HELIOPOLIS MEMORIAL
WHY IN NEWS ?
- Recently PM Modi visited the memorial to commemorate the memory of 3,727 Indian soldiers who died fighting in various campaigns in Egypt and Palestine in the First World War.
ABOUT MEMORIAL:
- The Heliopolis (Port Tewfik) Memorial is part of the larger Heliopolis Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery.
- This memorial commemorates the memory of 3,727 Indian soldiers who died fighting in various campaigns in Egypt and Palestine in the First World War.
- The original Port Tewfik memorial had been unveiled in 1926 and was situated at the entrance to the Suez Canal.
- Port Tewfik is now known as Port Suez.
- The memorial was destroyed in the Israeli-Egyptian War of 1967 by retreating Egyptian soldiers.
- A new memorial bearing the names of the Indian soldiers who died in the First World War campaign in Egypt and Palestine was erected in Heliopolis Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in 1980.
INDIAN ARMY IN WEST ASIA DURING FIRST WORLD WAR:
- Indian troops of the expeditionary forces sent from India played a major role in West Asia in the First World War.
- According to researcher Vedica Kant, who has written a book on the Indian troops on First World War, the Indian troops played a key role in securing the Suez Canal in Egypt and in Palestine, where Indian cavalry participated in the Battle of Haifa, commemorated in New Delhi in a war memorial. Indian soldiers also played a key role in Mesopotamia in the First World War.
REGIMENTS MENTIONED IN MEMORIAL:
- A large number of Indian Regiments belonging to the Indian Army, as well as to the State Forces of the princely stated, are represented in the memorial.
- The princely states played a vital part in the war effort in the First World War and the troops of State Forces saw widespread action in almost all theatres of the war.
- Among the regiments listed at the Heliopolis memorial are the 42nd Deoli Regiment, 58th Vaughan’s Rifles (Frontier Force), 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles, 51st Sikhs (Frontier Force), 1st Battalion 50th Kumaon Rifles, Jodhpur (Imperial Service) Lancers, 3rd Sappers and Miners and many more.
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