Thursday, 26 December 2024
Thursday, 26 December 2024
It was one of the most poignant moments of the brutal war in the trenches during World War I – and now there’s evidence that Indian troops were also there, fraternising with the Germans during the brief Christmas Truce of 1914.
Historians have found references in German newspapers to spice tins that were presented as gifts to their soldiers during the few hours when the troops from both sides met in No Man’s Land.
The spice tins had been gifts from Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George V, that were only given to Indian soldiers. Further research has shown that the 39th Garhwal Rifles were stationed at Givenchy, near where the Christmas truce took place.
“Do you want to see the Indians? Then come quickly,” a German soldier named Walter Schurz later recounted. He added: “Our troops ran over unarmed, and brought the Indians Christmas trees, cigars, sweets and other things. Halfway across, the English and Indians met us with biscuits, cognac and shook our hands. We talked with them for some time during which they told us that we should always aim high when shooting.”
On the British side, the Christmas truce went down in lore as one of the treasured moments when the brutality of the bloody war in the trenches was forgotten.
But Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II was angered by it and forbade newspapers from writing about the brief few hours when soldiers exchanged gifts and even played football in No Man’s Land.
The new information about Indians being a part of the truce has been uncovered by military historian Peter Doyle of Goldsmith’s University in the UK. Doyle was researching Princess Mary’s gifts and unearthed one of the spice tins. “Until recently, people didn’t really believe or expect that Indian soldiers took part in the truce.”
Doyle then got in touch with a German historian who unearthed references to the Indian troops taking part in the truce.
In 2017, that is 103 years after the Christmas Truce, the remains of two Indian soldiers of the 39th Garhwal Regiment were discovered during excavation work at Richebourg Village, some 230 km from Paris.
The remains of the two soldiers were laid to rest at the Military Cemetery at Laventie, France. A delegation from the Garhwal Rifles, led by Colonel Nitin Negi, attended the ceremonial burial at the cemetery. Colonel Negi’s grandfather Naik Darwan Singh Negi won a Victoria Cross during World War I.
The men of the Garhwal Rifles won six battle honours including two Victoria Crosses during World War I.
London’s Imperial War Museum records the Christmas Truce, saying: "Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches.”
Messages began to be shouted between the trenches. The following day, British and German soldiers met in No Man's Land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts.
After Boxing Day, meetings in No Man's Land ended. The truce only happened in a few areas and never occurred again in the remaining years of the war.
More than a million Indian troops are reckoned to have fought during World War I or the Great War, as it came to be known. In consultation with the French government and the Indian embassy in France, they decided to hold a ceremony to lay their remains to rest along with their comrades at Laventie Military Cemetery, with full military honours during the annual memorial service that is held to commemorate the Indian soldiers who were martyred in action in France and Belgium. In a symbolic gesture, the soil from the graves of these soldiers will be brought home.
