Page 185 - Rifles 2017 Issue No 3

The Ri es Berkshire & Wiltshire Museum
For 2017 we thought we would move away from the Western Front, to a theatre of war that is still very much in the news today, at least partly because of the actions that took place between 1914 and 1918. The theatre the Middle East, the place Gaza, in particular the Third Battle of Gaza in which 1st/4th Battalion The Wiltshire Regiment played its part.
The Museum is fortunate having the personal diaries of Sergeant Munday and Sergeant Couldrey, both Wiltshire men, who were members of the Territorial Army. They were mobilised in 1914 and served in India and then Palestine. Both survived the war, both earned themselves DCMs, and both kept signi cant diaries, including photographs and some maps.
In the summer of 1917 General Sir Edmund Allenby was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Egypt Expeditionary Force which included opera- tions in Palestine. He created a new Division, the 75th. Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, ordered Allenby to take Jerusalem as “a Christmas present to the nation”.
The 1st/4th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment originally came from the 4th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment, or the Territorial Force Battalion. 1st/4th Battalion were based in Delhi for 2 1⁄2 years. They carried out garrison duties and guarded the local viceroy but saw no front-line action.
In March 1917, the 1st/4th received orders that they were to leave India for Active Service in Palestine. Despite their lack of front line experience, they were keen to be involved. As Couldrey put it, “...we are eagerly awaiting our turn as everybody are [sic] absolutely fed up with hanging about”.
On 15 September 1917, the 1st/4th Battalion sailed from Bombay on a 9-day voyage to Port Suez in Egypt. They joined the 233rd Brigade, part of General Allenby’s new 75th Division, and headed to the trenches in southern Gaza. The Battalion was now ready.
The Third Battle of Gaza started on 27 October 1917. For the 1st/4th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment, their rst front line experience began on the evening of 6 November 1917. The Battalion was positioned to capture a Turkish gun emplacement at Outpost Hill south east of the town. The attack started at 2330 and surprisingly met little resistance. When the Battalion reached Outpost Hill they found the Turkish troops had deserted the area. The Allies captured Gaza itself with little opposition.
The next morning 1st/4th Battalion was ordered to march three miles north to Fryer Hill. The Battalion was under constant Turkish bombardment but by nightfall it was in position to attack Atawineh and Tank Redoubt from where the Turks were ring. The operation nished on the evening of 7 November
1917. The total casualties were 8 killed and 73 wounded.
A week later Couldrey recorded in his diary that on the morning of 13 November 2017 “we had orders to pack up and advance again – our objective was to capture 2 villages, the rst of which I forget the name of, but the 2nd I shall never forget because this happened to be a red-letter day for Sgt Mundy and myself. It was El-Mesmyieh.
We hadn’t much trouble taking the rst village ....but advancing on the 2nd village was like hell itself. We were red on terribly by artillery from the front and en laded on the right ank by both artillery and machine guns. Bullets were spitting by us thick and fast and we had many casualties. Shells were bursting among us as thick as you like, but I am proud to say that our fellows were as cool as veterans. Machine guns now started pelting us from the cactus plantation in front of us but we kept going, although bullets were spitting about us and many men were killed and wounded.
Our Platoon (No 3) was now advanced well in front of everybody and Sgt Munday [sic] and myself knew that the machine-guns in the cactus plantation were going to be a terrible menace to the Battalion unless they were silenced, and our thoughts seemed to work together, and although it was going like to our doom we made straight for the plantation. How we got there without being killed I do not know, with a couple of other men we were determined to get those guns or they get us. We got inside the plantation and the guns were still spitting away and we made straight as we could for them Mundy went away to the right and somehow we missed him I turned behind a big cactus and lo and behold I was facing a full machine gun team of Turks and Mundy came on the scene at the same time We covered this team with our bayonets and commanded them
WE HADN’T MUCH TROUBLE TAKING THE FIRST VILLAGE ... BUT ADVANCING ON THE 2ND VILLAGE WAS LIKE HELL ITSELF
THE RIFLES
REGIMENTAL MUSEUMS 183
Sergeant Couldrey DCM, Wiltshire Regt
REGIMENTALMUSEUMS