With the Indians in France

The decision to send Indian troops to France was at first limited to sending two Divisions with their artillery and other arms, and it was not till these had actually begun to leave that orders were issued constituting them into an Army Corps with its full Staff. I was selected for the command, and most of my limited Northern Army Staff were attached. The remaining officers required to complete were appointed direct from Army Headquarters at Simla, but I was allowed to nominate the personal Staff. Of course it was a drawback not having a Staff with whom I had worked in peace time, but such an organisation had not been contemplated, and in any case I had nothing to complain of, as no General could have found a more loyal and devoted body of officers; many with very high attainments and experience in the field, and all with a knowledge of British and Indian troops. I very soon found that notwithstanding the fact we were all new to the peculiar warfare and unversed in the details of Army Corps organisation, the common-sense training which India gives men enabled us to quickly gather up the threads of the work.

The following was the composition of the corps which left India:

• LAHORE DIVISION
• Lieut.-General H. B. Watkis, C.B. (Indian Army).
• Ferozepore Brigade.—Brig.-General R. M. Egerton, C.B. (Indian Army).
  • 1st Connaught Rangers.
  • 57th Rifles (Frontier Force).
  • 9th Bhopal Infantry.
  • 120th Baluchis.
• Jalandar Brigade.—Major-General P. M. Carnegy, C.B. (Indian Army).
  • 1st Manchesters.
  • 15th Sikhs.
  • 47th Sikhs.
  • 59th Rifles (Frontier Force).
• Sirhind Brigade.—Major-General J. M. S. Brunker (late R.A.).
  • 1st Highland Light Infantry.
  • 1st Battalion 1st Gurkhas.
  • 1st Battalion 4th Gurkhas.
  • 125th Rifles.
• Divisional Troops.
  • 15th Lancers.
  • Headquarters Divisional Engineers.
  • 20th and 21st Companies Sappers and Miners.
  • Signal Company.
  • 34th Sikh Pioneers.
  • Headquarters Divisional Artillery.
• Artillery.
  • 5th, 11th and 18th Brigades R.F.A.
  • Ammunition Columns.
  • 109th Heavy Battery.

• MEERUT DIVISION
• Lieut.-General C. A. Anderson, C.B. (late R.A.)
• Dehra Dun Brigade.—Brig.-General C. E. Johnson (Indian Army).
  • 1st Seaforth Highlanders.
  • 1st Battalion 9th Gurkhas.
  • 2nd Battalion 2nd Gurkhas.
  • 6th Jat Light Infantry.
• Garhwal Brigade.—Major-General H. D’U. Keary, C.B., D.S.O. (Indian Army).
  • 2nd Leicesters.
  • 2nd Battalion 3rd Gurkhas.
  • 1st Battalion 39th Garhwal Rifles.
  • 2nd Battalion 39th Garhwal Rifles.
• Bareilly Brigade.—Major-General F. Macbean, C.V.O., C.B. (late Gordon Highlanders).
  • 2nd Black Watch.
  • 41st Dogras.
  • 58th Rifles (Frontier Force).
  • 2nd Battalion 8th Gurkhas.
• Divisional Troops.
  • 4th Cavalry.
  • 3rd and 4th Companies Sappers and Miners.
  • 107th Pioneers.
  • Headquarters Divisional Engineers.
  • Signal Company.
• Artillery.
  • Headquarters Divisional Artillery.
  • 4th, 9th and 13th Brigades R.F.A.
  • Ammunition Columns.
  • 110th Heavy Battery.

By 26th September 1914, or a little over seven weeks after the declaration of war, two Brigades of the Lahore Division had arrived at Marseilles. The Sirhind Brigade had been detained in Egypt to reinforce the garrison and did not reach France till the end of November, its place in the Corps being filled, on and off, by a British Brigade from the Expeditionary Force.

I myself with the Corps Staff reached Marseilles by ordinary P. and O. mail on 30th September. I was met by the General in Command and an A.D.C. sent by General Joffre, and in a moment grasped the reality of our alliance. I was only an Army Corps Commander, but the honour thus conferred on us was a token of the unequalled tact and politeness of the French people. Every day I served in France I learned more, that with all our esprit de corps we are not in the same street with their army in camaraderie.

