The First Hours of Battle: Artillery Dominance & Afghan Lines Breaking

Marathi History Book Reading Session Summary

The Battle Opening (Morning, January 14)

The Movement Begins:

• Maratha rectangle starts moving southeast toward Yamuna
• Afghans immediately refuse passage
• Gardi's artillery begins firing
• First contact: artillery versus Afghan right flank (Barkhurdar Khan, Rohilas, Najib Khan)

The Afghan Response:

• Attack Maratha right flank (positions 4-5 on formation)
• Try to bog down Marathas, prevent eastward movement
• Attempt to force engagement instead of allowing escape

The Turning Point:

• Maratha rectangle must turn/face right to defend against Afghan attack
• This turns them away from original Yamuna direction
• Bhau's careful escape plan immediately modified by enemy action
• Rectangle must fight while still trying to move

The First Three Hours: Gardi's Triumphant Artillery

The Initial Success:

"For three hours, the Maratha army was advancing as though the knife goes through butter. It was working wonderfully."

What Happened:

• Gardi's artillery systematically destroyed Afghan right flank
• Rohilas suffered tremendous losses (thousands killed)
• Barkhurdar Khan's regiment (positions 8-9) severely weakened
• Najib Khan's position (position 12) devastated
• Cannonballs reached deep into Afghan formations

The Casualty Situation (Until Noon):

• Out of 9 Rohila regiments: 6 suffered massive losses
• Hafiz Rehmat Khan (Rohila commander): ill, carried in palanquin (stretcher/box), trying to find Dunde Khan Rohila
• Afghan right flank: essentially broken by artillery fire
• Thousands dead

Even Gardi Himself Injured:

• Despite directing artillery successfully
• Was wounded in battle
• But continued operations (didn't abandon position)
• Troops stayed unified, fighting as group

The Promise Held:

"Gardi's promise so far was holding up. The numbers didn't matter because they had the cannons."

Artillery proved: quantity doesn't overcome quality cannon fire at distance.

The Problem: Cavalry Support Timing

What Should Have Happened: Cavalry support (Yeshwant Rao Pawar, Vithal Shivadev) should have:

1. Let artillery pound enemy until completely demoralized
2. Once enemy broken, fresh cavalry charges in
3. Routing enemy = cavalry pursuit/destruction
4. Rotate: one cavalry unit attacks, other waits fresh for next assault
5. Continuous pressure, rotating fresh troops

What Actually Happened:

• Cavalry came too early/wrong timing
• Got in front of artillery while guns still firing
• Gardi had choice: fire on Afghans (hit own cavalry) OR stop firing (lose advantage)
• Chose to stop (wouldn't kill own soldiers)
• Cavalry got injured by Afghan country-made guns
• Had to retreat (before achieving breakthrough)
• Cavalry no longer available for follow-up assault

Why This Mattered:

• Gardi created hole in Afghan lines through artillery
• But cavalry didn't exploit it immediately
• Afghan lines had time to partially reform
• Momentum lost
• No continuous exploitation of advantage

The Irwin/Blocker Analysis: European vs. Maratha Battle Tactics

How French/European Forces Did It (Correctly):

1. Artillery softens/demoralizes enemy thoroughly
2. Cavalry waits (disciplined, controlled)
3. When enemy demoralized/broken: cavalry charges
4. At distance (50-100 meters): cavalry fires country-made guns
5. Once very close (6-8 feet): switch to swords/spears (melee)
6. This coordination: "cavalry in unison with artillery"

The Style/Doctrine: Called "coordinated artillery-cavalry assault"—precise timing, controlled cavalry, artillery support throughout.

What Marathas Lacked:

"What you see here is that Marathas had not mastered this type of battle with the long range artillery. They had the artillery which was skilled. But the rest of the cavalry and foot soldiers, they were not used to work in unison."

The Problem:

• Gardi's artillery: European-trained, highly skilled
• Cavalry: traditional Maratha warriors, undisciplined coordination
• Never trained to work together at this level
• Cavalry got impatient, charged too early
• Infantry/cavalry coordination: broken

The Artillery Mobility Problem

The Fundamental Issue:

• Gardi's cannons pulled by bulls (extremely slow)
• Cavalry moves on horses (extremely fast)
• Artillery can't keep up with cavalry charges
• Cavalry races ahead → artillery can't follow
• Artillery left behind = useless (can't fire, might hit own soldiers ahead)

The Consequence:

• If cavalry advances too far: artillery stops firing
• If cavalry retreats back: artillery back in action
• This creates timing problems
• Cavalry can't exploit artillery advantage because they're not coordinated

The Retreat Problem:

• If Marathas have to retreat: artillery even slower
• Cavalry can escape on horses
• Artillery pulled by bulls: massive liability
• If bulls injured: can't move guns at all
• Artillery becomes trapped/captured

