Indian Expeditionary Forces B & C

[ATM]

Hello. A few years ago I was researching the OOB's for IEF B & C at the start of the East African campaign. I have recently started researching later Indian Units that arrived in East Africa. I have the following units as having been in the East African campaign having come from India. Can anybody tell me if there are any of these units missing from this sketchy OOB?: Any help is as always greatly appreciated

17th Cavalry (One Squadron) (Jan 1915)

5th Light Infantry (Aug 1915/Mar 1916)

17th Indian Infantry (The Loyal Regiment) (Jan 1916)

57th Wilde's Rifles (FF) (Jul 1916)

129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis (1916)

130th King George's Own Baluchis (Jacob's Rifles) + Double Company 46th Punjabis (Sikhs) (Feb 1915)

4th Indian Mountain Artillery Brigade: (Feb 1916)

22^{nd (Derajat) Mountain Battery (FF) (4x10pdrs) (Dec 1916)}

24th (Hazara) Mountain Battery (6x10pdrs) (1917)

1st Kashmir Mountain Battery (ISF) (4x2.75inch) (Dec 1916)

Indian Expeditionary Force B:

27th (Bangalore) Indian Infantry Brigade:

2nd Loyal North Lancashire

63rd Palamcottah Light Infantry

98th Infantry

101st Grenadiers

Imperial Service Infantry Brigade (ISF):

13th Rajputs

2nd Kashmir Rifles (ISF)

3rd Kashmir Rifles (ISF) (½)

3rd Gwalior Rifles (ISF) (½)

61st King George's Own Pioneers

28th (Lahore) Mountain Battery (6x10pdrs)

25th Field Company S&M (Railway)

26th Field Company S&M (Railway)

Indian Expeditionary Force C:

No.8 Calcutta Volunteer Battery (Cossipore Artillery Volunteers) (6x12pdr)

Indian Volunteer Maxim Company (8xMaxim)

North-Western Railway Volunteers (1x12pdr & 4xMaxim)

29th Punjabis

Jind Imperial Service Regiment (ISF) (½)

Bharatpur Infantry (ISF) (½)

Kapurthala Jagjit Infantry (ISF) (½)

1st Rampur Imperial Service Infantry (ISF) (½)

27th (Bengal) Mountain Battery (6x10pdrs)

120th Indian Field Ambulance

[centurion]

According to Major General G S Sandhu the 25th Cavalry (Frontier Force) also went to East Africa in 1915 being engaged at Nohungo and Chingwea and involved along the border with Mozambique. They were pulled back to India because the tetse fly made further cavalry operations very difficult. I believe that the 17th had more than 1 squadron involved - I'll check references later.

[ATM]

Thankyou! That is another bit of the jigsaw added to it. I have just come across another unit too, the 40th Pathans, that had served in France with IEF A like the 129th Baluchis. From the sources that I have read so far I was under the impression that the 17th sent only one squadron which was specially raised as a service squadron to East Africa ad was selected from the best soldiers in the regiment. As some of the Indian troops were rotated after a couple of years in Africa like the Mountain Batteries, could it be that 17th sent another service squadron to replace the one sent in 1915? It is amazing how some of these units got about. The 5th Light Infantry for example mutinied at Singapore then got sent to the Cameroons in 1915, then East Africa in 1916 and from another snippet I read recently it ended up in Mesopotamia late in the war too though it would appear to be on LOC duties. Thanks for the help. Just noticed a book on amazon about the Indian Army in eas Africa. Now ordered as a belated Fathers day present.

[centurion]

The 17th had been due to go to France along with a squadron of the 27th Light Horse but an outbreak of glanders prevented this and the 29th Lancers (Deccan Horse) took their place. The regiment's Pathan squadron was then sent to reinforce the garrison on the Ugandan Railway. When the offensive was planned against German East Africa they apparently received reinforcements but how many and from exactly where I don't know. One of their patrols near Kilimanjaro was ambushed by a force of about 200 Germans and had to fight its way out loosing both British officers. One Indian NCO was wounded but evaded capture in the long grass. Using his lance as a crutch he managed to walk the 50 k back to his unit bringing back his rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition. By early 1917 they were so reduced by sickness (and so many horses were lost to the tetse) they were no longer an effective fighting unit and were returned to India. E Africa was not a good place for cavalry.

