The Relief of ChitralYounghusband, G. J. (George John)
History
The Relief of Chitral
Younghusband, G. J. (George John)
India -- History -- Chitral Campaign, 1895
of making a water-spout, which they pushed out through a hole in the
corner of the tower, and then pouring in water from the inside, allowed
it to pour down on the flames below. In this way, after working for
about five hours, the fire was got under, but water was kept pouring
down inside the walls all day long, and holes were picked inside the
tower to thoroughly clamp it out. To guard against this happening again
Captain Townshend made more strict arrangements for watching the ground
under the walls, and the better-disciplined Sikhs were put as sentries
in place of the men of the Kashmir Infantry.
The Machicoulis galleries were gradually improved and loopholed inside,
in a way that all the ground immediately under the tower could be
well watched, and a sentry always lay in each of these galleries.
Captain Townshend also had heaps of earth collected, and sent up on
the parapets, and vessels and ammunition boxes filled with water,
placed in every story in each of the towers. The waterproof sheets
of the 14th Sikhs were utilised for the purpose of holding water,
and all the servants and followers were formed into a fire picket
under Surgeon-Captain Whitchurch. Heaps of stones were placed at the
top of the towers for the sentries to throw down from time to time
in the dark. On the evening of the 8th of April, some red-hot embers
and a bundle of faggots were observed quite close to the tower, and
it was evident that the enemy had succeeded in rushing up and placing
these there while the sentries were being relieved. Captain Townshend
accordingly arranged that the sentries should be relieved at a
different time from day to day, so that the enemy should be unaware
when the relief was taking place. On that day, Captain Townshend
demolished some remaining walls left outside the main gate, and he also
built a stone loopholed tambour in front of the main gate. This would
hold ten men, and from it it was possible to flank the whole of the
west front with its two towers.
The Machicoulis gallery in the gun tower was still further improved,
and good loopholes were made in the lower story. A hole was dug inside
the tower in the floor to the depth of about four feet, and then a
shutter-like loophole was made which commanded the ground at the foot
of the south face of the tower. Sentries were placed in all of these.
Fourteen men were now permanently in this gun tower, and an officer
lived in it. The number of men in hospital now were 11 Sikhs, 19
Kashmir Infantry, and 6 others, and there were 49 out-patients besides,
making the total number of sick 85.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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