Chindits 1943

[Pete Keane]

Hi Bill

What signals unit were you with?

I know of a couple of other ex-signals drivers who post on various forums, no-one that was in Burma though.

Pete

[bessingby]

hi pete
its a long story i was with a party of 50 fully trained r.a.c  men sent to india to make up a new armoured regt which was made up of peace time men ready for blighty but the out brakeof the war stoped that .the rest was thro outs  from other regts whilst they were coming down from the frontier we,-----us that got our knees brown were putting up the camp .most of the men were ex cavalry.no knowlege of armour.our tank training was done with 3 ton lorries.and cavalry signals .we got to the best trained armoured reg in india.then wingate got his way ,his had to be english regts .so allsuch as ours where disbanded to make up his colums,all of our regt and others had to examined to see if we were fit for colume duties i was down graded and transfered to r/s special force the only drivers that comes to mind were gurkhas some of the signal men went in with the colume our was the 111bdge.2of my mates were killed

[bessingby]

pete kene
pete have  you ever come across my old regt 26th hussarsin your travels around the .roots chat
                   bessingby

[bamboo43]

Hi Bessingby,

Which smaller column unit were you with in 111th Brigade? Columns 26 and 90 were made up of the Cameronians and other attachments.

Steve.

[Pete Keane]

Hi bessingby

I havent come across anyone else from the 26th Hussars, not yey anyway!

If you let Bamboo have the details of your mates, he may have details of them already.

Pete

[bessingby]

hi bambo
my unit the royal sigs were att to the cameronians,and the gurkhas. i didnt know any of the scots lads only by sight and to talk to after training.at a camp called dukwan dam we stood up against the dam to keep cool.i didnt have much conract with them after imphal most of them had gone in to burmha one way or another.i beleive any films shown on tele or cinama are the 77 bdge led by mike calvert its hardto tell whos/whos              bessingby

[staffs01]

I am also new to the forum and have come here trying to find out some more information about my grandfathers time in the chindits. He was in the South Staffordshire regiment and earned the burma star - I believe in 1943. I know very little else other than he served with the chindits in the jungles of Burma. Could anyone give me any advice on places to start for more information?

[bamboo43]

Hi staffs01,

Sorry for the delay in replying. The South Staffs were a vital part of the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade led by Mike Calvert in 1944. They took part in all of the major Chindit actions within that Brigade that year.

I would recommend the books 'Prisoners of Hope', by Calvert himself and perhaps 'March or Die', by Phil Chinnery, for an overview of what the battalion got up to.

There are also battalion War Diaries held at our National Archives, Kew, London.

I will find out the file references for the S. Staffs diaries and post them later.

Steve.

[Ruskie]

You all seem very knowledgable so I will join in with this discussion rather than start a new one, if that's OK. I have just started researching my father-in-law's activities in Burma. I intend to, but haven't yet, obtained his service record.

I'm not sure exactly when he arrived in Burma but I think it was fairly late on  - I know he arrived in Bombay in Sept 1943, was in Shillong area of India in Sept 44, and in Burma by the end of December. I think he was in Signals.

He has used lots of abbreviations and I'm trying to determine what unit (sorry I am just beginning this search and do not know correct terminology) he was in.

He has mentioned 9M and 8M.  Can anyone please tell me what these refer to?