Sharqat Day
Sharqat Day
1st Battalion 10th Gurkha Rifles 1918
It was in the final stages of the campaign in Mesopotamia during World War One where the Battalion distinguished itself in the extremely arduous advance by 17th Division along the River Tigris. To avoid being cut off the Turks abandoned positions, and the Battalion formed the advance guard in the follow-up northwards near Sharqat,
After advancing steadily across a broken plateau and driving back the enemy, the Battalion attacked on 29th October and helped repel a fierce, well-timed Turkish counter-attack.
Darkness fell and the battle died down to sporadic firing.
White flags appeared along the Turkish positions at first light on 30th October. The long war in Mesopotamia was over.
The Turks, who had been a formidable enemy at Gallipoli, had been defeated, and over 11,000 of them surrendered.
This decisive advance became known as the Battle of Sharqat. The Battalion suffered 110 casualties and earned the Battle Honour `SHARQUAT’. The Mess centrepiece of an Assyrian man-lion on a cenotaph commemorates this campaign.
