02:47Almost simultaneously, other Japanese forces invaded Burma.
02:54Once again, nothing could stop the Japanese onrush.
03:07In early May 1942, the survivors of the British forces in Burma crossed the river Chindwin and limped back on
03:14foot into India.
03:16They were totally demoralized, convinced that their enemy was unbeatable in the jungle.
03:26The British position was further threatened by political turmoil in India, with nationalists mounting a vociferous and sometimes violent campaign
03:34to drive them out.
03:40And by a major famine, which devastated Bengal.
03:47These crises tied down a large proportion of the forces available to defend India.
03:54And several of the best divisions in the Indian army were still fighting in the Middle East.
04:08It was in these grim circumstances that a junior officer approached General Sir Archibald Wavell, the commander-in-chief in
04:16India, with a revolutionary idea.
04:20Lieutenant Colonel Ord Wingate was an unusual officer commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1923.
04:27He had soon become bored by peacetime soldiering in Britain.
04:33In 1927, he was posted to the Sudan Defence Force, where he enjoyed the challenge of leading natural soldiers.
04:46During his six years in the Middle East, he also led an expedition deep into the Libyan desert.
04:51And it was probably this that gave him the idea of long-range, deep penetration operations.
05:00After a brief spell in England, Wingate was posted to Palestine, then under British rule, as an intelligence officer.
05:11A revolt had broken out among the Arab inhabitants, who resented increasing Jewish immigration.
05:20Wingate had had a strict Christian upbringing, and this led him to side with the Jews.
05:25To encourage them to protect their settlements against Arab attack, he formed the special night squads.
05:37These also took the war to the Arabs, launching reprisal attacks.
05:49Wingate's activities came to the attention of General Wavell, who was then commanding the British forces in Palestine.
05:58He ensured that Wingate was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his performance.
06:08But by the outbreak of war in September 1939, Wingate was back in Britain, on the staff of an anti
06:15-aircraft brigade.
06:20Wavell, meanwhile, became Commander-in-Chief Middle East.
06:27With the Italian declaration of war, in June 1940, Wavell began to think of ways of causing revolt in Italy's
06:34East African colonies.
06:35He summoned Wingate to Cairo and gave him command of Gideon Force, a band of 1,500 Abyssinian and Sudanese
06:43troops.
06:46Wingate was ordered to attack Italian-occupied Abyssinia from the west, while conventional forces invaded from the north and south.
06:57The Abyssinian Emperor Haile Selassie accompanied Gideon Force as it thrust towards his capital, Addis Ababa.
07:07Gideon Force performed brilliantly, constantly harrying the Italians and taking 16,000 prisoners.
07:20But having entered Addis Ababa in triumph, Wingate was recalled to Cairo.
07:34There he became deeply depressed, feeling that his forces achievements were being ignored by headquarters.
07:42Wingate then went down with malaria, attempted suicide, and was evacuated back to Britain.
07:48But Wavell did not forget him, and ensured that he was awarded a bar to his DSO.
07:55Wavell was now posted to India, and at the height of the Japanese invasion of Burma, he remembered Wingate's skill
08:01in unconventional warfare.
08:03Wingate would soon have the opportunity to put his ideas into action.
08:11Having summoned Ord Wingate to India in early 1942, General Wavell's initial intention was to use him to liaise with
08:18the Chinese 5th and 6th Armies,
08:20which were operating in northern Burma against the Japanese invaders.
08:32But Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek had other ideas.
08:36He selected U.S. General Joseph Stilwell for this task.
08:41Wingate was then given the job of organising guerrilla operations,
08:44but the Japanese onrush prevented these from being put into effect.
08:54Wingate now proposed to Wavell that he create a special force to penetrate deep into Burma to harry Japanese communications.
09:06This would be maintained entirely by air resupply.
09:21Wavell agreed, and the Chindits were born.
09:27Wingate wanted to select his own men to be Chindits,
09:30but Wavell told him that he would have to accept what he was given.
09:45In the event, he obtained an infantry battalion from the north of England,
09:49which had been engaged on internal security duties.
10:04He also had a battalion of Gurkha rifles and one of Burma rifles.
10:11The official title of the force was 77th Infantry Brigade.
