The War of the Rising Sun and the Tumbling Bear - Richard Connaughton (1991)

As I don’t have any new books to read and there are none that currently interest me enough to buy, I decided to re-read something from my collection that I had purchased way back in the 20th century. The Russo-Japanese war is one of my side interests and I know that somewhere tucked away in a long forgotten dusty corner of my house are my two fleets for refighting Tsushima. (that doesn't narrow it down much, I still proudly have the original can of polish given to me by my parents when I moved in, its still half full, does polish evaporate ?)

Very kindly the protagonists of this war managed to neatly sandwich all of the land action in between the naval stuff which makes it so much easier to follow with none of that annoying jumping backwards and forwards.

The book starts as you would expect with the first couple of chapters covering the political situation and the causes that lead up to the war and then it goes on to outline the make up of the two opponent’s military forces with an emphasis on those involved.

The Russian army at this time was around 4.5 million men of which roughly 95,000 were initially in theatre but spread from Vladivostok to Port Arthur however all reinforcements would have to come from the West along a not quite completed Trans-Siberian railway along with all logistics, ammunition, supplies etc. The estimate for Japan was about 850,000 trained to various levels from Imperial Guard down to conscript reserve although not all of them were available for immediate deployment.

As for ships, both sides were evenly balanced in both quantity and quality, The Russian Far East fleet had seven battleships and six cruisers, all reasonably modern, Japan had six battleships and six modern cruisers, there were of course many other vessels of various types.

These opening chapters are quite good as along with the causes, strengths and characteristics of the two forces, they also outline the inherent problems in both the Russian army and navy which will hinder their performance during the war.

The first naval bit then is all about Japan's drive to clear the seas so as to allow its army a safe passage to Korea, this of course means attacking before war is declared, something you would have thought the Americans might have taken note of. The Russians do venture out on occasions but both sides are terrified of mines and also want to minimise the risk of losing any of their precious capital ships, which they then both managed to do, to mines.

Overall the Japanese achieve their objectives, the army lands safely at Inchon and the Russian Navy becomes even more reluctant to leave port. Another good chapter.

The bulk of the book is then about the war on land and I can roll this nicely into two lumps, the siege of Port Arthur and all the battles that clear the way to this taking place and then those that happen whilst it’s going on.

All the land actions are well covered and more or less follow the same course, the Japanese attack; the Russians fight for a while and then skilfully withdraw. Both sides grow in strength as reinforcements arrive but this just means that the same events happen but on an increasingly larger battlefield. You see all the pre-requisites for the first World War, barbed wire, trenches, artillery and machine guns all resulting in large losses, unfortunately what the international observers saw was something different, in order to win then you must attack, what they didn't see was a determined
defence which made frontal assaults suicidal because even after inflicting heavy casualties the Russians were always convinced that they were about to collapse and so fell back time after time.

The Japanese attacks were successful but at a great cost, by the time of the final battle at Mukden when the Russians at last were finally routed, they were drained of all reserves. A quarter of all the Japanese forces at Mukden were casualties, meanwhile the Russians were still reinforcing with another two corps on the way, Japan could now only muster a further one and half new divisions to replace its losses.

The siege of Port Arthur is the other main part of the land action, it follows the lines of what you now expect , bombardments, frontal assaults, concrete forts and huge losses; however hill by hill and fort by fort the Japanese advanced until their artillery eventually came into range of the harbour and could start to shell the fleet.

As with most sieges its down to the morale of the besieged, in this case it was the Generals rather than the troops and the Russians couldn't have had a worse collection of people in the wrong positions at the wrong time, once the last good general was blown to smithereens the rest couldn't surrender fast enough, much to everyone’s amazement.

