"Force 136"

SOE in Burma 1

 
 


After the fiasco that was the Fall of Fortress Singapore, the remnants of STS101 were herded together and escaped to India

List of STS101
click to enlarge

Brittan's defences in the far east were in a shambles. Its Navy sank, its Army defeated and put to work by the conquering Japanese and its Air force shot out of the sky.

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Force 136 initially was made up with what were the remnants of the staff of  STS101 from " Mission Scapula" that had retreated to Rangoon in India.  And later were enforced by trained forces from India, Burma and Malaya.

The signals section of STS101 left for Rangoon in January 1942

On the 3rd of February 1942, Warren, Ivan Lyon and Major Campbell left STS101 left Singapore with a few of the staff,  they commandeered the Hongchuan for Sumatra.

 Meanwhile the rest of STS101 boarded the Krian on the 5th February 1942.   Gavin joined them on route to Colombo on the 28th February 1942.

"From Little acorns, might oaks do grow" well perhaps not an oak but a thorn in the side of the Japanese.  From 1942 until the end of the war in the far east, Force 136 would harass and disrupt Japanese activities.

It must be noted that European agents could not move about in these Asian countries freely like they did in the European theatre,  because of their skin colour and the obvious inability to speak the local languages.  This forced the British, Australian and other white members of S.O.E from the cities and village centres to wage war primarily in the jungle.  So as far as disguising themselves as local people this was generally out of the question.

 
 
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