The Last Stand of the 44th Foot Regiment | Battle of Gandamak 1842

[Music] britain's military hero and the victor of waterloo the duke of wellington once said it's easy to get into afghanistan the problem is getting out again noto forces have recently learnt that the army of the soviet union has learnt that and so did the british empire no more so than in 1842 when a british army retreating from kabul was cut to pieces and forced to make a desperate and unsuccessful last stand at the battle of gandamunk but what were the british doing in afghanistan all those years ago anyway well following the defeat of napoleon in 1815 by the duke of wellington britain had started to replace uh france with a new bogeyman russia and as britain increased her influence in india she became increasingly concerned with the russians expanding their own empire through central asia towards modern day iran and afghanistan those concerns came to a head when the russians and the iranians or persians disabled court then jointly besieged the town of herat in western afghanistan in 1838. here was proof as far as the british authorities were concerned in india that the russian bear wanted to advance right down into india itself in response the british governor general in india lord auckland determined uh determined to move into afghanistan and install a pro-british government there to thwart russian ambitions the plan was to depose the current ruler the emir dosto muhammad with a former ruler who is now residing in exile in india shah shuja a british and indian army of nearly 15 000 men accompanied by the shah's army of 6000 invaded afghanistan in 1839. they captured kandahar before entering the capital kabul on the 7th of august in time-honored afghan tradition dost muhammad the current ruler fled to the mountains down in kabul a british official sir william mcnaughton was appointed political agent effectively commanding the military as well as the political governance of afghanistan which is interesting to put a civilian in charge of military affairs through a policy of bribery he attempted to keep the various afghan tribal leaders on site but as the costs of this campaign of his started to spiral so lord auckland in india and indeed the east india company back in london who controlled india not the british government at that time started to reign him in and during 1840 the funding was severely restricted and the peace that he'd been able to buy with those tribal leaders correspondingly dried up meanwhile shah shuja the the new ruler was spending most of his time settling old scores from his 20 years in exile and that that could have been probably tolerated if he'd actually got the tribal leaders on the side but you know those old grudges and the lack of money now from norton was creating a situation where his and in the british authority ran only in the towns and cities where there happened to be a british military garrison ring any bells the newly restored leader also pressurized the british garrison to give up the medieval fortified palace in the city of kabul which was a perfect stronghold to defend and decamp to a plane just outside kabul and set up a camp there mcnaughton did have one bright moment in 1840 however dost muhammad the old emir of afghanistan surrendered to him in the autumn das muhammad was taken into exile by the outgoing british military commander in kabul a man called sir william cotton who had been ordered to take a sizeable proportion of his invasion army back to india now that afghanistan was obviously pacified and it had a new emir in charge his replacement was a 60 year old veteran of the battle of waterloo major general william elfinstone the emphasis here is on the word veteran elvenstone's best days were certainly past him indeed he'd actually retired from the army and had only come back in the late 1830s due to financial debts and financial pressures the mute the new commander was in poor health and he displayed poor leadership somewhat racial bigotry he was indecisive and yet whilst indecisive he kept refusing his he kept refusing to let his subordinates actually be deciphered decisive on his behalf for those of you who are fans of the bernard cornwall uh sharp novels or or films think of someone a bit like sir henry simmerson but with a slightly more illustrious track record that's who we now had in charge in kabul with shah shuja's lack of authority a reduced garrison and mcnaughton's lack of bribery funds afghan tribal leaders started to flex their muscles supply convoys traveling through the kaiba pass towards kabul came under increasing attack during the following year elfinstone's refusal to take control of the high ground above the british uh encampment the cantonment outside kabul started resulting afghans in increasing numbers and with increasing regularity going to the high ground to take pot shots on the british encampment below things were getting increasingly out of hand and they came to a head in 8 november 1841 when an afghan mob in kabul stormed the house of senior british officer sir alexander burns killed him and his military staff and then just a few weeks later just before christmas mcnaughton was lured into a meeting with tribe lamias and there he was murdered command of the british effort in kabul now fell to the ageing and incapable elphinstone not for the first time it was decided that the best course of action was to get the heck out of afghanistan elfinstone negotiated a withdrawal with the emir of kabul man called akbar khan and so at 9 00 am on a bitterly cold 6th of january 1842 the british garrison began its retreat from kabul backed eastwards to the safety of peshawar in india 284 miles away the vast convoy consisting of four and a half thousand soldiers only 690 of whom were europeans rest were indian and 12 000 wives children and servants snaked its way out of kabul the military units comprised of the 44th foot later the essex regiment and still later the royal east anglian regiment the second bengal light cavalry the first bengal european infantry and the the first second 27th 37th and 48th bengal native infantry that that was their official names not my terminology and also the bengal horse artillery who actually had to leave most of their cannon as part of the peace agreement back at the encampment they could only take one battery of six guns and three mounting guns with them it took until late afternoon for the final parts of the column to actually leave kabul that's so big and as each section of the cantonment the british encampment was about abandoned afghan fighters moved in to seize anything left behind and also to take pot shots at the retreating british that night the column had were forced to sleep in the open country in the bitter afghan winter snow lay around them the temperatures dropped below freezing the following morning the british force was quite frankly a sorry start sight almost any semblance of military discipline had was rapidly deteriorating and morale was rock bottom as the column moved off they came under attack from afghans in the surrounding hills brigadier shelton organized some counter-attacks to provide some sort of temporary rear guard relief and as his men trudged after the column they passed frozen they passed frozen bodies babies abandoned in the snow and soldiers and civilians just simply sitting or indeed lying waiting for the end which of course local afghans were only too bleed pleased to oblige them with if you're enjoying this story then please click the like button below and also