The Meerut Division was disembarking by 11th October. The Secunderabad Cavalry Brigade also arrived in Marseilles before I finally left for Orleans, and later was attached to the Indian Corps in Flanders, until the arrival of the remainder of the Indian Cavalry Corps. This fine Brigade was commanded by Brig.-General F. Wadeson, Indian Army, and consisted of

and with it came the Jodhpore Imperial Service Lancers, under command of that fine old veteran chief, Major-General Sir Partab Singh. His name is too familiar even in England to need any description here; suffice it to say he has, by his glorious personal example throughout the war, earned a prominent niche in the temple of fame, and as long as India endures the Rathore and other Indians will treasure the name of Maharaja Sir Partab Singh, Bahadur.

Amongst Indian princes and chiefs who came to Europe, the following were attached on various duties to the Indian Army Corps, and by their loyalty and devotion well maintained the fame of their ancestors. Indeed, as I look back on those stormy days and recall many rides over execrable roads and fields deep in mire, from one end of our line to the other, I conjure up these scions of noble and great houses, sodden and mud-stained, and cease to wonder why Great Britain had gained so firm a hold over the millions of Hindustan.

It is something which our race may well be proud of. On many a bitter field their powerful ancestors had fought against one another; some had disputed with us our sovereignty over the peninsula now called India, and all were of different race, creed and religion to ourselves; and yet here on the plains of Flanders they were intent on one thing alone, and that was to share our toils and our honours, and give if necessary their lives for their King-Emperor.

Lieut. His Highness the Maharaja of Jodhpore was serving with Sir Partab Singh in his own regiment of Lancers.

Colonel His Highness Sir Ganga Singh, Bahadur, Maharaja of Bikanir, was attached to the Meerut Division. I have long known this Indian prince; his devotion to the British and his readiness to be always doing something were conspicuous in France. His own Camel Corps was serving in Egypt, and later on he went and joined it for a time.

Major His Highness Sir Madan Singh, Bahadur, Maharaja Dhiraj of Kishengarh.

Captain the Hon. Malik Sir Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana was attached to the Ferozepore Brigade. A lithe, active man, he was the chief Mahomedan representative with the corps.

Lieut. Raj-Kumar Hira Singh of Panna was with the Bareilly Brigade; and Lieut. Maharaja Kumar Hitandra Narayan of Kuch Behar was attached to the Dehra Dun Brigade.

Lieut. Maharaja Kumar Gopal Saran Narain Singh of Tikari served with the Corps Signal Company and was a most versatile man, always ready to turn his hand to any job. Cheery and energetic, I had many opportunities of observing his work.

Lieut. Malik Mumtaz Mahomed Khan, Native Indian Land Forces, was with the Staff of the Secunderabad Cavalry Brigade; and Captain Shah Mirza Beg, Jodhpore Lancers, was an A.D.C. in the same Brigade.

Last, but by no means least, was one of the best soldiers I ever met, Risaldar Khwaja Mahomed Khan, Sirdar Bahadur, I.D.S.M., of the Guides Cavalry, my Indian A.D.C. He had served as A.D.C. to Lord Kitchener when he was Commander-in-Chief, and twice with me on frontier expeditions in 1908. Brave, loyal to the core; hard as nails; always cheerful and very hard working, it was a pleasure to serve with such a real gentleman. He was invaluable in France, for although he knew but little English and very little French he was liked by all, British and Allies. He was the connecting link between me and all our Indian officers, and by his tact arranged many matters of considerable local importance to us. The Indian Government owes him a debt of gratitude; I hope they will not forget it.

No one who knew The Khwaja, as he was familiarly known, could fail to see in him the best type of Indian officer; and in his remote village of Hamza Kot in the Yousafzai plain beneath the shadow of the Buner hills, he will often recall the bleak but stirring days we worked together from Givenchy and Festubert to Neuve Chapelle.

At Marseilles the Indian troops were camped in various localities either in or within a few miles of the town. We had our field service tents, and except for the surroundings and the awful state of the ground from incessant rain, one might have been back in Northern India. But in those early days of the war everything was new to all ranks, and no matter what the discomforts it was a sudden drop into dreamland.

