Fighting at Tikrit

On 5 November 1917 General Alexander Cobbe’s Anglo-Indian I Corps attacked the Turkish positions at Tikrit, a town on the Tigris about 50 kilometres upstream from Samarra. The British chronology of the war calls this engagement the “action of Tikrit”. Three days earlier, on 2 November, Cobbe’s troops had driven the Turks out of their trenches at Daur, but in view of the strong garrison of Tikrit they were already due to return to Samarra. On the morning of 4 November General Frederick Stanley Maude halted the withdrawal: he had received word that the Turks might abandon the town and were carrying away supplies from it. Cobbe judged that they were covering this withdrawal with strong forces and that an assault would be needed. Although Maude agreed to postpone the attack by a day, Cobbe decided to strike at once.

During the night General Vere Fane’s 7th Division marched north from Daur across an open, undulating plain and before dawn stood opposite the left centre of the Turkish line. The trenches ran from the river bank, about a kilometre and a half south of the walled town, and curved north for a further eight kilometres. The Cavalry Division took up positions opposite the Turkish right flank, and the guns of the 21st Brigade, which was advancing along the left bank of the Tigris, shelled the positions and the roads behind the town. At 5.45 a.m. the Turkish artillery opened fire. The 47th Sikhs drove the Turkish outposts out of the dry bed of the Wadi Jibin and came within about 700 metres of the trenches.

The Turks defended themselves stubbornly. Their artillery accurately shelled the ground in front of their line and repeatedly cut the British telephone lines, so the attack went in only at 11.30 a.m. The 47th Sikhs and the 59th Rifles, with the 2/124th Infantry close behind them, took the trenches on a front of about 700 metres in one rush and captured about 85 prisoners. They paid for it with the loss of nearly a third of their men, because the Turks raked them with flanking fire, especially from a high-lying strongpoint. With the help of reinforcements, including the 1st Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, two Turkish counter-attacks were beaten off in the afternoon. At 4.45 p.m. a battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders and the 125th Rifles took the troublesome strongpoint.

Before dusk there was a cavalry charge. Two squadrons of the 13th Hussars, about a hundred horsemen in all, came upon 300–400 Turks forming up for a counter-attack. Captain Robinson led them straight at the enemy. The hussars rode through the Turkish ranks, wheeled and rode through them once more. Robinson was killed in the hand-to-hand fighting, but thanks to the falling darkness the squadrons lost only about 28 men. According to the British official history, they inflicted at least twice as many casualties on the enemy.

The sun set just after 5 p.m. The British dug in on the line they had taken, and at 6 p.m. Cobbe ordered the cavalry to withdraw to Al Auja, while the infantry was to hold its position and send out patrols. The day cost I Corps 1,801 men, including 161 killed. The Indian battalions lost most, the 47th Sikhs alone 326 men. The British official history estimates Turkish losses at about 1,500 men, including 300 killed. In the evening it was not yet known whether the Turks would go on defending the town the next day.