The Tides Of War Pt. 05.5

Turin's men began loading the heavy wagons, while he and Hangar checked off the items on their lists.

Later that night he reported to David that he and the Tigers would be leaving at first light.

David told him he would be report to the Prince, in Putan, and then join him at the Pass the following day.

He stood on the wall of the Fort as the first rays of the sun rose above the Eastern mountains, watching the wagons and soldiers leave the Fort.

Later, he rode Thor to the city, arriving a little before noon.

The Prince was with Ashar Kahn, when he was shown into their presence.

The Prince looked hard at David knowing why he was here, "The Pass is clear?"

David shook his head, "Not all of it. The Cleft is still blocked, but we can begin work at the camp, making our preparations," he replied. He then went on to explain about the rockets and system his officers had devised for signaling the mortars.

The Prince smiled sadly, "So, there is to be a battle and men will die. Yet the men dying do not belong to my kingdom. It seems so unfair to ask them to do this."

David smiled, "They do not belong to your kingdom, Sir, it is true. But they belong to the Khana Rifles, which binds them tighter than a kingdom. It binds them to each other. They are Ghurkhas. They fight for the man alongside of them, as he fights for them. They fight for their troop, their Company and Regiment, and the flag that flies above them."

Ashar Kahn said quietly, "And for you Colonel Sahib."

"And I for them," David replied.

When it came time for David to leave, Ashar Kahn embraced him whispering, "Be careful my Son, I have promised Sulkie you will be there when she foals."

The Prince took David's right hand in both of his, looking deeply into his eyes, "David, you must know you are more than my Colonel to me. You are a true friend and I do not wish to lose that friendship. You do not have my permission to get yourself killed."

Susan was waiting outside the room, "I heard you had arrived in the Palace. You're going to the Pass aren't you?" she murmured her eyes glassy.

He nodded, "Yes, tomorrow."

Later as he dressed, he looked down at her beautiful naked body. Her eyes were red from crying, but she made a brave attempt at smiling, "Come back to me darling" she whispered.

The Fort was in darkness by the time he arrived back.

Hanga had cleaned his weapons: His rifle, pistols and kukri lay on the table. The furs he wore at the Pass were rolled up along with his blankets. His saddlebags were on an armchair.

"I've filled your flask, Colonel Sahib, and have put in thirty cheroots as well as forty rounds of pistol ammunition and your telescope. Your cartridge belt has fifty rounds of rifle ammunition. Is there anything that I've forgotten?"

David smiled, "No, old friend, you have done well. Kahn will have a heavy load to carry tomorrow."

Hanga left to take care of Thor, leaving David to eat his dinner.

The next morning, clad in his long johns and shirt after a breakfast of bacon and eggs, he went outside to find Hanga finishing loading Kahn.

Para, Hangar, Sultar and Rhana were waiting for him.

"I'll send up the cart with the ammunition, rockets and pigeons in two days, as ordered, Colonel Sahib," Para said.

David nodded as he mounted.

"Don't start the battle without me Colonel Sahib," Sultar added.

Kahn set off at a brisk trot, eager to be away and seemingly unaware of the heavy load he carried.

When he arrived at the buttress, the sight that met his eyes was one of seemingly organized chaos. Men were hoisting pallets of stone building blocks up to the crests. Others were building storage boxes for ammunition and supplies close to the buttress's walls, while others were on the blockhouse roofs fixing chimney vents and reinforcing the roofing.

A rifleman took charge of Kahn when David dismounted and removed his furs and bedroll, hurrying into the blockhouse to change, already shivering from the cold wind that blew constantly down the Pass.

He was changing his boots for the warm fur ones when Turin entered, "Sorry I was not here to meet you, Colonel Sahib, but I was on the crest overseeing the building of the lookout post."

David waved aside the apology, "So have you found a suitable site for it?"

Turin explained he had found a step in the rock face about thirty yards beyond the other side of the cleft. At its highest, it was a little over six feet, so he was building the lookout house there, as it would only require three walls. Towards the rim, the step dropped down to about three feet, but provided excellent cover for firing from. He said should be completed by the end of the day, adding it now required only the roof and a chimney for the pot-bellied stove. The same was true of the other lookout post on the other side of the gorge.

"I've men digging out the coal seam and we are stockpiling it. Tomorrow, when we lift the bunks up, we will also send coal up there as well."

"How does it look on the other side of the cleft," he asked.

"The wind has drifted the snow high against the buttress, Colonel Sahib, and the road is hardly visible. I have given orders that should anyone appear, the men are to stop work and hide. That applies to everyone, both on the other side and in the valley."

