4/9/2023 0 Comments Forgotten souls scriptFrom them, 5000 were from the 38th Division and 2500 from 22nd Division. The first batch of Chinese soldiers arrived in Ramgarh on 17 July 1942 and till September of that year, nearly 9000 of them were slowly assembled. They were headed for a dusty place of Bihar in India to spend time with a group of soldiers who had hardly been exposed to any modern warfare of that time. It was 19 March 1942 and World War II was peaking. When Chinese soldiers were coming to Ramgarh via Assam and Bengal, a group of high skilled American army trainers were boarding a ship from South California without them even having an inkling on where they were being dispatched. When the huge mobilisation of a foreign army commenced there, the history of the place was reshaped overnight. Situated very near to Ranchi and well connected with Calcutta by road and rail, it first came in the news when Indian National Congress organised its annual session here under the presidency of Maulana Abul Kamal Azad in 1940.Īt almost the same time, Subhash Chandra Bose, erstwhile president of Congress who was then expelled from the party, organised the ‘Anti Compromise Conference’ in Ramgarh with some other political organisations. In 1940, Ramgarh was a difficult place to find on the map of India though it was not that nondescript a place. It became the first military training centre by US army anywhere outside mainland America during the World War II years. Consent of New Delhi was easily obtained and Ramgarh cantonment area was selected. A secret deal was sealed between Chiang Kai Shek and the America to recall these Chinese soldiers from the front and train them under American army at a covert place in India. Badly humiliated, this large group of soldiers was called back to India with a plan to be trained by American soldiers.Īnd this is where the story of US Army Chinese Training & Combat Command of Ramgarh begins. With debacle staring them in the face, many of them tried to retreat to China but a large group continued fighting for three months they ended up in utter misery without any support. Both armies were defending the front under Sino-British Common Defense Agreement signed between the British government and the Republic of China. Chinese soldiers fighting there under British army general Stilwell was forced to retreat. In April 1942 Japan was in full control of Rangoon and blocked Burma Road. Japan conquered Singapore from the British and also captured Rangoon along with a large part Burma. Both Shanghai and Nanking were bombed by the Japanese army, and China was trying to retaliate with the help of USA. Japan, already at war with China since 1937, was turning into an unstoppable power of Asia, matching the military skill of the Germans in Europe. With the Japanese bombing at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, USA was egged into war. Human civilisation was passing through its darkest hours while World War II raged. Who were they? They were all Chinese soldiers fighting the Japanese along side with the British at Burma border in 1941-42. Their mortal remains continue to languish. They were not sons of the soil, yet it is Indian soil which holds the story of their silent sacrifice. Those who managed to retreat to a dry, dusty and small cantonment town of India named Ramgarh, then in Bihar and now in Jharkhand, arrived hungry, scruffy and mentally drained. Many of them did return to the front and were glorious in victory over the Japanese.īut lack of food, medicines and drinking water made most of the soldiers perish. They came back from the jaws of death to a place promising to make them better fit for a bigger battle. It was kept secret for diplomatic purposes. More than 70 years ago, thousands of miles away from their homes and far from the warm affection of their loved ones, they faced death in unknown territory.
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