VC Action: Sir Fenton John Aylmer, 13th Baronet VC KCB (5 April 1862, Hastings Sussex–3 September 1935) was 29 years old, and a captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers, British Army during the Hunza-Naga Campaign, India when he won the Victoria Cross in 1891.
On 2 December 1891, the Huza-Naga expedition was mounted in response to tribal unrest in the mountainous Hunza-Naga region in north-eastern India. Their objective was to storm and take Nilt fort which was held by the rebels. The force consisted of about a thousand men, mostly Kashmir Imperial Service Troops, and sixteen British officers.
The Fort which had to be attacked, standing at the extremity of a ledge which overhung the Nilt nullah, was protected on three sides by a precipice, and the only approach to the gate had been strongly defended by abattis of branches. It was impossible to bring the mountain-guns to bear on this part, owing to the impracticability of dragging them up the cliffs which overlooked it, and for a long time a hot rifle-fire was kept up by the men, which was equally severely replied to by the enemy.
At length it was resolved to take the Fort by storm, and, to enable an entry to be made, the great gate had to be blown in. This dangerous duty was entrusted to Captain Aylmer, in command of the Engineers, and he was supported by a hundred Goorkhas, under Lieutenants Boisragon (VC) and Badcock.
While the Goorkhas hacked at the branches of the abattis to make an entrance, the three officers, with a small handful of men, sprang through the opening and forced the gate of the outer wall. Captain AyImer then, in a most cool and courageous manner, advanced under heavy fire and placed the charge of gun-cotton against the main gate and lit the fuse. Just before he retired to await the explosion he was shot in the leg. The charge failed to ignite so he returned and arranged a fresh charge and re-lit the fuse. He was again severely injured in the hand by a rock hurled from above by one of the enemy.
The explosion was sufficient to blow in the gate, and the officers, followed by their men, dashed through and commenced a terrific hand-to-hand combat with the defenders, who, after a most desperate resistance, were driven from the Fort.
Captain Aylmer, though again severely wounded, fired nineteen shots with his revolver, killing several of the enemy, and remained fighting, until at last, owing to loss of blood, he had to be carried out of action.
For this action he was awarded the VC and promotion to brevet-major in 1892.
Aylmer also took part in the Isazai expedition of 1892 and for his services in the relief of Chitral in 1895 was promoted brevet lieutenant colonel. After some years on the staff, he commanded brigades in India from 1904 to 1910, was promoted major-general in 1909, and in 1912 became adjutant-general at Simla. This position he held until November 1915 when, now a lieutenant-general.
Having been appointed Lieutenant General, he was put in charge of the first effort to end the siege of Kut. General Aylmer was in command of the Tigris Corps, consisting of the 7th (Meerut) Division, the 12th Indian Division, and a number of other smaller military units. All told he had more than 20,000 men. They left Basra in late December 1915 and arrived at Sheikh Sa'ad in January 3, 1916. While the 12th Indian Division (under command of General Gorringe) made a diversionary move near Nasiriyeh, the 7th (under the command of General Younghusband) staged a direct assault on the Ottoman positions on January 6 (the Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad). After two days of fighting, the Ottoman army withdrew. The British sustained approximately 4,000 casualties - much more than the medical units could cope with. The Ottoman troops, under the generalship of Baron von der Goltz only withdrew some six miles up river and occupied another defensive position near the edge of the Suwaikiya Marshes. A British assault on this position on January 13 was partially successful, the position was carried but again with significant losses (some 1,600 casualties) (the Battle of Wadi).
By now, a third division had been added to Aylmer's Tigris Corps, the 3rd (Lahore) Division. This new division, along with the weakened 7th Division, attacked Ottoman defensive works at Hanna on January 21 (the Battle of Hanna). This assault was a complete failure. The Ottoman troops held their trench lines while some 2,700 British soldiers were killed or wounded.
General Aylmer was reinforced with another division, the 13th (Western) Division. The next month was spent resting the troops and probing the Ottoman defensive positions. With time running out on General Townshend's garrison in Kut, Aylmer finally launched a two pronged attack on the Ottoman positions, one attack at the Sinn Abtar Redoubt, the other attack at the Dujaila Redoubt. The attacks were launched on March 7, 1916. Both attacks failed due to lack of initiative and an inability to coordinate the timing of the assaults (they ended up being sequential, not simultaneous). The British lost some 4,000 casualties.
Fenton Aylmer was replaced by the former commander of the 12th Indian division, General George Gorringe. He did not command in battle again, retiring from the army in 1919. However from 1922 till his death in 1935 he was the Commandant of the Royal Engineers. |
