WW2: India's worst war, but most heroic moments

July 10, 1944. 5th Maratha Regiment's Yeshwant Ghadge, all of 22, was caught in a mortal combat in the Upper Tiber Valley of Italy. Except for his commander, his platoon had been wiped out by enemy machine-gunners. With no alternative left, Ghadge rushed the machine gun nest, lobbing grenades, knocking off the gun and the gunner. He charged, shot another enemy. With no time to change his magazine, Ghadge clubbed to death two remaining enemy gunners. Ghadge finally fell to an enemy sniper.

India's memories of the World War II are made of such tales of exceptional valour. Fought for the British masters, it was India's biggest and worst war.

While some 2.5 million Indians fought the war for British rulers, a few thousand men and women joined the Germany-Japan-Italy (Aix Powers) alliance, under Subhash Chandra Bose, hoping to overthrow the British rulers from India.

Bose's venture was romantic and is an awe-inspiring chapter in India's freedom struggle.

But for most of the Indians who donned uniforms during World War II, it was only to earn their daily bread.

Though the war was not India's, Indians were among the most heroic, borne out by the fact that they won over 4,000 gallantry awards, among them almost 20 Victoria Crosses.

Abdul Hafiz, 9th Jat Infantry, of the British Indian Army and was posted to Imphal, to defend the northeast borders where the Japanese were pushing in.

Just 25, and a Jemadar under British officers, Hafiz led a charge up a bare slope and then up a steep cliff despite machine-gun fire.

He pressed on, eliminated the enemy who vastly outnumbered Hafiz's platoon, but succumbed to his injuries.

Similar was the story of 22-year-old Yeshwant Ghadge whose act of exceptional courage came in the Upper Tiber Valley of Italy on July 10, 1944.

His entire section, except the commander, were killed or wounded from machine gun fire. Ghadge rushed to the machine gun location, throwing grenade and knocking off the machine gun and its firer and then shot another.

With no time to change his magazine, Ghadge clubbed to death two other remaining members of the machine gun crew. Ghadge like thousands of his Indian counterparts too fell to an enemy sniper and died.

Many of the Indian VCs were won in Burma and other regions of India's northeast.

If the Japanese forces, along with Bose's Indian National Army, had succeeded in their efforts to push into India the World War II would have had a different meaning for Indians.

But the Indian soldiers, loyal to the master, risked and even gave it up to stall the Japanese.

Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh earned his first recognition as an outstanding flier in the World War II.

Stationed at Imphal valley, his unit played a key role in resisting a siege. Singh was awarded the Dinstinguished Flying Cross by Lord Mountbatten, the then chief of the South East Asia Command.

While Indians played a pivotal role in safeguarding the northeast and Burma, they were also valiantly in action in places as far as Africa.

The Fifth Indian Division fought against the Italians in Sudan, and against the Germans in Libya.

Indians also played a critical role in protecting the Iraqi oilfields, which had by then become a key installation for the British Empire.

The Fifth Division also was part of the occupational force of Malaya. And later it went to Java to disarm the Japanese troops.

The Fourth Indian Division fought in North Africa, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus and then in Italy.

World War II was also the only occasion when the American troops were ever stationed in Indian soil.

They were deployed all over Northeast, and some units were even based in New Delhi. WW II veterans recall the lavish lifestyles of the Americans, who earned more than even British soldiers.

The Americans also played key role in flying supplies from Calcutta (now Kolkata), Karachi and other ports to Burma, China and other theatres of war in the region.

In Assam a Muslim chief minister encouraged illegal migration from Bangladesh into Assam, and justified it to the British saying these Muslims would help in farming, which in turn was meant for war inputs.

In Calcutta the great famine of 1943, triggered by rice disease brown spot, was accentuated by the war-time shortages. An estimated 30 lakh people died in the famine.

The war's crippling impact on British Empire eventually helped speed up India's freedom.

