SBS Burma

Torture was the reward of capture

The previous page was: "SBS Algiers"

SBS Burma; In October 1943 Admiral Louis Mountbatten took over the command of the British Far East Forces; he took with him his personal staff which included the Special Boats Section (SBS) of the Royal Marines and the 3rd Special Services Brigade of Commandos. Of which composed Nos.1 and 5 Army Commandos and Nos.42 and 44 Royal Marines Commandos.

The Japanese army had surged through Asia from Tokyo to Java and was a feared force of the highest degree. Their advance was stopped mainly by head-hunters and warlike natives of the lands they had invaded. The Allied reward of gold for a severed head encouraged the natives to excel in the art of head removal.

It was not only the Allied gold that tempted this action; but the foolishness by the Japanese soldiers themselves. On the many islands and countries of Asia there are many different cultures. Some of these were head-hunters who were spread far and wide throughout Asia.

SBS Algiers

Nagas natives of Burma loved gold

The Iban of Borneo is probably the best hunter and tracker you can come across; by tradition they tattoo their bodies all over with designs that have been passed down through the generations. The Iban is a very proud and brave warrior. When the Japanese invaded Borneo they used the tattooed skin of Ibans for lampshades among other things; something you do not do to most feared head-hunter in the word.

The Commandos had discovered that the Japanese soldier was far from invincible; he was poorly trained but made to obey orders. He disliked fighting at close quarters or out in the open; he was a poor shot and like the Germans he did not like the cold steel of the bayonet.

SBS Burma where they were called upon to collect information all along the west coast; which they carried out from the moment of their arrival. The Special Boats Section had been persisting tirelessly in reconnoitring the rivers and estuaries along the whole west coast of Burma; all ventures followed much the same pattern.

The SBS used carry-craft

The canoes would be launched from motor launches and manned by determined men such as: Major Holden White, Captain Livingstone, Captain Knight and Lieutenant Sherwood.

They usually operated in small teams of two canoes; but on the larger waterways they would operated in pairs with one pair on either side.

Stealthily they would steal quietly through the breakers and move up some moonlit and mysterious chaung (Burmese River). The amount of long hours these hand picked men spent paddling in silence upon dark waters, could never be recorded.

There were always tense moments when their canoe's turned shoreward's where they wondered whether an alert Japanese soldier lurked beyond that stretch of jungle shaded sand. Once under the cover of the shadows of the jungle they were able to set about their work

Captain Knight commented; "the new guide took us to an unnamed village where we procured information about enemy patrols, a supply dump and the names of the local Japanese commanders. Then the canoes returned to the carry-craft without being fired upon."

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Limpets and pistols

Were the canoe man's weapons

On one occasion they were four-hundred yards off shore when a beacon on top of a hill flared up; greatly lighting up the men and their canoes but they managed to escape. On another patrol they were heading for shore where there were four lines of surf; the worst about one-hundred and fifty yards from the beach, where it was forty-five feet high.

A Jap was wearing civilian clothing, a white shirt and a tartan lungi; he was short and very rotund and carried a pistol. As the Jap was on the point of reaching the shelter of the jungle; Merryweather who was closest to him; shot him through the back with a pistol. The man was so close that the flash lit up his shirt; he grunted and groaned before he fell down, got up and staggered into the jungle.

The men in the canoes weapons were pistols and limpets; their main task was to gather information of any kind; it all helped to build a big picture of the enemy; when the occasion arose where they could plant their limpets then they placed them on the fuel tanks or any ships that the enemy used.

Force Viper was there on the rivers

The SBS made more than eighty sorties before the war came to an end; but like the stealthy people they are; we will never know what or where they carried out their clandestine work. In all of these adventures the Special Boats Section, like the Commando Brigade, they received immense assistance from the 'V' Force.

Force Viper were special men: Royal Marines, Burma Commando II, and many drawn from the Kachins and other hillmen of Burma. They spent many months, and even years operating behind the Japanese lines carrying out demolitions and sabotage; collecting valuable information and providing guides.

One Englishman among them was a cockney corporal he was an expert wireless operator. For more than a year wearing a series of disguises; to which he strongly objected, he went about the Upper Burma in the company of a Kachin major, grumbling much and crying out for the Seven Sisters Road. But he never failed to send the messages which gave much vital information.

Such men moving about in the green unhealthy darkness of the jungle or over undeterminable hills, baked with the sun or soaked with rain; carried their lives in their hands.

Death, almost always preceded by torture, was the reward of capture. These men were without doubt among the bravest of the brave.

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