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[ A Short History of FF7 ]

The Burma Frontier Force was formed following the separation of Burma from India from units of the Burma Military Police.  These six battalions, manned largely by Gurkhas and Indians, were administered by the Defence Department of the Government of Burma and came under the command of the GOC, Burma Army.

Before the war, the BFF was involved in settling internal disorder and, as the name suggests, frontier guard duties.  There was no intention that the BFF were to be used as regular troops in a modern war.  Immediately on the outbreak of the war in 1939, the BFF took over guard duties for the airfields on the air reinforcement route to Singapore.  Additional detachments were raised, together with those of The Burma Rifles and the armed civil police, to take up further guard duties for new airfields, supply dumps and the supplies at Lashio destined for China.  In October 1940, the Kokine Battalion, BFF, was formed to carry out these duties but was poorly trained and equipped.

In 1941 mobile units were raised to perform specific outpost and scouting duties.  Initially four such units were formed, FF1, FF2, FF3 and FF4.   Their role was to give warning of any hostile advance and to harass and delay enemy troops until the arrival of regular troops.  Some motor transport was available and FF2 was supplied with motorised native craft for its duties in the Tenasserim and Mergui Archipelago.  Each FF unit was organised into a unit HQ, two troops of mounted infantry and three infantry columns of around 100 men each. 

After the outbreak of war with Japan, the firepower of each column was boosted by five Thompson sub-machine guns and a single mortar, each platoon also having a light machine gun.  However there was little time for the units to train with the new weapons.  Later other units and detachments were hurriedly formed, notably FF5 and FF6, but these were inadequately equipped and trained.  A short history of FF7 can be found here.

As elsewhere, the raising of additional units could only be achieved by drafting men from existing units and the effectiveness of units providing drafts suffered accordingly.

With the Japanese invasion the Allied retreat from Burma began and by April 1942 the units of the BFF had disintegrated, firstly through desertion and casualties and later as a result of the decision to allow men to return to their homes if they so wished.  The majority of the Indians and Gurkhas continued the retreat into India where it was later decided to form them into The Burma Regiment.

The Burma Frontier Force

19 April 2003