My father, Leslie Mills, Royal Engineers, was a Chindit and survived the long withdrawal to India. Having also survived the siege of Tobruk, he saw more than his fair share of action. He was demobbed in 1946 and lived until he was 84 in 2002.
My father was one of those 'misfits' he survived the jungle and was one of the few who survived the Siege of Kohima the aftermath cost him dearly and us his family too. However, god bless his soul he lived on until his 86th year.
my great uncle was in Kohima and had only funny stories about his experiences until I joined the RN ( I suppose he thought of me as old enough to discuss the reality of war) He had a great story of while cleaning up from 😅having a dump in the trench,a granade landed next to him, his Indian comrade grabbed it and threw it back... with the addition of a flapping poop stained tail .....he said it was surreal moment when everyone seemed to stop for a fraction of a second to look at the strange sight ..... before getting back to the business of killing........
My Dad Thomas Burgess was a Chindit He survived the Longcloth expedition and was one of 300 who joined Operation Thursday He was trained in the Royal Corps of Signals His task was to bring in by radio, the supplies from airplanes dropped by chute to supply the troops. He also had to bring in the towed gliders carrying troops and equipment. He would avoid the tales of horror telling me and my brothers the good tales. When he had a few beers we would get some of the other stuff. RIP Dad I am the only one of His children left now.
The Chindits essentially conducted 2 operations: Longcloth in 1943 which involved a brigade and Thursday in 1944 which involved 3 brigades (a division). A good account of Op Longcloth is Fergusson's Across the Chindwin. An excellent personal account of Op Thursday is John Masters' Road Past Mandalay. An excellent bio of Wingate is Fire in the Night by Biersan and Smith. Wingate was killed in the opening stages of Op Thursday when the B 25 he was flying in crashed. Command passed to Brigadier Joe Lentaigne. The other brigades were commanded by veteran battalion COs from Long cloth: Mike Calvert and Bernard Fergusson. Given the dispersion of Lentaigne's battalions and the fact that Masters (Brigade Major/G3) had written the operations orders, Lentaigne passed command to him (jumping over the 3 battalion COs who actually outranked Masters). One thing not mentioned in this video was Wingates's suicide attempt following the successful Ethiopia campaign. While resting in a Cairo hotel, Wingate plunged a hunting knife into his neck. There is some speculation that he was driven to a temporary madness by the malaria drugs he was taking. I've served in Ethiopia and he is still celebrated there. Same for Israel.
@@JDDC-tq7qm Now imagine that in an environment where there's diseases, bug, snakes and a thousand other things try to kill you other than the enemy. That's what the environment in Burma was like, the environment in Stalingrad was a cake walk compared to the jungle of Burma, it was the worst place in the world to try to just survive in much less fight in.
@@dukecraig2402I bet the Marines trapped in subzero mountains of North Korea facing 10 to one odds while trying to not freeze to death would rather have been in Burma.
@@q-man762 Chosin lasted a few weeks, they wandered around through the jungle in Burma for months, it was an operation where if you got wounded you were going to die, period, there was no if's and's or but's about it you were dead meat. Burma is the kind of place that's full of all kinds of critters from bugs to snake's that if you got bit by any one of a number of them you were going to die, no if's and's or but's about that one either, and then there's the native people that you can run across who may or may not be so angry simply that you're there they'll want to kill you. I've been in an environment every bit as cold as Chosin when I was in the Army and for as long as Chosin was, it was absolutely brutal, I mean life changing brutal, and I'll take it over months of being essentially cut off in the Burmese jungle any day of the week and twice on Sunday. And by the way, there was Army that was part of Chosin to, it wasn't just Marine's as most people think.
When you read up , into what they went through. The things they did and endured. You can't help but have admiration and respect for them. They were tuff bastard's.. for sure! 👍💛👊
One of the tactics the Chindits used was to load 2-6 horses on a glider. The horses that did not wind up with broken legs or injuries, were immediately saddled and scouts used them to recon the drop zone to ensure it was safe for men to jump. The injured horses then became “fresh” rations.
It’s funny, I was in the US for 3 months earlier this year, during a “discussion” about the validity of the Israeli position and reactions, I noted the tactics used weren’t “Israeli” but those developed by Ord Wingate prior to WW2, to the extent that Moshe Dayan had declared Ord Wingate had taught them (Haganah) all they needed to know. The people with whom I was talking, had never heard of Ord Wingate.
