The Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle,
Western Front
Redcoated Sepoys of the East India Company, 1804
The Indian Army that would one day play a valuable role for the Allies in the First World War was started by the Honourable East
India Company. It was raised as a small contingent under
Robert Clive to oppose the Bengali rulers and the
French in the struggle that ended with victory at Plassey in 1757. The East India Company had three
“presidencies,” or branches, and each developed its
own military force with detachments stationed in
many locations around the country. As the Crown also
had interests in India, there were also regular British
units stationed in various spots from time to time. Following the suppression of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, the Company's charter was revoked and the Crown assumed authority in India, including control of
the Company's forces. The future Indian
Army would be built around those soldiers who had stayed loyal during the mutiny. Also, more British soldiers were sent to India, and all
operational formations thereafter included both Indian
and British troops. By 1914 the total force based in India totaled 240,000 men, almost the size of the home-based British Army. During the Great War, the Indian Army would grow by a factor of six and—as the main contributor to this issue, Professor Corel Reigel, argues—would prove a strategic manpower reserve for the British Empire throughout the conflict. What follows is an overview of an enormously important aspect of the Allied victory that has been much under-reported in the ensuing century.
MH
British India in 1914
The Indian Army in World War I:
Background
Regimental Colors, 52nd Sikhs at Kohat, 1905
For the Indian soldiers who saw service from
Flanders to China, in Africa and the Middle
East, it truly was a world war. In a war of
attrition, they provided the Allied effort with a
strategic reserve of manpower. One justification for empire was the additional strength
it would contribute. With a population of 320
million, India (see map above) sent one million men in
uniform to most theaters of operations with
74,187 military deaths. Race and recent
experiences were the primary criteria for the
recruitment of the Indian Army. Although the
Indian Army made a significant contribution to
the Allied war effort in World War I, it was still
a small number of soldiers relative to the population base of the Indian sub-continent. Most
Europeans believed in the martial race theory,
that some men were genetically superior soldiers, most often recently conquered opponents, and thus one upper limit was created by
the British. Indian culture also imposed restrictions based on caste and religion. Thus,
despite the substantial population, the colony
of India had only a finite manpower base from
which to serve the British Empire.
Most educated Europeans believed in a
pseudo-scientific martial race theory, which is dismissed today. Modern conflict, the Great War itself a perfect example, took millions of
ordinary men and quickly turned them into
soldiers and sailors, with a wide variety of
skills and tasks as required by industrialized
warfare. Yet in 1914, the Indian Army was still
more like a traditional colonial military of the
Victorian era and was poorly prepared for a
modern enemy like the German Army in
Europe. Bullets and artillery shrapnel did not
show a preference for certain ethnicities, but colonial
government did, and thus the martial race
theory was at the center of British recruitment,
and most other Europeans practiced essentially
the same thing. A mix of ad hominem and
recent events, the Martial Race theory held that
of all the Indian people only a few were of
martial quality based on breeding, caste, and
environment. In 1914 this favored the
Dogras, the Garhwalis, the Gurkhas, the
Kumaonis, the Pathans, and the Sikhs. Each
company, but preferably entire battalions or
regiments, was composed exclusively of men from the same caste or ethnicity. These soldiers were then deployed in a different
region of India, among a different religion or
ethnicity, as an alien battalion, with few
connections to the local people but loyal to the
British, who also encouraged a separate
identity. So an example of divide and
conquer, divide and rule might be a battalion
each of Gurkha and Sikh infantry located in a
Hindu or Muslim region.
Beyond prejudice there was also a practical
reason to limit military recruitment to only
certain people—it was conducive to South Asian
sensibilities. The Hindu divided into many
castes that determined social behavior in an
unchangeable status based on birth and
occupation and ideas of purity and pollution.
Some were of the military castes, and like their
ancestors they were literally born soldiers.
This determined social behavior such as
marriage and inheritance, diet and meal
sharing, death rituals, and occupations, and it
was both fate and a duty to fulfill these roles.
Such exclusivity influenced recruitment since
the purity of food, or funerals, could only be
achieved if preparation were by men of the
same caste, hence the logic of segregated units.
This also placed an upper limit on the number
of those who could serve in uniform to only
certain Hindu castes and a select few non-Hindu. As World War I dragged on, there was a clear need to expand recruitment, so in 1917
75 new castes or ethnicities were
eligible for enlistment. The urgency of the war
changed the "science"' of recruitment as
expediency altered logical conclusions. In the
African colonies, the Europeans mostly
practiced the martial race theory but also
opened recruitment as the war continued.
