CHAPTER VII

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THE REGIMENTAL CENTRE, BELGAUM, 1939-45

AS was inevitable, it was upon the Training Establishment at Belgaum that the burden of the Regiment’s very considerable expansion fell most heavily during these years of war. Throughout six years of sustained effort, and denied the inspiration of the active service for which so many yearned in their hearts, it was the hard work and organization of the Administrative and Instructional Staff which, by the intensive training and equipping of recruits numbered in tens of thousands, made possible the maintenance in the field of the five regular battalions and the raising of many new ones.

Entering the war in September 1939 as the 10th (Training) Battalion of five single

Training Companies, affiliated to and staffed by the five regular battalions, the Centre

at Belgaum expanded progressively through the successive stages of additional Training

Companies and Double Training Companies to become, in July 1942, the 5th Mahratta

Light Infantry Regimental Centre.

At the peak of expansion, during 1942-43, the Centre comprised four Infantry Training Battalions, a Specialist Training and I-folding Battalion, two Duty Companies, a Boys Company, a large Attached Section, an ever growing Records and Accounts Section as additional active battalions mobilized for war, and a very considerable Centre Headquarters with ancillary welfare and educational organizations. There were occasions during this period when the ration strength at the Regimental Centre exceeded 7,000 of all ranks.

Commandants at Belgaum during the first two war years were, in succession, Lieut.-Colonel H. Hanna, O.B.E., Lieut.-Colonel W. V. Clark, and Lieut.-Colonel A. 0. Kersey, M.C., to be followed in October 1941 by Colonel C. A. Strong, O.B.E., M.C., who commanded the Regimental Centre for over three years which covered the high-water period of expansion with notable ability and success. Colonel Strong’s flair for organization, energy, and drive—backed by the loyal co-operation of his Administrative and Training Staffs, chief among whom was Major R. H. Coad, O.B.E., M.M., who as Quartermaster for nearly six years sustained with notable success the almost incredible burden of supply and maintenance—built up the standard of the Mahratta Centre until its reputation stood second to none as measured against other Training Establishments of the Indian Army.

The effort involved in building up and maintaining this very high standard had its not undeserved reward in that on his last two visits of inspection the Director of Individual Training, G.H.Q. (I), quoted the Mahratta Centre as being the most efficiently organized and best Regimental Centre in India.

Additional strain was put upon the Regimental Centre when during the political disturbances of 1942, which assumed dangerous proportions in the districts of Belgaum and South Kanara during the latter months of that year, it was called upon constantly to hold in readiness and to operate flying columns in support of the Civil Authority in

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its efforts to combat local outbreaks of mob violence and organized sabotage. All such calls for military assistance were met with promptitude and efficiency which had the desired effect.

In the stress of intensified training the desirability of publicizing the Regiment’s high tradition and notable war effort was not lost sight of. In January 1943 there was presented on the regimental parade ground, before H. E. Sir Roger Lumley, G.C.I.E., T.D., Governor of Bombay, and a large gathering of keenly appreciative spectators, an ambitious and admirably staged Tattoo depicting, in colourful pageantry in the floodlit arena, a few of the past and present activities of the Mahratta Regiment. The performance was repeated, in the varying form of a Mahratta Mulaqat, in November 1944 when among those present was Lieut.-General Sir Noel Beresford-Peirse, commanding Southern Army.

Another notable visitor to the Regimental Centre was the Viceroy of India, His Excellency Field-Marshal the Right Honourable Lord Wavell, P.C., G.C.B., G.M.S.I., C.M.G., M.C., who came to Belgaum on 20th January 1944 and had lunch with the officers of the regiment.

Parallel with the general expansion of the Regimental Centre was an extension of welfare and educational activities for the benefit of Mahratta soldiers and their families. In addition to the Mahratta War Memorial Boys’ Hostel for the housing and education of the young sons of Mahratta service men, which was doubled in capacity, and the Families Hospital—both managed and maintained by the Centre—large, well-equipped Recreation Rooms were established in each Training Battalion area and a very popular Boys’ Company was formed of young Mahratta lads eager but not old enough to enlist in the regiment.

Another development, and one of far-reaching benefit, was the organization of a Regimental Farm on land leased for the purpose. Here where there are admirably laid out poultry and rabbit runs, extensive vegetable gardens, and demonstration agricultural plots, a competent staff gives instruction to wounded and discharged soldiers while the varied produce forms a welcome and valuable addition to the daily rations at the Centre.

A further, and later, development has been the establishment of a flourishing Women’s Welfare institute where, under the supervision of ladies of the Regiment, wives and daughters of soldiers are taught useful handicrafts and given elementary education.

Early in 1945 Colonel Strong left Belgaum, in order to take up a new appointment, and was succeeded by Colonel R. L. Isaacs under whose command the Regimental Centre continued to maintain its same high standard of efficiency. In the last months there was added a Demobilization Section officered and staffed to deal with the manifold complexi­ties entailed in the accommodation, documentation, and discharge of the many thousands of Mahratta soldiers due to pass through Belgaum on their release from the Army.

Altogether, from September 1939 until August 1945, no fewer than 19,847 recruits were received into the Regimental Centre at Belgaum, the peak monthly intake being reached with 976 in July 1941, and passed out as trained soldiers to those units with which they were to serve.

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Of this large total—in addition to which the Centre trained the initial intake of recruits for the Madras Regiment, the Mahar Regiment, and the Lingayat Regiment on the formation of these units—while a certain proportion were drafted to the Indian Artillery, Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners, Royal Indian Army Service Corps, Auxiliary Pioneer Corps, and even to the Royal Indian Navy, the great majority became efficient soldiers of the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry.

That the high standard of training imparted to soldiers of the Regiment was justly appreciated by Commanders under whom they served is exemplified in the following letter, dated 19th December 1944, addressed to Colonel Strong by Lieut.-General Sir Oliver Leese, Bt., K.C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., commanding the Eighth Army in Italy:

“I should like you, as Commandant of the Training Centre of the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry, to know of the great work which battalions of the Regiment have done in the Eighth Army in Italy.

The three Battalions played a prominent part in some of the most hard-fought actions of the campaign this summer. The 1/5th and the Sth/5th were engaged in the epic fighting of the 8th Indian Division in the crossing of the Rapido and in the great thrust up  the Liri Valley. Much later, on the Adriatic, after we had broken the Gothic Line, the 3rd/5th Mahrattas was engaged with the 10th Indian Division in the advance against strong opposition after the fall of Rimini.

In these fine actions, the three Battalions earned a great name and the Regiment may be proud Of their achievements.

It is remarkable also, and a tribute to their high discipline and morale, that our Mahrattas in Italy stood up splendidly to the bitter weather last winter. The condi­tions of intense cold, with many weeks of deep snow, were such as to try the hardest troops.

You may like to let this be known to the men of your Centre under training and to tell them from me how proud they should be of their comrades in your three Battalions in Italy. Perhaps I may congratulate you personally on the excellent training which these men must have received; for they could not have done so well if they had not started in the right school.

With my best wishes to you and your staff. 

Yours ever,

 OLIVER LEESE.”

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