The Relief of Chitral

by G. J. Younghusband; Sir Francis Edward Younghusband

On the 5th and 6th of April, reconnaissances under the Chief Staff Officer, General Blood, were pushed up the valley to search for fords across the Swat River, and to keep in touch with the enemy, who could be seen in considerable force beyond Thana. Suitable points of passage having been found, the duty of forcing the passage was entrusted to General Waterfield and the 2nd Brigade. The enemy now left Thana and crossing the river were reinforced by a body of riflemen sent down by Umra Khan under the command of his brother. In all about 4,500 men were posted in a naturally strong position to oppose the passage of the British force. On the enemy's bank small rocky hills at the water's edge, completely commanded the perfectly level and open southern bank, from which the attack had to be delivered. Naturally a frontal attack would have been very costly, but General Waterfield's smart tactical instinct showed him the way to gain his end with but slight loss. Engaging the enemy heavily at long ranges with his artillery and the main body of his Infantry, he sent the Guides Cavalry and 11th Bengal Lancers up the river with orders to cross by a little-known ford, and to fall briskly on the flank and rear of the enemy. To support the cavalry he sent the 15th Sikh Infantry. The effect was instantaneous; the defenders of the passage the moment they saw the dreaded Lancers, half swimming, half wading, across the river, a mile or so up stream, began to lose heart; and what at first was a retirement gradually degenerated into a flight, headed by Umra Khan's brother and the body of horsemen escorting him. But the Lancers and Guides were not to be denied, and falling on the demoralised foe, left the green crops strewn with their dead. The enemy's total loss was about 400 killed, of whom about one hundred fell to the cavalry. Holding the north bank with two battalions, fords were rapidly marked out, and the infantry, aided by inflated skins, and the skilled watermen of the country impressed for the service, struggled across with only two or three casualties from drowning. The work was an anxious one, for armpit deep in the rushing torrent a man washed off his legs was lost for ever.

During the cavalry pursuit one of the squadrons of the 11th Bengal Lancers narrowly missed capturing Umra Khan's brother, which at the time would have been a great coup. For it must be remembered that two British officers, Lieutenants Edwardes and Fowler, were all this time prisoners in Umra Khan's hands, and entirely at his mercy. It may be said that the halter was round their necks, and every blow our forces struck served but to tighten the knot. With Umra Khan's brother in our hands the situation would have been reciprocated, and we could then have afforded to treat on equal terms for an exchange. During this same pursuit a curious incident occurred. One or two of the enemy made a stand close to a tree in the plain; at them charged a trooper, lance well down, as hard as he could gallop; whether he hit his man or not history does not relate, but the next second he found himself and his horse at the bottom of a well, which without side walls stood behind the tree. His horse was killed, but he himself escaped with a bad shaking. If one may hark so far back a similar accident met an uncle of the author's, Lieutenant George Younghusband, of the 5th Punjab Cavalry, in the Mutiny. He was charging with his squadron with Greathead's column, on their march to the relief of Agra, when he came across a blind well, down which he fell, with his mounted orderly on top of him. His orderly and the two horses were killed, and he alone came out alive, but alas! only to be killed in another charge shortly afterwards.

In the village of Chakdara, which lies near the main ford on the north bank, many arms were found, and amongst others a straight officer's sword, cavalry pattern, by Wilkinson, of London. As the number was on the sword, application was made to Messrs. Wilkinson to find out from their books the name of the original owner of the sword. It turned out to be an officer of the name of Bellew. This proved to be Lieutenant Bellew of the 10th Hussars, who served in Afghanistan in 1878-79, with his regiment. This sword he had lent to Lieutenant Harford, who was drowned with a troop of the 10th Hussars in the Kabul River. We had here evidence of the immense strength of the class of stone fort built by Umra Khan. The fort is called Ramora, and lay east of Chakdara, being Umra Khan's advanced fort, with which he practically dominated the entire Swat Valley. This was captured after a short resistance, and sentenced to be blown up by the Sappers. But sentence was one thing, and execution another. A heavy charge was placed at the foot of one of the towers, the train lighted, and the spectators stood afar off, expecting to see the whole structure lifted sky high. There was a very loud report indeed, but that was all, for the tower stood perfectly unmoved. On further examination it was found that the base of each tower was perfectly solid masonry from the foundation to fifteen feet above ground line, whilst the walls above were of immense thickness. All the forts built by Umra Khan were of the same pattern, that is, four-cornered, with one of these strong towers at each corner, and with high walls of great thickness and carefully loopholed forming the four sides. Our artillery could make no impression on these forts. The sites chosen in the open valleys are very good; but in the narrow valleys they are perforce much commanded by the neighbouring precipitous hills. On the Swat River, the enemy's position, with the fort of Ramora on one flank, rocky hills well prepared for defence on the other, the village of Chakdara in the centre, with much swampy ground restricting the advance of an enemy even after the passage of the river to a few well-defined paths, combined to make the position if scientifically held a remarkably strong one.

