The Duki Column of the Marri Field Force, Baluchistan. February to April 1918
Baluchistan in 1918
The Baluchistan Province of
British India was a large but thinly inhabited territory that bordered southern
Aghanistan, south-east Persia
and the approaches to the Straits of Hormuz leading into the Persian
Gulf. The Province was
administered directly by the Indian Political Service, as was the North-West Frontier Province immediately to the
north. During the Great War both of
these Provinces were targeted by German agents positioned in neutral Persia who used
gold and intrigue to spread disaffection against British rule.
The Marri tribe of eastern Baluchistan had a history of resistance to the
British. The tribesmen were long-bearded
and long-haired and lived in a remote, barren area that was relatively
untouched by economic progress or the war.
In 1917 Marri chiefs had travelled to Quetta
for a visit by the British Viceroy and there probably they had been led to
believe by other more devious chiefs that there were no British soldiers left
in India
as all had gone to the war. Then the
British Political Agent asked for Marri recruits for a tribal levy, this caused
anger and the Marris swore to refuse this British request. In February 1918 this anger was translated
into action and an attack was mounted on Gumbaz Fort.
Above: The interior of Fort Gumbaz
The attack on Gumbaz Fort
Thirty men from the 3rd
Skinner’s Horse were garrisoning Gumbaz Fort when news of trouble brewing in
the Marri region was received at regimental headquarters in Lorelai. On 17th February 1918 Major J.R.
Gaussen CMG, DSO was despatched with 50 more men to reinforce Gumbaz, and this
group arrived at the fort the following day.
The fort and surrounding area appeared quiet and the resident Political
Officer, Lieutenant Colonel F. McConaghey, was living in his bungalow some
distance away. However towards evening
Gaussen sensed impending violence and he persuaded the Political Officer to
move into the fort.
Gaussen’s appreciation for the
defence of the fort with just 80 men had decided him not to attempt a perimeter
defence but to concentrate his men in the two flanking towers; he commanded one
tower and Lieutenant H.B. Watson (Indian Army Reserve of Officers attached to 3rd
Skinner’s Horse) commanded the other. At
2300 hours on 19th December several hundreds of mainly
sword-wielding Marris suddenly attacked, scaled the fort walls, and then hurled
themselves against the towers. Mullahs
had promised the tribesmen immunity from infidel bullets and the Marris were
fearless. The intensity of the fighting
can be gauged from the citations for the two Indian Orders of Merit (2nd Class) that were later
awarded:
No 786 Dafadar Lal Singh, 3rd
Skinner’s Horse
This non-commissioned officer showed the greatest gallantry and power of
command in action on the night of 19th-20th February
1918. He exposed himself continually to
fire, directing fire and rallying his men, till severely wounded. When the non-commissioned officer who had
charge of the key of the magazine had been cut down, and the key lost, he at
once volunteered to go down and force open the magazine, ammunition being needed. When wounded, he was placed under the little
cover available but a second bullet inside the post struck him in the brain and
killed him.
No 1334 Lance Dafadar Khem
Singh, 3rd Skinner’s Horse
When his post was attacked from the rear, he at once rushed out to the
head of the ladder and resolutely defended it from a mob of Marris, shooting
down several and holding the ladder unaided until the attack was beaten off.
Right: Marri Country
The first assault was halted but
minutes later fresh waves of Marris vigorously attacked again until they too
were driven out of the fort by rifle fire.
A third and final attack was mounted at 0200 hours 20th
February but this also eventually withered under the intensive rifle fire of
the defenders. As they departed the
Marris showered curses on their infidel foes and carried away some of their own
casualties, but even so 200 dead or wounded tribesmen were found lying in and
around the fort as dawn broke. The
regimental history does not record the casualties sustained by 3rd
Skinner’s Horse.
This had been a very savage action
and it was later included in the Official List of Battles and Actions of the
Great War. For gallantry displayed in
commanding the towers James Robert Gaussen received a Companionship of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CIE),
as did Frank McConaghey who had been fighting alongside him, and Harold Boyes
Watson was awarded a Military Cross.
The Marri Field Force
The Marris continued attacking
government buildings and induced the Khetran tribe to join them; the Khetranis
joined in wholeheartedly and burned down buildings at Barkhan on 7th
March. But on 28th February
the government had sanctioned punitive measures. Lieutenant General R. Wapshare CB, CSI
ordered a Field Force to concentrate at two locations: Duki for operations
against the Marris and Dera Gazi Khan for operations against the Khetrans. Brigadier General T.H. Hardy commanded at
Duki and Brigadier General P.J. Miles commanded at Dera Gazi Khan. Details of the major units that were most
active in the two columns can be extracted from the list of recipients of the
Battle Honour shown at the end of the article.
