Recognizing India’s Contribution to WWII
There are 5,782 Indian soldiers lying in the cemeteries of Italy representing all India’s religious faiths (Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh). The “men,” some just boys of 16, served during World War II fighting to liberate Italy. Last week a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in Cassino to honor their wartime service for the first time. (For the full story from adnkronos.com, click here. It’s worth it, there’s a nice little wartime love story related toward the end.)
The Battle of Monte Cassino was one of the most vicious of the war lasting from January 17 to May 19, 1944. Allied casualties totalled 54,000 with the Germans and Italians losing 20,000. The Cassino cemetery includes 431 graves of Indian soldiers, some marked with their names, religion, and other relevant data. Others just read, “A soldier of the Indian Army.”
The fallen men were part of a force of 50,000 Indian troops who served in Italy. Six received the Victoria Cross, the highest award bestowed by the British Empire for acts of bravery. It’s easy to just use the throwaway term “British” to refer to troops who participated in key battles during WWII and to forget that many of the soldiers from the empire, like these Indian men, were fighting for countries — even a continent — that was not their own.
As it was for many nations, the war was a transformative period for India. Indian political leaders were not consulted when the British viceroy and governor general, Victor Alexander John Hope, Marquis of Linlithgow, declared India to be at war with Germany in 1939. Inspite of this snub, and the political turmoil within a country already well on its way to independence, between 1939 and 1945 the British Indian Army grew to a force of some 2 million, all volunteers, who served in Italy, Africa, the Middle East, Burma, and Southeast Asia.
Just another reminder — more than 60 years after the fact — that World War II was not an American war, nor a British war, but a world war.
Haven’t looked around the 451Press neighborhood today? Try this article on digital scapbooking at Ancestry.com from Genealogy Pointers or this piece on recovering lost gravestone text.
WWII, World War II, Italy, Monte Cassino, India, British Indian Army
October 24th, 2007 at 7:48 am
Great blog, Rana. As a veteran Air Force pilot (Vietnam era), I have always been fascinated with WW II. And the China-Burma-India theater was one of the most under-reported theaters of that war. Without the active combat support of India, I’m not sure the Allies could have succeeded in that theater, at least not without a lot more casualties.
Those are a couple of reasons that I jumped at a the chance to turn the diary, letters and photos of Lt Paul Eastman (P-40 and P-47 pilot in the CBI) into a book. I use my http://www.RoughWar.com blog to help organize the material as I dig through it.
I appreciate your putting my Rough War blog on your blog roll. I will return the favor right away!
Keep up the good work!
October 24th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Thanks Walt! So glad you dropped by. I’m enjoying going through RoughWar.com and really encourage my readers to check it out as well. Great material!
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