On Afghanistan's Plains: The Story of Britain's Afghan Wars

279 Pages·2011·1.53 MB·English

by  Jules Stewart

JULES STEWART is the author of Crimson Snow:
Britain’s First Disaster in Afghanistan (2008); The Savage
Border: The Story of the North-West Frontier (2007); The
Khyber Rifles: From the British Raj to Al Qaeda (2005)
and Albert: A Life (2011, I.B.Tauris).
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Published in 2011 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © Jules Stewart, 2011
The right of Jules Stewart to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by
the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof,
may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978 1 84885 717 9
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Designed by Glen Drake
Typeset in Bembo by Pindar NZ, Auckland, New Zealand
Printed and bound in Sweden by Scandbook
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ON
A
FGHANISTAN’S
P
LAINS
The Story of Britain’s Afghan Wars
Jules Stewart
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To Ruby and Theo
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Contents
List of illustrations vi
Foreword by General Sir David Richards xiii
Acknowledgements xvi
Introduction xvii
1 Cradle of Political Insanity 1
2 Victoria’s First War 29
3 The Present Happy Moment 57
4 Vengeance is Mine, Sayeth Lord Ellenborough 89
5 The Pure Instinct of Dominion 115
6 Chronic Suspicion and Undignified Alarm 131
7 Nothing but Misfortune and Disaster 163
8 Once More unto the Breach 199
Notes 233
Bibliography 247
Index 251
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Illustrations
Maps
1 Afghanistan and North-West Frontier ix
2 Advance of the Army of the Indus into Afghanistan, 1838 x
3 British Retreat from Kabul to Jalalabad, 1842 xi
Plate section
1 Ahmad Shah Durrani, Founder of the Afghan Empire in 1747
2 Dost Mohammed with his youngest son. One of Afghanistan’s
wisestemirs, Do stM o hammed ruled from 1826 to 1863. He was
deposed in 1839 by the British, who placed Shah Shuja on the
throne, and was restored to power in 1842
3 Shah Shuja
4 Lady Florentia Sale, whose diaries revealed the tragic events that
led to the Army’s destruction on the retreat from Kabul
5 Alexander Burnes, the Government’s envoy to the Court of
Dost Mohammed, was the first high-profile victim of the Kabul
uprising
6 Akbar Khan was Dost Mohammed’s favourite son, and was
responsible for the Army’s massacre
7 William Macnaghten, the Government’s chief political
representative in Kabul, was murdered by Akbar Khan
8 The Last Stand of the 44th Regiment at Gundamuck, 1842. Painted by
William Barnes Wollen. Image courtesy of the Essex Regiment
Museum, Chelmsford
9 A young Pashtun tribesman awaits his victims in an Afghan
Pass
10 Sher Ali Khan, known as the Iron Emir, was Afghanistan’s longest
ruling king, who occupied the throne from 1863 to 1879. He
died in exile after the British launched their second invasion of
Afghanistan
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11 Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar, the legendary military
figure who led the famous march from Kabul to Kandahar, where
he defeated the Afghans and won the Second Afghan War
12 The Battle of Maiwand turned into a disastrous rout that cost the
British more than one thousand casualties. It was one of the few
instances in the 19th century of Asian forces achieving victory
over a European Army. Image courtesy of the National Army
Museum
13 A Russian stands in frustration at the door to British India,
padlocked out by the Treaty of Gandamak
14 After the massacre of the Cavagnari Mission in Kabul, the Afghan
is fed a portion of British rule
15 Badges in the Khyber Pass of British and Indian army regiments
that fought in the Afghan wars and on the North-West Frontier
16 A caravan negotiating a narrow pass in Afghanistan. These caravans
were also used to transport smuggled weapons to Pashtun fighters
17 King Amanullah invaded British India in 1919, touching off the
Third Afghan War. The Emir lost the war but claimed victory for
having recovered Afghanistan’s full independence. He was forced
to flee his country in 1929
18 The Khyber Pass, the major trade and invasion route between
Central Asia and India
19 A street in the Peshawar bazaar around the time of the Third
Afghan War
20 Royal Air Force BE2C biplanes, used to bomb Afghan positions
in the Third Afghan War and later against rebellious Pashtun
tribesmen on the North-West Frontier
21 A newspaper illustration of the RAF bombing Kabul’s Bala Hissar
fortress in the Third Afghan War
22 The border crossing between the North-West Frontier and
Afghanistan. Travellers are warned to leave here on the return
journey and be back in Jamrud no later than 5:00pm. Image
courtesy of the Field Family Collection
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When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
From ‘The Young British Soldier’ by Rudyard Kipling
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