117th Mahrattas, Northwest Frontier, India, 1910
The Indian Army in World War I:
Deployment
Indian Troops on the Western Front
By 1914 the Indian Army consisted of 129
battalions of infantry or pioneers, 39 cavalry
regiments, and 12 mountain artillery batteries
(155,423 combatants), plus extensive support
units. By World War I these were organized
into nine divisions and several independent
brigades. Each division had three infantry
brigades made of one British and three Indian
battalions, and one cavalry brigade composed
of one British and two Indian regiments. A
separate source of soldiers was the Princely States, whose units formed the Imperial Service Brigades. In theory the 29 Princely
States were independent, or at least
autonomous, and thus could maintain their
own units, under British supervision. In 1914
they contributed 14 battalions and 20 cavalry
regiments (22,515 men). Also, in an
emergency the European population of India
formed the Auxiliary Force, 42 battalions, 11
regiments, (33,677 men) mostly with the
intention that they would serve in South Asia.
When the Great War began, the Indian Army
still was not ready. The quality of training
varied greatly from one unit to the next, while
the organization of the army into nine
divisions was still new and poorly executed.
The chain of command was poor since the
Indian Office stood in between the Indian
Army in the field and the War Office. The
infantry had been armed with obsolete rifles,
sufficient for India, but were only issued new
Lee-Enfield rifles when they shipped out in the
expeditions. Some units had no machine guns
until they were deployed. The artillery, again
adequate for India, was old ten-pounders, whose
virtue was disassembly for easy mobility over
difficult terrain. There was no heavy artillery
or howitzers. Communications were obsolete
and there was no mechanical transportation,
only animals. In many respects, the Indian
Army still was fit only as an Imperial
Constabulary.
In the 19th century, the Indian Army was
frequently used as the muscle behind imperial
ambitions, as an emergency reaction force,
providing reliable soldiers for service in
difficult environments, with service in Africa,
China, and elsewhere; thus World War I was
largely a continuation of this policy. Indian
soldiers fought in the Opium Wars and the
Boxer Rebellion in China. In Africa, they
campaigned in Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, while
small numbers served in East Africa and
supplemented the West African Field Force.
One contingency had included possible
deployment into Central Asia to counter the
Russian threat, and when Germany's empire
was created, the Indian Army added new plans.
Indian Laborers Building a Rail Line in the Sinai
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1918 Poster Produced in India
Different Perspectives
All about the Indian contribution to the Allied War Effort.
I went into the trenches on 7th August and returned on 28th August. Some of our men were wounded. I am not permitted to give any fuller details. The battle is raging violently, and various new ways of fighting have been introduced. The ground is honeycombed, as a field with rat holes. No one can advance beyond the trenches. If he does so, he is blown away. Mines are ready(sic)charged with explosives. Shells and machine guns and bombs are mostly employed. No one considers rifles nowadays, and serviceable rifle ammunition is lying about as plentifully as pebbles. At the trenches, thousands of mounds of iron, representing exploded shells, lie on the ground. At some places corpses are found of men killed in 1914, with uniform and accouterments still on. Large flies, which have become poisonous through feasting on dead bodies, infest the trenches, and huge fat rats run about there. By the blessing of God the climate of this country is cold, and for that reason corpses do not decompose quickly. It rains frequently and that causes much inconvenience. At the present time we are suffering, as the horses are tethered outside and the rain has converted the ground into slush. Sometimes we have to march in the rain and then the cold is intense. However after two years’ experience, we have grown used to all these troubles and think lightly of them. I have lots to write about, but I have no leisure, nor have I permission to do so. Even this I have had to write very prudently, otherwise it would be withheld.
Daya Ram, 2nd Lancers (Urdu) Letter
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India's War Memorial
The Delhi or India Gate Memorial
This colossal structure was another work of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the foremost British architect of his time, who also designed Thiepval Memorial and the Whitehall Cenotaph in London, amongst many monuments and memorials. His design is deliberately evocative of the slightly taller (50 meters) Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which he called a "universal architectural style free of religious ornamentation." The cornerstone was laid in 1921 by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria and an uncle to King George V. The Duke had significant ties to the Lutyens-designed city of New Delhi—its principal business center is named Connaught Place. The construction took ten years to complete.
The monument recognizes all of the fallen of the Indian Army in the period 1914 to 1921—some 82,000 in total—74,187 military and about 8,000 followers. Inscribed on the walls are the names of 13,216 missing men and women of the Indian Army who aren’t commemorated elsewhere. Some of these are British.
