It appears not only was there Indian and Cypriot troops fighting with the BEF in France during 1940. I recently discovered a Palestinian (Jewish) BEF War Diary (WO 167/1340) at Kew. Sadly its not very detailed but: CO Major H J Cator Royal Scots Greys 2/IC Captain J A Cleaves Royal Engineers Chaplain Captain B Cherrick Royal Army Chaplains Department MO Lieut M Braun Royal Army Medical Corps Duty Officers: Lieut J M L Bostock Royal Artillery Lieut E Edney-Hayter Royal Artillery Lieut A Daniel Royal Artillery Troop Commanders (?): 2/Lieut A S Nahmias Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps 2/Lieut L Rapaport Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps 2/Lieut A E Kahanof Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps [Names are best guess to standard of writing] 0900 hrs 21st February 1940 - Coy Entrained full strength at Sarafand 1600 hrs 21st February 1940 - Coy embarked HT Devonshire at Haifa 0600 hrs 22nd February 1940 - HT Devonshire sails from Haifa 1600 hrs 25th February 1940 - HT Devonshire anchors at Malta 0800 hrs 26th February 1940 - HT Devonshire sails from Malta 0800 hrs 28th February 1940 - HT Devonshire anchors in Marseilles Harbour 0800 hrs 29th February 1940 - 401 Pal Coy entrained. 0800 hrs 2nd March 1940 - 401 Pal Coy arrived at Rennes Station/ Quarry Camp 0800 hrs 4th March 1940 to 0800 hrs 30th March 1940 - 401 Pal Coy working at Quarry Camp in parties of 470 to 640 men with Sundays off 1100 hrs 31st March 1940 - Football Match 401 Pal Coy v 27 Coy AMPC. Won 2-1 If anyone is interested I'll post Apr, May and June's entries.
The unit gets a mention in an article here from the Canadian Jewish Review Canadian Jewish Review | Multicultural Canada