Above: Marri Nawab with retainers
The Deri Ghazi Khan (or Rakhni) Column
The 1st Battalion of the 55th
Coke’s Rifles (Frontier Force), commanded by Lieutenant Colonel H.E. Herdon,
de-trained at Deri Ghazi Khan on 4th March 1918. The four rifle companies were class-composed
of: Dogras, Sikhs, Punjabi Mussulmans and Pathans; the Pathan company was half
Yusufzais and half Khattacks. Colonel Herdon
was ordered to move to Fort
Munro, 90 kilometres away
and on top of a 1,800 metre-high escarpment; the battalion departed on 5th
March. The following day news was
received of an impending attack on Fort Bhar Khan, 100 kilometres distant. Colonel Herdon marched towards Fort Bhar Khan
with half of his battalion but after travelling 16 kilometres further news was
received that the Fort Bhar Khan garrison had escaped to Kher. Colonel Herdon now set his compass towards
Kher, and by marching through a pitch-black night accompanied by heavy rain and
mist his half-battalion reached Kher at 0130 hours on 7th
March. The men had no greatcoats or
blankets and no food was available, whilst the only huts there were
fire-damaged. On the next day the other
half of Coke’s Rifles reached Kher, and a rudimentary supply line was
established. Over the next few days the
battalion picqueted the roads to Girdo and Rakhni.
On 15th March around
3,000 Marris and Khetranis, mostly swordsmen, attacked Fort Munro. Coke’s Rifles marched hard to get there in
time, accompanied by Centre Section (2 guns) of 23rd (Peshawar) Mountain
Battery. The tribesmen got into some
bungalows near the fort and occupied an adjacent hill. Centre Section was commanded by Captain T.F.
Hennessy and he provided fire support, firing 32 rounds at 1550 metres range
whilst two companies of Coke’s Rifles attacked and dispersed the enemy. Coke’s Rifles had four men wounded, one
mortally, by sword cuts.
The next day more troops arrived
and the Force moved to Rakhni from where punitive columns destroyed villages,
cut crops, seized cattle and took many prisoners. The 12th Pioneers, commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel J.S. Hooker, supported the infantry by road and camel-track
construction, and often by accompanying columns to use pioneer expertise in
demolishing villages. The region was dry
and very hot by day, but the temperature dropped to freezing conditions by
night.
Sapper engineering support
As well as the pioneer support
both the Bengal and the Bombay Sappers &
Miners provided sub-units for heavier military engineering tasks. Captain H.E. Roome, Royal Engineers,
commanded the 52nd Company, Bengal Sappers & Miners, whilst
Captain M.G.G. Campbell, Royal Engineers, commanded the 72nd
Company, Bombay Sappers & Miners.
The sappers improved water supplies and communications generally,
bridging ravines, destroying enemy fortified towers and erecting camp defences.
The Duki Column
Units in the column de-trained at
Harnai and concentrated at Duki by 18th March, when the order of
battle was:
·
Column
Headquarters ·
One Squadron 3rd
Skinner’s Horse ·
One section of 23rd
(Peshawar)
Mountain Battery ·
One section of
Sappers & Miners ·
1st
Battalion The South Lancashire Regiment ·
107th
Pioneers ·
2nd
Battalion 2nd King Edward’s Own Gurkhas, with one platoon from 3rd
Battalion 5th Gurkha Rifles attached ·
Detachments from
the 71st Punjabis, the only Christian battalion in the Indian Army. ·
A Machine Gun Company,
motor cycle mounted. ·
Two sections of a
Field Ambulance. ·
A detachment of
Mule Corps. ·
A detachment of
Bikaner Camel Corps, an Imperial Service unit provided by the Princely State
of Bikaner.