Take a look at the race-course by the sea. Leaning on the rails are twenty or thirty French, men, women, and children, watching our Indian soldiers cooking their evening meal; these have doffed their khaki uniform and are now clothed in the scantiest of garments. They exchange words, French and Hindustani; a French child offers one of them a sweet, the Indian gives a chapatty in return; cigarettes are offered by a passer-by; a Mahomedan pulls out from his haversack a bamboo flute and plays a ditty; all laugh heartily. The West has already conquered the East; the East has sown a seed which gradually grew until within a few months Indians in Flanders were entering shops, bargaining and buying as if they were to the manner born, and the vendors were even more civil to them than to Europeans, and that is saying much for those fine people the French.

What may eventually be the result of all the friendliness and camaraderie between the French and Indians is hard to say. It will have its advantages; it will assuredly have its disadvantages. “East is East and West is West”: the Ganges and the Seine flow in different directions; the artificial meeting of these waters may not be an unmixed blessing. The Hindu on his return to Kashi (Benares) or the Mahomedan at his prayers at the Jumma Musjid at Delhi may think differently of the white races across the sea to what he thought before the transports bore him across the kala-pani, the black water.

However, although everything may be changed after this war, personally I believe the East will return to its own ways, and very rightly so, and that the next generation of ordinary Indians will talk of France, Gallipoli, and Mesopotamia much as we do of the conquest of Mexico or of Peru.

Whilst the Corps was collecting and getting re-equipped with new rifles, etc., I was summoned to General Headquarters, on the Aisne, and travelled via Paris and thence by motor-car. At General Headquarters I saw Sir John French, and learnt from him that our Army was very shortly to be transferred from the Aisne to Flanders, and that the Indian Corps was to hasten its departure and join them there; he indicated the region of La Bassée, and although heavy fighting went on before we actually took our place in the trenches, it was immediately west of La Bassée that we eventually did so. He asked me many questions, and whether I had anything particular to point out. My only request was that I hoped my Corps would not be split up before we could be more or less concentrated, for I had a very shrewd idea we should find ourselves in trenches in Flanders and that the days of normal past European warfare were near their end on the Western front. I was not far wrong, but, as I shall show later, the situation was such when the Lahore Division arrived, that several battalions were at once taken from their brigades and thrown in anyhow with cavalry and infantry to help stem the German rush between Ypres and La Bassée.

The times were abnormal and the necessity was great, but it was very unfortunate for the Indian troops that before they had time to realise their position, or gather whether they were facing east or west, they were separated from their own British battalions and broken up into half battalions and even companies, and rushed into the whirlwind of Ypres amidst those who were strangers to them.

Then came realistically home to them the shortage of British officers. Twelve was the total war complement per battalion—twelve marked white men; nobly these and the gallant Indians did their duty, but the tempest was on them and the British officers were practically blotted out. The Indian officers and men fought fiercely, but notwithstanding that the other British troops of all classes around them were setting a deathless example of glory, the fact remained that the Indians were fast losing the officers who knew them and whom they trusted beyond all things; and of the strangers there were none who could talk their language or understand them.

Those who take up the pen to criticise should first put themselves in the place of these men, who had crossed the seas to fight for England, without any personal cause in the quarrel, and inspired alone by the duty they owed their King-Emperor because they had eaten his salt. It is a story of loyalty never surpassed in the annals of history, but the narration of these events will follow in the next chapter.

I returned to Marseilles, and was in Orleans a few days later; here the two Divisions and all their belongings were being concentrated and moved on, as equipped with mechanical and horse transport. The French General in Command of the District was greatly interested in the troops and witnessed a march past after an inspection parade.

The Indians were much impressed by the statue of Joan of Arc, which stands in a large square of the town; they had just heard the story of the Maid, and I saw them assembled in groups round the statue, and some companies which happened to be passing came to attention and turned their faces towards it. Could the Maid have ever dreamed that the Aryans from the far waters of the Indus and the slopes of the great Himalayas would one day learn to honour her as her own countrymen would do? But every day in France in 1914–15 was a lesson in psychology.

