CHAPTER II

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THE REGULAR BATTALIONS OF THE REGIMENT

1st Battalion

Originated from native levies formed into battalions when the East India Company was forced to organize defence against a possible French invasion of Bombay from the sea in 1768, as the 2nd Bombay Sepoys, later the Battalion assumed in turn the titles of 3rd Regiment Native Infantry (1824), 3rd Light Infantry (1868), 103rd Mahratta Light Infantry (1903), and, on the grouping of 1922, its present designation of lst/5th Mahratta Light Infantry.

An unofficial title long borne by the Battalion, and certainly justified by its long and glorious record, is that of “Jang-i-Paltan” or “Fighting Regiment.”

Following its raising the Battalion saw continuous service in Kathiawar, Gujerat, and the Deccan until in 1799 it played a notable part in the campaign in Mysore which culminated in the defeat and death of Tippoo Sultan. With the present 2nd Battalion, it won great distinction at the battle of Seedaseer and the storming of Seringapatam. The anniversary of the former battle, 6th March, is celebrated annually by the Battalion as “Seedaseer Day.”

During the earlier half of the nineteenth century the Battalion saw varied service in the Mahratta wars, in the Persian Gulf—where it rendered notable service at the capture of Beni-Boo-Ali, and in the Punjab campaign of 1848. In this campaign the Battalion fought with great distinction at the capture of the two Sikh strongholds of Multan and Gujerat.

In 1867 the Battalion crossed the Indian Ocean to take part in the arduous campaign against King Theodore of Abyssinia when, as a memento of the storming of Magdala, it received from Sir Robert Napier an Abyssinian silver drum. For its gallantry in this campaign the Battalion was awarded the title “Light Infantry.” Twenty years later the Battalion again campaigned in Africa, this time in Somaliland, then followed a prolonged period of comparative quiet until the outbreak of the Great War of 1914-18 once more sent the then 103rd Mahratta Light Infantry campaigning in foreign parts.

The Battalion formed part of the original expeditionary force to the Persian Gulf in 1914 and established the Mahratta name at the first battle of Kut, in Mesopotaniia, and the desperate battle of Ctesiphon where the brunt of the loss—amounting to half the fighting force—fell upon the Infantry. Following the glorious stand at Kut, a siege borne by all ranks with the same fortitude and courage which typified their behaviour in the victories before that catastrophe, the Battalion was captured at the surrender of the town on 29th April 1916, having lost 312 out of a strength of 551.

Following the Turkish peace of 1918 the reformed Battalion was sent to join the force defending the North-West Frontier against the Afghan invasion of 1919 and, in the Mabsud-Wazir fighting of 1921-24, fought an outstanding action at Palesina,

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2nd Battalion

How and when this Battalion first came into existence is somewhat obscure owing to incessant change in the early history of the Bombay Army. There is strong evidence to show that the Battalion was formed in 1768 with the amalgamation into battalions of the original unnumbered companies of Bombay Sepoys but 1788, when two earlier formations combined to form the 2^nd/1^st Regiment, is generally accepted as the date of raising. Titles assumed in turn by the Battalion were the 1^st/3^rd Regiment (1796), 5th Native Infantry (1824), 5th Light Infantry (1841) when Light Infantry status was accorded following the defence of Kahun, 105th Mahratta Light Infantry (1903), and, on the grouping of 1922, its present designation of 2nd/5th Mahratta Light Infantry.

Because Of the black feathers worn in the turbans of the 5th Native Infantry the Battalion was from early days known unofficially as the “Kali Panchwin,” or Black Fifth, a title it still bears.

During those years immediately following its raising the Battalion saw varied service in Malabar and Mysore with an interlude of a few months in Ceylon, during 1796, when it formed part of a force which captured Colombo from the Dutch.

