Brigadier James Michael Calvert (1913-98)
and the Chindits

Mike Calvert was born in India on 6th March 1913, where his father was in the Indian Civil Service. The youngest of four brothers, all of whom served in the Royal Engineers, he returned to England for his schooling where, in 1925, he bet a school friend half-a-crown that he would become a general first. At 30 he became a Brigadier and won the bet.

After passing through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1933. Later that year he went up to Cambridge to read Mechanical Sciences, graduating in 1935. While at Cambridge, he took part in a number of sporting activities, later becoming the Army middle-weight boxing champion and captaining the Army water polo team.

On leaving Cambridge he was offered postings in various parts of the world - Egypt, Singapore and India - but as his brothers were already serving there and, in order to be different, he chose Hong Kong.

In 1937 Calvert was transferred to Shanghai, where he had the opportunity to witness some of the bloody fighting between the Japanese and Chinese armies. This gave him an insight into war on a large scale, preparing him well for what was to follow a few years later. On one occasion, he and a colleague were arrested by Japanese troops but managed to bluff their way out and were released un-harmed.

In 1938 he returned to London and resigned his commission in 1939 in order to join the 5th Ski Battalion of the Scots Guards, due to fight the Russians in Finland. After six weeks hectic training, they embarked on a troopship in Glasgow but before sailing the Finns surrendered and the mission was abandoned.

The unit was disbanded and Calvert returned to London. But the Scots Guards did not want him back and he was apprehensive that the Royal Engineers might not want him either. They did, however, and in April 1940, with a small group of Sappers, he sailed with the Royal Navy to Norway.

Their objectives were to demolish road and rail installations and thus slow down the German advance. Events moved swiftly and after a number of harrowing episodes they were evacuated and landed at Scapa Flow on the last day of the month.

Britain's precarious position, following the Dunkirk evacuation, led to the creation of the Commandos. Calvert was among the first volunteers and, with a growing reputation as a demolitions expert, became an instructor at the Special Training Centre, near Fort William.

This did not last long as he was summoned back to London and given the task of preparing plans for booby traps and demolitions at strategic sites in Kent and Sussex, in anticipation of the expected German invasion. This all led to the creation of the Local Defence Volunteers, soon changed to the Home Guard, and in October 1940 he was sent to Australia to help establish a commando school there, similar to the one in Scotland.

By August 1941, with this school up and running, Calvert was sent to Burma as Chief Instructor at the Bush Warfare School in Maymyo, near Mandalay. Here, with the Japanese not yet in our war, British and Australian officers and NCOs were taught the rudiments of guerrilla fighting before going in to help the Chinese.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and other countries in the Far East in December 1941 meant that by the end of that month both Malaya and Burma were totally immersed in war. Many of Calvert's instructors had left for more active roles elsewhere and he himself was left in Maymo with a number of his staff, keeping the school ticking over. This did not please him as he knew that there was plenty of action to be had and that desperate battles were being fought.

With this group he set off south for Prome, 150 miles north of Rangoon which had already fallen to the Japanese. Arriving there, they joined up with a small group of marines and started to harass the Japanese along the River Irrawaddy.

After a number of skirmishes, Calvert and his small force returned to Maymyo where he found an unknown Brigadier sitting at his desk. Although only a Major, he let it be known that the Brigadier was an intruder but when quizzed about his recent activities, he soon realised that they were both on the same wavelength as far as jungle warfare was concerned. His visitor was Orde Wingate.

Wingate had served in the Sudan Defence Force from 1928 - 1933 and in 1936 was sent for when bands of Arabs were on the rampage in Palestine and Transjordan.

He raised and trained a force of Jewish volunteers and by 1938 order had been restored. His next exploit was to command a force of guerrillas against the Italians in Abyssinia. All these operations had given him the chance to put his theories on mobile, free-moving columns into practice.

General Wavell, aware of Wingate's talents, and by now Supreme Commander South West Pacific, sent for him in early 1942 with a brief to take charge of all guerrilla activities in Burma. After studying the terrain and geography of the country and after meetings with General Slim, Chiang Kai-shek and others, he put forward formal proposals for a highly mobile force. This would operate behind enemy lines, disrupting their communications and supply lines while the British and Commonwealth forces were being re-formed and re-equipped after the disastrous retreat almost to the border with India.

