Books by Intelli Branch Amy

This is an official account of the operations undertaken by the Bazar Valley Field Force in February/March 1908, a punitive expedition against the Zakka Khel Afridis. This was the fourth occasion on which it had been found necessary to send a punitive force into the valley during the past thirty years. The first chapter gives a short account of the events leading up to the expedition which was under the command of Major-General Sir James Willcocks who, a few weeks after the end of this expedition was taking anoher against the Mohmands. Chapters II and III contain the details of the operations including the composition of the Force and the results. Appendix I is Sir James Willcocks's despatch naming those who had distinguished themselves and listing all the casualties by name and unit with the nature of the wounds. There is a complete list of the staff showing appointments and the names of those filling them with their parent units. Another appendix contains the Political report of the expedition, followed by the Engineer report, expedition strength return, signals report and ammunition expenditude

This account of the Operations in the Mohmand country and in the Khaiber during April and May 1908 has been compiled in the Division of the Chief of Staff by Lt R.Dane, 21st Cavalry, Frontier Force. Chapter I contains a brief description of the Mohmand country while in Chapter II will be found a summary of events bringing up to date the history of our relations with the tribe as given in Volume I of this series. In the spring of 1908 the Mohmands carried out raids into British territory and attacked British troops. he decision was taken to mount a punitive expedition under the command of Sir James Willcocks who would command the Indian Corps in France in 1914. The operations undertaken by his force are described in detail and in Appendix I we have an extract from his despatches naming all those who had distinguished themselves and including a casualty return listing every casualty by name with the nature of the wound. The list of the British officers killed is headed by 'Major N.C.Maclachlan, 1st Seaforth Highlanders, gunshot wound, head, accidental.' There are extracts from the Engineer report. Medical report and Communications. There is also the strenght return for the force as on 1st June 1908 and an ammunition expenditure return at Appendix VII of which the last two words of the heading should read "DURING OPERATIONS".

The Abors were an Assam tribe inhabiting a tract of hill country on the north-east frontier of India, first visited by the English in 1826. Much of the area was terra incognita and problems arose connected with the Indo-Chinese and Indo-Tibetan borders. It was the murder, in 1911, by the Abors of the British Assistant Political officer, Mr Williamson, and his colleague Dr Gregorson and nearly all their party of followers while they were touring the Tibetan border area that was the immediate cause of the war. The punitive expeditionary force was composed of Indian Army troops (no British units) and operations lasted from October 1911 to April 1912. The narrative begins with an account of the political events leading up to the expedition, describes the terrain and the tribes and then goes on to relate the murder and discuss the plans for the expedition which was commanded by Major-General Sir H Bower, GOC Assam Brigade. There are an unusually high number of appendices (37), partly explained by the brief preface to the effect that because this was the first miiitary expedition in the area "it has been considered desirable to attach to the history, as appendices, somewhat full extracts from departmental and other reports referring to details of organization, etc., peculiar to the country." But the account of the operations is well suported by more appendices giving a wealth of detail on all aspects of the Force involved, beginning with orders for the organization of the Abor Expeditionary Force, issued by the Chief of the General Staff. There are charts, tables, reports on engineering operations, medical history of the expedition, work of followers and much more beside.

This interesting volume gives an account of operations against various countries bordering India, in each case beginning with a description of the country and its people, an outline of its history, the size of any army it may have had, first contacts wih the British and the reason for hostilities. We begin with. the war with Nepal, 1814-15.. The Nepalese had been laying claim to certain areas on the borders withIndia, to which they had no right, and even sending in troops to occupy them. The British response was to put into the field a force of some 20.000 made up into four divisions each operating in a different area . The fortunes of each in the fighting are described and the comment is made that of the four divisions with which the campaign started the operations of three were total failures. But the war resulted in that friendship with Britain that began even before the it was over with the raising of the first Gurkha regiment (the Malaun Regiment) in 1815. The story of the war with Nepal is followed by an account of expeditions against Sikkim in 1814, 1860, and 1888. in which we also had problems with the Tibetans. Action against them was taken to secure borders. Bhutan comes next with an account of its relations with Nepal, China, with Tibet and with the British. Military action was taken against the Bhutanese on several occasions between 1772, when the East India Company went to the aid of Kuch Behar at the ruler's request when the Bhutanese invaded his country, and 1864. All these are conveniently described in one chapter including the composition of the forces sent out and the name of the commander. Assam, we are assured, cannot be described historically as one country, as it is made up of different tribes and nations and in this account each is taken in turn and this is the largest section of the book as military operations are described in each area from the Burma War of 1824 to the Manipur expedition of 1891.This section is as good a lesson in geography as it is in history. The final section deals with the Lushais whose country lies on the eastern frontier of India and is described as being a mass of hills averaging 3000-4000 feet. British assaults were usually in response to Lushai raids into India. Three punitive expeditions are described in some detail Brig-Gen: Brownlows's in 1871-72; Colonel Tregear's in 1888-89 and the Chin-Lushai expedition of 1889-90, again under the command of Colonel Tregear.

