For educational purposes
Born of one man's vision at a time when the Japanese seemed to be sweeping all before them, the Chindits proved an inspiration to the Allied forces in Burma.
They showed that it was not only possible to live in the jungle for months on end but also that Western troops could defeat the Japanese.
Born of one man's vision at a time when the Japanese seemed to be sweeping all before them, the Chindits proved an inspiration to the Allied forces in Burma.
They showed that it was not only possible to live in the jungle for months on end but also that Western troops could defeat the Japanese.
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LearningTranscript
01:00Burma at the beginning of March 1943, Allied troops hacked their way through dense jungle.
01:09Their leader is an extraordinary British officer, Brigadier Ord Wingate. He is one of the pioneers
01:15of long-range penetration missions. Their objective is to disrupt enemy communications
01:26by cutting the vital railway running north from the ancient city of Mandalay.
01:30For the first time in World War II, the Allies are taking on the Japanese in the jungle,
01:39terrain where they had hitherto reigned supreme. Wingate and his British, Gurkha and Burmese
01:51soldiers called themselves Chindits. By the end of their first mission, they will have
01:56proved that the Japanese can be beaten in the jungle, and that Allied troops are capable
02:00of achieving victory in the most grueling of conditions. Immediately after their surprise
02:08attack on the US Pacific Fleet base at Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December, 1941, Japanese
02:14forces invaded Malaya. The arrogant British belief that Japanese soldiers were inferior
02:22was quickly shattered. They proved to be masters of jungle warfare, constantly outflanking
02:28British positions and destroying them. Within seven weeks, the Japanese had driven the British
02:37back onto Singapore Island, which surrendered on the 15th of February, 1942. Almost simultaneously,
02:49other Japanese forces invaded Burma. Once again, nothing could stop the Japanese onrush.
03:08In early May, 1942, the survivors of the British forces in Burma crossed the river Chindwin
03:13and limped back on foot into India. They were totally demoralized, convinced that their
03:20enemy was unbeatable in the jungle. The British position was further threatened by political
03:29turmoil in India, with nationalists mounting a vociferous and sometimes violent campaign
03:34to drive them out, and by a major famine, which devastated Bengal. These crises tied
03:49down a large proportion of the forces available to defend India, and several of the best divisions
03:56in the Indian army were still fighting in the Middle East. It was in these grim circumstances
04:11that a junior officer approached General Sir Archibald Wavell, the commander-in-chief in
04:16India, with a revolutionary idea. Lieutenant-Colonel Ord Wingate was an unusual officer, commissioned
04:25into the Royal Artillery in 1923. He had soon become bored by peacetime soldiering in Britain.
04:31In 1927, he was posted to the Sudan Defense Force, where he enjoyed the challenge of leading natural
04:40soldiers. During his six years in the Middle East, he also led an expedition deep into the
04:51Libyan desert, and it was probably this that gave him the idea of long-range, deep-penetration
04:56operations. After a brief spell in England, Wingate was posted to Palestine, then under
05:05British rule, as an intelligence officer. A revolt had broken out among the Arab inhabitants,
05:14who resented increasing Jewish immigration. Wingate had had a strict Christian upbringing,
05:23and this led him to side with the Jews. To encourage them to protect their settlements
05:28against Arab attack, he formed a special night squads. These also took the war to the Arabs,
05:40launching reprisal attacks. Wingate's activities came to the attention of General Wavell,
05:52who was then commanding the British forces in Palestine. He ensured that Wingate was awarded
06:00the Distinguished Service Order for his performance. But by the outbreak of war in
06:10September 1939, Wingate was back in Britain, on the staff of an anti-aircraft brigade.
06:16Wavell, meanwhile, became commander-in-chief Middle East. With the Italian declaration of
06:29war in June 1940, Wavell began to think of ways of causing revolt in Italy's East African colonies.
06:35He summoned Wingate to Cairo and gave him command of Gideon Force, a band of 1,500 Abyssinian and
06:42Sudanese troops. Wingate was ordered to attack Italian-occupied Abyssinia from the west,
06:50while conventional forces invaded from the north and south.
06:54The Abyssinian Emperor Haile Selassie accompanied Gideon Force as it thrust
07:02towards his capital, Addis Ababa. Gideon Force performed brilliantly,
07:10constantly harrying the Italians and taking 16,000 prisoners.
07:20But having entered Addis Ababa in triumph, Wingate was recalled to Cairo.
