Remember the FT17s that turned up in Afghanistan a couple of years ago?
I've come a cross a claim that at least one FT17 was captured "from the British Expeditionary Force" that entered Afghanistan during the Third Afghan War of 1919. Is this a possibility? Any evidence of any Renaults being in British hands?
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I'm afraid that this is one of those hoary old ones that been around several times (including in this forum). There is no evidence of any British use of tanks in this campaign let alone Renaults. There is a highly misleading photo that is captioned as a British tank in the Khyber pass - on examination it turns out to be a 1930s carrier. The mistake probably arose because there is a small town near the frontier called Tank, this was captured by the Afghans early in the 1919 war (doubtless giving rise to a line something like "Afghans capture Tank from British"). The town was recaptured later ("British recapture Tank from Afghans"?). Tank was used as a British forward base in the 2nd World War for patrols intended to keep the border areas quiet and might well have hosted armoured vehicles - probably armoured cars. Afghanistan had a couple of civil wars in the inter war period and the Iranians supported and provisioned one faction = as Iran had Renault FTs at the time they might have been the source for the Afghan FT17s
Sorry. I've found that thread now.I must try to remember things that have already featured on the forum.
Tank (or Tonk) is, I now know, in Pakistan, and has not been without its tragic episodes. Sir Henry Durand, lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, was killed there in 1870 when passing under a gateway on an elephant. What a picture that conjures up. That's where we must have the Christmas do.
The misleading headline, whether apocryphal or not, is a beauty, almost on a par with Montgomery Flies Back To Front: Eighth Army Push Bottles Up Germans.
Thank you, Cent.
-- Edited by James H at 12:12, 2007-04-10
-- Edited by James H at 12:18, 2007-04-10
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
