Part of the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I
The Second Battle of Kut was fought on 23 February 1917, between British and Ottoman forces at Kut, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).
The battle was part of the British advance to Baghdad begun in December 1916 by a 50,000-man British force (mainly from British India) organised in two army corps.
The British, led by Frederick Stanley Maude, recaptured the city, but the Ottoman garrison there did not get trapped inside (as had happened to Townshend's troops in the previous year when the Ottomans had besieged Kut in the siege of Kut): the Ottoman commander, Kâzım Karabekir Bey, managed a good-order retreat from the town of his remaining soldiers (about 2,500), pursued by a British fluvial flotilla along the Tigris River.
The British advance wore off on 27 February at Aziziyeh, some beyond Kut. After three days' worth of supplies had been accumulated, Maude continued his march toward Baghdad.
Action on the Western Bank of the Shatt al Hai.
The primary objective on the western side of the Shatt al Hai was a liquorice factory (nicknamed the "Wool Press Village" by its defenders) on the opposite side of the Tigris from Kut. The factory, and the entrenchments surrounding it, were the last remaining Ottoman positions on the Hai salient; If it was to be captured, it would allow British and Indian forces to cross the Tigris and advance up into the Shumran bend and across to capture Kut.
New British trenches were made by the 21st of January only 300 yards from the enemy trenches. They consisted of four rows of trenches named "Baron's Trench", "Queen's Trench", "King's Trench", and "Emperor's Trench". The trenches were occupied by the 39th Brigade. An attack was planned for the 22nd, but was postponed by three days due to heavy rains.
On 25 January 1917, the Ottoman lines were attacked. At 9:40 am, the 9th Worcestershires and the 7th North Staffords attacked with the support of a heavy artillery bombardment that allowed the two battalions to get within 50 yards of the Ottoman entrenchments. They seized the objective despite the many casualties they suffered.
A Turkish counterattack, however, drove the British battalions away with bombs and trench mortars. To salvage the situation, Lieutenant Colenel Henderson (who was commissioned into the North Staffords) led the 9th Royal Warwickshires out of the brigade reserve to re-attack the positions, even though he was already wounded. He led the Warwicks across 500 yards of open ground whilst the first wave of attackers were retreating and was wounded again but this didn't deter him from commanding a bayonet charge that re-captured the lost objectives. While organising a defence of the objective, Henderson was wounded two more times and was rescued by his adjudant, Lieutenant Phillips, before dying. Both received the Victoria Cross. Corporal Scott also contributed to rescuing Henderson and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.