In that short period of time, the Indian Corps which consisted of around 70,000 troops had lost 34,252 men on the battledfields of the Western Front in a matter of fourteen months as killed in action, wounded, missing in action, as well as prisoner of war. The 2nd Division consisted of the 5th Mhow Cavalry Brigade, the 7th Meerut Cavalry Brigade, and the 9th Secunderabad Cavalry Brigade. By the end of 1915, the Indian Corps cavalry consisted of two divisions, the 1st Division containing the 2nd Sailkot Cavalry Brigade, the 3rd Ambala Cavalry Brigade, and the 4th Lucknow Cavalry Brigade. The cavalry was organized as a single division consisting of the Ambala, Lucknow and Secunderabad Cavalry Brigades. In September of 1914, the British Indian Army sent two infantry divisions and a cavalry division to the Western Front under the banner of the Indian Corps. With the outbreak of the Great War, it was time for the Sikhs to enter the European theatre and protect the British Crown and defend France from the onslaught of the Germans. As a result, Sikh involvement in British imperial campaigns was a must, as shown by their involvement in the various future campaigns in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Burma, China during the Boxer Rebellion, and various parts of Africa. It was said that the only homes that Sikhs had were their horses’ saddles, on which they ate and slept, and that they had such a connection with their horses that they referred to them as Jaan bhai, or “life brother.” The loyalty of the Sikhs was tested during the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, when they were recruited in large numbers into the Bengal Army as part of the final assault in the reconquest of Delhi. The Sikh cavalry was a most feared force in northwest India and Afghanistan. Despite being defeated twice by British forces in the two wars, the Sikhs were admired by the British for their warlike qualities and persistence in the battlefield. The use of Sikh Cavalry by the British Imperial forces has its roots in the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars spanning from 1845 to1849. Of these ‘martial races’ the Sikhs of the Punjab were found to be a very loyal group to the British cause in Europe as well as some of the most fearsome and effective warriors in the British Indian Army. Specifically, the best able bodied horsemen hailed from the ‘martial races’ of northwest India. It was in India where she found such men, in a colony in which cavalry had been a mainstay for many millennia. In order to fill the ranks of cavalry, Great Britain looked to its imperial possessions for fearless, battle-tested, and expert horsemen. So stubborn was this belief that even in 1927, years after the war, Douglas Haig said that “aeroplanes and tanks are only accessories to the man on the horse.” Despite this, military officers remained staunch in their belief of the importance of cavalry. Numbers were useless, however, as the use of the machine gun and trench warfare lead to the slaughter of countless men and horses. When the Great War broke out in Western Europe in August 1914, cavalry reigned supreme on the battlefield with both Great Britain and Germany each having cavalry of around 100,000 men. Most of the senior military leaders in the world’s armies were educated in combat that used infantry line formations and cavalry on large, open battlefields, thus leading them to refuse the insignificance of cavalry in modern European warfare. However, the transition between the 19th and 20th centuries saw a persistence of old military strategic practices simultaneously fused with advancements in destructive weaponry to produce very gruesome and horrific fighting. The beginning of the 20th century saw a rise in the use of technology in all aspects of life, one such aspect being warfare.
0 kommentar(er)
