Where can I learn about Indian Soldiers who fought during World War Two?

Question

Where can I learn about Indian Soldiers who fought during World War Two?

Answer 1

THE INDIAN ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, 1939-45





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[ India's Wars in Pictures ]



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The Brigade and three Battalion Commanders of the All Indian 51 Infantry Brigade in Burma. Left to Right: Lt. Col. SPP Thorat, 2/2 Punjab; Lt. Col. L.P. Sen, 16/10 Baluch; Brigader R.A. Hutton, Commander 51 Brigade; and Lt. Col. K.S. Thimayya, 8/19 Hyderabad. All three battalion commanders earned the DSO [Distinguished Service Order] for their performance in Burma. Thimayya rose to the rank of General and became the Chief of the Army Staff, a post he held from 1957 to 1961. Sen was Brigade Commander of 161 Infantry Brigade that was airlifted to Srinagar in 1947, which beat the Pakistani-supported raiders back all the way to Uri. Thorat and Sen later rose to the rank of Lieutenant General in their army career. Both held the appointment of GOC Eastern Army Command, with the later holding the command during the 1962 Indo-China War.

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A portrait of Tulbahadur Pun, Victoria Cross (VC).

Pun was awarded a VC at Mogaung on the night of 6/7th June 1944. After his comrades were killed around him, he single handedly charged a group of Japanese who were dug in 30 yards away across open ground, firing a bren gun from the hip he overcame the enemy and captured their position and two light machine guns.



Mogaung is counted as the 3rd Gurkha Rifle's most glorious day as it won two Victoria Crosses (the second was a posthumous award to Captain Michael Allmand), one DSO (Distinguished Service Order), one IOM (Indian Order of Merit), three MCs (Military Cross), two IDSMs (Indian Distinguished Service Medals) and 9 MMs.



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Men of the 2/6th Gurkha Rifles who served with equal distinction in Italy. The second photograph shows a Gurkha soldier proudly displaying his feared Khukri - a Nepalese dagger. A Gurkha and his khukri are an extremely dangerous combination for the enemy. Circa World War II.

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5/5 Marathas in Italy, late 1944 or early 1945. Machine gunners with Vickers MMG's setting up pre-established fields of fire for a defensive position. The bulbous devices on the muzzles of the Vickers are recoil accelerators designed to minimize jamming during sustained fire.

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Madras Sappers and Miners work on a 'corduroy' road east of Kohima, on the Jessami track, August 1944. Timber provided a cheap way of producing a reasonably durable road surface for those hard-to-reach areas where mule or air transport was not enough.

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Engineers of the 8th Indian Division rest on the morning of 12 May 1944. They spent the previous night clearing enemy mines planted on the Gustav Line, allowing infantry and armour to break through during the drive that would take the Allies north to Rome.

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Jawans of the 4th Indian Division, right after Operation Crusader. These Jawans were virtually the only fresh troops available to the Allies, in the advance towards the capture of the Libyan port of Derna in December 1941.

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A Sikh-manned Bren gun team of the Fourth Indian division participating in manoeuvres prior to Operation Compass, the December 1940 offensive against the Italian Army in the desert of Western Egypt and Eastern Libya.

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4.2" mortar crews of 5/5 Marathas, the machine gun battalion of the 8th Indian Division, in action in Italy. Machine gun battalions manned the Vickers machine guns and heavy mortars that supported infantry divisions.

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Jawans from the 17th Indian Divison on assault at Imphal in June 1944. The Naik in the foreground carries a Thompson SMG and the riflemen in the background carry a SMLE with a fixed bayonet.

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British and Indian troops exchange pleasantries as they meet on the road between Imphal and Kohima following the successful relief of the Kohima box. Circa April 1944.

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You've retaken the village, now you must do what you can to save it. Indian troops do what they can to extinguish fires in a village in the Arakan.

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The jungle is neutral. Gurkha soldiers make use of the ample cover that nature has bestowed on them in the fighting in the Arakan.

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Indian Paratroopers during World War II. Source: Parachute Regiment (India).

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Indian Paratroopers during World War II. Source: Parachute Regiment (India).

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Indian Paratroopers during World War II. Source: Parachute Regiment (India).

