178 
THE ARTILLERY AT DARGAI. 
battery on tbe Samana Sukh whose fire was plunging with consider 
able angle of descent. 
The four batteries engaged fired some 1,300 rounds during the day, 
they had no casualties and while contributing most largely to the suc¬ 
cess of the day felt that their part had been but an easy one. They 
made up for this at the Sampagha pass where Captain deButts, command¬ 
ing No. 5 (Bombay) Mountain Battery, one of the best known of our 
Indian mountain gunners, was killed at the head of his battery. 
In this fight Brigadier-General Spragge, It.A., commanded six 
mountain batteries which almost entirely won the day and saved our 
infantry from very heavy loss. It must remain for someone who was 
nearer that* fight than I was to describe it, and also the part taken by 
the artillery at the taking of the Arhanga pass, and in the numerous 
trying rear-guard actions which have been such a feature in the pres¬ 
ent campaign in which the artillery casualties have not been light. It 
may be mentioned that all the officers of No. 2 Derajat Mountain Bat¬ 
tery have had bullets through their clothes or accoutrements, though 
only one has been slightly wounded. Reviewing the Dargai fight as 
a whole I feel sure after carefully going over every part of the ground, 
that the artillery fire made the Gordons’ determination of avail; v/ithout it 
they would only have been rolled back almost annihilated. 
Some discussion has taken place in the Indian papers on our present 
mountain artillery gun, and its apparent failure at Dargai. From the 
foregoing I think I have made it plain that the gun was no failure. 
It is entirely a man-killing weapon, and siege guns cannot be looked 
for, some thousands of feet above the sea over goat tracks. Nor do I 
think the heaviest metal would have had much effect against so small 
a mark as the Dargai sangars presented. Possibly veryhigh-angle 
fire from behind the ridge A might have searched out the position, 
nothing else could. The comparative ease, however, with which the 
enemy obtained shelter is a striking object lesson of the efficacy of 
even light works against modern fire, and of the need for being able 
to use some high-angle fire against an enemy posted behind field 
works. 
