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Posted on 05/09/2005 9:08:05 AM PDT by minus_273
In the closing stages of World War II, as Allied and French resistance forces were driving Hitler's now demoralised forces from France, three senior German officers defected.
Legionnaires were recruited from German POW camps The information they gave British intelligence was considered so sensitive that in 1945 it was locked away, not due to be released until the year 2021.
Now, 17 years early, the BBC's Document programme has been given special access to this secret file.
It reveals how thousands of Indian soldiers who had joined Britain in the fight against fascism swapped their oaths to the British king for others to Adolf Hitler - an astonishing tale of loyalty, despair and betrayal that threatened to rock British rule in India, known as the Raj.
The story the German officers told their interrogators began in Berlin on 3 April 1941. This was the date that the left-wing Indian revolutionary leader, Subhas Chandra Bose, arrived in the German capital.
Bose, who had been arrested 11 times by the British in India, had fled the Raj with one mission in mind. That was to seek Hitler's help in pushing the British out of India.
He wanted 500 volunteers who would be trained in Germany and then parachuted into India. Everyone raised their hands. Thousands of us volunteered Lieutenant Barwant Singh Six months later, with the help of the German foreign ministry, he had set up what he called "The Free India Centre", from where he published leaflets, wrote speeches and organised broadcasts in support of his cause.
By the end of 1941, Hitler's regime officially recognised his provisional "Free India Government" in exile, and even agreed to help Chandra Bose raise an army to fight for his cause. It was to be called "The Free India Legion".
Bose hoped to raise a force of about 100,000 men which, when armed and kitted out by the Germans, could be used to invade British India.
He decided to raise them by going on recruiting visits to Prisoner-of-War camps in Germany which, at that time, were home to tens of thousands of Indian soldiers captured by Rommel in North Africa.
Volunteers
Finally, by August 1942, Bose's recruitment drive got fully into swing. Mass ceremonies were held in which dozens of Indian POWs joined in mass oaths of allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
Chandra Bose did not live to see Indian independence These are the words that were used by men that had formally sworn an oath to the British king: "I swear by God this holy oath that I will obey the leader of the German race and state, Adolf Hitler, as the commander of the German armed forces in the fight for India, whose leader is Subhas Chandra Bose."
I managed to track down one of Bose's former recruits, Lieutenant Barwant Singh, who can still remember the Indian revolutionary arriving at his prisoner of war camp.
"He was introduced to us as a leader from our country who wanted to talk to us," he said.
"He wanted 500 volunteers who would be trained in Germany and then parachuted into India. Everyone raised their hands. Thousands of us volunteered."
Demoralised
In all 3,000 Indian prisoners of war signed up for the Free India Legion.
But instead of being delighted, Bose was worried. A left-wing admirer of Russia, he was devastated when Hitler's tanks rolled across the Soviet border.
Matters were made even worse by the fact that after Stalingrad it became clear that the now-retreating German army would be in no position to offer Bose help in driving the British from faraway India.
When the Indian revolutionary met Hitler in May 1942 his suspicions were confirmed, and he came to believe that the Nazi leader was more interested in using his men to win propaganda victories than military ones.
So, in February 1943, Bose turned his back on his legionnaires and slipped secretly away aboard a submarine bound for Japan.
Rudolf Hartog remembers parting with his Indian friends There, with Japanese help, he was to raise a force of 60,000 men to march on India.
Back in Germany the men he had recruited were left leaderless and demoralised. After mush dissent and even a mutiny, the German High Command despatched them first to Holland and then south-west France, where they were told to help fortify the coast for an expected allied landing.
After D-Day, the Free India Legion, which had now been drafted into Himmler's Waffen SS, were in headlong retreat through France, along with regular German units.
It was during this time that they gained a wild and loathsome reputation amongst the civilian population.
The former French Resistance fighter, Henri Gendreaux, remembers the Legion passing through his home town of Ruffec: "I do remember several cases of rape. A lady and her two daughters were raped and in another case they even shot dead a little two-year-old girl."
Finally, instead of driving the British from India, the Free India Legion were themselves driven from France and then Germany.
Their German military translator at the time was Private Rudolf Hartog, who is now 80.
"The last day we were together an armoured tank appeared. I thought, my goodness, what can I do? I'm finished," he said.
"But he only wanted to collect the Indians. We embraced each other and cried. You see that was the end."
Mutinies
A year later the Indian legionnaires were sent back to India, where all were released after short jail sentences.
But when the British put three of their senior officers on trial near Delhi there were mutinies in the army and protests on the streets.
With the British now aware that the Indian army could no longer be relied upon by the Raj to do its bidding, independence followed soon after.
Not that Subhas Chandra Bose was to see the day he had fought so hard for. He died in 1945.
Since then little has been heard of Lieutenant Barwant Singh and his fellow legionnaires.
