Third Anglo-Afghan War

The Third Anglo-Afghan War, also known as the Third Afghan War, the British-Afghan War of 1919, and in Afghanistan as the War of Liberation, was a short war which began on 3 May and ended on 8 August 1919. The new Emir of the Emirate of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan declared the holy war of Jihad against the British in the hope to proclaim full independence, as well as to strengthen his own legitimacy. Amanullah's forces invaded British India on three fronts taking advantage of the unrest in India, in an effort to seize the old Afghan provinces west of the Indus River.

Initial victories saw the Afghans invade across the border, defeating the British and occupying Bagh. The British retaliated, leading a counterattack that routed the Afghans. Conflict continued in Kurram, which saw the British overwhelmed. Taking their own initiative, the British seized Spin Boldak in the south, while an Afghan offensive in Thal was contained, with the British occupying Dacca in turn by the end of May. The Royal Air Force were also used in bombing and strafing attacks on the frontier tribes as well as targets within Afghanistan, including Kabul and Jalalabad. Although small in scale, it was a contributing force for Amanullah to call for an armistice in June.

The Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 was signed on 8 August which resulted in the Afghans re-gaining de jure control of foreign affairs from Britain, and the Afghans recognizing the Durand Line as the international border between India and Afghanistan. This period became known as the Great Game. In an effort to negate this threat, the British made numerous attempts at imposing their will upon Kabul, and over the course of the 19th century fought two wars: the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842) and the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880).

The end of the Second Afghan War in 1880, marked the beginning of almost 40 years of good relations between Britain and Afghanistan, under the leadership of Abdur Rahman Khan and Habibullah Khan, during which time the British attempted to manage Afghan foreign policy through the payment of a large subsidy. While the country ostensibly remained independent, under the Treaty of Gandamak (1879) it accepted that in external matters it would "...have no windows looking on the outside world, except towards India". Despite considerable resentment over not being consulted on the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 (Convention of St. Petersburg), Afghanistan remained neutral during the First World War (1914–1918), resisting increasing pressure from the Ottoman Empire, which entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers; the Ottoman sultan (as titular leader of Islam) called for a holy war against the Allies.

Despite remaining neutral in the conflict, Habibullah did in fact accept a Turkish-German mission in Kabul and military assistance from the Central Powers as he attempted to play both sides of the conflict for the best deal. Through continual prevarication, he resisted numerous requests for assistance from the Central Powers, but failed to keep in check troublesome tribal leaders, intent on undermining British rule in India, as Turkish agents attempted to foment trouble along the frontier. The departure of a large part of the British Indian Army to fight overseas and news of British defeats at the hands of the Ottomans aided Ottoman agents in their efforts at sedition, and in 1915 there was unrest amongst the Mohmands and then the Mahsuds. Notwithstanding these outbreaks, the frontier generally remained settled at a time when Britain could ill afford trouble.

This resulted in a power struggle as Habibullah's brother Nasrullah Khan proclaimed himself as Habibullah's successor, while in Kabul, Amanullah, Habibullah's third son (from his second wife), had also proclaimed himself amir. The Afghan army suspected Amanullah's complicity in the death of his father. Needing a way of cementing his power, upon seizing the throne in April 1919, Amanullah posed as a supporter of democratic ideals, promising governmental reforms. He stated that there should be no forced labour, tyranny, or oppression, and that Afghanistan should be free and independent and no longer bound by the Treaty of Gandamak. Amanullah decided to invade British India. Lee states that Afghan historians typically represent the Third Anglo-Afghan War as a war of independence, while in reality, it was a Jihad. Upon his accession, Amanullah had already declared Afghanistan independent, and the British were incapable of stopping it. Additionally, Mahmud Tarzi, Amanullah's father-in-law, was appointed foreign minister in provocation to the British prohibition that barred Afghanistan from establishing direct relations with foreign states. Recent research suggests that Amanullah launched the war to safeguard Afghanistan's independence after it was unofficially "secured" following World War I.

