A Chindit's Chronicle

by Bill Towill

Overview

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

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

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780595158324
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/01/2000
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.45(d)

Table of Contents

	Order of the Day for Operation Longcloth	i
	Preface	iii
	Maps of "Blackpool" and "Broadway"
	Prologue	1
Chapter 1.	The Backdrop	3
Chapter 2.	The Scene is Set	7
Chapter 3.	The Sunday that was Thurday	15
Chapter 4.	Broadway Established	23
Chapter 5.	Chowringhee Completes the First Phase	31
Chapter 6.	Aberdeen Completes the Fly-in	35
Chapter 7.	Mutaguchi Miscalculates	37
Chapter 8.	Broadway Bombed	39
Chapter 9.	White City is Established	45
Chapter 10.	Wingate Dies in Air Crash	49
Chapter 11.	Battle at Broadway	53
Chapter 12.	The White City - Success Surrendered	63
Chapter 13.	From Broadway to Blackpool	69
Chapter 14.	Blackpool Established but Embattled	81
Chapter 15.	Blackpool's Death Throes	89
Chapter 16.	Blackpool Abandoned	97
Chapter 17.	Mokso Sakan and the Indawgyi Valley	103
Chapter 18.	77 Brigade Captures Mogaung	113
Chapter 19.	From Lakhren up into the Hills	117
Chapter 20.	The Approach to Point 2171	121
Chapter 21.	Point 2171 Captured and Held	125
Chapter 22.	The Closing Stages	139
	Sources	143