"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [و‎‎٢‎٣‎٥] (٥٦٦/٤٧٤)

RELIEF OF FIRUZABAD
415
and 700 baggage mules*. On the 22nd, when he crossed the
Muk pass unopposed, Colonel Orton received information that
SaulaCs following had increased to about 2,000 and that
Ehtesham, most of whose Qashqai following had deserted him,
was practically besieged at Firuzabad.
Next day, when traversing a defile, Colonel Orton's column
encountered some opposition ; and he decided to cut short
his march and camp that night at Ismailabad, about fifteen
miles short of Firuzabad, so as to endeavour by skirmishing
during the afternoon to discover the enemy’s numbers and
dispositions. As a result of the day’s operations he cleared the
vicinity of Ismailabad of the enemy, whose numbers he esti
mated at five or six hundred and on whom he inflicted a loss
of about 40, at a cost of 11 casualties among his own men.
During the night 23rd/24th October the enemy fired con
stantly into his camp, hitting a few animals, and made an attack
which was easily repulsed.
Colonel Orton hoped that the Qashqais, emboldened by the
idea that they had stopped his advance, would stand and fight
early on the 24th October, thus enabling him to defeat them on
his side of the high ridge of tangled hills which separated
Ismailabad from the Firuzabad valley. The main route across
this ridge lay through the Tangab defile, which was about four
miles long with precipitous cliffs on either side and which
Colonel Orton intended to avoid by using a track over the ridge
to the westward.
On Colonel Orton resuming his advance on the 24th October,
it was at once evident that the enemy intended to stand and
fight; and about 250 of his men—the bulk of his force—were
seen in occupation of a ridge, about 4,000 yards to the south-
south-west and about 2,600 yards westward of Ibrahimabad
village. By 8 a.m. Lieutenant-Colonel Dyer with two squadrons
Burma Mounted Rifles, their advance supported by the fire of
the mountain guns, had secured a minor ridge some 1,200 yards
north of the enemy’s main position. Lieutenant-Colonel
Holbrooke with the 3/124th Baluchis (less one company) was
then sent forward to secure the left flank about Ibrahimabad
and to attack this position. The remaining Burma squadron
and a Baluchi company were retained by Colonel Orton as a
reserve.
Two of the Baluchi companies gained a knoll about 1,000
yards north-west of the enemy’s position without difficulty,
the third company, securing the left flank about Ibrahimabad,
* No tents were taken and baggage was on a reduced scale.
Relief of
Firuzabad;
24th October
1918.
(See Map 13.)