An extremely rare British military handbook on Afghanistan, printed “For official use only”. This second edition was reprinted in 1918, the year before the onset of the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
As might be expected, the intelligence is primarily focused on the military strength of Afghanistan, with additional sections on geography, climate, resources and administration. A fascinating introduction and history (the first chapter) detail the first and second Anglo-Afghan Wars, highlighting previous engagements and lessons learnt. It is particularly careful to alert officers to past failures and their costliness: “The tribesmen have been aptly described as the best umpires in the world, because they seldom allow a tactical error to go unpunished.” (p.3).
Intended for use in the field, it takes a small pocketbook format (smaller than the Calcutta-printed Field Notes Mesopotamia) and has a distinctive waterproof binding of waxed buckram. The illustrations are particularly sophisticated for a military handbook of the period, with the Kabul panorama featuring a semi-transparent overlay showing principal buildings and roads. This example has the near indecipherable stamp of a brigade headquarters, dated 10th July 1919, indicating that it was almost certainly consulted during the Third Anglo-Afghan War (3rd of May to 8th of August, 1919).
Rare. LibraryHub does not locate any examples of this edition in UK institutions. OCLC finds just one example, at Duke University.
