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.