The British Twelfth Army was formed on May 28, Burma from the Fourteenth Army, which was being withdrawn to plan for Operation Zipper, the planned invasion of Malaya by amphibious assualt, which was due to take place in August1945.
Twelfth Army took over one of the main combat formations of Fourteenth Army; IV Corps. IV Corps had 5th, 17th and 19th Indian Divisions and 255th Tank Brigade under its command. Twelfth Army also assumed direct command of 7th and 20th Divisions, along with 22nd Brigade. Static formations under its control included 505 District and South Burma District.
There were still Japanese formations in Burma at this time, with IV Corps having the responsibility for driving them out of the remainder of the country. The Japanese tried to break out from the Allied armies closing in on them, and although suffering heavy casualties, did succeed in rescuing many of their formations.
After the war, Twelfth Army continued in existence until 1 November, when it was redesignated Burma Command.
How things are remembered is a key issue, and in the British tradition the Britisharmy is an integral part of the official remembrance ceremonies which makes remembrance also a celebration and glorification of militarism today.
It is doubly unacceptable when we see the role that the Britisharmy played, and is playing, in Iraq, allied to the world’s superpower.
Some who wear a red poppy would be totally uncritical of the Britisharmy; others wear it as a symbol of the struggle against fascism in the Second World War.
British and French forces were deployed as a result of a decision by the Supreme War Council during a crisis after the Italians had been pushed back 40 miles west, across the River Tagliamento to the River Piave, by a German-managed attack at Caporetto (the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo) in late 1917.
An initial British force, consisting of the XIV Corps under the command of the Earl of Cavan, with the 23rd and 41st Divisions, was despatched and began to arrive on 11 November 1917.
By then, units of the BritishArmy had also advanced in the Trentino and were the first such troops to enter the home soil of a European enemy during the war.
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