Wingate and his Column Commanders
Back in 2011, when I first published this website, it was my intention to concentrate my efforts in bringing the stories and eventual fate of the ordinary Chindit soldier to the public domain. After seven years of work and over 400 such narratives delivered, I feel it is time to devote some space here to the men who led the Longcloth columns in 1943. The following pages will cover, using a short biographical template, each individual Column Commander and his military career both before and after his Chindit experience.
Major-General Orde Charles Wingate
Born on the 26th February 1903 in colonial India, Orde Charles Wingate is of course the man who devised and developed the theory of Long Range Penetration and brought together all these ideas in the creation of the Chindit phenomenon. Beginning his Army career as a young Subaltern with the Royal Artillery, he through endeavour and sometimes pure bloodymindedness pushed himself to the forefront of new military thinking, but rarely made friends along the way.
For a more thorough explanation of his time in the British Army, please click on the following link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate
Wingate was not only the mastermind behind the concept of the Chindits in 1943, he also led his 3000 strong Brigade into Burma, controlling the seven columns from his Brigade HQ and adapting their role as the days and weeks passed by. For his efforts on Operation Longcloth, he was awarded a second bar to his DSO (Distinguished Service Order), having already received the award twice before, once for his time in Palestine in 1938 and again with Gideon Force in Ethiopia during 1941.
Transcript of Distinguished Service Order Citation for Operation Longcloth
Brigade-77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Corps- 4 Corps
Date of Recommendation-9th July 1943
Rank and Name-Brigadier Orde Charles Wingate D.S.O
Action for which recommended :-
Brigadier Wingate trained 77 Infantry Brigade and commanded it during the recent operations in Burma. Throughout the operation he displayed skill, personal courage and endurance of a high order. His determination and inspiring leadership were largely responsible for the success attained by what was definitely an arduous and dangerous undertaking. His ability and resolution gave great confidence to those under his command. It was noticeable that almost the first question asked by many officers and men on their return was for news of the Brigadier. Their relief at his safe return was most marked and was accompanied by spontaneous expressions of admiration for his courage and leadership. This attainment is reached by few. Brigadier Wingate has again proved himself to be a skilful and intrepid leader. His achievements during the recent operations were of a very high order and, in my opinion, merit immediate recognition.
Recommended By
Lieut-General Scoones, Commander, 4 Corps.
Honour or Reward-Second bar to D.S.O.
Signed By:
General Auchinleck
Commander-in-Chief India
London Gazette 05.08.1943
Born on the 26th February 1903 in colonial India, Orde Charles Wingate is of course the man who devised and developed the theory of Long Range Penetration and brought together all these ideas in the creation of the Chindit phenomenon. Beginning his Army career as a young Subaltern with the Royal Artillery, he through endeavour and sometimes pure bloodymindedness pushed himself to the forefront of new military thinking, but rarely made friends along the way.
For a more thorough explanation of his time in the British Army, please click on the following link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate
Wingate was not only the mastermind behind the concept of the Chindits in 1943, he also led his 3000 strong Brigade into Burma, controlling the seven columns from his Brigade HQ and adapting their role as the days and weeks passed by. For his efforts on Operation Longcloth, he was awarded a second bar to his DSO (Distinguished Service Order), having already received the award twice before, once for his time in Palestine in 1938 and again with Gideon Force in Ethiopia during 1941.
Transcript of Distinguished Service Order Citation for Operation Longcloth
Brigade-77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Corps- 4 Corps
Date of Recommendation-9th July 1943
Rank and Name-Brigadier Orde Charles Wingate D.S.O
Action for which recommended :-
Brigadier Wingate trained 77 Infantry Brigade and commanded it during the recent operations in Burma. Throughout the operation he displayed skill, personal courage and endurance of a high order. His determination and inspiring leadership were largely responsible for the success attained by what was definitely an arduous and dangerous undertaking. His ability and resolution gave great confidence to those under his command. It was noticeable that almost the first question asked by many officers and men on their return was for news of the Brigadier. Their relief at his safe return was most marked and was accompanied by spontaneous expressions of admiration for his courage and leadership. This attainment is reached by few. Brigadier Wingate has again proved himself to be a skilful and intrepid leader. His achievements during the recent operations were of a very high order and, in my opinion, merit immediate recognition.
Recommended By
Lieut-General Scoones, Commander, 4 Corps.
Honour or Reward-Second bar to D.S.O.
Signed By:
General Auchinleck
Commander-in-Chief India
London Gazette 05.08.1943
Wingate discusses Operation Longcloth with some of the Chindits that survived the expedition in 1943.
Although Operation Longcloth was perceived by the military as having achieved very little in regards the disruption of the Japanese war machine, it did offer a wonderful propaganda opportunity for the Allied leadership and had gone some way in dispelling the myth that the Japanese soldier was invincible in the jungles of South East Asia. From the acorn of Operation Longcloth, a full six brigade strength Chindit expedition was constructed for the following year, codenamed Operation Thursday.
To read more about Operation Thursday, please click on the following link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chindits#Operation_Thursday
Tragically, Major-General Wingate was killed during the second Chindit expedition, when the B-25 Mitchell Bomber he was travelling in crashed into the hills of Assam on the 24th March 1944. Sadly, he did not live to see his plans and aspirations for Operation Thursday come to fruition, or continue to be the driving force behind his Chindit Brigades as they tackled the implementation of his ideas.
Many books and other writings have been penned around the subject of the Chindits and of course Wingate in particular. These include several biographies about the man himself:
Orde Wingate, by Christopher Sykes.
Wingate, in Peace and War, by Derek Tulloch.
There was a Man of Genius, by Alice Ivy Hay.
Fire in the Night, John Bierman and Colin Smith.
Orde Wingate, Unconventional Warrior, by Simon Anglim.
I thought it might be of interest as part of this review, to read what Orde Wingate thought about the enemy he faced across the tight-set jungles of Burma in 1943-44. From the operational debrief, written after his return from Burma in April 1943:
The Japanese thought they had found a technique of warfare in the jungles of the Far East to which the United Nations had no answer. With characteristic thoroughness and assiduity, they had not only studied the effects of jungle on all types of modern tactics, but had also trained large numbers of their best troops in the practical application of their approved methods. They boasted that the self-indulgent, ignorant troops of the United Nations could never equal them, either in skill or endurance, in the conditions of warfare that prevailed throughout their co-prosperity sphere.
From Japan to India, from Manchuria to Australasia, jungle and mountain predominate and make penetration, the premier weapon in modern warfare, everywhere possible. The Japanese were mistaken. The British soldier has shown that he can not only equal the Japanese, but surpass him in this very war of penetration in jungle. The reason is to be found in the qualities he shares with his ancestors: imagination, the ability to give of his best when the audience is smallest, self-reliance, and power of individual action. The Indian soldier, too, has shown himself fully capable of beating the Japanese in jungle fighting, where individuality and personal initiative are the qualities that count.
Believing that this was so, Field-Marshal Wavell gave me the task of raising and training a formation designed to carry out penetration of the enemy's back areas far deeper and on a far larger scale than anything the Japanese had practised against us. Essential to Wavell's plan was air power not only superior to that of the enemy but capable of operating in new ways, of fulfilling hitherto unheard-of demands. We had such air resources. The R.A.F. never failed us. In fact, seeing in us the ideal opportunity of driving home their own strategic attacks on the enemy, they supplied R.A.F. contingents for every column. And it was largely the presence and work of these R.A.F. elements that made the operation a success.
The force that was to go into the heart of Japanese-occupied Burma and singe the Mikado's beard was not composed of selected troops; it consisted of ordinary British and Indian infantry, sappers, signalmen, and others. Each column also had its quota of Burmese troops; without the brave and devoted Burma Rifles the operation would have been impossible. What was it that made these ordinary troops, born and bred for the most part to factories and workshops, capable of feats that would not have disgraced Commandos? The answer is that given imagination and individuality in sufficient quantities, the necessary minimum of training will always produce junior leaders and men capable of beating the unimaginative and stereotyped soldiers of the Axis. Remember, too, that all over this theatre of war human beings feel that the United Nations are fighting for something that means more than the severe and macabre ideals of the Axis.
The Jap is no superman. His operational schemes are the product of a third-rate brain. But the individual soldiers are fanatics. Put one of them in a hole with a hundred rounds of ammunition and tell him to die for the Emperor—and he will do it. The way to deal with him is to leave him in his hole and go behind him. Jungle warfare places a great demand for resourcefulness and endurance on the individual, who may be cut off from his comrades at any time. The Jap is not resourceful. He is assiduous, hard-working, courageous, and possesses tremendous energy, but he can't solve problems which he has never faced before. The city-bred. Englishman, given the right kind of training, meets new and unexpected conditions with imagination and originality.
Although not given to the humourless self-immolation of the Japanese, he has a stronger, saner heroism. Most of us are waiting to renew our experience of this dull, ferocious, and poverty-stricken little enemy at the earliest possible moment. Some of us did not come back. They have done some-thing for their country. They have demonstrated a new kind of warfare—the combination of the oldest with the newest methods. They have not been thrown away. We have proved that we can beat the Jap on his own chosen ground. And as here, so will it be elsewhere.
To read more about Operation Thursday, please click on the following link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chindits#Operation_Thursday
Tragically, Major-General Wingate was killed during the second Chindit expedition, when the B-25 Mitchell Bomber he was travelling in crashed into the hills of Assam on the 24th March 1944. Sadly, he did not live to see his plans and aspirations for Operation Thursday come to fruition, or continue to be the driving force behind his Chindit Brigades as they tackled the implementation of his ideas.
Many books and other writings have been penned around the subject of the Chindits and of course Wingate in particular. These include several biographies about the man himself:
Orde Wingate, by Christopher Sykes.
Wingate, in Peace and War, by Derek Tulloch.
There was a Man of Genius, by Alice Ivy Hay.
Fire in the Night, John Bierman and Colin Smith.
Orde Wingate, Unconventional Warrior, by Simon Anglim.
I thought it might be of interest as part of this review, to read what Orde Wingate thought about the enemy he faced across the tight-set jungles of Burma in 1943-44. From the operational debrief, written after his return from Burma in April 1943:
The Japanese thought they had found a technique of warfare in the jungles of the Far East to which the United Nations had no answer. With characteristic thoroughness and assiduity, they had not only studied the effects of jungle on all types of modern tactics, but had also trained large numbers of their best troops in the practical application of their approved methods. They boasted that the self-indulgent, ignorant troops of the United Nations could never equal them, either in skill or endurance, in the conditions of warfare that prevailed throughout their co-prosperity sphere.
From Japan to India, from Manchuria to Australasia, jungle and mountain predominate and make penetration, the premier weapon in modern warfare, everywhere possible. The Japanese were mistaken. The British soldier has shown that he can not only equal the Japanese, but surpass him in this very war of penetration in jungle. The reason is to be found in the qualities he shares with his ancestors: imagination, the ability to give of his best when the audience is smallest, self-reliance, and power of individual action. The Indian soldier, too, has shown himself fully capable of beating the Japanese in jungle fighting, where individuality and personal initiative are the qualities that count.
Believing that this was so, Field-Marshal Wavell gave me the task of raising and training a formation designed to carry out penetration of the enemy's back areas far deeper and on a far larger scale than anything the Japanese had practised against us. Essential to Wavell's plan was air power not only superior to that of the enemy but capable of operating in new ways, of fulfilling hitherto unheard-of demands. We had such air resources. The R.A.F. never failed us. In fact, seeing in us the ideal opportunity of driving home their own strategic attacks on the enemy, they supplied R.A.F. contingents for every column. And it was largely the presence and work of these R.A.F. elements that made the operation a success.
The force that was to go into the heart of Japanese-occupied Burma and singe the Mikado's beard was not composed of selected troops; it consisted of ordinary British and Indian infantry, sappers, signalmen, and others. Each column also had its quota of Burmese troops; without the brave and devoted Burma Rifles the operation would have been impossible. What was it that made these ordinary troops, born and bred for the most part to factories and workshops, capable of feats that would not have disgraced Commandos? The answer is that given imagination and individuality in sufficient quantities, the necessary minimum of training will always produce junior leaders and men capable of beating the unimaginative and stereotyped soldiers of the Axis. Remember, too, that all over this theatre of war human beings feel that the United Nations are fighting for something that means more than the severe and macabre ideals of the Axis.
The Jap is no superman. His operational schemes are the product of a third-rate brain. But the individual soldiers are fanatics. Put one of them in a hole with a hundred rounds of ammunition and tell him to die for the Emperor—and he will do it. The way to deal with him is to leave him in his hole and go behind him. Jungle warfare places a great demand for resourcefulness and endurance on the individual, who may be cut off from his comrades at any time. The Jap is not resourceful. He is assiduous, hard-working, courageous, and possesses tremendous energy, but he can't solve problems which he has never faced before. The city-bred. Englishman, given the right kind of training, meets new and unexpected conditions with imagination and originality.
Although not given to the humourless self-immolation of the Japanese, he has a stronger, saner heroism. Most of us are waiting to renew our experience of this dull, ferocious, and poverty-stricken little enemy at the earliest possible moment. Some of us did not come back. They have done some-thing for their country. They have demonstrated a new kind of warfare—the combination of the oldest with the newest methods. They have not been thrown away. We have proved that we can beat the Jap on his own chosen ground. And as here, so will it be elsewhere.
Wingate discusses tactics with USAAF Colonel Phil Cochran, at the outset of Operation Thursday.
In the period leading up to Christmas 1942 the final finishing touches were being made to the first Chindit Brigade. Last minute reinforcements were arriving from all over India to bolster column numbers and the last of the mules were being allocated to the Chindit groups still without their animals.
On the 9th December all columns had been involved in a full field exercise. This included a three day route march up to the rail station at Jhansi, where certain columns were pitched against each other, some defending and some attacking the station buildings. Wingate was not overly impressed by the Chindits performance at Jhansi and so another full Brigade exercise was arranged for late December. It was at this juncture that the officers of 77th Indian Infantry Brigade were issued with Wingate's orders for the forthcoming operation.
Here for your interest, is the twenty point list given to all column officers by Wingate on the 29th December 1942. Some of the younger officers present were shocked by some of Wingate's ideas and the language used in the document, if they had not already guessed previously, they now knew that they were in for a tough and uncompromising time once inside Burma.
Secret (29 Dec. 1942).
77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Maxims for all Officers
1.The Chindwin is your Jordan, once crossed there is no re-crossing. The exit from Burma is via Rangoon.
2. Success in operations depends on the perfecting of an exact and well conducted drill for every procedure.
3. Our reply to noise is silence.
4. When in doubt do not fire.
5. Never await the enemy's blow, evade it.
6. Fight when surprise has been gained. When surprise is lost at the outset, break off the action and come again.
7. Security is gained by intelligence, good dispersal procedure and counter attack. Thus all depends on good 'guerilla' procedure plus careful drill. Read and then re-read "Security in bivouac".
8. Always maintain a margin of strength for a time of need. It is the reserve of energy that saves from disaster, that gives the weight required for victory.
9. Avoid defiles. If you must use them, secure your flanks first. Pass by night whenever possible. For us, a defile may be defined as a track from which dispersal is not possible owing to physical obstacles.
10. Times of darkness, of rain, mist and storm, these are our times of achievement.
11. Never retrace your steps.
12. The movement of the column must be unpredictable, even for it's own members.
13. Never bivouac within three miles of a motor road or waterway. Three miles of good forest will give the same protection as ten miles of open country.
14. Use your W/T (radio) to capacity, it is your greatest weapon.
15. Use every weapon and every man to capacity. It is their combined and simultaneous employment that gives strength. Work together and rest together.
16. Festina lente (make haste slowly). Let your haste be a considered haste, the fitting end to a leisurely examination and preparation. Speed should be the result, not of fear and confusion, but of superior knowledge, planning and drill.
17. Intelligence is useless unless it passed on. Use your W/T.
18. See that your men think the same of the situation as you do. For this, constant talks and explanations will be necessary.
19. Get rid of casualties, never keep serious cases with the Column.
20. Spend your cash.
Signed Orde C. Wingate (Brigadier Commander 77 Ind. Inf. Brigade).
On the 9th December all columns had been involved in a full field exercise. This included a three day route march up to the rail station at Jhansi, where certain columns were pitched against each other, some defending and some attacking the station buildings. Wingate was not overly impressed by the Chindits performance at Jhansi and so another full Brigade exercise was arranged for late December. It was at this juncture that the officers of 77th Indian Infantry Brigade were issued with Wingate's orders for the forthcoming operation.
Here for your interest, is the twenty point list given to all column officers by Wingate on the 29th December 1942. Some of the younger officers present were shocked by some of Wingate's ideas and the language used in the document, if they had not already guessed previously, they now knew that they were in for a tough and uncompromising time once inside Burma.
Secret (29 Dec. 1942).
77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Maxims for all Officers
1.The Chindwin is your Jordan, once crossed there is no re-crossing. The exit from Burma is via Rangoon.
2. Success in operations depends on the perfecting of an exact and well conducted drill for every procedure.
3. Our reply to noise is silence.
4. When in doubt do not fire.
5. Never await the enemy's blow, evade it.
6. Fight when surprise has been gained. When surprise is lost at the outset, break off the action and come again.
7. Security is gained by intelligence, good dispersal procedure and counter attack. Thus all depends on good 'guerilla' procedure plus careful drill. Read and then re-read "Security in bivouac".
8. Always maintain a margin of strength for a time of need. It is the reserve of energy that saves from disaster, that gives the weight required for victory.
9. Avoid defiles. If you must use them, secure your flanks first. Pass by night whenever possible. For us, a defile may be defined as a track from which dispersal is not possible owing to physical obstacles.
10. Times of darkness, of rain, mist and storm, these are our times of achievement.
11. Never retrace your steps.
12. The movement of the column must be unpredictable, even for it's own members.
13. Never bivouac within three miles of a motor road or waterway. Three miles of good forest will give the same protection as ten miles of open country.
14. Use your W/T (radio) to capacity, it is your greatest weapon.
15. Use every weapon and every man to capacity. It is their combined and simultaneous employment that gives strength. Work together and rest together.
16. Festina lente (make haste slowly). Let your haste be a considered haste, the fitting end to a leisurely examination and preparation. Speed should be the result, not of fear and confusion, but of superior knowledge, planning and drill.
17. Intelligence is useless unless it passed on. Use your W/T.
18. See that your men think the same of the situation as you do. For this, constant talks and explanations will be necessary.
19. Get rid of casualties, never keep serious cases with the Column.
20. Spend your cash.
Signed Orde C. Wingate (Brigadier Commander 77 Ind. Inf. Brigade).
I am deeply grieved at the loss of this man of genius, who might have become a man of destiny.
Winston Churchill 30th March 1944.
Winston Churchill 30th March 1944.
Colonel Cooke in April 1943.
Lt-Colonel Sidney Arthur Cooke
Colonel Cooke became the Commanding Officer of the 13th King's on the 3rd November 1942 while the battalion were completing their Chindit training at the Atta Camp in the Central Provinces of India. Cooke replaced Lt-Colonel William Moncrieff Robinson, who had been the battalion's C/O from October 1940 and had led the 13th King's during their voyage to India in late 1941 and throughout the units early months on the sub-continent.
Sidney Arthur Cooke, known to his closest Army comrades as Sam, was formerly with the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment and had served with this unit in Palestine as part of the British Garrison at Aqaba. After taking up his duties as senior officer with the 13th King's, Cooke formed an excellent relationship with Brigadier Wingate and was given command of Northern Group Head Quarters (Chindit columns 4, 5, 7 and 8) during Operation Longcloth.
Sadly, not all duties that befell Colonel Cooke were directly to do with training and combat. After the unfortunate death of Pte. Ronald Braithwaite during a training accident in late 1942, Cooke felt obliged to send the following letter to Pte. Braithwaite's wife:
Dear Mrs. Braithwaite,
I am sending you a photograph of a Memorial tablet which has been placed in the Garrison Church at Saugor and which includes the name of your husband, Ronald Braithwaite. The memorial is a small token of the high regard both officers and men had for your husband, and I hope that you will accept this photograph in the sentiment with which it is being sent.
Yours most sincerely, S.A. Cooke
Colonel Cooke performed well in Burma, leading his men with skill and determination during the first weeks of the expedition. His one great talent was in the choosing, setting up and then defending supply drop locations. In his debrief in June 1943, Brigadier Wingate remarks on Cooke's excellent performance in arranging these locations, known as SDZ's on Operation Longcloth. On the 13th March 1943, at a drop zone area close to the Burmese village of Kyunbin, Colonel Cooke assumed total command of the location which included having to beat off a determined Japanese attack whilst the supply drop was actually taking place. On the 24th March, the same thing happened during an extensive supply dropping on the outskirts of a village called Baw. Once again, Cooke, this time in conjunction with No. 8 Column, commanded by Major Scott of the King's Regiment dealt effectively with the enemy interference.
As the expedition unfolded, Colonel Cooke formed what was to become a life-long friendship with Major Scott and on dispersal both men decided to march back to India together. The two officers attempted to keep their units as one group on the return journey with Cooke and Scott sharing the responsibility of command. This arrangement worked well for a few weeks, but as rations and supplies ran low and after several minor skirmishes with the Japanese, Scott and Cooke decided to break up their group into smaller dispersal parties in order to maximise the mens chances of survival.
Sadly, the exertions of the expedition began to tell on Colonel Cooke and by the 24th April, he was struggling to continue whilst suffering with severe dysentery and acute jungle sores. Not long after this time, Major Scott's dispersal group which still included Colonel Cooke stumbled upon a large meadow in the middle of the previously dense jungle. An idea came to Scott, that perhaps a Dakota could land on this area and rescue the worst of his casualties and fly them back to India. This episode became known as the Piccadilly incident and would be remembered as one of the most iconic stories within Chindit circles for many years to come.
In the end, seventeen injured and sick Chindits were flown out of Burma from the meadow near Sonpu village, amongst these very fortunate passengers was Colonel Cooke. Although Colonel Cooke had insisted that he remain with his men, Major Scott realised the importance of not losing the commanding officer of the King's on the first expedition and over-ruled his commander, placing him reluctantly aboard the plane on the 28th April 1943. To read more about this incident, please click on the following link: The Piccadilly Incident
For his efforts on the first Wingate expedition, Colonel Cooke was awarded the OBE and received this decoration during a ceremony at Napier Barracks in Karachi on the 13th March 1944, the medal was presented by Lord Wavell who was the Viceroy of India at that time.
Operations in Burma March-April 1943
Colonel Cooke took over command of the four columns supplied by the 13th King's Liverpool Regiment in November 1942. His painstaking and thorough work in training was of great assistance to the Brigade Commander in preparing the Brigade for operations. Throughout the expedition, Cooke commanded No. 2 Group. He took personal charge of all supply droppings for the Brigade Group and carried out this duty to admiration.
At Kyunbin on the 13th March 1943, he conducted a counter attack against enemy posts which had been previously established in the supply dropping area. During this action he exposed himself fearlessly and gave a great example of calmness and confidence to all ranks. After the dispersal of the Brigade at Inywa on the 29th March, Cooke continued to act as Commander of No. 2 Group and successfully carried out three or more supply droppings which were instrumental in saving the lives of the majority of his group.
The solid sterling qualities of this officer, his good judgement, calm and cool demeanour in facing danger added to his valuable experience in these operations, made him a most valuable officer.
Award-OBE (Military Division).
Recommended by- Brigadier O.C. Wingate DSO. Commander 77 Indian Infantry Brigade.
London Gazette-16th December 1943.
After returning to India in late April 1943, Colonel Cooke took on the responsibility of recording the adventures of No. 2 Group and No. 8 Column, writing out both units respective war diaries. With his strong involvement in the arrangement of the Brigade's supply drops, he took the time to officially congratulate and thank 31 Squadron RAF, for their invaluable and on occasions life-saving work in feeding the Chindits from the sky. In the years after Operation Longcloth, Colonel Cooke made the effort to recognise all the men who had served under him in 1943, issuing each man with a certificate confirming his participation on the first Wingate expedition.
