"THE CRAZY ONES SHOOT FILM"

VIGNETTES FROM A JUNGLE WAR

A Combat Cameraman's Experiences

by

Richard H. Spencer

Richard H. Spencer 2005

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Chapter Index

PREFACE ...... ii GETTING THERE WAS NO SURE THING ...... 1 WELCOME TO BURMA NIGHT LIFE ...... 11 PUSH COMES TO SHOVE ...... 16 HISTORY SET THE STAGE ...... 22 FOOD AND AIRDROPS ...... 30 CHINDIT ASSAULT BY RIVER ...... 34 ASSIGNMENT TO THE WEST FLANK ...... 40 UNIFORM REGULATIONS ...... 51 THE GERMAN INFLUENCE ...... 28 FISHING EXPERIENCES ...... 59 SNAKES ...... 64 AND THE RAINS CAME ...... 65 THE L-5s ...... 71 THE RAILROAD BATTALION ...... 77 LISTENING ON THE TIBETEN BORDER ...... 81 BUSTING AN OPIUM DEN ...... 83 THE 45 LOOKED LIKE A CANNON ...... 85 ARMORED UNIT ...... 87 GENERAL AND GENERALISSIMO ...... 95 THEN THERE WAS LORD MOUNTBATTEN ...... 99 NEWSREEL WONG ...... 101 ALONG THE RAILWAY CORRIDOR ...... 105 THE LOCAL DOCTOR ...... 114 MONSOONS ...... 115 TREE BURSTS ...... 122 TRUCK CONVOY TO CHINA ...... 125 BRONCS ...... 129 THE LAST COMBAT RUN ...... 137 WINDING DOWN ...... 143 WE'RE OUTTA HERE ...... 146 POST ARMY ...... 150 NOTE FROM DICK SPENCER ...... Last Page preface: During world War II, the CBI Theater of operations (China, Burma and India) was a part of the southeast Asia command. In the fall of 1943 most of Burma was still in the hands of the Japanese who had overrun that country in 1942. As the Japanese swept up through Burma, the British Forces, and some Chinese troops with American advisors under General Joseph Stilwell and the Dr. Seagrave surgical unit had retreated out to India. Some American and British radio teams, and a few OSS and British operatives had settled into the hills of Northern Burma at Ft. Hertz, and along the Burma-India border where they recruited and trained a group of Kachins and Shans into what would become identified as Detachment 101. These men lived in, and operated from the Kachin and Naga villages that dotted those hills. Many of the Kachin rangers who had been a part of the British Forces had drifted back into the villages to become intelligence and guerrilla operatives, often close in behind the Japanese lines, working with the OSS and aiding the liaison men working with the Chinese divisions under General Stilwell, as well as finding downed fliers and helping them out of harms way. Later, Kachins and shans in up to company and battalion strength would be a part of Detachment 101 teamed with Merrill's Maurauders and the following Mars Task Force, as well as other guerrilla teams for operations as much as 100 or more miles behind the Japanese lines.

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- ii - The Chinese troops that walked out with General Stilwell had been sent to a training center at Ramgah, India for reinforcing, additional training and outfitting for re-entry into Burma. By the fall and winter of 1943 parts of three divisions of

Chinese troops, the 38th, 22nd, and 50th were back in northern Burma. One of those divisions, the 38th, was commanded by a Chinese general who was a graduate of v.M.i. in the U.S., and the 22nd was commanded by a general who had been trained in France at St. Cyr, the French equivalent of west Point. I never came to know the commanding general of the 50th division. These divisions were retrained by Americans at Ramgah in India following their retreat from Burma in 1942 and were assigned to General Joseph Stilwell. Each division had U.S. Army officers and noncoms attached to them as liaison men who performed in much the manner of today's special forces attached to foreign troops. Shortly before the author's arrival, these divisions had reentered northern Burma and were starting to fight their way south. Later additional Chinese divisions, heavier artillery, as well as Gen. Merrill's Maurauders (Galahad), the subsequent Mars Task Force, and an American trained Chinese tank battalion with support infantry would join the fight. There was also a British brigade called the Chindits, under General Ord wingate, that was conducting guerrilla operations against the Japanese, usually

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- iii - behind their lines, then about the time that Myitkyina was taken by the Maurauders, the British 36th Division was air lifted in by colonel cochran's Air commando unit to a site code named "Broadway", and that was located along the railway corridor behind the Japanese lines, southwest of Myitkyina and Mogaung. Part of that british brigade also cleared the Japs from Mogaung, which action involved a company of Gurkahs who's actions were described to this author by one of the British sergeants who was there. This is what he told me: "The Gurkahs got tired of waiting and sniping from fox holes. They, 150 of them, on their own stormed into Mogaung with their kukris (a machete like knife) and cleaned japs out of the town, in the morning 15 were able to stand to role call."

