SOLDIERS AND ARMS
Clothing—Reviews—Drill—Uniforms of Amir’s
bodyguard—Arms—Pay—Medals—Length of
service—Substitutes—Barracks—Mode of life—Gambling among
soldiers—Different tribes forming regiments—Thief tribe
and regiment—Officers and promotion—Bands—Afghan anecdotes
of incidents during war 1879-81—Afghan Army as a fighting
machine—Condition of country for warfare—Illustration of one
side of Afghan character.
The first thing that strikes one on seeing a regiment of Afghan soldiers
is their irregular, slovenly appearance and slouching gait. Their
clothes, for they have no uniforms for regular use, are of any sort and
pattern as the wearer may desire or his purse can afford. Some have old
English army or railway coats; others have coats of various colours and
materials which have been made in the bazar; and coats made by the bazar
tailors fit where they touch. Some have cloth trousers, some cotton ones,
and some the Afghan tombons. Many wear the Afghan tombons with the shirt
outside, as is usual in Eastern countries, and a sheepskin jacket, and
this is the dress more generally worn, particularly among those regiments
which are composed of hillmen. All of them, of course, have leather belts
with pouches on either side, for neither soldiers nor civilians consider
themselves dressed without them, and an Afghan soldier or civilian who
was seen without a belt would certainly look undressed to any one who
had been some time in the country. For headgear the turban is commonly
worn; but there are different varieties of caps and hats, of which one
that is liked by many is similar to the Russian military peaked cap.
Cavalry soldiers, or sowars as they are called, wear long boots of the
Russian pattern, with very high heels, which give the wearers a curious
perched-up appearance; and these boots are much bepatched and mended.
As I do not remember seeing a sowar with new boots on at any time, I
fancy they must all be bought secondhand. The clothes the soldiers wear
are generally old and much worn, but I have at times seen a havildar
(sergeant) with a new coat, and as the man has to save up for many days
before he can afford one, he pays great care in the selection of the
cloth, and usually gets it of a vivid colour, light yellow or blue for
preference, which soon looks the worse for wear, and necessitates the man
spending many a half-hour when off duty in cleaning it. His old coat he
sells to one of the men of his company.
When a regiment is drawn up in line the rifles are held at all angles,
for the men are not drilled as drilling is understood in other countries,
and on the march a regiment looks like an armed mob rather than soldiers.
In order to obtain a good appearance during the two annual reviews, the
regiments are marched on to the review ground, and the officers then
move the men singly into their proper places, pulling one man forward
here and pushing another back there, until they form a double line of
somewhat varying straightness, and when the review is finished (the
review consists of the Amir, or the prince as his deputy, riding past
the different regiments), the men are again pushed into place to form
fours, and are then marched off, all keeping their own step, back to the
barracks, and on the road one man or another joins the four in front or
behind in order to speak to a comrade, so that the little formation they
had is soon upset, and the regiment goes along as it likes best, and that
is—anyhow. The men, after review or parade, which latter is the same as
the review, except that one regiment only is placed in line and inspected
by its officers, seem to consider that they have taken part in manœuvres
of considerable intricacy, and appear to be rather proud of themselves.
The men of the Amir’s bodyguard, however, are drilled. The drill consists
in the men, having already been taught to form themselves into fours,
marching slowly in time to a drum-beat, and swinging each leg in turn
high up in the air in front of them before bringing the foot down. This
drill, which takes place on the main road outside the Arak palace, is
witnessed by a large number of admiring citizens, but the spectacle of a
regiment solemnly swinging their legs well up as they march, taking four
or five seconds to each step, reminds one of a batch of recruits doing
the goose-step.
Regiments are occasionally drawn up on parade and fire volleys of blank
cartridges; but there are no rifle ranges at which the men are trained
to shoot. Some batteries of artillery occasionally have target practice:
but this is more to test guns than actual training. Those artillerymen
whom I have seen at practice were very erratic in their shooting, and
were seldom nearer than fifty yards of the object fired at, and when
their general sighted a gun himself and got the target at two thousand
yards, he was so pleased that he had to walk up and down for a few
minutes. The reason men are not trained in shooting is, I think, because
in Afghanistan among all classes of men a cartridge is looked upon as a
cartridge, and not a thing to be used without necessity. The only good
shots I have seen are the workmen who test all rifles and guns as they
are turned out of the shops. I have sometimes, when practising, given the
small rifle I was using to one or other of the soldiers with me to try a
shot, and in no case was any man at all near the target. The hillmen who
are more accustomed to shooting and are sometimes good shots, lie down
and rest the rifle on a rock when firing.
