So, Dr Bowman, where were the Indians on D-Day?
Good question, and very un-researched. This🧵is a collection of the leads I’ve come across in the last few years. Please share your stories if you know more... #DDay80
Good question, and very un-researched. This🧵is a collection of the leads I’ve come across in the last few years. Please share your stories if you know more... #DDay80
One Indian was in a German prison at Pforzheim. Noor Inayat Khan aka ‘Madeleine’ had been a highly successful SOE radio operator in Paris. Betrayed and captured, she was murdered by the Nazis in Dachau in Sept ’44. Her final word was ‘Liberté’.
You can read her amazing story in ‘Spy Princess’ by @shrabanibasu_
Noor’s brother was much closer to D-Day. Vilayat Inayat Khan was an officer in the Royal Navy. According to his obit in the @nytimes, he was serving in a minesweeper off Normandy in the summer of 44
Noor & her brother were the children of a Sufi saint, brought up as pacifists. In Paris in 1940, as the Germans arrived, Vilayat asked ‘how can we preach spiritual morality without participating in preventive action? Can we stand by and just watch what the Nazis are doing?’
Meanwhile, other Indians were involved in the maritime effort on D-Day. According to this report in Fauji Akhbar, 1500 lascars volunteered to take supplies across the channel. The logistics effort was a vital part of D-Day itself and the following weeks – it all came by sea.
One of their boats was torpedoed off the French coast, with the loss of one sailor from Sri Lanka (Ceylon). I haven’t found his record on the @CWGC website, nor the name of the ship. Another case of ‘more research needed’
There were 11 crew from Sylhet: Ramzanullah, Wahabullah, Abdul Hassim, Muzaffar Ali, Abdul Khalik, Mostafa Mian, Rashid Ali, Abdul Latif, Inusullah, Noor Ahmed & Sarkum Ali. All returned to 🇬🇧& ‘showed keen enthusiasm to return to their job and later help in defeating Japan’.
As well as Indians in the navy, they were also in the #RAF. Eric Ahmed Osman’s father was from Bombay, his mother was from Kent, he was born in Fulham - we’d call him Mixed Heritage. Flight Sergeant in a Wellington bomber, he was shot down in Aug 44, and is buried in Valenciennes
Osman is front left in this photo. Credit to Ali Chaudhry for research and this article.
britishnormandymemorial.org
britishnormandymemorial.org
Another Indian RAF officer was Sayana Puram Duraiswamy ‘Tiger’ Thyagarajan, from Pondicherry. He's the one seated on the plane's nose - this is 263 sqn
Thyagarajan flew Typhoons over France, and was shot down on 25th August. He’s buried at La Lande, south of Honfleur. Photo Johan Pauwels
britishnormandymemorial.org
britishnormandymemorial.org
Meanwhile, on the other side of France, hundreds of Indians had escaped from a POW camp in Épinal. This photo was taken at Etobon, en route to neutral Switzerland
On 7th June, 6 of the Epinal escapers reached Switzerland - Alimat Shah, Badshah Khan, Badshah Wali, Ghulam Mohd, Najab Din and Pirat Khan.
You can read more about the Epinal escape- and its relationship with D-Day - in my book
Meanwhile in Italy, the 4th Indian Division were part of the multi-national force that had recently taken Monte Cassino, and captured Rome the day before D-Day.
Yeshwant Ghadge of the Mahrattas was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 10th July on the Tiber. The citation refers to ‘courage, determination, and devotion to duty… in a situation where he knew the odds against him gave little hope of survival’ He died in the battle
And DONT FORGET, Indians made up the majority of Slim’s 14th Army, fighting throughout 1944 in Burma and at Kohima (7th Rajputs in this pic)
To sum up: on D-Day, Indians were involved in every theatre of the war, especially Italy & Burma. AND they were there in NW Europe too, in the Royal Navy, the Merchant Navy & the air force. Let us remember them as part of the vast Commonwealth and allied effort to defeat fascism.
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