The Lahore Division at the Second Battle of Ypres

Newly Arrived on the Western Front, Fall 1914

The contribution of the Indian troops in the Western Front, though largely underplayed by their British commanders, was hugely crucial. They filled the gaps–gaps that could have potentially allowed a German breakthrough. Their timely arrival during the 1914 Race to the Sea is probably the Indian Army's best-known contribution to the Allied effort on the Western Front.  However, it also played an important role in stymieing the German attacks during the Second Battle of Ypres.

On 23 April, the 1st Army (to which the Indian Corps belonged) was given the order that the Lahore Division had to get ready to move shortly. The division marched north the next day. In the morning of 25 April, the column arrived in Ouderdom, a hamlet between Reningelst and Vlamertinge. The men were exhausted on arrival in Ouderdom. They had marched for 24 hours in a sometimes hilly landscape along cobbled roads, slippery from the rain. They were only given a short break in Boeschepe on the French-Belgian border.

The Lahore Division now came under the command of the British Second Army of Smith-Dorrien. The warning was issued to the Indian troops that when gas was used, they had to place a handkerchief or a flannel over their mouths. It was recommended to soak the handkerchief in urine.

En Route to Flanders, 1915

After the gas offensive, the Germans had gained much ground in the region of Langemarck and Sint-Juliaan. The British now wanted to launch a counter attack on the Germans with the French and drive them away from their new positions. In the morning of 26 April, the Lahore Division rallied between Wieltje to the right and the Ypres-Langemarck road to the left, some 600 metres north of the La Brique hamlet. The Ferozepore Brigade had reached its position via Vlamertinge, but the Jullundur Brigade had moved to its rallying point on the road outside the Ypres ramparts. There they came under heavy fire. Most shells fell in the water of the moat or struck the thick walls. The men cheered from time to time as a shell fell in the water, but one heavy shell landed in the middle of a company of the 40th Pathans, with 23 casualties as a consequence. As soon as the division set up in the fields near the Wieltje hamlet, it was showered with tear gas shells. German airplanes carried out observation flights over the heads of the Indian troops, but nothing was done against it. On the other side of the Ypres-Langemarck road the French deployed their North African troops, and the British 5th Army Corps was positioned to the right of the Indians. The Ferozepore Brigade was deployed left and the Jullundur Brigade right. The Sirhind Brigade was in reserve in Sint-Jan. The headquarters of the division was located in Potijze.

After a prior shelling of barely 40 minutes, the sign for the attack was given in the afternoon of 26 April at five past two. Two officers per unit were sent ahead to explore the field, but none of them had returned. There was no information about the exact location of the German trenches or their distance. The men of the Lahore Division were exhausted after the long march, and their position was located by the enemy, as the Germans could observe undisturbed. Furthermore, the troops first had to cross open ground for a few hundred meters, up to more than a kilometer before reaching the first German line and proceed with the actual offensive. The surface relief was not favorable either as the soil first rose over a few hundred meters, then dropped over a few hundred meters and finally rose again toward the German front line. 

The British-Indian artillery was light and ineffective—it did not know the exact position of the Germans either. Once outside the trenches, any sense of direction was soon lost and the various attacking units, French, French colonial troops, British and Indians, ended up mixed together. After the first slope they found themselves in an inferno of gun fire, machine gun fire and shells, including tear gas shells. The men fell like flies, and soon the offensive was stopped. No reinforcements arrived.

The number of casualties was extremely high. The 47th Sikhs that attacked in the first line lost 348 out of 444 men or 78 percent of the regiment. In total the offensive claimed almost 2,000 casualties in the two brigades. Following this offensive corporal Issy Smith of the 1st Manchesters, which was part of the Jullundur Brigade, was awarded the Victoria Cross. Despite the constant heavy fire he had incessantly evacuated the wounded. Mula Singh and Rur Singh of the 47th Sikhs also managed to save many wounded. Bhan Singh, a Sikh of the 57th Wilde's Rifles, had been injured in the face early on in the offensive. He nevertheless stayed close to his officer, Captain Banks. When Banks fell, Bhan Singh thought of only one thing: bringing him back, dead or alive. As weak as he was, he stumbled under heavy fire, carrying Banks' body until he fell down exhausted and had to give up. Still, he did not return before first saving Banks' personal belongings. 

