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"Punch" Cowan commanded 17
Indian
Division in India and Burma
during most of the war. Slim,
whose friendship dated back to 1924,
praised him for his ability to maintain morale
during the retreat from
Burma. On arriving at Imphal,
Cowan was ordered by the imperious Noel Irwin to camp out his
exhausted division on a
hillside devoid of any shelter or even forest cover; he refused
and was backed by Slim.
Cowan also organized an intelligence organization, Yomas Intelligence Service, to screen the British retreat. Cowan was praised for conducting a skillful advance into the Chin Hills during the battle of Kohima and for his turning movement against 33 Division. He fought superbly at Meiktila during the central Burma campaign of 1944, retaining his stranglehold on the Japanese lines of communication in spite of lack of sleep and grief from news of the death of his son in the fighting at Mandalay.
Fraser (2007), who was a private soldier in the final months of
the Burma campaign, recalls Cowan as a "kindly, hook-nosed Glasgow
graduate".
| 1896 |
Born |
|
| 1927 |
Staff College Quetta |
|
| 1932 |
Colonel
|
Chief Instructor, Indian
Military Academy |
| 1939 |
Commander, 1 Battalion, 6 Gurka
Rifles |
|
| 1940-9-8 |
General Staff |
|
| 1941-2-18
|
Deputy director, Military Training, India |
|
| 1942-3-2 |
Major
general |
Commander, 17 Indian Division |
| 1945 |
Commander, British
Commonwealth
Occupation Force, Japan |
|
| 1945-9-10
|
Commander, Force 152 |
|
| 1945-11-1 |
Commander, BRINJAP Division,
Japan |
|
| 1946 |
Commander, BRINDIV Division,
Japan |
|
| 1948-1-9 |
Retires |
|
| 1983 |
Dies |
References
Ammentorp (accessed 2016-6-29)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2009-2010, 2016 by Kent G. Budge. Index
