Afghan Frontier

This book by Victoria Schfield examines Afghanistan's border regions and how they have, throughout history, become crossroads of conflict. Afghanistan is called the crossroads of conflict because its unique position as a central geographic corridor connecting South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, combined with rugged terrain and intense rivalries among regional and global powers, makes it a flashpoint.

The author takes a largely chronological approach, first explaining the region's geography and the tribes who live there. I picked this book up largely because I was reading a series on the Mughals, who entered India via Afghanistan. Our first understanding comes from Alexander the Great's earlier invasion of India. 

The geography includes the Hindu Kush and vast, rugged highlands, which make military occupation extraordinarily difficult and provide natural strongholds and cave networks for local fighters against invading forces. Afghanistan has multiple distinct ethnic groups and tribes that often prefer localised tribal codes and Islamic governance over centralised state authority, making unified national rule hard to sustain. A Pashtu proverb says, "Honour ate up the mountains, and taxes ate up the plains."

Britain was drawn into Afghanistan to defend India. This led to disastrous expeditions. It is astonishing how they even got there, given the officers' travelling baggage. Sixty camels were considered reasonable for a brigadier, and forty servants for a junior officer. In the first Kabul tragedy, 30,000 camels and 38,000 camp followers were involved. In the early 20th century, the RAF was used extensively to pacify the tribes and effectively win the Third Afghan War. By 1936, there was a code which involved a two-day warning before the rebel village was bombed, to allow civilians to escape.

Attempts at bribing officials and judges were rarely successful. The British Empire at least got something right, though the incentives were small. One judge was offered a golf ball if he would acquit a family of murder. In the Second World War, there was an Axis plan to join up the Japanese and German invasions, a story I covered in my book on Turkey during WW2. The British fortified the Afghan border, including dragon's teeth anti-tank obstacles that can be seen today. The book overplays the non-aggression pact between Turkey and Germany and its impact on British Islamic propaganda. Turkey was never an ally of Germany.

The Afghan army of the period was not insignificant. It had 103,000 men and had received a significant loan from the Germans to train and possibly equip a full division. The Afghan Air Force had British-trained pilots flying 20 Hawker Harts and 8 Hawker Hinds.

The book ends with the Soviet occupation in support of the communist government. This led to the West supporting Islamic groups, which came back to bite them through the Taliban. It ends before the evacuation and the appalling conditions in the country, particularly for women, today.

The book is pretty detailed, but it includes lots of interesting stories that liven up the narrative.

I have a 19th-century Afghan army and the British in 10mm, which I haven't dusted off in some time. I built them as another opponent for my Zulu and Boer War British armies. Osprey has a good book on the wars.

Some of my Afghans. Fun to paint.