p>With a Highland Regiment in Mesopotamia / 1916—1917
AUTHOR'S NOTE
In writing this short account of the 2nd Battalion in Mesopotamia, my aim has not been to write a military history of all that was achieved; that will be the task of some one more competent to judge of merits and demerits than myself. My object has been to give an account in simple language of the two years spent by the Battalion in the Iraq, so that the children of the men of the regiment may know of the brave deeds and the hardships cheerfully borne on their behalf.
Two articles describing our last two battles are here reprinted with the permission of Brigadier-General A. G. Wauchope, from whom I have also received many details of our earlier fights, and I am also indebted for information to Captains J. Macqueen, W. E. Blair, W. A. Young, Sergeant-Major W. S. Clark, and other officers of the Battalion.
Mesopotamia,
October, 1917.
I thank you, Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and men, for the card of New Year's greetings.
I have followed the work of the Battalion with great interest. I know how well all ranks have done, what they have suffered, and that they will ever maintain the glorious tradition of the Regiment.
I cannot speak too highly of the splendid gallantry of the – Highlanders, aided by a party of the – Jats, in storming the Turkish Trenches.
Their noble achievement is one of the highest.
They showed qualities of endurance and courage under circumstances so adverse, as to be almost phenomenal.
After the action fought on the 21st January 1916 on the Tigris the above was published.
Tell the men of your battalion that they have given, in the advance to the relief of Kut, brilliant examples of cool courage, and hard and determined fighting which could not be surpassed.
Sir Percy Lake,
July, 1916.
Your reputation is well known, I need say nothing more.
To the – Regiment.
You led the way into Baghdad, and to lead and be first is the proper place for your Regiment.
WITH A HIGHLAND REGIMENT IN MESOPOTAMIA
CHAPTER 1
At the outbreak of war, the 2nd Battalion – was stationed at Bareilly, having been in India since the end of the South African War. Of the fighting in that campaign, the 2nd Battalion had had its full share. At first it formed part of General Wauchope's Highland Brigade and fought with traditional stubbornness at Magersfontein and Paadeburg, and later on identified its name with many of the captures and some of the hardest marches of that campaign.
On the mobilisation of the Indian Corps, the 2nd Battalion formed part of a Brigade of the –th Division and landed in France early in October 1914, and were in the trenches holding part of the line near Festubert before the end of the month. At no time, except in the early months of 1916 in Mesopotamia, was the Battalion so severely tried as in these first two months in France. The conditions certainly were comfortable neither to mind or body. The trenches were knee deep in mud and water, and were without dug-outs or shelters; the enemy were in great numbers and combined their aggressive tactics with the use of trench mortars and grenades, weapons of which we had neither knowledge nor training; of rest for man or officer there was little, yet no yard of trench entrusted to the Battalion was ever lost either in France or Mesopotamia. With the spring came better times, and at Neuve Chappelle a fine victory was won at small cost, but on the 9th of May the Battalion suffered heavily in making an attack from the Orchard in front of the Rue-de-Bois. Often and with pleasure have we in the Iraq looked back on that summer spent in Picardy. Scouts and snipers, machine gunners and bombers, we all have different memories of those stirring days as the battalion moved from month to month along the trenches from Givenchy Hill to Northward of Laventie; and of the days of rest in billets behind Bethune, Richebourg and the Rue de Paradis; memories of close comradeship, of well-loved friends, of most noble deeds and of lives freely given for King and Country. But the day we recall now and shall ever recall as the red letter day of the year is the 21st of September. Five battalions of the Regiment joined that day in the battle of Loos, and though separated in the line, at one in spirit, all five battalions swept forward regardless of loss, driving the enemy from their trenches, captured line after line of the position and penetrated deep into the German defences.
The 2nd and 4th Battalions had attacked together from Fauguissart and, in reaching the Moulin de Pictre, an advance of two miles made with little support on either left flank or right, the losses had been so severe that the two battalions were afterwards amalgamated into one under the command of Colonel Wauchope. These two battalions, in conjunction with another Highland Regiment under Colonel Thompson, despite several attacks and four mines being blown up within our first line, held Givenchy Hill throughout October. Then, when the Germans quieted down in this neighbourhood, we returned to our old line near the Rue de Bois. There rumour had it that the Indian Corps was soon to be sent to Mesopotamia. Some welcomed the idea of change, no one looked forward to another four months of the mud of Flanders. Almost everyone who did not know imagined that they would be giving up every discomfort which the winter brought for a pic-nic in the East, and a quick, successful and enjoyable march to Baghdad, and so when the rumours were confirmed, the whole battalion was in great spirits. Some obtained short leave to say 'Good-Bye' to their friends across the channel before leaving for the East, where there would be no short visits home, no getting letters and parcels daily, but the Regiment had gained great honour beneath foreign skies, so probably it was going to add to them even if it was only establishing marching records along the Tigris to their goal at Baghdad. Besides, was not Townshend and his gallant force in danger in Kut? And the idea of forming part of the relieving column appealed to every man.
So at the end of November the Regiment entrained behind that long Western Front where they had fought for so many months against such terrific odds, and where so many gallant comrades lay buried, and everyone was happy, and no one thought that within a few short weeks the battalion would practically cease to exist. Before they arrived in France, many had never left the shores of Great Britain, and now they were embarking on an Expedition that would reveal to them some of the wonders of the East. Is it any wonder, under those circumstances, that no one was downhearted?
The train journey through the heart of France from the mud of the trenches, leaving the cold and cheerless days behind for the sunny south was full of interest, and of looking forward to what was in store. Marseilles, that busy Mediterranean Port which has seen such wonderful scenes of troops arriving from all parts of the world, and of all colours, naturally turned out to see the Regiment it had welcomed to defend its Frontiers a year before, and which was now en-route to defend and fight for the honour of the Allied cause three thousand miles away. And so on December the 6th, it was 'Good-Bye' to the pleasant land of France, and the Regiment embarked on the Transport nine hundred and fifty strong. Having suffered heavy casualties on the Western Front, few of the original number left France, bound for Basrah via the Suez Canal.
Before leaving, in appreciation of the stubborn fighting in the battle of Loos by the 2nd Battalion, the Cross of the Legion of Honour was conferred on the Commanding Officer, Colonel A. G. Wauchope, D.S.O. Never was an honour more richly deserved, never was the conferring of one more popular. No one who has not served in the Regiment can possibly be aware of what the Colonel has done to make his Battalion one of the most efficient in Mesopotamia. I was very interested in listening to a story told me by a brother officer who was standing alone