The II (or 2nd) Wessex Brigade was a howitzer unit of the Royal Field Artillery in Britain's Territorial Force (TF) that was formed on the Isle of Wight in 1908.

[a] Generally, the fourth RFA brigade in each TF division was equipped with howitzers, and the Wessex was no exception.

[12] Meanwhile, those men who had been left behind, together with the recruits who were flooding in, formed reserve or 2nd Line units, the titles of which were the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix.

The attack was resumed the next day, with the guns concentrating on Abu Aran, and Amara fell on 2 June.

On the night of 27/28 September Townshend switched the bulk of 6th (Poona) Division from the south to the north side, to make the main attack against the northern redoubt at 08.45.

The attacking infantry were given covering fire by 1/5th Hampshire and other batteries as they advanced over open ground to take the redoubt.

[12][20][25][26] Next morning it became clear how costly the victory had been in terms of infantry casualties, and Townshend had to adopt a defensive posture: 1/5th Hampshire Bty was posted around 'Water Redoubt'.

Townshend's force threw back Turkish attacks all day and by the morning of 24 November both sides were too exhausted to continue the fight (1/5th Hampshire Bty had lost 1 man killed, 1 officer, 2 British and 1 Indian other ranks wounded).

He fell back to Lajj and then Aziziya, and by 29 November he was at Umm-at-Tubal, where he formed a camp with his rear to the river.

On 1 December he put in a sharp attack on the gathering Turks, with rapid artillery fire that completely disorganised them while he resumed his retreat.

The main Turkish attack was made on 24 December following a pre-dawn bombardment that switched onto the Fort at 07.00, putting some guns out of action and cutting the telephone from the OPs.

The bombardment suddenly stopped at 11.00 and a massive Turkish infantry attack was made against the breaches blown in the walls of the fort.

A second attempt by moonlight at 20.00 was also halted, the heavy guns and howitzers firing Lyddite shells into the Turkish trenches whose position was precisely known.

From now on the town was blockaded and shelled while Turkish attention was concentrated on preventing the British relieving force getting through from Basra.

Casualties from the continual shellfire were mounting and food was running out, despite attempts to air-drop supplies to the garrison.

The artillery horses had been killed for food before the end of March, though many of the Indian troops refused to eat them.

The Turks demanded unconditional surrender so 1/5th Hampshire Bty blew up their guns and remaining ammunition on 28 April before marching into captivity the following day under their battery commander, Maj H.G.

[6][12][13] The port of Aden had been threatened by a Turkish force but after some action in June and July 1915 it simply watched the British garrison.