The first two Chinese divisions, the Detachment 101 unit, and Wingates Chindits were the forward forces of a strategy aimed not only at retaking Burma, but of opening a back door to again use the Burma Road into China for supplying Chiang Kai-shek's armies facing the Japanese there. Those units were soon joined by the Maurauders, and then a British Indian division, both inserted behind the Japanese lines. The British Indian unit cut a major Japanese supply line to the Myitkyina area as it was being taken and cleared, cut off some Jap units and forced withdraw! of others. As the country opened up and a road from India was put

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- iv - through by American Army engineer units with assisting Indian labor, the Chinese armored battalion, and additional Chinese forces were brought in. The use of lOS and 155 mm howitzers also had to wait for the road being built from India in order to use the necessary vehicles to move them.

The fighting in Northern Burma was a jungle war, often in jungle with density such that a man six to twelve feet off the trail could disappear from view, and where the monsoons poured from 300 to 500 inches of rain a year turning trails and jeep tracks into quagmires, and the jungle into a mosquito, mite, tick, and leach infested steam bath, clothing and shoes rotted, anti malarial medicine was often not available, and in many places all supplies including pack horses and mules were by airdrop that came if and when weather permitted. Medical and surgical care was provided by a unit commanded by Dr. Seagrave, a missionary surgeon who had been in Burma for years, and who would be written about, and well remembered by many of us as "The Burma Surgeon". The members of Dr. seagrave's team were a mix of races, nationalities and tribes; a marvelous group of truly dedicated people. Two of the doctors and all of the nurses had been trained by Dr. Seagrave in his mission hospital that was located at Namhkam, not far from where the Burma Road crossed the border into China, while the nurses were friendly with the liaison men in the manner of

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- v - sisters or family, to the authors knowledge none of them actually formed intimate relations with any of the American liaison men. we liaison men were very protective of those young women, much like older brothers with kid sisters. That is the background and the setting for this series of vignettes, the setting into which the author strode as part of a camera team with their Naga guides. The author was a Sergeant in the U.S. Army signal corp, a combat cameraman (a position referred to by the TV History Channel as a suicide mission). He was a product of training not only as a movie cameraman, but also as a combat soldier who trained on detached service with the Army's 2nd Ranger Battalion. Following training with the Rangers and other units, including tank destroyers, and a Black division, he was sent to join the liaison force under General stilwell in Burma. The liaison forces were a forerunner of the U.S. Army Special Forces, performing many of the tasks, when attached to other armies, that are often now assigned to the Special Forces.

These vignettes are a series of events in the war the author experienced, a war of brutality and violence, of kindness and ideals in a little known and seldom mentioned war zone. For generals and theatre commanders there are strategies and long range plans to be implemented. For soldiers there are battles, missions, events, and people met and experienced. Many of these

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- vi - often experienced as individual happenings that are seemingly little related; vignettes like individual blackout scenes on the stage! By the nature of his assignment the author's war was such. His experiences while mostly in Burma, encompassed assignments in India, and china. He met and acquired friends over a broad spectrum of peoples and nationalities, as he was thrust into some unexpected and widely varied assignments.

Certain commanders such as Generals Stilwell, Merrill, and Wingate, Dr. Seagrave, Lord Montbatten, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek were all a part of the Burma campaign, and several were a significant part of the author's experiences there. The names of many other individuals are long forgotten, but not the people or the roles they played.

The author as a combat cameraman in Burma, was a member of a Signal Photo company that had a number of movie cameramen and still photographers covering operations and events of the various combat and support units in the Burma campaign. They for the most part were in squads of four photographers with a lieutenant in charge. There were two movie cameramen, and two still photographers in the author's squad. We would be sent out on assignments as a two man team of a movie cameraman, and a still photographer. Occasionally, for one reason or another, the

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- vi i - author, then a movie cameraman, was sent alone, and also given a 35mm still camera to use as practical between movie takes of the event or operation. Not all photo equipment was appropriate for the type of climate, terrain, or warfare we were involved with. The movie cameras.were 35mm Bell and Howell windup spring driven cameras, heavy, and the film also was heavy. We requested 16mm equipment, but it was not forthcoming. The still cameramen were equiped with Speed Graphics, using 4x5 inch cut film, where 35mm cameras, such as Contax of the types used by the press people would have been far more practical in the jungle war. However, in spite of those inconveniences, the author recently was told that the signal Photo Company he was a part of provided and returned more photo coverage of the war and associated events than any other single equivalent unit in world War II.

From here on, each chapter will deal with a single event or assigment, or experience of the author's; sometimes in company with a still cameraman, and sometimes alone.

There currently is an International Combat Cameramen's

Association, made up of combat cameramen from various wars and conflicts. From a member of that group I heard of the saying;

"The brave ones shoot guns, the crazy ones shoot film" but I don't know the originator of that saying. The author who was One

Scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- viii - of the "crazy ones" subscribes whole heartedly to that thesis. The movie cameraman in order to get his film coverage must remain exposed for more extended periods of time than even the still cameraman, or a rifleman, hence the accuracy of the statement. Recently, as I was writing of my experiences, the television History Channel had an hour long segment wherein the combat cameramen's task was defined as a "suicide mission".

