A Most Irregular War: SOE Burma, Major Trofimov's Diary 1944-45

In early 1945 small teams of Allied special forces soldiers were parachuted into the Burmese jungle far behind enemy lines. Their task was to work with local tribespeople who had suffered at the hands of the Japanese occupiers and the majority Burman population to raise irregular forces for guerilla warfare. Their goal was to assist advancing Allied forces by disrupting the rear area of the Japanese Army as it tried to hold the Allied advance. Recruiting, training, supplying and fighting with indigenous peoples, Allied special forces created powerful local forces that learnt all the skills of demolition, ambush and infantry attack. As the war in Burma turned into a rout for Japanese forces in 1945 those forces, instead of trying to disrupt the rear areas of the enemy, found themselves squarely in the way of the retreating Japanese Army trying to get out of Burma. The fight would turn desperate as Allied special forces and tribespeople stood against a Japanese Army in headlong flight. This is the story, through the unvarnished diary and photographs, of one of those Allied special forces soldiers (Major AAE Trofimov MC, Croix de Guerre) who stood with the Karen people against the fleeing army of Japan between the Salween and Sittang Rivers in Southern Burma in 1945 as part of Operation Character.