Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War M.M. group of six awarded to Corporal H. V. Simmons, Warwickshire Yeomanry, wounded in the brilliant charge of the Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry at Huj, in Palestine, for which he most probably received his decoration

Military Medal, G.V.R. (310294 L. Cpl., War. Yeo.-T.F.); 1914-15 Star (1799 Pte., Warwick. Yeo.); British War and Victory Medals (1799 Cpl., Warwick. Yeo.); Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, G.V.R. (1799 Pte.-A. Cpl., War. Yeo.); Defence Medal, unnamed, mounted as worn in that order, good very fine and better (6) £1000-1200

M.M. London Gazette 10 April 1918.

Henry Victor Simmons came from Birmingham. The group is sold with a fragile leather bound photograph album containing photographs and postcards of military subjects - several identified as the Warwickshire Yeomanry. On an inside page is a paper cutting bearing a photograph of the recipient and reading, ‘L. Corpl. Henry Victor Simmons, Warwickshire Yeomanry, Military Medal, is the youngest son of Mr and Mrs Ted Simmons, of 63 Edward Road, Balsall Heath. He took part in the brilliant charge of Yeomanry at Gaza, where he was wounded. He is in his twenty-fifth year, and joined the Yeomanry a few years before the outbreak of war. Another brother is in the Warwicks’.

The following account of the cavalry charge at Huj is taken from the Marquess of Anglesey’s History of the British Cavalry:

‘The Worcesters led the way: Major M. C. Albright's 'A' Squadron of the Worcesters, followed by two troops of 'C' Squadron under Second-Lieutenant J. W. Edwards. Bringing up the rear was Captain R. Valintine's 'B' Squadron of the Warwicks, followed by two troops of 'C' Squadron.

As they advanced at a brisk trot from the south-west end of the ridge they could not see the hostile guns firing at the infantry of the 60th about 11,350 yards away. They then moved north-eastwards under (as they thought) the ridge's protection, in line of troop columns. When they were some 300 yards from the northern tip of the ridge, these hitherto unseen guns - a 75mm Austrian battery - came into sight about 1,000 yards almost due west. Between them and the cavalry it was noticed that the ground, though undulating, was perfectly open.

As the yeomen trotted on they raised clouds of dust. This alerted the Austrian gunners who swung round two of their guns and fired at the horsemen as they came on. Little harm was done for by now the yeomen were gathering speed and it was difficult for the gunners to pick up the range quickly enough. The squadrons halted for a brief moment near to the northern tip of the ridge, but they were instantly subjected to heavy fire from four mountain battery guns and some 200 riflemen, numbers of whom stood up to take aim. These were positioned on a slight ridge to the north-west, some 600 yards distant.

Albright, realizing that the attack on the main target to the left could not go ahead while these guns and infantrymen were in a position to enfilade it, formed his men in column of half squadrons and 'went,' according to Wiggin, 'straight on to attack this lot immediately he realized the position and without waiting for further orders either from me or from Lieutenant-Colonel Cheape.’ To avoid the shock, some of the Turkish infantry fired wildly, others wavered, but the majority 'fled down the reverse slope with the victorious horsemen thundering at their heels.’ Although many more Turks could have been put to the sword (considerable numbers were) and although the guns of a retreating 5.9 howitzer battery which they were protecting, as well as the mountain guns, were at 'A' Squadron's mercy, Wiggin instantly ordered Albright to break off the pursuit. This wise decision was occasioned by what he saw of the troubled position which Valintine's Warwicks and Edwards's Worcesters were in.

A few moments after Albright had launched his charge, Cheape had ordered Valintine, with Edwards's two troops slightly echeloned to the right, to lead them over the crest of the northern end of the boomerang ridge and to charge the Austrian 75mm guns in flank. Valintine, like Albright before him, formed his men into column of half-squadrons with swords at the 'engage' and the moment they cleared the crest the Austrian gunners opened fire on them with 'an absolute inferno of shells.' Four machine guns behind them and about two companies of riflemen, all protecting the 75mm guns, also opened a fierce fire upon the galloping, shouting yeomen. The distance they had to cover was some 900 yards down a slope and up the other side, 'with the last 100-150 yards very steep indeed'. The Austrians depressed their muzzles to the maximum and set their fuses at zero so that the shells exploded almost as soon as they left the barrels. It was only a matter of moments before Albright, having rallied and reformed his men, joined in the charge in echelon from the right, sweeping down on the gunners' left flank. The Austrians stuck most heroically to their guns. Their final shot, indeed, 'passed through a horse that was almost at the gun's muzzle'. 'Few,' according to Lieutenant Alan-Williams, 'remained standing and, where they did, they were instantly sabred. Others, running away from the guns, threw themselves on the ground on being overtaken and thus saved themselves, for it was found almost impossible to sabre a man lying down at the pace we were travelling.'

