"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎١‎٢‎٦] (٥٦٦/٢٥٧)

218
OPERATIONS IN PERSIA
The affair of that the rebels' strength in front of him was only about forty
Dasht-i- anc i j n an y case two hundred at the most—and that to delay
December would give them time to collect more men and make his task
1916 . impossible, issued orders for the column to start at 9 a.m.
next morning (25th) for Miyan Kutal, where he felt certain of
obtaining supplies. At a later hour that night Colonel Hunter
gave him further information regarding the natural strength
of the Pir Zan position and told him of various current
rumours of the rebel numbers and intentions. Colonel Twigg
thereupon decided to commence his movement next day by
effecting a lodgment on the Pir Zan range about two miles
to the south-west of Dasht-i-Arjan.
The flat and open valley here, lying at a height of 6,600 feet
above the sea, is about six miles long by three broad and is
entirely surrounded by precipitous mountains which rise some
two thousand feet above it, their slopes to within two or three
hundred yards of the summits being heavily wooded, strewn
with huge rocks and intersected by great clefts. The summits
are for the most part sheer cliffs of bare rock, honeycombed
with caves and holes and accessible between Dasht-i-Arjan
and the Pir Zan by very few paths.
On the morning of the 25th December, after pushing on the
15th Lancers (at 8.30) towards the foot of the Pir Zan,
Colonel Twigg detached a section 124th Baluchis and the
South Persia Rifles infantry company under Captain G. H.
Weldon at 9 a.m. to ascend the range to the west of the road
and, moving along its top, to act as right flank guard to the
main column, which then also started to advance slowly. At
10 a.m. both the cavalry in front and Captain Weldon's party
were fired on ; and half an hour later the 23rd Mountain
Battery guns were ordered to fire a few shells at a small group
of the enemy seen on the heights above where Captain Weldon’s
party was assumed to be. At 11.30 a.m., however, there were
still no signs of this party, and Colonel Twigg halted the main
body while Colonel Hunter, to assist Captain Weldon's party if
possible, took the two South Persia Rifles guns into action on a
low hill near an old caravanserai about five miles from Dasht-i-
Arjan. The range of these old 7-pdrs. was, however, quite
insufficient, while their ammunition proved defective; and at
noon Captain Weldon rejoined the main column having failed
in his task, owing to the treachery of his guides and his
inability to get sufficient of the Persian infantry to advance in
face of the opposition encountered in a most difficult piece of
ground.