HISTORY OF BALOCH REGIMENT

The Baloch Regiment is an infantry regiment of Pakistan Army. The modern regiment was formed in May 1956 by the merger of 8th Punjab and Bahawalpur Regiments with the Baluch Regiment. Since then, further raisings have brought the strength of the Regiment to more than fifty battalions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baloch_Regiment

HISTORY OF BALOCH REGIMENT

http://www.pakarmymuseum.com/exhibits/history-of-baloch-regiment/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/127th_Baluch_Light_Infantry

British Expedition to Abyssinia

The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire. Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, then known as Theodore, imprisoned several missionaries and two representatives of the British government in an attempt to get the attention of the British government, which had decided against his requests for military assistance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Expedition_to_Abyssinia

Welcome to Kaiser’s Cross

http://www.kaiserscross.com/40020.html

The Ugandan Railway Volunteer Reserves, 1914

At the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 there was another armed military unit in the British East Africa Protectorate as well as the King’s African Rifles.  This other unit was the Uganda Railway Volunteer Reserve.

http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/293122.html

The Battle of El Alamein WW2

Fact File : First Battle of El Alamein

1-4 July 1942

Theatre: North Africa

Area: Around the Egyptian town of El Alamein, 100km (60 miles) west of Alexandria.

Players: Allies: General Claude Auchinleck's 8th Army consisting of 30th Corps, 13th Corps and 10th Corps (British, Australian, South African, Indian, New Zealand and French troops). Axis: Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Panzer Armee Afrika (German and Italian troops).

Outcome: Allies halt Axis drive into Egypt. This was followed by a tense stand-off lasting until the Second Battle of El Alamein, with neither army giving up much ground.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1057691.shtml

Second Battle of El Alamein

• Theatre: North Africa
• Dates: 23 October to 4 November 1942
• Location: Around the Egyptian town of El Alamein, 100km (60 miles) west of Alexandria
• Outcome: Allied victory, forcing Rommel to retreat into Tunisia.
• Note: Three hundred Sherman tanks that were hastily shipped to Egypt from the USA were a crucial influence on the outcome of this battle. The tanks gave Montgomery a significant advantage in firepower
•  
• Players:
• Allies: General Bernard Montgomery's 8th Army, consisting of 30th Corps, 13th Corps and 10th Corps (British, Australian, South African, Indian and French troops)
•  
• Axis: Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Panzerarmee Afrika (German and Italian troops)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/ff5_second_alamein.shtml

East African campaign (World War I)

In 2001, Hew Strachan estimated that British losses in the East African campaign were 3,443 killed in action, 6,558 died of disease and c. 90,000 African porters dead.[59] In 2007, Paice recorded c. 22,000 British casualties in the East African campaign, of whom 11,189 died, 9 percent of the 126,972 troops in the campaign. By 1917, the conscription of c. 1,000,000 Africans as carriers, depopulated many districts and c. 95,000 porters had died, among them 20 percent of the Carrier Corps in East Africa.[60] Of the porters who died, 45,000 were Kenyan and 13 percent of the male population. The campaign cost the British Empire £70 million, close to the British war budget in 1914.[61][62] A Colonial Office official wrote that the East African campaign had not become a scandal only "... because the people who suffered most were the carriers - and after all, who cares about native carriers?".[63] The Belgian record of 5,000 casualties includes 2,620 soldiers killed in action or died of disease but excludes 15,650 porter deaths.[64] Portuguese casualties in Africa were 5,533 soldiers killed, 5,640 troops missing or captured and an unknown but significant number wounded.[65]

