from Various Sources
***********************
The Founding of Tibet Relief Fund: Tibet Matters
by Tibet Relief Fund
Issue 17
Autumn 2013
Major J.C.W. Napier-Munn, Hon. Secretary, The Tibet Relief Fund, 58 Eccleston Square, S.W. I., Letter to the Times, July 31, 1959, p.7.
TIBETAN REFUGEES
Sir. – Recent devastating events in Tibet caused over 15,000 Tibetans to cross the perilous Himalayas into India. It may be a long time before these unfortunate people can safely return to their overrun country. Our own consciences should allow us neither to neglect nor forget them.
The Indian Government has manfully coped with this addition to its own problems at home. In this country we are bound in honour to help relieve needs of the Tibetan refugees, because from 1905 to 1947 there was a special relationship between Tibet and the United Kingdom – a relationship handed on to the new India.
On balance we think it wisest to concentrate chiefly on collecting money which can be used for the benefit of the refugees, not least in the purchase of necessary antibiotics and other medicaments. The Tibet Society has opened a Tibet Relief Fund for which we now appeal in the hope of a generous response. Donations should be sent to the address below or direct to the National Bank Ltd. (Belgravia Branch), 21 Grosvenor Gardens, S.W.I.
Yours faithfully,
Thubten Jigme Norbu; F.M. Bailey; Birdwood; J.D. Boyle; [Indian Foreign Secretary Sir] Olaf Caroe; Clement Davies; A.D. Dodds-Parker; Peter Fleming [Master of Deception: The Wartime Adventures of Peter Fleming, by Alan Ogden]; Thomas Moore; [Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere] Harmsworth; Marco Pallis; Hugh E. Richardson; Francis Napier Beaufort-Palmer, Chairman; Major J.C.W. Napier-Munn [Tac HQ Calcutta (Advanced HQ ALFSEA)], Hon. Secretary; D.C. Nicole, Hon. Treasurer, The Tibet Society.
-- The Tibet Relief Fund, 58 Eccleston Square, S.W. I., Letter to the Times, July 31, 1959, p.7.
-- The Founding of Tibet Relief Fund, Tibet Matters, Issue 17, Autumn 2013, by Tibet Relief Fund
***********************
Master of Deception: The Wartime Adventures of Peter Fleming [Excerpt]
by Alan Ogden
2019
The Founding of Tibet Relief Fund: Tibet Matters
by Tibet Relief Fund
Issue 17
Autumn 2013
Peter Fleming [Master of Deception: The Wartime Adventures of Peter Fleming, by Alan Ogden]; The Tibet Relief Fund, 58 Eccleston Square, S.W. I., Letter to the Times, July 31, 1959, p.7.
Annex C
Excerpt from Master of Deception, The Wartime Adventures of Peter Fleming
by Alan Ogden
2019
Annex C
Staff List - GSI (d) / D. Division / Force 456
Officer commanding GSI (d)
Colonel Peter Fleming
Officers commanding D. Division
Colonel Peter Fleming (from November 1943)
Colonel Sir Ronald Wingate Bt. (from 25 April 1945)
Officer commanding Force 456 (from 25 April 1945)
Colonel Peter Fleming
Policy and Plans HQ SEAC Kandy
Wing Commander The Hon. Mervyn Horder, RAFVR
Lieutenant Commander the Earl of Antrim, RNVR5 [Posted SACSEA 14 November 1944.]
Captain Saunders
D. Division Rear HQ Delhi
Commander Alan Robertson-Macdonald RN, Eastern Fleet Representative
Major Peter Thorne, Grenadier Guards
Major Lucas J. Ralli, Royal Signals, GSO 2 Wireless Comms
Major A.D.R. Wilson
Captain the Hon. A.J.A Wavell
Navy Lieutenant Pei, Chinese LO
Operations Section
Lieutenant Colonel A.G. 'Johnnie' Johnson, RA6 [He does not show up on 1944/45 Indian Army Intelligence Directorate List. Holt says he came across from A Force.]
Major Gordon Rennie
Captain K.L. Campbell (from 12 March 1945)
Captain J.N. Carleton-Stiff, R.Sigs.
Technical Section
Major C.H. Starck, RE
Captain J.A. Gloag, (Z Force from 15 March 1945)
Captain G.T.H. Carter, RE (from 2 April 1945)
Captain D.W. Timmis
Captain Skipworth
Tac HQ Calcutta (Advanced HQ ALFSEA)
Lieutenant Colonel 'Frankie' Wilson, GSO 1
Major J.M. Howson (from 30 March 1945)
Major J.C.W. Napier-Munn, RA
Major R.A. Gwyn, Base Signal Office Calcutta
Squadron Leader J. King7 [Does not show on 1945 RAF List (India).]
