Second Mohmand Campaign The Second Mohmand Campaign of 1935 was a British military campaign against the Mohmand tribes in the Northwest Frontier area of British India , now Pakistan . Tank s were used , the first operational use of tanks in India . The First Mohmand Campaign in 1897 - 98 followed earlier military expeditions in 1851 - 1852 , 1854 , 1864 , 1879 , 1880 , and there was a small expedition in 1933 , taking about a month in August . In 1935 the Mohmands , influenced by the Haji of Turangzai and his three sons the Badshah Guls , were marauding in the plains . At the end of July about 2000 tribesmen were disrupting working parties repairing the Mohinand - Gandab Road . The Government decided to send a sizeable punitive force against them , called the Mohmand Force or Mohforce . The force , mobilised by 17 August , included the Nowshera and Peshawar Brigades of the Indian Army , a section of the Royal Tank Corps , the 18th King Edward ' s Own Cavalry , and the 22nd Derajat Mountain Battery ( Frontier Force ) , with air support from the Indian Wing commanded by Basil Embry . The commanders of the Peshawar and Nowshera Brigades , Claude Auchinleck and Harold Alexander , both rose to high rank in World War II . Auchinleck , the senior Brigadier , commanded Mohforce ; as the Peshawar District G . O . C . General Muspratt was on leave in Britain . Mohforce left near the end of summer , with two tanks in front of the leading troops which could be used to outflank tribesman who pinned down the infantry . The tanks were Vickers Mark IIB , with a single Vickers machine gun . They did not have their radios , which had been withdrawn for their annual overhaul , so one tank had to act as a “ runner ” between the tanks and the infantry . The Mohmands , having no word for tanks , called them “ the snakes that spit ” . The troops advanced into the Kamalai plateau , the tribal heartland west of the Swat River . The road and water supply had to be extended , taking six weeks , before they could advance into the Nahakki Pass . Then the heights around the Nahakki Pass were taken in a night operation , and after dawn the cavalry went through the pass to the plain beyond . The headquarters , now commanded by General Muspratt , was established about 5 miles south of the Nahakki Pass at Kamalai . In September a reconnaissance in force southwest of Nahakki was ambushed , with 35 deaths in Mohforce : 2 British and 2 Indian officers , and 1 British and 30 Indian Other Ranks ; the operation by the Guides or 5th / 12th Frontier Force Regiment was described as “ sketchily planned and uncoordinated ” But the septs and subtribes asked for peace at jirga s , order was restored and the force was withdrawn in early September . Auchinleck ’ s brigade withdrew with drums and pipes playing . Captain Godfrey Meynell was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his gallantry on 29 September at the Nahqi Pass . Background . The Mohmands are a Pashtun hill tribe who lived north - west of Peshawar , in the North - West Frontier Province of British India ; now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan . They moved annually across the border to the hills of Afghanistan to escape the summer heat ; the border was delineated by the Durand Line in 1893 but was poorly defined .