NAM.1997-12-12-271

‘Perfect place for an ambush now guarded by a permanent picquet’, North West Frontier, India, 1937. Photograph, North West Frontier, India, 1937. A North Western State Railways train negotiates a mountainous pass. The train included trucks fitted with loopholed armoured plates and equipped with Vickers machine guns. An observation post can be seen on the heights ahead. The North Western State Railway was formed in 1886 from the amalgamation of several railway companies and remained in operation until Indian independence in 1947. The construction of railways was integral to the British strategy to establish and maintain security in the border region between Afghanistan and British India. From an album of 347 photographs compiled by Captain (later Major) Wynne Howes-Roberts, 1st Battalion 13th Frontier Force Rifles, India and UK, 1936-1937.

India, North West Frontier (1920-1937)