Memorial to the German soldiers killed during the campaign in Iringa, Tanzania

In the German colonies, no records of the number of people conscripted or casualties were kept but in Der Weltkrieg, the German official history, Ludwig Boell (1951) wrote "... of the loss of levies, carriers, and boys (sic) [we could] make no overall count due to the absence of detailed sickness records". Paice wrote of a 1989 estimate of 350,000 casualties and a death rate of 1-in-7 people. Carriers were rarely paid and food and cattle were requisitioned from civilians; a famine caused by the subsequent food shortage and poor rains in 1917 led to another 300,000 civilian deaths in German East Africa. The conscription of farm labour in British East Africa and the failure of the 1917–1918 rains, led to famine and in September the 1918 flu pandemic reached sub-Saharan Africa. In British East Africa 160,000–200,000 people died, in South Africa there were 250,000–350,000 deaths and in German East Africa 10–20 percent of the population died of famine and disease; in sub-Saharan Africa, 1,500,000–2,000,000 people died in the flu epidemic.[66]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_campaign_(World_War_I)

The Fifth Indian Division led by General Heath

The Battle of Keren (or Cheren) was fought as part of the East African Campaign during the Second World War. The battle was fought from 5 February to 1 April 1941 between a mixed Italian army of regular and colonial troops and the attacking British, Commonwealth, and Free French forces. The town of Keren, located in the Italian colony of Eritrea, was of strategic importance to both the Italian and the British-led forces in 1941.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Keren

Battle of Madagascar

Kings African Rifles’ 25 pdr battery in action against Vichy positions near Ambositra.

Battle of Madagascar

When most people think of World War II and the wide array of geographical spots the war reached, they don’t generally think of Madagascar. However, this island off of the coast of Africa saw military action too.

The Battle of Madagascar took place there in 1942, and was led by the British, as they tried to capture the area from the French.

The battle heavily revolved around Antsiranana Bay. This important port lies around the northern tip of Madagascar and opens to the east with a pass.

A century before, in the late 1800s, the French had claimed the bay as a coaling station for steamships. Then, they colonized the area in 1885, making the surrounding area and then the entire island into French Madagascar.

During World War II, as Japan moved west through Asia, they sent out their submarines through the Indian Ocean. This caused British ships to move toward the eastern shore of Africa, out of Southeast Asia. However, being in Africa made the British worry that they would be subject to Japanese attacks based out of Madagascar.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/whotube-2/who-tube-dick-winters-hang-tough.html

https://prezi.com/o3ibhnw5l1vg/the-battle-of-madagascar/

Boris Johnson offers ‘unreserved apology’ over war graves racism finding

The Prime Minister said he was “deeply troubled” by the investigation

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/boris-johnson-ben-wallace-prime-minister-asian-british-b931227.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2NPLAtwSTIXyOvOJc0kbPu0JonO9JKtCvAgJF9h5trfNnj2FKA0icqCv0#Echobox=1619114637  

The Story Behind The Galton Fenzi Memorial

http://www.theeagora.com/the-story-behind-the-galton-fenzi-memorial/

Voi War Cemetery

http://www.theeagora.com/voi-war-cemetery/

Mr.Wachira

http://www.theeagora.com/mr-wachira/

Kariokor the war Cemetery

http://carriercorps.page.tl/What-We-Do.htm  

Odhiambo Levin Opiyo

When World War ll erupted in Europe, Bildad Kaggia left his peaceful village in Muranga to fight for the British Empire.

After the war he returned with inspiration to launch another war for freedom against colonial rule.

Kaggia was among millions of Africans who served in the war they did not understand, but gained experiences that enabled them to unleash a force that hastened the death of colonialism.

As Kaggia would later say, " We were led to believe Europeans were superior."

"But we who served in the war had evidence that the Europeans are just like us. He was killed in the war,and we saw him working in every job we did, " added Kaggia whose journey to Cairo in 1940, was his first outside Kenya.

In the last year of the war there were around 400, 000 African soldiers serving the British alone. They served on the battlefield and boosted war time production by working on plantations and public works.

Africans, some who had never been out of their reserves, encountered strange lands, different climates, and modern ways of travel.

"I had never been inside a plane or ship and the experience of being inside those things was unbelievably overwhelming," said another WWII veteran M'Kabui M'namba.

However having risked their lives to help Europe fight off fascism, Africans returned to their countries where they needed passes to travel and were denied the right to vote.

According to Kaggia, while serving abroad he got the same pay as whites of the same rank. He was shocked to return to post-war Kenya where Africans got less.

