The Thirteenth Hussars in the Great War

by H. Mortimer Durand

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 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....