End of WW2 -- second part (1 Viewer)

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He was a Lance Corporal in Operation Thursday (Second Chindit Operation), known as a "blitzer" because he carried a bren gun and almost always led a charge with his other "blitzers". In his own words the best jungle fighters were the Ghurkas. But the Chindits on a whole were trained on the basis that they needed to be better jungle fighters than the Japanese, and that they were.

These people were normal soldiers trained in jungle warfare. So, it was always a massive moral booster to the other lads in the jungle. They thought; "if those lads can do it, we can too." My grandad was one of the many thousands that got some disease while in the jungle (I don't know what it actually was but he told me about it) and was evacuated by Dakota. However, he was back in action before it was all over.

While he was gone a young lad of 18-19 took his bren gun (and place in the platoon) and during combat it jammed, the lad was a shot and killed as a result. That tore my grandad up 'til his dying day. Oh yeah, and mules are the greatest animal on the planet! He punched some new boy for abusing a mule, telling the lad that the mule was more worth than he was. Oh when you got him talking he wouldn't shut up it was rare to get him talking about that though.

He used to go out for a newspaper about 12 times a day to get away from my grandma 'cos she talks ALL the time! :lol:
 
Starting in 1944, the Aussies started training "green" US troops in the fine art of jungle warfare.

I know they had training area's set aside near New Guinie.

They certeinly knew what they were doing.
 
The Aussies should have been pretty good at it anyhow because they lived in the Region. They were more likely to see that kind of combat more than anyone else on the Allies side up until WW2.
 

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