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None of the attacking troops managed to reach the first enemy line. Each attempt to consolidate the positions failed when the Germans opened the gas bottles again around 2:30 p.m. When the gas reached the Indian troops, the soil was almost instantly covered with men being tortured in the most atrocious manner. Although all the attackers had to endure the effects of the gas, the Ferozepore Brigade and the French to their left were hit the hardest. They retreated amidst great confusion, while the dead and the dying were left behind in no-man's-land. A small group led by Major Deacon still managed to ward off a German attack and withstand in no-man's-land. Jemadar Mir Dast of the 55th Coke's Rifles, attached to the 57th Wilde's Rifles stayed in no-man's-land after all his officers were killed or wounded. He rallied all the men he could find including quite a few who were lightly gassed, and stood his ground with them until dawn. He only retreated then and brought many wounded soldiers with him. He also helped other injured Indians and British, although he was wounded himself. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions. 

The smell of chlorine gas lingered all night. It was late in the night until what remained of Major Deacon's group could be rescued. The Ferozepore Brigade and the Jullundur Brigade were pulled back to Brieke, while the Sirhind Brigade replaced it in the first line. Men of the 34th Sikh Pioneers tried to reinforce the precarious position where Major Deacon managed to stand his ground. Two members of that unit, the sappers Jai Singh and Gujar Singh, were later awarded the Indian Distinguished Service Medal because they had restored the lines of communication under constant fire.

The action was repeated again and again over the next three days but always unsuccessfully for the North Africans, British, and Indians. The Germans resorted to their cannisters over the next days too. Shortly after 1 p.m. on 27 April, the French Colonial Troops, the Sirhind Brigade and the Ferozepore Brigade attacked again, this time with the support of the Canadian artillery. The two Gurkha battalions, the 4th London Regiment and the 9th Bhopal Infantry, led the attack and therefore suffered most. When they noticed that the barbed wire in front of the German trenches was untouched, the action was abandoned.

In the night of 29 to 30 April 1915 the Jullundur and the Ferozepore Brigade pulled back to their quarters near Ouderdom. Because they regularly came under fire there too, the men stayed outside instead of sheltering in their tents. A shelling early in the morning of 1 May made the pack animals of the 47th Sikhs bolt. Finally, after a last desperate attempt to reach the enemy lines, the Sirhind Brigade was withdrawn from battle too. On 2 May it joined the rest of the division in Ouderdom. The division started the return march to the rest of the Indian Corps near Neuve-Chapelle the next day. The Lahore Division had lost 3,889 men from 24 April to 1 May or approximately 30 percent of the men deployed.

Indian Troops, Ypres Salient, 1915

This was to be the last time that the Indian troops were massively deployed in the Ypres Salient. After May 1915, the Indian Corps became active near Aubers Ridge, Festubert and Loos. After the Battle of Loos, in late September 1915 the Indian Corps was transferred to Mesopotamia. In fourteen months it had lost 34,252 men, including 12,807 from the British units of the corps and 21,445 from the Indian battalions. 

After the departure of the Indian Corps in 1915, the Indians were no longer present in medium numbers on the western front. That does not mean to say that Indian units were no longer present, on the contrary. In Flanders too, Indians could still be seen from time to time until the end of the war. In Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery near Poperinghe a Sikh is remembered, a cavalryman who fell on 2 November 1917, and a Hindu who belonged to the Royal Field Artillery who fell on 12 October 1918.

Units of the Indian Labour Corps were also active in Flanders at the end of the war and in the first postwar years. Their arrival was welcomed by the local population. 

Source: The Indian Army in the Ypres Salient (1914-1918); Indian Embassy, Brussels