44th Airborne Division ( India ) The Indian 44th Airborne Division was a formation of the Indian Army during World War II , created in 1944 . It provided a parachute battalion for one minor airborne operation but the war ended before the complete formation could take part . ( Most of its subordinate formations and units had already seen action before the division formed ) . History . Creation . The division ' s creation was a protracted affair . The division was first converted from the 9th Airborne Division ( itself built around the core of the disbanded Indian 44th Armoured Division ) , at Secunderabad in India , on 15 April 1944 . Within a fortnight , the division HQ and such supporting units as had been allocated were used to form the Indian 21st Infantry Division , as an emergency measure during the Japanese invasion of India ( which was codenamed Operation U - Go , and which resulted in the battles of Imphal and Kohima ) . By 15 July , the crisis was clearly over , and the airborne division ' s formation was resumed . Formation . On 15 September 1944 , the existing 50th Parachute Brigade was allocated to the division . Later in the year , it was decreed that the Chindit formations were to be broken up and some of them were to be converted to airborne formations . The British 14th Airlanding Brigade became part of the division on 1 November 1944 , and the Indian 77th Parachute Brigade on 1 March 1945 . The conversion of 77th Brigade to a parachute formation was accompanied by the creation of the Indian Parachute Regiment which absorbed the existing Indian and Gurkha parachute battalions , and the formation of two British battalions of the Parachute Regiment around the cadre of troops which had already fought as Glider infantry during the Chindit campaign ; 15th Parachute Battalion from 1st King ' s Regiment ( Liverpool ) , and 16th Parachute Battalion from 1st South Staffordshire Regiment . Operation Dracula . The division was still in the midst of formation , reorganisation and training when it was called upon to provide a parachute force to take part in Operation Dracula . This was an amphibious operation intended to capture Rangoon , the capital and principal port of Burma , which was reinstated at short notice after being earlier cancelled . A composite Gurkha parachute battalion was formed from the two Gurkha battalions of the Indian Parachute Regiment , and landed behind Japanese coastal defences at the mouth of the Rangoon river on 1 May 1945 . During the Battle of Elephant Point they cleared Japanese rearguards from the defences , but the main Japanese garrison had evacuated Rangoon several days previously . The subsequent landings from the sea were unopposed . Later Operations . The division was preparing to take part in the projected invasions of Malaya and Singapore when the war ended unexpectedly . The division provided small airborne parties which landed in Japanese - occupied territories ahead of the main Allied forces , locating camps containing Allied prisoners of war and interned civilians , and delivering emergency relief supplies . The division was then redesignated the 2nd Indian Airborne Division , and was retained until the Partition of India , when it was disbanded on 14 / 15 August 1947 . One parachute brigade and some divisional units went to Pakistan and the other two brigades and the remaining units went to India .