Baluchistan today lies in Pakistan with Afghanistan to the north, Iran to the west, India the east and the Arabian Sea on the south. The two main cities are Quetta up on the Afghan frontier, and Karachi the port on the Arabian sea. This volume, however, begins with an introduction to the Baluchistan of some three hundred years ago, describing its geography, its peoples (tribes) and early history including the acquisition by the British of a territory considerably larger than the British Isles. The narrative then takes us through the history of the country and it s relations with the British, mainly actions by hostile tribes and our reacting to them by sending punitive expeditions to deal with them. An example of one of these was the Zhob Valley Expedition of 1884 on which we sent a mixed force of artillery, cavalry and infantry amounting to some 5,000 men. The second half of the book is taken up with an account of the First Afghan War which ran from 1838 to 1842, largely, if not entirely the fault of the Governor General (the title later was changed to Viceroy) Lord Auckland who decided to replace the ruler of Afghanistan, Dost Mohammed with a puppet king. Shah Shuja, which led to a large scale British invasion of the country. The British met with disaster in which some 4000 soldiers and 12,000 followers perished, only one man escaping, Dr Brydon. There is a well-known painting by Lady Butler of Brydon arriving at the garrison of Jalalabad, an exhausted survivor.

This volume opens with a description of the Afridi tribe, tthe terrain in which they lived, their fighting qualities, character and customs, which included skill in stealing rifles (among other things). Troops on the Frontier ofen slept with a chain through the trigger guard attached to thei wrists, or slept on thei rifles. Ther term Afridi covers eight clans, and seven of them are dealt with in the book.. According to this account ruthless, cowardly robbery and cold-blooded, treacherous murder were to an Afridi the salt of life. Another source refers to them as a most avaricious race, desperately fond of money with a sense of loyalty that depended on the how much was in it for them.. Characteristics like that, combilned with an undoubted fighting ability made for a treacherous though formidable foe, especially in their mountainous country. No wonder we had trouble with them! The narrative describes the background to and conduct of a series of expeditions against the various clans, in eac h case describing the strength of the column, the units involved and the name of the commander and the outc ome of the expedition. The other tribes such as the Orakzai, Zaimukht, Wazirs etc are covered in the same way, descriptions of the tribesmen, ofthe terrain in which they lived and of the expeditions sent against them.The period covered in this volume is from 1855 operations against the Afridis to the Kabul Khel expedition of 1902.

This is the first of a series of six volumes containing records of expeditions against frontier tribes on all the frontiers of India, and of operations embarked upon overseas by the Government of India, involving troops of the Indian Army and British troops stationed in India at the relevant time.They incorporate the work compiled in 1873 by Col W.H.Paget (Revised in 1884 by Lieut A.H. Mason RE) describing expeditions against the North-West Frontier Tribes, authorised by the Punjab Government, as "a valuable guide to those who might have future dealings with these turbulent neighbours." It was with this warfare in mind that Kipling wrote those lines, addressed to The Young British Soldier: When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, An' the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle an' blow out your brains, An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.Each volume deals with a distinct geographical division, laid out in the introduction of this volume which goes on to describe the terrain and the differing tribesman, their characteristics and their worth as fighting men. Operations described in this volume include the expedition to Gilgit, Hunza and Nagir in1891 led by Lt Col Durand in which three VCs were awarded to officers of the Indian Army; the siege of Chitral in in March/April 1895 which a small force of Indian troops under Brevet Major Townshend held out against a large force of tribesmen for six weeks when a relief force arrived (twenty-one years later he would surrender to the Turks at Kut); the Malakand and Mohmand Field Forces in 1897 (Churchill served in the former expedition and wrote a book about it); operations against the Black Mountain and Swati Valley tribes. Composition of Forces, casualties and names of personalities feature thr oughout the narrative.