Indian soldier
They arear the soldiers history has chochosen to forget – the 615 brabrave Indian men who were eevacuated from the beaches beach of Dunkirk in May 191940, many of whom ended uup in the Highlands.
In their turbans and khaki kurtahs, they wouwould have stood out from the other 338338,000 Allied troops rescued dur ing OperationO Dynamo but somehow their story doesn’t appear in history books. These courageousc men were part of ththe Indian Contingent – also kknown as Force K6 - who had travelled 7000 miles from theth Punjab to help the British Army and ended up joining them on the beaches of northnorthern France.
DeterminedDete their story should notn go untold, historian
Ghee Bowman has written a book abouta the exploits of these extraordinaryextrao Punjabis to coincide with theth 80th anniversary of Dunkirk, which began on May 26, 1940.
The writer, whose book The Indian Contingent is out this week, said: “These men deserve to be remembered.remem They were there on those beaches going through the same hell as the other men but, in all the bloodshed and chaos, history has chosen to forget them. That’s not right.
“It’s not just the history books who forgot them. Christopher Nolan, who made the 2017 smash-hit film Dunkirk, along with every other filmmaker or writer who has dealt with Operation Dynamo has also left them out.
“Just like actor Laurence Fox was reminded recently about the contribution Sikh soldiers made in the Great War after he questioned the inclusion of a Sikh soldier in the movie 1917, I want to remind the world about the important role the Indian Contingent had in the war effort.”
Ghee’s book reveals not only the roles these soldiers played but also follows the time they and the rest of Force K6 spent in Britain after Dunkirk and, most notably, their eventful 18-month posting to Scotland.
The Indian Contingent had postings