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to this narrative, including an example of the above mentioned certificate and the original recommendation for the award of the OBE. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Colonel Cooke became the Commanding Officer of the 13th King's on the 3rd November 1942 while the battalion were completing their Chindit training at the Atta Camp in the Central Provinces of India. Cooke replaced Lt-Colonel William Moncrieff Robinson, who had been the battalion's C/O from October 1940 and had led the 13th King's during their voyage to India in late 1941 and throughout the units early months on the sub-continent.
Sidney Arthur Cooke, known to his closest Army comrades as Sam, was formerly with the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment and had served with this unit in Palestine as part of the British Garrison at Aqaba. After taking up his duties as senior officer with the 13th King's, Cooke formed an excellent relationship with Brigadier Wingate and was given command of Northern Group Head Quarters (Chindit columns 4, 5, 7 and 8) during Operation Longcloth.
Sadly, not all duties that befell Colonel Cooke were directly to do with training and combat. After the unfortunate death of Pte. Ronald Braithwaite during a training accident in late 1942, Cooke felt obliged to send the following letter to Pte. Braithwaite's wife:
Dear Mrs. Braithwaite,
I am sending you a photograph of a Memorial tablet which has been placed in the Garrison Church at Saugor and which includes the name of your husband, Ronald Braithwaite. The memorial is a small token of the high regard both officers and men had for your husband, and I hope that you will accept this photograph in the sentiment with which it is being sent.
Yours most sincerely, S.A. Cooke
Colonel Cooke performed well in Burma, leading his men with skill and determination during the first weeks of the expedition. His one great talent was in the choosing, setting up and then defending supply drop locations. In his debrief in June 1943, Brigadier Wingate remarks on Cooke's excellent performance in arranging these locations, known as SDZ's on Operation Longcloth. On the 13th March 1943, at a drop zone area close to the Burmese village of Kyunbin, Colonel Cooke assumed total command of the location which included having to beat off a determined Japanese attack whilst the supply drop was actually taking place. On the 24th March, the same thing happened during an extensive supply dropping on the outskirts of a village called Baw. Once again, Cooke, this time in conjunction with No. 8 Column, commanded by Major Scott of the King's Regiment dealt effectively with the enemy interference.
As the expedition unfolded, Colonel Cooke formed what was to become a life-long friendship with Major Scott and on dispersal both men decided to march back to India together. The two officers attempted to keep their units as one group on the return journey with Cooke and Scott sharing the responsibility of command. This arrangement worked well for a few weeks, but as rations and supplies ran low and after several minor skirmishes with the Japanese, Scott and Cooke decided to break up their group into smaller dispersal parties in order to maximise the mens chances of survival.
Sadly, the exertions of the expedition began to tell on Colonel Cooke and by the 24th April, he was struggling to continue whilst suffering with severe dysentery and acute jungle sores. Not long after this time, Major Scott's dispersal group which still included Colonel Cooke stumbled upon a large meadow in the middle of the previously dense jungle. An idea came to Scott, that perhaps a Dakota could land on this area and rescue the worst of his casualties and fly them back to India. This episode became known as the Piccadilly incident and would be remembered as one of the most iconic stories within Chindit circles for many years to come.
In the end, seventeen injured and sick Chindits were flown out of Burma from the meadow near Sonpu village, amongst these very fortunate passengers was Colonel Cooke. Although Colonel Cooke had insisted that he remain with his men, Major Scott realised the importance of not losing the commanding officer of the King's on the first expedition and over-ruled his commander, placing him reluctantly aboard the plane on the 28th April 1943. To read more about this incident, please click on the following link: The Piccadilly Incident
For his efforts on the first Wingate expedition, Colonel Cooke was awarded the OBE and received this decoration during a ceremony at Napier Barracks in Karachi on the 13th March 1944, the medal was presented by Lord Wavell who was the Viceroy of India at that time.
Operations in Burma March-April 1943
Colonel Cooke took over command of the four columns supplied by the 13th King's Liverpool Regiment in November 1942. His painstaking and thorough work in training was of great assistance to the Brigade Commander in preparing the Brigade for operations. Throughout the expedition, Cooke commanded No. 2 Group. He took personal charge of all supply droppings for the Brigade Group and carried out this duty to admiration.
At Kyunbin on the 13th March 1943, he conducted a counter attack against enemy posts which had been previously established in the supply dropping area. During this action he exposed himself fearlessly and gave a great example of calmness and confidence to all ranks. After the dispersal of the Brigade at Inywa on the 29th March, Cooke continued to act as Commander of No. 2 Group and successfully carried out three or more supply droppings which were instrumental in saving the lives of the majority of his group.
The solid sterling qualities of this officer, his good judgement, calm and cool demeanour in facing danger added to his valuable experience in these operations, made him a most valuable officer.
Award-OBE (Military Division).
Recommended by- Brigadier O.C. Wingate DSO. Commander 77 Indian Infantry Brigade.
London Gazette-16th December 1943.
After returning to India in late April 1943, Colonel Cooke took on the responsibility of recording the adventures of No. 2 Group and No. 8 Column, writing out both units respective war diaries. With his strong involvement in the arrangement of the Brigade's supply drops, he took the time to officially congratulate and thank 31 Squadron RAF, for their invaluable and on occasions life-saving work in feeding the Chindits from the sky. In the years after Operation Longcloth, Colonel Cooke made the effort to recognise all the men who had served under him in 1943, issuing each man with a certificate confirming his participation on the first Wingate expedition.
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to this narrative, including an example of the above mentioned certificate and the original recommendation for the award of the OBE. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Cooke Pasha (1951).
After war Sidney Cooke went on to command the Arab Legion. From the Osprey (Publishing) book on the subject written by Peter Young and with illustrations by Michael Roffe:
Cooke Pasha
Born on the 21st July 1903, Major-General Sidney Arthur Cooke joined the Arab Legion in 1951 to assume command of its 1st Division. Like many officers who came to the Legion, he was no stranger to Jordan, having some years previously commanded his battalion, the Royal Lincoln’s when it had formed part of ‘O’ Force, the British Garrison in Aqaba.
A tall, broad-shouldered man, Sam Cooke was always immaculately dressed and set a high standard for an already well turned out division. The particular attributes which he brought to the Legion were those of an organiser and administrator, and there is little doubt that the efficiency of 1st Division, probably at its peak around mid-1955, was largely the result of his efforts.
He was possessed of great patience, an essential quality for any British officer with the Legion. Arab soldiers are amongst the keenest to learn, but it must be admitted that they do not always take kindly to European discipline and the thorough training which most modern armies require.
Patient though Cooke was, he could be caustic. Never hesitating to take a decision himself, he could be intolerant of others who were less decisive. On one occasion a staff officer, questioned as to the action taken over some incident, admitted to Cooke, that he had in fact done nothing. “To do nothing”, came the classic rejoinder, “is always wrong."
Cooke never had to command his division in full-scale operations, but he was faced with the equally difficult task of training for war, while simultaneously directing defensive operations on the West Bank under conditions not of peace but of armistice. Towards the end of his tenure he had also to deal with a massive internal security problem in Amman and the main towns and refugee camps on the East Bank.
These heavy responsibilities never affected his composure. After the assassination of King Abdallah, Cooke’s commander General John Bagot Glubb telephoned him orders for the maintenance of law and order in Jerusalem. Glubb recalled: One thing about Cooke was that he was always calm and acknowledged these orders, as if I had said, come round later and have a drink. He was a man who inspired confidence in all those under his command.
After his retirement from military life, Sidney Cooke became a member of the Burma Star Association and was a keen attendee of the many Chindit reunions. He was for a time the President of the Chindit Old Comrades Association and kept in touch with many of his former comrades from Operation Longcloth. Sidney Cooke lived for many years in Holt, a market town in the county of Norfolk, where sadly he passed away aged 73 on the 25th March 1977.
Cooke Pasha
Born on the 21st July 1903, Major-General Sidney Arthur Cooke joined the Arab Legion in 1951 to assume command of its 1st Division. Like many officers who came to the Legion, he was no stranger to Jordan, having some years previously commanded his battalion, the Royal Lincoln’s when it had formed part of ‘O’ Force, the British Garrison in Aqaba.
A tall, broad-shouldered man, Sam Cooke was always immaculately dressed and set a high standard for an already well turned out division. The particular attributes which he brought to the Legion were those of an organiser and administrator, and there is little doubt that the efficiency of 1st Division, probably at its peak around mid-1955, was largely the result of his efforts.
He was possessed of great patience, an essential quality for any British officer with the Legion. Arab soldiers are amongst the keenest to learn, but it must be admitted that they do not always take kindly to European discipline and the thorough training which most modern armies require.
Patient though Cooke was, he could be caustic. Never hesitating to take a decision himself, he could be intolerant of others who were less decisive. On one occasion a staff officer, questioned as to the action taken over some incident, admitted to Cooke, that he had in fact done nothing. “To do nothing”, came the classic rejoinder, “is always wrong."
Cooke never had to command his division in full-scale operations, but he was faced with the equally difficult task of training for war, while simultaneously directing defensive operations on the West Bank under conditions not of peace but of armistice. Towards the end of his tenure he had also to deal with a massive internal security problem in Amman and the main towns and refugee camps on the East Bank.
These heavy responsibilities never affected his composure. After the assassination of King Abdallah, Cooke’s commander General John Bagot Glubb telephoned him orders for the maintenance of law and order in Jerusalem. Glubb recalled: One thing about Cooke was that he was always calm and acknowledged these orders, as if I had said, come round later and have a drink. He was a man who inspired confidence in all those under his command.
After his retirement from military life, Sidney Cooke became a member of the Burma Star Association and was a keen attendee of the many Chindit reunions. He was for a time the President of the Chindit Old Comrades Association and kept in touch with many of his former comrades from Operation Longcloth. Sidney Cooke lived for many years in Holt, a market town in the county of Norfolk, where sadly he passed away aged 73 on the 25th March 1977.
Lt-Colonel Leigh Arbuthnot Alexander
The most senior Gurkha officer on Operation and commander of Southern Group, Leigh Arbuthnot Alexander was born on the 4th July 1898 in Umzinto, a town some 70km or so from Durban in the Kwazulu/Natal province of South Africa. He was the son of Major William Alexander and Ethel Rubina Arbuthnot and the younger brother of Gilbert William. Both Leigh and Gilbert were keen sportsmen and played cricket and hockey for several representative sides at school and later on in colonial India.
Leigh was commissioned into the Indian Army on the 27th October 1917, when aged 19. He had studied at the Officers Cadet College in Quetta and was gazetted to 2nd Lieutenant on the above mentioned date, eventually taking up his commission in the 2/5 Royal Gurkha Rifles at their regimental centre in Abbottabad. The Staff College at Quetta had been founded in 1907 and was the main training centre for young officer cadets destined for service in the Indian Army. Leigh's Army career progressed steadily with promotion to Captain in 1922 and again to Major in 1935. During the latter years of WW1, he served with the 2/5 Royal Gurkha Rifle Frontier Force on the Indian/Afghanistan border, or Northwest Frontier as it was known back then.
By mid-1942, Alexander was commander of the newly raised 3rd Battalion of the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles, known as the Sirmoor Rifles. This young and inexperienced battalion were posted to form one half of the infantry element of Brigadier Wingate's 77th Indian Infantry Brigade. In July 1942, the battalion arrived in the Central Provinces of India and took up their Chindit training at the Saugor Camp.
I have already written about Colonel Alexander at length on these website pages and see no advantage in repeating those words here. To read more about him, please click on the following link: Lieutenant-Colonel L.A. Alexander
Tragically, Colonel Alexander lost his life during the first Chindit expedition, suffering mortal injuries from a Japanese mortar shell on the 28th April 1943. His body, and that of Lt. De la Rue, who had perished alongside him that day, were later recovered after the war and re-buried firstly in Mandalay and then finally in the mid-1950's at Taukkyan War Cemetery.
Over the years of my research, quite remarkably, I have been contacted by four of Colonel Alexander's grandchildren. Bruce Luxmoore was first to make contact back in 2011, followed closely by his cousin, Jane Marsh that same year. In 2013, James Luxmoore made contact via his friend, Kevin Hills and finally Rory Luxmoore in 2016. Many of the families comments and information can be seen on the webpage highlighted above.
I would like to finish this narrative by reproducing Rory's short obituary notice in honour of his grandfather after a visit to Taukkyan War Cemetery in March 2016:
Lieutenant Colonel Leigh Alexander
Leigh was born in Umzinto, Natal, South Africa July 4, 1898 and died in Burma on April 28th 1943 at the age of 45. He was British Army officer a first-class cricketer and a father to three children. He joined the Gurkhas on 11 May 1917 during the First World War and first saw service on the North West Frontier. He was commissioned into the British Indian Army on the 27 October 1917. He was promoted to Captain in 1922 and to Major in 1935.
In the Second World War he commanded the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Gurkha Rifles, and took part in the 1st Chindit expedition, a deep penetration raid behind Japanese lines, with the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade when he died during the operation. He was a great sportsman. He played first class cricket for India in 1920. He also excelled in field hockey and tennis. His wife Nancy Alexander (Dalrymple) boasted that he was also a good boxer and seen as one of the better marksmen.
Leigh had three children; Nigel, Vernon and Verity. He is survived by several grandchildren and great grandchildren including Nigel's daughter Jane Marsh and Verity's four son's Mark, Rory, Bruce and James Luxmoore.
The grandchildren grew up hearing stories about their grandfather from his wife Nancy. She remembers going on tiger hunts in Kashmir and meetings with the Maharajahs of different states of India. She also remembers that he was respected by the Gurkha (Nepalese) and Indian soldiers he served. He would ensure that all his men were cared for and fed before he ate and relaxed. He served his men with well until up his death in the jungles of Burma. He is written about in several books including Safer Than a Known Way by Lieutenant Ian MacHorton and A Signals Officer by Robin Painter.
It is with the greatest respect that we stand in front of his grave. We are humbled by the sacrifices he and others made during these times and wish with all our hearts that they have not been in vain. We pray that there can be peace for all.
The most senior Gurkha officer on Operation and commander of Southern Group, Leigh Arbuthnot Alexander was born on the 4th July 1898 in Umzinto, a town some 70km or so from Durban in the Kwazulu/Natal province of South Africa. He was the son of Major William Alexander and Ethel Rubina Arbuthnot and the younger brother of Gilbert William. Both Leigh and Gilbert were keen sportsmen and played cricket and hockey for several representative sides at school and later on in colonial India.
Leigh was commissioned into the Indian Army on the 27th October 1917, when aged 19. He had studied at the Officers Cadet College in Quetta and was gazetted to 2nd Lieutenant on the above mentioned date, eventually taking up his commission in the 2/5 Royal Gurkha Rifles at their regimental centre in Abbottabad. The Staff College at Quetta had been founded in 1907 and was the main training centre for young officer cadets destined for service in the Indian Army. Leigh's Army career progressed steadily with promotion to Captain in 1922 and again to Major in 1935. During the latter years of WW1, he served with the 2/5 Royal Gurkha Rifle Frontier Force on the Indian/Afghanistan border, or Northwest Frontier as it was known back then.
By mid-1942, Alexander was commander of the newly raised 3rd Battalion of the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles, known as the Sirmoor Rifles. This young and inexperienced battalion were posted to form one half of the infantry element of Brigadier Wingate's 77th Indian Infantry Brigade. In July 1942, the battalion arrived in the Central Provinces of India and took up their Chindit training at the Saugor Camp.
I have already written about Colonel Alexander at length on these website pages and see no advantage in repeating those words here. To read more about him, please click on the following link: Lieutenant-Colonel L.A. Alexander
Tragically, Colonel Alexander lost his life during the first Chindit expedition, suffering mortal injuries from a Japanese mortar shell on the 28th April 1943. His body, and that of Lt. De la Rue, who had perished alongside him that day, were later recovered after the war and re-buried firstly in Mandalay and then finally in the mid-1950's at Taukkyan War Cemetery.
Over the years of my research, quite remarkably, I have been contacted by four of Colonel Alexander's grandchildren. Bruce Luxmoore was first to make contact back in 2011, followed closely by his cousin, Jane Marsh that same year. In 2013, James Luxmoore made contact via his friend, Kevin Hills and finally Rory Luxmoore in 2016. Many of the families comments and information can be seen on the webpage highlighted above.
I would like to finish this narrative by reproducing Rory's short obituary notice in honour of his grandfather after a visit to Taukkyan War Cemetery in March 2016:
Lieutenant Colonel Leigh Alexander
Leigh was born in Umzinto, Natal, South Africa July 4, 1898 and died in Burma on April 28th 1943 at the age of 45. He was British Army officer a first-class cricketer and a father to three children. He joined the Gurkhas on 11 May 1917 during the First World War and first saw service on the North West Frontier. He was commissioned into the British Indian Army on the 27 October 1917. He was promoted to Captain in 1922 and to Major in 1935.
In the Second World War he commanded the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Gurkha Rifles, and took part in the 1st Chindit expedition, a deep penetration raid behind Japanese lines, with the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade when he died during the operation. He was a great sportsman. He played first class cricket for India in 1920. He also excelled in field hockey and tennis. His wife Nancy Alexander (Dalrymple) boasted that he was also a good boxer and seen as one of the better marksmen.
Leigh had three children; Nigel, Vernon and Verity. He is survived by several grandchildren and great grandchildren including Nigel's daughter Jane Marsh and Verity's four son's Mark, Rory, Bruce and James Luxmoore.
The grandchildren grew up hearing stories about their grandfather from his wife Nancy. She remembers going on tiger hunts in Kashmir and meetings with the Maharajahs of different states of India. She also remembers that he was respected by the Gurkha (Nepalese) and Indian soldiers he served. He would ensure that all his men were cared for and fed before he ate and relaxed. He served his men with well until up his death in the jungles of Burma. He is written about in several books including Safer Than a Known Way by Lieutenant Ian MacHorton and A Signals Officer by Robin Painter.
It is with the greatest respect that we stand in front of his grave. We are humbled by the sacrifices he and others made during these times and wish with all our hearts that they have not been in vain. We pray that there can be peace for all.
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to Colonel Alexander and his life as a soldier, including a photograph of Rory Luxmoore and his children, Nelson and Alexandra at Taukkyan War Cemetery. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Major George Dunlop MC (1942).
Major George Dickson Dunlop
I found Major Dunlop leaning on his rifle. His tattered clothes, hanging loosely upon him, not only gave him a scarecrow aspect but accentuated the slightness of his figure. Yet his protruding red beard, curling upwards at the end, gave him a buccaneer look which added strength and purpose to the overall picture of this man. Penetrating green eyes, vitally alive in his drawn and sun-bronzed face, went well with the swashbuckling beard.
Firm and decisive though it was, George Dunlop's voice was tired. It had the underlying tone of tiredness inevitable in a man who, at this moment, had behind him more than ten long weeks of responsibility and decisions. Ten precarious weeks all the time with nerves at hair-trigger tautness with the responsibility of being a leader campaigning in the midst of the enemy.
(From the book, Safer Than a Known Way, by Ian MacHorton).
George Dickson Dunlop was born in Calcutta, (India) on the 6th April 1917. His father sadly died when George was just nine years old and for this reason his mother decided to take her young family back to Scotland to live. George attended Edinburgh Academy where he joined the school OTC. After leaving school he entered the Sandhurst Military Academy, from which he was commissioned on the 28th January 1938 into the 1st Battalion of the Royal Scots, based at the time at Catterick in North Yorkshire.
(War Substantive) Major George Dunlop MC was given command of No. 1 Column on Operation Longcloth, a predominantly Gurkha unit comprising some 392 personnel as of February 15th 1943. He had come to Chindit training fairly late on and had replaced Captain Vivian Weatherall as commander of the column. He had previously worked alongside Mike Calvert at the Bush Warfare School, based at Maymyo in Northern Burma and had participated on Mission 204, a clandestine operation on the Burma/China borders in conjunction with Chinese troops in late 1941. By the time of dispersal at the close of Operation Longcloth, Major Dunlop had under his command the remnants of not just his own column, but that of No. 2 Column and Southern Group Head Quarters. The above mentioned description of Dunlop's demeanour in May 1943 by Chindit officer Ian MacHorton, paints an in depth picture of George Dunlop during those arduous times.
Previously to his service on the first Wingate expedition, he had fought in Hong Kong, Trans-Jordan and Palestine; where in October 1938 he was awarded the Military Cross for his efforts against the Arab Rebellion. As well as his MC, won at the tender age of just 21years, Dunlop was also Mentioned in Despatches on two occasions and awarded both the MBE and OBE.
I found Major Dunlop leaning on his rifle. His tattered clothes, hanging loosely upon him, not only gave him a scarecrow aspect but accentuated the slightness of his figure. Yet his protruding red beard, curling upwards at the end, gave him a buccaneer look which added strength and purpose to the overall picture of this man. Penetrating green eyes, vitally alive in his drawn and sun-bronzed face, went well with the swashbuckling beard.
Firm and decisive though it was, George Dunlop's voice was tired. It had the underlying tone of tiredness inevitable in a man who, at this moment, had behind him more than ten long weeks of responsibility and decisions. Ten precarious weeks all the time with nerves at hair-trigger tautness with the responsibility of being a leader campaigning in the midst of the enemy.
(From the book, Safer Than a Known Way, by Ian MacHorton).
George Dickson Dunlop was born in Calcutta, (India) on the 6th April 1917. His father sadly died when George was just nine years old and for this reason his mother decided to take her young family back to Scotland to live. George attended Edinburgh Academy where he joined the school OTC. After leaving school he entered the Sandhurst Military Academy, from which he was commissioned on the 28th January 1938 into the 1st Battalion of the Royal Scots, based at the time at Catterick in North Yorkshire.
(War Substantive) Major George Dunlop MC was given command of No. 1 Column on Operation Longcloth, a predominantly Gurkha unit comprising some 392 personnel as of February 15th 1943. He had come to Chindit training fairly late on and had replaced Captain Vivian Weatherall as commander of the column. He had previously worked alongside Mike Calvert at the Bush Warfare School, based at Maymyo in Northern Burma and had participated on Mission 204, a clandestine operation on the Burma/China borders in conjunction with Chinese troops in late 1941. By the time of dispersal at the close of Operation Longcloth, Major Dunlop had under his command the remnants of not just his own column, but that of No. 2 Column and Southern Group Head Quarters. The above mentioned description of Dunlop's demeanour in May 1943 by Chindit officer Ian MacHorton, paints an in depth picture of George Dunlop during those arduous times.
Previously to his service on the first Wingate expedition, he had fought in Hong Kong, Trans-Jordan and Palestine; where in October 1938 he was awarded the Military Cross for his efforts against the Arab Rebellion. As well as his MC, won at the tender age of just 21years, Dunlop was also Mentioned in Despatches on two occasions and awarded both the MBE and OBE.
Awards for gallant conduct recommended by the General Officer Commanding, British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan (January 1939).
Submitted by the War Office and the Air Ministry.
I am directed by the Chairman of the committee to inform you that the following immediate award has been recommended:
2nd Lieutenant 71094 G. D. Dunlop (1st Battalion Royal Scots).
The Military Cross, for bravery of the highest order under heavy fire while in command of a platoon engaged with an enemy band near Fardisya on the 2nd October 1938, again near Irtah on the 9th November and on several other occasions.
London Gazette 14th March 1939.
Submitted by the War Office and the Air Ministry.
I am directed by the Chairman of the committee to inform you that the following immediate award has been recommended:
2nd Lieutenant 71094 G. D. Dunlop (1st Battalion Royal Scots).
The Military Cross, for bravery of the highest order under heavy fire while in command of a platoon engaged with an enemy band near Fardisya on the 2nd October 1938, again near Irtah on the 9th November and on several other occasions.
London Gazette 14th March 1939.
George Dunlop is mentioned in most books concerning the general overview of the two Chindit campaigns, but is featured particularly within:
Safer Than a Known Way, by Ian MacHorton
Wingate's Lost Brigade, by Philip Chinnery
Fighting Mad, by Mike Calvert
A Signal Honour, by Robin Painter
Major Dunlop also wrote down his experiences and that of his Chindit Column during Operation Longcloth in a report drafted immediately upon his return to Allied territory in 1943. This document is held at the British National Archives, under file reference CAB106/204:
discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C374143
After the war he served in Greece during the country's civil war of 1948, performing liaison duties within the Greek Army and is remembered from those days as "possessing the happy knack of being able to advise his colleagues, without appearing to instruct them."
