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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 12, 1905)
: i h .j"LJ""LJl Hi JL JlL JL If V--t Trnm n cKptrh hi ft ! IILHII IL aiLLtn uu LDinuiiu liUiiuini j WiA.J sot V JL - - .p.:: r- jijiyx p -r- 4 it- r1 -n vA .... BUHKHRE CLimaiNGiN RTTHE- V 9 IP . ft !; V X 5 , i. ; II K story of the battle of th Karo La, on the road to Lhattja, on the snow ranKe of Noljm Hang Sang, Is the story of a battle fought among the glaciers and snows of the Him alayan m,9iKt feet above the level of the sea. No other battle In the history of the world Is to be compured to the battle between the Gurkhas and Pathans under the British flag and the Tibetans, who vainly were trying to prevent the advance of Col. Younghusband'a expedition to the forbidden city of Uhnssa. Royal Fuslleers charged with the bayonet up an ascent 1(1,000 feet above the sea. driving the. Tibetans before them I like frightened sheep. The Tibetan soldiers fled upward, up ward Into the clouds and Bt 111 the British pursued. There were precipices which the British and Indian troops scaled with rope ladders. There were steep ascents In the gacler In which the soldiers were compelled to cut ridges In the Ice with hatchets, bayonets, and sabers In order to gain footholds to continue the pursuit up the icy heights o' the highest mountains In the world. The Tibetans were pursued Into caves, where they made their last stand, 10.UO0 feet above the level of the sea. Prlven from their caves by Ourkha soldiers, whose strange religious scruples prevented them from soiling their bayonets with low caste Tibetan blood, the wild tribesmen of the grand lama were forced to spring over high precipices, to be dashed to pieces on jagged rocks 300 feet below, Fiqhting on the Root of the World. This thrilling battle " on the roof of the world " took .place on July 16, lfXtt. It was witnessed by Edmund Can dler, a London correspondent who accompanied the British expedition to Tibet, and he has described It In his book, " The I'nvelllng of Lhnssa," Just published In London. The British campaign In Tibet was the strangest expedi tion that ever marched on hostile Intent. There werB,000 soldiers, some of them Royal Fuslleers, but most of them Gurkhas from Nepal and Pathans from beyond Chilkat pass. Tho commissary stores were carried not on carts, not on mulcN, but on the bucks of shaggy yaks the strangest beasts of burden ever Impressed In military service. The expedition marched out of ParJIellng, on the India side of the Himalayas, and climbed straight up Into the clouds. It crossed the Himalayas, through the mysterious passes of the Jelap I -a, and beyond. There were battles In mountains where It was so cold that the oil froie In the lfle bolts and the Maxims became frost Jammed. Onward across mountains, down Into deep valleys, across arid plains, marched the British troops, fighting almost tvery mile of the way until they came to Oyantse Jong. th famous Tibetan citadel, where the road turns to Lhassa. Scaling Almost Perpendicular Walls. The battle for Oyantse Jong was Itself a desperate strug gle, In which the British fought with an overwhelming force of Tibetans and narrowly escuped destruction. But finally they scaled the almost perpendicular walls of a citadel built hundreds of years ago. The Tibetans, driven from their stronghold, fell back toward Lhassa and prepared to make a lust stand at Karo La, the strongest position on the road to the Forbidden City. The Tibetans were Intrenched In the clouds, with a Klacler MM) fVet wide In front of them. It was up to these clouds and across this glacier that the British troops charged. In the highest battle ever fought In the history ixf the world. The British troops advanced on Karo La through the v. Iley from Ralung. As they pressed onward the valley Idenedi out Into a plateau. All signs of vegetation ceased and the ascent of Knro pass began. At first the ascent was rni'lual, and sthen the trail through the pass took a sudden turn to the east through a gorge and the gloomy panorama of the great forbidding heights stood out In all Its grandeur. , Far above, on craiga, and precipices, and at the edge of vertical rllrT!. the Tllietans had constructed barriers of bowlders, behind which they lay, awaiting the attack. The walla of Karo La were massively strong and had to - ' ? ;C- its r I: m ' .'