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.

Upon receipt of the intercept, Brig. Gnl. Ruff-Husband ordered 1st Brigade to immediately 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 boasting a combined 6 Screw-Guns would be joined by E/B RHA’s 3 x 9-pounder Horse Artillery Guns, which had reached Dargai on August 18th just in time to help defeat Gul Akbar’s attack on the Cantonments.

ON AUGUST 20, 1890, 2nd Brigade, Peshawar Field Force reached Dargai. Preparations for 1st Brigade’s departure being complete, Brig. Gnl. Ruff-Husband and his staff briefed 2nd Brigade C.O. Brig. Gnl. McGilligan and his staff on current conditions, handed over command of the Cantonments and control of the vital Malakand Pass to the North, and bid adieu.  Plans were made for communications between the Brigades to be maintained via heliograph, or in cases of inclement weather conditions via courier.

Such was Brig. Ruff-Husband’s plan — however, Brig. McGilligan strenuously argued for adjustment.  It was his opinion that 1st Brigade advancing to Shakhot alone would invite trouble and risk reversal, and he suggested that the lion’s share of his own 2nd Brigade join them in pursuit of Gul Akbar Khan and the escaped prisoners.  He suggested a token force be left to garrison the Cantonments, 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.  There was no intelligence pointing to a follow-up attack on the camp, and after all, hadn’t 1st Brigade just delivered a resounding defeat to the enemy a mere 2 days ago?  Indeed, the bodies of some tribesmen still littered the ground in front of the North, East and South walls of the Cantonment.

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.

Still, 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 that their recent defeat would result in more tribesmen flocking to their banners — indeed, the opposite would more likely prove to be the case!

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

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……….

MEANWHILE IN SHAKHOT VALLEY ITSELF…

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“)…

But sadly for Gul Akbar it seems the Pukka Pavilion artisans are 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 the frontier’s favorite 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…

But after some pointed urging — at the tip of a Tulwar — the tents were finished and delivered lickety-split to Gul Akbar 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…

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

pieces needed for the Battle of Shakhot Valley appear…