With two successful victories won, General Graham planned to push on towards Berber, using Stewart's Cavalry. The British government however, restrained him, as they had no wish to get further involved in the Sudan.

Gordon himself had arrived in Khartoum on February the 18th and he too favoured an advance to Berber, as he was concerned about his only real line of communication along the Nile. Berber was to fall to the Mahdi in May, cutting communications with Khartoum and the evacuation of Egyptian civilians.

Stirrings now in Britain, as the people and even Queen Victoria and a growing number of MPs and Ministers demanded action to save Gordon. Prime Minister Gladstone did not favour these demands, he wanted no more lives to be wasted in the Sudan.

Osman Digna marching on Suakim.

After we now know was a fatal delay, an expedition was launched to relieve Gordon, a River Borne column and a Camel Corps column set off for Egypt on the 26th September, six months after Khartoum had been cut off. It is here we leave the relief columns and return to the event around Suakim, the above events will be covered in great detail in Issue 7.

General Graham was ordered to withdraw from the Sudan in late March, leaving a small garrison to hold Suakim. His two successes against Osman Digna inflicted up to 4,000 casualties on his followers, but failed to break his hold on the area.

Osman Digna himself was to continue to harass the Suakim garrison and, no doubt, the withdrawl of the British added to his prestige and his account of the battle of Tamai ie. 8,000 British losses, must of seemed true to his followers and the Mahdi.

With the eventual fall of Khartoum, the reconquest of the Sudan was launched. General Graham was again given a command, this time a force of some 13,000 men. It was decided for once and for all, to crush Osman Digna and to secure the area around Suakim and across to Berber, therefore protecting the new Nile columns East flank. The construction of a railway from Suakim to Berber was also to take place.

On reaching Berber General Graham was to link up with the Nile column and then both would advance onto Omdurman. Unfortunatelv this Dlan had to be abandoned, as the Nile column was unable to reach Berber due to difficulties in transportation, so Graham was told to hold at Ariab, 150 miles from Berber in February 1885.

By the 14th of March, all the troops were assembled around Suakim. Proclamations were issued and again Osman Digna sent a defiant reply. Intelligence told Graham that the main concentration of the enemy was at Tamai. A force some 7,000 strong. A smaller gathering of around 1,200 was at Hashin. This force had been raiding Suakim and due to their position in posing a threat to any advance on Tamai, Graham decided to deal with these first.

The size of Osman Digna's force, indicates that he had not been idle for the previous year and indeed this proves that the battles of El-Teb and Tamai had been a waste of lives, as his strength was as strong as ever.

The hilly and scrub covered terrain of Hashin made the usual Infantry square formations difficult to handle. The battle itself took place on the 20th March and proved indecisive. The Bengal Cavalry at one point had to seek the safety of one of the squares to escape being cut down. However, several redoubts were constructed and manned by the East Surrey Battalion, which stopped the Mahdist raids on Suakim.

General Graham wanted to create a further out post for water and supplies for operations beyond Suakim towards Tamai. So on the 22nd of March Maj-Gen McNeill marched out to establish this base.

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