Gil Barndollar
Perhaps no regular army inward history has ever juggled every bit broad as well as challenging an array of campaigns as well as weather condition every bit the British Army did from 1897 to 1945. Battling enemies from Burma to Belgium, the British Army rapidly transformed itself from a minor regal police push clitoris to a war-winning conscript majority army, shrank dorsum almost overnight, as well as and so repeated the play a joke on barely xx years later. Through it all, from the acme of empire to the Pyrrhic victory of the Second World War, 1 of the army’s few constants was ceaseless mount warfare on the Northwest Frontier of India.
The Northwest Frontier, at nowadays the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, is a mountainous portion that sits higher upwards the fertile apparently of the Indus valley. Today the FATA is known every bit a sanctuary for the Taliban, a lawless portion rife amongst insurgents, arms manufacturers, as well as drone strikes. But the Frontier, as well as specially its heartland of Waziristan, has ever been a source of problem for its neighbors. Living inward poor, rocky solid reason amongst picayune chance for to a greater extent than than subsistence farming, the Pathan (or Pashtun) tribesmen of the Frontier raided as well as stole from the rich Indian lands to the due south for millennia. The Frontier also provided a route for to a greater extent than serious invaders. Indeed, inward the entire recorded history of Republic of Republic of India the British had been the solitary conquerors non to come upwards from the northwest.
Admired as well as feared yesteryear his enemies, the Pathan of the Northwest Frontier was a violent as well as shrewd fighter. The words of 1 British officer, writing inward 1943, amount upwards the full general view of his peers: “The Pathan is, inward short, a guerrilla fighter par excellence, physically strong, brave fifty-fifty to recklessness, a born tactician inward nipper tactics inward his ain item type of country, as well as a expert shot.”[1] The Frontier became a crucible for British officers, every bit the cunning enemy rapidly exposed as well as exploited fifty-fifty the smallest tactical error. Inadequate defenses at night, a failure to recognize key terrain, or a blunder during a withdrawal could rapidly Pb to the annihilation of a department or platoon. It is no surprise that many of the British Army’s most successful World War II commanders cutting their teeth on the Frontier.[2]
However, success inward minor wars does non ever interpret to an army’s powerfulness to grapple major conventional wars. Israel’s difficulties inward Lebanese Republic inward 2006 are solely the latest proof of this.[3] Did Britain’s longest colonial war, the pacification of the Northwest Frontier of India, improve or retard her army’s powerfulness to grapple major wars?
There were those, fifty-fifty inward the Indian Army, who felt that endemic Frontier fighting was a major impediment to preparation for modern mechanized war. Mountain warfare was tiresome as well as methodical, amongst the requirement to deliberately picket a force’s flanks on the high Earth patch the principal torso marched downward a route or valley. The inescapable demand for long columns of pack animals also lent Frontier campaigns an archaic air every bit armed forces mechanization progressed after World War I. Some advocated the re-creation of a permanent Frontier Force, which would endure highly specialized as well as unable to grapple effectively inward modern wars.[4]
However, inward both globe wars at that spot was ample evidence that despite the peculiarities of Frontier campaigns, service inward Waziristan had done much to ready British as well as Indian troops for modern warfare.
World War I
Northwest Frontier fighting was markedly different from the numerous other punitive expeditions as well as minor wars conducted yesteryear the British Army after 1850. Despite beingness illiterate irregulars, the Pathans to a greater extent than closely approximated a European enemy than they did the Zulus or the dervishes of Sudan. Only the Boers, a unique case, would give the British Army a greater challenge than the tribesmen of Waziristan.