But as is wont in India, the legacy of the 2.5 million Indian braves has lost the battle to neglect.

India's only living Victoria Cross winner of WW II, Honorary Captain Umrao Singh, 85 gets a meager Rs 80 as monthly pension.

Umrao Singh had held onto an advanced gun position against four assaults by Japanese troops.

Despite injuries from two grenade attacks, Singh fought on. When he was discovered hours later, bodies of 10 Japanese were lying around him.

Pictures that were part of the original article:

Khukris unsheathed, Gurkha troops charge the enemy lines in Burma.

Indian soldiers storm a German trench, after exploding it with hand grenades.

A Lt Colonel from the 20th Indian Division accepts the formal surrender of a Japanese Commander at Saigon, Vietnam, in September 1945.

A group from the 152nd Para Battalion displaying the Japanese flag they captured at Tangkhul Hundung. ( Photograph: Bharat-Rakshak.com )

Here's more from www.bharat-rakshak.com :

Chindits in Burma, 1944

British and Indian troops in action, 80 miles south of Mandalay, in March 1945

Madras Sappers and Miners work on a 'corduroy' road east of Kohima, on the Jessami track, August 1944. Timber provided a cheap way of producing a reasonably durable road surface for those hard-to-reach areas where mule or air transport was not enough.

Indian Paratroopers during World War II, with a British officer. Source: Parachute Regiment (India).

The first Indians to parachute - Captain Rangaraj (right) and Havildar Major Mathura Singh (left).

British and Indian troops exchange pleasantries as they meet on the road between Imphal and Kohima following the successful relief of the Kohima box. Circa April 1944.

A truly spectacular image. In the heat of the moment - Indian soldiers storm a German trench, after exploding it with hand grenades. Circa 1945.

An Italian soldier surrenders to a Jawan, during Operation Crusader, of an unnamed Division and Regiment, on 08 December 1941. The purpose of Operation Crusader was two-fold; to relieve Tobruk and destroy the Afrika Korp. First part of the conflict was a success, the second a failure. The battle took place between the Egyptian border and El Agheila in Libya.

An Indian soldier holds a captured Nazi flag. Circa 1945.

Medium artillery guns get unusual attention from their detachments.

Indian paratroopers being dropped at Elephant Point, Burma on 1 May 1945.

Flag captured from the 90th Panzer Light Division at Ruweisat Ridge. Circa 1942.

A Lieutenant Colonel from the 20th Indian Division, accepts the formal surrender of a Japanese Commander at Saigon, Vietnam in September 1945.

A group from the 152nd Para Battalion displaying the Japanese flag they captured while operating against the Japanese Army at Tangkhul Hundung. Circa 1945.

And here's something from WW1:

The Great War (World War I) A cover from a piece of British sheet music. Circa 1914. Note that the Indian soldiers are pictured as still being armed with the single shot Martini-Henry rifles and muzzle loading artillery!">

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/rgt-gorkha.htm

Gorkha Rifles Regiments
As of 1991, there were more than 100,000 Gurkhas (or, in Nepali, Gorkha) serving in over forty Indian infantry battalions and elsewhere in the Indian Army. Their pay and pensions, though not as generous as British benefits, also represented a significant contribution to the Nepalese economy. Almost all of the Indian Gurkhas served in ethnically distinct regiments commanded by non-Gurkha officers.

In addition, about twenty-five battalions of Assam Rifles, a specialized paramilitary force descended from the old British unit of the same name, were staffed almost exclusively by Gurkha recruits.

With so many families in the hills of Garhwal and Kumaon who have sons (and daughters) in the military, the conflict in Kashmir has taken a heavy toll. The Garhwal Rifles, as well as other Himalayan regiments (the Gurkha Rifles, Ladakh Scouts, Naga Regiments, and Jammu and Kashmir Infantry) were all entrusted with operations in Kargil in 1999. They joined their Sikh, Rajasthani, Mahar, and Bihari brothers as a multicultural and multifaith force on the frontlines, suffering the brunt of casualities in defense of the state.