Welcome to a variety of events as part of the war in Burma, events experienced by the author.

scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- ix - GETTING THERE WAS NO SURE THING

In the early autumn of 1943, three combat photo teams of the 164th signal Photo Company were shipped to Asia in a hurry by air; the rest of the company would follow six months later by ship. Of course we weren't told what was to be our destination. Each team was composed of four enlisted men and an officer; two movie cameramen, two still photographers and a lieutenant in charge. Our p.o.e. (port of embarkation) was Miami Beach and we departed by air on a chartered Pan Am DC4 in company with the Joe E. Brown USO troop. They and our officers got the cabin bunks and seats, we enlisted personnel rode on bucket seats in the forward baggage compartment and sprawled over their luggage in an attempt at sleep.

Our route was via the Caribbean islands to British Guiana, then on to Belem and Natal, Brazil. After two days confined to the transient encampment at the Natal airfield we boarded a c87 Cb24 with a row of seats up each side of the bomb bay) for the flight to Ascension island and on to Accra on the African Gold Coast, today's Ghana. But that wasn't without excitement on several counts. On the approach to Ascension it appeared we would fly into the cliff face, but no, the plane lifted slightly and we were on what appeared to be a very short runway, headed up a

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 1 - slight grade. At the apparent end was a slight dog leg and the start of a down-hill sloping runway continuation. After refueling the plane and the men we departed for Accra; that is our plane trundled up the runway, dog legged and ran down the other side and off the cliff. We sagged toward the boulders at cliff base, then the props bit into the air and we rose and started the climb to our cruising altitude. Mid way between Ascension and Accra, we started having engine failures and props being feathered. As many of the readers will know, the b24 had the glide angle of a free-falling brick, when the engine failures started, a pipe line engineer major seated behind me went into an epileptic seizure, and we had to tie him into his seat so he wouldn't hurt himself or others, and tied a gag into his mouth so he wouldn't bite his tounge. Across the aisle from me, one of our cameramen turned to a brand shiny new lieutenant seated behind and said "well looks like we get out and walk.", and the lieutenant turned as white as a sheet (even a trifle green). That cameraman had a quirky sense of humor. As we approached the Africa coast, we had been briefly down to one engine and sinking toward the water, but the pilot got a second engine back in operation long enough to limp into the Accra field just short of ditching in the surf.

scenes From A jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 2 - At the airfield in Accra, the two-holer Johns were made with some very nice mahogany, we all thought the cameraman with the quirky sense of humor was going to have a fit when he saw those johns. He had a real thing for fine woods; his father, it turned out, was a cabinet maker. But the reaction he had in Accra was nothing compared to the one he had in India and Burma when he saw similar facilities made of teak (teak grew everywhere).

A couple of days after arriving in Accra we departed in a C47 (bucket seats again) on a hedge hopping tour across the bulge of Africa, and the Arabian peninsula, scaring the blazes out of a variety of plains animals. (P;^e hedgs hopped because we were within range of North Africa based German planes.') After a blur of fuel stops and box lunches for breakfast, lunch and dinner we reached Khartoum, which has got to be the hottest inhabited place on the face of the earth (the hinges of hell have to be cool hy comparison) I had been in California's Death valley a number of times, summer and winter, and Khartoum wins hands down. Breakfast in Khartoum, box lunches again loaded, we climbed into a plane that was like an oven,literally, and on to stops on the Arabian peninsula and then Karachi. At Karachi we went into a desert transient camp for three days. Karachi was interesting as to climate for one thing; along the coast it was hot and humid, while inland at the camp it was desert heat. To give the reader

Scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 3 - some idea; when we went to shower (an outdoor shower'), we'd wash our fatigues and underwear first and hang them up in the sun, then we'd shave and shower, and put our freshly washed clothes back on and they were mostly dry. in town, shoe shine boys wanted to shine our shoes which were rough finish G.I. shoes (no shine'), we of course said "No thanks" and they'd spit beetle nut juice in an attempt to get it on our shoes to force need of a shine. Knowing what to expect, thanks to our British hosts, we ducked, and a Sikh cop kicked their rears, yes literally kicked (and no screams of police brutality).

After the days there we boarded another C47 to New Delhi where we stayed several days while we got our various assignments, onward travel orders, and all that routine. We experienced the kites (a bird) flying down to beat our faces with their wings as they stripped our mess kits of scraps the first day there, after which we quickly took to eating in restaurants. A popular item to order was steak and eggs, and as the cow is sacred in India, what we'd get was a slab of water buffalo and eggs, the eggs fried in ghee which is a kind of lard-like sheep fat used for frying.

