January 7th is the anniversary of the deaths of six men commemorated on the Carillon, all of whom perished in the Battle of Sheikh Sa’ad in Mesopotamia in 1916. The Mesopotamian Campaign of World War 1 has perhaps received less attention than the trench warfare of France of Flanders, but nevertheless large numbers of Allied troops fought and died there.
Today Mesopotamia equates broadly to modern Iraq. It was part of the Ottoman or Turkish Empire which entered the war on the German side on 31st October 1914.
The Battle of Sheikh Sa’ad
The Battle of Sheikh Sa’ad took place between 6–8 January 1916, the first in a series of assaults to break through the Ottoman lines to relieve the besieged British Army garrison at Kut. The Turkish commander Nur-Ur-Din had, however, effectively blocked any progress by placing approximately 22,500 troops and 72 guns on both banks of the Tigris at Sheikh Sa’ad, about 16 miles downstream from Kut. General Aylmer ordered an attack on the enemy and very heavy fighting ensued on 7th January 1916. The battle is regarded as one of the worst British defeats of the war. Eventually, in April, the Kut garrison surrendered, and 13,000 men were taken prisoner, a third of whom died from disease and inhumane treatment.
The Carillon men who died in the Battle of Sheikh Sa’ad
- Private Alec Brookes worked at the Brush factory in Loughborough. He survived the Battle of Loos before being posted to Mesopotamia. He was 21 when he died of wounds.
- Private Arthur Cunningham was a Loughborough man, married with a daughter. He worked as van driver for Loughborough Central Laundry. After service in France he arrived in Basra on 31st December 1915. He was 27 when he was killed in action.
- Private John Gibbins was a farm labourer, one of a large Loughborough family. He also survived the Battle of Loos but was killed in Mesopotamia aged 21.
- Corporal William James worked at the Empress Works, was married and aged 26 when he was killed in action.
- Private Francis Landon was an iron moulder and a father of four. He was 43 when he died in the battle.
- Second Lieutenant Lionel Dowding had served in South Africa, India and France before being killed in Mesopotamia at the age of 38, leaving a widow and three children.
The Carillon has in the collection in its care, a letter written home from Mesopotamia describing the battle of 7th January. See in Letters from the Front Sergeant J Hudson, who was wounded, described a “curtain of fire” from machine guns, and mentions the death of Pte Gibbins and Lieutenant Dowding.
A very foreign land
Aside from the dangers of battle, there were many other trials to be borne in Mesopotamia. For ordinary men who’d probably never ventured much further than Loughborough, it must have been a severe shock to the system to leave their troopships find themselves in this arid and very foreign land.
The heat was often unendurable, exceeding 50°C. This alternated with icy winds and periods of heavy rain. Swarms of flies and mosquitoes drove the men to distraction and spread disease.
Dysentery, sunstroke, boils, jaundice, sandfly fever and of course malaria felled even the fittest men. Daily doses of quinine helped reduce the severity of malaria but it’s estimated that nearly 100 men in every 1,000 were affected in Mesopotamia.
Fresh water was scarce and often the men and animals had to slake their thirst with foul-tasting marsh water. It’s interesting to learn that the first combat tanks got their name from being code-worded as ‘water tanks for Mesopotamia.”
Another letter, from Sapper R H Payne, Life in Mesopotamia describes his service life in Mesopotamia. “The temperature is 142 degrees, but in a month’s time it will be 155 degrees. We are doing five hours a day drilling and marching…if we were allowed in the villages it is doubtful whether we should find the energy to pay them a visit. In our little world we have two things to look forward to – mail day, once a week, and a swim every evening. The Tigris is only ten minutes’ walk, and at night time we get some very good swimming, although its 20 feet in the shallow parts.” His fellow servicemen included “Egyptian, Arab and Persian, Chinese and Japanese Labour Corps working here on the docks, also Indian and African native troops.”
Getting through the days
As in every theatre of war, the men found ways to make daily life in Mesopotamia a little more pleasant. Some found the time to establish quite large farms, growing vegetables and cereals in the fertile soil to eke out their rations. You can imagine how welcome a fresh juicy tomato would have felt to a dust-parched throat. Some serving units reared chickens. Sapper Payne’s letter also marvels at the abundance of dates, which must have been seen only rarely at home. And there were opportunities for sport – mainly for the officer class, it must be said – who hunted wild boar and jackals in place of the usual foxes. Some took up game bird shooting, observing the accepted shooting season and not killing any of the native sandgrouse before the Glorious Twelfth.
The sandgrouse apparently made very good eating, but it’s doubtful whether our Loughborough men ever tasted anything so fine. As Sapper Payne related, a refreshing evening swim was the closest they came to relief from the hellish conditions they found themselves in, in Mesopotamia.