The Amir’s bodyguard, foot and cavalry, are the only regiments properly
uniformed, and the Amir sees that they keep their uniforms clean, and
their arms too. The foot-guards are armed with Lee-Metford rifles and
bayonets, and the horse-guards with revolvers, swords, and carbines. Of
the other troops, a few regiments of the most trusted men are armed
with Martinis, and the rest have Sniders. The artillery batteries have
six and nine pounder guns, and there are some mule batteries with six
and three pounders, but the guns are badly sighted and of short range,
the fuzes also are unreliable, and the shells of small efficiency, so
that the artillery cannot be considered very formidable. The mules and
horses used for the artillery and transport are strong and sturdy, and
are used to mountain paths and roads, but the transport animals are too
few for the service of a large army. The rifles, which are made in the
Government shops, are also badly sighted, and hardly two of them shoot
alike. If they are used for firing against a large number of men massed
together, the defective sighting may not make a great deal of difference;
but accuracy is of first importance in a rifle, and the shooting of
trained troops in action is sufficiently bad, without leaving much else
to chance. Another great defect is that the powder, which is made in the
country, fouls the bore after four or five rounds so badly that cleaning
is necessary, for otherwise the kick of the gun prevents straight
shooting, and tends to demoralize the shooter. Maxim and Gatling guns are
also made in the shops, but owing to the inaccurate fitting of working
parts, and the cartridges not being uniform and exact to gauge, it is
seldom that a full belt of cartridges can be fired without a stop.
The pay of the troops is very inadequate, considering the dearness of
food now to what it used to be. For infantry the pay was eight rupees
Kabuli a month, until the present Amir, on his coming to the throne,
raised it, to keep the troops contented, to ten rupees a month (6_s._
8_d._). Cavalry receive thirty rupees Kabuli a month (20_s._), but have
to find their own horse and its keep out of that. The Amir’s foot-guards
receive thirty rupees a month, and are men envied by the rest of the
troops because of their princely incomes. The soldiers were far from
content when the Amir advanced their pay by two rupees only, for they
expected more, and talked of what they would do if they did not get
it; but the Afghans are very much like sheep, and unless there is one
to lead the way, they remain where they are, and do nothing but bleat
occasionally. For each active service medal a soldier gets a rupee extra
monthly, and a soldier therefore prizes his medals; but the loyalty
medal given to all the troops by the present Amir, when after two years
they had remained faithful to him, and had given no trouble, was in many
cases pawned for the value of its silver in order to buy food, for the
famine came on shortly after the medals were distributed. During the
famine, when flour was unobtainable, the Government gave wheat in lieu
of a certain portion of the soldiers’ pay, and continued to do so until
supplies from the new crops came in.
The length of a soldier’s service is indefinite, and may be regarded as
continuing until he is too old for his duties. Many of the soldiers have
told me that they had not seen their families for over twenty years,
for there are no recognized regulations regarding leave, and when it
is absolutely necessary for a soldier to go to his home to settle some
private affairs, he is allowed to do so provided he leaves a substitute
behind him. In some cases the substitutes are quite young boys, and I
have seen several of them in the Jidrani and other regiments of hillmen
who were so small that the rifle they carried seemed huge in comparison;
but usually they were smart in carrying out their duties, and were quick
in attending to orders. What their value would be on active service is
another matter. The soldiers are mostly poor men, and some of them have
nothing but their pay for themselves and family to depend upon, so when
they find that they are growing old and their beards and hair getting
grey, they dye them, in order to continue on the active list and go on
drawing pay.
The barracks of the soldiers are unfurnished, that is, they have no
beds, chairs, or tables, and the men sleep on the floor, excepting those
who are fortunate enough to possess a charpai, or wooden bedstead, and
for a dining-table they spread a coarse mat on the ground and sit on it
while eating their food. Each paira (guard of seven men, including the
havildar) carries its own cooking utensils, and it is the havildar’s
duty to provide a chopper for cutting firewood and an iron plate on which
to bake bread; the other utensils, which consist of a copper cooking-pot,
a metal teapot, which is also used as a kettle, and handleless teacups,
are provided by the men. As it is their custom to eat with their fingers
direct from the pot, no knives and forks or plates are required.
When off duty they laze about in groups, or sit and listen while one of
their number strums the rubarb and sings, or else they tell stories.
Many of the soldiers are inveterate gamblers, and although card-playing
is strictly forbidden and severely punished when detected, it is very
common among them, and leads to a good deal of crime, and I knew one man
who shot himself because of his losses at cards. If their quarters are
near a bazar, they stroll about there, and very often make themselves
objectionable to the people, and generally show off as soldiers will
when they have nothing better to do. The soldiers, however, do not have
a great deal of time to themselves, for there are many guards which they
have to mount and other duties on which they are kept busy. Their duties
on guard are not tiring, and they do little but sit and sleep, except
when they have to take their turn at sentry-go. They have passwords for
the night, and the word is changed every second or third night. With
those on guard round the Amir the password is different each night, and
is strictly enforced.
