Imperial Troops in the First World War: Gallipoli, the Indian Army & the Real Cost of Empire at War
Military History: The British Empire
Chapter 8 · Imperial Troops in the First World War: Gallipoli, the Indian Army & the Real Cost of Empire at War
An Empire at War, Not Just a Country
The Indian Army
The army reorganised after 1857 and again under Kitchener (Chapter 5). More than a million Indian soldiers served overseas — the largest volunteer army of the war.
The Dominions
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Newfoundland raised their own forces. Some, like Canada's, grew into formidable national armies by 1918.
The Colonies
African, Caribbean, and other colonial troops and huge numbers of labourers and porters, often given the hardest and least-recognised work.
The Indian Army in France, 1914–1915
In autumn 1914, with the small British Expeditionary Force from Chapter 7 badly depleted, Indian divisions were rushed to France and Belgium. They arrived in September and were in the line within weeks, fighting at places like La Bassée and later Neuve Chapelle (March 1915), in a European winter they had not been equipped for.
On 31 October 1914, near Hollebeke in Belgium, Sepoy Khudadad Khan of the 129th Baluchis kept his machine gun firing after every other man in his team had been killed and he himself was wounded. He survived, and became the first Indian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross — which Indian troops had only become eligible for in 1911.
Around 130,000 Indians served in France and Belgium, and almost 9,000 died there. Most Indian infantry was moved to the Middle East by the end of 1915, although Indian cavalry stayed on the Western Front until 1918.
Mesopotamia and the Surrender at Kut
The biggest Indian deployment of the war was in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), against the Ottoman Empire, where close to 700,000 Indian troops eventually served. The campaign began to protect oil supplies near the Persian Gulf, then pushed ambitiously up the rivers toward Baghdad.
A British and Indian force under General Charles Townshend advanced too far, was beaten short of Baghdad, and retreated to the town of Kut-al-Amara, where it was besieged. Relief attempts failed at heavy cost. In April 1916 Townshend surrendered with over 10,000 men. Many of the captured British and especially Indian soldiers died on forced marches and in captivity afterward.
Gallipoli, 1915
Gallipoli was an attempt to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war by forcing the Dardanelles straits and threatening Constantinople. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was its best-known champion. A naval attack on 18 March 1915 failed against mines and shore guns, so troops were landed on the Gallipoli peninsula instead.
- 25 April 1915 Landings at Cape Helles (mainly British and French) and at what became Anzac Cove (the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps).
- May–July 1915 Both beachheads are hemmed into narrow strips of ground; the fighting becomes trench warfare on steep, waterless hillsides, with disease as deadly as enemy fire.
- August 1915 A new landing at Suvla Bay and attacks on the heights, including by Indian Gurkha units, come close to success but fail.
- December 1915 – January 1916 The Allies evacuate — the most successful part of the whole campaign, completed with very few losses.
| Who fought | Real cost |
|---|---|
| Whole Allied force (British, French, Australian, New Zealand, Indian, Newfoundland) | Roughly 250,000 casualties on each side; Allied dead estimated between about 43,000 and 61,000 |
| Australia | About 8,700 dead |
| New Zealand | About 2,700 dead — a very high share of a small country's force |
| Indian 29th Brigade | About 1,350 dead |
| Ottoman forces | Estimated 57,000–87,000 dead |
Canada at Vimy Ridge, 1917
From 9 to 12 April 1917, the Canadian Corps — with all four of its divisions attacking together for the first time — captured Vimy Ridge in northern France, a position earlier attacks had failed to take. It was the product of months of careful planning, rehearsals on full-size mock-ups, and closely timed artillery. It cost 3,598 Canadian dead and more than 7,000 wounded. The Corps was commanded by the British general Julian Byng; within months the Canadian Arthur Currie took over.
The Least-Recognised Contribution
Hundreds of thousands of men served in labour units rather than as fighting soldiers. In the East African campaign, where British and imperial forces spent the whole war chasing a small German force, the army depended on African porters to carry supplies; tens of thousands of them died, mostly from disease and exhaustion — a death toll still poorly counted today.
The troopship Mendi, carrying the 5th Battalion of the South African Native Labour Corps to France, was rammed in thick fog off the Isle of Wight by a much larger ship, the Darro, which was later found to have been going dangerously fast. 646 people died, 607 of them Black South African troops, most of whom had never seen the sea. For decades the disaster was barely remembered outside their own communities; it's now commemorated in both South Africa and Britain.
What the War Changed
The Dominions Grow Up
The dominions signed the 1919 peace treaty in their own names and joined the League of Nations separately. Their war effort became the strongest argument for full independence in foreign policy.
India's Expectations
Over a million Indians served, with at least 74,000 dead. Many expected real political reward; the limited reforms that followed, and the 1919 Amritsar massacre, fed the independence movement instead.
A Pattern for 1939
By the next war, Britain could no longer simply declare war on the dominions' behalf — a change Chapter 9 picks up directly.
Questions to Sit With
Quick Reference — Chapter 8
- Britain's 1914 declaration of war committed the whole Empire: India, the colonies, and the dominions
- Indian divisions reached France in September 1914; about 130,000 served in France and Belgium and almost 9,000 died there; Khudadad Khan won the first Indian VC (31 October 1914)
- Mesopotamia was the largest Indian deployment (nearly 700,000); Townshend surrendered at Kut in April 1916, but Baghdad fell in March 1917
- Gallipoli (25 April 1915 – January 1916): roughly 250,000 casualties per side; about 8,700 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand dead; the evacuation was its one success; Anzac Day commemorates it
- Vimy Ridge (9–12 April 1917): all four Canadian divisions attacked together for the first time; its "birth of a nation" meaning was mostly built later
- Labourers and porters, including the 646 who died on the SS Mendi (21 February 1917), made up a huge and long-neglected part of the imperial war effort
- The war strengthened dominion independence and Indian demands for self-rule
What's Next
Chapter 9: Imperial Forces in the Second World War: The Real Global Reach of Commonwealth Armies.