国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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India and Tibet : vol.1 | |
インドとチベット : vol.1 |
194 GYANTSE
do but watch the action of those others upon whom the
responsibility for the time being rested.
With his reinforcements Colonel Brander now took the
offensive in earnest, and on May 26 attacked the strongly-
built village of Palla, which was only 1,100 yards from our
post, and which the 'Tibetans were holding in strength,
and connecting with the jong by a wall. In the dead of
night, in utter darkness, the attacking party assembled.
All of us who were to remain behind went up to the roof
to watch the result. The column moved noiselessly out
from our post. A long silence followed. Then a few
sharp rifle cracks rang out, and soon from the jong and
from the Palla village there was a continuous crackle, with
sharp spurts of flame lighting the darkness. Soon after a
great explosion was heard, followed by a deadly silence.
What had happened we heard afterwards. Captain
Sheppard, accompanied by Captain O'Connor, had dashed
up to the wall of one of the principal houses in the village,
and after shooting two Tibetans with his revolver, placed
a charge of gun-cotton, lighted a fuse, and dashed back
again to cover. The explosion was the result, and a big
breach had been made. Captain O'Connor had then, with
his cake of gun-cotton, rushed into another house and
successfully fired it. Lieutenant Garstin and Lieutenant
Walker in another place tried to make a similar breach,
but the fuse did not act, and in making a second attempt
the former was killed, while Captain O'Connor also was
severely wounded.
This blowing up of houses crammed full of armed men
is indeed a desperate undertaking, but except by this
method of deliberately rushing up and placing' a charge
under manned walls, and firing the charge, there was no
means of getting in, and Sheppard, Garstin, Walker, and
O'Connor deserve all the honour that is due to the bravest
of military actions.
Breaches had been made, but the village had yet to be
stormed, and Major Peterson, with his Sikh Pioneers, as
soon as it was light, gallantly stormed house after house,
while Colonel Brander supported him with the guns on
the hillside a few hundred yards off. The Tibetans
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