10:16Wingate adopted the Chinti,
10:18the mythical beast that guards every Burmese temple as his forces symbol.
10:22But his mispronunciation of the name led to his men being nicknamed the Chindits.
10:32The Chindits carried out their training in the jungles of central India.
10:36They were organised in columns of 300 men,
10:39with 100 mules to carry supplies and ammunition.
10:43RAF radio teams accompanied each column so that they could direct air resupply.
10:51Wingate's first priority was to get his men used to living and fighting in the jungle.
10:55Not an easy task, given the series of defeats which the Japanese had inflicted on them.
11:07Wingate envisaged that the Chindits would spend up to three months at a time on operations.
11:11They would be constantly on the move, so physical fitness was vital.
11:20The Chindits became skilled at jungle warfare, developing a sixth sense for the presence of hostile troops.
11:39Inevitably, some men could not match up to Wingate's exacting standards, and had to be replaced.
11:49Wavell and Wingate agreed that the Chindits would operate between the rivers Chindwin and Irrawaddy,
11:54and that their operations would be coordinated with a major three-pronged counter-offensive into Burma planned for the end
12:01of 1942.
12:03In the north, American General Joseph Stilwell and Chinese forces would advance from Lado, building a road to connect with
12:11the old Burma Road,
12:12which had been the main Allied supply route to China.
12:16The British would attack in central Burma and also in the coastal region of the Arakan.
12:22In the event, neither Stilwell and his Chinese nor the forces in central Burma were ready for action.
12:30And this left just the Arakan Offensive, which was launched in December 1942.
12:39But after eight days, it came to a grinding halt in front of strong Japanese positions.
12:50The attackers suffered badly from malaria, and their abortive offensive only reinforced the belief that British and Indian troops were
12:57inferior to the Japanese in jungle fighting.
13:01Even though Wavell's overall plan had failed, he was still keen to try Wingate's concept of long-range penetration.
13:08The Chindits would therefore go it alone.
13:13Their first operation, code-named Longcloth, was to remove a possible threat to Fort Hertz, the last British outpost in
13:21northern Burma.
13:22The Chindits were to cut the Mandalay-Michinah Railway,
13:27harass the Japanese around Mandalay, and, if possible, cut the Mandalay-Lashio Railway.
13:35On the night of the 13th of February 1943, the Chindits crossed the River Chindwin.
13:47Two columns then turned southeast to act as a diversionary force, while the remaining five columns, with Wingate and his
13:55headquarters, headed east.
14:00The southern force had its first brush with the Japanese on the 18th of February.
14:08This delayed its advance on the railway.
14:12Convinced that the Chindits were being resupplied across the Chindwin,
14:16the Japanese initially concentrated their efforts on the river.
14:19It took them time to realize that Wingate was being resupplied from the air.
14:32By the beginning of March, both Chindits groups were able to begin their railway cutting operations.
14:55By the end of March, they were able to begin their tracks.
14:56Encouraged by the success of these, Wingate crossed the Irrawaddy on the 19th of March,
15:01and headed for the Mandalay-Lashio Railway.
15:06But by now, the Japanese were closing in on the Chindits from the east and south.
15:14Wingate was also warned that he was getting beyond the range of air resupply.
15:22He had no option but to pull back.
15:26The Japanese barred his way at the Irrawaddy,
15:29so he ordered the Chindits to split up into their individual columns
15:32and make their own way back to India.
15:40Now began the toughest part of the operation.
15:43The endless marching through the jungle was punishing in the extreme.
15:53The exhausted men began to come down with malaria, dysentery and typhus.
15:58They were confronted by other problems.
16:01Sometimes, the weather closed in, and the sky failed us.
16:05And for days on end, men would go without any food of any kind.
16:10One column was ten days without food.
16:12When that happened, what did we do?
16:15We turned to the mules, poor things, and we had started to eat them.
16:19I do not recommend mule steak. It is impenetrable.
16:26The ruggedness of the terrain was another problem.
16:39The wounded posed an awful dilemma.
16:43Some were grievously wounded, so grievously,
16:47that they could not be allowed to continue in their agony.
16:52And so, we put their agony to an end.
16:57It was the only thing to do.
