The Simon C. Marriage Collection of Medals to the Artillery

A rare Inter-War ‘Iraq campaign’ M.M. group of five awarded to Gunner William Watts, Royal Garrison Artillery, who served on detachment with the Royal Engineers (Inland Waterways Transport) as a Maxim gunner on the defence vessel Greenfly which ran aground on 10 August 1920 and remained under heavy attack for the next 12 days

Military Medal, G.V.R. (1409443 Gnr. W. Watts. R.G.A.); 1914-15 Star (40298 Gnr. W. Watts. R.G.A.); British War and Victory Medals (40298 Gnr. W. Watts. R.A.); General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Iraq (40298 Gnr W. Watts. R.A.) mounted court-style for wearing, contact marks, otherwise very fine and better (5) £1,800-£2,200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Simon C. Marriage Collection of Medals to the Artillery.

View
Collection

M.M. London Gazette 28 September 1921:

‘For bravery and devotion to duty during the period from the 10th to the 22nd August, 1920, on the defence vessel "Greenfly." Whilst under heavy fire, he displayed great coolness and courage, and inflicted severe casualties upon the enemy by his excellent handling of a Maxim gun.’

William Watts hailed from Olney, Buckinghamshire, and served as a Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery in Egypt from 24 July 1915. He afterwards served on attachment to the Royal Engineers (Inland Water Transport) in Iraq and Mesopotamia in operations against the insurgents from March 1919. Watts served as a Maxim gunner aboard the defence vessel Greenfly on the Euphrates river.

The Greenfly Incident

Whilst serving in Iraq, Watts served as a Maxim gunner aboard the defence vessel Greenfly on the Euphrates river. Under the command of Captain J. M. Roche, R.A., H.M. Gunboat Greenfly was one of 16 shallow-draught gunboats that formed the Tigris Flotilla. Like the other ships of the ‘Fly’ class, she had a displacement of 98 tonnes, was 126-feet long and 20 feet in the beam. However, in order to cope with the extreme variations in depth on both the Tigris and the Euphrates, her draught was only two feet. Her armament consisted of one 4-inch main gun, one 12-pounder, one 6-pounder, one 3-pounder, one 2-pounder anti-aircraft pom-pom, and four Maxim machine guns. As Ian Rutledge, in his book Enemy on the Euphrates recounts:
‘The crew consisted of two officers (Captain Roche and Second Lieutenant A. G. Hedger), and 20 infantrymen. Ordered to patrol the Euphrates north and south of Samawa, throughout July and early August 1920 she steamed up and down the river, engaging and destroying insurgent positions and strongholds wherever they were encountered. However, on 10th August, while heading down river to help defend the town and railway station of Khidr, Greenfly ran aground on a sandbank six miles from her destination. A sitting target for the insurgents, over the next week intense efforts were made to pull Greenfly off the sandbank, often in the face of accurate enemy fire, but without success and at the cost of rising casualties. On 20th August, as the insurgents’ fire became more intense, a final effort was made - her sister gunboat, H.M.S. Greyfly, accompanied by two launches, each carrying a company of Indian troops, managed to reach the Greenfly and made strenuous efforts to try and re-float the Greenfly. However, the mud of the Euphrates, whose water-level was rapidly falling, had closed further upon her, and she was stuck. Not wishing to see the Greenfly captured by the insurgents, the British had two options: to abandon and scuttle the gunboat, or to leave the crew onboard, additionally supported by an Indian escort, well equipped with rations and ammunition, ready for a second major rescue attempt as and when the necessary ships and special equipment could be assembled.’
The second option was chosen, and at this point Captain Roche left the gunboat to return to Khidr, leaving her under the command of Second Lieutenant Hedger.
Rutledge continues: ‘By 30th September the situation on board the ship was getting desperate, and Hedger sent the following message, “Food is the great question on board, but if your arrangements are successful I expect that we shall be able to hang on. The condition of the crew is really very good considering the very severe shortage of rations that we have all experienced. Our spirits are still ‘up’ although at times we have all felt very depressed. I have lost one Indian and I have one British Other Rank severely wounded; besides these casualties I have one Indian wounded and 3 or 4 men sick owing to weakness caused by lack of food. Give us rations and we will have the heart and spirit to stick it out to the end.”
It was to prove the last communication from the Greenfly. Precisely what happened to the crew and escort is a little vague. Only one body, that of a European, was ever found, and none of the crew or escort were ever seen again. The story goes that the ship was running out of food and despite efforts by the R.A.F. to supply the ship which failed, the Indian troops onboard the ship mutinied and killed Hedger and handed the ship over to the Iraq tribesmen who stripped the ship of her guns and remaining ammunition, and set her alight. Such was the conclusion of the court of inquiry held some months later, although it was stressed that ‘no absolute proof of this has been obtained’. The dates given in the citation above would seem to suggest that Watts left the ship on or shortly after the 22nd August. He does not appear to have been killed, unlike Lieutenant Hedger whose death is given as 10 October 1920 on the Basra Memorial. Captain Roche was awarded the M.C. in the London Gazette of 10 August 1921, Watts’ M.M. seemingly the only other award for this incident.