From New Delhi, our three photo teams parted. One flew to Kunming to join the salween forces, designated the "Y" Force. A second team went to join what would become Merrill's Marauders. The team

Scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 4 - 1 was a part of, with another movie cameraman, two still photographers, and our lieutenant, boarded another C47 in the afternoon for a hop to Agra where we circled the Taj Mahal at sunset, then circled again at sunrise as we took off en-route to Chabua, Assam. The Taj Mahal was beautiful then, and since. Some years ago, my wife and I went to India and Nepal, and we visited

Agra where I was able to photograph the Taj by light of a full moon with no artificial light, then again in the early morning sun, with no tourists as yet. But back to 1943. Assam is a province in the northeast corner of India that abuts Burma to the east, Tibet to the north, and Tibet and Bhutan to the west, and which is also tea growing country. At Chabua we climbed into a 2 1/2 ton truck for a night drive through stifling humid darkness, punctuated by sounds of quarter tone music, and the never ending scent of curry and other smells of India's Assam province. We arrived at Ledo about midnight and fell into bunks. in the morning we finally had our first look at Ledo in the area of the Chinese command headquarters (chih Hui Pu), and of the surrounding jungle. We off loaded about two thirds of our supplies and clothing which was stored in boxes, and when we next returned, we found all the clothes rotted and worm eaten (some storage). At Ledo we acquired weapons, ammunition, and various identification tags in both English and Chinese that identified

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. spencer

- 5 - us as official photographers of Chih Hui Pu, and part of the

Liaison Forces attached to the Chinese 38th Division.

After a couple of days at Ledo we climbed into a weapons carrier for a few miles run up to the end of the bulldozer cut of what would become the Stilwell Road (sometimes referred to as Pick's Pike, in recognition of the engineering general in charge of construction), we off-loaded with our supplies in front of a bamboo basha where there were a number of Nagas (yes Naga headhunters) squatting on their heels, smoking, chewing betel nut, and talking. The British manpower agent there assigned us four Nagas as guides and porters. Each Naga porter could be loaded with only 40 lbs so that mostly they carried only food for the four of them and five of us, their loads diminished, ours didn't. I carried approximately 100 lbs, which included my issued 35mm movie camera and supply of film in 100 foot reels, (about 35 pounds') as well as weapons, ammunition and personal gear. Now the Chinese engineers had cut a trail that wound along the sides of, and through the Assam-Burma border mountains. That trail had reasonable grades and would be bulldozed to become the Ledo/Stilwell Road. The Nagas, on the other hand, had their own mountain trails ... straight up, and straight down. At midday when we stopped to eat, the Nagas would smoke two opium pellets and drink some tea, then take off like striped ed

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- 6 - apes, with me humping to keep up. (I learned the first day to not take my load off, and to eat standing up, and to stay standing on the trail.) They were used to it, and we became used to it, which was good considering what we would be having to do afoot for the next many months. Because of the ranger training with constant double timing in the Tennessee mountains I could keep up with the Nagas, the others came more slowly, usually by the time they caught up to where the Nagas had stopped to make camp at some point by a stream along the engineers's cut, 1 had been into that nearby stream to bathe, cool off, and wash my sweaty clothes; and then would be sitting against a tree or rock smoking a pipe, and of course receiving some rather pointed remarks as the others arrived.

There were no roads or vehicles in our part of Burma at that time, even horses and mules were air-dropped to us for several more months. Another aspect that we had not been advised of was the refugees still leaving Burma. Enroute through the mountains we had to become hardened to passing by starving and dying refugees heading out of Burma toward India, and seeing skeletons of others along side the trail. One of the first we came across was an elderly woman sitting at the base of a banyan tree holding her hand out. I stopped and gave her a can of ration that I opened for her. The Nagas became quite agitated, and one who had

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- 7 - more English language capability than the others explained that she couldn't keep up and had been left to die, which she would. By giving her a little food, he explained that i had simply prolonged her agony and death. I had felt that as a Christian I had to render help, but since then I have had to wonder whether the Naga had it more right, and i still don't know after sixty some years.

After several days we came to Shingbwiyang, the northern-most base for the 38th division. The first night there a couple of elephants in the jungle caused nervous Chinese to expend much automatic weapons ammunition and mortar rounds ... result two dead elephants, a female and her calf. The next morning just as we were getting ready to depart, a B-25 came screaming over with bomb bays open. We all hit the dirt because we had been told that the Japs were flying B-25s against us, some they had acquired at the Rangoon docks. However, in this case it was a load of PX supplies being delivered by parachute. Following that excitement we moved out with our Nagas on a trail following a river and covered about 15 miles to Ninghm, which was to be our first operational (ops) camp. Ninghm was located at that time about five miles behind the lines, and not out of range for Jap patrols. There we finally joined up with and became a part of

General Stilwell's liaison forces and went to work with the

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- 8 - Chinese filming them in combat, and with some of Wingate's forces behind enemy lines, and about a year and a half later, after the taking of Myitkyina, I was on assignment with the British 36th division, a polyglot organization down the railway corridor south of what was termed "Broadway"for the benefit of naming a site for Col. Phil Cochran's Air Commandos to drop a bunch of gliders with troops, equipment and mules.