Early in 1799 an expeditionary force of the Bombay Army was sent to co-operate with the Madras Army in operations against Tippoo Sultan, the notorious usurper of Mysore. In support of the Madras Army then threatening Tippoo’s stronghold of Seringa­patam the Bombay force advanced inland from Cannanore and on 6th March a small force of three battalions, of which the present 2nd Battalion together with the 1st Battalion formed part, while occupying the outpost of Seedaseer held out all through a long day of desperate fighting against repeated assaults by an overwhelming force of Tippoo’s army. This notable defence, for at the end of the day the defeated enemy retired, is commemo­rated annually by the Battalion, on 6th March, as “Seedaseer Day” by a special parade. Two months later the Battalion again played a conspicuous part in the storming of the great fort of Seringapatam which, Tippoo himself having been killed, ended the campaign.

During the earlier part of last century the Battalion served almost continually in the succession of wars waged against Scindia and Holkar and their Pindari allies in Northern India, being present at the storming of the fort of Bhurtpore in 1826.

In 1821 two companies of the Battalion were despatched with the force sent against the Arab pirates of the Persian Gulf, taking part in the sharp fighting which resulted in the capture of the enemy stronghold of Beni-Boo-Ali.

Eighteen years later, the Battalion performed notable service in Baluchistan during the First Afghan War, when, for the extreme gallantry of detachments at the defence of the outpost of Kahun, it was honoured by being accorded the title of” Light Infantry.” From May 1841 until August 140 men held the post of Kahun, in conditions of extreme beat and privation, against an overwhelming force of hostile tribesmen until, finally forced to capitulate, they were permitted to march out with the honours of war. This heroic defence is commemorated by the honour “Kahun” upon the Regimental Colours, an honour earned by the Battalion and borne by no regiment other than the Mahratta Light Infantry.

One company served in Persia in 1857, being present at the capture of Mohammerah, and following general service and garrison duties during the Mutiny years the Battalion

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sailed for China in 1860, being present during the operations ending in the surrender of Pekin and at the fighting around Shanghai.

Arriving in Abyssinia too late to take part in the campaign against King Theodore in 1867 the Battalion, following several years in cantonments at Belgaum, next saw active service in the Second Afghan War of 1879-80. Creditable and arduous service was performed in operations for the relief of Kandahar.

In 1886 the Battalion again proceeded on field service, this time crossing the Bay of Bengal to Burma where for two years it was continuously employed in jungle opera­tions against those bands of marauding dacoits which infested Upper Burma for long, after the fall of Mandalay brought organized resistance to an end. It is recorded of this campaign that all hardships of disease, heat, and an elusive enemy in most difficult country were borne by the Battalion with unvarying cheerfulness.

With the exception of a few months’ punitive service in the Aden Protectorate during 1901, the Battalion saw no further field service until the outbreak of the Great War of 1914-18.

To its great disappointment the Battalion was retained in India, on railway defence duties, during the first two years of the war but it arrived in Mesopotamia in August 1916. The first major action was fought on 9th January 1917 when, in the successful attack by the 9th Brigade on the strong Turkish position at Abdul Hassan Bend, the Battalion earned great praise and suffered severe casualties.

A few days after the capture of Baghdad, in March 1917, the Battalion proceeded with the 9th Brigade against Turkish positions in the Jebel Hamrin mountains. Encounter­ing overwhelming enemy opposition the force was obliged to retire and the Battalion earned great praise in the hard-fought rearguard action which followed, in which both the Commanding Officer and the Second-in-Command were killed and some 278 casualties sustained.

Early in 1918 the Battalion said good-bye to the heat and sand of Mesopotamia and in May of that year arrived in Palestine. In General Allenby’s attack of 19th September, which completely destroyed the Turkish Army and virtually ended the war with Turkey with the capture of Damascus, the Battalion took part in the initial assault with the 9th Brigade. Despite severe casualties, 121 out of 667 who went into action, the Battalion carried its objective, capturing three batteries of guns on the way, and advanced to Samaria before being relieved.

Following two years of garrison duty in Palestine and at Amman the Battalion returned to India on 6th May 1920 and was employed variously in garrison duties until 1931 when it again crossed the Bay of Bengal for duty in suppression of the Burma Rebellion of that year.

3rd Battalion

Raised at Calicut in 1797 as thë2nd Battalion the 5th (Travancore) Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry~ the Battalion was designated in turn the 10th Regiment of Bombay: Native Infantry (1824), the 10th Regiment of Bombay Native Light Infantry (1868), the 10th Regiment of Bombay Light Infantry (1885), the 110th Mahratta Light

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Infantry (1903), and, on the grouping of 1922, assumed its present title of 3rd/5th Mahratta Light Infantry.