subscribe to hear more stories in the future that afternoon amir akbar khan arrived to announce that he wanted if the column wanted his continued security he required some cash and some hostages and elfson's elphinstone provided both the next morning after another night in that hostile winter environment and with food supplies almost exhausted there were few soldiers actually fit for duty the retreating column staggered into the cord kabul pass a five mile funnel sided by steep mountainsides and up on those rock sheer faces those sheer rock faces afghan tribesmen opened up a fire with their old long muskets by the time the column had completed that five mile journey they had lost 3 000 of their number including over 500 soldiers on the 9th of january three days after leaving kabul akbar khan once more made demands from elfinstone all married men and their families were to be surrendered as hostages and once more the british commander agreed the attacks continued as the disintegrating force struggled through the snow and rocks of afghanistan and now akbar khan demanded that elfinston himself surrender as a hostage and incredibly he did so was it a desperate effort to save his men you know to anything anything is worth trying to get the column out of afghanistan or was it a desperate effort to save his own skin i guess we'll never know although i guess everyone watching this video will have their own opinions now effectively leaderless what remained of the dwindling column found their way blocked by a barricade thrown up by local tribesmen the remote the remaining guns from the bengal horse artillery opened up in an attempt to clear a way through and some mounted troops and some soldiers of the 44 foot regiment managed to rush through the breaches in that barricade most of the remnants of the column were not so lucky the following morning the 13th of january 1842 20 officers and 45 europeans mainly from the 44th foot made their way to a rocky outcrop and made their last stand with their brown best muskets they replaced they repulsed wave after wave of afghan attacks and when their ammunition ran out they fought on with bayonets 45 year old captain thomas suter wrapped the regimental flag regimental colors that the flag the regiment's flag around his body to protect it maybe wearing this this sort of rather grand attire fought some of the local tribesmen into thinking he was actually a pretty important person for in the final rush of the afghan tribesman he was seized and drowned dragged off into captivity souta was one of nine men that were captured in that final charge leaving 66 men of the last stand at gandamac dead on the stony outcrop it was a week since the column of 4 500 soldiers and 12 000 civilians had set out from kabul in those seven days they had traveled a mere 50 miles and at the end of it they'd been wiped out by a few prisoners and the hostages arguably it was the greatest military defeat the british suffered in asia until the fall of singapore during world war ii six mounted officers had ridden ahead after breaking through that barricade the day before but five were killed only one got away later that afternoon the 13th of january 1842 the garrison at jalalabad were peering out to sea of any sign of the retreating column coming towards them when they spied a lone horseman with a bandaged head from a sword cut dr william briden the sole european to escape the last standard gandamag rode towards them his arrival famously captured in a painting by the victorian artist lady butler jalalabad itself now came under siege for the next three months the east india company and the british government uh put together a new british indian army and it was sent into afghanistan principally to punish the afghan tribesmen for defending their homeland and for humiliating the british at ganderback obviously another aim was also to rescue the hostages and captives but somewhat amazingly the captors had negotiated their own release as the army advanced towards sir kabul so having restored some sort of honor the army turned around and with the hostages and captives they went back to the safety of india the east india company's reputation for being almost omnipotent ever since uh clive's victory at plessy 100 years beforehand was quite frankly in ruins indians looked at the mess of afghanistan and started to wonder if a similar fate could befall british-led forces and british troops in india itself and interestingly just 15 years later the british were to face their greatest military challenge in india when large parts of that indian army rebelled in the great mutiny the retreat from kabul and the final battle at gandamag have had been a shambles that turned into a nightmare nearly 12 000 british soldiers and subjects massacred the 44-foot regiment had lost 22 officers and 645 men almost all killed shah shuja's days were outnumbered and he was assassinated shortly afterwards in kabul and his replacement amir dorst muhammad who came back from india and who was to rule an independent afghanistan for the next 20 years until his death captain suta the man who wrapped the regimental colors around himself at the at the the last stand at gandamag survived captivity and he died in 1848. major general elfinstone was not so lucky he died of natural causes whilst in captivity before the arrival of that so-called army of retribution maybe with his inept leadership and the surrendering of himself as a hostage as well as that final disaster at gandamug it was for the best that he didn't return alive to explain himself or maybe it would have been interesting to hear his side of the story who knows certainly if you're looking for a case a case study of poor military leadership quite frankly you'd be hard-pressed to find a poorer example than his command of the retreat from kabul in 1842 as a bengali soldier who was to remain in captivity in afghanistan for 21 months before escaping later wrote quote if only the army had been commanded by the memsabs all might have been well what a damning statement from a soldier to about his commanding officers oh and that russian persian siege of herat that had sparked the whole brit of britain's whole invasion of afghanistan well that was raised uh without victory i hasten to had just a few days before the british were ordered to invade afghanistan and so not for the last time it would raise the question exactly why we were in afghanistan as the duke of wellington said it's easy to get into afghanistan the problem is getting out thanks for watching and if you enjoyed this video then please subscribe to my channel so you don't miss any money of my new releases maybe even support me with some crowdfunding links to both are appearing well about now they're also in the description below once again thanks for joining me and until next time take care and i look forward to seeing you very soon

Channel: The History Chap

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Keywords: british history, the history chap, the last stand of the 44th foot regiment, battle of gandamak 1842, battle of gandamak, the battle of gandamaka 1842, the battle of gundamak 1842, the battle of gundamak, the battle of gandamaka, the last stand of the 44th regiment at gandamak 1842, the last stand at gandamak, the last stand of the 44th foot regiment at gandamak, british defeat at the battle of gandamak 1842, anglo-afghan war, first anglo-afghan war, first anglo afghan war

Id: ROxOFhqBGjo

Length: 17min 0sec (1020 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 05 2022