H John Blampied

With a Highland Regiment in Mesopotamia: The 2nd Battalion, the Black Watch in Iraq During the First World War, 1916-1917 H John Blampied

A highland regiment at war in the East

When this book was originally published both the regiment and author remained anonymous. Today we know it concerns the wartime experiences of the 2nd Battalion, The Black Watch and that its author-an officer of the regiment-was Blampied. To make the book more relevant to modern readers references to the regiment, division etc. have been inserted into this edition. The war in Mesopotamia-known as Iraq since the 6th century-against the Ottoman Turkish empire was very different to the experience of the Western Front, but the fighting could be no less fierce and in one of its earliest engagements the regiment suffered terribly, providing yet another example of how the Great War destroyed 'family' regiments in minutes.
This book provides an excellent insight into a highland regiment at war and is particularly interesting since the theatre of operations is familiar as the same one as the most recent conflict in the region.