 Ladies and gentlemen, we ask you to stand by for just a moment. The program Pacific Story schedule for this time will be heard momentarily. There has been some slight delay in the presentation of this program from Hollywood. Please stand by in the interim. We shall offer you a musical interview. He has owned industries which are roaring day and night in the war effort. Touch the life of the Indians. I have seen the changes that have taken place since the outbreak of the war. This is a Bengali who lives in the province of Bengal. My name is Chaudhury. My youngest son, Devedas, is a lieutenant in the 4th Indian Division. My eldest son, Vishwanath, is a skilled technician in the great Tatanaga steel mill. Here where the great iron and steel works of Tatars now stands, not so very long ago was a jungle. I remember 40 years ago when tigers and leopards stalked over these very grounds. In the jungle we found that hill there, 3,000 feet high, with great deposits of iron ore. Near here we found coal fields. We brought in coke ovens and blast furnaces. And here at Jamshadpur, the Indian firm of Tatars built this great steel mill, the biggest single plant in all the British Commonwealth. And here my son, Vishwanath, works in the production of steel mills. They are just about ready to pour the metal over there. This is my son, Vishwanath. All that metal you see there was mined and smelted here in India. You have enough here for your war effort? We are even exporting pig iron. And what is this metal for? This metal they've just poured. Armor plates for armored cars for all purposes. Cars, lorries, tractors. We are also supplying steel for India's munition factories. It goes into many things. Helmets, rifle and machine gun magazines. To pour again? We lose no time. This blast furnace is producing 1,000 tons of pig iron a day. That's a tremendous amount. It is a tremendous increase over our production before the war. You seem to be turning out a great deal of armored plates. Yes. We have developed a special alloy steel for bulletproof plates. Now, come along with me. I want to show you what we have done. This is a sort of gun carrier. That is what it is. We call it a Tata Naga in honor of our plant here. The Tata Naga, eh? It is a brand gun carrier. And the special alloy steel, the bulletproof armor plate that goes into it. Looks formidable. It has already proved its value in battle. Then here in India, you are producing not only steel, but are turning out finished guns as well. India's production of rifles has increased six times. Our production of machine guns has increased eight times. And our production of ammunition has increased 24 times. Many of the Indians who supervised the work in our industries were trained in Britain. My son Vishwanath was trained in a British war factory. He had worked in the Tata Naga mill for several years before the war broke out. Then one day he came to me. It is the plan of Ernest Bevin, the Labour Minister in London. I see. Do you think you can better yourself, Vishwanath? I can learn. Mr Bevin says that if many Indians could be trained in Britain to be supervisors of industry here, it would do a great good both for India and Britain. How could I get such training in any other way, Father? I do not know, my son. Will they take you? I have worked more than three years in a factory and I can speak English. Those are the essential requirements. Well then, go, Vishwanath. Yes, I want to go. I want to go. My son was only one of a steady stream of Indians now running into thousands who are being sent by the government of India to England. And he was paid while he was trained. He and the others in his party went first to a government training centre in Hartfordshire about 50 miles north of London. They stayed here three months and then they went into war in the state. The purpose is to see Vishwanath is to keep production moving. Yes, sir. We need further help. Oscar will build Jones here next year. Yes, sir. How are you getting on, Vishwanath? Oh, very well, Jagdish. Well, hello, visitors. Look. Who is it? Why, it's the king and there is the queen with him too. Visiting right here in the factory? Shall we stop working? No, keep right on. They've come here to see you just as you are at work every day. The most interested in our plan between... That training in Britain was the greatest experience in my boy's life. He stayed there for six months. Vishwanath came back to India. He was a skilled technician. Today he is working in our industry here as a supervisor. He has increased his pay by 250% and his knowledge will help build post-war India. While our Indian industry was expanding, other workers were building new airfields. A million Indians worked day and night to build new fields for our ever-growing air force. Now we have our own pilots, our own training centers, our own ground crews, our own war planes. As early as the beginning of 1941, the Indian Air Force had quadrupled in size. And when the war broke out in the Pacific, Indian flying units helped in the defense of Burma against the Japanese. They operated from bases in Dungu and Lashio and carried out mission after mission over Thailand and in support of the Chinese Army. Returning from each mission, intelligence officers recorded their... All right. Thank you. Now flight lieutenant Prasad. Yes, sir. You were in the fourth element. Yes, sir. Tell us in your own words what happened. By the time we arrived over the target and the anti-aircraft guns were facing away, they