REGIMENT OF "GUNGA DINS."

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 127, 31 December 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

REGIMENT OF "GUNGA DINS."

WHAT THE THINK uf THE INDIANS.

• SIMPLY SPLENDID" "IT IS A PRIVILEGE TO FIGHT WITH THEM." (Weekly Dispatch.) , (We cannot hope to know with any fullness of detail until tiie end of the war just how much the Indian soldiers have done for us, but it is well that we should realise now, at any rate, that they take rank among the Empire's finest soldiers. "The Weekly Dispatch" is happy to follow the example of the Secretary of State for India, who a few days ago published a letter from an Australian in hospital, telling how much he and his comrades admired the Indians fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The following article is by the writer of that letter.)

It seems a thousand pities that so little should be heard in Britain of the heroism of the Indians in Gallipoli. These men are simply magnificent. My simple tribute of praisa to them, which the Secretary of State for India published, was merely what every Australian 1 know would have paid. "There is not a man jack of them," said one of our fellows, speaking of an Indian regiment, "but might have been the living original of Kipling's immortal 'Gunga Din.' " 'E'll be squattin' on the coals, Givin' drink to poor damned souls, An' I'll get a swig in bell from Gunga Din! Yes, Din! Din! Din! Though I've belted you and flayed you. By the livin' Gawd that made you, You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din! Most of our fellows had never seen Indians before this campaign, and 1 don't mind saying their views went through some change from the time we first came across them on board ship to the time we lay side by sido in the same hospital ward. TEA, OK GUNS, FOR THE SAHIBS. Wo met the bulk of them at Malta, and wero rather .surprised at the way Lord Methucn would go from our camp to theirs and chat with theni in just as friendly a spirit. Some of us commented on this, but ono of those who had seen them at peace and at war said, "Wait till you see those fellows on the battlefield, and I bet there's not one of you as wouldn't take off his hat to them."

He was right, too! From the very fiiKt they showed their friendliness. We could not get tea served on our boat, and as soon as the 'lndian heard this—knowing what his daily tea is to the sahib—their cooks, alter their own meals were ever, hurried to help us. I don't know what would have happened to us without those Indians when we made our landing on tho Peninsula. It looked "touch and go" with the Australian and New Zealand troops when the Indian mountain batteries came ashore with their guns all in pieces. No sooner had their brought these pieces together, however, than whole guns seemed to spring up in the twinkling of an eye, as you would see it on a kineina him. It was wonderful. We had never seen anything like it, and I'm jolly well sure the Turks hadn't.

They would scramble up the hills all higgledy-piggledy and then suddenly come together round a gun that seemed to be already firing, and from there keep up a terrific and accurate fire on the enemy. That, in my opinion, with, of course, the help of the Fleet's big guns, 6aved the day. AFTER THAT WE WEIIE PALS. It was a privilege to fight with the Indians —there's no other word for it. If ever |[ felt proud of the Empire it was that day when I saw the pluck of men which the old flag had been able to arouse in spite of difference ofcolour, caste, and creed. After that we felt a sort of link between us. and both sides began to pal up. On the whole they were bigger chaps than wo were—they were all over six feet and we averaged five feet ten. Great, strong, broad-shoul-dered fellows, who could carry twice our loads, and did not seem to know the meaning of pain or death or •'slacking."

Their reverence for us all the while was rather quaint. It had something of the old English retainer in it. They were proud to fight for us, and they would tell us so in the few words of English they had been able to master. "Salaaui, sar. Australia very j;uod, - ' was their morning salutation.

A BIT "ON THEIR OWN" They were not afraid of gun fire or shrapnel: in fact, they would often walk through showers of falling lead when we would duck and take cover. What they liked was a bit of hand-to-hand * fighting. And though they have such a wonderful sense of discipline that you have only to point to a thing to get an order carired out, what they love is to do a "bit on their own."

Sometimes, for instance, you will see them crouching like tigers in the short grass and waiting hours upon hours lor their chance, and then they will swoop down on their prey with, their deadly knives and —it's "kingdom tome" for the poor old Turk. They are simply marvellous as snipers. These latter have a wonderful method of concealment—standing upright >n a small hole with nothing but a tin of biscuits and a pint of water to live upon for days, with nothing but their heads and shoulders above the ground, and these covered with branches so as to look like trees. They don't deceive the Indians, though, and

every night there's one or two the less.

NEVER A CRY, NEVER A GROAN. Tlie comradeship among the Indians also struck us. Like us, they never set out without a sufficient number of Red Cross men, but I should say these will compare with any in the world for sacrifice.

I know of a case in which an Indian crawled out several hunderd yards and dressed the wounds of one of our Australians with his own emergency dressing, which, as every-soldier knows, no man is allowed to part with, under severe penalties. ( No, you can't teach the Indians anything in the heroism line, I can tell you. Then there is their power of endurance ; it is marvellous —never a cry, never a groan, though sometimes they are undergoing excruciating suffering. 1 remember a man in hospital lying with a face as placid as thai of an ebony figure. He had had the left buttock shot away by shell fire and the right foot crushed to a pulp, but not a line in his features moved. Very often, too, their wounds were almost entirely due to voluntarily coming to our help. That is the thing that used to move us. It is no exaggeration to say that the Empire spirit has bound us so close since that the Indian is to the Australian almost the same as the New Zealander. Some of us felt in our hearts that they were better men than we were —these Gunga. Dins!