Theatres of war

A snapshot of the major battles that the Indian Army fought

- R. PRASANNAN

THEY FOUGHT IN East Africa; they fought in North Africa. They fought in Iraq, Iran and Palestine, and in Italy, southern Europe, Borneo and the Philippines. They fought in Malaya; they fought in Singapore; they fought in Burma; they finally took a last stand at the gates of India, where they vowed not to surrender.

To paraphrase a famous Winston Churchill speech, they fought on the beaches, on the islands, on the landing grounds, in the streets, in the deserts, in the jungles, in the hills— they fought everywhere. Where they were not fighting, they were serving the men who were fighting—even on the frozen Russian front.

That was the story of the Indian Army in World War II. As military historian Rana Chhina says, they “fought against two of the finest armies of the world—the Germans and the Japanese—and proved [their] worth.”

When the war started, the Indian Army had less than two lakh men, including a few thousand British officers and men. When the war ended, they were 2.5 million, after losing 87,000 dead and 64,000 wounded; the largest voluntary army ever raised in the history of the world, as Churchill grudgingly conceded.

Here we present a broad picture of the major battles that the Indian Army fought. They won some, they lost some, but they fought all well.

NORTH AND EAST AFRICA

Defeating Italians; taking on Rommel

OPERATION COMPASS