old Regiment did splendidly,” and in
the course of it, at Lajj, they had their first chance, while pressing
the pursuit, of delivering a real Cavalry charge, mounted and sword in
hand.
This charge, “a brilliant charge,” as General Maude called it, was
the first of several which have been described in earlier chapters.
At Tekrit, at Kulawand, and at Tuz Kermatli the Regiment got in with
the sword; and if the final onslaught at Hadraniya was made on foot
with the bayonet, it was none the less a hand-to-hand attack, after
a gallop across the open to the foot of the bluff on which were the
Turkish trenches. Nor is an assault with the bayonet less creditable
than a mounted charge. Naturally a Cavalry Regiment will always long
for that, and rejoice in it if it comes; but, as many leading soldiers
have now recognised, Cavalry under present conditions, to be thoroughly
efficient, must be able to fight on foot as well as on horseback. Ever
since the American Civil War this has become clearer and clearer. The
Thirteenth in Mesopotamia, as other Cavalry Regiments in this war,
have in a measure reverted to their old rôle as Dragoons, to whom the
firearm of the Infantry is as familiar as the sword.
Far from lessening the honour due to them, the fact that both at Lajj
and at Hadraniya the Thirteenth showed they could fight either way, is
very much to their credit. There was no lack of the Cavalry spirit.
Their whole inclination was to charge on horseback, sword in hand. But,
if necessary, they could do something more.
To conclude, perhaps the most valuable singly of all the services
rendered by the Cavalry during the campaign, was the one of which the
Hadraniya charge was only a part--namely, the long march round into the
enemy’s rear and the closing of his line of retreat, which led to the
surrender of his whole force. The credit of this daring feat is due
in the first place to Cassels and his own 11th Brigade, but the 7th
Brigade too deserved much credit, for it may be doubted whether without
their timely help Cassels and his men could have held their own against
the repeated and desperate attacks of an enemy so superior in numbers.
Altogether, the Thirteenth Hussars did their duty well from the
beginning to the end of their stay in Mesopotamia, which lasted for
two years and a half. During that time they gained much honour at a
heavy cost. Of their officers, eight were killed in action or died
on service, two were disabled and taken prisoners, and fourteen were
wounded. In other ranks the numbers were 90, 2, and 176. It is an
honourable record.
CHAPTER XXIII.
RETURN TO ENGLAND--CONCLUSION.
The Thirteenth remained in and about Mosul throughout the months of
November and December 1918; but early in January 1919 they were ordered
to return to Baghdad, and marching on the 11th of the month, arrived in
Baghdad on the 29th.
There they remained in camp for some weeks, when the welcome order
was received to embark for England. On the 10th March, the Regiment
went on board a river steamer, and started on their journey down the
Tigris. It was a large vessel, and with them were their old comrades
of the Fourteenth Hussars. Trans-shipping at Basra to the _Etna_, and
at Bombay to the _City of Sparta_, they arrived on the 29th April in
the Mersey, and on the following day went ashore at Liverpool. On the
5th May they marched into the Cavalry Barracks at Aldershot, where they
were to be quartered.
Here this History of ‘The Thirteenth Hussars in the Great War’
naturally comes to an end, for though the war was not formally
concluded, the Regiment was now in England again, and its share in the
military operations was over.
But so much has been written and spoken during the last few years
regarding the value of Cavalry in modern war that, as remarked in the
introductory chapter, it seems desirable, before leaving the subject of
the services performed by the Regiment, to say a few words upon this
question. It is one about which professional soldiers only can have an
opinion of any value, and I therefore confine myself to quoting the
opinion of professional soldiers.
[Illustration: ON THE WAY HOME
THE “CITY OF SPARTA” PASSING A JAPANESE DESTROYER IN THE SUEZ CANAL]
The authorities whose views have been most definitely stated are Lord
Haig, Lord Allenby, and the two Generals who commanded in Mesopotamia,
Maude and Marshall.[61] The last two have been already quoted as to the
Cavalry work in the advance to Baghdad, and beyond. General Allenby has
written as follows regarding the operations in Palestine:--
“The Desert Mounted Corps took some 46,000 prisoners during the
operations. The complete destruction of the VIIth and VIIIth Turkish
armies depended mainly on the rapidity with which their communications
were reached, and on quick decision in dealing with the enemy’s columns
as they attempted to escape. The vigorous handling of the Cavalry by
its leaders, and the rapidity of its movement, overcame all attempts to
delay its progress. The enemy’s columns, after they had out-distanced
the pursuing Infantry, were given no time to reorganise and fight their
way through.”
Of course, the Cavalry did not effect their work alone. General
Allenby says that the breaking of the enemy’s entrenched lines by the
Infantry enabled the Cavalry to accomplish its mission. But this is
no detraction from the merit of either. Both arms did their duty, and
the result, in Palestine as in Mesopotamia, was what Henderson calls
the most important operation of grand tactics--the surrounding and
destruction of an enemy’s army.
General Haig is perhaps the most important witness of all, not only
because of the greatness of his command, but because the Western Front,
with its immense system of trenches, stretching from end to end of the
theatre of war, was the one where Cavalry was at special disadvantage.
In his final despatch, summing up the features of the war, he
deliberately takes up the question, and gives his answer. I quote the
following words:--
”_The Value of Cavalry in Modern War._
“17. From time to time, as the war of position dragged on, and the
enemy’s trench systems remained unbroken, while questions of man-power
and the shortage of shipping became acute, the wisdom or necessity of
maintaining any large force of mounted men was freely discussed. In
the light of the full experience of the War, the decision to preserve
the Cavalry Corps has been fully justified. It has been proved that
Cavalry, whether used for shock effect under suitable conditions, or
as mobile Infantry, have still an indispensable part to play in modern
war. Moreover, it cannot safely be assumed that in all future wars, the
flanks of the opposing forces will rest on neutral states or impassable
obstacles. Whenever such a condition does not obtain, opportunities for
the use of Cavalry must arise frequently.”
General Haig proceeds to justify his opinion by examples, and concludes
with a reference to the position of the British Cavalry on the morning
of the Armistice which closed the war. “There is no doubt that, had
the advance of the Cavalry been allowed to continue, the enemy’s
disorganised retreat would have been turned into a rout.” In fact, the
Armistice deprived the British Cavalry of the certainty of striking, in
the last and greatest of all wars hitherto fought, and in that theatre
of the war where they were at special disadvantage, the most stupendous
blow ever struck by a body of armed horsemen since the history of the
world began.
The British Cavalry consisted of Regiments similar to the Thirteenth
Hussars. The story of such a Regiment is not therefore, as some think,
the story of one unit of an arm which is now useless in war--as
useless, it has been said, as bows and arrows. On the contrary, Cavalry
has proved its usefulness up till now, and we may be sure that in the
near future at all events, whether used on horseback for battle-shock,
or as mobile Infantry, or in any other way of duty, it will still do
good service to its country, as it has done in the past. The Cavalry
spirit, please God, will never die in our people so long as war endures
in the world, nor is there any reason to fear that we shall soon see
the last of the famous squadrons in which that spirit is so gloriously
embodied.
[Illustration: A GROUP OF OFFICERS OF THE REGIMENT TAKEN IN OCTOBER
1920 BY ELLIOTT & FRY
BACK ROW (Left to Right)--Lieut. A. H. WOOD, 2nd
Lieut. H.R.H. PRINCE HENRY, Lieut. W. P. MADGIN,
Lieut. M. C. KENNEDY, Lieut. W. W. N. DAVIES, Lieut.
A. C. HARRINGTON, Lieut. C. F. COLLINS, Lieut, C.
E. C. BOVEY.
SITTING (First Row)--Major and Quartermaster A.
COOKE, Bt. Major H. LL. JONES, D.S.O., Major E. H.
STOCKER, Bt. Lt.-Col E. F. TWIST, Lt.-Col. J. J.
RICHARDSON, D.S.O., Bt. Lt.-Col. T. H. S. MARCHANT,
D.S.O., Capt. J. H. HIND, Capt. J. G. OAKES, Capt.
S. V. KENNEDY, M.C.
SITTING (Second Row)--Lieut. E. V. DUNBAR, Australian
Forces; Lieut. W. H. HILLESS, Australian Forces.]
APPENDIX I.
ROLL OF OFFICERS WHO BELONGED TO OR SERVED WITH THE REGIMENT
BETWEEN AUGUST 1914 AND NOVEMBER 1918.
Lieutenant A. E. Annett.
” R. R. Anson.
” W. G. Baker.
” E. P. Barrett.
” J. L. M. Barrett.
2nd Lieutenant A. C. Barrington.
Lieutenant Hon. J. F. Best.[62]
” J. W. Biggar.
Captain W. E. Bigge (Northumberland Hussars).
Captain W. Blyth.
Lieutenant E. Bristol.
” F. H. Butler.
Major (Bt. Lieut.-Col.) E. J. Carter.
Lieutenant D. A. C. Chamberlain (R.A.M.C.)
2nd Lieutenant G. W. Cheeseman.{62}
Lieutenant J. I. Chrystall, M.C.
” J. O. P. Clarkson.
” B. W. D. Cochrane.
Captain G. G. Collett (R.A.M.C.)
Lieutenant C. F. Collins.
2nd Lieutenant R. C. Constable.{62}
Major and Q.M. A. Cooke.
Rev. H. Cooke, M.C.
Lieutenant E. G. Corner.
Captain F. C. Covell.
Major R. F. Cox.
Lieutenant W. P. Crawford-Greene.
Captain J. Cullenan (R.A.M.C.)
2nd Lieutenant W. W. N. Davies.
Major J. V. Dawson.
2nd Lieutenant H. G. Deerham.{62}
Captain M. H. C. Doll.
Lieutenant G. F. Earle.
” A. J. C. Elkan.
Captain W. A. Elliott (R.A.M.C.)
” J. W. D. Evans (21st Lancers).
” W. H. Eve.
Lieutenant M. R. Farrer.
” H. C. D. FitzGibbon, M.C.
2nd Lieutenant A. H. F. Fletcher.[63]
Lieutenant G. R. Foster.{62}
” C. W. Gardner.
2nd Lieutenant W. R. Gibbons.{62}
Captain D. W. Godfree, M.C. (21st Lancers).
Lieutenant E. Goodman.
” R. Gore.
” C. H. Gowan, M.C.
Major R. S. Hamilton-Grace.
Lieutenant J. Hampson.
2nd Lieutenant W. B. Harrison.{62}
Lieutenant M. G. Hartigan, M.C.
2nd Lieutenant H. R. Hawkins.{62}
Captain R. C. Hill.
Captain J. H. Hind.
Lieutenant J. H. Hirsch.
” E. T. Hollingdale.
Captain A. L. Horner (R.A.V.C.)
” J. E. P. Howey (Bedford Yeomanry).
Captain Lord Huntingfield.[64]
” T. K. Jackson.
” J. A. Jeffrey, M.C.
Lieutenant C. W. Jemmett.
” H. H. Johnson, M.M.
Captain L. C. Johnston (R.A.M.C.)
Major H. Ll. Jones, D.S.O.
Lieutenant H. R. Jones, M.C.
” B. E. H. Judkins.
Major W. A. Kennard, D.S.O.{64}
Lieutenant M. C. Kennedy.
Captain S. V. Kennedy, M.C.
Lieutenant H. G. Keswick.
” F. G. Lawrence.
” T. E. Lawson-Smith.[65]
” A. M. Le Patourel.
” J. A. Lord.
” J. H. Lucas.
Captain J. N. Lumley, M.C.
2nd Lieutenant G. Lynch-Staunton.
Captain H. MacDonald, M.C.
Lieutenant C. A. G. M‘Lagan.
2nd Lieutenant W. Madgin.[66]
Major (Bt. Lieut.-Col.) T. H. S. Marchant, D.S.O.
Captain D. M. Methven (21st Lancers).
Lieutenant R. J. V. Michell.
” N. L. Moon.
2nd Lieutenant H. A. Moore.{66}
Lieutenant J. F. Munster.
Captain N. Neill.[67]
Lieutenant W. G. Newman.
Captain H. G. T. Newton.
Lieutenant D. J. E. Norton, M.C.
” W. J. L. Norwood.
Captain J. O. Oakes.
Lieutenant L. A. Ormrod.
Lieutenant L. Osmond.
” L. G. Owen.
” R. B. Pardon.
” G. H. Parkes, M.C.
Captain F. N. Payne.
Lieutenant W. R. Pearson.
” G. R. Pedder.
Lieut.-Col. W. Pepys.
Lieutenant E. F. Pinnington.
” W. J. C. Pook.
Lieut.-Col. J. J. Richardson, D.S.O.
Lieutenant W. Riley-Smith.
Captain S. O. Robinson.
Lieutenant F. G. Roche (R.A.M.C.)
2nd Lieutenant E. V. Rolfe.
Captain W. G. Rose (R.A.M.C.)
Lieutenant G. R. Russell.
” C. F. Ryder.{66}
Captain A. M. Sassoon, O.B.E., M.C.
” V. H. Seeker (14th Hussars).
Lieutenant T. Shanley.{66}
” P. H. J. Sheil.
2nd Lieutenant A. J. R. M. Sibson.
” R. W. M. G. Smith-Sligo.{66}
Major C. Steele.
Lieutenant D. A. Stirling.
Captain E. H. Stocker.
Lieutenant V. F. Symondson.[68]
Brig.-Gen. A. Symons, C.M.G.
Lieut.-Col. E. F. Twist.
Captain A. Vlasto (R.A.M.C.), M.C.
Lieutenant G. R. Watson-Smyth.
” G. L. M. Welstead.
2nd Lieutenant C. A. Whitchurch.{66}
Lieutenant A. Williams.
Captain B. H. Williams.
Lieutenant T. Williams-Taylor.
” C. A. F. Wingfield.
” A. H. Wood.
Captain E. Wordley (R.A.M.C.)
2nd Lieutenant G. F. Wrigley.
Lieutenant E. Wright.
ROLL OF WARRANT OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, AND MEN, WHO
SERVED WITH THE REGIMENT DURING THE WAR.
Those marked with an asterisk (*) did not serve in Mesopotamia with the
Regiment.
7324 Private Abbott, W.
46265 ” (Sad.) Adams, J.
24407 ” Adams, J. N.
16435 ” Adams, R. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 3,
1917).
321371 ” Adderley, J.
15709 ” Adrian, F.
4721 ” Adrian, H.
21791 ” Aiken, G. N.
10889 ” Akers, G.
11030 ” Alexander, A.
4763 S.S.M. Allan, W. J. (_twice
mentioned in despatches_,
Dec. 29, 1916, and Jan. 4,
1917; gazetted 2nd Lieutenant,
Lincolnshire R., Nov. 3, 1917).
13940 Private Allaway, W.
24483 ” Allen, A.
2336 Lance-Corporal Allidine, F.*
255670 Private Allot, W.
33146 ” Allsop, E.
46238 ” Allston, J. (_mentioned
in despatches_, Aug.
27, 1918).
10659 ” Allum, C. E.
21526 ” Ames, F. T. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
3499 ” Ammon, W.*
27712 ” Amphlett, W. S.
6859 Lance-Corporal Anderson, F.*
4770 Sergeant Anderson, G. (_killed
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
1298 Private (S.S.) Anderson, W.*
15773 ” Andrews, F. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
23136 ” Andrews, J. L. N.
6507 ” Angier, W. B.
(_wounded in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
3884 ” Annand, G.
22369 ” Annibal, G. L.
3939 ” Ansell, J. G.*
1952 ” Ansell, T. S.
16393 ” Archer, F.
10942 Corporal Arlotte, E.*
46187 Sergeant Arnott, W. H.
5720 S.S.Far. Arthur, R.
46220 Private (S.S.) Ashcroft, A.
5574 ” Ashdale, F.*
7815 Lance-Corporal Ashwood, T.
27837 Private Atkins, E.
255951 ” Atkins, F.
3254 Lance-Sergeant Aukett, H.
H. L. (_awarded_ M.M., Dec.
1, 1918).
6613 Private Austin, J.*
4421 Lance-Corporal Austin, V.*
22509 Private Ayres, J. (_wounded in
action_, July 18,
1915).*
16561 ” Bache, H.
325891 ” Baggott, A. E.
16289 Private Baker, A.*
255687 ” Baker, J. E.
2715 ” Baker, W.
3774 F.S.M. Bald, A. (_mentioned
in despatches_, Aug. 27,
1918; _awarded_ L.S. and
G.C. Medal, April 1, 1917).
3130 Private Ball, D.
13660 ” Ball, R. H.
4388 Corporal (S.S.) Ballard,
A. C. W. (_died_ Sept. 27,
1918).
4606 Sergeant Barham, W.
(_wounded in action_, Feb. 4,
1917).
18943 Private Barker, J. H.
(_wounded in action_, Nov. 3,
1917).
46254 Lance-Corporal Barling, F.
8809 Private Barlow, B.
4712 Sergeant Barnard, G. A.
(_wounded in action_, Oct.
29, 1918).
23684 Lance-Corporal Barnfield, E.
32808 Private Barrett, A. S.
46250 Lance-Sergeant Barron, J.
8267 Lance-Corporal Bartlett, F.
(_drowned in Tigris_, Oct.
28, 1918).
3117 Lance-Sergeant Bartlett, W.
G. (_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917)·
19975 Private Bartley, J.
5300 Lance-Sergeant Batchelor, D.
5301 Corporal Batchelor, E.
281957 Private Bath, T.
27888 ” Batten, A.
11694 ” Beadle, A.
3977 Corporal Beadle, W. (_died_,
Mar. 6, 1917, _of wounds
received in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
27907 Private Beales, G.
276662 ” Beales, H. J. (_wounded
in action_, Nov.
3, 1917).
4837 Private Bean, C.*
8138 ” Beaty, W.
2712 ” Beauchamp A.
(_wounded in action_,
Feb. 25, 1917;
_mentioned in despatches_).
32800 ” Beaver, E. F.
(_wounded in action_,
May 10, 1918).
6991 ” Beaver, J.
41218 ” Bedder, E.
24741 ” Beesley, J. (_died_,
May 20, 1917).
6871 Sergeant Bell, E. C. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 25, 1917).
3973 Private Bell, H. (_wounded in
action_, Feb. 25, 1917; _died_
Oct. 30, 1918).
4000 Lance-Corporal Bennett, D.
22761 Private Bennett, S. B.
325228 ” Bennett, W. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 4, 1917).
7566 ” Benoit, F. T.
281959 ” Bent, A.
8564 ” (S.S.) Berry, F.
15652 ” Berry, F. (_wounded
in action_, Dec. 3,
1917).
11959 ” Berry, M. W.
22301 ” Bertwistle, G.
10331 Sergeant Bettis, J. A.
11595 Private Bexon, L.
21481 ” Biddiscombe, A.
10957 ” Biggs, J. H. (_awarded_
M.S.M., Dec. 24,
1918).
8894 ” Birchenough, E.
325383 ” Bird, H. H.
4430 ” Bird, I.*
206277 ” Bishop, A.
301559 ” Blackburn, J. H.
3470 ” Blake, J. G. A.
46209 ” (S.S.) Blanchard, F.
H.
1551 Private Blaney, J.
1130 Corporal (S.S.) Block, R.*
325366 Private Blundell, G. A.
31718 ” Bocking, J.
1357 Lance-Corporal Bolton, W.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
3928 Sergeant Bond, W.
37866 Private Bone, J.
1327 ” Boorman, G.
12910 ” Botfield, E. J.
15605 ” Boulton, W. G.
4600 Lance-Corporal Bowie, G. W.
(_awarded_ D.C.M., Aug. 29,
1917).
32811 Private Bowley, C.
5718 Sergeant Bradley, W.
255016 ” Bradshaw, A.
300436 Private Bramall, H.
9183 Corporal Bray, W.
1150 R.Q.M.S. Brearley, J. (_mentioned
in despatches_, Aug.
14, 1917; _awarded_ D.C.M.,
Aug. 29, 1917; _awarded_
L.S. and G.C. Medal, April
1, 1918).
255770 Private Bree, D.
2711 Sergeant Brencher, L. P.
29343 Private Briston, J.
6893 ” Bristow, W. F.*
41590 ” Britnell, A. L.
3688 S.S.Far. Brockway, G.*
321377 Private Brookshaw, W.
27714 ” Broomfield, F.
(_drowned at sea_,
April 15, 1917).
4112 ” Brown, G. F.
23362 ” Brown, G. W.
1176 ” Brown, J.*
11458 ” Brown, J. G.*
255875 ” Brown, J. L.
24069 ” Brown, N.
8475 Corporal (Sad.) Brown, W. R.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917).
31902 Private Browning, W.
1404 Private Brunton, F.*
24751 ” Buckland, E.
1710 ” Buckley, J.
15801 ” Bullen, E. R.
24739 ” Bullock, T.
7514 Lance-Corporal Burder, H. A.
(_wounded in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
8575 Sergeant Burgess, G.
46196 Lance-Corporal Burgess, J.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
6618 Private Burgess, T.*
6894 ” Burgess, W.
46184 Corporal Burgess, W.
6918 Sergeant Burgess, W. H.
(_wounded in action_, Mar.
5, 1917; _wounded in action_,
May 10, 1918; _awarded_
M.M., June 2, 1918).
9385 Private Burns, J.*
15316 Lance-Corporal Bush, F. K.
22850 ” Bush, J.*
4794 Private Bushell, B. H.
29114 Lance-Corporal Butcher, R. A.
6768 Private Butler, F.*
41251 ” Butler, H.
3259 ” Butters, C.
6262 ” Buttle, W.*
46253 ” Byrne, J. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
453 Sergeant Byrne, P.
13605 Lance-Corporal Calder, J.
32820 Private Callery, T.
6554 ” Calver, F.*
24682 ” Calvert, M.
3433 ” Cameron, D.
595 ” Campbell, P.* _alias_
Devlin, P.
7135 Lance-Corporal Candy, R.*
382 Corporal Carlile, J. H.
3960 Sergeant Carnegie, T.
(_awarded_ M.S.M., April 29,
1917; _awarded_ L.S. and
G.C. Medal, April 1, 1917).
6177 Corporal Carpenter, J. (_mentioned
in despatches_).
11281 Private Carradine, J.*
6913 ” Carter, G.
46246 Lance-Corporal (Tptr.) Carter,
W. P.
9206 Private Cartwright, A.
300025 ” Cartwright, W. A.
285137 ” Cave, N. P.
13516 ” Challiner, H.*
860 ” Chamberlain, A. V.
4509 ” Chambers, H.*
31923 ” Chamley, D.
6519 ” Chapman, J.*
15828 ” Chapman, J. T.*
46205 ” Chapman, P.
1854 ” (S.S.) Chapman, T.*
285444 Lance-Corporal Chaundy, E.
G.
1970 Private Chinery, W. H.
3938 Sergeant Chipperfield, P.
(_died_ Mar. 6, 1917, _of
wounds received in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
3974 Private Chisholm, T.
6427 Sergeant Christie, H.
16094 Private Christie, J. G.*
256498 Lance-Corporal Church, W. G.
5886 R.S.M. Churchhouse, M.*
(gazetted 2nd Lieutenant
Lincolnshire R., June 16,
1915).
1018 Lance-Corporal Clancy, J.
(_wounded in action_, April
27, 1918).
4275 Private Clare, J.
8270 Far.S. Clark, A. E. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
2337 Private (S.S.) Clark, D. W.
6637 Sergeant Clark, S.*
24488 Private Clarke, C.
235368 ” (Tptr.) Clarke, F. J.
W.
276664 ” Clarke, G. W.
1666 ” Clarke, W.*
15594 ” Clarke, W. A.
6759 Private Cleary, E.
3132 Sergeant Clement, J. H.
9009 Private Cleveland, J. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917;
_awarded_ M.S.M., April 29,
1917).
5791 Corporal (Tptr.) Coakes, J.*
10657 Private Cochrane, A. L.*
8769 ” Coker, R. C.
24495 ” Cole, J. (_died_ Mar.
14, 1917, _of wounds
received in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
15846 ” Cole, J. B. G.*
29633 ” Cole, R. G.
46178 Far.Staff-S. Colenutt, A.
(_awarded_ L.S. and G.C.
Medal, Oct. 1, 1918).
4851 Private Coles, S.*
6244 ” Collard, E.
3628 ” Collier, C.
1915 Sergeant Collins, P. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
8395 Private Collins, S.
41414 ” Comery, J.
6084 ” Conolly, T.
9432 ” Conroy, M. C.
24489 Corporal Cook, F.
11165 Private Cook, F. J.
6897 Sergeant Cook, G. (_died_ July
27, 1916).
