At Keren in Eritrea in 1941, Indian divisions took a mountain position that had held for seven weeks, in some of the hardest fighting of the East African campaign. Subedar Richhpal Ram of the 6th Rajputana Rifles received the Victoria Cross.
At Monte Cassino in Italy in 1944, Indian units including Punjabi battalions were in the assaults on the monastery position, and the Commonwealth cemeteries in the Liri valley hold their graves.
At Kohima and Imphal in 1944, the Japanese advance into India was stopped by a force in which Indian units were the majority. The battle is regularly voted the greatest British Army battle and it was fought mostly by Indians.
Punjabi battalions were in all three, along with everything from Malaya to Burma.
The Indian Army of 1945 was two and a half million men, the largest volunteer force in history, and Punjab supplied its largest single share.
Britain remembers the campaigns and Punjab remembers the pensions, and the men are on memorials in Eritrea, Italy and Nagaland that nobody from their villages will ever see.
Keren in Eritrea in 1941 was fought over bare rock and is remembered in Indian regimental history as one of the hardest infantry actions of the war.
Monte Cassino in Italy and the Kohima and Imphal fighting in 1944 both involved Punjab recruited units heavily, and the casualty lists went back to the same districts each time.
The men who came home in 1946 were demobilised into a province that was divided the following year, and many of them were in the fighting of 1947 within eighteen months.