Battle of Hydaspes – 326 BC – Punjab India.
Alexander the great ventures into India unsure what to expect. What he got was elephants, lots and lots of elephants and what we all know about elephants is that anything can happen, but Alexander had no idea what and was left stunned by what he found.
The two armies lined up. Alexander had his companion cavalry on the right. A finely tuned killing machine. His heavier Infantry in the centre but some distance from the enemy and mainly lighter troops on the left.
Porus Indian army was made up of lots of light troops and elephants with a few chariots on each flank.
Whilst the leaders were finishing their dinner battle commenced.
Alexander’s light cavalry advanced firing and retiring. First kills to Alexander. First dead elephants. In the centre some light skirmishers started picking off Indian troops or making them retire. Porus responded with his own cheeky archers. (They had their own song and possibly dance but less said about that the better.)
Alexander then did what he does best…..attack… his Companion cavalry crashed into the Indian left and could do no wrong, whilst the Indian response it appeared could do no right. At one stage Alexander changed mounts without a pause to the slaughter he was bringing.
Porus’s chariots and cavalry on his right advanced and whilst it appeared initially, to look like they couldn’t kill anything however hard they tried, eventually the Greeks were driven back and many driven from the field all together.
But what about the elephants?
Porus generals were simultaneously crying out “Send in the elephants” and “Hold the elephants for the right time” but when would the right time come, Porus’s army was losing this battle and his “best” troops were doing very little.
At this point the relentless Alexander killing machine had destroyed the enemy right and was turning towards the centre, to roll up the line. His latest move had some elephants trapped and he moved in for the kill. The trapped Elephants panicked and a whole new level of carnage followed.
The Elephants panicked and destroyed just about everything around them wiping out two entire units, including a full strength Companion cavalry unit (Alexanders elite troops) that had the misfortune to block the panicked elephants retreat. Word quickly went out amongst the Greek cavalry “keep away from the bloody elephants” but the elephants had other ideas.
Elephants now advanced in the centre towards the Greek heavies. The heavies were not going to wait to be trampled and a brave Greek leader brought them forward…Elephant hunting. The Greeks were crushed, and the Elephant advance continued.
Clearly no one had told the elephants they were supposed to lose this battle.
However in the end Alexander is “The Great." Devastating in combat and conqueror of most of the known world. He would have to adapt to deal with multiple large grey problems.
So the cavalry avoided the Elephants and continued to kill. Any unit that stood up to them fled the field or were ridden down. Lighter troops took on the elephants and the enemy chariots were trapped and destroyed.
Alexander left the day with a great victory and a new respect for his enemy and their grey beasts.
Final score 14 : 7 to the Greeks.
The refight played out similar with an identical score 14 : 7 – so everyone went home a winner. (Unless they had been trampled to death.)
