Pink's War
Encyclopedia
Pink's War was an air to ground bombardment and strafing carried out by the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

, under the command of Wing Commander
Wing Commander (rank)
Wing commander is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries...

 Richard Charles Montagu Pink, against the mountain strongholds of Mahsud
Mahsud
Mahsud is a Pashtun tribe in South Waziristan, a tribal region in Pakistan. Mahsud are considered to be one of the bravest and toughest Pashtun Tribes. The Mahsud tribe lives in the centre of South Waziristan valley, surrounded on three sides by the Darwesh Waziris, and being shut off by the...

 tribesmen in South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...

 in March and April 1925.

Background

The defence of the North-West Frontier Province
North-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country...

 was an important task for British India. In the 1920s, the British were engaged in a continuing effort to pacify militant tribesmen in the province. In July 1924 the British mounted operations against several of the Mahsud tribes in southern Waziristan and by October they had mostly been subdued. Only the Abdur Rahman Khel tribe and three other supporting tribes continued to attack British Indian Army
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...

 posts.

Operations

The fledgling RAF was keen to establish its military credentials and the air officer commanding
Air Officer Commanding
Air Officer Commanding is a title given in the air forces of Commonwealth nations to an air officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, an air vice marshal might be the AOC 38 Group...

 in India, Sir Edward Ellington
Edward Leonard Ellington
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Edward Leonard Ellington GCB, CMG, CBE was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force...

, made the unprecedented decision to conduct air operations against the tribesmen without the support of the army.

Bristol Fighters
Bristol F.2 Fighter
The Bristol F.2 Fighter was a British two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft of the First World War flown by the Royal Flying Corps. It is often simply called the Bristol Fighter or popularly the "Brisfit" or "Biff". Despite being a two-seater, the F.2B proved to be an agile aircraft...

 and de Havilland DH9s from Nos. 5
No. 5 Squadron RAF
No. 5 Squadron of the Royal Air Force is the operator of the new Sentinel R1 Airborne STand-Off Radar aircraft and is based at RAF Waddington.-History:As No...

, 27
No. 27 Squadron RAF
No. 27 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Boeing Chinook HC2 from RAF Odiham.-The Great War:27 Squadron formed at Hounslow Heath Aerodrome on 5 November 1915, soon being equipped with Martinsyde Elephant fighter aircraft, hence the use of an elephant for the squadron badge...

 and 60 squadrons
No. 60 Squadron RAF
No. 60 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was formed in 1916 at Gosport. It is currently part of the Defence Helicopter Flying School based at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire....

 were deployed to the airstrips at Miranshah
Miranshah
Miranshah is the capital or headquarters of North Waziristan in Pakistan. It is the site of a town, which has s small airfield that was built by the British for World War II. The area in which Miranshah sits is extremely dangerous mainly due to Taliban activities and U.S. Drone...

 and Tank
Tank (Pakistan)
Tank or Tonk , is the capital city of Tank District, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The city's location near Waziristan.- Location :It is located at 32º13' N. and 70º32' E and is situated to the north-west of the Indus River and close to the Takht-i-Sulaiman Range. Tank is hot and humid in summer...

. Operations commenced on 9 March 1925 and the RAF squadrons strafed tribal mountain strongholds in a successful attempt to crush the rebellion.

On 1 May 1925, the tribal leaders sought an honourable peace bringing the short campaign to a close. Only two British lives and one aircraft were lost during the campaign. Pink's War was the first air action of the RAF carried out independently of the Army or Navy.

Honours

After the campaign was over, the India General Service Medal
India General Service Medal (1909)
The Indian General Service Medal was a campaign medal approved on 1 January 1909, for issue to officers and men of the British and Indian armies. In 1925 it was also awarded to officers and men of the Royal Air Force....

 with the Waziristan 1925 bar was awarded to the 46 officers and 214 men of the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 who took part in Pink's War. It was by far the rarest bar given with an India General Service Medal and was only awarded after the then Chief of the Air Staff Sir John Salmond
John Salmond
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Maitland Salmond, GCB, CMG, CVO, DSO and Bar was a British military officer who rose to high rank in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I...

 succeeded in overturning the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...

 decision not to grant a medal for the campaign. The campaign's commander, Wing Commander Pink, received speedy promotion to Group Captain
Group Captain
Group captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks above wing commander and immediately below air commodore...

.

Further reading

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