Following his time in Greece he served in Berlin and Korea with the British Army. From 1962 to 1965 he commanded the Singapore Guard Regiment which was made up from local Malay soldiers, but was commanded by British Officers. Immediately after leaving the Army he ran an Outward Bound Centre in Scotland.
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to George Dunlop and his military career, including the original citation for the award of his OBE. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Safer Than a Known Way, by Ian MacHorton
Wingate's Lost Brigade, by Philip Chinnery
Fighting Mad, by Mike Calvert
A Signal Honour, by Robin Painter
Major Dunlop also wrote down his experiences and that of his Chindit Column during Operation Longcloth in a report drafted immediately upon his return to Allied territory in 1943. This document is held at the British National Archives, under file reference CAB106/204:
discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C374143
After the war he served in Greece during the country's civil war of 1948, performing liaison duties within the Greek Army and is remembered from those days as "possessing the happy knack of being able to advise his colleagues, without appearing to instruct them."
Following his time in Greece he served in Berlin and Korea with the British Army. From 1962 to 1965 he commanded the Singapore Guard Regiment which was made up from local Malay soldiers, but was commanded by British Officers. Immediately after leaving the Army he ran an Outward Bound Centre in Scotland.
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to George Dunlop and his military career, including the original citation for the award of his OBE. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Obituary, Daily Telegraph December 2000
An officer who took on the armed gangs in Palestine and later joined a Chindit raid to deceive the Japanese in Burma; LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GEORGE DUNLOP, who has died aged 83, was awarded an MC when serving with the 1st Battalion, the Royal Scots in Palestine during the Arab rebellion.
On October 2nd 1938, the platoon Dunlop was commanding was on the way from Sarafand to Tulkarm, when it was fired on by a gang some 30 strong. Having arranged covering machine-gun fire, Dunlop led his men into the attack, inflicting at least three casualties. On November 9th, he and his platoon were in the vicinity of Irtah. When firing broke out from the houses on the village outskirts, Dunlop rushed forward and so placed his men that they were able to block exits from the village and to rout the attacking force.
During these operations, his citation stated: "Second Lieutenant Dunlop has shown bravery of the highest order." George Dickson Dunlop was born in Calcutta on April 6 1917. His father, an accountant, died when George was nine; his mother remarried and returned with her new husband and six children to her native Edinburgh, where George attended Edinburgh Academy and joined the OTC.
After Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Royal Scots (the Royal Regiment) in 1937 and posted to the 1st Battalion at Catterick. Within a year, he was serving in Palestine, where, in addition to winning his MC aged 21, he was twice mentioned in despatches. By the time war broke out in 1939, Dunlop was with the 2nd Battalion in Hong Kong, commanding a Bren gun carrier platoon. In 1941, now in command of C Company, 2nd Royal Scots, he was asked to volunteer for a dangerous secret mission outside Hong Kong, for which he might select nine men to go with him. Reckoning that the mission could be no more dangerous than staying in Hong Kong - a view subsequently borne out by the 2nd Battalion's experience when the Japanese did attack - he volunteered. Mission 204, as the operation was called, took place in Burma in late 1941 and was concerned with, among other things, long range reconnaissance and the destruction of selected targets.
While in Burma, Dunlop met Orde Wingate, of whose military tactics he was already a keen student having only just missed Wingate when they were both serving in Palestine. He joined the Chindits and was placed in command of No.1 Column in the first long range penetration raid. With No. 2 Column, Dunlop and his men formed the deception force whose purpose was to be visible to the Japanese, to pose a threat, and so to tie down enemy forces while other columns did damage elsewhere. These tactics worked well, but at a heavy price.
When the Japanese closed in, Dunlop's column lost its mule transport and radios, which were crucial for air supply. Dunlop himself had to swim the Chindwin River and as he did so blessed his time spent in earlier days at Drumsheugh Baths in Edinburgh. When Dunlop got out of Burma with the remnants of Nos. 1 and 2 Columns, he weighed just six stone and was suffering from a variety of tropical diseases. On recovery, he became an instructor at the Special Forces Training School in India in 1943, after which he returned to Britain and some well-earned leave.
Dunlop then went as an instructor to 166 OCTU on the Isle of Man, and after that as chief instructor to Mons OCTU on its formation. There followed a spell as a liaison officer with the Greek Army on special (anti-Communist) operations in the Civil War of 1948, in recognition of which he was awarded an MBE. After attending the Staff College, Camberley, he was GSO2 (Ops), HQ Northern Ireland, after which he rejoined 1 Royal Scots. Subsequent postings took him to Berlin, Scotland, Korea and Egypt and twice to Singapore.
From 1962 to 1965 he commanded the Singapore Guard Regiment, composed of Malay soldiers and mainly British officers, during the period of the Confrontation with Indonesia. Physically tough, and possessing a quick, unconventional mind, Dunlop was known to his men as Dan after the character Desperate Dan in the Beano. At the end of his second tour in Singapore he was awarded an OBE. He retired from the Army in 1967.
Dunlop was then warden of the Outward Bound Centre at Loch Eil for a year, before joining the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association to run their Scottish office. He travelled the length and breadth of Scotland encouraging fund-raising branches, and his knowledge of Scotland and its history delighted many of the guide dog owners who accompanied him. He finally retired in 1981.
Dunlop's wise counsel, attractive smile, lack of pomposity and impish sense of humour - as well the kindness and consideration he showed for others - endeared him to all. He was genuinely interested in what other people had to say, and resolutely modest about his own accomplishments. He was a first-class rifle and pistol shot, and during his Army days trained his battalion swimming team. He was also a skilful model-maker and sketcher in pencil and pen-and-ink. He kept up his regimental connections, seldom missing an annual reunion. He is survived by his wife Aline (nee Arthur), whom he married in 1944, and by their son and two daughters.
An officer who took on the armed gangs in Palestine and later joined a Chindit raid to deceive the Japanese in Burma; LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GEORGE DUNLOP, who has died aged 83, was awarded an MC when serving with the 1st Battalion, the Royal Scots in Palestine during the Arab rebellion.
On October 2nd 1938, the platoon Dunlop was commanding was on the way from Sarafand to Tulkarm, when it was fired on by a gang some 30 strong. Having arranged covering machine-gun fire, Dunlop led his men into the attack, inflicting at least three casualties. On November 9th, he and his platoon were in the vicinity of Irtah. When firing broke out from the houses on the village outskirts, Dunlop rushed forward and so placed his men that they were able to block exits from the village and to rout the attacking force.
During these operations, his citation stated: "Second Lieutenant Dunlop has shown bravery of the highest order." George Dickson Dunlop was born in Calcutta on April 6 1917. His father, an accountant, died when George was nine; his mother remarried and returned with her new husband and six children to her native Edinburgh, where George attended Edinburgh Academy and joined the OTC.
After Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Royal Scots (the Royal Regiment) in 1937 and posted to the 1st Battalion at Catterick. Within a year, he was serving in Palestine, where, in addition to winning his MC aged 21, he was twice mentioned in despatches. By the time war broke out in 1939, Dunlop was with the 2nd Battalion in Hong Kong, commanding a Bren gun carrier platoon. In 1941, now in command of C Company, 2nd Royal Scots, he was asked to volunteer for a dangerous secret mission outside Hong Kong, for which he might select nine men to go with him. Reckoning that the mission could be no more dangerous than staying in Hong Kong - a view subsequently borne out by the 2nd Battalion's experience when the Japanese did attack - he volunteered. Mission 204, as the operation was called, took place in Burma in late 1941 and was concerned with, among other things, long range reconnaissance and the destruction of selected targets.
While in Burma, Dunlop met Orde Wingate, of whose military tactics he was already a keen student having only just missed Wingate when they were both serving in Palestine. He joined the Chindits and was placed in command of No.1 Column in the first long range penetration raid. With No. 2 Column, Dunlop and his men formed the deception force whose purpose was to be visible to the Japanese, to pose a threat, and so to tie down enemy forces while other columns did damage elsewhere. These tactics worked well, but at a heavy price.
When the Japanese closed in, Dunlop's column lost its mule transport and radios, which were crucial for air supply. Dunlop himself had to swim the Chindwin River and as he did so blessed his time spent in earlier days at Drumsheugh Baths in Edinburgh. When Dunlop got out of Burma with the remnants of Nos. 1 and 2 Columns, he weighed just six stone and was suffering from a variety of tropical diseases. On recovery, he became an instructor at the Special Forces Training School in India in 1943, after which he returned to Britain and some well-earned leave.
Dunlop then went as an instructor to 166 OCTU on the Isle of Man, and after that as chief instructor to Mons OCTU on its formation. There followed a spell as a liaison officer with the Greek Army on special (anti-Communist) operations in the Civil War of 1948, in recognition of which he was awarded an MBE. After attending the Staff College, Camberley, he was GSO2 (Ops), HQ Northern Ireland, after which he rejoined 1 Royal Scots. Subsequent postings took him to Berlin, Scotland, Korea and Egypt and twice to Singapore.
From 1962 to 1965 he commanded the Singapore Guard Regiment, composed of Malay soldiers and mainly British officers, during the period of the Confrontation with Indonesia. Physically tough, and possessing a quick, unconventional mind, Dunlop was known to his men as Dan after the character Desperate Dan in the Beano. At the end of his second tour in Singapore he was awarded an OBE. He retired from the Army in 1967.
Dunlop was then warden of the Outward Bound Centre at Loch Eil for a year, before joining the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association to run their Scottish office. He travelled the length and breadth of Scotland encouraging fund-raising branches, and his knowledge of Scotland and its history delighted many of the guide dog owners who accompanied him. He finally retired in 1981.
Dunlop's wise counsel, attractive smile, lack of pomposity and impish sense of humour - as well the kindness and consideration he showed for others - endeared him to all. He was genuinely interested in what other people had to say, and resolutely modest about his own accomplishments. He was a first-class rifle and pistol shot, and during his Army days trained his battalion swimming team. He was also a skilful model-maker and sketcher in pencil and pen-and-ink. He kept up his regimental connections, seldom missing an annual reunion. He is survived by his wife Aline (nee Arthur), whom he married in 1944, and by their son and two daughters.
Major Dunlop's appreciation of his column on the up take of his command in October 1942.
In February 2016, I was delighted to receive an email from George Dunlop's son, Peter:
My father was Major George Dunlop MC. As you already know No.1 Column penetrated the furthest eastwards in 1943 and my father was one of the last Chindits to get out of Burma that year. I was interested to read the extract from his debriefing which mentions an argument with Wingate back in India. In my recollection he was sometimes critical but generally supportive of Wingate's ideas, in fact he applied to join Wingate in Palestine during 1937/38, but his application was refused by the commander of 1st Royal Scots.
He was a member of the old comrades association until he died in 2000, but because we lived in Scotland he was at some distance from most other members. He kept in touch with fellow Scot Bernard Ferguson and also with Mike Calvert who sometimes came to stay with us. He left a fair amount of paperwork about his army career, but so far I have concentrated on his very complete writings about his time during the Greek civil war in 1948. His posting to Greece was clearly as a result of his earlier guerrilla war experience.
I will have to get hold of a full copy of his Longcloth debrief. He like may others, spoke little of his wartime experiences, except when others who had served in Burma were around, but he did occasionally mention that during his way out from Burma he had drawn his pistol and threatened to shoot some of his men who wanted to give up, having picked up Japanese leaflets that sought to persuade Chindits to surrender. After Longcloth, my father was summoned to Delhi to meet with Wingate, but was sent immediately back to hospital and did not take up active service again for many months.
My father was always considered by his colleagues to be a first class regimental officer, he passed Staff College, but sadly was twice passed over for command of his own regiment because of successive amalgamations and the reordering of seniority by 21st birthday in place of date of commission. He had no time for desk wallahs and thus failed to make friends among those who did not know him well.
Steve, if you have anything you can send me about my father I would be very pleased to receive it. Best regards, Peter Dunlop.
To conclude this appreciation of George Dunlop and his time as a Chindit commander, written below are some of his own thoughts on the command structure during Operation Longcloth and his reflections about how the expedition was assessed back in India, especially in relation to the Gurkha columns:
The great mistake was to have commanders who could not speak directly and properly to their men. Quite apart from misunderstanding itself, there was far too great a strain placed on the commander. In Gurkha columns there were men of four different races and language. To get these to work as a unit in times of great hardship was difficult in the extreme. I have to confess that it wore me right down.
The Commander must be fit and as strong as the best of his men, as far more is asked of him than of anyone else. Acting on our own as we were in Burma, every single thing, right down to the last grain of rice, had to be arranged through him. He decided everything and took all the blame if it went wrong. No doubt that this is how it should be; but it is hard nevertheless.
There was so little written about the Gurkha decoy section (Southern Group) and No. 1 Column in 1943. I have often thought that my report, written after a request from General Scoones was repressed to allow the propaganda myth that the operation had been a success to persist and prevail. To be honest, after fifty years have passed by, I do not think too much about that time in my military career. Remembering the deaths and suffering of so many friends and comrades gives me no pleasure, so I have left it to others to tell the tale.
The great mistake was to have commanders who could not speak directly and properly to their men. Quite apart from misunderstanding itself, there was far too great a strain placed on the commander. In Gurkha columns there were men of four different races and language. To get these to work as a unit in times of great hardship was difficult in the extreme. I have to confess that it wore me right down.
The Commander must be fit and as strong as the best of his men, as far more is asked of him than of anyone else. Acting on our own as we were in Burma, every single thing, right down to the last grain of rice, had to be arranged through him. He decided everything and took all the blame if it went wrong. No doubt that this is how it should be; but it is hard nevertheless.
There was so little written about the Gurkha decoy section (Southern Group) and No. 1 Column in 1943. I have often thought that my report, written after a request from General Scoones was repressed to allow the propaganda myth that the operation had been a success to persist and prevail. To be honest, after fifty years have passed by, I do not think too much about that time in my military career. Remembering the deaths and suffering of so many friends and comrades gives me no pleasure, so I have left it to others to tell the tale.
Major Arthur Alfred John Emmett.
Major Arthur Alfred John Emmett
Very little has ever been written about Arthur Emmett and his experiences during the first Wingate expedition in 1943. Major Emmett was the commander of No. 2 Column on Operation Longcloth having been commissioned into the Indian Army in July 1941 and posted to the newly formed 3rd Battalion of the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles.
In August 2017, I was extremely fortunate to receive an email from Alex McMurray, the nephew of Major Emmett, who in turn put me in contact with Arthur Emmett's son, Andrew. It was from these communications, which included a visit to Andrew's home in December 2017, that the following information was put together.
Major Arthur Alfred John Emmett
Major Arthur Emmett, who had been a tea planter in North Bengal before the war, I found to be a kindly man with a quiet smile that instantly put one at ease.[1]
Arthur Emmett was born on the 17th January 1915 in Silchar, Bengal and baptised on the 10th March the same year by the local Chaplain, William Erskine McFarlane.[2] His father, Charles Emmett’s occupation recorded on Baptism certificate as Inspector of Police (Assam).
In October 1926, the family returned to England for a short family visit, arriving at Plymouth aboard the Passenger Ship, Malda. [3] The address given for their stay in England was, (c/o Mrs. Woolston) 42 Hoxton Road, Ellacombe, Torquay in Devon. Those listed aboard were:
Charles Emmett
Louisa Annie
George Malcolm
Arthur Alfred
Richard Norman
Joyce
Arthur Emmett (27) married Cynthia Dorothy Davies (17) at Bombay in 1942.[4] He then began his work in the Tea Plantation industry.
Major Emmett’s son, Andrew, recalled:
One of my few memories from those times are the vehicles used on my father’s plantation; the Willys Army surplus jeep and the Flat Front Bedford, or it could have been a Chevrolet. I also remember that my father was a very keen sportsman, playing hockey, football, tennis and of course most of all cricket.
Arthur Emmett was commissioned into the Indian Army as a 2nd Lieutenant on the 19th July 1941. His Army number was EC (Emergency Commission) 3216. He was posted to the 3/2 Gurkha Rifles and was promoted to War Substantive Lieutenant on the 4th September 1942. As with all officers serving in the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade (Chindits), Arthur was immediately promoted one position to Temporary Captain during the training program at Saugor.
Arthur Emmett commanded No. 2 Column with the rank of Major and led this unit into Burma in 1943, crossing the Chindwin River on the 15/16th February close to the village of Auktaung. Arthur was the only Gurkha commander to retain leadership of his column after the Chindits had entered Burma and had been well-known for his understanding of the Gurkha soldier and generally what made these soldiers tick.
Annotation explanations:
[1] Quote taken from Safer Than a Known Way (page 64), by Ian MacHorton.
[2] Baptism certificate, British India Office.
[3] Incoming Passenger lists, Ancestry.com
[4] Andrew Emmett remembers his parent’s marriage year as 1944.
The other Gurkha columns had been given British commanders almost at the very last minute; this decision by Wingate proved in hindsight to be an error. From the memoirs of Major George Dickson Dunlop, commander of No. 1 Column on Operation Longcloth:
3/2 Gurkhas lacked consistent leadership at Column level, it was a grave mistake to replace or supersede their original commanders with British Officers who could not speak Gurkhali. A Gurkha Rifleman changes his loyalty slowly, if at all.
No. 2 Column formed one half of Southern Group on Operation Longcloth. They were used by Wingate as a decoy on the expedition, the intention being for Southern Group to draw attention away from the main Chindit columns of Northern Group whilst they crossed the Chindwin River and moved quickly east toward their targets along the Mandalay-Myitkhina railway. 2 Column’s orders were to march toward their own prime target, the rail station at Kyaikthin. They marched openly along well-known local trails and paths and also received a large supply drop from the air, which must have announced their presence in the area to the Japanese.
The decoy group were accompanied at this time by a Company of Sikh Mountain Artillery and a section of Seaforth Highlanders. These supplementary units were to create a further diversion for Wingate by attacking the town of Pantha, alerting the enemy to the possibility that there might well be a full-scale re-invasion taking place. To all intents and purposes these tactics succeeded and Northern Group did proceed unmolested toward their objectives.
Very little has ever been written about Arthur Emmett and his experiences during the first Wingate expedition in 1943. Major Emmett was the commander of No. 2 Column on Operation Longcloth having been commissioned into the Indian Army in July 1941 and posted to the newly formed 3rd Battalion of the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles.
In August 2017, I was extremely fortunate to receive an email from Alex McMurray, the nephew of Major Emmett, who in turn put me in contact with Arthur Emmett's son, Andrew. It was from these communications, which included a visit to Andrew's home in December 2017, that the following information was put together.
Major Arthur Alfred John Emmett
Major Arthur Emmett, who had been a tea planter in North Bengal before the war, I found to be a kindly man with a quiet smile that instantly put one at ease.[1]
Arthur Emmett was born on the 17th January 1915 in Silchar, Bengal and baptised on the 10th March the same year by the local Chaplain, William Erskine McFarlane.[2] His father, Charles Emmett’s occupation recorded on Baptism certificate as Inspector of Police (Assam).
In October 1926, the family returned to England for a short family visit, arriving at Plymouth aboard the Passenger Ship, Malda. [3] The address given for their stay in England was, (c/o Mrs. Woolston) 42 Hoxton Road, Ellacombe, Torquay in Devon. Those listed aboard were:
Charles Emmett
Louisa Annie
George Malcolm
Arthur Alfred
Richard Norman
Joyce
Arthur Emmett (27) married Cynthia Dorothy Davies (17) at Bombay in 1942.[4] He then began his work in the Tea Plantation industry.
Major Emmett’s son, Andrew, recalled:
One of my few memories from those times are the vehicles used on my father’s plantation; the Willys Army surplus jeep and the Flat Front Bedford, or it could have been a Chevrolet. I also remember that my father was a very keen sportsman, playing hockey, football, tennis and of course most of all cricket.
Arthur Emmett was commissioned into the Indian Army as a 2nd Lieutenant on the 19th July 1941. His Army number was EC (Emergency Commission) 3216. He was posted to the 3/2 Gurkha Rifles and was promoted to War Substantive Lieutenant on the 4th September 1942. As with all officers serving in the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade (Chindits), Arthur was immediately promoted one position to Temporary Captain during the training program at Saugor.
Arthur Emmett commanded No. 2 Column with the rank of Major and led this unit into Burma in 1943, crossing the Chindwin River on the 15/16th February close to the village of Auktaung. Arthur was the only Gurkha commander to retain leadership of his column after the Chindits had entered Burma and had been well-known for his understanding of the Gurkha soldier and generally what made these soldiers tick.
Annotation explanations:
[1] Quote taken from Safer Than a Known Way (page 64), by Ian MacHorton.
[2] Baptism certificate, British India Office.
[3] Incoming Passenger lists, Ancestry.com
[4] Andrew Emmett remembers his parent’s marriage year as 1944.
The other Gurkha columns had been given British commanders almost at the very last minute; this decision by Wingate proved in hindsight to be an error. From the memoirs of Major George Dickson Dunlop, commander of No. 1 Column on Operation Longcloth:
3/2 Gurkhas lacked consistent leadership at Column level, it was a grave mistake to replace or supersede their original commanders with British Officers who could not speak Gurkhali. A Gurkha Rifleman changes his loyalty slowly, if at all.
No. 2 Column formed one half of Southern Group on Operation Longcloth. They were used by Wingate as a decoy on the expedition, the intention being for Southern Group to draw attention away from the main Chindit columns of Northern Group whilst they crossed the Chindwin River and moved quickly east toward their targets along the Mandalay-Myitkhina railway. 2 Column’s orders were to march toward their own prime target, the rail station at Kyaikthin. They marched openly along well-known local trails and paths and also received a large supply drop from the air, which must have announced their presence in the area to the Japanese.
The decoy group were accompanied at this time by a Company of Sikh Mountain Artillery and a section of Seaforth Highlanders. These supplementary units were to create a further diversion for Wingate by attacking the town of Pantha, alerting the enemy to the possibility that there might well be a full-scale re-invasion taking place. To all intents and purposes these tactics succeeded and Northern Group did proceed unmolested toward their objectives.
The Chindwin River around the village of Auktaung.
On the 2nd March, Columns 1 and 2 had reached the outskirts of Kyaikthin, Major Dunlop was given the order to blow up the railway bridge, whilst Arthur Emmett and 2 Column along with Group HQ were to head on towards the rail station itself. What neither group realised was that the Japanese had by now closed in on the unsuspecting Chindits and lay in wait just a short way up the tracks. To make matters worse the two Gurkha columns had also now lost radio contact. No. 2 Column and Group Head Quarters in the black of night stumbled into an enemy ambush, which straddled both sides of the railway line embankment. Here is how Lieutenant Ian MacHorton, and officer with No. 2 Column recalls that moment:
We shuffled to a halt as the guides probed forward. There came the sound of just one bang up front, then an inferno of noise engulfed the world around me. There came the high-pitched staccato scream of a machine gun, then overwhelmingly many others joined in, the crash and ping of rifle bullets, the banging of grenades as the battle reached a fearful crescendo. Men and mules were lying, twisted and contorted, twitching and writhing, others were still erect, stark in the moonlight, heaving and jerking in the midst of this chaos. Then a sinister scuffling noise made by men of all kinds in close combat. The close combat of bayonet and kukri, the fanatical, personal slaughter with blood-dripping cold steel.
In the aftermath of the ambush, Major Emmett decided to lead his men back to India. He ordered the dispersal call to inform the survivors to turn west and march once again for the Chindwin River. After the operation was over, Arthur Emmett was heavily criticised for making this decision and going against the pre-arranged plan to push further east towards the Irrawaddy.
From Wingate’s own debrief document for Operation Longcloth[5]:
On the 2nd March, the Commander of Southern Group (Alexander), who was marching with No. 2 Column, decided to use the branch line running due west from Kyaikthin as the quickest and easiest means of approaching the main railway line. Failing to realise how quickly the Japanese would learn of this movement down the railway line, Alexander marched in broad daylight from the sixth milestone to within three miles of Kyaikthin, where they bivouacked just 200 yards from the railway.
