Kabul Catastrophe : The Invasion and Retreat 1839-1842

by Patrick Macrory, Michael Rose (Introduction)

In 1839 a large British army invaded Afghanistan in order to place upon the throne a ruler deemed more friendly to the British in Delhi than the incumbent Dost Mohammed. Many voices in London warned against the foolhardy enterprise, among them that of the Duke of Wellington, who foresaw shame and disaster. The enterprise started well. The army conquered all before it, including reputedly impregnable fortresses. But only two years after being established in Kabul, attached on all sides by the hostile Afghans, the British retreated in mid-winter, 1842, trying to regain India. Of the 16,000 soldiers and others who left the city, only one person survived the journey as far as Jalalabad. It was one of the worse catastrophes to befall the British Empire. The First Afghan War, as the enterprise was dubbed, ended in miserable defeat and appalling massacre. It was the response of inexperienced political officers and soldiers to expanding Russian influence in central Asia. Britain wanted to forestall what they feared were Russian attempts to wrest the Indian possessions from the British crown. It was the famous Great Game. But is was no game. The news of the disaster horrified the nation, till then only used to tales of victory in India. Many saw it as a punishment for a policy that was stupid and immoral. This retelling of the story of the war was written in 1968 by a descendent of one of the principal British participants, Eldred Pottinger.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Middle East

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patrick Macrory's The Fierce Pawns (also published at various times under the titles Signal Catastrophe, Kabul Catastrophe and Retreat from Kabul) is the classic narrative account of Britain's disastrous invasion of Afghanistan in 1839-1842, culminating in the massacre of an Anglo-Indian column retreating from Kabul. Macrory, not a historian by trade, is nonetheless a gifted storytelling, sketching the political intrigues that led Britain to invade Afghanistan, its still-precarious situation in India balanced with a morbid fear of Russian invasion; the misinterpretation (almost certainly willful) of Dost Mohammed's hospitality as a call for annexation; the all-too-familiar attempts to impose a puppet government propped by bayonets on Afghanistan, which naturally lead to resentment and rebellion. If Macrory's book has any shortcoming, it's the near-exclusive focus on the British perspective, with the Russians, Afghans and Indians relegated to bit players in the drama (about par for the course for a popular history circa 1966). Still, his damning sketches of Britain's political schemers and military incompetents and his gruesome recounting of Elphinstone's doomed retreat are compulsively readable, teaching a lesson about imperial interventions which too few policymakers have absorbed.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

About as much fun as a well researched, detailed account of ten thousand people being murdered by cold and violence can be.

[Grim Tidings · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, a snappy 280 pager on the topic. It describes itself as the go-to book on the area in the preface, this spot has now been firmly taken by Darymple's tome which goes into much more depth on the politics and culture of Afghanistan at the time, however I would still recommend this one which comparatively skims through this element and focuses on the high action points. I am now fairly well read on the topic after a few books on the Retreat/Anglo-Afghan war / Great Game and found this covered the main beats, I noticed one error in the naming of Lady Sale's daughter as Emily rather than Alexandria but otherwise a strong account.

[A J Tyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why didn't any British politician or members of the military staff act on the lessons of this book. Afghanistan has been the grave yard of many an invasion from the British, Russian, and yet again Britain and USA.
A very informative book and we'll written

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

B.

[Elliott Bignell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This erudite piece of history covers one of the low points of Britain's 19th-Century imperial adventurism. The combination of hubris and failure to understand the territory they wished to occupy led to the annihilation of a complete garrison, although a later one returned with somewhat greater success. The story of the British retreat is truly pitiable and makes painful reading. The British repeatedly made the mistake of trusting in the hospitable face of Afghan obligations to visitors and were systematically betrayed as soon as they were out of sight and the obligation lifted, although I hesitate to use the word "betrayal" in respect of an invading power which had no right to be there in the first place. Be that as it may, at first by mistake and then by necessity, the British dealt with faction leaders who promised them help to their faces and then rode on ahead to organise ambushes. It is impossible not to feel sympathy for the beleaguered troops as they struggled, starving and cold, across country infested with hostile and extremely gifted snipers, unable ever to really see their enemy.

There are lessons in this episode which should have been studied more carefully in recent years. Alliances in Afghanistan were and are clearly a matter of convenience and courtesy, and can shift and dissolve like the Winter snows. The population clearly were and are born to warriorhood, expert marksmen and tactically sophisticated. The people of Afghanistan clearly were and are ferociously resentful of outside interference, putting aside their mutual vendettas only for the more pressing obligation of that against outsiders. All this should have been known - we've made the mistake before.

This is a fine but depressing piece of history, eminently readable and intolerably sorrowful. The author clearly has some understanding of Afghanistan as well as of the British military, and has a great deal of familiarity with the persons of the Afghan factions of that time. Anyone interested in the war in Afghanistan today would do well to understand the war in Afghanistan then and read this book.

[Robert]

sobering