The British Army Aid Group (Chinese: 英軍服務團) was a para-military organisation for British and allied forces in Southern China during the Second World War. The BAAG was officially classified in the British Army's order of battle as a MI9 unit that was responsible for assisting prisoners of war to escape from the Japanese Army's POW camps.
Following the Battle of Hong Kong, Lt. Colonel Sir Lindsay Tasman Ride, who was then the Chair of Physiology of the University of Hong Kong was captured. He had been the commander of the HKVDC Field Ambulance, and once hostilities commenced was given command of the Combined Field Ambulance. Shortly after being captured, Ride escaped from Sham Shui Po POW camp to China with three trusted men. There, in order to further the war effort, support the Chinese, and shore up damaged British prestige in the area, he suggested forming a group that became known as the British Army Aid Group.
Throughout the war the BAAG provided agents to gather military intelligence in Southern China and Hong Hong and these agents had also facilitated many of the POWs' escapes from Hong Kong to the Allied Command Headquarters in Chungking. Escaped POWs were then debriefed by BAAG staff and subsequently rejoined the war effort. 128 men, for example, were re-trained for further operations in Burma with the Chindits.
At the end of the war the BAAG had also played a vital role in re-establishing British sovereignty in Hong Kong.
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