Battle of Tofrek, Fought Near Suakin, March 22nd 1885

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A reprint of a limited edition of only 500 copies of William Galloway s detailed account of the Battle of Tofrek, fought on March 22nd 1885, an engagement which only narrowly avoided becoming another Isandhlwana - a British military disaster. Tofrek was fought between the advance guard of General Graham s Suakin Field Force under General John McNeil VC, against Muslim Mahdist forces under Osman Dinga in the eastern Sudan. McNeil was seeking to establish a staging post for stores when his mixed force of the 1st Berkshire Regiment, Royal Marines, Engineers and Sikhs was set upon by a large force of Mahdists who had assembled under the cover of surrounding thick thorn bushes, or zeriba . At first the British response was hampered by confusion, dust, and black smoke form their new Martini-Henry rifles, but gradually they rallied in squares, their firepower told, and the enemy, armed with spears and swords, drew off. Arab losses were at least 1,600 and the British lost some 140. With 12 appendices, and 13 illustrations, maps, diagrams etc.