Spy Princess
Page 27
A) Recipients of the Victoria Cross for services in the Second World War
1. Jemadar Abdul Hafiz – 9th Jat Infantry – 1944, Imphal, India
Led an attack up a bare slope with no cover. Though the Japanese fired at him from the top and injured him, he continued his assault killing the enemy one by one till he had chased all the Japanese from the top of the hill. A final bullet in his chest finally grounded him, but he was still trying to give cover fire to his colleagues when he died.
2. Naik Agansing Rai – 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles – 1944, Bishenpur, Burma
Securing the crucial post of Mortar Bluff and Water Picquet in the face of devastating enemy fire.
3. Sepoy Ali Haidar – 13th Frontier Force Rifles – 1945, Fusignano, Italy
Destroyed enemy post in face of heavy gunfire, killing many Germans. Battalion could enter after he cleared the way, took 220 of the enemy and secured the post.
4. Rifleman Bhanbhagta Gurung – 2nd Gurkha Rifles – 1945, Tamandu, Burma
Took five positions single-handedly using his bayonet, grenades and his kukri to kill the Japanese in fox-holes and bunkers, all the time under heavy fire.
5. Sepoy Bhandari Ram – 10th Baluch Regiment – 1944, East Mayu, Arakan, Burma
Secured the position despite coming under heavy fire from the top of the hill and being wounded in the leg, chest, face and shoulder. Survived to receive his VC.
6. Havildar Major Chhelu Ram – 6th Rajputana Rifles – 1943, Djebel Garci, Tunisia
Ran through enemy fire armed only with a tommy gun and tin helmet killing all occupants of the machine-gun post. Also attended to officer in an exposed position though himself seriously wounded. Died on the field.
7. Naik Fazal Din – 10th Baluch Regiment – 1945, Meiktila, Burma
Was speared by an officer’s sword but tore the sword out of his back and killed Japanese with it. Continued to help his colleagues and killed two more Japanese with the same sword. Then waved the sword rallying his men, who were so inspired they annihilated the garrison of 55 Japanese. He died soon afterwards.
8. Havildar Gaje Ghale – 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles – 1943, Chin Hills, Burma
Led his men through artillery and mortar fire though seriously wounded himself and secured the position storming the hill and slaying most of the enemy.
9. Rifleman Ganju Lama – 7th Gurkha Rifles – 1944, Ningthoukhong, Burma
Knocked out two enemy tanks with his Piat gun and would not stop, though seriously wounded, till he had had killed all the tank-men trying to escape.
10. Naik Gian Singh – 15th Punjab Regiment – 1945, Kamye, Burma
Secured the post while coming under anti-tank fire. Killed twenty Japanese and cleared the enemy from fox-holes and cactus hedges with his tommy gun.
11. Sepoy Kamal Ram – 8th Punjab Regiment – 1944, River Gari, Italy
Secured the bridgehead over River Gari single-handedly killing many Germans and covering a colleague.
12. Lieutenant Karamjeet Singh Judge – 15th Punjab Regiment – 1945, Meiktila, Burma
Wiped out ten bunkers single-handedly, allowing the tanks to get through and secure the area on the outskirts of Myingyan.
13. Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung – 8th Gurkha Rifles – 1945, Taungdaw, Burma
Fought for over 4 hours alone at his post despite his face, body and right leg being torn apart by a grenade. Firing with his left hand, he killed thirty-one enemy soldiers at point-blank range and eighty-seven others lay dead in the vicinity. So inspired were his colleagues that they held and smashed every attack after that. He lived to collect his VC.
14. Subedar Lal Bahadur Thapa – 2nd Gurkha Rifles – 1943, Rass-es-Zouai, Tunisia
Secured a vital passage on a precipitous ridge.
15. Sepoy Namdeo Jadav – 5th Mahratta Light Infantry, Senio River, Italy
When his commanders were wounded and the rest of his unit killed he waded through the river under enemy gunfire and carried two colleagues to safety one by one. Then giving a mighty war cry, he climbed to the top of the hill despite heavy mortar shelling and his own injuries, and took the post.
16. Naik Nand Singh – 11th Sikh Regiment – 1944, Maungdaw-Buthidaung Road, Burma
Commanded his platoon up a steep razor-edge ridge under heavy fire from the Japanese, taking three trenches single-handedly, though heavily wounded, allowing his platoon to follow him and seize the top of the hill.
