kut
“When, in 2005, I served with the British Army in 2005, I served with the British Army in Camp Abu Naji, Al-Amara in Maysan Province, Iraq, I was astonished and somewhat embarrassed to learn that the British Army had fought there in 1915. I had a Ph.D. in history… and thought I had a good grasp of British history, but there was a whole chapter I had no knowledge of. From where I was, the next major town up the Tigris was Kut, which had played a pivotal role in the first half of the First World War, also something I knew nothing about.”
Paul Knight, “The British Army in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918” (2013) (available on Kindle)
When Peter Davie returned to the war in 1915, it was to rejoin 2nd Battalion, Black Watch which was about to be despatched to the Middle East with the Indian Meerut Division who had been involved in the fighting in Flanders and who would now be transferred to the Middle East.
The entry of the Turks to the war on the side of the Central Powers had resulted in the Churchill inspired attempt to strike the soft underbelly of Turkey by landing a on the Gallipoli peninsula which would threaten the fall of Constantinople and lead to the withdrawal of Turkey from the war. The Gallipoli campaign was a disaster and resulted in the deaths of thousands of British and Empire troops. It was also the birth of the ANZAC’s (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) who would come to play a part alongside the Canadian and British Armies in France.
Whilst striking at the Turks and taking Turkey out of the war was an objective of itself, the wider objective of securing the Empire and its wealth and resources was a sine qua non: something which was an absolute necessity.
The importance of oil in the 20th Century was beginning to be superseded the use of the less efficient coal in the protection by the Royal Navy of the trading route through the Suez Canal to India and beyond. And the resources of Mesopotamia were being recognised. The Empire moved to secure the oil resources of the Persian Gulf and the facilities that that entailed. An operation that sought a limited objective i.e. securing the the oil resources, fell victim of what is now known as “mission creep”: the tendency to go just one more step further, just one objective more. Such as the town of Kut Al-Amara on the Euphrates, the main highway to the sea. Just one step more..
In the case of Kut, that “one more step” would lead to the surrender of the garrison of Kut and the death from disease and fighting of the besieged, the besiegers and the relievers. But most of all, the death of an Army.
Peter Davie’s battalion was transferred to Mesopotamia at the end of 1915. The British base at Kut-al-Amara had been besieged by Turkish forces from 7 December 1915. On 7th January the Battle of Sheikh Sa’ad took place involving the relieving force attempting to fight their way into the town and relieve the defenders. The attempt included a merged battalion the “Highland Battalion” consisting of 1st Seaforth Highlanders and 2nd Black Watch. A total of 19,000 British troops advanced up the River Tigris towards Kut but when they were 20 miles short of Kut, they were confronted by a Turkish force which was at least 3,000 soldiers bigger.
Colonel Arthur Wauchope, the Commanding Officer of the Black Watch, complained that “No time was given for the issue of orders, no frontage or direction was given, no signal communications arranged and to all enquiries the one answer was “Advance where the bullets are thickest’.” Also, his orders were “to make a frontal attack on a plain as bare and flat as a billiard table without any artillery support.”
According to Wilcox in “Battles on the Tigris” Kindle Edition, p89 “the Turkish trenches were often difficult to locate owing to the mirage and the Turkish skill at disguising them even in the flat, desert landscape.”
Peter Davie was killed in action at the battle of Sheikh Sa’ad on 7th January 1916 , fighting with the remaining combined “Highlanders” in the 2nd Black Watch and 1st Seaforths. The British force attacked at midday on January 7 with the combined Black Watch and Seaforth Highland battalion sent forward at 1.30 p.m. against the well-defended Turkish position.
2nd Bn Black Watch: MANNING TRENCHES, MESOPOTAMIA
INDIAN TROOPS ASSAULTING TIURKISH POSITIONS
On the same day and in the same place, Serjeant Samuel McGeachie of 1st Seaforths was killed in action, fighting alongside Peter Davie.
Samuel McGeachie was the nephew of Andrew McGeachie, a long-time resident of Skinflats, and my father-in-law who passed away a few years ago. And his daughter Carol, born and raised in Skinflats.
In over 2 ½ months, the relieving force was unable to break the siege and were unsuccessful despite their best efforts. The attempt to relieve Kut was unsuccessful.