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| XXXIII Corps | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1942–1945 |
| Country |  British India |
| Allegiance |  British Empire |
| Branch |  British Indian Army |
| Type | Corps |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Philip Christison Montagu Stopford |
The British Indian XXXIII Corps was a corps-sized formation of the Indian Army during the Second World War. It was disbanded and the headquarters was recreated as an Army headquarters in 1945.
The Corps was created at Bangalore in India on 15 August 1942. Its first commander was Lieutenant General Philip Christison. On 15 October 1943, Christison was transferred to command Indian XV Corps, which was then about to go into action in the Burma Campaign, and replaced as commander of XXXIII Corps by Lieutenant General Montagu Stopford.
For much of its early history, the Corps was stationed in Southern India, preparing troops for several planned amphibious operations against the Japanese in the Indian Ocean.
The corps was added to the order of battle of Fourteenth Army during the crisis of spring 1944. Japanese forces were besieging the British force at Imphal, with a detachment blocking the only road by which they could be relieved at Kohima. XXXIII Corps was dispatched to command the relief effort mounted from Assam.
Its units were first concentrated around Dimapur, a vital railhead and logistic depot. Once sufficient troops had arrived, the British 2nd Division relieved the surrounded Indian 161st Brigade, which in turn relieved the defenders of Kohima. For several weeks, 2nd Division, joined later by the 7th Indian Infantry Division made repeated attacks to drive the Japanese from the positions they had captured on Kohima ridge, while the British 23rd Brigade (a Chindit formation) cut the Japanese lines of communication. Once the Japanese were forced into a retreat, the corps drove south to relieve Imphal. On 22 June 1944, troops from XXXIII Corps met Indian forces advancing north from Imphal, relieving the siege. The Corps then undertook the elimination of Japanese forces around Ukhrul, and the administration of several divisions resting after the battles.
Late in 1944, a general offensive to liberate Burma began. At the start of the operation (Operation Capital), the XXXIII Corps was the right flank striking force of Fourteenth Army, with IV Corps on its left. After it was realised that the Japanese had forestalled the attack by withdrawing behind the Irrawaddy River, the corps became the left flank formation, attacking into the Shwebo Plain between the Chindwin River and the Irrawaddy. It consisted of the British 2nd Division, the Indian 19th and 20th Divisions, the motorised Indian 268th Infantry Brigade and the Grant and Stuart tanks of the 254th Indian Tank Brigade.
During late February, the corps captured bridgeheads over the Irrawaddy on a wide front, distracting Japanese attention from the main thrust by IV Corps. During March, it launched its own offensives. The city of Mandalay was captured by the 19th Division, and the Japanese armies on the Irrawaddy were shattered. [1]
After a brief period of reorganisation, the corps was switched once again to the right flank of Fourteenth Army. The British 2nd Division was returned to India, and the Indian 20th Division took over its vehicles. During April, the corps (now consisting of the Indian 7th and 20th Divisions) advanced south down the Irrawaddy River valley. In early May, it linked up with other Indian troops who had captured Rangoon, the capital.
The Allied command in Burma was rearranged in May, shortly after Rangoon fell. The Headquarters of XXXIII Corps was transformed into that of British Twelfth Army with Stopford promoted to the new command, with responsibility for further operations in Burma including the defeat of the Japanese breakout attempt in the Pegu Yomas in July and August 1945.
XXXIII Corps (India) was re-raised in 1960.
Field Marshal William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim,, usually known as Bill Slim, was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia.
General Sir Alexander Frank Philip Christison, 4th Baronet, was a British Army officer who served with distinction during the world wars. After service as a junior officer on the Western Front in the First World War, he later distinguished himself during the Second World War, where he commanded XV Indian Corps, part of Sir William Slim's Fourteenth Army, during the Burma campaign. He then went on to have a successful postwar career, and lived to the age of 100.
The British Fourteenth Army was a multi-national force comprising units from Commonwealth countries during the Second World War. As well as British Army units, many of its units were from the Indian Army and there were also significant contributions from British Army's West and East African divisions. It was often referred to as the "Forgotten Army" because its operations in the Burma Campaign were overlooked by the contemporary press, and remained more obscure than those of the corresponding formations in Europe for long after the war. For most of the Army's existence, it was commanded by Lieutenant-General William Slim.
IV Corps was a corps-sized formation of the British Army, formed in both the First World War and the Second World War. During the First World War the corps served on the Western Front throughout its existence. During the Second World War it served in Norway and Britain until it was transferred to India, which was threatened with attack after Japan entered the war.
