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Joe Stilwell ('Vinegar' Joe) hated the English - they could do no good in his sight. I think there was a lot of trouble with him because his staff were what you might call ‘sycophantic’ ‘obsequious’ they told him what he wanted to hear and built up his personality.

For some reason Stilwell had a hatred of the English ‘Limeys’ as he called them. But he was hated just as much by his own officers I think. He was a cantankerous old boy.

I suppose you’ve heard this story many times but General Mike Calvert (who was one of the Chindit leaders) and his troops captured a place called Mogaung, but in the official communiqué sent out by Vinegar Joe’s headquarters it had been captured by the Japanese. So Mike Calvert sent a message to headquarters saying ‘I hear the Chinese have taken Mogaung, I have taken Umbrage’.

The story goes (I don’t know if this is true) that Vinegar Joe’s second in command who was his son-in-law as well, looked at the map and reported to Stilwell that well if he did take Umbrage it must have been a very small place ‘cause I can’t find it on the map!’.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Becky Barugh of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Richard Jones and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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