GREGORY FREMONT-BARNES holds a doctorate in Modern History from Oxford University and serves as a Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, dividing his work between teaching cadets on site and commissioned officers of the British Army posted to garrisons throughout the UK and abroad. His writing focuses principally on the military and naval history of the 18th and 19th centuries. PROFESSOR ROBERT O'NEILL, AO D.Phil. (Oxon), Hon D. Litt. (ANU), FASSA, is the Series Editor of the Essential Histories. His wealth of knowledge and expertise shapes the series content and provides up-to-the- minute research and theory. Born in 1936 an Australian citizen, he served in the Australian Army, and has held a number of emi nent positions in history circles, including Chichele Professor of the History of War at All Souls College, Oxford, and Chairman of the Board of the Imperial War Museum and the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London. He is the author of many books including works on the German Army and the Nazi Party, and the Korean and Vietnam wars. Now based in Australia on his retirement from Oxford he is the Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and Planning Director of the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Essential Histories The Anglo-Afghan Wars 1839-1919 Essential Histories The Anglo-Afghan Wars 1839-1919 Gregory Fremont-Barnes Readers should note that consistent transliteration from Glossary Pashtun, Dari and other Afghan languages into English is problematic, particularly with respect to place names and family names, many of which bore different renderings in the Abattis Defence work consisting of a tree with 19th century than they do today, thus: Kandahar/Qandahar; sharpened branches, felled so that its branches Kabul/Cabool/Cabul/Cabaul/Qabul;Jellalabad/Jalalabad; point outwards Jugdulluk/Jagdalak; Khoord Cabul Pass/Khurd-Kabul Pass; Doolie Covered stretcher litter or palanquin for the Ali Musjid/Ali Masjid; Gilzai/Gilzye, etc.The author has therefore adopted the most commonly accepted form or that which evacuation of the wounded most closely reflects local pronunciation. Feringee A disparaging term for a European On an historical note, readers should be aware that until 1858 Ghazi Fighter for the Faith who has killed an infidel Indian affairs were managed jointly between Crown officials and those of the East India Company (EIC). In London, the Havildar Indian infantry sergeant apparatus of the former consisted of the Secretary of State Infidel Unbeliever for War and the Colonies, who issued instructions to the Governor-General in Calcutta and the Board of Control, whose Jezail Long-barrelled matchlock musket carried president, as a cabinet minister was accountable to Parliament. by tribesmen In Calcutta was the EIC, originally a chartered company with Jihad Holy war purely commercial concerns, but which by the 18th century exercised wide political and military control over much of the Jirga Assembly of tribal elders or representatives subcontinent on behalf of the Crown.The EIC maintained Kotal Mountain pass its own armies, which served in conjunction with those of the Crown, all commanded by a cabinet-appointed Lakh 100,000 rupees, the equivalent of £ 10,000 today commander-in-chief answerable to the War Office in London. Mullah Religious teacher, leader or holy man In I 858, the EIC was disbanded, the Crown assuming all authority over India via the Secretary of State for India, who Nullah Small valley or ravine sat in the cabinet, a civilian viceroy, and a commander-in-chief of the newly established, British-led Indian Army. Poshteen Sheepskin jacket with a fleece lining Sangar Stone breastwork Sepoy Indian infantryman Sirdar Commander Sowar Indian cavalry trooper Wazir Chief minister or advisor First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Osprey Publishing, Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 0PH, UK FOR A CATALOGUE OF ALL BOOKS PUBLISHED 443 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 1001 6, USA BY OSPREY MILITARY AND AVIATION E-mail: [email protected] PLEASE CONTACT: © 2009 Osprey Publishing Ltd. Osprey Direct, do Random House Distribution Center All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose 400 Hahn Road, Westminster MD 21 157 of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under Email: [email protected] the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this Osprey Direct,The Book Service Ltd, Distribution Centre, publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or Colchester Road, Frating Green, Colchester; Essex, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, C07 7DW chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or E-mail: [email protected] otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers. Osprey Publishing is supporting the Woodland Trust, A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the the UK's leading woodland conservation charity, by British Library funding the dedication of trees. www.ospreypublishing.com ISBN: 978 I 84603 446 6 Page layout by: Myriam Bell Design, France Index by Fineline Editorial Services Typeset in GillSans and ITC Stone Serif Maps by The Map Studio Originated by PDQ Media, Bungay, UK Printed in China through Bookbuilders 09 10 II 12 13 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 32 1 Contents Introduction 7 Chronology 10 PART l:THE FIRST ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR, 1839-42 Origins and background of the war 14 Warring sides I 8 The fighting 20 How the war ended 33 Portrait of a civilian: Florentia, Lady Sale (1787-1 853) 37 The world around war: the playground of the Great Game 43 PART ll:THE SECOND ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR, 1878-81 Origins and background of the war 50 Warring sides 54 The fighting 56 How the war ended 72 Portrait