With Kelly to ChitralBeynon, William George Laurence, Sir
History
With Kelly to Chitral
Beynon, William George Laurence, Sir
India -- History -- Chitral Campaign, 1895
The Levies were still looking for a path, and Humayun wanted to return
the enemy's fire; but as the Levies were armed only with carbines, and I
hadn't heard the whistle of the enemy's shot, I judged it would be a
waste of ammunition. To get the distance, I told Gammer Sing, who had
his Martini, to try a shot at the man waving his choga, with his sights
at eight hundred yards. I saw the bullet kick the dust to the right of
the man, who jumped for a rock, so I knew carbines were no good at that
distance.
A path was now found a little lower down, so I ordered an advance and on
we went. Our appearance was the signal for the enemy to open fire, but
as only one or two bullets sang over us, I knew they couldn't have many
rifles. We worked on steadily forward to about five hundred yards, when
shots began to drop among us, so under cover of a ridge I divided the
men into two groups, and sent the first group forward under cover of the
fire of the second, until the first group reached the next ridge, when
they covered the advance of the second group.
The ground was shocking bad, and what made it more annoying was that, as
we were attacking towards the north, and the snow lay on the northern
slopes, we had to test our way every step, and keep in single file just
when our advance was most exposed. I had to have a man in places to help
me along. I don't mind bad ground when after mahkor, as you can take
your own time, but I strongly object to taking the place of the mahkor.
Our advance never stopped, but by ten o'clock we had only gone some two
hundred yards, and I could see our force crossing the river on to the
plain below.
The enemy in our front now began to get excited, and we saw several of
them run back and make signals to those below. There was now only one
ridge between us and the enemy, and we made for it. As we rose, the
enemy's fire became pretty warm, but we were soon under cover again, and
as our advanced men gained the ridge, they began firing and yelling as
hard as they could go. I thought something was up, so made a rush, a
slip, and a scramble, and I could see over the ridge as the rear party
came scrambling along. I soon saw the cause of the yelling. About a
hundred yards in front of us was the grassy ridge, and across this the
last of the enemy was bolting, and in a few minutes had disappeared amid
the most appalling yells from the Levies. That was the last our party
saw of them, for we now found our path again blocked up by a precipice
and again I had to send men above and below to find a practicable way. I
then called for a return of casualties, and found we had escaped scot
free (I expect the enemy had too). So thus ended our bloodless battle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account