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1943–44 Chindit VERSUS Japanese Infantryman Jon Diamond © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com 1943–44 Chindit Japanese Infantryman Jon Diamond © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com INTRODUCTION 4 THE OPPOSING SIDES 9 0SJHJOT SFDSVJUNFOU BOE USBJOJOH t $PNCBU EPDUSJOF BOE PSHBOJ[BUJPO -FBEFSTIJQ XFBQPOT BOE UBDUJDT t $PNNVOJDBUJPOT MPHJTUJDT BOE NPSBMF NANKAN STATION 29 6 March 1943 PAGODA HILL 40 16–18 March 1944 MOGAUNG 55 2–12 June 1944 ANALYSIS 71 -FTTPOT MFBSOFE UIF #SJUJTI t -FTTPOT MFBSOFE UIF +BQBOFTF AFTERMATH 75 ORDERS OF BATTLE 78 BIBLIOGRAPHY 79 INDEX 80 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com Introduction Commonwealth troops surrendered to the Japanese at Singapore in February 1942, although the defenders outnumbered the invaders by as much as three-to-one in numerical strength. Here, Lt-Gen A.E. Percival, GOC Malaya, and his party are depicted on their way to the formal surrender of the island. Lieutenant-General Mutaguchi’s 18th Division had landed under heavy fire on Malaya’s north-eastern coast on 8 December 1941 and then trekked through rough terrain along the eastern side of the peninsula before it took part in the invasion of Singapore Island, which capitulated shortly thereafter. This campaign, coupled with the combat in China, made this division one of the most battle-hardened formations in the IJA. (© IWM HU 2781) On the evening of 2 March 1943, only days after the first Chindit operation in Japanese-occupied Burma had commenced, Maj Arthur Emmett’s No. 2 Column was bivouacking a couple of miles west of the railway station at Kyaikthin in anticipation of the next day’s attack to blow it up. Emmett’s scouts observed that two trains had arrived at the Kyaikthin railway station during that afternoon, but the Chindits were completely unaware that these trains contained roughly 800 Japanese soldiers of the 215th Infantry Regiment (33rd Division). At 2200hrs, Lt Ian MacHorton was near the rear of a column of 250 men and 20 mules as it trekked down the railway-line embankment. The Japanese, hidden in the jungle some 20yd beyond the embankment, were making their final ambush preparations. As MacHorton recounted after the war: 4 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com There came the sound of just one bang up at the front somewhere beyond my vision. But only for a split second, then an inferno of noise engulfed the world around me! Then came the high-pitched staccato scream of a machine-gun … Then overwhelmingly many more machine-guns joined in an ear-splitting chorus. The crash–ping of rifles and banging grenades, joined in to swell the noise of sudden battle to a fearful crescendo. Somewhere ahead there was an uncertain scuffling. A hoarse voice cried: ‘Take cover!’ and another screamed ‘Christ Almighty!’ and was silenced. (Quoted in Chinnery 2010: 62) The brutal, sustained combat that characterized the Chindits’ operations in Burma in 1943 and 1944 had its roots in the lightning Japanese conquest of Burma in 1942. For the Western Allies, the reconquest of northern Burma – along with the capture of the vital communications hub at Myitkyina on the Irrawaddy River – was of paramount importance. This was in order to reopen the old Burma Road to the south-western provinces of China, thereby keeping Chiang Kai-shek’s forces in the war fighting against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The British High Command, however, did not want to resume the offensive in the harsh terrain of northern Burma. The British approach was made clear by the comments of Lt-Gen Noel Irwin, GOCin-C Eastern Army,