Chindits-"in the guts of the enemy"

[Peter H]

Photos from Ballantine's Chindits,Michael Calvert,1973.

Broadway,March 1944..left to right..Colonel Alison,Calvert,Wingate's ADC George Borrow,Wingate,Colonel Scott and Major Stuart..

[Peter H]

Gurkha column moving out of Broadway..

[Peter H]

..manpack flamethrower..

[Peter H]

Lancashire Fusiliers wait to attack the enemy at White City..

[Peter H]

Brigadier Calvert(left),Majors Shaw and Lumley at Mogaung..

More on 'Mad Mike' Calvert here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Calvert

[Peter H]

Calvert on the Chindits:

..Longe-Range Penetration Warfare was not,and was never meant to be guerilla warfare with its hit and run tactics...the Chindit Brigades were divided up into eight self-contained columns of half battalions and supporting troops each so that they could manoeuvre and penetrate the enemy's rear.These columns would operate independently to achieve a favourable situation..and would then come together like fingers forming a fist.This brigade would then strike an important target behind the enemy lines--the blow being strenghtened by the flying in of artillery.There was never the intention in Wingate's mind that these LRP Brigades should roam about North Burma in individual columns in order to harass enemy lines of communication...the Chindits were an outflanking movement from the air and not guerillas.Mountbatten and Stilwell fully understood this but Slim did not...

When Slim ordered the closure of the White City Block and allocated the Chindits to Stilwell further north:

..Slim's total misunderstanding of the Chindits role(to draw the the enemy to them)...was a blindspot in one who many people believe to be the greatest general bar Wavell that the British produced in the war...it was a tragic error as it was the main cause of the Chindit's very high casualties incurred after Wingate's death.Until then the Chindits,by using Wingate's tactics of which Slim was understandably ignorant,had already caused 12,000 Japanese casualties at the cost of only a few hundred of their own...

[Peter H]

Calvert:What did the Chindits achieve?

..Three Japanese Divisions(15th,31st,33rd)occupied the resources of between seven and a half to nine British Indian divisions at Imphal/Kohima.One Japanese division(18th) successfully resisted first three and then five Chinese divisions and one American brigade in the Hukaung valley.One Japanese division opposed twelve Chinese divisions on the salween.

Besides cutting the communications at varying intervals and destroying some of the transport and many of the dumps of all of these five Japanese divisions the Chindits drew onto themselves first ten Japanese battalions at Indaw(the equivalent of one Japanese division) whom they mostly destroyed and then the whole of the 53rd Division,'one regiment of which on the Imphal Front might well have ensured the success of the operation' according to Mutaguchi,commander 15th Army....the Chindits strength could be assessed as the equivalent of two light divisions but they were applied at a decisive point.

Probably their greatest achievement,,,was to prevent the Japanese using their magnificient position on interior lines of communication to achieve numerical superiority at each thrust over the mountains and defeating each Allied force in detail one by one..

[Peter H]

Photos from Chief of Staff,Sir Henry Pownall,1974.

Wingate (with pointer) makes final plans with Major General George Bromhead before the Chindits march into Burma.Wingate had a strict rule that shoes had to be removed before walking about the huge floor map.

[Peter H]

Pownall's Diary on Wingate:

....he is a genius in that he is quite a bit mad.He has extraordinary narrow views,runs in blinkers and can see no good except in his own chosen path.A cousin of T.E Lawrence's,by truth if not by marriage licence.He has more than once tried to commit suicide,which does not indicate a very stable mind...Mountbatten considers himself personally charged by the PM to look after Wingate's interests and Wingate,being abnormal at best,takes advantage of this to do abnormal things..The PM is absolutely set on it,has taken Wingate to his bosom,and rejoices in the fact that Wingate is different from sterotyped generals..

Wingate's successor after his death,Major General "Joe" Lentaigne.

