Yol is a neighbourhood of

Dharmshala Dharamshala (, ; also spelled Dharamsala) is a town in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It serves as the winter capital of the state and the administrative headquarters of the Kangra district since 1855. The town also hosts the Tibetan Go ...

city in the Indian

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

. It is famous for its military history.

History

The town gets its name from YOL (Young Officers Living), a small town established by

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

around 1849. The Yol Cantt. (cantonment) was built in 1942. Formerly it was known as "majhaitha" village. Yol is the headquarters of the 9 Corps of

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

. Yol was the location of a

Prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

which hosted German soldiers in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and Italian soldiers in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Frogman A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater. The term often applies more to professional rather than recreational divers, especially those working in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some Europea ...

Elios Toschi Elios may refer to *Helios (can also be spelled Elios), a minor character in the Japanese ''Sailor Moon'' series. *, an Italian steamship seized by the United Kingdom during the Second World War * Elios Andreini Elios Andreini (8 September 1940 � ...

, a member of the pre-

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

Decima Flottiglia MAS The ''Decima Flottiglia MAS'' (''Decima Flottiglia Motoscafi Armati Siluranti'', also known as ''La Decima'' or Xª MAS) (Italian for "10th Torpedo-Armed Motorboat Flotilla") was an Italian flotilla, with marines and commando frogman unit, of ...

and inventor of the "maiale", was one of the very few to escape from the camp. After the war, the former

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

facility hosted ethnic Tibetan refugees from China.

Geography

Yol is located at in Kangra district. It has an average elevation of . Yol is situated 10 km southwest of

Dharamsala Dharamshala (, ; also spelled Dharamsala) is a town in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It serves as the winter capital of the state and the administrative headquarters of the Kangra district since 1855. The town also hosts the Tibetan ...

on the Dharamshala-

Chamunda Chamunda (, ), also known as Chamundeshwari, Chamundi or Charchika, is a fearsome form of Chandi, the Hindu mother goddess, Mahadevi and is one of the seven Matrikas.Wangu p.72 She is also one of the chief Yoginis, a group of sixty-four or ...

Devi-

Palampur Palampur is a hill station and a municipal corporation situated in the Kangra District in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Palampur is served by the Palampur Himachal railway station (PLMX), situated in Maranda, approximately 2 kilometer ...

road and about 15 km northeast of Kangra town. The nearest railway station is Nagrota Bagwan about 12 km away in south on

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

railway line originating at Pathankot. The nearest broad gauge railhead is

Pathankot Pathankot () is a city and the district headquarters of the Pathankot district in Punjab, India. Pathankot is the sixth most populous city of Punjab, after Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Bathinda. Its local government is a municipal ...

. The nearest airport is Gaggal airport (IATA airport code DHM), also known as Kangra airport, about 15 km to the west through Dharamshala

Demographics

India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Yol had a population of 10,772. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Yol has an average literacy rate of 77%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 74%. In Yol, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20100919002944/http://www.shipwrecksofegypt.com:80/images/shippages/gondar.html Site of the ''Gondar'' wreck off Alexandria harbour * http://www.loccidentale.it/articolo/la+storia+dei+diecimila+soldati+italiani+prigionieri+in+india+%281a+parte%29.0085440 History of the 10,000 Italian POWs in Yol (part one) * http://www.loccidentale.it/articolo/a.0085800 History of the 10,000 Italian POWs in Yol (part two) * http://www.loccidentale.it/articolo/elenco+dei+prigionieri+italiani+a+yol+(india).0085514 List of the Italian POWs in Yol camp (may be subject to updates). {{Kangra district Cities and towns in Kangra district Populated places established in 1849 Cantonments of India Cantonments of British India 1849 establishments in British India