Posted on 06/27/2010 12:57:17 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Indian and British war veterans came together in scores to pay homage to the Indian soldiers who gave up their lives in World War I, fighting on the side of the Allies, at a touching memorial service in Brighton. At a solemn ceremony last evening, Nalin Surie, the Indian High Commissioner to UK, saluted the supreme sacrifices made by Indian soldiers.
"Over one million Indian Army soldiers saw active service alongside British troops during the First World War," he said at the Chattri memorial.
Surie said Brighton has a special place in the hearts of the people as 12,000 Indian soldiers wounded on the Western
Front were hospitalised at sites around the city. The 53 Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died in Brighton were cremated at the Sussex Downs. The Chattri, an umbrella shaped memorial on pillars, was built on the exact spot where their bodies were cremated, giving the spot its name.
After the cremation, the ashes were scattered in the sea, in accordance with their religious rites.
Their Muslim brothers in arms, totalling 21 were buried near the Woking's Shah Jehan Mosque, the oldest of its kind in North West Europe built in 1889.
The High Commissioner also released a new publication brought out to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Indian Republic, titled 'Valour & Sacrifice', The First Indian Soldiers in Europe 1914-1916.
He commended Deputy High Commissioner Asoke Mukerji for taking the initiative to put together "this historical material".
According to the publication, altogether, 1,302,394 Indian soldiers fought as part of seven separate Expeditionary Forces across Europe, Africa and Asia during the World War I.
They were supplemented by 172,815 animals and 3,691,836 tonnes of supplies and stores.
As many as 121,598 Indian soldiers were the casualties of the War, including 53,486 dead, 64,350 wounded and 3,762 missing or imprisoned as on December 31, 1919. The highest number of Indian casualties in the war occurred in Mesopotamia, today's Iraq, which included about 30,000 dead and 32,000 wounded.
Apart from this, India contributed equipment and stores worth over 80 million pounds to the Allied war effort until 1918. In terms of direct monetary contribution, India gave 146.2 million pounds from its revenues towards the cost of the war up until the end of 1919-20.
Speaking on behalf of the war veterans, Squadron Leader Mahinder S Pujji, one of the most experienced World War II veteran fighter pilots, expressed "gratitude to the people of this beautiful city for helping our injured soldiers and helping us to erect a monument (Chattri) in honour of all those soldiers killed in this part of the world".
He said, "They made the supreme sacrifice so that we may stand here as free people."
President of the Chattri Memorial Group, Davinder Dhillon, said with help of Commonwealth War Graves Commission a new memorial would be built at the site inscribing names of all 53 soldiers. It would be read by September 26.
The Maharajah of Patiala had donated and unveiled the Southern Gateway to the Royal Pavilion on October 26, 1921 to commemorate the part Brighton and its inhabitants played in caring for the wounded Indian soldiers. In return, the Mayor of Brighton, Councillor BN Southall, presented the maharaja with a gold key, a copy of the original key to the Royal Pavilion.
Prominent among those present at the memorial service were the Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Geoffrey Wells, The Chief Executive John Barradell, Director-General Commonwealth War Graves Commission Richard Kellaway, Her Majesty's Lord Lieutenant Peter Field, besides Pujji and Dhillon.
One of those History lessons that you won’t learn in school and might learn on the Glen Beck show. Really, I had no idea and am planning to read a bit more history about this...
Maybe they did not teach this during my early years (very long time ago) or I just did not absorb it...
As a havildar (sergeant), Umrao Singh was the only non-commissioned officer of either the Royal Artillery or the Indian Artillery to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the Second World War. Forward observation officers are frequently at great personal risk when in exposed positions so as to direct artillery fire in support of armoured or infantry units. But Singh won his award for valour in what all gunners regard as their near-sacred duty — defence of the guns.
By the end of 1944, General Sir William Slim’s 14th Army was poised for a right-flank offensive against Lieutenant-General Sakurai Seizo’s 28th Japanese Army in the coastal strip between the Irrawaddy and the Bay of Bengal. General Sir Philip Christison’s XV Corps of four divisions was given the job. The offensive was launched on December 12 but fierce resistance was met by the 81st West African Division advancing down the Kaladan valley, every move forward being challenged by Japanese counter-attack.
