First Indian unit sets out for East Africa

On 19 August 1914 the first unit of Indian Expeditionary Force “C”, the 29th Punjabis, set out from British India. According to contemporary chronicles, it was the first unit of the Indian Army to leave India in this war to fight on any front. Its destination was British East Africa.

Defending a British colony

British East Africa, today’s Kenya, was threatened by the German colonial troops of Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. On 15 August the Germans occupied Taveta, on the border at the foot of Kilimanjaro, and began to threaten the Uganda Railway, the colony’s main artery. The local British forces were too weak to defend themselves. London therefore asked for help from India, which had a large, well-trained army.

Force “C” consisted of the 29th Punjabis, units raised by the Indian princely states, a mountain artillery battery and other units. The soldiers of the 29th came mainly from the Punjab, one of the main recruiting regions of the Indian Army.

First clashes

The regiment reached Mombasa on 1 September 1914 and was quickly sent inland. As early as 6 September, in the Tsavo area, it fought German detachments trying to cut the railway. It was the first clash of an Indian Army unit with the enemy in the First World War.

Significance

The dispatch of the 29th Punjabis opened the way to India’s large-scale participation in the war. In the following months Indian expeditionary forces set out for France, Mesopotamia, Egypt and again for East Africa. Over the whole war more than a million men served in the Indian Army, and tens of thousands of them died on fronts far from their homeland.