Our arrival at Ninghm was to the laughter and giggles of Dr. Seagraves surgical team; his nurses, and some of the liaison men were having a Softball game amid the tree stumps of the airdrop field. Believe me, those giggles were a welcome sound, like music on the afternoon air. The ball was a very much used, rather misshapen Softball, the bat was a relatively straight length of tree limb, and the ball field was the airdrop field, complete with tree stumps to be dodged by base runners, and those fielding the ball. The Burmese nurses, some in longyis and sandals had the longyis hiked up over the knees and tucked in at the waist so they could run, while some others wore fatigue pants and GI type shoes. It was a really delightful sight.

Just as one of the liaison men was showing us where to drop our gear, the ball game was broken up by a c-47 skimming over at tree scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 9 - top level to warn of an incoming airdrop, we watched as bags of rice came out in freefall, followed on subsequent passes for dropping various supplies (various medical items, including ether for surgery, also crates of canned corned beef or corned mutton, etc) with parachutes. We would learn to keep and use those parachutes and the ropes that attached them. Months later I would cut and sew myself underwear from parachutes, and the Chinese would make me rope sandals when my shoes rotted apart.

That first evening at Ninghm, one of the liaison officers, a major, came over and asked if any of us new men happened to wear a size 13 shoe; I responded that I did. He asked if i had a spare pair, but I had to diasappoint him as I didn't. His were rotting apart. AS we would learn soon enough, and me with what in retrospect was an amusing incident, almost no clothing came in sizes larger than to fit the Chinese troops, who were much smaller stature than the Americans; and never any that fit me at six feet four inches and

180 pounds.

scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 10 - WELCOME TO BURMA NIGHT LIFE

Our first evening at Ninghm became a pattern for many. Dinner was usually a canteen cup of rice (extra rice if we wanted it) with a few spoons of canned corned beef or mutton on top, and cooked dehydrated vegetable when available, washed down with tea, served up about 4 or 5PM. The Chinese when boiling water always threw tea in, Assam black tea. we also used the hot water (tea) to shave with, using our helmets as wash basins; any razor nick festered if we used unboiled river water for shaving. Breakfast by the way was usually a repeat of dinner. We got two meals a day, the same as the Chinese troops.

Following dinner we were led to the medical team's open air surgery where we were handed flash lights or kerosene lanterns to hold, providing light for the surgeons, and in some cases the nurses, to work on the wounded that arrived. Some wounded were carried in the five miles from the front on stretchers, some walked the five miles of jungle trail. I recall one who came in with about half a foot blown away; he had hobbled the five miles using a tree limb with a crotch as a makeshift crutch. Those young Chinese soldiers were tough, and I came to admire that characteristic in them, also their usual good humor. I held the light for the work on his foot. Incidently the age range for the

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- 11 - Chinese infantrymen in those divisions was 13 years on up, and at 12 years they served in labor units as personal aides to the officers (laundry, etc.).

The surgery facility was not according to what we see in hospitals or on TV, not even as seen on the "mash" or "CHINA BEACH" series, it was open air, with eight operating tables made of bamboo and covered with canvas. Each had a small bamboo stand next to it for holding trays of very basic surgical instruments. When ether was administered, the application mask was a large bamboo section about three inches long with layers of gauze over one end into which the ether was dripped. A lot of abdominal surgical work was done usuing that equipment, and even skull fragments wired together. I have never admired a surgical unit more than I did that of Dr. seagrave. They were magnificent in what they did with as little as they had, and given the conditions under which they did it. By comparison, the MASH of TV f^e was class A-1 as to conditions and equipment.

I read not long ago that the US Army is phasing out the MASH units and is creating forward surgical teams based on the seagrave pattern. (I assume with some of the primitive elements replaced by more modern equipment.)

scenes From A 3ungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 12 - During the next couple of weeks I alternated between time at the front lines filming the action, and time at Ninghm base camp writing caption information for my films before sending it out by courier, filming base activities, air drops, and as usual, evenings spent assisting at the surgery, one evening Dr, seagrave called me over to the operating table where he was working. I was directed to grasp a mangled hand and hold it steady while the bones were sawed through at the wrist to complete an amputation. The hand I then dropped into a waste can. Following that I sat down on the ground with my head between my knees and breathed deeply to regain my equilibrium, the nurse stopped momentarily to stroke a comforting hand over my head. On another evening I held a toe for amputation, and no longer suffered trouble keeping my insides steady. Following the evening's work of that first amputation, one of the Shan nurses invited me to come to the Burmese kitchen for some hot spicy food, as being good for the stomach. She was right! over a period of months we became good friends as we worked evenings in the surgery, chatting about our prewar lives, and our post war plans, she was engaged to a Burmese naval officer serving with the Indian navy.

About a week after our arrival at Ninghm, an American liaison artillery officer, a Lt. Colonel, came into the eating area and asked if any of the new men played bridge. I said I did, and was

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 13 - immediately recruited to accompany him to the surgery dining area where two of the nurses, one Karen and one Shan, were waiting with jungle humidity limp bridge cards, we four spent a pleasant hour playing bridge until the next group of wounded arrived, then it was back to holding lights. The card game was played to a background of scratchy big band records played on a hand crank victrola. The nurses had carried the player and records out of Burma when they left with stilwell and seagrave on the retreat out. And they had carried those things back in over the mountains. To say those girls were tough is an understatement,

they were marvels.