The improved armament of the tribesmen was the key evolution of Frontier fighting inward the early on twentieth century. While it had been relatively low-risk warfare inward the past, the lethality of Frontier combat rose dramatically due to the increased purpose yesteryear the tribesmen of modern mag rifles using smokeless powder. The Pathans of Kipling as well as Harry Flashman had carried ancient jezails, erratic flintlocks that yesteryear the mid-nineteenth century couldn’t tally British weapons, as well as that provided clouds of dark fume to seat their firers’ locations. But after 50 years, this minor arms imbalance began to change. Captain Alexander Mason noted inward 1892 that the arrival of Snider as well as Martini-Henry rifles, amongst triple the hit of the tribesmen’s erstwhile muzzle loaders, had fundamentally changed the tactical calculus of the Pathans.[5]
A burgeoning traffic inward rifles, imported from the Western Farsi Gulf via Afghanistan, was eventually closed downward yesteryear a blockade imposed yesteryear the Royal Navy as well as the Royal Indian Marine, but yesteryear that indicate much of the impairment had been done.[6] The Pathans continued to have rifles stolen from laxer British garrisons farther south, or supplied yesteryear the Russians. Cunning Pathans inward British service could also sell their coveted Lee-Enfields to their cousins inward the mountains, purchase an mistaken rifle crafted inward a tribal manufacturing works life (nearly identical until the rifling started to apparel out after 300 rounds), as well as bag a tidy profit.[7] In spite of British as well as Indian measures the tribes’ arsenal grew exponentially: inward 1902 it was estimated that at that spot were over 2,000 breech-loading rifles inward Waziristan; yesteryear 1919 this pose out was nearly 140,000, as well as xx years after that it was idea that the tribesmen possessed over 232,000 modern rifles.[8] The Pathan’s appetite for mag rifles was insatiable, as well as greatly increased the adventure of onslaught for smaller British detachments.
Once the genie of the modern rifle was out of the bottle, the tactical province of affairs changed dramatically for British as well as Indian troops inward Waziristan. The Pathans were ofttimes really skilled amongst their novel weapons; Army Headquarters India’s 1935-36 preparation memorandum noted that ‘the accuracy of the enemy rifle burn at long ranges, over 1,000 yards, was described every bit remarkable’.[9] This increment inward enemy engagement hit meant mount pickets had to endure laid out 3 times every bit far away from friendly columns every bit before, amongst an attendant slowing of displace as well as greatly increased difficulty of withdrawal.[10] The give-and-take “sniper” originated on the Frontier, though its exact etymology is unknown.
The alluvion of modern rifles into the Frontier, combined amongst the Pathan’s natural talent for concealment, gave the British a rude wake upwards during the Tirah Expedition of 1897. In his terminal study on the campaign, dated 24 Feb 1898, Major-General Sir William Lockhart wrote, “No induce on the frontiers of Republic of Republic of India has been conducted nether to a greater extent than trying as well as arduous circumstances than those encountered yesteryear the Tirah expeditionary force.”[11] Frontier campaigns could no longer endure won yesteryear talented amateurs, as well as a professionalization of mount warfare preparation rapidly ensued.
The legendary combat shooting of the minor British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of 1914 is unremarkably credited to the stupor of the Boer War. After facing highly mobile sharpshooters who were ofttimes invisible at a few hundred meters, the British revolutionized their marksmanship training.[12] However, every bit Edward Spiers has written of the Boer War,these tactical precepts, including careful reconnaissance earlier an attack, to a greater extent than purpose of covert as well as extended formations, avoiding artillery positions inside hit of an enemy’s infantry, the purpose of continuous rather than sporadic bombardments, to a greater extent than marching as well as ameliorate aid of horses yesteryear cavalry, as well as the delegation of responsibleness to battalion as well as companionship commanders inward the field, bore all the hallmarks of lengthy service on the Northwest Frontier.[13]
The Indian Army was institutionalizing the novel tactical lessons of the Frontier years earlier “Boer tactics” came into fashion inward the British Army. The manual Frontier Warfare 1901 condemned volley burn every bit a waste materials of ammunition as well as directed troops to accomplish a high bird of proficiency at private fire.[14] Highly realistic long hit marksmanship preparation resulted, amongst an emphasis on private soldiers engaging fleeting enemy exposures as well as shooting moving targets. The lessons of Waziristan, as well as their dramatic confirmation inward South Africa, helped ensure that the BEF was largely ready to grapple a modern European state of war inward 1914.