The mechanical transport handed over to us at Orleans was a revelation. The great retreat from Mons had taken its terrible toll, England was being called on to face difficulties of sea and land transport undreamed of but a few months previously; our armies were fighting for dear life, and these must needs of course be supplied first, and yet that great organiser Lord Kitchener had found it possible to send us motor transport sufficient for our immediate needs, and all up to time. Indeed it was we who had to hurry to keep pace with the urgent call from the trenches.

Had the mechanical transport been the sole difficulty, that had already been solved, but with the horse vehicles it was a totally different affair. No need to dilate on this; we knew they were doing their best for us and we meant to do our best with what was given us; but in truth the medley of carts of every description that met my eye the first morning at Orleans was enough to turn one’s hair grey.

A vast plain, now converted into a bog, was literally strewn with vehicles and horses; every species of conveyance found a place, and the fair at Nijni Novgorod could not have shown greater variety; the char-a-banc and the baker’s cart; structures on prehistoric springs; pole and draught harness; horses in hundreds without collars, head or heel ropes—in fact, just loose. It might have appeared grave if it had not been so amusing. But the cart horses and harness were all as nothing to the drivers. Good fellows, who a month later had become useful soldiers, to-day they were indeed a sore trial. I went round to one diminutive man and said, “Do you know anything about horses?” “I do not,” was his reply. “How many days have you been a soldier?” “Thirteen days.” He was doing his best to find his horses, which in company with many others were taking a stroll along the banks of the Loire anywhere within five miles of the camp. I liked that man.

Such were some of our first trials, but what minute ones in comparison to the real ones we should soon be facing. The Indian soldiers could not understand all these things! The motor lorries were new to them, and they simply took it for granted that in a European war everything was going to be new. But to see hundreds of magnificent horses wandering about because there was nothing to fasten them with, and drivers who were very much at sea, with a force going into the field, they did not understand. They have learned a good many things since.

Of all arms of the Indian Corps there was one not surpassed in any army—the Field Artillery. True, that to furnish the British equivalent of a corps in guns many other divisions in India had lost their brigades, but the artillery as it stood was near perfection. Superbly horsed; with officers and men who had been trained on excellent and varied manœuvre grounds; comparatively old, and in every respect highly disciplined soldiers; the field artillery I had in France was a thing any General might well envy. And moreover, as it was put to no such test as the Mons retreat it went into action fully equipped, and remained throughout the year the Corps was in France a fine fighting machine. Officers and men disappeared as in other brigades of the Expeditionary Force, but the nucleus remained, and improved as time went on.

The Indian Divisions had each an entire regiment of cavalry attached as Divisional troops, and in addition a battalion of Pioneers, and in this respect were ahead of British troops in organisation. These Pioneer battalions proved of inestimable value, being trained in various kinds of technical work as well as all ordinary fighting duties. In addition each Division had two companies of Sappers and Miners; acknowledged by all who have ever seen them in the field to be some of the finest engineer troops in our army.

The Indian kahars or stretcher-bearers attached to the field ambulances are a peculiarity of India. In France they did most excellent work; purely non-fighting men, they are callously brave under fire, going about their duty with a calm air which appears to say, “I am not a fighting but a healing man, therefore they will never shoot me”—for this in fact is what one of them said to me. The kahar of course takes his chance, but I doubt if that man had ever heard of the Huns.

On the 18th October two Brigades of the Lahore Division left Orleans and were on the Flanders front by the 21st, and the Meerut Division following them reached St. Omer by the 29th of the month. These were followed by the Secunderabad Cavalry Brigade and Jodhpore Lancers, and thus the whole of the Corps that had so far arrived in France was at last facing the Germans.

A great surprise to me, once we found ourselves in Flanders, was the ease with which everything worked. The Indian troops, as is well known, have their own peculiar customs. Their religious scruples and their feeding have to be arranged for on lines entirely different to British soldiers. All these details might reasonably have been expected to cause considerable difficulties, but we had been preceded by Staff Officers conversant with all the requirements, and General Headquarters gave such a free hand in these matters and so readily fell in with every suggestion which they felt was necessary, that in a very few days things were working more smoothly than in India itself, where unfortunately red tape, Babus, and Returns clog the wheels to such an extent as to render the machinery frequently almost immovable.

