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 →
Photo from the private papers of Captain Tony Bennett In March 1945, six Shan parachuted into Burma east of the town of Moulmein. They were part of team Antelope, led by Major Ian Abbey, Captain John Bryant, and their W/T... 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 →
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 →
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 7 December, 1945, exactly four years since the Japanese opened hostilities against Western targets in the Far East, Colonel Mount Stephen Cumming of Force 136 wrote a letter of thanks to the commander of RAF Jessore, in India. Addressing... 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 