While all these negotiations were going on, with innumerable delays, Calvert and his small group were stirring up as much trouble as they could for the advancing Japanese, retreating themselves all the while. The survivors finally arrived in the north of Burma and, from the railhead at Manipur Road, were taken by train across Assam and Bengal, into Bihar. They were exhausted, hungry and sick.

Calvert was soon summoned to Delhi. Here he learned that Wingate had been ordered by General Wavell to form a Long Range Penetration Brigade and that he wanted Calvert and his Bush Warfare School team to join him.

By August 1942, now fully recovered, Calvert joined Wingate's new brigade, the 77th, at its training headquarters in Central India. This offered conditions of terrain and climate similar to those which would be encountered in Burma. Training involved the pooling of experiences from the retreat of the previous year, and the development of new tactics for the coming operations, bearing in mind that they would have no mechanical transport.

All supplies were to be delivered by air drop or carried in by mule, of which there were about 1100 for a force of 3000 men. It was during this training period that Wingate's charismatic, but frequently unorthodox methods of leadership became apparent to all under his command. By the end of 1942, all was ready and the brigade moved to Imphal, just on the Indian side of the border with Burma, and on 8th February 1943 General Wavell gave the order to move.

For the next 3 months the brigade, in small groups, infiltrated areas of northern Burma, well behind the Japanese lines. Moving quickly, often at night, they demolished roads and bridges and generally harassed the enemy, thus taking some of the pressure off the units defending the India/Burma border.

But the cost of these successes had been high. Of the original Chindit force of 3000, only about 2200 returned to India. Some of the survivors had marched 1500 miles in 3 months, and all had suffered from the appalling conditions and frequent shortages of food and medical supplies.

Back in Delhi, Wingate pressed passionately for the raising of more Long Range Penetration Brigades as the spearhead of a full-scale attack on Burma in 1944. Calvert was appointed 2 i/c of 77 Brigade and promoted to Colonel. Wingate was summoned back to London and after accompanying the Prime Minister, Mr Churchill to the Quebec conference in August, returned to Delhi as a Major General with approval to form six Chindit Brigades. Calvert was confirmed as commander of 77 Brigade and promoted to Brigadier.

By now a force of more than 20,000, this was a very different operation from that of 1943. Not only were supplies to be dropped by air, but many of the troops were to be taken into the jungle by air. Dependence on the R.A.F. was total. The remainder of 1943 was taken up by training and more training, with versatility as a major criterion. Small, mobile, self-sufficient groups could either operate singly, or as part of a larger force, depending on the objectives and the anticipated opposition.

On the night of 5th March 1944, the day before Calvert's 31st birthday, the airlift to get 77 Brigade back into northern Burma started. This continued nightly until, by 13th March, the whole Brigade, plus 111 Brigade were "in place". This airlift had called for up to 100 flights per night and had transported 9000 troops, 1350 animals, 250 tons of stores and batteries of field and anti-aircraft guns - right into the heart of Burma, far behind the Japanese lines.

Actions were immediate, furious and almost continuous. Casualties were significant but with the consolation that the Japanese had suffered worse. In addition, damage to their supply depots and lines of communication had, once again, taken some of the pressure off the other sectors in northern Burma.

But, before the end of the month, tragedy struck. Wingate, maintaining his regular visits to the units under his command, was flying from Imphal back to Assam when his plane crashed in the mountains and all on board were killed.

By the end of June, 77 Brigade had captured Mogaung, but casualties and sickness had seriously reduced its effectiveness as a fighting force. Finally, orders were given to evacuate and planes took the brigade back to India. Back in Dehra Dun, north of Delhi, they were greeted with a yellow and black banner to welcome them - "Chindits - Watch your saluting".

In September 1944, while reforming 77 Brigade for a return to Burma, Calvert was dismayed to learn that the Chindits were to be disbanded, with the brigades being absorbed into the British and Indian forces advancing through Burma. At the time, he was actually in London for treatment for a broken Achilles tendon.

On recovery, he did not return to India but in January 1945 took over command of the Special Air Service (SAS) Brigade, then based near Colchester. This force included a number of French and Belgians, many of whom had been in the French Foreign legion. They were individualists, albeit good soldiers and it took all of Calvert's skill to bring order and discipline into a very diverse force.

Following the end of the war in Europe on 8th May 1945, the French and Belgian units within the SAS returned to their own countries and Calvert led a small force to Norway to help supervise the German surrender in that country.

