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The narrow, swinging, wire bridge across the Swat is nearly 500 yards
long. At the southern end it is closed by a massive iron door, loopholed
for musketry, and flanked by two stone towers, in one of which a Maxim
gun is mounted. On the further side is the fort itself, which consists
of the fortified knoll, a strong stone horn-work, an enclosure for
horses, protected by a loopholed wall and much tangled barbed wire, and
the signal tower, a detached post 200 yards up the cliff.
The garrison of the place consisted at the time of the outbreak of
twenty sowars of the 11th Bengal Lancers and two strong companies of the
45th Sikhs, in all about 200 men, under the command of Lieutenant H.B.
Rattray. [The actual strength was as follows: 11th Bengal Lancers, 20
sabres; 45th Sikhs, 180 rifles; 2 British telegraphists; 1 Hospital
Havildar; 1 Provost Naick (24th Punjaub Infantry); 1 Jemadar (Dir
Levies). British officers--45th Sikhs, Lieutenants Rattray and Wheatley;
Surgeon-Captain V. Hugo; Political Agent, Lieutenant Minchin.


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