A few interesting anecdotes I would like to pass on to you. One problem was how to get through the wire, Japanese pioneers would pretend to be dead and then snip the wire when the Russians weren't looking, very soon the Russians made sure that anyone who looked dead was very dead, so next the pioneers tried wearing 40 lb steel armour, this worked OK but getting hit knocked them over, resulting in helpless turtle impressions. The solution to this was to attach two bamboo poles to their waist which ran out behind them, now when they were hit the poles propped them up and stopped them falling backwards. Not sure I would be the first to volunteer to be a sideshow shooting target. In the end another bamboo invention solved the problem, it became better known in 1912 as a Bangalore Torpedo, talking of Torpedoes, the Russians took launchers off their ships and mounted them in one of the forts. Cynics changed their mind when a 70 lb warhead blew up a Japanese sap. Other novelties were Bamboo mortars and springy wire trampolines to bounce grenades away.

Chapter twelve covers the nonsensical idea of not only sending the Baltic fleet all the way to the Far East but to hinder it further with not just one but two reinforcements of utterly useless vessels. This is another good chapter as it covers in depth the political decisions, the make up and the difficult journey of the fleet including of course the infamous attack by Japanese torpedo boats at Dogger Bank (for those who don’t know this was actual the Hull fishing fleet and almost lead to war with Britain) In a foretaste of what was to come, one ship, the Orel fired over 500 rounds, mainly at its own vessels but was not even able to hit them.

Already by now the remaining Russian Far East ships had been defeated at the Battle of the Yellow Sea in a last desperate attempt to leave Port Arthur and with the cities fall soon after there was really no point in this new fleet even continuing on. Stopping to re-coal for one last time off the coast of Vietnam and to allow for the 3rd reinforcement fleet to meet up, they then sailed on to be utterly destroyed at the Battle of Tsuishima for the loss of just three Japanese torpedo boats.

The final two chapters cover the peace treaty, which unbelievably Russia managed to win hands down despite how badly they had been beaten and then the repercussions of the war including the lessons learned (or rather not learned) and events following the treaty.

There are some Appendices showing army structures and fleet lists both of limited use and an index.

You can see so many things that get subsequently repeated in WW1, the inability of the generals to suddenly have to control far larger forces than they had ever even considered, no systems existed to manage such vast armies and the total lack of both effective communications and credible intelligence. You see the complete uselessness of cavalry in modern warfare, the Russians had virtually no idea on what the Japanese were planning, where they were , how many they were or what units were present, cavalry could no longer achieve these objectives and so became mere line fodder for which they were not suited. At the start the Russian infantry were even trained to only fire in volleys. You do get an idea of the tough conditions they fought in as the war lasted long enough to be both bitterly cold and unbearably hot plus we can finally get some more use out of all those cornfields we made for ACW as both armies struggled with the kaoliang which was grown everywhere.

The author is best when explaining the naval side of things, I found these chapters quite interesting and whilst he covers the land actions well the overall tone doesn't have the same zip to the writing. The maps are reasonably adequate for once, if a little lacking in fine detail but then I didn't really use them as I am fortunate to have in my collection “The War in the Far East by the Military Correspondent of the Times” printed in 1905, now they knew how to do a map.

Overall a good history of the war for the price.

Paperback
Readable pages: 285
Best price as of 7th Feb 2018: around £8.90 from either Amazon or ABE Books

This has been a Mr Steve presentation.

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler?

One of the great British comedy roles has to be that of Captain Mainwaring, played by the late Arthur Lowe and growing up as a kid in the seventies, gathering around the family TV to watch 'Dad's Army' and the antics of the Warmington on Sea, Home Guard Platoon commanded by the splendidly pompous and very often imperiously incompetent Mainwaring was a national past time.

This summer I and a few of the chaps will be making the annual trip up to Chez Chas for our summer big game and last year at the conclusion of our Punic game, the Battle of Numistro reported here on JJ's

Battle of Numistro 210 BC

we decided to set this years game in Warmington with Mainwaring and his platoon defending the country from a German invasion.

We are all working on various figure contributions and my efforts include Mainwaring himself and a small platoon of Fallschirmjager.

So here his the great leader himself all kitted out ready to deal with the Bosche, pocket whistle and Webley service revolver at the ready.

I really think the figure captures the character brilliantly and I wanted to do a paint job that did it and the man justice and make him a centre piece for our forthcoming game.

