World War II was a traumatising experience for those nations that were caught up in it. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Undivided India where over two and a half million Indians volunteered to serve in the armed forces and to fight against the evils of the fascist Axis Powers. Those Indians who served and fought had their own motives but a predominant one was pride and satisfaction in doing a soldier's job and earning a soldier's pay. Service in the Indian Army was respected, particularly in rural communities, and money sent home by a soldier could over time transform his family's social status. As it had done towards the end of World War I the Indian Army in World War II opened its arms wide and recruited from many varied castes and backgrounds, and few were found wanting. The demands made on India to provide servicemen and women were massive. Indian Army formations contributed significantly to the defeat of Italian forces in East and North Africa and then to the much more difficult confrontations with German troops. Dark days followed when Japan invaded Hong Kong, Borneo, Malaya and Burma. Indian troops predominated in the defence of those regions and many were killed in action or ordered into captivity by their commanders. After realistic re-assessments of the threats faced in Asia had been made, and the new training and motivation required had been delivered, the Indian Army emerged again in 1944 and 1945 as the most proficient and economical Allied force in Asia. Meanwhile Indian troops, not forgetting the large number of Nepalese serving in the Indian Army, fought Vichy French forces in Syria, nationalists in Persia and Iraq, and above all else Germans in North Africa and Europe - and they won their battles. This book will show you how the Indian Army was tested during World War II, and how it prevailed using courage, professionalism, honour and dignity.
By:
Harry Fecitt MBE TD
Imprint: VIJ Books (India) Pty Ltd
ISBN: 9789388161763
ISBN 10: 9388161769
Pages: 538
Publication Date: 30 August 2019
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword PART I - AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE-EAST 1. INITIAL ENCOUNTERS - FIGHTING THE ITALIANS IN THE SUDAN, 1940: 5th Indian Division and the Sudan Defence Force in action 2. THE ITALIAN INVASION AND BRITISH RE-OCCUPATION OF BRITISH SOMALILAND: 1/2nd & 3/15th Punjabis in Somaliland, July 1940 - March 1941 3. THE 6th ROYAL BATTALION (SCINDE) OF THE 13th FRONTIER FORCE RIFLES IN THE SUDAN, ERITREA AND ABYSSINIA - September 1940 to July 1941 4. THE 1st JAMMU & KASHMIR MOUNTAIN BATTERY, INDIAN STATE FORCES, IN EAST AFRICA AND SYRIA - November 1940 to April 1942 5. FIGHTING THE VICHY FRENCH IN SYRIA: 3/1st Punjabis and 4/6th Rajputana Rifles on the road to Damascus, June 1941 6. THE KALI PANCHWIN IN NORTH AFRICA, 1941-1942: From heroism at Wadi Halfaya to destruction and captivity at Tobruk 7. SURRENDER IN THE CAULDRON: 10th Indian Infantry Brigade in the Knightsbridge Cauldron Battle, North Africa, 30th May - 6th June 1942. 8. RUWEISAT RIDGE, WESTERN EGYPTIAN DESERT - THE SECOND BATTLE: Punjabis and Rajputs of the 161st Indian Motor Brigade attack on 21st - 24th July 1942. 9. THE FOURTH INDIAN DIVISION IN THE BATTLE OF WADI AKARIT (OPERATION SCIPIO) Tunisia, 6th April 1943 and the award of a Victoria Cross to 1st Battalion The 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) 10. THE ASSAULT ON DJEBEL GARCI, TUNISIA, 20-22 April 1943: A Victoria Cross and four Indian Orders of Merit for the 4th/6th Rajputana Rifles and five Indian Orders of Merit for the 1st/9th Gurkhas PART II - BURMA AND ASSAM 1. `Z' FORCE - (`THE JONNIES') The award of a Distinguished Service Order to Major Samuel Newland of the Indian Army Intelligence Corps 2. NO. 28: THE JAPANESE ATTACK ON MOULMEIN, BURMA 30th-31st January 1942 3. THE STAND AT KYAUKSE, BURMA : 48th Indian Infantry Brigade holds its ground and fights back, 28 - 29 April 1942 4. RETREAT FROM BURMA 1942. THE STRUGGLES THROUGH THE NORTHERN PASSES. Awards of the George, Albert and British Empire Medals (Military Division) and Appointments to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire 5. `THE GOVERNMENT HAS COME BACK BY UMBRELLA' - Operations PUDDLE and FIREPUMP. The first operational jumps into Burma of 50th Indian Parachute Brigade 6. THE 2nd BATTALION OF THE 1st PUNJAB REGIMENT IN THE FIRST ARAKAN CAMPAIGN: December 1942 - May 1943 7. TRIPURA SEPOYS