After the Kargil War (1999) there was built under the arch the Amar Jawan Jyoti (the flame of the immortal soldier), a memorial conceptually similar to the French WWI Unknown Soldier resting beneath the Arc de Triomphe. There are actually four perpetual flames under the arch, guarded 24/7 by members of the Indian military, and there is also a flame on the top of the gate, but this is very rarely lit. The gate is floodlit for two and a half hours every night, and on special occasions, the lights used are in the national colors of orange, white, and green.
Source: Kansas WW1, February 2017
Maharaja in the Military:
Sir Pratap Singh of Idar
Pratap Singh, Jodhpur Lancers
Sir Pratap Singh, Maharaja of the Idar princely state, was one of over one million Indian soldiers who fought for the British in the First World War. He had an illustrious career not only in the military but also as an administrator. Born on 22 October 1845, he was the third son of the ruler of Jodhpur, Maharaja Takht Singh. In 1878, he was commissioned in the Jodhpur Risala, or the mounted troops, and served during the Second Afghan War, where his bravery was mentioned in official reports. In 1897, he was awarded the title of Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India. At the turn of the century, Singh commanded the Jodhpur contingent dispatched to quell the Boxer uprising in China. At home, he served as the Chief Minister of Jodhpur from 1878 to 1895, after the death of his father. At that time, his eldest brother was on the throne. After his brother’s death in 1895, he served as a regent for his nephew, the heir to the throne, and then for two of his grandnephews, until his death in 1922.
In his seventies, he commanded a regiment in France and was one of the oldest soldiers in the trenches. In 1918, he was promoted to the rank of General and deployed to Palestine. He was accompanied by his two teenage sons, Hanut and Sagat, and they served together in the Jodhpur Lancers. During the Battle of Megiddo, his leadership helped the Indian Army help secure an outstanding victory, which sealed the fate of the Ottoman Empire.
from Stories from War
May 2021
The Indian Army in World War I:
Deployments to Multiple Fronts
King George V Inspecting Indian Troops on the Western Front
Four divisions (3rd Lahore, 7th Meerut, 1st
and 2nd Cavalry, none from the Princely
States) of Task Force A arrived at Marseilles,
France, on 30 September 1914. During the
volatile early battles and into 1915 these skilled
and experienced soldiers helped stymie German flanking efforts in the famous "Race to the Sea." By October 1914 they were in
combat at La Bassée and Ypres, but the cold,
wet environment was more troublesome than
German gunfire. In addition to frostbite,
influenza, and pneumonia, an unexpected
problem was mumps and measles, since they
had no prior exposure. When British civilians
learned of their suffering, vast quantities of
clothing were sent and Indian hospitals in
England received generous donations due to
the popularity of a publicity campaign. Such
admiration was earned in battles like Neuve
Chapelle in March 1915 when the Indian Corps
led the well-planned attack that ultimately
failed strategically, after a successful opening attack.
Later, in September 1915, the Battle of Loos began when a large
British mine was exploded under the German
trenches followed by an artillery barrage and an infantry assault that included the Meerut (7th) Division attack. The assault, again
at first was promising but then could not be
exploited and failed.
Despite many acts of
heroism, logistics compromised their fighting
ability. The dietary and religious restrictions
were so severe that even in base camps Force A
required six different kitchens. Seemingly,
even the slightest, unintentional action could
contaminate a meal, in which case even severe
hunger was preferable to death in an impure
state but a full belly. In the front lines, food was
even more difficult, since basic army rations of
bully beef and biscuits were unacceptable. The
prewar officers understood and observed
these religious practices, but as they became
casualties, their replacements were ignorant or
insensitive and the system of race/caste
segregated units broke down. The Western Front infantry
units were transferred to Egypt in October
1915 and the cavalry units (renamed Force E)
followed in March 1918.
Force B (8,000 men) contained both Imperial
Service units from the Princely States and the
27th Brigade of the 9th Division, British Indian
Army. While the latter again performed
admirably, the former units behaved very badly
at the 2-3 November 1914 attempted
amphibious invasion at the port of Tanga.
Similarly, when Force C (4,000 men) was hastily
assembled to protect Kenya's border, they too
had a few good units, but most of the Imperial
Service units tarnished the reputation of all
Indian soldiers. The humiliations of 1914
continued as the two task forces were merged
and became the heart of the British military in
East Africa during 1915. German raiding
parties took advantage of Indian
incompetence until early 1916, when reinforcements from many colonies in Africa and a general advance altered the situation. In late
1916, most Indian combat units were
withdrawn from Africa due to illness and exhaustion.