[ATM]

Interesting. From what I read it made out that the squadron was a service squadron specifically created for East Africa and that there had been some concerns of which troops to send due to "loyalty" issues in the Indian Army at the time. I assume this meant the mutiny of the 130th at Rangoon and the 5th at Singapore. I find the Pathans a curious bunch. Like your example of the NCO there who rather impressively made that 50K trek with rifle and ammunition. Yet of the 38 deserters from the Indian Corps while it was in France all but one were Pathans. This included 11 led by an NCO who deserted in a group. East Africa was certainly a vile place to be a horse. The attritional rates for South African units that I have read are appalling, though I also gathered that appalling South African logistical supply and veterinary care had a part to play as well as the tsetse fly. I understand that the 17th squadron was sent to one of the better areas early on where there was no tsetse fly. Another factor I find interesting is how many troops ended up getting drawn into this theatre. I think that Lettow-Vorbeck was a good general but that his fighting attributes have been overstated. However when I find historians arguing that most of the troops he pinned down were troops that wouldn't have been deployed to other theatres I find that I now disagree. From the Indians I am researching it shows a good divisions worth of troops seeing service there, even if not all at the same time. The 4 South Arican brigades were signed up for East Africa only but I could imagine them being deployed to Palestine if East Africa had been wrapped up easily. But now I am going off subject. Thankyou once again for your help.

[Steven Broomfield]

East Africa was certainly a vile place to be a horse.

Wasn't that great to be a human, either.

For information on loyalty of various castes and races, Philip Mason's book A Matter of Honour is still worth reading (it's old enough that my copy cost me 4 guineas), and there are also a couple of books by David Omissi (The Sepoy and the Raj being very good). There were many reasons why certain Muslim troops were more or less reliable.

In fact there is also a book from the 20's by McMunn (can't recall the title, off-hand) which addresses some of this.

[centurion]

Many Pathans had joined from across the Frontier and were 'professional' soldiers in the original sense of the word. The ethos of the old Indian professional soldier existed before the British Raj and is well covered in Shipways's 'Swords for Hire'. In this mutiny was regarded by employers and soldiers alike much as a form of industrial action rather than as a political statement. Many of the mercenary regiments employed by the Moguls had a long reputation for mutiny, especially if the pay was late a recurring problem in the increasingly ramshackle Mogul empire.. In the early days there were unwritten but well understood rules and on the whole they were amicable affairs. However with the down fall of the moguls many of these regiments were re employed in the British service (and some still continue in the modern Indian Army) and the British had a different approach to mutiny and dealing with it. Whilst Stringer Lawrence the Major General often regarded as the founder of the Indian Army tried to allow for the peculiar Indian cultural view his successors on the whole did not. This led to increased violence and retribution on both sides leading up to the Great Mutiny. many regiments made up of elements from the frontier areas worked as much like groups of contract soldiers as many of the men did not regard themselves as subjects of the Empire having come from outside it and still having their family home there. Desertion was not regarded by them as incurring any shame if they considered that the conditions of their contract were not being fulfilled (although desertion in action was regarded as reprehensible).

Unfortunately many of the books covering such aspects are now out of print however "Stringer Lawrence, the father of the Indian Army" by John Biddulph 1901 is available as an e book and worth a look. The Indian Cavalry by Major General G S Sandhu 1982 contains excellent coverage of the Indian Cavalry in WW1 (including associated areas such as the Pesian Oil Fields and actions against the Bolsheviks). Unfortunately AFAIK it was only published in India where I bought my copy.

[bushfighter]

ATers Greetings Well done on the research. You probably now have S.D. Pradhan's Indian Army in East Africa. Another comprehensive list of Indian Army major units in East Africa can be found on pages 90-91 of Peter Abbott's Colonial Armies Africa 1850-1918 .