24753 Private Cook, H.
18130 ” Cook, T. P.
29113 ” Cooke, G.*
4226 ” Cooke, J.
13739 ” Cooper, C. (_wounded
in action_, Oct. 19,
1917).
41111 ” Cooper, J.
5577 Lance-Corporal Corbin, W. G.
(_awarded_ M.M., Nov. 16,
1917).
13599 Private Cordey, H.*
497 ” Cornell, F.
4724 ” Cornish, R.*
5805 ” Corton, C.*
7409 Private Costello, D.
32832 ” Cottrell, F. B.
4504 ” (S.S.) Couch, J. F.
(_awarded_ D.C.M.,
Aug. 29, 1917;
_died_ July 4, 1918).
2351 ” Course, R.*
5815 ” Cox, E. J.
32822 ” Cox, F.
14775 ” Cozens, P.
10939 ” Crabtree, E.
4523 ” Craven, T. S.
(_awarded_ M.S.M.
Dec. 24, 1918).
21486 ” Creene, F. J.
32695 ” Creeper, F. W.
16106 ” Cressey, S. W.*
5801 ” Crocker, S.
5079 ” Croft, G.*
255719 ” Crook, H.
21135 ” Cross, G.
24421 ” Crossinggum, B.
2898 ” Crouch, T. (_killed in
action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
10992 ” Crowder, H.*
6731 ” Cubitt, C. (_awarded_
M.M., June 2,
1918).
24500 ” Culleton, M.
255788 ” Culpin, R.
21532 ” Cumins, S. H.*
18285 ” Cunningham, E.
6473 Sergeant Cunningham, J.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
15, 1917; _awarded_ M.M.,
May 18, 1918).
255640 Private Cuthbert, A. G. V.
27842 ” Cutler, H. J.
21206 ” Danter, C. H.
5513 ” Darby, J.
13176 ” Dardis, R. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
15830 ” Davies, J. W.
21837 Private Davies, W. J.
(_wounded in action_,
Oct. 19, 1917).
9213 ” Davis, H.
16942 ” Davis, H. G. (_killed
in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
6505 ” Davis, R. J.*
10971 ” Davis, W. F.
(_wounded in action_,
Oct. 19, 1917).
2129 Lance-Corporal Day, G. A.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
4, 1917; _wounded in action_,
Nov. 3, 1917).
281974 Private Deamon, E.
4117 Lance-Corporal Debman, S.*
46219 Lance-Sergeant Deeley, H.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
22488 Private Dehner, F.*
3544 ” Delaney, C. (_wounded in
action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
205497 ” Dent, W. D. (_died_
Nov. 15, 1918).
8560 ” Derry, F.
32841 ” Dickens, J.
32838 ” Dimblebee, G.
9221 ” Disley, W.*
32842 ” Dismore, A. H.
23179 ” Dixey, W.
493 Lance-Sergeant Dobbie, C.
9369 Private Dobson, J.
6265 ” Dolton, H.*
520 Corporal (S.S.) Donald, J.
3258 Private Donnachie, W.*
9116 ” Donoghue, J.
(_drowned in Tigris_,
Oct. 28, 1918).
46182 S.S.M. Douthwaite, C. M.
(_mentioned in despatches_,
April 15, 1918).
5528 Private Dowdall, W.
3549 ” Downie, A.*
3491 Private Downie, D. (_died_
Oct. 3, 1916).
9038 ” Doyle, J.
18361 ” Driscoll, J.*
1984 ” Drury, H. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
26444 ” (S.S.) Duckett, F.
24088 ” Duke, S.
2169 ” Dumbrill, G. J.
24073 ” Dutton, B.
11124 Lance-Corporal Dutton, J. C.
21995 Private Dyer, E.
5440 ” Dymock, J. E.
46216 ” Dyne, H. A.
325214 ” Dyson, H.
11899 ” (S.S.) Earl, A.
(_wounded in action_,
May 10, 1918).
41427 ” Earnshaw, A.
798 ” Eaves, J.*
16463 ” Edmunds, R.*
1173 O.R.Q.M.S. Edwardes, E. V.*
9634 Private Edwards, A. C.
46223 R.Q.M.S. Edwards, H. J.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917; _mentioned in
despatches_).
5444 Private Edwards, J.
9199 ” Edwards, W. (_wounded
in action_, Mar.
5, 1917).
3124 ” Ellis, P.
21611 ” Elphick, H. R.*
235756 ” Elsworthy, A.
16845 ” Enstone, C. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
46239 Sergeant Ethell, J. R. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
5447 Private Etherington, A.*
18185 ” Evans, G. G. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
424 ” Ewen, H. M.*
206279 ” (Tptr.) Ewing, R. C.
6957 Private Fahey, F.*
13840 ” Fairbairn, F. (_wounded
in action_, July
18, 1915).
4603 ” Farmer, A.*
11749 ” Farmer, R. S.
3855 S.S.Far. Farnden, H.*
8223 Private Faulkner, R.
321443 ” Fear, C. J.
31943 ” Fegan, J. G.
205407 ” Fendom, A. S.
3252 Lance-Corporal Fenn, S.
32848 Private Fern, W. (_accidentally
drowned_, July 17,
1918).
1530 Lance-Corporal Ferns, E.
9020 Private Fewell, J. E.
7012 Lance-Corporal Field, C.*
6881 Private Field, E.
206290 ” Filewood, F.
18245 ” Finch, F.
255654 ” Fisher, W.
41 Sergeant Fitzpatrick, I.*
46235 Private Flanagan, F.
18343 ” Flindell, D. (_died_
Mar. 6, 1917, _of
wounds received in
action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
2052 ” Flynn, M.*
3925 Corporal Forbes, J.
41598 Private Ford, F. G.
13531 ” Ford, R.
4723 ” Foreman, A.
321448 ” Forsdick, B. H.
2263 Lance-Sergeant Foster, J. H.
(_mentioned in despatches_,
April 15, 1918).
27586 Private Fowler, E.
23463 ” Fox, J.*
3964 Cook Sgt. Francis, A.*
21068 Private Francis, S. H.
5882 ” Francomb, A. W.
(_killed in action_,
Nov. 5, 1917).
46192 Sergeant Fraser, C. J.
8803 Private Free, S. W.
13062 ” Freeman, G. H.
1137 ” Freeman, O.
8119 ” Freeman, W. (_wounded
in action_, Mar.
5, 1917)·
22872 ” French, C.*
3940 ” (Tptr.) French, H.*
32851 ” French, R.
24368 ” Frost, J.
5808 ” Froud, A. G.
5703 Sergeant Frudd, E.*
1828 Cook Sgt. Fryer, E. H.
41678 Private Gabell, A. J.
5072 Sergeant Gage, F. R.
21316 Private Gage, H. J.
6229 ” Gair, W. H.
4004 ” Galbraith, D.
22803 ” Galley, W. G.
5957 Lance-Corporal (Tptr.) Galloway,
A. O.
5612 Private Garrod, E.*
1339 Lance-Corporal Garrod, G. A.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
8268 Sergeant Garrod, S.*
6361 Lance-Corporal Garton, G.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
4852 Lance-Corporal Gates, J.*
32855 Private Geaney, C.
15670 Lance-Corporal Gee, A.
13604 Private Gent, J. H.
3887 ” George, A.*
8392 Lance-Corporal (S.S.) George,
J. (_wounded in action_, April
29, 1918).
11879 Private George, J.*
5802 Lance-Corporal George, R.*
6590 ” George, W.
S. (_died_, Mar. 16, 1917, _of
wounds received in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
24728 Private Gerrard, H. D.
(_wounded in action_, Oct. 29,
1918).
46218 Sergeant Gilbert, W. (_prisoner
of war_, Mar. 5, 1917).
6215 Sergeant Gilbert, W. J.*
325514 Private Giles, H. J.
30555 Sergeant (Tptr.) Gill, S.
(_mentioned in despatches_,
April 15, 1918).
46203 Private Gillies, R.
3545 Lance-Corporal Gilliver, F.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
41255 Private Gilman, C. E.
23199 ” Ginks, G.
2221 ” Girling, F.*
29238 ” Glass, A. W.
3113 ” (Sad.) Glenister, A.
E.
276670 ” Glenn, G.
281980 ” Glew, E.
8552 ” Glover, W.
5417 S.Q.M.S. Goddard, D. F. B.
46199 Sergeant Goddard, E.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917).
4507 Lance-Corporal Gold, A. F.
6471 Sergeant Gold, F.*
276669 Private Goodall, F.
6615 ” Goodland, E. W.
3398 ” Goold, H. H.
24568 ” Goulding, E.
24569 ” Goulding, T.
7612 Lance-Corporal Gowing, C.
H.
4972 Lance-Corporal Grahame, I.
C. J. (_wounded in action_,
Feb. 25, 1917).
4850 Private Grant, J.*
6579 Sergeant Grant, R.*
46240 ” Gray, J. (_mentioned
in despatches_, Aug. 14,
1917; _killed in action_,
Nov. 5, 1917).
13622 Private Gray, W.
32858 ” Green, A.
4426 ” Greene, P. C.
325325 ” Greening, D.
255693 Private Grieff, R.
15736 ” Griffen, H.
32857 ” Griffen, H. H.
1534 ” Griffin, --
15013 ” Griffiths, J. E.
16505 ” Grivell, C. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
46175 ” Groves, J.
13612 Lance-Corporal Gull, F.
24303 Private Gunton, T. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 4,
1917).
24494 ” Guthrie, J. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
7539 ” Gutsell, S.
2004 Far.S. (S.S.) Gutsell, T.
15788 Private Habbitts, W. J.
10168 ” Hack, B. G.
24456 ” Haigh, J.
1128 S.Q.M.S. Haines, J.*
2348 ” Haines, S. B. (_mentioned
in despatches_;
_awarded_ D.C.M.)
21195 Private Haley, E.
46204 ” Hall, E. A.
6263 ” Hall, H.
24449 ” Hall, J.
11416 ” Hall, V.
18198 ” Halstead, C. (_wounded
in action_, Nov.
5, 1917).
4790 Lance-Corporal Ham, G.
2899 ” (Tptr.) Hamilton,
H. A. (_wounded in
action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
301163 Private Hammond, W. (_accidentally
drowned_, June 19,
1918).
6472 Sergeant Hammond, W. J. R.
27700 Private Hancock, T. F.
5808 ” Hanglin, H.*
6708 ” Hannah, I.*
5809 ” Hanslip, W. (_wounded
in action_, May
13, 1915).
19409 Private Harding, F.
22968 ” Harding, H. J.
(_wounded in action_,
Feb. 25, 1917).
13902 ” Harding, J. T.
(_awarded_ M.S.M.)
301071 ” Hardyman, A. C.
24321 ” Harker, T. E.
9277 ” Harman, A.
21238 ” Harris, C. (_wounded
in action_, July 14,
1915; _wounded in
action_, Dec. 5,
1917)
46243 Corporal Harris, E. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
24577 Private Harris, L.
6667 Sergeant Harrison, A. (_killed
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
2270 Private Hart, A.*
1138 ” Hart, G. (_wounded in
action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
46230 Corporal Hart, W.
8799 Private Hartopp, W.
6542 ” Harvey, F. (_wounded
in action_, Oct. 29,
1918).
16791 ” Harvey, J. L. (_wounded
in action_, April
28, 1918).
285650 ” Hatwell, H. J.
1160 ” Haughey, M. J.
16555 Lance-Corporal Hawkes, J. S.
32881 Private Hay, J.
14632 ” Hayden, W. H.
7417 ” Hayes, F.*
2352 Sergeant Hayes, J.
1637 Private Haynes, A.
15680 ” Hayter, C. F.*
32863 ” Hayworth, F. (_died_
Nov. 14, 1918).
510 ” Hazeltine, J. A.
13711 ” (S.S.) Heard, A.
6550 ” Heathman, A. E.
(_wounded in action_,
Feb. 25, 1917).
46227 Private Helme, N.
31946 ” Hembrow, H.
7006 ” Hemmings, H.
6523 Corporal (S.S.) Hemsworth, P.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
425 Corporal Henderson, W.
4234 Private (S.S.) Henley, W.*
4605 ” Henn, W. H.
13001 ” Herbert, P. H. (_killed
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
7846 ” Hetherington, J.
5830 ” Heyburn, G. E.
(_wounded in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
16431 ” Hibbert, A. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
24271 ” Hickingbotham, J.
32872 ” Hickles, G.
13043 ” Higgs, A. F.
24382 ” Higgs, J. W.
8269 S.Q.M.S. Higgs, W.
2897 Sergeant Hill, A. E.
4114 Private Hill, G. A. (_wounded
in action_, Jan. 29,
1917).
9607 ” Hill, H.
10802 R.S.M. Hill, R. C. (gazetted
2nd Lieutenant, Mar. 19,
1916).
1195 Sergeant Hill, W. J. (_mentioned
in despatches_;
_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917; _wounded in
action_, Oct. 29, 1918).
46479 Private Hilton, G. A.
18718 ” Hirons, G. W.
1971 ” Hiscox, S.*
5921 Corporal Hobbs, J. (_died_
Aug. 1, 1916).
46256 S.S.M. Hockey, R. G.
301069 Private Hodder, C. H.
3859 Corporal Hodge, A.
31949 Private Hodge, F.
31950 ” Hogan, J.
16668 Private Hogarth, F. W.
10385 ” Hogben, A. S.*
2653 ” Hogg, A. W. T.
22954 ” Hogg, C.
32865 ” Holbrook, W. J.
32869 ” Holdsworth, J. W.
46226 ” Holland, A. H.
13959 ” Holland, F.
4608 ” Holland, W.
1162 ” Hollaron, J.*
46191 Sergeant Holloway, H. S.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
15, 1917; _mentioned in
despatches_, April 15, 1918).
3978 Sergeant Holloway, R. (_killed
in action_, Oct. 29, 1918).
5306 Private Homer, H. A.
32880 ” Hone, R.
46237 ” Hooper, S.
32879 ” Hopcroft, T. E.
4422 ” Hopkins, A. (_wounded
in action_, Dec.
14, 1916).
24613 ” Horrex, G. A.
8554 ” Howard, H.
4913 Lance-Corporal Howard, J.
(_died_ July 22, 1915, _of
wounds received in action_,
July 22, 1915).
11912 Private Howard, J. S.
301122 ” Howard, O.
256561 Lance-Corporal Howden, H.
5812 Private Howland, S. M.
5305 ” Howlett, S. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 4,
1917).
24051 ” Howlett, T. H.
4148 ” Hows, W. E. (_died_
July 28, 1916).
15779 ” Hubbard, H.
6768 ” Hudson, A. E.
(_wounded in action_,
April 29, 1918).
206282 ” Hudson, B.
46247 Lance-Sergeant Hudson, H.
(_wounded in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
8796 Private Humphrey, E.
(_awarded_ M.M.,
Dec. 1, 1918).
305706 ” Humphrey, H. L.
15572 ” Hunt, C. W.
13616 ” Hunt, W. F. (_died_
July 19, 1915, _of
wounds received in
action_, July 18,
1915).
4113 ” Hunter, E.
32877 ” Hurley, D.
4695 ” Hurn, W.
6543 ” Ives, W.
22420 ” Jackson, G. W.*
255696 ” Jackson, H. W.
8895 ” Jackson, J.*
41457 ” Jackson, J.
24493 ” Jackson, W.
15628 ” Jacobs, I. H.
22967 Lance-Corporal James, E.
(_killed in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
13828 Private James, H.
9021 ” James, S., _alias_
Roberts, H.
13417 ” James-Moore, J. H.
(_awarded_ M.S.M.,
April 29, 1917).
24882 ” Jarrett, S. W.
32884 ” Jasper, F. G. (_killed
in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
18983 ” Jeffrey, J. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
3123 ” Jelley, G.
285607 ” Jiggins, W. F.
255905 ” Johnson, A.
26790 ” Johnson, G.
2717 Sergeant Johnson, J. (_wounded
in action_, March 5,
1917).
9182 Private (S.S.) Johnson, W.
797 ” Johnston, G.*
46255 Sergeant Johnstone, T.
9285 Private Jones, A. (_awarded_
D.C.M., Mar. 5, 1917;
_killed in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
6154 Lance-Corporal Jones, C.*
11626 Private Jones, D. E.
9363 ” Jones, J.
1163 ” Jones, L.
18064 ” Jones, R.*
285674 ” Jones, S.
16995 ” Jones, T. R. (_killed
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
325391 ” Jones, W. G.
3850 ” Jordan, C. W. (_killed
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
9283 ” Jordan, M. (_wounded
in action_, Dec. 17,
1916).
9247 ” Jowett, R.*
255700 ” Jukes, J. E.
13216 ” Kane, M.
13242 ” Keaney, P. (_prisoner
of war_, April 23,
1917).
13460 ” Keely, J.
206283 ” Keeton, G.
41461 ” Kelly, F. E.
7303 ” Kelly, H.*
16533 ” Kemp, J. W.
26448 ” Kendall, R.
6164 Sergeant Kennard, F.
300482 Private Kennings, G.
11936 Lance-Corporal Kennington,
C. H. (_killed in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
3920 Private Kenny, J. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 25, 1917).
46188 Corporal Kent, G. F. S.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
24478 Private Kerr, C. (_wounded in
action_, April 28, 1918).
276631 Lance-Corporal Keyworth,
J. H.
6850 Private Killacky, T. (_died_
July 28, 1916).
6866 ” Killick, A. (_killed in
action_, Feb. 4,
1917).
1200 ” Kimberley, W.
25067 ” King, A.*
2038 ” King, F.
15664 ” King, G. W.
6436 Sergeant King, J.
16228 Private King, W.
23059 ” Kingstone, F. C.
4792 ” Kirby, J. H.
27989 ” Kirby, T. L.
9156 ” Kirk, W. H.
7548 ” Kirkham, J.
11417 ” Kirkham, W.
4976 Lance-Corporal Kitcher, F. C.
(_awarded_ M.M., May 18,
1918).
3126 Sergeant Knapman, H. (_killed
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
24308 Private Knight, A.
9945 ” Knight, B.
281994 ” Knight, L.
11641 ” Knight, W. G.
(_wounded in action_,
May 6, 1918).
4798 ” Kyte, A.*
4799 ” Kyte, F.
46213 Lance-Corporal Lacey, E.
(_wounded in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
46252 Private Ladley, A. E.
26789 ” Laggett, H.*
46172 S.S.M. (Rough Rider) Laing,
H. (_awarded_ L.S. and G.C.
Medal, April 1, 1918).
11973 Private Lamb, W.
2511 Sergeant Lamb, W. F.
16936 Private Lambert, L. J.
4520 ” Landells, D.*
9739 ” Langford, J.
6253 ” Langley, A.
6882 S.S.M. Langley, W. J.
2513 Private Lapham, B.*
24502 Private Lapham, W. E.
2900 ” Larner, J. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
4085 Sergeant Larter, E. L.*
46190 Corporal Lawless, T. G.
22591 Private Lawrence, G. (_wounded
in action_, Feb.
25, 1917).
6899 ” Leddy, F.*
3493 ” Lee, A.*
26309 Lance-Corporal Lee, A.*
6630 Private Lee, F.*
276632 Lance-Sergeant Leeman, W.
(_killed in action_, Oct. 29,
1918).
18749 Private Legge, S. T.
2713 ” Leplea, W.
21528 ” Levy, L. V.
2650 ” (S.S.) Lewin, H.*
2159 ” Lewis, J. W. (_wounded
in action_, Jan.
14, 1917).
11629 ” Liddle, A. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 3,
1917).
4348 Lance-Corporal Lindsey, H.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917; _wounded in
action_, Nov. 5, 1917).
9627 Lance-Corporal Lingley, H.*
3929 Private Linton, J.
32892 ” Little, P. W. (_wounded
in action_, Oct.
29, 1918).
24075 ” Llewellyn, J.
4796 ” Lock, F.*
3858 ” Locker, J. E. H.
6765 ” Lockerty, J.*
22903 Lance-Corporal Lomas, F.
(_awarded_ M.M., June 2,
1918).
6572 Sergeant Long, E. A.*
32893 Private Longstaff, J. G.
22450 Lance-Corporal Lonsdale,
R.*
27616 Private Lovejoy, S. A.
(_drowned at sea_,
April 15, 1917).
1565 ” Lovell, C.*
4609 Lance-Sergeant Lowder, E.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917).
10809 Lance-Corporal (Tptr.) Lowe,
J.
26310 Corporal Luetchford, W. J.
(_wounded in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
9567 Sergeant Luff, H.*
24902 Private Lyman, F. (_killed in
action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
12158 ” M‘Allister, W.
10649 ” M‘Auliffe, J. G.
6240 S.Q.M.S. M‘Bride, F. A.
(_awarded_ D.C.M.)
1183 Private M‘Cardy, P.
13537 ” M‘Cormick, A.
3807 ” M‘Creadie, W. (_died_
Mar. 6, 1917, _of
wounds received in
action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
46207 ” M‘Donald, J.
13224 ” M‘Donnell, M. (_killed
in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
2563 ” M‘Dougall, M.
11253 ” M‘Govern, J. (_wounded
in action_, Mar.
5, 1917).
1809 ” M‘Grath, E.
24900 ” M‘Gregor, E.
11636 ” M‘Ilwrath, J. C.
206284 ” Mack, R. J.
32897 ” M‘Kay, J.
11958 ” (S.S.) M‘Kee, W. F.
5075 ” M‘Kenna, I.*
24845 ” M‘Kenzie, A. E.
11967 ” Mackenzie, J.
13632 ” M‘Kirdy, J.
13099 ” M‘Nulty, P. (_killed in
action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
3439 Private M‘Queen, H. (_wounded
in action_, Feb.
24, 1917).
31956 ” M‘Queen, R. C. B.
(_wounded in action_,
April 29, 1918).
256554 ” Madelin, A.
9339 Acting-Sergeant Madge, C. J.
32909 Private Maggs, H. V.
7066 Lance-Corporal (Tptr.) Maguire,
W. F. (_mentioned in
despatches_).
8372 Private Mahoney, T.*
24886 ” Main, D. (_wounded in
action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
1908 ” Mallindine, J. T.
24082 ” Manby, E. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
13704 ” Mant, A.
27487 ” Markham, H. J.
46179 ” Marney, J. R.
5316 ” Marr, W. J.
6624 ” Marsh, E.*
4797 ” (S.S.) Marsh, F. A.
(_wounded in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
31776 ” (S.S.) Marshall, A. W.
6517 ” Marshall, E.
41003 ” Marshall, P.
9189 Lance-Corporal Martin, F.
(_wounded in action_, July
18, 1915).
32898 Private Martin, J.
5581 ” Martin, W. F.
(_wounded in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
15841 ” Mason, B. F.
13541 ” Mason, R.
6791 ” Mason, Reuben (_killed
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
13106 ” Massey, C.
13112 ” Massey, C. T.
3782 ” Masters, W.*
32907 ” Maton, L.
46224 Sergeant Matthews, W.
(_awarded_ M.M., Nov. 16,
1917; _killed in action_,
April 28, 1918).
41723 Private Matthews, W. J.
46183 S.S.M. Medhurst, A.
22892 Private Mellanby, G. B.
13200 Lance-Corporal Mellor, A.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917; _wounded in
action_, May 10, 1918).
8605 Private Mercer, D.
24735 ” Mercer, L.
15353 ” Messenger, T. J.
7611 Lance-Corporal Metcalfe, I.*
301128 Private Miles, J.
1165 ” Millar, T. A.
206305 ” Millard, W. G.
8588 ” Miller, C. A. (_wounded
in action_, Feb.
25, 1917).
11960 ” Miller, H. H. (_wounded
in action_, Nov.
3, 1917).
3801 Lance-Corporal Miller, T. R.
(_killed in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
24892 Private Millican, S. (_accidentally
shot_, Oct.
27, 1916).
41167 ” Millis, S. H.
1554 ” Mills, H.
23055 ” Mills, J.
8587 ” Minton, E. B.
6643 Corporal Mitchell, G.*
235634 Private Moaby, B.
8232 ” Moggeridge, T.
5811 ” Moir, F. (_wounded in
action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
3128 Corporal Molyneux, F.
3852 Private Montague, F.
18767 ” Moody, G. A.
27853 ” Moon, J.
6880 ” Moore, A.*
281999 ” Moore, A. E.
15630 ” Moore, E.
29866 Private Moore, J.
235344 ” Moore, J.
32908 ” Moore, J. T. T.
6705 Corporal Moore, L. J.
6397 Private Moore, P. (_died_, Nov.
22, 1918).
46228 ” Morgan, A. M.
1664 ” Morgan, P. W.
(_wounded in action_,
Feb. 25, 1917).