Captain 'Jack' Corbett (US) March 1945
Control Section
Major S.C.F. Pierson, GSO 2
D Force
Force HQ
Lieutenant Colonel P.E.X Tumbull -- Commanding officer
Major E.F.A 'Ted' Royds -- 2 i/c
Major J.C. Gladman8 [Keen collector of butterflies of the Arakan coast!] - Officer i/c Sonic
Captain K.A.J. Booth -- Adjutant
Captain P.R. Hedges -- 2 i/c Sonic
Lieutenant M.W. Trennery -- i/c Sonic training
Lieutenant B.E. Chambers -- i/c Sonic training
Companies
Captain G. Morgan -- OC 51 Coy
Lieutenant E.H. Morris, RE -- 2 i/c 51 Coy
Captain J.A. Fosbury -- OC 52 Coy
Captain C.A.R. Richardson -- OC 53 Coy
Lieutenant R.A. Spark -- 2 i/c 53 Coy
Captain J.I. Nicolson, KAR Reserve of Officers -- OC 54 Coy
Lieutenant R.H. Walton, RA -- 2 i/c 54 Coy
Lieutenant G.H. Smith -- i/c Sonic 54 Coy
Captain G.W. Boyd -- OC 55 Coy
Lieutenant J.D. Taylor -- 2 i/c 55 Coy
Captain C.J.C. Lumsden -- OC 56 Coy
Lieutenant J.H. Atkinson -- i/c Sonic 56 Coy
Captain D.W. Timmis -- OC 57 Coy
Captain R.H.D. Norman -- OC 58 Coy
Lieutenant B. Raymond -- 2 i/c 58 Coy
Lieutenant J.G. Sommerville -- i/c Sonic 58 Coy
No.1 Naval Scout Unit
Lieutenant Commander H.B. Brassey, RNVR
ITB
Colonel Reginald Bicat
Chief Clerk: Sergeant Ashley
Major N.P. Dawnay
Major J.A. Denney
Major H.L. Frenkel
Major D.W. Gaylor
Major J.F. Howarth
Major D.K. Kerker
Major J.L. Schofield
Major J.E. Vaughan
Captain H.N. Barker
Captain R. Baxter
Captain A. Forbes
Captain D.H. Pickhard
Captain B.K.H. Richards
Captain E.G. Sperring
Captain A.H.D. Williams
Liaison officers with Army Formations
Eastern Army (1943): Colonel 'Fookiform' Foulkes and Major Frankie Wilson
HQ Fourteenth Army: Major John Warde-Aldham
NCAC: Captain Jack Corbett (US). Appointed February 1945
IV Corps: Major J.M. Howson
XV Corps: Major D. Graham, MC
XXXIII Corps: Major R. Campbell GSO 2
Control Section China Chungking
Major S.C.F. Pierson
Lieutenant Colonel F.G. Bishop
*************************
South East Asia Command
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 7/4/21
South East Asia Command
South East Asian Command insignia
Active: 1943 – 1946
Country: United Kingdom
Type: Command
Garrison/HQ: Kandy, British Ceylon
Insignia
SEAC flag
South East Asia Command (SEAC) was the body set up to be in overall charge of Allied operations in the South-East Asian Theatre during World War II.
History
Organisation
The initial supreme commander of the theatre was General Sir Archibald Wavell while head of the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) which was dissolved after the fall of Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. Afterwards, Allied forces in the region were divided between SEAC and the South West Pacific Area command (SWPA).
In August 1943, the Allies created the combined South East Asian Command, to assume overall strategic command of all air, sea and land operations of all national contingents in the theatre. In August 1943, with the agreement of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, Winston Churchill appointed Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten as Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia. US Army General Joseph Stilwell was appointed deputy supreme commander. Stilwell was also, officially, deputy to Chiang Kai Shek, as Allied commander in China, and commanded all US forces across both theatres (which were known in the US as the China Burma India (CBI) Theater).
Mountbatten arrived in India on 7 October[1] and SEAC came formally into being in Delhi at midnight on 15/16 November.[2]
SEAC headquarters moved in April 1944 to Kandy in Ceylon.[3]
General strategy
From the outset, Western Allied forces available for the wider war against Japan were limited – by an overall Allied commitment towards defeating Nazi Germany, before the Empire of Japan. This was especially the case for the UK, and major advances were not anticipated in Asia until mid-late 1944 at least – that is, not until the defeat of Germany had become inevitable.[4]
A strategic focus by the Western Allies on the Central Pacific (i.e. the "Pacific Ocean Areas" in contemporaneous Allied terminology) and the South-West Pacific, resulted from compromises reached at the Casablanca Conference. UK participants were focused on Nazi Germany, and saw the war against Japan being limited "to the defense of a fixed line in front of those positions that must be held".[5] However, because such an approach was unacceptable to the United States, it was agreed that there would be offensive actions in Burma, operations in support of China, and other activity beyond holding a defensive line in South East Asia, as a result of US demands that the Japanese be kept off-balance, throughout any areas in which they might encounter Allied forces.[6] Nevertheless, for the Western Allies, the South East Asia theatre, China, and the North Pacific (including Alaska),[7] were destined to become secondary theatres, relative to efforts in the Pacific Ocean Areas, in which the supreme commander was US Admiral Chester Nimitz.