17:04During the last two weeks of April,
17:06the surviving Chindits arrived back in India.
17:12Of the 3,000 who set out, nearly a third did not return.
17:20The remainder were wracked with disease,
17:22and 600 of them were so badly affected,
17:25that they were never able to return to active soldier.
17:34The physical damage that the Chindits inflicted on the Japanese
17:38had little influence on the overall situation in Burma.
17:41But they had proved that allied troops
17:44could match the Japanese in the jungle.
17:49When Wingate got back to India,
17:52he found that Wavell had ordered
17:53another long-range penetration brigade to be raised.
17:58But while Wingate was recovering in hospital,
18:01Wavell was replaced by General Sir Claude Auchinleck,
18:04who showed little enthusiasm for the Chindits.
18:08Even so, he did allow their exploits to be publicised
18:11to compensate for the failure of the Arakan offensive.
18:19This gave the Chindits pride in what they had achieved.
18:26The copy of Wingate's report on Operation Longcloth was also sent to London.
18:35It was seen by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill,
18:38who was deeply impressed,
18:40even suggesting that Wingate should take command of the Burma Front.
18:44He summoned the Chindit commander back to London.
18:50There, Wingate was interviewed by General Sir Alan Brook,
18:53the Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
18:56Brook was impressed and promised to support plans for enlarging the Chindits.
19:03Churchill, who was on the point of departing for Canada for an Allied strategic conference at Quebec,
19:09demanded that Wingate and his wife accompany the delegation on board the liner Queen Mary.
19:17The Prime Minister wanted to use Wingate's ideas and exploits as propaganda to impress the Americans.
19:23It proved very successful.
19:30At the Quadrant Conference, Wingate's proposals for an enlarged Chindit operation
19:35to precede a major Allied offensive into Burma were agreed.
19:40Furthermore, the Americans were so taken with Wingate's ideas
19:43that they agreed to provide a dedicated fleet of aircraft
19:46to be called Number One Air Commando to support the Chindits.
19:54In addition, they asked for British help in forming a similar long-range penetration force of their own for operations
20:01in Burma.
20:02This became known as Galahad.
20:09Wingate, now promoted to Major General, returned to India in September 1943.
20:18Special Force, as the Chindits were now officially called, was assembled in the jungles of Central India during October and
20:26November.
20:32It consisted of the rebuilt 77th Brigade, 111th Brigade, which had been raised on Wavell's orders,
20:41three brigades from a recently disbanded division, and a West African Brigade, a total of 20,000 men.
20:47These were joined by the American Number One Air Commander.
20:56Wingate quickly established an excellent relationship with its youthful-looking commander, Colonel Phil Cockroach.
21:08His commander was equipped with P-51 Mustang fighter bombers, B-25 Mitchell medium bombers,
21:19and the C-47 Dakota transport.
21:25Cochrane also had 100 Waco gliders, which would enable some at least of the Chindits to reach their initial objectives
21:32without the arduous march in by foot.
21:42Lord Louis Mountbatten was now Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia.
21:47He was enthusiastic about the Chindits, and keen for them to play a major part in the offensive operations planned
21:53for early 1944.
22:01The plan was for a Chinese army to advance from Yunnan Province down the old Burma Road,
22:07while Stilwell was to push the Lado Road to Michina and then link up with them.
22:14To distract the Japanese, there would be a British airborne assault on Indore,
22:19which would then be occupied by a ground force, as well as a limited ground offensive in the Arakan.
22:25Long-range penetration forces would support all these attacks.
22:32But the commitment of resources to the Mediterranean, especially to support the landings at Anzio on the Italian coast,
22:39prevented promised equipment from being sent to India.
22:46In addition, intelligence indicated that the Japanese were preparing their own offensive,
22:52one which turned out to be a full-blown invasion of India.
22:59As a result, the British operations in central Burma were cancelled.
23:06Although the Arakan offensive did go ahead in early January 1944.
23:17Simultaneously, Vinegar Joe Stilwell, with Galahad force now under his command,
23:22pushed ahead with the Lado Road.
23:31The Chindits were to disrupt the Japanese forces facing Stilwell in northern Burma,
23:36and prepare the way for the Chinese advance from Yunnan.
