"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [و‎‎١‎٧‎٥] (٥٦٦/٣٥٤)

305
PUNITIVE OPERATIONS IN EARS
and led by scouts who charged mounted with bayonets fixed,
drove the tribesmen into the high hills to the west and pursued
them for some distance. j
In the meantime, Captain Thacker had been engaged with
the Chehar Rahis, who had started about 10 a.m.—when they
saw the dust of the British column—to remove their animals
and possessions. At first it looked as if they might succeed
in getting these away, but Colonel Grant, realising this, ordered
Captain Thacker to detach half his small force to get round the
enemy's right flank and at the same time sent mounted mes
sengers to Major Dyer requesting him to reinforce Captain
Thacker. The two parties were operating about three miles
apart, and, separated from one another by difficult mountainous
country, had lost touch ; so that it was not till 2.15 p.m. that
Major Dyer arrived with two troops and two Lewis guns. In
the meantime Captain Thacker had detached another half
troop to a commanding position towards the enemy's left
flank and thus prevented him driving off his animals in that
direction also. Menaced thus from both flanks, the Chehar
Rahis were forced to abandon the bulk of the animals and
plunder they had recently taken from caravans on the Yezd
road. Retiring in small groups on a front of two miles in a
general south-westerly direction towards the Chehar Rah plain,
they made a stand on a pass about nine miles south-westward
of Chenar-i-Naz. But Major Dyer's two troops drove them
from here in a final attack, which, coming after sixteen hours'
fighting and marching, was a fine effort.
It was estimated that the tribesmen, whose numbers had
amounted to about 350,* had sustained over 60 casualties,
while the Burma Mounted Infantry, who recovered a large
number of animals and much plundered property, had only two
men wounded. They had been nineteen hours on the move
and had covered about fifty miles. They bivouacked for the
night at Chenar-i-Naz, where the villagers made bitter com
plaint of the robbers' depredations.
On the 11th May Colonel Grant marched eastward to Herat-
i-Khurreh, moving by a route to the north of the one normally
used owing to his anticipations that the robbers would attempt
to recover their lost plunder. After crossing the Pir Zad pass
a right flank patrol was fired on, and Major Dyer, moving out
with five troops and two Lewis guns, attacked and drove the
enemy off a high ridge of hills to the south. In the meantime
the enemy had tried to cut off the animals crossing the Pir
*150 Labu Muhammadis, 200 Chehar Rahis.