The Interwar Period
The British exercise of recruiting both irregular as well as regular soldiers from amidst the tribes of the Frontier added greatly to the Pathans’ collective armed forces science after the First World War. T. R. Moreman has described 1919 every bit a turning indicate inward Frontier warfare:
Mahsud lashkars [tribal state of war bands] had demonstrated a bird of armed forces science as well as tactical effectiveness never earlier encountered. Their carefully organised attacks were unprecedented, amongst well-concealed marksmen providing sufficient roofing rifle burn to pivot downward regal troops, enabling swordsmen to closed as well as engage inward hand-to-hand combat. It was strikingly apparent that the graphic symbol of frontier warfare had altered considerably, primarily every bit a outcome of tribal rearmament amongst high velocity rifles as well as yesteryear their skilful combination of burn as well as movement. This new-found tactical effectiveness was primarily attributable to the presence of large numbers of deserters as well as pensioners from the militia as well as Indian Army inward their ranks. Ex-servicemen formed one-fifth to one-sixth of the Mahsud fighting strength – roughly 2,000 men – encountered during the initial stage of the campaign, providing lashkars amongst leadership, dependent area as well as tactical preparation that they had ever lacked earlier inward Waziristan.[15]
Major-General Skipton Climo, commander of the forcefulness sent into Waziristan inward 1919, concurred. In his Waziristan Force Weekly Appreciation of xiii Jan 1920, he wrote,
I uncertainty if it is understood how desperate the fighting has been during these operations. It is, perhaps, to endure expected that those who create non know Republic of Republic of India as well as the frontier, as well as fifty-fifty some who convey fought on the frontier, inward pre-war days but lack the noesis as well as imagination to realise to what extent weather condition convey altered amongst the nifty improvement inward the armament of the tribesmen, cannot sympathise or believe the criterion of preparation that is required for the Infantry inward the weather condition that prevail on the Frontier to-day.[16]
The stair of Pathan tactical improvement was swift. As early on every bit 1919, the tribesmen were using parties of bombers armed amongst mitt grenades to onslaught pickets, a trench warfare tactic of the Western Front that had migrated to a greater extent than than 3 one thousand miles east.[17] Colonel F.S. Keen would write inward the same year, ‘Their tactics convey improved inward a most disconcerting manner….we divulge the Mahsuds carrying out attacks amongst considerable bodies, the advance as well as laid on scientifically supported yesteryear roofing burn as well as executed amongst nifty dash as well as boldness.’[18] In 1930, Afridi tribesmen on the Frontier were observed using signal flags inward the mode of a regular army.[19]
Though mount warfare pose a premium on the infantry, every bit it even so does today, it was non insulated from mechanization. The Royal Air Force was an integral slice of the interwar fighting on the Frontier, despite beingness restrained yesteryear political considerations as well as rules of engagement. Armored cars were critical to line of communications safety on the Frontier, as well as lite tanks fought inward Waziristan for the commencement fourth dimension inward 1935. The Pathans, lacking a give-and-take for tanks inward their language, dubbed them “snakes that spit.”[20]
World War II
The British Army ended the First World War every bit the finest regular army inward the world. It had solved the riddle of the trenches, albeit at nifty cost, as well as developed effective combined arms tactics that broke the High German regular army at the Battle of Amiens. Yet the British failed to retain these lessons inward the interwar period, yielding a forcefulness that was tactically unprepared for a minute state of war amongst the Germans. By 1944, the American newcomers were mostly out-performing British troops, despite the latter’s ii twelvemonth caput start inward fighting as well as learning from the enemy.[21]
Imperial commitments, as well as thence the Northwest Frontier, are ofttimes blamed for the British Army’s failure to retain the lessons of the Great War. The Liddell Hart schoolhouse of history, amongst its contempt for the chimeras of Colonel Blimp as well as antediluvian cavalrymen, is largely responsible for this myth. In reality, authorities parsimony, the refusal to commit to a Continental war, as well as an overweening faith inward the tank were far to a greater extent than responsible for British struggles inward the Second World War.[22] In 1 of import but oft-neglected area, minor unit of measurement battle drill, the colonial Indian Army was inward fact far ameliorate prepared for major state of war than its British cousin.
