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A minor action involving members of the New South Wales military contingent sent to Sudan, fought on 6 May 1885, 28 kilometres west of the Red Sea port of Suakin. A fortnight after an earlier skirmish at Tamai on 3 April, the commander of the British field force at Suakin, Lieut.-General Sir Gerald Graham, decided to raise a 500-strong camel corps using mounts recently arrived from India. One of the five companies (No.3) comprised 50 volunteers from the New South Wales infantry battalion under Lieut. H.G.B. Sparrow, and an equal number from a British regiment.
After receiving reports that a sheikh of the Amarar tribe was assembling a Dervish force at Takdul (T’Hakul) in the Abent Valley to harass his force, on 5 May Graham decided to launch a two-pronged attack. At the same time as a 1,300-man column of mounted infantry, cavalry and cameliers made an overnight march from Suakin via Hashin, aiming to reach the south-eastern entrance to the valley by daylight, another column comprising the 15th Sikh Regiment was ordered south from Otao (sixteen kilometres north of Takdul) to block the enemy’s northern escape routes from the valley.
Graham led the main column out of Suakin about midnight and was in position at 5 a.m. the next day, as planned. The mounted infantry leading the advance up the valley were soon in contact with hostile Arabs, who exchanged fire as they fell back before the troops. Although surprise had been achieved, the success of the attack was largely negated by the late arrival of the Sikhs in their cut-off position. This enabled the bulk of the enemy force to get away into the hills, although pursued for about five kilometres by some of the camel corps. The main part of the action was over by 7 a.m.
The only tasks remaining were to destroy the enemy’s abandoned camp and everything in it, gather up the large flock of sheep and goats left behind, and to deal with small groups of marksmen who remained in hiding in the numerous rocky hills and ravines. The Australians in the camel corps were notable at this stage, at one point engaging Arabs moving about on a high hill on the right flank. According to W.J. Lambie, a Sydney journalist with the expedition:
The Australians opened fire on these fellows at a range of eight hundred yards, and did some splendid shooting. Their bullets struck alongside the Johnnies, and brought some of them down, while others got away badly wounded. The hill was so steep that some of the bodies dropped several yards down the surface until they were caught on the rocks.
The two attacking columns then returned to their respective bases, those going to Suakin taking with them the three men wounded (none Australians) who were the only casualties on the British side and ten Arabs taken prisoner. About 100 Arabs were reportedly killed in this skirmish.
Ralph Sutton (1985) Soldiers of the Queen: War in the Soudan, Sydney: New South Wales Military Historical Society & the Royal New South Wales Regiment
19TH CENTURY SUDAN WARGAMES ARMIES 1883-1885