23:46Under the code name Operation Thursday, one Chindit Brigade would march into Burma from Lado,
23:52and operate in the Pinbon-Pinlebu area.
23:59Two others would be flown into the area north of Indore,
24:02while the remaining Chindit Brigades would be held in reserve.
24:08The first Chindits to move were 16th Special Brigade,
24:12which set off on foot from Lado on the 5th of February.
24:16Thereafter, events followed with bewildering speed.
24:22On the 6th of February 1944, the day after the 1st Chindit Brigade set off from Lado,
24:28the Japanese launched a counter-attack in the Arakan.
24:33Thanks to air resupply, the British were able to hold on, even though totally cut off.
24:53After three weeks, the Japanese called off their attacks.
25:02Meanwhile, 77th and 111th Chindit Brigades were preparing to be flown from northern India
25:09to a number of pre-selected landing grounds north and east of Indore.
25:19These were codenamed Broadway, Piccadilly and Charingi.
25:27First in would be glider-born US engineers,
25:30with equipment to prepare the airstrips at Broadway and Piccadilly,
25:33so that the remainder of the Chindits could be landed by C-47.
25:43But on the afternoon of the 5th of March,
25:45as the gliders prepared to take off for Broadway and Piccadilly,
25:49Wingate was shown air photographs from a reconnaissance sortie flown a few hours earlier.
25:54Logs had been placed on the landing zone at Piccadilly.
26:02Despite fears that the operation might have been compromised,
26:06Wingate decided that the landings of Broadway must go ahead.
26:14The gliders took off.
26:33Each C-47 towed two gliders.
26:41Brigadier Mike Calvert, commanding 77th Brigade, was one of the advance party.
26:47Sitting in the glider, I felt frightened.
26:53After all this working out and hurry and bustle,
26:57we were up there silent and going over these mountains,
27:05and I wondered whether we were doing the right thing.
27:09And I worried and worried and was frightened in the bottom of my stomach.
27:15But my men in the glider cheered me up by ribald remarks
27:20and funny remarks about how we were not having to walk,
27:27but were taking a free ride this time.
27:32With their twin tows, the tug aircraft were at their maximum load,
27:36and this caused some problems.
27:40A number of gliders were released too early.
28:07Others crashed on landing at Broadway.
28:22Nevertheless, the engineers were soon at work,
28:24and within 24 hours, Broadway was ready to receive the main body of 77th Brigade.
28:31Dakotas began landing on the evening of the 6th.
28:44To avoid congestion at Broadway, Wingate decided that 111th Brigade would land at Charingey.
28:51But there were also problems here,
28:53when the glider carrying the airfield construction equipment crashed.
29:01The strip had to be prepared almost entirely by hand.
29:05It proved too short for some of the more heavily laden Dakotas,
29:08and part of 111th Brigade had to land at Broadway.
29:12Even so, by the 12th of March, the two Chindit Brigades were fully deployed.
29:23While the Chindits were consolidating their positions,
29:26the Japanese launched their offensive in central Burma on the night of the 7th of March.
29:33Within a few days, General Bill Slim's 14th Army was battling desperately to hold on to its forward supply base
29:40at Impham.
29:57The Chindits, secure in their strongholds, and now reinforced by artillery,
30:03indirectly helped the defence by drawing off Japanese troops.
30:13Calvert now took two battalions of his brigade to set up a blocking position close to the village of Henu,
30:1920 miles north of Indore.
30:24The Chindits had a bitter struggle to drive the Japanese away.
30:29It was a hell of a fight.
30:31The Japs took everybody on.
30:35It was all hand-to-hand fighting.
30:40Boot, butt and bayonet.
30:44In the end, they had enough, and they broke and ran.
30:49This victory enabled Calvert to establish another stronghold, White City.
30:58While he was doing this, the Chindits 16th Brigade,
31:01which had set off on foot towards Indore at the beginning of Operation Thursday,
31:05set up a further base, Aberdeen.
31:11On the 22nd of March, the first gliders started to arrive.
31:29Over the next week, two more Chindit Brigades, 14th and 3rd West African,
31:34were flown in to reinforce the advance on Indore.
31:42This was just in time, for the Japanese had been deploying troops to the Indore area,
31:47and by early April, they had some 18,000 men concentrated there.
