Myanmar, 1948 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 8 to 10 August 1948 pro-communist battalions of the newly independent Burma Army mutinied against Prime Minister U Nu's government in the country's first post-independence military revolt, an armed bid that briefly threatened Rangoon itself. The 1st Burma Rifles mutinied at Thayetmyo on 8 August and seized Prome the next day, while on 10 August about 350 troops led by Thirty Comrades veterans Bo Zeya and Bo Ye Htut, including more than half of the Mingaladon based 3rd Burma Rifles plus engineer and transport elements, rebelled in a convoy of 32 trucks. The two mutinous columns planned to converge and seize Rangoon for the communist cause, but government forces, Union Military Police, levies, and Burma Air Force Spitfire strikes stopped them at Letpadan and Wanetchaung.
The survivors went underground, forming the Revolutionary Burma Army alongside the Communist Party insurgency, and U Nu's government survived, though the mutiny left it with only a skeleton of reliable battalions.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
77508091948
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister U Nu survived the mutiny unharmed and his government retained Rangoon.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
The Manchester Guardian
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →