The British Empire’s Military Campaign against the States of Hunza and Nagar (1891) Part-IV

 

The British Empire’s Military Campaign against the States of Hunza and Nagar (1891)

Part-IV

Author: Ashfaq Ahmed Adv
Translation: Ahmed Nayyar

In ‘The Making of a Frontier’ Colonel Durand documents the seizure of prominent defensive fort of Nilt. He states that his intention was to use Captain Aylmer’s guncotton to breach the main gate of the fort if its tower did not collapse with gun fire. Similarly, he suggests that securing the fort at any cost was considered a matter of survival. Geographically Nilt fort was located at the junction of a sheer chasm and river. The cliffs were some three hundred feet in height. Durand recounts that the first shell sailed over the wall and burst behind the fort a wild cheer rose from the garrison and went rolling up the valley ahead of them.

E. F Knight in his book ‘Where Three Empires Meet’ writes about the decisive phase of British war against Hunza – Nagar. He mentions that the enemy was firing from behind the stones from other side of Nilt nullah. They were shelling from across the hills with sher bacha guns of very much heavier caliber than 7-pound guns which continue till evening.

The enemy's fire was very well directed. Knight continues “it is certain that they had excellent marksmen amongst them, even at long ranges, as we afterwards discovered. Hunza -Nagar had many arms of precision – Russia Berdan rifles, Martini-Henrys, Sniders, Winchesters, and Spencers, in addition to their long home-made matchlocks – and they knew how to use them.

The best marksmen among the enemy had been told off to fire at the British officers, of whom there could not have been one who did not have some narrow escape on that day. For instance, Lieutenant Williams was shot through the helmet, and Lieutenant Boisragon's revolver was struck by a bullet as he was about to fire it during the final struggle within the fortress. Colonel Durand got severely wounded by gun shots and was shifted to Gilgit on a cot. Thus, the command was given to Captain Bradshaw.” Knight writes, during the expedition, “not only was Colonel Durand injured but Lieutenant Badcock severely wounded, and Captain Aylmer received three severe wounds, which may be considered a very lucky escape. Approximately forty of our young men had already been killed or incapacitated by their wounds. Five of our British combat officers were likewise rendered unfit for duty, leaving only twelve officers remaining. Had a few more days passed under conditions similar to those of December 2, we would have been left without any officers to command the troops.”

The tribesmen of Nagar were firing from within the fort, where they remained under secure protection. Knight suspects that only two or three of their enemy men would have been targeted, while many of their soldiers were hit by enemy’s fire. Meanwhile, the people of Hunza had taken an aggressive step and attacked on their extensive communication system.

Endless trenches and sher bacha guns were defending the opposite side of the Nilt nullah. This was an unprecedented war in the Himalayas. From glaciers to dry river passages, they faced impassable rock cliffs where marksmen were lined with rows. Knight states that geography appears difficult and scarier than bullets, which had made it easier for enemies to defend their land.

Further, Knight describes that the time had turned for the decisive attack. They were given orders, and amidst the echo of slogans, a protective squad of Gurkhas advanced swiftly. The troops lined up along the last sheer wall and burst intense firing at the loopholes of the fort. Under the cover of their fire, Aylmer and his assault team crossed the open field and jumped into the trench.

Colonel Durand reports that the gate of Nilt Fort was situated at the center of the main wall and concealed from view by a six-foot-high barrier. This barrier had been constructed along the edge of a ditch, which the enemy had loopholed but had failed to maintain its control. The trench was full of barriers made of whole tree, which also stretched from it to the end of the spur above the fort. Amid these obstacles, a path was found through the barriers leading to a small door that provided access to the passage between the outer and main walls. This door was under heavy fire from stone barricades across the ravine, but it was speedily forced with the loss of one man, once through it the little party found themselves in comparative safety.

In addition, Durand’s intention was to shell the corner of a tower with small guns, hoping that the tower would collapse and provide them a path to launch an assault. If this attempt failed, Aylmer, with a handful of sappers covered by the Gurkhas, was to make a dash for the gate, and blow it with gun cotton. The necessity of storming the fort at all costs for known to all. The moment the fort was theirs the Body Guard Regiment, which was held in reserve, was to be pushed past it into the ravine behind to storm the defenses on the far side. The fort was situated at the junction with a river of great ravine coming down from the snows of Rakaposhi. The cliffs forming the ravine and riverbank from which the fort walls rose were nearly three hundred feet height.

Furthermore, Durand states that “the fort was too far off for the little guns to make the necessary accurate shooting, and everyone having their orders we pushed on. The river here took a sudden bend, and we had to march round this to our right, and in doing so lost sight of the fort, which was hidden by a spur of hill. Closer and closer we moved, till we were right under the spur, which I occupied with the Punyalis as we rounded its end the top of a tower came into view. But only a foot or so was visible, and we had to get nearer in. At last, when about ten feet of the towers and half the wall could be seen, we halted the guns and came into action.”

Knight estimates that some 4,000 men were holding this wonderful position. It was a most vigilant enemy, too, that we had to deal with. The Kanjudis seemed to read our thoughts, for some of our most secretly planned night attacks were anticipated by them. They were always ready at the threatened point; showers of rock would sweep down the hillsides, and large fireballs of resinous wood would be rolled down the nullahs, their blaze disclosing the presence of our men and making a rapid retreat necessary. Atop over the troubled valley there was a deep silence on the Rakaposhi – beneath of which men were killing each other or shouting to do so.

