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Lancashire Fusiliers Chindits - Photographs and information - Click Here

'March Divided But Fight United'

by Rolfe Hedges 

The original Chindit formation was officially known as the 77th infantry brigade - assembled for Wingate's operation Longcloth in Burma in 1943. Wingate assembled British, Gurkha and some Burma rifles and using innovative training methods welded them into a seven column brigade totalling about 3,000 men, with hundreds of mules, Oxen and Elephants carrying their supplies.

The unit comprised:

13 Battalion Kings Liverpool regt
3rd Bn 2nd Gurkha rifles
2nd Bn Burma rifles
142nd Commando company

With these men Wingate penetrated deep into Burma - the objective being to a)cut the main railway line between Mandalay and Myitkyina b) harass the enemy in the Shwebo area c)if possible cross the Irrawaddy and cut the railway between Mandalay and Lashio.

The first objective lie 150 miles to the East. The number one priority was to reach the target undetected. The start of the mission was made by 2 Gurkha columns from the force crossing the Chindwin 50 miles to the south and by a diversionary attack by the 23rd Indian division at Kalewa. This succeeded and the main force reached the railway in 2 weeks without encountering any Japanese, They were also re-supplied at the target by the RAF. However at the railway line - 2 columns were ambushed and incurred heavy casualties. The rest of the column managed to blow up the rail line in over 75 places over a distance of 30 miles.

The Japanese were now buzzing 'as if they were an angry Wasp's nest' believing the British had a division of commandos in the rear. Wingate managed to cross the Irrawaddy, but had to disperse his force. The result of this was that they became near impossible to re-supply by air, sickness and the heat were also taking their toll of. So before reaching his third target Wingate ordered a general dispersal and retreat back to India - they had lost 883 men out of the 3,000. They had spent twelve weeks in the jungle and marched almost 1,000 miles. Wingate saw this as a dismal failure.

Impossible Possible

However 'Longcloth' lacking in material results, was a real breakthrough in strategic thinking. It showed that in the war in the jungle - alien to the British ; the impossible was possible. They could take the war to the Japanese.

By the end of 1943, the Japanese had given up on invading India, believing the jungles beyond the river Chindwin in Burma were impassable - they would sit tight and hold onto what they had. The British too were more or less content to defend India. However, American strategy in the theatre as a whole was to divert as many Japanese away from the pacific as possible and also to win back Chinese territory in order to build air bases on China's pacific coast. They wanted action from the British, who were sitting on a vast reserve of mainly Indian manpower on the sub continent.

At the summit conference 'Quadrant' in Quebec August 1943 future Allied military policy was the agenda - the British were under pressure to take action in the far east, Churchill took with him Wingate and after putting his ideas to the Allied chiefs Wingate was given the Green light on his Long range penetration ideas.

His initial plans were to airlift whole divisions to liberate territory using guerrilla tactics. But after several top level political arguments - especially conflict with the Americans and problems with the American general Stilwell ( who hated the British) the formation of' special force' and what was to be known as 'OPERATION THURSDAY' was finally agreed.

The basic theory was 'to insert himself in the guts of the enemy' with hopefully the bonus that he didn't know where you had landed. This idea had to have two central themes a) the power to penetrate deeply, and, b) the power to stay there.

Wingate stuck to the heart of the British system - morale and motivation - using the regiment as the building blocks of his 'new' army. He used men mainly from Symes British 70th division - known for its high levels of training and morale. And at the heart of the unit were veterans from the original 77th brigade.

CHINDIT ORDER OF BATTLE JANUARY 1944

The Chindits were officially known as 'Special Force' or the '3rd Indian Infantry Division.'

N.B. The title 3rd Indian division was only given in order to deceive the Japanese.

There were six brigades -- each referred to by a nickname. Each brigade had its own HQ situated near an airfield and an HQ column in the field (numbered separately from below).

GALAHAD 5307TH COMPOSITE UNIT (PROVISIONAL) US ARMY

Also known as Merrill's Marauders and after being trained were handed over to Gen. Stilwell's Northern Command.

1ST BATTALION; RED AND WHITE COMBAT TEAMS
2ND BATTALION; BLUE AND GREEN COMBAT TEAMS
3RD BATTALION; KHAKI AND ORANGE COMBAT TEAM

THUNDER 3RD WEST AFRICAN BRIGADE

6TH BATTALION NIGERIA REGT; 66 and 39 COLUMNS
7TH BN NIGERIA REGT; 29 and 35 COLUMNS
12TH BN NIGERIA REGT; 12 and 43 COLUMNS

JAVELIN 14TH BRIGADE

2ND BN THE BLACK WATCH: 42 and 73 COLUMNS
1ST BN BEDS AND HERTS REGT: 16 and 61 COLUMNS
2ND BN YORK AND LANCASTER REGT: 65 and 84 COLUMNS
7TH BN LEICESTER REGT: 47 and 74 COLUMNS

ENTERPRISE 16TH BRIGADE

1ST BN THE QUEEN'S REGIMENT ; 21 AND 22 COLUMNS
2ND BN LEICESTER REGT ; 17 and 71 COLUMNS
51/69 ROYAL ARTILLERY 51 and 69 COLUMNS (INFANTRY COLUMNS MADE UP OF R. A PERSONNEL)
45TH RECCE REGT ; 45 AND 54 COLUMNS ( INFANTRY COLUMN MADE UP FROM RECCE UNITS)