At the end of the war the BBC was forbidden from broadcasting their story and this remarkable saga was locked away in the archives, until now. Not that Lieutenant Singh has ever forgotten those dramatic days.
"In front of my eyes I can see how we all looked, how we would all sing and how we all talked about what eventually would happen to us all," he said.
I am on India's side.
The Brits were our enemies. Yes if the Nazis kicked their @sses then yes I enjoyed it. BTW even the US allied with Jihadis, mujahideens and OBL in Afganistan to defeat Soviets. I suppose that is ok with you. Same logic applies here. IF the Nazis and INA allied to beat the British it is perfectly all right with most Indians.
.....So the Indians are Nazis according to you I suppose.
out of curiosity who built india's railroads, civil service, roads and other critical infrastructure? can you show me what the Nazis did?
You have no reason to say that. Do you maintain that the British Empire was colorblind multiracialism ? White supremacy was an essential part of the imperial ideology and there is nothing more offensive to white supremacy, nothing that will enrage a racist more, than a brown man having sex with a white woman. It was why Indian soldiers in France were denied leave. It is why in the second world war Indian soldiers were not employed in Northern Europe. Climate was not the only reason. This was an era in which all educated people throught the Western World were indoctrinated in Social Darwinism and Nordic Supremacy and eugenics and spoke quite freely about "higher" and "lower" races. It was an era in which the appointment of Simon Montagu as viceroy of India could be opposed on the grounds that being a Jew he would lack English firmness of character in dealing with the "lower" races.
You think of Gandhi as a Hitler worshipper? Wonder what you think of this guy. Subhash Chandra Bose.
I dont much care what you say about Gandhi but this guy is my hero............
..............so......... govern your responses accordingly :)
So you are an apologist for those imperialists? Oh so you are!
I dont think any Indian asked to be enslaved in return for...... "railroads, civil service, roads and other *critical* infrastructure" .
Nope we didnt asked for it. We could have/would have built it ourselves or at worst done without it.
read your post and read my reply,
you said:
"They did not want brown men killing white men and sleeping with white women."
I said;
"no, i'm sure they didnt."
what do you understand?
Are you a Troll trying to start an argument?
You do understand english right? If not I'm sorry. That statement means I agreed with you.
Yeah they built those stuff only to exploit India better. And what about Jallianwala bagh? The British Raj can actually make Red Communist China look like fairy tale land.
The India Ping List is of course a cover for the Mithun Fan Club of Greater Matunga. And the Yanks here are not the curious sort... :-)
As Genghis Khan has correctly pointed out in post #11, Nathuram Godse killed Gandhi. Dr. Bose was politically in tune with what is now the VHP/RSS today, which is also affiliated with the BJP. All these groups are right wing and conservative, and have my full support and blessings.
LOL!
There are a LOT of very significant stories that are intentionally overlooked. I have an uncle for example (great uncle on my mother's side actually) who was there at the time when a serious mutiny left 200 Americans dead. This is based on his own and the family's stories of course, but he and they are all credible yet I can find no record of such an event ever occuring.
This man was a highly decorated career soldier who was given an honor guard burial, so I tend to believe his accounts.
Yet, nothing at all in any historical record I can find.
If anyone here has access to that type of information, private message me and I'll provide what detail I have, including his name.
My point however, is that there are quite often very significant events which are intentionally not recorded for posterity.
Cheers,
Lloyd
<< You think of Gandhi as a Hitler worshipper? >>
1. No I do not.
2. Don't know what you wrote after the false premise contained in the quoted sentence.
Care to delete the false premise [Clue: -- Try not putting words into my mouth] -- and try again.
[I'm game]
dont bother he's a trol
He know who I am. Everyone you dont agree with is a troll right?
Well those arnt the exact words but I do remember you saying something about Hitler-loving-mahatma....whatever whatever....
Care to you deny that?
Think I will just have to dig up your posts .......am too lazy to do that.
one word--> wow ! where did you find these pics ? As far as I know, Indian govt wont release anything related to Netaji.
nah, its just your language. go look at your old posts if you want an example of trolling
Its possible that both of you are right..
Anyway, I read somewhere that Indian soldiers did sleep with lots of french women during WW-I than in WW.. I'm sorry but I dont remember where I read it. Afterall, french women are known to experiment and stuff ;)
But its also definite that there was no way Indian troops could've handled european winters.. they might've even pressurized their superior officers to transfer them to warmer climes.
Was Bose right or left-wing? I'm not sure the distinction is that relevant. The lines between right-wing and left-wing extremists can get hazy, especially when national independence is the main goal motivating them. Bose was a revolutionary action-oriented nationalist who disliked liberal democracies and would turn to anyone who seemed likely to support national liberation.
His association with Berlin and Tokyo makes people label him "right-wing" but there's a lot of uncertainty and guesswork involved in such a description. Bose was never attracted by Hitler's racial views and didn't feel at ease in Berlin. He literally made his way to Berlin through Moscow, and perhaps figuratively as well.
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