SHAKHOT PASS (& Fail)

Daily routine at Swat's Shakhot Pass in 1/1 scale...

The same in 1/56th scale...

"Once I saw the signal... I would call for the retreat of my cavalry, signaling the fallback of the army, and we would return by separate routes to the fortress tower near Shakhot Pass."

--Gul Akbar Khan

ON AUGUST 19th, 1890 -- THE DAY AFTER HIS ATTACK ON DARGAI CANTONMENTS -- THE ABOVE COMMUNICATION FROM GUL AKBAR KHAN TO HIS SUB-COMMANDERS WAS INTERCEPTED BY THE INTELLIGENCE STAFF OF BRIGADIER GENERAL STEWART RUFF-HUSBAND, COMMANDER 1ST BRIGADE, PESHAWAR FIELD FORCE.

The one thing Gul Akbar Khan and his forces had managed to accomplish was to steal away with his sister FARAH AKBAR, her husband NAZIM GUL (the last Headman of Dargai prior to its punitive destruction) and their three sons RAZA MUHAMMAD, BABA MUHAMMAD, & GAZA MUHAMMAD -- all of whom were being detained within 1st Brigade's Cantonments prior to the attack.

A PICTORIAL ARRAY OF THE ATTACK ON THE DARGAI CANTONMENTS, AUGUST 18, 1890...

Sgt. Crood, Bugler Dirka Grimm & handful of Yorks & Lancs occupy

their post "outside the wire" -- the remains of a house in the ruins of Dargai village:

The Ghazis advance...

Mayank Jan, agent of Yusufzai rebel leader Sarban Khan,

waits on the West bank to guide Gul Akbar Khan's

Bunerwhal allies across the Swat River...

Gul Akbar's Akazai Warriors launch his main attack

from the foothills of the Malakand heights...

Screw Guns open fire on the attackers as they charge across the plain...

Gul Akbar's Akazai Cavalry charge from the South...

At the west wall Gul Akbar engages the renowned

Jemadar Jai Ho Singh, 2nd Punjab Cavalry, retired...

Gul Akbar cuts Jemadar Jai Ho Singh down, KIA...

A tragic end to an honorable life.

(CLICK HERE for a LINK to "JAI HO SING'S RIDE")

Gul Akbar Khan himself falls wounded, and

then is abandoned by his routing minions...

But later in the battle one stalwart Akazai horseman did ride back onto the field, RESCUED his wounded leader and rode away unscathed -- courtesy of some good die-rolling on Gul Akbar's part.

Writer Neville Crisp arrives with E/B RHA, straight from

fighting their way through an ambush the night before...

(CLICK HERE to read all about it in "Ambushed on the Road to Dargai")

Former Yorks & Lancs bhisti Dirka Grimm -- previously promoted to bugler -- stands in the gap as Sgt. Crood and his comrades (his fellow refugees from Chakdara Outpost) are killed or wounded or fall-back...

...and manages to defeat all the remaining attackers...

The Cantonments are now under simultaneous attack from North, East and South...

A strange sight in a British Army camp on the frontier: the Brom Sisters, Christine & Lorelai, daughters of 

the legendary Sgt. Major Lawrence Brom, of 72nd Highlanders, now deployed in Chitral.  They left the relatively safe and civilized city of Peshawar in hopes of surprising their father with their timely arrival in time to help him celebrate his fast-approaching 50th birthday, and had not planned for their holiday to be interrupted by armed rebellion...

Brigadier McGilligan arrives at Dargai and

is greeted by Brigadier Ruff-Husband...

Writer Neville Crisp, late of "Horse And Hound" magazine

now out to make a name for himself as a correspondent

with literary flair, arrives with E/B RHA -- and quickly

introduces himself to the Brom Sisters...

Mayank Jan scrambles away into the heights above

the pass and watches the aftermath of the battle...

Gul Akbar Khan's multiple attacks were all repulsed and the British victory complete -- until it was discovered that the family of High Value Target prisoners had escaped from their captivity in the Cantonments.  It turned out that -- shockingly -- a TEAM OF TIBETAN WARRIOR MONKS with CLOAKING ABILITY (Perhaps they were visiting from a Steampunk Parallel Universe?) had slipped into their tent and led them to freedom.

* * * * * *

On August 19th -- one day after the battle -- Brig. Gnl. Ruff-Husband was given Gul Akbar Khan's intercepted message and immediately ordered his entire Brigade to prepare for a forced march through the Malakand Pass to the Shakhot Valley, which they would enter from the South via the Hathi Dara AKA: the Elephant's Paw (the only other route into the valley besides Shakhot Pass which was traversable by formed units, horses or carts) after which they would RECAPTURE the prisoners freed by Gul Akbar Khan, alive if at all possible.  If circumstances required direct assault on the Tower in order to achieve the objective, then it would be attacked, and if necessary destroyed.

In preparation for this fight, 1st Brigade's 2 Mountain Batteries with 6 Screw-Guns would be joined by E/B RHA's 3 x 9-pounders, which reached Dargai on August 18th just in time to help defeat the attack on the Cantonments.

Almost all of the units of 1st brigade suffered casualties during the attack, but most were WIA and -- thanks to some good die rolls -- nearly all returned to active duty over the intervening days.  Total Anglo-Indian KIA were 13 (an admittedly unlucky number), with the hardest hit unit being 9th Gurkhas, who alone suffered 5 KIA. Despite these losses, in Brigadier General Ruff-Husband's judgement his Brigade remained strong enough to launch this new operation.  His men had inflicted significant losses on the enemy, and there was no reason to think Gul Akbar's recent defeat would result in more tribesmen flocking to their banners -- indeed, the opposite would more likely prove to be the case!

