Detail from the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle: the battles in which the Indian Corps fought. © 2013, John M. Shea
1914 France and Flanders 1918La Bassee 1914Messines 1914Armentieres 1914Ypres 1914 15GheluveltFestubert 1914 15Givenchy 1914Neuve ChapelleSt JulienAubersLoosSomme 1916BazentinDelville WoodFlers-CourceletteMorvalCambrai 1917
"2. The 4th and Indian Corps are to capture Neuve Chapelle and to push on east of that village. . . .3. The Indian Corps will attack vigorously from the front on the La Bassée-Estaires road . . . The objectives are successively:-(a) Enemy's front and support trenches.(b) Road from Port Arthur round east side of Neuve Chapelle. . . . 4. The attack will be carried out by the Meerut Division reinforced by the artillery of the Lahore Division. . . ."
Excerpts from Indian Corps Operation Order No. 56, March 9, 1915. In early 1915, German troops and munitions were diverted from the Western to the Eastern Front to support operations — including the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes — against Russia. Hoping to break through thinned German lines and seize higher ground to their east, French and British commanders Joffre and Sir John French planned a combined Anglo-French offensive that depended on the participation of a French army corps that was to be relieved by the British. The anticipated British division did not materialize, and the French corps was not made available. With inadequate forces, the French decided against an offensive. The British decided to move forward with one of their own with the Fourth Army Corps and the Indian Corps against the German salient at the village of Neuve Chapelle.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I, Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chappelle : Battle of Ypres [Second] by J. E. Edmonds, page 383, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1927
1915-03-09, 1915, March, Indian Corps