The various regiments are usually named after the tribe or country they
come from, such as the Mohmundai, Jidrani, Jarji, Kandahari, Kohistani,
Ardeel, ʾOud Khel. Then there are the sappers and miners, which regiment
is entirely composed of Hazaras, and the artillery, which is called the
toop khana. All the men of the army are Afghans, excepting the sappers
and miners and the Kotwali (police) regiment, the latter being derisively
styled by other regiments as “panch padar” (men with five fathers). The
Amir’s horse-guards are called the “Rissala Shahi.”
The ʾOud Khels are the thief tribe, and as it was impossible to stop
their depredations by other means, for the chiefs of the tribe said
their land was unproductive and they had no other means of living, the
late Amir formed the bulk of them into a regiment, and gave the rest
of the tribe to understand that they must stop stealing from their
fellow-countrymen, telling them that if they wanted to steal they must
go to India to do it. Many of the rifles stolen from Peshawur and other
Indian cantonments could be accounted for by these people. The ʾOud Khels
used to give the former Amirs of the country a good deal of trouble, and
they resisted the various feeble attempts made at different times to keep
them in order; but Amir Abdur Rahman was too strong for them, as he was
for most of the lawless people of the country.
There is a story told by the people of Kabul of Amir Shere Ali and the
chief of the ʾOud Khels. The latter had been sent for to be told that
unless the tribe stopped their thieving, which had of late been very
flagrant, the Amir would have each robber caught and hanged. The chief
told him that no one could catch an ʾOud Khel in the exercise of his
profession, for they were all past masters, and in proof of what he said
he undertook to rob the sleeping shawl from under the Amir himself that
night, and consented to being hanged if he was caught while doing so. The
next morning the chief appeared before the Amir and produced the sleeping
shawl from under his coat, handed it to him, saying that he had redeemed
his word. The Amir was astounded that the man could pass his guards, make
his way undetected into his sleeping chamber, and there take from under
him the shawl he slept on, without waking him; and from that time, it was
said, Amir Shere Ali left the ʾOud Khels alone.
The ʾOud Khel regiment used to take their turn of guard in the workshops,
each regiment in turn supplies a company for a month on this duty, and
their captain I found to be a simple-minded man, and having helped some
of his men during the first cholera epidemic that occurred while I was
there, we became acquainted. He used to come to my office at times during
the dinner-hour and chat with me, and one day I asked him to teach me the
Pushtoo language, as I wished to learn it and had no book to study it
from. He seemed uncomfortable when I asked him and remained silent, but
after a time he said he could not teach languages, because he was not
accustomed to it, but he would teach me to thieve, and he undertook to
make me so efficient that in a few weeks no one would be able to catch me
doing it. The ʾOud Khel regiment was disbanded by the Amir at one time,
but they at once took to their old profession, and complaints were so
loud that the Amir had them enrolled again.
The titles of the officers of the army are, Super Salah or
Commander-in-Chief, Naib Salah, his deputy, Jinrael (general), Kernael
(colonel), Kameedand (commandant), Kaftan (captain), Subadar (lieutenant
of foot), Risaldar (lieutenant of horse), Havildar (sergeant of foot),
Duffedar (sergeant of horse). The chief officers of the army are selected
from the Amir’s family, or from among his favourites, and there is no
promotion by grades, but only by favouritism. The late Amir, when forming
a regiment, would have the men drawn up in front of him, and then, by
simply judging the character of those he thought suitable, would select
from among them those who were to be the officers.
There are several bands, some with string and some with wind instruments,
and the music the brass bands bring forth is something to be remembered,
for all the instruments seem to keep their own time, and each man
apparently plays a tune of his own, and does his best to make what he
plays over heard above the others. The result is rather staggering when
they are close to one. There is a bagpipe band, too, and snatches of
their music would make it appear that they try to play Scotch airs;
and the men of this band imitate the Highland dress, the skirt being
represented by a check print shirt, which hangs below the tunic and
outside the trousers, which latter are often dirty white calico ones.
This band is a tribute to the fighting qualities of the Highlanders, whom
the Afghans look upon as superior to all others, and say they are real
devils.
