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On August 15, 1947, after 150 years of British rule, India acceded to independence. Gandhi and Nehru earned their place in the history books. But few mention Subhas Chandra Bose, an Indian independence activist controversial for his aggressive nationalism – and who solicited the help of Adolf Hitler to liberate India from colonial rule.
Educated at the University of Cambridge in the UK, Bose was a radical who rejected Mahatma Gandhi's calls for nonviolent resistance, claiming that India had to take up arms to gain its freedom.
During the Second World War, he decided to approach the German Fuehrer.
The goal of Bose was to recruit Indian students in Germany and Indian prisoners of war (who fought for the British Empire) in German camps and use them as liberation force for India. under British rule.
Although the so-called Tiger Legion was initially formed as an badault group that would eventually lead a German-Indian invasion of the western borders of British India, only a small contingent was reoriented toward its original purpose .
Very few legion soldiers have witnessed fights and virtually none of them has reached India.
They attended the allied advance retreat across France, fighting mainly against the French Resistance. A company was sent to Italy in 1944, where it fought British and Polish troops and began anti-partisan operations.
At the time of capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945, the remaining men of the Indian Legion made efforts to march to neutral Switzerland over the Alps, but they were captured by American and French troops and eventually sent back to India to be accused of treason.
Due to the turmoil caused by the lawsuits, lawsuits against members of the Legion were dropped and all were released.
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