Few people know that troops from
East and West Africa fought with the Fourteenth Army in Burma during
the Second World War. There were 90,000 in total – one sixth of the Army’s
strength. If the Fourteenth was the ‘Forgotten Army’, then the three African Divisions
were the forgotten Army’s forgotten formations.
The 81st and 82nd
West African Divisions, known collectively as the Royal West African Frontier
Force (RWAFF), and the 11th East African Division brought their
unique skills to the campaign in the Far East .
Their hardiness and experience in ‘bush war’ allowed them to adapt to the
Burmese terrain – they were able penetrate the deepest jungle, climb the
steepest hills and cross rivers half a mile wide. But how important were they
in the overall campaign to liberate Burma from the Japanese? How
effective were they in battle? How did they interact with other Commonwealth
troops? How were they perceived by their European counterparts? These are
questions that historians have not attempted to answer. Indeed, the Africans’
role in the Far East has been chronically under-acknowledged in post-war
historiography – despite it being the largest concentration of Britain ’s
African troops in history.
Winston Churchill wrote ‘I am very
anxious that if the West African troops go into action they should make a name
for themselves’,[1] in April
1943. This did not happen. Like their East African counterparts, the two West
African Divisions have remained all but anonymous in the accounts of the war in
Burma
– despite their successes. Granted, the African Divisions entered the fray at a
relatively late stage, but their entry coincided with the conflict beginning to
turn in the Allies’ favour. The battles of Kohima and Imphal had yet to be
fought and won – and the Africans troops’ role in helping to turn the tide
should not have been underestimated.
Reuben Tackie, editor of The
Kintampo Camp Weekly, a newsletter
published from an RWAFF base in Ghana , wrote in March 1946:
In the RWAFF, troops are not known as
‘troops’ or as ‘soldiers’: they are known as ‘Africans’. ‘I saw Africans,’
‘there are too many Africans here,’ are phrases one hears too often even in a
force comprising almost entirely of Africans. Is this discrimination necessary?[2]
Senior figures within the
Fourteenth Army were guilty of such discrimination. They were prone to exposing
patronising, even racist, attitudes towards their African troops. This, coupled
with the lack of a strong African voice (most African soldiers were illiterate)
has resulted in the African Divisions’ importance being undermined and
undervalued in post-war literature. Where they have been mentioned, usually in the
published diaries of British personnel, they have often been represented
unfairly. African troops were respected, but descriptions of them were often
generalised and stereotypical of the ‘African savage’ – anecdotes which are
largely unhelpful when trying to understand the African troops’ effectiveness
in battle.
[1] W. S.
Churchill, The Second World War, Volume 4: The Hinge of Fate (Mariner: London,
1986), p.847.
[2] The Kintampo Camp Weekly, 24 March 1946,
p.15.
No comments:
Post a Comment