Ah, the Americans...they have plenty to learn from their own ample wartime history. But, sometimes, it would behoove them to learn from others. Many lessons, both practical and metaphorical, to be learned when learning about Wingate
Hi Chris, until a few years ago, I used to attend what was loosely referred to by the attendees as “The Spies Christmas Party” each year. It was really a bunch of middle aged and older men whom gathered toward the end of the year for a long weekend, ate a lot of very good food and drank a lot of very and not so good drink. I won’t bore you about the various associations that coalesced at those gatherings. At one, fairly recent, one the autopsy of Afghanistan was being conducted. After a couple of in-depth analysis had been discussed, I pretended to lose my temper to the extent that I postulated we all knew how, but hadn’t done it since the Malayan campaign ( no, I’m not that old, but I served/worked with people who were and was related to people who did). I then laid out the “Rules” that had been violated in Afghanistan, the uproar that followed was comical, the twittering about “PC” options were comical. I didn’t expect much more and hope the lessons leaked into some of the minds present. @@chrisburke624
I am an Englishman of 64 years old, of course I have heard and read about them from the 60's onwards, on my street were first and second world war veterans.
Those are fallen heroes big difference from the ones we never no the names of that give more then there life for the mission they give there heart blood and tears plus the sacrifice of there life to the goals of the many so there's a really big difference between those in unmarked graves to these heroes there talking about most definitely
Such ignominious unsung heroes, represent exactly what Abraham Lincoln spoke of on Nov. 19, 1863, at Gettysburg: “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” -Abraham Lincoln
After the battle of Kohima the Japanese retreated also under insane conditions,including canabalizm and murdering their own comrades.Very few made it back across the Chinwen River.I think only 300 or so men out of 6,000.Thank you DARK DOCS for letting me know for the first time what actually happened to General wingate.😊
My father was there....always said to us "look after your feet, if you can't walk, you're dead...(left behind)".....he used to shake his head in disgust when in later wars, helicopters would be called in med evacs for.such things...
A lot of my work mates as a young man where fighting in the Burmese jungle. I met a man wearing the Burmer star in Manchester bus station he was amazed that I knew what it was. God bless him.
From my understanding, the main benefit gained from the Chindit operations was in morale. They broke the myth around the Japanese being unbeatable in jungle warfare. They also pioneered jungle warfare, something that despite the myth, Japan didn't really do.
One of my uncles served in Burma with the Indian Army and the Gurkas.. He always had great respect for the Chindits.. One saying was if you met a person in a pub and said he was a chindit you brought him a pint.. Unfortunately never met one..
Misfits! Chindits were assembled from regular infantry units inc King's Regiment (Liverpool), 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) and 142 Commando Company ( jungle warfare school). They were not volunteers and the Liverpool regiment were older men considered 2nd line infantry.
The trouble with hard lessons learned in war is that when there is a long time of peace the military think the OLD lessons are no longer relevant and that somr newer think tank idea is better. Until the new war teaches them the same hard lessons again and they go back to the same old basic rules and ways that earlier wars had taught them. The main thing to know about your enemy and how to fight it is what sort of war they are fighting and what works best against them under those conditions. That is why the fighting in WW2 was in europe always going to be so different to the same ground being fought over in WW1 simply because the commanders in WW2 knew we could not have a similar sort of war that turned into a years and years long meat grinder like the Western front of WW1 did. Also the German forces in 1939 were well trained and led in their new combined arms type of warfareand the Alies had set their plans to fight a force that was going to repeat the same mistakes of WW1. Then the alies had to learn how to fight this new type of war. Korea was the last time where large armies lined up against eachother and even with the emerging gorilla tactics coming through it was a war that was fought to a standstill like WW1. Vietnam proved that a well supplied gorilla force well led and with the idea that they were the ones in the right could fight a war that they would win in the end against an Army fighting trying to use its force of power and might to beat it. This is the same result that has happened with the outcome in Afganistan. The powerful alied forces could not stay forever and even after 20 plus years once that stabalising force was removed the gorilla forces were still strong and forced a return to the old ways of before that war. Yet in Malaya in the 1950s gorilla tactics were used but failed. it all comes down to how much your forces can handle the local situation and survive without much outside help.These guys were heros simply because they took the fight to the Japs on their prevered ground and though the outcome was not a great win it did show along with other more famous battles like Midway and Milne Bay that the Japs were not unbeatable, they were just more atuned to the ground being fought over. The Japs had placed all their hope in a plan that if it had gone perfectly MAY well have given them the western Pacific and its resorces to them for little fight, as no other country in the area had any forces able to stop them alone or without having to rely on US supplies to keep fighting. In the early part of the Pacific war any means to stop the Japs and give them a further need to put more troops into an area than was planned for made the war harder for them and like in Russia against the Germans bought them time to build up the forces to fight through and continue to fight till the alies won.