The Japanese brought up and infantry company and ambushed the column as it started to file out at 21.30 hours to attack the railway. A good deal of confusion ensued during the night.
Towards the end of the fight, the Column Commander (Emmett) erred in changing his operational rendezvous to the rear, an order that reached very few of his men. The parties that went forward to the original rendezvous found no Column Commander and so continued on to the Irrawaddy. The majority of 2 Column straggled back to the Chindwin River.
[5] CAB106/46, file held at the National Archives, London.
We shuffled to a halt as the guides probed forward. There came the sound of just one bang up front, then an inferno of noise engulfed the world around me. There came the high-pitched staccato scream of a machine gun, then overwhelmingly many others joined in, the crash and ping of rifle bullets, the banging of grenades as the battle reached a fearful crescendo. Men and mules were lying, twisted and contorted, twitching and writhing, others were still erect, stark in the moonlight, heaving and jerking in the midst of this chaos. Then a sinister scuffling noise made by men of all kinds in close combat. The close combat of bayonet and kukri, the fanatical, personal slaughter with blood-dripping cold steel.
In the aftermath of the ambush, Major Emmett decided to lead his men back to India. He ordered the dispersal call to inform the survivors to turn west and march once again for the Chindwin River. After the operation was over, Arthur Emmett was heavily criticised for making this decision and going against the pre-arranged plan to push further east towards the Irrawaddy.
From Wingate’s own debrief document for Operation Longcloth[5]:
On the 2nd March, the Commander of Southern Group (Alexander), who was marching with No. 2 Column, decided to use the branch line running due west from Kyaikthin as the quickest and easiest means of approaching the main railway line. Failing to realise how quickly the Japanese would learn of this movement down the railway line, Alexander marched in broad daylight from the sixth milestone to within three miles of Kyaikthin, where they bivouacked just 200 yards from the railway.
The Japanese brought up and infantry company and ambushed the column as it started to file out at 21.30 hours to attack the railway. A good deal of confusion ensued during the night.
Towards the end of the fight, the Column Commander (Emmett) erred in changing his operational rendezvous to the rear, an order that reached very few of his men. The parties that went forward to the original rendezvous found no Column Commander and so continued on to the Irrawaddy. The majority of 2 Column straggled back to the Chindwin River.
[5] CAB106/46, file held at the National Archives, London.
Map of the area around Kyaikthin on the Mandalay-Myitkhina Railway.
Brigadier Wingate was clearly unhappy with the performance of Southern Group and in particularly Major Emmett on Operation Longcloth. However, it does seem rather strange to criticise the open manner in which No. 2 Column marched along the railway line towards Kyaikthin. After all, it was Southern Group’s brief to be the decoy and to move through the jungle pathways overtly in order to attract the attention of the Japanese.
In my email conversations with Major Emmett’s son, Andrew, he remarked:
My father was always up for the fight, certainly when it came to his staff and workers. A good example of this was when the local Gurkha League were surrounding other plantations in the late sixties and threatening their managers with violence. His workers worked through the whole strike and even blocked the road to Selimbong to stop the ring leaders getting on to the premises to stir up trouble.
The history of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles[6], as you might imagine, tells the story somewhat differently:
Lt-Colonel Alexander entrusted 2 Column with the task of destroying Kyaikthin railway station. The period of concealment was over and the column moved boldly and openly for the purpose of attracting enemy forces. On the nights 28th February/1st March, 2 Column bivouacked near the village of Yindaik. Two nights later, Major Emmett and his men, learning from his Burma Riflemen that there were no Japanese in the neighbourhood, formed up and marched down the railway line.
The advance was no more underway when fire opened up from both flanks. The Chindits had walked into an enemy ambush. Major Emmett ordered his men to burst through the blocking force, but this proved impossible. For upwards of two hours the fighting continued, as small groups clashed in the darkness while endeavouring to work past each other’s flanks.
Several salvos of mortars lit among 2 Column’s mules and the customary stampede ensued. The enemy began to gain the upper hand; disengagement grew difficult and the second dispersal call was sounded. The action marked the end of 2 Column and it never reassembled. On disengagement, Major Emmett found himself in command of around half his column. He was without reserves of ammunition, without signal equipment or medical stores. With no means of contacting Brigade, or calling for replenishment from the air, he felt his mission to be imperilled and that to march to the east would result in unnecessary losses. Harassed by the enemy, he withdrew across the plains following the trail and re-crossed the Chindwin.
Post Longcloth, Major Emmett took command of the returning soldiers of the 3/2 Gurkha Rifles. The battalion had lost over 400 men in Burma, with another 70-80 now held in Japanese hands as prisoners of war. Later in the year (1943), Brigadier Reginald Hutton took over the leadership of the battalion as it prepared to join the 25th Indian Division, as this unit readied for service in the Arakan. I am not certain whether Arthur Emmett remained with the battalion at this stage, or whether he fought in the Arakan.
Arthur Emmett relinquished his commission on the 30th November 1946, leaving the Army with the rank of Honorary Major.[7] Presumably, he returned to his work as a tea planter.
Andrew Emmett remembered:
After the war, my father was back running Ambootia, (pronounced Amboo-ti-a). He was the manager of this Tea Garden, which was said to be one of the oldest in Darjeeling. In fact it was one of the first three gardens set up in 1857 by the East India Company and was one of the first tea gardens that you came upon as you climbed the foothills of the Himalayas from the plains.
[6] History of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles (Sirmoor Rifles). Gurkha Museum, Winchester.
[7] London Gazette 02/01/1948.
Arthur and his family visited England in March 1947, this time aboard the SS Sarpedon and disembarking at Liverpool. Once again the address given was in Torquay, on this occasion, Pinewood in Audley Avenue. Together with Arthur and his wife Cynthia was their young son Andrew, aged just two years. After their stay in England, they returned to India in August aboard the P&O Liner, Strathmore.
The family visited England again in May 1951, once more aboard the Strathmore, but this time travelling with their two children, Andrew and his young sister Alexandra Joanna. The address given for their stay in England was (c/o Mr. P.A. Davies) 4 Dovedale House, Bethune Road, London N.16.
Andrew Emmett recalls:
I remember my sister Sandra’s birth in the Planter’s Hospital, which was attached to the Planter’s Club, Darjeeling on 18th September 1948. I remained with my grandmother and Aunt Joyce after the trip to England in 1951 and on his return to India, my father relocated to another tea plantation called Selimbong, which was situated further up the valley.
In April 1955, they made a final trip to England aboard the Passenger Ship, Himalaya. On this occasion only Alexandra travelled with her parents to 30 Audley Avenue in Torquay.
Andrew remembers:
The next time that I was to see my parents for any length of time, was in 1959, when I was on the long summer school holiday from Gordonstoun School. It was not long after this, in March 1960 that I stayed with Bernard Fergusson at his home in Ayrshire.
Arthur Emmett retired from his role as a Tea Planter in 1961 and returned to the United Kingdom, where he bought a nursery/market garden at a place called Kingskerswell located about three miles inland from Torquay. However, things did not work out for the family back in England and in 1964 Major Emmett returned to his former career in tea planting, this time taking up a plantation in Mozambique. Sadly, Arthur Emmett died shortly after his move to southeast Africa, from a brain haemorrhage suffered at the Bulawayo Rail Station in South Rhodesia.
Arthur Emmett and his wife, Cynthia on their wedding day.
In September 2016, I was delighted to receive the following email from Nick Wotherspoon:
I met Major Emmett through his friendship with my parents. I was a small boy when I first met him and was fascinated by his tales from his days as a Chindit. I remember how he had to be careful what he ate because of the continuing effects of dysentery. I think he showed me bullet wound marks on his leg once - small children could ask if someone had been shot, whereas adults would not! I was probably too young at the time to appreciate what these brave men went through during their wartime exploits and was thrilled to find your site and be able to read more about these men who should never be forgotten. Major Emmett was a soldier through and through.
During my conversation with Andrew Emmett on the 15th December 2017, he told me:
I was very grateful for the narrative you wrote about my father. I felt that yours was a sympathetic account of his time with the Gurkhas in Burma and made it quite possible to understand why he took the decision to return to the Chindwin River, with what men were left available to him. My father was always up for the fight, certainly when it came to his staff and workers in Assam.
He was a keen sportsman, playing hockey, football, tennis and of course cricket. It is quite possible that if things had turned out differently, he would also have played cricket at county level, as his brother George achieved with Gloucestershire CC, even playing for England at one stage. During my long school holidays in Scotland, I remember staying for a time with Bernard Fergusson, probably in 1960 and also with Doctor McCrae, who I believe was attached to one of the Wingate columns in 1943.
Dad was a generous and gentle man; I have come to the conclusion that he probably felt some blame was attached to himself for the mistakes on Operation Longcloth. The experience of the expedition itself must have been pretty dreadful and I do remember my Mum calming him down at times, after he had a nightmare, which seemed to be quite regularly.
Steve, thank you for all the effort you have expended in researching my father; my wife and I are thinking of visiting the Gurkha Museum at Winchester, to see if they have any more information about his service. Please do give me a call if you ever find out more about my father, Arthur Emmett.
I met Major Emmett through his friendship with my parents. I was a small boy when I first met him and was fascinated by his tales from his days as a Chindit. I remember how he had to be careful what he ate because of the continuing effects of dysentery. I think he showed me bullet wound marks on his leg once - small children could ask if someone had been shot, whereas adults would not! I was probably too young at the time to appreciate what these brave men went through during their wartime exploits and was thrilled to find your site and be able to read more about these men who should never be forgotten. Major Emmett was a soldier through and through.
During my conversation with Andrew Emmett on the 15th December 2017, he told me:
I was very grateful for the narrative you wrote about my father. I felt that yours was a sympathetic account of his time with the Gurkhas in Burma and made it quite possible to understand why he took the decision to return to the Chindwin River, with what men were left available to him. My father was always up for the fight, certainly when it came to his staff and workers in Assam.
He was a keen sportsman, playing hockey, football, tennis and of course cricket. It is quite possible that if things had turned out differently, he would also have played cricket at county level, as his brother George achieved with Gloucestershire CC, even playing for England at one stage. During my long school holidays in Scotland, I remember staying for a time with Bernard Fergusson, probably in 1960 and also with Doctor McCrae, who I believe was attached to one of the Wingate columns in 1943.
Dad was a generous and gentle man; I have come to the conclusion that he probably felt some blame was attached to himself for the mistakes on Operation Longcloth. The experience of the expedition itself must have been pretty dreadful and I do remember my Mum calming him down at times, after he had a nightmare, which seemed to be quite regularly.
Steve, thank you for all the effort you have expended in researching my father; my wife and I are thinking of visiting the Gurkha Museum at Winchester, to see if they have any more information about his service. Please do give me a call if you ever find out more about my father, Arthur Emmett.
Mad Mike Calvert.
Major James Michael Calvert
When I was about twelve years old, I bet a school friend half a crown that I would become a general before he did. Eighteen years later in 1943, I was promoted to Brigadier at the age of thirty and won the bet. I felt pleased at the time but, looking back, I know that I did not really deserve to win, for I am more of a rebel than a general at heart.
Michael Calvert is one of the legendary figures from WW2. He hit the headlines as Mad Mike after the first Chindit campaign in 1943, with a reputation as a tough and daring leader of guerrilla troops. His speciality was penetrating behind enemy lines; his success was due to a resourceful mind and the fact that men would follow him wherever he led them.
He had fought in the snow and ice of Norway, in the steaming jungles of Burma, and on the battlefields of Europe, where in 1945 he commanded the crack Special Air Service Brigade. He was one of the first men selected for the Chindits by General Orde Wingate. He became Wingate's right-hand-man, both in the fierce jungle fighting of 1943 and 1944 and against the stick-in-the-mud Staff Officers back at India Command. (Quote from the book, Fighting Mad).
James Michael Calvert was born in India on the 6th March 1913 and was the son of a member of the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Bradfield College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, from where he was commissioned as a Subaltern into the Royal Engineers in 1933.
After a year studying Mechanical Engineering at St. John's College, Cambridge, he returned to active service and was posted to Hong Kong, where amongst other things he learned to speak Cantonese. During his time in the Far East, Calvert witnessed Japanese aggression first hand in Shanghai and then again during the Japanese Army's attack on Nanking.
At the outbreak of WW2 he commanded a detachment of Royal Engineers in Norway, in an attempt to delay the German Army's advance in that region. By 1941, he had returned to Hong Kong, before moving across to Australia to train commandos in the techniques of demolitions, booby-traps and hand to hand combat. He was then appointed commander of the Bush Warfare School in Burma, training officers and NCO's to lead guerrilla bands in China on operations against the Japanese. It was at the Bush Warfare School, based at Maymyo in Northern Burma, that Calvert first met with Orde Wingate.
To read more about his military career and exploits, please click on the following link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Calvert
Major Mike Calvert was chosen to be the commander of No. 3 Column on Operation Longcloth, replacing the original Gurkha commander, Captain George Silcock, towards the end of the Chindit training period in late 1942. As was always the case, he led his men from the front with great courage and daring and was perhaps the greatest advocate of the well known Chindit phrase, that the boldest measures are often the safest.
For his efforts during the first Wingate expedition, Mike Calvert was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). His citation reads:
Brigade-77th Indian Infantry
Unit-Royal Engineers
Column Commander,
77th Indian Infantry Brigade.
Rank and Name:
Captain (Temporary Major) James Michael Calvert
Action for which recommended :-
OPERATIONS IN BURMA - MARCH 1943
Under the leadership of Major Calvert, No. 3 Column carried out a series of highly successful attacks on the Shwebo-Myitkhina Railway on 6th March 1943. In the course of these attacks the railway line was blown in 75 separate places, a number bridges were destroyed and quantities of mines sown. The operation was not carried out without interference from the enemy and Major Calvert was interrupted in his work of destruction by a strong force of enemy from Nankan Station. This force he engaged with determination, compelling it to withdraw leaving fourteen dead on the field. He then returned and completed the destruction of the railway.
Throughout this operation and the approach march to the railway, Major Calvert was isolated from all assistance; the surprise he achieved and, in particular, the great thoroughness and skill with which the operation was carried out were due to his personal qualities of leadership and supervision. The destruction of the railway was carried out after a march through enemy occupied territory of over 200 miles, occupying sixteen days. Had the column not been handled with great skill, and faithful observance of the principles of long range penetration taught, it would never have reached the railway unopposed.
Recommended By-Brigadier O.C. Wingate, DSO.
Honour or Reward-Distinguished Service Order (Immediate)
London Gazette 06.08.1943.
When I was about twelve years old, I bet a school friend half a crown that I would become a general before he did. Eighteen years later in 1943, I was promoted to Brigadier at the age of thirty and won the bet. I felt pleased at the time but, looking back, I know that I did not really deserve to win, for I am more of a rebel than a general at heart.
Michael Calvert is one of the legendary figures from WW2. He hit the headlines as Mad Mike after the first Chindit campaign in 1943, with a reputation as a tough and daring leader of guerrilla troops. His speciality was penetrating behind enemy lines; his success was due to a resourceful mind and the fact that men would follow him wherever he led them.
He had fought in the snow and ice of Norway, in the steaming jungles of Burma, and on the battlefields of Europe, where in 1945 he commanded the crack Special Air Service Brigade. He was one of the first men selected for the Chindits by General Orde Wingate. He became Wingate's right-hand-man, both in the fierce jungle fighting of 1943 and 1944 and against the stick-in-the-mud Staff Officers back at India Command. (Quote from the book, Fighting Mad).
James Michael Calvert was born in India on the 6th March 1913 and was the son of a member of the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Bradfield College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, from where he was commissioned as a Subaltern into the Royal Engineers in 1933.
After a year studying Mechanical Engineering at St. John's College, Cambridge, he returned to active service and was posted to Hong Kong, where amongst other things he learned to speak Cantonese. During his time in the Far East, Calvert witnessed Japanese aggression first hand in Shanghai and then again during the Japanese Army's attack on Nanking.
At the outbreak of WW2 he commanded a detachment of Royal Engineers in Norway, in an attempt to delay the German Army's advance in that region. By 1941, he had returned to Hong Kong, before moving across to Australia to train commandos in the techniques of demolitions, booby-traps and hand to hand combat. He was then appointed commander of the Bush Warfare School in Burma, training officers and NCO's to lead guerrilla bands in China on operations against the Japanese. It was at the Bush Warfare School, based at Maymyo in Northern Burma, that Calvert first met with Orde Wingate.
To read more about his military career and exploits, please click on the following link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Calvert
Major Mike Calvert was chosen to be the commander of No. 3 Column on Operation Longcloth, replacing the original Gurkha commander, Captain George Silcock, towards the end of the Chindit training period in late 1942. As was always the case, he led his men from the front with great courage and daring and was perhaps the greatest advocate of the well known Chindit phrase, that the boldest measures are often the safest.
For his efforts during the first Wingate expedition, Mike Calvert was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). His citation reads:
Brigade-77th Indian Infantry
Unit-Royal Engineers
Column Commander,
77th Indian Infantry Brigade.
Rank and Name:
Captain (Temporary Major) James Michael Calvert
Action for which recommended :-
OPERATIONS IN BURMA - MARCH 1943
Under the leadership of Major Calvert, No. 3 Column carried out a series of highly successful attacks on the Shwebo-Myitkhina Railway on 6th March 1943. In the course of these attacks the railway line was blown in 75 separate places, a number bridges were destroyed and quantities of mines sown. The operation was not carried out without interference from the enemy and Major Calvert was interrupted in his work of destruction by a strong force of enemy from Nankan Station. This force he engaged with determination, compelling it to withdraw leaving fourteen dead on the field. He then returned and completed the destruction of the railway.
Throughout this operation and the approach march to the railway, Major Calvert was isolated from all assistance; the surprise he achieved and, in particular, the great thoroughness and skill with which the operation was carried out were due to his personal qualities of leadership and supervision. The destruction of the railway was carried out after a march through enemy occupied territory of over 200 miles, occupying sixteen days. Had the column not been handled with great skill, and faithful observance of the principles of long range penetration taught, it would never have reached the railway unopposed.
Recommended By-Brigadier O.C. Wingate, DSO.
Honour or Reward-Distinguished Service Order (Immediate)
London Gazette 06.08.1943.
The medal award entitlement for Mike Calvert.
In March 1944, the second Chindit expedition, Operation Thursday began, with Calvert, now a Brigadier in charge of the newly reformed 77th Brigade. For his supreme exploits during the second Wingate campaign, he was awarded a bar to his DSO and the Silver Star Medal for gallantry from the Chindits American allies, led by General Stilwell.
Over his entire military career, Calvert was awarded or was entitled through his Army service to fourteen medals. These are shown above in order of wear and include:
The Distinguished Service Order (G.VI.R.) and bar, the 1939-45 Star; the Burma Star; the France and Germany Star; the Defence and War Medals; the General Service 1918-62, single clasp, Malaya, (G.VI.R.); the United States Silver Star; the French, Legion d’Honneur with rosette on riband; the Belgian, Order of Leopold II, with rosette on riband; the French, Croix de Guerre 1939-40 with palm; the Belgian, Croix de Guerre with palm; and the Norwegian, King Haakon’s Liberty Cross.
Mike Calvert's full size medal entitlement was sold at auction (Spinks) in July 1997, where his fourteen awards fetched an impressive £18,000. Later, in March 2009, his miniature group depicting the same entitlement was sold at auction (Dix Noonan Webb) for £1800.
It is rather obvious to say that Mike Calvert features many times in the numerous books and memoirs written about the Chindits. He did of course write several books himself, including:
Prisoner's of Hope in 1952
Chindits-Long Range Penetration in 1973
Fighting Mad, first published in 1964.
Perhaps the most valuable and exciting resource in relation to Mike Calvert and his military career, comes in the form of his Imperial War Museum audio memoir recorded in October 1987. The audio covers his entire Army career and comes in the form of twenty-one, thirty minute excerpts. To listen to this audio on line, please click on the following link: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009725
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to Mike Calvert and his life as a Chindit and beyond, please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Over his entire military career, Calvert was awarded or was entitled through his Army service to fourteen medals. These are shown above in order of wear and include:
The Distinguished Service Order (G.VI.R.) and bar, the 1939-45 Star; the Burma Star; the France and Germany Star; the Defence and War Medals; the General Service 1918-62, single clasp, Malaya, (G.VI.R.); the United States Silver Star; the French, Legion d’Honneur with rosette on riband; the Belgian, Order of Leopold II, with rosette on riband; the French, Croix de Guerre 1939-40 with palm; the Belgian, Croix de Guerre with palm; and the Norwegian, King Haakon’s Liberty Cross.
Mike Calvert's full size medal entitlement was sold at auction (Spinks) in July 1997, where his fourteen awards fetched an impressive £18,000. Later, in March 2009, his miniature group depicting the same entitlement was sold at auction (Dix Noonan Webb) for £1800.
It is rather obvious to say that Mike Calvert features many times in the numerous books and memoirs written about the Chindits. He did of course write several books himself, including:
Prisoner's of Hope in 1952
Chindits-Long Range Penetration in 1973
Fighting Mad, first published in 1964.
Perhaps the most valuable and exciting resource in relation to Mike Calvert and his military career, comes in the form of his Imperial War Museum audio memoir recorded in October 1987. The audio covers his entire Army career and comes in the form of twenty-one, thirty minute excerpts. To listen to this audio on line, please click on the following link: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009725
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to Mike Calvert and his life as a Chindit and beyond, please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Obituary, The Independent Newspaper, 2nd December 1998
Michael Calvert, who survived both the Chindit expeditions into Burma, was one of the outstanding leaders of irregular troops during the Second World War. He was the youngest son of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service, who rose to be acting governor of the Punjab; his mother was Irish. He was himself born in the Raj, near Delhi; went to school at Bradfield; and followed his brothers into The Shop, the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Though he cared little for smartness he passed out seventh and was commissioned a second lieutenant Royal Engineers in 1933. He then spent a year at Cambridge reading Mechanical Sciences at St John's and securing a swimming Blue. He was also a boxer, later the Army's middleweight champion.
His first Army posting was to Hong Kong where he raised a force of coolies. He was then moved on to Shanghai in time to witness its conquest by the Japanese in 1937: an early lesson in the horrors of war. He reported in detail on the infantry landing craft, with hinged front panels, which he saw the Japanese using; his report lay forgotten in a pigeon-hole in the War Office. The outbreak of war saw him Adjutant of a London RE battalion, work so dull that he volunteered for the Fifth Battalion, the Scots Guards (though well under the proper height for a guardsman). This battalion consisted of men preparing to fight beside the Finns against the Soviet Union during the winter war of 1939 to 1940. They spent weeks at Chamonix learning to ski, and were then disbanded as the Finns had given in.
Calvert missed the fighting in France the following summer but was an early member of the Commando training school at Lochailort in the Scottish Highlands, which he left to assist Peter Fleming in preparing the stay-behind parties in Kent who were to try to upset the communications and petrol supplies of the German Army that, thank goodness, never invaded. He was then sent out to Australia to help set up a school similar to Lochailort there. From one of his fellow instructors, Freddie Spencer- Chapman (later author of that marvellous book, The Jungle is Neutral, 1949), he learned a lot about jungle warfare; and he helped to train Australian special forces.
He was moved on to set up a Bush Warfare School at Maymyo in Burma, east of Mandalay - in fact a school to train guerrillas to fight in China. There he was surprised by the Japanese invasion in the winter of 1941/42. Off his own bat he dressed his staff and pupils in Australian bush hats and mounted a raid by river craft behind the Japanese lines, intended to lead them to think that the Australian Army was already present in Burma in force. He got no thanks in the short run - indeed he was reprimanded for damaging the property of the Burmah Oil Company without permission. He discovered in the long run that he had indeed done a little to hold up the Japanese advance. His casualties were light and he had managed some important demolitions.
