Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon - The Nehru Brigade

The Nehru Brigade

Dhillon met Subhas Chandra Bose on October 15, 1944 at his residence in Rangoon, and on October 26, was promoted to commander of the Nehru Brigade. Towards the end of 1943, "The Nehru" had been placed under the First Division, and it has moved to Mandala in Burma in early 1944. The Nehru Brigade was to hold the Irrawaddy River from Nyaungu in the north to Pangan in the south. In mid December 1944, the Japanese Army Commander General S. Katamura visited The Nehru Brigade along with Colonel I. Fujiwara, a Japanese supporter of the INA.

Dhillon formed an advance party from the 9th Battalion and left for Pagan on December 29, 1944. Dhillon ordered the battalions to leave Myingyan by February 4, 1945, so as to be in their respective positions by February 8, 1945. The Nehru Brigade held the Irrawaddy as planned, and Dhillon kept his headquarters at Tetthe throughout the operation.

On February 12, 1945 enemy planes saturation bombed the INA defences. The following night, the enemy launched an assault on the 8th battalion deployed at Pagon. These assaults failed and the enemy had to withdraw. The Nehru Brigade continued to hold the Irrawaddy, in what was to become the INA's first military victory. After the failure at Pagan, the British tried another assault opposite Nyaungu, using outboard motors and rubber boats. This assault also failed, and hundreds of soldiers were killed, forcing the survivors to retreat. However, the INA's victories could not be sustained, and, when it eventually withdrew, Dhillon had to proceed to Pagan.

Dhillon reached Pagan on February 17, 1945. On February 23, 1945, General Shah Nawaz visited the Commander of Khanjo Butai and discussed co-ordination of Indo-Japanese operations in the Popa and Kyauk Padaung area. Colonel Sahgal was ordered to prepare Popa as a strong base for future attacks. Dhillon’s regiment, the 4th Guerrilla, was ordered to check the enemy advance on to Kyauk Padaung from the west, where the British had established a strong bridgehead at Nyaungu. This was to be achieved by carrying out extensive and persistent guerrilla warfare in the area between Popa and Kyauk Padaung, to deny the enemy the use of the Nyaungu-Kyauk-Padaullg-Meiktila road. Shah Nawaz arrived at Popa on 12 March 1945, and relieved Dhillon to join his regiment. In the first half of March, 1945, British forces accepted a mass surrender of members of the Nehru Brigade which, together with the desertion of several officers, inspired several Special Orders of the Day by Bose against "cowardice and treachery" and, after providing an opportunity for soldiers to leave the I.N.A., condoned the execution of deserters.

On April 4, 1945 his division commander, Colonel Shah Nawaz Khan, ordered Dhillon to return from Khabok to Popa. By then, the 4th Guerrilla regiment had been in the area for over five weeks. Mount Popa and Kyaukpadaung was one pocket of resistance, which had so far defied all British attacks. Under constant raids by the INA, the British forces were forced to use longer routes that caused the them loss of time, greater consumption of fuel, and frequent breakdowns of their vehicles.

From early April 1945, the strategic situation began to change rapidly. The British launched a three-pronged attack on Mount Popa and Kyaukpadaung. On 5 April 1945, Dhillon was allotted the defence of Kyaukpadaung, south of Popa. In the second week of April, the area suffered daily bombing, and the British forces advanced in heavy tanks and armoured vehicles. Sustaining heavy casualties, the INA could not organize any defence, and the 2nd Division withdrew to Magwe, 100 miles (160 km) to the south.

After withdrawing from Magwe, they came to a village called Kanni. By this time, Burma had declared war on Japan, and so the villagers did not co-operate with INA. Their retreat was under the control of General Aung San’s People’s National Army, which had established a parallel government controlling around fifty villages. They crossed the Irrawaddy at Kama, and reached Prome on May 1, 1945. Most of the INA officers and men could not cross the river and were stranded on the east bank. It was apparent by then that they had lost the war, and Rangoon had already been evacuated.

From Prome, they retreated southeast through the jungles of the Pegu Yomas. Eleven days after leaving Prome, they reached a village called Wata about 20 miles (32 km) west of Pegu, and learned that Germany had recently surrendered, and Japan was suffering heavy bombing. The British forces had already occupied Pegu, and Rangoon fell during the last week of April. The surviving forces of INA decided to surrender to the British.