Southern Shan States Battalion, Burma Frontier Force

The Southern Shan States Battalion, Burma Frontier Force came into being following the separation of Burma from India in 1937.  Prior to this and dating back to 1904 there had been a battalion of the same title with the Burma Military Police.[1]  The Battalion Headquarters were at Taunggyi.

In 1939 the Battalion was organised with a Headquarters Company, a Training Company, eight Rifle Companies and three Mounted Infantry Troops.  Companies consisted of three platoons and a Company Headquarters Platoon but automatic weapons were restricted to one Lewis gun per company and there were no mortars in the Force.[2]  The sanctioned strength of the Battalion was 1,432 infantry and 102 mounted infantry.  Around half of this force and two troops of mounted infantry were located with the Battalion Headquarters at Taunggyi.  Around 273 men and the remaining mounted infantry troop were at Loimwe.  Additional outposts were maintained at Kanpetlet, Akyab, Mergui and Victoria Point.[3]  The outposts at Akyab, Mergui and Victoria Point were taken over the by the newly raised Kokine Battalion, Burma Frontier Force following its formation in November 1940.  The outpost at Kanpetlet was handed over to the Chin Hills Battalion, Burma Frontier Force, on 9th June 1941.[4]

F.F.3 was formed from the Loimwe Detachment of the Southern Shan States Battalion on 1st November 1940.[5]

The Battalion Commandant from 1939 until around March 1942 was Lt. Colonel J.F. Bowerman.[6]  Bowerman left this post to become the British liaison officer to the Chinese 6th Army.

Burma Frontier Force units and deployments in the Southern Shan States in December 1941 were:

* Aerodrome Guards provided by companies of the 14th (Shan States) Battalion, The Burma Rifles.

The Officer Commanding Heho Aerodrome Guard, Southern Shan States Battalion was Lieutenant A.S. Prentice.[7]

At the time of the outbreak of war with Japan, B.F.F. outposts had been reduced to a minimum and Battalions were little more than Training Centres containing recruits, and long service men unfit for active duty.[8]  The Southern Shan States Battalion, with Headquarters at Taunggyi, had five of its active companies in Frontier Force detachments (F.F.s) and the two remaining ones on landing grounds at Heho and Namsang, although these may have been replaced or supplemented by companies from the 14th (Shan States) Battalion, Burma Rifles, Burma Territorial Force.  Guard and escort duties at Headquarters were carried out by a garrison company of ex-service men recruited from local pensioners plus details left behind.  The Training Company was also functional at Headquarters in Taunggyi.  From the beginning of February 1942 there was only one officer present at Battalion Headquarters, this being an ABRO (Army in Burma Reserve of Officers) subaltern with less than one year’s service who spoke practically no Hindustani or Burmese.[9]

As the withdrawal in Burma continued, Frontier Force units gradually evacuated their stations.  By March the Southern Shan States Battalion, had been reduced to a Depot with a strength of approximately 200 all ranks, mainly administrative personnel, under the command of a junior British officer.[10]

It is believed that F.F.8, Burma Frontier Force was formed from men of the Southern Shan States Battalion in March 1942.[11]

The 14th Battalion, Burma Rifles were also located in Taunggyi at the time of the evacuation of the town and this battalion’s war diary contains some details of the withdrawal of the Southern Shan States Battalion.  On around 16th April 1942, the 14th Burma Rifles and the Southern Shan States Battalion located at Taunggyi were detailed as “Rear Party” and were to remain in Taunggyi until the Chinese withdrawal reached the line just south of the Taunggyi-Hopong road.  At this point the Rear Party was to withdraw to Hsipaw and Lashio via Shwenyaung and Lawksawk.  The next day, Lt. Colonel H.C. Brocklehurst,[12] Commander of No.2 Special Service Detachment, was placed in command of the Taunggyi Rear Party and at 2000 hours, 20th April 1942, ordered its withdrawal from Taunggyi.  The garrison company of the Southern Shan States Battalion was now disbanded, leaving just Battalion Headquarters with around 150 Indian Other Ranks and 100 recruits.  On the way through Lawksawk the Battalion's landing ground detachment at Heho was added to the party.  Having marched through Lawksawk and then Indaw on 26th April, on 29th April the village of Naungo was reached, near the Hsipaw-Maymyo road.[13]