On 2 December 1943, the Combined Chiefs of Staff officially approved in principle a plan designating the Pacific Ocean Areas as the focus of the main effort against Japan. Their reasoning was that advances in the Central Pacific were the most rapid route towards sustained, direct attacks on the Japanese Home Islands -– e.g. subjecting Tokyo and other major cities to attacks by strategic bombers. A secondary line of advance -– by US and Australian forces – "along the New Guinea-N.E.I.-Philippine axis", was to be controlled by the separate South West Pacific Area command under Douglas MacArthur (US Army).
Description
The initial land forces operational area for SEAC was India, Burma, Ceylon, Malaya, northern islands of Sumatra, and, for offensive operations, Siam (Thailand). On 15 August 1945 (VJ-Day) this was expanded to include the rest parts of Dutch East Indies and southern part of French Indochina.
Lieutenant-General Montagu Stopford, the second and final commander of SEAC, who commanded June–November 1946.
Command arrangements in SEAC were always complicated. Ideally there should have been under the Supreme Commander a Commander in Chief for each of the land sea and air forces. This was implemented for the naval and air forces (including the establishment of Air Command, South East Asia) but the British 11th Army Group, under SEAC itself, controlled only British land forces. US and Chinese forces serving in the South East Asian theatre, organised as the Northern Combat Area Command or NCAC commanded by Stilwell, answered directly to the Supreme Commander because Stilwell refused to serve under the 11th Army Group commander George Giffard.[8] The Eleventh Army Group had the Fourteenth Army on the Burma front, and the British garrison in Ceylon under its direct command. Stilwell also served as Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-shek, who was officially the Supreme Allied Commander in China. Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Peirse was appointed the Air Commander in Chief under Mountbatten. Air units taking part in the Burma Campaign were, at first, part of either the RAF Third Tactical Air Force or the USAAF Tenth Air Force. Tenth Air Force came under SEAC only through Stilwell as commanding General CBI Theater. To avoid a potentially cumbersome chain of command and overlapping effort Mountbatten gave orders in December for the two air forces to be integrated under the name Eastern Air Command. The US Fourteenth Air Force, which was based in China and the US Twentieth Air Force –- strategic bomber units based in India –- were never controlled by SEAC but their operations were coordinated with SEAC. At sea, the command structure was relatively simple, since the Royal Navy was providing almost all naval forces in the area. Admiral Sir James Somerville, Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Fleet, became the naval commander under Mountbatten.[9]
Lord Louis Mountbatten Supreme Allied Commander of the South East Asia Command from October 1943 through the disbandment of SEAC in 1946. This photograph, taken in February 1944, is from his tour of the Arakan front, as part of the Burma Campaign
It was not until late 1944 that the land forces chain of command was clarified, after Stilwell was recalled to Washington. His overall role, and the CBI command were then split among three people: Lt Gen. Raymond Wheeler became Deputy Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia; Maj. Gen. Albert Wedemeyer became Chief of Staff to Chiang, and commander of US Forces, China Theater (USFCT). Lt Gen. Daniel Sultan was promoted, from deputy commander of CBI to commander of US Forces, India-Burma Theater (USFIBT) and commander of the NCAC. The 11th Army Group was redesignated Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA) under a new commander Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese who had relinquished command of the Eighth Army in Italy, and NCAC (which by this time included Chinese, American and British units) was placed under ALFSEA.[10] As the drive to liberate Burma began in earnest however, Chiang Kai-shek and Wedemeyer made increasing demands for NCAC's formations to be moved to the China Theatre to meet the threat of Japanese attacks from the north. Once the Burma Road from Mandalay to Chungking was secured NCAC became passive and in March 1945 Mountbatten agreed to the US and Chinese troops in NCAC being gradually withdrawn to the China.[11]
RAF aircraft destined for SEAC had the word "SNAKE" applied after the serial during ferrying to prevent them being appropriated by other commands along the route.
In February 1945 Air Marshal Keith Park was appointed Allied Air Commander of South-East Asia Command [SEAC] where he served until the end of the war.
Once most of Burma was re-captured by Fourteenth Army, the command turned its attention towards its next major operational objective: Malaya. However, the use of atomic bombs on the Japanese mainland brought the war to an abrupt end.
