A CHINDIT'S CHRONICLE
by
Bill Towill

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At sunset on Sunday 5th March 1944 an airborne force set out from Lalaghat airstrip in Assam aboard gliders piloted by Americans of the 1st Air Commando USAAF.  They were men of Special Force, otherwise known as 'The Chindits' led by their famous commander Major General Orde Wingate.  In the brilliant moonlight they flew eastwards over the steep mountain range separating Indian from Burma, crossed the mighty Chindwin River, which lay like a glittering silver ribbon far below them, to land in a small clearing, codenamed "Broadway" in the jungle 130 miles behind the Japanese front lines.  Despite heavy casualties sustained in the glider landings, the survivors by dint of prodigious effort managed in a few house to construct a rough airstrip, which on the following nights received Dakota transport aircraft ferrying men, mules and equipment.  They achieved complete surprise over the enemy and within a period of six days, in a total of 78 glider and 660 Dakota sorties, some of which alighted at a nearby airstrip codenamed 'Chowringhee', 9,052 men 1,360 pack animals and 250 tons of supplies were landed in a brilliantly successful operation for the loss of a total of only 121 men killed or wounded.  It was the biggest operation of its kind so far launched during the War, though only three months later it was to be followed by 'Overlord', the gigantic Allied invasion of Normandy.

Fighting with grim determination against their fanatical opponents, in what became a conflict of primeval ferocity, with no quarter asked or given, the Chindits exerted a stranglehold over the enemy supply routes and so impeded the Japanese divisions to the north which were attempting to force their way into India via Imphal and Kohima.   When the monsoon came, the fighting continued in a sea of mud, with the Chindits often starving and short of ammunition since the low lying cloud prevented supply drops being made to them by the RAF and USAAF.  Inflicting enormous casualties on the enemy, they also took heavy casualties from battle and sickness until, at the last, broken in body but not in spirit, less than 5% of those who still survived were judged on medical examination to be physically fit enough to continue the fight.

Bill Towill, serving with the 3rd Battalion 9th Gurkha Rifles, first as intelligence officer and later as adjutant, was in of the leading gliders and was one of the fortunate few who survived the whole of the five months long campaign.  "A Chindit's Chronicle" is his intensely personal, vivid, sometimes amusing and often very moving account of his experiences, telling amongst other things of:

• How four Victoria Crosses were won, including one in his own battalion

• The background to the struggle

• What it was like to march, struggle and fight on the jungle clad hills.

• Some of the striking characters who took part.

• Actions of remarkable courage and gallantry.

Born in 1920, after surviving the debacle of Dunkirk, sent out to India and commissioned into the 9th Gurkha Rifles, serving with their 3rd Battalion in India, in the Arakan (Burma) in 1942/43, in northern Burma with the Chindits in 1944, in Java and Malaya in 1945/46.  After the War became a solicitor

"A Chindit's Chronicle" if published by Authors' Choice Press at www.iuniverse.com or from Barnes & Noble at www.bn.com at $11.95 US/ $19.95 CA plus postage or direct from the author at an offer price of £10.00 each inclusive of post and packing.  Bill Towill can be contacted at billtowill@aol.com or at:-

Wildwoods,
Motts Hill Lane,
Tadworth,
Surrey KT20 5BH
(Tel/Fax 00-44-(0)1737-814872)

COMMENTS FROM VARIOUS READERS OF THE BOOK:-

"A fascinating story, well told and admirably written" General Sir John Hackett

"One of the most lucid and informative books to emerge from personal experiences in WW2........enough detail for the reader to grasp the achievements, horrors and hardships of what must have been on of the most gruelling expeditions in British warfare" - Philip Warner, military historian and former senior lecturer at the RMA, Sandhurst.

"A splendid book.......Everyone says what a great story it is and how the authenticity shines through from first to last" - Major John Lamond, former Curator, Gurkha Museum, Winchester.

"A remarkable and inspiring account of an expedition about which too little is known.  The general public do not appreciate the privations, the hardships, the heroism and the devotion shown by the Chindits.  I thought the account of the approach to, capture and holding of Point 2171 was a true epic, and particularly moving." - Judge James Irvine.