Second World War

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FIBIS resources

  • "Indian Army Prisoners of War in the Second World War" by Hedley Sutton FIBIS Journal, No 12 (Autumn 2004). For details of how to access this article online, see FIBIS Journals.
An alphabetical listing by surname of nearly 900 Indian Army personnel who became prisoners of war between 1941 and 1945 is available at the British Library. Most were held by the Japanese, with some held by the Italians.The vast majority are Europeans, but a handful of Indians are recorded; plus a few Indian Medical Service nursing sisters

Also see

Service Records

Reference to hospital admittances in the service papers may give a clue as to where the soldier was fighting. For example, the 23rd (Indian) Casualty Clearing Station was at Silchar in October 1943, and at Maungdaw, Burma, in October 1944,[1] and in April 1944 68 IGH [Indian General Hospital] was in Chittagong.[2] Once the relevant regiment has been determined, War Diaries from the National Archives at Kew, if available, should give details of the regimental history for the period. Forums such as WW2Talk Forum, refer External links below, are often able to provide information and advice about service history queries and the obtaining War Diary copies.

British Library holdings

India Office Records

  • IOR/L/MIL/14/143 3 Sep 1939-30 Jun 1948. Indian Army Officers Casualty Returns: Alphabetical lists of casualties by death among British officers and warrant officers of the Indian and Burma Services giving rank, age, unit, date, place and cause. Possibly may provide information additional to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database information (refer below).
  • IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4247-4285 Indian Army: Second World War 1932-1947

Other

The History of the Second World War is a 75 volume official history published by HMSO 1949-1976, consisting of 28 volumes in the United Kingdom Civil Series, 21 volumes in the United Kingdom Medical Series and 26 volumes in the United Kingdom Military Series . Details are set out in this Wikipedia page and the link Hyperwar: British Official Histories.

A subcategory of the United Kingdom Military Series is the 5 volume series War Against Japan

  • War Against Japan, Volume 1: The Loss of Singapore, Kirby, S. Woodburn et al. London: HMSO, 1957.
  • War Against Japan, Volume 2: India's Most Dangerous Hour, Kirby, S. Woodburn et al. London: HMSO, 1958.
  • War Against Japan, Volume 3: The Decisive Battles, Kirby, S. Woodburn et al. London: HMSO, 1961.
  • War Against Japan, Volume 4: The Reconquest of Burma, Kirby, S. Woodburn et al. London: HMSO, 1965.
  • War Against Japan, Volume 5: The Surrender of Japan, Kirby, S. Woodburn et al. London: HMSO, 1969.
Also available in reprint editions.[3]

Part of the United Kingdom Medical Series is the publication The Army Medical Services, Campaigns, Volume 5: Burma, Crew, Francis A. E. London: HMSO, 1966

Medals

External links

"Northeasterners in the World Wars" by P. Ramirez. Contains an Excel file download for all CWGC Indian Army deaths for WW2. Brahmaputra Studies Database.

Middle East and North Africa

  • Refer Historical books online, below
  • An Indian POW in Italy Satyen Basu, a doctor from Calcutta, joined the Indian Medical Service early in the Second World War and served with the Allied forces in Iraq, Syria and North Africa. His unit surrendered near Tobruk in 1942 and he was transported to a POW camp in southern Italy, not far from Naples. amitavghosh.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page for Part 1. A Doctor in the Army by Satyen Basu (Calcutta 1960) is available at the British Library
  • Several Pakistani Generals were Italian POWs Officers of the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade during the Battle of Ghazala 1942 were captured when their brigade was overrun by the Afrika Korps on the very first day of the battle, and sent to POW camps in Italy, and later Germany. (retrieved 26 May 2014)

China-Burma-India (CBI)