31:54While his forces moved into enemy-held territory, Wingate spent much of his time flying from brigade to brigade,
32:00so that he could talk in person to his commanders in the field.
32:12On the 24th of March, he flew to Broadway, and then by light aircraft to White City and Aberdeen.
32:24He then boarded one of Cochrane's bombers to return to Imphal.
32:31And after a brief stop, he took off again for his headquarters at Silhet.
32:38His aircraft never got there.
32:41Next day, wreckage was spotted in the hills west of Imphal.
32:46A patrol confirmed that it was Wingate's plane.
32:52There were no survivors.
33:04Oordwyn Gate's death was a tragic loss, but Operation Thursday must go on.
33:15Army Commander General Bill Slim knew that the Chindit assaults were an essential part of the advance into northern Burma.
33:25And he immediately selected Joe Lente, the commander of 111th Brigade, to succeed Wingate.
33:35The Japanese pressure now built up.
33:45As 16th Brigade neared Indore, it was fiercely counter-attacked and forced back to its base at Aberdeen.
33:59Japanese forces then launched a sustained attack on White City.
34:06The battle normally began at dusk, with Japanese creeping up to the wire and putting explosives into the wire to
34:15try and blow a hole in the gap.
34:16They were usually extremely noisy. They came shouting and screaming and blowing bugles.
34:22And the Japanese, when they started to attack, they first of all had this about 30 yards of wire,
34:27the first world war wire, booby-trapped, mines and everything,
34:33and with about, up to about 12 three-inch mortars,
34:39mortaring them, and about the same number of Vickers machine guns.
34:54The Chindits were also able to call in Cochrane's aircraft to break up the Japanese charges.
35:03Eventually, the enemy was forced back with heavy casualties.
35:14While this drama was being played out, the Japanese kept up their attacks in the Imphile area,
35:19and against Kohima to its north.
35:3014th Army was unable to move forward to support the Chindits.
35:34So at a conference on the 9th of April,
35:36Mountbatten decided the whole thrust of Operation Thursday would have to be changed.
35:4316th Brigade, which had been in the jungle the longest,
35:46and had made its approach march over land,
35:48was to be evacuated by air from Aberdeen.
35:58The remaining Chindit Brigades would leave their strongholds
36:01and move north towards Mogong, under Stilwell's command.
36:10Before being evacuated at the end of April,
36:1316th Brigade made one last gallant attempt to capture Indore.
36:16It managed to seize one of the airfields, but could not get any further.
36:28Its gaunt survivors were then flown back to India,
36:31while Aberdeen and Broadway were abandoned.
36:43The Chindits left White City on the 9th of May, and moved north.
36:56The Chindits left White City on the 9th of May, and moved north.
37:00It was supporting the Japanese forces opposing Stilwell to the west of Michener.
37:12Another stronghold, codenamed Blackpool, was established as a supply base,
37:18but this soon proved unsatisfactory.
37:26It was well within range of Japanese artillery, and too far from road and rail targets.
37:36So another base was established, at Indorgri Lake,
37:40which could be used by flying boats to bring in supplies and to evacuate the sick and wounded.
37:47But it soon proved desperately unhealthy, and cases of malaria and typhus soared.
37:55As the Chindits advanced towards Mogong, they were involved in a series of fierce battles.
38:17By this time, Stilwell's men had succeeded in capturing the airfield at Michener.
38:36But they were unable to get into the town itself, which the Japanese had reinforced.
38:47To break the stalemate, Stilwell decided that the Chindits must do more than merely do it.
38:52to disrupt communications.
38:56He ordered them to capture Mogong itself.
39:08It was a daunting task for troops who had been behind enemy lines for almost three months,
39:13suffering increasingly from disease and exhaustion,
39:16and who lacked the necessary heavy weapons to tackle a major defensive position.
39:26After three shattering months fighting both disease and the Japanese in the jungle,
39:31Brigadier Mike Calvert and his 77th Chindit Brigade,
39:34now deployed to capture the well-fortified Burmese town of Mogong.
39:39Calvert was outraged by the demands placed on his map.
39:43Americans were complaining about it, said we were all cowards, and we wouldn't fight.
