| The
impact of World War Two developed only slowly in India and was
hardly felt by 1st Queen’s at Razmak. The Viceroy duly proclaimed
that India was also at war, but the Commander-in-Chief’s
offer to train forces for service abroad was rejected in London
and it was reaffirmed that the responsibility of the Government
of India remained limited to internal security and frontier defence.
Later, however, the Indian Army was to expand to twelve times
its peacetime strength, to re-equip and mechanize extensively,
and to fight on many fronts outside India.
The entry of Japan into the war in1942, the fall of Malaya and
the retreat in Burma, brought the war to the eastern frontier
of India and political crisis. By August 1942 the Congress was
concerned that Britain could not win the war and rejected the
British Government’s offer of Dominion status after the
war. Subhas Bose defected to Berlin, then Tokyo, and set himself
up as the leader of a government in exile and organiser of a very
ineffective Indian National Army recruited largely from Indian
prisoners of war. Ghandi initiated a quit-India campaign which
initially disrupted communications in India, notably in Bihar,
but soon became abortive. He and other Congress leaders were imprisoned;
Congress provincial governments resigned and British provincial
governors resumed the powers they had delegated to provincial
legislatures under the 1935 India Act. The Muslim League, headed
by Jinnah, was invited to form provincial governments in Assam,
Bengal, Sind and the North-West Frontier Province.
In March 1942 1st Queen’s moved to Peshawar where its role
was internal security in the city and defence of the Khyber Pass.
However it was not required for either and in December it joined
the 7th Indian Division which was being formed at Shinkara in
the foothills towards Kashmir. In February 1943 the Division moved
to Chindwara in the Central Provinces for training in jungle warfare,
and from there to Ranchi which was the mounting base for operations
in Burma. In August it sailed from Madras to Chittagong for operations
in the Arakan. 1st Queen’s remained with the Division for
the rest of the war and did not return to India. The battalion
played a prominent part in the Arakan campaign which culminated
in the final defeat of the Japanese advance there in February
1944 and in the fierce defence of Kohima in May. They were critical
battles for the defence of India which turned the tide of the
Japanese advance and ultimately in Burma led to the greatest defeat
ever sustained by the Japanese Army.
2nd Queen’s arrived in Ceylon from the Middle East in March
1942 a month ahead of the Japanese air raids on the island, and
were there for a year before moving to India in February 1943.
Having fought the Germans and Italians in North Africa and the
Vichy French in Syria they were now to prepare to take on the
Japanese. The battalion was part of the 16th Brigade which rejoined
the 70th Division on arrival in India, and which became the major
part of a special force formed to operate behind the Japanese
central front in the north of Burma. The force became known as
the Chindits.
|