You may not know them but they fought in World War 2

South Asian soldiers from Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh - 2.5 million men - fought against Germans and their Italian allies

On May 7th, 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allies in World War 2, bringing six long years of horrific war to a close in Europe. While across Europe, events are being held to commemorate the end of the war and the sacrifices of the victors, few of them will mention the vast contribution of South Asian troops to the war effort - many of whom paid the price for victory with their lives.
At its height, the British Indian Army - which at the time included soldiers from modern-day Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh - numbered 2.5 million men, making it the largest all-volunteer force in history. South Asian soldiers fought with distinction in various campaigns against the Germans and their Italian allies, from the deserts of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and the Levant to the cities and rugged mountains of Italy and Greece. Not to forget their equally significant contributions to the war against Japan in places such as the steamy jungles of Burma and Northeast India, which would grind on until August 1945.
Many units acquitted themselves well in combat, such as the 8th Indian Division, which participated in fierce fighting in North Africa and Italy against some of Germany's most elite units - and the famed Gurkhas, who gained a fearsome reputation amongst their enemies for their skilled use of their curved khukri knives. Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinlek, who commanded the British Indian Army from 1942, went so far as to say that the British "couldn't have come out of both (world) wars if they hadn't had the Indian Army."
Victory, however, came at a cost - over 87,000 Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Nepali troops lost their lives in the conflict.
Seventeen members of the British Indian Army of various nationalities were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for valour in the face of the enemy. Among them was Bombay-native Yeshwant Ghadge, a young Naik (Corporal) with the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry.
On July 10, 1944, Ghadge who by the age of 22 already had several years of combat experience behind him was leading a rifle section during an attack in Italy's Upper Tiber Valley when a sudden burst of heavy machine gun fire killed or wounded his entire section, except him.
Without hesitation, Ghadge rushed to the machine gun post, throwing a grenade that knocked out the machine gun and one of its crewmembers, before shooting another with his submachine gun. Out of ammunition, he then grabbed his weapon by the barrel and clubbed to death two enemy soldiers that remained. In the process, Ghadge was shot dead in the back and chest by German snipers, thousands of miles from home, at the post he had singlehandedly wrested from the enemy. 
"The courage, determination and devotion to duty of this Indian NCO in a situation where he knew the odds against him gave little hope of survival, were outstanding," his official Victoria Cross citation reads. Ghadge's final resting place remains unknown, but he is remembered with a statue in the town of Mangaon, in Maharashtra's Raigad district.
While acts of valour such as Ghadge's, and hundreds of thousands of other South Asian troops in combat, certainly played a significant role in winning the war, perhaps just as important was British India's vast contribution of supplies to the allied war machine.
In his book Churchill's Secret War: The British Ravaging of India during World War II, researcher Madhusree Mukerjee notes that "The colony's entire output of timber, woollen textiles and leather, as well as three quarters of its steel and cement, were diverted to the defence of the British Empire."
Sadly, much of South Asia's contributions to the war in Europe were soon forgotten, or overshadowed by post-war events such as the partition of India and Pakistan's independence.
"In the rush to write new histories of nation states after 1947, much of the history of the 1940s was locked out from official memory," Yasmin Khan, an author and researcher, wrote for the BBC. "Tales of the freedom struggle took precedence."
But now, 71 years after the war ended, it's time for the world, whether in South Asia or Europe, to recognise the sacrifices of Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalis and Bangladeshis that made the victory possible.
bernd@khaleejtimes.com
Bernd is a gizmo freak with a sweet tooth. He also likes planes and shiny, blingy things