David nodded his agreement, then added, "When the lookout posts are completed, we must turn our attention to the safety of the men in the valley. Their biggest danger will come from whatever artillery is used against us, which I'm sure will be mortars. The biggest threat will be shrapnel when they explode. I think it is impossible to drop a shell down the side of the buttress, but a well-aimed or lucky shell will be able to land some yards away from it. Therefore, we shall dig a trench hard against the buttress wall, six feet deep, that the men can drop into when the shells fall."

Turin nodded, "We can use the material removed to create an earthen wall for the mortar ammunition and rocket storage bins. It may prevent damage to them."

Turin returned to the crest, leaving David to sort himself out.

For two days the men laboured from first light until there was no longer any light to work in. David had climbed each crest in turn, viewing the results of their work and providing his own strength to the work when circumstances permitted.

The new lookout post - surprisingly snug - was now finished. The constant wind brought snow flurries, but inside the new post, prefabricated bunks had been erected and a potbellied stove glowed red from the burning coal. When David looked over the lip he, could see sections of the road appearing through the snow. In front of the step there, was a clear field of fire for roughly 600 yards before outcrops blocked the view that could be seen between the flurries of snow.

Looking across to the other side of the Pass, he could see the ridge was more broken up, difficult terrain to traverse, he knew.

The main attack will be against this lookout he surmised. The Afghans had already sent a handful of men to reconnoiter the other crest. Turin and his men's alertness and rifle marksmanship meant they had never returned. Yes, he decided, this will be the next one.

He expressed his views to Turin that night.

"In hindsight, I would like to have more men up there now. We will almost certainly lose the two men who have to signal the valley."

Turin pondered the problem, "The only thing that prevents us placing more men up there is the sleeping arrangements. There are two men on guard throughout the night, so two beds are empty. By squeezing the beds together we may fit in another two or three beds."

David did a quick calculation in his head, "With 25 men here on the crests and twelve men needed for the mortars, which only leaves 13 for defence of the cleft. We need more men," he decided.

"I can send for another 25 men from my company, Colonel Sahib."

David nodded, "Also I intend putting a mortar up there. It will have a greater range than the valley ones."

A rifleman suggested mounting the beds on top of one another, the legs on the ground bed shortened and the top one nailed and screwed to it. That solved the sleeping arrangements.

A firing position was found for the mortar outside of the lookout building, bins were built to store the shells and rockets alongside it.

Six days later, it was possible to clamber over what snow now remained in the cleft.

David used 16 of his precious tails to fire the dummy warheads to determine the range of his mortars. At the conclusion of his testing, he knew the three mortars in the valley could drop a shell within twenty yards of the buttress wall and eight hundred yards beyond it. The lookout mortar could fire 2000 yards beyond it.

The additional Tiger Company men had arrived and settled in quickly. The trench was extended to allow for them and additional rifle pits dug to further block the Cleft.

That night, he sat beside the cook fire sipping from his flask while enjoying a cheroot with Turin, "Well, old friend, have we done enough? Can you think of anything else we can do to be better prepared?" he asked.

Turin chuckled, "Colonel Sahib, my only fear is that there won't be enough virgins in paradise for the Afghans."

David laughed "Well, Subedar, that's their worry."

Two days later the lookouts reported three riders coming along the road. All the fires were put out and the men took cover.

The riders stopped at the buttress and looked down through the Cleft. They didn't dismount, but turned their horses around and slowly rode back the way they came.

As soon as they left, the Tigers moved all the horses about half a mile back down the Pass to a spot they had found where the Pass doglegged and provided room and cover for a simple corral.

David rubbed Kahn's head, talking to him. The horse cover Hanga had made for him from Afghan blankets fit the stallion perfectly. With a last kiss on his nose he left, wondering if he would ever see him again.

The Afghans started to arrive the next day. At first there were about a hundred with wagons and carts. They stopped a mile from the buttress and began erecting tents. Many more soon followed.

David climbed to the lookout post. Through his telescope he could make out men making camp and crowding around fires. I bet it's colder for you than for us, he thought grimly.

By the next morning more had arrived, and even more tents were erected. By late afternoon the tents stretched back beyond the range of the telescope.

"There must be over a thousand men down there," he observed to Turin at his side.

"What are they waiting for Colonel Sahib?" he asked.

"For the artillery to arrive," David replied.