During the forty years following its raising the Battalion served almost continually, first in Malabar against the forces of Tippoo Sultan and later against the Mahrattas, Pindaris, and other turbulent folk of Western and Central India.

The first service of the Battalion beyond the shores of India took place in 1841 when it proceeded to Aden for a short period, returning to share in arduous campaigning in the Southern Mahratta country in 1844, notably in the Mahratta States of Koihapur and Sawantwadj.

Next followed the Mutiny operations of 1857-59 when the Battalion saw varied service in Central India. In 1867 the Battalion again proceeded overseas, this time as part of the expedition sent to Abyssinia against King Theodore. Together with the then 3rd Native Infantry, now the 1^st/5^th Mahratta Light Infantry, the Battalion fought magnificently at the storming of Magdala, receiving special commendation from Sir Robert Napier.

During the Second Afghan War of 1879-80 the Battalion served with distinction with the force despatched from Quetta to the relief of Kandahar, earning the battle honour “Afghanistan,” after which followed a lengthy period of normal garrison duties until the outbreak of the Great War of 1914-18 again sent it campaigning overseas.

The outbreak of war found the Battalion stationed at Belgaum and on 7th November it sailed from Bombay as part of the Indian Expeditionary Force for service against the Turks in Mesopotamia.

Disembarking at Basra on 17th November 1914, with the 18th Brigade, the Battalion’s first action was fought at the capture of Kurra, on the Tigris. In April 1915, again with the 18th Brigade, it fought a memorable battle in the defence of Shaiba against a superior Turkish force advancing down the Euphrates against Basra when, following three days of dogged defence and spirited counter-attack during which the Battalion sustained 135 casualties, the enemy, having lost some 8,000 men, was forced into retreat.

In September of the same year the Battalion was heavily engaged with the enemy in the occupation of Kut-el-Amara and subsequent advance up the River Tigris. At Ctesiphon, the farthest point reached by General Townshend’s force in its advance towards Baghdad, there was fought on 2lst/24th November one of the severest actions of the campaign in Mesopotamia; a battle in which the Battalion fought with notable distinction to which its casualties, 455 including 22 British and Indian officers, are ample witness.

Although the battle of Ctesiphon was a victory for the small British force, the defeated enemy being forced to retreat, so heavy were the casualties that any idea of a further advance against Baghdad in the face of overwhelmingly superior Turkish forces had perforce to be abandoned. There followed the long arduous retirement to Kut-el-­Amara and the epic 146 days’ defence of that city by its gallant but heavily outnumbered garrison of British and Indian troops. With the failure of the relief force to break through the investing Turkish lines what remained of the gallant garrison, wasted by disease and come to the end of its food and ammunition, was forced to capitulate on 29th April 1916.

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Of the hardships and inhuman treatment endured by the garrison of Kut at the hands of their Turkish captors on the dreary march north and the long years of captivity in Turkish camps, much has been written. It is sufficient to say that, of the 6 British officers, 12 Indian officers, 299 other ranks, and 39 followers who were marched away into captivity only 5 British officers, 11 Indian officers, 165 other ranks and 15 followers survived to return to India at the end of the war.

During the whole period of its arduous service in Mesopotamia the Battalion was brigaded, in the 18th Brigade, with the 2nd Battalion the Royal Norfolk Regiment. The two Battalions fought together in every battle, the survivors marching together into captivity following the fall of Kut-el-Amara, and the close friendship born of dangers and hardships shared is commemorated by a silken flag, presented by the Royal Norfolk Regiment to the Mahratta Light Infantry in 1942, which hangs in the Officers’ Mess of the Regimental Centre at Belgaum.