However, support units, virtually the only ones
in the theater, remained until after the end of
the war.
Force D began with a modest assignment that
became one of the largest and most difficult
theaters of the war and one of the worst events
in India's military history, Mesopotamia, today's Iraq. The
British prewar competition with German
interests in the Persian Gulf grew sharper with
the discovery of oil, and the relationship with
the leaders of Kuwait led to the decision to
protect British interests by occupying the oil
refinery at Basra. What began with one
brigade group arriving on 24 November 1914 was
soon reinforced with two infantry divisions (the 6th Poona and
the 12th Indian). In April 1915, a general
offensive began up the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers with the intention of capturing the
fabled city of Baghdad. Despite extreme heat
and humidity and clouds of aggressive flies, the advance was initially successful. In late November 1915, however, the advance stalled after
the Battle of Ctesiphon, and rather than abandon all the captured land, the decision was made to hold the Tigris River town of
Kut-el-Amara with an Indian garrison (mostly
the 6th Poona Division) which was soon
besieged. Kut was one of Britain's worst
moments in the war. Despite attempts to break in, or out,
the command was surrendered on 29 April
1916 after the soldiers had suffered horrible
deprivations. It got much worse. The soldiers
were forced on a death march of 500 miles
from Samarrah to Aleppo in the worst summer
heat. The prisoner-of-war camps were awful
in the treatment of these soldiers, British
as well as Indian. Of the 14,000 men who
surrendered 4,000 died. Yet General
Townshend and his officers were kept
separate, in comfortable conditions, seemingly
unaware of their men's misery. After the fall of
Kut there was a pause as both sides rested and
received reinforcements. Major General
Maude renewed the offensive in December
1916 with six Indian divisions and one British—166,000 soldiers, two-thirds of them Indian. The force entered Baghdad on 11 March 1917.
Later, many Indian units were transferred to Palestine.
Expedition Force F was composed of two
recently created divisions (10th and 11th Indian) with some units from the Princely States, intended
for France but suddenly redirected to the
defense of the Suez Canal and all of Egypt after
two Turkish Army attacks across the Sinai.
These units later blended into the Sinai-Palestine campaign.
Expedition Force E (the cavalry units in France)
was redeployed to Palestine in March 1918,
where regiments from the Princely States
joined them. Other British and Indian
divisions were reassigned to Palestine so
that by the end of the war the Indians again
were a large portion of the British Army forces. This included 30
Gurkhas on camels who assisted T.E. Lawrence
of Arabia and Major F. G. Peake of the
Egyptian Army.
Gurkhas in a Trench at Gallipoli
Force G was by contrast only a small
percentage of the British units sent to Gallipoli.
The 29th Brigade (one Sikh and three Gurkha
battalions) was detached from the 10th Division
in Egypt and saw extensive combat, especially around Gully Ravine in the Helles sector. They suffered horrible summer heat and winter
blizzards without proper clothing. The Gallipoli Peninsula was completely evacuated by January 1916.
Beyond the expedition forces, one Indian
division garrisoned Burma and a brigade was
stationed in Aden, continuing colonial security.
Other units remained in India for the essential
role of colonial security against rebellion, but
these forces were sometimes committed to other foreign deployments
such as southern Persia in 1915 and
Afghanistan. Also, one battalion of the 36th
Sikhs (and the 2nd Battalion South Wales
Borderers) joined in the Japanese attack on the
German treaty port of Tsingtao, China, October-November 1914.
Much like before the war, Indian soldiers were
often the majority of British units used in
difficult theaters such as East Africa,
Mesopotamia, and Palestine. Better the heat of
deserts or jungles than the mud and cold of
France and Flanders. This meant that the
Indian Army was the primary weapon against
the Ottoman Empire. Regarding the broad British war effort, the empire's Indian troops constituted a strategic manpower reserve. However, with the necessary continuation of prewar practices, there was an upper limit in the number of suitable recruits that could be provided based on the
martial race theory of the British and the religious and racial beliefs of the people of
South Asia.
Source: the preceding three selections on India in the war are from "The British Indian Army in World War I: A Strategic Manpower Reserve," by
Corey W. Reigel, West Liberty University; originally presented in the Journal of the World War One Historical Association, 2012, Vol. 3.