39:49And Mountbatten entered into it and said,
39:52we want you to take Mogong at all costs, I repeat, at all costs.
40:00The Chindits fought a desperate three-week battle,
40:03gradually driving the Japanese garrison back.
40:07On the 23rd of June, two members of the Third Sixth Gurkha Rifles won Victoria Crosses.
40:15Captain Michael Allmond led his company forward with complete disregard for his own safety,
40:21until he was mortally wounded while single-handedly attacking a machine gun position.
40:27Rifleman Tal Bahadur Pun did the same, but survived.
40:34Calvert and his men finally secured Mogong on the 25th of June.
40:38It had been a remarkable achievement.
40:44The role we were expected to carry out at Mogong was really one for which we were not suited or
40:52trained.
40:54Frontal attack across open ground, with no artillery,
40:59and against Japanese positions that were well dug in,
41:05was not really what we were intended for.
41:09It was a waste of our expertise, really.
41:16Lentain and Calvert warned Stilwell that their men were now at their last gasp.
41:20But the American insisted that the Chindits still had more to do.
41:24I said we couldn't go on.
41:27And the Mountbatten and Vinegar Joe and other people, I suppose, didn't believe us.
41:33They sent in a number of surgical team to come in and decide what we were at.
41:40And they reported back, saying that everybody's had malaria a number of times,
41:45that large numbers were wounded, and so certainly the other.
41:47And these people should be evacuated as soon as possible.
41:51Otherwise, Mountbatten used the phrase, otherwise history will blame us.
41:55We had been literally fought until we were on our knees.
42:01In 111th Brigade, only 118 men out of 2,000 were still reckoned to be fit for combat.
42:13But this became 119, when the brigade commander, John Masters, furious that any of his men should be deemed still
42:20fit,
42:21added his own name to the list.
42:26The remaining Chindits struggled on towards Michinar.
42:42On the 3rd of August, Stillwell finally secured the tower.
42:57Two weeks later, the Chindits began to be flown back to India.
43:05They had suffered 1,000 killed, 2,800 wounded, and 6,000 sick.
43:12Nearly 5,000 Japanese had been killed during the five months they had been in the jungles of Burma.
43:21By the time the surviving Chindits arrived back in India, the tide of war in Burma had turned.
43:31The Japanese had been repulsed at Imfau and Kohima, and were in retreat.
43:45In December 1944, the final Allied advance began.
43:58In January 1945, the British 14th Army began to cross the Irrawaddy.
44:08At the same time, the Lado Road was finally linked with the Burma Road.
44:29Supplies could now reach China overland for the first time in more than three years.
44:47Slim's 14th Army liberated Mandalay in March, after a bitter battle.
44:58Then the final advance south to Rangoon began.
45:13British troops entered the Burmese capital at the beginning of May.
45:16Thereafter, it was merely a question of mopping up the remaining Japanese forces.
45:31As the final Allied push began, the Chindits were disbanded.
45:35Their expertise was no longer needed as 14th Army closed in on the last Japanese strongholds.
45:43Wingate's belief that he could build a force which would defeat the enemy in the jungle had been vindicated.
45:49Today, he is buried far from those jungles, in the US National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia,
45:55alongside the crew that flew him on his last fatal flight.
46:03After the war, it was suggested that Wingate had gone too far in believing that only long-range penetration operations
46:09could win the war in Burma,
46:11and that the Chindits had absorbed resources which could have been better used elsewhere.
46:17But the effect of the first Chindit operations in distracting the Japanese and disrupting their communications should not be underestimated.
46:24And the gallantry of their final actions to capture Mogong was extraordinary.
46:30The endurance and fortitude shown by the Chindits was outstanding.
46:34And above all, the boost which their operations gave to the Allied cause and the morale of the men fighting
46:40in the forgotten army of the Far East was enormous.
46:44For these were the gladiators, who showed that the Japanese could be beaten in the jungle.
46:49They took on and conquered not only a tenacious and battle-hardened enemy, but some of the worst conditions in
46:56the world.
46:58The End
46:59The End
47:03The End
47:07The End
47:09The End
47:10The End
47:13The End
47:13The End
47:17The End
47:20The End
47:21The End
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