Durand observes that a death-like silence had prevailed, and the enemy made no sign, but as the first shell sailed over the wall and burst behind the fort a wild cheer rose from the garrison, which was caught up from point to point and went rolling up the valley ahead of us. We saw smoke rising into the air. The sound of our gunpowder had shaken the enemy. We understood that either some magazine inside the fort had caught fire or the enemy's sher bacha cannon had exploded. We captured the hillock rampart. Under the cover of this firing, Aylmer and his storming party crossed the terrace and threw themselves into the ditch. The battle shifted to the fort's courtyard, and our soldiers had made their way inside. The gate of the fort was hidden behind a six-foot-high protective wall. The ditch was full of abattis made of whole tree trunks and branches, but Aylmer's men found a path that led to a small gate. Despite being under heavy fire, our soldiers broke the gate and entered, and for a while, the fort and its loopholes were fired upon; many men had already been shot and were dead.

The whole labyrinth of lanes was full of our sepoys, who were busy hunting up these men. Some of them were dead and many were injured. Captain Aylmer placed his slabs of gun-cotton at the foot of the gate, packed them with stones, and ignited the fuse, all the while being exposed to the fire from the towers which flanked the gate, as well as from some loopholes in the gate itself. We entered the fortress with Pathans, across the ruined gateway lay the dead body of a Gurkha, and close to him was the corpse of Muhammad Shah, Wazir of Nagar and one of the enemy's best leaders, who had been shot by Badcock. One woman only was found in the fort, the others, as usual in time of war, having been removed to the mountains. Her husband was among the killed. It turned out that both the brother and uncle of this woman were with Raja Akbar Khan's contingent; so, these men undertook the care of her and sent her to the house of some relative in their own valley.

If assistance had not arrived promptly, it was unlikely that any of our people would have survived. Some of the enemy leaders having been in favour of destroying the fort and relying solely on the stronger position beyond the Nilt nullah. It was Muhammad Shah who overruled this opinion and insisted that Nilt was impregnable; as it indeed might have been had we not Aylmers and guncotton.

The Wazir of Nagar fell victim to war at Nilt; however, many prominent leaders managed to escape due to their familiarity with the mountainous tracks and trails galloping up the valley, choosing a small door towards Nilt nullah to escape along with forces who carried with them some of the best rifles.

Knight asserts that “thus was Nilt Fort taken after a daring rush which, perhaps, has not had its equal since Umbeyla. As is so often the case, the boldest course of action here proved to be the safest. On the course of action our six men killed and twenty-seven wounded. On the other hand, the loss of the enemy was uncertain; but it was estimated that over eighty were killed in the course of the action and hundred were made prisoners. During the encounter, Captain Aylmer was covered with blood. The rajah of Punyal who, from the ridge above, witnessed the assault on the gate, raised his hands and cried out, ‘This is the fighting of giants, not of men.’

After the fort had fallen guns proceeded to drop shot and shell on to the roof and the lower front of about 100 men underneath the fort was cleared. The plucky old Wazir of Nagar fell a victim to his own theory; he died fighting, and it was over his corpse, stretched across the gateway, that our men entered the fort.”

Durand stresses that “if the expedition had failed, it would have landed in serious difficulties for the British Empire despite all our efforts. The hostile tribes of the Indus Valley would be certain to rise, and the Chitralis might join in, encouraged by our failure, thus the whole frontier might be in a blaze.”

Likewise, Durand mentions that “I knew neither Gilgit nor Bunji could possibly fall, the difficulty of feeding the troops at the front would become insuperable; added to this the passes were closed, and no help could possibly come till June. I knew I should not want troops to enable me to hold my own, but the anxiety of the authorities in India might prompt them to try and dispatch them; and failure now would necessarily entail the dispatch of a costly relief expedition in the spring.”

Knight claims that previously Kashmir troops had several times assault on Hunza-Nagar. The troops were not in such a position that they could stay for more than a week due to unavailability of food supplies. Thus, either troops were struck by enemy or by hunger.

Durand notes that “it was a miserable time, and nothing but the knowledge that George Robertson was political officer with the force, and that his fiery courage and stern determination would brook of no failure, kept me confident.”

Moreover, Durand points “day by day reports reached me from the front, and they were not very cheerful reading. Our troops occupied the captured fort of Nilt and the open ground over which we had advanced. Their water supply was assured, and there was a sufficiency of food. The enemy were unenterprising, were wedded to a passive resistance, and showed no desire to attempt the recapture of Nilt, or to work round the little force and to attack the line of communications. So far all was well; the question was, how to break through their guard?”

Additionally, he explores, there were the traditional three courses open. It was a case of either crossing the Hunza River and storming the fort of Mayun, or of pushing up the river bed and thus turning the enemy’s position on the Nagar bank, or, lastly, of finding a way up the opposing cliffs and piercing his line of defense by direct attack. There was yet another alternative – to blow up the captured fort and to retire to Chalt to await the arrival, six months later, of help from India. The last had but to be raised to be at once rejected. That way madness lay, and a general conflagration of the frontier.

It was decided to try and tackle Mayun, and on 12th December night a force crossed the Hunza River to approach Mayun fort and felt its way silently towards the walls. However, Kanjudis knew their intentions. Hence, the reconnaissance – for such the movement resolved itself into – effected nothing, and the troops were back in Nilt by daylight. The first course held out no promise of success. The fort was strongly fortified and held, and was very difficult if approach. The feasibility of moving troops up the riverbed and of turning the enemy’s position was next considered. The game was too risky.

It was clearly evident that information about our assault reached Mayun through spies. Therefore, Captain Bradshaw postponed the attack after much consideration until the circumstances became favorable.

Photos courtesy: The making of a frontier, Where three empires meet

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