With "Essential Killing" still in mind
(The Remnants of an Army, 1879 by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler)
Прекрасный отрывок из книги Питера Хопкирка "Большая Игра" - описание отступающих британских военных и гражданских из Афганистана в середине 19 в. - "Essential Killing" Сколимовски выглядит после этого как месть с большого экрана. Жаль, что вместо него на пленке не воплотили подобный отрывок.
No sooner had the rearguard left the cantonments than the Afghans swarmed on to the walls and opened fire on the British with their deadly jezalis, killing a subaltern and wounding a number of soldiers. From then onwards the harassment never ceased. The Afghan horsemen rode in among the troops, slaughtering and plundering, and driving off the baggage animals. Nor were the unarmed and helpless camp-followers spared. Soon the snow was crimson with blood, while the trail was lines with the dead and dying. Despite this the column (16 000 in total) pressed on, fighting off the Afghans as best they could. But weighed down by unnecessary baggage, and hindered by the presence of the terror-stricken camp-followers, the British only managed to cover five miles on the first day after leaving Kabul, with straggles coming in until late at night.
The senior officers and some European wives and children slept in the one tent which had survived the pillage. The rest…spent the night out in the snow. Some built fires, though having no fuel they burned potions of their own clothing. … In the morning it was discovered that many of the Indian troops and camp-followers, who came from the sultry plains and were without warm clothing, had frozen to death. Others, on waking, found to their horror that their feet were badly frost-bitten, looking…”like charred logs of wood”. They had to be left behind in the snow to die.