The annual release of docs from the National Archives continues to throw up intriguing information, and we see another little nugget that explains the disintegration of the British Empire with the end of World War II:

In the closing stages of World War II, as Allied and French resistance forces were driving Hitler's now demoralised forces from France, three senior German officers defected.

The information they gave British intelligence was considered so sensitive that in 1945 it was locked away, not due to be released until the year 2021. Now, 17 years early, the BBC's Document programme has been given special access to this secret file. It reveals how thousands of Indian soldiers who had joined Britain in the fight against fascism swapped their oaths to the British king for others to Adolf Hitler - an astonishing tale of loyalty, despair and betrayal that threatened to rock British rule in India, known as the Raj...

The story the German officers told their interrogators began in Berlin on 3 April 1941. This was the date that the left-wing Indian revolutionary leader, Subhas Chandra Bose, arrived in the German capital...

These are the words that were used by men that had formally sworn an oath to the British king: "I swear by God this holy oath that I will obey the leader of the German race and state, Adolf Hitler, as the commander of the German armed forces in the fight for India, whose leader is Subhas Chandra Bose."

Full story and links on the BBC site

An interesting story here Apollo. I'd heard about these rebellious Indians before, but only with regard to their having fought against the British 14th Army in Burma... where it seems, thousands did take part in the fighting alongside the Japanese. There are some things about the European branch of this anti-Raj action which leads me to wonder if Mike Thomson of the BBC has bent the truth a wee bit in order to stick a bit more meat on the bones of the story.

First of all, he mentions "Prisoner-of-War camps in Germany which, at that time, were home to tens of thousands of Indian soldiers captured by Rommel in North Africa.".

Now Rommel might well have captured 1000's of Indians, but I doubt if he captured "tens of thousands" of them, and even if he had, I doubt if that many would have been sent to Germany. I cannot recall hearing of Indian POWs being freed in such numbers at the end of the war.

"It was during this time that they [the Indians] gained a wild and loathsome reputation amongst the [French] civilian population".

I've never come across any mention of this "wild and loathsome" reputation that these Indians acquired in the many WWII history books which I have read. Certainly, it's possible that I just missed them. It's news items such as a  lady and her two daughters being  raped by the Indians and the shooting dead of a little two-year-old girl, that make me wonder.

Then there's the mention of the mutinous leader, Bose, slipping away secretely on a submarine to Japan. What does the "secretely " refer to here? From whom was he slipping away? Was it from his fellow mutinous Indians or was it with respect to the Nazis (on a Nazi submarine?). In 1943  the Indian legions in Burma were already in action helping the Japanese on their attempted conquest of the British Raj.

What is one to think of the Germans assigning Private Rudolf Hartog as their [the Indians'] translator... a private? Yea, maybe...

Despite my doubts here, i have to admit it really does make intersting reading... it is an interesting story.

I always have (and I don't know if problem is really the right word, but I'll use it anyway) a problem with stories such as this in so far as they necessarily fly in the face of 'conventional wisdom' or 'established facts', and bring what is potentially new and controversial material into the arena, which is not present in existing books etc simply because it has been buried in the archives since the end of the war. It doesn't help, that the material is being presented as part of radio show, which should be neutral, still has to attract an audience, so the worry is always that a bit of bending will take place to make things sound a little more interesting.

(As an aside, if you follow the links for the Mike Thomson programme this article comes from, you will find that this is a long running series, and that the web site presently features a programme about the old nuclear bunkers down south, in particular Kelvedon Hatch, and for the ordinary listener, these are presented in way that suggests they were the BBC's stronghold. I've never come across such a daft hint in many years of reading about the bunkers, and while it's true to say that they all had BBC studios in them, this was to give officialdom a way of broadcasting to the nation, and if that included some programmes to help morale, so much the better. Before anyone jumps in, I'm only quoting the plans of the time  - whether or not this would have happened, if anyone would have survived, if there would have been power, antennas standing etc etc is another issue. All I'm referring to here is the way that the bunkers are portrayed almost as BBC property.)

One of the things that surprised me about this story was its date, c1941. At that stage, the war was still far from decided, and the thought of the pure, blonde Arian race being dependent in any way on the Indian race (which is anything but Aryan in appearance, belief, habit, or custom) seems naive at best, and I can only think of this Indian army being seen as disposable, and ultimately joining the Jews.

This is different from the latter part of the war, when Hitler knew things were never going to go his way, and his own troops were being forced back, and he would ally himself with anyone that would fight whoever he was fighting, along the lines of My Enemy's Enemy is my Friend (and I'll go fight him after we've finished of the 'other' guy).

There is also the aspect of three senior German defectors arriving with the story. Were they real, or were they plants?

Churchill wasn't backward about planting misinformation using some interesting methods. Why should we not expect that Hitler wasn't above picking a few 'sacrifices' to plant some stories that would tie in with actions in the field, but be based on misinformation unrelated to what was really happening.

I'm not rubbishing the story by any means, merely joining Dugald in thinking about alternatives and the realities of the time, and wondering if all is as it seems.

"...the thought of the pure, blonde Arian race being dependent in any way on the Indian race (which is anything but Aryan in appearance, belief, habit, or custom) seems naive at best,..."

You make an interesting point here Apollo, I might remind you however, that even in 1941 the "Axis" had already been established and this did include the Japanese who were, like the Indians,  "anything but Aryan in appearance, belief, habit, or custom". You know, if one recalls that the American Army was a segregated army, and America in general were very much more inclined to use racism in their war than for example the British, oh yes, and the Germans too. If ever you get a chance take a look at an American wartime comic, they are generally a bit of an eye-opener regarding racist propaganda.