RIFLES HISTORY TODAY - The Battle of Maiwand, Helmand Province, Afghanistan 1880 - The 27th July is the anniversary of the 66th Foot (Berkshire) Regiment suffering massacre at the Battle of Maiwand, west of Kandahar, by the Ghazis in 1880 during the Second Afghan War. The 66th ended up as the rear-guard for the extraction of a two brigade field force (2500) commanded by General George Burrows, that had been wholly out fought by a much larger Afghan Army (9000) under command Ayub Khan. The 66th fought hard to repel the Afghans, as other regiments withdrew or broke and ran. Several officers and soldiers died defending the regiment’s colours. The Afghans were impressed by the courage of the men who fought it out and particularly by the determination of ‘The Final Eleven’ who shot down numbers of their attackers and, when ammunition was exhausted, charged with the bayonet to their deaths. For the next two days fugitives and stragglers from the battle made their way to Kandahar. One of the few survivors of the battle was a dog called “Bobbie”, belonging to Sgt Kelly of the 66th. Kelly had been wounded quite early in the action and moved to the rear. But Bobbie remained to the end with the final eleven, her presence noted in Afghan accounts of the action, and despite being wounded herself, straggled back north to Kandahar to be reunited with her owner. The courage and devotion of the soldiers of the 66th to their duty, led the Afghan enemy to judge them as true warriors and recall their stand afterwards in story. In 1881 the Regiment returned to England where Bobbie was reunited with Sgt Kelly and presented to Queen Victoria to receive The Afghan Medal. The 66th had lost 62% of their deployed strength that day with 286 dead, 32 wounded, 12 officers among the fallen. In 1882 the Regiment, became the 1st Battalion, The Royal Berkshire Regiment. A massive bronze & stone lion memorial was erected in Forbury Park, Reading, (the county town of Berkshire), inscribed with the names of the fallen of Maiwand.The regiment evolved into the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, and is now embodied in The Rifles, whose soldiers currently serve in Afghanistan not far from the spot. To find out more about Bobbie and this part of our Regiments history why not visit The Regimental Museum in Salisbury at The Wardrobe where ‘Bobbie’ is preserved today and remains a reminder of this tragic action and the courage of our forebears in the valleys and on the plains of Helmand that so many Riflemen of today are also so familiar with. The action was starkly recalled in Rudyard Kiplings Poem That Day. A good summary of the battle can be read at britishbattles/second-afghan-war/maiwand.htm
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 08:00:00 +0000