1663 ” Morgan, S. G.
3001 ” Morgan, W.*
13135 ” (S.S.) Morrey, J.
5432 ” Morris, E.*
7561 ” Morris, E.
6830 Corporal Morris, J. (_killed in
action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
276679 Private Morris, J. E.
11916 ” Morrison, J. (_prisoner
of war_, Mar. 5,
1917).
3541 ” Morrison, W.*
16961 ” Mortimer, H. H.
(_awarded_ M. M.,
Nov. 16, 1917).
5317 Sergeant Moss, E. E. (_awarded_
M.M.)
24725 Private Moss, J. A.
15746 ” Mothers, C.
46229 Corporal Mott, E.
46211 Private Moule, --
13219 ” Mulcahy, P.
31825 ” Munday, W.
9566 S.S.M. Mushett, E.
32914 Private Nash, T. E.
4857 Lance-Corporal Neal, G. C.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917).
4435 Corporal Neale, A.*
31790 ” Neale, A. C. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
16407 Private New, A. J.*
4171 Corporal Newman, A. S.
(_killed in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
235478 Private Newman, F. A.
6989 Sergeant Newman, M.
31751 Private Newman, W. H.
(_drowned in Tigris_,
Oct. 28, 1918).
11259 ” Newton, B.*
46234 ” (Tptr.) Newton, W. J.
3809 ” Nicholls, J.
27732 ” Noone, W. F.
41566 ” Norledge, F. G.
(_drowned at sea_,
April 15, 1917).
3490 ” Norman, J.*
27798 ” North, L. (_drowned
at sea_, April 15,
1917).
27919 ” Nunney, G. N.
9382 Lance-Corporal O’Connor, J.
(_wounded in action_, Nov. 3,
1917).
11438 Private O’Connor, T. (_wounded
in action_, Feb.
4, 1917).
31835 ” O’Shea, M.
23686 ” Owen, A. (_died_ May
10, 1918, _of wounds
received in action_,
April 29, 1918;
_awarded_ M.M., May
18, 1918).
13090 ” Owen, F.
11633 ” Packer, W. H.
799 Sergeant Page, C. W.
13510 Private Palk, F. R.
4009 ” (S.S.) Pankhurst, J.
(_killed in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
5522 Lance-Corporal Parker, A.*
41492 Private Parker, C.
29857 ” Parker, J. E.
5302 ” Parkes, C.
695 ” Parr, J.*
3924 ” Parsons, A.*
6161 ” Parsons, F. G.
3125 Lance-Corporal Parsons, R.*
32918 Private Parton, J. A.
26121 ” Partridge, W. J.*
18681 ” Pate, A.*
23432 Private Patrick, V. (_wounded
in action_, Oct. 29,
1918).
49091 ” Pay, W. W. (_mentioned
in despatches_).
7009 Corporal Payne, A. E.
32926 Private Payne, C.
1969 ” Payne, F.
15676 ” Payne, R.*
18332 ” Payton, W. J.
7929 ” Pearce, J.
2518 ” Pearson, H.*
206306 ” Pease, S. W.
22518 ” Peet, G. (_wounded in
action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
46249 ” Penny, B.
7927 Far.S. Perkins, F.
24492 Private Perkins, G.
13082 Lance-Corporal Perkins, W.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917).
24138 Private Peronne, B. R.*
26893 ” Perrott, J. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
4527 Corporal (Sad.) Perry, J.
10888 Private Peters, W.
46181 ” Petman, R. D.
24553 ” Petre, W.
3967 ” Pettifor, H.
33312 ” Phelps, H.
31959 ” Phillips, J.
46245 ” Pierce, J.
4420 ” Piggott, J. C. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 1,
1917).
3744 Lance-Corporal Pinner, G.
27471 Private Piper, J. W.
1201 ” Pitman, D. (_killed in
action_, July 12,
1915).
4289 Corporal (Sad.) Plumbly, S.
(_wounded in action_, Dec. 15,
1916).
24988 Private Plumbridge, E. W.
5811 Private Plumridge, C. F.*
(_wounded in action_, Aug.
18, 1915).
5514 Lance-Corporal Poile, W.*
7746 Private Pomeroy, W. H.
(_wounded in action_, Mar.
5, 1917).
26127 ” Pook, A. F.*
46222 S.S.M. Popham, E. L. (_mentioned
in despatches_, Aug. 14,
1917).
235772 Private Pople, C.
6838 Corporal Pople, G. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
6221 Private Porter, R.
6235 ” Posford, C.
46200 S.S.M. Potter, A. (_mentioned
in despatches_, Aug. 14,
1917).
27823 Corporal Potter, S. (_wounded
in action_, April 28, 1918).
6410 Private Powell, W. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 4,
1917; _wounded in
action_, Oct. 29,
1918).
4505 ” Pratt, F. W. (_wounded
in action_, Dec. 17,
1916).
46180 ” Pretsell, J.
240125 ” Price, R.
80 ” Pringle, W.
18089 ” Prior, E. W.
2856 ” Proctor, W.
2341 ” Prosser, A. P.
(_wounded in action_,
Feb. 25, 1917).
4111 ” Pullen, E. L.
13703 ” Pullen, V.*
675 ” (Tptr.) Purchase, J.
29262 ” Purser, A.
24061 ” Purvis, W.
16783 ” Quinney, J.
11991 ” Radford, W. C. N.
1801 ” Raggett, A.*
4405 ” Rainbird, L.
4429 Lance-Corporal Rainbird, W.*
6762 Private Raines, J.
16300 ” Ralls, W. J.
6876 ” Ralph, A. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
4360 ” Randall, F. E.
5319 ” Randell, C.
1167 ” Rapple, T.*
13476 Lance-Corporal Ratcliffe, J.
13436 Private Ratcliffe, R.*
4524 Lance-Corporal Ratty, G.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
8885 Private Ratty, W.
9202 ” Rawbone, S.*
18235 ” Rawlinson, R.
46248 Corporal Rayment, J. W.
423 ” Rayner, G. (_mentioned
in despatches_;
_awarded_ D.C.M., Feb. 1,
1918).
4422 Lance-Corporal Reaves, A. E.
(_wounded in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
24931 Private Reaves, T.
41502 ” Redman, R. G. A.
(_drowned at sea_,
April 15, 1917).
13865 ” Rees, C. V.*
300480 ” Reeves, G.
235876 ” Reeves, W.
11127 ” Reid, C. W.*
2253 Lance-Sergeant Reid, J.
235715 Private Rendle, A. R. C.
205542 ” Revolta, G. R. E.
15784 ” Reynolds, F. G.
(_wounded in action_,
July 18, 1915).
3808 Lance-Sergeant Richards, A.
N. (_awarded_ M.S.M., Oct.
16, 1918).
11436 Private (S.S.) Richards, J.
46187 Sergeant Richardson, A.
22931 Lance-Corporal Richardson,
R. W.
28341 Private Ricketts, W.
46242 Private Ridley, G. E.
206307 ” Risdon, A.
32933 ” Roberts, A.
16278 ” Roberts, F.
9014 ” Roberts, G.*
8076 ” Roberts, J. H.
6166 ” Roberts, J. L.
(_awarded_ D.C.M.,
1917; _died_ April
10, 1917, _of
wounds received
in action_, April 8,
1917).
7821 Corporal Roberts, W. H.
(_wounded in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
11911 Private Robertson, J.
8551 ” Robertson, N.
1198 ” Robins, F.
31771 ” Robinson, W. H.
11504 Lance-Corporal Rochester,
L. M.
27991 Private Rockcliffe, F. W.
32939 ” Rogers, F. R.
1947 ” Rogers, H.
4118 Sergeant Rogers, J. H. (_mentioned
twice in despatches_;
_awarded_ M.S.M., Dec. 24,
1918).
32937 Private Rogers, W.
276683 ” Rook, E.
1361 ” Rostron, J.
31960 ” Rowley, L. (_wounded
in action_, April 28,
1918).
206114 ” Rubins, H.
2936 ” Russell, G.
9045 ” Ryan, M. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
9191 Lance-Corporal Ryder, J. W.
27739 Private Salter, W. A.
49118 ” Sambrook, T. W.
32954 ” Sampson, C. P.
6170 ” Saunders, E.
1188 Lance-Corporal Saunders, J.
25010 Private Savill, A. G.
10656 ” Sawyer, F. J.
41804 ” Sawyer, J. G.
(_drowned at sea_,
April 15, 1917).
4343 Lance-Corporal (Tptr.) Scarr,
C. H. T.
11937 Private Schofield, L. B.
3704 ” Schubert, H.
1426 ” Schubert, J. (_died_
July 26, 1916).
4570 ” Scobell, --
5970 ” Scott, A. C.
46197 ” Scott, J.
4342 ” Scott, S. A.
13567 ” Scott, W. J.
1576 ” Seagull, G. A.
24316 ” Searing, H.
10972 ” Searle, E.
26261 ” Sebiour, F.
9026 ” Seekins, H.
46186 R.S.M. Seekins, S. (_awarded_
M.C., Feb. 7, 1918).
1189 Corporal Sexton, L.
6753 Private Shadgeth, H.*
41785 ” Shannon, J.
5785 ” Shaw, A. J. (_wounded
in action_, May 6,
1918).
24071 ” Sheen, W. (_wounded in
action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
321441 ” Shepherd, S. W.
4344 ” Sheppard, J. O.
32964 ” Sheppard, T. G.
32955 ” Sherlock, S.
5585 ” Shoebridge, J.
6202 ” Shorter, A. E.
(_wounded in action_,
Feb. 1, 1917).
46241 Lance-Corporal Shrimpton,
W. J.
5734 Sergeant Sidwell, W. V.
46185 Private Sims, W. H.
751 Lance-Corporal Singleton,
J. E.
32963 Private Sinnott, H.
282017 Private Sisson, J. M.
285535 ” Slatter, J. H.
4858 ” Slaughter, W.*
30441 ” Slavin, R. (_drowned
at sea_, April 15,
1917).
255710 ” Sleath, F. A.
46231 Corporal Smith, A.
46206 Private Smith, A. C.
655 Sergeant (Sad.) Smith, B.*
9024 Private Smith, C. J.
46221 Sergeant Smith, C. W.
(_wounded in action_, Feb. 4,
1917).
5582 Private Smith, E. H.
3855 ” Smith, G.
6249 ” Smith, H.*, _alias_
Parsons.
5606 Corporal (S.S.) Smith, J.*
2058 Private Smith, J.*
5803 ” Smith, J. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
8294 ” (S.S.) Smith, J.
(_wounded in action_,
Feb. 4, 1917).
41524 ” Smith, J. W.
7037 ” (S.S.) Smith, P.
276688 ” Smith, S. (_died_
Oct. 8, 1918).
5572 ” Smith, T.
10252 ” Smith, T. S.
531 ” Smith, W.*
41669 ” Smith, W. J.
(_drowned at sea_,
April 15, 1917).
24355 ” Smith-Mutlow, P.
6392 ” Smithers, J. (_mentioned
in despatches_).
256178 ” Snell, A. S.
301229 ” (S.S.) Snell, G.
4105 ” Soley, A.
32944 ” Solomon, E.
18825 ” Soper, R. (_died_
July 27, 1916).
256557 Private Souter, G.
46212 Lance-Sergeant Spanton, F.
(_prisoner of war_, Mar. 5,
1917).
2174 Private Sparrow, A. (_wounded
in action_, Feb. 1,
1917).
32960 ” Spear, F.
24363 ” Spenceley, T. J.
10861 Sergeant Spencer, F.
8050 Private Spicer, C.*
6010 Lance-Corporal (Tptr.) Spicer,
J. A. (_killed in action_, Mar.
5, 1917).
5315 Private Spicer, W. E.
3851 Sergeant Spokes, H. S.
5512 Private Stacey, W.*
6608 ” Stamp, W. G.
5573 ” Stannett, G.
46173 S.S.Far. Stanton, W. (_mentioned
in despatches_).
2207 Lance-Corporal Starbrook,
W. D.
282027 Private Starbuck, F.
13470 ” Steedman, P.
6217 ” Steer, F. (_accidentally
killed_, Feb. 9,
1916).
5721 Corporal Stent, C. J.
4115 Private Stephens, E.*
23500 ” Stephens, W. P.
6495 ” Stephenson, F. (_died_
Dec. 19, 1917).
2901 Lance-Corporal Stevens, J.
(_mentioned in despatches_,
Aug. 14, 1917; _awarded_
D.C.M., Aug. 29, 1917).
23537 Private Stevens, W. G.
7009 Sergeant Stevenson, E.*
5586 Private Steward, H. W.
(_wounded in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
4939 Lance-Corporal Stewart, J.*
29236 Private Stewart, W. A. E.
10970 Lance-Corporal Stillwell, F.
24680 Private Stobbs, H.
1190 Acting-Sergeant Stoneham,
D. (_wounded in action_,
July 18, 1915).
13583 Private Stoneman, S. H.
18206 ” Stones, J. L. K.
(_killed in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
16213 ” Strange, C. A.
8765 ” Strange, G. E.
4859 Sergeant Strawbridge, S. G.
(_awarded_ D.C.M., Aug. 26,
1918).
46225 Private Street, H. J.
3620 ” Stroud, G.
9039 ” Stubbs, R. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
24490 ” Sturgess, J.
2135 Lance-Corporal Styles, F.
16808 Private Styles, H.
10722 Sergeant (Tptr.) Styles, J.
(_killed in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
6624 Lance-Corporal Sullivan, --*
46166 Private Swaddling, J.
26138 ” Swindell, W.
3702 Lance-Corporal Swindle, F.
49090 Private Sykes, T.
256531 ” Sykes, T.
26039 Corporal Taber, A.
27902 Private (S.S.) Tait, A.
3715 S.Q.M.S. Tarr, S. (_awarded_
M.S.M.)
16508 Private Tarr, W. G. (_died_
July 27, 1916).
255891 ” Tarry, G.
46194 S.Q.M.S. Tassie, W. D.
(_awarded_ D.C.M., Feb. 11,
1917).
19433 Private Tatner, J. G. (_wounded
in action_, April 29,
1918).
1998 Lance-Sergeant Taylor, A.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
1871 Private Taylor, A. F.
13900 Private Taylor, A. J.*
15661 ” Taylor, B. G.
18475 ” Taylor, C. E. (_wounded
in action_, Dec.
17, 1916; _wounded
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917;
_wounded in action_, Nov. 5, 1917).
3127 Lance-Sergeant Taylor, J. A.
796 Lance-Corporal Taylor, M.
9218 Private Teague, P. J. (_died_
Sept. 25, 1918).
6514 S.Q.M.S. Tegg, F. J. (_killed
in action_, Nov. 5, 1917).
9479 Private Tell, N. E.
3515 R.Q.M.S. Tennant, G. F.
18737 Private Terry, A. E.
4428 Sergeant Tetheridge, W. H.
(_awarded_ D.C.M., Nov. 16,
1917).
11642 Private Thackray, G. (_killed
in action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
27566 ” Thatcher, A.
325624 ” Thatcher, C.
46208 Corporal Thomas, F.
(_wounded in action_, Feb.
25, 1917).
24897 Private Thomas, H. G.
1562 ” Thomas, W.*
3804 Corporal Thomas, W. H. W.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
206170 Private Thomason, F.
8220 ” Thompson, G.
13419 ” Thompson, J.*
24726 ” Thompson, J. W.
(_wounded in action_,
May 10, 1918).
3883 ” Thomson, W. (_died_
Nov. 6, 1917, _of
wounds received in
action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
4703 S.Q.M.S. Thomson, W. K.
(_died_ July 25, 1916).
10989 Private Thorne, A. E.*
32971 ” Thornell, S. V. (_died_
May 8, 1918, _of
wounds received in
action_, May 6,
1918).
31992 ” Thornton, J.
27644 ” Thornton, T.
3002 Lance-Corporal Thorogood,
G.*
9044 Private Thorpe, J.*
276691 ” Thorpe, J. W.
7918 ” Thrackay, B.
41539 ” Thresher, W.
3494 ” Thursbly, C. B.
20705 ” Thurston, T.
11553 ” Tilling, S.*
32968 Lance-Corporal Tindale, J.
13692 Private Tindle, W. H. (_killed
in action_, May 3,
1917).
5309 ” Tipper, W.*
3853 ” Titmus, A.*
23138 ” Tolman, S. F.
235403 ” Tombs, H. H.
3131 ” Tooke, A. E.
9286 Lance-Corporal Tookey, E. F.
27808 Private Towers, B.
10887 Corporal Townsend, J.
(_wounded in action_, May
10, 1918).
11254 Private Tracey, J. (_killed in
action_, July 12,
1915).
5439 ” Trafani, A. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
7549 ” Tranter, R. (_wounded
in action_, Oct. 29,
1918).
13978 ” Treanor, J.
33313 ” Tribe, E.
6596 ” Trowbridge, F.*
13832 ” Tucker, E.
11139 ” Tucker, J. P.
205691 ” Tull, V.
22535 Private Tunnicliffe, J. (_killed
in action_, Nov. 3,
1917).
3129 ” (S.S.) Tuppin, T.*
13685 ” Turner, C.
5074 ” Turner, E.
8218 ” Turner, E. Y. (_wounded
in action_, Feb.
25, 1917).
13474 ” Turner, G.
9145 ” Turner, G. T.
15619 Lance-Corporal Turner, H. E.
(_mentioned in despatches_)
27910 Private Turner, J.
2992 ” Turner, T.
5861 ” Turpin, B. G.
206158 ” Tutte, E.
26806 ” Twigg, D. (_killed in
action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
21527 Lance-Corporal Tyler, L. I.
13529 Private Ullock, W.*
235489 ” (S.S.) Vaughan, A. S.
(_wounded in action_,
May 10, 1918).
235451 ” Vaughan, R.
4855 ” Venning, J.
4424 Lance-Sergeant Venning, J. C.
(_wounded in action_, Dec. 14,
1916).
6248 Sergeant Vernon, W.
8224 Private Vickers, J. (_died_ Nov.
6, 1918).
1171 ” Vigus, F. G.
4003 Acting-Sergeant Vile, W. H.
6915 Lance-Corporal Vinall, A.
(_awarded_ D.C.M.; _died_ Oct.
31, 1918, _of wounds received
in action_, Oct. 29, 1918).
7394 Private Vincent, J. H.
4491 Lance-Corporal Viner F.
(_awarded_ M.M., Dec. 1,
1918).
5516 Private Viney, A. V. (_wounded
in action_, Nov. 5,
1917).
3232 Private Wade, G.
2357 ” Walker, A.
18347 ” Walker, S.
276623 ” Wall, C. N.
4529 ” Wallace, J.*
22635 ” Waller, E.
3786 Lance-Corporal Waller, H.*
9568 Private Walley, W.*
5303 ” Wallhead, A. (_killed
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
4423 ” Walmsley, F.
26067 ” Walsh, M.
15861 ” Walters, S.
2116 Arm.S.S. Walton, H.
5453 Private Ward, A.*
24863 ” Ward, A. J. F.
(_wounded in action_,
Nov. 5, 1917).
5912 Sergeant Ward, B. J.
(_awarded_ M.S.M.)
281934 Corporal Wardle, S.
4107 Sergeant Ware, H.*
41665 Private Warner, S. B.
6582 ” Warner, W. J.
27755 ” Watchman, A. E.
11514 ” Watkins, A. H.
9192 Lance-Corporal Watkins, A.
W. (_wounded in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917; _awarded the_
D.C.M., Aug. 29, 1917;
_mentioned in despatches_,
Aug. 14, 1917).
46214 Private Watson, H.
1938 ” Way, F. W.
20919 ” Wearing, W.
16847 ” Webb, A.
1548 Lance-Corporal Webb, A. F.
(_wounded in action_, Feb. 1,
1917).
5614 Private Webb, C. A.
16517 ” Webb, F.
18727 ” Webb, H. J.
6378 ” Webber, G.*
16707 ” Webber, W.
276624 Private Webster, W. W.
23453 ” Wedd, A.
24435 ” Welch, A.
10982 ” Wells, A. V.
9234 Lance-Corporal Went, A.*
32976 Private Wernham, J.
4922 ” West, W. W.
2177 ” Westall, F.*
5551 Sergeant Westbrook, A.
(_wounded in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
325502 Private Westbury, A.
15683 Sergeant Westerman, R. A.
(_awarded_ M.S.M., Dec. 24,
1918).
6746 Private Weston, A.*
23501 ” Wheatcroft, P.
10646 ” Wheatley, A. W.*
27481 ” Whebby, G. H.
4900 Sergeant Wheeler, A.
1907 Lance-Corporal White, E.
6247 Private White, E. J.
16441 ” White, H. N.
2282 ” White, H. W.
21954 ” White, J.
1148 ” White, S.*
1416 ” Whitelock, S. D.
5433 Lance-Corporal Whitington,
F. (_awarded_ M.M., Dec. 1,
1918).
9282 Private Whitmore, C.*
9227 ” Whitney, W.
2519 ” Whittington, W.
9279 Lance-Corporal Whittle, J.
(_wounded in action_, April 8,
1917).
3710 Sergeant Whyte, R.*
15087 Private Wickham, W. F.
(_wounded in action_,
Feb. 25, 1917).
206298 ” Wilkins, W. L.
4349 ” Wilkinson, F.*
24614 ” Williams, D. G.
(_wounded in action_,
Nov. 5, 1917).
276627 Private Williams, E.
2256 ” Williams, G.
13120 ” Williams, J.
31990 ” Williams, J.
24756 ” Williams, W. J.
3350 Sergeant Willis, J.
30615 Private Willis, J.
6956 ” Willoughby, P.*
41778 ” Wilson, D. J.
13061 ” Wilson, F. (_wounded
in action_, Mar. 5,
1917).
7464 ” Wilson, J.
3501 Sergeant Wiltshire, T.
10965 Private Wimpey, W. A.
2902 ” Winfield, J. W.
1192 ” Winter, F. (_wounded
in action_, Oct. 29,
1918).
6493 ” Wiseby, A. W.
46202 S.S.M. Wood, S.
205786 Private Woodhead, F.
27440 ” Woodland, W. J.
1172 ” Woods, J.
8228 Lance-Corporal Woollaston,
A.*
282045 Private Woolley, L.
8240 ” Wordley, C.
7003 Private (Tptr.) Wren, F M.
(_died of wounds_,
Mar. 5, 1917, _received
in action_,
Mar. 5, 1917).
13611 ” Wren, P. (_wounded in
action_, Mar. 5, 1917).
6604 Lance-Corporal Wright, D. C.
(_wounded in action_, Feb. 4,
1917; _awarded_ M.S.M.,
April 29, 1917).
10668 Private Wright, F.*
24907 ” Wright, F.
18363 ” Wright, H. C.
1753 ” Wright, L.*
2710 ” Wright, W.*
573 S.S. (Sad.) Wykes, W.
206086 Lance-Corporal Wyncoll, C.
H. A. (_mentioned in despatches_).
8352 Private Yates, T. W.
13614 ” Yelverton, D.
2200 Corporal (Sad.) Youells, J. W.
(_wounded in action_, Feb. 25,
1917).
2042 Private Young, H. (_died_ May
11, 1918).
26955 ” Young, J. A. G.*
APPENDIX II.
CASUALTIES.
_All the casualties occurred with the Regiment unless otherwise stated_
OFFICERS.
KILLED.
Lieutenant T. E. Lawson-Smith Near Messines Nov. 1, 1914.
(With 11th Hussars.)
Captain Norman Neill At Zwarteleen Nov. 6, 1914.
(Brigade-Major, 7th British
Cavalry Brigade.)
2nd Lieutenant J. F. Munster At Shumran Bend Feb. 4, 1917.
Captain William H. Eve At Lajj Mar. 5, 1917.
2nd Lieutenant G. Lynch-Staunton ” ”
” E. V. Rolfe ” ”
” J. O. P. Clarkson Near Jaffer’s Tomb Mar. 10, 1917.
(Attached 16th M.G. Squadron,
7th Cavalry Brigade.)
Captain S. O. Robinson At Tekrit Nov. 5, 1917.
” H. Macdonald, M.C. At Amadia, Kurdistan July 14, 1919.
(Assistant Political Officer.)
DIED OF WOUNDS.
Captain H. A. de P. O’Kelly. At Meteren May 19, 1915.
(With 18th Hussars.)
OTHER CAUSES.
Brevet Major R. S. Hamilton-Grace. At Burgues Aug. 4. 1915.
(Result of a motor accident,
G.S.O. 2nd Hqs. Cav. Corps.)
Captain H. G. T. Newton In River Tigris April 25, 1917.
(Accidentally drowned.)
