The Subhas Brigade, or the 1st Guerilla Regiment was a unit of the Indian National Army (INA)

Indian National Army

The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...

. The unit was formed in 1943 and unofficially referred to as Subhas Brigade after the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n independence

Indian independence movement

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

 leader Subhas Chandra Bose, who at the time was also the supreme commander of the army. The unit was the first and major commitment of the second INA in the Imphal Offensive, and along with Azad

Azad Brigade

The Azad Brigade or the 3rd Guerrilla regiment of the Indian National Army formed a part of the First INA and later formed a part of the 1st Division after its revival under Subhas Chandra Bose....

, Gandhi

Gandhi Brigade (Regiment)

The Gandhi Brigade or the 2nd Guerrilla regiment of the Indian National Army formed a part of the First INA and later formed a part of the 1st Division after its revival under Subhas Chandra Bose....

 and Nehru Brigade

Nehru Brigade

The 4th Guerrilla regiment, or the Nehru Brigade of the Indian National Army formed a part of the First INA and later formed a part of the 1st Division after its revival under Subhas Chandra Bose....

, the Army's contribution to the Imperial Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

's U-go offensive.

The Brigade was divided into three battalion

Battalion

A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...

s under the command of Shah Nawaz Khan

Shah Nawaz Khan (general)

Shahnawaz Khan was an Indian soldier who is remembered as an officer who served in the Second Indian National Army during World War II and later came to be one of the three defendants in the first of the INA trials in 1946....

. By the beginning of January 1944 it had reached Rangoon

Yangon

Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...

 in Burma, where two battalions remained to guard the border between Burma and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 near Haka

Hakha

Hakha is the capital of Chin State in Burma. Its located in the northeast in Chin State. The vernacular name of the city was Halkha. The total area of Hakha is about . The town of Hakha, more than 6,000 feet above the sea level, is founded on a small highland plateau...

 while the third advanced into India across the Kaladan River

Kaladan River

The Kaladan River is a river in eastern Mizoram State of India, and in Chin State and Rakhine State of western Myanmar. It forms the international border between India and Burma between 22° 47′ 10" N and 22° 11′ 06" N.-Geography:The river arises in central Chin State as the Timit, 22° 49′ 28″ N ...

. Elements of the Brigade subsequently took part in the Battles of Imphal

Battle of Imphal

The Battle of Imphal took place in the region around the city of Imphal, the capital of the state of Manipur in North-East India from March until July 1944. Japanese armies attempted to destroy the Allied forces at Imphal and invade India, but were driven back into Burma with heavy losses...

 and Kohima

Battle of Kohima

The Battle of Kohima was the turning point of the Japanese U Go offensive into India in 1944 in the Second World War. The battle was fought from 4 April to 22 June 1944 around the town of Kohima in northeast India. It is often referred to as the "Stalingrad of the East".The battle took place in...

, where they were forced to withdraw alongside the Japanese forces they supported. These battles marked the turning point in the Burma Campaign

Burma Campaign

The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily between British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces against the forces of the Empire of Japan, Thailand, and the Indian National Army. British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from...

.

Bose himself did not wish to have the Brigade named for him, but the name was kept.

Sources

• http://banglapedia.org/HT/I_0046.HTM Banglapedia
  Banglapedia
  Banglapedia, or the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, is the first Bangladeshi encyclopedia. It is available in print, CD-ROM format and online, in both Bangla and English. The print version comprises ten 500-page volumes...
  
  
• Getz, Marshall J., Subhas Chandra Bose: A Biography, 2002 (ISBN 0-7864-1265-8), quoted in a Stone & Stone review by Bill Stone.