IN THE ARAKAN CAMPAIGN: December 1942 - February 1946 8. TOWARDS THE IRRAWADDY: Gurkhas on the First Chindit Expedition - OPERATION LONGCLOTH, Burma, February - May 1943 9. THE 1st BATTALION (KING GEORGE'S OWN) (FEROZEPORE SIKHS) 11th SIKH REGIMENT IN THE SECOND ARAKAN CAMPAIGN, October 1943 - APRIL 1944 and the award of a Victoria Cross to Naik Nand Singh 10. FIGHTING SOUTHWARDS TO MYITKYINA: The 4th Battalion the Burma Regiment in action, Northern Burma, November 1943 - August 1944 11. AND SOME MARCHED EAST: Operations on the Chinese border, 2nd Chindit Expedition, Burma, March - August 1944 12. THE LUSHAI BRIGADE: Burma, March 1944 - June 1946 13. OPERATION `AYO' - 48 INDIAN INFANTRY BRIGADE'S ROAD BLOCK AT TORBUNG AND THE FIERCELY CONTESTED WITHDRAWAL NORTH PAST NINGTHOUKHONG: The Battle of Imphal, May 1944 13. THE OPERATION DRACULA JUMP: The Parachute Landings at Elephant Point, Rangoon, Burma, 1st May 1945 14. OPERATION CHARACTER - RAISING THE KARENS: Force 136 parachute insertions into the Karen Hills, Burma, 1945 15. THE 1st BATTALION THE SIKH LIGHT INFANTRY IN BURMA: February 1945 to February 1946 Part III - Malay and South-East Asia 1. THE MALAY REGIMENT AT THE BATTLE OF SINGAPORE 2. KROHCOL - THE FIGHT FOR `THE LEDGE' : 3/16th and 5/14th Punjabis in action in Thailand, December 1941 3. THE JAPANESE LANDINGS AT KOTA BHARU, MALAYA December 1941 4. THE JAPANESE ATTACK ON SARAWAK, DECEMBER 1941 and the fighting withdrawal of 2/15th PUNJABIS into Dutch Borneo 5. OPERATION MASTERDOM: 20th Indian Division in French Indo China; September 1945 - March 1946 6. GURKHAS IN JAVA: The 3rd Battalion 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles in Java, October 1945 - October 1946. Part IV - Europe 1. THE ROYAL INDIAN ARMY SERVICE CORPS CONTINGENT IN FRANCE AND BRITAIN: December 1939 - January 1944 2. FROM MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS TO ITALIAN MOUNTAINS: The 4th Battalion (Wilde's) of the 13th Frontier Force Rifles in the Eastern Mediterranean and Italy. August 1942 - September 1944. 3. SEPOYS ON THE SICILIAN LANDING BEACHES: The 3rd Battalion of the 10th Baluch Regiment and the 3rd Royal Battalion of the 12th Frontier Force Regiment on the Sicilian landing beaches. July to October 1943. 4. SIKHS ON THE ATTACK IN ITALY: The 2nd Royal Battalion of the 11th Sikh Regiment in the fierce fighting for Poggio San Giovanni and Onferno, September 1944. 5. THE CAPTURE OF MONTE CHICCO, ITALY, 11th OCTOBER 1944: 2nd Battalion 6th Gurkha Rifles fight hard to seize and hold Monte Chicco, earning two Distinguished Service Orders, two Military Crosses and a posthumous Indian Order of Merit. 6. OPERATION MANNA: 4th Indian Division in Greece, November 1944 - January 1946 Part V - Miscellaneous 1. FIGHTING ON THE NORTH WEST FRONTIER 1939-40: Operations against tribal hostiles in the Razmak area 2. THE 5th BATTALION OF THE 7th RAJPUT REGIMENT IN THE DEFENCE OF HONG KONG, December 1941 3. THE ATTACK BY THE 2nd ROYAL BATTALION THE 11th SIKH REGIMENT ON QASR SHAIKH, PERSIA, 25th August 1941 4. A TALE OF TWO MUTINIES: The Indian Ocean 1942 Index
Harry Fecitt was born in Lancashire, England, in 1942. Eighteen years later he was commissioned into the British Army as an infantry officer. Forty years later he relinquished that commission and at that time he was employed as a Reservist officer in the Intelligence Corps. In the intervening years he served as a contract infantry officer in the Zambia Army, the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces and the Dubai Defence Force, as well as in the British reserve forces. He qualified as a parachutist, as a mortar and anti-tank officer and colloquially in four languages, ending his military career as a human intelligence specialist having served in that capacity in Central America and the Balkans. This last employment led to his admission as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), Military Division. The high point of his military life was in the early 1970s when he commanded a rifle company of Baluch soldiers, also serving on contract, in the Dhofar Campaign that was being waged in the south of the Sultanate of Oman. He writes for several military journals and has recently co-authored a book that describes the impact on and the military activities of the Naga tribe of north-eastern India during the 1944 Battle of Kohima. He is also the author of the book titled 'Sideshows of the Indian Army in World War 1'.
