The March To Kandahar

The story of the British commander who led a three-hundred-mile march from Kabul to Kandahar and became the toast of Victorian England. This book examines the role of Frederick Roberts in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, culminating in his famous march in 1880 with ten thousand British and Indian soldiers, covering three hundred miles in twenty-three days, from Kabul to Kandahar to defeat the Afghan army of Ayub Khan, pretender to the Amirship of Kabul. The march made Roberts one of late Victorian England’s great military heroes, partly because of the achievement itself, partly because the victory restored British prestige after defeat, and finally because of Roberts’ astute use of the press to puff his victory. This overcame the earlier damage done to his reputation by the political storm that followed his hanging of over eighty Afghans in revenge for the massacre of a British envoy and his escort. It enabled the liberal Viceroy of India, Lord Ripon, to extract his forces from an Afghan imbroglio with prestige restored and an emir on the Afghan throne who for thirty-nine years maintained friendship with British India. Roberts (or Bobs as he was known) subsequently advanced to command the Indian Army, working closely with future viceroys to influence Indian defense policy on the North-West Frontier, and being hymned by Rudyard Kipling, poet of empire. His bestselling autobiography, Forty-One Years in India, established his image before the British public and he remains one of Britain’s best known, if least understood, military figures

Includes 9 illustrations “As a leader of men in the field he is, I believe, without equal.” — Sir Alfred Milner on Lord Roberts In this excellent short biography of Lord Roberts, Walter Jerrold, tells the tale of his many exploits and victories across the British Empire. “Roberts won the Victoria Cross at Khudagani during the Indian Mutiny (1857-59) for repeated acts of gallantry, but first came to public notice during the Second Afghan War (1878-80) when he commanded the Kurram Field Force, leading it to victory at Peiwar Kotal in December 1878, and later the Kabul Field Force which occupied the Afghan capital in October 1879 following the murder of the British envoy. “Roberts also led his troops on the legendary march from Kabul to Kandahar. Despite the difficult terrain and the high temperatures he covered 280 miles (400km) in 20 days and hardly lost a man. In September 1880 he defeated Ayub Khan outside Kandahar and relieved the besieged garrison. “After the early reverses of the Boer War (1899-1902), Roberts took over command of the British forces in South Africa. From December 1899, together with his Chief of Staff Major-General Horatio Herbert, Lord Kitchener, he revitalised the British military effort. Kindly, unassuming and courteous, Roberts was popularly known as ‘Bobs’. His small stature and elderly appearance - he was 68 when he left South Africa in 1900 - probably increased the veneration which he received from both the public and soldiers. “On returning to Britain he was made a Knight of the Garter and created Earl Roberts. Despite a bitter rivalry with the Wolseley ring, Roberts was made the last Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, a position he held for three years until 1904.After lying in state in Westminster Hall, one of only two non-Royals to do so in the 20th century, the other being Winston Churchill, he was given a state funeral.”—NAM

The director of the American-Afghan war describes how he orchestrated the defeat of the Taliban in the region by forging separate alliances with warlords, Taliban dissidents, and the Pakistani intelligence service.

One of the most critical battles of the Afghan War is now revealed as never before. Lions of Kandahar is an inside account from the unique perspective of an active-duty U.S. Army Special Forces commander. As then-Captain Rusty Bradley he began his third tour of duty in southern Afghanistan in 2006, the Taliban were poised to reclaim Kandahar Province, their strategically vital onetime capital. To stop them, the NATO coalition launched Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in its history. This is the story of a two-week battle that raged in scorching heat over a territory the size of Rhode Island.--From publisher description.

“I wish with all my heart that you were in school. I love my country, Daughter, but here we have been robbed of our most precious gifts: thought and imagination. Only in an atmosphere of peace and security can artists, poets, and writers flourish. Without our artists and storytellers, we have no history, and without history our future is unmoored—we drift. It is art, never war, that carries culture forward.”

"Our Mission was the people of Kandahar and keeping the Taliban from interfering with rebuilding. When we did use force, we had to be discriminate Killing innocent civilians would be mission failure. I had the A-Team ad could not make it work with lesser men and women." - Lieutenant-Colonel rob Walker, Commanding Officer, 2RCR Battlegroup "Our job is to create a functional government that earns the respect of its population. The people of Kandahar are not asking for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They want Canada's peace, order, and good government. We're getting there. But it takes time, Thankfully Afghans are more patient than people back home." - Gavin Buchan, Director, Foreign Affairs, Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team, 2006-07 "My soliders got to know every inch of Zharey District and its people. It was our back-yard. We knew it better than the Taliban, especially the foreign fighters. People learned to trust us and started staying in their homes while we rant he enemy out of town." - Major David Quick, India Company

AFGHANISTAN- the name conjures images of rugged mountains, ancient cities, hardened Mujaheddin, a country rife with regional rivalries, and the eternal struggle between Tajik and Pashtun. Afghanistan comes to life in this epic adventure of love, betrayal, and war. Young Tajik Ahmed JanÂ1s heroic journey begins in the Northern Alliance stronghold near Taloqan just a month prior to 9/11. He is swept away by the chaos that soon engulfs the country before a chance discovery propels him to the forefront of the clash between civilizations. Pursued by both the CIA and al-Qaeda, he struggles to save his people from obliteration and find the true meaning of life in a land where all seems lost.

This comprehensive history of Kandahar uses unpublished and fugitive sources to provide a detailed picture of the geographical layout and political, social, ethnic, religious, and economic life in Afghanistan’s second largest city throughout the nineteenth century.