Afghan forces

In 1919, the Afghan regular army was not a very formidable force, and was only able to muster some 50,000 men. These men were organised into 21 cavalry regiments and 75 infantry battalions, with about 280 modern artillery pieces, organised into 70 batteries, in support. In addition to this, however, in a boost to the army's strength, the Afghan command could call upon the loyalty of up to 80,000 frontier tribesmen and an indeterminate number of deserters from local militia units under British command. In reality, the Afghan regular army was not ready for war. As in past years, the upper levels of the officer corps were riddled with political intrigue. In his book on the campaign, Lieutenant-General George Molesworth gave the following evaluation of the Amir's army:

thumb|left|upright=1.4|Afghan warriors in 1922

Afghan regular units...were ill-trained, ill-paid, and probably under strength. The cavalry was little better than indifferent infantry mounted on equally indifferent ponies. Rifles varied between modern German, Turkish and British types, to obsolete Martinis and Snyders. Few infantry units had bayonets. Artillery was ponydrawn, or pack, and included modern 10 cm Krupp howitzers, 75 mm Krupp mountain guns and ancient 7 pounder weapons. There were a few, very old, four-barrel Gardiner machine guns. Ammunition was in short supply and distribution must have been very difficult. For the artillery much black powder was used, both as a propellent and bursting charge for shells. The Kabul arsenal workshops were elementary and mainly staffed by Sikh artificers with much ingenuity but little real skill. There was no organised transport and arrangements for supply were rudimentary.

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In support of the regulars, the Afghan command expected to call out the tribes, which could gather up to 20,000 or 30,000 Afridi fighters in the Khyber region alone. In stark contrast to the regulars, the tribal lashkars were probably the best troops that the Afghans had, being of excellent fighting quality, well armed, mainly with weapons that they had made themselves or stolen from the garrisons and with plenty of ammunition.

British and Indian forces

In meeting this threat, the British could call on a much larger force. In May 1919, the British and British Indian Army, not including frontier militia, totalled eight divisions, as well as five independent brigades of infantry and three of cavalry. There were also three frontier brigades as well as a number of frontier militia and irregular corps.

Artillery was also in short supply, and the three frontier divisions each had a British field artillery brigade of the Royal Field Artillery with two batteries of 18-pounders and one battery of 4.5-inch howitzers, and an Indian mountain brigade with two batteries of 2.75-inch mountain guns. There were also two batteries of tractor-drawn 6-inch howitzers and two British mountain batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery, which were reinforced with 3.7-inch mountain howitzers. However, most batteries had only four guns. Finally, there were also 15-pounder guns of the Frontier Garrison Artillery.

thumb|300px|right|A [[Royal Air Force Handley Page Type O bomber, with its wings folded back]]

Machine guns, at least on the Khyber front, were old .303 Maxims. The British gained a command and control advantage with their use of motor transport and wireless communications, while armored cars and RAF detachments increased their firepower and reach, the latter being demonstrated to the Afghans by a bombing raid on Kabul itself.

The main problem for the British was discontent among their soldiers. The troops in India were no longer as uncritical as they had been when considering what they were being asked to do. Like other units of the British Army, many of the troops considered the war over and looked forward to being demobilised. The Indian Army had been heavily committed to the First World War and had suffered a large number of casualties. Many of its units still had not returned from overseas, and those that had had begun the process of demobilisation. As such, many regiments had lost almost all of their most experienced men. Likewise, the British Army in India had been gutted. Prior to 1914 there had been 61 British regiments serving in India. However, of these, all but ten (two cavalry and eight infantry) had been withdrawn in order to fight in Europe or the Middle East. In their place, units of the Territorial Force (TF), part-time soldiers usually only intended for home defence but who had volunteered for overseas service, had been sent in order to release regular units for the fighting in France. After four years of mundane garrison duty, away from their families and disaffected, most of these men were really only interested in demobilisation and returning to Britain to get on with their lives. They were in no way prepared for a hard-fought campaign on the Indian frontier.

War

Afghan invasion – 1st Bagh

thumb|right|2nd/5th Royal Gurkha Rifles, North-West Frontier 1923

The conflict began on 3 May 1919 when Afghan troops crossed the frontier at the western end of the Khyber Pass and captured the town of Bagh. It was decided next that the two companies of Sikhs and Gurkhas that had been sent to Landi Kotal needed to be reinforced, however, the mobilisation process had only just begun and at that stage there was only one battalion available for this, so on 7 May the 2nd Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry

Meanwhile, a cordon was thrown around Peshawar and demands were made for the population to hand over the uprising's ringleaders. Amid threats that the city's water supply would be cut, the inhabitants complied and by dawn on 8 May the situation in the city was under control and the threat of an uprising abated. On 9 May the British and Indian troops launched an attack on the Afghans that had seized Bagh the previous week. The attack, however, failed when the brigade commander decided to split his forces and detach almost half his force to protect his flank and as a result was unable to achieve the necessary concentration of force to capture all of his objectives. Coinciding with this, three BE2c aircraft from the Royal Air Force carried out a bombing raid on Dacca in Afghanistan, attacking a group of hostile tribesmen.

