The Indian army had been divided into 3 parts to launch a 3-pronged assault into china. One would move from Ladakh towards Western Tibet. This army was placed under General Sadul Singh, the Maharaja of Bikaner, who had returned to India from Italy with 10,000 of his state forces. He was leading a 1,00,000 to capture the area upto the Mansarovar lake and build a road connecting it to Srinagar and to construct a military base with an airstrip at Mansarovar. There was minimal resistance here. Sadul Singh was British-trained and had served in Europe. He was marching his army in the form of a supply train, on horses while simultaneously constructing the road. There were mechanised divisions as well but these were civilian vehicles mostly, repurposed to carry soldiers and equipment and possessed virtually no armour. Shiquanhe was tibet's second-largest and westernmost city. It had a very weak garrison of a few dozen Buddhist monks armed with sticks, pikes and other such medieval weaponry. Sadul Singh took ten days to arrive but had managed to overrun them within an hour of arriving, slaughtering them all.
By December 12th he had arrived at the Mansarovar lake with 10,000 of his troops which had cars. The cars were, unquestionably unsuitable for the terrain and weather and were very soon made unusable. Indian forces now had effective control over Western Tibet and had begun the construction of the road and the military base. Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu also volunteered to finance a railway track, which was sanctioned by the Indian government.
Chiang's forces were kept busy by the Japanese in the South West and were well away from disturbing Sadul Singh.
The second army was to enter central Tibet from Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan, three independent states who were strong-armed into allowing passage into China. This army had 2,50,000 men and had the largest amount of armoured regiments and was provided air cover(mostly by the Imperial Japanese Air Force). This was being lead by the Commander-in-Chief of the army, General Mohan Singh. Here the Tibetans had a decent army of 10,000 modern soldiers stationed in Tibet. This was the total effective strength of the Tibetan Army.
Once again Chiang shirked from diverting forces to Tibet, which in his mind was already de facto independent and he had more pressing concerns in the east, i.e, the relentless attacks by the Japanese and the Communists. The entire strength of 5,00,000 had been deployed against the Japanese in Hunan and Changsha.
Mohan Singh had sent an emissary to the court of the Dalai Lama to surrender and be annexed into India. In exchange, they offered to appoint him regional governor and allow him some degree of autonomy. The emissary was humiliated with his hair being cut off and was told that the Indian army should return. Incidentally, the emissary was a Sikh, a community that held hair in high regard. This caused much anger amongst the Indian soldiers, who now wanted to butcher Tibetans- man, woman and child.
On December 15thh, 1944 Mohan Singh ordered an aerial assault on Lhasa and ordered his mechanised divisions forward. He went with his soldiers to ensure that the Dalai Lama was not murdered. He needed to secure his person so as to ensure that the next Dalai Lama could be appointed without much hassle and that the population did not revolt.
Lhasa had no anti-aircraft guns and suffered heavily in the air raids. The Indians consistently bombarded Lhasa, with two artillery shells even hitting the Potala Palace. In what now came to be known as the Battle of Lhasa, around 70,000 Indian troops faced off against 3,000 Tibetan soldiers and militias. The final casualties were as follows,
3,000 Tibetan soldiers dead along with 20,000 citizens killed in Lhasa
The Indian side had merely 94 casualties.
The soldiers had pillaged the city until the arrival of Mohan Singh who ordered it to be stopped and immediately court-marshalled the officers responsible. The British journalists in the city were murdered and the Austrian Nazi Heinrich Harrer was told to make a movie of the Indian capture of Tibet and write a long article on it. The movie and the article were doctored to depict the Tibetans welcoming Indian troops and showering INA parades with showers. It even showed the Dalai Lama embracing Mohan Singh. Even the British journalists, before being murdered, were forced to testify before camera about the magnanimous Indian takeover of the city. Mohan Singh ensured that the world would not come to know about the atrocities in Lhasa. Bose approved of his actions, even though he did not like the soldiers conduct. The documents about the truth of the invasion were classified and buried.
The Dalai Lama was captured and forced to sign the instrument of annexation of Tibet on January 1st, 1945. The Dalai Lama was exiled to Peshawar, far away from his home to prevent any popular uprising in Tibet. He still remained Dalai Lama but now he was only a ceremonial puppet head. The world was told that he wished to visit India and learn about it. In the same Treaty of Lhasa, The Kings of Bhutan and Sikkim also decided(but were much likely forced) to join India. They retained their princely titles and local autonomy.
Nepal, however still insisted on maintaining its independence. The Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana rejected Bose's attempt at annexation but the king, Tribhuvan was sympathetic. The Indian government appointed Sardar Vallabhai Patel as ambassador to Nepal to orchestrate a coup to give power to the king and annex Nepal.
The Burma theatre on the other hand was a disappointment for Bose. The joint Indo-Japanese force did manage to take Changsha but with huge casualties with 30,000 Indian troops dying here. Bose had however had scored a diplomatic victory with Japan by lending Indian manpower. However this was the first and last time. Japan was being driven back in the Pacific and China was a stalemate.
Bose considered the debt paid. India no longer owed anything to the Imperial Japanese Empire.
Now, he was looking to consolidate his new territory in Tibet and construct military bases all around to prevent any attempt by Chiang to retake it. Sadul Singh was appointed military governor of the region until the war ended. He had full authority to use any means necessary to quell any seditious activity.
Burma, on the other hand, was virtually free of Japanese troops who had now moved north into China. Bose considered Burma a part of India, being inherited from the British Raj. He moved 1,00,000 troops into Burma and categorised it as a regular deployment. The Japanese command did not like this but was in no position to object and even if they did, they had no power to implement their objections. He began to fortify Burma's border with Indochina. He did not have any desire to rule beyond Burma, which he considered a tropical forest full of disease, but still strategically important. Bose estimated that the Americans will attack Indochina to liberate it and might return it to French colonial control. He could fight the French and defeat them but there was simply no question of attacking the Americans. Direct fighting was not a possibility but Indian agents should be spread all across Vietnam to endear India to them.
Shaukat Malik was sent to Hanoi.
Balochistan
Lieutenant Langlands stood before the massacred bodies of the villagers on the outskirts of Peshawar. He and his men had attacked the village and massacred all its inhabitants. The reason was that the village head had killed and raped a British woman. At least that's what they thought it was. They raped the women before killing them and buried the children alive. They raised three, 8-foot tall crosses and crucified the village head and his two sons before burning the crosses. After looting the entire area for supplies, they rode back to their base and prepared to attack Peshawar. The garrison was small, of only about 150 men and they had no idea about the British rampaging in the countryside.
On the village Masjid, a large wooden board was hung that read,
'GLORY TO THE EMPIRE'
and the Union Jack flew atop it.
Private Horton meanwhile had arrived in Kabul and sought an audience with an Afghan noble to convince him to launch an invasion of India and re-establish the empire of Abdali. He told them Bose was busy in Tibet and would not be able to focus on the western frontier. However these appeals fell on deaf ears since the King of Afghanistan had a very pro-axis and now a Pro-India policy.
Disappointed, Horton pressed onto Tehran.