Category Archives: Ramadi

October 8/17

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for 2 letters from you which I got a few days ago, about a week after we had got here. They were dated 2^nd & 8^th August and I can’t help thinking there is a mail missing somewhere, & other fellows seem to think the same; one is due in today & that may be the one.

I have’nt really & truly had time to sit down & really write letters lately – Ever since the fighting was over on 29^th Sept we have been more than busy clearing up the battlefield, guarding prisoners, on outpost duty etc and we’ve had hardly time to turn around. From all accounts our victory here seems to have caused a tremendous impression everywhere, and the force has received numerous congratulatory messages from the King & General Maude. It appears to be a victory of tremendous importance, so I am most awfully glad to think the 39^th played such an important part in it, and so proud myself to have commanded the Battalion in the fighting.

You will have seen references to the capture of Ramadi in the papers, & I expect you wondered if we were there, very much so, & the regiment played a very prominent part & did splendidly – one of our officers has been given a D.S.O for good work & gallant conduct that day – he was badly wounded in the mouth, his tongue being nearly shot away, but he stuck to his job & eventually came back to the ambulance & on the way stopped & wrote down for me a clear & concise account of the situation where he was, though he must have been in great pain at the time. He was very plucky all through & thoroughly deserved his award. I have had a line from him in hospital & he tells me they have sewn his tongue on again & he will get his speech back all right, as of course he could’nt speak a word when I saw him-

Our 2 men who knocked out the Turkish field-gunners with Lewis guns have been decorated too; these are what they call “immediate” awards, given by General Maude in the field, & I hope we shall get lots more in due course, as the men thorough deserve them. The 5^th Queens were with us in the fighting, and – being a Guildford regiment – no doubt the name Garhwal will soon be quite familiar there. They are awfully struck with our men, & especially with their work during the fighting, & I expect you may hear something about us in your conversations with various people- The Queens fought splendidly & did awfully well, & please tell everyone so.

We are still on a very light scale of kit, one blanket only, & no tents, & the nights are frightfully cold now. We hope to get more kit up shortly, but we are all pretty hard now & can put up with a good deal of knocking about & pigging it.

I owe several letters to the family but I really have’nt time to do anything like answering letters just at present. I am most awfully fit & well, & love this sort of thing, real soldiering with a vengeance.

“Eye-witness”, the official reporter, came round to see us after the fighting, & I took him over the battlefield & he is writing a long account of it & us, so look out for it in the papers- He told me he had already mentioned the regiment in his wire to the home paper, but expected they wd censor it.

The woolly Shetland has been more than useful & I don’t know what I should have done without it. I carried it in my haversack on the show, & very glad I am that I have it with me now.

I am telling Cox to send along £2-15 for Ruth’s things. I’m awful sorry, but I had an idea I’d settled that.

The flies here are absolutely indescribable. The Mess (we are messing in a tumbledown old Arab mud hut) is black, really & truly with them, & at meal times you can’t see your food for flies. They nearly drive you mad. No more for the present

Excuse scrawl. Best love to all

Yr loving son

Ted

This is the writing pad you sent me in Egypt in Jan: 1916!

Oct 1st/17

Dear Mother

Just a scribble to tell you I’m all right after the fighting round Ramadi on Sept 27^th, 28^th, & 29^th, which you may have noticed in the papers, though I don’t suppose they will make reference to it. The 1/5 Queens were in it with us, so you may perhaps hear accounts from some of their relations. The fighting is all over now, as we have killed or captured the entire Turkish force here, some 3000 men, & 2000 of them surrendered to us, the good old 2/39th! Is’nt it splendid. The regiment has done awfully well, though I say it as should’nt, as I commanded it all through!

The G.O.C. the force has been round to thank us & congratulate us & said that we were going to be specially mentioned separately from the others as having done so well. The officers & men were magnificent, mother, & I am frightfully proud to have commanded such a splendid lot of men in action, & I know you will be too. The Queens were splendid too, & fought like veterans.

We did a night march on 27^th Sept & dug trenches close to the enemy that night, marched all next day till 3 pm & then attacked & captured a ridge; dug trenches all that  night & next morning advanced over 1500 yards of open ground & attacked & captured another ridge, & a very important bridge which prevented the Turkish army escaping. Also we captured 3 field guns, is that magnificent for infantry, & all by our little selves too! These guns were knocking us about rather badly at very close range, so 2 of our men got Lewis guns & shot down the gunners, & then a company of ours charged the guns & captured them, alone & unaided. A very nice thing for infantry to actually knock out guns, & then capture them.

After that practically the whole of the Turkish force (2500 out of a total of 3000 odd) surrendered to us, the 39^th, including Ahmed Bey the Turkish commander & all his staff. We had a good many casualties in the 3 days fighting, during which we came under very heavy machine gun & rifle fire at times, & also heavy shell fire. But we fortunately only had 2 officers wounded, & very few men killed.

The main point is the operations have been entirely successful, the general & all are fearfully pleased, & Genl: Maude has sent us some very congratulatory messages. I, of course, am more pleased than I can say; I knew the men would do well, but they have exceeded my wildest expectations. We had heaps of congratulations from other regiments & individuals, & the Garhwalis have more than sustained their reputation.

The 3 days fighting were really hard, no sleep practically, very very hard marching & some good stiff fighting; very very little water, scanty food, but a cheery view of life helped us all along, & now of course you could’nt find a happier crowd anywhere. I’m awfully fit & well, had many narrow escapes, but a miss is always as good as a mile is’nt it.

Too busy to write any more. Best love to all the others. I can’t write any more I’ll try next day. Heaps of love to all

Yr loving son

Ted

Sketch and report of Ramadi from In The Clouds Above Baghdad, being the records of an air commander by John Edward Tennant (1920)

https://archive.org/stream/incloudsabovebag00tennrich#page/n249/mode/2up

Veteran’s account

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgM5ideasJs

Sept 22/17

Dear Mother

Just a line to say all’s well. We have had no scrapping yet but have had 4 days’ hard marching, very hard, over frightully bad & dusty roads. We have come 54 miles, & that at the end of an enervating hot weather & the men not hard & not having had much practice in route marching lately, is pretty good work; hard work anyhow.

The dust on the march was awful, absolutely indescribable, you really & truly could’nt see one yard at times. It is very cold at nights now, & still warmish during the middle hours of the day. We only have one blanket each, & our great coats of course, & no tents, so it’s pretty parky at night, I carry that Shetland woolly in my haversack & find it frightfully useful.

There are some more troops just ahead of us, & we heard guns this morning so evidently the ball has opened, though of course by the time you get this it will all be over, & a brief reference in the papers will be the only thing the public will know. But to us on the spot it looms much larger of course. We are all fit & well, & thriving on the simple life. I must keep a full record of all our doings as things & incidents fade so quickly from one’s memory if one does’nt jot them down at the time or very soon after. I wish letters took a shorter time to arrive.

Well, please don’t worry, mother. The regiment is in great form & I’m tremendously glad to get a chance to take it into action. I have’nt got time to write to the others as you may imagine, so will you please apologise, & expect my next letter when you get it.

Best love to all

Yr loving son

Ted

Battle of Ramadi

http://www.kaiserscross.com/304501/304522.html

39th Garhwal Rifles marching in Mesopotamia 1917