thumb|200px|left|A Royal Air Force BE2C

Following this the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Brigades of the 1st Infantry Division were dispatched from Nowshera and Abbottabad, concentrating at Jamrud and Kacha Garhi. At the same time, the 6th Brigade from the 2nd Infantry Division moved up to Peshawar from Rawalpindi to help quell the unrest there. Two days later, on 11 May, a second attack was made on Bagh by the 1st and 2nd Infantry Brigades, under Major General Fowler, and this time it proved successful. Supported with 22 machine guns and 18 artillery pieces, the attack was preceded by a thirty-minute preparation bombardment before being carried by the 2nd Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment and two battalions from the 11th Gurkhas, who charged into the Afghan positions with bayonets fixed and drove them into the Lower Khyber, where they were subjected to further indirect fire from mountain guns that had been set up in ambush.

Although Amanullah continued to profess that he had no untoward intentions, Roos-Keppel decided that it was prudent to continue the advance and ordered the army to pursue the Afghans across the border. Under cover of a preliminary bombardment to soften up the Afghan defences, men from the 11th Sikh Regiment had launched the initial assault, however, they were forced to stop their attack when they ran out of ammunition at 08.00 hours, and although a resupply was effected at 10.30 hours, it was not until 14.00 hours that the attack was resumed. By this time the troops were exposed to the heat of the day; nevertheless, after another barrage was called down, the Sikhs assaulted the Afghan line despite the heat and the attack was carried to the top of the ridge. Upon reaching the escarpment they found that the Afghans had fled the battlefield, leaving most of their equipment, artillery and a number of standards. During the assault the British and Indian forces lost 22 killed and 157 wounded, while Afghan losses were estimated at 200 killed and 400 wounded. Following this Lord Chelmsford decided that the situation could be resolved by continuing the advance further into Afghanistan and gave the order for the brigade in Dacca to march towards Jalalabad, but this order could not be carried out as fighting broke out further to the south and in the eastern Khyber. On 23 May the British posts around the Kurram Valley had to be abandoned. and, in the process, seized the initiative in the south; however, the situation in the centre of the war zone, around Kurram, remained desperate for the British. The Afghan forces in this area were under the command of General Nadir Khan and he possessed a force of some 14 battalions. Against this, the British at Thal, under Brigadier General Alexander Eustace, possessed only four battalions. To make matters worse, the only troops protecting the upper Tochi Valley were the disaffected North Waziristan Militia. Concerned that they would rise up against him if left to their own devices, Eustace gave the order to abandon the militia outposts, but in doing so, precipitated the desertion of many of the militiamen. This disaffection spread and the South Waziristan Militia in Wana turned on their officers and any men who had remained loyal and attacked them. The survivors, under Major Russell, the commandant, were forced to fight their way out to a column of the North Zhob Militia which had been sent out to relieve them.

Thal

Seeing that the situation was deteriorating for the British and seeing an opportunity, Nadir Khan decided to attack Thal. As the Frontier Constabulary had abandoned their posts, on the night of 28/29 May the Afghans were able to occupy a tower from the fort and from there they were able to set fire to a number of food stores. This made the situation in the fort dire, as the supply situation had already been low. Other factors also stacked up against the British. Eustace's force was outnumbered and outgunned. He possessed no regular British infantry and his four battalions were inexperienced Indian units, consisting mainly of young recruits. While part of the division was detached to defend Kohat, the 45th Infantry Brigade under Brigadier General Reginald Dyer—who had been at the centre of the Amritsar massacre—set out to relieve Eustace's force at Thal. Dyer's force consisted of only one British battalion, the 1st/25th London Regiment, as well as Dogras, Punjabis and Gurkhas. Short of rations and possessing no transport, they were forced to march through intense heat to relieve Thal.

Importance of British airpower

thumb|upright=1.2|alt=B&W Aerial photography|Aerial photograph of the Amir's palace during the bombing raid on Kabul, Afghanistan, on 24 May 1919

Although limited in numbers and quality, airpower proved to be one of the greatest assets that the British possessed during this conflict. Not only did it allow them to extend their reach beyond the border and bomb Kabul, but it also enabled them to harass the retreating enemy and to break up tribesmen as they attempted to form larger groups prior to launching an attack. The ability of the British to project airpower, even small scale raids, had considerable psychological effects. For example, the single-plane raid on the palace which took place on 24 May 1919, although producing little actual damage, nevertheless greatly affected the morale of Afghan citizens and contributed to bringing Amanullah to request an armistice.