The Burma campaign was a series of battles fought in the British colony of Burma. It was part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II and primarily involved forces of the Allies against the invading forces of the Empire of Japan. Imperial Japan was supported by the Thai Phayap Army, as well as two collaborationist independence movements and armies. The first of these was the Burma Independence Army, which spearheaded the initial attacks against the country. The Indian National Army, led by Subhas C. Bose of the Free India movement, also collaborated with Imperial Japan, especially during Operation U-Go in 1944. Nominally independent puppet states were established in the conquered areas and some territories were annexed by Thailand. In 1942 and 1943, the international Allied force in British India launched several failed offensives to retake lost territories. Fighting intensified in 1944, and British Empire forces peaked at around 1 million land and air forces. These forces were drawn primarily from British India, with British Army forces, 100,000 East and West African colonial troops, and smaller numbers of land and air forces from several other Dominions and Colonies. These additional forces allowed the Allied recapture of Burma in 1945.
The Battle of Kohima proved the turning point of the Japanese U-Go offensive into India in 1944 during the Second World War. The battle took place in three stages from 4 April to 22 June 1944 around the town of Kohima, now the capital city of Nagaland in Northeast India. From 3 to 16 April, the Japanese attempted to capture Kohima ridge, a feature which dominated the road by which the besieged British and Indian troops of IV Corps at Imphal were supplied. By mid-April, the small British and Indian force at Kohima was relieved.
The Battle of the Tennis Court was part of the wider Battle of Kohima that was fought in North East India from 4 April to 22 June 1944 during the Burma Campaign of the Second World War. The Japanese advance into India was halted at Kohima in April 1944 and Garrison Hill, on a long wooded ridge on a high ridge west of the village, was, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission the scene of "perhaps the most bitter fighting of the whole Burma campaign when a small Commonwealth force held out against repeated attacks by a Japanese Division". During the siege of Kohima, heavy fighting, including hand-to-hand combat, occurred in the grounds surrounding the Deputy Commissioner's bungalow, including the tennis court, beginning around 8 April and continuing until 13 May when the assaulting Japanese troops began withdrawing from the area.
The Battle of Imphal took place in the region around the city of Imphal, the capital of the state of Manipur in Northeast India from March until July 1944. Japanese armies attempted to destroy the Allied forces at Imphal and invade India, but were driven back into Burma with heavy losses. Together with the simultaneous Battle of Kohima on the road by which the encircled Allied forces at Imphal were relieved, the battle was the turning point of the Burma campaign, part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II. The Japanese defeat at Kohima and Imphal was the largest up until that time, with many of the Japanese deaths resulting from starvation, disease and exhaustion suffered during their retreat. According to a voting in a contest run by the British National Army Museum, the Battle of Imphal was bestowed as Britain's Greatest Battle in 2013.
Operation Dracula was a World War II-airborne and amphibious attack on Rangoon by British and Anglo-Indian forces during the Burma Campaign.
General Sir Montagu George North Stopford was a senior British Army officer who fought during both World War I and World War II. The latter he served in with distinction, commanding XXXIII Indian Corps in the Far East, where he served under Field Marshal Sir William Slim, and played a significant role in the Burma Campaign, specifically during the Battle of Kohima in mid-1944.
The concurrent Battle of Meiktila and Battle of Mandalay were decisive engagements near the end of the Burma campaign during World War II. Collectively, they are sometimes referred to as the Battle of Central Burma. Despite logistical difficulties, the Allies were able to deploy large armoured and mechanised forces in Central Burma, and also possessed air supremacy. Most of the Japanese forces in Burma were destroyed during the battles, allowing the Allies to later recapture the capital, Rangoon, and reoccupy most of the country with little organised opposition.
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The 7th Infantry Division is a war-formed infantry division, part of the British Indian Army that saw service in the Burma Campaign.
The Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River operations were a series of battles fought between the British Indian Army and the Imperial Japanese Army and allied forces over the successful Allied Burma campaign on the China Burma India Theater during World War II. The battles and operations were instrumental in facilitating the eventual capture of Rangoon in summer 1945.
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The fighting in the Burma campaign in 1944 was among the most severe in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. It took place along the borders between Burma and India, and Burma and China, and involved the British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces, against the forces of Imperial Japan and the Indian National Army. British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from the United Kingdom, British India and Africa.
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