Indian Corps on the Western Front

The Indian Corps reached France in the autumn of 1914 as Britain urgently sought trained troops to reinforce the Western Front. The Lahore and Meerut divisions entered combat within weeks and fought through the winter battles of 1914 before major operations at Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge, Festubert and Loos in 1915.

The corps served under Lieutenant-General Sir James Willcocks and faced severe problems of climate, reinforcement, language and the loss of experienced British officers, while its soldiers adapted from frontier warfare to artillery-dominated trench fighting. The infantry divisions left France for the Middle East at the end of 1915, after making a substantial contribution during the British Army’s early manpower crisis.