V Force
Encyclopedia
V Force was a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering organisation established by the British during the Burma Campaign
in World War II
.
from Burma and seemed likely to invade India
, General Sir Archibald Wavell ordered the creation of a guerilla organisation which was to operate along the frontier between India and Burma. This frontier ran for 800 miles (1200 kilometres), from the Himalayas
to the Bay of Bengal
.
V Force was envisaged as a "stay-behind" force. If the Japanese had invaded India after the monsoon
season ended late in 1942, V Force was to harass their lines of communications with ambushes and sabotage, and to provide intelligence from behind enemy lines.
The force was organised into six area commands, corresponding to the Indian Civil Service administrative areas, which in turn corresponded to the ethnicity of the inhabitants of the various parts of the frontier. Each area command had a Commander, Second-in-Command, Adjutant, Quartermaster and Medical Officer, four platoons (about 100 men) of the paramilitary Assam Rifles
and up to 1,000 locally enlisted guerillas or auxiliaries
.
The area commanders and other officers were rarely Regular Army officers; the qualification for appointment was more often expert knowledge of the local language and peoples. Some commanders were police officers or former civil administrators. Even some tea planters served as senior officers of V Force.
The Japanese did not invade India in 1942 as had been feared. V Force was able to consolidate itself in the wide area between the Allied and Japanese main forces. Bases and outposts were set up, standing patrols instituted and intelligence gathered and collated. By the end of 1943, the force had been reorganised into two main zones: Assam Zone, including Imphal
and all the frontier north of it, and Arakan Zone to the south. Detachments in Tripura
were disbanded as they were deep inside India and unlikely to be threatened; an American organisation later took over the northernmost areas around Ledo
.
When the Indian Eastern Army carried out a small-scale invasion of Japanese-occupied Arakan
in early 1943, V Force provided a degree of warning about the movements of Japanese reserves to the threatened area.
had been drawn down over 1943) and there were too many demands on Allied transport aircraft to allow supply drops to them. As a result they were unable to harass the Japanese lines of communication as had been planned, and had to disband or make their way back into Allied lines.
The Lushai Brigade
was formed from Indian infantry battalions and several thousand of V Force's former levies in the Lushai Hills, west of Imphal. Under Brigadier P. C. Marindin, they achieved great success against the lines of communication of the Japanese 33rd Division
, and later spearheaded the Fourteenth Army's advance to the Ayeyarwady River
west of the Chindwin River
.
When the Japanese retreated late in 1944 and the Allies advanced, V Force changed its character. Small detachments of native-speaking personnel operated immediately ahead of the advancing regular formations, to gather short-range intelligence. Ambushes were also conducted against the retreating Japanese forces when possible. A very similar unit, Z Force
, established by Fourteenth Army, operated further ahead, its parties being deployed by helicopter
or parachute
between 80 miles (128.7 km) and 100 miles (160.9 km) ahead of the main forces.
Once Burma was largely reoccupied in 1945, V Force began deploying parties in Siam
and Malaya
in readiness for future operations. The war ended before they could be used in their intended role.
showed what was possible with assistance from regular units.
Regular formation commanders were occasionally scathing about the intelligence provided by V Force. One such was Lieutenant-General Geoffrey Scoones
, Commander of IV Corps. Concerning the arrival of Japanese reinforcements at the height of the Battle of Imphal
, he wrote:
Scoones was not referring to V Force alone. However, one of his subordinates at Imphal (Major-General Douglas Gracey, commanding Indian 20th Infantry Division
) broke up his best battalion (9/12th Frontier Force Regiment
) to provide his own forward screen, rather than relying on V Force.
For most of the Burma campaign, Allied formation commanders treated reports from organisations such as V Force as reliable only when a British officer personally gained the information. V Force was also hampered by lack of Japanese translators or interpreters to deal with captured documents.
. It was accepted that "civilians" with local expertise were entitled to command regular officers. Above all, V Force depended on the goodwill and loyalty of the local populations among which they operated, and made great efforts to gain this.
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...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Establishment and organisation
In April 1942, when the Japanese drove the British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
from Burma and seemed likely to invade 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...
, General Sir Archibald Wavell ordered the creation of a guerilla organisation which was to operate along the frontier between India and Burma. This frontier ran for 800 miles (1200 kilometres), from the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
to the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...
.
V Force was envisaged as a "stay-behind" force. If the Japanese had invaded India after the monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
season ended late in 1942, V Force was to harass their lines of communications with ambushes and sabotage, and to provide intelligence from behind enemy lines.