The 33 Mountain Battery, Indian Artillery, in which Havildar Umrao Singh was a field-gun detachment commander, was subjected to a sustained bombardment from Japanese 75mm guns and heavy mortars for one and a half hours on December 16, immediately before his gun position was attacked by two companies of Japanese infantry. Twice wounded by grenades during the first assault, Singh fought off the enemy with the detachment’s Bren light-machinegun while directing the rifle fire of the gun crew.
The second Japanese attack killed all the crew other than two members and himself, but was nevertheless beaten off. When the third assault came only a few rounds of small-arms ammunition remained and this was quickly used. With his last shot gone Singh seized a “gun bearer” — a heavy crowbar-like rod used for turning the gun trail — and closed with the attacking Japanese. He led the two surviving gun-crew members in hand-to-hand fighting until they were overwhelmed. He was seen to strike down three enemy infantrymen before falling under a rain of blows to the head.
Six hours later, after a counter-attack recovered the battery position, Singh was found unconscious beside his field-gun and almost unrecognisable from head wounds. Ten Japanese dead lay around him.
The citation for the award of the Victoria Cross read: “Havildar Umrao Singh set a supreme example of gallantry and devotion to duty.” His gun was still fit for firing and was in action again that day. He received his VC from King George VI at Buckingham Palace on October 15, 1945.
Umrao Singh was born in the village of Paka in the Rohtak district of the Punjab, an area now part of the Indian state of Haryana. He continued his military service after recovery from his injuries and was subsequently promoted subadar-major. He eventually retired from the Indian Army with the honorary rank of captain.
In 1983 he was farming a two-acre smallholding inherited from his father in his home village. He owned a single buffalo and a cart, lived in a small mud-brick house and was finding life hard on a basic Indian Army pension of £14 a month. A friend who knew of his award suggested that he should sell his decoration, as he had heard that a VC had recently been sold for £20,000 in London. In spite of his straitened circumstances, Captain Singh refused to sell his VC for an offered sum of £32,000, saying to do so “would stain the honour of those who fell in battle beside me”. Subsequently he received a Haryana state pension of £50 per month.
Singh accompanied the Indian Army contingent to London for the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Although his name was on the list of those attending, it was not included with other holders of the VC or George Cross, who were invited to join the VIP party for the march past of veterans. It was while he was being delayed from entering the VIP stand by a security official that he was seen by the officer responsible for staging the event (Brigadier Tom Longland) who recognised Singh’s VC and ordered his immediate admission. After the march past of veterans, Singh was presented to the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and to the Prime Minister, John Major.
While in conversation with the Prime Minister, the matter of pensions for holders of the VC and GC was raised. Major was amazed to discover that the pension had been set at £100 per year shortly after the Second World War and never increased. He took steps to secure Parliamentary approval for an increase to £1,300 per annum, no mean sum in rural India. After the interview, Singh reported: “I don’t think the Prime Minister speaks Hindi but when I talked to him, he just said ‘yes’ to everything.” Shortly afterwards, Singh retired from farming, but continued his close interest in the welfare of Indian Army pensioners, particularly in the correct receipt of their pension money.
On May 14, 2003, he attended the Service of Dedication of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial in Westminster Abbey in the presence of the Queen, patron of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association, and the Duke of Edinburgh.
His wife, Vimla, predeceased him; he is survived by two sons and a daughter. His death leaves only 12 surviving holders of the VC, eight of whom won their awards during the Second World War and four in subsequent campaigns, including Private Johnson Beharry, who won his VC in Iraq in 2004.
Captain Umrao Singh, holder of the Victoria Cross, was born on July 11, 1920. He died on November 21, 2005, aged 85.
Click here to read the entire 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 )
Revealed: The terrible suffering and extraordinary courage of British WW2 soldiers
Daily Mail ^ | 7th April 2009 | Christopher Hudson
Posted on Tuesday, April 07, 2009 6:03:21 AM by naturalman1975
The British and their allies might not have underestimated their enemies had they heard a Japanese general issue his Order for the Day to his troops.