Burma Campaign Memorial Library, SOAS, London, and Digital catalogue

Photographs

Singapore and Malaya

  • "The ‘Singapore Strategy’ and the Deterrence of Japan: Winston Churchill, the Admiralty, and the Dispatch of Force Z" by Christopher M Bell originally from English Historical Review, vol. 116, 467 (June 2001), 604-34. academia.edu
  • Fall of Malaya and Singapore from The Rising Sun, part of Ron Taylor’s Britain at War website
  • FEPOW Community Far East Prisoners of War, part of Ron Taylor’s Britain at War website
  • Singapore National Library e book entry They Died For All Free Men by Surjan Singh available to read online as Limited Preview. The tags for this book include include India. Army; Sikhs- Singapore; World War, 1939-1945--Registers of dead—Singapore; World War, 1939-1945--Registers of dead--India; Soldiers' monument--Singapore. This book is also available at the Imperial War Museums, with this catalogue entry
  • IWM catalogue entry with details of the service history of Lieutenant J Gordon Smith platoon commander in the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (12th Indian Infantry Brigade, 11th Indian Division) from (?) July 1941 in Singapore and Malaya, his eventual capture in late January, 1942 and his time in the camps on the Burma - Siam railway. His memoir is War Memories: A Medical Student In Malaya And Thailand
  • Eric Lomax obituary (1919-2012) The Guardian 10 October 2012. A member of the Royal Signals, he was in Singapore at the surrender and became a POW working on the Burma-Siam railway. His memoir is The Railway Man, now also released as a movie of the same name.
  • Obituary: Ron Burton 09 October 2013 The Telegraph. He was Sergeant, 125 Anti-Tank Regiment Royal Artillery (125 ATR), taken prisoner after the fall of Singapore.
  • "Cover-ups and the Singapore Traitor Affair" by Peter Elphick 28 November 2001, abc.net.au, now archived. Presented at the Fall of Singapore 60th Anniversary Conference National University of Singapore, 16-17 February 2002. Mentions one time member of the 16th Punjab Regiment, Captain Patrick Vaughan Heenan executed on Friday 13th February 1942, two days before Singapore surrendered, for being a traitor. ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission).

Indian Ocean

  • "A tale of two Mutinies: The Indian Ocean 1942" by Harry Fecitt from Harry’s Sideshows. The Heavy Battery, 7th Coast Regiment, Hong Kong and Singapore Royal Artillery on Christmas Island and a detachment of No 1 Coast Regiment of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island, one of the Cocos-Keeling Islands.

Borneo

Indonesia (Dutch East Indies or DEI)

  • Chapter 9: "The Last Voyage and End of My Sea Career" from his autobiography Lest I Forget by Khwaja Sayeed Shahabuddin. In March, 1942 he was a Cadet on the 'Chilka' on the way to Padang in Sumatra to evacuate families and troops from Sumatra when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. He subsequently became a POW until the end of the war. His story continues to Chapter 20.
  • "Unexpected Allies. Java 1945-1946. With the 5th Parachute Brigade" britains-smallwars.com, now an archived webpage. Includes Indian Army troops.
  • The British Occupation of Indonesia : 1945-1946 by Richard Oliver Scorgie McMillan. 2002 PhD Thesis Royal Holloway, University of London. Download from British Library EThOS. Subsequently published 2005 as The British Occupation of Indonesia 1945-1946 : Britain, the Netherlands and the Indonesian Revolution (Contents[5]) Includes Indian Army troops.

Hong Kong

French Indo-China

Miscellaneous

Historical maps online

Historical books online

Note, the Digital Library of India is only operating in a minimal way. Select the Archive.org version if available.

