44th Airborne Division (India)

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 44th Airborne Division


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dates= 1945
country= India
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branch=British Indian Army
type= Airborne infantry
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colonel_of_the_regiment=
notable_commanders=
identification_symbol= Winged Pegasus on a Scarlet bacground with "India" underneath
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nickname=
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battle_honours= Burma

The Indian 44th Airborne Division was a formation of the British Indian Army, created late in World War II. It took part in one minor airborne operation but the war ended before the complete formation could take part. (Most of its subordinate formations and units had already seen action before the division formed.)

History

Creation

The division's creation was a protracted affair. The division was first converted from the Indian 9th Airborne Division (itself built around the core of the disbanded Indian 44th Armoured Division), at Secunderabad in India, on April 15, 1944.

Within a fortnight, the division HQ and such supporting units as had been allocated were used to form the Indian 21st Infantry Division, as an emergency measure during the Japanese invasion of India (see Battle of Imphal). By July 15, the crisis was clearly over, and the airborne division's formation was resumed.

Formation

On September 15, 1944, the existing Indian 50th Parachute Brigade was allocated to the division. Later in the year, it was decreed that the Chindit formations were to be broken up and some of them converted to airborne formations. British 14th Airlanding Brigade became part of the division on November 1, 1944, and Indian 77th Parachute Brigade on March 1, 1945.

The conversion of 77th Brigade was accompanied by the formation of the Indian Parachute Regiment which absorbed the existing Indian and Gurkha parachute battalions, and the formation of two British battalions of the Parachute Regiment around the cadre of troops which had already fought as Glider infantry during the Chindit campaign; 15th Battalion from 1st Bn. King's Regiment (Liverpool), and 16th Battalion from 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment.

Operation Dracula

The division was still in the midst of formation, reorganisation and training, when it was called upon to provide a parachute force to take part in Operation Dracula. This was an amphibious invasion against Rangoon, the capital and principal port of Burma, which was reinstated at short notice after being earlier cancelled.

A composite Gurkha parachute battalion was formed from the two Gurkha battalions of the Indian Parachute Regiment, and landed behind Japanese coastal defences at the mouth of the Rangoon river on May 1, 1945. They cleared Japanese rearguards from the defences, but the main Japanese garrison had evacuated Rangoon several days previously. The subsequent landings from the sea were unopposed.

Later Operations

The division was preparing to take part in the projected invasions of Malaya and Singapore when the war ended unexpectedly. The division provided small airborne parties which landed in Japanese-occupied territories ahead of the main Allied forces, locating camps of Allied prisoners of war and interned civilians and delivering emergency relief supplies.

Order of Battle, as of May 1 1945

:General Officer Commanding - "Major General Earnest Edward Down":Commander, Royal Artillery - "Brigadier Reginald John Kirton"

:British 14th Airlanding Brigade - "Brigadier Francis William Gibb"::2nd Bn. Black Watch::4th Bn. 6th Rajputana Rifles::6th Bn. 16th Punjab Regiment

:Indian 50th Parachute Brigade - "Brigadier Edward Galbraith Woods"::1st Bn. Indian Parachute Regiment::3rd Bn. Indian Parachute Regiment

:Indian 77th Parachute Brigade - "Brigadier Claude John Wilkinson"::15th Bn. Parachute Regiment::16th Bn. Parachute Regiment::2nd Bn. Indian Parachute Regiment::4th Bn. Indian Parachute Regiment

:Divisional Units::123 Light / Airborne Regiment RA::159 Field Regiment RA::23rd Light Anti-Aircraft / Anti-Tank Regiment RA

External links

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