| abstract | - In May 1942, the Allies retreated from Burma, accompanied by many refugees, mainly Indian and Anglo-Burmese. Although the Japanese halted their advance on the Chindwin River (mainly because the heavy monsoon rains descended at this point and made the roads and tracks through the mountainous frontier between India and Burma impassable), the Allies (in particular the British India Command) feared that they would attack again after the monsoon ended. The Government of India and the state governments of the eastern provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa faced widespread disorder and a growing famine which would eventually become the disastrous Bengal famine of 1943. The British reorganised their command in eastern India. The headquarters of Eastern Army, under Lieutenant General Charles Broad, were at Ranchi in Bihar. This army command was originally a peacetime administrative headquarters for depots and units stationed in Eastern India. It unexpectedly found itself in control of a very large rear communications area, and the troops on the frontier with Burma, roles for which it had not prepared in peacetime. Its fighting formations were the IV Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Noel Irwin, at Imphal in Manipur, and the newly formed XV Corps, commanded from 9 June 1942 by Lieutenant General William Slim, with its headquarters at Barrackpore, near Calcutta. XV Corps in turn commanded 14th Indian (Light) Division which was stationed around Chittagong and faced the Burmese coastal province of Arakan, and the 26th Indian Infantry Division in the Ganges Delta. The 14th (Light) Division had been raised at Quetta in Baluchistan and was originally intended to form part of the Allied forces in Iraq and Persia. It was fully formed and equipped but lacked training, particularly in jungle warfare. The 26th Division was still forming, and was engaged in training and in internal security duties.
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