Captain F. Norman Payne At Baghdad Nov. 14, 1917
(Cholera. Staff Captain to
Military Governor, Baghdad.)
Major W. A. Kennard, D.S.O. At Etaples Dec. 1918.
(Of Pneumonia.)
WOUNDED.
Brevet Major H. Ll. Jones, D.S.O. In France. Oct. 28, 1914.
(With 4th Dragoon Guards.)
Lieutenant B. H. Williams ” Oct. 31, 1914.
(With 11th Hussars.)
Lieutenant G. R. Watson-Smyth Near Lillers July 14, 1915.
” M. H. C. Doll Near Authuille Sept. 11, 1915.
Captain S. O. Robinson. At Shumran Bend Feb. 4, 1917.
Lieutenant T. Williams-Taylor ” ”
” J. A. Lord At Imam Mahdi Feb. 25, 1917.
Lieut.-Colonel J. J. Richardson, D.S.O. At Lajj Mar. 5, 1917.
Brevet Lieut.-Colonel E. F. Twist. ” ”
Brevet-Major J. V. Dawson ” ”
Lieutenant G. L. Welstead ” ”
” G. R. Pedder ” ”
” H. C. D. FitzGibbon, M.C. Near Deli Abbas April 8, 1917.
2nd Lieutenant C. A. G. M‘Lagan At Tuz Kermatli April 21, 1918.
” G. R. Russell. At Hadraniyeh Oct. 29, 1918.
Captain J. W. D. Evans. ” ”
(21st Lancers) Attached.
WOUNDED AND PRISONERS.
Lieutenant E. F. Pinnington At Lajj Mar. 5, 1917.
” T. Williams-Taylor At Tekrit. Nov. 5, 1917.
OTHER RANKS.
KILLED.
_France._
11254 Private J. Tracey At Noyelles les Vermelles July 12, 1915.
1201 ” D. Pitman ” ” ”
_Mesopotamia._
6866 Private A. Killick At Shumran Bend Feb. 4, 1917.
26806 ” D. Twigg At Imam Mahdi Feb. 25, 1917.
16942 ” H. G. Davis ” ”
10722 Sergeant J. S. Styles At Lajj Mar. 5, 1917.
(Tptr.)
4770 ” G. Anderson ” ”
3126 ” H. Knapman ” ”
6667 ” A. Harrison ” ”
6830 Corporal J. Morris ” ”
22967 Lance-Corporal E. James ” ”
11936 ” C. H. Kennington ” ”
3801 ” T. R. Miller ” ”
6791 Private Reuben Mason ” ”
11642 ” G. Thackray ” ”
2898 ” T. Crouch ” ”
9285 ” Alfred Jones, D.C.M. ” ”
13099 ” P. M‘Nulty ” ”
16995 ” T. R. Jones ” ”
13692 ” W. H. Tindle ” ”
13001 ” P. H. Herbert ” ”
5303 ” A. Wallhead ” ”
3850 ” C. W. Jordan ” ”
24902 ” F. Lyman ” ”
4009 ” J. Pankhurst (S.S.) ” ”
18206 ” J. L. K. Stones ” ”
22535 ” J. Tunnicliffe Near Daur Nov. 3, 1917.
46240 Sergeant J. Gray At Tekrit Nov. 5, 1917.
4171 ” A. S. Newman ” ”
5882 Private A. W. Francomb ” ”
46224 Sergeant W. Matthews, M.M. At Tuz Kermatli April 28, 1918.
3978 ” R. Holloway At Hadraniyeh Oct. 29, 1918.
276632 Lance-Sergeant W. Leeman ” ”
DIED OF WOUNDS.
13616 Private W. F. Hunt At Nœux les Mines. July 19, 1915.
4913 Lance-Corporal J. Howard In France July 22, 1915.
7003 Private F. M. Wren (Tptr.) In Mesopotamia Mar. 5, 1917.
3977 Corporal W. Beadle ” Mar. 6, 1917.
3938 Sergeant P. Chipperfield ” ”
3807 Private W. M‘Creadie ” ”
18343 ” D. Flindell ” ”
24495 ” J. Cole ” Mar. 14, 1917.
6590 Acting Corporal W. S. George ” Mar. 16, 1917.
6166 Private J. L. Roberts, D.C.M. In Mesopotamia April 10, 1917.
3883 ” W. Thomson ” Nov. 6, 1917.
32971 ” S. V. Thornell ” May 8, 1918.
23686 ” A. Owen, M.M. ” May 10, 1918.
6915 Corporal A. Vinall, D.C.M. ” Oct. 31, 1918.
DEATHS ACCEPTED FOR OFFICIAL PURPOSES.
6010 Tptr. J. A. Spicer At Lajj Mar. 5, 1917.
6514 S.S.M. F. J. Tegg At Tekrit Nov. 5, 1917.
13224 Private M. M‘Donnell ” ”
32884 ” F. G. Jasper ” ”
DROWNED IN THE RIVER TIGRIS DURING OPERATIONS.
31751 Private W. H. Newman At Hadraniyeh Oct. 28, 1918.
8267 Lance-Corporal F. Bartlett ” ”
9116 Private J. Donoghue ” ”
OTHER CAUSES.
6217 Private F. Steer At Le Plouy, France Feb. 9, 1916.
4703 S.Q.M.S. W. K. Thomson At Basrah July 25, 1916.
1426 Private J. S. Schubert ” July 26, 1916.
6897 Sergeant G. Cook ” July 27, 1916.
16508 Private W. G. Tarr ” ”
18825 ” R. Soper At Makina ”
6850 ” T. Killacky At Basrah July 28, 1916.
4148 ” W. E. Hows ” ”
5921 Corporal J. Hobbs ” Aug. 1, 1916.
3491 Private D. Downie ” Oct. 3, 1916.
24892 ” S. Millican Accidentally shot at Oct. 27, 1916.
sea, “H.T.” _Huntsgreen_
27798 ” L. North At sea, “H.T.” April 15, 1917.
_Cameronia_
41566 ” F. G. Norledge ” ” ”
41699 ” W. J. Smith ” ” ”
41502 ” R. G. A. Redman ” ” ”
27616 ” S. A. Lovejoy ” ” ”
27714 ” F. Broomfield ” ” ”
30441 ” R. Slavin ” ” ”
41804 ” J. G. Sawyer ” ” ”
24741 ” J. Beesley At Baghdad May 20, 1917.
6495 ” F. Stephenson In Mesopotamia Dec. 19, 1917.
2042 ” H. Young ” May 11, 1918.
301163 ” W. Hammond In River Tigris June 19, 1918.
4504 Private J. F. Couch, D.C.M. At Chaldari July 4, 1918.
(S.S.)
32848 ” W. Fern ” July 17, 1918.
9218 ” P. J. Teague In Mesopotamia Sept. 25, 1918.
4388 Corporal A. C. W. Ballard At Baghdad Sept. 27, 1918.
(S.S.)
276688 Private S. Smith In Mesopotamia Oct. 8, 1918.
3973 ” H. Bell At Basrah Oct. 30, 1918.
8224 ” J. Vickers In Mesopotamia Nov. 6, 1918.
32863 ” F. Hayworth At Baghdad Nov. 14, 1918.
205497 ” W. D. Dent ” Nov. 15, 1918.
5397 ” P. Moore ” Nov. 22, 1918.
WOUNDED.
21238 Private C. Harris Nœux Les Mines July 14, 1915.
22509 ” J. Ayres ” July 18, 1915.
13840 ” F. Fairbairn ” ”
9189 Lance-Corporal F. Martin ” ”
15784 Private F. G. Reynolds ” ”
1190 Acting Sergeant D. Stoneham ” ”
5811 Private C. F. Plumridge ” Aug. 18, 1915.
4422 ” A. Hopkins Kalahaji Fahan Dec. 14, 1916.
4424 Lance-Corporal J. G. Venning ” ”
4289 Sad. Corporal S. Plumbly Atab Dec. 15, 1916.
9283 Private M. Jordan Bassouia Dec. 17, 1916.
4505 ” F. Pratt ” ”
18475 ” C. E. Taylor ” ”
2159 ” J. W. Lewis Sheik Suliman Jan. 14, 1917.
4114 ” G. A. Hill Bassouia Jan. 29, 1917.
4420 ” J. C. Piggott Reconnaissance, Feb. 1, 1917.
Bassouia
6202 ” A. E. Shorter ” ”
2174 ” A. Sparrow ” ”
1548 ” A. F. Webb ” ”
4606 Sergeant W. Barham Shumran Bend Feb. 4, 1917.
2129 Lance-Corporal G. A. Day ” ”
24303 Private T. Gunton ” ”
11438 ” T. O’Connor ” ”
6410 ” W. Powell ” ”
46221 Sergeant C. W. Smith ” ”
8294 Lance-Corporal (S.S.) J. Smith ” ”
6604 Lance-Corporal D. C. Wright ” ”
6473 Sergeant J. Cunningham Nahr Massag Feb. 15, 1917.
46191 ” H. S. Holloway ” ”
3439 Private H. M‘Queen Imam Mahdi Feb. 24, 1917.
3117 Lance-Sergeant W. G. Bartlett ” Feb. 25, 1917.
2172 Private A. Beauchamp ” ”
6871 Sergeant E. C. Bell ” ”
3973 Private H. Bell ” ”
8475 Corporal Sad. W. R. Brown ” ”
13176 Private R. Dardis ” ”
1984 ” H. Drury ” ”
46223 S.S.M. H. J. Edwards ” ”
46199 S.Q.M.S. E. Goddard ” ”
4972 Lance-Corporal I. C. J. Grahame ” ”
16505 Private C. Grivell ” ”
22968 ” H. J. Harding ” ”
1138 ” G. Hart ” ”
6550 ” A. E. Heathman ” ”
1195 Sergeant W. J. Hill ” ”
3920 Private J. Kenny ” ”
46213 Lance-Corporal E. Lacy ” ”
22591 Private G. Lawrence ” ”
4348 Lance-Corporal H. Lindsey ” ”
4609 Sergeant E. Lowder ” ”
13200 Lance-Corporal A. Mellor ” ”
8588 Private C. A. Miller ” ”
4857 Lance-Corporal G. C. Neal ” ”
31790 Corporal A. C. Neale ” ”
13082 Lance-Corporal W. Perkins ” ”
2341 Private A. P. Prosser ” ”
6876 ” A. Ralph ” ”
7821 Lance-Corporal W. H. Roberts ” ”
5803 Private J. Smith ” ”
46208 Corporal F. Thomas ” ”
8218 Private E. Y. Turner ” ”
15087 ” W. F. Wickham ” ”
2200 Corporal Sad. J. W. Youells ” ”
21526 Private F. T. Ames Lajj Mar. 5, 1917.
6507 ” W. B. Angier ” ”
1357 Lance-Corporal W. Bolton ” ”
46196 ” J. Burgess ” ”
6918 Sergeant W. H. Burgess ” ”
8270 Farrier Sergeant A. E. Clark ” ”
9009 Private J. Cleveland ” ”
1915 Sergeant P. Collins ” ”
46219 ” H. Deeley ” ”
9199 Private W. Edwards Lajj Mar. 5, 1917.
16845 ” C. Enstone ” ”
46239 Sergeant J. R. Ethell ” ”
18185 Private G. G. Evans ” ”
8119 ” W. Freeman ” ”
1339 Lance-Corporal G. A. Garrod ” ”
6361 Lance-Corporal G. Garton ” ”
3545 ” F. Gilliver ” ”
24494 Private J. Guthrie ” ”
2899 Lance-Corporal (Tptr.) ” ”
H. A. Hamilton
46243 Corporal E. Harris ” ”
6523 ” (S.S.) P. Hemsworth ” ”
5830 Private G. E. Heyburn ” ”
2717 Sergeant J Johnson ” ”
46188 Corporal G. F. S. Kent ” ”
2900 Private J. Larner ” ”
11253 ” J. M‘Govern ” ”
24886 ” D. Main ” ”
4979 ” (S.S.) F. A. Marsh ” ”
5581 ” W. F. Martin ” ”
5811 ” F. Moir ” ”
1664 ” W. P. Morgan ” ”
22518 ” G. Peet ” ”
26893 ” J. Perrott ” ”
7746 ” W. H. Pomeroy ” ”
6838 Corporal G. Pople ” ”
4524 Lance-Corporal G. Ratty ” ”
9045 Private M. Ryan ” ”
24071 ” W. Sheen ” ”
1998 Lance-Sergeant A. Taylor ” ”
18475 Private C. E. Taylor ” ”
3804 Corporal W. H. W. Thomas ” ”
5439 Private A. Trafani ” ”
9192 Lance-Corporal A. W. Watkins ” ”
5551 Sergeant A. Westbrook ” ”
13061 Private F. Wilson ” ”
13611 ” P. Wren ” ”
9279 ” J. Whittle Deli Abbas April 8, 1917.
13739 ” C. Cooper Kurdarrah River Oct. 19, 1917.
21837 ” W. J. Davies ” ”
10971 ” W. F. Davis ” ”
16435 ” R. Adams Tekrit Nov. 3, 1917.
18943 ” J. H. Barker ” ”
276662 ” H. J. Beales ” ”
2129 Lance-Corporal G. A. Day Tekrit Nov. 3, 1917.
11629 Private A. Liddle ” ”
11960 ” H. H. Miller ” ”
9382 Lance-Corporal J. O’Connor ” ”
3973 Private H. Bell ” Nov. 4, 1917.
325228 ” W. Bennett ” ”
5305 ” S. Howlett ” ”
15773 ” F. Andrews ” Nov. 5, 1917.
7514 Trumpter H. A. Burder ” ”
46253 Private J. Byrne ” ”
3544 ” C. Delaney ” ”
18198 ” C. Halstead ” ”
16431 ” A Hibbert ” ”
46247 Lance-Sergeant H. Hudson ” ”
18983 Private J. Jeffrey ” ”
4348 Lance-Corporal H. Lindsey ” ”
26310 Corporal W. J. Luetchford ” ”
24082 Private E. Manby ” ”
4422 Lance-Corporal A. E. Reaves ” ”
5586 Private H. W. Steward ” ”
9039 ” R. Stubbs ” ”
18475 ” C. E. Taylor ” ”
5516 ” A. V. Viney ” ”
24863 ” A. J. F. Ward ” ”
24614 ” D. G. Williams ” ”
15652 ” F. Berry Chai Khana Dec. 3, 1917.
21238 ” C. Harris ” Dec. 5, 1917.
1018 Lance-Corporal J. Clancy Khastradalah or Tuz April 28, 1918.
16791 Private J. L. Harvey ” ” ”
24478 ” C. Kerr ” ” ”
27823 Corporal S. Potter ” ” ”
31960 Private L. Rowley ” ” ”
8392 Lance-Corporal (S.S.) J. George ” ” April 29, 1918.
6768 Private A. E. Hudson ” ” ”
19433 ” J. G. Tatner ” ” ”
31956 ” R. C. B. M‘Queen ” ” May 1, 1918.
1164 ” W. G. Knight Kirkuk May 6, 1918.
5785 ” A. J. Shaw ” ”
32800 ” E. F. Beaver Daramah May 10, 1918.
6918 Sergeant W. H. Burgess ” ”
11899 Private (S S.) A. Earl ” ”
13200 Lance-Corporal A. Mellor ” ”
24726 Private J. W. Thompson ” ”
10887 Corporal J. Townsend ” ”
235489 Private (S.S.) A. S. Vaughan ” ”
4712 Sergeant G. Barnard Hadraniyeh Oct. 29, 1918.
24728 Private H. D. Gerrard Hadraniyeh Oct. 29, 1918.
1195 Sergeant W. J. Hill ” ”
32892 Private P. Little ” ”
23432 ” V. Patrick ” ”
6410 ” W. Powell ” ”
7549 ” R. Tranter ” ”
1192 ” F. Winter ” ”
6542 ” F. Harvey Crossing Ford at ”
Hadraniyeh
PRISONERS OF WAR.
46218 Sergeant W. Gilbert Lajj March 5, 1917.
46212 Lance-Sergeant F. Spanton ” ”
11916 Private J. Morrison ” ”
13242 ” P. Keaney Dishdari April 23, 1917.
APPENDIX III.
HONOURS AND REWARDS.
_Companion of the Bath._
Brig.-General J. T. Wigan.
_Companion of St Michael and St George._
Brig.-General J. T. Wigan.
Colonel Sir A. Leetham.
” A. Symons.
_Commander of British Empire._
Brig.-General W. C. Smithson, D.S.O.
Lieut.-Colonel H. Phillips.
Colonel H. J. Blagrove.
_Distinguished Service Order._
Brig.-General J. T. Wigan.
” E. A. Wiggin.
Lieut.-Colonel J. J. Richardson.
Bt. Lieut.-Colonel T. H. S. Marchant.
” J. G. Rees.
Bt. Colonel W. Pepys.
Bt. Major H. Ll. Jones.
Captain W. A. Kennard.
_Bar to Distinguished Service Order._
Lieut.-Colonel J. J. Richardson.
Bt. Lieut.-Colonel J. G. Rees.
_2nd Bar to Distinguished Service Order._
Bt. Lieut.-Colonel J. G. Rees.
_Member of British Empire._
Lieutenant R. C. Hill.
_Military Cross._
Captain C. C. Dangar.
” J. N. Lumley.
” D. W. Godfree, 21st Lancers (_attd._)
Lieutenant A. M. Sassoon.
” S. V. Kennedy.
” J. A. Jeffrey.
” J. I. Chrystall.
” D. J. E. Norton.
” H. C. D. FitzGibbon.
” H. R. Jones.
” M. G. Hartigan.
” B. H. Williams.
” C. H. Gowan.
2nd Lieutenant H. MacDonald.
” G. H. Parkes.
46186 R.S.M. S. F. Seekins.
_Legion of Honour (French)._
Brig.-General E. A. Wiggin, D.S.O.
Bt. Major R. S. Hamilton-Grace (_deceased_).
” H. Ll. Jones, D.S.O.
_Croix de Guerre (French)._
Lieut.-Colonel J. J. Richardson, D.S.O.
Lieutenant D. A. Stirling.
_Silver Medal for Military Valour (Italian)._
Lieutenant H. C. D. FitzGibbon, M.C.
_Distinguished Service Medal (American)._
Captain F. C. Covell.
_St Stanislaus, 2nd Class (Russian)._
Brig.-General A. H. M. Taylor, D.S.O.
Lieut.-Colonel H. Phillips.
_Order of St Anne, 3rd Class (Russian)._
Captain H. E. Spencer.
_Order of Star of Roumania (with Swords)._
Major (Bt. Lieut.-Colonel) E. J. Carter.
Errata
Page 363. 4504. _For_ “Crouch” _read_ “Couch.”
_Order of the White Eagle, 5th Class with Swords (Serbia)._
Lieut.-Colonel J. H. Tremayne, D.S.O.
_Distinguished Conduct Medal._
46194 S.Q.M.S. W. D. Tassie.
9285 Private Alfred Jones (_killed in action_).
4600 Acting Corporal G. W. Bowie.
1150 S.S.M. J. Brearley.
4504 S.S. J. F. Couch (_deceased_).
6166 Private J. L. Roberts ”
2901 Lance-Corporal J. Stevens.
9192 ” A. W. Watkins.
4428 Sergeant W. H. Tetheridge.
4859 ” S. G. Strawbridge.
423 Corporal G. Rayner.
6915 ” A. Vinall (_died of wounds_).
6240 S.Q.M.S. F. A. M‘Bride.
2348 ” S. B. Haines.
_Military Medal._
46224 Sergeant W. Matthews (_killed in action_).
5577 Lance-Corporal W. G. Corbin.
16961 Private H. H. Mortimer.
6473 Sergeant J. Cunningham.
4976 Lance-Corporal F. Kitcher.
23686 Private A. Owen (_died of wounds_).
6731 ” C. Cubitt.
6918 Sergeant W. H. Burgess.
22903 Corporal F. Lomas.
3254 Sergeant H. H. L. Aukett.
8796 Private E. Humphrey.
4491 Lance-Corporal F. Viner.
5433 Corporal F. Whitington.
5317 Sergeant E. E. Moss.
_Meritorious Service Medal._
3960 Sergeant T. Carnegie.
9009 Private J. Cleveland.
13417 ” J. H. James-Moore.
6604 Lance-Corporal D. C. Wright.
3715 R.Q.M.S. S. Tarr.
3808 Lance-Sergeant A. N. Richards.
4523 Sergeant T. S. Craven.
10937 Private J. H. Biggs.
46198 S.Q.M.S. B. J. Ward.
4118 Sergeant J. H. Rogers.
15683 ” R. A. Westerman.
13902 Private J. T. Harding.
9714 Sergeant W. Holden.
_Bronze Medal for Military Valour (Italian)._
46200 S.S.M. A. Potter.
15619 Lance-Corporal H. E. Turner.
_Croix de Virtute Militara, 2nd Class, for Bravery (Roumanian)._
46258 Private J. Allston.
_Medaille Barbatie se Credente, 3rd Class (Roumanian)._
4523 Sergeant T. S. Craven.
MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES.
[69]Colonel A. Symons, C.M.G.
[70]Lieut.-Colonel J. J. Richardson, D.S.O.
[71]Bt. Lieut.-Colonel E. F. Twist.
{69}Major R. F. Cox.
{69}Captain A. M. Sassoon, M.C.
Major (Bt. Lieut.-Colonel) F. G. Bayley.
Brig.-General J. T. Wigan, D.S.O.
{69}Captain S. O. Robinson (_killed in action_).
Bt. Major C. Steele.
Captain J. N. Lumley, M.C.
” J. A. Jeffrey, M.C.
Acting Captain C. H. Gowan, M.C.
Lieutenant J. L. M. Barrett.
” J. I. Chrystall, M.C.
” A. Williams.
” D. A. Stirling.
” G. L. Welstead.
” B. H. Williams.
Major and Quartermaster A. Cooke.[71]
Lieut.-Colonel W. Pepys.
Major T. R Farquhar.
Captain and Quartermaster R. W. F. Ashworth.
{69}Bt. Major R. S. Hamilton-Grace (_deceased_).
{71}Major W. A. Kennard, D.S.O.
{71}Bt. Major H. Ll. Jones, D.S.O.
{71}Bt. Lieut.-Colonel T. H. S. Marchant, D.S.O.
Captain S. V. Kennedy, M.C.
Lieutenant M. H. C. Doll.
Captain D. W. Godfree, M.C., 21st Lancers (_attd._)
Lieutenant A. Le Patourel.
Captain J. H. Hind.[72]
{71}Bt. Lieut.-Colonel J. G. Rees, D.S.O.
46223 R.Q.M.S. H. J. Edwards.
1150 S.S.M. J. Brearley, D.C.M.
46222 ” E. L. Popham.
46200 ” A. Potter.
46240 Sergeant J. Gray (_killed in action_).
9192 Lance-Corporal A. W. Watkins, D.C.M.
2901 ” J. Stevens, D.C.M.
[73]4118 Sergeant J. H. Rogers.
46258 Private J. Allston.
3774 Far.S.M. A. Bald.
46182 S.S.M. C. M. Douthwaite.
2263 Sergeant J. Foster.
30555 Sergeant-Trumpeter S. Gill.
46191 Sergeant H. S. Holloway.
2348 S.Q.M.S. S. B. Haines.
423 Corporal G. Rayner.
46173 Acting F.Q.M.S. W. Stanton.
206086 Lance-Corporal C. H. A. Wyncoll.
6177 Corporal J. Carpenter.
6392 Private J. Smithers.
1195 Sergeant W. J. Hill.
7066 ” W. M‘Guire.
15619 Corporal H. E. Turner.[73]
4763 S.S.M. (A/R.S.M.) W. J. Allan (11th Hussars).
2712 Private A. Beauchamp.
49102 ” (A./Farr.-Sergeant) W. W. Pay (attached R.A.V.C.)
PROMOTION.
Lieut.-Colonel A. Symons, C.M.G. Brevet Colonel.
Major E. F. Twist Brevet Lieut.-Colonel.
” T. H. S. Marchant, D.S.O. ”
Captain R. S. Hamilton-Grace (_deceased_) Brevet Major.
Major E. J. Carter Brevet Lieut.-Colonel.
” F. G. Bayley ”
Captain H. Ll. Jones, D.S.O. Brevet Major.
” C. Steele ”
” H. E. Spencer ”
” J. V. Dawson ”
” J. G. Rees, D.S.O. Brevet Lieut.-Colonel.
Lieutenant and Quartermaster A. Cooke Hon. Captain.
Hon. Major.
Captain and Quartermaster R. W. F. Ashworth ”
APPENDIX IV.
