Now all you recruities what's drafted to-day, You shut up your rag-box an' 'ark to my lay, An' I'll sing you a soldier as far as I may: A soldier what's fit for a soldier.
—Rudyard Kipling, “The Young British Soldier”
On the latest Gordon’s Gun Closet episode (#010 - Martini Henry), Gordon mentioned the complementary episodes of The History Files dealing with Afghanistan, so here is part 1 of that four-part series. Like the Martini Henry episode of GGC, this one originally aired in August of 2016.
From the original show notes: Afghanistan has been called the “graveyard of empires”. This week we look far back into the origins of this concept and make it as far as the beginning of the 1st Anglo-Afghan war in the first half of the 19th century. Remember: it’s easy to get into Afghanistan, but not so easy to get out.
Links:
Shooting Austro-Hungarian Arms | WeaponsMan (weaponsman.com)
The Quiet Gun 1957 Western Movie Forrest Tucker, Jim Davis, Lee Van Cleef (youtu.be)
Gun the Man Down | (trailersfromhell.com)
Afghanistan: the Great Game, review (telegraph.co.uk)
Alexander Burnes Bad Cat Store at Zazzle (Zazzle.com)
Afghanistan - Part 1