Memories, Remembrance and The Chindit Operations of Burma

For our last meeting of 2020 and to mark the 75th anniversary year of the end of WWII

Piers Storie-Pugh trained at Mons Officer School, served with the 10th Parachute Battalion and later did a Short Service Commission with 1st Battalion Queen’s Regiment. After leaving the Army he joined Major and Mrs Holt’s Battlefield Tours, pioneers in the battlefield touring business. Piers first visited Burma in 1985 and for the next 20 years took groups all over the country. He led the first British groups to reach Kohima and Imphal in NE India; and Arakan, Sittang, Thanbyuzayat and the Chindit area of operations in Burma. He specialised in some of the more remote areas so that families could visit where their relatives had died as well as where they are now buried. His story of the people he met will lead him into the main body of today’s talk about the Chindits, the brainchild of the controversial and unorthodox Orde Wingate.

Ordered to look at the feasibility of long-range penetration into enemy held country, Wingate mounted his first expedition Operation Longcloth in February 1943, with the 77th Infantry Brigade. Although expensive in lives many valuable lessons were learned about moving through jungle, resupply by air, friendly tribes, what was good to eat and what was not. The media loved the daring of this secret operation behind Japanese lines; and so did Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Wingate was ordered to attend the Quadrant Conference with Churchill where he had the American Chiefs of Staff spell-bound with his vision of a much larger operation in 1944 – provided he could be sure of American support! Whereas Longcloth involved one brigade, Operation Thursday in 1944 involved five brigades, flown in by the Americans, all resupplied by air. The story is one of panache, courage, sacrifice and endurance. One Brigade would win a staggering four Victoria Crosses. The Chindits did more than anyone else to keep the huge American Chinese Army committed to the front, frustrated the Japanese efforts to reach Kohima, cut the Japanese main supply lines and destroyed their quinine dumps, causing malaria to run rife.

Piers has visited the area of Chindit operations and for many years knew one of the great commanders, Brigadier Mike Calvert DSO. It is on this basis that he shares his story with us.

See also Piers Storie-Pugh’s website: www.wartalks.co

To join the meeting, tap on the link below a little before 1.00pm (GMT) on Tuesday, 15th December 2020.

BBS members have priority. We expect high demand.

To attend and/or share the link with a guest, please advise Barbara Brown on minnthameebrown@secretary.net in advance.

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