[Guest]

Hello. A few years ago I was researching the OOB's for IEF B & C at the start of the East African campaign. I have recently started researching later Indian Units that arrived in East Africa. I have the following units as having been in the East African campaign having come from India. Can anybody tell me if there are any of these units missing from this sketchy OOB?: Any help is as always greatly appreciated

17th Cavalry (One Squadron) (Jan 1915)

5th Light Infantry (Aug 1915/Mar 1916)

17th Indian Infantry (The Loyal Regiment) (Jan 1916)

57th Wilde's Rifles (FF) (Jul 1916)

129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis (1916)

130th King George's Own Baluchis (Jacob's Rifles) + Double Company 46th Punjabis (Sikhs) (Feb 1915)

4th Indian Mountain Artillery Brigade: (Feb 1916)

22^{nd (Derajat) Mountain Battery (FF) (4x10pdrs) (Dec 1916)}

24th (Hazara) Mountain Battery (6x10pdrs) (1917)

1st Kashmir Mountain Battery (ISF) (4x2.75inch) (Dec 1916)

Indian Expeditionary Force B:

27th (Bangalore) Indian Infantry Brigade:

2nd Loyal North Lancashire

63rd Palamcottah Light Infantry

98th Infantry

101st Grenadiers

Imperial Service Infantry Brigade (ISF):

13th Rajputs

2nd Kashmir Rifles (ISF)

3rd Kashmir Rifles (ISF) (½)

3rd Gwalior Rifles (ISF) (½)

61st King George's Own Pioneers

28th (Lahore) Mountain Battery (6x10pdrs)

25th Field Company S&M (Railway)

26th Field Company S&M (Railway)

Indian Expeditionary Force C:

No.8 Calcutta Volunteer Battery (Cossipore Artillery Volunteers) (6x12pdr)

Indian Volunteer Maxim Company (8xMaxim)

North-Western Railway Volunteers (1x12pdr & 4xMaxim)

29th Punjabis

Jind Imperial Service Regiment (ISF) (½)

Bharatpur Infantry (ISF) (½)

Kapurthala Jagjit Infantry (ISF) (½)

1st Rampur Imperial Service Infantry (ISF) (½)

27th (Bengal) Mountain Battery (6x10pdrs)

120th Indian Field Ambulance

For Indian Expeditionary Force B you need to add the following Divisional Troops:

Faridkot Imperial Service Sapper company under the command of Lt Col Haram Singh with Maj W B Mainprize RE (ex Bengal Sapper) as Special Service Officer

2 Railway Construction Companies under Capts L N Malan and E St G Kirke RE (not these are in addition to the two S&M Railway Companies you have already mentioned)

Bridging Train (No. 5 Pontoon Park) Bombay Sappers & Miners under Capt E D Tillard RE

No.4 Engineer Field Park, Madras Sappers & Miners under Maj R L McClintock RE - incidentally the inventor of the Bangalore Torpedo

No. 3 Photo-Litho Section and No. 4 Printing Section Madras Sappers & Miners

also....

27th Railway Company (formed in March 1916 by Capt R E Gordon RE)

28th Railway Company -arrived May 1916 under Capt E St G Kirke RE

East African Pioneer Company

South African Pioneer Battalion

Source: "The Indian Sappers & Miners" by Lt Col E W C Sandes Chapter XX The Great War East Africa 1914-1918 page 537. Sandes gives a lot of detail on individuals with the Force, embarkation dates, ships etc Allegedly one staff officer said the expedition would be "either a walk-over or a tragedy'. There are mentions of additional Signal troops who arrived later and formed "Z Divisional Signal Company" He also cites the following references;

1. Random Recollections of East Africa 1914-1918 by Col G M Orr CBE DSO appearing in The Army Quarterly Vol XI Jan 1926

2. A Short History of the Services Rendered by the Imperial Service Troops during the great War 1914-1918 by Maj Gen Sir Harry Watson KBE CB CMG CIE MVO

3. General Smuts Campaign in East Africa by Brig Gen J H V Crowe CB

4. The Campaign in East Africa by Maj F S Keen DSO JUSII Vol XLVI 1917

5. Some Notes and tactics in the East African Campaign by Brig gen S H Sheppard CB CMG DSO late RE JUSII Vol XLVIII 1919.