Calling the Chindits a band of misfits, is an insult to the heroes, who gave their time, their mental health, their limbs and their lives, to help stop, and beat, the Japanese………
Merrill’s Marauders, officially named the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) was formed after the allied meeting in Canada and principally due to the success of the unit in this video. They fought the Japanese in the China-Burma-India Theater. They were America's first long range reconnaissance unit. When the 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions were formed in 1974, Merrill's Marauders were adopted into the history of the Rangers. Our unit crest honors them.
Rangers technically we’re formed before the country because unique fighting styles were needed to combat native Americans which they simply adopted a lot of their tactics of tracking and ambush as well as using close quarters weapons like hatchets
@@9livesspent339 Correct, during the French and Indian War in the 1750s, Major Robert Rogers raised and commanded Rogers' Rangers. They were frontiersmen who fought behind lines (guerrilla warfare) conducting raids, recons and ambushes.
@@Kneon_Knight Ok, yes Ranger units were formed and disbanded in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Modern Rangers units were reactivated in October of 1974 and I arrived at 2/75 Ranger Battalion in October 1975.
Proof that beating an army in jungle warfare is possible if your men are well trained and highly motivated. However fighting the population of a country rarely works out well as the Americans found in Vietnam.
If you follow the butterfly effect this group and their contribution was as important as any of the other battles. Striking 70 points in a rail system especially one serving a war effort. The Japanese said took away resourcws need for other areas of the Empire. What if one of those areas was Guadalcanal, Midway Island, or an Australian mainland invasion.
He was also a cousin to T E Lawrence of Arabia. He Wingate is even more famous for one of the foundation of the Israeli Defence Force. Sent to Palestine prior to WW2 to put down the Jews as against the Arabs during the British mandate . Against orders , he sided with the Jews . He formed the Jews into guerrilla groups and taught the strategy of attack , as against defence , and the importance of intelligence . Still manifest in Israeli strategy to this day. Moshe Dylan was one of those trained and served under him and lost his eye on one of Wingates raids. Wingate went naked in camp regardless of who visited , always reading his bible. Dylan and the Jews thought him mad but greatly admired and worshipped him. Unlike his cousin Lawrence , who is seen as an embarrassment to the Arabs now and of no import for nationalist reasons , Wingate is greatly honoured and remembered and a memorial exists to him. in Israel. He was very hard task master to his soldiers , flogging was a common punishment , or being tied to wagon wheels all day. So when his death was announced the soldiers cheered and threw their hats in the air.
Moshe Dayan lost his eye as a scout and advance party for the British Army in Lebanon, 1941. His binoculars were hit by a Vichy French sniper. Wingate was at this time feeling sorry for himself in Cairo having been removed from command of the dismantled Gideon Force.
I heard references to this in the Army. Simply it was moronic. Taking people ill prepared and walking them to death is not brilliant. However the infatuation with officers to replicate these long distance movements for some sort of clout was consistent. Simply infiltrating the enemy lines can be done in numerous ways. Walking for months in a Jungle where almost 25% of your forces are medically disabled is moronic. They did not rack up a massive enemy kill count or the like. War is about eliminating the enemy or logistically destroying them so they can no longer wage war. This accomplished neither.
Ajh... Ord Wingate.. You can also find mention of him in the very excellent :"Eagle Against the Sun" by Ronald Spector. 500+ pages long but totally worth it.
How about a follow on video from this on Mike Calvert as his story is also one of great achievement in ww2 and after into the 1950's and his role in the re-birth of the SAS after ww2. He was later stabbed in the back by the establishment based on a lie. His story deserves to be told
You clearly never heard of russian wet works in ww2, nicknamed black death by the ss. They were known for their black berets, ss was said that when they spot them, they know there's a battleship or battle group nearby. I think they were a naval unit, apparently fsb alpha, vimple and secretive zenith has their roots from the group, there's extremely little info online about them, which further makes sense for a unit that secretive
Sounds like a complete failure. A waste of good men. This fellow should have been removed from all military authority. He was more dangerous to his troops than the enemy.
Lions led by donkeys, classic British military!. Only surpassed by the cowards in the USA that gave the taliban more weapons and more sophistication than they could ever imagine! So many of our brave brothers, sister, sone and daughters died in Afghanistan so a cowardly political general could give the enemy so much!
Flynn is on record as saying that 1945's "Objective, Burma! “is one of the few features of which I am proud.” Movie based on "Merrill's Marauders" but inspired by the Chindits.:
This! Don't understand why people think he's going after Dark, we KNOW why British Military Public Affairs was exclusively recording white/British dudes... if 25% of the purpose of the operation was propaganda driven, what makes you think that public affairs FOR the British wouldn't be propaganda driven as well...
