On the night of 20 January 1945, a daylight sortie was made to locate suitable drop zones (DZ) for a party of five that was codenamed Rhino. Rhino consisted of Major Henry Morrison James; his 2i/c, Captain Albert Ramsay Maitland;... Continue Reading →
For this VJ Day, I am going to keep it really simple. What follows are decoded messages and congratulations sent to Force 136 / SOE immediatly before and after the 15 August 1945, as well as how to deal with... Continue Reading →
The Bengali Surti Sunni Jamah Mosque. Visit Yangon Time machine for a view in 1895 and more on its history. Probably Yangon's oldest mosque, and where Latif and his followers attended prayers. Tucked away as a random page in a... Continue Reading →
Map Credit 'Warfare History Network' (article here worth a look too!) After the success of defending Imphal and Kohima, General Slim was keen to keep the pressure on the Japanese and pursue them to the Chindwin River as they retreated... Continue Reading →
'With the campaign in Burma successfully concluding, it is possible to make a Statement of Account, showing the pre-war attitude of the Burma Peoples vis-a-vis the British, as compared with now. On balance, is there a debit or a credit.........'... Continue Reading →
In April 1945 at the Force 136 training camp in Ceylon known as ME25, a team of six men was formed up for operations east of the Salween River in south east Burma. There were two Captains in the team,... Continue Reading →
A Daylight drop to Operation Character, Team Mongoose courtesy of Simon Leney In February 1944, 1576 Special Duty Flight, hitherto consisting of exhausted Hudsons, became 357 SD Squadron, equipped with Liberator. Force 136 finally had the aircraft capable of turning... Continue Reading →
On Christmas Day 1944, just after lunch, a jeep carrying more persons than was considered safe, flipped over on the track inside Fagu camp in India. Fagu was the home of the Indian Field Broadcasting Units (IFBU), later known as... Continue Reading →
A Karen Static Levy, or Home Guard, recruited and trained to protect the villages but not go on patrols. The National Archives, HS 7/107 The contribution of the many races of Burma to the defeat of the Japanese is entirely... Continue Reading →
IFBU Insignia: Credit Psyopsinsignia There's already some information about IFBUs out there, see for example this on the Friends of the Intelligence Corps website and this thread on WW2 Talk. There is also the fairly well-known death of two IFBU... Continue Reading →
The Delta Region today, not much different from how team Panda would have experienced it. Photo from Pandaw Irrawaddy Delta Cruises Throughout the war in Burma, from the time preceding the Japanese invasion to after the formal end of hostilities,... Continue Reading →
From late 1943 until the Japanese attack on India in March 1944, SOE had patrol groups known a 'P Force' operating on the Imphal Front. Their job was to establish a network of agents through the frontline for intelligence purposes,... Continue Reading →
The story of Major Hugh Paul Seagrim continues to attract attention, from the first book about him published by The Times correspondent Ian Morrison in 1947, to the more recent book by Philip Davies seventy years later. Even more recently,... Continue Reading →
On 12 December 2020, an article entitled 'In Support of Difficult History' was brought to my attention in a tweet by Professor Jennifer Evans (@JenniferVEvans). The article detailed how Dr. Anna Hájková had been subject to legal proceedings because of... Continue Reading →
Lt. Leslie Cusden, official photographer, with Karen allies at Bolo Auk 1945 The Men of SOE Burma page of this website has been a 'work in progress' for the best part of four years now. It is by far the... Continue Reading →
SOE was not supposed to be an intelligence organisation, with clear lines of responsibilty set out so it did not stand on the toes of the Secret Intelligence Service. Intelligence naturally came with SOE operations, however, and became quite a... Continue Reading →
More plentiful times: a supply drop in Burma, 1945. Photo credit Sgt. Roger Leney In his history of SOE in the Far East, the official historian, Charles Cruickshank, claims that the organisation existed in a 'funcional vacuum' due to its... Continue Reading →
The Special Operations Executive in Burma 1941-1945 