had already been firing at those of our planes which arrived over the target first. So their fire was very accurate. Was your plane hit? Yes, sir. My navigator was killed. Go on. We straddled a line of Japanese planes on the ground of the aerodrome with our bombs. Did you see any planes hit? Yes, sir. How many? I should judge we destroyed a dozen or more. Go on. We had orders to machine down the field as soon as we had dropped our bombs. We went down and shot up another line of Japanese fighters and then made for a concentration of troops and for... Our Indian Air Force distinguished itself in Burma and when it became necessary to withdraw our forces, all ranks of our squadrons were reluctant to leave. Our Indian fliers took part in operations of all kinds. Headquarters from Submarine Patrol Service, squadron leader Altof Hussein speaking. 10,000 ton cargo vessel torpedoed. Survivors are in lifeboats. Send rescue ship to pick them up. Drop depth bombs on the submarine. The submarine was sunk. Over. Ghost events headquarters from reconnaissance speed flight, Lieutenant Bernard Rower speaking, have cited strong task force of Japanese fleet approaching the east coast of India. Screen of Japanese fighter planes of great strength is guarding the naval force. I will continue to shadow the ships. Stand by for reports. Over. As the war progressed, the government expanded our Indian Air Force and the people helped too. Since the beginning of the war, public subscriptions in India have raised 4,500,000 pounds for aircraft. Day by day, we are building our Indian Air Force up to greater and greater strength. It was an historic day for us on July 12, 1942, when the Duke of Gloucester presented the general badge and end sign to the Indian Air Force at Rizalpur. Your history as an Air Force is brief, but in operations on the northwest frontier and in Burma, your exploits rank equally with those of the Allied Air Forces. Our Air Force becomes stronger in the skies, so our Royal Indian Navy is becoming stronger at sea. Our Navy now has a personnel 12 times greater than at the outbreak of the war. Today, our naval schools are training steadily increasing numbers of Indians for duty aboard ship. Our shipyards are turning out fighting men of war. We have been working day and night here in the shipyard, repairing vessels since the war began. Do you build any ships here? Not in this yard, but other Indian shipbuilding yards have been working to capacity, building vessels for the Royal Indian Navy. I thought there was no shipbuilding in India. There was none before the war. Well, as the foreman of this yard here, you use all your facilities for repairing ships? Yes. More than 4,000 sea-going vessels of all types were repaired in India in the first two and a half years alone of the war. After the fall of Singapore and the loss of the yards there, our yards here in India became all the more important. I imagine that some of the ships that come into your yard here are pretty badly in need of repair and refitting. Many of them are badly damaged, but we have the machinery and now I'm in a train to handle any repair job no matter how big. Our ships have taken part in the back... Ships of the Royal Indian Navy ranged far beyond our shores here. They played a part in the Battle of the Atlantic. They took part in the operations against the Italians in East Africa, in the campaign in Iran, in the defence of Singapore, and in the operations in the Dutch East Indies. It was in the fight for Singapore that the officers and men of His Majesty's Indian ship, Sutlej, distinguished themselves. The Sutlej formed part of the escort for a convoy moving through Bankers. There they are, sir, up there to the north. They have spotted us. They caught us in a bad place too, sir, and just narrowed straight. Sound the battle stations. Aye, aye, sir. Battle stations. Get the top of that gun. Load all anti-aircraft guns. Swing her around. Aye, aye, sir. They are dive bombers. How many can you make out? I reckon about 30. We must protect the convoy at all costs. It's going to be hard not being able to maneuver in this straight. Hold your fire till I order. They're making straight bombers. They're going to try to force us all first. All guns, fire. All guns, fire. They're concentrating on us. Here comes another way from the west. The starboard guns, stand by. Starboard guns, fire. Starboard guns, fire. How many ships in the convoy been hit? I don't know, sir. But they're plastering us for sure. They've attacked us. Not one of them. They're running off. They're running off. They've shot their bullets, sir. They seem to be going. They will be back. They will be attacking us all the way into Singapore. Convoys steamed on through the night, and the officers and crew of HMI Assortledge kept alert for the next attack that they knew would come. They arrived at Singapore with the convoy and dropped anchor. Then the Japanese dive bombers came back. All guns ready and standing by, sir. Dive bombers again. Aye-aye, sir. But they don't seem to be heading for us this time, sir. No, they are heading for the transport over there with the cargo of munitions. Good lord, if they... All guns, fire. All guns, fire. They hit it, sir. It's on fire. It's on fire. We have got to get those depth charges and ammunition off that transport before she blows up. Here comes another wave of dive bombers, sir. Keep the gun crews firing as long as there are planes in the air. I am calling for volunteers to go over to that transport