CHINA – BURMA – INDIA Glider Pilot Wings…One of a Kind …Operation Thursday

I want to share a little story with you along with presenting these wings which I’m about to spotlight.  I had seen a version of these wings only once and they were tagged as extremely rare wings by the individual who was displaying them.  As one develops over time a quick-access picture file system in one’s head from time spent mulling over badges as a collector, I thought, and I scanned, and I thought some more… I had never seen that wing.

I was taught along the way by men who had paid the price of learning the ropes, understanding the methods of deception, “paying for their education”, working out that they needed focused parameters within which to concentrate their collecting efforts in this splendid avocation and had passed through those satisfying moments when one begins to understand that they have lucubrated that area of focused research and collecting long enough to capture a little of the zeitgeist of the time….the people’s hearts and minds and how that zeitgeist or “spirit of the time” was translated into the ideas and the collective focus of the targeted time and thus translated into specific items one collects. In my case, the targeted area of collecting is US Army Aviation insignia 1913-1945 worn by pilots and air crew in their unified effort to bring the battle to the enemy and away from our battle lines and our nation’s shores.

Being taught by such splendid predecessors in this area of collecting, I learned that the passion that I have for the historical context within which these insignia were worn and my efforts to maintain the integrity of the truth of our airmen’s endeavors is what makes my efforts at collecting a noble cause.  Gravitas pervades the heart and mind of one who looks on a piece, specific to a time in history, with a heart to know how that relic can help them enter the most salient moments of that person’s life who wore or used the relic in the service of a higher cause, meriting his life being put in the way of wickedness and tyranny unto the enemy’s destruction or his own.

My vocational pursuit before collecting had been finance, so I looked at collecting initially as pursuing history, which I loved dearly, as well as the stark beauty of the wings which touched my heart so deeply but additionally I of course knew the potential as an investment a collectible has which is a perfectly sound reason for obtaining and maintaining these historical markers.  As I acquired a modicum of understanding of aviation insignia from the US Army Air Arm and was not panicking with every buy that I made as to whether I got deceived with the reproduction or a fake, I ventured forth into my first grouping.  This is where I began to lose the investment perspective very quickly; that day my friend and teacher emailed me, the man who is kind enough to teach me from the vast wealth of information and Wisdom acquired over his decades of collecting, after serving our nation in those very skies he keeps account of in the insignia he collects (He has a Mountain of Knowledge and when he begins to share the vast wealth of information, it is like going over a “Cliff” and seeing the years of Military Aviation history pass by on the way down).  He wrote to me of a CBI-based U.S. Army Air Force – Northern Air Service Area Command Colonel’s grouping which was one of a kind because of a solid gold, name and rank inscribed Chinese Wing given by Cheng Kai-shek’s government to high-ranking officers who contributed to the defeat of their mortal enemy Japan, amongst the rest of the splendid grouping.  I was struck by the articles I found on the Colonel in the CBI Roundup newspaper published in India during the war and I  learned that I could research and compile enough data about that man’s life to maintain his memory and the times he would call some of his finest hours…. and share it with the world.  That was it, I was aware from that point that it was an epic story I was collecting pages from, not pieces of silver or gold or silver or gold thread… but a grand tale of God’s Sovereignty revealed in the Just destruction of tyranny all over the world.

Well, I am still a beginner but at least I am not a complete neophyte.  With these things said, I want to introduce this new wing by sharing the massive Glider operation it was most definately utilized in and shortly thereafter in the resupply missions flown in by glider consistently.  A month after Pearl Harbor, in January of 1942, Japan launched an attack into Burma from Malaysia and the Andaman Sea in the South, and from the East through Thailand, which Japan had signed a military pact with on December 21, 1941.  1942 was a route for the British, Indian and Chinese forces as the Japanese overwhelmed the unprepared allies.  By 1943 the Japanese had taken a great deal of Burma; the Brits and the Americans had pulled back with the Chinese to the Northeast (X Force and Merrills Marauders) into India’s far Eastern Assam region (the Himalayan Hump was due north) and into China Northwest (Y Force of Chinese) of the Japanese forces entrenched in Burma.  The Japanese had cut the Burma Road leading north from Lashio, Burma by the end of 1942/beginning of 1943 as well.

