Burma Command was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

command formed for the coordination of the defences of

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. It functioned from 1937 to 1942, when the country fell to Japanese Forces during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and functioned again from 1945 to 1948, when the country secured independence from the UK.

History

Before the formation of the command, Burma had functioned as independent district within the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

. The last General Officer Commanding Burma Independent District was Major-General

William Twiss General William Twiss, (1745 – 14 March 1827), was a British Army Royal Engineer, responsible for the design of many military defences. Probably born in Kent in 1744 or 1745, Twiss worked in the ordnance office at the Tower of London from ...

who commanded from 1936 to 1937. In April 1937, when Burma became a semi-autonomous country, it was decided to separate the command from the British Indian Army. Initially Burma Command came under the direct command of the Governor of British Burma as commander-in-chief. However with the

imminent, responsibility was delegated to Lieutenant-General

Kenneth McLeod Kenneth Archibald McLeod (September 7, 1858 – July 27, 1940), was a politician in Alberta, Canada and a municipal councillor in Edmonton. He was also the builder of the McLeod Building, the Edmonton's first skyscraper. Early life and car ...

as the first General Officer Commanding in January 1939. Once

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

had fallen to Japanese troops on the 5/6 March 1942 and

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

had fallen shortly thereafter, the command was disbanded. After the war it was reformed from the core of the Twelfth Army on 1 October 1945. It was disbanded again when Burma became an independent country under the

Burma Independence Act 1947 The Burma Independence Act 1947 (1947, 11 Geo. VI, Ch. 3) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that conferred independence on Burma, today called Myanmar. The Act received the royal assent on 10 December 1947. The Union of Burm ...

in January 1948.

Commanders

Commanders included: * Lieutenant-General

: 1939 – 1941 * Lieutenant-General Thomas Hutton: 1941 – 1942 * General Sir Harold Alexander: March 1942 – May 1942 :''Under Japanese rule from 1942 to 1945'' * Lieutenant-General Harold Briggs: 1945 – 1948

References

{{British armies, commands, and corps during the Second World War

External links

Burma Army
Commands of the British Army Military units and formations established in 1930 Military units and formations disestablished in 1942