May 4, 1919. The Afghan Amir Amanullah, under the encouragement of German, Bolshevik, and Indian Nationalist agents, decides to take advantage of the widespread Nationalist unrest in India and declare war on the British.
The Afghan Army made several half-hearted incursions into British occupied Punjab on the Northwest Frontier. The British, having siphoned most of their best troops on the NW Frontier to deal with the war and conflicts in Mesopotamia, France, Northern Russia, a nationalist uprising in Egypt, and not to mention the uprisings in India, had very little troops to spare for garrisoning and policing the frontier. What troops that were on the NW Frontier were third-rate territorials from the UK whose only desire was to go home, and local militia who could not really be depended upon when the going got tough.
As a result, when the Afghan Army and their Pathan allies launched their attack, they met with some success. But, the British were quick to recover and within a matter of a few weeks had concentrated over 340,000 troops on the frontier. Troops were dispatched from all over the Empire to deal with this grave crisis. Despite a strong military showing by the British and Indian troops, they only made marginal progress eventually advancing all the way to Dakka just on the other side of the Khyber Pass.
Now, the road to Kabul lay open and Amir Amanullah and the British negotiated a Cease-Fire in late June for a return to the Status Quo Antebellum. But, this short war made an indelible impression on the Afghan Army and Pathan tribesmen.
It was the first war in which they had to contend with the Royal Air Force, which was used extensively on the frontier during this time. Kabul was bombed, the Royal Palace was extensively damaged, and 6 tons of bombs fell on Jellalabad killing over 600 people.
Furthermore, with British military commitments stretched thin, and with no desire to occupy Afghanistan, the Viceroy Lord Chelmsford sent supplies of poison gas to the front on May 14 to ensure a speedy end to this most unwanted distraction. The gas was never used as the war ended in a little over month.
The war was very unpopular with the British troops who after having fought for four long years in Mesopotamia, the Balkans, and France, were incensed at being ordered to fight another war on the NW Frontier of all places. Needless to say, war weariness did set in quickly especially with rear-echelon British units, sometimes to the point of outright insubordination bordering on mutiny. In addition, the officers on the NW Frontier were complaining that their hands were being tied by Delhi and London since they were ordered not to take the aggressive stance as was done in the previous two Afghan Wars.