Directly the passage of the Swat River had been effected the Sappers were set to work to construct a trestle and pier bridge, whilst strong reconnaissances were sent forward to keep in touch with the enemy. These found the Katgola Pass over the Laram Range unoccupied, and the cavalry pushing on descended on to the Panjkora River, some twenty miles ahead. Here was found the most formidable obstacle which the force had yet encountered. On April 9th, the river was fordable for horses and, with difficulty, also for infantry; on the 11th, it was barely fordable for horses, and not at all for Infantry; but from that time onwards it became a mighty torrent totally unfordable, impracticable also for cavalry swimming, though the Indian trooper and his horse are like ducks in the water. It became necessary therefore to build a bridge.

The only materials immediately at hand were the heavy logs of wood, parts of great trees which are annually floated down from these regions to India, for sale. With these, and using telegraph wire to anchor the piers, a rough footbridge was with great difficulty and danger constructed, and floated into position. On the night of April 12th, the Guides were pushed across, and strongly entrenched, so as to cover the bridge head. The night passed quietly, but towards morning a freshet came down bearing great logs and washed the bridge away, leaving the Guides on the far side. The position was undoubtedly an awkward one, for cavalry reconnaissances had reported that the enemy in some strength, calculated at 9,000 by the local people, lay only about seven miles westward, and the news of the bridge breaking would immediately be reported by their outlooks. However it never does in fighting these people to hesitate or appear to be in the least discomposed, happen what may. Colonel Battye, who was commanding the Guides on this occasion, therefore adhered to the orders received overnight, when the bridge was intact. These orders were to turn the enemy's sharpshooters out of the positions from which they had been annoying our working parties, and to burn such villages near at hand as had been furnishing armed parties to fire across the river by night and day. The bold offensive thus taken by the Guides undoubtedly had a good effect. They started early in the morning, and making a wide sweep drove out all parties of the enemy concealed amongst the rocks, and burnt such villages as were actively hostile. All this was easy work for troops highly skilled in hill warfare, though the climbing was very stiff; but the really stern trial came when the hour arrived to retire to the bridge head. It requires the very best and steadiest of troops to carry out a retirement in the face of great odds, and it requires still greater nerve to do so in the presence of brave and fanatical foes who count life as nothing, who with matchless courage charge right up to the muzzle of a breech-loader, and who give no quarter and ask for none.

In retiring before such an enemy an almost exaggerated deliberation is required, for the least appearance of hurry, much more so of confusion, will open the sluice gates and let in such a stormy torrent of warriors, that science must perforce give way to weight of numbers.

