A Trial of Time- India/US Transference.

Chapter 6.5: Jewel Assauge V2

As of May 22, 2022, this chapter has been rewritten.

15th April 1942 (Before Churchill Visit)

Captain Siddiq Rahan

'Lonely Gun', Bravo Company, 51st Armoured Regiment

Operation Golden Liberation

Faridpur, East Bengal

British Raj

(AN-Faridpur is 130 Kilometres (80 Miles) from Dhaka)

"So... Whatever happened to our 'blitz' to Dhaka?" Havildar (Sergeant) Rakesh Reddy, the Gunner of 'Lonely Gun' asked his commander as the man turned to look towards him.

"Bullshit. That's what happened." Captain Rahan said as he stared to the distance, where the Army engineers were quickly constructing a bridge to have the tanks and BMPs of the supposed 'Indian Rebels', aka, the Indian Army's 51st Armoured Regiment 'The Unicorn' ("Hey! Unicorns are cool!") along with the XVII 'Brahmastra' Corps and 23rd Infantry Division to cross the river.

Ironically, the infrastructure that the British had constructed to transport their men, material and supplies to the British Indian Army who were currently fighting on the Burma Front against the juggernaut that was the Imperial Japanese Army was now being used by the Indian Army.

During the briefing before 'Operation Golden Liberation' commenced, everyone was made aware that they would perhaps see the beginning phases of the British Indian government's pre-emptive scorched earth initiative. Using historical accounts and documents as a reference, the Indian Army Headquarters communicated to the Eastern Command the objective of this policy. To deny the Imperial Japanese Army access to resources and food in the region in preparation for the invasion.

The issue with this decision was the fact that the civilian population of the Bengal Province and its adjoining region were left to starve, and the compounding of all these policies, along with other factors would lead to the devastating 'Bengal Famine of 1943'.

Historically, the Japanese never reached the region as the infamous 'Ichi-Go' and 'U-Go' Offensives were blunted by the British Indian Army who would then counterattack and start driving the Japs out of Burma. Nonetheless, the damage to life done during this period was absolutely terrible and even now, the people of modern West Bengal greatly resented the British for that.

Expecting that the men on the ground would have strong feelings about the situation on the ground, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC) of Eastern Command issued a standing order to all forces.

'All Indian forces are to guarantee the safety and wellbeing of colonial civil and military authorities and their families from any form of 'mob justice' or 'mob retribution' before arranging for their evacuation, regardless of their personal feelings about the situation on the ground. Failure to do so will find the men in question subject to a disciplinary hearing and appropriate punishment dispensed based on culpability.'

The reasoning for the order was proven correct almost immediately as reports began filtering on how Indian soldiers encountered villages where people were starving and thus begged the Indian troops for food. Apparently reading about the Famine, and seeing it first hand left many soldiers with strong feelings about the situation, yet they made sure that their general order was carried out and the British Indian colonial civil and military authorities and their families were safely evacuated, save for a few isolated incidents that were timely broken off before major damage to the Indian Army's reputation could be done. All this drastically slowed the Indian Army's offensive as they were forced to provide relief to civilians.