Chindits veteran recalls ‘impossible’ hardships of Burma campaign
The Chindits were a special fighting force tasked with disrupting Japanese communications and supply lines during the war in the Far East.
A veteran of the Second World War’s brutal Burma campaign has recalled how he survived tropical diseases, injury and jungle warfare 75 years on from the end of the conflict.
John Hutchin, 96, joined the Chindits, a special fighting force tasked with disrupting Japanese communications and supply lines during the war in the Far East, aged 20.
The Chindits units drew their name from a mythical Burmese lion that appeared on their badge.
Dropped 200 miles behind enemy lines in 1944, he and his comrades faced “impossible” conditions, including monsoon rains and limited food supplies.
“There was a saying going around that every Chindit will go to heaven because he’d been to hell. It’s impossible to describe,” Mr Hutchin said ahead of the 75th anniversary of Victory in Japan (VJ) Day.
Originally from Wales, and now living in Kent with his wife Ann, Mr Hutchin is among the few surviving veterans left able to observe commemorations on Saturday.
Remembering the fighting in Burma, now Myanmar, Mr Hutchin told the PA news agency: “It never, ever stopped raining like stair rods.
“At night, you slept where you fell. No ground sheets, no bedding.
