Afghan Soldiers World War 1

[kilkenny]

I read on BBC website today thge the International Red Cross has in its archives records of a group of Afghan soldiers being taken prisoner. This surprised me as I never heard of Afghan soldiers on the Western Front before.

Can anyojne in AB land enlighten me further on this


Thanks

[4GS]

Got a link?
They may have enlisted in the Indian Army in order to fight, I don't know if Afghanistan was in WW1

[dot.hawkes]

found this, looked for more info too, lots about the balkans of course, but not much on Afganistan,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7085430.stm

[kempie]

Any Afghan soldiers in WW1 would not have been fighting as part of an official Afghan force since Afghanistan was officially neutral despite pressure to support Turkey when its sultan proclaimed his nation's participation in what it considered a holy war. The Emir of Afghanistan did entertain a German-Turkish diplomatic mission in Kabul in 1915 that sought to encourage Afghanistan to declare support for the Central Powers and attack British India, for which he received huge payment and arms provisions, however he used the war as an opportunity to play one side off against the other by also offering the British his resistance to a Central Powers attack on India in exchange for an end to British control of Afghan foreign policy.