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Remembered Today:

1st Hariana Lancers Ernst Junger


paul guthrie

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It has been a few years since I read Storm of Steel because I have it and can't find it. I finally gave up and bought it again. Disorganized R Us!

An entire chapter is Against the Indians. He is near Riqueval on Hindenburg Line in May and June of '17 and describes at attack by what I think is the above non-existent regiment or are they real? Can't find them on this site. I have Gordon Harrington's Sepoys In The Trenches and heard him speak at NAM last year but don't think book goes to '17, for that matter I thought all Indians were gone by then except maybe some of the cavalry involved at Somme like Deccan Horse.

Then he describes a white officer " a giant with outstretched revolver and white bludgeon." Who is this?

All ot this is a puzzle to me and it's one of the best chapters in the book but how much truth is there?

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Yes, it's a real regiment, but the 7th Hariana Lancers and not the 1st; Junger simply mis-identifed them.

There's a brief page on them:

http://www.regiments.org/milhist/southasia...cav/1903-07.htm

I did have a note of who some of the British officers were he mentions in Storm of Steel , but can't find it.

Quite a few Indian Cavalry units remained on the WF until the end of the war, incidentally.

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  • 3 years later...

I've done a little research into EJ's encounter with the Indians at Ascension Wood. The unit he fought on 13 June 1917 was not the 7th Hariana Lancers; this outfit never set foot in Europe during the war being stationed throughout in India and Mesopotomia. It is beyond doubt that his engagement on that day was with the 20th Deccan Horse and not the Hariana Lancers.

EJ's apparent confusion had a number of causes. Early in the war, the Hariana Lancers lent soldiers to other Indian Cavalry units, the 20th Deccan Horse amongst them. Jünger's men took 3 or 4 prisoners in this action, including two 7th Hariana Lancers now attached to the 20th Deccan Horse. Their German captors interrogated them in French, a language which was neither the mother-tongue of the Germans nor that of the Indians; it is therefore likely that the questions and answers were not fully understood by one or both parties. Add to this the fact that all EJ's Indian prisoners were mortally wounded (none survived the day) and therefore were likely to have had other preoccuptations, then it easy to see how the error could have arisen.

All the Hariana Lancers attached to the Deccan Horse killed in this action are commemorated on the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle as Hariana Lancers.

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  • 7 years later...

I wonder if this could be the Amar in the book.

There are very many soldiers remembered here

AMAR SINGH,

Lance Daffadar, 1040. 20th Deccan Horse.

13th June 1917. Son of Udmi Singh, of Dhandhine, Jhajjar, Rohtak, Punjab. Panel 7

Neueve Chapelle Memorial

Pas De Calais

Commonwealth War Dead 1914-1918

http://archive.is/JfldH

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In Junger's diary he recorded the following: "Auf meine Frage: >>Quelle nation?<< (Sie sprachen französisch) antwortete einer >>Ratschputh.<< Aha also Inder! Etwas ganz feines. Keiner hatte weniger als zwei Schüsse bekommen. Einer rief gleich >>Anglais pas bon.<< Ich verpaßte mir noch rasch einen englischen Karabiner nebst Seitengewehr und dann begaben wir uns mit den schreienden Gefangenen nach unserm Graben, den wir bei Anbruch der Helligkeit erreichten, bewillkommt von den Zurückgebliebenen, die unsere Leute bestaunten." He refers to "Inder" the following day, and a couple times thereafter, but I don't see any mention of a specific unit (but I'll ready the section more carefully later to doublecheck).

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Ken S,

I should have explained my interest before I posted on this thread so my previous post my look very strange.

so

I am on my second read through this book, this time I am doing it with the internet as an aid to give me some ideas, and Google Earth, to plot his locations.

Sadly I only read English so I have to rely on the 2004 Hoffman translation.

I have to say that the book is very good but I understand that it is a translation.

However Ernst does name Amar Singh and states he is from 1st Hariana Lancers.

That is why I ended up back on the GWF as Paul ( who started this thread ) must have thought the same.

I am assuming that the translation, completed by Hoffman, are the actual words which were written by Junger using his diaries as an aid to writing the book ?

I am happy that you can help with German and that you have access to his diary and I will be very interested on your re -read.. Or re examination of the original

notes.

I also commented on this thread which I had a look at today

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29753&hl=

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In his June 14 entry he discusses how they went out and found three bodies -- two Indians and one white officer. There is no mention of a name or unit.

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The unit he fought on June 13 1917 was the 20th Deccan Horse, not the 7th Hariana Lancers

The 7th Hariana Lancers never set foot in Europe. However some of their soldiers were transferred into the 20th Deccan Horse. 27 members of the 20th Deccan Horse were reported killed, missing or wounded in the action on 13 June 1917. Of these, 6 were former 7th Hariana Lancers.

Jünger's "blonde giant", whose helmet now graces Jünger's study, was Lt. Edward.E. Lawford, formerly of the Indian Army Officer Reserve. According to his family he was certainly blonde - but not very big.

There appear to have been nine members of the Deccan Horse/7th Hariana Lancers killed or missing in that battle. The 73rd Hanoverian lost one man killed and one taken prisoner.

The 20th Deccan Lancer taken by Jünger from the field and back to Ricqueval Farm, Jünger's HQ was A.L.D. Nand. He died later the same day and he is now buried in St. Souplet CWGC. He is the only one of the nine missing who has a known grave.

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Hedley,

This is most interesting.

I am trying to understand how this information comes out in Jungers book.

I know the one I am reading is a second translation from a book which was revisited by Junger in 1962.

However,

it is stated that that one of the two living, who were taken back gave his name as Amar Singh.

The confusion over the Unit ID is completely understandable.

How can Amar Singh's name appear in the book ?

so A.L.D Nand could be the second one.

Also "Kius" takes some photographs at the same time - I wonder where they are now - if they ever got developed?

The book also mentions the two members of the 73rd , one who was wounded and another who went missing - thought to have run off.

These questions certainly make reading more interesting.

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This is my translation of part of the entry from June 14:

In the vicinity of where the squad had approached from the left there were still three bodies laying in the grass--two Indians and a white officer, who had shoulder boards with two golden stars. The officer had received a shot through the eye which had exited the side of his head [schläfe]. He had a large six-shot revolver in his left hand, while in his right hand he clutched a long wood baton [Holzkeule], which was splattered with his own blood. His helmet had been shot through. I allowed his shoulder boards to be removed, one of which I kept as a memento; I also took a not-valuable cigarette case, the shot-through helmet, and the baton. In his breast pocket was a metal flask filled with cognac. He lay about 20m in front of our position from yesterday; I didn't think that they had advanced so close, but whatever the case, these people had come on quickly [??? - jedenfalls sind diese Leute schneidig drauf gegangen]. That they had seen us is evinced by the fact that four spent casings were in the drum.

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Ken -s

How interesting that Is - why did he not mention the Cigarette case, Cognac flask, and the shoulder board in his book.

he does mention the club

"Suddenly a shout: 'Watch out, left!' A mob of attackers was running towards us from
the left, headed by an enormous figure with an outstretched revolver, and swinging a
white club."
he also mentions the helmet a little later.
"I also brought back my holed helmet, and keep it as a pendant to the other one that the
lieutenant-colonel of the Indian Lancers had worn when leading his men against us".
A puzzle !!
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