ABSTRACT

The Re-capture of Rangoon 1945 was the old Indian Army going down to the attack, for the last time in history, exactly two hundred and fifty years since the Honourable East India Company had enlisted its first ten sepoys on the Coromandel Coast. The capture of Ramree and continuing operations on the Arakan coast required some ferocious fighting by 15 Corps, but the second airfield was operating by mid-April, just in time to sustain the latter part of the 14th Armys final advance to Rangoon. After the war ended, Indian troops went on to fight insurgents in French Indo-China and the Netherlands East Indies, and were centrally involved in internal security operations in India during the tragic period leading up to independence and partition. Slim enjoyed considerable superiority of artillery, armour and air-power, but it was not overwhelming due to his logistic difficulties.