The Indian Army in World War I:
Final Campaigns & Aftermath
Lancers Securing Haifa, Palestine, 1918
During the First World War the strength of the Indian Army rose sixfold to over 1,400,000 men. By the end of the war 1,100,000 men had served overseas at a cost of 70,000 dead. India had contributed more men to the fighting than Canada and Australia combined. Eleven individuals of Indian ancestry earned the Victoria Cross during the struggle.
Besides the colossal manpower contribution, the British also raised money from India, as well as large supplies of food and ammunition, collected both by British taxation of Indians and from the nominally autonomous Princely States. In return, the British had insincerely promised to deliver progressive self-rule to India at the end of the war. Perhaps, had they kept that pledge, the sacrifices of India's First World War soldiers might have been seen in their homeland as a contribution to India's freedom.
Postwar: Guarding the Khyber Pass, 1919
But the British broke their word. Mahatma Gandhi, who returned to his homeland for good from South Africa in January 1915, supported the war, as he had supported the British in the Boer War. The great Nobel Prize-winning poet, Rabindranath Tagore, was somewhat more sardonic about nationalism. "We, the famished, ragged ragamuffins of the East are to win freedom for all humanity!" he wrote during the war. [Yet} We have no word for 'nation' in our language." During hostilities India was wracked by high taxation to support the war and the high inflation accompanying it, while the disruption of trade caused by the conflict led to widespread economic losses—all this while the country was also reeling from a raging influenza epidemic that took many lives. But nationalists widely understood from British statements that at the end of the war India would receive the Dominion Status hitherto reserved for the "White Commonwealth."
With British policy providing such a sour ending to the narrative of a war in which India had given its all and been spurned in return, Indian nationalists felt that the country had nothing to thank its soldiers for. They had merely gone abroad to serve their foreign masters. Losing your life or limb in a foreign war fought at the behest of your colonial rulers was an occupational hazard—it did not qualify to be hailed as a form of national service.
Postwar: Indian Troops Responding to a Nationalist Protest, Bombay
An Indian independence movement came to a head after the war when the first series of non-violent campaigns of civil disobedience was launched by the Indian National Congress under the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi—whose methods were inspired to a large extent by the philosophy and methods of Baba Ram Singh, a Sikh who led the Kuka Movement in Punjab in the 1870s. Gandhi's movement came to encompass people from across India and across all walks of life. These initial civil disobedience movements soon came to be the driving force that ultimately shaped the cultural, religious, and political unity of a then still dis-united nation. The sacrifices of the Great War and the intense disappointments that followed fueled this movement. Another World War would intervene, but eventually, India would become independent.
Sources: BBC; Wikipedia; CWGC
100 Years Ago:
Stalin Gets His Foot in the Door of Supreme Power,
3 April 1922
Misleading Propaganda Piece Showing Lenin and Stalin
as Friendly Colleagues
After the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War, the Office of General Secretary was created by Lenin in 1922 with the intention that it would serve a purely administrative and disciplinary position. Its primary focus would be to determine party membership composition and assign positions within the party. The General Secretary also oversaw recording party events and keeping the party leaders and members informed in party activities as well as such apparently mundane tasks as housekeeping, security, and assigning office space.
When assembling his cabinet, Lenin appointed Joseph Stalin as the General Secretary. A masterful bureaucratic empire builder, in his first several years, Stalin would transform his new office into that of party leader and later leader of the Soviet Union.
Prior to Lenin's death, however, Stalin's tenure as General Secretary was already being criticized. In Lenin's final months, he authored a pamphlet—known as his "Testament"—that called for Stalin's removal on the justification that Stalin was becoming authoritarian and abusing his power. After Lenin died, this pamphlet resulted in a political crisis for Stalin, and a vote was held to remove him. Stalin with the help of Grigory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev survived the scandal and remained in his post. He cynically capitalized on Lenin's 1924 death by creating a cult over the dead former leader with himself symbolically in the role of its high priest. He also waged a relentless ideological war against his main rival, Trotsky, who was eventually banished from Russia in 1929. By the decade's end, Stalin was the unquestioned leader of the USSR and the General Secretary became the nation's highest office.
Source: Wikipedia; Encyclopedia Britannica Article, "Lenin's Testament"
The American Battle Monuments Commission Remembers and Honors the Sacrifice of Women Who Served in the Great War
Burial Site of Hello Girl Inez Ann Murphy Crittenden
During World War I, the official service of women on the war front rapidly developed at an unprecedented scale. American women served overseas as nurses, communication technicians, social workers, and volunteers, providing critical skills and care for the American Expeditionary Forces. American Battle Monument (ABMC) sites today honor 70 women who lost their lives in World War I and 111 women who died in service during World War II.