When I was travelling around Israel, there are certain place named after wingate revered that much certain military special Ops are named after him?🇬🇧🏴🇬🇧
30 Commando operations to collect technical intelligence behind lines are still covered by secrecy. These include recovery of code books, torpedos, rocketry and nuclear materials.
Disclaimer: After watching this video it is required that you must go through a mandtory debriefing an sign a statement that you will deny ever hearing of this unit an have no knowledge of their existence, ( if ever asked).
My old science teacher was a Chindit officer. A real man with a sense of humor and the best science teacher ever. God bless Mr Armstrong.
My father, Leslie Mills, Royal Engineers, was a Chindit and survived the long withdrawal to India. Having also survived the siege of Tobruk, he saw more than his fair share of action.
He was demobbed in 1946 and lived until he was 84 in 2002.
My father was one of those 'misfits' he survived the jungle and was one of the few who survived the Siege of Kohima the aftermath cost him dearly and us his family too. However, god bless his soul he lived on until his 86th year.
my great uncle was in Kohima and had only funny stories about his experiences until I joined the RN ( I suppose he thought of me as old enough to discuss the reality of war)
He had a great story of while cleaning up from 😅having a dump in the trench,a granade landed next to him, his Indian comrade grabbed it and threw it back... with the addition of a flapping poop stained tail .....he said it was surreal moment when everyone seemed to stop for a fraction of a second to look at the strange sight ..... before getting back to the business of killing........
Who's not heard of the Chindits before?
They are legendary!
Maybe americans
@@petercherry2165I'm American and I've known about these guys since I was a kid. Some of us pay attention.
American kids don’t know about anything pre 9/11
My Dad Thomas Burgess was a Chindit He survived the Longcloth expedition and was one of 300 who joined Operation Thursday He was trained in the Royal Corps of Signals His task was to bring in by radio, the supplies from airplanes dropped by chute to supply the troops. He also had to bring in the towed gliders carrying troops and equipment. He would avoid the tales of horror telling me and my brothers the good tales. When he had a few beers we would get some of the other stuff. RIP Dad I am the only one of His children left now.
The Chindits essentially conducted 2 operations: Longcloth in 1943 which involved a brigade and Thursday in 1944 which involved 3 brigades (a division). A good account of Op Longcloth is Fergusson's Across the Chindwin. An excellent personal account of Op Thursday is John Masters' Road Past Mandalay. An excellent bio of Wingate is Fire in the Night by Biersan and Smith. Wingate was killed in the opening stages of Op Thursday when the B 25 he was flying in crashed. Command passed to Brigadier Joe Lentaigne. The other brigades were commanded by veteran battalion COs from Long cloth: Mike Calvert and Bernard Fergusson. Given the dispersion of Lentaigne's battalions and the fact that Masters (Brigade Major/G3) had written the operations orders, Lentaigne passed command to him (jumping over the 3 battalion COs who actually outranked Masters).
One thing not mentioned in this video was Wingates's suicide attempt following the successful Ethiopia campaign. While resting in a Cairo hotel, Wingate plunged a hunting knife into his neck. There is some speculation that he was driven to a temporary madness by the malaria drugs he was taking. I've served in Ethiopia and he is still celebrated there. Same for Israel.
What malaria medication were they using back then?
Bernard Fergusson became the Governor General of NZ,he was well liked and a real character.
the Chindits,😅 otherwise known as the forgotton army, not by me, my uncle Robot was a mule handler he was never the same man when he came home
My understanding is that the Forgotten Army was the 14th Army of Burma. The Chindits were a Brigade.
@@stevewest9327 Look at my earlier comment. There were 2 Chindit ops: Longcloth (bde) in 43 and Thursday (div) in 44.
Couldn't imagine a worse place to face combat in. Unreal heroes.
Try imagine combat in Stalingrad when your trapped by the enemy and your only option is to fight back or surrender
@@JDDC-tq7qm
Now imagine that in an environment where there's diseases, bug, snakes and a thousand other things try to kill you other than the enemy.
That's what the environment in Burma was like, the environment in Stalingrad was a cake walk compared to the jungle of Burma, it was the worst place in the world to try to just survive in much less fight in.
@@dukecraig2402I bet the Marines trapped in subzero mountains of North Korea facing 10 to one odds while trying to not freeze to death would rather have been in Burma.
@@q-man762
Chosin lasted a few weeks, they wandered around through the jungle in Burma for months, it was an operation where if you got wounded you were going to die, period, there was no if's and's or but's about it you were dead meat.
