Film by ODID Researcher Tells Forgotten Story of How West African Soldiers Helped Secure Victory in Burma in WWII
ODID's Olly Owen has directed a short film for the Guardian on 'The Forgotten Army of WWII: West Africa's Soldiers in Burma’.
Some 90,000 West African soldiers, the majority of them Nigerians, were deployed to Southeast Asia after 1943, as part of the British army’s 81st and 82nd (West Africa) Divisions.
But while the role of Indians and Gurkhas in the campaign to drive the Japanese out of Burma is well-known, allied commander General William Slim did not mention the African soldiers in his speech thanking the 14th army.
Seventy years on, many remain bitter that their contribution was never recognised fully. This film tells the story of some of the survivors, a story of two years of intense jungle warfare to help secure Victory over Japan, through personal interviews conducted by Olly in Nigeria and exclusive, previously unseen footage of West Africa divisions fighting in Burma, courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, and Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League.
Olly Owen is an ESRC Future Research Leaders fellow at the department.