Major-General Eric Mansergh, commander of 5th Indian Division, seen conferring with Major-General David 'Punch' Cowan, commander of 17th Indian Division, and Major T Carew, attached to the Burma National Army (BNA).

Generals Mansergh and Cowan talking with Major Carew. In the background a bridge-laying tank can be seen, probably a Valentine bridgelayer (3rd Independent Bridging Troop, Royal Armoured Corps?). Carew wears local dress and is thickly bearded. The two generals consult a map.

Notes

Major Carew had been parachuted behind enemy lines to organise the Burma National Army. This Army had a complex history, its roots being in the 'Thirty Comrades', Burmese men trained by the Japanese to agitate for independence. These in turn became the nucleus of the Burma Independence Army (BIA). With the Japanese invasion of Burma the lack of a clear vision for the BIA's role in provisional government led to its reorganisation as the Burma Defence Army (BDA), moving from an irregular organisation to a more conventional structure. With the Japanese declaration of nominal Burmese independence the BDA was renamed the Burma National Army. As the emptiness of Japanese promises of independence became more apparent, the loyalty of the BNA wavered and by November 1944 the BNA was being armed by Force 136, a branch of the Special Operations Executive. This caused considerable controversy in South East Asia Command, not least because the BNA's commmander, Aung San, was wanted for his subversive activities before the war and for a murder committed in 1942. Aung San led the BNA in an uprising against the Japanese from March 1945. On 16 May 1945 Aung San and his Chief of Staff flew to Lieutenant-General Slim's headquarters at Meiktila to discuss the terms on which the BNA would cooperate with Allied forces. According to Slim's account, Aung San came across as 'a genuine patriot and a well-balanced realist' and a man '[Slim] could do business with'. The BNA was duly renamed Burmese Patriotic Forces and after the war were eventually disarmed. Aung San went on to play a key role in Burmese independence from Britain, but was assassinated on 19 July 1947 by a political rival. Burma became formally independent in January 1948. Aung San's daughter, only two years old at the time of his death, is at the time of writing the imprisoned Nobel Laureate and pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Location is Milestone 141 on the Rangoon road.

Fittingly for the sensitivity of this material the dopesheet for this film is marked with the triangular SEAC Field Press Censor's stamp which reads 'NOT to be published'.