Burma is the kind of place that's full of all kinds of critters from bugs to snake's that if you got bit by any one of a number of them you were going to die, no if's and's or but's about that one either, and then there's the native people that you can run across who may or may not be so angry simply that you're there they'll want to kill you.
I've been in an environment every bit as cold as Chosin when I was in the Army and for as long as Chosin was, it was absolutely brutal, I mean life changing brutal, and I'll take it over months of being essentially cut off in the Burmese jungle any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
And by the way, there was Army that was part of Chosin to, it wasn't just Marine's as most people think.
When you read up , into what they went through. The things they did and endured. You can't help but have admiration and respect for them. They were tuff bastard's.. for sure! 👍💛👊
One of the tactics the Chindits used was to load 2-6 horses on a glider. The horses that did not wind up with broken legs or injuries, were immediately saddled and scouts used them to recon the drop zone to ensure it was safe for men to jump. The injured horses then became “fresh” rations.
Orde Windgate is buried in Arlington National Cemetary. One of his students in the Middle East was Moshe Dayan.
wonder why he was buried there?
It’s funny, I was in the US for 3 months earlier this year, during a “discussion” about the validity of the Israeli position and reactions, I noted the tactics used weren’t “Israeli” but those developed by Ord Wingate prior to WW2, to the extent that Moshe Dayan had declared Ord Wingate had taught them (Haganah) all they needed to know. The people with whom I was talking, had never heard of Ord Wingate.
I'm American, most Americans are so stupid they can't even point out Great Britain on a map let alone India. I'm not kidding either.
Ah, the Americans...they have plenty to learn from their own ample wartime history.
But, sometimes, it would behoove them to learn from others. Many lessons, both practical and metaphorical, to be learned when learning about Wingate
Hi Chris, until a few years ago, I used to attend what was loosely referred to by the attendees as “The Spies Christmas Party” each year. It was really a bunch of middle aged and older men whom gathered toward the end of the year for a long weekend, ate a lot of very good food and drank a lot of very and not so good drink. I won’t bore you about the various associations that coalesced at those gatherings. At one, fairly recent, one the autopsy of Afghanistan was being conducted. After a couple of in-depth analysis had been discussed, I pretended to lose my temper to the extent that I postulated we all knew how, but hadn’t done it since the Malayan campaign ( no, I’m not that old, but I served/worked with people who were and was related to people who did). I then laid out the “Rules” that had been violated in Afghanistan, the uproar that followed was comical, the twittering about “PC” options were comical. I didn’t expect much more and hope the lessons leaked into some of the minds present. @@chrisburke624
Orde Wingate
@@anthonyburke5656I
I am an Englishman of 64 years old, of course I have heard and read about them from the 60's onwards, on my street were first and second world war veterans.
I'm a 75 year old 3rd generation Englishman and growing up in Paterson, New Jersey I knew of and were taught about the Chindits .
I have indeed heard of The Chindits, in fact, I knew one quite well in my Somerset town; he sadly passed away in 2003. 🙏🏻
These people regularly achieved journeys so fast even our "elite" units would now say are impossible.
The most secret soldiers are the ones in mass graves, where we don't even know their names.
Those are fallen heroes big difference from the ones we never no the names of that give more then there life for the mission they give there heart blood and tears plus the sacrifice of there life to the goals of the many so there's a really big difference between those in unmarked graves to these heroes there talking about most definitely
I think most secret soldiers are ones we never heard of.
I think that's the point of the tomb of the unknown soldier. They still get recognition.
Yes may they forever rest in peace.
Such ignominious unsung heroes, represent exactly what Abraham Lincoln spoke of on Nov. 19, 1863, at Gettysburg: “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
-Abraham Lincoln
After the battle of Kohima the Japanese retreated also under insane conditions,including canabalizm and murdering their own comrades.Very few made it back across the Chinwen River.I think only 300 or so men out of 6,000.Thank you DARK DOCS for letting me know for the first time what actually happened to General wingate.😊
Hats off to all who served in the India/Burna theatre. That was some of the toughest fighting during the war.
These guys went into attacks knowing any injury meant being left behind and most probable certain death??? Wow!! Big balls 101
My father was there....always said to us "look after your feet, if you can't walk, you're dead...(left behind)".....he used to shake his head in disgust when in later wars, helicopters would be called in med evacs for.such things...
@@daffyd5867
Oh yea, those guy's who fought there were "disgusting" all right, sure thing 👍
A lot of my work mates as a young man where fighting in the Burmese jungle. I met a man wearing the Burmer star in Manchester bus station he was amazed that I knew what it was. God bless him.
