1800-1859 | Battlefield butchery | Civilians slaughtered | India | Looting and plunder | Massacres | Prisoners murdered

8,000 killed and hundreds burned alive as Redcoats sack the Indian city of Jhansi

ByAlisdare Hickson

3 April 1858 On 3 April 1858, redcoats, under the command of General Sir Hugh Rose, stormed the Indian city of Jhansi, where the 22 year old Rani Lakshmibai, the legendary warrior-queen, was leading a rebellion against British rule.  Rose later proudly acknowledged that he had avenged an earlier massacre of British officers and their families…

1940-1949 | Civilians slaughtered | Egypt

British troops in Cairo shoot dead twenty demonstrators with machine guns.

ByAlisdare Hickson

21 February 1946 On Thursday 21 February 1946, British troops opened fire, with machine guns, on protesters in Midan Ismailiya (now better known as Tahrir Square) in central Cairo, killing twenty and injuring about 300.1  According to a report in the Scotsman the following day: ‘The Square outside the Kasr El Nil Barracks was a smoke-filled battleground…

1860-1899 | Massacres | Prisoners murdered | South Africa | Wounded killed

Battle of Kambula – ‘terrible execution’ as ‘no quarter was shown.’

ByAlisdare Hickson

29 March 1879 On 29 March 1879, British cavalry and troops massacred hundreds of fleeing and wounded Zulu warriors after the Battle of Kambula, after an officer reminded his troops – ‘No Quarter Boys !’ A soldier from Devon confessed in a letter – ‘I can tell you some murdering went on,’ while a Liverpool…

1860-1899 | Massacres | Media propaganda | South Africa | Wounded killed

After the Battle of Rorke’s Drift – the mass butchery of the wounded

ByAlisdare Hickson

23 JANUARY 1879 On 23 January 1879 hundreds of Zulu warriors, injured during the battle at Rorke’s Drift the previous day,  were murdered by British troops. RORKE’S DRIFT – THE BATTLE Almost everyone has heard of the heroic defence of the missionary outpost the previous day, made famous by the 1964 film Zulu starring Michael Caine which…

Uncategorized | 1800-1859 | Massacres | Pakistan

Massacre at Multan as redcoats shoot the elderly and rape the women

ByAlisdare Hickson

THE SACKING OF MULTAN – 2 JANUARY 1849 On 2 January 1849, British redcoats, under the command of Brigadier-General the Honourable Henry Dundas, raped, pillaged and murdered hundreds of civilians, after fighting their way into the city of Multan, located in what is today the province of Punjab in Pakistan. Historian Saul David comments that…

1860-1899 | Battlefield butchery | Massacres | Sudan | Wounded killed

After the Battle of Atbara – Kitchener’s army slaughter the wounded

ByAlisdare Hickson

8 APRIL 1898 THE BATTLE OF ATBARA – A HIGHLY ASYMETRICAL CONTEST Few people In Britain today have heard of the Battle of Atbara fought on 8 April 1898, amid the arid brushland surrounding the River Atbara, a tributary of the Nile in Sudan, some 200 miles north east of Khartoum. As the sun rose,…

1920-1939 | Civilians slaughtered | Massacres | Pakistan | Uncategorized

Machine guns turned on unarmed Peshawar crowd killing up to 400

ByAlisdare Hickson

[ 23 April 1930 ] On 23 April 1930, British and Gurkha troops opened fire on an unarmed crowd in Peshawar killing at least 20, according to the official estimate, and as many as 400, according to Indian sources.1 A large crowd had gathered at the Qissa Khwani Bazaar to protest the arrest that morning of…

1900-1919 | China | Civilians slaughtered | Looting and plunder | Massacres

British and allied troops sack Tientsin slaughtering civilians

ByAlisdare Hickson

[ 14 July 1900 ] British and Allied troops sent to crush an alliance of Boxer rebels and Chinese imperial forces, seized the northern port city of Tientsin (Tianjin) in the early hours of 14 July 1900. The Dundee Courier noted that ‘after the city was entered, there was at first indiscriminate slaughter, and it is alleged…

Blair's crimes | Civilians slaughtered | Iraq

Britain and the US invade Iraq, leading to 650,000 deaths by 2006

ByAlisdare Hickson

[ 20 March 2003 ] On 20 March 2003, Britain joined the United States in an illegal military assault on Iraq in order to enforce regime change and eliminate the country’s alleged ‘weapons of mass destruction,’ even though London was aware that there was no credible evidence for their existence.  As the chief UN weapons…

1860-1899 | Civilians slaughtered | Egypt | Massacres

British fleet bombards Alexandria, killing hundreds

ByAlisdare Hickson

[ 11 July 1882 ] On 11 July 1882,  shortly after sunrise, a British fleet of fourteen warships began a deafening bombardment of Alexandria’s coastal defences and harbour area. It followed Egypt’s refusal to accept Britain’s supposed right to oversee and manage the country’s budget, which included huge payments in interest to the Suez Canal…