Following on from our previous report, Lt Col Wooster rushes to prevent the Fort at Chakdara from falling into the hands of the Czar:
The British and Indian cavalry made an irresistable target for the two Russian walkers, whose quick firing guns firing HE burst with terrible effect, throwing horse and rider to the ground repeatedly.
The saving grace for the British was that the Russians ignored the steam tank, which proceeded to engage the walkers. Soon Lt. Hamish McTavish was waving his sporan with joy. An HE round from Cantankerous penetrated the cowling of the Tsarina walker Kalinin, killing the crew and toppling it to the ground.
Brigadier Wooster waved his cap in the air and souted "Huzzah!" as the walker fell. Then he scowled and shouted "Blast" as the Union Jack was seen to come down in the midst of the fort. A wave of Russian infantry had closed in, and buried the few remaining Skihs with numbers. Capt. Paddington Bearsham fought manfully, clubbing at the Czar's men with his empty revolver, but the last thing he remembered seeing was a grinning and swarthy Siberian face swinging a rifle butt at his head before things went black.
Now it was Count Orlovsky's turn to grin as events seemed to go his way. He watched his infantry pour over the ramparts of the fort. To his left he could see the British cavalry still coming, making greater speed now that the one walker's guns had been silenced. Those riders were magnificent in their courage. They could be a problem if they got close, but he had a solution. He turned to his signaller. "Order the Cossacks forward. We'll match their cavalry with our spiders."
On the ground below, Capt. Sergei Rusinski saw the signal penon rise from the cowling of the Odessa. Now was the moment he and his men were waiting, the chance to show their sceptical comrades what the spiders could do. "Forward", he shouted, and his Cossacks skittered forward amid a clatter of gears and mechanical legs.
They surged past the burning hulk of the Kalinin.
However, the temperamental mechanical mounts began to falter and break down, and the Cossack line began to break up as riders would stall their mounts and struggle to get them back into gear. The surviving British cavalry were quickly on them, and their superior impetus carried the day. The exploits of Captain Hamilton Wentworth, seen below in single handed combat with a Cossack, would win him the VC, though sadly he did not live to the end of the battle.
The battle raged on. The Russian infantry took control of the fort of Spin Madli and were surprised to find that the Sikh screw gun was still serviceable. The surprised themselves (and the British) even more when they figured out how to use it.
However, the fine shooting of Captain McTavish and the crew of the Cantankerous had registered a hit on the walker Odessa. To Count Gorlov's horror, his mechanic lost control of the balancing mechanism, and the machine crashed to the ground, stunning and wounding Gorlov and his crew. The British infantry was coming on in fine style. While the Blandingshire Fusiliers faltered, the Gurkhas put in a pluck charge, supported by the unlimbered Maxim gun.
Unfortunately, the British attack was undermined by a lucky shot from the captured screw gun in the fort, which to the delight and surprise of the Russian crew penetrated a weak point in the plate of the Cantankerous, causing a fire and putting Her Majesty's landship out of action. A second British artillery piece had arrived, and Wooster was still full of fight, but as dusk fell, his staff were beginning to argue that Chakdara wasn't such a vital piece of real estate after all. Perhaps the Brigade would fall back, having blunted the Russian spearhead into British India. Whatever might happen in England's sceptered isle, Tommy Atkins and his sepoy comrades had the measure of their Russian foes. The great game was out in the open, Russia's secret weapons were no longer so secret, and who knows what new weapons might be rushed north from the British workshops in Calcutta? Will Lt. Paddington Bearsham escape from Gorlov's clutches and bring valuable intelligence back to Lt Col Wooster?
To be continued...............................
08 June 2008, 11:30:11 PM
