Thread by @amanmadra

On VE Day in 1945 some 2.5million Indian Soldiers who fought as part of the Allied Forces also celebrated. Pictured is Aircraftman Singh of Ambala receiving news of victory with Corporal Boyd of Lanarkshire in 1945). Indians had participated in the European …(contd)#VEDay75

..campaign, most notably in Italy where they were a significant part of the allied forces liberating Italy from the Nazis. Pictured are Sikhs fighting as part of the Allied contingent who fought alongside British and Americans in 1944 in Italy

The Indian experience in Italy included time for rest and worhsip. Here, boat trips in Venice, skiing in the mountains and a gurdwara service in San Angelo

Victory in Europe (VE), however was just that. It concluded the hostilities with the Nazi Regime in Germany. However the vast majority of India's 2.5million strong army was deployed in South East Asia…(contd)
(pictured A Sikh solider holds a captured swastika - May 1945)

Most Indian troops were battling against the Japanese in the Burma Campaign that would continue until August of 1945.
(Sikhs in Burma as part of the 14th Army - often referred to as the ‘Forgotten Army’)

There is barely a Sikh family in the UK that does not have a relative that participated in the Burma Campaign. Alongside the hardship and horror were life defining moments for a generation that had previously never stepped outside of their Punjabi villages

Sikhs in Britain were few and far between, a tiny community who, like other Britons, were equally victims of bombing raids (left) or part of the war effort in factories (right from a factory in Letchworth Factory)

There are very few Indian veterans of the Second World War alive today. Today I’ll be doing a virtual salute to Havildar Major Rajinder Singh Dhatt - who has always been an inspiring reminder of that extraordinary generation.
#VE75 #VEDay #VEDay2020

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