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Atsá means “eagle” to a Navajo. Paaki is the Hopi word for “houses on water.” To a specially trained Navajo or Hopi soldier during World War II, however, the words indicated “transport plane” and “ships.” During both World Wars, hundreds of Native American soldiers served the United States by using their Native languages to send and receive secret messages. These messages proved undecipherable to the enemy and helped the U.S. achieve victory.

Native Words, Native Warriors, developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and SITES, tells the remarkable story of these American heroes and highlights the cultural backgrounds that made possible their unique and valuable contribution to the war effort.



The U.S. military first enlisted American Indians to relay messages during World War I. Two fundamental components of Native culture—warrior traditions and spoken languages of extreme complexity—were combined to great effect. Although the U.S. government did not consider American Indians to be citizens until 1924, soldiers from a number of Indian nations served the military during the war.



Soldiers from the Navajo, Hopi, Comanche, Choctaw, Chippewa/Oneida, Menominee, Sac and Fox, Sioux, Crow, Mississauga, and Cree Nations took part in similar efforts during World War II. The best known of these projects is now the formerly classified Navajo Code Talker Program, established by the U.S. Marine Corps in September 1942. The program started with 29 Navajo volunteers who created a system of code words and were trained in radio communications. In all, more than 380 Navajo code talkers were sent to Marine units in the Pacific, where they relayed information about troop movements and battle plans.



Native Words, Native Warriors provides an ideal opportunity to celebrate this important but little-reported aspect of American history.



See Bibliographic Sources for Code Talkers



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Exhibition Specifications



Contents Large-scale, freestanding color banners with accompanying labels and text



Supplemental Educational resource list, speaker list, bibliography, film guide, promotional resources, 10- and 60-minute DVDs

Participation Fee $1,700 for 8-week booking period



Running Feet (Meters) 150 running feet (45 running meters), est.

Square Feet (Meters)

Crates 2, est.

Weight To Be Determined

Category History & Culture

Security Limited

Shipping Outgoing; host museum arranges shipping and pays carrier directly

SITES Contacts Michelle Torres-Carmona to schedule, 202.633.3143

Katherine Krile for content, 202.633.3108



Tour Begins October 2006





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Tour Itinerary: (Tour dates will be posted soon)



Dates Host Institution Status

10/28/06 1/7/07 Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum, Arkansas City, KS Booked

1/27/07 4/8/07 The Air Zoo, Portage, MI Booked

4/28/07 7/8/07 Warhawk Air Museum, Meridian, ID Booked

7/28/07 10/7/07 Call for Availability

10/27/07 1/6/08 Pueblo Grande Museum & Archaeological Park, Phoenix, AZ Reserved

1/26/08 4/6/08 Museum of Western Art, Kerrville, TX Reserved

4/26/08 7/6/08 The Air Museum Planes of Fame, Chino, CA Booked

7/26/08 10/5/08 Call for Availability

10/25/08 1/4/09 Call for Availability

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7/25/09 10/4/09 Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, Kennesaw, GA Booked

10/24/09 1/3/10 Spartanburg County Public Library, Spartanburg, SC Booked

1/23/10 4/4/10 Call for Availability

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Press Releases and Features



6.20.06



Media only: Stephanie Montgomery [phone]

Public only: [phone]



Stories of American Indian Code Talkers Revealed in New

Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition



“My language was my weapon.” —David Patterson (Navajo), 4th Div., U.S. Marine Corps.



When the United States issued the call to arms in World Wars I and II, American Indians answered as warriors. Some men discovered that words—in their Native languages—would be their most valued weapons. These American heroes will share their stories of strength and courage in a new Smithsonian traveling exhibition.



Native Words, Native Warriors, developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), will tell the remarkable story of soldiers from more than a dozen tribes who used their Native languages while in service in the U.S. military. This inspiring exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of donor Elizabeth Hunter Solomon. Additional support has been provided by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee and the AMB Foundation.



Native Words, will premiere at the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum in Arkansas City, Kan., on Oct. 28 and will continue on a national tour through 2011. A second copy of the exhibition, organized for travel by the National Museum of the American Indian, will open at the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City on Nov. 6 and will remain on tour through 2008. The launch of the exhibition in Oklahoma and Kansas will coincide with the November celebrations of American Indian Heritage Month and Veterans Day.



