There are only a few displays relating to the Far East but they contain some of the most interesting exhibits we have seen. Photography is not permitted inside the museum so we have compiled a report on the items and enhanced our own words with Wikipedia information.
Specific artefacts originate from Sergeant Brierley and the Radio Operation of team REINDEER from Force 136 of the SOE Operations against the Japanese in Burma. A picture of Sergeant Brierley can be seen here on the Imperial War Museum website: visit link He is also commemorated on the Special Forces Roll of Honour with the following details: visit link
'Brierley Ronald
Unit: SOE Jedburgh Teams Daniel + Reindeer
Rank: Sergeant
Award: Military Medal, Mention in Despatches (x 3), Croix de Guerre (Fr)
Place: France 1944 (MiD x 2,CdG) Burma 1945 (MM,MiD)
Additional information: parent unit Royal Tank Regiment, R.A.C.
born 31.7.1921 Oldham,Lancashire, employed with Alliance Assurance Company, Manchester in civilian life
70th (Young Soldiers) Bn Border Regiment (Pte) 1940
Royal Tank Regiment (34th Tank Brigade) 1942
SOE 1944-45 (radio operator)
146 Regiment, R.A.C. 1945
insurance broker postwar
O.B.E. 1984
died 11.7.2005'
Amongst the items from Sergeant Brierley are:
Japanese radio crystals
Identity discs
Rank insignias
Parachute used by Sergeant Brierley
Seals
A Japanese Surrender Sword
Prayer cards
A silk escape map of Burma
A Japanese Meatball flag
A Gurkha Knife
SOE parachute wings
Force 136 of the SOE Operations included the Three Jedburgh preferred to be called 'The Jeds' who joined forces with the American OSS and Force 136.
Wikipedia describes Force 136, a section is quoted below, with much more available on the website:
visit link
'Force 136 was the general cover name for a branch of the British World War II organization, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The organisation was established to encourage and supply resistance movements in enemy-occupied territory, and occasionally mount clandestine sabotage operations. Force 136 operated in the regions of the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II which were occupied by Japan from 1941 to 1945.
Although the top command of Force 136 were British officers and civilians, most of those it trained and employed as agents were indigenous to the regions in which they operated. British, Americans or other Europeans could not operate clandestinely in cities or populated areas in Asia, but once the resistance movements engaged in open rebellion, Allied armed forces personnel who knew the local languages and peoples became invaluable for liaison with conventional forces. In Burma in particular, SOE could draw on many former forestry managers and so on, who had become fluent in Burmese or other local languages before the war, and who had been commissioned into the Army when the Japanese invaded Burma.'
The Burma Star Association has a detailed section on Force 136:
visit link
There are also items from D. Gibbs, including a Burma Star medal and the following exhibits:
Insignia
A Japanese erotic ink sketch
Bamboo pipe
Karenni armband Burmese
A jungle carbine sling
An escape pack including sewing threads, a complete fishing kit, Halazone and anti-fatigue tablets.
A Japanese belt with 1000 stitches and a cap with 1000 stitches - each stitch completed by a different woman for luck.
A Japanese hydrometer and escape kit
The Jeds are commemorated in the Sprite Chapel on number 37 in Peterborough Cathedral. Wikipedia has a snippet about the Jeds on the Force 136 link: 'From 1944 to 1945 long-range B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft attached to Force 136 dropped 40 "Jedburgh" commandos from the French intelligence service BCRA, and agents from the Corps Léger d'Intervention also known as "Gaur", commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Huard, into Indochina.'
Other items in the museum include those from Operation Nation and Character:
These include messages written on bark to the Burma Hill Tribes - Karen
(Karen and Operation Character are described here on Wikipedia): visit link
'Karens, Chins, Arakanese and Kachins
The majority community of Burma were the Bamar. Among the minority peoples of Burma, including Chins, Karens and Kachins, there was a mixture of anti-Bamar, anti-Japanese and pro-British sentiments. In 1942, the pro-Japanese Burma Independence Army raised with Japanese assistance, attempted to disarm Karens in the Irrawaddy River delta region. This created a large-scale civil conflict which turned the Karens firmly against the Japanese.
The Karens were the largest of the minority communities. Although many lived in the Irrawaddy delta, their homeland can be considered to be the "Karenni", a mountainous and heavily forested tract along the border with Thailand. They had supplied many recruits to the Burma Rifles (part of the British forces in Burma during the early part of the war), and in the chaos of the British retreat into India, many of them had been given a rifle and ammunition and three months' pay, and instructed to return to their home villages to await further orders. The presence of such trained soldiers contributed to the effectiveness of the Karen resistance.
A few British army officers had also been left behind in the Karreni, in a hasty attempt to organise a "stay-behind" organisation. In 1943, the Japanese made a ruthless punitive expedition into the Karenni, where they knew a British Officer was operating. To spare the population, a British liaison officer, Hugh Seagrim, voluntarily surrendered himself to the Japanese and was executed along with several of his Karen fighters.
However, Force 136 continued to supply the Karens, and from late 1944 they mounted Operation Character, which organised large-scale resistance in the Karenni. In April 1945, Force 136 stage-managed a major uprising in the region in support of the Allied offensive, which prevented the Japanese Fifteenth Army forestalling the Allied advance on Rangoon. After the capture of Rangoon, Karen resistance fighters continued to harass Japanese units and stragglers east of the Sittang River. It was estimated that at their moment of maximum effort, the Karens mustered 8,000 active guerrillas (some sources claim 12,000), plus many more sympathisers and auxiliaries.'
Other items are:
Water purification tablets
A concealed dagger
A last ditch .30 calibre round (for suicide if captured)
Wound dressing
A Japanese prayer book
Next door at the Northamptonshire Aviation Society Museum are a few more Far East artefacts including a Japanese compass Mitsubishi A6M Zero Sen or Kawasaki 161 hein 'Tony'. These relate to the RAF Seletar Association who opened in Singapore in 1928 and closed in 1971. This RAF Base Association offer reunion trips once a year and trips to the Far East. RAF Seletar have their own website: visit link
Wikipedia describes what happened at RAF Seletar during the Japanese Occupation: visit link
'World War II
As war clouds gathered over Singapore, the RAF started building up their forces in the Far East in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Seletar airfield was the target of carpet bombing when Japanese navy bombers conducted the first air raid on Singapore, sometime after their ground forces invaded Kota Bahru. It was abandoned when the Japanese took Johore Bahru, which brought their artillery in range of the airfield.
When the Japanese launched their invasion of Malaya and Singapore, Seletar housed the RAF’s 205 Sqn with PBY Catalina flying boats and 36 and 100 Sqns with obsolete Vickers Vildebeest torpedo bombers, along with 151 Maintenance Unit. These units stayed until Jan-Feb 1942, soon before the surrender to the invading Japanese.
During the Japanese occupation, Seletar as was in the case of Sembawang came under the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service while Tengah fell under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force. From 1942 through 1945, a number of IJN squadrons were based or transited through Seletar mainly, for training. Among the units known to be based at Seletar during this time were 936 Kokutai (B5N Kate, D3A Val and E13A1 Jake), 381 Kokutai (A6M Zero and J2M Raiden). The 601 Kokutai was also stationed there for training in early before its destruction on board Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Philippine Sea (Marianas Turkey Shoot) in June. Seletar’s present runway was built during the Japanese Occupation.'
Our visit to this museum has proved an informative experience and one we would recommend to others. This waymark concentrates on the Far East aspect of the museum, we will also detail the wider angle of the museum especially on The Carpetbaggers in another category.