World War-I and Post War Reforms

[W.G.Ewald]

During World War-I, 1, 40,000 Indian Army troops were deployed on various fronts oversees. Trench warfare was entirely new to the Indian soldier. These trenches were continuous deep ditches, damp and muddy and prone to collapse under heavy bombardment, a complete contrast to the dry hills and scrub of the North-West Frontier. Though initially they moved into the theatres of war ill trained and ill-equipped, they rose to various challenges with dexterity and fervour, to be fully equipped and trained in due course.

While the newly raised I Indian Corps comprising two Infantry Divisions, that is 3 (Lahore) and 7 (Meerut) along with the 4 (Secundrabad) Cavalry Brigade was deployed in France, operations in Mesopotamia and German East Africa were, in the beginning, entrusted to Indian Army aided by troops of Princely States.

The first major battle in which Indian troops took part was the First Battle of Ypres, a small market town in Flanders bordering present day Belgium. Troops of the Indian Corps were fully committed there and suffered heavy causalities, as in the case of Festubert in December 1914 and at Loos in September 1915.

In this theatre, apart from Ypres, Festubert and Loos, many Indian units also earned laurels at La Basse, Givenchy, Aubers, Armenties, Neuve Chapelle and Somme. It was in these battles that two Indian soldiers-Khudadad Khan and GS Negi earned the coveted Victoria Cross for their valour. In November 1915 the Indian Corps was withdrawn from France and sent to Egypt. The cavalry brigade, however, remained on the western front and took part in the battles of Somme in 1916 and Cambrai in 1917.

 

[dodo]

Munich Pact
(Aftermath World War 1)​

On 30th September 1938 Munich Pact was signed between

1. Great Britain
2. Italy
3. Germany
4. France

What Munich Pact really showed was Europe's Policy of appeasement towards Hitler's expansionist desires. The pact was aimed to prevent war in Europe by allowing small territories desired by Hitler to calm his appetite.

The country whose territories were about to be allocated to Germany was Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia was a new relatively new country formed in October 1918. In it were the Sudeten Germans who were ethnic Germans living in the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Margraviate of Moravia (parts of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown) both of which came under jurisdiction of the state of Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the dissolution of Austria-Hungary after World War I.In September 1938, Adolf Hitler demanded control of the Sudetenland (area where Sudeten Germans inhibited). On Sept 29, 1938, Britain and France ceded control in the Appeasement at the Munich Conference;

Ethnic-based Census graph showing Czech population in 1921 & 1930 ​

Territorial Division of Czechoslovakia

Along with Germans Hungary and Poland also had their territorial claims on Czechoslovakia.
Poland initiated and took its piece of Czechoslovakia first with military invasion.Then came Hungary saying Carpatho-Ukraine was its part which was stolen from them in World War 1. This was solved between Germany and Hungary by First Vienna Award a treaty signed on November 2, 1938, allowing Hungary to have his claim

To make things worse Slovaks were also demanding independence from Czechoslovakia and to stop this and trying to appease its own citizens, Czechoslovakia agreed to grant more autonomy to Slovakia, and to hyphenate the country's name, so that it became Czecho-Slovakia.

Czechoslovakia after Munich Pact,1938 ​

Left out by Allies and threatened with civil war Czecho-Slovakia was unable to show its full resistance to its neighbors, thus Allowing them to do their bidding.

Agreement Details

Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, taking into consideration the agreement, which has been already reached in principle for the cession to Germany of the Sudeten German territory, have agreed on the following terms and conditions governing the said cession and the measures consequent thereon, and by this agreement they each hold themselves responsible for the steps necessary to secure its fulfilment:

(1) The evacuation will begin on 1st October.

(2) The United Kingdom, France, and Italy agree that the evacuation of the territory shall be completed by the 10th October, without any existing installations having been destroyed, and that the Czechoslovak Government will be held responsible for carrying out the evacuation without damage to the said installations.

(3) The conditions governing the evacuation will be laid down in detail by an international commission composed of representatives of Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Czechoslovakia.

(4) The occupation by stages of the predominantly German territory by German troops will begin on 1st October. The four territories marked on the attached map will be occupied by German troops in the following order:
The territory marked No. I on the 1st and 2nd of October; the territory marked No. II on the 2nd and 3rd of October; the territory marked No. III on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of October; the territory marked No. IV on the 6th and 7th of October. The remaining territory of preponderantly German character will be ascertained by the aforesaid international commission forthwith and be occupied by German troops by the 10th of October.

(5) The international commission referred to in paragraph 3 will determine the territories in which a plebiscite is to be held. These territories will be occupied by international bodies until the plebiscite has been completed. The same commission will fix the conditions in which the plebiscite is to be held, taking as a basis the conditions of the Saar plebiscite. The commission will also fix a date, not later than the end of November, on which the plebiscite will be held.

(6) The final determination of the frontiers will be carried out by the international commission. The commission will also be entitled to recommend to the four Powers, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, in certain exceptional cases, minor modifications in the strictly ethnographic determination of the zones which are to be transferred without plebiscite.

(7) There will be a right of option into and out of the transferred territories, the option to be exercised within six months from the date of this agreement. A German-Czechoslovak commission shall determine the details of the option, consider ways of facilitating the transfer of population and settle questions of principle arising out of the said transfer.

(8) The Czechoslovak Government will within a period of four weeks from the date of this agreement release from their military and police forces any Sudeten Germans who may wish to be released, and the Czechoslovak Government will within the same period release Sudeten German prisoners who are serving terms of imprisonment for political offenses.