God bless them all
You young man have a terrific channel.
Do a read up on Z force from Australia sent into Borneo im sure, very interesting indeed
From my understanding, the main benefit gained from the Chindit operations was in morale. They broke the myth around the Japanese being unbeatable in jungle warfare. They also pioneered jungle warfare, something that despite the myth, Japan didn't really do.
Wingate was a badass 😎
My grandad was a chindit with the Kings Liverpool regiment.
That was my Father's regiment, he was a Chindit.
My father was a Chindit NOT A MISFIT very seldom spoke about it he had Gurkha guard of honour at his funeral
Very brave men
One of my uncles served in Burma with the Indian Army and the Gurkas.. He always had great respect for the Chindits.. One saying was if you met a person in a pub and said he was a chindit you brought him a pint.. Unfortunately never met one..
Hardly misfits, hardly fearless. That's what made them so special. They were ordinary men, pushed to the ultimate.
Thank you for your service ❤💪🤘💯🙏👍
They weren't rag tag miss fits, they were a special operation's unit , ans some of the bravest and best soldiers of WW2
Good video , thanks for sharing , God bless !
Misfits! Chindits were assembled from regular infantry units inc King's Regiment (Liverpool), 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) and 142 Commando Company ( jungle warfare school). They were not volunteers and the Liverpool regiment were older men considered 2nd line infantry.
The trouble with hard lessons learned in war is that when there is a long time of peace the military think the OLD lessons are no longer relevant and that somr newer think tank idea is better. Until the new war teaches them the same hard lessons again and they go back to the same old basic rules and ways that earlier wars had taught them. The main thing to know about your enemy and how to fight it is what sort of war they are fighting and what works best against them under those conditions. That is why the fighting in WW2 was in europe always going to be so different to the same ground being fought over in WW1 simply because the commanders in WW2 knew we could not have a similar sort of war that turned into a years and years long meat grinder like the Western front of WW1 did. Also the German forces in 1939 were well trained and led in their new combined arms type of warfareand the Alies had set their plans to fight a force that was going to repeat the same mistakes of WW1. Then the alies had to learn how to fight this new type of war. Korea was the last time where large armies lined up against eachother and even with the emerging gorilla tactics coming through it was a war that was fought to a standstill like WW1. Vietnam proved that a well supplied gorilla force well led and with the idea that they were the ones in the right could fight a war that they would win in the end against an Army fighting trying to use its force of power and might to beat it. This is the same result that has happened with the outcome in Afganistan. The powerful alied forces could not stay forever and even after 20 plus years once that stabalising force was removed the gorilla forces were still strong and forced a return to the old ways of before that war. Yet in Malaya in the 1950s gorilla tactics were used but failed. it all comes down to how much your forces can handle the local situation and survive without much outside help.These guys were heros simply because they took the fight to the Japs on their prevered ground and though the outcome was not a great win it did show along with other more famous battles like Midway and Milne Bay that the Japs were not unbeatable, they were just more atuned to the ground being fought over. The Japs had placed all their hope in a plan that if it had gone perfectly MAY well have given them the western Pacific and its resorces to them for little fight, as no other country in the area had any forces able to stop them alone or without having to rely on US supplies to keep fighting. In the early part of the Pacific war any means to stop the Japs and give them a further need to put more troops into an area than was planned for made the war harder for them and like in Russia against the Germans bought them time to build up the forces to fight through and continue to fight till the alies won.
Calling the Chindits a band of misfits, is an insult to the heroes, who gave their time, their mental health, their limbs and their lives, to help stop, and beat, the Japanese………
You should do the story of Valor road in Canada. It’s about how many men from the same place were awarded the VC.
Merrill’s Marauders, officially named the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) was formed after the allied meeting in Canada and principally due to the success of the unit in this video.
They fought the Japanese in the China-Burma-India Theater.
They were America's first long range reconnaissance unit.
When the 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions were formed in 1974, Merrill's Marauders were adopted into the history of the Rangers.
Our unit crest honors them.
Don't you mean "When the 1 and 2nd Ranger Battalions were reactivated in 1974?"
Rangers technically we’re formed before the country because unique fighting styles were needed to combat native Americans which they simply adopted a lot of their tactics of tracking and ambush as well as using close quarters weapons like hatchets
@@9livesspent339
Correct, during the French and Indian War in the 1750s, Major Robert Rogers raised and commanded Rogers' Rangers. They were frontiersmen who fought behind lines (guerrilla warfare) conducting raids, recons and ambushes.
@@Kneon_Knight
Ok, yes Ranger units were formed and disbanded in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
Modern Rangers units were reactivated in October of 1974 and I arrived at 2/75 Ranger Battalion in October 1975.