It came the next day. Six bullocks drew a large heavy wagon. David could make out the squat outline of a heavy mortar. The wagon drew up roughly a thousand yards from the buttress and then a swarm of men began to off load it.

David focused on the two men who were supervising the work. Both had pale faces under their heavy fur hats.

One was stamping the ground near in front of the wagon. At first David thought it was because his feet were cold, but then realised he was searching for a firm site to place the mortar. It took them over an hour to remove it, and then lever it into the position indicated by the pale-faced man.

Once the bullock cart had been sent back, further wagons came forward. Three bell-shaped tents were erected, similar to the ones used in the British Army.

One was erected several hundred yards away from the mortar, close to the Cleft wall.

The reason became clear when barrels of gunpowder were stacked in it. A line of men struggled to carry heavy round balls - David counted 40 of them - into one of the other tents.

One of the pale-faced men was supervising the movement of the equipment going into the last tent, which included what looked like camp beds. Finally, from another cart, a ridge-pole tent was erected and boxes and a camp bed moved inside. A tall man cocooned in furs stood with his back toward David, watching the proceedings as a brazier was lit by it. Then, as if to confirm David's suspicions, four men came and saluted the tall man. Russians.

By now, the light was fading fast down in the gorge, so David returned to the lower camp.

That night around, the cook fire David, told Turin about the Russian mortar.

"It's an old one, probably made forty years ago of thick cast iron. It must weigh over two tons. The barrel is roughly two and a half feet long. But the hollow, cast iron ball it fires is over twelve inches in diameter. It will have, I imagine, a fuse that it burns down and ignites the gunpowder inside ball causing it to explode and disintegrate hundreds of pieces of flying cast iron. They may even have musket balls stuffed in there as well.

"The fuse will be something of a challenge for them," David added. "Ideally, the fuze will reach the explosives as the ball hits the ground or, if they want it to burst in the air to scatter the fragments more widely, a fraction of a second before it hits. In mountainous conditions like these, that will be very hard to do since the time of flight from the mortar to the point of impact is going to be hard for them to determine.

"If they cut the fuse too long, the ball may bury itself in the ground, reducing the explosion. If they cut the fuse too short, it may burst so high in the air that the fragments have little power. The age of the fuse, its temperature, whether it has been kept dry, the different weights of the balls, the skill of the crew; all of those things will affect the accuracy and effectiveness. The design of our mortars and their ammunition make them much more reliable and much less subject to chance."

"A nasty weapon, Colonel Sahib. So we will have no warning of it coming?" Turin asked.

"You will hear the bang when it goes off, then it will be perhaps ten or twelve seconds before the ball it fires lands. The men must be under cover by then."

"Do you think it will fire tonight?" Turin murmured.

David shook his head, "I don't think so, they only have forty or so balls. They won't waste them until they have someone to spot for them."

"So they will come tomorrow then?"

David nodded, "I'm going to move up to the lookout point tomorrow and take command there. Whoever holds that position will win the coming battle."

"You have my best marksman up there with you. I think I should increase the amount of ammunition to two hundred rounds per man, Colonel Sahib."

David nodded in agreement.

It was still dark in the gorge as his rifle, bedroll, saddlebags and water skins were winched up to the crest. A rifleman he was replacing waited for him to arrive before descending himself.

David began by checking the mortar ammunition and rocket supply. There were thirty mortar shells and forty rockets in the bins, along with twenty of Sultar's 'grenades.'

Three riflemen stood by the mortar, which was placed on a bed of sandbags atop a slab of rock. A set of signal flags was rolled up alongside it.

"The sgnal lanterns are just inside the door, Colonel Sahib, I will be giving the signals down to the gorge," one said.

David nodded his approval, and went towards the step.

A Havildar stood and acknowledged him without the customary salute. There was no need to identify their leaders to any especially observant Afghan sniper.

"All is quiet, Colonel Sahib, they are just lighting their fires for a meal," he reported.

David moved down the line of Riflemen crouched behind the step, having a quick word with all of them.

The last one by the rim of the gorge was looking down into it with a telescope. He moved over to make room for David, handing him the telescope.

One of the Russians was using his own telescope to view the buttress, while the taller Russian - apparently in conversation with an Afghan clothed in rich furs - was gesturing up towards the crest David was on.

The Havildar came and crouched beside him, "Do you think they will come today Colonel Sahib?" he asked.

David looked at the Afghan who was issuing commands to others, "Yes, today, and if we hold, tonight as well" he replied grimly.

"The only way those shaitans will pass this position is over our dead bodies," the Havildar growled.

To be continued.