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39th Garhwal Rifles
The 39th Garhwal Rifles was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. History The regiment was first raised in 1887 as the Aligarh Levy but was disbanded after disgracing itself at the Rawalpindi Review in 1888. In 1891, the 39th (The Garhwali) Regiment of Bengal Infantry was formed from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Gurkha Rifles. In 1892, they were given the title of "Rifles". A second battalion was raised in 1901, making the regiment the only two battalion regiment in the Indian Army, except for the Gurkhas. During World War I both battalions were assigned to the Garhwal Brigade, which formed part of the 7th (Meerut) Division. Initially they were sent to Europe and in the early part of the war, suffered heavy casualties on the Western Front. The regiment was then sent to the Middle East take part in the Mesopotamia Campaign. Two more battalions were raised during the war. The regiment was next in action during the Waziristan campaign 1919–1920. In 1921, the regiment was ...
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Bengal Army
The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Government of India Act 1858 (passed in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857) transferred all three presidencies to the direct authority of the British Crown. In 1895 all three presidency armies were merged into the Indian Army. History Origins The Bengal Army originated with the establishment of a European Regiment in 1756. While the East India Company had previously maintained a small force of Dutch and Eurasian mercenaries in Bengal, this was destroyed when Calcutta was captured by the Nawab of Bengal on 30 June that year. Under East India Company In 1757 the first locally recruited unit of Bengal sepoys was created in the form of the ''Lal Paltan'' battalion. It was recruited from soldiers that had served in the Nawab's Army ...
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Darwan Singh Negi
Darwan Singh Negi VC (4 March 188324 June 1950) was one of the first Indian soldiers to be awarded the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Early life Negi was born to a farming family in Kafarteer village in the Garhwal District of the North-Western Provinces in India. In 1902, at the age of 19, he joined the 39th Garhwal Rifles, Indian Army. World War I When the First World War broke out in 1914, the regiment travelled to France as part of the 7th (Meerut) Division of the Indian Corps. Negi was a 33 year old naik (equivalent to corporal) in the 1st Battalion, 39th Garhwal Rifles, British Indian Army during the First World War when he performed the deed during the Defence of Festubert for which he was awarded the VC. Victoria Cross The citation of the VC reads: He was awarded the medal on the same day as Khudadad Khan VC; but Khan's VC action was of earl ...
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Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often subdivided into senior (first lieutenant) and junior (second lieutenant and even third lieutenant) ranks. In navies, it is often equivalent to the army rank of captain; it may also indicate a particular post rather than a rank. The rank is also used in fire services, emergency medical services, security services and police forces. Lieutenant may also appear as part of a title used in various other organisations with a codified command structure. It often designates someone who is " second-in-command", and as such, may precede the name of the rank directly above it. For example, a "lieutenant master" is likely to be second-in-command to the "master" in an organisation using both ranks. Political uses include lieutenant governor in various g ...
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William David Kenny
William David Kenny VC (1 February 1899 – 2 January 1920) was a British Indian Army officer and an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Early life Kenny was born in Saintfield, County Down on 1 February 1899. Military career Kenny was commissioned in to the Indian Army as a second lieutenant on 31 August 1918. He was promoted to lieutenant a year later. He was 20 years old, and a lieutenant in the 4/ 39th Garhwal Rifles during the Waziristan Campaign when the deed took place for which he was awarded the VC. The citation was published in a supplement to the '' London Gazette'' of 7 September 1920 (dated 9 September 1920): The medal His Victoria Cross is displayed at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. Memorials: India Gate, Delhi, India, Donaghadee, Co Down, Northern Ireland, Dundalk Grammar School, Dundalk, Co. Louth, Republic of Ireland. References ...
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Traverse (trench Warfare)
In trench warfare, a traverse is an adaptation to reduce casualties to defenders occupying a trench. One form of traverse is a U-shaped detour in the trench with the trench going around a protrusion formed of earth and sandbags. The fragments or shrapnel, or shockwave from a shell landing and exploding within a trench then cannot spread horizontally past the obstacle the traverse interposes. Also, an enemy that has entered a trench is unable to fire down the length at the defenders, or otherwise enfilade Enfilade and defilade are concepts in military tactics used to describe a military formation's exposure to enemy fire. A formation or position is "in enfilade" if weapon fire can be directed along its longest axis. A unit or position is "in de ... the trench. A traverse trench is a trench dug perpendicular to a trench line, but extending away from the enemy. It has two functions. One function is to provide an entry into the main trench. A second function is to provide a pla ...