Regards MG

PS Appendix Two 'IEF B & C Summarised Orders of Battle 1914' in the very excellent "Tip & Run: The untold tragedy of the Great War in Africa" by Edward Paice also mentions that the Volunteer Maxim Gun Company in IEF C had four Machine Guns

There is also Appendices Four, Five, Six and Eight which show the British Forces in East Africa: Summarised OOB 4th Apr 1916 and ditto for 5th Aug 1916 and 30th June 1917 and 31st march 1918.

Interestingly in the German OOB there was a certain Major G Kraut. Really.

[ATM]

I can certainly see how the 130th Baluchis (The Pathan companies) at Rangoon was more a case of "downing tools" rather than mutiny. Like you say, the British Army had a different way of dealing with things. I believe they executed 2 Indian Officers and sentenced 200 more to hard labour. The Indian Army is a fascinating thing. I remember my sociology teacher at school ranting about how Indian troops had to fight for the British in the Great War and me trying to explain (In vain) that they were professionals and if the British hadn't ruled India they would have been soldiers in somebody else's army anyway. Interestingly a company of the East African Regiment had an Indian company that was known as the Pathan company. I do now indeed have SD Pradhans book on the way to me. I need to try and limit my interest in this theatre as I am slowly getting more and more drawn in and found myself creating OOB's for the other units in the theatre even though this wasn't my intention. How confusing is it? The section of the 1st Squadron RNACD ended up as No.10 LAB. No.1 Willoughbys LAB became 322 Company ASC. The LNL seem to have been used an abused, created several MG Companys on and off, No.6 Logans Battery (Which was originally 1 Light Battery) and a Mounted Infantry Company. And this isn't even going into the array of artillery batteries! The 11th Heavy Hull Battery RGA also spawned the 13th and 158th Howitzer Batteries and Trench Mortar Batteries 127-132! The Royal Marines created batteries 9, 10 and 11. The 11th renamed the 15th presumably because of the 11th Hull battery arriving. Also created a temporary 16th Battery of 2x12pdrs from No.8 Calcutta Battery. You also have the RGA having the 7th Battery and the 4th SAGA creating the 12th Howitzer Battery. I have never come across such a cosmopolitan group of guns. Naval 12pdrs and 4inch, 12pdr BL horse artillery guns from the Boer War, 5inch guns from UK, 5.4inch from India. This will drive me insane if I get too into it. Funnily enough I came across the 27th and 28th Railway companies earlier today while browsing South African engineers. Apparently all four of the railway S&M companies were formed into a unit called the East African Railway Battalion. It also mentioned there were 4 South African Railway companies in East Africa too though I couldn't find any mention of them. So were the East African Pioneers and Z Divisional Signals Company made up of Indians or part of IEF B? As for Major Kraut, I do love a good stereotype.I Iike how we have Richard Meinertzhargen on the British side with a name like that. Wasn't it him who said the expedition would either be a walk over or a disaster after lamenting how two of the Indian regiments were made up of non-martial races and hadn't handled their MG's before? Speaking of MG's from what I have read the Volunteer Maxim Company had 3 sections each of two Maxims. There was later a 4th section made up of 2 Maxims from the Railway Volunteers that were temporarily converted into a MG Company too.27th and 28th rabatterbNo.10 LAB

[ATM]

