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By Nathan Drescher

A French soldier looks at a poster from a German colonial league in the Saar region.
German territory hold by French troops during the Saar Offensive. Arderiu, CC BY-SA 3.0

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Finding ‘Forgotten’ Allies

Reading time: 8 minutes
Although it is difficult to calculate exactly how many Burmese personnel were recruited by SOE for operations within the country, we do know that it was in excess of 20,000.  Those personnel represented at least fourteen different ethnic communities, from the majority Burman (Bamar) and well known Shan, Karen, Kachin, Chin, and Arakanese (Rakhine) peoples, to the less heard about Palaung, Kuki, and Lahu.  Also included were nationalities who had large populations in Burma, such as the Gurkhas, Indians, and Chinese.  Add to this the Anglo-Burman, Indo-Burman and other mixed ethnicity personnel, for example Shan-Kadu, and it is clear that there was a huge contribution made to Force 136 operations by non-Caucasian peoples.  As my research for the Men of SOE Burma page has revealed, finding out about Asian Special Forces personnel in Second World War Burma has many obstacles.  

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Hero and Villain: Robert Clive of the East India Company

Robert Clive, a general of the East India Company, was despised by his contemporaries – so why was a statue of him erected outside the foreign office by the Edwardians years later? By Dr Suki Haider. In 2020, there were petitions to remove Clive of India’s statue from outside the Foreign Office in London. Leading […]

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