Die in battle, do not despair : the Indians on Gallipoli, 1915

"In 1915 about 15,000 Indian troops - two or three times as many as previously thought - served in the dramatic and doomed eight-month Gallipoli campaign. Their part in the invasion of Gallipoli has lain largely unknown since the publication of long disregarded regimental histories and forgotten British officers' memoirs. Force G, as it came to be known, included Sikhs, Hindus and Punjabi Musalmans (as Muslim soldiers were called) and four battalions of Gurkhas. They served in an infantry brigade, a mountain artillery brigade, in medical units and in a large contingent of mule drivers, who perhaps made the Indians' most important contribution to the campaign. About 1,600 of the Indians who served on Gallipoli died, in actions at Gurkha Bluff and Hill 60. They took part in terrible, failed attacks, at Gully Ravine and Gully Spur and in the climactic attempt in August to seize the summit of Sari Bair - one of the Gurkhas' most cherished battle honours. Though commemorated on the great memorial to the missing at Cape Helles (because most Indians' bodies were cremated or, actually, lost) they are practically invisible on Gallipoli today."--Dust jacket.