Military History

Percy is listed as being dying of wounds received in action on 15th November 1917. War diaries are not available online and the following description of the events leading to his death is taken from the Trooper Potts VC Memorial website.

El Mughar 13th November 1917
El-Mughar was a ridge held in strength by the Turks and dominating the surrounding countryside. The Sixth Mounted Brigade was ordered to dislodge the enemy. The Bucks and Dorsets led the advance covering 4,000 yards at the gallop under heavy machine-gun fire. They took the enemy trenches at the charge. The Turks began a heavy fire from the flank and it was not until the Berkshires arrived that the Turks were finally driven off the ridge. In all, the Brigade captured 1,000 prisoners, two field guns and 14 machine guns. This action, in which the Turks lost several hundred dead, is cited in the Official History as a fine example of the successful employment of all arms. The artillery attached to the Sixth Mounted Brigade throughout this campaign was the Berkshire Battery RHA, another Territorial unit.

The Yeomanry had a similar success two days [15th] later when the Yeomanry Mounted Division was ordered to take the Abu Shusheh ridge held by a strong Turkish rearguard. A and D Squadrons of the Berkshires attacked dismounted on the left towards the highest point of the ridge, while B Squadron, with the Bucks Yeomanry, made a mounted assault on the lower slopes to the right, with the Dorsets in reserve. This combination of mounted and dismounted attacks proved entirely successful with the Turks losing 750 men for the loss on the British side of only 50.

The operations in Palestine formed part of the last great cavalry campaign. In his history of the campaign, Field Marshal Lord Wavell cited the charge at El Mughar as one of the "notable demonstrations of the dictum that "speed is armour" and show that, provided there is no natural obstacle to stop it, a mounted attack may get home by sheer speed where an infantry attack would be slow and costly."

After a few days rest and reorganisation the Yeomanry Mounted Division marched into the Judaean Hills. Advance parties found the enemy well dug in on the Zeitoun ridge. For two days there was desperate fighting amongst the rocks and ravines in atrocious weather. Sadly, in the afternoon of the second day the Berkshire Yeomanry commanding officer, Lt Col A M Pirie, was killed. The arrival of Turkish reinforcements led to a British withdrawal leaving just a precarious foothold on the ridge.