[Peter H]

Some interesting obsevations from Calvert:

-in the Broadway Landing of March 1944 six gliders disappeared,landed in Japanese territory,with 66 men listed as missing.."some of these men may have been taken prisoner",but no record of their survival exists in British records

-near Mogaung the Lancashire Fusiliers "were finishing cooking their evening meal in their newly won positions,when a patrol of seven men came in,heaved a sigh,lay down their rifles and took off their equipment.It was only then that one of the fusiliers saw that they were Japanese.A rush for weapons ensued and the Japanese were soon all overpowered and killed".

-"Pagoda Hill..I saw Lieutenant Cairns have his arm hacked off by a japanese officer whom at the same time he shot.He picked up the sword although his armpit was spurting with blood and carried on hacking away among the Japanese around him until he subsided on the ground..he died just as the Japanese were being driven behind the pagoda.Five years later he was awarded the VC."

"No Indian battalions were used owing to the difficulty of special feeding,cooking,camp followers etc insisted upon by the Indian Army,whereas all the battalions in Special Force(17 British battalions,3 Gurkha battalions,3 West African battalions) could,and did eat any type of food,although certain special provisions were sometimes made for the Gurkhas".

-One Gurkha on sentry duty "leaped and clutched' at a figure he observed--'it was a tiger he had grabbed.And the tiger,equally startled,lost no time in departing at an equally high rate of speed".

[Peter H]

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:qN ... d=11&gl=au

The Eccentric Hero: Orde Wingate

... is, however, his leadership of the Chindits which secures his place in military history. Churchill, convinced of the value of such a force and of Wingate's ability to lead it, took him to the Quebec summit conference. Wingate, still only a brigadier but brimming with confidence, duly presented his plan for the Chindit's Burma campaign which to the immense satisfaction of Churchill, won the backing not only of the combined chiefs of staff but of President Roosevelt.

Wingate's plan met with a cool reception, however, in Delhi. Auchinleck, the Commander-in-Chief and his staff, known derisively by the troops as Curry Colonels, were strongly opposed to any such operation, especially one led by Wingate.

Confident of the support of Churchill, to whom he had direct access, Wingate brushed the opposition aside. On 13 March 1944 with more than 9,000 men behind the Japanese lines, his order of the day to the Chindits and the Air Commandos who got them there, read: 'We have inflicted a complete surprise on the enemy. All our Columns are inside the enemy's guts ... Let us thank God for the great success He has vouchsafed us. We must press forward with our sword in the enemy's ribs'. Days later he took off in an American B-25 bomber in the course of a frontline tour of inspection. Twenty minutes into the flight the plane plunged into a steep jungle-clad hill. There were no survivors. The Chindits, deprived of their leader, fought on for a time but were eventually withdrawn, exhausted, and a few months later disbanded.

Whether Wingate, who was only forty-one when he died, would have found a role in the post-war army is a matter for speculation but it seems unlikely. The official military animus against him expressed in an Army Council minute which the authors of this very readable book quote, describes him as divisive. 'We don't want any more Wingates in the British army', it said in effect, 'therefore we must write down Wingate and the Chindits'. It contrasts strangely with the view of the Japanese who freely admitted that it was the Chindits who forced them to abandon northern Burma. Lt. General Mutaguchi, commander of the 15th Army, said 'I realised what a loss his death was to the British army and said a prayer for the soul of this man in whom I had met my match'.

[Peter H]

One Chindit who was captured:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jso ... ugar5.html

Lt Lionel Rose – Sherwood Foresters – HQ Staff Coy. with Wingate and CO of the Gurkha HQ Defence Platoon. He was MIA April 9th-May1st 1943 after crossing the Irrawaddy on return from 1st Chindit raid and was believed captured at Chindwin crossing later. POW Rangoon, he is mentioned by Bierman and Smith pp. 302/305/335. Wingate described him in a letter to wife Lorna, as “a splendid boy who was instrumental in saving my own life on one occasion….I felt very badly about his loss, which was perhaps partly my fault. He was missing ….on the Chindwin. I fear the worst but don’t say so to Mrs Rose. If she is in any want now or in the future we must help her. I feel I am responsible to Rose for that….he behaved with the greatest courage and unselfishness. He was devoted to his Gurkhas and owes his absence to that devotion – otherwise he would have come in my boat, as I asked him to. I often lost my temper with him….but he understood” Six weeks later Wingate received “the glad news that….Rose is a POW in Burma”

According to the Chindit Asssociation,"200 Chindits were captured. Half of these soon died after or in captivity".

