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The War in Russia - April 1919

Although fighting on the Western Front had finished months earlier many troops still awaited their demobilisation from the armed forces.

In part this was due to the scale of demobilisation. Other factors included the political unrest in several parts of Europe. The British army, along with those of many other Allied powers, had made a commitment to aid the 'White Russians' in the Russian Civil War. These Russians were trying to prevent the Bolsheviks from taking total control of Russia and ultimately wanted to oust the revolutionary government.

In April of 1919 senior officers toured through many of the army camps in England seeking volunteers for the latest mission to Northern Russia. A force was to be sent via Archangel to support the white Russians campaign against Trotsky's Red Army.

Most men had tired of war by this stage, volunteers for another war were hard to come by, but the British did send an expeditionary Force to Archangel in April 1919 which fought, with limited success, in the Russian Civil War. The British by this time had little enthusiasm for fighting and did not make as large a commitment to the White Russian cause as might have been the case.

The Amritsar Massacre

In India political pressure had been rising. The Indian population wanted more say in the way that india was run. As a nation they had supported the war effort, proved their loyalty to the British and demonstrated their ability to manage their own affairs time and again. During the war emergency measures and laws had been intrduced, as they had been throughout the empire. In 1919 it was assumed that these laws would not only be repealed, but replaced with more liberal laws to reflect the efforts of the Indian people during the great war. Quite the opposite happened. The Rowlatt Acts of early 1919 merely extended the wartime restrictions.

In the Punjab province, where half of the Indian army during the Great War had been recruited, their was fury at the Acts. Several large protest rallies were organised to demonstrate the peoples frustration at the acts. At one, in Amritsar, things got out of hand and a mob rampaged through the old city, with several people being murdered.

Three days later a further mass rally was held in Amritsar. It was a peaceful rally. The British general in charge of security on that day clearly thought otherwise though. General Dyer took 50 of his men to the rally. 10,000 people were at the protest, none of whom were causing a disturbance. Dyer ordered his men to fire on the crowd. 1600 rounds of ammunition were fired into the crowd, who had little chance of escaping. Approximately 400 innocent civilians died with over a thousand injured. Dyer and his men only left when they had run out of bullets.

Amazingly the governor of Punjab supported dyer's actions, although many politicians in Westminster realised that the act was barbaric. Dyer was relieved of his position: though not in disgrace. The people of Punjab responded with peaceful protests. No longer did they support the british Raj, as they had done with much loyalty and loss during the Great War.