War Bush: 81 (West African) Division in Burma, 1943-1945 ; North Arakan, Kaladan, Mowdok, Tinma, Myohaung, Chindits 1944, Burma 1943-1945

MILITARY GENERAL. SCARCE
“VERY interesting expose of the way the Burma War was run. My father never talked about his experiences as a British officer commanding a platoon of what would now be called Ghanaians. This book revealed why. It wasn’t the dirty, ugly, brutal, traumatic, stressful and yes, shameful business of jungle fighting against the fanatical Japanese as adversaries (as I had assumed), but of the frustration of junior field officers with the tactical incompetence of their HQ staff, exacerbated by their seniors’ low expectations of the capabilities of West African troops. “The Forgotten Unit of the Forgotten Army” just about sums it up. Now I know why I found almost no reference to the West African Brigades even in Field-Marshal Slim’s definitive work “Defeat Into Victory”, documenting the Burma War.

I will not give the ‘plot’ away – you’ll have to read the book yourself – but I can guarantee if YOU had been in charge of a body of incredibly competent, courageous and loyal black men ready to die for a King on another continent, you would be tearing your hair out at the way you would have been expected (or perhaps ordered) to treat them.

Thank you for a very enlightening and thoughtful read. Dad was right to keep his trap shut.”

The 81st (West African) Division[2] was formed under British control during the Second World War. It took part in the Burma Campaign.

The inspiration for the division’s formation came from General George Giffard, commander of the British Army’s West Africa Command, who subsequently commanded India Command’s Eastern Army, facing the Japanese army on the frontier between India and Burma. Giffard had wide experience with African troops, and was eager for them to participate in the war.

The framework around which the division was formed was the Royal West African Frontier Force. One of the brigades (the 3rd West African) and several of the supporting units which formed the division had already seen action with the 11th (African) Division, against the Italians in East Africa.

The division was established as the 1st (West African) Division on 1 March 1943. Three days later it was renamed the 81st (West African) Division, taking the next vacant number in the list of British infantry divisions. The division’s badge was a spider, in black on a yellow circular background. This spider was a reference to Ananse, a cunning character in Ashanti mythology, and drawn so that when a soldier raised his weapon to fire, the spider would appear to be going forwards.

Doctors operating on some of the 81st Division’s casualties in Burma, August 1944
The division arrived in India on 14 August 1943. The movement of the 5th (West African) Brigade was delayed, however, after the troopship which was to carry it was lost in the German attack on Convoy Faith off Portugal on the night of 11/12 July 1943. The 3rd (West African) Brigade was detached to the Chindits, and was intended to garrison jungle bases for the raiding columns. The remainder of the division took part in the second Arakan campaign from February to May, 1944, operating in the Kaladan Valley on the flank of Indian XV Corps.

In late March, substantial Japanese reinforcements (with some troops from the Indian National Army) outflanked the division and forced it to retreat over a range of hills out of the Kaladan valley into that of the Kalapanzin.

In August, the division re-entered the Kaladan valley, forcing the Japanese and Indian National Army to abandon Mowdok, a few miles east of the Indian / Burmese frontier. The division then advanced down the valley once again, reaching Myohaung near the mouth of the river on 28 January 1945.

The division was withdrawn to India to rest on 22 April 1945. On 31 August, it was returned to West Africa and disbanded.
pp. 400 illusts #120522