occupation force was also employed by the British to help maintain order, and fought alongside the British and Indian forces. Dutch forces gradually arrived in number and the British and Indians left by November 1946. A similar situation existed in French Indochina after Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of Vietnam on 2 September 1945, beginning the War in Vietnam. British and Indian troops, commanded by Major-General Douglas Gracey, were deployed to occupy the south of the country shortly afterwards, while the Republic of China attempted to occupy the northern areas of Vietnam. Vietnam was at this time in chaos and the population did not want French rule restored. The British military decided to rearm numerous French POWs—who then went on a rampage—and British forces also re-armed Japanese troops to help maintain order. The British and Indians departed by February 1946 and the First Indochina War began shortly afterwards. The Indochina Wars would continue for more than twenty years. British de-colonialisation and the British Army The latter part of the 1940s saw the British start to begin to withdraw from the Empire, the Army playing a prominent role in its dismantlement. The first colony the British withdrew from was India, the largest British possession as measured by population, though not the largest by geographical area. In 1947 the British government announced India would become independent on 15 August, after being separated into two countries, one mostly Muslim (Pakistan) and the other mostly Hindu (India). The British Army subsequently did not play a major role in the First Indo-Pakistani War between these two countries. The last British Army unit to leave active service in the Indian subcontinent was the 1st Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) on 28 February 1948. In the 1948 Palestine war, there was a surge in attacks against the British mandate and occupation by Zionist organisations such as Irgun and the Stern Gang after the British attempted to limit Jewish immigration into Palestine. British military and other forces eventually withdrew in 1948 and the State of Israel was established on 14 May. Elsewhere, within British territories, Communist guerrillas launched an uprising in Malaya, starting the Malayan Emergency. In the early 1950s, trouble began in Cyprus, and in Kenya—the Mau Mau uprising. In the Cyprus Emergency, a Greek nationalist organisation known as EOKA sought unity with Greece, the situation being stabilised just before Cyprus