First World War
First World War information relevant to British India, including the involvement of the Indian Army and of Anglo Indians in the British Army.
Contents
General information
The Indian Divisions of 1914-1918 on 1914-1918.net
Anglo-Indians
“Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1914, brought immediate mobilization in India and by 1915, the British war drain produced hundreds of officer vacancies in the regular army which became accessible to Anglo-Indians for the first time since the East India Company's ban of 1791. Conscription was enforced systematically among the Anglo-Indians at odds with the experience of other Indian communities treated more leniently. (Abel:1988) By 1916, perhaps 8,000 Anglo-Indians had joined British units as in the case of the many "India-born" recruits accepted by the Dorset Regiment. Jhansi's Anglo-Indian Battery attached to the 77th Royal Field Artillery, had the largest concentration of Anglo-Indian conscripts and volunteers and earned a distinguished record in the Mesopotamian conflict. In total, 50-75% of the adult Anglo-Indian population saw active service although non-emergency enlistment in the British Army remained closed to them. (Dover:1937) Most were immediately sent abroad while others were employed by the sudden munitions and supply boom, for instance, at Kanpur where the army's leather processing centre had been located since after the Mutiny. (Thomas:1982)” [1]
Western Front
Mesopotamia
More information
- Mesopotamian Campaign Wikipedia
- Siege of Kut Wikipedia
- Mesopotamia 1914-1918.net
Railways
The Iraq Railway and the Indian Railway Department were a Unit and Regiment of the Indian Army in Mesopotamia during World War 1.
"Without the work of the Indian auxiliaries on the Mesopotamian railways – which supplied almost every requisite for fighting and for everyday living on campaign –the Allied forces would never have enjoyed the victory they achieved."[2]
More information:
- The Railways of Mesopotamia by Richard Coke from The Railway Magazine April 1928 from fuchs-online.com.
- Baghdad Railway Wikipedia
- Iraqi Republic Railways Wikipedia
Notes
- ↑
"Some Comments on stereotypes of the Anglo-Indians: Part II" by Megan Stuart Mills from the International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies 1996, quoting
- Abel, Evelyn. (1988). The Anglo-Indian Community. Chanakya Publications: Delhi.
- Dover, Cedric. (1937). Half-Caste. London: Martin, Secker and Warburg.
- Thomas, David A. (1982). Lucknow and Kanpur, 1880-1920: Stagnation and Development under the Raj. South Asia. 5, 68-80.
- ↑ Memorial Gates Trust, First World War-Mesopotamia
External links
- Battles of WWI involving British India Wikipedia
- Center for Indian Military History, an index of links to articles such as “British-Indian Army: Imperial Service Troops 1888-1918” and “Indian Infantry Regiments of World War I: 1st Brahmans through 30th Punjabis". The History page has some links about the Indian Army pre-1947 which do not appear in the index.
- The Mesopotamian front! As observed by LTC Davis, 1918 MilitaryPhotos.net
- "Battle of Tanga, German East Africa, 1914". Kenneth J Harvey, 2003. Master of Military Art and Science Theses from Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library. In November 1914, British Indian Expeditionary Force "B" conducted an amphibious assault on the Port of Tanga in German East Africa
- "British experience in Iraq from 1914-1926: what wisdom can the United States draw from its experience?" by Matthew W Williams,2004 from Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library
