A marching column.

Posts : 2871 Join date : 2010-06-02

I picked up an interesting military photo album yesterday - much later than AZW but I think it gives an excellent impression of just what a marching column in rugged hostile territory looked like. From what I have discovered so far, it is the British campaign against the Waziri tribes in Waziristan and the NW Frontier of India. But to me it is very evocative of how Chelmsford's column must have looked wending its way towards Isandhlwana. The single column of carts and marching men stretches back for miles on the rough single track road. Just as an aside, I would not have fancied being on the hospital camels very much!

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Stephen Reinstadtler Collection

Steve

Subject: Re: A marching column. Sun Dec 17, 2017 5:17 pm

Hi Steve,

particularly when you read that some of the 'cape' wagons were pulled by 16 oxen (albeit two abreast), logistically it must have been a nightmare.

The column in your photo looks very vulnerable to attack.

I have read that the vanguard of Roman legion was building its next marching camp before the reaguard had left its old one....

Cheers

Sime

Posts : 2871 Join date : 2010-06-02

They apparently deployed 60,000 British/Indian troops to try and bring 4,000 Waziris to battle and didn't manage it. Do we ever learn in Afghanistan/NW Frontier?
Heres another picture with an Imperial battalion in the lead, complete with bugles and band - no idea which one at this point. The tactics really hadn't changed in 50 years.
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Stephen Reinstadtler Collection

Steve

Subject: Re: A marching column. Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:06 pm

Shades of Gunga Din & The Drum.

JY

Posts : 2871 Join date : 2010-06-02

Indeed! Thinking about which regiment, I count 20 buglers without drums. Does that narrow it down to a rifle battalion of a light infantry regiment?

Steve

Subject: Re: A marching column. Mon Dec 18, 2017 5:36 am

Steve,

I was going to suggest that until I discovered that there were no Light Infantry or Rifle regiments in the 1921 Waziristan Campaign, I will use pre-1881 numbers as that how I work, they were the 2nd; 23rd; 34th; 41st; 45th & 49th.

JY

Posts : 2871 Join date : 2010-06-02

We had so many bites of the Waziristan cherry between the wars it is hard to know which one is depicted. I have spotted some Crossley armoured cars in another photo (one named De Lisle I think) which probably puts it some time after 1925.

Steve

Subject: Re: A marching column. Mon Dec 18, 2017 12:28 pm

Steve,

There’s a similar photograph of the one of the battalions of the Northamptonshire Regegiment crossing the same bridge circa 1937, marching up from Peshawar.

JY

Posts : 2871 Join date : 2010-06-02

Well done JY - definitely the same place. But is it the same time? Look at the stone capping pillars on the bridge - higher in my photo?

Steve

Subject: Re: A marching column. Mon Dec 18, 2017 2:04 pm

Steve,

The webbing worn in your photograph appears to be of an earlier pattern.

JY

Posts : 2871 Join date : 2010-06-02

It is the Shinki Bridge over the Tochi River south of Bannu in Waziristan. Peter Harringtons have another example of the photo album with a different set of pictures, but showing the KRRC in 1926. I think it is the same KRRC battalion in my photo. The bridge was a popular photo opportunity it seems - I found another of the Ist Royal Berkshire Regiment Machine Gun Battalion marching over it. Back to the AZW I think before someone complains!

Steve

Posts : 1183 Join date : 2015-11-24

No complaint's from me.. welcome diversion and interesting. i got a
bit scared when you mentioned peter harrington.. the dearest book
dealer on the planet, definitely deep pocket's required with that one.

Posts : 2871 Join date : 2010-06-02

Oh I agree. But one thing to be said for the top end dealers is how good you feel when you discover a comparable copy at a fraction of their price!

Steve

Posts : 1183 Join date : 2015-11-24

Hmmm, that's so right, i picked up another copy of Cetshwayo's Dutchman; being the private journal of a white trader in Zululand during the British invasion.. £11.00. ist ed. that was two week's ago.

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