The U.S. military first enlisted American Indians to relay messages in their Native languages during World War I, even though the United States did not consider American Indians citizens until 1924. These encoded messages proved undecipherable by the enemy and helped the United States achieve victory.



The involvement of the code talkers expanded during World War II. Soldiers from the Comanche, Meskwaki, Sioux, Crow, Hopi and Cree nations, among others, took part in the effort. The best known of these projects is the formerly classified Navajo Code Talker Program, established by the U.S. Marine Corps in September 1942. The encoded messages proved to be a fast, accurate and indecipherable-to-the-enemy alternative, which suited the demands of the battlefield better than the painfully slow military devices that had been standard.



Twenty-three years after the end of World War II, the U.S. government declassified the Navajo and Comanche code talker programs and revealed America’s unsung heroes. In 1999 the U.S. Army presented the last surviving Comanche code talker with a the Knowlton award for outstanding intelligence work, and in 2001 President George W. Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to four of the five living veterans of the original 29 Navajo code talkers.



Through oral histories taken from the veterans themselves, “ Native Words” celebrates and honors this important but little-reported aspect of American history. In addition to 15 large-scale banners, the exhibition will include videos examining the development of the code, battlefield experiences and the sharp turnaround many of them experienced as they transitioned from Indian boarding schools where they were punished for speaking their Native language to using it as their call to duty for their country.



The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is an institution of living cultures dedicated to advancing knowledge and understanding of the life, languages, literature, history and arts of the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere.



SITES has been sharing the wealth of Smithsonian collections and research programs with millions of people outside Washington, D.C. for more than 50 years. SITES connects Americans to their shared cultural heritage through a wide range of exhibitions about art, science and history, which are shown wherever people live, work and play. Exhibition descriptions and tour schedules are available at www.sites.si.edu.



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I hope this helps you love suzie

Answer 2

Part 6 of "Raj" by Lawrence James (pages 439 - 639) covers Indian participation in both World Wars and the ongoing movement for Independence. This is well written and a good introduction to the subject.



I am currently reading "The British Empire and the Second World War" by Ashley Jackson, which is the only study I have come across that seeks to place the Empire as a whole at the centre of our understanding of the Second World War.



Further reading could include Manzoor Ahmad's "Indian Response to the Second World War: A Political Study" (New Delhi 1987), Sanjay Bhattacharya's "Propaganda and Information in Eastern India,1939 - 1945: A Necessary Weapon of War" (Richmond 2001) and "Azad Hind: Writings and Speeches of Subhas Chandra Bose, 1941 - 43" edited by Sisir Bose and Sugata Bose.

Answer 3

there r good NCERT books. the FRANK BROTHERS book also gives u good information

Answer 4

India in World War II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from India during World War II)

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During the World War II, the Provinces of India, being imperial colonies of Great Britain, were by default a part of the Allies of World War II. Several Indian princely states, within the British Raj, provided large donations to the Allies to combat the threat of Nazism and Fascism. India sent millions of troops to fight the Axis Powers in South East Asia, North Africa and southern Europe. The Army of India played a crucial role in checking the advance of the Imperial Japan in South Asia and was the only major Allied nation in Asia after China.



Contents [hide]

1 The Indian stance

2 Army of India involvement

2.1 The North African theatre

2.2 The invasion of Italy

2.3 War in Burma

3 Bengal Famine

3.1 The Indian National Army

4 Capture of Indian territory

5 Recapture of Axis occupied territory







[edit]

The Indian stance

The Indian National Congress, led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru, was opposed to Fascism, Nazism and colonialism. Gandhi, in an open letter to Adolf Hitler, touted tolerance. Several other Indian leaders and politicians, expressed concerns over the rise of Fascism and Nazism and supported the British cause.



However, the Congress pointed out the inherent contradiction in the British argument of going to war with Nazi Germany for the sake of freedom, since India was denied that same freedom. It was because of this hypocrisy of the British Government, that the Congress refused to join forces with the British Army to fight against the Axis Powers until India was granted independence. Britain could not afford to lose India, its most prized possession, especially when it was facing war on all fronts. In 1939, the British Governor-General of India, declares India's entry into the World War 2 without consulting prominent Indian leaders.



