Force 136

The Force 136 was a Far East branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Oriental Mission in April 1942. The man in overall charge for the duration of the war was Colin Mackenzie.

The organisation was established to encourage and supply resistance movements in enemy-occupied territory, and sometimes try sabotage operations. Force 136 operated in the regions of the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II which were taken over by Japan from 1941 to 1945: Burma, Malaya, China (Hong Kong), Sumatra, Siam, Indochina and Singapore.

Force 136 Media

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  War in the Far East gallery in the Imperial War Museum London. Among the collection are a Japanese Good Luck Flag, operational map (numbered 11), photographs of Force 136 personnel and guerillas in Burma (15), a katana that was surrendered to a SOE officer in Gwangar, Malaya in September 1945 (7), and rubber soles designed by SOE to be worn under agents boots' to disguise footprints when landing on beaches (bottom left).

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  Two Force 136 operatives, Tan Chong Tee and Lim Bo Seng, during their commando training in India with the SOE. Both, along with other Force 136 operatives under the Operation Gustavus were later dispatched via submarine into Malaya to set up an espionage network in Malaya and Singapore.