Europe
The Allied Command was in a contrasting mood to say the least. Operation Overlord, or D-day as it was now coming to be known had been successful. 5 beachheads had been established at Normandy, but the cost for the allies had been quite high. The Germans had expected an attack at Pas-de-Calais and Von Rundstedt wanted to place the 20 armoured Panzer division there but on adamant insistence from Rommel, Hitler had ordered them to be kept in reserve, to be launched wherever the invaders hit. So when the allies invaded, they were greeted by the best of Germans defensive measures including the Panzers.
While the total allied aerial, numerical and technological superiority managed to overwhelm the German defences, allied casualties had been very high. Out of the invasion force of a 1,76,000, they had taken almost 90,000 casualties, with the British having lost 50,000 men from their force of 60,000.
The German did not fare any better, having lost 4 of their divisions in addition to the 50,000 defenders on the beaches. In total, the German losses stood at 1,20,00 thanks to absolute allied air superiority and the decision to move the armoured divisions to Normandy.
This was Pyrrhic victory at best for Britain and this was reflected in Winston Churchill's conversation with President Roosevelt, who on the other hand felt Jubilant on this victory.
"Congratulations Winston. This is the beginning of our victory."
"Thank you, Mr.President . Congratulations to you too."
"You don't sound too happy bud. What's the matter ? We won."
"Yes sir. The allies have won the battle, yes, but Britain just lost its military."
Such crippling losses were now very difficult to replace. Britain just didn't have enough young men, not too different from the Germans. The Americans and the Soviets apparently had an infinite pool of men to draw soldiers from. Churchill took another swig and thought that Britain too had an infinite pool to draw from, only it was being drained by that wretched Bose.
The Americans, meanwhile, began to pour men and material into Normandy. The liberation of France was underway. A joke was also ongoing in allied circles that they had used a
"Sledgehammer to crack an egg"
Linlithgow again requested for more troops but Churchill could not even deny them any longer. He simply said,
"I don't have any with me, Lord Linlithgow."
He decided to appoint Mountbatten as the Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army and ordered him to hold off Bose and the Japs till American boots could be put on Indian ground.
What more could go wrong ?
India
Netaji was perplexed at the thought of the allied victory at D-day. He now knew that it was almost certain that the tripartite nations were going to lose the war. It was only a matter of time. Today it was the shores of France. Tomorrow it would be Bengal. The American steamroller was going to flatten everything in its path. His most important objective now was to liberate India as soon as possible, before British guns were bolstered by Americans.
His thoughts were interrupted by Habib,
"Good evening, sir."
"Ah, good evening Habib. How are you ?"
"I am good, sir. A penny for your thoughts perhaps ?"
"Pour me a drink first"
Netaji sipped his scotch
"The Americans, Habib. They've only just started. Germany is going to fall soon. I give them 6 six months, an year at most."
"Well we only need their allies on the other side of the earth."
"You don't understand, Habib. The Japanese are nothing compared to the Americans. Tojo can keep telling me about the 'Asian Century' but the truth is that they are losing ground in the Pacific. We need to step up our game and take India before the Americans turn their attention towards us."
"Of course, sir."
"Call Mutaguchi, Habib. I need to speak to him"
"Good evening, General. Prime Minister Bose will speak to you now."
"Good evening, Prime Minister Bose. How may I be of service ?"
"Good evening, General. I trust that you know of the Normandy landing."
"Yes, quite unfortunate."
"Indeed. We need to step our offensive. I want India liberated before the year is out."
"We are in agreement, sir. When do you want to move on Calcutta ?"
"Let's have rest tonight, Remya. We move tomorrow. Good night"
"Good night, Prime Minister."
Patiala
The Maharaja of Patiala, Yadvindra Singh, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes and President of its standing committee had convened an emergency session of the Chamber to discuss the ongoing session. He had called the session at his estate in Patiala, rather than doing it in Delhi. Viceroy Linlithgow called the Maharaja to tell him not to have the meeting.