Indeed, as a result of the war and the lessons that were learned about the potential of airpower in the region, following the war, the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Hugh Trenchard, proposed controlling the frontier by air power alone. This plan had proven highly successful in Mesopotamia, Aden and the Transjordan, however, due to the uniqueness of the North-West Frontier and also due to inter-service politics the plan was not accepted until later. In 1937, it was eventually decided that should another war break out with Afghanistan, or in the event of a major tribal uprising, the RAF would take the offensive, while the ground forces would act defensively. During the course of the conflict, British aircraft losses included at least one plane crashed and two shot down.

King Amanullah objected to the British about the air raids on Kabul, citing British condemnation of the German Zeppelin attacks on London. In his letter to the British government he said, "It is a matter of great regret that the throwing of bombs by Zeppelins on London was denounced as a most savage act and the bombardment of places of worship and sacred spots was considered a most abominable operation, while now we see with our own eyes that such operations were a habit which is prevalent amongst all civilized people of the West."

Ceasefire

On 29 May Amanullah requested for an armistice which, despite some protests, his Afghan commanders reluctantly agreed to. This was sent to the British Indian government on 31 May.

On 2 June, at dawn Dyer's brigade launched an attack on the Afghan regulars that were positioned away to the west of Thal. As this attack went in Nadir Khan sent out an envoy to deliver a message to the brigade commander.

After this Dyer continued his attack and as Nadir Khan's force withdrew from the area, Dyer followed them up with cavalry and armoured cars from the 37th Lancers, while the RAF, using machine guns and iron bombs, attacked and dispersed about 400 tribesmen that were in the area and which posed a threat of counterattack.

On 3 June, the Afghan camp at Yusef Khel was seized by two platoons from the 1st/25th London and two troops from the 37th Lancers supported by a section of guns from the 89th Battery. Following this Dyer received a telegram ordering to break off his pursuit as an armistice came into effect that day.

Outcome and negotiation

thumb|Afghan peace delegates in 1919

Although the war did not proceed as the Afghans had wished, by the end of the war the Afghans had diplomatically secured their independence. Ludwig states that the British did not win the war as both sides had controlled enemy territory, and no decisive battles had occurred to establish that anybody was decisively defeated. In repulsing the invasion, the British were either considered tactically victorious, with the Afghans suffering a military defeat, However, other sources state the Afghans won a political and diplomatic victory by asserting their main goal, independence, and the right to conduct their own foreign affairs.

After the aerial bombings of Kabul and the prospect of Jalalabad and Kandahar being occupied by the British, the Afghans requested an armistice in May 1919. The war had lasted exactly one month, though sporadic conflict continued until the Armistice was signed in June after Afghans were pushed back from the Indian territory. The British were intent on a quick peace deal due to fears of unrest and the rise of Communism. Even then there were disagreements between officials on what approach to consider, the British officials who wanted to restore the closed frontier policy and enforce strict control over Afghanistan's foreign affairs included Curzon and Denys Bray, while the belief that the Amir would adopt a more conciliatory tone after his defeat was held by officials such as Viceroy Chelmsford and Henry Dobbs. The Afghan delegation first met with the British on 26 July, headed by Ali Ahmad Khan. Grant emphasized the needless war, and relayed that the tribes harassing British forces during the armistice made negotiations impossible to continue. Ali Ahmad responded, believing the British responsible for the war, and attempting to portray the British as the ones who wished for peace, while relating the threat of the Soviet Union. In further meetings, Grant wished for Afghanistan to remain in the British fold, which Ali Ahmad adamantly rejected and held on independence as a core demand. This was likely supported by the fact that the Afghans wished to transfer the caliphate to Afghanistan. Grant was given permission to give an ultimatum to the Afghans to accept British demands, although not to breach the armistice.