.....
More than 200 Indians and Australians who had fought for the Allies in Malaya and who were too badly wounded to be moved, were kicked, beaten, tied with telephone wire and machine-gunned - and then, dead or alive, doused in petrol and set alight
.....
The 14th Army was a polyglot force, consisting of British, Australians, Canadians, South Africans, Burmese, Chinese, Africans and, chiefly, the Indian Army, the largest volunteer army in history.
.....
All the time, the Allies were still determined to regain Arakan. After being beaten back twice, they succeeded at the third attempt, where the breathtaking bravery of so many of Slim's men played their part.
A company commander looking for a missing soldier at night bumped into a Japanese patrol. In a frenzy of hand-to-hand combat, he shot one man, then grabbed the little body and swung it round like a flail, knocking his other two assailants off a cliff.
Then there was Umrao Singh, in command of a forward field gun detachment, who came under sustained fire from guns and mortars. Twice wounded, and while firing a Bren gun, he directed the fire of the surviving gun on the target.
He held the gun pit until dawn, and was found face down in the mud surrounded by ten lifeless Japanese soldiers and holding a hand-spike he had used in hand-to-hand combat. Singh survived and was awarded the Victoria Cross.
.....
Japanese industrial capacity simply could not sustain a long war against the U.S., who were by now also heavily involved in the Burma campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest military decoration which is, or has been, awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories.
It takes precedence over all other orders, decorations and medals. It may be awarded to a person of any rank in any service and civilians under military command. In the United Kingdom, it is usually presented to the recipient or their next of kin by the British monarch during an investiture held at Buckingham Palace. In those Commonwealth countries where the British monarch is the head of state, the Governor-General usually fulfils the same function.
It is the joint highest award for bravery in the United Kingdom with the George Cross, which is the equivalent honour for valour "not in the face of the enemy".
However, the VC is higher in the order of wear and would be worn first by an individual who had been awarded both decorations (which has not so far occurred).
The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to reward acts of valour during the Crimean War.
Wow! That is more than I can read in one evening...but really good, thanks! I guess I will have to do some self-education for a few weeks - heh... Really, I had no idea and am actually surprised since I am one of the those baby boom generation... I really should have know about this...
It's a remarkable testimony to their high moral character and fighting spirit.
I had been researching the history of the Sikh religion earlier this evening. I had not yet learned of Umrao Singh, but his story exemplifies all that is most noble among the volunteers from the Indian sub-continent.
Peace,
ARFAR
Thanks for the post.
My dad was a Hump pilot in the CBI.
My dad was a Hump pilot in the CBI..................... I think you might have started something with that comment.
Perhaps among those who don’t read history.
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Thanks nick."Over one million Indian Army soldiers saw active service alongside British troops during the First World War," he said at the Chattri memorial... The 53 Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died in Brighton were cremated at the Sussex Downs... Their Muslim brothers in arms, totalling 21 were buried near the Woking's Shah Jehan Mosque, the oldest of its kind in North West Europe built in 1889... 1,302,394 Indian soldiers fought as part of seven separate Expeditionary Forces across Europe, Africa and Asia during the World War I. They were supplemented by 172,815 animals and 3,691,836 tonnes of supplies and stores. As many as 121,598 Indian soldiers were the casualties of the War, including 53,486 dead, 64,350 wounded and 3,762 missing or imprisoned as on December 31, 1919. The highest number of Indian casualties in the war occurred in Mesopotamia, today's Iraq, which included about 30,000 dead and 32,000 wounded.Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. |
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Could it be that you didn't learn it in school for the same reason as Helen Thomas?
Or maybe schools spent more time on World War II than they did on World War I back in my school days. After all, they did cover the most current history back then (50’s - 60’s).
It is shameful that you find it necessary to bring your prejudices into the conversation.
I was merely trying to imply that the reason Helen Thomas didn't learn about it in school was that it hadn't happened yet.
Thought you might be in the same boat, attempting to hand you a good excuse.
≤}B^)
Sorry for taking that wrong... :^) All is well... You have to forgive an older generation fellow who has forgotten more than I would admit...
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