https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq6E1luxLQQ
This ten minutes clip of the Second World War captures an important chapter of the Indian army. War stories are usually focused on combat soldiers while support services though vital usually don’t get much attention. However, we all know that if supply corps does not send food in time, a hungry soldier cannot survive even a day or without the help of an orderly of medical corps a minor bleeding wound can end the life of a soldier.
This clip provides a window into the role of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps (RIASC) contingent in the Western theatre in Second World War. The film caught the day to day functioning of animal transport and also tradition of presentation of ‘nazar’ to the King. There are three interesting people in this clip – Major Akbar Khan, Risaldar Major Muhammad Ashraf Khan and narrator Z. A. Bukhari. Z.A. Bukhari was from my hometown of Peshawar and his, as well as his brother Ahmad Shah Bukhari’s role in early history of Indian broadcasting requires a separate detailed piece.
RIASC contingent was K-6 Force that was sent to France in November 1939 where it stayed until evacuation in June 1940. It left its animals behind in France during evacuation and stayed in England from 1940-44 where it worked with horses and mules brought from France and the United States. The Force came back to India and later went to the Burma theatre, it consisted of Force Head Quarters (HQ) and four Animal Transport (AT) companies. The Force Commander was Major (Temp Lt. Colonel) R.W.W. Hills and senior Indian Viceroy Commissioned Officer (VCO) was Risaldar Major Muhammad Ashraf Khan, IOM, IDSM. The Force consisted of all Muslims, mainly Punjabi Muslims of Potohar area with few Pathans and Hazarawal. The discipline and efficiency of the force was exemplary in all phases and all observers praised Indian soldiers. In embarkation and disembarkation everything went smoothly without any loss of animals. Also in the chaotic retreat from Dunkirk, the discipline exhibited was exemplary. In England, the behavior of soldiers was excellent and locals who came in contact with them remembered them even after fifty years.
Major Mohammad Akbar Khan was 2IC of No: 25 Animal Transport Company (ATC). In 1947, he was the senior most Muslim officer of Indian army and given Pakistan Army number 1 (a detailed profile of Akbar and his family is almost complete). Risaldar Major Muhammad Ashraf Khan served a long career with RIASC, he had received IDSM on North West Frontier in 1935 operations. In France, he earned IOM for his cool and calm attitude during extrication. He received his IOM from the King at Buckingham Palace. In June 1944, he was appointed 1st Class Order of British India (OBI). He was a Hazarawal and belonged to the same area of Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan and was very well respected by soldiers and junior officers. When Ayub Khan was removed from the command of 1 Assam Regiment in 1945 in Burma and Lieutenant Colonel Steve Parsons took over, Ayub spent the next few weeks in the forty pounder tent of RM Ashraf Khan as his guest before heading back to India.
(An excellent source of K-6 Force is a two part piece written by Chris Kemptom in Durbar, Vol. 28 & 29, winter 2011 and spring 2012.)
There is an interesting history of Woking mosque and it is linked with history of Muslim Diaspora in London. This mosque was established in 1913. In the First World War, the imam of the mosque Maulana Sadr-ud-Din was involved in the care of the wounded and dead in England. Initially, British authorities approved for purchase of a burial plot in Netley near Royal Victoria Hospital where many wounded Indian soldiers were treated. Sadr-ud-Din advised them to change the burial site to near the Woking mosque. He met Director General of War Office General Sir Alfred Keogh and Military Secretary to India Office General Sir Edmund Barrow. In November 1914, three Muslim soldiers were buried in a section of a Christian cemetery but later the burial site was selected near Woking mosque.
From its inception, this mosque was run by Ahmadi Muslims. They were declared non-Muslim in 1974 in Pakistan and large numbers migrated to other countries.
