First Indian troops land at Marseille

On 26 September 1914 the first transports carrying soldiers of Indian Expeditionary Force “A” put into Marseille. Onto the French quayside came the brigades of the Lahore Division, which a week earlier had sailed from Egypt. They were the first troops of the Indian Army to set foot on French soil in this war.

Welcome in Marseille

France was waiting for every soldier. After the Battle of the Marne the front was moving north, and both sides were short of reserves. The people of Marseille turned out in crowds to greet the sepoys, the Gurkhas and the soldiers of the British battalions that formed part of the Indian brigades. According to accounts from those days they were showered in the streets with flowers, fruit and cigarettes. For many French people it was their first contact with soldiers from distant India.

The division arrived without part of its forces. The Sirhind Brigade remained in Egypt for the time being to guard the Suez Canal, and rejoined the division only in December. Unloading the successive transports took several days, which is why some accounts give 30 September as the date of the corps’ arrival.

New rifles and warm uniforms

The Indian units were not prepared for war in Europe. The soldiers had rifles of an older pattern, so in France they were issued with new Lee-Enfield rifles. Transport was also lacking, so wagons were bought or hired locally from French traders and businessmen. The biggest problem was clothing. The soldiers had arrived in light tropical uniforms, and autumn in Flanders was cold and wet. Warm serge uniforms reached them only after several weeks of fighting.

From Marseille the division was taken by rail northwards to the area of Orléans, where it completed its preparations. In October the corps’ second division, the Meerut Division, arrived at Marseille. According to various sources its units came ashore between 11 and 14 October.

At Ypres and La Bassée

In the second half of October, when the Race to the Sea reached Flanders, the British command urgently needed every battalion. The Lahore Division was thrown into battle before it had been able to assemble in full. The Ferozepore Brigade reinforced the British cavalry between Hollebeke and Messines south of Ypres, while the Jullundur Brigade fought further south, around La Bassée. Sources date the first clashes between Indian soldiers and the Germans to 22–23 October. On 31 October at Hollebeke Sepoy Khudadad Khan of the 129th Baluchis, though wounded, kept a machine gun in action although all the other men of his crew had been killed. For this he became the first soldier of the Indian Army to receive the Victoria Cross.

At the end of October the two divisions, combined into the Indian Corps under General James Willcocks, took over a sector of the front around La Bassée and Neuve-Chapelle. Throughout 1915 the Indian Corps fought on the Western Front, suffering heavy losses. At the end of 1915 its infantry divisions were transferred to Mesopotamia.