One of the funniest shows in the series was when the platoon is tasked with guarding a captured U-boat crew and their rather confident captain played by Philip Madoc The U-boat captain starts to play mind games with Mainwaring and his men by announcing that when the Germans occupy Britain various people will be rounded up and dealt with, pulling out a pocket book in which he starts to record names.

Philip Madoc as the U-boat Captain starts to take names

Private Pike decides to retaliate by singing a little ditty about Hitler being a twerp, to the tune of 'Whistle while you Work', and when the U-boat commander demands to know his name, Mainwaring immediately barks out an order to the young soldier, "don't tell him Pike!". 

This comedy classic even found resurrection during a promotional campaign by a certain coffee shop chain when they instructed their staff to welcome customers by asking them how they were and to ask for their names so that they could personally deliver their ordered beverage. With an ever growing queue of impatient customers, one wag at the rear of the queue on hearing the request for the chap at the front's name called out from the back, "don't tell him Pike!".

Needless to say, it seems we will be having a few German sailors involved in our little set to and I am sure the best comedy quotes will surface now and then.

For my part, I have also completed two sections of ten Fallschirmjager and a Platoon commander and his 2IC having ordered up three plastic sprues on the recent offer from Warlord.

FJ Platoon Command team

These chaps are more fitted out for mid-late war with their LMG's being the later MG42 but I have done them up in early war green smocks and helmet covers so they should pass muster with a little bit of looking the other way, and I must remember to brush off that excess static grass!

In between now and June I will look out for Warlord at the upcoming shows and see if I can pick up some FJ rank badge and helmet decals just to finish these chaps off.

So with my little contribution done, I will now turn my attention back to the Dacians with my second warband on the desk as I write and with the scenario plan and force structures worked out, to put on a display game this September, all being well.

In the meantime, next up we have a book review from Mr Steve, an AAR on another thrashing for me at Maurice and a trip to Corinium to report on.

With Zeal and with Bayonets Only, The British Army on Campaign in North America - Matthew H. Spring

I think I first became interested in the American War of Independence when introduced to the period in history at school somewhere around age fourteen or fifteen in the early seventies. I remember our history teacher, Mr Colclough, outlining the campaign of General Burgoyne setting off from Canada along the lakes, planning to meet up with an army from New York under General Howe and with the plan to see the Americans, under General Washington, surrounded and surrendered, thus ending the war in 1777, game set and match.

Then we went through how things didn't quite turn out that way and a description of the terrain and the differences between the two armies, and I think it was then that I started to imagine what battles must have looked like during that time and perhaps some of the first sparks and embers of the historical wargamer today were generated at that time.

Thus it was, with some pleasure, that I read that Matthew Spring, as well as holding a History Ph.D. from Leeds University, teaches history down here in the south west at Truro School and my early memories of interest in this period came flooding back.

I well remember the 1976 bicentennial of the war here in the UK and still have my copy of 'Redcoat' by Scotty Bowden, my first introduction to wargaming the period, which has been added to over the years, culminating most recently with C&G II and Maurice.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, Howard Pyle 1897 "Stiff backed automatons"

Of course a lot of myths have grown up around this war that has typically portrayed the combat between stiff backed, automaton like, British redcoats, marching in line into the teeth of massed American musket and canon fire from behind sturdy bulwarks; or tricorn, long tail-coated redcoats feebly picked off by rifle wielding American militia making best use of cover, all of course based on elements of truth but overblown into a representation of the combats as a whole and giving the impression of a rigid, unadaptive British military system.

This misrepresentation of the combat in general and British tactical methods in particular has, as Spring points out, only been exacerbated by a catalogue of "chauvinistic and self-congratulatory" collection of "colourful campaign and battle narratives" written in the main, by non-academic historians, selectively choosing patriot accounts of a limited selection of mainly British defeats whilst ignoring the accounts of British, Provincial and German eyewitnesses.

The situation has been remedied in recent times with a new generation of academic historians re-analysing the historical record and ditching the second hand accounts to produce more rounded and detailed accounts that Spring has referred to in this, his analysis of British, Provincial and German battle tactics.

