GREAT BRITAIN #MH97 43RD ANIVERSARY - OPERATION THURSDAY - INVASION OF BURMA COVER #3 SIGNED + TEXT - You are bidding on one cacheted and addressed cover portraying Chindit Guerillas and RAF 194th Squadron commemorating General Wingate's airborne invasion of Burma. Cover franked with Great Britain #MH97, the 17p QE II Machin Head and tied by Commemorative 43rd Anniversary Operation Thursday 5 March 87 London S.W.1. Cancellation. Personally signed by Flying Officer John "Red" Edington Navigator and by Ian Darnley Navigator. This is certified copy #3 of 100. Inside is a text card on the history of the RAF 194th Squadron. Flap is unsealed.
Cover and stamp and text card are in sound condition except for a soft corner at lower right.
World War II had desperate times that called for desperate measures. Fortunately for the Allies, one man who saw opportunity where others saw only looming disaster was British Brig. Gen. Orde Wingate. Creating the long range penetration group called the Chindits, he conducted a guerilla campaign behind Japanese lines in Burma that caught the imagination of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was always receptive to unconventional ideas of waging war. Churchill took Wingate with him to the Quadrant Conference in Quebec where, in a meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Wingate outlined his concept for continuing his unconventional campaign in Burma. Wingate’s plan, even in expanded form, required relatively little in the way of resources. The key factor in the campaign would be adequate air support. Roosevelt, as enthusiastic about unconventional warfare as Churchill, endorsed it as a way of keeping China in the war.
Operation Thursday was part of British Gen. William Slim’s strategic response to Operation U-Go, the planned Japanese invasion of India. Slim’s two-month campaign was the first to combine tactical air support at every level (1st Air Commandos) with the extensive and far-flung ground operations (Chindits) conducted deep behind enemy lines. This support included air interdiction, transport, supply, medical evacuation, and reinforcements. Such assistance was critical for the Chindits’ success because distance and terrain isolated many of the Chindit units, making the Air Commandos the only means of logistic and combat support readily available.
Tragedy unrelated to enemy action struck. After completing a front-line inspection, Gen. Wingate boarded his B-25 in Burma and took off for the Chindit home base in India. He never arrived. Days later it was discovered that his aircraft had crashed into a hill, killing everyone aboard. The consequences on future Chindit operations proved unfortunate, as Wingate’s replacement, Maj. Gen. W. D. A. Lentaigne, did not share Wingate’s passion for unconventional and long-range penetration tactics.
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