Mysore Lancers & their role in world war – I

Towards the end of the First World War (1914-1918), a crucial battle took place in Haifa (now in Israel) on September 23, 1918, which has a connection with the erstwhile princely State of Mysore. On that day, soldiers belonging to the Mysore Lancers, a cavalry regiment raised by the Mysore State who were armed only with lances (a long spear-like javelin) and swords, won one of the most important encounters of the ‘Great War’ for the Allied forces when they defeated the better-equipped Ottoman soldiers at Haifa. The day’s events are also significant for military historians as this was one of the last cavalry charges that resulted in a victory in a modern war as cavalries would become redundant in subsequent mechanized wars.

The Mysore Lancers were part of 15 Cavalry Division of Allied Forces; was deputed to guard southern oil fields of Iran and Suez Canal, to Mesopotamia, to assist allied forces and Sinai Peninsula, Gaza and Palestine to wage war against the Ottoman Turks and Germans army to liberate the City of Haifa, which is in the present-day Israel. The Officers & Men of Mysore Lancers have made supreme sacrifice and over 200 persons were martyred and are interned under the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.