大象传媒

I was in the Airborne Chindits in Burma. When we landed the Japanese were some 16 miles away. We had orders to march to a road block near Mawlu which we called White City. We had to hold this for a period until the Japanese supplies were exhausted north of this point. We were also to stop supplies and transport getting to their 18th Army. For three weeks there was intense fighting with many ambush attacks. One of the great tonics to us was the support we got from direct air cover. As fast as they Japanese could dig trenches and bunkers, the planes would blast them up.

I have high praise for the Padres and the outstanding deeds they performed. One of them was helping the MO鈥檚 in the specially equipped underground RAP. Evacuation cases were taken to base hospitals by light planes. There were tiny aircraft flown daringly by Americans under the sights of the Japanese guns. They brought in urgent supplies. On 10th May, everyone was on edge because instead of there being 1,300 men holding the fortress, we had only 300 鈥� 400 but we considered ourselves lucky. Fortunately nothing happened and by dawn 40 planes had landed and taken off taking men too sick to march. At the same time, the brave men who were holding another fortress, known as Blackpool, further north had a terrible time fighting even though they were outnumbered. They had to pull out from their positions very quickly and had to leave hundreds of their comrades dead or wounded. Some of them were bayoneted by the Japanese.

To make matters worse we were hit by the monsoons which turned the tracks into streams which were leech laden and the chaungs into treacherous torrents. This hit us very hard. We were marching in the hills and it was hard work for us all with straight up and down climbs with very steep gradients. All this while we were carrying anything up to 70lbs of kit on our backs but we faced it all as cheerfully as was possible. We continued marching, passing killing patrols, etc until we reached Pyindaw. Here I had to leave my comrades because of sickness. After more fighting we were relieved by a new British Division early in August.

We Airborne Chindits completed a campaign and achieved what we set out to do. We demonstrated to the world that it was possible to keep columns for long periods in the heart of enemy territory. However, when we were beating the Japanese and the surrounding we felt at time forgotten. I suppose this is natural enough when you consider that we were dumped down unceremoniously in a clearing from out of the blue miles from our bases. But the eyes of the world have turned to us Chindits, and General Montgomery鈥檚 words to his own troops would have been General Wingate鈥檚 to his Chindits at the end of the campaign. 鈥淲ell done 鈥� Well done indeed鈥�

As a note there were a lot of Nigerians who took part in the Chindit 鈥淭obruk鈥� (the White City road/rail block. Many of the South Staffs and Lancashire Fusilliers fought alongside tjem and were considered brothers in arms. In the final stages, their numbers equalled the total British in strength in the garrison. The seven Nigerian columns had already marched an aggregate of 2,000 miles before they were finally gathered together as a single West African formation. In addition to sharing in the capture of Mawlu, they ambushed and destroyed a Japanese lorry convoy and its entire personnel of 50 men, wrecked a Japanese outpost and telephone exchange and they took a prominent part in the maintenance of the flying boat casualty evacuation.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.