As a student of British Napoleonic period tactics I found myself making comparisons with those described in Spring's book by the generation that preceded it and the one thing that immediately struck me is the large disparity in first hand accounts by British, in particular, soldiers, be they ordinary ranks or officers compared with the Peninsular War. This, I would suppose, is not entirely surprising when you consider the first was a war lost and the reluctance of those concerned to highlight their service during it, which leaves the gap we have in the record and the importance of close analysis of the few accounts we do have.

Again with my 'Napoleonic' era hat on, I have spent a lot of reading time looking at the development of the British volley and charge system that stood the 19th century redcoat in such a commanding position on the battlefield during the first half of that period, ranging from Alexandria to Balaclava. 

It was during the first decades of the 18th century illustrated by the instructions given to the 20th (East Devon) Foot, in 1755,  by General Wolfe and as discussed by Spring, developed during the American War of Independence (AWI) that you see the early incarnation of this tactic.

Spring describes how General James Wolfe instructed the 20th to maintain their silence so as to better hear the instructions of their officers, a tactic that also unnerved many attackers sensing the destructive fire that awaited them as the range closed, then to have the shock of the fire amplified by the cheer that accompanied the charge.

"The battalion is not to halloo or cry out upon any account whatsoever, although the rest of the troops should do it, until they are ordered to charge with their bayonets; in that case, and when they are upon the enemy, the battalion may give a warlike shout and run in." 

and when instructing them in how they should deliver their fire he went on:

"there is no necessity for firing very fast; a cool and well-levelled fire with pieces carefully loaded, is much more destructive and formidable than the quickest fire in confusion."

The really interesting aspect for me was Spring's explanation as to the adaptation of these principals of fire and bayonet developed by the likes of  Cumberland at Culloden, Wolfe at Quebec and later by others with the almost relegation of firing in favour of a quick decision with the steel. I was not as clear on this distinction in tactical methods during the American War as with the other theatres and it was a revelation for me to see the analysis that backed up this assertion and the logic that underpinned it.

In simple terms, the size of the army available to the 18th century British general and its limited scope for replacing losses meant that there was a need to avoid costly fire-fights with an enemy that was very capable of engaging in destructive fire particularly from cover. This coupled with the rebel troops inability to take on the redcoats with the bayonet, particularly among the militia and riflemen encouraged tactics that allowed the rapid closure to contact that would limit the amount of firing in favour of casualties to the enemy once broken by the British charge. 

This tactic could only be enabled by some other 'American adaptations' which saw the British troops adopt, what would become their 'trademark formation', the two deep open order line with 18" or more between files to facilitate rapid movement over broken terrain and, with a lack of enemy cavalry to disrupt such an approach, a viable tactic for the theatre. In addition it became necessary to avoid allowing the rebels to conduct their defence from hard cover and so we see the British developing their flanking attacks to unhinge American positions and drive the rebels into more open ground where the bayonet charge could be delivered more effectively.

These tactics served the British command well in the early period of the war, following the lesson delivered at Boston, and nearly delivered the war winning battle defeat deemed necessary to force Washington and the Congress to negotiate a peace, when Howe skilfully outmanoeuvred the former at Long Island and had several opportunities to bag a large proportion of the Continental Army.

However in a war where the British were on the wrong end of a very long supply line, needing a decisive victory on the field of battle, further complicated by a huge overestimation of the support for the Crown within the colonies, the longer the conflict continued the more likely that the situation would become untenable by rebel improvements in their own tactics and abilities.

Thus we see Washington adopt a 'Fabian' approach to dealing with the British in the north, avoiding battle unless on favourable terms and engaging the enemy in a destructive small war, whilst with operations shifting to the south we see the weaknesses in British tactics and abilities amplified with the smaller but more effective rebel units now benefiting from better training and a sizeable and renewable cadre of veterans better able to neutralise the British bayonet charge by combining a defence in depth in broken terrain, supported by their own light cavalry.

Tarleton's follow-up after the Battle of Camden, a rare example of a destructive British cavalry pursuit 

The position in the south also revealed the two glaring weaknesses in British tactics, covered up in the early period, first a lack of cavalry and light cavalry in particular, better able to finish off a beaten enemy and destroy his army in the pursuit and the gradual degrading of British skirmish and light infantry capability as the light infantry evolved into an elite heavy infantry better able to deliver a formidable bayonet attack rather than act in a screening role as expert light infantry.

