West African Pioneers in slouch hats
Hello Cliff,
I went off to try to see if I could find the photo I was aware of with 81st Division West African's in the IWM collection.
Sadly in the time I have, I can't lay my hands on it, but I did find the following photo E 2003 of "THE WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE IN EAST AFRICA, 1941 Men of the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) remove(ing) monumental stones placed by the Italians to mark the boundary of their new empire on the Kenya - Italian Somaliland border.
It is just such a nice picture, that I couldn't resist posting it. Sorry, no trucks.
Sorry Les, but they are carrying shovels!
If you go to the IWM collections and put "Arakan" unto search there are several photos of both West African's from the 81st WA Division, but also of RAF crews wearing wide brimmed hats just like the Aussies. Most were worn with the brim left down, but it is not uncommon to find photos where Brits and West African's followed the Aussie fashion.
I believe that the numbers of Australian's in Burma was very limited, and that they almost exclusively served in the RAF squadrons because the Australian Government wanted to keep the Australians in units run by Australian commanders in order to try to avoid the types of rows that had blown up in Australia and South Africa in 1942 and 1943 about earlier major troop losses in Africa, Singapore and Greece where an idea had developed that the UK government might have "sacrificed" Commonwealth troops to protect UK troops.
Regards
Nick Balmer
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