Armed ForcesArmed Forces: In the 1930's the kingdom's armed forces underwent a process of considerable military reforms. With the assistance of Turkish and German military advisers/instructors, new and improved training techniques were introduced and incorporated into the military exercises.
In 1932 a military academy was opened in Kabul, with the aim of educating and training of the army officers of the lesser ranks (the commanders of the highest ranks underwent training in Turkey). In spite of the foreign assistance provided to the Afghan military, it was poorly equipped and lacked modern weaponry. In part this was the result of the British efforts to keep the country's armed forces as backward as possible. These efforts were mainly motivated by the fear that the Afghanis might some day attempt to regain the so called North-West Frontier Province (in present-day Pakistan), which the British unjustly incorporated to their Indian possessions in 1893. Prior to WWII Afghanistan conducted much of its limited foreign trade with Germany, Italy, and Japan, and once the war broke-out there were not many other countries left to buy military equipment from. A new organization of the armed forces was consolidated by late 1937 and the army consisted of two corps (each corps was composed of three mixed divisions). Each mixed division included three to five infantry regiments, one to two cavalry regiments, and a single regiment of artillery. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief was the King, while the main executive organ of the armed forces was the Ministry of the Military. The armed forces of Afghanistan did not participate in the Second World War. Army Afghanistan Airforce |