I wonder if I could have your thoughts on something else please gents. I was reading again about the Indian Units at the Battle of Tanga and came across something curious. Lettow-Vorbeck is said to have recovered 16 machine guns after the battle. This figure is quoted in many sources. For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tanga, http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA416385, etc. This figure is also quoted in a couple of books I have read too. However this figure does not add up in my head. The British establishment for MG's in 1914 was a section of 2 guns per battalion. Records from the battle state that of the battalions at Tanga only the 101st Grenadiers, 61st Pioneers and the LNL had prior experience with MG's and that the other units were only issued with their MG's before the battle. However from what I have read the ISF battalions were not issued with any MG's at all. Indeed that second link above mentions that. So what is baffling me is how did 16 MG's get captured? Units with MG's would have been the 2nd LNL, 101st Grenadiers, 61st Pioneers, 63rd Carnatic, 98th Infantry and 13th Rajputs. In other words between them they would have had 12 MG's. Two of the ISF Battalions were half battalions, the 3rd Kashmir Rifles and 3rd Gwalior, and were organised as a composite battalion so if they were allocated MG's all 3 ISF battalions would have had 4 MG's between them bringing the total to 16 MG's. However I do seem to lean towards and believe what I have read that the ISF weren't issued with MG's. This brings me back to the figure of 12 MG's in the force. So how did 16 MG's get captured? Was there some naval party from HMS Fox that hasn't been mentioned? Or was there some other Indian Volunteer Maxim Unit that hasn't been mentioned? Or did Lettow-Vorbeck (Or historians) simply lie? It is a common theme in military history to inflate your enemies losses. Is it a case of this?

[centurion]

Whilst primarily used by the cavalry some Indian light infantry including the Rajputs used the Hotchkiss M1909 Benet-Mercie LMG rather in the manner of a Lewis gun and.I think, in similar numbers. Could some of these guns be Hotchkiss?

[bushfighter]

ATers. The whole machine gun saga at Tanga is very confusing. The navy refused to carry off machine guns in case they damaged the small boats (although there were no published reports of damage on the landings in the same boats). The Kashmir Rifles captured one gun (I Can Never Say Enough About The Men by Andrew Kerr page 58). 2LNL smuggled one onto a ship but an Indian unit CO claimed it as his and took it (2LNL War Diary). At the end of the fighting 2LNL was operating 9 machine guns as they had been collecting abandoned ones on the battlefield (Official History page 94 footnote 5). In Ross Anderson's comprehensive account of the action The Battle of Tanga 1914, he states that the only machine guns in the Imperial Service Brigade were with the 13th Rajputs (page 39). Later (page 93) he says that the British had 12 machine guns, 2 of them being in the Imperial Service Brigade (13th Rajputs) and the Germans had 3 more = 15. Von Lettow states in his Reminiscences (page 44) that at one stage all of the machine guns of one of his companies were put out of action by bees, so perhaps if the guns were abandoned then they were captured by the British. I don't think von Lettow lies, but reminiscences are reminiscences, not war diaries written at the time. 2LNL ambushed in town a German motor-cycle combination carrying a machine gun, and doubtless captured it. So a total of 16 guns abandoned on the beach is possible, but four would have originally been in German hands before the battle started. 2LNL War Diary states that machine gun locks were thrown into the sea (as was much ammunition by 2LNL - against the orders of the staff!!) but the German railway workshops got most of the abandoned guns functioning again. Harry

[centurion]

Lettows force certainly had both Maxim and Hotchkiss machine guns in 1916 as there are contemporary accounts of him using both against the Belgians.

Writing of the fighting at Tanga and afterwards Brigadier General Cunliffe (Col Nigerian Regiment and Commander of the Nigerian Brigade in German East Africa) and says "the British, whose casualties were extremely light, captured eleven Europeans, a pom-pom, two machine-guns, and a quantity of rifles and ammunition." and goes on to state

"Gen. Hannington attacked Sajsarre Hill, and captured a strong enemy position, together with a Hotchkiss gun"

There is also a separate account of Smutts men capturing a Hotchkiss machine gun and ammunition

[ATM]

Well that certainly makes a lot of sense. Quite impressive of the LNL to be using all of those MG's. As you say Centurion, the Hotchkiss was issued to light infantry units, the 63rd were light infantry so a couple being captured from this battalion alone would make sense. I am assuming that the rest of the British MG's would have been Maxims/Vickers-Maxims. As for the pom-pom could that have been one captured off of the British, or possibly off of South African forces as the Boers employed 1pdrs during the Boer war?

[centurion]

Well that certainly makes a lot of sense. Quite impressive of the LNL to be using all of those MG's. As you say Centurion, the Hotchkiss was issued to light infantry units, the 63rd were light infantry so a couple being captured from this battalion alone would make sense. I am assuming that the rest of the British MG's would have been Maxims/Vickers-Maxims. As for the pom-pom could that have been one captured off of the British, or possibly off of South African forces as the Boers employed 1pdrs during the Boer war?

