Laddie Goes to War : Indian Pilots in World War I

During the first decade of the 20th century, the British Empire was at its zenith. The Indian Subcontinent was secure barring trouble in the North West. English education had spread far and wide. The project to build and nurture a middle class of supportive English-speaking Indians was proceeding apace. Many affluent Indian families, as also the princes, sent their children to England for education as that was our only window to the West and the world at large. Thus, it was that four families had their children in England for studies when World War I broke out. During the first two years of the War, the Royal Flying Corps that had been set up as part of the British Army, suffered heavy casualties on the Western Front in Europe. The British Government was especially looking for volunteers for the flying service. Among the volunteers were four young Indian men (actually five, including a technician). The first was rejected on medical grounds even though he was an American-trained pilot. All the Indians were from affluent families and had no need to volunteer, but they did so nonetheless and were accepted, trained and sent into battle. This book, Laddie Goes to War: Indian Pilots in World War I, is the story of these five Indians who volunteered in World War I. Four of them flew combat planes in the Royal Flying Corps in France, Belgium and Italy during the War, at a time when Indians were considered to be unfit to operate a screwdriver or drive a car/railway engine, or even fly an aeroplane. This book tells their story.

Table of Contents:
Author’s Note Acknowledgement 1. A Wedding That Led To A World War 2. The Flying School Brigade 3. Impetus of The War 4. End of an Era 5. The Red Letter Day 6. No More A Penguin 7. In The Cradle 8. Rubbing Shoulders With Aces 9. The Fledgling Hawk 10. Farnborough Interlude 11. Going Up The Line 12. The First Kill 13. An Armed Pegasus 14. Only Lunatics Love To Fly 15. Who Is Not In? 16. The Flying Sikh 17. Errol Goes To War 18. Bombay Braveheart 19. Back In Saddle 20. And Then There Was The Fifth 21. The One Who Didn’t Quite Make It! Appendices Bibliography Maps 1. Map of Europe 2. Map showing location of 56 and 40 squadron in which Roy served 3. Map of aerodrome in Italy where Lt. Malik was posted in late 1917. Pictures 1. Lt I.L. Roy – Portrait exhibited at Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata. 2. Lt I.L. Roy in Army uniform. 3. Roy’s sketch drawn during armament training at Uxbridge. 4. The first enemy aircraft that Roy shot down. 5. Airmen ‘manhandling’ a flying machine. 6. Lt I.L. Roy – The Immortal Hero. 7. Condolence letter addressed to Mrs P.L. Roy from the King Emperor. 8. Following are Lt I.L. Roy’s sketches of planes in action. 9. Lt H.S. Malik – The Flying Sikh. 10. Lt Malik in front of his Camel-28 Squadron, Droglandt. 11. Lt Malik with his fellow pilots. 12. New Year’s Eve Dinner: 31 December 1917 – Signatures & Menu. 13. Manchester Chamber of Commerce presented this aeroplane to the Government of India. Lt. Malik received it. 14. Sardar Hardit Malik, ICS, OBE, CIE in 1980. 15. The Sen Family. Extreme left: Lt Sen 16. Lt Errol Suvo Chunder Sen just before take-off. 17. Holzmindon Prisoner of War Camp in Germany. Lt Sen seated on the ground. 18. Lt S.C. Welinkar. 19. Illustrated London News: Roll of Honour Lt Welinkar 20. D.L. Patwardhan, Hon. Lt. R.A.F. till 1937. 21. Jeejeebhoy Piroshaw Bomanjee Jeejeebhoy 22. Jeejeebhoy’s grave in the Parsi section of Brookwood Cemetery 23. Lt Roy’s grave in the War Cemetery at Estevilles in France

About the Author :
In a four-decade-long career as a journalist and author, Mr Somnath Sapru has over the years, specialized in writing on the military and civil aviation. He has several books on this subject to his credit. His first book dealt with four Indian pilots who flew in World War I, which is now being revised and expanded to include the hitherto untold story of one more pilot, with a new title: Laddie Goes to War: Indian Pilots in World War I. Mr Sapru was initially the Defence Correspondent of the Deccan Herald and later with the Indian Express, first at Bengaluru and subsequently in New Delhi. He served as the Editor of The Pioneer, with editions in Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi and New Delhi. He later served as the Regional Editor for the Indian Express at Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore. He covered the activities of the three Services of the armed forces and specialized in the history of military aviation. He has bagged several professional awards such as the American Jefferson Fellowship in the United States in 1979 and the Asian Journalist of the Year in 1988. Though he has written on myriad themes, his preferred area of research has all along been aviation.