Third Afghan War 1919 Official Account

The Third Afghan War was fought in the wake of the Great War, when Amanullah, Afghanistan’s Amir (ruler), aided by Pashtun (Pathan) tribal allies, and emboldened by an alliance with the new Bolshevik regime in Russia, took advantage of Britain’s post-Great War weariness and nationalist unrest in India itself, to launch two surprise strikes into the North-West frontier region of British India in May 1919. The short-lived war that followed saw Britain check the thrusts and launch a counter strike in Baluchistan which took the town of Dakka. Britain also launched air-raids on the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the city of Jalalabad. The war ended in stalemate, and Britain granted autonomy in foreign affairs to the Afghanis in the Treaty of Rawalpindi. In the fighting, British and Indian Army troops lost nearly 2,000 men, many of them to cholera, while Afghani losses were estimated at 3,000. This official history gives a detailed account of the military action, the lead-up to, causes and course of the war and its lessons. It is illustrated by particularly fine and detailed colour maps and has an appendix of British Army units invloved in the war.