The Tragic Destiny of Basil Blackwood

April 2014

In 1940, as the Japanese troops steadily advanced in Burma, Basil refused a position in Winston Churchill's coalition government and became a captain in the Royal Horseguards. He returned to civilian life as Director of the Empire Division of the Ministry of Information from 1941 to 1943, but rejoined the army in May 1944 when his experience in the ministry led to propaganda work in Burma. (Two other dashing soldiers, Orde Wingate and Peter Fleming, also fought in Burma.) Blackwood was posted to Force 136, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in south-east Asia, which specialised in strategic deception and operated against the Japanese, as well as against Burmese and Indian nationalists fighting for the Japanese in the hope of achieving independence if they won the war.

SOE's mobile broadcasting stations, operating only 30 yards from the front lines, tried to break Japanese morale. They distributed pamphlets and used loudspeakers to make demoralising speeches and play sentimental music that made the soldiers long for home. One message, purportedly from the emperor, used Japanese prisoners to persuade the troops to leave Burma and return to protect their families at home. Though the enemy had been taught that death was preferable to dishonorable surrender, British propaganda urged them to stop fighting the lost war and assured them that they would be treated well as prisoners. Their perilous task was almost impossible, but the propaganda sometimes worked and in the spring of 1944 Force 136 convinced four different Japanese units to surrender.

Basil's jaunty and optimistic letters home during the last week of his life (which must have reached Northern Ireland after his death) revealed his adventurous spirit and eagerness to confront danger. Writing to his wife on March 17, 1945, he assumed a historical as well as a personal interest in the Burmese campaign by announcing that Ava had been retaken and that the Allies had nearly won the war in Burma:

I am now in the last camp of one of my journeys across Burma of which I have now made several. I certainly have seen more of the various fronts in the time I have been here than most people have. I have not enjoyed myself so much since the war began.

Fort Dufferin is still but tonight Ava is said to have been recaptured. So after three years Sheridan's earldom is once again in the family. Please congratulate the little fellow on the successful recovery of his property from the invaders.

I am now halfway between two battles and there is a hell of a glare in the far distance, but whether it is Mandalay or Meiktila I am not sure. The only fly in the ointment is that the road I am taking tomorrow was cut yesterday and I shall have to go in a convoy which means very slow travelling and for a nervous old politician some anxious moments on some of the narrower portions. . . .

It really looks as though the Jap has just about had it in Burma, though how long it will take and how much he will be able to salvage from the wreck is another matter.