Colonial Troops - Disadvantages

Disadvantages

Colonial troops were usually more lightly equipped than their metropolitan counterparts (to whom priority in issuing new weaponry was usually given). This arose primarily from the predominantly light infantry or cavalry roles of colonial forces, designed for low intensity colonial warfare against poorly armed opponents in difficult country. Until World War II, it was rare to find artillery or mechanised units comprising indigenous troops (although the Italian colonial army maintained a number of Eritrean, Somali and Libyan mule artillery batteries; and there were locally recruited mountain batteries in the Indian Army). This relative lack of up to date weaponry and training put colonial troops at an initial disadvantage when facing modern opponents such as the German or Japanese Armies of World War II.

Even earlier, the African and Indian troops sent to France in 1914 had encountered a climate, diet and general conditions of service that differed greatly from those with which they were familiar. The African tirailleurs of the French Army had to be withdrawn to southern France for recuperation and training during the harsh winters of the Western Front. All Indian troops (with the exception of some cavalry regiments) were withdrawn from the Western Front in October 1915, to serve in Mesopotamia, Palestine and East Africa.

On the other hand the regiments of the Indian Army, who were an army in their own right with responsibilities in the wider Empire and were thus equipped as such (apart from not having certain capabilities), were able to take on the Turks, Germans, Italians and later Japanese more or less on their own (though there was always a substantial British presence). In the early stages of World War I (November 1914) a British-Indian expeditionary force suffered a major defeat by well trained and led German colonial troops at the Battle of Tanga in East Africa. At the same time however two divisions of Indian infantry fought with distinction in France in a type of war and climate for which they had had little preparation.

The selection of particular tribes for use in the colonial military, in conjunction with the tendency of colonial powers to label tribes with specific character traits, lead to the intensification of rivalry between ethnic groups within the colonies. This rivalry could, arguably, be considered as one of the causes of some post-colonial ethnic conflicts. This can be seen in the British theory of Martial Races and the use of a policy of divide and rule throughout its Empire; for example in the use of the Turkish minority to police Cyprus during their rule.