With the loss of the Battalion at Kut-el-Amara in 1916 nought remained except the Depot details at Belgaum. However from this cadre, greatly expanded, the Battalion was resuscitated in June 1917 and, after an introduction to active service on the North ­West Frontier, sailed in May 1918 to join the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Palestine. By the end of the summer of 1918 the stage was set for the final act of General Allenby’s campaign in Palestine and, forming part of the 20th Brigade which attacked the left of the enemy’s line east of the Jordan Valley, the Battalion played its part commendably in the great advance of September 1918 which broke through and finally destroyed the Turkish Army in that theatre of war.

Returning from Palestine in March 1919 the Battalion proceeded almost immediately to the North-West Frontier for service in the war with Afghanistan. Service on the Frontier and general garrison duties kept the Battalion fully employed until the outbreak of the present War in 1939.

4th Battalion

In the year 1800 the Battalion was raised at Mangalore, as the 2nd Battalion the 8th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry, assuming in succession the titles of 16th Bombay Native Infantry (1824) 116th Mahrattas (1903), and, on the grouping of 1922, its present designation of 4th/5th Mahratta Light Infantry.

Immediately following its raising, the Battalion saw service in Malabar, a detach­ment taking part under Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, in the recapture of the fortress of Jemalabad. There followed service in Kathiawar in 1807, in 1911 at the storming of the fort of Chaya, and again in 1814. Five years later, in 1819, the Battalion formed part of an expedition into Kutch, when the strong fort of Bhuj was taken by storm. In 1841, for the first time, the Battalion proceeded overseas, to Aden in defence of the Protectorate against Arab attempts at recapture.

With the exception of some service in 1859, against certain turbulent tribes in Gujerat and Kathiawar, the Battalion saw no further field service until the Second Afghan war of 1879-80. In operations to retrieve the disastrous defeat at Maiwand the Battalion marched with the Quetta force to the relief of Kandahar. This forced march was notable in the circumstances of extreme heat, lack of transport, and short rations and the Battalion

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gained distinction by its successful defence, by 300 men and 350 sick, of the post of Kach against the attack of 2,000 tribesmen. This reverse almost certainly prevented an enemy advance into India.

The Battalion took part in the Sudan Campaign of 1885 and again, in 1901, sailed across the Indian Ocean, this time to East Africa for particularly arduous service against the tribesmen of what afterwards became Italian Jubaland.

During the earlier part of the Great War of 19 14-18 the Battalion, to its disappoint­ment, was retained in India for service against the ever restive tribesmen of the North­ West Frontier but eventually, in 1917, it proceeded overseas to take part in the final successful advance which broke Turkish resistance in Mesopotamia.

The termination of the Great War failed to bring immediate peace in Mesopotamia where for long months elements of the British Expeditionary Force were necessarily retained for the garrisoning of outposts in a country lawless and disordered following the collapse of Turkish government. In 1920 there broke out the Arab Rebellion which assumed serious proportions, it being estimated that some 130,000 tribesmen were at one time in revolt. Numerous small garrisons and outposts were besieged, the relief of which by hastily organised columns entailed much serious fighting. Thus the Battalion went to the relief of a detachment of its sister regiment, the 114th Mahrattas, hard pressed at Humaitha, and at Hilah two companies composited with two companies of Gurkhas in a resultant battalion known as “Gurattas” carried out several successful and hard fought engagements.

Garrison duties, alternated with Frontier service, occupied the Battalion during the years following its return to India, especially good work being done in the Midnapore area during the political terrorist movement of the nineteen-thirties.

5th Battalion

In December 1803, on the renewal of hostilities with Napoleonic France and consequent threat of attack by sea, there was raised in Bombay from the volunteer corps of Bombay Fencibles which came into existence in 1800, the 1st Battalion the 9th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry which in turn assumed the titles of 17th Regiment Bombay Native Infantry (1824), 117th Mahrattas (1903), 117th (Royal) Mahrattas (1921), and, on the grouping of 1922, its present designation of Sth/5th (Royal) Mahratta Light Infantry.

Immediately following its raising the Battalion saw service against Scindia in Gujerat, taking part in the costly siege of Bhurtpore in 1805. There followed field service in Kathiawar and in 1817 the Battalion was fighting against the Mahrattas of the Konkan and Deccan. Two years later, in 1819, it formed part of a force despatched against the Rao of Kutch, when the strong fortress of Bhuj was taken by storm.

