India during WWII

Discussion in 'Burma & India' started by mosin_nagant, Mar 11, 2009.

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  1. Pete Keane

    Pete Keane Senior Member

    The lines do become confused in war, there were at least 2 million Indians fighting for the British, there were also approx. 60 British Battalions involved in 'internal policing' in India at the same time!

    Its difficult to identify a single battle - maybe Cassino? Or just 'Burma', without the Indian troops there would have been no victory.

    Strange how little Indian troops are represented in war films, English Patient springs to mind, but not many others.

    Pete.
     
  2. Elven6

    Elven6 Discharged

    The lines do become confused in war, there were at least 2 million Indians fighting for the British, there were also approx. 60 British Battalions involved in 'internal policing' in India at the same time!

    Its difficult to identify a single battle - maybe Cassino? Or just 'Burma', without the Indian troops there would have been no victory.

    Strange how little Indian troops are represented in war films, English Patient springs to mind, but not many others.

    Pete.

    To be fair, the Indian government isn't doing much to honor pre independence war veterans.
     
  3. Bob Guercio

    Bob Guercio Senior Member

    This was the case all over the world, Brits sided with Germans, Chinese sided with Germans, Americans with Germans, etc. World War II was not as clear cut as people are lead to believe.

    I think the most interesting was a Korean in a German uniform in Western Europe.

    As I recall, this person migrated from the Koreans to the Japanese to the Russians and then to the Germans. I don't remember any further details.

    I have something funny to relate.

    Senator Inouye, an Japanese American, fought in Italy during the war. A German prisoner that he had taken was dumbfounded at seeing Senator Inouye and the Senator's response was "We lost the war and now we are fighting for the Americans" or something like that.

    Bob Guercio
     
  4. brndirt1

    brndirt1 Senior Member

    I think the most interesting was a Korean in a German uniform in Western Europe.

    As I recall, this person migrated from the Koreans to the Japanese to the Russians and then to the Germans. I don't remember any further details.

    I have something funny to relate.

    Senator Inouye, an Japanese American, fought in Italy during the war. A German prisoner that he had taken was dumbfounded at seeing Senator Inouye and the Senator's response was "We lost the war and now we are fighting for the Americans" or something like that.

    Bob Guercio

    There were a number of Asians fighting in the Heer at the end, and their coming to be there was a convoluted trip. In the case of the Koreans, they were conscripted to fight for the Japanese (Korea was a colony remember), then they were captured by the Soviets and conscripted into the Red Army. When the Nazis invaded in 1941, they were transferred the Moscow area, where they were again thrown into battle for a nation not of their birth. Captured again, they were conscripted into the German forces, and moved to the western front where a number of them were captured by the invading allied forces post-Normandy. Very strange cases, but their tangled path to the beaches of Normandy was only the second to last of many of their travels.

    After they were captured by the allies, many of them were repatriated to Korea after WW2 was over, and when the north invaded the south in 1950, some of these same men ended up fighting again. They were literally in battle from 1939 until 1953, for five different nations.
     
  5. Kuno

    Kuno Very Senior Member

    I would really like to know details of the Indian troops in north africa and fighting alongside Germans

    There were no Indian troops fighting alongside the Germans in North Africa. The only "fighting" unit was the 'Indian Legion' called 'Assad Hind' (Free India). They were equipped in tropical uniforms but have never seen a tropical region. Their main purpose was to act as a propaganda unit and later they were employed in France and Holland. During the later days they became known for some crimes against the civillian population.

    The 'Indian Legion' was raised by the Abwehr under Admiral Canaris and a condition agreed with the soldiers and Bose was that they shall not be employed against any other Indian troops and only to free India from British rule. Fairly difficult for the Germans to employ the unit under this condition.

    The Germans faced a lot of problems with them. Muslim Indians did not eat the food prepared in the same kitchen as the one for Hindu Indians etc.

    Whilst Bose was dealing with the Abwehr, Nehru was doing the same with the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. Two 'competitive' organisations...

    Next to the 'Indian Legion' with the Germans, there was another one with the 'Italians'. But whilst the Germans have carefully selected the candidates, the Italians just "emptied" a POW camp... they were astonished about the absolute lack of military skills and fighting spirit of "their" Indians. Only very late they found out that the Indians they got for their legion were not coming from a drilled fighting unit but more or less all from a rear echelon who never had any military education :D
     
  6. berjay

    berjay WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Greetings to the sub continent,
    I was vey proud to have served in the Baluchistan Signals from 1945-1947. Both ,Pindi and then at Quetta at the Staff Colledge. Oh those long rail journeys and the sights of India , That i,ll never forget
    Best to all Bernard
     
  7. tom halligan

    tom halligan WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    a book tostop a rising sun is agood start i served in india with the paras 2 indian airborne division 1944/47
     
  8. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    a book tostop a rising sun is agood start i served in india with the paras 2 indian airborne division 1944/47
    Welcome to the forum Tom.
     
  9. Capt.Sensible

    Capt.Sensible Well-Known Member

    Greetings to the sub continent,
    I was vey proud to have served in the Baluchistan Signals from 1945-1947. Both ,Pindi and then at Quetta at the Staff Colledge. Oh those long rail journeys and the sights of India , That i,ll never forget
    Best to all Bernard

    Hello Bernard,

    This might be bit of a long shot but do you recall a chap called Elliot-Bateman at Quetta in about 1947? Artillery, I think.

    CS
     
  10. airlana

    airlana Member

    Had no idea that some Indians allied with the Japanese!!

    Jills

    A good book is "Forgotten Armies -the Fall of British Asia 1941-1945" by Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper ISBN 0-713-99463-0

    Starts with the pre-war years and the desire of India and Burma to escape from colonization. Then moves on to the war years and the Free India movement, Free Burma, Indian National Army, Subhas Chandra Bose etc etc

    A bit 'heavy going' in parts due to the political events going on behind the scenes, but still a good read for those interested in this part of Indian history. Also has a couple chapters on Malaya.

    Ash
     
  11. MyOldDad

    MyOldDad Senior Member

    Its a little known fact that that the Royal Indian Armed Forces were the largest all-volunteer armed force in history, with nearly 20 million men fighting with the Indian Army, the Royal Indian Air Force and the Royal Indian Navy.
    Some great stuff here:

    Royal Indian Air Force in WW2 - Lots of Rare Pics

    Tom.
     
    sol likes this.
  12. Indian Legion 1941-43

    Indian Legion 1941-43 Junior Member

    hi mr gills
    i am working on indian legion 1941-43. if you have any infomation or fotos pl give me
    it will coming in Book form.
    Regards
    ashwin
    indian
     
  13. An interesting novel which binds together nearly 100 years of Indian / Burmese History is 'The Glass Palace' The Glass Palace: Amazon.co.uk: Amitav Ghosh: Books

    by Amitav Ghosh. It looks in some detail at why some Indians joined the INA and others didn't. Although fictional, I really enjoyed it because the sense of dilemma faced by Indians is dealt with through the characters so well.
     

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