Moreover he next met Orde Wingate, that formidable pillar of unconventionality; who had read a paper Calvert had scribbled in 1940, about the way raiding parties could be kept supplied by air, far behind any existing fighting line, and was looking forward to implementing that then quite novel idea in the field. Calvert was one of the few regular officers whom Wingate was prepared to treat as an equal. That their ranks at the time were Major and Brigadier made no difference at all; the two of them got on splendidly. Before he could rejoin Wingate, Calvert had a couple of months hard fighting in the rearguard of the army retreating from Burma, with such wild men as he could find to undertake tasks that were at first glance hopeless. In his autobiography, Fighting Mad (1964), this is the point at which he lays down a principle. "I have always maintained that the men in a fighting unit must be led from in front by a commander they know is willing and able to do everything he asks them to do and probably more."
Nelson would have approved; this is the way real leaders lead. Once Calvert paused to bathe in a river, and met a Japanese officer who was doing exactly the same. He won a quarter of an hour's wrestling match, drowned his opponent, and had his patrol kill the whole Japanese patrol whom they surprised in the next bend of the river. He then got back to India, with infinite difficulty through the monsoon, and was at once summoned by Wingate to help train his first Chindit expedition. "God often gives men peculiar instruments with which to pursue His will," Wingate remarked; "David was armed only with a sling."
In August 1942 Calvert joined 77th Brigade which Wingate commanded; in it Calvert commanded a column of some 400 men when it went into Burma six months later. This first attempt at Long Range Penetration - its official name - had little strategic impact but was a colossal propaganda success: home morale in Great Britain was much boosted by the idea that our men were attacking the Japanese in the jungle and the name of Chindit became famous. Casualties were heavy, at about 30 per cent of the force; Calvert, though emaciated after a march of over a thousand miles through jungle, survived.
He was indeed promoted Brigadier - thus winning a bet he had made with a schoolfriend when he was 12 - and took 77th Brigade into Burma again by air on 5th March 1944. He established a stronghold and landing ground codenamed Broadway well behind the Japanese lines, and another called White City a little farther south; and held both of them against sustained Japanese attacks. This operation was of far more use than the previous one - it dislocated the Japanese assault on Imphal, that threatened India; but the fire went out of it when Wingate was killed in an air crash, and Calvert found himself under the orders of the American General Stilwell - passionately anti-British - and forced to fight a conventional war for which his men were neither equipped nor trained.
This time Calvert lost over nine-tenths of his Brigade, but his leadership kept the survivors together as a formidable fighting force however weakened, and he pulled through himself. For each of these Chindit sorties he was appointed to the DSO. Absurdly enough he then injured his Achilles tendon in a football match. He returned to the United Kingdom and in March 1945, was picked to succeed Brigadier R.W. McLeod in command of the Special Air Service Brigade. Leading again from in front he took two French parachute units of that Brigade into eastern Holland and north-west Germany in the closing stages of the war. For those actions he was awarded a French and a Belgian Croix de Guerre.
Thereafter his career went downhill. He had a spell helping to administer Trieste while its ownership was in dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia. In 1950 he was posted to command a new SAS unit called the Malayan Scouts in a colony already troubled by Communist subversion. Many men posted to him from elsewhere in the Army were discards from their former units and with this material even he could do nothing useful. He fell ill; returned to England; and was posted - in his substantive rank of Major, to a corner of the control commission in Germany. He did not get on with his fellow officers and took to drinking by himself in a bar in Soltau (though he spoke no German). Some young men called on him and accused him of trying to seduce them. He was court-martialled for conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman - his biographer David Rooney strongly suspects that he was framed - and dismissed from the service.
He tried to set up a business in Australia; it did not succeed. He then took to drink in so big a way that he was reduced to methylated spirits in the slums of Glasgow. His fellow drinkers abused him - what was an educated man like him doing among such down-and- outs as themselves? This shocked him back on to the water wagon; and for a few years he worked as a temporary lecturer in Military Studies at Manchester University. A book he then projected on the theory of guerrilla warfare was never finished; and he retired to the Charterhouse. Alas what the temperance movement used to call the "Demon Drink" reasserted its hold.
Though he never rose above the rank of Brigadier anyone who served under him knew that Michael Calvert was a tremendous leader of men; quite careless of his own danger and taking care not to put his troops into worse trouble than he could help. James Michael Calvert died in the Royal Star & Garter Veteran's Home in London, on the 26th November 1998.
Michael Calvert, who survived both the Chindit expeditions into Burma, was one of the outstanding leaders of irregular troops during the Second World War. He was the youngest son of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service, who rose to be acting governor of the Punjab; his mother was Irish. He was himself born in the Raj, near Delhi; went to school at Bradfield; and followed his brothers into The Shop, the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Though he cared little for smartness he passed out seventh and was commissioned a second lieutenant Royal Engineers in 1933. He then spent a year at Cambridge reading Mechanical Sciences at St John's and securing a swimming Blue. He was also a boxer, later the Army's middleweight champion.
His first Army posting was to Hong Kong where he raised a force of coolies. He was then moved on to Shanghai in time to witness its conquest by the Japanese in 1937: an early lesson in the horrors of war. He reported in detail on the infantry landing craft, with hinged front panels, which he saw the Japanese using; his report lay forgotten in a pigeon-hole in the War Office. The outbreak of war saw him Adjutant of a London RE battalion, work so dull that he volunteered for the Fifth Battalion, the Scots Guards (though well under the proper height for a guardsman). This battalion consisted of men preparing to fight beside the Finns against the Soviet Union during the winter war of 1939 to 1940. They spent weeks at Chamonix learning to ski, and were then disbanded as the Finns had given in.
Calvert missed the fighting in France the following summer but was an early member of the Commando training school at Lochailort in the Scottish Highlands, which he left to assist Peter Fleming in preparing the stay-behind parties in Kent who were to try to upset the communications and petrol supplies of the German Army that, thank goodness, never invaded. He was then sent out to Australia to help set up a school similar to Lochailort there. From one of his fellow instructors, Freddie Spencer- Chapman (later author of that marvellous book, The Jungle is Neutral, 1949), he learned a lot about jungle warfare; and he helped to train Australian special forces.
He was moved on to set up a Bush Warfare School at Maymyo in Burma, east of Mandalay - in fact a school to train guerrillas to fight in China. There he was surprised by the Japanese invasion in the winter of 1941/42. Off his own bat he dressed his staff and pupils in Australian bush hats and mounted a raid by river craft behind the Japanese lines, intended to lead them to think that the Australian Army was already present in Burma in force. He got no thanks in the short run - indeed he was reprimanded for damaging the property of the Burmah Oil Company without permission. He discovered in the long run that he had indeed done a little to hold up the Japanese advance. His casualties were light and he had managed some important demolitions.
Moreover he next met Orde Wingate, that formidable pillar of unconventionality; who had read a paper Calvert had scribbled in 1940, about the way raiding parties could be kept supplied by air, far behind any existing fighting line, and was looking forward to implementing that then quite novel idea in the field. Calvert was one of the few regular officers whom Wingate was prepared to treat as an equal. That their ranks at the time were Major and Brigadier made no difference at all; the two of them got on splendidly. Before he could rejoin Wingate, Calvert had a couple of months hard fighting in the rearguard of the army retreating from Burma, with such wild men as he could find to undertake tasks that were at first glance hopeless. In his autobiography, Fighting Mad (1964), this is the point at which he lays down a principle. "I have always maintained that the men in a fighting unit must be led from in front by a commander they know is willing and able to do everything he asks them to do and probably more."
Nelson would have approved; this is the way real leaders lead. Once Calvert paused to bathe in a river, and met a Japanese officer who was doing exactly the same. He won a quarter of an hour's wrestling match, drowned his opponent, and had his patrol kill the whole Japanese patrol whom they surprised in the next bend of the river. He then got back to India, with infinite difficulty through the monsoon, and was at once summoned by Wingate to help train his first Chindit expedition. "God often gives men peculiar instruments with which to pursue His will," Wingate remarked; "David was armed only with a sling."
In August 1942 Calvert joined 77th Brigade which Wingate commanded; in it Calvert commanded a column of some 400 men when it went into Burma six months later. This first attempt at Long Range Penetration - its official name - had little strategic impact but was a colossal propaganda success: home morale in Great Britain was much boosted by the idea that our men were attacking the Japanese in the jungle and the name of Chindit became famous. Casualties were heavy, at about 30 per cent of the force; Calvert, though emaciated after a march of over a thousand miles through jungle, survived.
He was indeed promoted Brigadier - thus winning a bet he had made with a schoolfriend when he was 12 - and took 77th Brigade into Burma again by air on 5th March 1944. He established a stronghold and landing ground codenamed Broadway well behind the Japanese lines, and another called White City a little farther south; and held both of them against sustained Japanese attacks. This operation was of far more use than the previous one - it dislocated the Japanese assault on Imphal, that threatened India; but the fire went out of it when Wingate was killed in an air crash, and Calvert found himself under the orders of the American General Stilwell - passionately anti-British - and forced to fight a conventional war for which his men were neither equipped nor trained.
This time Calvert lost over nine-tenths of his Brigade, but his leadership kept the survivors together as a formidable fighting force however weakened, and he pulled through himself. For each of these Chindit sorties he was appointed to the DSO. Absurdly enough he then injured his Achilles tendon in a football match. He returned to the United Kingdom and in March 1945, was picked to succeed Brigadier R.W. McLeod in command of the Special Air Service Brigade. Leading again from in front he took two French parachute units of that Brigade into eastern Holland and north-west Germany in the closing stages of the war. For those actions he was awarded a French and a Belgian Croix de Guerre.
Thereafter his career went downhill. He had a spell helping to administer Trieste while its ownership was in dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia. In 1950 he was posted to command a new SAS unit called the Malayan Scouts in a colony already troubled by Communist subversion. Many men posted to him from elsewhere in the Army were discards from their former units and with this material even he could do nothing useful. He fell ill; returned to England; and was posted - in his substantive rank of Major, to a corner of the control commission in Germany. He did not get on with his fellow officers and took to drinking by himself in a bar in Soltau (though he spoke no German). Some young men called on him and accused him of trying to seduce them. He was court-martialled for conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman - his biographer David Rooney strongly suspects that he was framed - and dismissed from the service.
He tried to set up a business in Australia; it did not succeed. He then took to drink in so big a way that he was reduced to methylated spirits in the slums of Glasgow. His fellow drinkers abused him - what was an educated man like him doing among such down-and- outs as themselves? This shocked him back on to the water wagon; and for a few years he worked as a temporary lecturer in Military Studies at Manchester University. A book he then projected on the theory of guerrilla warfare was never finished; and he retired to the Charterhouse. Alas what the temperance movement used to call the "Demon Drink" reasserted its hold.
Though he never rose above the rank of Brigadier anyone who served under him knew that Michael Calvert was a tremendous leader of men; quite careless of his own danger and taking care not to put his troops into worse trouble than he could help. James Michael Calvert died in the Royal Star & Garter Veteran's Home in London, on the 26th November 1998.
The Gokteik Viaduct, Burma.
The photograph shown above is of the Gokteik Viaduct, a huge structure which spans the Gokteik Gorge close to the former hill station town of Maymyo in western Shan State. I would imagine that the image of the viaduct was something of a recurring vision (or nightmare) for Mike Calvert in the years after the end of WW2. Destroying the viaduct was the second major objective for No. 3 Column on Operation Longcloth and for a time in mid-March 1943, fulfilling this objective was still on the cards. Unfortunately, the call for dispersal came to soon and the plan had to be abandoned. This left Calvert frustrated for a second time, as only one year previously during the retreat from Burma, he had sat on the iron girders of the viaduct with explosive charges at the ready, just waiting for the order to come through to blow up the trestle structure and send it to the bottom of the Gorge.
As the man himself recounted in his book Fighting Mad, when reflecting on this double failure: It seemed so ironic, that in 1942 I sat on the viaduct waiting for the order to blow it up and was told not to and then a year later, when miles away, ordered to attempt its destruction. But I suppose these things happen in war.
As the man himself recounted in his book Fighting Mad, when reflecting on this double failure: It seemed so ironic, that in 1942 I sat on the viaduct waiting for the order to blow it up and was told not to and then a year later, when miles away, ordered to attempt its destruction. But I suppose these things happen in war.
CWGC certificate for Major Conron.
Major Philip Alfred Ronayne Conron
From Brigadier Wingate's debrief diary on Operation Longcloth:
26th February through 1st March:
News had now been received from No. 1 Group, both of a successful ambush at Maingyaung and of their passing through the escarpment, and secondly their supply dropping at Yeshin near the Mu River. It was evident to me that they were dawdling too much for their own safety in a dangerous area and I warned them to move faster.
On the 1st March, after an easy march through the mountains, we (Northern Group) dropped down the escarpment into the Chaunggyi Valley and bivouacked not far from Pinlebu. On this day I was compelled to remove Major Conron from command of No. 4 Column, replacing him with my Brigade-Major, George Bromhead.
Philip Conron was born on the 21st November 1902 in the small rural town of Steyning, West Sussex. His first commission, to the unattached list of the British Army was on the 31st August 1922, after which he was posted to the Indian Army and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles on the 30th November 1924. In August 1931 he attained the rank of Captain and eventually became a Specialist Instructor in the use of small arms weaponry in 1938. During the middle part of 1942, the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles moved over to join the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade (Chindits) at their Saugor training camp and Conron, now with the rank of Major was given command of No. 4 Column, a predominately Gurkha column comprising some 374 personnel.
In February 1943, Major Conron led No. 4 Column across the Chindwin River in conjunction with the other Chindit column of Northern Group and began their incursion behind Japanese lines in Burma. Sadly, Major Conron did not survive the first Chindit expedition in 1943 and died close to or whilst crossing the Shweli River on 3rd April that year. His body was never recovered after the war and for this reason he is remembered upon the Rangoon Memorial at Taukkyan War Cemetery, alongside the other casualties from the Burma campaign with no known grave or resting place.
As we have read from the opening quote of this section, Brigadier Wingate had not been overly impressed by the performance of his Gurkha troops either in training, or the early weeks of Operation Longcloth, with perhaps with the notable exception of Mike Calvert's No. 3 Column. The vast majority of Gurkha Columns 2 and 4 had returned to India early during Operation Longcloth after meeting the Japanese in combat, deciding on dispersal to the rear, rather than following the Brigadier's instruction to always move forward.
I have always felt that the criticism aimed at 3/2 Gurkha Rifles and their performance on Operation Longcloth was extremely harsh, they were after all a very young and inexperienced battalion, who had endured many 'last minute' changes to both leadership and command. I do wonder if Wingate was sub-consciously venting his obvious frustrations against the Indian General Command and their overt lack of support for his Chindit program and theories. Did he take these frustrations out on the commanders of the Gurkha Columns in 1943?
According to Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Wingate had caused great offence in New Delhi, by describing the Indian Army as 'the largest unemployed relief organisation in the world', and made it clear that under no circumstances would he want Indian soldiers under his command. In particular he disliked the close, almost mystical family relationship which existed between the officers and men of most Indian Army Regiments. Of course this was particularly true in the case of the Gurkhas.
The Gurkha soldiers in turn did not like the way in which Wingate treated their own officers in public. Early on at Saugor, while preparing the training regime, Wingate insisted that all officers should run from one position to the next and angrily berated those who could not keep up with him. To the Gurkha soldiers, schooled in a tradition of mutual respect, this was thoroughly disagreeable and they detested seeing their officers lose face in such a public way.
Wingate was the only British Officer in more than 130 years to criticise the performance of Gurkha soldiers, characterising them as mentally unsuited for their role as Chindits.
The first Gurkha Commander to suffer the wrath of his leader was Major Conron. The men of Northern Group had crossed into the Meza Valley and were preparing to re-stock with a pre-planned supply drop. 4 Column were given the job of setting up and defending this SD area. It is not known whether they failed in this task, but by March 1st Wingate had removed Major Conron as commander, replacing him with his own Brigade-Major, George Bromhead.
No. 5 Column Commander, Bernard Fergusson recalled: As we reached the Meza Valley floor, Wingate was not in the best of tempers. He was annoyed at Column 4 for some reason. An official explanation has never been found for the decision to remove Major Conron and the incident was not mentioned in Wingate's own debrief notes.
Major Bromhead however, has recounted the story in his own conversations about the operation:
We were halfway across Burma when the 4 Column Commander lost his nerve. He could not stand the sound of a battery charging engine, so he turned these off and his radios failed. Wingate withdrew him to Brigade HQ and I took his place. We managed after a day or two to get the main radio working again and set off to follow Brigade HQ, who by now were way ahead of us.
Regretfully, Philip Conron never had the opportunity to tell his side of the story. On April 1st, Wingate split his Head Quarters into several small dispersal groups and Major Conron was given a platoon of his beloved Gurkha Rifles to lead back to India. There were many Chindit columns present around the confluence of the Irrawaddy and Shweli Rivers in early April and Conron's party soon met up with Major Scott and Column 8.
Scott's men had been attempting to bridge the Shweli for a couple of days, they had succeeded in getting a 'power-rope' across at one point and a section of troops had crossed under the command of Captain Williams. However, the rope had been accidentally cut by one of the men and the rest of the group were now stranded. It was while they were busily constructing rafts from bamboo and groundsheets that Major Conron arrived.
He told them that he had attempted to cross using rafts made from banana trees, but the crossing had been a complete failure due to the fast running current of the river. Scott sent a radio signal to rear base asking for RAF dinghies to be dropped for his men, he also invited Major Conron to remain with him while they waited for the supplies to arrive. Conron politely declined and he marched away with his platoon of Gurkhas, nothing more was seen or heard of the group from that moment on.
Anecdotal stories relating to the death of Philip Conron can be found within books and diaries featuring the men from Operation Longcloth. All accounts seem to revolve around his attempt to cross the Shweli River. Some say he was betrayed by a Burmese boatman who took him directly into the hands of the Japanese, another, that he was shot and killed on the eastern banks having successfully crossed over, while yet another account suggests that he simply drowned in the river.
Shown below is a gallery of images in relation to this story, including a map of the area where Major Conron and his dispersal party were last seen. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
From Brigadier Wingate's debrief diary on Operation Longcloth:
26th February through 1st March:
News had now been received from No. 1 Group, both of a successful ambush at Maingyaung and of their passing through the escarpment, and secondly their supply dropping at Yeshin near the Mu River. It was evident to me that they were dawdling too much for their own safety in a dangerous area and I warned them to move faster.
On the 1st March, after an easy march through the mountains, we (Northern Group) dropped down the escarpment into the Chaunggyi Valley and bivouacked not far from Pinlebu. On this day I was compelled to remove Major Conron from command of No. 4 Column, replacing him with my Brigade-Major, George Bromhead.
Philip Conron was born on the 21st November 1902 in the small rural town of Steyning, West Sussex. His first commission, to the unattached list of the British Army was on the 31st August 1922, after which he was posted to the Indian Army and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles on the 30th November 1924. In August 1931 he attained the rank of Captain and eventually became a Specialist Instructor in the use of small arms weaponry in 1938. During the middle part of 1942, the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles moved over to join the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade (Chindits) at their Saugor training camp and Conron, now with the rank of Major was given command of No. 4 Column, a predominately Gurkha column comprising some 374 personnel.
In February 1943, Major Conron led No. 4 Column across the Chindwin River in conjunction with the other Chindit column of Northern Group and began their incursion behind Japanese lines in Burma. Sadly, Major Conron did not survive the first Chindit expedition in 1943 and died close to or whilst crossing the Shweli River on 3rd April that year. His body was never recovered after the war and for this reason he is remembered upon the Rangoon Memorial at Taukkyan War Cemetery, alongside the other casualties from the Burma campaign with no known grave or resting place.
As we have read from the opening quote of this section, Brigadier Wingate had not been overly impressed by the performance of his Gurkha troops either in training, or the early weeks of Operation Longcloth, with perhaps with the notable exception of Mike Calvert's No. 3 Column. The vast majority of Gurkha Columns 2 and 4 had returned to India early during Operation Longcloth after meeting the Japanese in combat, deciding on dispersal to the rear, rather than following the Brigadier's instruction to always move forward.
I have always felt that the criticism aimed at 3/2 Gurkha Rifles and their performance on Operation Longcloth was extremely harsh, they were after all a very young and inexperienced battalion, who had endured many 'last minute' changes to both leadership and command. I do wonder if Wingate was sub-consciously venting his obvious frustrations against the Indian General Command and their overt lack of support for his Chindit program and theories. Did he take these frustrations out on the commanders of the Gurkha Columns in 1943?
According to Admiral Louis Mountbatten, Wingate had caused great offence in New Delhi, by describing the Indian Army as 'the largest unemployed relief organisation in the world', and made it clear that under no circumstances would he want Indian soldiers under his command. In particular he disliked the close, almost mystical family relationship which existed between the officers and men of most Indian Army Regiments. Of course this was particularly true in the case of the Gurkhas.
The Gurkha soldiers in turn did not like the way in which Wingate treated their own officers in public. Early on at Saugor, while preparing the training regime, Wingate insisted that all officers should run from one position to the next and angrily berated those who could not keep up with him. To the Gurkha soldiers, schooled in a tradition of mutual respect, this was thoroughly disagreeable and they detested seeing their officers lose face in such a public way.
Wingate was the only British Officer in more than 130 years to criticise the performance of Gurkha soldiers, characterising them as mentally unsuited for their role as Chindits.
The first Gurkha Commander to suffer the wrath of his leader was Major Conron. The men of Northern Group had crossed into the Meza Valley and were preparing to re-stock with a pre-planned supply drop. 4 Column were given the job of setting up and defending this SD area. It is not known whether they failed in this task, but by March 1st Wingate had removed Major Conron as commander, replacing him with his own Brigade-Major, George Bromhead.
No. 5 Column Commander, Bernard Fergusson recalled: As we reached the Meza Valley floor, Wingate was not in the best of tempers. He was annoyed at Column 4 for some reason. An official explanation has never been found for the decision to remove Major Conron and the incident was not mentioned in Wingate's own debrief notes.
Major Bromhead however, has recounted the story in his own conversations about the operation:
We were halfway across Burma when the 4 Column Commander lost his nerve. He could not stand the sound of a battery charging engine, so he turned these off and his radios failed. Wingate withdrew him to Brigade HQ and I took his place. We managed after a day or two to get the main radio working again and set off to follow Brigade HQ, who by now were way ahead of us.
Regretfully, Philip Conron never had the opportunity to tell his side of the story. On April 1st, Wingate split his Head Quarters into several small dispersal groups and Major Conron was given a platoon of his beloved Gurkha Rifles to lead back to India. There were many Chindit columns present around the confluence of the Irrawaddy and Shweli Rivers in early April and Conron's party soon met up with Major Scott and Column 8.
Scott's men had been attempting to bridge the Shweli for a couple of days, they had succeeded in getting a 'power-rope' across at one point and a section of troops had crossed under the command of Captain Williams. However, the rope had been accidentally cut by one of the men and the rest of the group were now stranded. It was while they were busily constructing rafts from bamboo and groundsheets that Major Conron arrived.
He told them that he had attempted to cross using rafts made from banana trees, but the crossing had been a complete failure due to the fast running current of the river. Scott sent a radio signal to rear base asking for RAF dinghies to be dropped for his men, he also invited Major Conron to remain with him while they waited for the supplies to arrive. Conron politely declined and he marched away with his platoon of Gurkhas, nothing more was seen or heard of the group from that moment on.
Anecdotal stories relating to the death of Philip Conron can be found within books and diaries featuring the men from Operation Longcloth. All accounts seem to revolve around his attempt to cross the Shweli River. Some say he was betrayed by a Burmese boatman who took him directly into the hands of the Japanese, another, that he was shot and killed on the eastern banks having successfully crossed over, while yet another account suggests that he simply drowned in the river.
Shown below is a gallery of images in relation to this story, including a map of the area where Major Conron and his dispersal party were last seen. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
As mentioned earlier, there are several different accounts in reference to the death of Philip Conron. The following excerpt is taken from the witness statement of Rifleman Tek Bahadur Rai of No. 3 Column, which was given on his return to India. He had travelled with Mike Calvert after dispersal was called and by early April the group was approaching the Shweli River.
Tek Bahadur stated:
After breaking up into our new dispersal groups I remained with Major Calvert. We went to collect some supplies that we had hidden in the jungle some weeks earlier. We then moved off toward the Shweli. Here we bumped into Major Conron who was attempting to find suitable boats to get across. He had been in the vicinity for a few days.