and unload munitions. Here goes, sir. Continue firing. They lowered boats from the Sotland and the party of Indian sailors crossed to the burning transport. The flames spread through the munitions while the Indians struggled to remove it. The crew fought the flames inch by inch while the Indians unloaded the munitions. At last, they were through. They returned to the Sotland and steamed up with another convoy while wave after wave of Japanese dive bombers attacked them. They brought their convoy through and then returned to one of our Indian shipyards to be repaired and refitted before setting out again. I have seen the Indian Army forces grow. Indians volunteered in tens of thousands. Muslims, Rajputs, Maharatas, Jats, Dogras, Karwales, Sikhs. They volunteered in such numbers that for a time there was not equipment enough for them. They made an army of more than two million, the largest Indian army of all time, the largest volunteer army of any kind in all history. They have distinguished themselves on a hundred battlefields. My son, Devidas, is a lieutenant in the 4th Indian Division. When they landed in Egypt in August 1939, not one of them officers or men had ever handled an anti-tank gun or a mortar. This 4th Indian Division was part of the mere handful of men against great enemy forces around them. When France fell in 1940, their commander told them the dangers. We are at war with Italy. We are between two great Italian armies here in Egypt. This map tells the story. Look here. To the west of us is Libya. Graziani has 300,000 men. And over here to the southeast in the Italian East Africa is another army of 250,000 Italians. We can be attacked from either direction or both. If they succeed, that means... So the Imperial forces marched on Graziani's 300,000 in a raging sandstorm. The 4th was there, and my son marched with them. Subedar, Richard, Abraham. Yes, sir. You will deploy your platoon to the left and await orders. Yes, sir. By the left. Quick, march! Our objective is near Benoit. If we take that, the way will be open to city Barani. This sandstorm has been blowing for two days now. But that is to our advantage. We may surprise the Italians. In any case, they will have difficulty seeing us. Shun! Shun! Carry on, Subedar. Quick, march! So sudden and brilliant was their attack that they swept in and took 4,000 prisoners and took Nebevac, the key that unlocked the gates to city Barani. Then they were sent a thousand miles to Abyssinia, and it was before the great mountain fortress of Keren that Subedar Rishpal Ram distinguished himself. Subedar, the commander has been hit. Badly, he is dead. Brothers, all you men in my platoon, can you hear me? Yes, sir. The crest of this hill is our objective. Fix your bayonets. Are we going straight into the machine gun nests with bayonets? Follow me. Forward! We started with our left. Our casualties are heavy, Subedar Sahib. Give force to the wounded. We have got to prepare for a counter attack. Yes, sir. Under Subedar Rishpal Ram, those of the 30 who are left beat off six counter attacks between midnight and 4.30 in the morning. Then their ammunition gave out. Brothers, no supplies can reach us here. We have got to bayonet our way back to our battalion. They got back. But five days later, Subedar Rishpal Ram cut his way through even heavier and more accurate fire. Forward, men! Forward! Rishpal Ram is hit. But he keeps right on going, leading the attack. Forward! Forward! Subedar, your foot. Your foot. Forget me. Forward! Forward! Look, his foot is blown off. Forward, brothers! Forward! They got him again with that machine gun. Subedar Rishpal Ram, let me give you... Never mind me. Forward! We will capture that hill crest. Forward! He's gone. He's gone. This later, Subedar Rishpal Ram's widow travelled from her village in Patiala State to receive from the Viceroy of India the highest honor for bravery in battle in the King's Gift, the Victoria Cross. The Indian division marched on. By the time of El Alamen in November 1942, not one of the original 15,000 was left. The 4th had suffered 100% casualties, but it had captured more than 100,000 Italians and Germans. The 4th Indian division spearheaded the drive at El Alamen. The 4th Indian division is in action at Jabesh, Udreth, at Sajinah, at Sfax, at Suls. The 4th Indian division in operations around Ankheteville have captured General Barnarnum, commandant chief of the Nazi forces in North Africa. As the 4th Indian division made history, so have our other men. As Indians fought in Burma and North Africa, so are they fighting today in the Italian hills, and so will they fight wherever the men of the United Nations carry the war. With its central geographic position, its wealth of natural resources, its expanding industries, is the Pivotal Defense Center of the Middle East, a strategic stronghold of the United Nations. Waiting at a microphone in Washington, D.C. to tell the significance of India's place in the war effort is Sir Frederick Puckel, for 25 years in the Indian Civil Service, and now attached to the British Embassy in the United States. The next voice you will hear will be that of Sir Frederick Puckel. We take you now to Washington, D.C. You've just heard the story of India at war. It has a double significance, I think, for tomorrow as well as for today. I've spent too long in India, 30 years, to fall into the trap of generalizing about 400 million people. So when I say that India is at war, I do not mean that war is the day's work for