XV Corps (India)

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Indian XV Corps
Active 1942 - 1945, postwar to present
Country British India
Branch British Indian Army
Engagements Burma Campaign
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Lieutenant General Noel Beresford-Peirse
Lieutenant General William Slim
Lieutenant General Philip Christison

The Indian XV Corps was a British Commonwealth corps, which was formed in India during World War II. It took part in the Burma Campaign and was disbanded after the end of the war, but reformed within the post-Independence Indian Army.

[edit] World War II

When Japan entered the war and drove British, Indian and Chinese forces from Burma in early 1942, XV Corps was formed from the Assam and [Bengal] Presidency District HQ, on March 30, 1942, to defend Bengal. The Corps badge was an arrangement of three "V"s (signifying fifteen in Roman numerals) in black on a red background. Its first commander was Lieutenant General Noel Beresford-Peirse.

On June 9, Beresford-Peirse was appointed to India's Southern Command (an army-level administrative HQ) and Lieutenant General William Slim, former commander of the disbanded Burma Corps, took over XV Corps. At this point, XV Corps HQ was at Barrackpur near Calcutta. The Corps had the multiple roles of defending Bengal and Orissa from Japanese invasion, maintaining internal security and training its raw units. In July, Eastern Army took over direct control of operations in the Burmese coastal province of Arakan (a move which in hindsight proved to be unwise), and XV Corps HQ was transferred to Ranchi in Bihar, with a training and internal security role.

On April 5, 1943, XV Corps was hastily summoned to Chittagong to resume control of operations in Arakan, where a Japanese counter-attack had driven back the British and Indian troops. It proved too late to restore the situation with the exhausted troops, and the Corps fell back to the Indian frontier before the monsoon halted operations.

On October 15, Slim was promoted to command Eastern Army (which subsequently became British Fourteenth Army). His replacement was Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Christison. Under Fourteenth Army, XV Corps resumed the advance in Arakan towards the end of the year. In the early months of 1944, the Corps gained the first significant success against the Japanese in the South East Asia, when they defeated a Japanese offensive in an engagement which came to be known as the Battle of the Admin Box. After capturing the defended area of the Mayu Range, operations in the Arakan were curtailed to allow resources to be concentrated on the central front in Assam.

After their victories at the Battle of Kohima and the Battle of Imphal, Fourteenth Army subsequently concentrated on the advance into Central Burma. Command of XV Corps passed from Fourteenth Army to Allied Land Forces South East Asia so that the Corps could conduct an independent campaign through Arakan and down the coast of Burma. When the general offensive began in late 1944, XV Corps advanced through the Arakan, capturing Akyab Island (with a vital airfield), launching amphibious flanking moves to intercept and defeat the retreating Japanese troops, and subsequently capturing the Burmese port of Taungup and the islands of Ramree and Cheduba.

Finally, units of the Corps mounted an amphibious assault on Rangoon, the Burmese capital. The assault, Operation Dracula was not needed in the end, as British forces were within a few miles of Rangoon when XV Corps landed.

Following the capture of Rangoon, XV Corps was withdrawn from Burma to prepare for Operation Zipper, an amphibious assault to recapture Malaya. However, the operation was overtaken by the Japanese surrender, and the XV Corps was disbanded shortly after the end of hostilities.

[edit] Post World War II

The Corps was reestablished after India gained independence, as part of the Indian Army. It took part in all of the wars against Pakistan. As of 2004, it is based at Srinagar.

[edit] External links