  • Despatches Published in the London Gazette includes a number relating to Burma and South East Asia, in addition to the Middle East, North Africa, Malaya, etc. from "HyperWar: World War II on the World Wide Web", section "The United Kingdom in the Second World War". Pdfs of pages from The London Gazette.
The London Gazette World War 2 despatches. Links to all the military despatches from commanders-in-chief. The Gazette website.
  • India in World War II. Details of the Official History of the Indian Armed Forces In the Second World War by the Combined Inter-Services Historical Section (India & Pakistan), published in the 1950s and 1960s. From "HyperWar: World War II on the World Wide Web". HyperWar describes two volumes in the Medical Services series, however there are seven in total. The complete Medical Services series is v. 1. Administration.--v. 2. Medicine, surgery and pathology.--v. 3. Campaigns in the Western Theatre.--v. 4. Preventive medicine (nutrition, malaria control and prevention of diseases).(1961)--v. 5. Statistics (1962).--v. 6. Medical stores and equipment. (1963)--v. 7. Campaigns in the Eastern Theatre. Further details of the series generally in the Book Survey by Stone&Stone. A set of eight volumes was reprinted in 2012.[7] Many of the Official History publications are available at the British Library. The online transcription publications on HyperWar are
It appears that a total of 25 Official History volumes were published, series General Editor Dr Bisheshwar Prasad, seven volumes in the Medical Services series above, together with: Campaigns in the Eastern theatre: [v.1] Campaigns in South-East Asia, 1941-42 (Hong Kong, Malaya, Borneo).-[v.2] The retreat from Burma, 1941-42.-[v.3] Arakan operations, 1942-45.-[v.4,5] Reconquest of Burma, 1942-45.-[v.6] Post-war occupation forces : Japan and South-East Asia. Campaigns in the Western theatre [v.1] North African campaign, 1940-43.-[v.2] Campaign in western Asia (Iraq, Syria, Iran and Paiforce).-[v.3] Campaigns in Italy.-[v.4] East African campaign 1940-41. General war administration and organisation: [v] The Royal Indian Navy 1939-1945. [v] History of the Indian Air Force, 1933-45. [v] The Corps of Indian Engineers, 1939-1947. [v] Technical services: ordnance and I.E.M.E. [v] Expansion of the armed forces and defence organisation, 1939-45. [v] Defence of India: Policy and Plans. [v] Indian War Economy: Supply, Industry & Finance. [v] India and the War.
The following volumes were previously available on the Digital Library of India website, as pdf downloads, however the website is only currently operating in a very minimal way. From January 2017, versions for most of these books are also available on Archive.org. Many DLI links have been deleted.
  • Series: Campaigns in the Eastern Theatre
    • Campaigns In South East Asia 1960 (catalogued 1962) Archive.org version.
    • The Reconquest of Burma Volume I 1958 . Catalogued as Official History Of The Indian Armed Forces In The Second World War,Vol. 1, 1939-45 Archive.org version. Contents ibiblio.org/hyperwar. June 1942-June 1944. Authors: S.N. Prasad, K.D.Bhargava, P.N. Khera.
    • The Reconquest Of Burma Vol II 1962 Archive.org version. Contents ibiblio.org/hyperwar. June 1944-August 1945. Authors: P.N. Khera, S.N. Prasad, published 1959.
    • Post War Occupation Forces: Japan and South-east Asia by Rajendra Singh 1958. Archive.org version
  • Series: Campaigns in the Western Theatre
  • Series: General War Administration and Organisation
    • Technical Services: Ordnance and IEME 1962 (IEME =Corps of Indian Electrical and Mechanical Engineering) (catalogued as Technical Services Ordnance And Ieme). Archive.org version.
    • Expansion Of The Armed Forces And Defence Organisation (1939- 45) by Nandan Prasad 1956. Archive.org version
    • Defence of India Policy and Plans published 1957. Archive.org version.
    • Indian War Economy Supply Industry And Finance 1962 Archive.org version.
  • Series: Medical Services edited by B. L. Raina.
Restricted access Hathi Trust Digital Library, probably only available through a University or similar: The Retreat from Burma, 1941-42, History of the Indian Air Force, 1933-45, India and the War, Expansion of the Armed Forces and Defense Organization, 1939-45 Medical Services: 7 volumes
Also available as Unfading honour; the story of the Indian Army, 1939-1945 by Maj.-Gen. J G Elliott 1966. Archive.org Lending Library. Appears to be a better quality digital file.
Hyperwar: Scroll to The China-Burma-India Theater "Hyperwar: US Army in World War II"
[United States Army] The Medical Department : Medical Service in the European Theater of Operations by Graham A. Cosmas and Albert E. Cowdrey 1992 Hathi Trust Digital Library. Part of the series The Technical Services [of the United States Army]
[United States Army] The Medical Department : Medical Service in the War Against Japan by Mary Ellen Condon-Rall and Albert E. Cowdrey. 1998. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Part of the series The Technical Services [of the United States Army]. Includes Burma.
  • Imphal: A Flower On Lofty Heights by Lieutenant-General Sir Geoffrey Evans and Antony Brett-James 1962 Archive.org
  • Trek Back From Burma by W G Burchett, first published c 1943. Two different files to Archive.org version A; Archive.org version B. The author was a journalist initially covered the Sino-Japanese War . Early in 1942 he covered the rout of British forces in Burma then from June travelled extensively through Kuomintang-controlled China and eventually returned to India through Burma.
  • Chungking Diary by D F Karaka. 1942. Archive.org version
With The 14th Army by D F Karaka, War Correspondent, The Bombay Chronicle. 1944. A personal diary. Archive.org version.
Unofficial History by Field Marshal Sir William Slim 1962, first published 1959. Archive.org Lending Library. Chapters about WW2, Middle East from page 127
  • The Road Past Mandalay by John Masters 1979. Internet Archive (Archive.org) Lending Library. Earlier title: The Road Past Mandalay : a Personal Narrative. First published 1961. 2nd volume of Autobiography. The short first part takes Masters and the 2/4th Ghurkas to Iraq and Syria. After a staff course back in India, the balance of the book concerns his time in Burma, with a Chindit Column. Also see the Fibiwiki page John Masters.
  • Burma Surgeon by Gordon S Seagrave Lieut. Colonel, MC. United States Army Forces in China, Burma, India. 1944. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection. 1943 Archive.org Lending Library edition has more pages and may be easier to read.
Burma Surgeon Returns by Gordon S Seagrave MD 1946. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection. Archive.org Lending Library edition - print quality may be better.
The missionary surgeon and his "Burmese Nurses". "Book one describes the walkout with Stilwell, who he calls "Uncle Joe" and their service for the refugees streaming out of Burma and with the Chinese army in India. Book two describes the return with the Chinese and American army while the Ledo Road is build and the north of Burma and the west of Yunnan are liberated and the combined Ledo Road & Burma Road are reopened"[14]
  • The Building of the Burma Road by Tan Pei-Ying 1945 Archive.org Lending Library. The building of the road by the Chinese from the late 1930s.
  • Behind The Burma Road by William R. Peers and Dean Brelis 1963. For ease of reading online, if you do not have a wide screen, click on the “Single page “ option, as one digital page consists of two actual pages of text. Archive.org
  • The Burma Road : the epic story of the China-Burma-India theater in World War II by Donovan Webster 2004. Archive.org Lending Library
  • From the field service [American Field Service AFS]
    • Ball Of Fire: The Fifth Indian Division in the Second World War by Antony Brett-James, 1951
    • Burma Diary by Paul Geren published 1943. In 1941 Paul Geren agreed to spend two years at Judson College in Rangoon, Burma, as a short-term missionary under the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Following the Japanese bombing Professor Geren's classroom became a field hospital as he offered his services as an ambulance driver to Dr. Gordon Seagrave, the famed Burma surgeon. He later trekked to India.
    • American Sahib by John Frederick Muehl 1946 He was with the American Field Service, attached to the British Indian Army. Also available on Archive.org
    • Victory in Burma published July, 1945 by British Information Services, New York
  • Text from Navvies To The Fourteenth Army by AH Pilcher c 1947 is available as pdf downloads from the Koi Hai website, located under Memories, the Henderson Family Scroll down to the item dated October 12, 2009; the direct link for the main text. Note: Depending on your browser, you may need to locate the downloads in your downloads folder. The downloads do not contain the illustrations and maps from the original publication. The author was Col. A H Pilcher who at the outbreak of the second world war commanded the Assam Valley Light Horse. In March 1942 he was put in charge of raising a labour force from the Tea Plantations to build the Manipur/Burma Road to evacuate the 14th Army and also the many civilians who were fleeing Burma. Eventually he raised and commanded a labour force of 82000 [15] This book (55 pages) was published in Calcutta for Private Circulation and was illustrated with black and white plates and line drawing maps. [16] The British Library has a catalogue reference Mss Eur F174/1316, but it is not stated whether this is the printed book, or a manuscript. The book is available at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Library, University of London.
  • Forgotten Frontier by Geoffrey Tyson, published 1945. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection. The book is about the escape of refugees from Burma in 1942 and the help provided by the tea planters of Assam in assisting the refugees from North Burma into India.
  • Burma under the Japanese : Pictures and Portraits by Thakin Nu, Prime Minister of Burma. Edited and translated, with introduction, by J.S. Furnivall 1954 Archive.org
  • Singapore And After: A Study Of The Pacific Campaign 1942. The author is stated elsewhere to be Joseph Montague Kenworthy, 10th Baron Strabolgi. Archive.org. Public Library of India Collection.
  • Last Flight From Singapore by Arthur G. Donahue 1943. The book tells the story of the battle, in particular the air battle for Singapore and the subsequent battle in the air over the jungle. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
  • Why Singapore Fell by Lieut Gen H. Gordon Bennett 1945. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
  • Why We Lost Singapore by Dorothy Crisp 1945. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
  • Percival and the Tragedy of Singapore by Sir John Smyth 1971. Pdf download, Repositori Digital, digital repository of the National Library of Malaysia. Note: sample pages only.
  • Malayan Postscript by Ian Morrison,1943. The Malayan jungle campaign and the disaster of Singapore. Pdf download, DSpace, National Library of Malaysia. Note: Sample pages only
  • The War in Malaya by Lt-Gen A E Percival 1949 is available as a pdf download on the Sejarah Melayu [Digital] Library located under General. Scroll down the alphabetical list to T.
  • Prisoner of the Japs by Gwen Drew 1943. HathiTrust Digital Library, Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection. The author was an American journalist who was taken prisoner at the fall of Hong Kong.
  • Indian Cavalryman by Captain Freddie Guest, [Reginald Edwin Guest] 1959. Pdf download, PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.
Recommended by Peter Moore in Military reading list who says "He saw active service in the North-West Frontier; Africa; China and was the first prisoner-of-war to escape from the Japanese in Hong Kong; ending the war as the Equitation Instructor at the Officer Cadet School in Bangalore”. His earlier book Escape From The Bloodied Sun was a more detailed account of his escape from Hong Kong when he was an officer in the Middlesex Regiment.
Vol. 1 Sept. 1939-Jan. 1940, Vol. 2 Jan. 1940-July 1940, Vol. 3 July 1940-Jan. 1941, Vol. 4 Jan. 1941-July 1941, Vol. 5 Jul. 1941-Jan. 1942, Vol. 6 Jan. 1942-Jul. 1942, Vol. 7 Jul. 1942-Jan. 1943, Vol. 8 Jan. 1943-Aug. 1943, Vol. 9 Sept. 1943-Apr. 1944
Volume I: The Gathering Storm 2nd impression 1948. Volume II: Their Finest Hour 3rd edition 1951, first published 1949. Volume III: The Grand Alliance 1950. Volume IV The Hinge of Fate 1951. Volume Five: Closing the Ring 6th impression 1961, first published 1952. Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy 1954. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.
Memoirs of The Second World War; an abridgement of the six volumes of The Second World War, with an epilogue by the author on the postwar years written for this volume by Winston S Churchill 1959 Archive.org Lending Library.
BR 1886 (C.B. 4273 (52) H.M. Ships Damaged or Sunk by Enemy Action 3 Sep 1939 - 2 Sep 1945 Based on reports held in the Admiralty at the time of its publication in 1952. A publication in the Navy Department: Reference Books (BR Series). Website of the Royal Australian Navy.
  • British Foreign Policy in the Second World War by Sir Llewellyn Woodward 1962. Archive.org. This work is stated to be an abridgement (592 pages) of a larger version written for official reference. The latter larger version was published from 1970 also with the same title
British Foreign Policy in the Second World War by Sir Llewellyn Woodward 1970 Archive.org Lending Library. Volume I (640 pages); Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V
  • Documents On British Foreign Policy 1919-1939 - Third Series published by HMSO from 1949. Volume I 1938, Volume II 1938,Volume VI 1939, Volume VII 1939, Volume VIII 1938-39 Archive.org, including some from the Digital Library of India Collection. Volumes VIII is the first of two volumes relating to British policy in the Far East, the earlier volumes relating to European affairs. Volume X, not available online, is an index for the series. Contents of the volumes diplomatic-documents.org

