Netaji

[Guest guest]

Netaji In Germany During WW II

 

What was Netaji's plan for leading this army to India?

 

When the Germans launched out beyond Stalingrad into Central Asia,

the Indian irregulars, trained at Messeritz, would accompany their

Tajik and Uzbek counterparts along with the German Troops. After

Uzbekistan and Afghanistan were reached the Indian Company would

leap ahead of the German advance to disrupt the British-Indian

defenses in northwestern India. Netaji spoke of dropping parachute

brigades, calling on the Indian peasantry to assist them.

 

Through radio he issued warnings to British Indian soldiers and

police to the effect that unless they assisted the liberation forces

they would one day have to answer to the free Indian government for

their criminal support of the British. The effect of the Indian army

of liberation marching into India along with the German forces would

be such that the entire British Indian Army morale would collapse,

coinciding with a revolutionary uprising against the British. The

Legion would then be the nucleus of an expanding army of free India.

 

Netaji's plan, largely dependent on German Military successes in the

Soviet Union, undoubtedly had a setback when the Wehrmacht was

halted at Stalingrad. After the German retreat from that city, the

plan for marching into India from the West had to be abandoned. The

tide of war was turning swiftly, calling for devising new strategies

on the part of Netaji.

 

While the German army's second thrust into Russia encountered an

unexpected counter-offensive at Stalingrad and thus was forced to

turn back, in another part of the world the forces of another Axis

partner were forging ahead, nearer and nearer to India.

 

Japan was achieving spectacular successes in the Far East and was

ready to welcome Netaji as the leader of millions of Indians who

lived in the countries of East and Southeast Asia. The Japanese

attitude was extremely encouraging.

 

Tojo, the Prime Minister, had issued statements in the Diet (the

Japanese Parliament) about Indian freedom early in 1942, and by

March there was a Japanese proposal for a tripartite declaration on

India. A small band of Indian National Army legionaires had already

been in existence in the Southeast under Japanese patronage,

although a few of its leaders, including Mohan Singh, had fallen out

with the Japanese.

 

Netaji would have no difficulty in reorganizing and expanding this

organization. He would get the active support of millions of

overseas Indians, and the many thousands of British Indian prisoners-

of-war would provide him a greater opportunity for recruitment, and

for thus organizing a formidable army of liberation that could

immediately be deployed in forward positions as the Imperial

Japanese Army kept on advancing through the steaming jungles of the

Malayan peninsula and Burma.

 

During his meeting with Hitler on 29 May, the Führer had also

suggested that in view of the prevalent world situation, Netaji

should shift the center of his activities from Germany to the Far

East.

 

Netaji could look back at his two years work in Germany with a sense

of pride and accomplishment. Broadcasting, publications and

propaganda were all extended. Azad Hind Radio had extended programs

in several languages, and reports indicated that they were being

listened to with interest in target areas; Azad Hind, a bilingual

journal, was being published regularly.

 

The Free India Center had attained an acknowledged status in

Germany. It was treated as a foreign mission, entitling its members

to a higher scale of rations, and exemption from some of the Aliens'

regulations.

 

Netaji himself was given a good villa, a car and special rations for

entertainment purposes. His personal allowance amounted to about

eight hundred pounds a month. The monthly grant for the Free India

Center rose from 1,200 pounds in 1941 to 3,200 pounds in 1944. All

these Netaji stipulated as a loan from the German government, to be

returned after India gained independence with the Axis assistance.

 

However, the turn of events now demanded his presence in a different

theater-of-war.

 

What would happen to the Legion in Netaji's absence? It was now

3,500 strong, well trained and equipped, ready for action. Netaji

consulted with his aides in Berlin. A.C.N. Nambiar, an Indian

journalist who had been in Europe for some eighteen years prior to

Netaji's arrival in Germany, was his right-hand man.

 

While preparing for his journey to the Asian theater-of-war, Netaji

passed on to Nambiar his policy and instructions. As Hugh Toye

writes " There were plans for new branches of the Free India Center,

for broadcasting, for Indians to study German police methods, and

for the training of Indian seamen and airmen. As for the legion, it

must be used actively as soon as possible, the German officers and

NCOs must be quickly replaced by Indians, there must be no

communalism. Legionaries were to be trained on all the most modern

German equipment, including heavy artillery and tanks; Bose would

send further instructions as opportunity offered."

 

A few words must be added regarding the Indo-German cooperation and

comradeship during the critical days of World War II when the Legion

was formed.

 

The mutual understanding and respect between Indians and Germans and

the increasing contact between them in the interest of the common

task made it possible for the Indian Legion to sustain and keep up

discipline right up to the German capitulation in 1945.

 

During the period of training and even afterwards the comradeship

between Indians and Germans could not be destroyed. A meeting with

Subhash Bose was a special event for the German training staff. We

spent many evenings with him, discussing the future of India. He

lives in the minds of the training staff members as an idealistic

and fighting personality, never sparing himself in the service of

his people and his country.

 

The most rewarding fact was the real comradeship which grew between

Indians and Germans, which proved true in dangerous hours, and

exists still today in numerous cases. The Indian Legion was a

precious instrument in strengthening and consolidating Indo-German

friendship.

 

 

 

http://netaji.netfirms.com/netaji/germany4.htm

 

 

 

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