The Burma Frontier Force was a paramilitary police force in
British Burma
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...
. It was created in 1937 by the Burma Frontier Force Act (Burma Act I of 1937), when Burma was detached from
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
. It was formed from battalions of the
Burma Military Police. The Force was led by an Inspector-General, Frontier Force, appointed by the
Governor of Burma
The colonial governors of Burma were the colonial administrators responsible for the territory of British Burma, an area equivalent to modern-day Myanmar.
As a result of the Second Anglo-Burmese War, Burma was initially set up as a province ...
.
After the fall of Burma, legislation was passed to make Force part of the Burmese Army and subject to the Burma Army Act.
In 1942, a mounted column of the Burma Frontier Force, under the command of Captain Arthur Sandeman (seconded from the
Central India Horse) led a
mounted infantry
Mounted infantry were infantry who rode horses instead of marching. Unlike cavalry, mounted infantry dismounted to fight on foot. The original dragoons were essentially mounted infantry. According to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Editio ...
column. Near
Toungoo
Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ), also spelled Toungoo and formerly Toung-ngú, is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east an ...
airfield in central
Burma
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...
the 60-man mounted patrol mistook Japanese troops for Chinese ones and closed with them before realizing their mistake. Most of the patrol (including Sandeman) were killed in what was probably the last
cavalry charge
A charge is an offensive maneuver in battle in which combatants advance towards their enemy at their best speed in an attempt to engage in a decisive close combat. The charge is the dominant shock attack and has been the key tactic and decis ...
by a force under the command of the British crown.
[{{citation , title=F.F.3, Burma Frontier Force , url=http://www.rothwell.force9.co.uk/burmaweb/FF3.htm]
References
1937 establishments in Burma
British rule in Burma
Paramilitary organisations based in Myanmar