07:25There, he became deeply depressed, feeling that his force's achievements were being ignored by
07:39headquarters. Wingate then went down with malaria, attempted suicide and was evacuated back to
07:47Britain. But Wavell did not forget him and ensured that he was awarded a bar to his dear soul.
07:53Wavell was now posted to India, and at the height of the Japanese invasion of Burma,
07:59he remembered Wingate's skill in unconventional warfare.
08:03Wingate would soon have the opportunity to put his ideas into action.
08:07Having summoned Ord Wingate to India in early 1942, General Wavell's initial intention was
08:17to use him to liaise with the Chinese Fifth and Sixth Armies, which were operating in
08:22northern Burma against the Japanese invaders. But Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek had other
08:35ideas. He selected U.S. General Joseph Stilwell for this task. Wingate was then given the job
08:43of organizing guerrilla operations, but the Japanese onrush prevented these from being put
08:48into effect. Wingate now proposed to Wavell that he create a special force to penetrate deep into
08:59Burma to harry Japanese communications. This would be maintained entirely by air resupply.
09:21Wavell agreed, and the Chindits were born. Wingate wanted to select his own men to be
09:30Chindits, but Wavell told him that he would have to accept what he was given.
09:44In the event, he obtained an infantry battalion from the north of England,
09:49which had been engaged on internal security duties.
09:59He also had a battalion of Gurkha rifles and one of Burma rifles.
10:11The official title of the force was 77th Infantry Brigade. Wingate adopted the Chinti,
10:18the mythical beast that guards every Burmese temple, as his force's symbol,
10:22but his mispronunciation of the name led to his men being nicknamed the Chindits.
10:30The Chindits carried out their training in the jungles of central India. They were organized
10:37in columns of 300 men, with a hundred mules to carry supplies and ammunition.
10:42RAF radio teams accompanied each column so that they could direct air resupply.
10:50Wingate's first priority was to get his men used to living and fighting in the jungle.
10:55Not an easy task, given the series of defeats which the Japanese had inflicted on them.
11:00Wingate envisaged that the Chindits would spend up to three months at a time on operations.
11:11They would be constantly on the move, so physical fitness was vital.
11:17The Chindits became skilled at jungle warfare,
11:23developing a sixth sense for the presence of hostile troops.
11:37Inevitably, some men could not match up to Wingate's exacting standards and had to be replaced.
11:46Wavell and Wingate agreed that the Chindits would operate between the rivers Chindwin and Irrawaddy,
11:54and that their operations would be coordinated with a major three-pronged counter-offensive
11:59into Burma planned for the end of 1942. In the north, American General Joseph Stilwell
12:06and Chinese forces would advance from Ledo, building a road to connect with the old Burma
12:12road, which had been the main Allied supply route to China. The British would attack in
12:17central Burma and also in the coastal region of the Arakan. In the event, neither Stilwell
12:24and his Chinese, nor the forces in central Burma, were ready for action. And this left
12:31just the Arakan offensive, which was launched in December 1942.
12:35But after eight days, it came to a grinding halt in front of strong Japanese positions.
12:45The attackers suffered badly from malaria, and their abortive offensive only reinforced
12:55the belief that British and Indian troops were inferior to the Japanese in jungle fighting.
13:01Even though Wavell's overall plan had failed, he was still keen to try Wingate's concept of
13:07long-range penetration. The Chindits would therefore go it alone. Their first operation,
13:15codenamed Longcloth, was to remove a possible threat to Fort Hertz, the last British outpost
13:21in northern Burma. The Chindits were to cut the Mandalay-Mitchenar Railway, harass the Japanese
13:29around Mandalay, and, if possible, cut the Mandalay-Lascio Railway. On the night of the
13:3713th of February, 1943, the Chindits crossed the River Chindwin. Two columns then turned
13:49southeast to act as a diversionary force, while the remaining five columns, with Wingate and
13:55his headquarters, headed east. The southern force had its first brush with the Japanese
14:03on the 18th of February. This delayed its advance on the railway. Convinced that the Chindits were
14:14being resupplied across the Chindwin, the Japanese initially concentrated their efforts on the river.
14:19It took them time to realize that Wingate was being resupplied from the air.
14:32By the beginning of March, both Chindit groups were able to begin their railway cutting operations.
