1 RUR on the North West Frontier.

Practicing perimeter defence at Razani Camp, Waziristan, North West Frontier, India 1939.

The Waziristan campaign from 1936–39 was in fact a number of operations conducted by the British and Indian Army against the dissident tribesmen that inhabited the region. These operations were conducted in particular against the followers of Mirza Ali Khan, a Pashtun leader from the village of Ipi. His popular reference throughout India was the 'Faqir of Ipi', but to his Pathan followers he was known as 'Hajii Sahib'. He waged a guerrilla campaign against the British administration until the independence and partition of India in 1947.

In January 1939, the 1st Battalion The Royal Ulster Rifles moved from Rawalpindi to join an expedition to the North West Frontier areas where the Battalion was immediately subjected to intensive sniping and, in minor clashes with the enemy, both sustained and inflicted casualties. This was the Battalion's first experience of the North West Frontier. The Rifles remained on active operations in this theatre until October when they returned to Rawalpindi.