ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the British approaches to low intensity operations as applied to the North West Frontier and attempts to assess specifically internal security methods in this period, with remarks about the emerging doctrine and its limitations throughout. Post operational analyses stated the situation had been the result of insufficient artillery, too little route security by piqueting caused by the imperative to link both columns up, and a lack of experience amongst the units involved. The idea of political concessions in British thinking about the security of India had existed before the war, but emerged more strongly after 1942. However, after the trial of Indian National Army (INA) officers and the mutiny in the Indian Navy, it was clear that the British could no longer rely on their security apparatus. Lord Louis Mountbatten avoided a protracted and futile British counter-insurgency campaign by recognising that the end had come, and a political solution was the only option.