14:50Encouraged by the success of these, Wingate crossed the Irrawaddy on the 19th of March
15:00and headed for the Mandalay-Lascio Railway. But by now, the Japanese were closing in on
15:09the Chindits from the east and south. Wingate was also warned that he was getting beyond the range
15:17of air resupply. He had no option but to pull back. The Japanese barred his way at the Irrawaddy,
15:29so he ordered the Chindits to split up into their individual columns and make their own way back to
15:34India. Now began the toughest part of the operation. The endless marching through the
15:45jungle was punishing in the extreme. The exhausted men began to come down with malaria,
15:56dysentery and typhus. They were confronted by other problems. Sometimes the weather closed in
16:03and the sky failed us and for days on end, men would go without any food of any kind. One column
16:11was ten days without food. When that happened, what did we do? We turned to the mules, poor things,
16:17and we had started to eat them. I do not recommend mule steak. It is impenetrable.
16:27The ruggedness of the terrain was another problem.
16:39The wounded posed an awful dilemma. Some were grievously wounded, so grievously that they could
16:49not be allowed to continue in their agony. And so we put their agony to an end. It was the only
16:58thing to do. During the last two weeks of April, the surviving Chindits arrived back in India.
17:08Of the 3,000 who set out, nearly a third did not return. The remainder were wracked with disease
17:22and 600 of them were so badly affected that they were never able to return to active soldiering.
17:29The physical damage that the Chindits inflicted on the Japanese had little influence on the overall
17:40situation in Burma, but they had proved that Allied troops could match the Japanese in the jungle.
17:46When Wingate got back to India, he found that Wavell had ordered another long-range penetration
17:55brigade to be raised. But while Wingate was recovering in hospital, Wavell was replaced
18:02by General Sir Claude Auchinleck, who showed little enthusiasm for the Chindits. Even so,
18:09he did allow their exploits to be publicized to compensate for the failure of the Arakan offensive.
18:19This gave the Chindits pride in what they had achieved.
18:26A copy of Wingate's report on Operation Longcloth was also sent to London.
18:35It was seen by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was deeply impressed, even
18:41suggesting that Wingate should take command of the Burma front. He summoned the Chindit
18:46commander back to London. There, Wingate was interviewed by General Sir Alan Brooke,
18:53the chief of the Imperial General Staff. Brooke was impressed and promised to support plans for
19:00enlarging the Chindits. Churchill, who was on the point of departing for Canada for an Allied
19:07strategic conference at Quebec, demanded that Wingate and his wife accompany the delegation
19:12on board the liner Queen Mary. The Prime Minister wanted to use Wingate's ideas and exploits as
19:21propaganda to impress the Americans. It proved very successful. At the quadrant conference,
19:32Wingate's proposals for an enlarged Chindit operation to precede a major Allied offensive
19:37into Burma were agreed. Furthermore, the Americans were so taken with Wingate's ideas that they
19:44agreed to provide a dedicated fleet of aircraft, to be called Number One Air Commando, to support
19:50the Chindits. In addition, they asked for British help in forming a similar long-range
19:59penetration force of their own for operations in Burma. This became known as Galahad.
20:05Wingate, now promoted to Major General, returned to India in September 1943.
20:14Special Force, as the Chindits were now officially called, was assembled in the
20:24jungles of central India during October and November. It consisted of the rebuilt 77th
20:35Brigade, 111th Brigade, which had been raised on Wavell's orders, three brigades from a recently
20:42disbanded division, and a West African Brigade, a total of 20,000 men. These were joined by the
20:50American Number One Air Commando. Wingate quickly established an excellent relationship with its
21:00youthful-looking commander, Colonel Phil Cochrane. His commander was equipped with P-51 Mustang
21:12fighter bombers, B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, and the C-47 Dakota transport. Cochrane also
21:26had 100 Waco gliders, which would enable some, at least, of the Chindits to reach their initial
21:32objectives without the arduous march in by foot. Lord Louis Mountbatten was now Supreme Allied
21:45Commander, Southeast Asia. He was enthusiastic about the Chindits and keen for them to play a
21:51major part in the offensive operations planned for early 1944. The plan was for a Chinese army
22:03to advance from Yunnan Province down the old Burma Road, while Stilwell was to push the Ledo Road to
22:10Michinar and then link up with them. To distract the Japanese, there would be a British airborne
22:18assault on Indore, which would then be occupied by a ground force, as well as a limited ground
22:23offensive in the Arakan. Long-range penetration forces would support all these attacks. But the
22:33commitment of resources to the Mediterranean, especially to support the landings at Anzio on
22:38the Italian coast, prevented promised equipment from being sent to India. In addition, intelligence
22:48indicated that the Japanese were preparing their own offensive, one which turned out to be a full-blown
22:54invasion of India. As a result, the British operations in central Burma were cancelled.
23:04Although the Arakan offensive did go ahead in early January 1944.
23:17Simultaneously, Vinegar Joe Stilwell, with Galahad force now under his command, pushed ahead with the
23:23Ledo Road. The Chindits were to disrupt the Japanese forces facing Stilwell in northern
23:35Burma and prepare the way for the Chinese advance from Yunnan. Under the codename Operation Thursday,
23:49one Chindit brigade would march into Burma from Ledo and operate in the Pinbon Pinlebu area.
23:54Two others would be flown into the area north of Indore, while the remaining Chindit brigades
24:04would be held in reserve. The first Chindits to move were 16th Special Brigade, which set off
24:13on foot from Ledo on the 5th of February. Thereafter, events followed with bewildering
24:18speed. On the 6th of February 1944, the day after the first Chindit brigade set off from Ledo,
24:28the Japanese launched a counter-attack in the Arakan. Thanks to air resupply,
24:35the British were able to hold on, even though totally cut off.
24:49After three weeks, the Japanese called off their attacks.
24:56Meanwhile, 77th and 111th Chindit brigades were preparing to be flown from northern India to a
25:10number of pre-selected landing grounds north and east of Indore. These were codenamed Broadway,
25:22Piccadilly and Charingi. First in would be glider-borne US engineers with equipment to
25:31prepare the airstrips at Broadway and Piccadilly, so that the remainder of the Chindits could be
25:35landed by C-47. But on the afternoon of the 5th of March, as the gliders prepared to take off for
25:48Broadway and Piccadilly, Wingate was shown air photographs from a reconnaissance sortie flown a
25:53few hours earlier. Logs had been placed on the landing zone at Piccadilly. Despite fears that
26:04the operation might have been compromised, Wingate decided that the landings at Broadway
26:08must go ahead. The gliders took off.
26:16Each C-47 towed two gliders.
26:36Brigadier Mike Calvert, commanding 77th Brigade, was one of the advance party.
26:46Sitting in the glider, I felt frightened. After all this working out in a hurry and bustle,
26:58we were up there, silent, and going over these mountains, and I wondered whether we were doing
27:07the right thing. And I worried and worried, and was frightened in the bottom of my stomach. But
27:16my men in the glider cheered me up by ribald remarks and funny remarks about how we were
27:24not having to walk, but were taking a free ride this time. With their twin tows, the tug
27:35aircraft were at their maximum load, and this caused some problems. A number of gliders were
27:42released too early. Others crashed on landing at Broadway.
28:12Nevertheless, the engineers were soon at work, and within 24 hours, Broadway was ready to receive
28:27the main body of 77th Brigade. Dakotas began landing on the evening of the 6th.
28:43To avoid congestion at Broadway, Wingate decided that 111th Brigade would land at Charing Gee. But
28:52there were also problems here, when the glider carrying the airfield construction equipment
28:56crashed. The strip had to be prepared almost entirely by hand. It proved too short for some
29:06of the more heavily laden Dakotas, and part of 111th Brigade had to land at Broadway.
29:12Even so, by the 12th of March, the two Chindit brigades were fully deployed.
29:17While the Chindits were consolidating their positions, the Japanese launched their offensive
29:28in central Burma on the night of the 7th of March. Within a few days, General Bill Slim's
29:3614th Army was battling desperately to hold on to its forward supply base at Imphal.
29:41The Chindits, secure in their strongholds and now reinforced by artillery,
30:03indirectly helped the defence by drawing off Japanese troops.
30:07Calvert now took two battalions of his brigade to set up a blocking position
30:17close to the village of Hennu, 20 miles north of Indore. The Chindits had a bitter
30:26struggle to drive the Japanese away. It was a hell of a fight. The Japs took everybody on.
30:34It was all hand-to-hand fighting, boot, butt and bane. In the end, they had enough,
30:46and they broke and ran. This victory enabled Calvert to establish another stronghold,
30:53White City. While he was doing this, the Chindit 16th Brigade, which had set off on
31:02foot towards Indore at the beginning of Operation Thursday, set up a further base,
31:07Aberdeen. On the 22nd of March, the first gliders started to arrive.
