The British Fourteenth Army was a multi-national force comprising units from Commonwealth countries during the Second World War.

It was often referred to as the "Forgotten Army" because its operations in the Burma campaign were overlooked by the contemporary press, and remained more obscure than those of the corresponding formations in Europe for long after the war.

Before World War II the British Indian Army had been divided into regional commands supervised by the headquarters in New Delhi, GHQ India.

[1] It had both control of operations against the Japanese Army in Burma, and large rear-area responsibilities, stemming from its pre-war task.

In late 1943, South East Asia Command was created, with Lord Louis Mountbatten as Commander-in-Chief.

After initial Allied setbacks, in which an Indian divisional HQ was overrun, the surrounded units defeated the Japanese at the Battle of the Admin Box.

IV Corps, spearheaded by armoured and motorised units, crossed the river downstream of the main Japanese forces and seized the vital logistic and communications centre of Meiktila.

It was vital to capture Rangoon, the capital and principal port of Burma, to allow the Army to be supplied during the monsoon.

Fourteenth Army HQ now moved to Ceylon to plan operations to recapture Malaya and Singapore.

General Slim was promoted to command Allied Land Forces in South East Asia.

A seaborne landing on the west coast of Malaya, codenamed Operation Zipper, was being prepared but was forestalled by the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese surrender.

Zipper was nevertheless mounted unopposed as the quickest method of introducing troops to Malaya to enforce the surrender of the Japanese there and repatriate Allied prisoners of war.

You are, and will remain "The Forgotten Army".The War Cemetery in Kohima has the famous inscription "When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today".