BURMA FRONTIER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 62, 14 March 1944, Page 4

BURMA FRONTIER

FORGOTTEN LAND

SUPERB FIGHTING UNITS

(By a British Indian Army Officer) LONDON

Along the wet mountainous frontier between India and Burma is ranged the British Army. It is largely composed of Indian Divisions, and it is their job to watch the Japanese, defeat any attempt at a break-through into India, and to prepare the way for the assault. They live in one of those forgotten lands, forgotten because there was never any need to enter it.

It is not a country tised to war. No armies have ever crossed these mountains. There are no ruined forts, no places remembered as the site of old battles, no roads left by invading armies. Over all the hills lies the' thick carpet of jungle and undergrowth; even the airmen soaring above in the strong sunlight like a vulture cannot see what is happening below. The men on the ground wage their own private war, adopting tactics from the inhabitants, learning to live like those who have lived for generations in these damp and uncomfortable parts.

There is hardly a unit in these Indian Divisions which has not been "blooded." Each one has been given its chance to kill Japanese and learn jungle fighting in the school of practical experience. Although there are constant small engagements, only a few units at a time can be engaged, and so the great enemy is that enemy of all highly trained troops— boredom. Boredom under the worst possible conditions, heat, damp and disease, with that finest defeatist agent in the world—malaria—ever present.

Equal to the World's Best The title of these Divisions is perhaps somewhat misleading. Although called "Indian" they are composed of both British and Indian troops. The Divisions belong to the Indian Army, but there are frequently British Army staff officers, and in the normal brigade there is a British battalion. In the same way many of the gunners are British also. During the course of many wars it has been discovered that this provides a very fine fighting combination.

The reaction of the British troops to being placed in an Indian formation follows almost stereotyped lines. First, there is annoyance at hot fighting alongside their own countrymen, followed by a feeling of superiority over the Indian units. As the Tommies begin to learn something about the Indian soldiers they realise that it is no good being just superior; they must be better, in fact. Then comes the determination to show that their unit is best. That is the moment when the Indian Division begins to find its feet. With the British troops showing the way and the Indian troops determined to be every bit as good, the whole shakes down into a keen formation. Understanding and friendliness may await active operations, but once that has knit the Division into a whole it is as good as anything in the world. This is said to be the real basic-reason for the astonishing successes of the 4th Indian Division in North and East Africa. The British units of that Division would nearly have mutinied if they had been transferred elsewhere.

Guerilla Warfare It would be quite wrong to describe the defences on the Burma frontier as a line. Between concentrations there are gaps, covered only by patrols. In some places these gaps are more than 100 miles apart. The reason is that the mountainous area is impassable to large bodies of trcops in many places; the construction of a road would become known to the defenders on either side long before it could be completed. And so small parties of men ream about, watching the other side, setting ambushes and killing each other whenever opportunity occurs. The British and Indian troops appear to hold the initiative on these occasions, although frequently outnumbered.

The country is almost equally strange to British and Indian soldier alike, though the Gurkha finds it not so different from his Himalayan valleys. What is required is a stocky, sturdy man, for the constant bending and twisting grows tiring for a tall man. The British north-country ex-miner is a suitable type. It is, however, difficult and perhaps unfair to attempt to differentiate. There will be little to choose between British and Indian soldiers of all types when the time ccmes to climb the mountains and scramble down into Burma.—Auckland -Star and N.A.N.A.