Rain fell heavily on Duki and
there was little shelter. The South Lancashires, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A. De
Vere Willoughby-Osborne, was an all-British unit on the peace-time ration
scale. The battalion suffered because it was impossible to make local purchases
as there were no local suppliers in sight. The British soldiers were each issued with
half a kilogram of atta flour (milled from semi-hard wheats) with which to make
chapatis, but they needed friendly help from the Indian units before anything
resembling a chapati appeared. At Duki
it was decided to forget about the motor cycles as there were no roads ahead of
the column, so the machine gun sections were converted to pack-animal transport
and the ammunition belts were carried in packing cases by mules and
camels. The former motor cyclist riders
had worn the soles off their boots cornering on their bikes, and being in no
condition to march a long distance they persevered as far as Kohlu where they
stayed as a garrison.
The 107th Pioneers,
commanded by Major W.P.M.D. McLaughlin initially picqueted the road by day
between Harnai and Ashgara, garrisoning posts along them. One night a company camp at Torkhan was
surrounded by hostile Marris, but the pioneers’ rifle fire drove off the
tribesmen at a loss of one Pioneer wounded.
The 107th then marched with the Duki column.
The column advanced on 18th
March to Gumbaz, the scene of the February attack, where mules were allocated
to carry greatcoats. Meat was driven ‘on
the hoof’ and the herdsmen had to be constantly chivvied to keep up with the
column. Next morning Nurhan, the
entrance to the Marri country, was reached and a reconnaissance party observed
many stone-built sangars (protective firing positions) on the crests of hills
controlling the valley that had to be used as a route; however the sangars were
not manned. That night heavy rain soaked
the greatcoats and blankets which resulted in unstable mule-loads that
constantly slipped during the following day; the wet blankets froze stiff
during the following night.
Above: The two British guns lost to the Marris in 1840
Air support
Air co-operation planes had
appeared overhead. These were BE2c aircraft from Nos 31 and 114 Squadrons, Royal Air
Force; two planes were based at Sibi, two more at Duki and a further five at
Deri Ghazi Khan. The first sortie, on 1st
March, was a plane armed with a Lewis gun and four small bombs that went
looking for a reported 3,000-strong lashkar (fighting group) of Marris
approaching from Chandia. The plane made
no contact, and this was fortunate as the reported lashkar was in fact the
audience dispersing after a sports meeting at Chandia. However operationally the planes could look
for enemy groups and drop messages on the columns with details of enemy
locations or directions of travel, and they could bomb villages and camps. On 24th March Kahan, capital of the
Marri district, was bombed and 14 armed tribesmen were killed. The threat offered by the aeroplanes was a
significant deterrent and helped in eventually subduing the inadequately armed
belligerents.
Securing Watwangi
Pass
On 22nd March the
column secured and marched through the very steep-sided Watwangi Pass,
leaving half the Gurkhas there to secure the route and operate punitive
columns. Lieutenant Colonel A.B.
Tillard, the Gurkhas’ commanding officer, stayed with his headquarters at Zrind
at the top of the pass. The two
companies of Gurkhas that marched onwards with the column were commanded by
Captain E.J. Corse Scott. Kohlu was reached where the revenue and levy posts
had been burned out. Here the column
halted for a few days, the motor cyclists in their by-now imitations of boots
were left as a Line of Communication garrison whilst infantry columns destroyed
local villages and crops and collected any weapons seen.
Confiscated herds of livestock
were attached to the column and moved on with it to Bor, where torrential rain
all night prevented cooking and allowed the livestock to escape. To recover the stock 40 South
Lancashire volunteers who claimed equestrian status were mounted
on transport mules, with pack-saddles and rope stirrups, and sent back towards
Kohlu. However as soon as the mules
decided to move up a gear from walking to trotting the countryside was littered
with dismounted soldiers and riderless mules; it took two hours to reform the
detachment. The mules were then walked
to Kohlu where the herds had faithfully returned, and a sheep or two or three
were requisitioned to provide grilled lamb chops with the chapatis that
evening.
It took all of the next day to
return to Bor as the herds were very hungry and stampeded towards grazing
whenever they saw it; by now few of the equestrian volunteers wanted to ever
ride again. Bor was totally fly-infested
and when eating, speed and dexterity with spoon and fork were essential to prevent
the swallowing of swarms of flies. Also
the water was brackish and purgative, keeping all ranks on the run. Everyone kept on good terms with the
re-supply convoy commander who always brought a barrel of sweet water up with
him.
Left: Marri Nawab signs terms with General Hardy.
The action at Hadb
As 4th April dawned
news came in of a strong lashkar (fighting group) of around 1,500 Marris
positioned at Hadb to bar the route to Mamand.
