badge, formation, Indian, 3rd Indian Infantry Division, The Chindits

embroidered circular blue patch showing a gold Burmese dragon with a pagoda in the background.

The formation was formed at Jhansi as a Special Force of long-range penetration troops, after the First Chindit expedition, on 18 September 1943. The first operation had featured 77th Indian Infantry Brigade, consisting of battalions of Burma Rifles, Gurkhas and the King's Liverpool Regiment who had been on internal security duties in India. During the operation, the railway lines were cut a number of times between Mandalay and Myitkyina. More importantly, the troops emerged from the jungle as heroic figures, lionised by the press as the first British and Commonwealth troops to get the better of the Japanese in the jungle, dispelling the myth of the Japanese 'supermen'. The operation bolstered morale in both Britain and India. However, only two thirds of the force made it back to India and of those only half were fit for duty again. 3rd Indian Division was made up of 77th and 111th Indian Brigades, three British brigades: 14th, 16th and 23rd and the 3rd West African Brigade. These were formed into groups of eight columns each and two wing HQ's and a Force HQ. The Force was designated as 3rd Indian Division on 1 February 1944. The division's role in 1944 was to support General Stilwell's forces 'behind the lines' in North Burma. The Divisional Commander was Major General O C Wingate (his papers are held in the IWM's Department of Documents), who died in a plane crash on 24 March 1944. He was replaced by Brigadier W D A Lentaigne of 111th Brigade. It took three months for the them to take the airfield at Myitkyina and another three months before the Japanese evacuated the town. The Chindits were involved in some of the hardest fighting in this operation, holding the strongholds of 'Aberdeen', 'Broadway', 'White City' and later 'Blackpool' against repeated Japanese attacks but also disrupting the enemy's supply lines. Lentaigne did not really share Wingate's vision and the Chindits were mostly used as infantry rather than as Long Range Penetration Groups under Stilwell's command. The Division was disbanded on 31 March 1945. The Burmese dragon on the badge was called a Chinthe whose job it was to guard pagodas. The resulting nickname, Chindits, stemmed from the formation badge.