Western Front: Difference between revisions

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*[http://dli.serc.iisc.ernet.in/handle/2015/274726 ''A History of the Army Ordnance Services, Volume III: The Great War''] by Major General Arthur Forbes 2nd edition 1932, first published 1929. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Includes chapters on the Western Front  (Part I).
*[http://dli.serc.iisc.ernet.in/handle/2015/274726 ''A History of the Army Ordnance Services, Volume III: The Great War''] by Major General Arthur Forbes 2nd edition 1932, first published 1929. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Includes chapters on the Western Front  (Part I).
*[https://archive.org/details/signalserviceine00prie ''The Signal Service in the European War of 1914-1918 (France)''] by R E Priestley (Late Major, R E) 1921 Archive.org. Includes information about the use of [https://archive.org/stream/signalserviceine00prie#page/357/mode/1up carrier pigeons] (Index entry)
*[https://archive.org/details/signalserviceine00prie ''The Signal Service in the European War of 1914-1918 (France)''] by R E Priestley (Late Major, R E) 1921 Archive.org. Includes information about the use of [https://archive.org/stream/signalserviceine00prie#page/357/mode/1up carrier pigeons] (Index entry)
**[https://archive.org/stream/signalserviceine00prie#page/10/mode/2up/search/Indian Page 11] includes a very brief reference to the Indian Telegraph units of the Indian Army. These were very likely to have been men from the  [[Post and Telegraphs Department|Post and Telegraphs Department]] in India, who were appointed to the Army at the outbreak of war. Also see the following book.
*[https://archive.org/details/cu31924012679548 ''The Post Office of India in the Great War''] edited by H.A. Sams  1922 Archive.org. Officers and men of the [[Post and Telegraphs Department|Post and Telegraphs Department]] in India who became the military postal service of the Indian Army. Includes chapters on the Western Front.
*[https://archive.org/details/surgeoninkhaki01mart ''A Surgeon in Khaki''] by Arthur Anderson Martin 1915 Archive.org. Includes the  process of the author’s commission, description of a Field Ambulance structure.  
*[https://archive.org/details/surgeoninkhaki01mart ''A Surgeon in Khaki''] by Arthur Anderson Martin 1915 Archive.org. Includes the  process of the author’s commission, description of a Field Ambulance structure.  
*[http://www.army.gov.au/~/media/Files/Our%20history/AAHU/Primary%20Materials/World%20War%20One%201914-1918/Documents/A%20Record%20of%20the%20Battles%20and%20Engagements%20of%20the%20British%20Armies%201914-1918.pdf  ''A Record of the Battles and Engagements of the British Armies in France and Flanders 1914-1918''] by Captain E A James 48th (South Midland) Divisional Signals T A  1924. army.gov.au
*[http://www.army.gov.au/~/media/Files/Our%20history/AAHU/Primary%20Materials/World%20War%20One%201914-1918/Documents/A%20Record%20of%20the%20Battles%20and%20Engagements%20of%20the%20British%20Armies%201914-1918.pdf  ''A Record of the Battles and Engagements of the British Armies in France and Flanders 1914-1918''] by Captain E A James 48th (South Midland) Divisional Signals T A  1924. army.gov.au

Revision as of 02:33, 9 June 2016

As the First World War progressed more troops were needed for the Western Front. To meet this demand Expeditionary Force A from India was sent to reinforce the British Troops – particularly in France.. [1]

Many men who fell during these campaigns are honoured by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Amongst these are 4,742 soldiers from India whose names are recorded on the Neuve Chapelle Memorial in France. In 1964 these names were expanded to also commemorate 210 servicemen of India whose graves at Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery in East Germany could not be maintained.

Related articles

Recommended reading

Recommended by Peter Moore on the Military reading list
"Sepoy in the Trenches: The Indian Corps on the Western Front, 1914-15 by Gordon Corrigan, Kent, UK; first edition. 1999; 16 plates; 9 maps; hardcover; 274 pp. An excellent, updated account of the sufferings and heroism of the Indian regiments sent to France in the bitterest of winters clad only in tropical uniforms until transferred to the Mesopotamian Campaign in 1915. The author, a retired Major (late Royal Gurkha Rifles and ex-10GR), 1998), has an authentic feel for the old Indian Army and the times".

“Well worth tracking a copy, both as a fascinating book and a display of how good military history should be written.“[2]

For an interview with the author Gordon Corrigan, see below.

