On Monday, it is rumoured that the Defence Secretary will announce a further increase in British forces for Helmand Province in Afghanistan. This has been long called for by military commanders on the ground, as a large Spring offensive by the Taliban is expected. It will not be the first time in British history that a sizeable British force will find itself in the rugged terrain of Central Asia.
In British military history few defeats were as dramatic as that sustained in the Kabul Gorge in 1842. By the end of the battle, the entire force of 690 British soldiers, 2,840 Indian soldiers and 12,000 followers were killed or in a few cases taken prisoner by the Afghan forces. The final stand by Her Majesty’s 44th Foot (pictured above) took place at Gandamak on the morning of 13th January 1842 in the snow. Only 6 mounted officers managed to escape, of whom 5 were killed along a nearby road. That afternoon, the British troops in Jellalabad, watching for their comrades of the Kabul garrison, saw a single figure ride up to the town walls. It was Dr Brydon, the sole survivor of the column. So ended the First Afghan War.
The picture above illustrates the rout of British forces at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880. It came at the end of the attempt by British forces to reinforce their control of Afghan territory. The disaster at Maiwand signalled the end of the Second Afghan War. It is sobering to note that Maiwand is to be found in Helmand Province.
These two Afghan Wars, and an equally unsuccessful Third War during the 1920s, were all about Britain defending its regional influence. This so-called ‘Great Game’, a phrase reputedly coined by Arthur Conolly, a captain of the Sixth Bengal Light Cavalry and employee of the British East India Company, to describe the British and Russian Empires’ fight for supremacy in Central Asia, ended with the start of the Second War. The subsequent onset of the Cold War saw Britain replaced by the USA in what then became known as the ‘New Great Game’.
With the announcement of further British forces to augment the large Anglo-American force already present, we are probably now witnessing a new phase of that ‘New Great Game’. The brief history of Britain’s involvement in Afghan affairs presented above serves to highlight the reality of military campaigns in that inhospitable country. The British government needs to have a clear strategy, and more importantly, a firm idea about the operation’s goal(s). Please let us not hear about a futile ‘war on drugs’, a war that will never be won by putting troops in the field. Fighting the Taleban and Al Qeeda forces should be about supporting the fledgling democracy in Afghanistan. Nothing more than that, and certainly, nothing less.
