Battle of Kandahar

Kandahar: 92nd Highlanders storming Gundi Mulla Sahibdad. Oil by Richard Caton Woodville

Date	1 September 1880
Location	Kandahar, Afghanistan
Result	Decisive British victory

Belligerents

British Empire

India

Afghanistan

Commanders and leaders

Frederick Roberts

Ayub Khan

Strength

10,000 troops
32 guns

13,000 regular troops and tribesmen
32 guns

Casualties and losses

100+
218 wounded

1,000 killed
400 wounded (approx)

British Empire

The Battle of Kandahar, 1 September 1880, was the last major conflict of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The battle in southern Afghanistan was fought between the British forces under command of General Roberts and the Afghan forces led by Ayub Khan. It ended with a decisive British victory, having inflicted nearly 3,000 casualties in total.

In May 1879, after the death of the Amir Sher Ali Khan, Sir Louis Cavagnari negotiated and signed the Treaty of Gandamak with his successor, Mohammad Yaqub Khan. The treaty obliged the Afghans to admit a British resident governor at Kabul; a position Cavagnari himself took up in July. However, on the 3 September, Cavagnari and the other European members of the mission were massacred in a sudden rising of Afghan rebel troops.

After Yakub Khan had been dethroned and exiled for suspected collusion in the murder of Cavagnari, feelers were put out for two replacement candidates: his younger brother, Ayub Khan the Governor of Herat, and his nephew, Abdur Rahman Khan. However, in May 1880, a new British Liberal government recalled the Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton and replaced him with Lord Ripon who had instructions to bring all troops out of Afghanistan. These plans for the evacuation were disrupted by Ayub Khan, who after stirring up anti-British feeling, had sallied out of Herat in early June with 10,000 followers. 1,500 British and Indian troops, together with Afghan levies, was sent to intercept this force.

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Wikipedia