OFFICERS WHO LEFT INDIA FOR FRANCE WITH THE REGIMENT ON 17TH
NOVEMBER 1914.
Lieut.-Colonel A. Symons, _Commanding_.
Major R. F. Cox.
” T. H. S. Marchant.
Captain W. H. Eve.
” C. Steele.
” J. N. Lumley, _Adjutant_.
Lieutenant H. G. T. Newton.
” A. M. Sassoon.
” S. V. Kennedy.
” J. V. Dawson.
” J· A. Jeffrey.
” G. R. Watson-Smyth.
2nd Lieutenant R. Gore.
” M. C. Kennedy.
” J. L. M. Barrett.
” A. E. Annett.
” C. H. Gowan.
” J. I. Chrystall.
Lieutenant and Quartermaster A. Cooke, Quartermaster.
Other Ranks, 499.
ATTACHED.
Captain A. L. Horner, A.V.C.
” G. G. Collett, R.A.M.C.
THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS WERE IN ENGLAND AT THE OUTBREAK OF WAR AND
REJOINED THE REGIMENT ON THE DATES AGAINST THEIR NAMES.
Lieut.-Colonel J. J. Richardson, D.S.O. May 1, 1915.
Bt. Lieut.-Colonel E. F. Twist December 18, 1914
Temporary Lieut.-Colonel W. Pepys ” ”
” ” E. J. Carter ” ”
Bt. Major H. Ll. Jones, D.S.O. June 22, 1915.
Captain J. H. Hind December 20, 1914.
” S. O. Robinson July 26, 1915.
” J. O. Oakes June 21, 1915.
THE FOLLOWING SERVING OFFICERS WERE ATTACHED TO UNITS OTHER THAN THE
REGIMENT.
Major W. A. Kennard, D.S.O. Northumberland Hussars.
Bt. Major R. S. Hamilton-Grace Staff of 2nd Cavalry Brigade.
” H. Ll. Jones, D.S.O. 4th Dragoon Guards (13th Hussars,
June 22, 1915).
Captain E. H. Stocker Staff of Yeomanry Brigade.
” N. Neill Staff of 7th B. Cavalry Brigade.
” J. H. Hind 2nd Life Guards (13th Hussars,
December 20, 1914).
” S. O. Robinson 5th Dragoon Guards (13th Hussars,
July 26, 1915).
” J. O. Oakes 11th Hussars (13th Hussars,
June 22, 1915).
Lieutenant T. E. Lawson-Smith 11th Hussars.
” C. A. F. Wingfield 2nd Life Guards (13th Hussars,
January 2, 1915).
” V. F. Symondson 11th Hussars, and R.A.F.
” G. R. Pedder 11th Hussars (13th Hussars, January
2, 1915).
THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS WHO HAD LEFT THE REGIMENT REJOINED THE
REGIMENT OR OTHER UNITS AS FOLLOWS.
Brig.-General E. A. Wiggin, D.S.O. Commanding Mounted Brigade.
” A. H. M. Taylor, D.S.O. Commanding London Mounted Brigade.
Brig.-General T. T. Wigan, C.B., Commanding Yeomanry Brigade.
C.M.G., D.S.O.
” W. C. Smithson, C.B.E., Commanding 2nd Line Mounted
D.S.O. Brigade.
” E. N. Pedder Commanding 2nd Line Mounted
Brigade.
” C. Williams Commanding Mounted Brigade.
Colonel Sir F. Maclean Special Appointment.
” Sir A. Leetham War Office.
” H. J. Blagrove, C.B. Commanded Prisoners of War Camp.
Lieut.-Colonel H. Phillips Special Appointment.
” A. W. B. Spencer Tank Corps.
” W. Pepys, D.S.O. 5th Dragoon Guards, Yorkshire
Hussars, and Tank Corps.
Bt. Lieut.-Colonel F. G. Bayley E.S.O.
” ” J. G. Rees, D.S.O. Welsh Horse.
Major J. F. Church 1st Indian Field Squadron, Indian
Cavalry Corps.
” H. E. Spencer 11th Hussars.
” E. W. Denny, D.S.O. Brigade Major, Yeomanry Brigade.
” J. H. Tremayne, D.S.O. Derbyshire Yeomanry.
” F. H. Wise (_deceased_) Remount Department.
” H. J. Jeddere-Fisher Queen’s Regiment.
” J. C. Metcalfe (_killed in action_) Cheshire Regiment.
Captain C. C. Dangar, M.C. (_deceased_) 12th Reserve Cavalry Regiment,
E.E.F.
” Hon. M. F. S. Howard 8th Hussars.
” G. Halswelle 1st Life Guards.
” J. D. Lyons Royal Horse Guards.
” E. W. M‘Arthur 12th Reserve Cavalry Regiment.
” H. A. de P. O’Kelly (_killed in_ 18th Hussars.
_action_)
” S. Wybrants Brigade Major, Yeomanry Brigade.
” R. W. F. Ashworth Adjutant, No. 1 Base Remount Depot.
” T. K. Jackson 11th Hussars, 13th Hussars,
December 18, 1914.
” G. H. Hodgkinson Staff Captain, Yeomanry Brigade.
” L. S. Battye Bristol Cavalry Depot.
” G. Rupert Special Appointment.
” Lord Huntingfield 3rd Reserve Cavalry Regiment.
” R. H. J. M. Bolton 3rd Reserve Cavalry Regiment.
Lieutenant W. V. Holt 3rd Signal Squadron R.E.
” B. H. Williams 11th Hussars, 13th Hussars,
December 18, 1914.
” E. W. Anderson (_killed in_ Scottish Rifles.
_action_)
” H. Norfolk (_killed in action_) Worcester Yeomanry.
THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS OF THE SPECIAL RESERVE THIRTEENTH HUSSARS
JOINED THE REGIMENT AS FOLLOWS.
Lieutenant M. H. C. Doll from Dec. 18, 1914, to May 1, 1917.
” H. C. D. FitzGibbon, M.C. ” April 11, 1916, ” Nov. 11, 1918.
” F. C. Covell ” Feb. 3, 1916, ” June 27, 1916.
” B. E. H. Judkins ” June 2, 1916, ” Sept. 15, 1916.
” J. A. Lord ” Dec. 28, 1916, ” June 24, 1917.
” N. L. Moon ” Feb. 6, 1916, ” July 18, 1916.
” J. F. Munster (_killed in_ ” Feb. 3, 1916, ” Feb. 4, 1917.
_action_)
2nd Lieutenant H. G. Keswick ” May 5, 1917, ” Nov. 11, 1918.
” C. A. G. M‘Lagan ” Dec. 22, 1917, ” April 28, 1918.
” B. W. D. Cochrane ” Nov. 18, 1917, ” Jan. 11, 1918.
THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS OF OTHER UNITS JOINED THE REGIMENT FOR DUTY.
Captain G. G. Collett R.A.M.C.
” A. L. Horner R.A.V.C.
” J. Vlasto, M.C. R.A.M.C.
” D. M. Methven 21st Lancers.
” D. W. Godfree, M.C. ”
” J. W. D. Evans ”
” W. E. Bigge Northumberland Hussars.
” J. E. P. Howey Bedford Yeomanry.
” V. H. Secker 14th Hussars.
” E. Wordley R.A.M.C.
” W. A. Elliott ”
” W. G. Rose ”
” J. Cullenan ”
Lieutenant L. C. Johnston ”
” F. G. Roche ”
” D. A. C. Chamberlain ”
The Rev. H. R. Cooke, M.C. A.C.D.
THE FOLLOWING TEMPORARY OFFICERS WERE ATTACHED TO THE THIRTEENTH
HUSSARS AND JOINED THE REGIMENT.
Lieutenant E. Bristol December 18, 1914.
” J. W. Biggar May 24, 1917.
” W. P. Crawford-Greene July 27, 1915.
” G. F. Earle March 12, 1917.
Lieutenant A. C. J. Elkan August 17, 1917.
” M. G. Hartigan, M.C. February 19, 1917.
” H. R. Jones, M.C. May 5, 1917.
” C. W. Jemmett October 17, 1917.
” A. Le Patourel March 12, 1917.
” R. J. V. Michell March 26, 1916.
” H. MacDonald, M.C. November 12, 1917.
” W. J. L. Norwood February 16, 1918.
” W. G. Newman November 23, 1918.
” L. J. Owen May 5, 1917.
” L. Osmond November 12, 1917.
” G. H. Parkes, M.C. January 9, 1918.
” W. C. J. Pook February 16, 1918.
” W. R. Pearson October 25, 1915.
” R. B. Pardon December 23, 1916.
” E. F. Pinnington February 19, 1917.
” P. H. J. Shiel March 12, 1917.
” E. Goodman June 2, 1918.
” H. H. Johnson, M.M. December 19, 1917.
” F. G. Lawrence March 29, 1918.
” M. R. Farrer February 27, 1918.
” F. H. Butler December 19, 1917.
2nd Lieutenant F. Norman Payne (_deceased_) December 23, 1916.
” E. V. Rolfe (_killed in action_) February 19, 1917.
” R. R. Anson December 23, 1916.
” J. H. Lucas January 9, 1918.
” E. P. Barrett February 10, 1918.
” G. R. Russell February 27, 1918.
” E. Wright March 7, 1918.
” W. G. Baker June 2, 1918.
” C. W. Gardner. May 1, 1918.
” E. T. Hollingdale June 2, 1918.
” E. G. Corner June 18, 1918.
” G. Lynch-Staunton (_killed in_ February 21, 1917.
_action_)
THE FOLLOWING COMMISSIONED OFFICERS JOINED THE REGIMENT DURING THE WAR.
Captain D. J. E. Norton, M.C. July 28, 1915.
Lieutenant C. A. F. Wingfield August 12, 1914.
” J. H. Hirsch October 14, 1915.
” D. A. Stirling October 14, 1915.
” L. A. Ormrod December 18, 1914.
” T. Williams-Taylor October 16, 1915.
” W. Blyth, D.C.M. August 27, 1915.
” A. Williams February 4, 1916.
Lieutenant R. C. Hill March 19, 1916.
” G. L. M. Welstead February 21, 1917.
” J. Hampson February 21, 1917.
2nd Lieutenant J. O. P. Clarkson (_killed in_ October 25, 1915.
_action_)
” A. H. Wood April 6, 1918.
” C. F. Collins April 6, 1918.
” A. C. Barrington February 19, 1919.
” A. J. R. M. Sibson February 19, 1919.
” W. W. N. Davies February 19, 1919.
During the period of the War--_i.e._, from August 4, 1914, to November
11, 1918--108 officers and 1348 other ranks did duty with the Regiment.
APPENDIX V.
All Saints’ Garrison Church, Aldershot.
2nd AUGUST 1920.
Service held at the
DEDICATION AND UNVEILING OF THE MEMORIAL TABLET
In Memory of the Officers, N.C.O.’s, and Men of the 13th Hussars who
gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918.
“=Dead March=” (_Chopin_).
OPENING SENTENCES.
I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord; he that believeth
in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and
believeth in Me, shall never die. (John xi. 25, 26.)
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends. (John xv. 13.)
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, From henceforth
blessed are the dead that die in the Lord: even so, saith the Spirit,
for they rest from their labours.
[Illustration:
(_Photograph by Gale and Polden Ltd., Aldershot_)
THE MEMORIAL TABLET IN ALL SAINTS’ GARRISON CHURCH, ALDERSHOT
DEDICATED AND UNVEILED, 2ND AUGUST 1920]
PSALM XXIII.
_Dominus regit me._
1. The Lord is my Shepherd: therefore can I lack nothing.
2. He shall feed me in a green pasture: and lead me forth beside the
waters of comfort.
3. He shall convert my soul: and bring me forth in the paths of
righteousness, for His Name’s sake.
4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil: for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me.
5. Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me:
Thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.
6. But Thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
(_Gloria._)
THE LESSON.
WISDOM iii. 1-6.
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall
no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die;
and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be
utter destruction: but they are in peace. For though they be punished
in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having
been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded; for God proved
them and found them worthy for Himself. As gold in the furnace hath He
tried them, and received them as a burnt-offering.
HYMN.
“Fight the good fight.” (A.M. 540.)
PRAYERS.
Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence
in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are
delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; We
give Thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleased Thee to take our
brethren into Thy merciful keeping: beseeching Thee that we, with
all those that are departed in the true faith of Thy Holy Name, may
have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in
Thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
AMEN.
Almighty God, we commend to Thy loving kindness the souls of Thy
servants, the men of this Regiment, whom we now commemorate before
Thee. Accept, O Lord, the offering of their self-sacrifice, and grant
to them with all Thy faithful servants a place of refreshment and peace
where the light of Thy countenance shines for ever, and where all tears
are wiped away; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Comfort, O Lord, we pray Thee, all who are mourning the loss of those
near and dear to them. Be with them in their sorrow. Support them with
the knowledge of Thy love. Teach them to rest and lean on Thee. Give
them faith to look beyond the troubles of this present time, and to
know that neither life nor death can separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom with the Father and the Holy
Ghost be all honour and glory, now and for ever. AMEN.
THE GRACE.
Rehearsal of the Names of those to be Commemorated.
Unveiling Ceremony.
By Lieut.-Col. J. J. RICHARDSON, D.S.O., Commanding 13th
Hussars.
Dedication of the Memorial Tablet.
By the Rev. F. I. ANDERSON, C.M.G., S.C.F., C. of E.,
Aldershot, Chaplain to the King.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, we
dedicate this Memorial to the glory of God, and in memory of the Men
of this Regiment who have fallen in the great War. May their example
inspire us to courage in the greater war against all evil. May their
memory ever burn brightly in those who here or elsewhere remember their
deeds, and, strengthened by their fellowship, look forward to reunion
with them in the inheritance of the saints in light.
We give Thee thanks, O Lord, Father Almighty, for all those Thy
servants who waxed valiant in fight and wrought righteousness, and
counting not their life dear unto themselves, laid it down for their
friends; and we pray Thee that, having fought a good fight and finished
their course with joy, they may rejoice evermore with them that have
come out of great tribulation, and, having washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb, stand before Thy Throne and serve
Thee day and night for ever; through Him that overcame and is set down
on Thy Throne, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee
and the Holy Ghost now and ever and world without end. AMEN.
The Address.
Most merciful Father, Who hast been pleased to take unto Thyself the
souls of those whom we now commemorate before Thee, grant unto us who
are still in our pilgrimage and who walk as yet by faith that, having
served Thee with constancy on earth, we may be joined hereafter with
Thy blessed saints in glory everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
AMEN.
THE LORD’S PRAYER.
THE BENEDICTION.
The Lord grant to us, together with all His faithful servants, rest and
peace in Christ Jesus our Lord. AMEN.
The National Anthem.
The Last Post by Massed Trumpeters.
HYMN.
O GOD, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home;
Beneath the shadow of Thy Throne
Thy Saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine Arm alone
And our defence is sure.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home. AMEN.
Reveille by Massed Trumpeters.
APPENDIX VI.
REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS.
Thirteenth Hussars Association.
92 VICTORIA STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. 1.
TELEPHONE: 3708 VICTORIA.
_Cheques and Postal Orders to be made payable to the Secretary,
Thirteenth Hussars Association, and crossed Cox & Co._
_Secretary_--
MISS FLORENCE CROSS.
_President_--
LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR ROBERT BADEN-POWELL, BART., K.C.B., C.V.O.
* * * * *
The objects of the Association are:--
To relieve distress amongst ex-men of the Regiment or their
dependants.
To assist and advise them as to establishing themselves in civil
life on discharge from the Army.
To advise them with regard to the care and education of their
children.
To help them or their families to obtain hospital or convalescent
treatment when required.
To provide a centre in London to which they may apply when in need
of help or advice.
The Association is controlled by a Committee composed of past and
present officers and non-commissioned officers of the Regiment, and all
applications made to it are treated as confidential.
Application may be made either personally or by letter to the Secretary
at the above address.
Donations and Subscriptions to the Funds of the Association will be
gratefully received, and should be sent to the Secretary.
Thirteenth Hussars Old Comrades Association.
This Association--originally called the “Old Comrades Dinner Club”--was
formed in accordance with a suggestion made at a meeting held at the
Office of the 13th Hussars Association, on Saturday, 1st March 1913,
under the Presidency of Lieut.-Colonel E. A. Wiggin, when a large
number of past and present officers of the Regiment were present, also
a good number of late N.C.O.’s and men. A committee was formed, and it
was decided to start a Club of Old Comrades of the Regiment under the
title of “The Old Comrades Dinner Club,” for the purpose of holding an
Annual Dinner.
The Annual Dinner is held on the fourth Saturday in October.
All retired officers, non-commissioned officers, and men whose
addresses are known have been invited to enrol themselves as members.
Men of the Regiment of good character on taking their discharge are
eligible for election, and are requested to send their names and
addresses to the Hon. Secretary.
The Annual Subscription is 2s. 6d.
Invitations to the dinner are sent to members and (amongst others)
to all Chelsea Pensioners of the Regiment who come as guests of the
Association.
The Association has been the means of assisting many past members of
the Regiment to obtain employment, and is very largely resorted to by
men in need of help and advice.
Donations and subscriptions to the funds of the Association should be
sent to the Hon. Secretary, from whom all particulars as to membership
and otherwise can be obtained.
_Hon. Secretary_--
MR FRED. E. M. THOMPSON,
14 BLANDFORD STREET, MANCHESTER SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1.
INDEX.
