'Essential to a proper understanding of the war and of our world of today' Michael Morpurgo

1.5 million Indians fought with the British in the First World War - from Flanders to the African bush and the deserts of the Islamic world, they saved the Allies from defeat in 1914 and were vital to global victory in 1918. Using previously unpublished veteran interviews, this is their story, told as never before.

"Essential to a proper understanding of the war and of our world of today. A much needed book" - Michael Morpurgo

"Revelatory . . . fluent and colourful . . . This book describes the war as a worldwide conflict involving a million Indian soldiers [and] shows how crucial they were to Allied success" - Telegraph

"Morton-Jack skilfully presents the reader with the first comprehensive telling of the Indian story and places it in a global context . . . Morton-Jack's work is magisterial and yet immensely readable. This is the book for anyone interested in an authentic broad-based account of the role played by India and its soldiers in the defining conflict of the twentieth century . . . The book is remarkable in having used, for the first time, thousands of pages of interview transcripts of Indian veterans of the war, recorded in the 1970s" - India Today

"A splendid book . . . A multi- layered, rigorously researched and empathetically interpreted account of the Indian contribution to the Great War. The author's objective of shining "a more filtered light on the Indian soldiers" is luminously met . . . Morton-Jack, to his credit, does not shy away from recording the cruel face of the colonial ruler" - Hindustan Times

"Fits the Indian experience superbly into the overall Great War narrative" - BBC History

"Absorbing and welcome . . . explores a remarkably diverse fighting force of 1.5 million men of all castes and creeds . . . This book is a fitting testament to the sacrifices they made" - Observer

"An impressive, humane, and myth-busting book" - Spectator

"A lively history of the Indian Army in all its tragedies, difficulties and occasional triumphs . . . reveals the touching humanity of the Indian soldier" - Guardian

"Every chapter contains a wealth of evocative contemporary reflections from and about men who represented a "uniquely multicultural" army . . . A fascinating socio-cultural history" - BBC History Magazine

"Morton-Jack puts in painstaking effort into piecing together the lives of these intrepid warriors who lived in a tumultuous, topsy- turvy age . . . This historian's account is thorough and painfully blunt . . . The indictment of British rule in India is readily apparent" - New Indian Express

"Superb . . . utterly compelling" - History Today