This is a fast-moving account of Britain's three wars on the North-West Frontier of India against the Afghan people who, fierce in their devotion to Islam and warlike in defense of their homeland, proved to be the rock of Asian independence. The British Army's dramatic invasion and humiliating defeat of the first war are described, but this book reaches far beyond that and covers, for the first time, all three Afghan wars. It examines the second war in the light of the growth of rivalry between the two most powerful states in Europe in the 19th century--Russia, the totalitarian land power, and England, the sea power and bastion of liberty--and gives a gripping account of Britain's attempt to secure the North-West Frontier against Russian influence. Then, using original material, the author describes the third war of 1919, one of the last imperial wars and the first Indian war in which air-power played an important role.