A bad bout of malaria, a legacy of Burma, forced him to leave Norway and he was sent back to India as C.R.E. of the 1st Indian Armoured Division. His next posting, approached with some unease, was to attend the Staff College course at Camberley. Calvert had never had a great deal of affection or respect for staff officers but accepted that this course was a part of his "career development".

Leaving Camberley, Calvert joined the staff of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff who, at the time, was Field Marshal Lord Montgomery. At the end of 1948 he was sent to Trieste - another staff job with the Allied Military Government and one for which he was entirely unsuited.

In 1950, it was back east again, to Hong Kong which had been his first overseas posting in 1936 - a staff job again. But troubles were brewing in Malaya and his experience in jungle fighting in Burma led him to the production of a report on how to beat the rebels there. The time allowed was six months.

Frustration was endless. Few units had any experience of guerrilla warfare and were ill equipped to deal with the Communist-led forces seeking to take the country over. At the end of the six months, Calvert made a number of recommendations. "One man, with one plan and the power to carry it out" was one of the most important and General Sir Gerald Templer was sent to Malaya in February 1952, with substantial military and civil powers.

A further suggestion was that a force be created within the British Army which could live and move in the jungle, like the guerrillas. This was accepted and Calvert was given the task of setting up the Malayan Scouts (Special Air Service Regiment) with a role to operate in deep jungle areas not already covered by other security forces.

In 1951, another bout of ill health forced him to return to England and after a spell in hospital and some sick leave he was sent to the British Army of the Rhine as C.R.E. in Hanover.

But Calvert, despite all his experience, could not adapt to conventional peacetime soldiering. A lonely person, he started drinking heavily but the end of a distinguished military career came when he was accused of gross indecency and convicted by court martial. His appeal was rejected.

He strongly protested his innocence throughout, and subsequent examinations of the records, many years later, suggested that much of the evidence against him was unsafe. But the damage had been done. After leaving the army, he went to Australia in 1952 but on arrival the job which had been offered to him in London was withdrawn by local management who had learned the circumstances of his dismissal from the army.

The next 8 years saw Calvert in a range of menial jobs but drink was his worst enemy and he never stayed very long in any of them. With serious deterioration in his health, he returned to England in 1960, still only 47, but his problems would not go away.

He still had many friends, however, and with much help he overcame the problem, despite occasional lapses. This improvement led to more responsible jobs but for several years his wide experience of guerrilla warfare was never used by service colleges or universities. However, in 1970, after writing an article on the subject for Manchester University, he was invited to give a prestigious public lecture which led, in 1971, to the award of a research fellowship for one year.

But his volatile and sometimes prickly personality constantly got him into trouble, particularly when he started writing aggressive letters to people in high places on political and related subjects.

On his appointment to the fellowship, he decided that much of the money which it provided would be used to visit those parts of the world where guerrilla activity was currently taking place. These included Northern Ireland, Angola, Mozambique and Vietnam, and led to the writing of impressive articles for quality papers and magazines. But there was always trouble around the corner and his relationship with Manchester University deteriorated due to differences of opinion on what the research fellowship was really intended to cover.

In 1973, he gave an address at the Royal School of Military Engineering in Chatham, his subject being - "The Role of the Engineer in Counter Insurgency". He proposed that in order to safeguard society from civil unrest or terrorist attack, the government of the day should give high priority to the safety aspect of town planning and of all public buildings.

He developed a parallel theme in a paper entitled - "The Answer to Penetration is Counter Penetration", citing terrorists being trained in Russia and China and then infiltrated into strategic locations and situations around the world. How prophetic, when some of the events of the 21st century are being analysed.

But he remained an unsettled personality and found it difficult to maintain continuity in most of his attempted ventures. Behind it all, he continued to brood over the perceived injustices of his court martial and one project after another seemed to go onto the rocks.

He never had much money and his modest pension and earnings led to a greatly reduced standard of living in his declining years. He died in The Royal Star and Garter Home in Richmond on 26th November 1998, at the age of 85.

His medals, which include the DSO and Bar, WW2 campaign stars and honours awarded to him by the French, Belgian, American and Norwegian governments, are now held by the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham.

Sources:

Memoir - Royal Engineers Journal - 1999 - p.54.

Biography - "Mad Mike" - David Rooney.

Autobiography - "Fighting Mad".

Follow the Sapper by G Napier (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 2005)

Web Links

Chindits at www.chindits.info