Their retreat out had been in part by foot over the same mountains we walked in over, and at night they had cared for the feet of the men accompanying General stilwell. Then they had walked in again with him, back over the same mountains. They were not only hardy and brave, but they were outstanding nurses as well, nurses who often performed minor surgery when the load was heavy. To this day, i have never known a group of women for whom

I have had such admiration.

Another aspect of the Burma night life was the consistently predictable arrival overhead of the nightly Jap observation flight. As the sound was heard the vocal call went out. The

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 14 - warning of aircraft coming was what sounded phonetically as "fee- jee-la-low". As that call relayed through the area fires were doused, and lights in the surgery cut off. If there was a critical piece of surgery in process, several would grab a large canvass to hold over the working table area to screen the light of the flashlights from observation, other surgery in process had to wait.

Such was the makeup of an active night life in Burma during the late fall and winter of 1943, at least when we weren't in the front lines, or out on a flank position. Once the base camp was moved from Ninghm south to walabum and on South as the push took hold, for us cameramen the assignments were distributed over an expanding range of conflict, we never regained the same pattern, though we saw the Seagrave people quite often, and retained friendships.

scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 15 - PUSH COMES TO SHOVE

Following a couple of days of orientation and briefing on a coming offensive from the liaison officers and sergeants, my still cameraman and I, along with our lieutenant and a liaison sergeant, made an early morning trek over the five miles of trail up to the lines, we were to join up with a regiment of the Chinese 38th Division to film action with the push across a small river. 3ust after full daylight but still dim in the jungle, and about a half mile behind the lines, we came on the bodies of two Japanese soldiers along side the trail. They had been part of a Japanese night patrol, the part that didn't make it back, we filmed them for the benefit of congressmen who we were told wanted to see "dead Japs".

At a point about 500 yards behind the lines we passed through a Chinese M.P. check point and proceeded about another 400 yards to a communication trench that led up to the front line trenches. Yes the Chinese had trenches, dugouts and dug in machine gun emplacements all along their line which was on the north side of a narrow river tributary, it probably was humorous to many of the Chinese soldiers, the "Chimgwa Bings", to see me at six feet four inches trying to scrunch down into their trenches. They often seemed to be amused at the various doings of we Americans whom

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- 16 - they refered to as "Megwa Bings". It probably would have been humorous to me too if I had been more inclined to see it from their perspective. However, the idea of getting my tusch shot off because of very narrow, shallow trenches was not my idea of humor at that time. The Chinese very shortly gave me two nicknames, "Photo Joe, and Big Sawncha" (the first is obvlous, the second was b1g sergeant).

The goal of the push was to be another river branch five miles ahead. About the time we got there, the Chinese artillery opened up to soften the jap positions. Because we had no roads available in that sector of Burma, our artillery was limited to pack 75s, mule carried mountain artillery. The Japs had 150s in well camoflaged elevated locations that, of course, had far greater range than our guns. Our guns, two batteries of 75s (four guns to a battery), pounded for a time, and the Chinese forward machine guns sprayed the other side of the river, then the 38th division regiments in that sector went up and out, and shortly fell back just as we cameramen were starting to move ahead.

Later, one of the liaison sergeants told me the reason given to Gen. Stilwell by the 38th division commander was that the artillery had failed to knock out all the Jap machine gun positions. It was made certain that that Chinese General and his

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- 17 - regimental commanders understood that they and their regiments had lost face. A new push was scheduled for two days later to allow time to get additional ammunition air dropped and some flame throwers brought into the equation.

Given the aborted nature of the push, we three, my still cameraman, the lieutenant, and myself, decided to return to camp. Those narrow shallow trenches were no place for us big iTiegwa bings to take up residence. As we Started out of the communication trench and up the trail, the Japs lobbed some mortars, walking them up along the trail, we hit the dirt. After several explosions behind us one landed but didn't pop, the lieutenant asked me where I thought it landed, and I allowed as behind me and to the right; he was several yards behind me and said he thought ahead and to the right. My comment was "let's getta hell outta here". We moved and then a sniper shot hit a tree branch beside me and I heard the distinctive snap of a Dap 25 caliber rifle, we all ducked into the jungle beside the trail. Then wiggled some branches to draw another shot; it worked and watching I saw where the shot moved some leaves so returned fire with my carbine. We didn't see a body fall, but we got no further sniper fire on that occasion and reached camp with no further incidents.