-. 'tit 1 ..rS V- m-xf HI ? i II jr ' t.m f If i r;f-fiAv,r ft A f s i TiBETon rnn aVS? TIBETflnS USING THE: DDDBYTRHP Ive approached by climbing steep cliffs. At this point, 16,6(10 feet above sea level, the rarefied air made breathing exces sively difficult. During the early morning Qen. Macdonald sent flanking parties of Gurkhas around to the right and left of the Tibetan poeition. The Quikhas carried rope ladders and sharp pointed staves to assist them In climbing the moun tain sides. This flanking movement was necessary, for It would have been impossible to have carried the Tibetan po sition by direct assault from the renter. After several hours of waiting. Gen. Macdonald and his staff, who remained on a knoll at the foot of the pass, from which every part at the battlefield was spread out before htm, heard the drumming of Maxim guns that had been carried and dragged up the cliffs. These Maxims signaled the beginning of the battle. Then came the Intermittent spit, spit, spit of the rifle firing. There were only a few hundred Ourkhas up there a ,t--. , !. sJr ? i is.. r.-,rr -"j ... l f l I i .... mi H0U1 BRBEPBEIURS CRRRIEQ" In the gorges, cliffs, ond ravines, but the multitudinous re echoing of the MixiniN nnd rifles lllled the great, gloomy valley with nn Indescribable medley of sounds. JS Charging Over Glacier Under Fire. After four hours of this strange warfare the Gurkhns on the left signaled that the Tibetans were on the retreat. On the rlfilit the Tibetans clung to their position for three hours longer. To turn their position the Gurkhas climbed a high ridge and charged over the glacier. Under the steady fire of the Tibetan riflemen the Gurkhas reached the edge of the gaeier, cut steps in the Ice with their kukris, clung to the slippery slopes, helped each oilier with their rifle butts, pulled and hauled until they gained the height of the ridge. All this time they wene under fire. When tho Gurkhas gained the crest of the ridge. lrt.Oon feet above the level of the sea, they found, it apparently deserted, but every now and then a man could bo seen crouching In caves, or behind rocks. These were shot down singly or In pairs. One Tibetan shot a Gurkha who had stooped to peer Into the entrance to a cave. The dying GuVkha's comrades rushed Inlo the enve und literally drove the hiding Tibetans out. Disdaining to use their kukris on low caste blood the Gurkhas with their rifle butts shoved and hustled the Tibetans along over the crest of the ridge and compelled them to leap ovijr the precipice without using steel or powder. The Tibetans were forced to leap to their death on the Jagged rocks hundreds of feet below. Climbing Into the Clouds. From the main position below the ridge the main body of the British force finally Baw Koo Tibetans ascending the mountains Into the clouds, seeking In vain for billing places from the merciless fire of their Gurkha pursuers. The fugi tives were clearly outlined against the dazzling white back ground of snow. Field pieces loaded with shrapnel wire turned on them anil their ranks were thinned as if u blunt of lightning had been hurled Into their iiililnt. This was the last battle on the road to Lhassa. The Tibetans, at the command of the lamas, had fought their best to keep the foreigners from approaching their sacred city. They had been defeated at every turn. Mr. Candler, who had witnessed their futile efforts to stem the tldo of Invasion, writes of them: " I was sorry for these Tibetans. Their struggle was so hopeless. They were brave and simple, and mine of us bore the slightest vmdictiveriess against them. Here was nil the bnitaliiy of war, and none of its glory and Incentive, These, men were cheerful. Jolly fellows. They had seen their crops ruined, their houses burned, their dead lying about the thresholds of their blazing homes, and all for no fault of their own only because their leaders were polit ically Impossible, which, of course, the poor fellows did not know, and tilers' was no one i.i ! il them. They thought cur advance nn act of unprovoked aggression, end thi y were fighting fur their homes." ! i . 1