Heat exhaustion is a familiar complaint in Britain's wars in Afghanistan, but in past military adventures it was a killer on an epic scale.

In the three Anglo-Afghan wars fought between 1838 and 1919, thousands of soldiers died from heat, lack of water and cholera from unhygienic local supplies.

The huge losses that the British suffered in the Battle of Maiwand (1880) during the second Anglo-Afghan War were compounded by the extreme heat, with the wounded dying soon after because of lack of water.

The battle took place near Kandahar in the neighbouring province to Helmand, where the British are now fighting the Taleban.

Chris Langlois, head of education at the National Army Museum in London, said that the vast majority of those fighting in the three wars — 1838-1842, 1878-1889 and 1919 — were Ghurkhas and troops from the Indian Army. They were chosen because their constitution was thought to be more suitable to extreme heat.

“The heat and lack of water presented the cumbersome armies and baggage trains of that era with serious problems,” he said.

Heat exhaustion is mentioned in accounts of the wars only occasionally, but references are made that troops carried water bottles with them and had to rely on local water sources.

British armies were aware of the heat factor and tended to invade Afghanistan in the winter. The tactic did not always work. Not only did the extreme cold cause food supply problems, it also proved equally as fatal as the heat. There was one disastrous period when troops retreated through the Khyber Pass and thousands perished in the cold.

The British soldiers, of course, were totally unsuited to extreme heat because they were attired in the woollen uniform and leather equipment of the Victoria Redcoat.

In the account of the Battle of Maiwand that appeared in The Times, the correspondent wrote: “I think that few will disagree with me in considering that of the 300 European and 700 natives found missing when the rolls were called, barely half the Europeans or a third of the natives perished in the field. Thirst and exhaustion killed the rest.”

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