ON AUGUST 20, 1890, 2nd Brigade reached Dargai. Preparations for 1st Brigade's departure being complete, Brig. Gnl. Ruff-Husband briefed 2nd Brigade C.O. Brig. Gnl. McGilligan on current conditions, handed over command of the Cantonments and control of the vital Malakand Pass to the North, and bid adieu.

But Brig. McGilligan strenuously argued for a change of plan.  In his opinion 1st Brigade advancing to Shakhot alone would invite trouble and risk reversal.  Instead he suggested most of his own 2nd Brigade join them in pursuit of Gul Akbar Khan and the escaped prisoners, and proposed only a small force consisting of the remnants of Sgt. Crood's garrison from Chakdara, and one Infantry battalion (basic unit of 20 figs.), with one RHA gun in support, stay behind to garrison the cantonments.  There was no intelligence pointing to a follow-up attack on the camp, and hadn't 1st Brigade just delivered a resounding defeat to the enemy a mere 2 days ago?  Indeed, the some bodies of tribesmen still littered the ground in front of the North, East and South walls.

Brigadier Ruff-Husband expressed appreciation for Brigadier McGilligan's offer of support and acknowledged the ever-so-slight possibility of a reversal when his brigade crossed the Malakand and advanced to attack Shakhot on its own -- but with large portions of the Frontier in armed rebellion, he was hesitant to leave that vital pass without a significant Imperial presence nearby.

And so, in keeping with tried and true TSATF tradition,  a card deck was consulted (of course!).........

CARD DRAW RESULTS CHART:

RED ACE OR FACE CARD = Entire 2nd Brigade joins 1st Brigade's operation.

RED 2 THRU 10 = 1st Batt/2nd Sikhs + 1 gun of #3 (Peshawar) Mt. Battery remain at Dargai, other elements of 2nd Brigade join the operation.

BLACK 2 THRU 10 = 9th Queen's Royal Lancers + 1st batt/2nd Gurkha Rifles are detached to join the operation, all other elements of 2nd Brigade remain at Dargai.

BLACK ACE OR FACE CARD = Entire 2nd Brigade remains at Dargai.

RED JOKER = Havildar-Major Kunara of the 127th Baluchis convinces Major General Whitsend to countermand his previous order and send the 127th Baluchs from Peshawar to the front!  Remove Red Joker from deck and flip again for further result (if "entire 2nd Brigade joins 1st Brigade's operation" they go too; otherwise they remain at Dargai).

-Havildar-Major Kunara -- he'd rather be at the front than reading the Trib in Peshawar!-

BLACK JOKER: Gul Akbar Khan receives word from spies in the Malakand informing him of results of the card flip -- the quantity of troops -- if any -- preparing to move on Shakhot Valley!  Remove Black Joker from deck and flip again for further result.

-Mayank Jan -- the notorious "Blue Turban" spy-

DRUM ROLL PLEASE..........

And so the chance for Imperial reinforcements ended before it could begin.*

(*This is the "Fail" mentioned in the title of this post.)

Despite the punishing heat, 1st Brigade set off right after noon that same day -- August 20th, 1890 -- with 9th Gurkhas taking point, followed by 12th Bengal Cavalry, 23rd Sikh Pioneers, No. 2 (Dejara) & No. 3 (Peshawar) Mt. Batteries, and 17th Punjabis, with 92nd Highlanders bringing up the rear.

MEANWHILE TO THE EAST, IN SHAKHOT VALLEY...

The retreating Lashkar of Gul Akbar impatiently awaits delivery of their TENTS -- which remain overdue, despite qualifying for: "HOLY WAR RUSH ORDER" status in the PUKKA PAVILION PALACE workshop of Lewanay Hasim (AKA: "Crazy Hasim")...

Pukka Pavilion Palace Executive Offices:

Some tools of the tent-makers trade...

From the PPP catalogue...

Lewanay Hasim's Kyrgyz workshop in Badakhshan...

Lewanay Hasim's Baluchi workshop in Qetta...

PHOTO FROM PUKKA PAVILION WORKSHOP FLOOR, COLORIZED...

But sadly for Gul Akbar it seems the Pukka Pavilion artisans were less interested in tent-making and more interested in the latest edition of the Peshawar Tribune...

This is easy to understand, as it features both journalistic and poetical gems from everyone's favorite frontier scribbler: the eminently vainglorious Reginald Winkie, Esq...

(Turns out Crazy Hasim's weavers counted at least one passable reader of English amongst their ranks -- which was good for Winkie... but bad for Hasim's customers)

 CLICK on the tent pic below to learn much more about Crazy Hasim's proprietary tent-making process...

Gul Akbar takes issue with Crazy Hasim's "AS-IS" policy

& demands the PPP delivery crew find the missing

decorative panel for his personal tent...

But after some pointed urging -- at the tip of a Tulwar -- the tents were delivered lickety-split to Gul Akbar Khan and his Lashkar at the foot of Shakhot Fortress Tower -- where they can be seen in this series of photographs taken by the renowned Kodak Effendi, Turkey's first itinerant photographer, during his 1890-91 epic trek from Anatolia to Kashgar...

The self-portrait below is intriguing, as it seems to prove that in addition to his pair of faithful Turkish manservants, Kodak trusted someone else on the North West Frontier to take this photograph...

Here we save Kodak Effendi's best for last: his first successful attempt at a "PANORAMA" photo, showing a west-facing view of the Shakhot Valley which includes the camp of Gul Akbar Khan's lashkar, after their tents had been delivered by Lewanay Hasim's workers.  It is believed to have been taken on or about August 20th, 1890, shortly before Anglo-Indian forces arrived and the Battle of Shakhot Valley commenced...

NEXT: With tents & walls in place, the last terrain

pieces needed for the Battle of Shakhot Valley arrive...