The force was organised into six area commands, corresponding to the Indian Civil Service administrative areas, which in turn corresponded to the ethnicity of the inhabitants of the various parts of the frontier. Each area command had a Commander, Second-in-Command, Adjutant, Quartermaster and Medical Officer, four platoons (about 100 men) of the paramilitary Assam Rifles
Assam Rifles
The Assam Rifles are one of the Paramilitary forces of India. The unit can trace its lineage back to a paramilitary police force that was formed under the British in 1835 called Cachar Levy. Since then the Assam Rifles have undergone a number of name changes before the name Assam Rifles was finally...
and up to 1,000 locally enlisted guerillas or auxiliaries
Auxiliaries
An auxiliary force is a group affiliated with, but not part of, a military or police organization. In some cases, auxiliaries are armed forces operating in the same manner as regular soldiers...
.
The area commanders and other officers were rarely Regular Army officers; the qualification for appointment was more often expert knowledge of the local language and peoples. Some commanders were police officers or former civil administrators. Even some tea planters served as senior officers of V Force.
The Japanese did not invade India in 1942 as had been feared. V Force was able to consolidate itself in the wide area between the Allied and Japanese main forces. Bases and outposts were set up, standing patrols instituted and intelligence gathered and collated. By the end of 1943, the force had been reorganised into two main zones: Assam Zone, including Imphal
Imphal
Imphal is the capital of the Indian state of Manipur.In the heart of the town and surrounded by a moat, are ruins of the old Palace of Kangla. Kangla Fort used to be the home of the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force and on November 2004 it was handed over to state of Manipur by Prime minister Dr....
and all the frontier north of it, and Arakan Zone to the south. Detachments in Tripura
Tripura
Tripura is a state in North-East India, with an area of . It is the third smallest state of India, according to area. Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are...
were disbanded as they were deep inside India and unlikely to be threatened; an American organisation later took over the northernmost areas around Ledo
Ledo
Ledo may refer to:* Ledo, Assam, India* Ledo, Goa, India* Ledo Road* Ledo Degtinė* Ledo , a Croatian ice cream producer...
.
When the Indian Eastern Army carried out a small-scale invasion of Japanese-occupied Arakan
Rakhine State
Rakhine State is a Burmese state. Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between...
in early 1943, V Force provided a degree of warning about the movements of Japanese reserves to the threatened area.
Later operations
The threatened invasion of India finally happened in 1944. The V Force detachments forward of Imphal were engulfed. They could provide some intelligence of Japanese moves during the invasion, but they lacked supplies (the local dumpsAmmunition dump
An ammunition dump, ammunition compound, ammunition depot, bomb dump, ammunition supply point or ammo dump, is a military storage facility for live ammunition and explosives....
had been drawn down over 1943) and there were too many demands on Allied transport aircraft to allow supply drops to them. As a result they were unable to harass the Japanese lines of communication as had been planned, and had to disband or make their way back into Allied lines.
The Lushai Brigade
Lushai Brigade
The Lushai Brigade was an improvised fighting formation of the British Indian Army which was formed during World War II. It participated in the Battle of Imphal and the Burma Campaign.-History:In March 1944, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded India...
was formed from Indian infantry battalions and several thousand of V Force's former levies in the Lushai Hills, west of Imphal. Under Brigadier P. C. Marindin, they achieved great success against the lines of communication of the Japanese 33rd Division
33rd Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the .-History:The 33rd Division was raised in Utsunomiya, Tochigi prefecture, but its headquarters was in Sendai. It was raised from conscripts largely from the northern Kantō prefecturers of Tochigi, Ibaraki and Gunma...
, and later spearheaded the Fourteenth Army's advance to the Ayeyarwady River
Ayeyarwady River
The Irrawaddy River or Ayeyarwady River is a river that flows from north to south through Burma . It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. Originating from the confluence of the N'mai and Mali rivers, it flows relatively straight North-South before emptying through...
west of the Chindwin River
Chindwin River
The Chindwin River is a river in Burma , and the largest tributary of the country's chief river the Ayeyarwady . It flows entirely within Burma and is known as Ning-thi to the Manipuris.-Source:...
.
When the Japanese retreated late in 1944 and the Allies advanced, V Force changed its character. Small detachments of native-speaking personnel operated immediately ahead of the advancing regular formations, to gather short-range intelligence. Ambushes were also conducted against the retreating Japanese forces when possible. A very similar unit, Z Force
Z Force (Burma)
Z Force was a forward observation force attached to the British General Staff Intelligence, that operated in Burma during World War II.Z Force's function was to obtain information for General Slim commander of the British Fourteenth Army. The Fourteenth Army was engaged in the prolonged Burma...