Scenes From A jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 18 - For the next push, a couple of days later, there had been a more prolonged softening up. The infantry did keep going, and ended the day having pushed well beyond the five mile goal. They wanted to recover face. As my still cameraman and I scrammbled across the river with the Chinese troops, stopping to film some still crossing, or some dug out clearing of Japs trying to stay low, and then pushing on, we were very much aware of 3ap artillery and mortar fire pounding into the area, tree bursts and all. we found ourselves filming, then running, and crawling among and over partially buried dead japs in various stages of decomposition. Since the bodies were in shallow graves (the extensive jungle tree roots precluded readily digging very deep), the bodies were covered for the most part with clods of dirt, through which odorous steam-like fumes arose. At one point I looked down into a partially decomposed face, at which point I hardly kept from retching. The stink was indescribable to any one who hasn't experienced it, and to those who have there is no need to try. My clothes became saturated with the smell, which I had to live with until I could get into a stream to wash them with lye soap, and me with sand and strong lye soap. As the shelling let up I and others gladly moved on.

Just as we hit a trail we came on three Chinese soldiers standing and staring at a tree, we stopped and then saw what they

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- 19 - were staring at, it was the remains of a naked young Chinese soldier hanging by the wrists from the branch of a tree. He had been captured from a night patrol and tortured. Since he was too minor a person to have had much information, the torture appeared to have been done more for entertainment than in hopes of getting any useful information. The torture had been extensive and apparently systematic. There were many cigarette burns on all parts of the body, the finger and toe nails had been torn out, and strips of skin and flesh had been torn down in flaps as though pulled by pliers from under the arms and inside the thighs. The eyes had been blinded, and there were numerous bayonet stab wounds; he'd been used for practice. The final indignity had been to sever his genitals and stuff them into his mouth. I filmed the remains for War Department records and then helped cut the body down to be placed on a stretcher. After that we moved on filming the Chinese in action, dead 3aps, dead Chinese, a wounded liaison sergant, and striving to keep ourselves intact. (To this day I still have occasional nightmares from that torture victim experience.)

Having been given the proper incentive by General Stilwell, the Chinese did push the Japs back, taking their losses in the process. At one point I saw some stretcher bearers carrying wounded 3aps to the rear, when they stopped to rest, they'd just

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- 20 - drop the stretchers with a thump, i did manage to get them to understand that if we were to be able to question the japs and get any information, they had to arrive alive at seagrave's surgery, so not to drop them. They did get back alive, dropped or not, because I saw them later at the surgery before they were transported back to a POW compound in India.

An interesting aspect was that the Jap soldiers were not trained to give name, rank, and serial number only, if captured. They were assumed to be invinsible and not subject to capture, or to not allow themselves to be taken alive. They had not been indoctrinated with "name, rank, and serial number only, as we Americans had been, so at least some of them answered questions without coercion when interrogated.

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 21 - HISTORY SET THE STAGE

The rape of Nanking by the Japanese in 1937 was the forerunner for a sad experience in January 1944 during the war in North Burma. At our base in Ninghm I became acquainted with a young Chinese corporal in the 38th division. This young man, 16 years of age had acquired more English language skills than most of the Chinese troops, some time after we became acquainted, he asked me what it was like to live in a country at peace. How does one answer a question such as that in terms that could be understood by, and would satisfy the questioner, given the nature of the questioner. Before trying to answer, I asked why he was asking that question. Then I got his story, and understood why he would wonder what life at peace would be like.

His memory of life for his early years was of his mother, sister and himself fleeing ahead of the Japs until they got trapped at Nanking. His father had been killed fighting the Japs in the north. From hiding at age nine he saw both his mother and sister gang raped in the street by the Japs, and then bayoneted when they were finished with the two. He escaped the city and got to the guerillas in the mountains, and remained with them until age 12 when he joined the army as a private in a labor-service battalion. At age 13 he went into the 38th Division infantry where he did well and at age 16 had become a corporal.

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 22 - So now he was asking me what it was like to live in a country at peace. I tried to explain by way of examples from my own life growing up in Burbank, California, a relatively small town; with public school, playing in a band and orchestra, Boy scouts, dancing lessons, parties, working at part-time jobs, dating girls, driving a family car, and living in a one family home in a family where father works and mother takes care of the home. A life where I had a feeling of security because we didn't have to feel fear for our safety. Then I explained how i enlisted in the army when the war came, and this was something he could identify with.

Then some weeks went by when he was at the front, in the fighting, and I was moving around on various assignments, some under fire, some not. I hadn't even seen him for a couple of weeks, then one day I was returning to base from time spent with a pack artillery battalion, and as I walked the trail about five miles from base I saw my young Chinese friend lying on a stretcher beside the trail, i could tell that he was horribly gut torn and otherwise; by mortar shrapnel as I learned from him. He knew he wasn't going to make it, and the stretcher bearers had left him there by his decision. I stopped and stayed with him talking some as he died. His last words to me were "Some day you

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- 23 - live at peace, I never do.", and he died. I walked the trail for the next couple of miles with unashamed tears running down my face from under the dark glasses I was wearing.