"Good morning, Your Excellency. What can I do for you ?"
"What is this ridiculousness over the Chamber meeting being in Patiala, Your Majesty ?'
"Quite normal. We wish to discuss the situation in Bengal and we'd prefer to do it over game of polo and cricket in the Motibagh."
"That meeting is supposed to be held in Delhi."
"That is the prerogative of the Chamber, Your excellency, not yours."
"Need I remind you of the wartime powers of the Viceroy, Yadvindra ?"
"Need I remind you that Princely India has contributed 2,50,000 men to your cause in this war ?"
"I do know that an-
"It would serve you well not to upset the few allies that you have left, Your Excellency. The meeting will be held in Patiala. And may I suggest that there are more pressing matters in the East where Your Excellency's attention would serve us all much better."
Linlithgow was forced to allow the meeting to go ahead. The support of the princes was essential if India was to be kept.
In Patiala, other than Yadvindra Singh, 108 other princes attended the session.
While the princes indulged themselves in luxuries ranging from the most expensive bottles of liquor to the finest of European and American women, and games of polo and cricket, Yadvindra Singh held another meeting with some of the
more powerful princes, namely Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner, Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala, Pratap Singh Rao Gaekwad of Baroda, Maharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh of Jaipur, Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu & Kashmir, Maharaja Balarama Verma of Travancore, and Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan of Hyderabad.
"Gentlemen, two important developments have taken place in the last week. The Americans have secured a beachhead in France and Bose has taken half of Bengal and the entire North-east. The Viceroy barely has another 30,000 British troops with him and in my estimation, he is going to make a final stand at Calcutta with them. The question that stands before us is, do we support him after he loses ?"
Pratap Singh spoke,
"Yadvindra ji, you do realise that you talk of treason. And besides how are we going to possibly benefit from a victory of Bose ?"
"Young man, we are going to benefit by getting a free nation. They can call us special friends of the Empire all they like, but we are only glorified slaves of sorts.", Maharaja Ganga Singh said
"But what can we do Ganga Singh ji ? The last king that challenged British authority on the subcontinent was Ranjit Singh and they decimated his whole family. I have no desire to share a similar fate." Osman Ali responded
"If our autonomy as independent rulers is preserved, I do not have a problem in supporting Bose. That is my condition." This was Hari Singh.
"Gentlemen, I propose that we declare our subsidiary alliances with British Raj null and void. Out of the 2,50,000 troops we have mobilised, 2,00,000 are in India. Let's call them back. We will send a messenger to Bose and tell him he has our support if he can take Calcutta. I am certain that Lord Linlithgow cannot do anything to punish us if we do so at the same time. At the same time we tell him that our support is conditional, that our autonomy be maintained in a post-war Indian federation."
"Agreed" said the whole cabal.
"Who would've thought that it would take a civil servant from Bengal to unite the Indian Kings against the hated foreigner."
A messenger was sent to Dhaka to inform Bose and seek the assurance of autonomy from him. Bose was delighted to have received the messenger but his expert poker face betrayed no hint of his happiness. He told the man that he promises that all Maharajas would be allowed to rule their states and keep their titles, except for defence and foreign relations. The messenger told him that the day Calcutta falls to INA, the Chamber of Princes would declare the end of the subsidiary alliance, which would mean an effective declaration of independence from the British Raj.
The Maharajas meanwhile returned to making merry.
Bengal
On June 7th, 1944 the INA and IJA launched the invasion of Calcutta of with 3,00,000 men, 200 tanks, and 75 aircraft. In addition to this, the INA was now fielding 1,00,000 men on their own(30,000 of them were only new recruits, untrained and poorly equipped). The whole army was charged, more so with Bose learning of support from the princes.
