Indian Soldiers Among the First Victims of Gas Attacks in World War I

This is the centenary of the First World War, a war in which 74,000 Indians were killed fighting in some of the greatest battles around the world. The Flanders Fields of Belgium today have lush agricultural land and rolling countryside. 100 years ago, these were fields of death. Fighting to defend the town of Ypres, a defensive line against a German onslaught towards the Allied ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, Indian soldiers were among the first victims of chemical warfare in military history.