The Thirteenth Hussars in the Great War

by H. Mortimer Durand

“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.

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....