Western Front

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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.

External links

Historical books online

  • 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 to read online on the Digital Library of India website.
  • With the Indians in France by Sir James Willcocks 1920 Archive.org Index, page 383
  • 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
  • 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

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. Indian infantry unit war diaries go online The National Archives