Images: details from photos by Jasvinder Singh Nagra.
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Order Of Service:
Gallipoli & The Sikhs -
National Memorial Service
Part II
1914 SIKHS
The following are excerpts from
THE ORDER OF SERVICE
As referred to in an earlier article
Continued …
PART II
Field Marshal Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank GCB LVO OBE DL reads:
1914
WAR broke and now the Winter of the world
With perishing great darkness closes in.
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
Are all Art’s ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love’s wine’s thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.
For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
James Rattray reads:
ON RECEIVING NEWS OF THE WAR
SNOW is a strange white word.
No ice or frost
Have asked of bud or bird
For Winter’s cost.
Yet ice and frost and snow
From earth to sky
This Summer land doth know,
No man knows why.
In all men’s hearts it is.
Some spirit old
Hath turned with malign kiss
Our lives to mould.
Red fangs have torn His face.
God’s blood is shed.
He mourns from His lone place
His children dead.
O! ancient crimson curse!
Corrode, consume.
Give back this universe
Its pristine bloom.
Isaac Rosenberg (1890–1918)
Andrew Smyth reads an edited extract from ‘Milestones – A Memoir’ by Sir John Smyth MC VC
EARLY on the morning of 18 May 1915, the Germans started attacking the forward position and a few hours later we had a signal to say that our people were running short of ammunition, particularly bombs, which were the principal weapons in a close trench battle. A carrying party of twenty men were sent up under an officer, but all were shot down before they had reached half way. Then their forward company tried to send a party back, but with the same result.
An order was then given for me to make another attempt. I asked for ten volunteers to go with me – and the whole company stepped forward. This was really incredible as they had been watching the two fatal dress rehearsals. They really put courage into me. I wanted to take as small a party as possible, which would give us a better chance of getting through. I chose ten stalwart Sikhs.
There was an anxious hush as we made our preparations, I felt as though every German machine-gunner was waiting with his finger on the button. In the mid-afternoon I led my little party over the top.
The Germans had laid on an artillery concentration and it was that which really gave us an outside chance. The smoke and the earth and dead bodies thrown up from the bursting shells hid us from view for a time. We had covered about a third of the distance before the machine-guns and rifles got on to us. Then it was a matter of crawling forward, taking what cover we could, including from a small stream up which we managed to wade undiscovered for a short time.
Eventually we succeeded in delivering one of the two boxes of bombs. There were few survivors and those who still lived were desperately wounded.
The Choir sings:
KYRIE ELEISON
KYRIE eleison. Lord, have mercy.
Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy.
Christe eleison. Christ, have mercy.
Maurice Durufle (1902–1986)
THE ADDRESS
The Viscount Slim OBE DL
THE BATTLE OF GALLIPOLI 1915
Pushpinder Singh Chopra reads from ‘Martial India’ by F. Yeats-Brown, 1945
THE battle of Gallipoli was fought to capture Constantinople so as to reach the Turkish land, who had entered the war scene on the side of Germany.
The 2nd Royal Fusiliers were finding it difficult to fight the Turks so the regiment of Sikhs was sent for their help.
Although the allies did not succeed, the bravery shown by the Sikhs during this operation became a glorious chapter in the history of warfare. The task given to the Sikhs was highly dangerous. They were to capture two Turkish Trench lines named as J-11 and J-13.
The brave soldiers of the 14th regiment Sikhs were equally divided for the task on these two lines. The fierce battle took place on 3rd and 4th June, 1915, wherein the brave soldiers of the 14th Sikhs lost 371 men. Gen. Sir Ian Hamilton was the General at that time. When Hamilton landed on 25th April at the Southern Tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula, he found that their strength as compared to that of the Turks was highly inferior. He also realized that the terrain greatly favoured the Turks, who were well dug-in. He had made the 14th Sikhs of the Indian Brigade a part of his expeditionary force. Sir Hamilton wrote to the Commander-in-Chief in India:
“In spite of the tremendous losses there was not a sign of wavering all day. Not an inch of ground was given up and not a single straggler came back. The ends of the enemy’s trenches were found to be blocked with the bodies of Sikhs and of the enemy who died fighting at close quarters, and the glacis slope was thickly dotted with the bodies of these fine soldiers all lying on their faces as they fell in their steady advance on the enemy.
“The history of Sikhs affords many instances of their value as soldiers, but it may be safely asserted that nothing finer than the grim valor and steady discipline displayed by them on the 4th June has ever been done by soldiers of the Khalsa.”
David Bellamy, representing the family of Lieutenant General Sir Reginald Savory reads:
The brave Sikhs, who earned a very high degree of appreciation included Sardar Udai Singh, who had saved the life of 2nd Lt. R.A. Savory. The handsome Sikh was over 6ft tall and had a fair beard and light green eyes. He was a wrestler from his very childhood and when in 1907 he went to take part in a wrestling match in a nearby village, he was selected by the British to join the 14th Sikhs. He was with the unit when Hamilton’s forces landed at the Gallipoli Peninsula. It is interesting to note that when after the war, he was offered a gallantry award, he pleaded that he should be allowed to go back to his village so that he could pursue his wrestling which was dear to his heart.
Another prominent Sikh soldier associated with this battle was Bhola Singh. When Lt. Gen. Sir Reginald Savory came to India in 1968 to attend the presentation of colours ceremony, Bhola Singh was also present on that occasion. Remembering the past, the General spoke about the close relationship between British officers and their Sikh men. In his own words:
“Only this morning (8th February 1968) Lance Naik Bhola Singh of the 14th Sikhs, who had been wounded in Gallipoli in 1915, took the trouble to come all the way from his home to call upon me, and after 52 years we saw each other again. I was deeply touched, not only at having the pleasure of seeing him again, but also at the thought of all the trouble he had taken to come and see me.
“When he was wounded, he and I were both young men. Now he is a ‘chitti dari wala’ (white bearded man) and I am old and bald, but although we have both grown much older, yet our affection for each other and our mutual pride in our old Regiment stays as young as ever. Long may this continue.”
Wahe Guruji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guruji Ki Fateh
[To Be Continued …]
June 18, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Brig (Retd) Nawab Singh Heer (New York, USA), June 19, 2015, 3:15 AM.
Hats off to the 14 Sikhs, having lost 371 from all ranks in the Battle of Gallipoli ... yet they were still in chardi kalaa!. What a spirit our Tenth Master gave to the Khalsa. I wonder if there has been any parallel example of such act of valour. My salute!