17. Subedar Netrabahadur Thapa – 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles – 1944, Bishenpur, Burma
Fought bravely in pouring rain and with low reserves against the enemy and regained the crucial post of Mortar Bluff before being killed by a bullet in his mouth.
18. Havildar Parkash Singh – 8th Punjab Regiment – 1943, Donbaik, Mayu Peninsula, Burma
Single-handedly saved injured colleagues trapped in a disabled carrier vehicle by driving his own carrier straight to it through enemy fire. Then rescued the weapons from another carrier.
19. Jemadar Prakash Singh – 13th Frontier Force Rifles – 1945, Kanlan Ywathit, Burma
Drove off the enemy, rallying his men though his hands and legs had been smashed. Died when a grenade hit his chest after the post was secured.
20. Second Lieutenant Premindra Singh Bhagat – Corps of Indian Engineers – 1941, Gallabat, Abyssinia (now Ethiopia)
Cleared mines continuously for 48 hours without stopping even though both his eardrums were damaged.
21. Subedar Ram Sarup Singh – 1st Punjab Regiment – 1944, Kennedy Peak, Burma
Routed the Japanese with his brave charge, but died after being hit by machine-gun fire.
22. Subedar Richhpal Ram – 6th Rajputana Rifles – 1941, Keren, Eritrea
Led his men on a successful bayonet charge through two-way fire after his company commander was wounded, even though his right foot was blown off.
23. Rifleman Sher Bahadur Thapa – 9th Gurkha Rifles – 1944, San Marino, Italy
Fell fighting after rescuing two wounded comrades.
24. Lance Naik Sher Shah – 16th Punjab Regiment – 1945, Kyeyebyin, Burma
Killed twenty-three Japanese soldiers despite having his right leg blown off and secured the post.
25. Rifleman Thaman Gurung – 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles – 1944, Monte San Bartolo, Italy
Stood in full view of enemy and opened fire, allowing his platoon to withdraw without further loss.
26. Rifleman Tulbahadur Pun – 8th Gurkha Rifles – 1944, Mogaung, Burma
Fought single-handed in knee-deep mud after his commanders were killed. Secured railway bridge at Mogaung.
27. Havildar Umrao Singh – Royal Indian Artillery – 1944, Kaladan Valley, Burma
Beat back the Japanese though seriously wounded. He had collapsed from his wounds but the Japanese led a counter-charge. In a fanatical fight, Umrao Singh killed ten Japanese single-handedly and fought them back. He recovered in hospital.
28. Naik Yeshwant Ghadge – 5th Mahratta Light Infantry – 1944, Upper Tiber Valley, Italy
Captured a machine-gun post under heavy fire at zero range. Died after he was shot in the chest after securing the post.
B) Recipients of the George Cross for services in the Second World War
1. Captain Ahmed Matreen Ansari – 7th Rajput Regiment, Indian Army – 18 April 1946
Fortitude as POW.
2. Sowar Ditto Ram – Central India Horse, Indian Armed Corps – 13 December 1945
Helped wounded soldier. Memorial – Cassino Memorial, Italy.
3. Captain Mahmood Khan Durrani – 1st Bahawalpur Infantry, Indian State Forces – 23 May 1946
Fortitude as POW.
4. Assistant Section Officer Noor Inayat Khan, WAAF sent to FANY – 5 April 1949
Espionage. Memorial – Runnymede Memorial – Surrey, UK.
5. Lance Naik Islam-ud-din – 6/9th Jat Regiment, Indian Army – 5 October 1945
Grenade self-sacrifice. Memorial – Rangoon Memorial, Rangoon, Burma.
6. Naik Kirpa Ram – 8th Battalion, 13th Frontier Force Rifles, Indian Army – 15 March 1946
Grenade self-sacrifice. Memorial – Rangoon Memorial, Rangoon, Burma.
7. Subedar Major Pir Khan – Royal Engineers, Indian Army – 28 June 1940
Rebel ambush rescue.
8. Havildar Abdul Rahman – 3rd Battalion, 9th Jat Regiment, Indian Army – 10 September 1946
Attempted crash rescue. Memorial – Singapore Memorial, Kranji War Cemetery.
9. Subedar Subramanian – Queen Victoria’s Own Madras Sappers and Miners – 30 June 1944
Bomb shield. Memorial – Sangro River Crematorium Memorial, Sicily, Italy.