The lashkar was occupying sangars on the crest of a long upward-running
spur. A reconnaissance was made
resulting in a decision to attack directly with two companies of Gurkhas and
one company of South Lancashires, supported by
the mountain gunners. A Gurkha company
and a South Lancashire platoon climbed the spur and the steep ground at its
head whilst two other South Lancashire
companies manoeuvred to be able to fire into the Marris’ flank as they
retired.
As
the British assault troops crested the ridge and engaged the sangars the Marris
broke and retreated, leaving up to 100 dead on the ground; many wounded were
carried away. Shells from the mountain
guns and the kukhris and bayonets of the assaulting troops had all done deadly
work in and around the sangars. This was
the only stand made by the primitively-armed Marris against the Duki Column. Five British soldiers had been wounded. Subadar Gamer Sing Gurung and 2403 Lance Naik
Dhanraj Gurung, both of 2/2nd King Edward’s Own Gurkhas, were later Mentioned in Despatches
Submission
The Duki Column moved on to the
Marri capital of Kahan without further opposition, arriving on 18th
April. During the following day the
Political staff got to work and on 2nd May accepted the formal
submission of the Marri Nawab and tribal headmen. A similar acceptance from the Khetrans was
accepted at Barkhan on 7th May.
By now hot weather had arrived, with temperatures reading 110 degrees in
the shade.
Whilst at Kahan the gunners came
across two British 12-pounder howitzers that had been spiked and abandoned
after a disastrous encounter with the Marris in 1840. The guns were hauled back to Quetta where one of them adorned the Royal
Artillery mess there for several years.
As hostilities had ended the Duki
Column marched back towards Duki. The 55th
Coke’s Rifles was met at Chappi Kach, complete with tents, a proper scale of
rations, and beer; the 55th was generous towards its
companions-in-arms. At Harnai station a
Munro Canteen had been set up, manned by ladies from Quetta;
after appreciating the canteen contents and the kindness of the staff the
column entrained for Quetta. Uniforms were torn and patched, and boots
were disintegrating, but after three months of marching across the unforgiving Baluchistan terrain all ranks were fit, slim, and
content.
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur De Vere Willoughby-Osborne, The
South Lancashire Regiment, was later Mentioned
in Despatches and also received a Companionship
of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CIE).
Above: The Jirgah deciding Marri & Khetrani guilt for the uprising.
Battle Honour
These twelve regiments and units
were awarded the Battle Honour Baluchistan 1918, but those underlined did not elect to carry the honour; the units
and sub-units from these twelve that were employed in the 1918 Marri Field
Force are shown bracketed:
§
The South Lancashire Regiment (1st Bn); §
The Kent Cyclist
Battalion (1st/1st Bn); §
Skinner’s Horse
(3rd Skinner’s Horse); §
The Peshawar Mountain
Battery (23rd (Peshawar) Battery); §
The Bengal Sappers & Miners; (52nd Company); §
The Bombay Sappers &
Miners; (72nd Company); §
Madras Pioneers (81st Pioneers); §
Bombay Pioneers (12th
Pioneers and 107th Pioneers); §
The Frontier Force
Rifles (1st/55th
Coke’s Rifles); §
The 2nd
Gurkha Rifles (2nd Bn); §
The 4th
Gurkha Rifles (1st Bn).
Regimental Journal
Article: The Defence of Fort Gumbaz
February 1918 by Lieutenant Colonel K.C. Cradock-Watson, Skinner’s Horse.
Reward of Valour. The Indian Order of Merit,
1914-1918 by Peter
Duckers. Jade Publishing Limited, 1999. The Indian Political Service . A Study in Indirect
Rule by Terence Creagh
Coen KBE, CIE. Chatto & Windus, London, 1971.
The Indian Sappers & Miners by Lieutenant Colonel E.W.C. Sandes DSO,
MC.
The Battle
Honours of the British and Indian Armies 1662-1982 by H.C.B. Cook.
Leo Cooper, London,
1987.
Indian Army List, January 1919. London
Gazettes Nos 31235 (pages 3586-87) of 17 March 1919, and 31903 (pages 5581-83)
of 18 May 1920.
(An edited version of this article appeared in a
recent issue of Durbar, the journal
of the Indian Military Historical Society http://imhs.org.uk/ .
Gratitude is expressed to the Royal Geographical Society for the use of
their photographs, and to Matthew Broadbridge for drawing attention to the Cradock-Watson article.)
Right: Marri Country
Left: Marri Nawab signs terms with General Hardy.