I was told by one man that during the fighting on the Sher Darwaza
heights by the city of Kabul, one day the English had to retire, and he
saw among the last to go one of the Highlanders running leisurely back
carrying his rifle under his arm, with the muzzle pointing behind, and,
as he ran, slipping cartridges into the breach, and firing back at the
enemy. The man said he could see that the Highlander’s heart was not in
his running away. On this day’s fighting many of the citizens turned out
to take part in it, and the man who told me the foregoing was one of them.
The Afghans appear to judge music by the volume of sound created, for
on one of the festivals, when I went with some others to salaam the
Queen-Sultana, we were entertained in an open pavilion in the garden, and
three bands were sent to play to us. They did so, stationing themselves
on three sides of the pavilion and loudly playing different things at
once, and it was rather trying, for they don’t get tired soon, but the
people round about seemed to think it quite all right.
The Afghan Army, regarded as a fighting machine matched against civilized
troops, could not be considered efficient. The Afghan, as a soldier, has
many good qualities; he can live for days on a few handfuls of grain,
and endure considerable fatigue at the same time; he can sleep in the
open on the coldest night, wrapped in his sheepskin, and do no more than
he is accustomed to; over mountains he is untiring; and he is plucky
and would fight well, provided he had confidence in his officers. He
also appreciates pluck, and Lieutenant Hamilton, who was with Cavagnari,
and was one of those massacred, is to this day spoken of as the brave
Feringhee. His own officers, however, are no better than himself in their
knowledge of the art of war, and being chosen mostly from among the men,
they have little authority as officers, and the influence of those who
are looked up to by the men is entirely due to their own individuality.
There is very little discipline, and unless an officer exerts his
personality to make the men carry out his orders, he will find that they
take very little notice of them, or him; for the soldiers are quick to
judge who is their master, and leniency or consideration is looked upon
by them as one of two things—fear of themselves, or the act of a fool.
None of the generals have any knowledge of modern warfare, for their
experience has been confined to the wild tribes of those countries
brought under the rule of the Afghans of late years, and of those who
fought against the English during the last war there are few, if any,
living. When they talk of fighting any foreign power, they rely on the
number of soldiers and hillmen that the preaching of the Jihad will
influence to fight for their country; and another thing they look upon
as advantageous to themselves is that the country is so broken up and
mountainous, it would offer considerable difficulty to the effective and
rapid movement of invading troops, and it is this which forms one of the
Amir’s chief objections to the introduction of railways in his country.
The Afghans rarely care to risk a pitched battle, and are besides more
accustomed to guerilla warfare, and in the event of invasion it is the
latter method of fighting which would, no doubt, be adopted, and among
the mountain passes there are places where a few determined men, properly
armed, could keep back an army. For an invading army there would be great
difficulty in getting heavy artillery moved about in most parts of the
country, and mule batteries would be required; but in the plains around
Kabul, Jelalabad, and Kandahar, big guns would be wanted, at least equal
in range to the Afghan guns, and to get these to the Kabul plains, except
by two roundabout routes, would be very difficult.
The Afghan authorities have now more confidence in the efficiency of
their army, and consider it quite different and superior to what it was
when Lord Roberts was there, and it is possible, in the event of another
war with them, that they would offer battle in force, but if the day went
against them, the rest of the fighting would probably be of the guerilla
sort, to which they are more accustomed, unless they considerably
outnumbered the enemy at any time. In their own fighting, one against the
other, there is generally one pitched battle, and whosoever is routed
runs away and fights no more; they say themselves, that a defeated army
runs, and does not stop running, under three days.
In time of war women carry supplies to the men, and then the laws of
“purdah” are suspended, and being a case of necessity, they are allowed
to show their faces without shame. It is well known that the women,
during the wars with the English, used to go out at night after a battle,
and mutilate the bodies of the dead, and kill the wounded and dying.
Many also took part in the fighting. As an illustration of one side of
the Afghan character, I may mention an incident told me by a man, who
belonged to the Kandahar district. His cousin owned a house some miles
out of Kandahar (I have mentioned that houses are protected by high
walls), and after one of the battles fought by the English against the
tribes about, there were many stragglers following the main army back
towards Kandahar. One day his cousin was told by one of his men that an
Englishman was outside the walls shouting, and on going to the roof,
whence he could look over the wall, he saw a Highlander carrying a rifle,
who called out to give him some food. The cousin ran back to his room,
and brought out a rifle, and climbing up to the roof again, knelt behind
the wall, and aiming carefully at the soldier, fired. The man dropped,
but was not killed, as a movement could now and then be observed, and
the cousin feared to go out to get the rifle, for which he had shot him;
so they kept watch for two days before it was decided that life must be
extinct, and during that time the soldier called often and piteously for
water, but no one went near, fearing vengeance as long as there was life
left in him.