Forty years after the disastrous First Afghan War, the British found themselves invading Afghanistan again to remove Russian influence and install a government friendly to the British Empire. The war was to last two and half years, cost the lives of thousands of British and Indian soldiers as well as countless thousands of Afghans, and came close to bankrupting the Indian Government. Illustrated with contemporary photographs and based on first-hand official documents as well as unpublished private accounts, diarie,s and privately-printed memoirs, this is the first full-scale treatment of the war for more than 75 years.