The Indian Long Range Squadron or ILRS was a unit of the British Indian Army during World War II. It was formed by asking for volunteers from the 2nd Lancers, 11th Cavalry and the 18th Cavalry all part of the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade. It was originally formed to patrol the borders between the Soviet Union and Persia and Afghanistan. Their first known deployment was in January 1942, involving a very small party, which provided an escort to an Indian Office civil servant, the diplomat Sir Clarmont Percival Skrine. The party traveled by road from Quetta in modern-day Pakistan through the ‘East Persian Corridor’, one of the many Allied supply routes to the Soviet Union through Persia, to take up his post as British consul-general in Mashhad, Persia. The ILRS was trained by and performed some missions with the Long Range Desert Group but was not a part of the LRDG. With the end of the Battle of the Mareth Line on 29 March 1943, the ILRS was released from the LRDG by Field Marshal Montgomery as it was unlikely to find further scope for its activities in the country the Eighth Army was then entering. Returning to India the ILRS was deployed in May 1944 to Zahedan, Persia where it saw the war out patrolling the volatile border to discourage any Soviet infiltration into this oil-rich border region. On VJ-Day, 2 September 1945 the ILRS was based at Multan and in August 1946 it formed part of Force 401’, a brigade strong formation sent to Basra, Iraq and the brigade returned to India in June-August 1947. The end for the ILRS came on 4 August 1947, when the unit was disbanded at their Quetta depot by Major Samuel McCoy.
Formation
The ILRS was formed on 25 December 1941, and comprised four patrols: 'J', 'P', 'M' and 'S' . In December 1941, 'J' and 'R' patrols were attached to the LRDG, their designations were changed to 'I1' and 'I2' to avoid confusion with the New Zealand 'R' Patrol. In October 1942 the other two Indian patrols 'M' and 'S' were also attached to the LRDG and which became the 'I3' and 'I4' patrols. The commander of the ILRS was Major Samuel Vallis McoyMBE, the patrol commanders were:
