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British Army Aid Group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The British Army Aid Group (Chinese: 英軍服務團) was a para-military organisation for British and allied forces in Southern China during the Second World War. The BAAG was officially classified in the British Army's order of battle as a MI9 unit that was responsible for assisting prisoners of war to escape from the Japanese Army's POW camps.
The BAAG was formed at the outbreak of the Battle of Hong Kong by Colonel Sir Lindsay Tasman Ride, who was then the Chair of Physiology of the University of Hong Kong. His original idea was to recruit staff and students at the university's school of medicine and provide medical services to British and Canadian troops in Hong Kong. After the Japanese captured Hong Kong the BAAG was relocated to Chungking in Southern China as part of the Allied Command Headquarters.
Throughout the war the BAAG had provided agents to gather military intelligence in Southern China and Hong Hong and these agents had also facilitated many of the POWs' escapes from Hong Kong to the Allied Command Headquarters in Chungking. Escaped POWs were then debriefed by BAAG staff and subsequently, re-trained for further operations in Burma with the Chindits.
At the end of the war the BAAG had also played a vital role in re-establishing British sovereignty in Hong Kong.