The Establishment
BAAG Crest
BAAG Shoulder Patch - The Scarlet Pimpernel
1. BAAG HQ Kukong
2. BAAG HQs Kweilin and Kunming
Officers and Staff, 1.6.44
AWM 1/3/15-20
Evacuation of BAAG HQ Kweilin 1944
Extract from LTR Final Report, 1946
WO208/3260
“By mid-1944, the military situation was such that once Hengyang fell, there was nothing to stop the Japanese moving South West to both Kweilin and Liuchow. And advantage of this valuable breathing space was taken to push our final stores and supplies through to the forward areas.
As our normal Lines of Communication were cut, these stores had to travel through areas where, although they looked perfectly safe on the official Chinese Order of Battle maps, total chaos reigned. Roads were packed with Chinese refugees fleeing in all directions, and banditry was rife. Officers who could ill be spared from H.Q. had to be sent with these stores, and great credit is due to them for the successful and efficient way in which these very arduous operations were carried out. All stores were delivered safely, and instructions issued to Forward Posts in the event of their being cut off. By the time these officers returned six weeks later, Kweilin was cut off and they had to make their way through to the new Rear H.Q.
Despite these conditions, the full functions of H.Q. were carried out throughout this move, and the weekly printing of K.W.I.Z. – sometimes printed during a halt on the road-side – was maintained unbroken. It was an achievement only possible in a unit of high morale, and whose officers were actuated by the utmost devotion to duty.”