Over 20,000 women served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, with 10,000 serving overseas, 200 of which died of the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. Women also served in other roles, such as the 400 “Hello Girls” who acted as telephone operators in France. Fluent in English and French, they played a vital role in connecting Allied communications. Inez Ann Murphy Crittenden, whose cross is shown above, was one of them. She served in France during the Great War and died of the Spanish flu on 11 November 1918. She was 31 years old and is buried at Suresnes American Cemetery.
The Hello Girls of AEF General Headquarters, Chaumont
An additional 11,000 American women served in the U.S. Navy, while smaller numbers served for the first time in the Coast Guard and U.S. Marine Corps. Thousands of additional women supported the troops overseas through volunteer organizations such as the Red Cross, the YMCA, and the Salvation Army.
Nurse Helen Fairchild, Died in Service
Another of the women who lost their lives during their war service and is honored with a burial at an ABMC cemetery is Nurse Helen Fairchild of Milton, PA.
Editor Mike Hanlon Visits the Grave of Helen Fairchild
Helen graduated as a nurse from Pennsylvania Hospital in 1913 and joined the Reserve Army Nurse Corps in 1916. After arriving at Base Hospital 10 in Treport, France, she was sent to Casualty Clearing Station No. 4 at Passchendaele on 22 July 1917. Exposed to mustard gas in November 1917, Fairchild began suffering from severe abdominal pains leading to her hospitalization and death. Her loss led to a great outpouring of sympathy. Many of her fellow nurses, doctors, and soldiers of Base Hospital 10 attended the funeral on 19 January 1918 at Treport. Today, she rests at the American Somme Cemetery in Bony, France. A bridge over the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania has been named in her honor.
Sources: ABMC; Roads to the Great War; Wikipedia
A World War One Music Video
Commentary by James Patton
How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm
After they've seen Paree'
How ya gonna keep 'em away from Broadway
Jazzin around and paintin' the town
How ya gonna keep 'em away from harm, that's a mystery
They'll never want to see a rake or plow
And who the deuce can parleyvous a cow?
How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm
After they've seen Paree'
As much-longed-for homecomings of the troops finally began in 1919, public interest and songwriting moved to the re-entry of the demobilized soldiers into the economy and society. In popular music, this
was expressed by the hit song of 1919 titled "How ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm?," a product of three Tin Pan Alley denizens, composer Walter Donaldson and lyricists Joe Young and Sam Lewis. Not
strictly speaking a WWI song, since it was written after the war, it was a nationwide hit, performed
by the Vaudeville greats Sophie Tucker and Eddie Cantor. It was recorded by Nora Bayes, Arthur Fields,
and the legendary 369th Infantry "Harlem Hellfighters" Band led by Lieut. James Reese Europe, who arranged the piece for his band.
Walter Donaldson (1893–1947) was the son of a piano teacher and began writing songs as a schoolboy. In
1915, he was published for the first time, and in 1918 he had his first big seller. He was drafted in 1918
but spent his entire service at Camp Upton, NY, along with Irving Berlin, who signed Donaldson to a
contract that lasted until 1928, when Donaldson formed his own music publishing house. With the
advent of the Talkies, in the 1930s Donaldson moved to Hollywood to compose and arrange music for
the movies. He also continued to write songs—eventually over 600; among his many hits were "Carolina in the Morning," "Whoopee," "My Blue Heaven," "My Buddy," "My Mammy" and "Yes Sir, that’s My Baby."
Joe Young (1889–1939) was a talented singer and began his career as a "song-plugger." He composed some
but mostly wrote lyrics. His first known work to be published, a collaboration, came out in 1910. He had
a few lasting hits, including "You’re My Everything" and "I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a
Letter." Young didn’t serve in the war, but did sing for the troops.
Sam Lewis (1885–1959), born Samuel Levine, was a "café singer" who began to write songs in 1912. In
addition to popular music, he also wrote for Broadway and Hollywood. A few of his hits are still known
today: "Has Anybody Seen My Gal," "I’m Sitting on Top of the World," "In a Little Spanish Town" (one of the
first Cha’ Cha’ tunes), and "Rock a bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody." Lewis didn’t serve in the War.
The three combined on two other occasions. Donaldson and Lewis collaborated three other times.
Young and Lewis collaborated too, including on the popular WWI song "Hello Central? Give Me No Man’s
Land" in 1918.
