AZAD HIND

[azadhind]

FREE INDIAN LEGIONNAIRES/ AZAD HIND!

well i must point out tht when the war broke out in europe, india was stil a british colony, where half of the population wanted to stay under british control and the rest wanted to throw them out. One of the political leaders and a prominent figure who believed that the only way india cold become independent was to put up strong resistance against the britishers, to fight them was NETAJI SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE. Now i must point out that the indian soldiers were fierce fighters and when the war started and the allied expeditionary force was sent to the deserts of north africa. Among the commonwealth forces that were sent to africa maximum number of contingents were from india under great general montgomery's command.
amongst the battles that took place a lot of indian soldiers were taken prisoners, who were later shipped to mainland germany with the rest of the allies POW.
NETAJI knew that the only countries that could help him in raising up his own army were GERMANY and JAPAN. He came to germany met with hitler who promised him that he will do everything in hs reach to help him raise a new army. So the INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY was started. NETAJI met with the indian POW in german POW camps and requested the men to join his new army. he only wnatd 600 men but the resopnse from the indians was overwhelming. More than 600 volunteers came forward. but i think after a month of establishment of the INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY in 43 attack on russia began. NETAJI knew that this is the end of germany and that there is no way that germany can support him in his cause. the german high command put forward a condition that the new army should stay in europe and fight the allies here, which many of them did. Netaji fled to japan and the men who were excited about the INA were lost their enthuasim. by now a contingent of 1000 men had been formed as the FREE INDIAN LEGIONNAIRES.this is also a fact that a strong contingent of nearly 900 indian soldiers were in the outskirts of birlin in the last few days of the war and put up fierce fight repelling the attackers. later on even they knew that this is the end and they abandoned their positions and marched towards incoming allied force and surrendered. when they were shipped back home they were all sentenced to 6 months of rigirious imprisonment and then were released.
this sent a strict message to the britishers that they could no longer trust and control the indians and in 1947 they quit india and india became independent.

netaji had fled to japan as soon as germany launched its offensive on russia. he met with tha japanese emperor and japanese high command who in turn provided him with equipment mostly british equipments captured from INDIAN and BRITISH POW's. Again he recurited indian POW's and fought the british at burma nearly defeating them. later on because the japanese empire was crumbling and was on retreat, the INDIAN NATIONAL ARMY(INA) could no longer be provided with logistic support. As aresult the INA surrendered to the british in late 44 -45. (exact date not clear). Its been said tha netaji died in a plane crash in 45 while escaping capture from burma in a C-47. the remains of the passangers could never be identified. so they say.

That is the whole story. Bose The Forgotten Hero is a movie which has been made by shyam benegal on netaji's fight for india's independence. the movie is about to be released. the movie should be released by september 2005. the movie covers netaji's meeting with the fuhror and japanese high command among other things. if its possible try to get a copy and watch it.

now for the pics from what i can make out, the prtrait of the soldier sitting (solo) probably for id card is a rajput soldier. the one manning the mg 42 or 32 is a sikh soldier from punjab, india. [img] dd-002d.jpg on you website clearly shows netaji subhas chandra bose on far right (2nd row standing) in german uniform. the tri color arm patch with a tiger in the middle is the emblem od AZAD HIND/ FREE INDIAN LEGIONNAIRES as you all know. so all the soldiers in this army are of indian origin only.