"Afghan Regulars in 2nd Afghan War" Topic

I've been reading up on the 2nd Afghan War, and several of the battles refer to a number of Afghan regulars being supported by several thousand tribesmen.

My Google-fu has abnadoned me, as has my TMP-search-fu, so I am isuing a call for help to the TMP faithful. Does anyone have a link or other source material that details the uniform (if any) and org. of the Afghan regular army of the 2nd Afghan war?

Thank you in advance,

~Lou

Wargames Illustrated, July and August 1995 had a series on the Aghan regulars by Ian Heath.
I know there were 3 issues, but I could only find 2, so the third could be either June or September.

I am pretty sure that Heath has a Foundry book on the subject too.

The first Osprey book on the Afghan Wars has a plate showing Afghan regulars, including a really hairy looking dragoon, and a "Highlander" (!), wearing the famous Italian restaurant tablecloth kilt. Osprey shows the jacket red, Heath shows it green.

In TSATF, I rate my Afghan regulars as "Egyptian", but worse.

I actually hyave 5 different companies, with Frontier (sadly OOP) Highlanders and a generic sepoy looking type, and 3 different Foundry units. Foundry are in and out of produstion, depending on their capricious whims. Nice figures, compatible with both 25mm adn 28mm figures.

Have a look at this discussion on Lead Adventures Forum. Images there:

link

The Perrys provided painting notes (as used by the gentleman Plynkes links to on the LAF thread) in the old Foundry "Victoriana" catalog.

Organization? You can spend a great deal of time in the archives of the Old War Office Library, The India Office archives, the Staff College Library, the National Army Reading Room, The British Library, and the Sandhurst Library. I have.

But you won't find very much that's more detailed than this summary that Rodenbough wrote in 1885 ("Afghanistan and the Anglo-Russian Dispute"):

"The actual fighting strength of the army of Afghanistan cannot be definitely stated. Major Lumsden, who has represented the British Government in that country in various diplomatic capacities, stated (some years since) that the regular army of the Ameer consisted of sixteen regiments of infantry, three of cavalry, and seventy-six field guns. The infantry regiments numbered about 800 men each; the men were obtained by compulsory levy. Their uniform consisted of English cast-off clothes purchased at auction. The pay, about five rupees per mensem, was paid irregularly and often in kind; two months' pay was deducted for clothing. The cavalry and artillery were badly horsed; and the horses were sent to graze in summer. A Russian report of 1868 estimates the infantry at 10,000 men. The armament, equipment, and instruction of the troops have doubtless improved since that time, as ten years later the British Government supplied the Afghan Government with 10,000 Enfield and 5,000 Snider rifles and one field battery, and very recently (1885) it was announced that a present of Martini-Henry rifles and improved field guns had been sent to Abdurrahman by the Indian authorities."

I have always been very frustrated that despite the considerable efforts of the Intelligence Branches in London and Simla at the time, the details of organization of the regular Afghan army was not better documented.

The official history of the Second Afghan War was not completed until 1908. It provides some differences from Rodenbough (690 men per regiment, vice 800), but not much greater details of unit organization; see pp.14-15 and Appendix I (pp.633-635):

link

Allen

Allen!

Thank you, Sir!

I copied your notes, followed the link, grabbed the book, copied Appendix One for immediate access, and then I scratched my ear.

None of that would have been possible without your generosity and thoughtfulness by sharing with us all.

TVAG

My pleasure, Patrick! That was a fun vacation (plus parts of a couple more) digging for stuff on Afghanistan in London and Camberley. Apart from what went into the grad school "mill", there are still file drawers full of good stuff in the garage waiting (probably hoplessly) to be turned into gaming material some day.

The good news is that so many of the more useful sources on Afghanistan, Russian expansion into Central Asia, and the like, are now available in digital form on Teh Interwebs. But there's a lot of material that may never be digitized, and just sit mouldering away in cupboards (for example, if what you want an Indian Army analysis of all the possible Russian invasion routes through Afghanistan, wit all the details of route segments, trafficability, etc.).

Allen

As an extra, here's a nice clean PDF version of Rodenbough, which is much easier to read than the Project Gutenberg/Archive machine-read version (this is useful for grabbing sections):

PDF link

And here's a cracking scan of the original, which includes the maps and plates:

link

Allen

Not much to add to the well-informed gentlemen's comments above except for a few pics of some of my Afghan regulars, which are all Foundry figures:

(PLEASE NOTE: I believe figs. in foreground of 2nd from last pic are Milton Soong's)

PS The third and final installment of Ian Heath's Wargames Illustrated article on the 19th Century Afghan Regular Army -- "A Most Villainous Cavalcade" -- appears in issue #96 from September 1995.

Does anyone actually own a copy of the legendary Wargames Foundry/Ian Heath reference book on the subject? I believe it was in the planning stages but never actually published, but I'd love to be proved wrong!

Here's an artillery pic I tried posting earlier without success and finally managed to upload:

Here's another good one, if it works…