No further field service fell to the Battalion until 1859 when, in the troublous times following the Mutiny, it was called upon to take part in arduous operations against the turbulent Waghers of Kathiawar. Then followed a lengthy period of garrison duties in Western India until, in 1891, the Battalion proceeded for the first time overseas with a force sent across the Indian Ocean against insurgents in the Somaliland Protectorate.

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Further garrison duties occupied the then 117th Mahrattas until the outbreak of the Great War of 1914-18 saw it enter upon a period of active service for ever memorable in the annals of the Battalion.

In October 1914, in anticipation of Turkey’s entry into the war, the Battalion, as part of the 16th Brigade, proceeded to the Persian Gulf and on 6th November shared in the capture of Fao, later proceeding to Abadan where a Turkish force was held at bay until reinforcements from India, in which was included the 110th Mahratta Light Infantry, arrived to relieve the situation. Further successes led to the evacuation of Basra by the Turks and the decision to advance up the Tigris against Baghdad.

Prior to this advance, however, the small force had to face a Turkish advance in force down the Euphrates, which was broken in what has been called the “miracle of Shaiba” when at the small town of that name, after three days’ desperate fighting, on 14th April 1915, the exhausted defenders—with whom were numbered the Battalion and the 110th Mahratta Light Infantry—with all their troops in line and their ammunition almost expended advanced to attack the enemy at Bajasieh and drove him from the field.

There followed the advance up the Tigris towards Baghdad and on 27th/28th

September 1915 was fought the brilliant, but very costly, battle resulting in the capture of

Kut-el-Amara from greatly superior Turkish forces in strongly defended positions. The

Battalion in this battle played a most conspicuous part, attacking the enemy’s trenches

with the utmost gallantry and losing fifty per cent of its strength in casualties.

With sadly depleted forces the advance was continued—a fatal decision as later events were to prove—and at Ctesiphon, barely 30 miles from Baghdad, was fought on 22nd/24th November one of the most desperate battles of the war in Mesopotamia. In this epic struggle, when Townshend’s weary 11,000 attacked and, after bloody fighting, defeated 18,000 fresh Turkish troops, the Battalion played a most conspicuous part. With outstanding gallantry it captured, and held against counter-attacks, the “Vital Point” of the Turkish defence. The casualties were grievous, however, one company being practically annihilated and indeed the British force lost 4,500 men, so that all thought of continuing the advance on Baghdad had to be abandoned.

Then began the toilsome and weary retreat to Kut-el-Amara and the bitter 146 days’ siege ending—all attempts at relief having failed—with the honourable capitulation, on 29th April 1916, of the disease-ridden, starving garrison. Of the 225 men of the Battalion, all that remained at the end of the tragedy of Kut, only 130 survived the hardships of captivity to return to India at the close of the war.

For its conspicuously distinctive service from the original landing at Fao until the capitulation at Kut-el-Amara the Battalion was honoured, in 1921, with the title “Royal” it has subsequently borne. As the Royal Battalion, royal blue is the colour of shoulder lanyard, pugri fringe, and hosetops in place of the Light Infantry green worn by other battalions of the Regiment and a royal crown is superimposed upon the Regimental shoulder titles.

As with the 110th Mahratta Light Infantry and the 2nd Royal Norfoiks of the 18th Brigade, the 117th Mahrattas and the 2nd Dorsetshire Regiment of the 16th Brigade

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during these years of dangers, hardships, and honourable captivity shared, arrived at a close degree of mutual friendship and appreciation, and it is of interest to relate the sequel to both instances of close comradeship between British and Mahratta battalions. In 1942, the recent war having brought to Western India both the 2nd Royal Norfoiks and the 2nd Dorsets, representative parties of these two Battalions, with their respective Com­manding Officers, came to the Regimental Centre at Belgaum and at the close of a memorable three days’ visit to the home of the Mahratta Light Infantry presented to their hosts, in a simple but inspiring ceremony, a silken flag of their combined colours with the device “NORSETS” which hangs today in the Officers’ Mess of the Regimental Centre.

