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A Downed Pilot Who Ran Away in a Stolen Enemy Plane and Other Historic Escapes

Khalid Elhassan September 13, 2020 28 min

A P=51 making a low level pass on a German airplane. Art Station

15. Dashing Hopes For a Smooth Escape

The retreat from Kabul soon became a shambles. British Battles

It is unclear whether the reinstalled Afghan ruler deliberately betrayed the British, or whether he simply lacked the influence to control the tribesmen. Either way, things went sour for the British and their hopes for exiting Afghanistan with dignity.

On January 6^th, 1842, a British column of 16,5000 soldiers and civilians set out from Kabul amid falling snow. They had barely made it a mile beyond the city, before they began to take sniper fire from the surrounding hills. By day’s end, emboldened Afghan tribesmen were dashing in and out of the column to loot the supply train and butcher whoever they could lay their hands on. On the first night of the retreat, many froze to death when the column halted and set up camp in the open without tents.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.