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Battle Of Neuve Chapelle
The Battle of Neuve Chapelle (10–13 March 1915) took place in the First World War in the Artois region of France. The attack was intended to cause a rupture in the German lines, which would then be exploited with a rush to the Aubers Ridge and possibly Lille. A French assault at Vimy Ridge on the Artois plateau was also planned to threaten the road, rail and canal junctions at La Bassée from the south as the British attacked from the north. The British attackers broke through German defences in a salient at the village of Neuve-Chapelle but the success could not be exploited. If the French Tenth Army captured Vimy Ridge and the north end of the Artois plateau, from Lens to La Bassée, as the First Army took Aubers Ridge from La Bassée to Lille, a further advance of would cut the roads and railways used by the Germans, to supply the troops in the Noyon Salient from Arras south to Rheims. The French part of the offensive was cancelled when the British were unable to relieve ...
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Rifleman
A rifleman is an infantry soldier armed with a rifling, rifled long gun. Although the rifleman role had its origin with 16th century hand cannoneers and 17th century musketeers, the term originated in the 18th century with the introduction of the rifled musket. By the mid-19th century, entire rifle regiment, regiments of riflemen were formed and became the mainstay of all standard infantry, and ''rifleman'' became a generic term for any common infantryman. History Units of musketeers were originally developed to support units of pikemen. As firearms became more effective and widely used, the composition of these pike-and-musket units changed, with pikemen eventually becoming support units to the musketeers, particularly against cavalry. The last pike regiments were dissolved by the 1720s, as pikes were superseded by the invention of the bayonet. This converted the musket into a pike for those situations where it might still be useful, such as following up volleys with a c ...
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Gabar Singh Negi
Gabar Singh Negi VC (21 April 189510 March 1915) was a soldier in the British Indian Army during the First World War and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Early life Gabar Singh Negi, was born on 21 April 1895 at Manjaur village near Chamba, Tehri Garhwal State (present-day Tehri Garhwal district, Uttarakhand). The area is in the Himalayas and was part of the original Garhwal Kingdom, Uttarakhand. He joined the 2nd Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles, a regiment of the British Indian Army, in October 1913; the personnel of the regiment were mainly from the Garhwali people of Uttarakhand First World War On the outbreak of the First World War, the 39th Garhwal Rifles was among the regiments selected for the Indian Expeditionary Force A, destined for the Western Front in France. By October 1914, the regiment, as part of the 7th (Meerut) Division, was i ...
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Khudadad Khan
Subedar Khudadad Khan, VC (20 October 1888 – 8 March 1971) was a Pakistani and the recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest military award for gallantry in the face of the enemy given to British and Commonwealth forces. During the First World War, on 31 October 1914 at Hollebeke, Belgium, 26-year-old Khan, serving in the British Indian Army, performed an act of bravery for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. He was the first British Indian subject to earn the Victoria Cross, after members of the British Indian Army became eligible for the Victoria Cross in 1911, replacing the Indian Order of Merit first class. Life Born on 20 October 1888 in the village of Dab in Chakwal District of the Punjab Province, British India (now Pakistan) in a Punjabi Muslim Rajput family of Minhas Clan, Khudadad Khan was a Sepoy in the 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis, British Indian Army (now 11th Battalion The Baloch Regiment of Pakistan Army). The battalion formed part ...
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Sepoy
''Sepoy'' () was the Persian-derived designation originally given to a professional Indian infantryman, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its other European counterparts employed locally recruited soldiers within India, mainly consisting of infantry designated as "sepoys". The largest sepoy force, trained along European lines, served the British East India Company The term "sepoy" continues in use in the modern Indian, Pakistan and Nepalese armies, where it denotes the rank of private. Etymology In Persian (Aspa) means horse and Ispahai is also the word for cavalrymen. The term ''sepoy'' is derived from the Persian word () meaning the traditional "infantry soldier" in the Mughal Empire. In the Ottoman Empire the term was used to refer to cavalrymen. History The sepoys of the Mughal Empire were infantrymen usually armed with a musket and a talwar, although they some ...
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France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its Metropolitan France, metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Due to its several coastal territories, France has the largest exclusive economic zone in the world. France borders Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Andorra, and Spain in continental Europe, as well as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Netherlands, Suriname, and Brazil in the Americas via its overseas territories in French Guiana and Saint Martin (island), ...
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Festubert
Festubert is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. The village was on the Western Front during the First World War and was largely destroyed in the May 1915 Battle of Festubert. Geography A farming village some east of Béthune and southwest of Lille, at the junction of the D166 and the D72 roads. Population Places of interest * The church of Notre-Dame, rebuilt, as was much of the village, after the First World War. * The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries. See also *Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department *Defence of Festubert (November 1914) *Battle of Festubert (May 1915) *Battle of the Lys (1918) The Battle of the Lys, also known as the Fourth Battle of Ypres, was fought from 7 to 29 April 1918 and was part of the German spring offensive in Flanders during the First World War. It was originally planned by General Erich Ludendorff as O ... (Festubert was on the southern extremity of this battle) References ...
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