17-4-29 M14 Picture of the Day

[Bob Womack]

What I've heard was that the sheer brutality of their training made them accustomed to discomfort and the psychological indoctrination they received left them with a fear of the dishonor of failure and a resultant fatalism. The result was that they bore up well under the hardships of the jungle and were expected to do so by their leaders. That didn't make them supermen. But the facts that the jungle was such a hostile environment and that Americans were more humane to their own men and didn't expect them to live in inhumane conditions may have given the Japanese an initial edge. However, when one side is focused on giving their lives for their country and the other side are focused on obliging their enemy more than giving their own lives, it seems to make for a difference in the long run.

Bob

[Flying10uk]

I remember before the last Gulf War they made out in the U.K. media that the Iraqi Republican Guard was made up of some sort of "super soldier" and that there was going to be a "mother of all battles". In reality I don't recall the Republican Guard giving the coalition too many problems. If it did it wasn't reported on U.k. news.

[fjruple]

I remember before the last Gulf War they made out in the U.K. media that the Iraqi Republican Guard was made up of some sort of "super soldier" and that there was going to be a "mother of all battles". In reality I don't recall the Republican Guard giving the coalition too many problems. If it did it wasn't reported on U.k. news.

The same thing happened here in the states. Our local media types kept on calling them the "Special" Republician Guards. They were "supermen" against unarmed civilians but against modern US/Brit forces they were were just so much cannon fodder. I had the chance to tour the Basra battlefield just after the battle all of their tanks were all dig in but that did not help. The DU rounds just passed through them like butter. The older T-54/T-55 tanks seem to hold up better than the later T-62/T-72 tanks. The T-54/T55 would just burn. The T-62/T-72 would all have the turrets blown off them. I was just amazed what those DU rounds would do.

--fjruple

[CINDERS]

Lets not forget what the A-10's, Spectre's, Blackhawks and Abram's did the them there was just no way they would have won but in reality they just did scorched earth with the oil wells which I think they got Red Adair to extinguish.

[Paul S.]

I have heard British veterans state that in their opinion the Japanese soldier wasn't as good at jungle warfare as people often believe.

I would suspect that those British veterans may have been blokes who served in Burma from 1943 after Orde Wingate took over and after. Wingate worked hard turning the British Army in India into jungle warriors for the Burma campaign.
I had the honour of knowing one old Sapper many years ago who served in India and Burma from '42 till war's end.

[CINDERS]

I think Orde died in a plane crash during the war, he used guerrilla tactics very effectively behind the Japanese lines.

[Ovidio]

Here I suggest Donovan Webster's "The Burma Road".
Absolutely interesting.

[Paul S.]

I think Orde died in a plane crash during the war, he used guerrilla tactics very effectively behind the Japanese lines.

He did indeed His aircraft, a B25, crashed in India in 1944. Originally buried there, surprisingly, he now rests in Arlington National Cemetery.

[13Echo]

Orde Wingate was an interesting character but the man that made the difference for the British and Indian army in Burma was General Slim, perhaps the finest general officer of WW II.

Jerry Liles

[Mark in Rochester]

Wingate was known for various eccentricities. For instance, he often wore an alarm clock around his wrist, which would go off at times, and had raw onions and garlic on a string around his neck, which he would occasionally bite into as a snack (the reason he used to give for this was to ward off mosquitoes). He often went about without clothing. In Palestine, recruits were used to having him come out of the shower to give them orders, wearing nothing but a shower cap, and continuing to scrub himself with a shower brush. Lord Moran, Winston Churchill's personal physician, wrote in his diaries that "[Wingate] seemed to me hardly sane—in medical jargon a borderline case."[69] Likewise, referring to Churchill's meeting with Wingate in Quebec, Max Hastings wrote that, "Wingate proved a short-lived protegé: closer acquaintance caused Churchill to realise that he was too mad for high command."

Wingate and the nine other crash victims were initially buried in a common grave close to the crash site near the village of Bishnupur in the present-day state of Manipur in India. The bodies were charred beyond recognition, hence individuals could not be identified under medical practices of the day, as identification from dental records was not possible. Since seven of the ten crash victims, including both pilots, were Americans, all ten bodies were exhumed in 1947 and reburied in Imphal, India and yet again exhumed in 1950 and flown to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia for reburial. The exhumation was possible courtesy of an amicable three-way agreement among the governments of India, Britain and the United States, and in accordance with the families' wishes.