Observations by Private James McInnes known as ‘Mac’ volunteer in an Army Service Corps Motorised Unit on the Western Front. Born in Scotland in 1893.
“It was a war in which mules hauled shells in wicker baskets slung across their backs to the batteries, teams of horses pulled supply wagons and gun carriages, tanks were sluggish and clumsy, and slow moving aircraft a fragile arrangement of wood, wire and fabric”
“On occasions at the supply railhead” Mac said ‘I saw the Indians acting in what I thought an odd way. They stood apart from each other and at meal breaks separated into groups, placing their food and eating utensils a safe distance from their fellow countrymen. I now know they did it to avoid having an item polluted by a person from a lower caste’
It was source of intrigue to him, watching the Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims stowing their supplies on one set of mule drawn wagons for the class regiments, and stacking supplies for the class-company regiments on another.
There were vegetarian foods: for the Hindus – black, green, and yellow lentils, dried red chillies, exotic smelling spices and sacks of rice for all. One rail wagon held live goats brought up from the Indian Supply Depot at Marseille to provide meat for the Muslims, slaughtered by their own men in accordance with Islamic law.
Taken to Flanders in October 1914 most of the Indian soldiers could understand no-one but their own officers, and when they were separated from their contingents in the wet and the cold, found it difficult to find their way to their own quarters, unable to read the lettering on the signposts.
Yet their reputation was that of well disciplined, troops, capable and trustworthy.
Most of the Indian soldiers came from the Punjab and the North West Frontier with the United provinces and Rajputana furnishing the remainder There were a number of Pathans from the Afghan tribes, and Baluchi from the Baluchistan Plateau, west of Karachi.
“It was a war in which mules hauled shells in wicker baskets slung across their backs to the batteries, teams of horses pulled supply wagons and gun carriages, tanks were sluggish and clumsy, and slow moving aircraft a fragile arrangement of wood, wire and fabric”
“On occasions at the supply railhead” Mac said ‘I saw the Indians acting in what I thought an odd way. They stood apart from each other and at meal breaks separated into groups, placing their food and eating utensils a safe distance from their fellow countrymen. I now know they did it to avoid having an item polluted by a person from a lower caste’
It was source of intrigue to him, watching the Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims stowing their supplies on one set of mule drawn wagons for the class regiments, and stacking supplies for the class-company regiments on another.
There were vegetarian foods: for the Hindus – black, green, and yellow lentils, dried red chillies, exotic smelling spices and sacks of rice for all. One rail wagon held live goats brought up from the Indian Supply Depot at Marseille to provide meat for the Muslims, slaughtered by their own men in accordance with Islamic law.
Taken to Flanders in October 1914 most of the Indian soldiers could understand no-one but their own officers, and when they were separated from their contingents in the wet and the cold, found it difficult to find their way to their own quarters, unable to read the lettering on the signposts.
Yet their reputation was that of well disciplined, troops, capable and trustworthy.
Most of the Indian soldiers came from the Punjab and the North West Frontier with the United provinces and Rajputana furnishing the remainder There were a number of Pathans from the Afghan tribes, and Baluchi from the Baluchistan Plateau, west of Karachi.
