"The gold of glory, put to use,
More glory doth beget."
(1897)
The storming of the Dargai Heights was the most daring enterprise of the Tirah Expedition. In the middle of October, after much delay in the setting out, and just in time to meet the worst of the early winter storms, the Expedition duly reached its first camping-place beneath the ridge of Dargai. This was the initial obstacle to its advance into the Rakzai country. In order to clear this ridge, Sir William Lockhart sent forward the second division of his force, under General Yeatman-Biggs, which engaged the enemy in a desperate conflict at mid-day on October 18th. The 4th Brigade, under General Westmacott, advanced from the Chagru Kotal against the front of the ridge, while the 3rd Brigade, under General Kempster, swept round to the south and west. This brigade, however, which had set out from Shinwari two hours before daybreak, had been delayed, and was not yet at close quarters, when the Gurkhas, covered by the fire of the Scottish Highlanders from the low ridge opposite the Heights, and by the mountain-gun batteries from Chagru, sprang forward across the open space, and began to climb like mountain cats up the steep and narrow zigzag of the ridge. After them came the Borderers, and the enemy, observing the rapid approach of the stormers, fled before our infantry had reached the summit.
Orders had been given that as soon as the ridge was cleared our men were to return to Shinwari, but their obedience to this order had an unfortunate result. The enemy immediately took it as a sign of weakness, and returned to the attack. They quickly regained the ridge, and, rushing down its front, harassed our retreating men. Thus a brilliant victory assumed the complexion of a defeat, and the moral effect of this upon the tribesmen was not to our advantage.
A more conclusive battle, however, took place two days later at about the same spot. General Lockhart gave orders that the frontal attack on the heights should be combined with an advance down the defile, but in the event General Yeatman-Biggs decided to confine himself to the former. Again the Gurkhas were flung forward. But this time the tribesmen had increased their force, and the brave little men left many dead and wounded in their track. The Dorsetshires and the Sherwood Foresters followed them, and they in their turn suffered very heavily. For a whole hour death was as common as life, but there was no thought of retreat; it was a time for indomitable courage and tenacity.
A moment arrived, about noon, when the 1st Gordons and the 3rd Sikhs prepared for a furious charge. The shrill pipes struck up as the Gordons, led by Colonel Mathias, dashed out into the open space, crossed it, and began to scale the steep hillside beyond. Difficult as this stupendous task appeared to the onlookers, it was achieved by these heroic mountaineers, though not without great loss. Once on the ridge the battle was won. The enemy, unable to check this determined assault, abandoned his position and fled in confusion. This time the ridge was not only cleared, but held for good; and our forces found their way open before them through the Chagru Kotal Pass.
In this Tirah Expedition there was much valuable native blood shed, expecially in the Khurmauna Defile, where a native officer and thirty-five Sikhs were cut off in a ravine and every one of them killed. The Gurkhas, to whom the life of a victory is that only a few come back, had their full share of the joy of battle, with well-earned glory, in this immortal storming of the Dargai Heights.