The Indian Army, 1939–47

Experience and Development

Patrick Rose, Alan Jeffreys

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781138110069
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317027638
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

The sheer size and influence of the British Indian Army, and its major role in the Allied War effort between 1939 and 1945 on behalf of a country from which it was seeking independence, maintains its fascination as a subject for a wide variety of historians. This volume presents a range of papers examining the Indian Army experience from the outbreak of world war in 1939 to the partition of India in 1947. With contributions from many of those at the forefront of the study of the Indian Army and Commonwealth history, the book focuses upon a period of Indian Army history not well covered by modern scholarship. As such it makes a substantial contribution across a range of subject areas, presenting a compendium of chapters examining Indian Army participation in the Second World War from North Africa to Burma, plus a variety of other topics including the evolution of wartime training, frontier operations, Churchill and the Indian Army, the Army's role in the development of post-war British counterinsurgency practice, and of particular note, several chapters examining aspects of the partition in 1947. As such, the book offers a fascinating insight into one of the most important yet least understood military forces of the twentieth century. It will be of interest not only to those seeking a fuller understanding of past campaigns, but also to those wishing to better understand the development and ethos of the present day military forces of the Indian subcontinent.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 The Evolution and Use of British Imperial Military Formations
• 2 Indian Army Command Culture and the North West Frontier, 1919–1939
• 3 Did Winston Matter? Churchill and the Indian Army, 1940–1945
• 4 Training the Indian Army, 1939–1945
• 5 The Battle of Wadi Akarit, 6 April 1943: 4th Indian Division and its Place in 8th Army
• 6 ‘Debunking the Bunker’: From Donbaik to Razabil, January 1943–March 1944
• 7 The Re-capture of Rangoon, 1945: The Last and Greatest Victory of the British Indian Army
• 8 The 20th Indian Division in French Indo-China
• 9 Re-forging the Damascus Blade: Partition of the Indian Armoured Corps, 1947
• 10 A Dismal Story? Britain, the Gurkhas and the Partition of India, 1945–1948
• 11 Small Wars and Internal Security: The Army in India, 1936–1946
• Index