to Mesopotamia and made a series of hard fought but ultimately futile attempts to relieve the besieged garrison. Tens of thousands of casualties were suffered in the repeated attempts to break through a series of well-defended Turkish positions along the Tigris and en route to Kut. In one of these desperate enterprises, Lala was to win the Victoria Cross. The 41st Dogras were part of the force which, along with the 2nd Black Watch, 9th Bhopals, 37th Dogras and 6th Jats, assaulted the Turkish entrenchments near the ruins of Al Orah on the Tigris close to the Hanna defile, 30 miles down-river from Kut. Here, the relief force (reduced to around 10,000 men) encountered 30,000 men of the Ottoman Sixth Army; after a short bombardment on 20–21 January 1916, the 7th Division attacked the Ottoman lines. In an advance across 600 yards of flooded no-man's land and later in pouring rain, the British force was beaten back, sustaining 2,700 casualties. According to their War Diary, only 25 men of the 41st reach the enemy trenches and the regiment came out of action with only 155 officers and men. The strength of the well-prepared Ottoman positions forced the abandonment of the assault and the withdrawal of the relief force to the base at Ali Gharbi. Lance Naik Lala was rewarded with the VC for his action in rescuing a number of wounded men shortly after the assault on 21 January. The citation in the London Gazette reads: 'For most conspicuous bravery. Finding a British officer of another regiment lying close to the enemy, he dragged him into a temporary shelter, which he himself had made, and in which he had already bandaged four wounded men. After bandaging his wounds, he heard calls from the Adjutant of his own regiment, who was lying in the open severely wounded. The enemy were not more than one hundred yards distant, and it seemed certain death to go out in that direction, but Lance-Naik Lala insisted on going out to his Adjutant, and offered to crawl back with him on his back at once. When this was not permitted, he stripped off his own clothing to keep the wounded officer warmer, and stayed with him till just before dark, when he returned to the shelter. After dark he carried the first wounded officer back to the main trenches, and then, returning with a stretcher, carried