India was now to be put to the test. Thirty, and even twenty, years previously it had been looked upon as the best training ground for the army. Indian campaigns had produced many distinguished soldiers. Names like those of Nicholson, Colin Campbell, Havelock, Roberts, had immortalised its army; and only recently Lord Kitchener had reorganised it, but the years of desert warfare in Egypt and the war in South Africa had shorn India of many of its attractions. It was no longer looked on by many good soldiers as the best, or even as a good school. I had known some who had refused high commands; others who felt European war was in the air and had no intention of cutting themselves adrift from home, where lay the best chance of being employed. For me personally there was the ever-present knowledge that but few of those directing the great military machine in France knew anything about the Indians, and yet the very nature and composition of the corps must be thoroughly recognised if the fullest advantage was to be taken of it. We did know, fortunately, that His Majesty the King not only had his Indian soldiers’ welfare at heart, but also that we should always have his earnest support, and this was a tower of strength to us. We knew also that Lord Kitchener would watch our progress and back up our needs.

So far so good, but something more was needed. Did our immediate commanders grasp the fact that our strength in bare numbers as compared with a British Army Corps was 5400 bayonets short? Did they realise that our reinforcements were precarious, and had to come thousands of miles across the seas? They could not know what I did, viz. that a very large proportion of our reservists, which must form a great part of such reinforcements, were quite useless for European warfare, owing to the pernicious reserve system then prevailing in India. Could they tell that the drafts, before many months had gone by, would begin to consist of recruits enlisted immediately before or during the war?

A former War Minister in England had once told me that in four months Britishers could be turned into good soldiers, fit to fight in Europe. Perhaps he was right; perhaps this great war has proved it; but “East is East and West is West,” and notwithstanding my admiration for the Indians and believing them to be first-class fighting material, I can positively assert that it is impossible to make good soldiers of them in four months or even in a much longer period. Education, temperament, the difference between having and not having a cause in the quarrel, must perforce be considered. From the day I left India I had revolved all these matters in my mind, and now the time had come when we must put our whole soul into the battle.

The day of my arrival at St. Omer, the British Headquarters, was indeed one to be remembered. Asia had dropped into Europe; the descendants of Timour, of Guru Govind, of the ancient Hindus, had come to fight the Huns on the historic plains of Flanders. Seventy miles in a direct line from us lay the immortal field of Waterloo; seventy-five miles away were the cliffs of Dover. The man must have been carved out of wood who would not have rejoiced at his good fortune; the heart atrophied that did not beat the faster at the thought that he was given a chance, however humble, of taking his share in the greatest conflict of all times.

As I motored to General Headquarters, methought the temple bells on Ganges banks were ringing, and the millions of devotees offering their prayers for their loved ones so far away, in a land which none could conjure up even in imagination. The voices of the muezzins were ascending from thousands of mosques, from the Afridi hills to the Deccan plains and away beyond, calling on Allah to protect their kith and kin and give them victory. The Golden Temple of Amritsar was sending up its call to Ishwar, with fatehs for the soldiers of the Khalsa. On the mighty Himalayas, the home of the Highlanders of Nepal, the sturdy little Gurkhas, I could see many thousands who knew nothing of Europe or any land beyond their own, but who did know that their kinsfolk could die like men, and they were calling in their simple faith on the Creator to watch those who from loyalty to their King-Emperor had crossed the great unknown sea. And then the car stopped, and my vision faded, for I was at General Headquarters, and on a large table covered with small flags was the map of the British trenches, and standing beside it was the Field-Marshal Commander-in-Chief.

I had only met Sir John French three times in my life, but even had I never met him before I would have been glad to serve under his command, for he spoke so directly and with a manner that proved his sincerity and his confidence in himself and his army. There was no bluster, but just a man in high authority speaking to another, who, he recognised, had a difficult task before him and meant to do his level best. I went away happy.

I once asked one of my African soldiers, “Who is the greatest man in the world?” He promptly answered, “You are.” I asked him why, and he replied, “Because you are my Commander-in-Chief.” Simple fellow, but I felt rather like him for the moment.