Ranchi’s profoundly sad link to WWII’s ‘Forgotten Army’

Graves of Royal Air Force personnel at the Ranchi Commonwealth War Cemetery. (Image source: Arjun Kumar)

Paulus Kachhap of Takra, Bihar, is with Sanda Bangor of Nigeria and Rukha of Sialkot. Keeping them company are Sydney F. Pickett of Middlesex, United Kingdom, and Alexander Sutherland of Auckland, New Zealand. Adding to the group is Kamal Topno, who belongs to Ranchi. Saying ‘belonged’ may be more accurate.

The last of the six gentlemen mentioned here died in 1946 and while they may never have had the opportunity to know each other during their lifetime, they are interred in the same place. In a quiet, seldom-visited part of Ranchi lies a Commonwealth war cemetery. The ‘war’ in this refers to the Second World War. To know how this disparate group of people came together in this place, far from any battlefront of that global conflict, we need to dive into the past of the region and beyond.

The Cross of Sacrifice at the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Ranchi - a symbol put up at every cemetery that has more than 40 graves. (Image Source: Arjun Kumar)

The backstory

On December 7-8, 1941, Japan launched attacks on various countries in the Pacific Ocean and South-East Asia. Later that month, Japanese troops entered Burma, then controlled by the British. The fall of the British stronghold of Singapore, in February 1942, triggered panic leading to an exodus of British and Indian civilians from Burma. The defending troops there were ill-prepared for the Japanese onslaught and fell back into India. By May, it was clear that the next target would be British India.

Amidst this, various new military formations were raised and accommodated in fresh locations for their training. Ranchi became the headquarters of XV Corps, under the leadership of Lieutenant General (later Field Marshal) William Slim. In his seminal ‘Defeat into Victory’, Slim wrote: “The Ranchi plateau was almost ideal for the training we needed. Its climate was vastly preferable to the steaming heat of Bengal, malaria was much less, and the tawdry distractions of Calcutta were absent.” Slim went on to command the 14th Army, parent formation of XV Corps.

Portrait of Field Marshal Slim, made when he was commanding the 14th Army. (Image Source: Wikipedia)

From 1942 through till 1945, the 14th Army fought its way into Burma. So pressing was the requirement of troops that they were brought in from across the entire Commonwealth. Only about 13% of this army was ethnic British, with Indians comprising about 65% of the troops. There were nearly one lakh soldiers from African countries, principally Nigeria.

Perhaps this composition was why the 14th Army was sometimes referred to as the ‘Forgotten Army’, its exploits drowned out by Allied successes on other fronts. It also explains the varied nationality of the six gentlemen mentioned earlier.

Chinese puzzle

Grave of a Chinese soldier at Ranchi - a pointer to the cemetery at Ramgarh. (Image Source: Arjun Kumar)

Intense warfare in the Burmese forests caused high casualties, a number worsened by disease. After the war, those buried in remote places were brought back for burial into various Commonwealth war cemeteries, such as the one in Ranchi. The cemetery here has 704 graves, including 51 Indians. The youngest person here is an 18-year-old sapper, the oldest a 61-year-old clerk. While the saddest are the graves of soldiers whose identities are unknown, the most curious is the grave of Thomas Tan, mentioned as a soldier in the Chinese Army. What was a Chinese soldier doing here, one wonders?

The answer lies north of Ranchi, just outside the cantonment town of Ramgarh. For the Chinese, the conflict that later became the Second World War began with a Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, widening into an all-out war by 1937. Chinese troops also joined the long retreat from Burma. Later, the 22nd and 38th Chinese Divisions were reconstituted and trained for war in Ramgarh. In this case, it was American troops under the command of US Army General Joseph Stilwell who imparted the training. To quote Slim again, “He (Stilwell) forced Chiang Kai-shek to provide the men; he persuaded (British) India to accept a large Chinese force and the British to pay for it, accommodate, feed and clothe it.”

Chinese troops training at Ramgarh. (Image source: Wikipedia)

Before the Chinese arrived, Ramgarh was used to house Italian and German prisoners of war. It was apparently selected as a training base as it had space available, as well as railway connectivity to manage constant arrival and departure of troops. Six hundred and sixty-seven Chinese officers and men who died in the fighting that followed and could not be taken back to China lie buried here in a war cemetery dedicated to them. In one corner of the cemetery is a Buddhist temple built in 1983 and currently under renovation.

For the cemetery’s upkeep, funding is received from the Republic of China (Taiwan) though in recent years, the People’s Republic of China has sparked a controversy by expressing an interest here. The vast space for military training has been prudently utilized by the Indian Army, with training centres for the Sikh and Punjab regiments being shifted here in 1976.

The Buddhist Temple was inaugurated in 1983 by Brigadier SC Puri, commandant of the Sikh Regimental Centre. Seeing his name on the inauguration board rings a bell, bringing with it the memory of a tragic incident. In the aftermath of Operation Blue Star - the assault on Amritsar’s Harmandir Sahib complex in 1984, to eliminate Khalistani terrorists occupying the place – the army witnessed a mutiny in the Sikh Regimental Centre at Ramgarh. The mutinying troops shot and killed Brigadier Puri.

Buddha shrine within the Buddhist Temple ground floor, inside the Chinese cemetery at Ramgarh. (Image source: Arjun Kumar)

Today, Ramgarh is quiet. Old soldiers lie in everlasting peace even as new warriors train hard in the wooded area near the Chinese cemetery. Not a soul remembers the ‘Forgotten Army’ here while trying their best to forget tragic incidents of more recent decades.