[Peter H]

Major James Lumley,far right,was the father of the actress Joanna Lumley.Note Lumley carries a US M1 carbine.Not standard Chindit issue but being under Stilwell's command at that time some American weapons were "acquired".

[Peter H]

Interesting facts:

http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/wargam ... ndits.html

Platoon of Burma riflemen--"Burrifs". All of these were "Karens" – a Christian tribe. Used to question locals and scout areas with locals in. They would often change out of uniform to do this.

Message dog--This had two masters. If the column split, it could go from one master to the other with messages attached. No one but one of its masters was allowed to feed or pet the dog.

Mules--Mules fed mainly on foraged bamboo leaves. They started out with some bullock-drawn carts as well, but these were ditched during the expedition. The mules of the second Chindit expedition were "devoiced" to stop them braying. It seems, though, that braying was not a problem of note during the first expedition - the mules were simply taught not to be noisy and weren’t. On the return trip from the first expedition, many mules were shot and eaten.

Column half a mile long. Covered typically 20 miles a day. Marched for 60 minutes then rested 15. Three hour mid-day halt every day.

In column, of the three main platoons, one would be "reserve", one "escort" (guard and help load/unload the mules), one "perimeter" (guard the camp - stay awake). Would swap roles every 24 hours.

Mules carried some dinghies, but most rivers crossed by swimming. It took three hours to cross one major river (Irrawaddy).

Orders conveyed to whole column by bugle. Orders included “disperse”, “strike camp”, “officers to conference”.

Chindits were mostly 28-35 years old.

Each man carried 70lbs of equipment. Each had an "Everest pack" - which was a rucksack with frame - small by today's standards, but bigger than usual WW2 British back pack. In it was: 7 days’ rations, shirt, slacks, socks, rubber hockey boots, housewife (sewing kit), water purification tablets, mess tins, cutlery. Each man carried dah or kukri (big native knives). Also carried were: rifle, bayonet, ammunition, 3 grenades, water bottle, canvas water container, water wings, toggle rope, jack knife, attabrin malaria tablets. These things were compulsory. Other things were optional. Each man issued 25 silver ruppees.

One day’s rations: 12 shakpura biscuits, 2oz cheeze, 1oz milk powder, 9oz raisins or dates, 3/4oz tea, 1 packet salt, 4 oz sugar, 1 oz chocolate or acid drops, 20 cigarettes, 1 box matches. No loo roll carried - they used grass, and were unimpressed by the American practice of carrying loo roll.

Officers had Verey (flare) pistols, revolvers, torches, many maps (one platoon officer had fifty), and letters to be left with the wounded, entrusting them to the care of the local Burmans (the word Burmese refers to one tribe of the many in Burma).

The troops wore mainly "Jungle Green". They had bush hats rather than helmets.

Beards were encouraged.

Platoon fires for cooking etc. were all lit in close circle, to look from a distance like one fire.

Communication with high command all by radio. Brits never used speech on radio - only morse.

It took over a month before the men started getting louse-ridden.

A printed letter was sent to the relatives of each Chindit every month explaining that the man was well, but could not write. Mail was received by Chindits by air drop.

[Peter H]

Some photos here as well:

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... hp?t=66205

US Air Commandos in cammos can be seen here.These were the glider crews.




More on Calvert:

Mike Calvert was said to be the man who had killed the most enemies soldiers with his on hands. Actually he reports in his biography how he kills a Japanese officer in a river. They both wanted to take a bath and did not recognise each other until they were both nude in the river. It came to a fight and Calvert knocked the Japanese down and drowned him...