Lord Louis Mountbatten had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army and had decided to make a stand at Calcutta. He had about 30,000 men from the Viceroy's army, along with 70,000 men from the Chinese X-Force army under General Sun Li-Jen. Unfortunately for them, they had only 40 tanks and 30 aircraft(Joseph Stilwell had ordered all American craft to China to help them against Ichi-Go). Their morale was down as well, since the British had lost four continuous battles and Chinese wanted to fight in their own county not Calcutta. Mountbatten had made a point to not to include any Indian troops, owing to the previous mutinies and an extremely hostile population.
Calcutta had three airports and 20 anti-aircraft guns. Shaukat Malik's Bahadurs were coordinating with Batukeshwar Dutt to figure out a way to disable those guns to tip the odds in the INA's favour.
The first shots were fired at 6:00 AM when the INA's first tank brigade, named the
Peshwa Brigade had begun to advance against the British field fortifications outside of Calcutta at Barrackpore and fought the 7th Indian armoured brigade.
Barrackpore, the place where the Indian rebellion of 1857, was the site of an interesting battle. The INA had 20 tanks as opposed to the five with the British. The British had laid mines which took out two of the Indian tanks. The brigade engineers tried to remove the mines but constant firing was preventing them from doing so.
What emerged from Barrackpore was a group of 30 odd men, dressed in civilian clothing riding on horseback towards the mines. As the British commander, confident of the mines, viewed them with curiosity, he ordered not to shoot at them. What he witnessed next was shocking and distilled a fear into the hearts of the British soldiers. The civilians all went and stood on the mines and slapped their horses away. They were standing on the mines and jumped off at once, triggering all of them and clearing the field for the Indian tanks to progress.
What followed was the Indians making a short work of the British tanks due to the numerical superiority and the INA men attacking Barrackpore and taking it by 8:00 AM. Batukeshwar Dutt's revolutionaries had once again proven their worth to the nation.
Meanwhile Aurobindo Ghosh had arrived at the Calcutta Railway Station at 9:00 AM.
The news of the old leader and revolutionary being in Bengal had spread like wildfire. A huge crowd of over 50,000 people had gathered at the station to catch a glimpse of him but he was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly a small and frail Pathan man stoop up on a bench and began to speak in chaste Bengali, while taking of his cap and clothes. From underneath emerged a small, old man dressed in a white
dhoti with a long white beard.
"RISE UP HINDUSTANIS. OUR NETAJI SUBHASH IS OUTSIDE FIGHTING FOR OUR FREEDOM WHILE FOREIGNERS OCCUPY OUR CAPITAL. NOW EVEN THE ,MAHATMA SAYS THAT VIOLENCE IS PREFERABLE TO COWARDICE. RISE UP AND KICK THESE FOREIGNERS OUT. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE HERE. THEY EVEN HAVE AN ARREST WARRANT AGAINST ME IN MY OWN COUNTRY. LET'S SEE THEM TRY TO ARREST ME AGAIN."
"VANDE MATARAM!"
"VANDE MATARAM!"
"VANDE MATARAM!"
The chant spread into the crowd.
"VANDE MATARAM- GET DOWN FROM THERE!"
"VAN- GET DOWN FROM THERE!"
The British officer shouted twice on his megaphone. Aurobindo smiled at him and kept shouting.
The officer pulled out his revolver and shot Aurobindo in the face.
The crowd fell radio silent. The British officer thinking that he had scared them, shouted
"DISPERSE!"
It was as if the crowd had been possessed. The British officer was mauled to death within seconds. Next the train was derailed, passengers still inside it. The mob began to march towards the Governor's mansion, now joined by the police as well. With a few loyal policemen and his staff, the entrance was barricaded and Governor Casey called up Lord Mountbatten in the barracks to send troops to protect him soon or he was going to be murdered by the mob. When Mountbatten asked him how large the mob was, he was told that "all of bloody Calcutta is here, sir."
He dispatched a contingent of 2,000 troops at 11:00 AM to disperse the mob but they found themselves attacked by the mob which had now grown in size to about 1,00,000 with men, women and children all armed with sticks, stones, axes, and an odd rifle here and there. The troops were all killed and an unknown but a much larger number of civilians were killed as well. The Governor's mansion was stormed and finding the doors locked, a mob leader got an evil, a truly evil idea. He was involved in the Chauri Chaura incident two decades ago.
