Burma: How the R.A.F. went to aid a Wingate Raiding column

Photograph: Burma Rescue: How the R. A. F. went to the Aid of a Wingate Raiding Column. These pictures add another chapter to the story of Brigadier Orde Charles Wingate, D. S. O. and the Jungle Penetration Force in Burma (The Chindits) of which he is the leader. One of Brigadier Wingate?s raiding columns had penetrated to a depth of 170 miles behind the Japanese Lines in Northern Burma. Then back to a depth of 170 miles behind the Japanese Lines in Northern Burma. Then back to an R. A. F. Transport Squadron office at an Assam Airfield, came a wirelessed S. O.s Seventeen of the British Raiders in this column were sick or wounded. The column was short of food, ammunition and other supplies. Two aircraft set off to the rescue on Easter Sunday 1943. The column was located and supplies dropped by parachute. The first attempt to land was unsuccessful. The Jungle column had to set to work to lay out a landing strip. A few days later a signal came back that the landing strip had been completed. One of the transports set off again. It landed successfully and brought the seventeen sick and wounded men back to safety. On both trips a photographer flew with one of the transport planes to bring these pictures of the adventure. Shows the dropping of supplies from the transport plane to the Chindits. KY. 9003. D. 471207. Unrestricted Ministry Use. One of 29 British Official Photographs, nd. Mounted on card with original associated typescript captions, chiefly relating to Burma, World War Two, Far East (1941-1945) and the reconstruction of the country

Picture No

11109603

Media ID

48572487

Size

2342px x 3000px (1.1MB)

Credit

©The National Army Museum / Mary Evans Picture Library

Source

Photograph

Date

1945