tank

Afghanistan gives historic tank to Poland

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

No trains, but this is quite interesting. The government of Afghanistan has given Poland a French-built WWI era Renault FT-17 tank which had survived in Kabul.

Renault FT-17 tank

FT-17 tanks were used by Polish forces in the Polish–Soviet War of 1919-21. Some were captured by Russian Bolshevik forces, and subsequently given to the Amir of Afghanistan in 1923 (that would have been King Amanullah).

In recent years westerners released a few of these tanks had survived in Afghanistan, and some went to the USA and France for preservation.

The Polish President asked the Afghan President for one, and at the end of October it was flown to Poland for restoration at the Land Forces Training Centre in Poznan, and eventual display in the Warsaw military museum, “a testament to the Polish-Afghan friendship and a recognition of Poland’s contribution to the reconstruction of Afghanistan”, according to Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.