The Afghans initially declined the ultimatum on 31 July, before agreeing to them on 4 August with modifications to the treaty. The Afghans wished to eliminate any wording that blamed them for the start of the conflict, which Grant accepted. Grant was ready to make important concessions, and believed it was time to do so to the Afghans had it been demanded, but was worried about risking his own authority. On 5 August, the British government affirmed that if the British did not retain control of Afghanistan's foreign affairs, the subsidy given to them would be ended. On 6 August, the final rendition of the treaty was given to the Afghans, which dictated that peace would be established, guns could not be imported through British India, the ending of subsidy payments by the British to the Afghans, the acceptance of the British of an Afghan mission to restore relations, and the affirmation of the Durand line. Although, the cabinet had indirectly recognised Afghanistan's independence with the phrase 'Independent Afghan Government' as the title in the agreement. The mentions of Afghanistan as an 'independent' or 'free' nation were omitted in the actual clauses. A personal letter by Grant to Amir assured that the contents of the agreement did not interfere in Afghanistan's internal or foreign affairs.

Thus, the treaty of Rawalpindi was concluded on 8 August 1919. As a result of the peace treaty that was negotiated, the British ceased payment of the Afghan subsidy, and thus ended their claim to direct Afghan foreign policy, which had been the quid pro quo of the Emir accepting the subsidy. While the Afghan government had "effectively capitulated", Amanullah received little but a letter personally addressed to him that indirectly recognised Afghanistan's independence, with Afghan government propaganda trying to conceal it by claiming the war was a complete victory. The government propaganda maintained that it had won the war because "Britain had tacitly recognized Afghanistan's independence," although the treaty did not "explicitly recognise Afghan independence" The British also made some political gains, most notably the reaffirmation of the Durand Line – which had long been a contentious issue between the two nations – as a border separating Afghanistan from the North-West Frontier, and the undertaking that the Afghans made to stop interference on the British side of the line. and letters to George V were intentionally left unanswered.

The British had traditionally wanted Afghanistan as a buffer state between India and the Russian Empire. In 1919, the Russian Civil War was raging and any threat from Russia to India at the time was potential rather than real. Moreover, the British were by far the largest supporters of the White movement in the Russian Civil War with the British contributing more arms to the Whites than all other nations combined. It was assumed in London that if the Whites won the Civil War, a new era in Anglo-Russian relations might possibly open as the victorious Whites might be grateful for British support, rendering the need for a buffer state in Central Asia irrelevant. The British also stopped arms sales from India to Afghanistan. But, as British influence declined, the Afghans were able to gain control of their own foreign affairs and in the aftermath emerged as a fully independent state. with hundreds more dying from wounds. The British and Indian forces on the other hand suffered 236 killed in action and 615 wounded. Additionally there were 566 deaths from cholera and 344 deaths from other causes; for a total of 1,751 dead or wounded.

Lee states that through unprovoked aggression towards the British, Amanullah antagonized Afghanistan's key ally in the region, prompting British officials to consider Afghanistan a hostile neighbor and his rule something to subvert. Lee argues that if he had negotiated with them following his declaration of independence, rather than waging war, they would likely have conceded some form of conditional independence, as they had previously conveyed the same to his father. Although the fighting concluded in August 1919, its effects continued to be felt in the region for some time afterwards. The nationalism and disruption that it had sparked stirred up more unrest in the years to come, particularly in Waziristan, which saw an uprising that was long encouraged by Nadir Khan. The tribesmen, always ready to exploit governmental weakness, whether real or perceived, banded together in the common cause of disorder and unrest. They had become well-armed as a result of the conflict, from which they benefitted greatly from the weapons and ammunition that the Afghans had left behind and from an influx of manpower in large numbers of deserters from the militia that had joined their ranks. With these additions they launched a campaign of resistance against British authority on the North-West Frontier that was to last until the end of the Raj.

The award of the battle honour was made in four separate Army and Governor General's orders. The earliest, Army Order 97/24, granted the honour to 14 British units. Governor General's Order 193/26 made awards to Indian Army Corps. Governor General's Order 1409/26 made awards to Indian States Forces

1st King's Dragoon Guards
1/4th Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
2nd Battalion, King's (Liverpool Regiment)
2nd Battalion, Prince Albert's (Somerset Light Infantry)
1st Battalion, Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment)
1st Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
2/4th Battalion, Border Regiment
1st Battalion and 2/6th (Cyclist) Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
1st Battalion, Prince of Wales's Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment)
1/4th Battalion, Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)
2nd Battalion, Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment)
1st Battalion, Durham Light Infantry
1/25th (County of London) Cyclist Battalion, London Regiment
1/1st Kent Cyclist Battalion

Pursuant to Governor General's Order 193/26: