7th April. 
8th April. 
9th to 12th 
April. 
13th Apzil. 
506 THE ARTILLERY IN CHITRAL. 
batteries, moved on about eight miles to Aladand. 
On 7th a working party of sappers and miners, with a small 
infantry escort, went out at daybreak to commence bridging the Swat 
river, from which the camp was about a mile distant. As they ap- 
proached, the river parties of the enemy appeared on the hills opposite 
and began firing at them. It was soon evident that the enemy was in 
force, and General Waterfield ordered out all the troops at his disposal. 
The ground near the river was very bad, consisting of deep, boggy rice 
fields intersected by watercourses, many of which were quite impas- 
sable for horsesand mules. At 7.30 a.m. No. 8 Mountain Battery came 
into action, near the place where the bridge was to be built, against 
parties of the enemy firing from sungurs and hilltops, at ranges of 1300 
to 1600 yards. The Derajat battery was proceeding to join No. 8, when 
it was ordered to take up a position higher up stream to cover the 
crossing of the cavalry, but, owing to the villainous nature of the 
ground, the movement took some time, and the action terminated soon 
after they had commenced firing. 
By 11.80 a.m. the cavalry had forded the river and put the enemy to 
rout, so the action was then at an end as far as the other arms were 
concerned. 
; Ring. Shrapnel. 
ArmmmmmniiOn )) INO, 3 Mlommuenim Watery soo 00 000 % ooo oo Sil 
expended § No. 2 (Derajat) Mountain Battery .. 8 ... ... 1 
On 4th April the Derajat battery had handed over to No. 3 Mountain 
Battery 48 ring and 148 shrapnel shell, so they had now only 56 ring 
and 97 shrapnel remaining. 
On 8th April No. 8 and No. 2 (Derajat) batteries forded the Swat 
river with the 2nd Brigade, the latter going forward with the ad- 
vanced guard to the Katgola Pass, about nine miles, while No. 8 
remained at Chakdarra, close to the river, where the main body of the 
brigade halted till the 10th. Captain F. W. Stanton was sent back 
to the field park at Dirgai for a fresh stock of ammunition. Starting 
on the 8th and moving by double marches, he caught up his own 
battery (No. 8) at Chakdarra on the 10th and the Derajat battery at 
Sado on the 1]th. 
On 10th April Lieutenant Hare’s section of the Derajat battery, 
while marching by an unreconnoitred road, lost a mule and gun carriage, 
the mule falling with his load into the Panjkora river and being 
drowned. ‘The rest of the day was spent in fruitless endeavours to 
recover the load. It was a very serious matter as there was no spare 
carriage with the force, and this meant that the battery was reduced 
to three guns. Fortunately, however, on the following day the mule 
floated to the surface, and the carriage was recovered unharmed. 
No more fighting occurred till the 13th, by which date the 2nd 
Prigade had been halted for two days at Sado while the Panjkora river 
wa» being bridged. 
On 13th Lieutenant Edwards came into camp about 10 a.m. and, 
from his account of the state of affairs at Umra Khan’s headquarters, 
it was thought that there was no prospect of further fighting, at any 