31:15Over the next week, two more Chindit brigades, 14th and 3rd West African,
31:34were flown in to reinforce the advance on Indore. This was just in time,
31:43for the Japanese had been deploying troops to the Indore area, and by early April,
31:48they had some 18,000 men concentrated there. While his forces moved into enemy-held territory,
31:57Wingate spent much of his time flying from brigade to brigade so that he could talk in
32:02person to his commanders in the field. On the 24th of March, he flew to Broadway,
32:14and then by light aircraft to White City and Aberdeen. He then boarded one of Cochrane's
32:27bombers to return to Imphal. And after a brief stop, he took off again for his headquarters
32:35at Sylhet. His aircraft never got there. Next day, wreckage was spotted in the hills west
32:45of Imphal. A patrol confirmed that it was Wingate's plane. There were no survivors.
32:58Ord Wingate's death was a tragic loss, but Operation Thursday must go on.
33:15Army Commander General Bill Slim knew that the Chindit assaults were an essential part
33:20of the advance into northern Burma. And he immediately selected Joe Lentang, the commander
33:29of 111th Brigade, to succeed Wingate. The Japanese pressure now built up.
33:38As 16th Brigade neared Indore, it was fiercely counterattacked and forced back to its base
33:52at Aberdeen. Japanese forces then launched a sustained attack on White City. The battle
34:07normally began at dusk, with Japanese creeping up to the wire and putting explosives into the
34:14wire to try and blow a hole in the gap. They were usually extremely noisy. They came shouting and
34:20screaming and blowing bugles. And the Japanese, when they started to attack, they first of all
34:25had this about 30 yards of wire. It's relatively, first of all, raw wire. Booby-trapped, mines and
34:32everything. And with about, up to about 12 three-inch mortars, mortaring them, and about the
34:42same number of Vickers machine guns. The Chindits were also able to call in Cochrane's aircraft to
34:58break up the Japanese charges. Eventually, the enemy was forced back with heavy casualties.
35:08While this drama was being played out, the Japanese kept up their attacks in the Imphal
35:19area and against Kohima to its north. Fourteenth Army was unable to move forward to support the
35:33Chindits. So at a conference on the 9th of April, Mountbatten decided the whole thrust of Operation
35:39Thursday would have to be changed. Sixteenth Brigade, which had been in the jungle the longest
35:46and had made its approach march over land, was to be evacuated by air from Aberdeen.
35:58The remaining Chindit brigades would leave their strongholds and move north
36:02towards Mogong under Stilwell's command. Before being evacuated at the end of April,
36:13Sixteenth Brigade made one last gallant attempt to capture Indore.
36:17It managed to seize one of the airfields, but could not get any further.
36:28Its Gaunt survivors were then flown back to India, while Aberdeen and Broadway were abandoned.
36:43The Chindits left White City on the 9th of May and moved north.
36:57They began to disrupt road and rail communications,
37:00supporting the Japanese forces opposing Stilwell to the west of Michina.
37:13Another stronghold, codenamed Blackpool, was established as a supply base,
37:17but this soon proved unsatisfactory.
37:26It was well within range of Japanese artillery and too far from road and rail targets.
37:32So another base was established at Indorgri Lake, which could be used by flying boats to
37:42bring in supplies and to evacuate the sick and wounded. But it soon proved desperately
37:50unhealthy and cases of malaria and typhus soared. As the Chindits advanced towards Mogong,
37:58they were involved in a series of fierce battles.
38:13By this time, Stilwell's men had succeeded in capturing the airfield at Michina.
38:36But they were unable to get into the town itself, which the Japanese had reinforced.
38:42To break the stalemate, Stilwell decided that the Chindits must do more than merely disrupt communications.
38:54He ordered them to capture Mogong itself.
38:59It was a daunting task for troops who had been behind enemy lines for almost three months,
39:13suffering increasingly from disease and exhaustion,
39:16and who lacked the necessary heavy weapons to tackle a major defensive position.
39:21After three shattering months fighting both disease and the Japanese in the jungle,
39:31Brigadier Mike Calvert and his 77th Chindit Brigade now deployed to capture the well-fortified
39:36Burmese town of Mogong. Calvert was outraged by the demands placed on his men.