Post–World War II
General Joseph Stilwell (right), First Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of the South East Asia Command, together with General Frank Merrill, in Burma during the Burma Campaign.
The command shifted its emphasis from combat operations to military government, and the repatriation of internees and prisoners of war.
The borders of SEAC were adjusted in the aftermath of the war. French Indochina was added, along with Borneo –- most of which had already been captured by Australian forces, under the South West Pacific Command -– and Java. This added immensely to the problems of the command. Western governments expected SEAC to re-establish colonial regimes in territories lost to Japan in 1941–45, and in which anti-colonial, nationalist forces had gained strength.
British Commonwealth troops were landed in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and Indochina to facilitate the return of forces from the pre-war colonial powers. The force landed in the East Indies was the Indian XV Corps, which included 5th Indian Infantry Division, 23rd Indian Infantry Division and 5th Parachute Brigade.[12] Military government was soon established in Burma, Malaya, Singapore and British Borneo. Sarawak and Sumatra did not prove to be major headaches for the British, except that one Japanese unit in Borneo refused to surrender until November 1945.
Thailand, although it had officially been an ally of Japan, quickly resumed both its independence and its ties with the western powers.
Because of shortages of personnel, some use was made of Japanese Surrendered Personnel (JSP) in these areas. The Allies found that their war-time allies in the Viet Minh in Indochina, and Indonesian nationalist forces in the East Indies, were well armed, well-organised and determined. It was intended that British forces would temporarily enforce military government over a small section of Indochina, because of local resistance, logistics and French sensibilities. However, in the end the commander of British forces declared de facto military government, to make it possible for French forces to return.
Indonesian National Revolution, 1945–46
Aided by armed militias formed by the Japanese during the occupation, Indonesian nationalists in Java declared the Dutch East Indies a republic, and independent from the Netherlands. The British intended that the Dutch colonial administration should return, and assisted a small military contingent, the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA). However they initially avoided significant conflict with the nationalists. It was only possible for British forces to establish military government in parts of Indonesia, and they found that the location of Allied prisoners of war – and civilians interned by Japanese forces – were sometimes used by nationalists in bargaining for political ends.
British troops found themselves in increasing conflict with the nationalists. The nationalists attacked JSP garrisons awaiting repatriation, to seize their arms. A British Brigadier, A. W. S. Mallaby, was killed, as he pushed for the nationalists to surrender their weapons. As a result, on 10 November 1945, Surabaya was attacked by British forces, leading to the bloody Battle of Surabaya. The city was secured later that month. The battle for Surabaya was the bloodiest single engagement of the Indonesian National Revolution (1945–49). However, the British were reluctant to devote their scarce resources to a defence of Dutch interests, and withdrew from Indonesia.
Disbandment
As 1946 drew on, under its second and final commander, Lieutenant-General Montagu Stopford (June to November 1946), SEAC discharged its final tasks and was disbanded. It was no longer felt that a joint command was needed in the area.
See also
• Radio SEAC
References
1. Woodburn Kirby 2004c, p. 11.
2. Woodburn Kirby 2004c, p. 45.
3. Woodburn Kirby 2004c, p. 52.
4. Morton 1962, pp. 670–671.
5. Morton 1962, p. 381.
6. Morton 1962, pp. 382–386.
7. Morton 1962, pp. 668–669.
8. Woodburn Kirby 2004c, p. 47.
9. Woodburn Kirby 2004c, pp. 45 to 49.
10. Woodburn Kirby 2004d, pp. 117–119.
11. Woodburn Kirby 2004e, p. 2.
12. Graham Watson, Allied Land Forces South East Asia 1945 Archived 2 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Orbat.com, accessed November 2008
Sources
• Morton, Louis (1962). Strategy and Command: The First Two Years (PDF). Washington, D. C.: United States Army Center of Military History. OCLC 63151391. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
• Woodburn Kirby, Major-General S. (2004c) [1st. pub. HMSO:1961]. Butler, Sir James (ed.). The War Against Japan: The Decisive Battles. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. III. Uckfield: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-84574-062-9.
• Woodburn Kirby, Major-General S. (2004d) [1st. pub. HMSO:1965]. Butler, Sir James (ed.). The War Against Japan: The Reconquest of Burma. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. IV. Uckfield: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-845740-63-7.
• Woodburn Kirby, Major-General S. (2004e) [1st. pub. HMSO:1969]. Butler, Sir James (ed.). The War Against Japan: The Surrender of Japan. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. V. Uckfield: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-845740-64-5.
Further reading
• Jon Latimer, Burma: The Forgotten War, London: John Murray, 2004. ISBN 978-0-7195-6576-2
• Peter Dennis, Troubled days of peace : Mountbatten and South East Asia command, 1945–46, Manchester : Manchester University Press, 1987, ISBN 0719022053.