A Battery, R.F.A., 314
A Squadron (Thirteenth Hussars)--in France, 87; Kut, 167; Lajj, 174,
175, 181, 190, 192, 196; Baghdad, 206, 212, 214; Tekrit, 254; Kulawand,
275, 276; Tuz, 284-86; Guk-Tappah, 288; Hadraniyah, 297, 303, 305;
mentioned, 111, 271
Abbeville, 92
Abraham, 105, 129
Abu-Ghuraib, 267
Abu-Haiar, 282
Abu-Jisrah, 281
Accrington, 308, 309
Adam, 124
Aden, 60
Adhaim, river, 289
Aeroplanes, 1, 174, 175, 187, 196, 225, 254, 260, 283; German, 62;
Turkish, 211, 242
Afghan War, second, 40
Afghanistan, 104, 134; condition of (1914), 102; religion of, 102, 320
Africa, South, 40, 41, 56, 100, 277; war in (1899-1900), 16, 91, 100,
317
Agincourt, battle of, 7
Agra, 46
Akab, 268, 269, 289
Ain-Lailah, 282
Ain-Nakhailah, 289
Aire, 80
Alalou, Doctor, 185
Albert, King of the Belgians, 81
Albuera, battle of, 30
Aldershot-- Cavalry Barracks at, 326 Dedication Service at, 372-75
Otherwise mentioned, 144, 191
Aleppo Road, the, 271
Alexander the Great, armies of, 104; cavalry, 4, 5, 8
Allan, Squadron-Sergt.-Maj. W. J., 331, 365
Allenby, Gen. Lord, 205, 217, 263, 268, 291, 321; quoted on operations
in Palestine, 327, and _note_
Allston, Pte. J., 331, 364, 365
Alma, battle of, 37
Alps, 5
Altum Kupri, 280, 287
Alva de Tormes, 30
Amadia, 352
Amara, 121, 122, 126, 127, 128, 130; hospital at, 190
America-- Civil War in (1861-65), 14, 325 War of Independence in
(1775-82), 16, 27
American Cavalry, 14, 15
American Medal, 362
Amiens, Peace of, 25
Ancre, 170
Anderson, Lieut. E. W., 368
Anderson, Rev. F. L., 374
Anderson, Sergt. G., 331, 354
Andrews, Pte. F., 249, 331, 359
Annett, Capt. A. E., 87, 269, 329, 366
Anson, Lieut. R. R., 329, 370
Appomattox, battle of, 15
Aqsu, 284
Arab village, 131, 132, 141 _note_, 143, 150
Arabia, 99
Arabian Sea, 61
Arabs-- Auxiliaries to the Turks, 106 Baghdad looted by, 203, 207,
210, 211 Barbarity of, 171, 207, 208 British survey party murdered by,
223 Bullets of, 143 Cavalry of, 142 Expeditions against, 220, 230, 233
_note_ Mahomedan rising of, 35 Pacification of, 216, 232 Treachery of,
208
_Arme blanche_, the, 8, 14, 18
Armenia, 103
Armenians, 309
Armentières, 75
Armistice (1918)--with Turkey, 295-96, 301; with Germany, 302, 305,
325, 328
“Army Pattern” (horse), 269
Artillery-- German, 62 Horse, V Battery, 50, 195, 196, 198, 297, 303,
305, 306, 314, 315 Invention of, 5
Ashar, hospital at, 115
Ashworth, Capt. and Q.-M. R. W. F., 348, 349, 352, 364, 365, 368
Asia-- British power in, 98; prestige, 107, 204, 205; reverses, 133;
position (1917), 262, 320-21 Christians and Mahomedans in (1914), 102
Turkey’s military power in, 132, 262, 320; defeat of Turks, 204, 264
War in (1916), 91
Asia Minor-- Germany’s line of communication in, 99 Turkish base in,
217, 235, 263; Turkish recruiting ground, 103
Assaye, battle of (1803), 35
Associations, Regimental, 376, 377
Assyrian carvings, 3
Atab, 140, 356
Athens, 4
Attila, 6
Auction Bridge, 282
Augier, Doctor, 83
Aujah, 254
Aujah-Nullah, 247
Aujah-Tekrit, 245
Aukett, Sergt. H. H. L., 306, 331, 363
Austerlitz, battle of (1805), 11
Australia, contingent from, 66
Austria-- Ally of Germany, 98, 132, 291 War of, with Prussia (1866), 12
Authuille, 353
Awah, 271
Azizieh, 158, 160, 161, 174, 190
B Battery, Royal Field Artillery, 284
B Squadron, Thirteenth Hussars--at Kut, 167; Lajj, 174, 175, 190, 192,
196; Baghdad, 206, 212, 214; Tekrit, 238, 243, 246, 247, 251, 254;
Kulawand, 275, 276; Tuz, 284, 285; Guk-Tappah, 288; Hadraniyah, 303-5;
mentioned, 269, 27
“B 3” (horse), 271
Babylon, 105
Badajos, battle of (1810), 28, 30
Baden-Powell, Lieut.-Gen. Sir Robert, visits the regiment in France,
78; letters to, 277, 300, 302, 305; letter from, 290; otherwise
mentioned, 44, 250, 280, 376
Bagh, 206 and _note_
Baghdad-- Advance on (map), 159 Arab looting of, 203, 207, 210, 211
Black Watch entry of, 208, 215 Capital of Mesopotamia, 104, 204, 305
Cavalry Barracks at, 210, 212, 215, 217, 220 City Military Police at,
225 Club at, 232 Cup, 232-34, 271 Description of, 210-11. Fall of, 192,
203, 204 Field of operations around (map), 201 General Townshend’s
Expedition to, 104-7 Importance of, 105, 321 Plate, 266 Race meeting
at, 233, 270 Railway, 99, 104, 205, 217 Regatta at, 232, 234 Thirteenth
Hussars’ entry of, 181, 215; garrison, 189, 208, 212, 225 Turkish base,
104, 134, 136 Otherwise mentioned, 137, 165, 166, 169, 172, 173, 188,
206 _note_, 207 _note_, 217, 225, 231, 261, 264-65, 268, 273, 277, 310,
319, 324, 326, 327, 353, 355, 356
Baghela, 233
Baker, Lieut. W, G., 329, 370
Baku, 268, 274
Balaclava, battle of, 37, 39, 41, 43, 51, 199
Balaclava Day, 39, 50, 54, 86, 122, 241, 250
Balaclava veterans, 50
Balban, 286
Balcarres, 7th Earl of, 23
Bald, Q.-M.-Sergt. A., 332, 365
Ballard, Cpl. A. C. W., 332, 356
Baltic Sea, 99
Bangalore, 35, 36 and _note_
Baquha, 217, 218, 240, 241, 258
Baqubah, 281, 290
Barbadoes, 24
Barnard, Sergt. G., 304, 332, 359
Barker, Pte. J. H., 249, 332, 358
Barrett (historian of the Thirteenth Hussars), 1, 41; quoted, 22, 23,
153
Barrett, Lieut. E. P., 329, 370
Barrett, Lieut. J. L. M., 153, 290, 329, 364, 366
Barrington, 2nd Lieut. A. C., 329, 371
Bartlett, Lce.-Cpl. F., 296, 304, 332, 355
Bartlett, Lce.-Sergt. W. G., 332, 357
Basra, 92, 97, 110, 111, 117, 123, 124, 231, 232, 326, 355, 356; map,
124
Basrajiyeh, 140
Bassouia, 224 and _note_, 356
Battye, Capt. L. S., 368
Bawi, 201, 205, 206, 211
Bayley, Lt.-Col. F. G., 364, 365, 368
Beaconsfield, Earl of, 56
Beadle, Cpl. W., 332, 354
Beales, Pte. H. J., 249, 332, 358
Beauchamp, Pte. A., 332, 357, 365
Bedford Yeomanry, 330, 369
Bedouin Arabs, 223 (_see also_ “Arabs”)
Beesley, Pte. J., 332, 355
Belad-Rus, 240
Belgian soldiers, 93
Belgians, Albert, King of the, 81
Bell, Sergt. E., 163, 168, 332, 357
Bell, Pte. H., 249, 332, 356, 359
_Bellum_ (native boat), 122
Beluchistan, 101 _note_
Bengal cavalry system, 52 _note_
Bennett, Pte. W., 332, 359
Beresford, Marshal, 28, 29, 30
Berguette, 65, 75
Berlin, 108
Bernhardi, Von, quoted, 13, 15
Best, Lieut. the Hon. J. F., 329 and _note_
Béthune, 68, 69
Bible--quoted, 3; cited, 309
Bicharakoff, Lieut.-Col., 267
Biggar, Lieut. J. W., 329, 369
Bigge, Capt. W. E., 329, 369
Biggs, Pte. J. H., 332, 363
Billy, _see_ Eve
Black Sea, 268
Black Watch, 208, 215
Blagrove, Col. H. J., 361, 368
Blenheim, battle of, 9
Blücher, Marshal, 32
Blyth, Capt. W., 269, 329, 370
Boer Republics, 41
Boer War, _see_ Africa, South
Boers, 14, 15, 16
Bolton, Capt. R. H. J. M., 368
Bolton, Col., 26
Bombay-- Description of, 57, 97 Ladies of, 110 Royal Yacht Club at, 97
Thirteenth Hussars at, 93, 95, 326
Bosphorus, 98, 103, 204
Bowie, Lce.-Cpl. G. W., quoted--on horses, 94; on voyage to
Mesopotamia, 111; on pursuit of Turks, 220-23; on winter (1917-18),
267-71; diary quoted, 64, 67, 68, 90, 211-12, 233, 234, 240-44, 269,
270, 281-90; otherwise mentioned, 333, 363
Box, _see_ Jeffrey
Boyse, Lieut.-Col., 32, 33
Brearley, Reg. Q.-M.-Sergt. J., 241, 333, 363, 365
Brencher, Sergt. L. P., 276, 333
Brevet promotion, 365
Bridge, Col., 280
Bristol, Lieut. E., 329, 369
British Empire, Order of, 361
British Museum, 3
Brook, Ronnie, 279
Brooking, Maj.-Gen., 271
Broomfield, Pte. F., 333, 355
Buffs, the, 270
Bulgaria, 98, 132, 263, 291
Buffer, Gen. Sir Redvers, 15, 41
Burder, Lce.-Cpl. H. A., 249, 333, 359
Burgess, Lce.-Cpl. J., 333, 357
Burgess, Sergt. W. H., 269, 270, 279, 306, 333, 357, 359, 363
Burgues, 353
Busaco, battle of (1810), 28
Bush, Lce.-Cpl. F. K., 269, 270, 331, 333
Bush, Sergt., 233
Butler, Lady, 184
Butler, Lieut. F. H., 329, 370
Byng, 33
Byrne, Pte. J., 249, 333, 359
C Squadron, Thirteenth Hussars--at Kut, 163, 167; Lajj, 175, 186, 190,
194, 196; Baghdad, 206, 214; after Baghdad, 220, 225; Imam Arbain, 246,
247; Tekrit, 251, 254, 256; Hadraniyah, 303-5; Tuz, 284; Kirkuk, 286
Caley, Gen., 285
Caliphs, 232
Camberley, staff college at, 49
Camels, capture of, 240
_Cameronia_ torpedoed, 227, 228, 355
Campo Mayor, 28
Canada--Contingent from, 66 Thirteenth Hussars in, 40, 41, 207
Candler, 280
Cannæ, battle of, 5
Canterbury, 36
“Caprice” (horse), 94, 119 and _note_, 156, 168, 169, 178 and _note_
Cardigan, 7th Earl of, 37, 39
Carnegie, Sergt. T., 333, 363
Carpenter, Gen., 18
Carpenter, Cpl. J., 334, 365
Carter, Maj. E. J., 329, 362, 365, 367
Carter, Lce.-Cpl. W., 269, 270, 334
Carthage, 104
Cartwright, Pte., 224, 334
Caspian Sea, 274
Cassels, Brig.-Gen., 293-96, 301, 302, 311, 313, 314, 317, 325
Casualties, 192, 198, 249, 352-60
Catherine of Braganza, 57
Caucasus, 132, 133, 136, 262, 291
Cavalry-- Alexander the Great, of, 4, 5, 8 American, 14, 15 Arab, 142
Barracks at Baghdad, 210, 212, 215, 217, 220 Bengal system, 52 _note_
British-- Awards to (1917), 233 Camp of, 231 Chinese Campaign of, 12
Corps in France, 76, 81, 328 Desert Mounted Corps, 327 Dragoons, _see
that heading_ Eleventh Brigade (Cassels’), 293-96, 301, 302, 311, 313,
314, 317, 325 Indian Mutiny, in (1857), 12 Infantry work of, 67-86
Inferiority of (1777), 22; (1805), 27 Light Brigade, _see that heading_
Maude’s inspection of, 233 Peninsular War, in, 26-33 Persian force
destroyed by (1856), 235 Race Meeting at Baghdad, 232 Seventh Brigade
(Norton’s), 132, 176, 195-99, 217, 245, 293-95, 300-2, 306-7, 313-14,
325, 352 Sikh War, in (1846-49), 12 Sixth Brigade, 132, 176, 197, 198,
245, 274-76, 282 Early use of, 4 ff.; in 19th century, 12, 15 European,
8, 9, 11 Frederick the Great, of, 10, 12, 18, 22 French, 8, 9, 11, 28
German, 9, 11, 62 and _note_ Greek, 4, 5 Haig’s, 75 Hannibal’s, 5, 9
Horses, 62, 156 and _note_, 192 (_see also their names_) Indian, 57,
92, 132, 246, 258, 275, 278, 279, 282, 304, 368 Indian Cavalry Corps in
France, 75, 76 78, 80 and _note_, 83, 89-91, 119; value of (1915), 91
_note_ Marlborough’s, 9 Persian, 4, 5 Portuguese, 29 Russian, 9, 37, 38
Soult’s, 31 Swedish, 9 Turkish, 9, 142, 240 Value of, question as to,
1, 13, 14, 16, 90, 91 and _note_, 326-28 Xenophon’s Treatise on, 4
Cawnpore topees, 111, 117
Cemetery Hill, 298, 299, 303, 304, 313, 314, 315, 316
Centaurs, 3
Chágal, 117
Chai-Khanna, 264, 359
Chaldari, 220, 222, 223 and _note_, 230, 233, 274, 275, 290, 356
Chaliyeh, 222
Chamberlain, Lieut. D. A. C., 329, 369
Chanan-Keurri, 283
Channel Ports, the, 65
Chariots in War, 3, 4
Charles, _see_ Steele
Charles the Second, King, 57
Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden, 9
Charlie, Bonnie Prince, 20
Cheeseman, 2nd Lieut. G. W., 329 and _note_
Chelsea pensioners, 377
Chéradame, 98
Cheshire Regiment, 368
Chessy, 92
Cheviot Hills, 236
Chichester, 26
“Chicko” (horse), 179
Childari, 253
_Chilka_, 97
China, 56, 100
Chinese junks, 7
Chinese, the, 12
Chipperfield, Sergt. P., 171, 334, 354
Chivalry, 6, 7
Cholera, 36, 114, 238, 261, 353
Christians in Asia (1914), 102
Chrystall, Capt. J. I., quoted, 75, 80, 81, 84, 118, 120, 121, 122,
129, 143, 148, 265; on charge at Tekrit, 244, 256-58; otherwise
mentioned, 286, 329, 362, 364, 366
Church, Maj. J. F., 368
Cithæron, Mount, 4
_City of Sparta_, 326
Clarkson, Lieut. J. O. P., death of, 203, 213, 214; quoted, 121, 144,
145, 149, 166; otherwise mentioned, 329, 352, 371
Cleary, Pte. E., 334; quoted, 308
Cleveland, Pte. J., 334, 357, 363
Cobbe, Lieut.-Gen., 119 and _note_, 139, 140, 223, 242
Cobham’s Dragoons, 21
Cochrane, Lieut. B. W. D., 269, 329, 369
Colaba, camp at, 94
Cole, Pte. J., 310, 334, 354
Colenso, battle of, 41
Collett, Capt. G. G., 329, 366, 369
Collins, Lieut. C. F., 329, 371
Colonels, proprietary, 22
_Concord_, 24
Condé, the Prince of, 9
Conningham Post, 240, 290
Constable, 2nd Lieut. R. C., 329 and _note_
Constantinople, 99, 104, 166, 205, 240
Cook, Sergt. G., 334, 355
Cooke, Maj. and Quartermaster A., 329, 364, 365, 366; quoted, 316
Cooke, Rev. H. R., 207, 329, 369
Coraedes, 154, 211
Cope, Gen. Sir John, 20
Coracles, 154, 211
Corhin, Pte. W. G., 244, 249, 334, 363
Corner, Lieut. E. G., 329, 370
Corsica, 395
Cossacks, 9, 10, 267
Costello, Pte. D., 335
Costello, Lce.-Cpl. G., 306, 308
Couch, Pte. J. F., 241, 335, 356, 363
Covell, Capt. F. C., 96, 329, 362, 369
Cox, Maj. R. F., 329, 364, 365, 366; diary quoted, 74, 77
Cox, Pte., 223
Craven, Sergt. T. S., 335, 363, 364
Crawford-Greene, Lieut. W. P., 329, 369
Crécy, battle of, 7, 8, 10
Crete, 95
Crimea, 12, 41, 56, 61; campaign in (1854-56), 37-40
Crocker, Brig.-Gen., 132
Croix de Guerre, 86, 232, 362
Croix de Virtute Militara, 364
Cromer, Lord, 98
Cromwell, Oliver, 8, 9
Cross, Miss Florence, 376
Cross, the Military, 241, 244, 249, 289, 306, 362, 364
Crouch, Lce.-Cpl. J. F., _see_ Couch
Crouch, Pte. T., 335, 354
Crusaders, 7
Ctesiphon, 105, 172, 174, 201, 206, 211, 323; arch of, 207
Cubitt, Pte. C., 335, 363
Cullenan, Capt. J., 329, 369
Culloden, battle of (1746), 21
Cumberland, Duke of, 21
Cunningham, Sergt. J., 290, 335, 357, 363
Curzon, Lord, 144
Custozza, battle of, 12
Cut-Throat Bridge, 282
D Squadron, Thirteenth Hussars--in the Gulf, 109, 111; Kut, 163, 167;
Lajj, 175, 190, 191, 192, 196; Baghdad, 206, 208, 214; after Baghdad,
220, 224; Tekrit, 246, 254; Kulawand, 275-76; Tuz, 284-86; Guk-Tappah,
288; Hadraniyah, 303, 305; otherwise mentioned, 269, 271
Dahra Barracks, 161, 162
Dahra Ridge, 150
Dan, 310
Dangar, Capt. C. C., 362, 368
Daniell, Capt., 97
Daniels, Major, 234
Daraman, 287, 288, 359
Dardanelles, 102, 103, 104, 263, 320
Dark Ages, 6
Daur, 242, 244, 245, 253, 254, 289, 354
Davies, Maj., 234
Davies, 2nd Lieut. W. W. N., 329, 371
Davis, Pte. H., 335
Davis, Pte. H. G., 163, 335, 354
Dawson, Maj. J. V., wounded, 185; sufferings of, 186 and _note_;
courage of, 187; escape, 188; robbed by Turks, 192; otherwise
mentioned, 64 _note_, 175, 191, 197, 198, 329, 353, 365, 366
Day, Lce.-Cpl. G. A., 335, 356, 359
Decanville Railway, 203
Dedication of Memorial Tablet to Thirteenth Hussars, 372, 374
Deerham, 2nd Lieut. H. G., 329
Deir-as-Zor, 319
Delaney, Pte. C., 249, 335, 359
Delhi, 43, 45, 46
Deli Abbas, 208, 220, 221, 222, 224, 353, 358
Deli Abbas Cup, 234
Della Marmora, Gen., 40
Deltawa, 221, 222
Denison, Col., quoted, 10, 13
Denning, Lieut., 234
Denny, Maj. E. W., 368
Dent, Pte. W. D., 335, 356
Deolali, 111
Derbyshire Yeomanry, 368
Desert Mounted Corps, the, 327
Despatches, mentioned in, 331-51, 364, 365
Diala river, 202, 203, 206, 207, 214, 221, 223, 224, 236, 240, 267
Diary, Thirteenth Hussars’ Regimental, 49, 50, 93, 192, 205, 206, 223
Digby, Capt. E. Wingfield, quoted, 180
Dishdari, 360
Distinguished Conduct Medal, 151, 153, 154, 189, 222, 241, 244, 249,
259, 306, 363
Distinguished Service Medal, 362
Distinguished Service Order, 232, 306, 311, 361
Doherty, Capt., 31, 33
Doherty, Lieut., 31, 33
Doherty, Lieut.-Col. Patrick, 26, 31, 32
Doherty, Lieut.-Col. (second), 37, 40
Doll, Lieut. M. H. C., 329, 353, 364, 369
Dominions, the, strategic position of (1914), 100
Donoghue, Pte. J., 296, 304, 335, 355
Dormer’s Regiment of Dragoons, 19
Douthwaite, S.S.-M. C. M., 335, 365
Dover, 33
Downie, Pte. D., 336, 355
Dragoon Guards, 353, 367, 368
Dragoons-- Cobham’s, 21 Inniskilling, 20, 68 Jamaica, 25 Munden’s,
17, 18, 19 Regiments of, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Thirteenth, former
title of Thirteenth Hussars, 19; sent to Ireland, 19; under Col.
Gardiner (’45), 20; under Col. Ligonier, 21
Twelfth, 26
Dunbar, 20
Dundonald, Lord, 41
_Dunluce Castle_, 58
Dunsterville, Gen., 268, 269, 274
Dupleix, 58
_Dupleix_, 58, 60
Durbar, Indian (1911), 45, 47
E. P. Tents, 114, 115 and _note_
Earle, Lieut. G. F.. 329, 369
Early (American officer), 14
East India Company, 57
Eden, Garden of, 105, 118, 125, 126, 129
Edinburgh, 20
Edward the Seventh, King, 42
Edwards, Squad. Q.-M.-Sergt. H. J., 163, 167, 336, 357, 365
Egerton, Lady Mabelle, 83
Egerton, Lieut.-Gen., 267, 285
Egypt, 56, 91, 95, 103, 133, 320, 321
Elba, 32
Elkan, Lieut. A. J. C., 329, 370
Elliott, Capt. W. A., 329, 369
England, Civil War in, _see_ Great Britain, 8
Enquin-les-Mines, 65, 75
Enquingatte, 68
Equites, the Roman, 5
Estrée Blanche, 68
Etaples, 353
Etna, 326
Eupatoria, 37
Euphrates river, Maude’s command of, 217, 236; Marshall’s operations
on, 263-64, 270; otherwise mentioned, 104, 125, 134, 216, 230, 235,
262, 319
Evans, Capt. J. W. D., 298, 303, 314, 329, 353, 369
Eve, Capt. W. H., plan of camp of, 125; courage of, 151, 152 and
_note_; squadron of, 170, 172, 175, 200; at Lajj, 184, 186; killed
at Lajj, 177-81 and _note_; estimate of, 177, 178, 179, 180, 192,
307, 310; letters quoted, 63, 75, 81, 83-88, 89, 90, 94, 95, 111-13,
114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 122, 125, 128, 130, 142, 143, 145,
149, 152, 153, 155, 156, 166-172; diary quoted, 78, 79, 80; otherwise
mentioned, 46, 97, 115, 138, 188, 189, 191, 197, 198, 329, 352, 366
Eve, Mr Justice, 152 and _note_, 177, 307, 310; letter to, 177
Ezra, tomb of, 121, 125, 129
Falkirk Muir, battle of, 21
Fao, Fort, 319
Farmer, Pte., 74, 336
Farmer, Pte. R., 336
Farquhar, Maj. T. R., 364
Farrer, Lieut. M. R., 329, 370
Fatha Gorge, 291, 293, 296, 301, 305, 311
Feluja, 217
Fenian conspiracy in Canada (1866), 40
Fern, Pte. W., 336, 356
Festubert, 68, 69
Feuquières-en-Vimes, 90
Fever, yellow, 24
Fifty-sixth Foot, 24
Firearms, power of, increased, 11
_Firefly_, 141, 165, 169
Fitzgibbon, Capt. H. C. D., 221, 222, 232, 266, 297, 303, 329, 353,
362, 369; quoted, 180, 181 and _note_, 310-13
FitzPatrick, Miss E., letter to, 308
Fletcher, 2nd Lieut. A. H. F., 329 and _note_
Flindell, Pte. D. G., 336, 354
_Floreat Etona_ (picture), 184
Flying Corps, the, 263
“Flying Heckle” (horse), 234
Foley, Lieut., 303
“Follow Me” (horse), 156, 168, 169
Ford cars, 283
Ford vans, 275
Foster, Lieut. G. R., 329 and _note_
Foster, Sergt. J. H., 131, 336, 365
Fowke, Brigadier, cited, 21
Fortescue (historian), quoted, 29, 46, 47
France-- Campaigns in (1914-16), 65-88 Campaigns of--with Austria
(1859), 12; with Prussia (1870), 12; with Great Britain in the West
Indies (1794, 1795), 23; in the Peninsula (1810-14), 25-32; at Waterloo
(1815), 32-33; in the Crimea (1854-55), 37 Cavalry of, 8, 9, 11, 28
Chivalry of, 6, 7 Continental power of (1914), 19, 100, 101 Otherwise
mentioned, 51, 57, 59, 170, 353, 366
Francomb, Pte. A. W., 248, 249, 250, 252, 305, 336, 354
Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, cavalry system of, 10, 12, 18, 22
French spoken in Mosul, 312
French, Field-Marshal Lord, 62, 327 _note_
Fry, Major, 157
Galloway, Pte., 194
Garden of Eden, the, 105, 118, 125, 126, 129
Gardiner, Lieut.-Col. James, commands Thirteenth Dragoons (1743), 20;
killed at Prestonpans, 21
Gardner, Lieut. C. W., 329, 370
Geale, Lieut., 33 _note_
George the Fifth, King, 64-65; his visit to India, 42-46
George the First, King, 17
George, Cpl. W. S., 337, 354
German Cavalry, 11, 62 and _note_
‘German Plot Unmasked, The,’ 98
Germans made prisoners, 171, 271
Germany-- Cavalry of, 9, 11, 62 and _note_ Designs of, 98-100, 132,
205, 320 Failure of, 291, 312 Map of Germany and Confederates, 99
Persian intrigues of, 372 Turkey’s communications with, 99 War with,
outbreak of, 51 Otherwise mentioned, 204, 309
Gerrard, Pte. H., 304, 337, 360
Gibbons, 2nd Lieut. W. R., 329
Gilbert, Sergt. W., 182, 184, 185, 337, 360
Gill, Sergt.-Trumpeter S., 337, 365
Goddard, Sergt.-Major E., 163, 167, 337, 357
Godfree, Capt. D. W., 275-76, 285-87, 304-6, 329, 362, 364, 369
Goldie, Maj., 75
Goodman, Lieut. E., 329, 370
Goorkha Infantry, 157
Gore, Lieut. R., 329, 366
Goths, 6
Gowan, Capt. C. H, adventures of, 211; quoted, 275, 276; otherwise
mentioned, 279, 290, 329, 362, 364, 366
Grant, Major-Gen., 32
Gray, Sergt. J., 248-50, 252, 337, 354, 365
Great Britain-- Asia, position in, 98, 107, 133, 204-5 Boer Republics’
ultimatum to (’99), 41 German menace to (1914), 51, 100, 320 Indian
army of, _see under_ India Sea power of, 104, 321-2 Wars of, 1; Civil
War, 8
Greece, 4, 5
Greenshields, Maj., 315
Griffiths, Gunner, 20
Guards, 367, 368
Gubbins, Capt., 33 _note_
Gufa race, 234
Guk-Tappah, 287, 288
Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, 9
H. V. Rifle, 67
Hadraniyah, Thirteenth Hussars charge at (1918), 293-96, 299, 305, 307,
311, 313-16, 324-25, 353-55, 359, 360
Hadraniyah Bluff, 298
Hadraniyah Ford, 296, 313
Hai river, 138-41, 146, 224 _note_, 324
Hai Town, 146, 149
