While these stirring events were taking place on the frontier, the
Indian Government had not been inactive, for in the month of March an
army of 14,000 men was mobilised, under the command of Major-General Sir
R. Low, the intention being originally that this expedition should be
sent to Chitral through Swat and Bajour, starting in April. On receipt
of the news of the disaster at Karagh it became necessary to not only
advance the troops as early as possible, but also to take immediate
steps for the relief of Chitral at the earliest possible moment, as it
was known that that place was only supplied till the end of April. It
was impossible to send troops from India to Gilgit for this purpose, as
the passes would not be open till June. Most fortunately a force of the
32nd Pioneers, under Colonel Kelly, were at this time road-making at
Bunji, on the Indus, only 38 miles from Gilgit; it was therefore
determined to send Colonel Kelly with all the men he could collect to
march as rapidly as possible to Chitral. On the 21st of March Colonel
Kelly received orders by telegraph to march, and he set off the same
afternoon. And a famous march it was!
On the 23rd of March the expedition set out from Gilgit. It consisted
at starting of 400 men of the Pioneers, two guns of Number 1 Kashmir
Mountain Battery, and 100 Hunza and Puniali Levies under their own
chiefs; the officers with Colonel Kelly being Captain Borrodaile,
Surgeon-Captain Browning-Smith, and Lieutenants Beynon, Bethune, Cobbe,
Paterson, and Cooke; and these were joined at Gupis by Lieutenant
Stewart, R.A., who took charge of the guns, and Lieutenant Oldham, R.E.,
with 40 Kashmir Sappers, and Lieutenant Gough with 100 Kashmir Rifles.
It will be noticed that again the troops and non-commissioned officers
were entirely native.
On April the 1st, in spite of five days' snow, the column set out from
Ghizr to attempt the Shandur Pass. The first difficulty was a stampede
of the impressed native bearers, who had bolted in the night and were
not collected again till late in the afternoon. After a few miles the
guns stuck in the deep snow, and it was found impossible to get them
along. Captain Borrodaile, with Lieutenant Oldham and 140 men, with the
Hunza Levies, remained at Teru with provision for ten days. The rest of
the column with the guns had reluctantly to return to Ghizr. The snow
continuing, it was impossible to attempt the pass; but the Kashmirs set
to work to dig a road from Teru through the snow to Langar, the
camping-ground on their side of the pass, and on the next day the guns
were got along to Teru and thence to Langar, but this was only effected
by _carrying_ the guns, carriages, and ammunition. These were divided
amongst squads of four men, relieved every fifty yards, so that the
progress did not exceed a mile an hour, the men being often up to their
middle in snow in a bitter wind and a glaring sun. The camping-ground
at Langar, some 13 miles from Teru, was not reached till near midnight,
and the guns had to be left by their exhausted bearers a mile or so
outside the camp. This was indeed a great achievement, but there
remained still the pass. First there was a very stiff climb for about a
mile, then a more gradual ascent up to 12,300 feet above sea-level, then
five miles of fairly level plain, a sheet of glaring snow swept by a
bitter wind. The distance from Langar to Laspur on the other side of
the pass is only ten miles, but though Borrodaile's party of Pioneers
and Levies started early next day, they did not reach Laspur till
evening. The villagers were as surprised as though the party had
dropped from the moon, and thought it expedient to be friendly. The
enemy had so implicitly relied upon the impossibility of getting through
the pass in such extreme weather that no preparation to block our
movements had been made. The next day the village was put into a state
of defence, and supplies were collected, and with the aid of the
villagers the guns were brought down. Both men and officers suffered
severely; most had blue spectacles, but by the time the whole column had
got over there were 68 cases of snow-blindness and 43 of frost. The
opposition shown by the enemy as the column proceeded was overcome by
the gunfire, which the Chitrali seemed quite unable to stand; and
Mastuj, from which the enemy had retired on the same day in the
direction of Chitral, was reached on the afternoon of the 9th of April.
The march was continued the next day, and after a sharp fight on the
13th, in which Colonel Kelly lost eight men, Chitral was entered on the
20th. In this wonderful march the column had gone 350 miles in 35 days
over a very difficult country, climbed a difficult pass, carrying the
guns through the snow and in the face of an enemy. The men carried each
two days' rations; and only seven days' rations being provided, after
that the force had entirely to depend upon what the country afforded,
which was very little.