Indians fought in WW2 along with the Allies but there was also resentment against the British because India was still a colony of Great Britain. This led to considerable forces of Indians who decided to fight on the Axis side against the British. About 40,000 Indians fought on the side of the Japanese in the Indian National Army(INA), and about 1,000 more were recruited by Nazi Germany for the Tiger Legion.These soldiers were also patriots and fought for the independence of their country.
INA MEMORIAL
SINGAPORE
Indian soldiers storm a
German trench, after exploding it with hand grenades(WW2)
INDIA--WW1
Sepy Khudadad Khan who has been decorated with the VC by the King, was under the command of Capt. R. F. Dill, a son of Rev. Marcus Dill, formerly of 1st Presbyterian Church, Ballymena. Captain Dill is also related to Sir Samuel Dill of Belfast. His name appeared among the recipients of the DSO in the New Year Honours
A veteran of the Second World War, Major General Eustace D'Souza (retired) PVSM was sent to the
Italian front when he was just 21. He stayed on till the end of the war in Europe.
On the 70th anniversary of World War II, the 88-year-old soldier, who also saw action in the 1971 war with Pakistan
A Lt Colonel from the 20th Indian Division accepts the formal surrender of a Japanese Commander at Saigon, Vietnam, in September 1945
A group from the 152nd Para Battalion displaying the Japanese flag they captured at Tangkhul Hundung
^ Fg Offr A R Pandit and Fg Offr B R "Pop" Rao, both DFCs of No.1 Squadron on a Hawker Hurricane in Miransha
^ At the frontline. Pilots of No.1 Squadron with the CO, Arjan Singh sitting at the drivers position in the Jeep.
^ At a forward airfield thats been turned to a quagmire due to the Monsoons, Fg Offr A C Prabhakaran, Flt Lt Ramaswamy Rajaram and Fg Offr S Hafeez pose by one of the Hurricane IIcs. Unfortunately both Prabhakaran and Hafeez were to die in operations later on in late 1944. Rajaram became an Air Marshal and AOC in C of SWAC. But he died of Leukemia in 1966
The Runnymede Memorial
During the Second World War more than 116,000 men and women of the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth gave their lives in service. More than 17,000 of these were members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, or Canadians serving with the Royal Air Force. Approximately one-third of all who died have no known grave. Of these, 20,450 are commemorated by name on the Runnymede Memorial, which is situated at Englefield Green, near Egham, 32 kilometres by road west of London.
The design of the Runnymede Memorial is original and striking. On the crest of Cooper's Hill, overlooking the Thames, a square tower dominates a cloister, in the centre of which rests the Stone of Remembrance. The cloistered walks terminate in two lookouts, one facing towards Windsor, and the other towards London Airport at Heathrow. The names of the dead are inscribed on the stone reveals of the narrow windows in the cloisters and the lookouts. They include those of 3,050 Canadian airmen.Above the three-arched entrance to the cloister is a great stone eagle with the Royal Air Force motto, "Per Ardua ad Astra". On each side is the inscription: IN THIS CLOISTER ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF TWENTY THOUSAND AIRMEN WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE. THEY DIED FOR FREEDOM IN RAID AND SORTIE OVER THE BRITISH ISLES AND THE LANDS AND SEAS OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN EUROPEThe approximate break-up of the names are as follows:
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