Frontier Assault

[Nepper]

Frontier Assault sub-title "The North Staffordshire Regiment in the Third Afghan War 1919" is a newly published book by James Green, a former Lt-Col in the Staffordshire and later Mercian Regiments and a former trustee of the Staffordshire Regiment Museum.  Although the title gives the main focus of the book away it is deceptive as this is also a very readable history of the whole Third Afghan War as well as the earlier 1915 campaign on the North Western Frontier.  This area is a particular interest of mine for personal reasons (see below) so I am very pleased to see something new that is not generic about the military history of India or a reprint of old books or official histories.

 

Lt-Col Green goes into considerable detail in a little over 80 pages plus illustrations and appendices and while the book concentrates on the military campaign, the political background and consequences are not  overlooked including the not unimportant detail that although militarily defeated Afghanistan as a result of the war became the first British colony or protectorate to achieve independence from the British Empire after the First World War.

 

The six chapters are supported by 40+ images and appendices including the list of officers of the Regiment who fought in the war as well as a potted history of the North Staffs and it's successors.

I have two minor quibbles with the book.  The first is the referencing style, I don't like lists of end notes cross referenced only by the quote expanded upon.  The second is to do with the images, they are printed in half-tone so everything is quite grey and could have been done with printing slightly darker.

 

I do have a personal interest in the war as my grandfather was one of those wounded in the 2nd battle of Bagh and Lt-Col Green has included a studio portrait of my grandfather in the book, presumably as one of few images of a ranker in the 2nd North Staffs that could be found. Overall this book is a very welcome addition to my bookshelves about an under-reported area of the Great War.

[pjwmacro]

I have literally come across James Green's Frontier Assault in the last couple of weeks and am very much looking forward to reading it. I hope it will be an ideal companion to my own book (very shortly to be released) Action at Badama Post. This also covers the Third Afghan War but focuses on the campaign in the Kurram Valley and the role's of my grandfather, who served with 22 Bty MMGS, and the OC of the Kurram Militia, Major Percy Dodd.

 

I agree the Third Afghan War is under-reported, and deserves to be better known.

 

Regards, Paul