LEST WE FORGET 2000

[Stanley]

LEST WE FORGET 2000

Written
26 October 2000

It’s November again and once more my thoughts turn towards the brave men whose lives were cruelly taken off them in the wars. Those of you who read the piece I did after visiting Iepre earlier this year might remember how deeply I was affected by those serried ranks of gravestones in the Flanders countryside. You might also remember me being puzzled as to why I could find no mention of the Indian troops or the Gurkhas. I mentioned this to my brother Leslie who has been researching the history of the Great War for many years and he sent me quite a lot of information on the subject. So, my piece this week depends mainly on his work and I am grateful to him.
When war started in 1914 the British Regular Army was a very well trained and experienced force but couldn’t really be compared with the great continental armies in either size or suitability for total war on the continent of Europe. The main reason for this was the fact that it had been developed and trained essentially as a colonial police force. This is not to say it was incompetent, only that the skills it had practised and the conflicts it had to deal with were different than the role it was going to be called on to fulfil. The Entente Cordiale had led to the development of plans for an expeditionary force which could support the French Army in any conflict and when the time came, these plans were largely effective. Lord Moran described the BEF as ‘A perfect thing apart’ and while that may have been a slight exaggeration there is no doubt that it was an extremely efficient body of men. The story about the Germans being convinced that the British were all armed with machine guns because of the rapid and effective fire they produced was true.
However, numbers will tell when two armies collide in total warfare and the BEF was savaged at the battle of Mons even though the retreat was a textbook exercise. The BEF was badly shaken and needed reinforcements but from where?
There was one other large trained force at the Empire’s disposal, the Indian Army, this was the obvious source of reinforcements. The Dominions were not yet in a position to help and the Kitchener New Armies were still being raised and trained. The Indian Corps consisting of two divisions with cavalry and artillery arrived in Marseilles in October 1914 and were sent straight into the line at the First battle of Ypres. It has been said that without them the German armies would have broken through, almost certainly reached the channel ports and thus cut off the transport links essential for the supply and reinforcement of the BEF. The input of the Indian Corps helped save the day, the garrison at Ypres survived and essentially held the position until the Armistice in 1918.
Leslie pointed out to me that one of the reasons why the Indian Corps receives so little attention was that apart from the Indian artillery who stayed in Belgium and France until the end of the war they were withdrawn in 1915 for service in Mesopotamia. The myth survives that they left because they couldn’t stand the cold, damp climate of Western Europe. Leslie says he doesn’t think this is true because many of them were hill tribesmen and well used to severe conditions. The fact that they left after a brief but important contribution means that in sheer numbers of deaths they do not rank high in the memorials that remain.
Also, my visit was to Ypres and for most of their stay in France they fought on the line further south in the Neuve Chapelle region. There are two large memorials there, the main one of which is the Indian Memorial to the Missing at La Bombe near Neuve Chapelle. It was designed by Sir Herbert Baker and records the names of 4,843 men of the Indian Corps.
Leslie also pointed out another reason why so many of these troops are recorded as having no known grave, this was because their culture favoured dealing with the body by cremating it and the Indian Troops generally did this even under very difficult conditions.
Most of the Indian troops were treated in hospitals in the Brighton region, some being housed in the Brighton Pavilion. It was probably thought that the oriental architecture would make them feel at home but what the effect of an 18th century mish-mash of Chinese and Indian architecture had on a hill tribesman from Afghanistan is anyone’s guess. There is a memorial gateway to the Indian Army at the Pavilion which was dedicated by the Maharajah of Patiala in 1921. Also in Sussex, up on the Downs behind Brighton, there is a monument known as the Chattri which was built on the site where the bodies of Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died in the Brighton hospitals were cremated. This also was dedicated in 1921 by the Prince of Wales accompanied by Earl Haig. Until recently the British Legion made an annual pilgrimage to the site. The Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst has a memorial stained glass window commemorating the Indian losses.
In France, the responsibility for the war graves fell to the Imperial War Graves Commission and there was a great deal of discussion about the general design of the cemeteries. Sir Edwin Lutyens, the architect in charge, was dead against any form of Christian symbolism in what were after all, multi-racial and multi-cultural sites. He was overruled in one significant respect, the traditionalists won the day in that the Cross of Sacrifice became a standard element in all IWGC sites. The headstones were designed by Lutyens to be totally neutral from a religious point of view and can be used by any religious or racial group as a focus for remembrance without compromising their principles. The stones were also of standard size and design so that nobody could erect any monument that damaged the concept of equality in death.
Leslie also pointed out that in some ways the Indian government treated their war heroes and war widows better than we did. They paid for purification ceremonies essential to troops returning home after crossing Kalo Pani, The Dark Waters, and widows provision carried on after their death where necessary to support the family.
So, on the whole, my misgivings about the treatment meted out to the Indian dead are put to rest. The main thing now is to remember them and of course the contribution made by the Indian Army in WWII especially in the Far East and North Africa. This will be further enhanced when the planned memorial gates to the men and women of the Commonwealth who died in two wars are erected at Hyde Park Corner in London.
Allow me to remind you of another thing I realised this year. When I was in Rothenburg ob der Taube in Germany I went to look at their war memorial and was very impressed when I discovered that they not only had the names of those killed whilst in the armed forces but the civilians as well. How sensible, the people who died at home under bombing and bombardment were just as much victims of war as those in the field. It had never struck me before but it really is very strange that we don’t give them the same attention.
It must be very hard for young people who have no experience of war to understand why the older end like myself attach such significance to these events. Talk to your parents and grandparents and ask them if anyone from the family was killed. Go and look at the names on the War Memorial in town, it’s a fair bet you will find your family name on there and if you enquire you might be in for a surprise. My middle name is Challenger and it commemorates my maternal grandfather who died in France in 1917 after being caught in a shell blast. Coincidentally, I met a lady this year whose Father was a surgeon at the field hospital where he died and could have been his doctor. It’s a small world and these linkages are important because they define our roots and heritage.
Just one word of warning, if you see it written anywhere that they ‘gave their lives’, don’t you believe it. They didn’t give their lives, they had them snatched away violently and with great cruelty. Nobody ever volunteers to make that sacrifice. Remember also the poor lads who were shot for cowardice in the face of the enemy. This was usually done just before a ‘big push’ to encourage the others. We shot about 300, far more than anyone else including the Germans. I always remember the reply that Haig’s staff got from the general in charge of the Australian and New Zealand troops when asked why they didn’t shoot deserters. He said that the Germans were doing enough of that without our help!
Rudyard Kipling was a hawk at the beginning of WWI, he passionately believed we should fight the Germans. His son volunteered but was found to be unfit so Kipling pulled strings and managed to get his lad commissioned as an officer and he was sent out to Loos. Within six weeks he was dead and his father never got over it. After the war he wrote some verses commemorating the war and the one which refers to his son is very simple. ‘If they ask you why we died, tell them that our fathers lied.’
I’m sorry it’s been so downbeat this week but history has many facets, some of them are not quite as amusing as others but are no less important. I promise that next time I’ll try to make sure we do something a bit more light hearted.

26 October 2000