Notes
1: Babuli
1 Elisabeth Keesing, Hazrat Inayat Khan: A Biography, p. 5; Musharraf Moulamia Khan, Pages in the Life of a Sufi, p. 22; and family sources.
2 Keesing, Hazrat Inayat Khan, p. 59.
3 Begum Inayat Khan, ‘Woman’s Seclusion in the East’, The Sufi, September 1915.
4 Keesing, Hazrat InayatKhan, p. 86.
5 Will Van Beek, Hazrat Inayat Khan: Master of Life, Modern Sufi Mystic, 1983.
6 Ibid.
7 Spasskaya Ye Yu, Memoirs of Spasskaya – chapter on ‘Hindus of Moscow’ (unpublished manuscript).
8 Sergey Moskalev, of the Emperor Society of Adherents of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography, Moscow University, to author, May 2004.
9 Keesing, Hazrat Inayat Khan, p. 93.
10 Moulamia Khan, Pages in the Life, p. 123.
11 Vilayat to author, Suresnes, June 2003
12 13 April 1919, when Gen. Dyer ordered his soldiers to open fire on a group of peaceful demonstrators in an enclosed area in Amritsar in Punjab, killing nearly 2,000 people including women and children. Many jumped into the well in the enclosed compound in complete panic. The troops did not stop till the last bullet had been fired.
13 Keesing, Hazrat Inayat Khan, p. 112.
2: Fazal Manzil
1 Jean Overton Fuller, Noorun-nisa Inayat Khan, p. 38.
2 Elisabeth Keesing, Hazrat Inayat Khan: A Biography, p. 157.
3 Vilayat to author, Suresnes, June 2003.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Noor’s letter to a friend from Switzerland, quoted in Overton Fuller, Noor-unnisa Inayat Khan, p. 67.
8 Hidayat to author, letter, June 2004.
9 Vilayat to author, Suresnes, June 2003. 264 Spy Princess
10 David Harper (Claire’s son) to author, letter, November 2003.
11 Mahmood Khan, Noor’s cousin, to author, telephone conversation from Suresnes, June 2004.
12 Maula Baksh’s sons-in-law lived with him after their marriages, which made the family very large. This is why Inayat Khan’s father stayed in the family house in Baroda after marrying Maula Baksh’s daughter. The sole male heir of Maula Baksh was Ali Khan and it was to his son, Alladutt Khan, that Inayat wanted to marry Noor.
13 Vilayat to author, Suresnes, June 2003.
14 Ibid.
15 Keesing, Hazrat Inayat Khan, p. 176.
16 Vilayat to author, June 2003.
17 Mahmood to author, June 2004.
18 Ibid.
19 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew. Handwritten notes by Noor about her background.
20 Mahmood to author, June 2004.
21 Noor herself would be referred to as a ‘modern Joan of Arc who had refused to be subjugated and preferred death to slavery’ by the Mayor of Suresnes, Monsieur Pontillon, on 17 July 1967 at the unveiling of a plaque in her honour at Fazal Manzil.
22 Mahmood to author, June 2004.
23 David Harper to author, October 2003.
24 Ibid.
25 The family could not remember his first name.
26 Mahmood to author, June 2004.
27 Vilayat to author, June 2003
28 Overton Fuller, Noor-unnisa Inayat Khan, p. 52.
29 Mahmood to author, June 2004.
30 Vilayat to author, June 2003.
31 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew.
32 Vilayat to author, June 2003.
33 Vilayat to author, June 2003.
34 Noor’s veena is now kept in the Sufi headquarters in the Hague along with other memorabilia.
35 Mahmood to author, June 2004.
36 Hidayat to author, May 2004.
37 Article by Alexis Danan in Le Franctireur, 17 February 1957, read out at a function in Suresnes to unveil a plaque in Noor’s honour.
38 Overton Fuller, Noor-unnisa Inayat Khan, p. 84.
39 Vilayat to author, June 2003.
40 Ibid.
3: Flight and Fight
1 Ian Ousby, Occupation, pp. 43–4.
2 Vilayat to author, June 2003.
3 Jean Overton Fuller to author, Wymington, Northamptonshire, June 2004
4 Vilayat to author, June 2003.
5 Noor’s service record, Personnel Management Agency, Royal Air Force, Innsworth.
6 Irene Warner (née Salter) to author Beryl E. Escott, Mission Improbable, p. 61.
7 Ibid.
8 Jean Overton Fuller to author, June 2004.
9 Jean Overton Fuller, Noorun-nisa Inayat Khan, p. 97.
10 Ibid., p. 114.
11 Ibid., p. 101.
12 Vilayat to author, June 2003.
13 Patrick French, Liberty or Death, p. 162.
14 Bhagat Ram Talwar (codename Silver). WO/208/773 National Archives, Kew, and Mihir Bose, Raj, Secrets, Revolution, pp. 230–1.