Indian treacle (opium)

On the Western Front, Sikh troops were supplied with Indian treacle, an euphemism for opium, which was part of their ration.[3]

External links

Video and transcript: "Illiterate but Literary: The Censored Correspondence of Indian Soldiers in France, 1914-18" by Dr David Omissi, recorded on 2 November 2015 nam.ac.uk, including YouTube video.
See Historical books online, below.
Neuve Chapelle Memorial ww1cemeteries.com

Maps

  • "How to read a Trench Map" by Howard Anderson, October 2008 Western Front Association.
  • Western Front Maps from McMaster University, Canada. Text Search using Place Name or Trench Name.
  • National Library of Scotland WW1 Trench Maps. View maps overlaid on a modern map. Allows you to swap between trench map and modern map. On the left hand side you will see a slider to change the transparency between the trench map and the underlying modern map.
  • Great War British Trench Map Coordinates Converter muninn-project.org. Allows you to enter specific map references.
  • The National Archives series WO 153 "War Office: War of 1914-1918: Maps and Plans" is another source of maps, although the maps themselves do not appear to be available online. The catalogue may be searched through Discovery. The maps and plans in this series were collected from various sources, mainly for use by the Official War Historians, and as such were originally held in the Cabinet Office Historical Section. Many were extracted from regimental war diaries. More details, Western Front maps.

Historical books online

Volume of 14 Maps National Library of Australia, with a description in the catalogue entry.
Life in a Tank by Richard Haigh, Captain of the Tank Corps 1918 Archive.org
  • Our Indians at Marseilles by Massia Bibikoff ; with an introduction by Maurice Barrès ; translated by Leonard Huxley ; with 50 illustrations by the author. 1915 Archive.org
  • Vocabulary of German Military Terms and Abbreviations by Army War College [USA] “Reprint of a British Document” 1917 Archive.org
  • "Indians' Daring Feats", page 99 Heroes and Heroic Deeds of the Great War by Donald A Mackenzie 1916. Archive.org. A book for younger readers.
  • Half-novel, half-autobiography: The Middle Parts of Fortune: Somme and Ancre, 1916 by Frederic Manning 1929. Also published as Her Privates We. Pdf download of a transcription, University of Sydney Digital Collection. Considered “as being true to the actual experience of modern warfare in ways that nothing else had managed to be”. [6]
  • A novel: Across The Black Waters by Mulk Raj Anand. Reprint edition, possibly 1955, originally published 1940. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. A novel about Indian (Punjabi) soldiers who have crossed the black waters, against all the advice of their forefathers that calamity would befall anyone who went overseas, to join the British and their allies on the Western Front. The author was born in Peshawar in 1905, so was too young for first-hand experience of the war, but the book has a very authentic feel, suggesting that he not only did his research in books but also listened to the stories of older men who came back. He grew up in military cantonments, according to the introduction.[7] Review by Randeep Wadehra, August 6, 2000 The Tribune
  • A novel: Hira Singh: When India Came to Fight in Flanders by Talbot Mundy. Archive.org. Published in Britain as Hira Singh's Tale: When India Came to Fight in Flanders. Serialized in Adventure magazine, October 18 - December 3, 1917. Published in book form 1918. A fictional account of a cavalry regiment taken prisoners of war by the Germans.
  • A romantic novel: The Nurse's Story : In Which Reality Meets Romance by Adele Bleneau 1915 Archive.org. The hero of this romantic novel is a Captain in the Ludhiana Sikhs (page 97). There are suggestions that when it was published the book was considered to be fictionalized memoirs, perhaps not written under the author’s actual name. A film based on the book was made in 1919. The book is from the collection of the US National Library of Medicine, so perhaps is considered to have a realistic nursing background. For a review of this novel scroll if necessary to page 7, 5th column of the Pittsburgh Press (newspaper) dated August 7, 1917.

References

  1. India and the Western Front bbc.co.uk/history
  2. Great War Forum thread Indian Re-evaluation by David Filsell 17 July 2014
  3. page 66, ‪British Logistics on the Western Front: 1914-1919‬ by Malcolm Brown. quoting end notes 84, 85 WO 95/74 Director of Supplies, War Diary 29 October 1914, 1 November 1914 page 72
  4. Indian infantry unit war diaries go online The National Archives
  5. Larkin, Roy. The Motor-Bus in War. A.M.Beatson , 1918 Historic Military Vehicle Forum 8 February 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  6. "An outsider at war" by Richard Johnstone 4 June 2012. Inside Story.
  7. Liz in Eastbourne. Across the Black Waters by Mulk Raj Anand Great War Forum 3 March 2106. Retrieved 4 March 2016