100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/low-flying-air-warfare-hwsvsgnb8

november 17, 1917

Low-flying air warfare

Perhaps the most conspicuous recent development has been the increase in the use of aeroplanes as actual fighting weapons against enemy troops on the ground. In its beginning it was a purely British invention, and the Germans simply commented with amazement on what they called the “audacity of the English airmen,” who kept annoying the men in the trenches by firing on them from low altitudes. After a while, they began to copy us, and the practice is now so widespread that low-flying airmen are a factor with which the infantry in trenches, shell holes, or on roads behind the front, always have to reckon. Dawn and early dusk are most favourable to this form of guerrilla war.
The daily amount of damage inflicted is incalculable. A dozen machines on a single day, for instance, attacked half a hundred different objects, firing thousands of rounds from heights varying from less than one hundred to four hundred feet. Marching bodies of relief troops were scattered, leaving dead and wounded; troops unloading railway trucks were killed or driven from their work; infantry in trenches and shell-holes, trains of pack mules bringing up supplies, gangs of signalmen repairing wire, columns of lorries and trains of motor transport, and heavy batteries in action were compelled to cease fire and their crews killed or driven to shelter.

Two pilots who went out together the same day started for the village of M, but on the way fell in with a large body of infantry on the road, so attacked and scattered it. Going on to M, they entered the village practically at the level of the house-tops. The village street was full of German troops, so the airmen cleared it out, one man firing over 800 rounds. Having driven every one still living and unwounded under cover, they went on to village G. On the way they chased more men from the road and silenced a machine-gun. Close by G they spied an enemy two-seater aeroplane. One of the two attacked it at about 800 feet and drove it down to 400, when his gun jammed, and while he was fixing it, a bullet from the ground hit him in the face and cut him rather badly. He was able to get home, however, whither the other went to keep him company. Before they left they saw the German two-seater dive out of control, and finally crash.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-11-16/register/needlework-by-wounded-soldiers-3cr0fm25z

november 16, 1917

Needlework by wounded soldiers

Lieutenant-General Sir Francis Lloyd, General Officer Commanding, London District, who was accompanied by Lady Lloyd, opened yesterday afternoon an exhibition and sale of work by the patients at Endell Street Military Hospital, which is under the care of Dr Flora Murray and Dr Garrett Anderson. He spoke of the value, from the point of view of awakened interest, of this work in helping to the recovery of the men, and he described the hospital as second to none in his command. He also made the announcement that a woman doctor had been appointed to supervise the health of the women working under the military in the London district.
The standard of the work done by the men was very high. The first stitching they do is the making of badges of their own regiment, which they are allowed to keep; 1,120 of these were made last year, and they are being worked at the rate of 60 a week. The next piece they embroider is sold to pay for the materials.

Some of the work shown was of exceptional merit. and all of it suggested delicacy of touch and a sense of colour. There was a beautiful cushion worked in a stitch of his own invention by a soldier who was a butcher before the war. Some beautiful handbags were made by men with fractured femurs. The finest piece in the room was a pole screen made by a former cabinet maker, with quaint crinoline figures beautifully worked in tapestry stitch. There was a footstool covered with little white lambs, and the embroiderer, who had been a year in the hospital, had resolutely resisted all persuasion to put a black one amongst them.
The pride the men took in the work and the friendly rivalry amongst them was very human, and they enjoyed the swiftness with which the guests bought everything. Sir Francis Lloyd himself bought a charming needlework picture. The sale took place in the ward set apart for sick women from the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, most of whom were able to be up and about during the afternoon. Some of the men can accept orders for their work. Lady Anderson, Mrs Game, and Miss R Wigram are responsible for the men’s skill, designing everything they do, and initiating them into the different stitches.


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-11-15/register/how-tekrit-was-won-rk3hmzdb6

november 15, 1917

How Tekrit was won

Since the capture of Samarra last March Tekrit has been the Turks’ riverhead on the Tigris, and they had built a trench system round it seven miles in circumference with both ends on the river. The infantry opened the attack at 12.30 after a night march from Dur which we had captured on November 2. The first assault was delivered on the enemy’s centre. Our troops, advancing with great dash over a distance of 1,200 yards under considerable shell-fire, assaulted and captured the enemy trench system. At 4.30 Scottish troops and Indians attacked on the left. They rose in one line and advanced slowly across 700 yards of flat at a walk, while our artillery put in a most effective bombardment. At 70 yards from the Turkish trench they halted for the barrage to lift, but the Turks, seeing the familiar tartan, did not wait for the bayonet.

The glimpse of them through the dust and smoke as they scrambled over the parados was too tempting for our infantry, who risked the last few seconds of the barrage. Just as they reached the enemy’s line the barrage lifted and the Turks in the trench threw up their hands. Those who had bolted were thinned by our shrapnel and machine-gun fire.
Then the cavalry came in on the left. They went in with the point, jumped the trenches and scattered the Turks who were fleeing after being driven from the trenches by the infantry. This charge was carried 1,000 yards beyond the trench held by our infantry, when machine gun and field gun fire was encountered at close range. The cavalry wheeled about and covered their withdrawal by dismounted action.
Mingled with the smoke of our bursting shells, columns of denser smoke were now seen rising from ammunition and ordnance dumps around Tekrit which the Turks had fired. After dark our patrols pushed forward, and at 4am we were in possession of the town. The place was very quiet. The townspeople received our officers and sepoys with an assurance of good will. Daylight revealed white flags fluttering on every roof.
Tekrit is a picturesque old walled town built on a bluff. The houses stand on the sheer edge of a cliff which rises abruptly 100ft from the river. A deep nullah surrounds the town like a moat. The desert is unrelieved by any cultivation.