THE MALAKAND AND BUNERWAL EXPEDITIONS. 565 
part of the 42 photographs exhibited, and to Major Hobday for 4 of 
the excellent sketches out of his most interesting book, “ Sketches on 
Service ” (applause). 
Major L. Forde, R.F.A.:—Colonel Corbett, Officers and gentle¬ 
men, I think the narrative we have just heard from Mr. Delaforce has 
been so complete in detail that I cannot add anything as to the ex¬ 
periences of the Battery beyond what he has related. 
I do not think however that one can ever go on service without 
gaining a good many impressions and learning a few lessons. I 
consider that we owe a very great debt of gratitude to the Commis¬ 
sariat from the fact, which Mr. Delaforce emphasised, of their supply¬ 
ing large quantities of ice to the regiments and batteries on the march 
up from Nowshera; I am quite certain that this issue saved hundreds 
of lives at every halting place when men were going down with heat 
apoplexy. In our Battery we had I think 23 or 24 cases and it was 
simply due to the liberal supply of ice that only two men died. One 
bad case was that of a gunner when we were halting during the day 
at Hoti Mardan whose temperature rose to no, the highest that I have 
ever heard of and the doctor himself said that the man could not have 
lived ten minutes without the application of ice. 
I think there are two chief lessons to be learnt from the use of 
Artillery in these two expeditions. The first is that it has opened the 
eyes of a good many to the mobility of the Field Artillery. From my 
experience there is a very prevalent idea that a Field Battery cannot 
travel over country very much rougher than a smooth plain, but the 
way in which the 10th Field Battery did manage to get over extreme¬ 
ly difficult ground somehow or other, either by man handling, by the; 
use of pick and shovel or by increasing the number of horses in each 
team proved what Field Artillery can do when commanded by a 
pushing and energetic officer and I think that Sir Bindon Blood fully 
acknowledged this. 
The second lesson learnt from the use of Artillery is that guns 
enable infantry to assault what would otherwise be impregnable posi¬ 
tions with a minimum loss to themselves. 
After every action it seems to me that the question of the physical 
effects of Artillery fire is always raised and not generally to the ad¬ 
vantage of the guns. Well, speaking of the fight at Landakai, which 
is the only action in which I took part, I am decidedly of opinion that 
we did a great deal of damage, I think we must have. I do not 
believe that any battery could fire 132 rounds of time shrapnel, always 
at a taget (for we never fired unless we saw groups of the enemy) 
without killing or wounding some, and the enemy themselves admitted 
that they had suffered great losses from the Artillery fire alone. But, 
be that as it may, I do not think the butcher’s bill is very important in 
comparison with the facilities that Artillery fire affords the infantry to 
attack an enemy posted on the crest of a precipitous spur. At Landa¬ 
kai the position of the enemy was from 550 to 800 feet above us, the 
climbing was very steep and the day was intensely hot. By the time 
the infantry reached the top the ridge had been practically cleared 
by the guns, judging by the number of shots fired. The amount of 
