![]() ![]() Nonetheless, the head of the Kabul Legation, Sir Francis Humphrys (himself a former RAF pilot), knew that his Habibullah’s followers were only barely under his control. Habibullah stated that he did not wish to target the Legation, after having been confronted by the head of the Legation, who brought gifts of chewing tobacco when by chance the Afghan warlord was riding past on his white house. On December 14, 1928, the Legation was effectively surrounded by the tribal leader Habibullah Kalakani and his following of 3,000 Ghilzai tribesmen, who were attacking Kabul as part of the rapidly unfolding civil war. Yet here were perhaps 600 people to be rescued the from surrounded Legation complex.Īt Risalpur, India, RAF 70 Squadron’s Vickers Victoria unloads women and children from the Kabul Legation at the height of the December 1928 evacuation period. Maxwell, a World War I fighter ace, and later four Handley Page Hinaidi troop transports were dispatched from Baghdad, Iraq, to assist. On the urgent request of the RAF in India, a Vickers Victoria, flown by Squadron Leader R.S. Two squadrons of Airco DH.9A fighters (24 in all from RAF 27 and 60 Squadrons), two Westland Wapitis and little else was available. The RAF quickly realized that the task looked hopeless. ![]() ![]() The British ordered the Royal Air Force to evaluate its readiness for the mass evacuation of all foreigners from Kabul. By December 1928, it was clear that the all Europeans were at risk. When the civil war erupted, the British and the diplomatic community living in the Legation had almost no warning. What followed was the world’s first successful aerial rescue of hundreds of Westerners and British subjects from the threat of civil war, an operation which culminated today in aviation history, on February 25, 1929. Then the power was cut - and all communications ceased as the Afghan warlords closed in. With the road to India cut, an aerial evacuation seemed the only option. Seen through the deeply religious views of Afghans across the country, the matter was escalated to the point of a religious war against the King and his modernization plans - the Shinwari issued formal demands, including that the British Legation be completely abandoned, that 15 Afghan girls who had been sent to Turkey for an education be returned at once and that no other Afghans be sent abroad for education, either male or female.Īfghan King Amanullah, whose Westernization programs set off the civil war within Afghanistan and precipitated the evacuation crisis.Īs Afghan tribes began targeting foreigners, the Kabul Legation, a diplomatic enclave to the northwest of Kabul that comprised 23 acres of land and numerous large buildings, was cut off and at grave risk. Soon tribes across Afghanistan were in full revolt in sympathy with the Shinwari. As the situation spiraled down toward chaos, the King’s strategy instantly backfired as word spread that non-Muslims had piloted planes against the faithful of the Shinwari tribe. He ordered his small, fledgling air force, with many planes flown by expatriate White Russian pilots, to bomb the Shinwari tribe. The Afghan King’s response was equally swift. As well, they seized the Khyber Pass to India. The Shinwari tribe east of Kabul was the first to rise in revolt and they closed the Kabul-Peshawar road at Jalalabad and cut water supplies to the city. Common Afghans declared him an unbeliever, too radically focused on change that was un-Islamic. Even as the situation descended into chaos, King Amanullah had himself photographed before a photo of Charles Lindbergh, whom he considered the living example of the modern world. ![]() He had passed laws in his newly implemented European-style parliament that required Afghans to wear modern, Western clothing, dropped the requirement for women to wear the veil, eliminated polygamy, set a minimum age for marriage, required that a proportion of all young girls from each family be sent to Kabul to receive a proper education, and instituted what were for many their first taxes. An uprising of tribes opposed to the modernization plans of the British-sponsored King of Afghanistan, Amanullah, who, after having taken a seven month tour of Europe, had overstepped his authority in his desire was to bring Afghanistan into the modern world. The rapidly destabilizing security situation in Afghanistan was clearly evident. As 1928 drew to a close, conditions for the British Legation in Kabul were dire. ![]()
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