Western Front

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..

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

• First World War
• Medals
• Nurse

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.“

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.

External links

• First World War regimental diaries of the Indian Infantry units deployed to the Western Front are available online to download via The National Archives's First World War 100 portal. At September 2014, 171 were available. They are not personal diaries. See TNA’s British Army war diaries 1914-1922 for more details about this type of record. Searching is free, but there may be a charge to download documents.
• India and the Western Front Article by Dr David Omissi on BBC History website.
• Khudadad Khan and Ghulam Haider of the 129th (Duke of Connaught's Own) Baluchis For his remarkable courage, at the village of Hollebeke, near Ypres in Belgium. Khudadad Khan was the first Indian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross. cwgc.org
• "The last post: letters home to India during the first world war" by Daljit Nagra 21 February 2014. The Guardian. "Letters from Indian Soldiers, 26 September 1915" 26 September 2015. British Library Untold lives blog. Letters from the West Reports of the Censor of Indian Mails in France. generalist.org.uk.

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.

• The Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle with Photographs. undereveryleaf.wordpress.com

Neuve Chapelle Memorial ww1cemeteries.com

• Indian Forces Memorial, Ypres greatwar.co.uk
• Valour and Sacrifice. The First Indian Soldiers in Europe 1914-1916 Website of High Commission of India in London.
• "The men who cut the war short" by Sidin Vadukut June 28 2014 Livemint. An interview with Gordon Corrigan, author of Sepoy in the Trenches: The Indian Corps on the Western Front, 1914-15
• Record Of Work [in France] Of Queen Alexandra’s Military Nursing Service For India Scarletfinders
• Royal Pavilion in Brighton, Sussex UK Used as a hospital for troops from the Indian corps who had been wounded during WW1 in France and Flanders and now contains the Indian Military Hospital gallery.
  • In Pictures: Brighton Pavilion's Indian military hospital BBC.
    
  • Doctor Brighton's Pavilion is an 'Online Exhibit' from sikhmuseum.com with much information.
  • Brighton, England : Remains of a faraway battle by Sidin Vadukut May 11 2013. www.livemint.com. The Chattri Memorial to Indian soldiers who fought in World War I
• Brockenhurst a First World War Hospital village 1914. [England]. newforestheritage.org. The Lady Hardinge Hospital for Wounded Indian Soldiers, used from the outbreak of war until the end of 1915. when the Indian Army Corps which it supported, was transferred to Egypt. In 1916 it became No 1 New Zealand General Hospital. Also see Nurse.
• A series of photographs depicting the Indian Army in the First World War, by H.D. Girdwood held by the British Library. flickr.com. Each photograph has a link to the British Library online photograph, where a zoom facility is available. The photographs were mainly taken on the Western Front, but some taken at the Indian hospitals at Brighton are also included. The set also includes British Army soldiers.
• "North East India and the First World War" by Pratap Chhetri February 4, 2016. The Indian Labour Corps: Lushai Labour Corps, Khasi Labour Corps, Garo Labour Corps, Naga Labour Corps, Manipur Labour Corps and enlistments from Tripura. "The Centre for Hidden Histories" [WW1]

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

• History of the Great War based on Official Documents: Military Operations: France and Belgium by Brigadier-General J E Edmonds
  • The Official Histories of the Great War 1914-1918.net. Details the various volumes.
  • Volume I August-October 1914: 1922 edition, Revised text 1937 edition
  • Volume II October-November 1914 1925 Archive.org
  • From the Digital Library of India, available as pdf downloads
    • 1915 Volume I, 1915 Volume II
    • 1916, 1916 Volume I, 1916 Volume II, 1916 Appendices
    • 1917 Volume I, 1917 Appendices probably to Volume I. (Volume II details follow later).
    • 1918: The great German offensive [21st March 1918] and its preliminaries (1935), 1918 Volume II, Volume III
  • 1917 Volume II 7th June-10th November Messines and Third Ypres (Passchendaele) published 1948. Hathi Trust Digital Library.
• History of the Great War based on Official Documents Transportation on the Western Front, 1914-1918 compiled by Colonel AM Henniker, R E (ret) 1937 Hathi Trust Digital Library. Pdf to download from the Digital Library of India

Volume of 14 Maps National Library of Australia, with a description in the catalogue entry.

