DEATH AND DEFEAT

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3445, 19 March 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

DEATH AND DEFEAT

THE TRAGIC END OF AN ENGLISH ARMY.

A FAMOUS RETREAT FROM KABUL. ONE SURVIVOR OUT OF 16,000. The number thirteen has a curious association with Jiellalabad and with disaster. On November 13, 1841, Sale's brigade had thrown itself into the place, the Queen's regiment in the fore© being the 13th Light Infantry. On Christmas Day there was ominous news from Kabul. The British army there had been forced to capitulate, and was retreating on Jellalabad.

On January 13, 1842, while working parties were busy strengthening the place, one of the senSrles cried out that he could see a mounted man in the distance on the Kabul road. In a moment glasses were levelled, in that direction, and there, sure enough, could be made out an exhausted European bent over the neck of a foundered pony. On the low rampart men spoke in whispers of how the commanding officer of the 13th had fre--qu'eritly been heard to say, "Not a soul will'escape from Kabul but one man; and he will come to i}el) us that the rest'are destroyed." 'As all eyes marked the slow approach of the dwarfed figure in tihe distance there came from Colonel Dennie the words, as if of an oracle, "Did not I say so? Heje comes the messenger." "An escort of cavalry was sent out to meet the traveller. Bleeding, faint and covered with wounds, grasping in his hand the hilt and broken iiragment of a sword, tjie wounded man was brought within the fort. He gave his name as Dr Brydon, and reported his belief that he was the sole survivor of a force of some sixteen thousand souls.

Three years earlier, a baffling tari J gle, in which: Russia; .Persia, Afghanistan, and" 1 the Sikhs ? '6f the Punjab were the confusing elements, had induced ther,Governinentj of India to pledge itself Up replace discrowned 1 exile Shah Shuja on the Afghan throne and to expel Dost Mohammed, the ruler of the people's , choice. The chief force destined for the expedition was the,." Army of the Indus," which on December 2, 1838. was a circuitous one, for passingiftirough Scinde, it crossed Bakhur, whence it moved painfully over the hundred and fifty miles of howling wilderness to the Bolan Pass, till at length, on April 25, 1839, the wearied troops found rest and "food at Kandahar. Kabul was the next objective, and, after the brilliant capture of Ghazni en rOute, the Afghan capital was entered on August 7. Here it was joined ' some weeks later by a force of Asiatics, under British officers, which had entered Afghanistan from India by the Khyber Pass, so that in the first week of September there was assembled at Kabul an imposing force of nearly 15,000 fighting men, all told. :-'•;.". FALSE CONFIDENCE.

The swift success, and the restoration of Shah Shuja, gave great satisfaction to the Indian Government and to the ministry at home, although there were not wanting some—the Duke of. Wellington among them who spoke .Qmlnou&ly- of Napoleon and Moscow., Jsome of the troops were •now withdrawn-ta-India and for those of the army ?of the Indus, left in garrison at Kabul, the autumn and winter passed pleasantly enough. So was the political agent, Sir William Macnaghten, early in 1840, that the country was quietly settling down, that he despatched a body of horse to escort his wife from the plains of India.

In 1841 the military command at Kabul had passed into the hands of Qeneral Elphinstone, a Waterloo vetgran and a gallant soldier in his time, but now a martyr to gout, and with all foresight and mental energy long -gone from him. The military arrangements at Kabul were almost incredible. The 5,000 fighting men of the British force were placed in cantonments outside the citadel and the .city -walls,' and in a 1 position commanded by heights and buildings on .every side. ,The supplies on which the

army depended for the winter were lodged in two isolated , forts which were but weakly guarded.

At the beginning of November an insurrection broke out in the city. The pay office was attacked. The 28 sepoys who formed the guard were massacred. More than £17,000 of public money was carried off. Not a single order was given to the 5000 troops less than half an hour's.march away. In the same week the forts with the whole magazines and commisariat stores for the army were captured by the Afghans, literally under the eyes of the British troops in their cantonments. On November 23 an attack was launched against the Afghans. Only one gun accompanied the force, and the handful of artillerymen alone upheld the honour of the army. Panic seized the remainder. The rout of the British force was complete, and in one confused mass of cavalry and infantry—European and native —all fled to the cantonment walls.

Nothing but negotiation now remained, and on December 10 a capitulation was agreed upon, to the last degree humiliating to British arms. The British force was to evacuate Afghanistan forthwith, and on December 13 —again the fatal number citadel which had been occupied, but too late, was evacuated by its British garrison. Ten days later more galling terms were imposed, and all the guns except six were handed over. At length, on January 6, 1842, the retreat began. Deep snow covered mountain and plain. The column began to issue from the cantonments at nine in the morning, and from that time till dark the huge and motley crowd poured forth from the gates. As soon as the cantonments were cleared all order was lost, and troops; camp followers. guns and baggage became involved in one inextricable confusion. The army was in a terrible state when it entered the dread Coord Kabul defile. The heights above were crowned with Afghan sharpshooters. All order was lost. Baggage and ammunition were abandoned at every step, and the sepoys allowed the very muskets to be taken from their hands without a struggle. In this defile three thousand perished by Afghan sword, dagger, or bullet.

On the high tableland next to be crossed so intense was the cold that it was almost certain death to rest. Here Akbar Khan demanded the married officers' wSves, and they, with their husbands, left the column, to suffer, indeed, but to receive honourable treatment. The passage of, another gorge reduced the fighting element of tjhe column to a mere ha«dful. Cold, starvation, fatigue, and the incessant attacks of the tribesmen now took hourly toll. Before reaching Gundamuk the number was just a score, and from one last terrible combat Dr Erydon alone emerged to find sanctuary at Jellalabad, just ninety years ago.