EMPHASIS 77TH BRIGADE

3RD BN 6TH GURKHA RIFLES: 36 and 63 COLUMNS
1ST BN THE KINGS REGT: 81 and 82 COLUMNS
1ST BN THE LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS: 20 and 50 COLUMNS
1ST BN SOUTH STAFFS REGT: 38 and 80 COLUMNS
3RD BN 9TH GURKHA RIFLES: 57 and 93 COLUMNS

PROFOUND 111TH BRIGADE

1ST BN THE CAMERONIANS: 26 and 90 COLUMNS
2ND BN THE KINGS OWN ROYAL REGT: 41 and 46 COLUMNS
3RD BN 4TH GURKHA RIFLES: 30 COLUMN

MORRIS FORCE

4TH BN 9TH GURKHA RIFLES: 49 and 94 COLUMNS
3RD/4TH GURKHA RIFLES: 40 COLUMN

DAH FORCE

KACHIN LEVIES

BLADETL (BLAINS DETACHMENT)

GLIDERBORNE COMMANDO ENGINEERS

ROYAL ARTILLERY Supporting non-mobile units designed to defend Chindit Jungle Fortresses.

R, S AND U TROOPS 160TH FIELD REGT (ALL 25 PDRS)
W,X,Y, AND Z TROOPS 69TH LIGHT ANTI AIRCRAFT REGT. (40MM BOFORS / 12.5 MM HISPANO GUNS)

SUPPORT UNITS

NO 1 AIR COMMANDO USAF -strike and casualty evacuation (until 1/5/1944 only)
EASTERN AIR COMMAND - supply
U. S ARMY 900TH FIELD UNIT (engineers)

ORGANISATION

The column was the main unit and all operations were column biased - the column was referred to literally, because all personnel moved through the jungle in single file - a tactic to be copied 20 years later. Each column was essentially of company strength. The unit as a whole was supported by about 1,000 mules.

Each column had 4 rifle platoons, 1 heavy weapons platoon ( 2 Vickers mmg, 2 - 3 inch mortar, 1 flame thrower, 2 piats ), 1 commando platoon ( demolition and booby trap skills ) and 1 recce platoon with a British officer and Burma rifles ( Karen and Kachin tribesmen ).

© Copyright 1998 by Rolfe Hedges
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com
E-mail: magweb@magweb.com

The Badge of this unit was

A Golden Burmese Dragon (a Chinthern Pagoda Guardian) on a Blue Circular background was the Badge of the 3rd Indian Divison, (Wingates Chindits). 

History

The Chindits were first in action in Japanese Occupied Burma as Long Range Penetration Troops led by there Commander Maj/Gen Orde C. Wingate (D.S.O.)   

There second expedition was as part of the "Fourteenth Army" but made History by being the f irst Troops in Burma to invade by Glider & Parachute, this took place in the Chindwin Area of Burma, by destroying Railway Lines & harassing the Japanese they caused havoc through out the Area,  in the later stages they were seconded to Gen Joe Stillwell's American Chinese Forces & suffered further casulties, they were eventually withdrawn & returned to India where they were disbanded. 

They were COMMANDED by

Maj/Gen Orde C. Wingate. (D.S.O.)
(later by)
Maj/Gen  W.D.A. Lentaigne. 

Wingate, Major General Orde - British

1903-1944

• 1936 - ran guerilla warfare in Israel
• 1940 - organized guerrilla campaign in Ethiopia
• Sent back to England suffering from malaria and depression attempted suicide
• Wavell called him to India and wanted him to try his long range penetration in Burma
• Decided to train a brigade size unit - named them the Chindits after a mythical beast the Chinthe
• February 1943 - first operation crossed the Chindwin River to attack outposts, railway lines and bridges.
• Mid MArch crossed the Irrawaddy River - Japanese attacked and they lost a third of its force and equipment
• Hailed as a great success
• Japanese sought to strengthen their line with an offensive against Kohima and Imphal
• Killed in aircrash in 24 March 1944
• No further use was made of special units to the extent of Wingate's plans in Burma

Information regarding the "Divisional Signs" contributed by A.C. Maile,
9th Batallion, Royal Sussex Regiment.

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We received the following e-mail a few weeks ago - the answer came from the Imperial War Museum and follows the e-mail:

"I would like to ask you to help me find some information about an article I found in my grandfathers house after he passed away recently. He served with the Chindits in Burma during WW2 and was originally in the Royal Artillery.

While he was in the Chindits he was issued with a orange silk scarf. This scarf is about 70x80 cm. Printed on one side in black is a map of "Northern Burma" and on the other side is "Central Burma". The scarf is in 100% perfect condition. I have heard that it was issued as an emergency map which could be folded up and hidden. Do you have such an exhibit ?

Do you know anything about this scarf ? If you could help me find out some more about it  I would be very grateful.

Thank you and best regards

Christopher Munns

The reply was as follows:

"Thank you for your e-mail of the 18 July.

The Museum does have an orange air recognition map, they were issued to the Chindits for the 2nd Chindit expedition. They had the dual purpose of a map and for air recognition for aerial drops and pick ups. I hope this information is of assistance.

Yours sincerely

Alan Jeffreys
Department of Exhibits and Firearms"

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