In 1917 Hardit Singh Malik became not only the first Sikh but also the first Indian to fly with the Royal Flying Corps. Born in Punjab in 1894 to Indian nobility he was sent to England at the age of 14 for school attending prep school before enrolling at Oxford. He was a keen sportsman during his time at university proving to be an accomplished golfer and cricket player.
In 1915, following his graduation from Oxford he applied to join the Royal Flying Corps but was denied, no doubt on racial grounds. Instead he volunteered for the French Red Cross before being offered a commission in the French Aéronautique Militaire. While on leave in England he told one of his former Oxford tutors about being turned down by the Royal Flying Corps and his tutor appealed to General David Henderson, commander of the Royal Flying Corps, on his behalf.
In early 1917, he was commissioned as 2nd Lt. Hardit Singh Malik and began training in April. In the summer of 1917 he No. 26 Squadron and began flying Sopwith Camels. As an observing Sikh Malik continued to wear his turban while flying sorties, his superiors ordered him to wear a flying helmet and he had one which would fit over his turban made by a hatter in Piccadilly, London.
While with Major George Baker VC’s No. 28 Squadron Malikflew in an engagement with Manfred von Richthofen’s Jagdgeschwader 1 Malik suffered two bullet wounds in the right leg when he was hit by machine gun fire. Having shot down two enemy fighters his Sopwith Camel was unable to effectively climb and Malik was forced to run for home, flying at treetop level while being pursued by German fighters. He reached allied lines and was forced to crash land, upon inspection his plane was found to have ~400 bullet holes in the fuselage. After months of recuperation with shrapnel from the machine gun fire which had hit him still in his leg Malik joined a fighter squadron defending London from possible Zeppelin attacks.
Newsreel of Malik in Manchester accepting a new fighter plane (source)
In 1918, he was sent to Manchester to accept the gift of a new Sopwith Camel given by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in honour of India’s contributions to the war (see image #1).
Malik remained with the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force until April 1919 when he returned home to India. He went on to become an accomplished civil servant later becoming a trade commissioner and was later first India’s High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to France. He died in 1985 at the age of 91. Malik holds the distinction of being the first Sikh and the first Indian to become a commissioned pilot with the Royal Flying Corps and sadly he was the only Indian fighter pilot to survive the war.
Tonight marks 100 years since two Imperial German Zeppelins attacked Edinburgh and Leith resulting in the deaths of 13 people and injuring 24 others.
On the night of the 2nd April, 1916 four Zeppelins set out from the German Naval Airbase base of Nordholz with the intention to find and destroy targets of interest in and around the Firth of Forth especially the large Naval facilities of Rosyth. One of the Zeppelins, L13 was forced to turn back due to technical difficulties whilst L16 made an abortive journey to Northumberland.
The remaining two Zeppelins: L14 and L22 approached Leith and Edinburgh. L22 caused minor damage to Edinburgh having jettisoned much of its payload in open country near Berwick-Upon-Tweed. L14 however made a sustained attack on both Leith and the Scottish Capital. In Leith nine high-explosive bombs and eleven incendiary bombs were dropped on the town destroying several houses, businesses and warehouses. One man and a baby were killed.
L14 then continued on to Edinburgh were a further 18 high-explosive bombs and six incendiary bombs were dropped killing 11 people and injuring a further 24 others. Four houses, three hotels and a spirits store were severely damaged with Princes Street station and several other building sustaining lighter damage.
The images included are as follows:
i – The memorial pavement stone situated in the centre of Grassmarket in front of the White Hart Inn which was devastated in the 2nd April raids.
ii – The devastated Grassmarket buildings which includes the White Hart Inn.
A painting showing WW1 Imperial German Askari charging forward.
The German empire recruited natives from German East Africa (now Tanzania) to serve in the Askari units.
They were commanded by European officers, and fought a highly effective campaign against the Allied forces in Africa, fighting against a much larger British force until the end of the war in 1918.
Askari units were all given a army pension, but due to the turmoil at the end of the war this was never carried through. In 1964, the Federal German government attempted to make good on these promises and pay the entire back-log of payments to any surviving Askari who could be found.
A payment station was set up for the men to travel to, seeing as postage to the many unnamed villages was unfeasible. 350 men turned up, but many had lost the papers issued to them at the end of the great war. The banker who had brought the money came up with a simple way to sort the real soldiers from fakes. As each man stepped forward he was handed a broom handle and asked (in German) to perform rifle drill movements with it. Not one man failed the test.
“Marguerite Walitier / Vive La France 12 Aout 1918″
A Canadian soldier from the 1st Machine Gun Battalion shows off a large zucchini which was presented to the Prince of Wales. Photo taken in Valenciennes, France in October, 1918.
General Silvestre pictured in 1921, before his death, along with much of his army, at Annual.
July 22 1921, Annual–Spain had received a protectorate over portions of northern Morocco in 1912, but had not consolidated their power in the mountainous Rif, away from their strongholds in Ceuta and Melilla. Many in Spain were opposed to colonial adventures in Morocco, and the First World War may have postponed Spanish action there, both due to economic hardship caused by the war and perhaps by uncertainty over Morocco’s status should Germany win the war. However, by 1920, with Allied victory secure, King Alfonso XIII pushed for a Spanish military conquest of the region.
However, Spain would face severe opposition in the Rif, led primarily by Abd el-Krim, who had been imprisoned during the war for alleged pro-German intrigues. The limited Spanish presence in the east outside Melilla was confined to blockhouses with limited ability to support each other and with unreliable water supplies. Abd el-Krim’s men seized an outlying blockhouse and laid siege to another at Igueriben. Spanish General Silvestre brought a relief expedition to the larger fort at Annual, arriving on July 21. Igueriben fell that night, and the Rifians then surrounded Annual. Silvestre finally realized that he had overextended his forces, and on the morning of the 22nd ordered an immediate evacuation and retreat back to the east. However, the retreat almost immediately turned into a rout, and the Rifians, despite being numerically weaker than the Spanish, killed or captured at least 90% of the Spanish forces. Silvestre was killed in or committed suicide during the battle.
In the coming weeks, the Rifians overran most of the Spanish positions outside Melilla, killing at least 13,000 Spanish soldiers. The “Disaster of Annual” launched Spain into an immediately unpopular war in Morocco, and much of the blame was placed on King Alfonso. Abd el-Krim, in the meantime, was able to declare an independent Republic of the Rif in September.