Another school of thought led by Subhash Chandra Bose of the Indian National Army (INA) allied itself with the Axis based on the principle that "An enemy's enemy is a friend" rather than ideology. The Axis powers recognised the INA as the legitimate rulers of India.



[edit]

Army of India involvement

At the outbreak of World War 2 the Indian army numbered 205,000 men. Later during World War II the Indian Army became the largest all-volunteer force in history, rising to over 2.5 million men in size. These forces included tank, artillery and airborne forces. Indian soldiers won 30 Victoria Crosses during the Second World War



[edit]

The North African theatre

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

The British government meanwhile sent Indian troops to fight in West Asia and northern Africa against the Axis. India was also made into a nation to produce essential goods such as food and uniforms. Ores were mined to support the war much to the consternation of Indians. Pre-Independence India provided the largest "volunteer" force (2.5 million) of any nation during World War II.



[edit]

The invasion of Italy

Indian forces played a significant part in liberating Italy from fascism. The Army of India formed the 3rd largest allied force to invade Italy after the US and British forces.



[edit]

War in Burma

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

The Indian army was the key allied fighting force in the Burma Campaign. The Indian Air Force's first assault mission was carried out against Japanese troops stationed in Burma. It was because of the efforts of the Army of India, that the westward advance of Imperial Japan came to a halt.



[edit]

Bengal Famine

As a result of Japanese invasion of Burma, the prioritising of military over civilian and Britain's control over crop production, a mass famine occurred in Bengal, with 3 million people starving to death in 1943.



[edit]

The Indian National Army

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

The Indian National Army, formed by Rashbehari Bose and later was commanded by popular Indian leader Subhas Chandra Bose, consisted mainly of the prisoners-of-war drawn from Japanese war camps in Southeast Asia. Allied to the Japanese, this 40,000 strong army attempted to assist in the defeat of the British on the subcontinent. However, the army was defeated by Imperial forces at Mowdok, near Chittagong. Bose fled to Tokyo and was reported to have been killed in an air crash near Taiwan (though this is subject to speculation otherwise).



[edit]

Capture of Indian territory

By 1942, neighbouring Burma was invaded by Japan. By then it had already captured the Indian Andaman and Nicobar Islands. India was now faced with a hostile enemy at its gates. As a major possession of the United Kingdom, Japan looked to invade India and stamp out the economy which had so far fueled the Allies. Japan ceded the Andaman and Nicobar islands to the INA on October 21, 1943. In March 1944, Japan made an invasion into India's eastern borders and moved as far as taking Kohima in Nagaland.



[edit]

Recapture of Axis occupied territory

Meanwhile the Japanese were facing stiff resistances in the Pacific front. Hence they moved their troops eastwards leaving the INA to defend the captured Indian territory. Harsh weather and disease also took its toll on the Japanese. In 1944, a resurgent United Kingdom recaptured the INA occupied lands. Later that year Japan surrendered.



By 1945 the war had ended. Indians pressed the British for independence as they had earlier promised. On August 15, 1947, India was declared a free nation.









History of World War II by nation

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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_in_World_War_II"

Categories: Articles with sections needing expansion | British rule in India | Military history of India during World War II | World War II politics

Answer 5

www.bharat-rakshak.com for photos

http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/07/stories/2006090700921300.htm- a story abt Indian soldiers in germany.



http://www.defenceindia.com/defenceind/war_memorials_india.html- war memorial in India for World war heroes.

Answer 6

I would go to a library, and ask the librarian for help. They should be able to assist you.

Answer 7

TRY WIKIPEDIA

Answer 8

if u r in india,try some book store they will diffinately help u

Answer 9

I am very proud that you are doing this great job



could you please try these steps



1) http://www.defenceindia.com/defenceind/



2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_during_World_War_II



3) http://www.answers.com/topic/india-in-world-war-ii



4) Seek help from your friends



5) take help from Library



6) Read books about World War II



Always ask God to give you what you deserve & not what you desire. your desires may be few but you deserves a lot. Have a Great Day