The mansion, locked, with the Governor, his family and staff still inside, was set on fire.
The mob was now encroaching on the huge military base that now contained the bulk of the British and Chinese force, along with their tanks. Mountbatten wanted them to move out but Sun Li-Jen had no desire to sacrifice his elite forces to a bunch of unruly Indians. Moving out would mean having to kill all of them and then face the Japanese and Subhash. He flat out refused Mountbatten and asked him to surrender while they still could.
On the other hand, half the British aircraft were destroyed on the ground by the Japanese bombers since they did not have any orders to hit any targets and the other half was taken apart by the mobs(who accidentally managed to blast some of the bombs on themselves while taking them apart) when they stormed the airports. Only one pilot made it out and flew to Delhi.
With the allied troop stuck inside, surrounded by the mob, the Japanese army moved into the city with minimal resistance.
They soon sent out INA jeeps to the Military base to start negotiating a surrender with Lord Mountbatten. The jeeps were let inside and they established a direct line with Netaji.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Bose"
"Not so much for you, Mr. Mountbatten"
"No it is not"
"From my vantage point, My Lord, and it is a pretty good point, you have two options."
"And what might they be ?"
"Option one- you let my troops inside. Surrender to them and I shall protect your and Sun Li's force from the mob."
"Bloody ridiculous. Whats the other one ?"
"I give enough guns to the mobs outside, place a few tanks, incite an even large mob to eventually break into the base butcher every last one of your soldiers. Oh and I'll order my pilots to bomb the smithereens out of you."
"So to summarise your choices, a dignified surrender or be thrown into an unmarked mass grave. You have 30 minutes."
Saying this, Bose cut off the phone. Bose knew he had the leverage and he exploited it. 30 minutes later, Bose sent in his Commander-in-Chief General Mohan Singh to take Lord Mountbatten's surrender. Mohan Singh asked that Mountbatten had not called back yet so why was he being sent just yet, to which he replied
"The silence speaks louder than the bombs, Mohan."
Silence did speak louder. Mountbatten was in no position to resist. Almost 4,00,000 troops had just moved into the city along with about 2,00,000 angry residents. He was surrounded with no air cover, no supplies and no reinforcements.
At 3:00 PM IST June 9th, 1944, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Supreme Commander of Allied forces in South-East Asia and the Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army surrendered himself, General Sun Li-Jen, 1,00,000 soldiers, the capital city of Calcutta and the British Indian province of Bengal to General Mohan Singh, the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian National Army and General Mutaguchi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese India Army at the Calcutta Military Garrison.
The next day the Chamber of Princes announced that the subsidiary alliance of all Princely states with the British Raj stood severed. All Princely troops were ordered to return to their native states and leave British territory.
The British Raj had begun to crumble. Its days were now numbered.
Netaji in a radio address said,
"Today, my countrymen, we have liberated Calcutta from the British yoke. We have reversed 200 years of history and inflicted defeat on an Empire on which they claim the sun does not set. It was you, the people of our great nation, who proved them wrong. Rise up again my countrymen. Rise up everywhere. In Peshawar, in Karachi, in Lahore, in Amritsar, in Ludhiana, in Shimla, in Delhi, in Kanpur, in Patna, in Odisha, in Madras, in Sindh, in Bombay, in Gujarat. Everywhere in India. Our time has come. The Princely states have cast their lot in with the people. Rise and march to Delhi, my fellow Indians. 'Chalo Dilli' and let us burn the Union Jack and unfurl the Tricolour on the Red Fort and take our country back.
Vande Matarma! Vande Mataram! Vande Mataram!
Netaji being welcomed by an adoring crowd in Calcutta after its liberation.
Netaji giving his famous 'Chalo Dilli' speech at the Calcutta Garrison.