of a soldier: Arthur Male, Army chaplain, I 3th Hussars 74 PART IILTHETHIRD ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR, 1919 Origins and background of the war 80 Warring sides 82 The fighting 83 How the war ended 85 Conclusion and consequences 86 Bibliography and further reading 92 Index 94 Introduction On 13 January 1842, a British officer, Afghanistan would become a byword for perched on the rooftop of the fortress at savage and cunning enemies, inhospitable Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, spotted climate, bitter winters, scorching summers a lone horseman, hunched over and and rugged and beautiful terrain, including exhausted, ponderously approaching. deep ravines and precipitous mountains, The rider was Dr William Brydon, an all ideal for mounting defence and ambush. army surgeon and the sole survivor of an Afghanistan appeared a seemingly Anglo-Indian army of 16,000 soldiers and unconquerable place where heroism, camp followers that had left Kabul only a cowardice and sacrifice abounded, and week before - now utterly annihilated by where death awaited those foolish enough exhaustion, frostbite and almost continuous to venture across the frontier without the attack by Afghan tribesmen. The total most careful attention paid to strategy and destruction of the Army of the Indus proper supply, organization and transport. exemplified the nature of fighting in The country's infamous reputation for this forbidding and hostile environment, causing suffering on campaign inspired populated by fiercely independent, Rudyard Kipling to produce one of the ferocious war-minded peoples, indeed most popular poems of the age: perhaps the most formidable guerrilla fighters in the world. To the British, The British camp at Pezwan, September I 880. Indian and Gurkha soldier of this period, (Author's collection) 8 Essential Histories • The Anglo-Afghan Wars I 839-1919 When you're wounded and left on to the problem at the heart of the first two Afghanistan's plains, conflicts, at least, could never lie in military An' the women come out to cut up intervention alone. what remains, Britain's fear of Russian expansion into Jest roll to your rifle an' blow out Afghanistan formed the backdrop of its first your brains, two conflicts; in the first instance, fought An' go to your Gawd like a soldier. between 1839 and 1842, the Governor- General of India insisted upon an invasion Yet if Afghanistan was to prove the graveyard even after the ostensible reason for hostility of many a soldier, it was only one amongst had passed. The consequences were many of the conflicts waged by Britain devastating, for after their initially successful during Victoria's reign (1837-1901). Every campaign, in which Anglo-Indian forces year of her reign saw her forces deployed imposed on the Afghans an unacceptable on campaign somewhere across the globe, ruler, they proceeded down the road of particularly in Africa and Asia, in an folly by attempting to control the country uninterrupted series of colonial wars and through mere occupation. The result is well minor operations to protect British nationals known: unable to hold even Kabul, the army and British interests, shift a frontier in the withdrew towards India, only to meet its Empire's favour, suppress a mutiny or revolt, inevitable demise along the snow-bound or repel an attack. As the world's leading roads and passes en route to Jalalabad. imperial power, Britain waged these Subsequent operations went some way campaigns without hesitation, and towards resurrecting British prestige, but with the full confidence of ultimate the lesson was clear: despite a century of victory against foes who were inevitably military success in India, British arms were numerically superior, yet technologically and not invincible, and Afghanistan could not organizationally inferior. Such was the price long be held under foreign sway. of maintaining and expanding the Empire, Nevertheless, Anglo-Russian rivalry in of upholding the nation's pride in its own Central Asia led to a second British invasion perceived cultural, economic and political of Afghanistan (1878-81), leading to yet superiority in the world - and usually at another partial and temporary - though relatively little cost. militarily more successful - occupation, Amongst all these conflicts, however, the for effective control, especially of the vast three Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839-42, 1878-81 countryside, again proved impossible. and 1919) stand out. In military terms they As in the first war, the British would shared much in common with other British suffer a crushing defeat, at Maiwand, campaigns - initial, sometimes even with their reputation only restored after catastrophic failure, but ultimate victory achieving a decisive victory over the in the field. Yet in political terms the wars Afghans at Kandahar. But the war would ended uneasily at best and disastrously at finish on the basis of compromise, with worst, with an extension of British influence Britain controlling the foreign policy of but never extensive annexation or evidence Afghanistan, a point that largely contributed that the original aims could not have been to a third, but much shorter and less costly achieved through diplomacy alone. The wars conflict in 1919, when Afghanistan sought were marked by varying degrees of political to throw off the last vestiges of British and military incompetence and brilliance, control over its internal affairs. disaster and triumph in rapid succession. The origins of Britain's wars in There were also plentiful examples of Afghanistan may be traced to its obsession supreme folly by politicians, who failed with the vulnerability of the Indian to identify at the outset clear political subcontinent - its greatest imperial objectives or recognize that the solution possession - to possible invasion by