Haig, Field-Marshal Lord, 87 quoted; on Cavalry, 327 and _note_, 328
Haig’s Cavalry, 75
Haines, Squadron Q.-M.-Sergt. S. B., 338, 363, 365
Halstead, Pte. C., 249, 338, 359
Halswelle, Capt. G., 368
Hamilton, 190
Hamilton, Col., 20
Hamilton-Grace, Maj. R. S., 329, 353, 362, 364, 365, 367
Hammam Ali, 311
Hammond, Pte. W., 338, 355
Hampson, Lieut. J., 329, 371
Hannibal, 5, 6 and _note_, 9
Hanover, House of, 19
Haqui Bey, 300, 313
Harding, Pte. J. T., 317, 318, 357, 364
Hardinge, Viscount, 49
Harrington, Earl of, 19
Harrison, Sergt A., 338, 354
Harrison, 2nd Lieut. W. B., 329 and _note_
Harris, Pte, C., 338, 356, 359
Harriss, Pte., 233
Hartigan, Lieut. M. G., 232, 233, 238, 266, 303, 312, 329, 362, 370
Harvey, Pte. F., 304, 338, 360
Hastings, battle of, 8
Hawkins, 2nd Lieut. H. R., 329 and _note_
Hayworth, Pte. F., 338, 356
Hazebrouck, 33
Head, Col., 26
Heathman, Cpl. A. E., 168, 338, 357
Heavy Brigade, the, at Balaclava, 38, 39
Henderson, Col., quoted, 12, 13, 14, 15, 46, 56, 62 _note_, 327
Herbert, Pte. P. H., 339, 354
Herodotus, cited, 4
Hibbert, Pte. A., 249, 339, 359
Higgs, Squadron Q.-M.-Sergt. W., 269, 339
Highlanders, Ninety-Third, 38
Hilawiyni, 212
Hill, Sergt. A. E., 339
Hill, Pte G. A., 339, 356
Hill, Pte. H., 339
Hill, Capt. R. C., 143, 144, 153, 329, 339, 361, 371
Hill, Sergt. W. J., 114, 163, 168, 304, 339, 357, 360, 365
Hind, Capt. J. H., 255, 330, 365, 367
Hindustan, 40, 43, 45
Hirsch, Lieut. J. H., 227, 330, 370; quoted, 227, 228
‘History of the Peninsular War,’ 29
Hit, 264, 270
Hobbs, Cpl. J., 339, 355
Hodgkinson, Capt. G. H., 368
Hogg, Pte. C., 178 _note_, 339
Holden, Sergt. W., 364
Holland, Brig.-Gen., 274
Hollen-Prior, Gen., _see_ Pryor
Hollingdale, Lieut. E. T., 330, 370
Holloway, Sergt. H. S., 339, 357, 365
Holloway, Sergt. R., 271, 304, 339, 354
Holt, Lieut. W. V., 368
Holt, Miss, 83
Honours and Rewards, 361-65
Horner, Capt. A. L., 330, 366, 369
Horse Artillery, _see under_ Artillery
Horse Guards, 368
Horse, Poona, 85
Horse, Skinner’s, 52 and _note_, 96
Horse, Watson’s, 183
Horse, Welsh, 368
Horses (_see also_ Cavalry)-- Bible mention of, 3 Care of, 112, 114,
126 Casualties among, 62, 156 and _note_, 192 Cavalry, 62, 156 and
_note_ Names of, 94, 114, 119 and _note_, 156, 168, 169, 178, 179,
191, 232, 233, 234, 266, 269 Size of Greek, 4 Sufferings of, 58, 61,
62, 64, 156 and _note_, 224
Hotchkiss guns, 125, 148, 161, 188, 193, 207, 221, 238, 243, 269, 283,
284, 305
Hougomont, 33
Howard, Lce.-Cpl. J., 339, 354
Howard, Capt. the Hon. M. F. S., 368
Howey, Capt. J. E. P., 304, 330, 369
Hows, Pte. W. E., 339, 355
Hudson, Lce.-Sergt. H., 249, 339, 359
Humphrey, Pte. E., 306, 340, 363
Hunt, Pte. W. F., 340, 354
Huntingfield, Capt. Lord, 330 and _note_, 368
_Huntsgreen_, 355
Hussars, The-- Eighth, 39, 52, 54, 342, 368 Eighteenth, 340, 352, 368
Eleventh, 39, 353, 365, 367, 368 Fifteenth, 32 Fourth, 39 Fourteenth,
19, 32, 132, 268, 274, 275, 276, 326, 330, 369 Northumberland, 367, 369
Thirteenth (for squadrons of, _see_ A, B, C, D)-- Barrett’s history
of, 1; service of, 1, 2, 17; summary of early history of, 17-41;
known as Munden’s Dragoons, 17, 18, 19; become Light Dragoons (1777
_circa_), 22; first called Hussars (1861-62), 40; in India, 45-60;
attitude towards war (1914), 51, 52; campaign in France (1915-16),
67-84; campaign in Mesopotamia (1916-18), 124, 131, 132, 140, 141,
158, 159, 173-77, 199, 216, 217, 218, 220, 237, 238, 264, 273-75,
293-96, 322, 323, 324, 325; return to England, 326; roll of officers,
329, 330; roll of non-commissioned officers and other ranks, 331-51;
casualties, 352-60; honours and rewards, 361-65; dedication service and
unveiling of memorial tablet, 372-75; Old Comrades Association, 376,
377 Regimental Diary, quoted, 49, 50, 93, 192, 205, 206, 223 Squadrons
of, _see_ A, B, C, D Yorkshire, 368
Huwaish Gorge, 313, 316
Hyderabad, 42
‘Illustratte Zeitung,’ 166
Imam Arbain, 245
Imam Mahdi, 160, 241, 352, 353, 354, 357
‘In Mesopotamia,’ 231
India-- Army of, 44, 55-57, 91-92, 102 (_see also_ Cavalry--Indian)
Attitude towards war (1914), 51 and _note_ Capital of (Delhi), 44-45
Contingent from, 65 Durbar in (1911), 45 Empire of, 55 Government of,
54 Hindustan, 40 Karnul, insurrection in (1839), 35, 36 King George’s
visit to (1911), 44, 45 Map of, 34 Military value of (1914), 100, 101,
103 Moghuls the conquerors of, 43, 44 Mutiny in (1857), 43 Peninsula
of, 43 Punjabi Infantry of, 245 Thirteenth Hussars in (1819-40), 34,
35, 36; (1870-84), 40; (1904), 41; quartered at Meerut (1910), 43; take
part in Durbar (1911), 45; reviewed by King George, 46; life in India,
47-58; attitude towards war (1914), 51, 52; voyage to England, 60-63
Otherwise mentioned, 49, 133, 134, 229, 271, 306
Indian Cavalry, _see under_ Cavalry-- Expeditionary Force, 97 Soldiers,
138, 320; driver mentioned for gallantry, 317-18
Infantry-- British-- Wellington’s, 27; in Mesopotamia, 170, 202, 251,
254, 255, 257, 258, 323 German, 62 Goorkha, 157 Mobile, 328 Oxford and
Bucks Light, 68 Punjabi, 245 Roman, 6 Swiss, 8 Turkish, 174, 176, 177
Inkerman, battle of, 39
Inniskilling Dragoons, 20, 68
Inverness, 20
Irawadi river, 121, 322
Ireland, Thirteenth Hussars in (1718-42), 19, 20; (1748-95), 22-24
Iron rations, 78, 80
Ironsides, 8
Islam, 102
_Islanda_, 99, 109, 110 and _note_
Ismail Hakki, 295
Istabulat, 241, 244
Italian Medal, the, 232, 362, 364
Italy-- Ally of Germany (1914), 99, 291 Hannibal’s invasion of, 5, 6
and _note_
Izakhi Canal, 244
Jackson, Stonewall, 46
Jackson, Capt. T. K., 330, 368
Jacobite Rebellions, 19-21, 26
Jaffer’s Tomb, 212, 352
Jamaica, 23-25
James, Lce.-Cpl. E., 340, 354
James-Moore, Pte. J. H., 340, 363
Japan, 100
Jasper, Pte. F. G., 249, 340, 355
Jat Lancers, 298, 300
Jebel Hamrin Range, 240, 241, 242, 244, 263, 273, 280, 281, 293, 301,
311; description of, 220, 222, 224, 236 and _note_
Jebel Makhul, 301
Jeddere-Fisher, Maj. H. J., 368
Jeffrey, Capt. J. A., 127, 152, 156, 188, 191, 208, 265, 266, 286, 303,
311, 330, 362, 364, 366
Jeffrey, Pte. J., 249, 340, 359
Jemmett, Lieut. C. W., 330, 370
Jervis, Adm., 136
Jews, 129, 209
Jibuti, 60
Johnson, Lieut. H. H., 330, 370
Johnston, Capt. L. C., 330, 369
Jones, Gen., quoted, 227
Jones, Pte., 270
Jones, Pte. Alfred, 178, 189, 340, 354, 363
Jones, Major H. Ll., 330, 353, 361, 362, 364, 365, 367
Jones, Lieut. H. R., 238, 249, 271, 330, 362, 370
Jones, Pte. T. R., 340, 354
Jordan, Pte. C. W., 340, 354
Joseph Bonaparte, King, 30, 36
Judkins, Lieut. B. E. H., 330, 369
_Julnar_, 242
Kabul, 40
Kadhimain, 203, 206
Kaiser, the, 101, 102, 205
Kalahaji, Fahan, 356
_Kalyan_, 93
Kandahar, 40
Kara Tepe, 263, 273
Karnul, insurrection at (1839), 35, 36
Karnul, Nawab of, 35
Kasper, Pte., 243
Kazimain, 208-210, 212, 214
Keaney, Pte. P., 222, 340, 360
Kelly’s Canal, 235 and _note_
Kennard, Major W. A., 330 and _note_, 353, 361, 364, 367
Kennedy, Lieut. M. C., 96, 330, 366
Kennedy, Capt. S. V., 330, 362, 364, 366
Kennington, Lce.-Cpl. C. H., 340, 354
Kerbela, 272
Keswick, Lieut. H. G., 266, 330, 369
Khair-el-Kharabeh, 206
Khalifs, City of the, 202
Khan Baghdadi, 271
Khan Mifraji, 289
Khanal Kharninah, 245
Khaniquin, 268
Khasradalah, 284, 359
Kifri, 263, 273
Kifri-ain-Faris, 283
Kifri-Tuz Road, 276, 284
Killacky, Pte. T., 117, 341, 355
Killick, Pte. A., 341, 354
King, Lieut., 30
Kirkuk, 273, 274, 286, 288, 292, 293, 359
Kitchener, Field-Marshal Lord, 81
Kitchener’s Men, 81, 116, 138
Kitcher, Lce.-Cpl. F. C., 290, 341, 363
Kizil-Robart, 241, 244
Knapman, Sergt. H., 188 _note_, 341, 354
Königgratz, battle of, 12
Koran, the, 184, 320
Kruger, President, 16
Ktuwair, 289
Kulawand, Cavalry charge at, 274, 275, 276, 283, 284, 324
Kurdarrah river, 358
Kurdish language, 312
Kurds, 203, 240, 283, 312, 313
Kurna, 126
Kut Cup, 232, 233, 234
Kut-el-Amara, occupied by Townshend (1915), 104; surrender of (1916),
107; recapture of (1917), 158-171, 204; mentioned, 92, 113, 126, 132,
133, 135, 137, 140, 141, 150, 162, 216, 231, 242, 323
La Bassée, 75
La Source, 64
La Valentine, camp at, 93
Ladysmith, siege of, 15, 41
Lajj, battle at, 173-75; Thirteenth Hussars’ charge at, 176-78;
casualties at, 181-88, 191, 192; Colonel Richardson’s account of,
195-98; General Maude’s view of, 199, 324; mentioned, 200, 241, 246,
270, 279, 325, 352-55, 357-58, 360
Lajj, sketch of battlefield at, 175
Lajj Cup, 232, 233, 234
Lake, Gen., 119, 132
Lancaster, 18
Lancers-- Fourteenth, 160, 196, 197, 314, 315, 316, 317 Fourteenth
Indian, 96, 258, 295, 307 Jat, 298, 300 Seventeenth, 39, 43, 174
Thirteenth, 196, 246, 295-97, 300, 314-16 Thirteenth Indian, 96
Twenty-First, 297, 353, 364, 369
Latour Maubourg, 28
Lawrence, Maj., 33
Lawrence, Lieut. F. G., 330, 370
Lawson-Smith, Lieut. T. E., 330 and _note_, 352, 367
Le Patourel, Lieut. A. M., 266, 330, 365, 370
Le Plouy, 355
Leeman, Lce.-Sergt. W., 304, 341, 354
Leetham, Col, Sir A., 361, 368
Legion of Honour, 362
Legions, Roman, 5, 6
Leutchford, Cpl. W., 249, 342, 359
Lewin, Brig.-Gen., 293
Lewis guns, 275, 283
Liddle, Pte. A., 249, 341, 359
Life Guards, 367, 368
Light Brigade, charge of the, 37, 38, 39, 122, 199
Ligonier, Col., 21
Lille, 76
Lillers, 353
Lindsey, Lce.-Cpl. H., 249, 341, 357, 359
Lisbon, 26-29, 31
Little, Pte. P. W., 304, 341, 360
Lomas, Lce.-Cpl. F., 306, 341, 363
Lonsdale, Lce.-Cpl. R., 233, 341
Lord, Lieut. J. A., 143, 144, 160, 164, 168, 171, 330, 353, 367
Los Santos, 30
Lovejoy, Pte. S. A., 342, 355
Loyal North Lancashire Regt., 202
Lucas, Lieut. J. H., 330, 370
Lucknow, 36, 43 _note_
Luff, Squadron Q.-M.-Sergt. H., 233, 342
Lumley, Capt. J. N., 330, 362, 364, 366
Lyman, Pte. F., 342, 354
Lynch-Staunton, 2nd Lieut. G., 177, 185, 186, 190, 191, 197, 198, 330,
352, 370
Lyons, Capt. J. D., 368
MacArthur, Capt. E. W., 368
M‘Bride, Squadron Q,-M.-Sergt. F. A., 342, 363
Macdonald, Capt. H., 269, 330, 352, 362, 370; leads charge at Tuz, 274,
276, 279, 280, 285, 290
Macdonnell, Pte. M., 249, 342, 355
Machine-gun Squadron, 25th, 270
M‘Creadie, Pte. W., 342, 354
M‘Lagan, Lieut. C. A. G., 330, 353, 369
Maclean, Col. Sir F., 368
MacMunn, Gen., quoted, 125
M‘Nulty, Pte. P., 147, 163, 193, 195, 310, 342, 354
Madgin, 2nd Lieut. W., 330 and _note {66}_
Madras, 36
Madrid, 30
Maguire, Sergt. (Trumpeter) W. F., 247, 256, 342, 365
_Mahailla_ (Arab boat), 144
Mahan, Adm., 6 _note_
Mahomedan cemetery near Kirkuk, 288, 297, 298, 313
Mahomedans-- Holy cities of, 272 India, in: chiefs, 35, 42; soldiers,
102 Power of, in Asia, 101, 102, 320 Rules of, 184
Makina, 180, 355
Malta, 95
Manby, Pte. E., 249, 342, 359
Mandali, 240, 241, 244, 253
_Mantis_, 268
Maps-- Advance from Basra, 124 ” on Baghdad, 159 Baghdad and Field of
Operations (1917-18), 201 British Position on the Tigris, 137 Germany
and her Confederates, 99 India, 34
Marathas, 35
Marathon, 4, 104
Marchant, Maj, T. H. S., 87, 330, 361, 364, 365, 366
Marengo, battle of, 11
Marival, 87
Marlborough, 1st Duke of, 1, 9, 10, 17, 19, 21, 22
Marne, battle of the, 65
Maroons, the, rebellion of, 23-25
Marseilles, 57, 63, 65, 93, 94, 96
Marshall, Lieut.-Gen. Sir W. R., marches to Zeur, 173, 174; commands
in Mesopotamia, 262; winter work of (1917-18), 263; attacks Turks,
263, 264; plan of campaign (1918), 273; quoted, on the armies in
Mesopotamia, 262; on cavalry work in Mesopotamia, 273, 274; otherwise
quoted, 236, 237, 262-64, 291, 293-96, 319, 320; otherwise mentioned,
139, 140, 327 and _note_
Mary, Princess, 64, 65
Mary, Queen, 64-65; visit to India (1911), 46
Masistius, 4
Mason, Pte. Reuben, 342, 354
Masséna, Marshal, 28
Massey, Pte. C. T., 342; quoted, 92, 93, 109-11, 115, 139, 143, 146,
154, 161-64, 192-95, 214, 215, 223, 342; cited, 140
Masson, 164
“Matches” (horse), 191, 232, 255, 266
Matthews, Sergt. W., 244, 249, 343, 354, 363
Maude, Gen. Sir Stanley, commands in Mesopotamia, 107, 108; plan of
campaign, 135-38, 235-37, 323-24; attacks Turks, 157; takes Baghdad,
203-5; plan of operations beyond Baghdad, 216, 217; Lajj Cup given
by, 232; inspects cavalry, 233; presents Cups, 234; death of, 237,
238, 260, 262; estimate of, 238; despatch quoted, 136-37, 160-61, 173;
quoted, 7; on fight at Lajj, 199; otherwise quoted, 201, 203, 218, 219,
229, 230, 323, 324; cited, 138, 175, 218; otherwise mentioned, 119
_note_, 131, 132, 140, 155, 232, 260, 262, 263, 322, 327
Maxim guns, 167
Medaille Barbatie se Credente, 364
Médaille Militaire, 86
Medals-- American, 362 Distinguished Conduct, 241, 244, 249, 289, 306,
335-48, 363 Italian, 232, 262, 364 Meritorious service, 332-51, 363
Military, 233, 241, 244, 249, 259, 333-50, 362 Roumanian, 364
Medd Bridges, 253
Mediterranean Sea, 56, 63, 95, 97, 227
Meerut, 43, 47; Club, 52
Meerut Cavalry Brigade, 57, 92, 96
Meerut Division, 52
Mellor, Lce.-Cpl. A., 343, 357, 359
Memorial Tablet to Thirteenth Hussars, 372, 374
Mendali taken by British, 236, 281
Meritorious Service Medal, 332-51, 363
Merv, 319
Mesopotamia-- Baghdad, _see that heading_ Campaign in
(1914-18)--Townshend’s expedition to Kut (1915), 104; position of
British force (autumn 1915), 106; surrender of Kut (1916), 107; Maude
succeeds Lake in command of British Army, 132; his position, 132-38;
Kut recaptured (1917), 158-171; engagement at Lajj, 173-88; fall of
Baghdad, 200-4; Baquha occupied, 217; Russians join British, 218;
engagements at Ramadie, 235, 236; at Mendali, 236; at Tekrit, 245-48;
255-58; Marshall in command of Army, 262; engagements at Kulawand
(1918), 274, 278; Tuz Kermatli, 279, 280-285; Hadraniyah, 293-99;
313-16; review of, 319-20; enemy losses in, 319; British casualties in,
352-60 Description of, 105, 106, 319, 320 Navigation in, 120, 121, 122,
135, 321, 322 Thirteenth Hussars’ voyage to, 109-13
Mesopotamian Field Force, 96, 262
Messines, 352
Messing, English system of, in India, 49
Metcalfe, Maj. J. C., 368
Meteren, 352
Methven, Capt. D. M., 330, 369
Michell, Lieut. R. J. V., 330, 370
Military Cross, 222, 232, 241, 244, 249, 259, 290, 306, 363
Military Medal, 226, 233, 244, 249, 289, 306, 333-50, 362
Miller, Pte. C. A., 249, 343, 357
Miller, Lce.-Cpl. T. R., 343, 354
Millican, Pte. S., 343, 355
Moghuls, 43, 44
Monitors, 131, 144, 165, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 268
Mons, retreat from, 46
Montecuculi, 9
Moon, Lieut. N. L., 330, 369
Moore, 2nd Lieut. H. A., 330 and _note_
Moore, Pte. P., 343, 356
Morris, Cpl. J., 343. 354
Morrison, Pte. J., 182, 184, 185, 343, 360
Mortimer, Pte. H., 226, 244, 249, 343, 363; quoted, 147, 148, 224-226,
259
Moss, Sergt. E. E., 163, 269, 343, 363
Mosul--description of, 309, 312; surrender of, 311, 312; otherwise
mentioned, 185, 280, 291, 293, 295, 301, 305, 308, 319, 321, 326
Mosul Villayat, 312
Motor-buses, London, 68
Mounted Brigade, the, 367
Moustaches, permission to shave, 139
Munden, Brig. Richard, 17, 18, 19, 22; Dragoons, 18, 19
Munster, Lieut. J. F., death and estimate of, 150; quoted, 117, 120,
144; otherwise mentioned, 96, 116, 118, 152, 153, 330, 352, 369
Murat, Marshal, 11
Mushada, 223
Mushaidi, 217
Naffdach, 284
Nahr Massag, 357
Nahrin, 282
Nalas, 173 and _note_
Napier, Major-Gen. Sir W. F. P., 29-31
Napoleon Bonaparte--Cavalry of, 11; Marshals of, 11, 26; Peninsular
campaign of, 26-31; otherwise mentioned, 12, 25, 26, 31, 32, 35, 56,
98, 101, 105, 139 and _note_
Nasariyeh, 137
Natal, 40, 41, 46, 56
Navy, British, 26; as affecting Mesopotamia, 104, 165, 171
Nawab of Karnul, 35
Neill, Capt. Norman, 49 and _note_, 330 and _note_, 340, 352, 367
Nejef, 272
Neuve Chapelle, 75, 77, 80
New Zealand, 66
Newman, Sergt. A. S., 248, 249, 250, 252, 343, 354
Newman, Lieut. W. G., 330, 370
Newman, Pte. W. H., 296, 297, 304, 344, 355
Newton, Capt. H. G. T., death and estimate of, 226, 227; quoted,
185-87, 212-14; otherwise mentioned, 151, 175, 181, 186, 195, 330, 353,
366
Nicholson’s Nek, battle of, 15
“Nightshade” (horse), 271
Nineveh, 105, 309
Nizam of Secunderabad, 42
Noel, Lieut., 303
Nœux les Mines, 354, 356
Norfolk, Lieut. H., 368
Norledge, Pte. F. G., 344, 355
North, Pte. L., 344, 355
_Northbrook_, 60
Northumberland Hussars, 367, 369
Norton, Brig.-Gen. Charles, 245, 293, 300 313, 314; quoted, 296
Norton, Capt. D. J. E., 244, 246, 247, 249, 251, 266, 304, 330, 362, 370
Norwood, Lieut. W. J. L., 330, 370
Noyelles les Vermelles, 353
Numidians, 5
Oakes, Capt. J. O., 87, 89, 330, 367
Oazah Chia, 286
O’Connor, Lce.-Cpl. J., 249, 344, 359
O’Connor, Pte. T., 152 and _note_, 344, 356
Oisemont, 90
O’Kelly, Capt. H. A. de P., 352, 368
Old Comrades Dinner, 50, 377
Oldham, Capt., 39
Olive, letter to, 310
Omdurman, 315
Omnibuses for troops, 68
Orders and Decorations, 361-64
Orleans, 63, 64, 65
Ormrod, Lieut. L. A., 143, 144, 190, 232, 233, 266, 271, 330, 370
Orthes, 31
Osmond, Lieut. L., 270, 330, 370
Ostend, 32
Ottoman Turks, 103
Owen, Pte. A., 290, 344, 355, 363
Owen, Lieut. L. G., 330, 370
Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, 68
Paardeberg, battle of, 15
Palestine-- Campaign in (1914-18), 103, 205, 217, 263, 264, 268, 291,
321 Cavalry in, 91, 108, 323, 327
Pankhurst, Pte. J., 344, 354
Pappenheim, Count, 9
Pardon, Lieut. R. B., 155, 330, 370
Paris, 33, 65
Parkes, Lieut. G. H., 303, 306, 330, 362, 370
Parthenon, the, 4
Parthians, 6
Pathans, 35
Patrick, Pte. V., 304, 344, 360
Pay, Pte. W. W., 344, 365
Payne, Capt. F. N., character of, 167, 207; death of, 261; quoted on
fight at Lajj, 187-90; on Capt. Eve’s death, 189; on Baghdad, 207-11;
on Kazimain, 208, 209; otherwise mentioned, 157, 162 and _note_, 167,
169, 171, 180, 182, 224, 231, 330, 353, 370
Pearson, Lieut. W. R., 114, 141, 155, 320, 330, 370
Pedder, Brig.-Gen. E. N., 368
Pedder, Lieut. G. R., 185, 186, 188, 198, 231, 330, 353, 367; quoted,
96, 116, 118, 120, 122, 123, 126, 141, 143, 164-65, 180, 190, 192, 231,
232, 252, 253, 255, 264, 265, 266
Peep-o’-Day Boys, 23
Peat, _see_ Peet
Peet, Pte. G., 232, 344, 358
Pélissier, Marshal, 40
Peninsular Badge, 32
Peninsular War, the, 26-31, 36, 41, 51, 56, 132
Pennington, _see_ Pinnington
Pepys, Lieut.-Col. W., 330, 361, 364, 367, 368
“Percival” (horse), 234
Persia-- Alexander the Great’s invasion of (334 B.C.), 4 Baku
expedition through, 274 Conditions in (1916-17), 101-4, 132-34, 263
German influence in, 272, 273 Oilfields of, 104 Russians in, 217, 230,
235, 320 Turkey’s reverses in, 217, 218, 236, 240, 291
Persian Gulf, 99, 104, 109
Persians, 4, 102, 136
Peter the Great of Russia, 9
Philippon, Gen., 30
Phillips, Lieut.-Col. H., 361, 362, 368
Pinnington, Lieut. E. F., 182 _note_, 183, 185, 186, 191, 197, 198,
330, 353, 370; quoted on fight at Lajj, 183-85
Pitman, Pte. D., 82 and _note_, 344, 353
Platæa, battle of, 104
Poictiers, battle of, 7
Poles, 168
Polo, 42, 43, 47, 49, 52, 53, 120, 123, 231, 232
Pont Rémy, 92
Pook, Lieut. W. J. C., 330, 370
Poona Horse, 85
Popham, Squadron Serg.-Maj. E. L., 345, 365
Portugal, campaign in, 26-30
Potter, Squadron Sergt.-Maj. A., 238, 363, 364, 365
Powell, Pte. W., 304, 345, 356, 360
Preston, battle of (1715), 18, 19
Prestonpans, battle of (1745), 20, 21
Prisoners of war, 183, 353, 360, 368
Prussia, 10, 12, 18
Prussians, 33
Pryor, Gen. Holland, 274, 285
‘Punch,’ 157
Punic Wars, 5
Punjabi Infantry, 245
Pushtikuh Mountains, 149 and _note_
Pymm, Lieut., 33 and _note_
Pyrenees, battles of, 31
Qarah Tappah, 267
Qasr-i-Shirin, 268
Quatre Bras, battle of, 32
Quayirah, 316
Queen’s Regiment, 368
Qusil Robart, 253
Ragged Brigade, the, 32, 36, 132
Ramadie, surrender of, 235, 236, 253, 264
Ramillies, battle of, 9
Rayner, Cpl. G., 306, 345, 363, 365
Reaves, Lce.-Cpl. A. E., 249, 345, 359
Red Crescent Associations, 252
Red Cross, the French, 63, 252
Red Cross Hospital at Rouen, 82
Red Sea, 61, 63, 93
Redman, Pte. R. G. A., 345, 355
Rees, Lieut.-Col. J. G., 361, 365, 368
Regimental Associations, 376
Regimental Diary of Thirteenth Hussars, 49, 50, 93, 192, 205, 206, 223
‘Regimental History,’ cited, 1
Remington, Gen., 90
Remount Department, 368
Repton, 164
Reuter, 280
Rhine, river, 108
Richards, Lce.-Sergt. A. N., 345, 363
Richardson, Lieut.-Col. J. J., commands Thirteenth Hussars in
Mesopotamia, 97; wounded at Lajj, 176, 177, 181, 185, 191, 195; courage
at Lajj, 188; decorations of, 189; leads charge at Hadraniyah, 315,
