16 BRIGADE TO INDAW

Colour Sergeant Harold Atkins
21 Column, 2nd Battalion, Queen’s Royal Regiment
After the Tobruk battle the battalion was due to be sent to Syria, but because of the Japanese entry into the war, we were sent to Colombo to defend Ceylon. Suddenly, out of the blue, we were told by the CO that the whole of 16 Infantry Brigade, which we had been part of for the whole war, was to join the Chindits and move to Jhansi for jungle training. We were there for three months living in jungle, as we would in Burma, and trained hard.

Wingate gave us a pep talk at the conclusion of the last major exercise at Saugor. I can’t remember exactly what he said, except that we would have air support and casualty evacuation by air, so no man need worry if he was wounded; he would not be left behind. We would have supplies dropped to us. We were well trained and would show the Japs that we were better than them.
I certainly wasn’t inspired by Wingate. Nor were some of the other lads. Our concern was how much the press had built up the Japs as being invincible and merciless. We nursed the thought, ‘What happens if you get captured?’

Private Arthur Baker
71 Column, 13 Platoon, 2nd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment
The 2nd Leicesters were a marvellous battalion, the nucleus was all regulars.
They had been all through Tobruk, fought in Syria, and were experienced. Corporal
Brown commanded our section. He was a regular soldier, and had served
in Crete, Syria and Tobruk.

The training was rigorous, if you weren’t fit you would not survive it.
Wingate visited us and spoke to us. We thought he was mad to begin with but
he proved his point, he never expected anyone to do anything he couldn’t do
himself.