North-west Frontier Campaign

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 43, 21 February 1938, Page 6

North-west Frontier Campaign

Operations Against Fakir Of Ipi IMPORTANT WORK BY AIR FORCE (British Official Wireless.) Received Sunday, 6.30 p.m. RUGBY, Feb. 19. A dispatch from General Sir Robert Cassels, Commander-in-Chief in India, describes the operations in the Waziris tan campaign between January and September of last year. It deals with the various military actions necessitated by the failure of political pressure alone to deal with the consequences of a hostile agitation of the Fakir of Ipi. It is emphasised that in the air operations, ample warning was always given to enable hostile inhabitants to evacuate the areas before air action was taken, and the continuous pressure of air action by day and night played an important part in obtaining the submission of tribes. The tasks assigned to the air forces entailed very long flights, often carried out under very trying flying conditions. In 11,000 hours of operational flying, re presenting a distance of 1,000,000 miles, there was only a negligible number of forced landings—a high tribute to the maintenance work. The operations marked the first occasion in which a flight of the newlyformed Indian Air Force was employed on active service.

The casualties to the Army, Air Force and Scouts’ personnel were: —183 killed and 449 wounded, while tribal casualties were about '/00 killed and ovor 350 wounded seriously.