Once the Japanese had established control of Burma in early to mid 1943, they made a decision which was fatal to their initiative. The monsoon season lasts from late May to early November each year in the area of China Burma India we are speaking of.  During the monsoon rains there is anywhere from 45 inches in the North Central mountains (“Dry” Area!) to 200 inches in the South near Rangoon Burma.  During this time campaigning for war is virtually an impossible task in any sustained and predictable manner as the country becomes a drenched network of drainage rivers to the Andaman Sea to the south.  In 1943 when November came around and the dry season began, the Japanese should have immediately reinvigorated their advance but they stalled and instead built a puppet government and military which gained them nothing in the long run. And this my fellow collectors and historians is how God uses a man’s or in this case, an entire Nation’s, OWN CHARACTER to cast judgment on mankind for the blood it sheds or any other evil it propagates and promulgates….Japan’s Covetousness and Pride led to VICTORY SICKNESS and they lost their initiative and stalled.

Proverbs 16:18 (KJV) ¹⁸ Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Major General Orde Wingate was the original organizer of the Chindits which was the name given the 77th brigade, after the mythological creatures, like gargoyles, set up outside pagan temples in Burma.  Wingate was a master of guerrilla tactics and had fought in North Africa, Sudan, the Middle East and now Burma.  His long-range penetration columns of 3000 men entered Burma in early 1943 to cause havoc behind Japanese lines.  2 of 3 the columns were hit immediately by the Japanese and had to return to friendly territory but the 3rd column of roughly 1000 men hit rail lines, roads and communication lines.  They operated for over a month behind enemy lines without the expected aerial resupply stream because of the nearly impossible task of finding the Chindits for resupply from the air, even with a liaison Air Force Officer.  Of the original 3000 men of the 3 columns entering Burma, 883 never returned.

In August of 1943 the Quadrant Conference was held in Québec, Canada amongst the Allied leaders.  Major General Orde Wingate was brought in from the CBI theater to give a presentation on what his ideas were for utilizing the long-range penetration (LRP) columns he was famous for from the Chindits operations earlier that year.  Wingate presented a thorough appraisal of what his plans were regarding penetrating behind enemy lines as long as there was the assurance of adequate aerial support tactically and most importantly for resupply and evacuation of the wounded which, in the raid of the early 1943, casualties were given a few rations, a weapon and with great consternation in those departing (as it was a virtual death sentence), they had to be left behind.

Roosevelt immediately had the presentation put before General Hap Arnold who, after interviewing the best of the best, had in mind US Army Air Force Colonel Philip Cochran for the job of organizing and commanding this operation under Army Air Force control and given the name Project 9.  Cochran was an accomplished fighter pilot who had the quality of a leader early in the war, before the United States Army Air Force had proven tactics to pass on from veteran pilots.  He took initiative in the North Africa campaign against Rommel flying P 40 War Hawks against ME-109’s, downing 2 of the enemy in his earlier engagements while organizing and leading a small squadron of flyers who operated near or across enemy lines in an aggressive tactical strategy successfully.  He chose as his lieutenant an old roommate from Mitchell Field, Wisconsin and Langley Field, Virginia, Colonel John Allison who was an ex-AVG pilot who now flew with the 14th Air Force out of China.

These 2 put together a plan eventually dubbed Operation Thursday, placing the long-range penetration or LRP brigades at 4 separate jungle clearings positioned: Northwest of the Indaw, Burma was the clearing named Aberdeen and positioned clockwise around Indaw to the Northeast, Broadway and Piccadilly Landing zones and to the east Chowringhee.  The plan was to march in one column, the 16th brigade, of LRP’s to the jungle clearing called Aberdeen, the 77th brigade would be flown in to the 2 additional clearings Broadway and Piccadilly and the 111th brigade would be flown into Chowringhee.  Once established in the landing zone, airstrips would be built immediately and adequate supplies would be flown in as well as wounded flown out.  This was all to be done behind enemy lines without detection if possible.  Once established, the LRP brigades would be resupplied by gliders and airdrops at whatever location they were called to.  Special squadrons of Liaison Pilots would fly in to retrieve the wounded from the LRP brigades on the move and gliders would be flown in to clearings in the jungle or sandbars on the rivers with supplies and reinforcements and snatched back out with cables and hooks attached to C – 47’s.

On February 9 the 16th brigade began their march from Ledo, India to Aberdeen clearing.  On March 5, 1944, the mission’s D-Day, the B – 25 pilot returned from photo reconnaissance that afternoon.  Cochran, Wingate and Allison as well as Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander in the CBI, poured over the pictures of Piccadilly strewn over with logs!  They did not know whether the Japanese had found the landing zone and sabotaged it or whether local loggers had simply laid out their most recent cutting in this clearing.  It could be an ambush.  They decided that the Japanese most likely were not setting an ambush at Piccadilly and went ahead with the plan, abandoning Piccadilly and sending the entire 77th brigade and the 80 gliders carrying them and their supplies, to Broadway.