39:42Americans were complaining about us, saying we were all cowards and we wouldn't fight.
39:48And Mountbatten entered into it and said,
39:53we want you to take Mogong at all costs, I repeat, at all costs.
40:00The Chindits fought a desperate three-week battle, gradually driving the Japanese garrison back.
40:08On the 23rd of June, two members of the 3rd 6th Gurkha Rifles won Victoria Crosses.
40:14Captain Michael Almond led his company forward with complete disregard for his own safety
40:19until he was mortally wounded while single-handedly attacking a machine-gun position.
40:25Rifleman Tal Bahadur Punn did the same, but survived.
40:32Calvert and his men finally secured Mogong on the 25th of June.
40:36It had been a remarkable achievement.
40:44The role we were expected to carry out at Mogong was really one for which we were not suited or
40:52trained. Frontal attack across open ground with no artillery and against Japanese positions that
41:03were well dug in was not really what we were intended for. It was a waste of our expertise,
41:11really. Lentane and Calvert warned Stillwell that their men were now at their last gasp,
41:21but the American insisted that the Chindits still had more to do.
41:25I said we couldn't go on, and Mountbatten and Vinegar Joe and other people,
41:32I suppose, didn't believe us. They sent in a number of surgical team to come in and decide
41:40what we were at, and they reported back saying that everybody's had malaria a number of times,
41:45that large numbers of wounded, and so said the other, and these people should be evacuated as
41:50soon as possible. Otherwise, and Mountbatten used the phrase, otherwise history will blame us.
41:57We had been literally fought until we were on our knees.
42:02In 111th Brigade, only 118 men out of 2,000 were still reckoned to be fit for combat.
42:11But this became 190 when the Brigade Commander, John Masters,
42:18furious that any of his men should be deemed still fit, added his own name to the list.
42:27The remaining Chindits struggled on towards Mitchenar.
42:41On the 3rd of August, Stillwell finally secured the tower.
42:57Two weeks later, the Chindits began to be flown back to India.
43:01They had suffered 1,000 killed, 2,800 wounded, and 6,000 sick. Nearly 5,000 Japanese had been
43:09killed during the five months they had been in the jungles of Burma.
43:17By the time the surviving Chindits arrived back in India, the tide of war in Burma had turned.
43:24The Japanese had been repulsed at Imphal and Kohima, and were in retreat.
43:40In December 1944, the final Allied advance began.
43:44In January 1945, the British 14th Army began to cross the Irrawaddy.
43:54At the same time, the Ledo Road was finally linked with the Burma Road.
44:02The Chindits were forced to retreat.
44:05Supplies could now reach China overland for the first time in more than three years.
44:09The Ledo Road was finally linked with the Burma Road.
44:29Supplies could now reach China overland for the first time in more than three years.
44:39Slim's 14th Army liberated Mandalay in March after a bitter battle.
44:58Then the final advance south to Rangoon began.
45:10British troops entered the Burmese capital at the beginning of May.
45:16Thereafter it was merely a question of mopping up the remaining Japanese forces.
45:30As the final Allied push began, the Chindits were disbanded.
45:35Their expertise was no longer needed as 14th Army closed in on the last Japanese strongholds.
45:43Wingate's belief that he could build a force which would defeat the enemy in the jungle had been vindicated.
45:49Today he is buried far from those jungles, in the U.S. National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia,
45:55alongside the crew that flew him on his last fatal flight.
46:01After the war it was suggested that Wingate had gone too far
46:06in believing that only long-range penetration operations could win the war in Burma,
46:11and that the Chindits had absorbed resources which could have been better used elsewhere.
46:16But the effect of the first Chindit operations in distracting the Japanese
46:21and disrupting their communications should not be underestimated,
46:25and the gallantry of their final actions to capture Mogong was extraordinary.
46:30The endurance and fortitude shown by the Chindits was outstanding,
46:34and above all, the boost which their operations gave to the Allied cause
46:39and the morale of the men fighting in the forgotten army of the Far East was enormous.
46:44For these were the gladiators who showed that the Japanese could be beaten in the jungle.
46:49They took on and conquered not only a tenacious and battle-hardened enemy,
46:54but some of the worst conditions in the world.
47:24The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.
47:27The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.
47:30The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.
47:33The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.
47:36The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.
47:39The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.
47:42The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.
47:45The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.
47:48The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.
47:51The Chindits were the last of the Chindits.