The Solution (Used by French/Europeans):

• Either: abandon artillery (spike guns with nails to prevent capture)
• Or: keep cavalry tightly coordinated with artillery (don't advance beyond support range)
• Gardi's problem: Maratha cavalry didn't understand this coordination need

The Breakdown of Bhau's Plan

What Was Supposed to Happen:

• Rectangle moves southeast toward Yamuna
• Artillery keeps distance, artillery does the fighting
• Cavalry/infantry maintains formation
• Eventually reaches Yamuna River, follows south to Delhi
• Minimal casualties, successful escape

What Actually Happened:

• Afghans attack right flank immediately
• Rectangle must turn/face toward attackers
• Plan to move southeast disrupted
• Now fighting defensive action
• Cavalry gets impatient with artillery-only approach
• Charges too early, breaks coordination
• Gets damaged, has to retreat
• Artillery loses protection, becomes vulnerable

By Noon (First 3-4 Hours):

• Gardi's artillery worked brilliantly
• But no exploitation of advantage
• Afghan lines damaged but not broken
• Cavalry unavailable for follow-up
• Battle turning into grinding attrition
• Original escape plan abandoned

Why Cavalry-Dominated Armies Struggled With Artillery

The Cultural Issue:

• Cavalry cultures: individual prowess, charges, heroics, quick victory
• Artillery warfare: patience, discipline, coordination, grinding attrition
• Maratha tradition: cavalry charge wins the day
• Artillery reality: needs protected position, time to reload, coordinated support
• Fundamental clash of military cultures

Gardi's Alien Army:

• 1,000 musketeers = European-trained soldiers
• Not Maratha tradition
• Professional, disciplined, skilled
• But operating in Maratha army that didn't understand their needs
• Isolation from rest of army = vulnerability

The Result:

• Had the weapon (artillery)
• Didn't have the doctrine (coordinated artillery-cavalry operations)
• Couldn't execute advanced tactics
• Cavalry/infantry kept making mistakes (charging too early, not protecting artillery)
• Artillery forced to stop firing to avoid hitting own soldiers

The Afternoon Situation (Setting Up)

By Noon:

• 3 hours of successful artillery bombardment
• Afghan right flank devastated (Rohilas, Barkhurdar Khan hit hardest)
• Thousands dead
• But: no breakthrough to exploit
• Cavalry scattered/damaged
• Afghan lines still holding (though weakened)
• Gardi injured but continuing
• Artillery running low on ammunition potentially

The Expectation:

• Afternoon: this is when cavalry should exploit breakthrough
• Full wedge into Afghan formation
• Complete collapse of right flank
• Encirclement of Afghan forces
• Potential total victory

The Actual Outcome:

• TBD (reading pauses here)
• But set up suggests: cavalry didn't do follow-up
• Afternoon will be different from morning
• Afghanistan consolidating position
• Maratha momentum fading

Timeline

Key Insights

Gardi's Success & Isolation: He proved artillery could dominate in flatland. But he was fighting almost alone—cavalry didn't support properly, infantry couldn't protect him, communication with Bhau's command broken. His triumph was tactical but not strategic.

The Coordination Failure: Marathas had the weapons (artillery) but not the doctrine. French/European armies had BOTH. This is why professional armies beat traditional warrior cultures—not always through superior weapons, but through understanding how to use them together.

Cavalry's Impatience: Cavalry warriors naturally want to charge. But artillery requires patience. "Let me soften them, THEN you charge." Maratha cavalry couldn't wait. Charged too early, disrupted artillery support, got damaged, had to retreat.

The Escape Plan's Death: By noon, Bhau's rectangle-escape-plan was completely abandoned. Battle was now defensive (fighting Afghan attacks) instead of offensive (moving toward Yamuna). All the careful planning from night before: "stayed on paper."

The Real Issue: Not that artillery doesn't work. It does (killed thousands). Issue is coordinating artillery with cavalry/infantry in real time during chaos of battle. Gardi could do it. Rest of Maratha army couldn't.

Where We Left Off: First 3 hours: Gardi's artillery dominating, Afghan right flank shattered, thousands dead. But cavalry support failed. No follow-up. By noon, it's a grinding battle instead of triumphant breakthrough. Afternoon approaching with situation unclear. Gardi still fighting despite injury. But momentum fading due to coordination failure.

Gardi's artillery had one perfect morning. Three hours where European military science proved superior to traditional warriors. Artillery did exactly what it was supposed to do: devastate enemy at distance before cavalry closes. But then Maratha cavalry got impatient. They charged when they should have waited. Got in front of the guns. Got shot by Afghan rifles. Had to retreat. And suddenly the artillery's perfect morning advantage had turned into a grinding battle where numbers would matter. And Abdali had more numbers.