Despite terribly high casualties, the yeomen, equally heroically, broke right through the battery, riding down the gunners, sabreing numbers of them, and then hurled themselves, by now perhaps only twenty in number, against the machine guns. These were taken a few seconds later by Albright's Worcesters as they swung to the right. Most of the Turkish foot soldiers, possibly 200 in number, when they saw this second charge bearing down on them, quickly broke and fled, a few stopping to take pot shots at the yeomen who managed to cut down quite a number. They probably thought that the troops opposed to them were far more numerous than they were. The fact that they were not ruled out any question of a pursuit, but at this moment the machine-gun sub-section which had followed the squadrons arrived on the scene and turned its two guns, as well as the four captured ones, on the fleeing Turkish riflemen, mowing down many of them. Some seventy were made prisoner.

While this formidable charge, lasting, from start to finish, according to one authority, about twenty minutes, was in progress, Cheape had led his two remaining troops of the Warwicks off to the right, where he intercepted the 5.9 howitzer battery. This he captured complete, as well as the abandoned camel-pack mountain-gun battery. At this moment Lieutenant-Colonel Williams returned from his mission to bring up the 4th Australian Brigade which failed to reach the scene of action in time to take up the pursuit. He found a horrible scene of carnage and in its midst the three remaining officers of his regiment arranging the defence of the captured ridge with the few unwounded men who remained. He was helped by the Warwicks' Second-in-Command who brought to the task the few men of his regiment who had been unhorsed or outpaced in the charge. The position was consolidated and the 60th Division, meeting little further opposition, was at once able to establish itself three miles north-west of Huj.

“Suddenly,” noted the Worcesters' Medical Officer as he rode up to the battlefield, “the terrific din of shrieking and exploding shells ceased and we knew the end had come. A wonderful and terrible sight met our view.... The ground was strewn with horses and fallen yeomen, many of whom were lying close to, and some beyond, the batteries.... [The guns] were in various positions surrounded by Austrian and German gunners, many of whom were dead or wounded.... Our squadrons had not fired a shot and every single casualty we inflicted was caused by our sword-thrusts. Our Second-in-Command had fallen wounded under a gun and was on the point of being dispatched by a gunner with his saw-bayonet when a yeoman from the former's old squadron killed the Austrian ....

“We commenced to dress the wounded at once and found them scattered in all directions. Wounded Turks came crawling in and one could not help contrasting their clean wounds caused by our sword-thrusts with the ghastly wounds sustained by our men from shell fire and saw-bayonet. Part of a Turco-German Field Ambulance, which had been unable to escape, was found in a hollow behind the batteries, and their equipment was invaluable to us, as our dressings soon ran out and our Field Ambulance had not yet arrived; the Turkish orderlies were put to work amongst their own men and the intelligent German sergeants proved quite useful.”

It seems that a majority of the grievous casualties sustained by the yeomanry were caused by machine-gun fire. The exact total is difficult to establish but estimates vary between a minimum of seventy and a maximum of ninety, not all of them suffered in the actual charge. All three leaders, Albright, Valintine and Edwards lost their lives, and Wiggin was wounded. Out of about 170 horses, between 100 and 140 seem to have been actually killed and others were wounded or missing - a horrifying total.

It is hard to say whether or not what Cyril Falls has called 'a monument to extreme resolution and to that spirit of self-sacrifice which is the only beauty redeeming ugly war' was justified by the limited, but successful, object which it achieved. It does appear to be unlikely that Huj could have been occupied that evening had the charge not taken place. It is worth noting that never again in the campaign, except very occasionally against demoralized troops, was a mounted charge made without some measure of fire support or the backing of a second line, or both. Though in public all the commanders were warm in their praise and numbers of decorations were awarded to the survivors, it is difficult to believe that Chauvel, particularly, was not dismayed by the excessively high cost.... What is certain is that the capture of eleven guns, four machine-guns and about seventy prisoners, as well as the killing and wounding of numbers of not easily replaced Austrian and German artillerymen, not to mention numerous Turks, by some 120 horsemen armed with swords was, by any martial standards, an outstanding exploit.’