Gurkhas played no appreciable role in Indian services other than the army and paramilitary forces. As during the British Raj, successive Indian governments called upon Gurkha regiments on numerous occasions to put down domestic disturbances that were beyond the control of local police. Ethnically homogeneous Gurkha units often were considered more reliable than mixed units that might be tempted to side with ethnic kin embroiled in a dispute.

The term Gurkha usually referred to soldiers of Nepalese origin who, over many generations, served in the legendary British Brigade of Gurkhas. Other regiments designated as Gurkha still served in the Indian Army as of 1991. As it has for more than 175 years, Nepal in the early 1990s served as a source of recruits for Indian and British Gurkha regiments. Retired British Gurkhas also served in specially raised security units in Singapore and Brunei.

Soldiers who served in the Royal Nepal Army usually were not called Gurkhas, although they also claimed to be the rightful heirs of many of the same martial traditions as their countrymen recruited to serve in foreign armies. The designation had no distinct ethnic connotation but derived from the name of the old kingdom of Gorkha (Gurkha), the territory that roughly encompassed the present-day district of Gorkha, in the mountains some fifty-six kilometers west of Kathmandu.

Legend had it that Gurkhas never drew their service-issued kukri (curved Nepalese knives) without drawing blood, even if it were their own. Although probably a tradition of a bygone era, the legend added immeasurably to the Gurkhas' reputation for toughness. The exploits and legends surrounding the Gurkhas are among the more memorable of modern military history.

Robert Clive's decisive victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 firmly established British supremecy in India thereby opening the door for expansion of the Honourable East India Company. Some 10 years after Plassey the British started to come into contact with a unique and vigorous power on the northern borders of its newly won territories in Bengal and Bihar. This power was the city-state of Gorkha led by its dynamic King Prithwi Narayan Shah. Gorkha was a feudal hill village in what is now western Nepal, the village from which the Gurkha takes its name. Prithwi Narayan Shah and his successors grew so powerful that they overran the whole of the hill country from the Kashmir border in the west to Bhutan in the east.

Soldiers from the kingdom of Gorkha established an international reputation for their martial qualities during the eighteenth century by their successful invasions of Tibet. As the Gorkha kingdom expanded eastward across the Himalayas to Sikkim, the king's warriors, taken from all groups in the area, came to be known as Gurkha soldiers. Eventually, as a result of boundary disputes and repeated raids by Gurkha columns into British territory, the Governor General declared war on Nepal in 1814. After two long and bloody campaigns a Peace Treaty was signed at Sagauli in 1816.

During the war a deep feeling of mutual respect and admiration had developed between the British and their adversaries, the British being much impressed by the fighting and other qualities of the Gurkha soldier. Under the terms of the Peace Treaty large numbers of Gurkhas were permitted to volunteer for service in the East India Company's Army. From these volunteers were formed the first regiments of the Gurkha Brigade.

The Gurkha reputation for martial prowess and obedience to authority was firmly established during the 1857-58 Sepoy Rebellion, which seriously threatened British ascendancy in South Asia. Some 9,000 Nepalese troops under Prime Minister Jang Bahadur Rana, in power from 1846-77, rendered valuable service to the British. Nepalese exploits in relieving the British resident in Lucknow made a lasting impression on British officials and strategists. Nepalese troops were awarded battle honors, and two additional regiments were raised.

Recruiting continued, and the adaptability of the Gurkha troops to various types and conditions of combat was demonstrated by their performance in the Second Afghan War (1878-80) and in the Boxer Uprising (1900). By 1908 the fabled Gurkha brigade had been formed. A flexible unit, the brigade numbered about 12,000 troops in peacetime and was organized in ten regiments, each consisting of two rifle battalions. Other Gurkha units included the Assam Rifles, Burma Rifles, Indian Armed Police, and Burma Military Police. Regiments and battalions were designated numerically. For example, the Second Battalion of the Seventh Gurkha Rifles was commonly referred to with pride by its members as the 2/7/GR.