Battle drill is best described every bit a laid of unproblematic rehearsed tactical responses to mutual situations, inward the mode of a pre-planned play inward American football game or basketball. One of the students of the battle drill displace sums upwards its philosophy every bit “Simple things done really good beats skill, inventiveness as well as imagination – things yous don’t convey inward existent combat.”[23] Battle drill was non meant to endure a tactical instantly jacket, but exactly basic mutual procedures to acquire platoons as well as sections moving on the correct rails inward the chaos of combat. However, interwar British Army doctrine pose a premium on non beingness prescriptive, implicitly endorsing a supposed British cultural trait of “muddling through.” Without battle drill or something similar it, many of the tactical lessons of the trenches were lost, specially at the platoon level. Units muddled through, amongst predictable results inward French Republic inward 1940 as well as inward the Western Desert thereafter. It took Lionel Wigram, an unconventional Territorial Army captain who had never seen combat, to resurrect battle drill inward the British Army inward 1942.[24]
The interwar Indian Army, dissimilar the British, embraced a de facto battle drill doctrine inward society to succeed inward the increasingly unsafe fighting on the Frontier. The line of pickets, line of communication security, reactions to ambush, as well as setting inward fortified camps were all drilled rigorously inward loma stations earlier assuming duties on the Frontier.[25] Though this was derided yesteryear some British officers every bit a stereotyped if non ritualized assort of fighting, it resulted inward units trained to a high criterion as well as confident inward their tactical responses to mutual battlefield problems.
The Indian Army Training Memorandum No. nine of 1941 stated
This apprenticeship on the Frontier has stood our troops inward expert stead inward Africa….Battalions amongst nifty reputations inward mount warfare were given the toughest jobs to tackle. We all know the results. They may non convey learnt all nearly modern war, but they had learnt the basic lessons, leadership, discipline, endurance, speed, fieldcraft; all these against a critical instructor – the Pathan.[26]
While it mightiness endure piece of cake to dismiss this every bit a sop to the battalions stuck amongst the thankless project of securing the Frontier patch the state of war raged elsewhere, it was borne out yesteryear the facts. The performance of Indian troops stood out inward both Africa as well as Italy.[27] In the fourth as well as 5th Indian Divisions, which excelled inward North Africa early on inward World War II, every unmarried Indian as well as Gurkha battalion had served inward the hard Waziristan induce of 1936 to 1939.[28] Major-General F. A. M. B. Jenkins, writing inward the Journal of the United Service Institution of Republic of Republic of India inward 1944, concluded that “the lessons of the N. W. F. P. apply 100 per cent. to the induce inward Italy.”[29]
Conclusion
John Masters, a Gurkha officeholder of distinction on both the Frontier as well as inward Burma, wrote after the state of war that
Many Aldershot-type officers maintained that nosotros learned solely bad habits inward this tribal warfare against what they termed ‘ragged-arsed barnshoots.’ It was non true. From the Frontier itself nosotros learned un-winking, unsleeping alertness. From the Pathans nosotros learned to a greater extent than nearly the tactical value of Earth than whatsoever of our competitors or futurity enemies knew.[30]
Despite the unique nature of both the terrain as well as the enemy, fighting on the Northwest Frontier was a internet positive for the British as well as Indian Armies’ preparation for major war. The Pathans could non ameliorate Britain’s strategic liabilities inward 1914 or 1939, nor could they create a British Exchequer that would non fund a majority regular army until the even of war. Waziristan was of course of teaching a drain on manpower every bit well, requiring 70,000 Indian Army soldiers to “watch as well as ward” on the Frontier inward 1942.[31] But every bit exacting tactical teachers, the Pathans ensured that their British as well as Indian pupils were good prepared for minor unit of measurement combat inward both globe wars.
The Northwest Frontier as well as the British as well as Indian troops that defended it convey something to learn America’s Earth forces. We, too, convey spent a generation conducting low-intensity, non-existential combat operations, from Kosovo to the Hindu Kush. Civilian as well as armed forces leaders are at nowadays reorienting the the U.S.A. armed forces on major combat operations, though deployments to Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan as well as the Middle East continue. We should strive to endure brutally honest inward identifying as well as rooting out the many bad habits our minor wars convey bred, patch also recognizing the ways inward which our post-9/11 campaigns convey honed our edge.
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