, established by Fourteenth Army, operated further ahead, its parties being deployed by helicopter
Sikorsky R-4
The Sikorsky R-4 was a two-place helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky with a single, three-bladed main rotor and powered by a radial engine. The R-4 was the world's first large-scale mass-produced helicopter and the first helicopter to enter service with the United States Army Air Forces, Navy, and...
or parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
between 80 miles (128.7 km) and 100 miles (160.9 km) ahead of the main forces.
Once Burma was largely reoccupied in 1945, V Force began deploying parties in Siam
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
in readiness for future operations. The war ended before they could be used in their intended role.
Inter-community relations
In the Arakan, V Force became involved in a local conflict between the mainly Moslem Maugh and Buddhist Arakanese peoples. The Maughs provided most recruits for V Force, the Arakanese supported the Japanese. Over the three years during which the Allies and Japanese fought over the Mayu peninsula, the Maughs engaged in a campaign against Arakanese communities, in many cases using weapons provided by V Force. In defence of the force, it can only be said that the conflict was no part of official policy, and possibly unavoidable in the situation.Effectiveness
Overall, V Force provided a useful screen for the Allied armies in India during the stalemate of 1942 and 1943. It proved unable to carry out its intended role of sabotage against enemy lines of communication, although the Lushai BrigadeLushai Brigade
The Lushai Brigade was an improvised fighting formation of the British Indian Army which was formed during World War II. It participated in the Battle of Imphal and the Burma Campaign.-History:In March 1944, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded India...
showed what was possible with assistance from regular units.
Regular formation commanders were occasionally scathing about the intelligence provided by V Force. One such was Lieutenant-General Geoffrey Scoones
Geoffrey Scoones
General Sir Geoffrey Allen Percival Scoones KCB, KBE, CSI, DSO, MC was a general in the British Indian Army during the Second World War. His younger brother was Reginald "Cully" Scoones.-Military career:...
, Commander of IV Corps. Concerning the arrival of Japanese reinforcements at the height of the Battle 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...
, he wrote:
- "Incidentally, the arrival of this Division or elements of it unheralded on this front is a pretty poor chit for our higher intelligence organisation. I sent in a long letter the other day setting out my views on the amount of money and manpower we are wasting on these hush-hush organizations and which, so far as I am concerned, produce nothing useful."
Scoones was not referring to V Force alone. However, one of his subordinates at Imphal (Major-General Douglas Gracey, commanding Indian 20th Infantry Division
Indian 20th Infantry Division
The Indian 20th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the Indian Army during World War II, formed in India, and took part in the Burma Campaign during World War II. In the immediate aftermath of the War, the bulk of the division reoccupied French Indochina.-Formation:The division was formed...
) broke up his best battalion (9/12th Frontier Force Regiment
12th Frontier Force Regiment
The 12th Frontier Force Regiment was part of the British Indian Army. It was formed in 1922. It consisted of five regular battalions; numbered 1 to 5 and the 10th Battalion. During the Second World War a further ten battalions were raised. In 1945 the prenomial "12th" was dropped when the British...
) to provide his own forward screen, rather than relying on V Force.
For most of the Burma campaign, Allied formation commanders treated reports from organisations such as V Force as reliable only when a British officer personally gained the information. V Force was also hampered by lack of Japanese translators or interpreters to deal with captured documents.
Lessons
V Force established certain principles in Britain's handling of guerilla or irregular operations, which were to be important in later conflicts such as the Malayan EmergencyMalayan Emergency
The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army , the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960....
. It was accepted that "civilians" with local expertise were entitled to command regular officers. Above all, V Force depended on the goodwill and loyalty of the local populations among which they operated, and made great efforts to gain this.
See also
- X ForceX ForceX Force was the name given to the portion of the National Revolutionary Army Chinese Expeditionary Force that retreated from Burma into India in 1942. Chiang Kai-shek sent troops into Burma from Yunnan in 1942 to assist the British in holding back the Japanese. These Chinese forces became broken...
and Y ForceY ForceY Force was the SEAC designation given to Chinese forces under the command of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek that re-entered Burma from Yunnan in 1944 as one of the Allies fighting in Burma Campaign of World War II.-1942:...
for Chinese forces which fought in the Burma Campaign. - Fort HertzFort HertzFort Hertz was a remote British Military outpost in northeastern Burma in the district of Putao in what is now the Kachin State near the present town of Putao. It was named after William Axel Hertz...
- Force 136Force 136Force 136 was the general cover name for a branch of the British World War II organization, the Special Operations Executive . The organisation was established to encourage and supply resistance movements in enemy-occupied territory, and occasionally mount clandestine sabotage operations...