Tek Bahadur remembers:
A gathering of officers from Column 3 were on the river bank, including Subedar Kumbasing Gurung, Lts. Gourlie and Gibson and Capt. McKenzie. Major Conron finally obtained seven boats for the men and he, along with some of his Gurkha Riflemen set out in the first boat. Half way across I saw the Burmese boatman purposely overturn the boat and then swim away, some of our men swam to the other side of the river, but Major Conron and Rifleman Gyalbosing Tamang were lost.
After seeing this treachery on the part of the boatman, we decided not to rely upon them anymore and quickly moved away into the nearby jungle where we wandered for about two weeks.
From the large group present that day on the banks of the Shweli many failed to return to India at all, while others had to endure two years as prisoners in Japanese hands. Tek Bahadur was slightly more fortunate, although he was captured later on in April, he managed to escape his captors in the spring of 1944, as the second Chindit expedition was over-running the area where he was being held.
What actually happened to Major Conron on the banks of the Shweli River in April 1943 will never be truly known. Whatever the circumstances of his death, it seems such a sorrowful way for a brave and courageous man to perish, having been through so many trials and tribulations during those early weeks in the Burmese jungle.
To read more about the eventual fate of No. 4 Column on Operation Longcloth, led at the time by Major R.B.G. Bromhead, please click on the following link: Major Bromhead and 4 Column
Bernard Fergusson, April 1943.
Major Bernard Edward Fergusson
On the 17th October 1943, Major Bernard Fergusson, formerly of the Black Watch Regiment, assumed command of 5 Column at the Chindit camp based at Malthone in the Central Provinces of India. He had replaced Captain Ted Waugh of the King's Regiment who had recently fallen ill and was now deemed unfit to continue with the arduous training regime imposed by Brigadier Wingate.
Fergusson's wonderful book, Beyond the Chindwin was the very first book I ever read in relation to the first Wingate expedition and is still my go-to text when researching the men of Operation Longcloth. Of course later on, I was to discover that my own grandfather, Pte. Arthur Howney had served under Fergusson in No. 5 Column during 1943 and this has cemented the importance of this particular Chindit commander within my own research.
My copy of Beyond the Chindwin, is a second impression published in May 1945 and was retrospectively signed for me by Bill Smyly in 2009. It has been used and thumbed through so many times that the light brown cloth boards are now coming away from the pages they protect, but it is still one of my most prized possessions. I have mentioned already the Chindit veteran, Bill Smyly. Bill was the Animal Transport Officer for No. 5 Column in 1943 and served again on the second Wingate expedition the following year.
The first occasion I had the great fortune to speak with Bill was at the Chindit Old Comrades reunion dinner of 2009, where he told me that Bernard Fergusson was a kind and thoughtful commander who had the great foresight to listen to his junior officers and their views and often take their advice on board. Bill had enjoyed working with Fergusson in 1943 and told me how his commander had spent many long hours after his return to India, writing to the families of the men from No. 5 Column who had either been lost or taken prisoner in Burma. This, Bill explained, was an excellent example of the thoughtful and caring nature of Bernard Fergusson.
Bernard Edward Fergusson was born in London on the 6th May 1911 and was the third son and fourth child of Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet and his wife Lady Alice Mary Boyle, a daughter of David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. From the latter, he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant into the Black Watch Regiment on the 27th August 1931. He was promoted to full Lieutenant on the 27th August 1934 and served with the 2nd Battalion of the Black Watch in Palestine during the Arab Revolt, later becoming ADC to Major General Archibald Wavell, with whom he would have a close association for the rest of his Army career. Fergusson was promoted to Captain on 27th August 1939, just a few days before the outbreak of WW2.
For more information about Bernard Fergusson's early life and Army career, please click on the following link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Fergusson,_Baron_Ballantrae
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to the above mentioned information, including a photograph of Bernard Fergusson during his time with the 2nd Black Watch. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
On the 17th October 1943, Major Bernard Fergusson, formerly of the Black Watch Regiment, assumed command of 5 Column at the Chindit camp based at Malthone in the Central Provinces of India. He had replaced Captain Ted Waugh of the King's Regiment who had recently fallen ill and was now deemed unfit to continue with the arduous training regime imposed by Brigadier Wingate.
Fergusson's wonderful book, Beyond the Chindwin was the very first book I ever read in relation to the first Wingate expedition and is still my go-to text when researching the men of Operation Longcloth. Of course later on, I was to discover that my own grandfather, Pte. Arthur Howney had served under Fergusson in No. 5 Column during 1943 and this has cemented the importance of this particular Chindit commander within my own research.
My copy of Beyond the Chindwin, is a second impression published in May 1945 and was retrospectively signed for me by Bill Smyly in 2009. It has been used and thumbed through so many times that the light brown cloth boards are now coming away from the pages they protect, but it is still one of my most prized possessions. I have mentioned already the Chindit veteran, Bill Smyly. Bill was the Animal Transport Officer for No. 5 Column in 1943 and served again on the second Wingate expedition the following year.
The first occasion I had the great fortune to speak with Bill was at the Chindit Old Comrades reunion dinner of 2009, where he told me that Bernard Fergusson was a kind and thoughtful commander who had the great foresight to listen to his junior officers and their views and often take their advice on board. Bill had enjoyed working with Fergusson in 1943 and told me how his commander had spent many long hours after his return to India, writing to the families of the men from No. 5 Column who had either been lost or taken prisoner in Burma. This, Bill explained, was an excellent example of the thoughtful and caring nature of Bernard Fergusson.
Bernard Edward Fergusson was born in London on the 6th May 1911 and was the third son and fourth child of Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet and his wife Lady Alice Mary Boyle, a daughter of David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. From the latter, he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant into the Black Watch Regiment on the 27th August 1931. He was promoted to full Lieutenant on the 27th August 1934 and served with the 2nd Battalion of the Black Watch in Palestine during the Arab Revolt, later becoming ADC to Major General Archibald Wavell, with whom he would have a close association for the rest of his Army career. Fergusson was promoted to Captain on 27th August 1939, just a few days before the outbreak of WW2.
For more information about Bernard Fergusson's early life and Army career, please click on the following link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Fergusson,_Baron_Ballantrae
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to the above mentioned information, including a photograph of Bernard Fergusson during his time with the 2nd Black Watch. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
For his efforts on Operation Longcloth, Major Bernard Fergusson was awarded the Distinguished Service Order:
Brigade: 77th Indian Infantry
Corps: 4th
Unit: Column Commander (No. 5), 77th Indian Infantry Brigade.
Date of Recommendation: (1943)
Rank and Name: Major Bernard Edward Fergusson
Action for which recommended: OPERATIONS IN BURMA - MARCH 1943
On 2nd March 1943, Major Fergusson led his Column (No. 5) away from the Brigade Group, which was then marching southwards down the Mu Valley towards Pinlebu, and made his way via Mankat to the Bonchaung Gorge. The speed of movement of his Column during this vitally important march was most creditable, the whole distance of some sixty miles of mountain and forest being traversed in three days. These three days were the last days of a long and arduous march of some 400 miles from the Manipur Road, carried out with scarcely a break.
On arrival in the neighbourhood of the Bonchaung Gorge, Major Fergusson at once organized the destruction of the railway bridge at Bonchaung Station and the bringing down of the gorge on to the line some three miles further south. This operation was well and truly carried out on the 6th March 1943, two spans of the bridge being blown into the river bed and damaged beyond repair; one of these spans being 100 feet and the other 40. At the same time, while the Column was engaged in extensive destruction of the line to the south, the cliff side was blown onto the track, bringing down hundreds of tons of rock and soil.
While completing this operation, Major Fergusson vigorously patrolled the neighbourhood and encountered the enemy at Kyaik-in, where a successful brush took place, resulting in fifteen enemy dead. From the Bonchaung Gorge, No.5 Column rapidly marched to Tigyaing on the Irrawaddy River where Fergusson crossed with great boldness in broad daylight, having carried out successful propaganda among the inhabitants of the town. The Japanese arrived too late to prevent the crossing.
No. 5 Column then proceeded south to the Nam Pan Chaung with the intention of marching on the Gokteik Gorge. The general situation of the Brigade at this time made it necessary to deny the column a much needed supply dropping, which caused it much suffering, throwing all the greater strain on its commander. The column was ordered to rejoin the Brigade Group, which it did on the Hehtin Chaung on 26th March, and set out on the return march to India.
On 27th March, the column was in the rear of the Brigade when a small party of the enemy delivered an attack on the Burma Rifles HQ. Major Fergusson was ordered to lay an ambush to prevent the enemy following up the Brigade Group. He did this thoroughly, including laying out a false bivouac, which successfully drew the enemy's fire. The next day, however, in attempting to lead his column through Hintha village, he became heavily engaged with a Company of the enemy, and after a stubborn fight lasting for well over an hour he was compelled to disperse his column and proceed to the operational rendezvous. That this rendezvous, some twenty-five miles to the north, was duly reached on the same day by the bulk of his column is a tribute to Major Fergusson’s training and personality. He himself was wounded in the action at Hintha, but determined under no circumstances to surrender to the enemy or to give up the attempt to reach India. He, therefore, took command of his dispersal group and marched back to the Chindwin, a distance of some three hundred miles, without losing more than a small number of his group.
Throughout the campaign, the personal leadership and fighting qualities of this officer made his column the best and most reliable of the three British Columns, thus reversing its position in these respects before he took command. His personal courage and example were of the greatest value to his officers and men, and enabled him to lead his column through vicissitudes that might have proved too much for other columns.
Recommended By-
Brigadier O.C. Wingate, DSO
Commander, 77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Honour or Reward-D.S.O. (Immediate)
Signed By-General Auchinleck , Commander-in-Chief India.
Gazetted-6th August 1943.
Brigade: 77th Indian Infantry
Corps: 4th
Unit: Column Commander (No. 5), 77th Indian Infantry Brigade.
Date of Recommendation: (1943)
Rank and Name: Major Bernard Edward Fergusson
Action for which recommended: OPERATIONS IN BURMA - MARCH 1943
On 2nd March 1943, Major Fergusson led his Column (No. 5) away from the Brigade Group, which was then marching southwards down the Mu Valley towards Pinlebu, and made his way via Mankat to the Bonchaung Gorge. The speed of movement of his Column during this vitally important march was most creditable, the whole distance of some sixty miles of mountain and forest being traversed in three days. These three days were the last days of a long and arduous march of some 400 miles from the Manipur Road, carried out with scarcely a break.
On arrival in the neighbourhood of the Bonchaung Gorge, Major Fergusson at once organized the destruction of the railway bridge at Bonchaung Station and the bringing down of the gorge on to the line some three miles further south. This operation was well and truly carried out on the 6th March 1943, two spans of the bridge being blown into the river bed and damaged beyond repair; one of these spans being 100 feet and the other 40. At the same time, while the Column was engaged in extensive destruction of the line to the south, the cliff side was blown onto the track, bringing down hundreds of tons of rock and soil.
While completing this operation, Major Fergusson vigorously patrolled the neighbourhood and encountered the enemy at Kyaik-in, where a successful brush took place, resulting in fifteen enemy dead. From the Bonchaung Gorge, No.5 Column rapidly marched to Tigyaing on the Irrawaddy River where Fergusson crossed with great boldness in broad daylight, having carried out successful propaganda among the inhabitants of the town. The Japanese arrived too late to prevent the crossing.
No. 5 Column then proceeded south to the Nam Pan Chaung with the intention of marching on the Gokteik Gorge. The general situation of the Brigade at this time made it necessary to deny the column a much needed supply dropping, which caused it much suffering, throwing all the greater strain on its commander. The column was ordered to rejoin the Brigade Group, which it did on the Hehtin Chaung on 26th March, and set out on the return march to India.
On 27th March, the column was in the rear of the Brigade when a small party of the enemy delivered an attack on the Burma Rifles HQ. Major Fergusson was ordered to lay an ambush to prevent the enemy following up the Brigade Group. He did this thoroughly, including laying out a false bivouac, which successfully drew the enemy's fire. The next day, however, in attempting to lead his column through Hintha village, he became heavily engaged with a Company of the enemy, and after a stubborn fight lasting for well over an hour he was compelled to disperse his column and proceed to the operational rendezvous. That this rendezvous, some twenty-five miles to the north, was duly reached on the same day by the bulk of his column is a tribute to Major Fergusson’s training and personality. He himself was wounded in the action at Hintha, but determined under no circumstances to surrender to the enemy or to give up the attempt to reach India. He, therefore, took command of his dispersal group and marched back to the Chindwin, a distance of some three hundred miles, without losing more than a small number of his group.
Throughout the campaign, the personal leadership and fighting qualities of this officer made his column the best and most reliable of the three British Columns, thus reversing its position in these respects before he took command. His personal courage and example were of the greatest value to his officers and men, and enabled him to lead his column through vicissitudes that might have proved too much for other columns.
Recommended By-
Brigadier O.C. Wingate, DSO
Commander, 77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Honour or Reward-D.S.O. (Immediate)
Signed By-General Auchinleck , Commander-in-Chief India.
Gazetted-6th August 1943.
Bernard Fergusson and Captain John Fraser, (2nd Burma Rifles) in Burma, April 1943.
Bernard Fergusson's honours and medallic awards in order of preference:
Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT), 30th November 1974
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), 3rd September 1962
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO), 11th February 1963
Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), 6th August 1943 (Burma)
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), King's Birthday Honours, 8th June 1950
Knight of the Order of St. John (KStJ), 1961
General Service Medal with three clasps
1939/1945 Star
Africa Star
Burma Star
Defence Medal
War Medal 1939/1945 with Mention in Despatches Oak Leaf
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953
Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT), 30th November 1974
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), 3rd September 1962
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO), 11th February 1963
Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), 6th August 1943 (Burma)
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), King's Birthday Honours, 8th June 1950
Knight of the Order of St. John (KStJ), 1961
General Service Medal with three clasps
1939/1945 Star
Africa Star
Burma Star
Defence Medal
War Medal 1939/1945 with Mention in Despatches Oak Leaf
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953
The officers of No. 5 Column, Jhansi (India). December 1942.
Seen below is a bibliography for Bernard Fergusson; in my opinion, all his books are entertainingly written and have a style and composition all their own. I could not recommend them enough to readers of both military history and good quality prose in general terms.
- Eton Portrait (1937)
- Beyond the Chindwin (1945)
- Lowland Soldier (1945)
- The Wild Green Earth (1946)
- The Black Watch and the King's Enemies (1950)
- Rupert of the Rhine (1952)
- The Rare Adventure (1954)
- The Business of War: The War Narrative of Major-General Sir John Kennedy (1957)
- The Watery Maze: The Story of Combined Operations (1961)
- Wavell: Portrait of a Soldier (1961)
- Return to Burma (1962)
- The Trumpet in the Hall: (auto-biography) 1930–1958 (1970)
- Captain John Niven (1972)
- Hubble-Bubble (1978)
- Travel Warrant (1979)
In 1944, Fergusson, now promoted to Brigadier was given command of the 16th British Infantry Brigade in preparation for the second Wingate expedition, codenamed Operation Thursday. He would lead the only Chindit Brigade ordered to march into Burma that year, with all other Brigades having the luxury of flying in, either during the initial glider airborne assault or by Dakota transport plane later on. Fergusson's major objective in 1944 was to capture the Japanese held aerodrome at Indaw. Unfortunately, due to an underestimation of the country over which they had to travel, his Brigade arrived too late to enforce the capture, allowing the enemy to reinforce the area in great numbers and repel the Chindit attack .
Post WW2, Bernard Fergusson served during the British Mandate of Palestine and the Suez crisis of 1956. He retired from the British Army in 1958, holding the honorary rank of Brigadier. In 1960, Fergusson in the company of his wife, Laura, re-visited Burma. During his stay in the country, he enjoyed travelling to several of the places he had traversed in 1943 and 1944 and met many of the people who had assisted him during his time as a Chindit Commander. The book is a fascinating and enjoyable read and amongst its many attributes, paints a very vivid picture of the political landscape present in Burma some fifteen years after the war.
Following his Knighthood in 1962, Bernard Fergusson was a regular attendee in the House of Lords at Westminster. Over the years he would contribute to many debates in the chamber, always adding great value to proceedings with his great experience of life and of course, strong sense of humour. Seen below are two transcriptions of his interjections during a debate on Scottish Devolution in 1976 and the deterioration of the English language in 1979. Both papers are courtesy of Hansard. Please click on either file to download:
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Seen below is one of the many obituaries written after Bernard Fergusson's sad passing on the 28th November 1980. There are examples written for the Daily Telegraph and The Times, but I thought this one was particularly poignant, as it reflects more about the man himself, rather than his deeds.
A REAL NEW ZEALANDER.
NZ HERALD, 1st December 1980.
Bernard Edward Fergusson, Baron Ballantrae of Auchairne and the Bay of Islands, was the last of the British-born Governor-Generals. And if he is the Governor-General most kindly remembered over many years, it may be for three reasons. The first and simplest was that he and Lady Ballantrae seemed always to be dazzlingly in love with New Zealand.
They also worked like furies at their job and showed how a Governor-General and his wife can usefully extend the functions of their post. Certainly they played the plumes and diamonds role when it was required, and he signed state papers and occasionally cautioned the Prime Minister on actions the Government proposed. They gave receptions; they attended them; they cut ribbons.
It was when they left behind these basics of the job, when they called on factories and offices that could not remember being visited by a Governor-General, when they visited Maoris with obvious pleasure and respect, when they popped into tiny schools, when they made a point of calling on the kitchen workers at meeting houses — it was then that they earned and won the, hearts of New Zealanders and became a unifying force.
That was their great achievement. It was also a surprising achievement because, though far from rich, both belonged to families of the sort that can make Britain seem a small, unapproachable and unchangeable village, controlled by a web of invisible relationships and unstated, assumptions.
They were part of that mould, but they also belonged to a special stratum that is inhabited by a race of unselfconscious enthusiasts who walk the ways that their own hearts choose. Eccentric is a description that comes too easily to mind to be exact. With Lord Ballantrae it was simply honesty to self, a lack of care for what was owed to his own person as Governor-General and an unfashionably vigorous sense of duty. That was what won him his special place.
The feeling that whenever he spoke, he was unshakeably true to himself and it was a likeable self, which gained, special affection in summertime in the Bay of Islands. From the main street of Paihia anyone could see for weeks on end, draped over the veranda rail of his holiday house, the same parade of togs and towels that decorated every other beach for miles around. The sight gained him a thousand good-old-Fergie grins and won him an honour richer than ermine and higher than coronets- that he was one of us!
A REAL NEW ZEALANDER.
NZ HERALD, 1st December 1980.
Bernard Edward Fergusson, Baron Ballantrae of Auchairne and the Bay of Islands, was the last of the British-born Governor-Generals. And if he is the Governor-General most kindly remembered over many years, it may be for three reasons. The first and simplest was that he and Lady Ballantrae seemed always to be dazzlingly in love with New Zealand.
They also worked like furies at their job and showed how a Governor-General and his wife can usefully extend the functions of their post. Certainly they played the plumes and diamonds role when it was required, and he signed state papers and occasionally cautioned the Prime Minister on actions the Government proposed. They gave receptions; they attended them; they cut ribbons.
It was when they left behind these basics of the job, when they called on factories and offices that could not remember being visited by a Governor-General, when they visited Maoris with obvious pleasure and respect, when they popped into tiny schools, when they made a point of calling on the kitchen workers at meeting houses — it was then that they earned and won the, hearts of New Zealanders and became a unifying force.
That was their great achievement. It was also a surprising achievement because, though far from rich, both belonged to families of the sort that can make Britain seem a small, unapproachable and unchangeable village, controlled by a web of invisible relationships and unstated, assumptions.
They were part of that mould, but they also belonged to a special stratum that is inhabited by a race of unselfconscious enthusiasts who walk the ways that their own hearts choose. Eccentric is a description that comes too easily to mind to be exact. With Lord Ballantrae it was simply honesty to self, a lack of care for what was owed to his own person as Governor-General and an unfashionably vigorous sense of duty. That was what won him his special place.
The feeling that whenever he spoke, he was unshakeably true to himself and it was a likeable self, which gained, special affection in summertime in the Bay of Islands. From the main street of Paihia anyone could see for weeks on end, draped over the veranda rail of his holiday house, the same parade of togs and towels that decorated every other beach for miles around. The sight gained him a thousand good-old-Fergie grins and won him an honour richer than ermine and higher than coronets- that he was one of us!
I had the very great fortune in 2012, to make contact with Bernard Fergusson's son, Geordie. After exchanging several emails that year and on Geordie's return from his own trip to Burma, travelling to places previously frequented by his father, the two of us, alongside my friend and fellow researcher, Eddie Chandler, met for an enjoyable meal in London. Geordie has been of great support to my Chindit research and latterly, since the creation of the Chindit Society, a regular attendee at Society events and functions where he has had the benefit of meeting our Chindit veterans, including Bill Smyly.
Seen below is a final gallery of images in relation to this narrative, including a photograph of Bernard Fergusson on his return visit to Burma in 1960. As always, please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Seen below is a final gallery of images in relation to this narrative, including a photograph of Bernard Fergusson on his return visit to Burma in 1960. As always, please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Gilmour Menzies Anderson, 1942.
Major Gilmour Menzies Anderson
The commander of No. 6 Column was Gim Anderson of the Highland Light Infantry and the original Adjutant of the 13th King's. He was a sandy-haired solicitor from Glasgow, of which city he was already a councillor at the age of just twenty-seven and was one of the best officers we had in the Brigade.
Bernard Fergusson, from his book Beyond the Chindwin.
Gilmour Menzies Anderson was born on the 29th April 1914 in the Hillhead district of Glasgow. He was the son of William Menzies Anderson DSO, MC and Jessie Jack Gilmour. He was educated at Glasgow High School and Glasgow University, where presumably he studied Law as he became a qualified Solicitor in 1939. He was a Cadet at the Kelvinside Academy and undertook his officer training here before being commissioned into the Highland Light Infantry (6th Battalion) on the 24th May 1939, whilst serving with the Territorial Army. He also served as a Glasgow City councillor before the war, where he represented the Ruchill Ward.
2nd Lieutenant Anderson was mobilised on the 24th August 1939 with the Highland Light Infantry, before moving across to the 13th Battalion of the King's Regiment on the 6th July 1940 and taking on the roll of battalion Adjutant with immediate effect. After receiving two successive promotions in October 1940, Menzies Anderson was elevated once more, this time to the rank of Temporary Major in August 1941 and just prior to the 13th King's movement overseas to India.
To read more about Major Anderson and his wartime experiences, please click on the following link: Major Gilmour Menzies Anderson
In July 1942, the 13th King's were given over to Brigadier Wingate and began their training regime in the Central Provinces of India. Major Anderson was given command of No. 6 Column at the Saugor Camp and he began the process of bringing his unit up to the required strength and capabilities needed in the performance of Long Range Penetration duties. Sadly, over the course of the coming weeks and months, many of the men found the exertions of Chindit training too much for both their minds and bodies and non more so than from within No. 6 Column. In the end it was decided to close down one of the King's columns and move the remaining men over to bolster the three surviving units. Unfortunately for Major Anderson, No. 6 Column was chosen and on the 26th December this unit was disbanded whilst the Brigade were stationed for the Christmas period at Jhansi.
An extremely disgruntled Major Anderson was left to drown his sorrows at Jhansi, taking full part in Bernard Fergusson's Hogmanay celebrations a few nights later. Fergusson later remarked in his book, Beyond the Chindwin:
Gim Anderson was devastated to lose command of his column. He was then attached to Brigade Headquarters, where I found him one day not long after we had crossed the Chindwin in February 1943. He told me he did not think he was going to enjoy this placement one bit; he had no definite job and in his opinion was merely an extra Cipher Officer and bottle-washer.
No. 6 Column's demise was recorded in the battalion war diary for 1942:
21st December:
All columns have been brushing up on training, in particular river crossings using the Betwa River. Christmas arrangements are not easy as there is very little to do, but a fairly good meal has been prepared and a concert to follow. It has been decided as a result of the recent exercise, that there a still men of all ranks, including officers who are not physically suited to the job at hand and they will have to be discarded. This means that we will fall well under War establishment strength as a battalion. It had been decided to do away with one of the columns and use the remaining fit men to bring the other three columns up to full strength. Accordingly, No. 6 Column is to be cut, which has caused great disappointment from amongst its men, but it has to be done.
