British troops collecting air-dropped supplies into the 'Admin Box' in Burma, February 1944

Photograph, World War Two, Far East, 1944.

Most supplies were despatched using an 18-feet cotton parachute which could support a load of 180 lbs. Different colours of parachute were used to indicate the nature of the load to the troops making the recovery on the ground.

From a collection of official photographs collected by Major General (later Lieutenant General) Sir Frank Walter Messervy.