@@Stoney_AKA_James
Those RRD guys are the baddest, the things they do make everyone else in JSOC look like Cub Scouts.
Thank you for sharing. :)
Wow...! What a ordeal they went through.
I have watched a lot of your videos and content keep up the good work I have learned somethings I didn't know
Proof that beating an army in jungle warfare is possible if your men are well trained and highly motivated.
However fighting the population of a country rarely works out well as the Americans found in Vietnam.
🏆🤗🙏🇺🇲🎖️
Thank you for sharing
HARDLY. A WELL-KNOWN FORCE. The subject of books and multiple videos.
These guys are so secret that there is youtube videos about them.
I knew one of these Men through my Dad ,but he only ever just once confirmed he was and told me never to ask anything about "it" again
It's important to know what doesn't work, and how it can be improved.
Motley crew. Tough highly trained soldiers mate. We, the Brits, always bounce back.
Unknown??? One of the best known units in the UK.
If you follow the butterfly effect this group and their contribution was as important as any of the other battles. Striking 70 points in a rail system especially one serving a war effort. The Japanese said took away resourcws need for other areas of the Empire. What if one of those areas was Guadalcanal, Midway Island, or an Australian mainland invasion.
He was also a cousin to T E Lawrence of Arabia. He Wingate is even more famous for one of the foundation of the Israeli Defence Force. Sent to Palestine prior to WW2 to put down the Jews as against the Arabs during the British mandate . Against orders , he sided with the Jews . He formed the Jews into guerrilla groups and taught the strategy of attack , as against defence , and the importance of intelligence . Still manifest in Israeli strategy to this day. Moshe Dylan was one of those trained and served under him and lost his eye on one of Wingates raids. Wingate went naked in camp regardless of who visited , always reading his bible. Dylan and the Jews thought him mad but greatly admired and worshipped him. Unlike his cousin Lawrence , who is seen as an embarrassment to the Arabs now and of no import for nationalist reasons , Wingate is greatly honoured and remembered and a memorial exists to him. in Israel. He was very hard task master to his soldiers , flogging was a common punishment , or being tied to wagon wheels all day. So when his death was announced the soldiers cheered and threw their hats in the air.
Moshe Dayan lost his eye as a scout and advance party for the British Army in Lebanon, 1941. His binoculars were hit by a Vichy French sniper. Wingate was at this time feeling sorry for himself in Cairo having been removed from command of the dismantled Gideon Force.
is Moshe Dylan Bob's cousin?
I heard references to this in the Army. Simply it was moronic. Taking people ill prepared and walking them to death is not brilliant. However the infatuation with officers to replicate these long distance movements for some sort of clout was consistent. Simply infiltrating the enemy lines can be done in numerous ways. Walking for months in a Jungle where almost 25% of your forces are medically disabled is moronic. They did not rack up a massive enemy kill count or the like. War is about eliminating the enemy or logistically destroying them so they can no longer wage war. This accomplished neither.
Whole time I was watching the video I was thinking the same. All those lives lost for what? To prove a point?
Agreed but it was an unknown that needed to be known.
25% sick note isn't bad after a couple of months in the jungle. It is a very abrasive environment.
USArmy Jungle course is in it begining formations as we speak from what ive seen its extremely tough😮
Ajh... Ord Wingate.. You can also find mention of him in the very excellent :"Eagle Against the Sun" by Ronald Spector. 500+ pages long but totally worth it.
The boldest measure is always the safest.... secret missions yet to be told....?
How about a follow on video from this on Mike Calvert as his story is also one of great achievement in ww2 and after into the 1950's and his role in the re-birth of the SAS after ww2. He was later stabbed in the back by the establishment based on a lie. His story deserves to be told
His great grand son Alan Carmichael worked at Woodlawn mines Australia
I had heard of the Chindits from family members who were in WWII.
They were just made of different stuff back then?
I read the Road past mandalay book is there any information you have come across in your time that is connected to this story sir?
My Dad was from liverpool man! He was 15 when he signed up, He falsified his age.
Was in he in the Kings regiment? The 13th Battalion The Kings Liverpool Regiment where part of the chindit columns .
Who’s elephant got “commandeered”??? The enemy? Some random guy with an elephant?
local
You clearly never heard of russian wet works in ww2, nicknamed black death by the ss. They were known for their black berets, ss was said that when they spot them, they know there's a battleship or battle group nearby. I think they were a naval unit, apparently fsb alpha, vimple and secretive zenith has their roots from the group, there's extremely little info online about them, which further makes sense for a unit that secretive
Wow and I thought i knew everything about WW2 yet never heard about this Unit from Russia I guess my knowledge about WW2 is not complete 😂
Sounds like a complete failure. A waste of good men. This fellow should have been removed from all military authority. He was more dangerous to his troops than the enemy.
