I have recently read this in “ Ball of Fire” by Anthony Brett-James and wondered if these Loading Tables still exist somewhere, as they would provide a wonderful resource of information for researchers : “That same day a staff officer flew down to Divisional Headquarters from Fourteenth Army, and announced that the entire Division, including mules, guns and jeeps, would be flown to Imphal and Dimapur, because the situation had become extremely serious. The presence of the Division was needed urgently in the north. The staff officer issued loading tables for every type of unit and then said, "Any questions? I have to leave in half an hour." None of the Divisional staff had any experience of moving a formation by air, nor had the troops ever trained for this. All that was known was that such a move was supposed to be highly complex, and to involve months of practice. Colonel Maclaurin, the A/Q, his deputy, Major T. C. W. Roe, and their staff were in no position to ask questions on the spur of the moment. Instead, they hoped for the best, and settled down to follow the loading tables provided. These tables had been prepared by the Army some months before in anticipation of such an emergency, and they worked splendidly. The loading tables showed exactly which men, by ranks and trades, would travel in each aircraft, and which stores and pieces of equipment would be loaded in each. Should any one plane crash, the unit concerned would not have lost all its trained men, all its mortars, all its wireless sets.” Could these ‘Loading Tables’ be at KEW or the IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM ?
A few of us on here are interested in something very similar. The personnel manifests for the Chindit 2 glider assault on Burma.
Copies of these tables might, with luck, be buried in the copious appendices of that Division HQ's war diaries. I haven't seen those exact tables in my limited research, but even regimental diaries often have extremely detailed embarkation tables, movement tables, vehicle loadouts and other interesting scraps tucked away in an appendix. A few examples from 130 Fld Regt: The 2 ELR Dodge loadout found its way into their diary as they had forward observers on patrol with 2 ELR mobile columns in the Arakan.