15 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew.
4: Setting Europe Ablaze
1 ‘History of SOE 1938–1945’, ‘SOE in Europe’, Paper for VCSS lecture May 1946, HS7/1, National Archives, Kew.
2 SOE Charter – WP (40) 271. Full copy of the charter is available as Appendix A; William Mackenzie, The Secret History.
3 M.R.D. Foot, SOE in France, p. 14.
4 History of SOE 1938–1945, ‘SOE organisation’, VCCS lecture July 1946, HS7/1, National Archives, Kew.
5 M.R.D. Foot, SOE: The Special Operations Executive, p. 22.
6 Later, Bickham Sweet-Escott borrowed the phrase as the title of his book on his own work in the SOE.
7 Germany invaded the USSR/Soviet Union (as it was known then) on 22 June 1941.
8 History of SOE 1938–1945, ‘SOE in Europe’, VCSS Lecture May 1946, HS7/1, National Archives, Kew.
9 Maurice Buckmaster, Specially Employed, p. 27.
10 Beryl E. Escott, Mission Improbable, p. 29.
11 M.R.D. Foot to author, October 2004, London.
12 Jean Overton Fuller, Noorun-nisa Inayat Khan, p. 110.
13 Foot, SOE, p. 59.
14 Jepson’s quotes in this section from Overton Fuller Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan, pp. 110–11.
15 Noor’s Air Ministry Records, Personnel Management Agency, RAF Innsworth.
16 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew. 266 Spy Princess
17 Patrick Howarth, Undercover, p. 20.
18 ‘SOE Organisation and Policy 30 Mar 1941–12 August 1941’, WO 193/626, National Archives, Kew.
19 Jean Overton Fuller to author, Wymington, Northamptonshire, June 2004
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 John Marais, Joan’s son, to author, Cambridge, December 2005, and article by Joan Cubbin (Marais, née Canham), ‘The Sixteenth of June’, published in the Ipswich Evening Star.
24 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5 and Air Ministry records.
5: Codes and Cove
r Stories
1 Letter quoted in Jean Overton Fuller’s Noor-unnisa Inayat Khan, p. 121.
2 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew.
3 Jean Overton Fuller to author, June 2004.
4 M.R.D. Foot to author, December 2004.
5 Security checks were often ignored by London, with disastrous results as we shall see in the following chapters.
6 Unfortunately, we do not know which one.
7 SOE agents in areas besides France were also affected. Almost the entire Dutch network was rounded up when a missed security check was not picked up in London.
8 M.R.D. Foot, SOE in France, p. 95.
9 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew.
10 Maurice Buckmaster, They Fought Alone, p. 45.
11 Overton Fuller, Noor-unnisa Inayat Khan, p. 127.
12 Buckmaster, They Fought Alone, p. 46.
13 Jean Overton Fuller to author, June 2004.
14 Flight schedule from Hugh Verity, We Landed by Moonlight, Appendix B, and Foot, SOE in France, p. 261.
15 M.R.D. Foot to author, October 2004.
16 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 M.R.D. Foot to author, October 2004, London.
21 Patrick Howarth, Undercover, p. 79.
22 Susan Ottaway, Violette Szabo, pp. 58–60.
23 Overton Fuller, Noor-unnisa Inayat Khan, p. 132.
6: Leaving England
1 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew. Notes 267
2 Jean Overton Fuller, Noorun-nisa Inayat Khan, p. 133.
3 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew.
4 Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide, pp. 307–21. Extracts and quotes in this section from two chapters in the book – ‘Appointment with Royalty’ and ‘The Extended Briefing’.
5 Maurice Buckmaster, Specially Employed, p. 31.
6 Noor’s Personal File, HS9/836/5, Instructions to Noor on her cover story. National Archives, Kew.
7 Letter to Hidayat from Patricia Stewart Bam.
8 Buckmaster, Specially Employed, p. 73.
9 Jean Overton Fuller to author, June 2004.
10 Ibid.
11 Hugh Verity, We Landed By Moonlight, p. 94.