"Very few people are aware of the role Indian troops played in both
world wars," Peter Francis of the Commonwealth Graves Commission said.
"In some Indian units the casualty rate was 80%. In three days' fighting
in Neuve Chapelle in 1915, for instance, some 4,200 Indian soldiers
perished." Most of the soldiers and sailors buried at Wünsdorf died of
disease while stationed at the prisoner of war camp in the nearby town of
Zossen.
For more than 80 years the German graveyard where Jafarullah Mohammad,
Mata Din Singh and 204 other Indian volunteers are buried was forgotten.
Until 29th October 2005, there was nothing to identify the
quiet, leafy spot where Jafarullah Mohammad and Mata Din Singh were buried. The
two servicemen were among thousands of Indian volunteers who fought for Britain
in the World War 1. On 29th October 2005, the war cemetery in
Wünsdorf (about 40kms from Berlin) was officially reopened. Reopening ceremony
was attended by diplomats from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and officials
from Russia and France, to honour Tartar soldiers who are buried there.
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