Spring goes through clearly, why these deficiencies occurred and how they were taken advantage of, particularly in the south, where the enemy excelled in both departments and that enabled them to neutralise the threat of the British redcoat whose abilities remained as formidable as ever. 

Spring's description of British, Provincial and German tactics, and it is important to add that distinction as each was a variation on the common theme, namely how to adapt to the terrain and the enemy, not only shows 'the how' but just as importantly for understanding, 'the why' the tactics used were chosen. This when matched with the numerous examples of battles won and battles lost really gives a vivid interpretation of those tactics and I found the book a compelling read.

I think for me, the stand out message from this book was that the British forces and their commanders responded in the main quite well with their adaptations to dealing with the enemy in the circumstances they were presented with. The war was always going to be difficult to win on the battlefield alone even with the vast majority of the population trying to stay out of the conflict, but without Crown troops to protect them often coerced into declaring their allegiances by a very energetic rebel militia that backfilled the territory vacated by the opposing field armies.

That said the British forces almost fought the war to a stalemate with the French nation bankrupted by it and eager for a resolution and with little prospect for that war winning engagement up to Yorktown, and indeed if the Battle of the Saintes had occurred before Yorktown, perhaps Washington may not have had French allies to cooperate with.

Admiral Sir George Rodney's victory at the Battle of the Saintes came too late to reverse the outcome of the American War of Independence

Even then, the hostility generated towards the Crown during the conflict would probably have lead to another soon after the conclusion of the first, assuming the British had achieved a negotiated settlement, and the growing demands of empire would most likely have overstretched British capabilities for fighting another such war.

The plaudits for this much needed analysis are many and copious in their praise and I would echo many of them. 

From an historical wargamers perspective, eager to bring the historical reality into their games, the book is a must read to gain a thorough understanding of the ability and limitations of the British forces involved in the conflict and I would highly recommend getting a copy for your library. Mine is a former library hardback edition in a protected dust jacket and now has pride of place among my AWI tomes.

The layout is straight forward and logical, with eleven chapters following the Preface and Acknowledgements:

1. The Army's Task
2. Operational Constraints
3. Grand Tactics
4. March and Deployment
5. Motivation
6. The Advance
7. Commanding the Battalion
8. Firepower
9. The Bayonet Charge
10. "Bushfighting"
11. Hollow Victories

The chapters are supported by fifty eight pages of notes providing details of the sources quoted and this is further supported by twenty two pages of Bibliography source references.

Finally there is a comprehensive fourteen page index to rapidly find the quotes, some of which I have used in this post, that you will find most useful the next time you find yourself sense-checking a particular rule set to see if it lives up to the latest thinking on the subject.

Recommended reading

JJ's Dark Age Collection

As anyone who has been following the blog over recent months, will have noticed that in between the posts about trips to Holland and Over the Hills play-tests, there has been a collection quietly building in the background.

Viking Hirdmen
Dark Age Warriors
Saxon Thegns

Things got started back in September last year, but the inspiration to get this collection built can be traced back to our trip to York last June with all the Viking inspiration that city can generate coupled with a re-visit to Dux Bellorum as a potential rule set to use.

Devon Wargames - Dux Bellorum

My Saxon (nearest to camera) and Viking hosts all sabot based up and ready to go

Whilst putting this lot together I had to start thinking about storage and basing, the first consideration has seen me join the rest of wargaming humanity by purchasing my first set of Really Useful Boxes together with some inserts from Warbases to carry multiple layers of figures in the nine litre boxes.

Warbases RUB Inserts

The Viking collection complete with its motley band of archers

When not in transit I plan to put these chaps in the room display cabinets, but hopefully two nine litre RUB's will carry this lot, the rules, a bit of terrain and markers.

With opposing forces mustered I now need to start thinking about terrain

The other consideration was basing which ended up with me using the six figure rectangular sabot bases for heavy infantry, be they warrior or shield wall and the three frontage skirmish bases for my light troops.

