British Expedition To Tibet - The Advance Continues

The Advance Continues

Past the first barrier and with increasing momentum, Macdonald's force crossed abandoned defences at Kangma a week later, and on 9 April attempted to pass through Red Idol Gorge, which had been fortified to prevent passage. Macdonald ordered his Gurkha troops to scale the steep hillsides of the gorge and drive out the Tibetan forces ensconced high on their cliffs. This they began, but soon were lost in a furious blizzard, which stopped all communications with the Gurkha force. Some hours later, exploratory probes down the pass encountered shooting and a desultory exchange continued till the storm ended around noon, which showed that the Gurkhas had by chance found their way to a position above the Tibetan troops. Thus faced with shooting from both sides as Sikh soldiers pushed up the hill, the Tibetans moved back, again coming under severe fire from British artillery and retreated in good order, leaving behind 200 dead. British losses were again negligible.

It was clear that the mission was going to have to contest almost every pass and village it crossed, a problem Macdonald attempted to solve by splitting his forces, packets of several hundred being dispatched to various points on his route to drive in smaller Tibetan defences to speed the passage of the main force. Two minor actions occurred around this time, one on 5 May at a fortified farm named Chang Lo involved an assault by an estimated 800 Tibetans on the British garrison of the fort, who were alerted by the cries of the Tibetan war whoops in time to form ranks and drive back the assailants with 160 dead. The other skirmish on 9 May was possibly the highest action ever fought, when a Tibetan position at the Garo Pass (19,000 feet above sea level) was assaulted by Gurkha troops who climbed a vertical cliff under fire to outflank the Tibetans who were driven back by a charge of Gurkha, Sikh and British soldiers. For once, casualties were more evenly distributed, although the Tibetans still suffered greatly.

During the following two months, Macdonald collected his forces near Chang Lo and cleared minor obstacles with the intention of assaulting the main Tibetan stronghold at Gyantse Dzong. Once this obstacle was cleared, the road to Lhasa would be opened, due to the removal of the small Tibetan forces occupying it by the dispersal of the British force. Gyantse Dzong was however too strong for a small raiding force to capture and it overlooked British supply routes, making it the primary target of Macdonald's army. On 28 June the final obstacle to the assault was cleared when a fortified monastery which covered the approach was taken in house to house fighting by Pathan soldiers.

Tibetan responses to the invasion so far had relied totally on static defences and sniping from the mountains at the passing column neither of which had proved effective, and apart from the failed assault on Chang Lo two months previously that had not made any sallies against British positions or any aggressive movements against the besieging army. This attitude was a mix of justifiable fear of the Maxim Guns, and partly faith in the solid rock of their defences, but in every battle they were disappointed primarily by their poor weaponry and inexperienced officers.