On August 20th, 1890, 1st Brigade Peshawar Field Force force marched over Malakand Pass, turned East and advanced on Shakhot. In the early morning of August 21st they reached Thanra village just South of the Elephant's Paw, the southern entrance to Shakhot Valley, inside which lies the Fortress Tower where the High Value Prisoners wanted by the Anglo-Indian forces were believed to be located.
Brigadier Ruff-Husband ordered 12th Punjab Cavalry to take the lead and race through the pass, followed by 92nd Highlanders and 2 of the 3 guns of No. 2 (Dejarat) Mountain Battery; meanwhile 9th Gurkhas crowned the heights to the right (East) of the pass, 23rd Sikh Pioneers did the same to the left (West), 17th Punjabis followed the 2 guns up the pass and were in turn followed by 2 of the 3 guns of E/B RHA; the 3rd guns of both batteries were unlimbered and prolonged to the right to support the advance of 9th Gurkhas...
As 1st Brigade advanced into the Elephant's Paw pass, Gul Akbar's Lashkar (War Party) were alerted to their approach by a local shepherd (they won the "initiative" card draw). This allowed them to pour out of their recently-delivered tents and race towards the North end of the pass themselves, from inside the valley, without delay...
After cresting the apex of the Elephant's Paw, 12th Punjab Cav immediately came under fire from approaching Tribesmen, while other Tribal forces disappeared into various nearby pieces of ROUGH TERRAIN. The Indian horsemen were also hit by cannon-fire from Gul Akbar's tricked-out mountain gun, which he had placed atop Zalam Kot Hill, at the foot of Burj Shakhot ("Shakhot Tower")...
In fact Gul Akbar Khan had ensconced his brother-in-law Nazim Gul, Gul's wife and Gul Akbar's own sister Farah Akbar, and Nazim and Farah's three sons Raza Muhammad, Baba Muhammed, & Gaza Muhammed in this tower, as it was the safest place in the valley. There they were entertained as guests of Jamal Shah Baba, nominal ruler of the valley and its 2 villages, and current occupant of the Tower. It turned out that JSB had put out a call to recruit forces to Gul Akbar's standard, resulting in one added unit of Pathan Tribesmen and one added unit of Ghazis, to supplement his current roster which had suffered significant losses from their attack on the Dargai Cantonments, including the loss of their previous one Ghazi unit...
With these additional forces at his command, Gul Akbar Khan decided to mount a more fully-engaged and active defense of the valley, rather than dispatch one or two units to mount a token defense as cover for the withdrawal of himself and the rest of what remained of his army. In fact, with some knowledge of the strength of the forces pursuing him, that had been his plan until the pair of supplemental units had arrived at his bivouac in the pre-dawn hours of that same morning...
The battle was hard-fought, with the British advance severely hampered by the narrow bottle-neck of the Elephant's Paw, and slow-going of the Gurkhas and Sikhs as they worked their way up the jagged mountain sides to the left and right. Gul Akbar launched multiple charges with his one Tribal Cavalry unit, his Ghazi unit, and several units of Tribal Foot, but the combination of British firepower and brittle Pathan morale -- especially after the loss of a unit's sole leader -- allowed the British to push their way through the pass and pull out a victory in the end, breaking several enemy units in the process. Still, they suffered severe casualties along the way and, perhaps even worse, by the time they had sent Gul Akbar Khan and his army running for Shakhot Pass to the North, the family of High Value Prisoners -- Nazim Gul, Farah Akbar, and their three sons Raza Muhammad, Baba Muhammad, & Gaza Muhammad -- had made themselves scarce.
It remains to be seen what punishment Brigadier Ruff-Husband will dole out to Jamal Shah Baba and the residents of Shakhot Valley for aiding and abetting a self-proclaimed enemy of The Raj. The Fortress Tower which was the key landmark in Gul Akbar Khan's order to his men after the fight at Dargai may be the next thing sacrificed on the altar of his rebellion -- as may the valley's villages of Zalam Kot and Shakhot Banda. On the other hand, the intriguing trio of ancient Gandharan ruins which members of 1st Brigade will soon discover, will be treated with the utmost respect, in keeping with their historical and anthropological value. But that is a story for another day, as is a more detailed account of the battle of Elephant's Paw Pass AKA: Bloody Elephant's Paw.
For now, the brief summary above and the collection of 40 color-tinted photographic plates below must suffice. These come courtesy of Neville Crisp, rookie correspondent, who -- lucky for us and his employer, Reginald Wilkie of the Peshawar Tribune -- not only managed to accompany 1st Brigade during their advance from Dargai, but also to somehow bring along his American friend, renowned Texan photographer Mattathias Dickinson (descendent of Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson), whose handiwork can be seen below:
P.S. These additional pics show Texan photographer Mattathias Dickinson in action, alongside Peshawar Tribune cub reporter, Neville Crisp:
NEXT UP:
The Kushan Empire Ruins of Shakhot Valley...