Fiction

  • Biggles Sees It Through by Captain W E Johns 1941 Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection. For younger readers.

References

  1. ↑ Rothy. 2nd Survey Regiment, Burma 1944-45 WW2Talk Forum 25 April 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  2. ↑ Skoyen89. 122 field battery 178 assault field regt.R.A WW2Talk Forum 10 April 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  3. ↑ War Against Japan Scroll. Naval & Military Press reprint editions.
  4. ↑ skimmod. Kings Regulations 1940 WW2Talk Forum February 19, 2012. Log in to view images. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  5. ↑ Kyt. British Indian Army in Dutch East Indies WW2Talk Forum 28 November 2006. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  6. ↑ London Gazette Tuesday 18 August 1942 Supplement: 35670 Page: 3601
  7. ↑ WW2Talk Forum post Official History of Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War reprints (retrieved 18 September 2018)
  8. ↑ WW2Talk Forum thread Short online Histories, category British Indian Army
  9. ↑ Golden Arrow. The story of the 7th Indian Division in the Second World War, 1939-1945 by Brigadier M. R. Roberts. Naval & Military Press reprint edition.
  10. ↑ Fighting Cock: Being the History of the 23rd Indian Division, 1942-1947 Lieut. Col. A. J. F. Doulton. Naval & Military Press reprint edition.
  11. ↑ Fourth Indian Division by Lieut-Colonel GR Stevens. Naval & Military Press reprint edition.
  12. ↑ An Account of the Operations in Burma carried out by Probyn’s Horse during February, March and April 1945 by Major Mylne, Naval & Military Press reprint edition.
  13. ↑ Sikh Regiment in the Second World War by Colonel F. T. Birdwood c 1950. Naval & Military Press reprint edition.
  14. ↑ The Burma Road (scroll to the bottom) tinyadventurestours.com, now archived. For images, which are not available in this link, see an earlier archived version
  15. ↑ Scroll down to comments section Jungle Work: A Civil Engineer in Burma BBC ww2peopleswar
  16. ↑ marelibri.com, page no longer accessible

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