Tag Archives: Irrawaddy river

Just relaxing along the Irrawaddy

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80 years ago today. Official caption: “The British Army in Burma. Men of 2nd Division man a position on the Irrawaddy River near Pagan, Burma, 25 February 1945.”

Photo by SGT. P. Sanders, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM (SE 3181).

Note the blend of No.4 Enfield .303 rifle and M1928 Thompson along with the slouch hats, common for British troops of Lt. Gen. Bill Slim’s “Forgotten” Fourteenth Army in Burma at this stage of the war.

They would soon cross the river, a key moment in the campaign to liberate the region from the Japanese that was the equivalent of crossing the Rhine in the ETO.

Men of the 2nd Division disembark from boats having crossed the Irrawaddy River at Ngazun, on 28 February 1945. Photo by SGT. P. Sanders, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM (SE 3146)

The 2nd British Infantry Division– 2nd Manchester Regt, 6th Bn Loyal Regt (North Lancashire), 1st Royal Scots, 1st Bn 8th Lancashire Fusiliers, 2nd Bn Royal Norfolk, 1st Bn Queen’s Cameron Highlanders, 2nd Bn Dorsetshire Regt, 7th Bn Worcestershire Regt, 1st Bn Royal Berkshire Regt, 2nd Bn Durham light Infantry, and 1st Bn Royal Welsh Fusiliers– was a pre-war unit of regulars with a history that dates back to Wellington that had lost all its equipment at Dunkirk.

Reformed in England, with many of its original members chopped to form new units, the division was ordered to Ahmednagar, India in June 1942 where it would serve a garrison and training role until March 1944.

Then, as one of just two British infantry divisions (along with the 36th) in the CBI to fight in Burma, would slug it out in the jungle for 15 months before being sent back to India for rest in June 1945.

They were most notable for breaking the Japanese siege of Kohima and destroying the Imperial Army’s “Furious” 31st Division.

Post-war, the 2nd would serve as occupation troops in Japan and, after a few years garrison in Malaya, would be an integral part of the BAOR in West Germany during the Cold War. Since then, it was brought back as a UK-based training division only to be disbanded again in 2012.

Just Extra Mags and a Kukri

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A small-framed soldier of the 4th Battalion, 4th Prince of Wales’s Own (PWO) Gurkha Rifles, engaged in house-to-house fighting in a Burmese village, CBI Theatre, 1945.

Raised in 1941, 4/4 saw WWII service in India’s border areas in Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram, and the Far East. One of the Gurkha regiments that was partitioned to the Indian Army in 1947, the motto of what is today the Fourth Gorkha Rifles is “Kayar Hunu Bhanda Marnu Ramro” (Better to die than live like a coward) (National Army Museum UK/One of 11 photos collected by Company Sergeant Major G R C Willis, 2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment. NAM. 1989-10-67-4.)

Note the Sten Mk 3 sub-machine gun and the kukri in the belt at the Gurkha’s back. Due to the local conditions, the Gurkha has whittled down most of his ’37 Webbing to just a pair of basic pouches– which could carry either two BREN magazines, a half-dozen Thompson/STEN mags, four grenades, or boxes of 303– and a utility pouch, normally carried on the chest, worn to the back while what looks like the mouth of a canteen is poking up from his right. Still, with as many as 13 32-round mags, this skinny little guy could have over 400 rounds of ammo at the ready– an aspect oft-forgotten by those who poo-poo the use of SMGs on the battlefield. 

The 4/4 used beasts of burden for everything else.

Troops of 4/4th Gurkha Rifles crossing the River Irrawaddy in Burma. Each man carries his own weapon and essential supplies, while the ever-present mules shoulder the burden of extra ammunition, food, and water. NAM. 1989-10-67-5 by Sergeant Major G R C Willis, 2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment.

The hardy soldiers from Nepal were well represented in the CBI in 1944-45 as 3rd Battalion/6th Gurkha Rifles; 3rd Battalion/4th Gurkha Rifles and the 3rd and 4th Battalions, 9th Gurkha Rifles, all took part in the Second Chindit Expedition of 1944. Other Gurkha battalions fought in the swamps and forests of the Arakan.

In lighter notes, the STEN has always been my favorite burp gun and one that is absolutely just the most enjoyable to fire. We’ve already talked about my kukri obsession several times…