The commander of No. 6 Column was Gim Anderson of the Highland Light Infantry and the original Adjutant of the 13th King's. He was a sandy-haired solicitor from Glasgow, of which city he was already a councillor at the age of just twenty-seven and was one of the best officers we had in the Brigade.
Bernard Fergusson, from his book Beyond the Chindwin.
Gilmour Menzies Anderson was born on the 29th April 1914 in the Hillhead district of Glasgow. He was the son of William Menzies Anderson DSO, MC and Jessie Jack Gilmour. He was educated at Glasgow High School and Glasgow University, where presumably he studied Law as he became a qualified Solicitor in 1939. He was a Cadet at the Kelvinside Academy and undertook his officer training here before being commissioned into the Highland Light Infantry (6th Battalion) on the 24th May 1939, whilst serving with the Territorial Army. He also served as a Glasgow City councillor before the war, where he represented the Ruchill Ward.
2nd Lieutenant Anderson was mobilised on the 24th August 1939 with the Highland Light Infantry, before moving across to the 13th Battalion of the King's Regiment on the 6th July 1940 and taking on the roll of battalion Adjutant with immediate effect. After receiving two successive promotions in October 1940, Menzies Anderson was elevated once more, this time to the rank of Temporary Major in August 1941 and just prior to the 13th King's movement overseas to India.
To read more about Major Anderson and his wartime experiences, please click on the following link: Major Gilmour Menzies Anderson
In July 1942, the 13th King's were given over to Brigadier Wingate and began their training regime in the Central Provinces of India. Major Anderson was given command of No. 6 Column at the Saugor Camp and he began the process of bringing his unit up to the required strength and capabilities needed in the performance of Long Range Penetration duties. Sadly, over the course of the coming weeks and months, many of the men found the exertions of Chindit training too much for both their minds and bodies and non more so than from within No. 6 Column. In the end it was decided to close down one of the King's columns and move the remaining men over to bolster the three surviving units. Unfortunately for Major Anderson, No. 6 Column was chosen and on the 26th December this unit was disbanded whilst the Brigade were stationed for the Christmas period at Jhansi.
An extremely disgruntled Major Anderson was left to drown his sorrows at Jhansi, taking full part in Bernard Fergusson's Hogmanay celebrations a few nights later. Fergusson later remarked in his book, Beyond the Chindwin:
Gim Anderson was devastated to lose command of his column. He was then attached to Brigade Headquarters, where I found him one day not long after we had crossed the Chindwin in February 1943. He told me he did not think he was going to enjoy this placement one bit; he had no definite job and in his opinion was merely an extra Cipher Officer and bottle-washer.
No. 6 Column's demise was recorded in the battalion war diary for 1942:
21st December:
All columns have been brushing up on training, in particular river crossings using the Betwa River. Christmas arrangements are not easy as there is very little to do, but a fairly good meal has been prepared and a concert to follow. It has been decided as a result of the recent exercise, that there a still men of all ranks, including officers who are not physically suited to the job at hand and they will have to be discarded. This means that we will fall well under War establishment strength as a battalion. It had been decided to do away with one of the columns and use the remaining fit men to bring the other three columns up to full strength. Accordingly, No. 6 Column is to be cut, which has caused great disappointment from amongst its men, but it has to be done.
Major Anderson (middle row, third right) aboard the troopship, Oronsay in January 1942.
Although devastated in not being able to lead his men into Burma, Major Anderson did not have to wait long for a change of fortune. Around the beginning of March, as the Chindit Brigade approached their main points of attack along the Mandalay-Myitkhina railway, No. 4 Column had run in to difficulties. Disappointed with the performance of the then 4 Column Commander, Wingate relieved this officer of his command and sent his Brigade-Major, George Bromhead across to take control. In his place as Brigade-Major, Wingate promoted Gim Anderson and from this moment on he was involved in all decision making within the Brigade.
Major Anderson (left) on his return from Operation Longcloth.
For his efforts during the first Wingate expedition, Major Anderson was awarded the M.B.E.
The official recommendation was put forward by Brigadier Wingate and read:
Major Anderson trained and commanded No. 6 Column until the 2nd March, when he became Brigade-Major. He had no previous experience of staff work, but the rapidity with which he grasped his duties and the vigour and intelligence he displayed in their charge won my admiration. At this juncture, bad work on the part of any new Brigade-Major might well have jeopardised the safety of the whole Brigade, but from the time of taking over, until the final dispersal of the Brigade for the return march, Major Anderson never flagged of failed to give me perfect satisfaction. Not physically strong, he wore himself out by continuous and devoted application to his duties. His judgement was sound and of value to me on many occasions. The excellent work done by this officer whose military experience is of recent date is deserving of the highest praise and recognition.
Gim Anderson was heavily involved in the planning and preparations for the second Chindit operation in 1944, but did not actually take part on the expedition itself. He was promoted to War Substantive Lt-Colonel on the 25th April 1944 and eventually assumed the role of Second-in-Command of the 16th British Infantry Brigade, as the returning Chindit columns were amalgamated at Dehra Dun for rest and recuperation, before being reallocated to various other units. By February 1945, he had attained the rank of Acting Brigadier and was now in full command of 16th Brigade. On the 2nd July 1945, he relinquished command of 16th Brigade to Lt-Colonel A.J. Newall of the King's Regiment and moved to the British Base Reinforcement Centre at Deolali for repatriation to the United Kingdom.
Gilmour Menzies Anderson left the British Army with the rank of Honorary Brigadier in 1945 and resumed his career in the political arena. He became the Chairman of the Glasgow Unionist Association in 1954 and became President of the Scottish Unionist Association in 1960. He was awarded the CBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1956 for his work in the political and public sectors. After holding the deputy position since 1965, he became the Chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party in 1967, a post he held for almost five years. In 1962, he was Knighted for his services to politics in Scotland. Gilmour Menzies Anderson sadly passed away on the 12th December 1977, whilst being treated at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow.
The official recommendation was put forward by Brigadier Wingate and read:
Major Anderson trained and commanded No. 6 Column until the 2nd March, when he became Brigade-Major. He had no previous experience of staff work, but the rapidity with which he grasped his duties and the vigour and intelligence he displayed in their charge won my admiration. At this juncture, bad work on the part of any new Brigade-Major might well have jeopardised the safety of the whole Brigade, but from the time of taking over, until the final dispersal of the Brigade for the return march, Major Anderson never flagged of failed to give me perfect satisfaction. Not physically strong, he wore himself out by continuous and devoted application to his duties. His judgement was sound and of value to me on many occasions. The excellent work done by this officer whose military experience is of recent date is deserving of the highest praise and recognition.
Gim Anderson was heavily involved in the planning and preparations for the second Chindit operation in 1944, but did not actually take part on the expedition itself. He was promoted to War Substantive Lt-Colonel on the 25th April 1944 and eventually assumed the role of Second-in-Command of the 16th British Infantry Brigade, as the returning Chindit columns were amalgamated at Dehra Dun for rest and recuperation, before being reallocated to various other units. By February 1945, he had attained the rank of Acting Brigadier and was now in full command of 16th Brigade. On the 2nd July 1945, he relinquished command of 16th Brigade to Lt-Colonel A.J. Newall of the King's Regiment and moved to the British Base Reinforcement Centre at Deolali for repatriation to the United Kingdom.
Gilmour Menzies Anderson left the British Army with the rank of Honorary Brigadier in 1945 and resumed his career in the political arena. He became the Chairman of the Glasgow Unionist Association in 1954 and became President of the Scottish Unionist Association in 1960. He was awarded the CBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1956 for his work in the political and public sectors. After holding the deputy position since 1965, he became the Chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party in 1967, a post he held for almost five years. In 1962, he was Knighted for his services to politics in Scotland. Gilmour Menzies Anderson sadly passed away on the 12th December 1977, whilst being treated at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow.
Kenneth Gilkes, India 1942.
Major Kenneth Daintry Gilkes
Kenneth Gilkes was born on the 30th August 1908 in Patcham, located on the northern outskirts of Brighton in Sussex. He was the son of John Harry and Edith Gilkes and the brother of John Ewart and Charles Arthur Gilkes both of whom served their country during the Great War. As the clouds of war began to gather for a second time, Kenneth enlisted into the Army and was posted in the first instance to the North Staffordshire Regiment, the same regiment that his older brother John Ewart had served with in WW1.
In June 1941, Lieutenant Kenneth Gilkes was transferred to the 13th Battalion of the King's Regiment and became, almost immediately, the battalion Adjutant, which included the responsibility of keeping the units war diary throughout that period. During 1941, the 13th King's performed defence duties along the south-eastern coastline of England, serving for a time at places such as Colchester, Felixstowe and Rayleigh in Essex. In late November, the battalion moved to Blackburn in preparation for service overseas. On the 8th December the King's embarked for India aboard the troopship, Oronsay, leaving Liverpool docks the very next day as part of Convoy WS14.
After the battalion had been allocated to Brigadier Wingate in July 1942, Kenneth Gilkes, now holding the rank of Major was given command of No. 7 Column, made up almost entirely from men of C' Company, the King's Regiment. He kept around him several of the officers he had first met back in England when he first joined the battalion; men such as Leslie Cottrell, Harold Blackburne and Henry Cotton. After training was concluded in December 1942, Major Gilkes was given the responsibility of overseeing the transportation of both No. 7 and No. 2 Column aboard special train S. P. 8, from the setting off point at Jhansi, until their arrival at the Brigade holding location at Imphal in Assam.
During Operation Longcloth, No. 7 Column was often split up into sub-units in order to perform the various tasks required by Brigadier Wingate as the expedition in Burma unfolded. This often left senior officers, such as Leslie Cottrell in temporary charge of large groups of men and away from the comfort and security of the main column strength.
Generally the column shadowed Wingate and his Brigade HQ during the expedition. However, once the order to disperse was called, Gilkes (known to his men as Mr. Calm) decided to make for the Chinese borders instead of returning to India by the same route the Chindits had first entered Burma back in February. His column had been fully re-fitted with equipment in early April 1943 and had enjoyed a recent supply drop of food and ammunition shortly after crossing the Shweli River. Gilkes felt his men should have the means to make the longer, but hopefully safer route out of Burma that year. The trip out into China through Yunnan Province would take on average 4-6 weeks longer than marching directly west towards India.
Along the way the dispersal groups of 7 Column would endure great hardship as they combatted the wild and exposed terrain of the Chinese hinterland. Eventually they reached areas occupied by Chinese troops and were well treated and more importantly well fed by their Allies. On reaching their final safe haven (Paoshan) the majority of the column enjoyed the very great luxury of a lift back to India aboard the USAAF Dakotas that were present in the area. Other soldiers from No. 7 Column who not so fortunate, would not arrive back in India until well into July.
Kenneth Gilkes was born on the 30th August 1908 in Patcham, located on the northern outskirts of Brighton in Sussex. He was the son of John Harry and Edith Gilkes and the brother of John Ewart and Charles Arthur Gilkes both of whom served their country during the Great War. As the clouds of war began to gather for a second time, Kenneth enlisted into the Army and was posted in the first instance to the North Staffordshire Regiment, the same regiment that his older brother John Ewart had served with in WW1.
In June 1941, Lieutenant Kenneth Gilkes was transferred to the 13th Battalion of the King's Regiment and became, almost immediately, the battalion Adjutant, which included the responsibility of keeping the units war diary throughout that period. During 1941, the 13th King's performed defence duties along the south-eastern coastline of England, serving for a time at places such as Colchester, Felixstowe and Rayleigh in Essex. In late November, the battalion moved to Blackburn in preparation for service overseas. On the 8th December the King's embarked for India aboard the troopship, Oronsay, leaving Liverpool docks the very next day as part of Convoy WS14.
After the battalion had been allocated to Brigadier Wingate in July 1942, Kenneth Gilkes, now holding the rank of Major was given command of No. 7 Column, made up almost entirely from men of C' Company, the King's Regiment. He kept around him several of the officers he had first met back in England when he first joined the battalion; men such as Leslie Cottrell, Harold Blackburne and Henry Cotton. After training was concluded in December 1942, Major Gilkes was given the responsibility of overseeing the transportation of both No. 7 and No. 2 Column aboard special train S. P. 8, from the setting off point at Jhansi, until their arrival at the Brigade holding location at Imphal in Assam.
During Operation Longcloth, No. 7 Column was often split up into sub-units in order to perform the various tasks required by Brigadier Wingate as the expedition in Burma unfolded. This often left senior officers, such as Leslie Cottrell in temporary charge of large groups of men and away from the comfort and security of the main column strength.
Generally the column shadowed Wingate and his Brigade HQ during the expedition. However, once the order to disperse was called, Gilkes (known to his men as Mr. Calm) decided to make for the Chinese borders instead of returning to India by the same route the Chindits had first entered Burma back in February. His column had been fully re-fitted with equipment in early April 1943 and had enjoyed a recent supply drop of food and ammunition shortly after crossing the Shweli River. Gilkes felt his men should have the means to make the longer, but hopefully safer route out of Burma that year. The trip out into China through Yunnan Province would take on average 4-6 weeks longer than marching directly west towards India.
Along the way the dispersal groups of 7 Column would endure great hardship as they combatted the wild and exposed terrain of the Chinese hinterland. Eventually they reached areas occupied by Chinese troops and were well treated and more importantly well fed by their Allies. On reaching their final safe haven (Paoshan) the majority of the column enjoyed the very great luxury of a lift back to India aboard the USAAF Dakotas that were present in the area. Other soldiers from No. 7 Column who not so fortunate, would not arrive back in India until well into July.
The Chinese Army officers that assisted No. 7 Column at Paoshan in June 1943.
During the months of April and May 1943, many returning Chindits began re-crossing the Chindwin River in penny-packets and small dispersal parties. No news of the whereabouts of No. 7 Column had been received and hopes of seeing Major Gilkes and his men again began to fade. It was known that he had decided to take his men out via the Chinese borders, but with no word of his whereabouts since mid-April, a message was sent home to his family explaining that he was missing and now presumed dead. Quite obviously, this terrible news was to cause much distress and consternation back home in Sussex. As it turned out, on the 7th June, Gilkes and the majority of his column began to arrive back in India aboard the above mentioned USAAF Dakotas, with the commander himself landing at Chabua in Assam late that same evening. After making contact with 77 Brigade HQ, now based at Imphal, Gilkes spent the following days collating witness statements in relation to those killed and lost on his column's epic march through Yunnan Province.
For his efforts on Operation Longcloth, Kenneth Gilkes was awarded the Military Cross:
Brigade-77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Corps-4th Corps
Unit-North Staffordshire Regiment, attached 13th Battalion, The King's Regiment.
Rank and Name:
Captain 122252 (T/Major) Kenneth Daintry Gilkes
Action for which recommended :-
Operations in Burma, February - May 1943
Major Gilkes was Column Commander of No. 7 (British) Column which was involved on several occasions in sharp fighting. At Kyunbin on 13th March, 1943, when the enemy was found in possession of the area where a supply dropping had been arranged, he led his column with fearlessness and resolution. Following the dispersal of the Brigade, after two failures to cross the Shweli River, he managed to effect the crossing about 6th April and set out with great resolution to march to China. Handicapped by the presence in his force of a large number of sick and wounded men his pace was necessary slow; but he showed resolution and determination in a period of many disappointments during which difficult and sometimes painful decisions had to be made. He accepted all responsibilities cheerfully; and it is a tribute to his fine leadership that he was able to reach China, with unreliable maps, through unknown country and with 9 officers and 140 men. It is known that the bearing and behaviour of the troops when they arrived in the Chinese lines deeply impressed our Allies. Despite the hardships and worries which beset the journey, Major Gilkes collected a mass of invaluable information which might never otherwise have become available.
Recommended By-Brigadier O.C. Wingate, DSO
Commander-77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Honour or Reward-Military Cross
Signed By-Brigadier O.C. Wingate
(London Gazette 16th December 1943.
Brigade-77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Corps-4th Corps
Unit-North Staffordshire Regiment, attached 13th Battalion, The King's Regiment.
Rank and Name:
Captain 122252 (T/Major) Kenneth Daintry Gilkes
Action for which recommended :-
Operations in Burma, February - May 1943
Major Gilkes was Column Commander of No. 7 (British) Column which was involved on several occasions in sharp fighting. At Kyunbin on 13th March, 1943, when the enemy was found in possession of the area where a supply dropping had been arranged, he led his column with fearlessness and resolution. Following the dispersal of the Brigade, after two failures to cross the Shweli River, he managed to effect the crossing about 6th April and set out with great resolution to march to China. Handicapped by the presence in his force of a large number of sick and wounded men his pace was necessary slow; but he showed resolution and determination in a period of many disappointments during which difficult and sometimes painful decisions had to be made. He accepted all responsibilities cheerfully; and it is a tribute to his fine leadership that he was able to reach China, with unreliable maps, through unknown country and with 9 officers and 140 men. It is known that the bearing and behaviour of the troops when they arrived in the Chinese lines deeply impressed our Allies. Despite the hardships and worries which beset the journey, Major Gilkes collected a mass of invaluable information which might never otherwise have become available.
Recommended By-Brigadier O.C. Wingate, DSO
Commander-77th Indian Infantry Brigade
Honour or Reward-Military Cross
Signed By-Brigadier O.C. Wingate
(London Gazette 16th December 1943.
From the pages of the Brighton & Hove Herald, dated 3rd July 1943:
Hove Major Leads Jungle Exploit
One of those stirring chapters of the war which justify the word epic has come to light, by the return to India, via China, of a section of Brigadier Wingate's expedition. They spent four months, under the most hazardous conditions of jungle warfare, in harassing the Japanese inside Burma. Major Kenneth Gilkes, of Queen's Gardens, Hove, youngest son of Mr. Harry Gilkes JP, was the commander of the column which crossed into the Chinese border after their months of hide-and-seek with the Japanese rearguard and joined up with Chinese guerrillas.
There was a brief pause in their spartan regime of fighting, marching and looking after their animals and weapons, and incidentally, growing beards, because of the Brigadier's objection to the time wasted in shaving; while the main forces engaged the enemy in the battle on the River Salween. Then as promised, the Chinese pushed the Japanese back and and the column was able to resume its journey. They had wanted to push on through the Japanese lines, but their Chinese hosts were too solicitous for the safety of the British soldiers who had harried the enemy so successfully for four months in the jungle; so they were persuaded to await the outcome of the battle before trekking on again.
It is a matter of military history, how Wingate's men in crossing the Chindwin River last February, took the Japanese by complete surprise, ambushed them day after day and ran them round in circles. Soon after their arrival in China, Major Gilkes' column received lavish hospitality from a Chinese General, who gave a very costly dinner in honour of the British soldiers, "whose trousers are not creased." (a remark aimed at the rather starchy British officers encountered thus far). The rich Chinese food was like a dream come true to the men who had been subsisting on rice, mule, buffalo and even python as their daily fare. The fame of their exploits has spread wide in the Far East theatre.
It is a happy coincidence that Major Gilkes, a Sussex man, should have been posted to a Staffordshire Regiment as a subaltern, because in the last war, his elder brothers, Major John Ewart Gilkes and Major Arthur Gilkes, both now on active service in other fields, were also originally posted to Staffordshire regiments.
Hove Major Leads Jungle Exploit
One of those stirring chapters of the war which justify the word epic has come to light, by the return to India, via China, of a section of Brigadier Wingate's expedition. They spent four months, under the most hazardous conditions of jungle warfare, in harassing the Japanese inside Burma. Major Kenneth Gilkes, of Queen's Gardens, Hove, youngest son of Mr. Harry Gilkes JP, was the commander of the column which crossed into the Chinese border after their months of hide-and-seek with the Japanese rearguard and joined up with Chinese guerrillas.
There was a brief pause in their spartan regime of fighting, marching and looking after their animals and weapons, and incidentally, growing beards, because of the Brigadier's objection to the time wasted in shaving; while the main forces engaged the enemy in the battle on the River Salween. Then as promised, the Chinese pushed the Japanese back and and the column was able to resume its journey. They had wanted to push on through the Japanese lines, but their Chinese hosts were too solicitous for the safety of the British soldiers who had harried the enemy so successfully for four months in the jungle; so they were persuaded to await the outcome of the battle before trekking on again.
It is a matter of military history, how Wingate's men in crossing the Chindwin River last February, took the Japanese by complete surprise, ambushed them day after day and ran them round in circles. Soon after their arrival in China, Major Gilkes' column received lavish hospitality from a Chinese General, who gave a very costly dinner in honour of the British soldiers, "whose trousers are not creased." (a remark aimed at the rather starchy British officers encountered thus far). The rich Chinese food was like a dream come true to the men who had been subsisting on rice, mule, buffalo and even python as their daily fare. The fame of their exploits has spread wide in the Far East theatre.
It is a happy coincidence that Major Gilkes, a Sussex man, should have been posted to a Staffordshire Regiment as a subaltern, because in the last war, his elder brothers, Major John Ewart Gilkes and Major Arthur Gilkes, both now on active service in other fields, were also originally posted to Staffordshire regiments.
It is not known if Major Gilkes took part on the second Wingate expedition in 1944. As mentioned previously, after returning from China on the 7th June 1943 and leaving his men to obtain medical treatment from an American Mission Hospital, Gilkes went immediately to 77th Brigade Head Quarters, based at that time at Imphal. Here he gave his report on 7 Column's dispersal and adventures in Yunnan Province. Not long after, on the 15th June, the BBC broadcast that a British Column from the Wingate expedition had recently returned from China after being evacuated by the United States Air Force.
From this moment on, Gilkes is never mentioned in the War diary of the 13th King's again; not even in the monthly list of officers present with the battalion. I wonder if, due to the telegram sent to his family mistakenly informing them that he was presumed killed in action, that Major Gilkes was allowed to go home on compassionate grounds?
Kenneth Gilkes returned home to Sussex at the end of the war and built up a successful wallpaper business in Brighton. It is also thought that he became the Chairman of the Sussex County Cricket Club for a time.
As a footnote to his own Burma memoir, another Chindit from No. 7 Column, Fred Morgan recalled an incident that occurred in April 1985, whilst he was living in the West Sussex town of Worthing:
One morning I happened to be walking along the promenade, when I noticed a very tall gentleman coming towards me, and funnily enough I recognised the way he walked. It was my Column Commander, Major Ken Gilkes.
I stopped him and asked, Major Gilkes?
"Yes" he replied.
I said the last time I saw you was on the East Bank of the Irrawaddy when you detailed my section to cross the river to form a bridgehead. He was overjoyed at seeing me again and we met on several occasions after that, going over those momentous times in 1943.
Sadly he died on the 5th November of that year. I attended his funeral in West Chiltington and amongst those present were Wingate's son (Orde Jonathan) and Mike Calvert.
Seen below is a final gallery of images in relation to this story, including a copy of one of the witness statements written by Kenneth Gilkes, describing the last known whereabouts of some of his men. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
From this moment on, Gilkes is never mentioned in the War diary of the 13th King's again; not even in the monthly list of officers present with the battalion. I wonder if, due to the telegram sent to his family mistakenly informing them that he was presumed killed in action, that Major Gilkes was allowed to go home on compassionate grounds?
Kenneth Gilkes returned home to Sussex at the end of the war and built up a successful wallpaper business in Brighton. It is also thought that he became the Chairman of the Sussex County Cricket Club for a time.
As a footnote to his own Burma memoir, another Chindit from No. 7 Column, Fred Morgan recalled an incident that occurred in April 1985, whilst he was living in the West Sussex town of Worthing:
One morning I happened to be walking along the promenade, when I noticed a very tall gentleman coming towards me, and funnily enough I recognised the way he walked. It was my Column Commander, Major Ken Gilkes.
I stopped him and asked, Major Gilkes?
"Yes" he replied.
I said the last time I saw you was on the East Bank of the Irrawaddy when you detailed my section to cross the river to form a bridgehead. He was overjoyed at seeing me again and we met on several occasions after that, going over those momentous times in 1943.
