Tango01 | 05 Oct 2020 9:10 p.m. PST |
"On a moonlit January night in 1941, Subhas Chandra Bose, a leader of India's independence movement—as influential in his time as Gandhi and nearly as mythologized in his homeland today—embarked on a perilous, clandestine journey. Frail from a hunger strike begun during his eleventh stint in British prisons, Bose was sent home to recuperate—to get just well enough, that is, to be arrested once again. Seeking to take advantage of Britain's involvement in World War II, he knew he could not languish any longer in prison. So he worked out a bold escape. Disguised as a North Indian Muslim, he left his family's home on Calcutta's Elgin Road and sneaked out of the city in the direction of Delhi, where he caught a train to Peshawar—journeying on, under the name Orlando Mazzotta, to Samarkand, Moscow, and Berlin. It was April 1941, and Bose arrived in Nazi Germany, ready to launch a revolution. Bose had traveled extensively in Europe in the 1930s as a spokesman-diplomat advocating for India's emancipation. This second European exile, however, was born out of greater urgency, even desperation. He went to Germany believing that Britain would lose the war and that an alliance with the Axis powers would give India a seat opposite Britain at the postwar negotiating table. But he intended to take a more active stance as well, hoping to persuade the thousands of soldiers of Britain's Indian Army, captured in Germany and Italian prisoner-of-war camps, to form a legion, turn against their colonial masters, and liberate the subcontinent from without…" Main page link Amicalement Armand
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Legion 4 | 05 Oct 2020 9:30 p.m. PST |
Yes there were Indian units that fought along side the Germans and even the units of the INA along side the IJFs. Most if not all were in the Indian Army under British control. Became POWs of the Germans and Japanese then switched sides so to speak. And fought for their former enemies. |
Bunkermeister | 05 Oct 2020 9:31 p.m. PST |
Thanks Tango. I actually run a Facebook group about the Indian Legion with 2,000 members in the group. Most from India. link Mike Bunkermeister Creek Bunker Talk blog |
ScottWashburn | 06 Oct 2020 4:29 a.m. PST |
One of the more interesting adventures was when the Germans sent four ship loads of these Indian troops to join the Japanese. Two of the ships were captured by the British, one actually made it to Japanese territory and the fourth, pursued by a British ship, disappeared into the high southern latitudes south of Africa and was never heard from again. (Perhaps it was actually sent to the Nazis' secret Antarctic base :) ) |
Legion 4 | 06 Oct 2020 9:46 a.m. PST |
A very interesting history of this little known force the Indian Legion … link And the INA in the CBI … link |
Tango01 | 06 Oct 2020 12:33 p.m. PST |
A votre service mon cher ami!. (smile) Amicalement Armand
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Legion 4 | 06 Oct 2020 3:26 p.m. PST |
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4th Cuirassier | 07 Oct 2020 1:10 a.m. PST |
I always find it quite funny that the kind of nationalists who were outraged about the supposed horrors of British rule were perfectly prepared to sign up to alliances with the far more enlightened and humane regimes that were running…er…Nazi Germany and fascist Japan. |
ScottWashburn | 07 Oct 2020 5:24 a.m. PST |
Well, war makes strange bedfellows. Like the democratic US and Britain allying with Communist Russia :) |
Legion 4 | 07 Oct 2020 7:24 a.m. PST |
war makes strange bedfellows Indeed and that is as true today as it was in the past. If you are looking for allies that are "crystal clean" you may have no allies at all. "Realpolitik" I think it is called. No black & white just many shades of grey … I tend to be a Realist much more so than an Idealist … |
Tango01 | 07 Oct 2020 12:02 p.m. PST |
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