In 1919 at the height of a civil disobedience campaign called by the Indian National Congress, Gurkha troops serving under British brigadier R.E.H. Dyer brutally suppressed a pro- independence political gathering in a walled courtyard outside the Sikh holy temple in Amritsar. Acting under Dyer's orders, the Gurkhas killed some 300 persons and wounded approximately 1,200 others. The episode generally was considered a watershed in the Indian independence movement. The Indian public, however, held Dyer and the British government responsible for the massacre and did not blame the soldiers who carried out the order to fire on unarmed civilians.

Under a tripartite agreement signed in 1947 by Nepal, India, and Britain, the Gurkha brigade was divided between British and Indian forces. Four regiments remained in the British service, and six passed to the new Indian Army, which recruited an additional regiment for a total of seven.

Gurkhas in the service of India have also played an important and colorful role in national defense, despite the early complaints of Indian nationalists that Nepalese soldiers were acting as British mercenaries or tools of the Ranas. However critical the Indian Congress party may have been about the use of the Gurkhas by the British, their value was quickly recognized. The Rana regime sought to counter Indian criticism by specifying that Gurkhas in the Indian Army could not be used against Nepal, other Gurkha units, Hindus, or "unarmed mobs." No restrictions were imposed, however, on their use against Muslim mobs or against external enemies, including Pakistan and China.

Gurkhas, some of whom came from Nepalese families resident in the Indian Tarai, served with distinction in India's three wars with Pakistan (1947-48, 1965, and 1971). Many Indian Gurkhas also were stationed in the former North-East Frontier Agency (Arunachal Pradesh) when Chinese forces overran beleaguered Indian outposts along the disputed Sino-Indian frontier in 1962. A battalion served with distinction in the Congo (now Zaire) in the 1960s as part of the Indian Army contingent in the United Nations Operations in the Congo. Several battalions served with the Indian Peacekeeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 1990.

Despite Nepalese sensitivities over domestic and foreign criticism of allowing foreign armies to recruit "mercenaries" in Nepal, various Gurkha units continued to serve outside Nepal in the early 1990s. British recruiters attracted the best candidates for military service because of improved prospects for advancement and higher pay. Those unable to land positions in the Brigade of Gurkhas usually opted to serve in the Indian Army, leaving the Royal Nepal Army with the remaining large pool of recruits from which to choose.

From Kathmandu's perspective, the military and economic advantages accruing from foreign recruitment of Gurkhas far outweighed occasional criticism. Militarily, the presence of over 100,000 trained and disciplined Gurkha veterans was a valuable human resource. Service abroad widened their horizons, and military training and discipline taught them not only how to obey, but also how to give orders. Many Gurkhas gained specialized skills in communications and engineering units, and most have had some training in such practical subjects as sanitation, hygiene, agriculture, and the building trades. The Gurkhas also played an important role in the country's economy. The cash flow derived from annual pensions, remittances to families, or monies taken home in a lump sum by discharged veterans or by service personnel on leave represented a major source of the country's foreign exchange. Remittances and pensions contributed by British Gurkhas were estimated in 1991 to total over US$60 million annually, or over twice the value of Britain's annual foreign aid commitment to Nepal. Pensions from Indian Gurkhas also represented a major revenue source. Gurkhas returning from duty in Hong Kong also were able legally to import a few kilograms of gold bullion duty free.

In some Gurung villages, about half of the families had one or more pensioners. For many families, hope of financial solvency rested on their sons returning home with a substantial sum saved during a three-year enlistment. Such income also directly benefited the economy, as money circulated in the purchase of consumer goods, the payment of debts, the purchase of land, or investment in small commercial ventures.

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