Hyderabad ARP badge

[Khyber]

Picked up from Hyderabad!

[High Wood]

Very nice and probably very scarce. What does the Urdu say?

[Wmr-RHB]

Originally Posted by High Wood

What does the Urdu say?

I am not a professional Arabic reader, but my interpretation:

ay - ar - pee (thus the phonetic writing of what English speaker would say to ARP).

hydrabadd'n (self explaining?)

[Home Guard]

A very nice badge indeed!!!

Terry

[High Wood]

Originally Posted by Wmr-RHB

I am not a professional Arabic reader, but my interpretation:

ay - ar - pee (thus the phonetic writing of what English speaker would say to ARP).

hydrabadd'n (self explaining?)

Thank you for the translation. Had the script been in Hindi I could have probably worked it out.

[Khyber]

Yes it is ARP Hyderabad. My 12-yr-old daughter did the translation using google lens translator on the smartphone !!
As she rightly points out I'm Generation A and she's Gen Zee

[Wmr-RHB]

Originally Posted by High Wood

Thank you for the translation. Had the script been in Hindi I could have probably worked it out.

Well, it is not really a translation, but a transcription. Just replacing the Arabic characters with the corresponding Latin ones. But as the result is not a bunch of Urdu words, I guess we all understand what it means.

And yes, in Devanagri they do the same: writing phonetically how the English pronounce their alphabetic characters.

[Phil2M]

Originally Posted by Khyber

Yes it is ARP Hyderabad. My 12-yr-old daughter did the translation using google lens translator on the smartphone !!
As she rightly points out I'm Generation A and she's Gen Zee

Generation A is the youngest generation, the current junior school children

[Home Guard]

On the subject of which generation is which... I know for sure that I am Generation Old!!!

Terry

[Khyber]

Originally Posted by Phil2M

Generation A is the youngest generation, the current junior school children

The memsaab would agree! She's always saying that our daughter is growing up but I'm still stuck at 16 and getting more childish with ever passing year ; l

[Khyber]

Staying on topic.. Apart from this the one other princely state that I know issued an ARP badge was Indore..but some others might have done so as well..has anyone ever spotted one?

[High Wood]

I imagine that Calcutta and Dacca should have had A.R.P. units as both were on the receiving end of Japanese bombs.

[Khyber]

Originally Posted by High Wood

I imagine that Calcutta and Dacca should have had A.R.P. units as both were on the receiving end of Japanese bombs.

Simon, I think there was just a single (I havent seen more than one!) ARP badge for India, white metal, and not very well made unlike the British badges. They turn up often - I think I have two with minor variations.

I know there were separate ARP badges for HK, the Straits Settlements, Malta. I am not sure and I may be wrong or confusing it with something else, but did Kenya also have an ARP badge?

I guess the ARP in India was activated in Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and other coastal cities (have seen pics of Parsi ladies on ARP drill in Bombay) but I can't image why Hyderabad and Indore which were well inland had to worry about air attacks.

[mike_vee]

Originally Posted by Khyber

I can't image why Hyderabad and Indore which were well inland had to worry about air attacks.

Airbase/training targets ?

"Indian and British squadrons frequently rotated through Hyderabad, and Begumpet was a major training centre for both British and Indian personnel. Some distinguished Hyderabadi aviators, including (late) Air Vice-Marshal Abbas Hussain, and later, Air Marshal Krishna Rao, and Captain P. M. Reddy, father-in-law of Anuradha Reddy of INTACH, served as instructors at Begumpet during the War.”


.

[Khyber]

Originally Posted by mike_vee

Airbase/training targets ?

"Indian and British squadrons frequently rotated through Hyderabad, and Begumpet was a major training centre for both British and Indian personnel. Some distinguished Hyderabadi aviators, including (late) Air Vice-Marshal Abbas Hussain, and later, Air Marshal Krishna Rao, and Captain P. M. Reddy, father-in-law of Anuradha Reddy of INTACH, served as instructors at Begumpet during the War.”


.

Thanks Mike, was not aware of this. Actually I'm not much up on the role of the navy and airforce in India during ww2. That is a gap that needs to be filled!

As for ARP, not much is written as far as I know except for a single book on the civilian 'Homefront' in India during both wars unlike the scores of books on life on the homefront in Britain.