Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma)

The Women’s Auxiliary Service (Burma) (WAS(B)) was formed on 16 January 1942 and disbanded in 1946. The WAS(B)s were a group of British and Australian women who manned Mobile Canteens for the troops of Burma Command in World War II. They moved through Burma with the British Fourteenth Army living in dangerous and uncomfortable conditions, sleeping in bombed out, rat infested houses or tents with their stores and equipment brought in by air. They improvised stoves from old ammunition boxes. They were evacuated from Myitkyina on the last plane, and from the Battle of Imphal during the siege, but returned as soon as the Japanese retreated, eventually reaching Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. Many were mentioned in dispatches. General Slim later 1st Viscount Slim, Commander of the 14th Army known as the "Forgotten Army", said of them "They showed the highest standard of devotion and courage."