The hoisting of the flag on the citadel would seem a natural point at which to leave for a while the history of the 5th Battalion and turn our attention to the doings of others, but Sir Stanley Maude ends his despatch on the campaign, which included the fall of the great Turkish city, three weeks later, on the 31st March, and, though the Buffs had no very stirring adventures during this period, it may be as well to finish the record for the present at the end of the month.
A junction with our Russian allies, who appeared to be advancing from the direction of Persia, caused Maude to stretch out a hand, so to speak, in that direction: that is, up the River Dialah. Another matter that required arranging was that the Tigris is protected from overflowing by means of banks (or “bunds,” as they are called), and if the enemy cut these up stream of the city disastrous floods would result. Another river, the Shatt el Adhaim, flows into the Tigris above Baghdad and runs roughly parallel to the Dialah, which enters the Tigris below the city, and on this river the enemy made attempts at a stand. Altogether during March there was fighting on these rivers and some gallant work was done, notably by the Manchesters on the 25th. Taking it all round, however, further opposition on the enemy’s part was but feeble. The most notable event of this period was perhaps the occupation of Feluja on the Euphrates river on the 19th March, giving the English, as it did, the control of both the great rivers of Mesopotamia. The Buffs spent most of the latter end of March in camp at Hinaidi, just south of Baghdad, and in the careful preparation and excavations for a permanent camp to be occupied during the rapidly approaching hot season.
VICINITY OF KUT
CHAPTER IX
PALESTINE
I. Formation of 10th Battalion
At the commencement of the year 1917 another battalion was added to the Buffs and from that time onward took a very interesting and important part in the fighting done by the regiment. The first deeds of arms accomplished by this, the 10th Battalion, were in Egypt and Palestine, and it may be as well to state baldly what had been happening in this region from the commencement of the war till the end of the year 1916 and to explain then how the 10th Buffs suddenly came into existence, as they did, on Egyptian soil on the 1st February, 1917.
As early as November, 1914, the Turk, who claimed to be the suzerain of the Land of Egypt and had always been jealous of the practical governorship exercised by the English, had advanced in considerable force on the Suez Canal; and perhaps it was only the arrival in the country, soon afterwards, of strong Australian and New Zealand contingents which had enabled the somewhat meagre garrison to hold its own. Even as it was the enemy had made a determined attempt to cross the Canal in February, 1915, and only retired from its neighbourhood in the following April.
Sir Archibald Murray was appointed to the supreme command in December, 1915, and Sollum, on the sea coast, something over two hundred miles west of Alexandria, was occupied in March, 1916, because of a troublesome tribe in those parts called the Senussi, who had been egged on by our enemies to make themselves a nuisance and who had to be dealt with. In August, 1916, the Turks had attacked at Romani, near the sea and a few miles east of the Suez Canal, but they had been badly beaten, and in September had withdrawn further along the coast to El Arish. On the 21st December the British occupied El Arish and two days later Magdhabar. They also carried the Turkish position at Rafa, near the coast and on the frontier of Egypt and Palestine, on the 9th January, 1917. To follow up these successes and advance on Gaza was now Sir Archibald Murray’s plan of campaign, and the army under his command was carefully prepared and reorganized for the adventure.
There was at this time in Egypt a considerable quantity of dismounted Yeomanry, dismounted simply because of the paucity of horses, and it was determined to form of them the 74th Infantry Division, consisting of the usual number of infantry brigades and infantry battalions, and working entirely on infantry lines, excepting for certain slight matters such as the use of trumpets instead of bugles and the like.