From invasion to destruction-a British military disaster. Following over a century of the gradual assumption of sovereignty of the Indian Sub-Continent, the British Empire, in the form of the Honourable East India Company, supported by troops of the new Queen Victoria's army, found itself inevitably at the natural boundaries that surround Afghanistan. There it set in motion a series of disastrous events-the first of which was to march into the country at all. After an initially successful campaign and the placement of a ruler more acceptable to the British-if totally unacceptable to the Afghans-on the throne, there came the far more formidable-and ultimately hopeless-task of controlling an almost unconquerable and inhospitable land and people. This is the story of how that led to just one British soldier-the sole survivor of a slaughtered British army and its followers-staggering into Allahabad-just three years after the folly began. This was the first time Britain fought to control Afghanistan. It would by no means be the last!
From invasion to destruction-a British military disaster. Following over a century of the gradual assumption of sovereignty of the Indian Sub-Continent, the British Empire, in the form of the Honourable East India Company, supported by troops of the new Queen Victoria's army, found itself inevitably at the natural boundaries that surround Afghanistan. There it set in motion a series of disastrous events-the first of which was to march into the country at all. After an initially successful campaign and the placement of a ruler more acceptable to the British-if totally unacceptable to the Afghans-on the throne, there came the far more formidable-and ultimately hopeless-task of controlling an almost unconquerable and inhospitable land and people. This is the story of how that led to just one British soldier-the sole survivor of a slaughtered British army and its followers-staggering into Allahabad-just three years after the folly began. This was the first time Britain fought to control Afghanistan. It would by no means be the last!
Über den Autor
Archibald Forbes was a Scottish military correspondent. He was the son of Very Rev Lewis William Forbes DD (1794-1854), minister of Boharm in Banffshire and Moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly in 1852, and his second wife, Elizabeth Leslie, daughter of Archibald Young Leslie of Kininvie. He was born in Morayshire in 1838. After studying at the University of Aberdeen from 1854 to 1857, he traveled to Edinburgh and volunteered in the Royal Dragoons after attending a series of lectures by the famed correspondent (Sir) William Howard Russell. While still a trooper, he began writing for the Morning Star and was successful in having many military-related items accepted by the Cornhill Magazine. After being invalided from the service in 1867, he founded and maintained a weekly publication named the London Scotsman (1867-1871) with minimal outside assistance. His opportunity as a war journalist came when he was hired by the Daily News to cover the Franco-Prussian war. He joined the Prussian army around Cologne and marched with them into France, witnessing fights at Spicheren, Gravelotte, and Sedan before joining the soldiers besieging Metz. In all previous warfare reports, the telegraph had been used sparingly.