As with the 110th Mahratta Light Infantry, the Depot cadre of the 117th Mahrattas was, in 1918, expanded to resuscitate the Battalion lost at Kut two years before. The reformed Battalion, later in the year, proceeded on active service to Persia where, in October, one small party of about 100 men, isolated and surrounded, fought a particularly gallant action against hostile Tangistani tribesmen.

The Great War successfully concluded, the Battalion returned to India to be regrouped in 1922, into the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry as the 5th (Royal) Battalion of which Regiment it continued to be fully employed on garrison and Frontier duties until the outbreak of recent war in 1939.

10th Battalion

In the year 1800 the Battalion was raised at Bombay as the 2nd Battalion the 7th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry to assume in succession the titles of 14th Regiment Bombay Native Infantry (1824), 114th Mahrattas (1903), and, on the grouping of 1922, its present designation of 10^th /5th Mahratta Light Infantry.

Less than two years following its raising saw the new Battalion on field service in Gujerat where it took part in several severe actions as part of a Bombay expedition to aid in supressing a powerful rebellion against the Gaekwar, the fortress of Baroda being captured by assault on 8th July 1802. The campaign concluded with the defeat of the insurgents in a severely contested action at Saori on 6th February 1803.

Some fifteen years afterwards the Battalion rendered good service in the hard fought Mabratta War of 1818, playing a notable part in the complete defeat of the Peshwa’s army at Sholapur on 10th May.

Then followed a lengthy period of garrison duty in Western India until, in the troublous times following the Mutiny of 1857, the Battalion was engaged during most of 1859 in arduous operations against the truculent Waglier tribes of Kathiawar.

The Battalion was given no opportunity for further service until nearly sixty years had passed, having no part in the Second Afghan War of 1879-80 or the numerous minor campaigns of the North-West Frontier. It was not until the outbreak of the (3i~eat War of 1914-18 that the Battalion, since 1903 the 114th Mabrattas, was again called upon for active service.

Frontier service was its role during the first year of the war but proceeding overseas in 1915 the Battalion, serving for the first time in its long history beyond India’s borders, joined the army in Mesopotamia then battling against odds to the relief of General

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Townshend’s gallant, but starving and exhausted, little force besieged in Kut-el-Amara. The fortune of war offered it little share in the brilliant campaign whereby General Maude’s victorious army recaptured Kut and occupied Baghdad but in the action at Sharqat, on 29th October 1918, came the great opportunity, nobly taken, when the Battalion attacked with the utmost gallantry and steadiness strong Turkish positions stubbornly defended. In the final struggle the Turks, in their last counter-attack, swept through a Sikh Battalion on to the 114th Mahrattas, who stood firm and regained the lost position.

Casualties, inevitably, were very heavy but the Battalion gained the notable distinc­tion of earning two D.S.Os., four M.Cs., six I.O.Ms., sixteen I.D.S.Ms., and eight Mentions in Despatches. No Indian regiment, before or since, has gained so many honours in a single action. This desperate and gallant fight is commemorated by a flag presented by Brigadier-General A. G. Wauchope, C.M.G., C.I.E.. D.S.O., under whose command the 114th Mahrattas fought at Sharqat, which hangs in the Quarter Guard at the Regimental Centre and by the Battalion annually on “Sharqat Day,” 29th October, by a special parade and regimental sports.

With this victory came the collapse of Turkish resistance in Mesopotamia and the end of the war but two years later, out of the widespread political unrest that followed the end of Turkish rule in that country, came the Arab Rising of 1920 which proved a serious matter for the by then much reduced British Army of Occupation. Garrisons and outposts all over the country were attacked by large forces of insurgents and in many cases hard put to it to hold out until relieved. A detachment of the Battalion formed one such garrison at Rumaitha which put up a prolonged and desperate defence until relieved, at the second attempt, by a column of which the 116th Mahrattas formed part.

The return to India of the Battalion saw the conclusion of its history as an active unit for, on the grouping of 1922, the 114th Mahrattas became the 10th, or Training, Battalion of the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry and as such has since, from the permanent Regimental Centre at Belgaum, ably fulfilled its role as draft-finder to the active battalions of the Regiment.

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