316; estimate of, 195; quoted, 115; on advance to Baghdad, 159, 160,
161; on fight at Lajj, 195-98; on operations at Tekrit, 244, 261;
letter to Gen. Symons, 250; to Sir Frederick Williams-Taylor, 250-52;
letter on Capt. Robinson’s death, 255-57; to Sir R. Baden-Powell,
277-79, 300-2, 305, 306; letters from, 280, 281; otherwise mentioned,
83, 86, 115, 131, 151 _note_, 174 _note_, 198, 226, 275, 290, 299, 300,
302, 311, 330, 353, 361, 362, 364, 367, 374
Richardson’s Bluff, 296, 302, 313, 314; sketch of position at, 292
Rifle, the H. V., 67
Riley-Smith, Lieut. W., 330
_Risaldar_, 58
Roberts, Pte. J. L., 222, 223 and _note_, 346, 355, 363
Robinson, Capt. S. O., death of, 237, 239, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251;
estimate of, 255, 256; quoted, 129, 230, 231, 232, 233; otherwise
mentioned, 150, 152, 153, 220, 231, 238, 243, 246, 253, 254, 330, 352,
353, 364, 367
Roche, Lieut. F. G., 330, 369
Rocroy, battle of, 9
Rogers, Sergt. J. H., 346, 363, 365
Rohillas, 35
Rolfe, 2nd Lieut. E. V., 183, 197, 198, 310, 330, 352, 370; killed at
Lajj., 177, 185, 186, 191
Roll of Honour, 310
Roll of officers, Thirteenth Hussars, 329-30
Roll of non-commissioned officers and other ranks, Thirteenth Hussars,
331-51
Roman Catholics, enlistment of, 22
Roman Cavalry, 5, 6
Rome, 6, 104
Rose, Capt. W. G., 330, 369
Rouen, 82, 83
Roumanian orders, 362, 364; medals, 364
Roundheads, 8
Royal Army Medical Corps, 162, 329, 330
Royal Horse Guards, 368
Royalists, 9
Rupert, Capt. G., 368
Rupert, Prince, 9
Russell, Gen. Sir Baker, 44
Russell, Lieut. G. R., 304, 330, 353, 370
Russia-- British attitude towards (1885), 110 _note_ Campaign
of: in Crimea (1854-55), 36-40 Campaign of: in Mesopotamia
(1915-1918)--Russian position in the East, 51 _note_, 98, 99; Germany’s
designs, 132; Russians co-operate with British against Turks, 136, 217,
218, 267; Russian collapse, 262, 320
Russian Cavalry, 37, 38
Russian Orders, 362
Russo-Japanese War, 16
Russo-Turkish War, 12
Ruz, 282
Ryan, Chaplain, 248, 256
Ryder, Lieut. C. F., 330 and _note_
Sa Salekh, 222
Sadiyeh, 241, 243, 244, 267
Sahilijah, 270
Said, Port, 62, 93-95, 96, 116
Saint Anne, Order of, 362
Saint Michael and Saint George, Order of, 361
Saint Omer, 75
Saint Riquier, 90
Saint Stanislaus, Order of, 362
Sakaltutan Pass, 267
Sakizli, 287
Salonika, 92, 291
Samarrah, 223, 241, 244, 253, 268, 289
San Domingo, 24
Sannaiyat, 137, 138, 140, 150, 157, 158, 162, 167, 171, 324
Sassoon, Capt. A. M., 286, 330, 362, 364, 366
Saunders, Sergt., 269
Sawyer, Pte. J. G., 346, 355
Saxe, Marshal, 10
Scarlett’s Heavy Brigade, 38
Schubert, Pte. J. S., 346, 355
‘Science of War, The,’ 12, 46, 56, 62 _note_
Scottish Rifles, 368
Scythians, 3
Sea power in history, 6 _note_, 98; of Great Britain, 59, 104, 321; of
Rome, 104
Sebastopol, 37, 40
Secker, Capt. V. H., 330, 369
Secunderabad, 42, 43
Seekins, R. S.-M. S., 247, 249, 269, 286, 346, 362
Seidlitz, 10
Sepoys, 27, 56
Serajevo murders, 50
Serbian Order of White Eagle, 363
Serny, 75
Serri, the, 221
Shabkadr, 315
Shamran, 157, 161
Shanley, Lieut. T., 330 and _note_ 3
Sharaban, 241, 282
Shat-el-Arab, 104
Shatt-el-Adhaim, 267
Shaw, Pte. A., 269, 346, 359
Shawa Khan, 202
Sheikh Suliman, 356
Sheikh Saad, 131, 192
Sheil, Lieut. P. H. J., 330, 370
Shemal, the, 118
Shenandoah, 14
Shergat, 293, 296
Sheridan (American officer), 14
Sheriffmuir, battle of, 19
Shia, 272
Shumran Bend, 159, 352, 353, 354, 356
Shushan, 105
Sibson, 2nd Lieut. A. J. R. M., 330, 371
Sikhs, 12
Sinajah, 241, 268
Sindiyeh, 222
Sketches of Eve’s camp, 125; of Lajj battlefield, 175; of Tekrit
position, 259; of Richardson’s Bluff, 292
Skinner, Col., 52 _note_
Skinner’s Horse, 52 and _note_, 96
Slavin, Pte. R., 347, 355
Smallpox, 244
Smith, Pte. S., 347, 356
Smith, Pte. W. J., 347, 355
Smithers, Lce.-Cpl. J., 269, 347, 365
Smith-Sligo, 2nd Lieut. R. W. M. G., 330 and _note_ 3
Smithson, Brig.-Gen. W. C., 361, 368
Somme, battle of the, 148, 166
Soper, Pte. R., 347, 355
Soult, Marshal, 31
Spain, 5, 26, 105
Spaniards, 26
Spanton, Lce.-Sergt. F., 182, 184, 185, 347, 360; quoted on Lajj,
181-83; cited, 183
Spencer, Lt.-Col. A. W. B., 368
Spencer, Capt. H. E., 362, 365, 368
Spicer, Lce.-Cpl. (Tptr.) J. A., 310, 347, 355
Squadrons of Thirteenth Hussars, _see_ A, B, C, D
Stanhope, _see_ Harrington
Stanton, Squadron Sergt.-Farrier W., 347, 365
Star of Roumania, Order of, 362
Steele, Major C., 175, 187 and _note_, 200, 290, 330, 364, 365, 366;
courage of, 151 and _note_, 152 _note_
Steer, Pte. F., 347, 355
Stephenson, Pte. F., 347, 355
Stevens, Lce.-Cpl. J., 241, 347, 363, 365
Steward, Pte. H. W., 249, 347, 359
Stirling, Lieut. D. A., 116, 153, 190, 248, 256, 266, 312, 330, 362,
364, 370
Stocker, Capt. E. H., 330, 367
Stones, Pte. J. L. K., 310, 348, 354
Strawbridge, Sergt. S. G., 348, 363
Stuarts, the, 17
Stubbs, Pte. R., 249, 348, 359
Styles, Sergt. (Tptr.) J. S., 348, 354
Sudan campaign, 56
Suez, 57, 61, 62, 93, 96
Sultan of Turkey, the, 101, 320
Sunni, 272
Sutton, Lieut., 315
Swayne, Martin, 231
Swedish cavalry, 9
Swiss infantry, 8
Switzerland, 90
Symondson, Lieut. V. F., 330 and _note_ 5, 367
Symons, Brig.-Gen, A., 58, 82, 199, 250, 277, 324, 330, 361, 364, 365,
366
Syria, 105, 291, 321
Table Mountain Bridge, 282
Tagus river, 28
Tank Corps, 368
Tarr, S.Q.-M.-S. S., 348, 363
Tarr, Pte. W. G., 115, 348, 355
Tassie, Squadron Q.-M.-Sergt. W. D., 151, 153, 154, 194, 348, 363
Tauq, 284, 285
Tauq-Chai, 285
Taylor, Lce.-Cpl. A., 194, 269, 348, 358
Taylor, Brig.-Gen. A. H. M., 362, 367
Taylor, Pte. C. E., 249, 348, 356, 358, 359
Taza, 285, 286, 288
Taza-Kharatli, 286
Taziyan, 286
Tchernaya, battle of (1855), 40
Teague, Pte. J. P., 348, 356
Tegg, Squadron Sergt.-Maj. F. J., 248, 249, 250, 348, 355
Tekrit, engagement at, 237-56, 257; account of, 257-58; sketch of
position at, 259; honours gained at, 259; mentioned, 235, 277, 291,
301, 324, 352-59
Tel-Sharia, 282
Tel-Sharif, 275
Telabw-Shahanah, 288
Tetheridge, Sergt. W. H., 249, 348, 363
Thackray, Pte. G., 348, 354
Thermopylæ, 4
Thessaly, 4
Thirteenth Hussars, the, _see_ Hussars
Thirty Years’ War, the, 9
Thomson, Pte. W., 247, 249, 348, 355
Thomson, Squad, Q.-M.-Sergt. W. K., 348, 355
Thompson, Mr Fred E. M., 377
Thornell, Pte. S. V., 349, 355
Tigris river, Map of British position on, 137; utilisation of, 158 and
_note_, 316-18, 321, 322; otherwise mentioned, 104, 113, 134, 135, 136,
137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 146, 157, 158, 170, 171, 174, 199, 202, 206
and _note_, 216, 226, 227, 235, 236, 289, 291, 293, 353, 355
‘Times History of the War,’ quoted, 204
Tindle, Pte. W. H., 349, 354
Tories Vedras, battle of, 28
Townshend, General, 92, 105, 141, 174, 242, 323; takes Kut, 104
Toulouse, battle of (1814), 31
Tracey, Pte. J., 82 and _note_, 349, 353
Trans-Caspia, 319
Trans-Caucasia, 319
Tranter, Pte. R., 304, 349, 360
Travers, _see_ Williams-Taylor
Tremayne, Capt., 41
Tremayne, Col., 34, 38
Tremayne, Lieut.-Col. J. H., 363, 368
Troy, siege of, 3
Tugela, river, 41
Tunnicliffe, Pte. J., 242 and _note_, 249, 349, 354
Turkey-- Position of, in Great War (1914-18)--ally of Germany, 99,
100; military power of, 101; strength of, in Asia, 102-7; plan of
campaign in Asia, 132-36; defeat of, in Asia: at Kut (1917), 158, 159;
at Baghdad, 200-5; on Euphrates and Tigris, 216-19; at Kirkuk (1918),
273, 274; at Richardson’s Bluff, 291, 293-95; surrender of army, 300;
British armistice with, 302; losses of, 319; fall of, 321 Russian War
with, 12 Sultan of, 101, 320
Turkey in Asia, 100, 103, 205
Turkish airmen, 211, 242
Turkish armies, 37, 62, 327
Turkish cavalry, 9, 142, 240
Turkish Empire, the, 204, 219
Turks, character of, 154, 218, 237, 277, 278, 280, 301, 322, 323;
barbarity, 182, 186, 188, 189, 190, 192, 193, 207, 239, 248, 252, 256,
260; treachery, 193, 243
Turner, Lce.-Cpl. H. E., 349, 364, 365
Tuz, 276, 284, 285, 359
Tuz-Kermatli, 353, 354; cavalry charge at, 274, 276, 285, 324
Tuz-Kifri, 275, 283
Tuz-Tan Road, 276
Twigg, Pte. D., 242, 349, 354
Twist, Brevet Lieut.-Col. E. F., wounded at Lajj, 181, 185, 186, 191,
195, 197, 198, 351; quoted, 179, 180; otherwise mentioned, 127, 131,
151, 155, 171, 247, 248, 256, 266, 279, 290, 330, 353, 364, 365, 367
Uhlans, 62, 67
Union Castle Line, 60
Unveiling ceremony of the memorial to the Thirteenth Hussars, 372-74
Ur of the Chaldees, 105
Urmia, Lake, 304
Utrecht, treaty of, 17
Uxbridge, Lord, 32
V Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, 50, 74, 96, 161, 167, 180, 195, 196,
198, 297, 298, 303, 305, 306, 314, 315
Vancouver, 211
Vavie, _see_ Dawson
“Venus” (horse), 233, 271
Verdun, 90, 166
Vernon, Sergt. W., 269, 349
Very lights, 69, 71
Vickers guns, 298, 299
Vickers, Pte. J., 349, 356
Victoria, Queen, 44, 49
Villers, 85
Vinall, Lce.-Cpl. A., 304, 306, 349, 355, 363
Viner, Lce.-Cpl. F., 306, 349, 363
Viney, Pte. A. V., 249, 349, 359
Vittoria, battle of (1813), 30, 31, 36
Vlasto, Capt. A., 330, 369
Wadi river, 149
Wallace, James, 306, 307
Wallhead, Pte. A., 188 _note_, 350, 354
Walpole, Lieut.-Col. the Hon. George, 25
War Office, British, 114, 133, 365
Ward, Pte. A. J. F., 249, 350, 359
Ward, Squadron Q.-M.-Sergt. B. J., 350, 363
Waterloo, battle of, 11, 32, 33, 51, 56; campaign, 41
Watkins, Lce.-Cpl. A. W., 168, 191 and _note_, 241, 350, 358, 363, 365;
letter of, to Mr Justice Eve, 177-79
Watson’s Horse, 151, 174, 183, 196, 197
Watson-Smyth, Lieut. G. R.--diary quoted, 52-54, 61, 62, 68, 69, 73-74,
75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82-83; otherwise mentioned, 82, 330, 353, 366
Wellesley, _see_ Wellington
Wellington, 1st Duke of, plan of campaign against Napoleon in Spain,
26; censures Thirteenth Hussars at Badajos, 29; inspects Thirteenth
Hussars, 32; wins battle of Assaye (1803), 35; institutes camps of
exercise for army, 36; funeral of, 36; mentioned, as “sepoy General,”
27, 56
Wells, Pte. A., 233, 250
Welsh Horse, the, 368
Welstead, Lieut. G. L. M., wounded, 175, 185, 191, 197, 198; otherwise
mentioned, 266, 271, 330, 353, 364, 371
West Indies, 23-25
Westerman, Sergt. R. A., 350, 363
Westminster Abbey, 19
Whally, 310
“Whiskers” (horse), 233, 271
Whitchurch, 2nd Lieut. C. A., 330 and _note_ 3
White Eagle, Order of, 363
White, Gen. Sir George, 15, 41
Whiteford, Lieut.-Col., 20
Whiteboys, the, 23
Whitington, Cpl. F., 306, 350, 363
Whitney, Lieut.-Col., 21
Wigan, 18
Wigan, Brig.-Gen. J. T., 361, 364, 368
Wiggin, Brig.-Gen. E. A., 361, 362, 367, 377
Williams, 153, 154, 290
Williams, Lieut. A., 330, 364, 370
Williams, Lieut. B. H., 330, 353, 362, 364, 368
Williams, Brig.-Gen. C., 368
Williams, Pte. D. G., 249, 350, 359
Williams-Taylor, Sir Frederick, 250
Williams-Taylor, Lieut. T., wounded, 150, 152, 153; wounded and
prisoner, 237, 243, 247-50, 251, 252, 254, 353; quoted, on fight at
Tekrit, 238-40; otherwise mentioned, 330, 370
Willis, Capt., 151
Wills, Maj.-Gen., 18
Wilson, Pte. F., 249, 351, 358
Wingfield, Lieut. C. A. F., 96, 330, 367, 370
Winter, Pte. F., 304, 351, 360
Wise, Major F. H., 368
“Witch, the” (horse), 266
Wood, 2nd Lieut. A. H., 330, 371
Wootten, Frank, 271
Worcester Yeomanry, the, 368
Worcesters, 270
Wordley, Capt. E., 330, 369
Wren, Trumpeter F. M., 178, 351, 354
Wren, Pte. P., 351, 358
Wright, Lce.-Cpl. D. C., 351, 356, 363
Wright, Lieut. E., 330, 370
Wrigley, 2nd Lieut. G. F., 330
Wybrants, Capt. S., 368
Wyncoll, Lce.-Cpl. C. H. A., 351, 365
Xenophon, Cavalry Treatise of, 4
Yanhah-Buyuk, 284
Yarvali, 287
Yeomanry, Bedford, 330, 369
Yeomanry Brigade, 368
Yeomanry, Derbyshire, 368
Yeomanry, Worcester, 368
Yorkshire Hussars, 368
Young, Lieut.-Col., 282
Young, Pte. H., 351, 355
Ypres, 78, 79, 80
Zab, the Lesser, 287, 296, 311
Zacho, 305
Zakho, 312
Zeur, 173, 185, 195
Ziethen, 10
Zorapur, 35
Zwarteleen, 352
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS. FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: It may be noted that Hannibal’s invasion of Italy led,
two thousand years later, to the recognition of the influence of sea
power on history. Admiral Mahan himself described to the writer how it
one day occurred to him that Hannibal’s long march from Spain to Italy
had been necessitated by the Roman strength at sea, and that this was
the underlying cause of his eventual ruin. Following up the train of
thought, Mahan gradually worked out his great conception. Hannibal’s
march was the germ from which it sprang.]
[Footnote 2: Captain Gubbins, Lieutenants Geale and Pymm.]
[Footnote 3: Oriental names in this book are not always spelt
consistently on one scientific system. For example, it has not been
thought proper to alter the original spelling in letters quoted, or to
correct well-known names such as Lucknow or Bangalore.]
[Footnote 4: Captain Norman Neill, afterwards killed on the Western
Front.]
[Footnote 5: In 1885 England was for a time on the point of war with
Russia. The outburst of feeling in India was the same then as in 1914,
and should not have been forgotten.]
[Footnote 6: This Regiment, it may be noted, was named after Colonel
Skinner, the founder of the Bengal Cavalry system. He was the son of a
Scotch officer and a Rajputni girl, so he had fighting blood on both
sides.]
[Footnote 7: See Appendix IV.]
[Footnote 8: See Appendix II.]
[Footnote 9: The inefficiency of German Cavalry in all but mass
manœuvring was only what Henderson’s criticisms on their work in 1870
had already pointed out. See the ‘Science of War.’]
[Footnote 10: Lieutenant J. V. Dawson.]
[Footnote 11: “We” being the Indian Cavalry Corps.]
[Footnote 12: Privates J. Tracey and D. Pitman.]
[Footnote 13: As to the value of its work in Europe opinions differed.
Some seemed to think little of it. Some declared that during the time
when English reinforcements were not yet ready to go into line, the
Indian contingent had saved the British Army from being overwhelmed.
Both these views were perhaps extreme. The Indian soldier fought under
serious disadvantage in the climate and surroundings of Europe, but
undoubtedly he fought with great devotion and suffered heavy losses,
for which England owes him deep gratitude. The matter may well be
allowed to rest there.]
[Footnote 14: Beluchistan may for practical purposes be regarded as a
part of India.]
[Footnote 15: In 1854, when the Regiment went to the Russian War, it
is recorded that on one of the transports “the beef had made several
voyages to and from India, and then been returned into store. Some
barrels of peas even bore the date 1828 plainly painted thereon. It was
impossible to boil them--also the pork (salt) was as aged as the salt
beef, and as bad.” The _Islanda_ was better than this.]
[Footnote 16: Australians.]
[Footnote 17: Bombay.]
[Footnote 18: European privates’ tents, with double roof and sides--as
some protection against heat.]
[Footnote 19: General Cobbe did in fact command an Army Corps later on,
but the command-in-chief went to General Maude.]
[Footnote 20: Caprice, his favourite mare, had been left at Bombay
among the sick horses.]
[Footnote 21: Arab Village.]
[Footnote 22: Arab Village.]
[Footnote 23: Expeditionary Force Canteen.]
[Footnote 24: December.]
[Footnote 25: “Pusht i Kuh,” or Back of the Mountains, is the district
so called by the Persians, their western district.]
[Footnote 26: Captain Eve, the senior Captain, was then second in
command of the Regiment, owing to the absence of Major Twist, disabled,
and on the particular day, as Colonel Richardson was on other duty,
Eve had taken the Regiment into action. Captain Steele was next in
seniority.]
[Footnote 27: The man was Private T. O’Connor. In a letter
from Mesopotamia to Mr Justice Eve he writes: “I was the last
ammunition-carrier to get wounded that day, and your son and Captain
Steele came out under heavy machine-gun fire and carried me in as we
evacuated that position that night, thus saving me from being taken
prisoner. There is no need to tell you he was loved in the squadron, as
we have missed him as one of the finest soldiers and leaders of men any
soldier could wish to follow.”]
[Footnote 28: The horse casualties from fire had been numerous, and
many horses had been lost from fatigue and exposure.]
[Footnote 29: It may be well to note here that in the course of this
campaign, where the Tigris was the main line of communication, the
distances were usually calculated by river. The distances by road,
when a road existed, were much shorter, roughly perhaps half the river
distances.]
[Footnote 30: As a fact the Infantry got across on the 23rd.]
[Footnote 31: This was Lieutenant Payne of “D” Squadron.]
[Footnote 32: Of the 24th February.]
[Footnote 33: Commonly written “nullas”--ravines.]
[Footnote 34: The Regimental Diary says 9 o’clock, the Colonel of the
Thirteenth says a little before 10.]
[Footnote 35: Captain Eve’s mare Caprice was lost for a year or more
after the charge, but was then seen by his batman, Private Hogg, among
the horses of an Indian Cavalry Regiment. She was recovered and brought
to England.]
[Footnote 36: Lieutenant Fitzgibbon crawled out into the open several
times to look after the wounded. It was on one of these occasions that
he found Captain Eve’s body, and removed his watch, rings, and spurs.]
[Footnote 37: The name was Pinnington.]
[Footnote 38: Captain Eve.]
[Footnote 39: Lieutenant Dawson.]
[Footnote 40: Captain Steele of “C” Squadron.]
[Footnote 41: Private A. Wallhead, killed after putting Lieutenant
Dawson in safety. Sergeant H. Knapman, too, was killed while helping
the wounded.]
[Footnote 42: Private Alfred Jones.]
[Footnote 43: His charger.]
[Footnote 44: This was doubtless Watkins.]
[Footnote 45: Major Twist was apparently wounded earlier, when the
three squadrons wheeled to the right.]
[Footnote 46: Baghdad lies on both sides of the river.]
[Footnote 47: Garden or grove.]
[Footnote 48: 6th March.]
[Footnote 49: The bodies of these men and officers were afterwards
removed to Baghdad, and buried in the British Cemetery, under the
superintendence of the Rev. F. H. Cooke, M.C.]
[Footnote 50: Afternoon of the 9th?]
[Footnote 51: ? 24th February, when the pursuit began.]
[Footnote 52: This from the officer of a conquering army.]
[Footnote 53: March.]
[Footnote 54: The Regimental Diary of 14th May says: “Moved into
standing camp at Chaldari.”... “The tents were on the edge of a palm
grove, but the horses were picketed down in the open.”]
[Footnote 55: The old camp on the Hai stream. The kit was not received
till the middle of May.]
[Footnote 56: Khalis Canal?]
[Footnote 57: The expedition against the Arabs in May 1917.]
[Footnote 58: The Jebel Hamrin is described by the Colonel of the
Thirteenth as not unlike the Cheviot Hills.]
[Footnote 59: Private J. Tunnicliffe.]
[Footnote 60: “Includes myself and Captain Godfree (2nd in command).”]
[Footnote 61: It may possibly be argued that both Lord Haig and Lord
Allenby were Cavalry officers, and therefore perhaps inclined to think
highly of the achievements of their own arm. They certainly were
Cavalry officers, as was Lord French, a fact well worthy of note, but,
like him, they were something more--great leaders of armies.]
[Footnote 62: Did not join Regiment for duty.]
[Footnote 63: Did not join Regiment for duty. Killed with R.F.C., May
22, 1917.]
[Footnote 64: Did not do duty with Regiment during war.]
[Footnote 65: Did not serve with Regiment during war. Killed on active
service with 11th Hussars, 1914.]
[Footnote 66: Did not join Regiment for duty.]
[Footnote 67: Did not serve with Regiment during war. Killed on active
service, 1914.]
[Footnote 68: Did not serve with Regiment during war. Killed with
R.A.F., Nov. 13, 1918.]
[Footnote 69: Twice.]
[Footnote 70: Four times.]
[Footnote 71: Three times.]
[Footnote 72: Three times.]
[Footnote 73: Twice.]
[Transcriber’s Note:
Page 189, “they’ve chistled past my nose” changed to read “they’ve
whistled past my nose”.
Page 248, image in center of page, “IN UNFADING MEMORY” following
8 lines illegible.
Obvious printer errors corrected silently.
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Thirteenth Hussars in the Great War" ***
Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.