Just to confuse matters the Germans had some 37mm Hotchkiss revolver cannon bought before the war. The term pom pom is often used quite indiscriminately to mean any repeating weapon firing a round of about 1 - 2 lbs

[ATM]

I am not even going to try to figure that one out! That book on the Indian Army in East Africa arrived a couple of days ago. from the looks of it we managed to cover all of the Indian units that arrived in East Africa between us except for the 30th Punjabis. Interestingly though the book completely misses the 25th Cavalry FF. It also has some very dubious editing. Like warship is "worship" and the LNL are the "Royal North Lancasters". Still some nice maps of Tanga though and generally informative.

[bushfighter]

ATers

a. I tried to define the 17th Cavalry Sqn's role (Only one squadron sent) here: http://gweaa.com/?p=258

b. The North West Railway Volunteers arrived with IEF 'B' but did not disembark at Tanga (Official History Appendix III) and see:

http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-on-land/other-war-theatres/1072-indian-volunteers-in-the-great-war-east-african-campaign.html

c. The 130th King George's Own Baluchis (Jacob's Rifles) Rangoon mutiny was just one of many religious-inspired incidents successfully concealed at the time by the British authorities. (Read Turmoil and Tragedy in India, 1914 and After by Lt Gen Sir George MacMunn.)

The 130th Baluchis had won the top Indian Army infantry competition prize shortly before the war, but a combination of German intrigue and gold, Turkish-inspired jihad, and Ghaderite political machination disturbed several Pathan companies and squadrons.

However many Pathans fought well and hard for Britain and won many gallantry awards.

For mentions of some actions of the 130th Baluchis in East Africa see: http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/437364.html

d. The 11th Hull Heavy Battery didn't spawn. Read The Road to Lindi - Hull Boys in Africa: The 1st (Hull) Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery East Africa and France 1914 - 1919 by fellow-GWF Member Rupert Drake.

See: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1908336560/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Understanding who was in East Africa and what they did is not easy, but reference to the Draft Official History Part II and to East Africa General Routine Orders will help considerably. Both Documents are available in The National Archives,Kew.

Good Luck!

Harry

[ATM]

Hello! Sorry for a very long wait on me replying. I had not checked on this area of the forum for a while and only just read this.

Harry, thankyou for the links, the first nicely sums up the squadron of the 17th and is very informative. I had read the 2nd and 3rd links a while back when studying this theatre in the past. As for the 130th winning the Indian army's top infantry prize I had no idea. It is little bits like that that I love. Nothing is clear cut. The Indians and Irish I have always found make interesting for where loyalties lie. It reminds me of Prem Saghal in the Second World War. He was one of the leaders of the INA but initially the British had wanted to evacuate him from Singapore due to his excellent fighting record in Malaya however he refused because he didn't want to leave his men. If I remember rightly an there was an officer in the INA who had a brother who was awarded the VC. But that is going off subject. As for the Hull Battery not spawning I am sure you are right. Just one question though. Do you mean that it didn't spawn the 13th and 158th batteries or the trench mortar batteries also?

I do need to get myself to Kew one of these days. Depends on when the wife will let me...

Thanks again.

[ATM]

Harry, just reading some of the older threads on here regarding 158th Battery. I see that it was formed in Hull and sailed with the 11th to East Africa. I am curious as to where the 13th originated from as one of the older threads points to the 11th Hull battery as being from where it originated.

[KONDOA]

ATM,

The 11th Hull Heavy Battery and it's depot section and ammunition section were reformed into the 38th Howitzer Brigade prior to sailing to East Africa. This then was two batteries, 11th Hull and 158th Heavy Battery RGA. Then due to the divisional arrangements made by Smuts, the 11th Hull comprising 4 x 5" howitzers was split into two x 2 howitzer batteries. These wer ethe 11th and 13th Howitzer Batteries, the 158th Heavy Battery became the 14th Howitzer battery.

See the book Harry recommends

Roop

[ATM]

Thanks. That explains that one.