everyone, as it is, for instance, in London. I do not mean that 400 million people are working 100% for victory. You know, as well as I do, that there are some who are not, and the Vice-Rover of India has lately acknowledged that there are able and high-minded men among them. No. India's war effort is significant, not because it is 100% unanimous, which it is not, but because, though political bad blood between some Indians and the British and between some Indians and other Indians has persuaded a small but influential minority that their duty is to stand aside, still, this line of reasoning has not convinced the great majority of their fellow countrymen. These have come forward in their millions to carry every rifle and every machine gun that the resources of the United Nations can give them to man every ship which we can build and to fly every plane which we can ferry to India. They have come in their millions to build scores of our fields and to keep every factory in the country. From Tatars, the biggest steelworks of the British Empire down to the one-man smithy in the back street, working full-time. They have come in their millions to carry more men and freight on the railways than ever before, to unload every ship that can reach an Indian port and to keep a record acreage under food grains. The response of labour is particularly significant, for Indian labour in peacetime was apt to strike rather easily. I believe I am right in saying that in proportion to the labour force engaged, the number of days lost in India through strikes during the war compares favourably with the figures for any other country. Even more significant is this. More millions of people are working together in a common cause today in India than have ever worked together for any cause in India before. And that cause is the cause of the United Nations. This, to my mind, is the significance of the Indian war effort for us today. What about the significance of India's war effort for us tomorrow? India is on the threshold of political manhood. And we have an obvious interest in asking what sort of a nation is emerging from the 5,000 years of Indian history. India is on the list for full membership of the company of free democratic peoples. She can take up her membership as soon as ever after victory. Her people can make up their minds how they will and can take delivery of the great responsibility of self-government. That is the British pledge to India and to the world. What significance has India's part in the war to the prospect of her playing a part in the future, worthy of her ancient civilization? I think a twofold significance. First, on the material side, India will emerge from the war as far as one can foretell with her finances and her industrial equipment greatly strengthened. She will be a creditor instead of a debtor nation. Four years ago, India owed Britain over one and a half billion dollars. The war has not only wiped out this debt, but it has already turned it into a credit balance of more than two and a quarter billion dollars. This fund, which increases daily, will put India in the position of being able to pay for the capital goods, which she will need after the war to bring her industries up to modern standards. She has already much of the necessary material apparatus of a modern state, railways, telegraphs, roads, irrigation, ports, industries and social services. She will also have a much more adequate supply of trained executives and of skilled technicians and mechanics. I can see no reason why, after the war, India should not be able to develop greatly both her industries and her agriculture and to raise considerably her general standard of living. On the moral side, she will have put perhaps two and a half million of her young men through the middle of war. Many of them, as officers, will have learnt the habit of command and of taking responsibility and will provide her with a source of leadership which she will need badly. More important still, these two and a half million will have learnt war's greatest lesson to the individual. The importance of the man on either side of you to you yourself and your responsibility to him, whoever he may be. They will have learnt, in fact, that the world is one. The other day, the viceroy, Lord Wavell, speaking to the Indian legislature, described his vision of India in these words. India at peace with herself. A partner in our great commonwealth of nations. A mother of a great people. A shield for peace in the east. Busy and prosperous. Yet with leisure to develop thought and poetry and art which are the real salt of life and of which she has already contributed so much to the world. The war has made this vision no mere fantasy. I came across a memorable praise the other day. The life of the nation is the fullness of the measure of its will to live. India at war has shown both her will and her capacity to live. This seems to be the cheap significance of her war effort for Indians and for us. The Pacific Story continues from Hollywood. Thank you, Sir Frederick Puckle. You have been listening to the Pacific Story presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the crosscurrents of life in the Pacific Basin. A reprint of this Pacific Story program is available at the cost of $0.10. Send $0.10 in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. We repeat. Send $0.10 in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso, your narrator, Gaine Whitman. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.