This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns. The Indian Army was the largest volunteer army during the Second World War.

Indian Army divisions fought in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy and went

and went to make up the overwhelmed majority of the troops in Southeast Asia.

Over 2 million personnel served in the Indian Army.

I'm Angus Wallace in this episode I'm joined by Alan Jeffries to discuss how the

Indian Army developed a more comprehensive training structure than

any other Commonwealth country during World War II. This was achieved through both the dissemination

of doctrine and professionalism of a small cadre of Indian Army officers

who brought about a military culture within the Indian Army starting in the 1930s.

That came to fruition during World War II.

Alan is the head of equipment and uniform at the National Army Museum in London

and the author of Approach to Battle training the Indian Army during the Second World War.

Well, thanks for joining me. I thought we'd start with the First World War.

Had the war radically changed the Indian Army, because they'd seen action all over the world.

Yeah, obviously, put the Indian Army in the First World War

falls across the globe.

And I think, you know, by 1918, a very impressive army

that, you know, was fighting along the same lines

as the British Army,

nor the Commonwealth armies by 1918, especially in the Palestine campaign.

...