Sadly he died on the 5th November of that year. I attended his funeral in West Chiltington and amongst those present were Wingate's son (Orde Jonathan) and Mike Calvert.
Seen below is a final gallery of images in relation to this story, including a copy of one of the witness statements written by Kenneth Gilkes, describing the last known whereabouts of some of his men. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Postscript.
It was my very great fortune back in 2013, to be contacted by Kenneth Gilkes' great grandson, Matt. In a flurry of emails over the following few weeks, we exchanged photographs and information about his great grandfather, some of which Matt used in a school project he had recently undertaken. I would like to thank Matt and his wider family for all the help they have given me, in understanding more about Major Gilkes, the Chindit commander.
It was my very great fortune back in 2013, to be contacted by Kenneth Gilkes' great grandson, Matt. In a flurry of emails over the following few weeks, we exchanged photographs and information about his great grandfather, some of which Matt used in a school project he had recently undertaken. I would like to thank Matt and his wider family for all the help they have given me, in understanding more about Major Gilkes, the Chindit commander.
No. 7 Column's second officer on Operation Longcloth was Captain Leslie Cottrell and he had this to say about Kenneth Gilkes and the performance of his men:
No one, as far as I know, has seen fit to give the Major (Gilkes) the credit due to him as commander of 7 Column. The only column commander who was an emergency commissioned officer, Major K.D. Gilkes, a quietly-spoken man of Sussex, had at all times the respect of his men, whom he in turn held in the highest regard. He understood that these men were not elite troops, that they were being asked to perform in WW2, a role at which many a seasoned veteran would have blanched; and never at any time did he forget that he was in command not of men, but rather of wives' husbands, children's fathers and mother's sons. He had a sound understanding of Wingate's strategy and quite a remarkable and keenly developed tactical sense. Above all, he had the perseverance and the unflagging determination without which a leader, confronted with near impossible odds, could ever win through. He bore in every sense and in fullest measure the heat of the day. He was a man I felt very privileged to serve.
No one, as far as I know, has seen fit to give the Major (Gilkes) the credit due to him as commander of 7 Column. The only column commander who was an emergency commissioned officer, Major K.D. Gilkes, a quietly-spoken man of Sussex, had at all times the respect of his men, whom he in turn held in the highest regard. He understood that these men were not elite troops, that they were being asked to perform in WW2, a role at which many a seasoned veteran would have blanched; and never at any time did he forget that he was in command not of men, but rather of wives' husbands, children's fathers and mother's sons. He had a sound understanding of Wingate's strategy and quite a remarkable and keenly developed tactical sense. Above all, he had the perseverance and the unflagging determination without which a leader, confronted with near impossible odds, could ever win through. He bore in every sense and in fullest measure the heat of the day. He was a man I felt very privileged to serve.
Walter Purcell Scott, Burma 1943.
Major Walter Purcell Scott
It is hard to know exactly where to begin, when attempting to describe Walter Purcell Scott's contribution to the Chindit story and folklore. This narrative is the final addition to this particular page, not just numerically because he was the commander of No. 8 Column, but because it has taken a long time to draw down and sort all of the potential anecdotes and high tales written about the man.
His leadership of No. 8 Column during Operation Longcloth was heralded by all he commanded as being both nurturing and inspiring. All the soldiers who served with Scottie, for this is what they came to call him during those early days behind enemy lines in Burma, never forgot his strong but fair-minded character and most would bless the day that they were posted to serve under him.
In my early days researching the Chindits from the first Wingate expedition and before I knew for sure which column my own grandfather had marched with in 1943, I often wondered, indeed hoped that he had been one of Scottie's men. This of course aims no disrespect towards Bernard Fergusson, my grandfather's actual commander, but whilst reading the various books about the campaign, you could not help but sense the connection between Scott and his soldiers and their complete trust in his leadership.
From the book, With Wingate in Burma, by David Halley and a quote from Sgt. Tony Aubrey of No. 8 Column:
There is only one word to use about Major Scott, he was a smasher. He had personality, courage, foresight, and the greatest of all qualities in a leader, luck. He had been a Lance Corporal during the battle of France and so he knew the mens point of view. He had as much time for the thoughts and ideas of the humble private, as he had for his second in command. He respected his men and they would follow him anywhere.
It is hard to know exactly where to begin, when attempting to describe Walter Purcell Scott's contribution to the Chindit story and folklore. This narrative is the final addition to this particular page, not just numerically because he was the commander of No. 8 Column, but because it has taken a long time to draw down and sort all of the potential anecdotes and high tales written about the man.
His leadership of No. 8 Column during Operation Longcloth was heralded by all he commanded as being both nurturing and inspiring. All the soldiers who served with Scottie, for this is what they came to call him during those early days behind enemy lines in Burma, never forgot his strong but fair-minded character and most would bless the day that they were posted to serve under him.
In my early days researching the Chindits from the first Wingate expedition and before I knew for sure which column my own grandfather had marched with in 1943, I often wondered, indeed hoped that he had been one of Scottie's men. This of course aims no disrespect towards Bernard Fergusson, my grandfather's actual commander, but whilst reading the various books about the campaign, you could not help but sense the connection between Scott and his soldiers and their complete trust in his leadership.
From the book, With Wingate in Burma, by David Halley and a quote from Sgt. Tony Aubrey of No. 8 Column:
There is only one word to use about Major Scott, he was a smasher. He had personality, courage, foresight, and the greatest of all qualities in a leader, luck. He had been a Lance Corporal during the battle of France and so he knew the mens point of view. He had as much time for the thoughts and ideas of the humble private, as he had for his second in command. He respected his men and they would follow him anywhere.
Walter was born on the 28th November 1910 and was the eldest son of Mr. & Mrs. W.C. Scott from Formby on Merseyside. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, an independent day school situated at that time in the town of Crosby, also on Merseyside.
Judging by the photograph seen to the left, even at the tender age of just five years old, it seemed destined that Walter would serve in the Armed Forces. In the 1930's, Walter worked for the Liverpool Corporation in the Electrical Supply Department. By 1937, he had volunteered for the Royal Engineers Reserve and in 1939 found himself serving with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, where he was recommended for a commission.
In the end, Scottie opted for a commission with the Infantry rather than the Royal Engineers, stating in an interview at the Imperial War Museum recorded in 1991, that he wanted to work with soldiers much more than just equipment. After attending Sandhurst for officer training, 2nd Lieutenant (137453) W. P. Scott was posted to the 13th Battalion, The King's (Liverpool) Regiment in July 1940 and joined up with them at their Jordan Hill Army Base in Glasgow.
Within a short period, Scottie was given command of D' Company within the battalion and over the coming months would lead this section of the 13th King's as they performed coastal defence duties in the south east corner of England. In late 1941, he returned with the battalion to their home city of Liverpool, where they boarded the troopship Oronsay on the 8th December and embarked on overseas service to India. Arriving in mid-January 1942, the battalion took up residence at the Gough Barracks in the city of Secunderabad and performed garrison and internal security duties for the following four months.
In June 1942, the 13th King's were given over to Brigadier Orde Wingate and became the British Infantry element of his newly formed 77th Indian Infantry Brigade. Training began for his Long Range Penetration and jungle warfare methods at the Saugor Camp located in the Central Provinces of India. Soon after his arrival, Major Scott was given command of No. 8 Column within the Brigade, which was comprised mostly from the Kingsmen of D Company. Also during this initial period it is stated that Scott, alongside other Chindit commanders such as Mike Calvert, travelled to Australia to take part in more intensive Special Forces training and manoeuvres.
On Operation Longcloth, No. 8 Column marched in close proximity to No. 7 Column and Wingate's Brigade Head Quarters. During the early weeks of the expedition his men were employed in the disruption of areas known to be occupied by the enemy. The Japanese garrisons at places such Pinlebu and Kame were attacked by 8 Column and ambushes were set along the tracks and pathways used by the enemy for the transportation of supplies. One particular event during 8 Column's journey on Operation Longcloth, was to produce possibly the most iconic imagery from the expedition, when on the 28th April 1943, seventeen sick and wounded Chindits were flown back to Allied territory, after a RAF Dakota had managed to set down on a large meadow deep behind enemy lines. Major Scott was the main instigator of the rescue, which would see the most senior officer from the battalion, Colonel S.A. Cooke arrive safely back in India. To read more about the incident, please click on the following link: The Piccadilly Incident
Alaric Jacob was the war correspondent for the Daily Express and Reuters during WW2 and was assigned to Operation Longcloth in February 1943 and marched with No. 8 Column up until the Chindits crossed the Chindwin River. In his book, A Traveller's War, he mentions Major Scott at around that time:
Darkness gathered and a thunderstorm rolled around as we reached the Chindwin at Tonhe. Thankfully, this was the only opposition we encountered. As the men got about their business at the river, Major Scott stripped away his uniform and led his charger into the black water followed by the commandos in their rubber boats. The Major called out to me as he disappeared into the dark stream, Have a drink for me at the Cornmarket pub (Liverpool), if you are home before me. It was typical of the man.
Judging by the photograph seen to the left, even at the tender age of just five years old, it seemed destined that Walter would serve in the Armed Forces. In the 1930's, Walter worked for the Liverpool Corporation in the Electrical Supply Department. By 1937, he had volunteered for the Royal Engineers Reserve and in 1939 found himself serving with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, where he was recommended for a commission.
In the end, Scottie opted for a commission with the Infantry rather than the Royal Engineers, stating in an interview at the Imperial War Museum recorded in 1991, that he wanted to work with soldiers much more than just equipment. After attending Sandhurst for officer training, 2nd Lieutenant (137453) W. P. Scott was posted to the 13th Battalion, The King's (Liverpool) Regiment in July 1940 and joined up with them at their Jordan Hill Army Base in Glasgow.
Within a short period, Scottie was given command of D' Company within the battalion and over the coming months would lead this section of the 13th King's as they performed coastal defence duties in the south east corner of England. In late 1941, he returned with the battalion to their home city of Liverpool, where they boarded the troopship Oronsay on the 8th December and embarked on overseas service to India. Arriving in mid-January 1942, the battalion took up residence at the Gough Barracks in the city of Secunderabad and performed garrison and internal security duties for the following four months.
In June 1942, the 13th King's were given over to Brigadier Orde Wingate and became the British Infantry element of his newly formed 77th Indian Infantry Brigade. Training began for his Long Range Penetration and jungle warfare methods at the Saugor Camp located in the Central Provinces of India. Soon after his arrival, Major Scott was given command of No. 8 Column within the Brigade, which was comprised mostly from the Kingsmen of D Company. Also during this initial period it is stated that Scott, alongside other Chindit commanders such as Mike Calvert, travelled to Australia to take part in more intensive Special Forces training and manoeuvres.
On Operation Longcloth, No. 8 Column marched in close proximity to No. 7 Column and Wingate's Brigade Head Quarters. During the early weeks of the expedition his men were employed in the disruption of areas known to be occupied by the enemy. The Japanese garrisons at places such Pinlebu and Kame were attacked by 8 Column and ambushes were set along the tracks and pathways used by the enemy for the transportation of supplies. One particular event during 8 Column's journey on Operation Longcloth, was to produce possibly the most iconic imagery from the expedition, when on the 28th April 1943, seventeen sick and wounded Chindits were flown back to Allied territory, after a RAF Dakota had managed to set down on a large meadow deep behind enemy lines. Major Scott was the main instigator of the rescue, which would see the most senior officer from the battalion, Colonel S.A. Cooke arrive safely back in India. To read more about the incident, please click on the following link: The Piccadilly Incident
Alaric Jacob was the war correspondent for the Daily Express and Reuters during WW2 and was assigned to Operation Longcloth in February 1943 and marched with No. 8 Column up until the Chindits crossed the Chindwin River. In his book, A Traveller's War, he mentions Major Scott at around that time:
Darkness gathered and a thunderstorm rolled around as we reached the Chindwin at Tonhe. Thankfully, this was the only opposition we encountered. As the men got about their business at the river, Major Scott stripped away his uniform and led his charger into the black water followed by the commandos in their rubber boats. The Major called out to me as he disappeared into the dark stream, Have a drink for me at the Cornmarket pub (Liverpool), if you are home before me. It was typical of the man.
For his efforts on Operation Longcloth, Major Scott was awarded the Military Cross:
Operations in Burma, February - May 1943
Major Scott commanded No.8 Column throughout operations in Burma, February-May 1943. On 13th March at Kyunbin, 24th March at Baw and on 12th April at the Nisan Forest Rest House, he led his column against enemy occupied positions. On all these occasions he displayed conspicuous personal courage and powers of leadership. Regardless of his own safety, he accompanied his leading troops, encouraging and inspiring them by his presence and determination.
On 30th April at the Kaukkwe Chaung, when his command comprised a dispersal group of 150 officers and men, his party had just completed the crossing of the stream by raft when it was attacked by an enemy force greatly superior in automatic weapons. Major Scott again showed great courage and initiative, rapidly organising his column in such a manner that it was enabled with only slight loss to slip through the enemy encirclement. The great majority of his men were able to return to the British Lines in safety. All through the operations his cheerfulness, vitality and example were an inspiration to all troops, British, Burmese and Indian, under his command.
Recommended By: Brigadier O.C. Wingate, D.S.O.
Commander-77th Indian Infantry Brigade
London Gazette 16th December 1943.
NB. To read about any of the engagements mentioned in Major Scott's MC citation, simply type the place name into the search engine at the top right had corner of this, or any page.
Back home in Liverpool, it was not long before news of Scottie's achievements reached his family and friends. From the Liverpool Evening Express, dated 21st December 1943:
Crosby Major's MC
Captain (temporary Major) Walter Purcell Scott, (King's Regiment), the eldest son of the late Mr. W.C. Scott of Kimberley Drive, Crosby, has been awarded the Military Cross for bravery in Burma during the first Wingate expedition. He is on the staff of the Liverpool Corporation Electrical Supply Department. Major Scott has two brothers serving in the war, one in the RAF and one at sea with the Maritime A.A. His youngest brother, Constable V.J. Scott was awarded the George Medal in December 1940, for his gallant rescue work during German air raids.
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to this part of the narrative, including a photograph of the Dakota rescue plane receiving the sick and wounded Chindits on April 28th 1943. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
Operations in Burma, February - May 1943
Major Scott commanded No.8 Column throughout operations in Burma, February-May 1943. On 13th March at Kyunbin, 24th March at Baw and on 12th April at the Nisan Forest Rest House, he led his column against enemy occupied positions. On all these occasions he displayed conspicuous personal courage and powers of leadership. Regardless of his own safety, he accompanied his leading troops, encouraging and inspiring them by his presence and determination.
On 30th April at the Kaukkwe Chaung, when his command comprised a dispersal group of 150 officers and men, his party had just completed the crossing of the stream by raft when it was attacked by an enemy force greatly superior in automatic weapons. Major Scott again showed great courage and initiative, rapidly organising his column in such a manner that it was enabled with only slight loss to slip through the enemy encirclement. The great majority of his men were able to return to the British Lines in safety. All through the operations his cheerfulness, vitality and example were an inspiration to all troops, British, Burmese and Indian, under his command.
Recommended By: Brigadier O.C. Wingate, D.S.O.
Commander-77th Indian Infantry Brigade
London Gazette 16th December 1943.
NB. To read about any of the engagements mentioned in Major Scott's MC citation, simply type the place name into the search engine at the top right had corner of this, or any page.
Back home in Liverpool, it was not long before news of Scottie's achievements reached his family and friends. From the Liverpool Evening Express, dated 21st December 1943:
Crosby Major's MC
Captain (temporary Major) Walter Purcell Scott, (King's Regiment), the eldest son of the late Mr. W.C. Scott of Kimberley Drive, Crosby, has been awarded the Military Cross for bravery in Burma during the first Wingate expedition. He is on the staff of the Liverpool Corporation Electrical Supply Department. Major Scott has two brothers serving in the war, one in the RAF and one at sea with the Maritime A.A. His youngest brother, Constable V.J. Scott was awarded the George Medal in December 1940, for his gallant rescue work during German air raids.
Seen below is a gallery of images in relation to this part of the narrative, including a photograph of the Dakota rescue plane receiving the sick and wounded Chindits on April 28th 1943. Please click on any image to bring it forward on the page.
The glider bounced once and then half as high the next time, suddenly we were stood still and meeting jungle earth underfoot. The British assault troops, directed by Colonel Scott piled out in the moonlight and moved off through the tall grass to scout for possible enemies. Their task was to investigate the peril we most feared, the chance that the Japs might be waiting for us. (From Back to Mandalay by Lowell Thomas).
Walter Scott, by now holding the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel went back in to Burma again on the second Wingate expedition, Operation Thursday. Impressed by his performance in 1943, General Wingate gave Scottie command of the 1st King's in 1944, where they comprised Chindit columns nos. 81 & 82. The King's were chosen to be the first Chindits into Burma on March 5th 1944, when they landed aboard USAAF gliders on a large open meadow just north of the Irrawaddy River. Within hours Scott's men had secured the perimeter of the meadow, codenamed Broadway for the purposes of the operation and with the aid of British and American engineers the area became a fully functioning air field by late afternoon the following day.
Scottie's leadership of the King's Regiment on Operation Thursday and especially in relation to his work at Broadway, was recognised by General Wingate with the award of a Distinguished Service Order (Immediate) on the 15th March 1944:
Action for which recommended:
Colonel Scott commanded the Battalion (1st King's) which carried out the initial glider landings. In doing so his battalion suffered 120 casualties, of which 60 were killed and wounded and the remainder missing. Immediately before starting out from Lalaghat in India, Scott was informed that the airfield on which he had expected to land, codenamed Piccadilly, was occupied by the enemy, and he was aware that there must be grave suspicion that the enemy was at Broadway as well.
Before Colonel Scott left, I told him that I depended on the King's to ensure that whatever happened Broadway was fit for Dakota landings on the following night. His complete cheerfulness and resolution made a deep impression on me. He landed at Broadway amid a scene of carnage. A number of gliders through no fault of their own crashed killing and wounding their occupants. Out of his total force of 750 embarked only 380 had arrived. Under these circumstances he might well have felt despondent. All at Broadway however, testify to the vigour and enthusiasm with which he and the force under his command set to work to prepare the Dakota strip. The strip was completed by the night of D plus 1, and accepted 65 Dakotas that same night.
Throughout this operation, the King's (Liverpool) Regiment showed the greatest readiness to accept losses and sacrifices in order to make the operation a success. Their cheerfulness in the face of apparent disaster is due in a large measure to the personal example and character of their Commanding Officer.
Recommended by: Major-General O.C. Wingate
Commander 3rd Indian Division.
Honour or Reward: Distinguished Service Order (Immediate).
(London Gazette 18 May 1944).
After the construction of Broadway had been completed, Scottie led the remainder of the King's north to assist in the establishment of another Chindit stronghold to be codenamed Blackpool. The location would prove difficult to defend and in late May 1944 was over-run by the enemy. During the withdrawal from the Blackpool Block on May 25th, Scottie was instrumental in guiding the ailing Chindits away from their Japanese attackers, leading them to the safety of the nearby hills.
Post Operation Thursday, Colonel Scott became the commander of the Reinforcement Group Training Centre for Special Forces (India). By mid-1946, he had returned home to England amongst some controversy as to whether he might be allowed to remain in Army.
From an Australian newspaper entitled The Argus (Melbourne), dated 5th July 1946:
It Now Depends on the War Office!
It now depends on the War Office, whether a Brigadier who served with Wingate in Burma, returns to his £5 a week job of mending electrical cables, or remains in the Army. He is Walter Purcell Scott, formerly with the Liverpool Council. He went to war in 1939 as a Territorial Private, was commissioned in the field and rose rapidly through the ranks. He went through the whole of Wingate's first Burma operation and was then given command of the glider battalion that landed 150 miles behind Japanese lines in the second campaign.
Brigadier Scott established the Broadway airstrip in the jungle, on which the main Wingate force landed. For this Wingate (who was killed himself a short time later) made him Deputy Commander of a Chindit Brigade. Scott now wears the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross and the American DSC.
Post Operation Thursday, Colonel Scott became the commander of the Reinforcement Group Training Centre for Special Forces (India). By mid-1946, he had returned home to England amongst some controversy as to whether he might be allowed to remain in Army.
From an Australian newspaper entitled The Argus (Melbourne), dated 5th July 1946:
It Now Depends on the War Office!
It now depends on the War Office, whether a Brigadier who served with Wingate in Burma, returns to his £5 a week job of mending electrical cables, or remains in the Army. He is Walter Purcell Scott, formerly with the Liverpool Council. He went to war in 1939 as a Territorial Private, was commissioned in the field and rose rapidly through the ranks. He went through the whole of Wingate's first Burma operation and was then given command of the glider battalion that landed 150 miles behind Japanese lines in the second campaign.
Brigadier Scott established the Broadway airstrip in the jungle, on which the main Wingate force landed. For this Wingate (who was killed himself a short time later) made him Deputy Commander of a Chindit Brigade. Scott now wears the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross and the American DSC.
In the end, no such concerns materialised and Scottie continued on with his Army career, beginning on the 19th November 1946 at Buckingham Palace, where he received his Distinguished Service Order from King George VI. Soon after, he took command of Royal Warwickshire Regiment's Parachute Battalion, before moving across to the Joint Services Staff College in 1948. Over the coming years Scottie served with the Army in Germany, Korea, Hong Kong and Malaya, being Mentioned in Despatches on two further occasions.
After retiring from the Army in 1959, Scottie went to work for the brewery William Butler & Co. proving a popular manager with the workforce and eventually becoming a Director with Bass Charringtons after all three breweries had merged. He was also very active with the Chindit Old Comrades and Burma Star Associations, attending meetings and functions on a regular basis. He eventually became President of the Chindit Old Comrades Association and was the driving force behind the fund raising, siting and construction of the Chindit Memorial located on the Victoria Embankment in London.
As already mentioned, Walter Scott sat down at the Imperial War Museum in late 1991 and recorded his WW2 memoirs which focussed a one might expect on the two Chindit expeditions.
To listen to these audios, please click on the following link: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80012086
Sadly, Scottie died in 1996 aged 85. The following March (1997) his ashes were taken back to Burma and dispersed by another former Chindit, Bob Walsh who had served with the 6th Battalion, Nigerian Regiment on Operation Thursday. From the Burma Star magazine, Dekho, Winter 1997 edition:
During the Royal British Legion's Chindit pilgrimage to Burma in March 1997, we stopped off at the Burmese village of Hopin, where Bob dispersed the ashes of Walter Scott in front of the Chindit party and assembled villagers. It was a very moving occasion and we were all proud to have carried out the last wishes of this very brave man.
Seen below is a final gallery of images in relation to this narrative, including some photographs from the Chindit 50th Anniversary Reunion Parade. Please click on any image to bring forward on the page.
After retiring from the Army in 1959, Scottie went to work for the brewery William Butler & Co. proving a popular manager with the workforce and eventually becoming a Director with Bass Charringtons after all three breweries had merged. He was also very active with the Chindit Old Comrades and Burma Star Associations, attending meetings and functions on a regular basis. He eventually became President of the Chindit Old Comrades Association and was the driving force behind the fund raising, siting and construction of the Chindit Memorial located on the Victoria Embankment in London.
As already mentioned, Walter Scott sat down at the Imperial War Museum in late 1991 and recorded his WW2 memoirs which focussed a one might expect on the two Chindit expeditions.
To listen to these audios, please click on the following link: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80012086
Sadly, Scottie died in 1996 aged 85. The following March (1997) his ashes were taken back to Burma and dispersed by another former Chindit, Bob Walsh who had served with the 6th Battalion, Nigerian Regiment on Operation Thursday. From the Burma Star magazine, Dekho, Winter 1997 edition:
During the Royal British Legion's Chindit pilgrimage to Burma in March 1997, we stopped off at the Burmese village of Hopin, where Bob dispersed the ashes of Walter Scott in front of the Chindit party and assembled villagers. It was a very moving occasion and we were all proud to have carried out the last wishes of this very brave man.
Seen below is a final gallery of images in relation to this narrative, including some photographs from the Chindit 50th Anniversary Reunion Parade. Please click on any image to bring forward on the page.
Copyright © Steve Fogden, March 2019.