The Special Operations Executive in Burma: Jungle Warfare and Intelligence Gathering in World War II by Richard Duckett

Author:Richard Duckett [Duckett, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Technology & Engineering, Social Science, Expeditions & Discoveries, Islamic Studies, Military, Special Forces, Medieval, Political Science, Revolutionary, World War II, Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, Military Science, Great Britain, History, General, Historical, Europe, Biography & Autobiography, Intelligence & Espionage
ISBN: 9781784539122
Google: QROJDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 34881281
Publisher: I.B.Tauris
Published: 2017-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

Introduction of European Personnel, Training and Briefing

By February 1944, shortly before P Force's extraction from the Chindwin area, Major Peacock had recruited four officers, 17 non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and 104 riflemen.22 The majority were Burmans from the Chindwin area. In June 1944, most of this force were sent to Camp Tweed, in Eastern Bengal, which had been built specifically to accommodate P Force.23 After parachute training, the teams went to Ceylon for jungle training, this being delayed for six weeks until November 1944 by fever contracted at Camp Tweed.24 Their recovery coincided with the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Musgrave, the new commandant of training at ME25 in Ceylon, and the first European personnel.

Lieutenant Colonel George Musgrave arrived back in the Far East in November 1944, and also came with a distinguished record of irregular service. After organising guerrillas in Aden and then fighting the Italians in British Somaliland in 1941, he had been sent to the Bush Warfare School at Maymyo, Burma, run by Major Mike Calvert. He had contracted black-water fever during the retreat from Burma in 1942, and as a result the doctors were set against him returning to the East for any length of time. This advice seems to have been overruled given SOE's need for people with experience of active service in the Far East, and of training Jedburgh teams in Europe.25

The Jedburgh concept, as developed in the European theatre, was to put specially trained teams of three men behind the lines.26 This had been done in occupied France, Belgium and Holland. Teams usually consisted of an officer who was either a local or someone who had detailed knowledge of the area of operations, a British or American officer, and a proficient W/T operator, normally a sergeant. Their job was to train the resistance in sabotage and guerrilla tactics, and to transmit intelligence to Britain. The first Jedburgh team had left for France on the night of 5 June 1944, as the D-Day invasion forces crossed the English Channel. Their job was to provide intelligence to assist the invasion and coordinate the Resistance. With their operations in France largely complete by the summer of 1944, many Jeds then chose to go to the Far East in search of more special operations.

Musgrave had lobbied hard to be allowed to return to the Far East. At the end of August 1944 he went to India and met India Mission officers to establish the operational guidelines for those Jeds who were to be transferred to the Far East. At a meeting held on 7 September 1944, general principles were agreed, and in addition three specific roles for Jeds in Burma were settled. Firstly, Jed teams would be used to develop Burmese resistance with the Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) in Operation Billet. Secondly, they would be used in the Karen Hills. Thirdly, they would be attached to P Force, which would provide protection for the Jed teams until local guerrillas had been raised.28 By the end of September 1944, 17 British officers and 12 W/T operators had volunteered to be transferred to Force 136.

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