GAN-09
John Jenkins Designs
Not yet Released - expected in early July.
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Limited Edition of 250.
The Battle of Gandamak on 13th January 1842 was a defeat of British forces by Afghan tribesmen in the 1842 retreat from Kabul of General Elphinstone’s army, during which the last survivors of the force, mainly of the 44th East Essex Regiment, were killed.
The surviving members of the army found themselves surrounded on a snowy hillock near the village of Gandamak. With only about 20 working muskets and two shots per weapon, the troops refused to surrender. A British sergeant is said to have cried “Not Bloody Likely!” when the Afghans tried to persuade the soldiers to surrender.
After a period of sniping followed by a series of rushes the hillock was overrun by the tribesmen.
An officer named Captain Thomas Alexander Souter was mistaken by the Afghans as a high ranking officer because they thought he was wearing a general’s yellow waistcoat. In fact the officer had wrapped the regimental colours of the 44th Foot around his body. He was dragged into captivity along with a sergeant named Fair and seven privates. The remaining troops were killed.
Traces of weapons and equipment from the battle could be seen in the 1970’s and as late as 2010. The bones of the dead still cover the hillside.