• French Official Histories: Les Armées françaises dans la Grande Guerre sga.defense.gouv.fr. Eleven Tomes, some with multiple volumes, mostly about the Western Front. With online maps (Cartes) and at times panoramic sketches (Croquis panoramiques).
• The Royal Army Service Corps: A History of Transport and Supply in the British Army, Volume II by Colonel R H Beadon 1931. Link to an Adobe pdf download. Digital Library of India. Includes the First World War period, with chapters on the British Expeditionary Force.
• Army Service Corps of the British Army, and, the organization of the transport and transportation at the front in France : lectures delivered before the officers of the Quartermaster Corps and Quartermaster Reserve Corps at Washington, D.C., May 1917 by Lieut. Col. F K Puckle, A S C, British Army. Archive.org.
• 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).
• 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 carrier pigeons (Index entry)
  • 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 in India, who were appointed to the Army at the outbreak of war. Also see the following book.
• 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 in India who became the military postal service of the Indian Army. Includes chapters on the Western Front.
• 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.
• 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
• The British Campaign in France and Flanders by Arthur Conan Doyle 1914 Volume I 2nd Edition 1916; 1915 Volume II 2nd Edition 1917; 1916 Volume III 1918; 1917 Volume IV 1919; January to July 1918 Volume V 1919; July to November 1918 Volume VI 1920.
• The British Library digitised manuscripts include some India Office Records relating to the First World War. A search using the key word India, and adjustment of the dates will locate the documents, or see europeana-collections-1914-1918.eu, or the direct links include
  • IOR/L/MIL/17/5/2384 Indian Force for Europe. India Office Military Dept, 6 Sep 1914
  • IOR/V/27/281/33 Neuve Chapelle, India's Memorial in France, 1914-18. Published by authority of the Imperial War Graves Commission London 1927
  • Reports of the Censor of Indian Mails in France [Letters from Indian soldiers]:
    • IOR/L/MIL/5/825/1-8 Dec 1914-Apr 1915, Mar 1915-Apr 1915, Apr 1915-May 1915, Jun 1915-Aug 1915, Aug 1915-Sep 1915, Sep 1915-Oct 1915, Oct 1915-Nov 1915, Oct 1915-Dec 1915
    • IOR/L/MIL/5/826/1-9 Dec 1915-Jan 1916, Jan 1916-Mar 1916, Feb 1916-Apr 1916, Mar 1916-May 1916, May 1916-Jul 1916, Jul 1916-Aug 1916, Aug 1916-Oct 1916, Sep 1916-Nov 1916, Nov 1916-Dec 1916
    • IOR/L/MIL/5/827/1-6 Dec 1916-Feb 1917, Feb 1917-May 1917, Apr 1917-Jul 1917, May 1917-Oct 1917, Aug 1917-Dec 1917, Dec 1917-Mar 1918
    • IOR/L/MIL/5/828/1-3 Jul 1915-May 1918, Dec 1914-Jul 1918, Jun 1915-May 1918
• The Indian Corps in France by Lt-Colonel J.W.B. Merewether and Sir Frederick Smith. Second edition 1919 (first edition December 1917) Archive.org. To read the book you may require a BitTorrent plug in. Another version from archive.org is catalogued as The Indian Corps in Rance and may require a DjVu plug in, or individual pages can be accessed which use the Tiff format. This book is also available as three different pdf downloads on the Digital Library of India: Pdf 1, Pdf 2, Pdf 3.
• With the Indians in France by Sir James Willcocks 1920 Archive.org Index, page 383
  • List of 'Promotions and Rewards' page 347-382
• The Motor-Bus in War: Being the Impressions of an A.S.C. Officer during Two and a Half 
Years at the Front by A. M. Beatson (Temp. Lieut. A.S.C.) 1918 Gutenberg.org. The author was an Army Service Corps officer in the Mechanical Transport Supply Column of an Indian Cavalry Division. Elsewhere, the ASC company is recorded as being the 1st Indian Cavalry Division Supply Column which was 89 Coy ASC.
• Adventures of a Despatch Rider by Captain WHL Watson, 1915 Archive.org
• A Company of Tanks by Major WHL Watson, 1920 Archive.org

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”.
• 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. 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.