#second anglo-afghan war

[redarmyscreaming]

Group of Afghans, Second Anglo-Afghan War

[bantarleton]

The 8th Foot assaults Afghan positions at the Battle of Peiwar Kotal, December 2, 1878, during the Second Afghan War: Plate by Harry Payne.

The Battle of Peiwar Kotal was fought from November 28 to December 2, 1878 between British forces under Sir Frederick Roberts and Afghan forces under Karim Khan, during the initial stages of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The British were victorious and seized the strategic Peiwar Kotal pass that led to the central plain of Afghanistan.

[queer-cosette]

I love the fact that in BTGMD it implies that the British mice have a military conflict with the Russian mice over who gets to be friends with the Afghanistan mice

and it’s just never explained

[bantarleton]

Last stand of the 66th Foot at the battle of Maiwand. The regimental dog, Bobby, survived despite being bayonetted, and was later recovered. 

[bantarleton]

92nd Highlanders at Kandahar. Oil by Richard Caton Woodville Jr.

[bantarleton]

Private and Sergeant of the 66th Regiment, Second Afghan War.

[rudyaltergott]

The Case of the Jezail Bullet

140 years ago today, on 27 July 1880, the Battle of Maiwand occurred during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, a victory for Afghanistan under Ayub Khan.

Why do I note this event? What is its significance?

It was during this battle that an army doctor of the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot named John Watson was wounded. Having been shot with a jezail (Afghan long rifle) bullet and suffering with “enteric fever” (what we today call typhoid fever), Watson had been honorably and medically discharged and returned to England via the HMS Orontes.

By the following March, John H. Watson, M.D., late of the Army Medical Department, was introduced by a certain young Stamford to Sherlock Holmes, a consulting detective in search of a housemate to split the rent at 221B Baker Street. The two would indeed cohabitate as well as find themselves involved in many adventures, of which Dr. Watson was the chronicler (for whom Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the literary agent).

With this in mind, I think of my friends in Sherlockiana and give thanks that Dr. Watson survived that July day in Afghanistan. How else would we have been able to know so much about the world's greatest consulting detective?

[risingpakistan]

Ali Masjid

Ali Masjid is the narrowest point of the Khyber Pass. It is located in the Khyber Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan. It is located around 10 miles (16 km) east of the city of Landi Kotal (West of Peshawar) and has an elevation of 3,174 feet (967 m). The width of the Khyber near Ali Masjid was earlier too narrow for two fully laden camels to pass each other but since has been widened. 

Name origin

Ali Masjid was named in memory of Ali, the cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[citation needed] A mosque and a shrine has been built here in the memory of Ali, who visited this place according to a local tradition. There is also a huge boulder which carries the marks of a hand believed to be that of Ali. 

History

Ali Masjid has a fort built by the British in the nineteenth century which commands a strategic view over the Khyber pass. The fort has a small cemetery which contains the graves of British soldiers who fell in the second Afghan War. The valley walls bear insignias of regiments that have served here. 

Ali Masjid was the scene of battles during the Anglo-Afghan wars. In 1842 during the First Anglo-Afghan War, the fort was garrisoned by the British. During the disastrous retreat from Kabul, a relief force under Colonel Charles Wild was attacked by Afghan troops of Akbar Khan at the entrance of the Khyber pass and forced to fall back. The fort garrison was also forced to evacuate Ali Masjid fort and fall back to Jamrud. During the Second Anglo-Afghan War, the Peshawar Valley Field Force under General Sir Samuel Browne, during the advance on Kabul in 1878, captured this fort which was held by the Afghans under Faiz Muhammad.