He quit the military and joined a radical nationalist movement that believed only force would persuade British to leave.

",It was the courage we got from the war which made us go into the struggle", Kaggia said. "The people who were here couldn't think that they could defeat Europeans."

Kaggia served in Mau Mau central committee until 1952 when he was arrested following the declaration of the State of Emergency.

After independence he became a parliamentarian but kept his fighting spirit. He later fell out with Jomo Kenyatta and joined Odinga's KPU.

What if WWII never touched his life ? "I would have lived like the other people here," Kaggia said softly.

Odhiambo Levin Opiyo

Odhiambo Levin Opiyo

Jackson Mulinge never wanted to be a soldier. He had gone to Machakos as an 18 year old in 1940 to sell chicken and buy a pair of shorts, when a European recruiting officer grabbed him.

During World War ll, he fought in Burma and in the battle of Tripoli. Because of his distinguished service he was made a Warrant Officer in the Kings African Rifles and appointed a regimental sergeant major.

The first Lancaster Conference which took place in 1960, set Kenya on a path to independence. The wind of change that was sweeping across Africa meant Africans had to be prepared to take charge of their own affairs.

In 1961 Mulinge was commissioned as a Lieutenant and rose through the ranks to become a Major. On the day of independence 12 Dec 1963, he was appointed a Lieutenant Colonel, making him the first Kenya African to hold the rank.

A few hours earlier at midnight, he had commanded the guard in a ceremony that saw the Union Jack being owered for the last time, and Kenyan flag being raised for the first time.

One quick response of the 1964 mutinies across East Africa was the promotion of Africans to take charge of battalions. African soldiers had mutinied to demand better pay and the removal of British officers.

In Uganda after the mutiny at Gulu Barracks, Lieutenant Colonel Idi Amin was appointed the commanding officer of the two Battalions of Uganda Rifles.

In Tanganyika an African captain was put in charge of the 1st Battalion the Tanganyika Rifles.

In Kenya, Mulinge was made the commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion Kenya Rifles after the mutiny at Lanet He rose to become the Deputy Army commander, commander, and finally Chief of General Staff.

On the night of 21 February 1917, more than 600 men of the South African Native Labour Corps (SANLC) lost their lives in the sinking of the SS Mendi- the largest single loss of life for the non-combatants in the SANLC during the First World War.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/why-the-sinking-of-the-ss-mendi-is-remembered-around-the-world  

Courageous warrior Officer Daimon Mwete forgotten by his government leaves a legend behind for us all to remember and appreciate.

https://martinplaut.wordpress.com/2018/11/12/the-forgotten-indian-troops-in-the-anglo-boer-war-1899-1902/

Rest in peace Jaston Khosa , one of 600,000 men often forgotten from African countries who fought for Britain. He was quietly buried on VE Day.

His daughter, M’tundu Khosa wrote: “Young man, you were a soldier. You are still a soldier to me. You have fought for your health till the last hour. My hero, always. My father died a proud soldier. He would always talk about his war experiences. He was a strong, beautiful man and a friend to everyone, regardless of who they were. We will always remember him and we will meet on the other side.”

 

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/may/10/you-are-still-a-soldier-to-me-the-forgotten-african-hero-of-britains-colonial-army?CMP=twt_gu

Thank you Jaston for your service. ❤️

The Battle for Latema-Reata Nek, British East Africa, 11 - 12 March 1916 -

http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/the-great-war/great-war-on-land/other-war-theatres/2300-the-battle-for-latema-reata-nek-british-east-africa-11-12-march-1916.html#sthash.taPpvPVC.dpbs

British & German East Africa
 The Old and the Bold

January to May 1916

http://www.25throyalfusiliers.co.uk/british_german_east_africa_1.html

http://rebelblackdot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-explorers-club-cdlxxxix.html

East Africa 1914-17

http://www.kaiserscross.com/96801/547885.html

The 2nd Battalion The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in East Africa 1914-1917

http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/437364.html

http://www.kaiserscross.com/96801/550401.html

http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/547843.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28836752