1842 retreat from Kabul

The Battle of Gandamak was a military conflict on January 13, 1842 between British troops and Afghans during the First Anglo-Afghan War.

In December 1838, the British-Indian Army of the Indus marched into Afghanistan. On July 30, 1839, it reached Kabul and took the city without a fight on August 7. After an uprising in Kabul, the Afghan population was broken out in November 1841, the British garrison withdrew under General William George Keith Elphinstone from January 6, 1842. The aim was to about 140 kilometers from the other British base Jalalabad. On the retreat she was persecuted by the Afghans under Akbar Khan. The British were rapidly decimated and scattered until it removed on 13 January near Gandamak, 56 kilometers from Jalalabad to a final battle with the remaining 65 soldiers, including 20 officers, the 44th East Essex Regiment came. The Afghans were trying only to persuade the British to give up, and then began the attack. The British were defeated, and only six mounted officers escaped.

Lone Survivor was ultimately the military surgeon William Brydon, who reached the besieged Jalalabad on the afternoon of 13 January 1842.

Literary editor

Theodor Fontane wrote the poem in 1859 The tragedy of Afghanistan, which has had to abandon Elphinstone on the topic.