The story of the day's fighting may thus be briefly told. The Guides had completed their mission on which they had been despatched, and were now retiring down the spurs of a lofty hill which forms the angle where the Jandul River flows into the Panjkora River. This hill is to the south of the Jandul River, whilst the bridge head was to the north of it. Thus, to reach their entrenched position the Guides had to retire down the mountain they were on and to cross the Jandul River. At about noon two dense columns of the enemy were seen coming down the Jandul Valley, one column keeping to the right bank, and the other to the left bank of the Jandul River. The first column, breasting the mountain out of range of the Guides and mostly hidden from them by an intervening spur, reached the summit and attacked the regiment strongly as it retired. The second column sweeping down the valley prepared to assail the Guides in flank and rear, hoping to completely cut off their retreat. Foot by foot—to the spectators it seemed almost inch by inch—the different companies retired alternately down the ridges they occupied, fiercely assailed on all hands yet coolly firing volley after volley, relinquishing quietly and almost imperceptibly one strong position only to take up another a few yards back, the splendidly-directed fire of the Derajat Mountain Battery doing invaluable service. So good indeed was the fire discipline of the troops engaged under these trying circumstances that not a shot was fired except by word of command. Meanwhile two companies of the regiment, which had been left to hold the bridge head, moved out to check the advance of the enemy's second column, which, making a detour, was moving with determination into the flank and rear of the retreating force. The whole of the 2nd Brigade, a battery of artillery, and a Maxim gun, were now ordered out and placed in a strong position on the east bank of the Panjkora (the Guides being on the west bank), whence in the later stages of the retirement their fire could be of material assistance. Owing to the very broken nature of the mountain sides, and the excellent cover afforded to skilled skirmishers, our loss was exceedingly small till the foot of the hill was reached. Here the regiment had to cross several hundred yards of level ground, on which the green barley was standing waist high, and then cross the Jandul River, here about three feet deep, to make its way through more fields to the bridge head. Unhappily, just as the regiment left the last spur, the commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel F. D. Battye was mortally wounded, dying, as he would perhaps most wish to, at the head of his regiment, after a quarter of a century of distinguished service with it.

It was in crossing this open ground that the extraordinary bravery of the enemy became more brilliantly evident. Standard-bearers with reckless gallantry could be seen rushing to certain destruction, falling perhaps within ten yards of the invincible line of the Guides. Nay, sometimes men, devoid of all fear, and having used up the whole of their ammunition, rushed forward with large rocks and hurled these at the soldiers, courting instant death. They were like hounds on their prey. Nothing could damp their ardour or check the fury of their assaults. Even after the Guides had crossed the Jandul stream, and the enemy were under a severe flank fire from the Gordon Highlanders and the King's Own Scottish Borderers, they dashed into the stream, where each one stood out as clear as a bull's eye on a target, and attempted to close again. But not a man got across, so steady and well directed was the flank fire of the British regiments. The fight was now practically over for the day; fire slackened all round, and the entrenched position was rapidly occupied, and strengthened where necessary. During the day the enemy, who numbered 5,000, lost from 500 to 600 men; the Guides' total loss was only about twenty, a result due to the skilful manner in which the retirement was effected, as well as to the fine cover afforded by the broken ground on the mountain side.

It was now evening, and preparations had to be made to meet a night attack, for the enemy, several thousand strong, were still close round hidden behind the low hills. As a reinforcement a couple of companies of the 4th Sikhs and some extra British officers were sent across on rafts, also a Maxim gun; whilst the near bank, which commanded the bridge head entrenchment at 800 yards' range, was occupied by a mountain battery, and the troops of the 2nd Brigade. The position of the enemy being such as it was, the night was one of some anxiety, for a determined rush might be expected at any moment. Such an attack was planned and on the eve of being executed, when the unexpected, and as it seemed to the enemy, magical, appearance of a star shell completely dumfounded the hitherto dauntless foe, and the attack was not delivered. From the information of spies it appeared afterwards that 2,000 chosen warriors, sword in hand, lay concealed in the standing corn just outside the picquets, merely awaiting the signal for assault, when this happy contrivance of civilisation staved off a fight, which could only have been attended with enormous loss on both sides. Before the enemy finally drew off, however, the force sustained a serious loss in the death of Captain Peebles, in charge of the Maxim gun. This officer's services had proved invaluable from his intimate knowledge of the working of the Maxim, a gun which in inexpert hands is apt, like other pieces of mechanism, to get out of order. The working of Captain Peebles's gun had been the admiration of the whole force throughout the campaign.

It had become sufficiently apparent now that no floating bridge could hope to stand the current in the Panjkora River, and it was therefore decided to throw across a suspension bridge at a point somewhat lower down. Curiously enough at this point, where the rocky hills shut in the river till it is like a mill race only 100 feet or so across, were found bridging materials collected by Umra Khan, who had evidently ordered a cantilever bridge to be built here. The work was entrusted to Major Aylmer, V.C., R.E., who had had much experience in this branch of his art up in the Gilgit direction. The available materials were telegraph wire and beams from dismantled houses. With these, within forty-eight hours, Major Aylmer constructed a suspension bridge of 100 feet span, capable of bearing even loaded camels, cavalry, and mountain artillery.