Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

collaboration? Why are we not disarming the Japanese? We desire the
definition of government policy regarding the presence of British troops
in Indo-China.” The letter was signed by the “British other ranks” of the
signal section of an infantry brigade based in Saigon.
36
It was highly unusual – notwithstanding the egalitarian spirit of those
postwar days – to see a group of low-ranking British troops so publicly
demanding that the foreign secretary explain his government’s policies.
But what was truly extraordinary was the disclosure that British troops
were fighting in the former French colony against the local population,
and that they were doing so alongside their former enemies: the
Japanese army and the Vichy French.
Few members of the public were aware that the British government
had been so anxious to see the French recover control of their prewar
colonial possession that the entire 20th Infantry Division of the British
Indian Army had been airlifted into the country the previous August,
with orders to suppress the Vietnamese people’s attempts to form their
own government. There were almost 26,000 men with 2,500 vehicles,
including armoured cars. Three British artillery regiments had also been
dispatched, the RAF had flown in with 14 Spitfires and 34 Mosquito
fighter-bombers, and there was a 140-strong contingent from the Royal
Navy.
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER 15
On landing, the British had rearmed the Vichy troops with new .303
British rifles. Shortly afterwards, surrendered Japanese troops had also
been rearmed and compelled to fight the Vietnamese – some under the
command of British officers.
Artwork: unknown