Indians in World War 1 and 2
Indians in World War 1 and 2
As remembrance day and Veterans day is celebrated in the West, let us also remember the millions of Indian soldiers who fought for Allies in WW1 and WW2.
India was part of the British Empire during World War 1 and World War 2.
World War I
The Indian Army was active in the Middle Eastern and European theatre during World War 1. Frankly, there was not much of a navy and air force for Indian Army during this time.
The International Encyclopedia of the First World War has an excellent article about the contribution of Indians to the British World War 1 effort:
Some 1.5 million Indians served in the Indian Army during World War I and, of those, slightly more than one million deployed to battlefronts spanning Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
India played a vital role in the British Empire’s war against the Central Powers, providing manpower, money, and materiel. Indeed, India’s total contribution in manpower exceeded that of all of Britain’s dominions – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa – combined.
Indian soldiers made a dent in the course of events. For instance, Indian soldiers liberated Haifa, Israel during 1918 battle.
Indian contribution is detailed in this Wikipedia article.
World War II
The Indian army, navy and Air Force were active in European, African, Middle-Eastern and Asian theatres. In 1939, the British Indian Army numbered 205,000 men. It took in volunteers and, by 1945, was the largest all-volunteer force in history, rising to over 3.35 million men.
Indian forces effected the liberation of Italy, battles in Libya and North Africa, Java sea campaign, the defence of Sydney Harbour, attack on Japanese air bases in Northern Thailand.
In the Libyan theatre, in the Battle of Bir Hakiem, Indian gunners were triumphant against German tank forces.
Indian soldiers were badly treated.
The contribution of Indian soldiers has often been in adverse conditions. They were treated as canon fodder, often sent to battles with slim odds of success, ill-equipped with weapons and rations, and received less medical support.
The situation of rations improved during World War II when Churchill condemned more than 3 million Indians from the state of Bengal to death by diverting food supplies to the soldiers.
Let us not forget the heroes.
Often in the context of World Wars, the contribution of the greatest volunteer force in the world - the Indian Army is ignored. Not much is talked about the various memorials dedicated to Indian soldiers across the world.
If you want to know a brief please download this ebook by Ministry of External Affairs India listing all Indian War Memorials and look for those for World Wars all over the world, from Singapore, Turkey, Romania, Malta, Lebanon, Japan, Italy, Israel, Iran etc.
To all those fallen, I pay my respects. I hope we make an India you will be proud of.