The initial C – 47’s towed 2 gliders which were overloaded with weight and thus broke loose from their tow planes.  17 gliders broke loose in the initial wave and landed in various places behind enemy lines which ended up causing the Japanese to start seeking out these mysterious sounds in the jungle of the gliders landing, instead of paying attention to anything happening on Broadway!  God’s Grace.

Psalm 33:16-20 (NASB) ¹⁶ The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength. ¹⁷ A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. ¹⁸ Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, ¹⁹ To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine. ²⁰ Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.

Cochran changed the plan to have one glider towed per C – 47 instead of 2.  The first wave of gliders to make it to Broadway included Lieutenant Colonel Allison and they made it in but the field was strewn with hidden logs and holes and bumps.  The men struggled all night to get gliders which it landed out of the way but the speed at which the gliders were coming in made it so this did not do much good at all.  Colonel Allison immediately started lighting smudge pots to give the subsequent glider pilots some help in finding their way in to a solid landing on the field itself.

The code word for a successful initial landing and mission underway was Pork Sausage and the code word for disaster was Soya Link.  Colonel Allison radioed, after several waves of gliders smashing into each other, “Soya Link” back to Cochran and Wingate.  Cochran thought that they were under attack and called back the remaining C – 47’s.  After a tortured night, he did not learn until the next morning that it was a logistics issue of the landing zone becoming a disaster area from not being able to get wrecked gliders out of the way quickly enough to clear a path for subsequent gliders….. not an attack from the Japanese

By the next morning there were broken gliders strewn all over Broadway but the clearing process was underway and the mission was reinitiated with vigor and the landing field was undertaken to be built by the young 2nd Lt Engineer who had command after the CO of the Engineers was killed in the landing. When now Col. Allison asked if he could get the field built, the eager young man said… “Is this afternoon too late?”  The miracle was that only 24 had lost their lives, mostly in 2 gliders which are gone off course into the jungle and 30+ were injured but they had established a presence and a defensive perimeter around Broadway and thus the plan was underway.  There was no engagement with the Japanese, as they were busy trying to understand the purpose of the few enemy gliders which had mysteriously appeared near their headquarters and thus they were looking for the glider pilots and the human cargo which had been aboard.  These were the gliders that have broken free of their tow planes shortly after takeoff from being overloaded.

Operation Thursday ended up being a success regarding penetration behind enemy lines and disruption of communication and supplies to the enemy.  There’s much more to learn about this 2nd Glider Operation of World War II (after Operation Husky in Sicily), as this is just the beginning of this portion of the Burma Campaign.  I simply wanted to give context to where these wings I am displaying were made and used by the glider pilots of the CBI theater.

Absolutely Beautiful “G”. The Indian jeweler who cut this, being in a British colony, had a good grasp of the aesthetic power of FONT when it comes to lettering and the geometric use of the circle frame as a way to enshrine and elevate the G which represents the duty the flyer is called to. Do not think these men cast little or no thought into the development of these Theater Cast Badges in the most distant battlefield geographically and societally.

These wings are 2 and 3/4 inches in length and 9/16 of an inch tall.  They are a cast wing with a very unique rounded platform upon which there is a stylized “G” unlike any “G” utilized on all the other insignia attributed to Glider Pilots in World War II.  The pin assembly is classic colonial style, closely based on the British method of pin assembly.  The patina on this wing is exquisite.  There is a heavy residue in all crevices and especially around the G where much muck gathered which is to be expected in the jungle.  To hold these wings is a great honor and as all you collectors who enter in your hearts and minds, the historical significance of the insignia you collect, you know what I mean when I say that I can feel the radiance of the event penetrating every fiber of my being as I think of where these have been in the men who wore them.

There were districts where there were markets which tailored specifically to the soldiers and airmen serving in the CBI theater of war.  As the Glider Pilots arrived for duty in Operation Thursday, some would loose their wings in transit or training or need to get them upon arrival. The craftsman did their best to create something which the pilots could wear according to regulation and yet carry a touch of elegance and Oriental beauty as these certainly do.  I hope you enjoy these and if you have any questions please feel free to e-mail.  God Bless You All……

An “upside down” view gives us an idea of the thickness and precision which went into carving out the casting mold or the original badge prototype.