One last part of the plan was putting together a few Saxon and Viking helmeted warriors together with some suitably styled shields which will act as markers on my generic warrior bases to indicate the team they are on. That way I can mix and match my warriors between my Saxon and Viking forces as the scenario dictates.

The bulk of these figures are Gripping Beast plastics and I have enjoyed working on them

In time, I plan to add a few other pieces to this core collection including a few mounted types and eventually another group from the ninth century like some Welsh to represent the groups down in the far west country.

Alongside the warriors I want to get some casualty figures to sprinkle about the table as required and I thought a few civilian types including the odd monk or priest would make a nice addition.

The Saxons can field a strong armoured component together with slinger and javelin skirmishers

The Viking collection is configured to allow a raiding or army set up under Dux Bel.

Whilst adding bits at last November's Warfare show I invested in a lovely looking Celtic cross from Trevor Holland at Coritani/Magnetic Displays.

Celtic Cross Painted or Unpainted

I think the cross should serve as an interesting objective marker.

The archers were picked up at Warfare last November

The Viking archers are metals from the Gripping Beast range and are supplied with loose bows.

These are Gripping Beast metals which work well with the plastic ranges

The Saxon skirmishers are built from the Dark Age Warrior plastics using javelin or slinger options

In addition to other figures the shopping list also includes getting a range of Dark Age buildings and a timber wall to do some attacks on Burghs with a few scaling ladders thrown in for good measure.

Having visited Lydford a few years ago, which was a Royal Mint back in the ninth century and actually beat off a Viking attack against its walls, I fancy trying to build a scenario around it.

These chaps should allow for the annoyance factor in any Dux Bel game

I also intend to add a lot more banners, and thanks to Ray Roussel for making available some of his own designs. They really are nice and add a bit of variety to the LBM produced options. I just need to put a few more standard bearers together, so that is on the list as well.

A few extras were added to the collection including this downloadable Viking banner from Ray Roussell's blog - cheers Ray

Don't Throw a One - Viking Flags

My Celtic Cross, my first piece of period terrain

With this project now done I now just have one smaller one to attend to, namely a couple of sections of 28mm Fallschirmjager and a certain famous Captain in the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard who will be gracing the table at this summer's trip to Chez Chaz for our north Devon big game and then I can finally turn my attention to the big project, the Romano-Dacians which I am really looking forward to getting stuck into.

North West Frontier, British and Indian Army Campaigns on the North-west Frontier of India 1849-1908 - Captain H.L. Nevill (1912)

Another book from my personal library which judging from the bookmark I must have started reading it long ago but never quite finished so I read it again over the summer, the review however has taken this long to write as it’s a tricky one to do.

You see the book is of its time and so some of its style is no longer deemed acceptable today, I am afraid the N word and T word is used extensively throughout (that’s Natives and Tribesmen) and the evil British Imperialists impose their oppressive western values on the indigenous Hill People by not allowing them to follow their long held traditions of coming down from the mountains and killing and stealing whenever they feel like it.

Fortunately we now live in more enlightened times.

The territory covered in this book is most of modern day Kashmir and the mountainous region that borders Afghanistan, an area which the British had absolutely no intention of taking over as they were quite happy sticking to the nice flat bits. Recent misfortunes in Afghanistan had reinforced their desire to leave well alone as it was clearly far more trouble than it could ever be worth. Also most of this area was nominally subject to Afghanistan anyway but even nominally is stretching the point.

Tribesmen

The book itself can be split roughly into two eras, up to 1890 the trickiest part of any punitive expedition was tracking the enemy down so that you could punish the raiders, from around 1890 it got a lot more dangerous as the tribes now had access to European style weapons in greater numbers.

Tribesman with Enfield Rifled Musket

What this book gives you is a run down of every campaign that went into this area (around 27) and it gives the force compositions, the objectives and a description of the events, quite often these are small affairs but there are some large proper campaigns interspersed between the punitive actions. Any estimate of the enemies forces are just that, estimates but I don’t think that really matters for wargamers wishing to re-create some of the events. After each mini campaign there is a review of what went right and what didn’t and is an excellent feature as the authors conclusions are well thought through. You also get the old style good quality hand drawn sketch map that covers each expedition.