Elsewhere another company of the Southern Shan States Battalion was taken over by Captain A.L.B. Thompson.[14]  Thompson was in command of a party made up of his own Karen Company of the 1st Battalion, The Burma Rifles, which had been detached at the end of March to support the Karen Levies, and Captains Nimmo and McCrindle of the Levies with a few of their men.  On 21st April Thompson’s party was camped at Panlon (Panglong) when a brigadier on his way from Taunggyi to Lashio stopped and ordered Thompson to take command of a company of the Southern Shan States Battalion which was stranded further up the road without any officers.  The company had come from the Kawknoi Pass and was making for Lashio.  It was made up of two platoons of Pedaung Karens and one platoon of Gurkhas.  This company joined Thompson the next day and on 23rd April the combined party of Karens and Frontier Force men marched to Laika.  During the march the road was bombed frequently by the Japanese and as a result 47 of the Frontier Force men, inexperienced in battle and without good leaders, went missing.  At Laika Thomspon received news that the Japanese were in Loilem and he was advised to move immediately.  He decided to make for Maymyo.  After five day’s march the party arrived at Hseheng (according to Thompson but see below) where they met Lt. Colonel Brocklehurst’s larger party on 29th April.[15]

The next day Brocklehurst sent a Southern Shan States Battalion Mounted Infantry patrol forward to gather information from the surrounding area.  The patrol was ambushed by the Japanese at Namlan however the survivors were told by local villagers that the Japanese had occupied Hsipaw and Lashio.  All troops under Taunggyi Rear Party were ordered to rendezvous about 5 miles South of Namtu where the party was split into smaller groups which were to proceed independently, the better to evade the Japanese.  The groups formed were:

- No.2 Special Service Detachment with about three British Officers and 20 British Other Ranks under Lt. Colonel Brocklehurst

- 14th Burma Rifles with about 70 Burma Army Other Ranks plus 30 Gurkhas from the Southern Shan States Battalion, under Lt. Colonel J.D. Tucker

- One party of around 100 Indian Other Ranks of the Southern Shan States Battalion under Captain Hutchinson[16]

- A second Southern Shan States Battalion party of around 100 Indian Other Ranks under Captain Prentice.[17] [18]

Brocklehurst attached a group of 55 mules from the 2nd Animal Transport Company and Captain D. King to Captain Thompson’s party of Karens and remaining men of the Southern Shan States company which now made its own way to Tahwa and crossed the Namtu River.  The party marched on until at Nagao on May 12th Thompson decided to split his party.  His Karens, four Levies and the Gurkha platoon of the Southern Shan States Battalion pressed on, the remainder were ordered to go their own way in small parties and were given 50 Rupees each.  Hearing reports of Japanese advances cutting of their escape route westwards to the Irrawaddy, Thompson now decided to go North to the Kachin Hills.  An extremely arduous and lengthy trek now ensued and it was not until August that Thompson’s party reached Fort Hertz where on 26th August 1942 the men were flown out to India on two Royal Air Force DC-3 Dakotas.[19]

Meanwhile the Southern Shan States Battalion parties that had been split off from Brocklehurst’s original Taunggyi Rear Party marched over the hills through Mogok towards Myitkyina where Frontier Force Headquarters were thought to be.  On arrival at Katha it was found that the Japanese had already been there and gone up to Bhamo by river the previous day.  As there were considerable difficulties in getting food and given that such large bodies of men would draw attention, it was decided to divide the formation into smaller groups under GCOs and to send these by different paths to the Hukawng Valley and then on to India.[20]

Other men travelled independently of these parties, having been separated earlier.  On 2nd May, the 14th Burma Rifles encountered six members of the S.S.S. Battalion Mounted Infantry patrol ambushed at Namlan on 30th April.  These men stayed with the 14th Burma Rifles until 8th May until the party split once again.   However this party of six was again ambushed, at Sin, and all but two taken prisoner.  These two made contact with the 14th Burma Rifles party on 15th May and one of the men stayed with this group to reach India, the other joining a party led by Mr G.E. Turnbull of the Burma Frontier Service.[21]

It is estimated that the men of the Battalion marched at least 800 miles before they reached their destination, much of this journey undertaken without formal supply arrangements.[22]  From the immediate border area they were sent on in drafts to Hoshiarpur in the Punjab which had been nominated as the centre for the collection and reorganisation of the Burma Army.  A “Taunggyi” Battalion, B.F.F. was reported as being located at Hoshiarpur in September 1942.  This probably referred to elements of the Southern Shan States Battalion, B.F.F.  On arrival at Hoshiarpur, along with others of the Burma Frontier Force and Burma Military Police, the men were registered, given advances of pay, replacement clothing and sent to their homes on war leave.  On return from leave, the men were sorted out and medically graded.  Those found suitable for further service were eventually drafted to Battalions of The Burma Regiment which was formed from Burma Frontier Force and Burma Military Police personnel on 1st October 1942.  Initially six infantry battalions were raised, with a mounted infantry and a training battalion also planned, all organised into two administrative brigade.[23]

17 November 2017