But, I guess the mountain took care of that to save Churchill the decision.
Absolutely correct
Quite a few years ago after separating with my wife Orde Wingate's son took me in and gave me a place to stay for about six months.
War... war never changes
until the mushrooms go off and we all have to use bottle caps ;)
War Is A Racket
My father fought in India in World War II he flew over the hump in a C-47 commando airplane.. he was the radio operator
Thanks to all these courageous veterans! Appears, IMHO, that a minimal positive came at an extreme cost.
Anyone know the song starting at 8:55? I think it sounds kinda dope
??
😮has anybody else noticed that "Otter" is seen alongside a very Emperor Haile Selassie looking man at around 2:24 into this item🕵🏻♂️
It seems to me a lot of good men died simply to sate the ego of one man. A typically British thing to do.
Absolutely correct General Slim put Wingate in his place
I used to work with one at Ransomes Sims and Jefferies in Ipswich, a small, very unassuming bloke. Isn't that usually the case with heroes. 👍
to this day , Orde Wingate is ( still) revered in Israel
Did I miss something? This sounded like an utter fiasco. At best, it was kinda like the Dieppe raid, teaching future leaders what NOT to do.
Lions led by donkeys, classic British military!. Only surpassed by the cowards in the USA that gave the taliban more weapons and more sophistication than they could ever imagine!
So many of our brave brothers, sister, sone and daughters died in Afghanistan so a cowardly political general could give the enemy so much!
Not to make fun but I saw Errol Flynn it was a great movie and depicted the heroism of the chindits
Flynn is on record as saying that 1945's "Objective, Burma! “is one of the few features of which I am proud.” Movie based on "Merrill's Marauders" but inspired by the Chindits.:
NOT THE OLNEY ONES TOO DO THIS JUST A STEEP LEARNING , HARD BUGGERS. 😊
The mules had there vocal chords removed so as not to give there position away
Interesting they only show close ups of British and not the majority who where Indians. They also lost the most men.
glenwall522
It seems to me, that people like you , seem to think that the British weren't involved in the second world war at all.
Honestly, there's probably just more video footage of the British troops. Probably for racial reasons at the time, but not this channels fault.
@ST4RF4LL- Ah fair enough
This! Don't understand why people think he's going after Dark, we KNOW why British Military Public Affairs was exclusively recording white/British dudes... if 25% of the purpose of the operation was propaganda driven, what makes you think that public affairs FOR the British wouldn't be propaganda driven as well...
@@silversurfer640- a third of the Indian Army we’re British and a third Nepali in the Infantry Divisions. More at Div level
No may have changed the Course of the War in Burma the war in the west no way
It’s now the Duke of Lancaster regiment
They are Australian ,the British didn't want these people to do anything against the Japanese
Carlson’s Rangers did it first on Guadalcanal during the long patrol.
1:41 and by his nick name "stinker"...
My Father was a Chindit.
they were on a picnic so you had to drop atom bombs
When I was travelling around Israel, there are certain place named after wingate revered that much certain military special Ops are named after him?🇬🇧🏴🇬🇧
Good story about worthy heroes. But most of the jungle scenes shown look to be Australians in PNG not Chindits in Burma.
They wouldn't be much secret if I had heard of them... 😅
Hmmmm. One Chindits I knew said that he survived Orde Wingate and the Japanese in that order
Slim did not like the unit He said it took the best soldiers from his units And Wingate was a chancer
no dark docs. the most secret would be THE SPECIAL BOAT SERVICE
30 Commando operations to collect technical intelligence behind lines are still covered by secrecy. These include recovery of code books, torpedos, rocketry and nuclear materials.
Why...the title confused me.
Misfits? They were regular Army troops. Their elite status was gained by surviving their eccentric commander.
My dad done his bit there his song was hi ho hi ho it's off to work we go with a shovel and spade and a hand grenade hi hi hi ho sbs
nothing rag tagged about them picked from volunteers and trained and disciplined by their field commander Sir general orde wingate
CHINDIT!
RIP Orde Wingate a pioneer in guerilla/ unconventional warfare
They are famous.
Disclaimer: After watching this video it is required that you must go through a mandtory debriefing an sign a statement that you will deny ever hearing of this unit an have no knowledge of their existence, ( if ever asked).
Studs!!!
Adventure , in the jungle , , Japanese and Vietnamese, just say adventure , ,