Mountain Battery CRF

For example: The Mahsud Expedition 1894-1895 was split into three columns, each battalion /company that took part is listed and in which column it was in, the reason for the expedition is given, then the proposed route for each column and an outline of events for each, any casualties incurred (especially officers) and any terms imposed, it ends with the return journey which was quite often more eventful and finally a review on its successes and failures.

35th Sikh Regiment of Bengal Infantry Malakand Field Force repelling an attack by tribesmen 1897

Over time the British get pulled more and more into the area and start to leave garrisons behind in key points, these now become the centre for attacks and there are a few quite interesting little sieges and therefore forces have to be hurriedly cobbled together to march to their relief.

Chitral Fort 1 plan

The siege of Chitral is an interesting case , there is a description of the fort and its location, then the garrison is outlined giving of course the names of all Europeans involved, there were 99 Sikhs from the 14th Sikhs and 301 Kashmir Infantry with 100 civilians. Exact number of rounds for each type of rifle is given along with various supplies, the number and location point of guards and reasons given for any alterations plus as time goes on ammunition usage is updated and the number of rifles still serviceable. Obviously a full description of all the events is given and then the composition of the relief forces and the extreme difficulties it experienced whilst trying to cross the high mountains and the actions they fought to get there just in time.

https://www.britishbattles.com/north-west-frontier-of-india/siege-and-relief-of-chitral/

Sikhs carry the guns

There are even a couple of full scale night attacks against various British camps which usually causes great confusion, this from the Malakand Field Force 1897

“a second attack was made on the camp, at 9 pm a volley was poured into the camp followed by a rush of swordsmen from several directions, covered by the fire of others….. the engagement lasted until 2 am when the moon rose."

Attack on Nawagai Camp on 20th Sept 1897

Nawagai attack Major Hobday RA

Scattered among the bigger stories are small scale actions with handfuls of men who have been cut off or surprised and which usually don’t end well, ideal for some of the newer rules sets out that cover Colonial skirmishes.

The black mountain expedition ghazi attack on an advanced post at Ghazikot by P Naumann 1

The final chapter is a little odd, it’s a look into the future and how technological advancements could affect Imperial control over this area, better weapons and communications, obviously, improved mobility for the troops naturally and air vessels of course, once they became reliable that is. Finally he foresaw great things for the Mono-Rail recently demonstrated at the Brennan Torpedo factory in Gillingham in 1910, I wonder what became of that. (actually the Brennan torpedo is quite interesting in itself)

Brennan Monorail

Last of all are a number of appendices, The Field Orders issued by Brig Gen N.B Chamberlain are quiet enlightening but is it really necessary to point out that a doolie and a kajawah should accompany the rear guard, it’s not something that you would expect an experienced officer to forget surely. Next is a list of all the regiments that served and the campaigns that they took part in which is very useful and finally an Index.

Gordon Highlanders at Malakand Pass 1896 by SW Lincoln

For anyone with any interest in the North West Frontier and especially those wanting ideas for games then this book is extremely useful, as a general history reader myself I liked it as the actions are well written and the overall tone is quite well biased for the times.

I forgot, at the start there is a brief description of the tribal areas that this book covers and also the individual tribes that inhabit each bit, there is also an indication of their relevant fighting strengths.

One last anecdote from the mopping up after the Chitral campaign:

“The enemy withdrew and Munda was occupied, during a search a letter was found from a Scotch firm in Bombay to the Khan offering to provide all types of arms and ammunition from maxim guns to revolvers, luckily the benevolent intentions of this patriotic firm were discouraged and the firm in question has recently transferred itself to Cairo”

Major Neville didn't make it off the beach at Gallipoli.

Hardback
Readable pages: 383
Best price as of 9th Feb 2018: £13.43 from ABE Books

Abebooks -North West Frontier

I eventually found it using the ISBN number. 1-871085-10-1

This has been a Mr Steve presentation.