TO this day I cannot relate this experience without breaking up, and tears form even as I write of this event, tears for which I make no apology. He was an intelligent, thoughtful youth who had known nothing but violence, yet could wonder almost philosophically what peace and life under peace were like, i never knew his name, nor he mine. He simply called me photo Doe, or big sawncha (big sergeant) because of my 6'4" height, and I called him corporal, or "bing" as all Chinese soldiers are what phonetically sounds like "bings", or "paungyo", that phonetically is what the word for friend sounds like.

scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 24 - PACK ARTILLERY

For several months after our arrival in northern Burma, the road from India had not yet been cut through and over the mountains, not even as a bulldozer trace that jeeps could navigate during the dry season. So we had no vehicles to pull or transport artillery and ammunition, hence we had to operate with artillery and ammunition that could be transported around by animal and man. The pack 75 artillery pieces, for those not familiar with it consisted of a barrel and breech assembly, the gun carriage, the trail section, and two wheels, all carried on several horses or mules per gun; four guns to a battery. All gun sections were air dropped as well as the ammunition for the guns, on the trail, ammunition was carried by horse, mule, and/or men. A Chinese soldier would carry six shells, three hanging on each end of a bamboo shoulder bar. A battery could use a lot of ammunition when laying down a barrage, that meant a need for a lot of animals and labor battalion soldiers to haul ammunition.

Oh yes, the horses and mules were also air-dropped to us, which was not the favorite pass-time of those animals. Not every air drop resulted in successful landings of horse or mule. Some tore loose from chutes and landed hard, being killed, or having broken legCs) and having to be destroyed. Any animals killed were

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- 25 - examined by the vet to determine if they were tubercular or not. Those not tubercular became fresh meat as a change from the usual rice with a spoon or two of corned beef, or corned mutton. Now I am no lover of horse or mule meat, but it certainly beat the very fatty corned mutton (horrible stuff) that was acquired from Australia, (who we had thought were our allies). And as for the Chinese troops, they tended to be rather more receptive than many of the American liaison men. I came to the conclusion that if it moved of its own volition, then it probably was edible. I saw a very long, large python carried into camp, and it went into the cooking pot. That was not the mess area in which we cameraman were eating, though in years past in California i had eaten rattle snake meat, and it was okay.

The pack 75 artillery had to move quite often not just because of making advances, but to avoid being pounded by the Japs' 150s that were out of range of our 75s, and could raise hell with our artillery when they got it located. We in turn had to call in air strikes when we could get the 150s located. At first that meant P-40s coming in with 500 pound bombs; later P-47s and then P-51s still later in the war. As much as possible our people would strive to keep the 3aps' ISOs suppressed, especially as we were deep in jungle. There are two characteristics of that type of target area; (1) the jungle provides cover from air observation,

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- 26 - but (2) a negative is the incident of tree bursts. In the tree bursts, the shell hits a high limb and detonates, sending a shower of shrapnel down. When in the combat areas, but not actively filming, we not infrequently were down in depressions sweating out the tree bursts. The root structure was such as to make digging quick fox holes a non-event, and digging at all extremely difficult, and anyway, we didn't carry shovels or any other digging tool except a machete and a belt knife. So we mostly looked for depressions in the ground, and space between roots of banyan trees. More than once I slept in such cover as banyan tree roots.

With the pack artillery battalion I found a unique situation, a Chinese major who was a capable artillery commander, and who was respected by the battalion's troops. Let me explain why this was unique. In the Chinese army of that time, majors were primarily political officers (phonetically, the faunigwan), not true troop commanders and as a consequence were little respected by the troops. The major with the pack 75s was the exception; when he gave a command, the troops hopped to it. When the battery's commanding colonel was away, the major was in charge.

On the occasion of one barrage where I was filming a battery in action, one of the loaders was distracted and caught the recoil

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- 27 - of the breach in his shoulder, putting him out of action. I was there next to that gun and pulled him out of the way, then got into positioned to continue loading without breaking the barrage rythm until a backup loader was assigned to that gun crew, and I went back to filming battery action. Following the barrage, the battery broke down and moved about a quarter mile in anticipation of a counter strike by the Jap 150s, which did occur, starting just as the battery was pulling out.

Later that evening, one of the gunners i had worked with during the barrage indicated he wanted to draw an outline of my feet on a piece of cardboard that he had. The next time I visited that battery, he handed me a pair of sandals made from air-drop parachute rope. The sandals were like what many of the Chinese troops wore. Those sandals came into good use months later when my shoes had rotted apart, it seemed that I had made much "face" with the battery by jumping in to help, something also alluded to by the American liaison sergeant with that battery, of course the size of the sandals for my size 13 feet provided much good natured kidding from the much smaller Chinese troopers. They were for the most part a very good natured lot, at least in my dealings with them. The American Lt. Colonel liaison officer with the pack artillery was the one who occasionally pulled me into bridge games with himself and the two nurses at the seagrave medical unit.

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- 28 - From time to time I spent time with the pack 75 artillery batteries (more arrived via air drops as time went by), and later with the 105 and 155 units after the road was cut through. Several times I went out forward of the guns to film them in action, and one could be aware of and show on film the projectiles leaving the gun barrels. However, that was not a wise thing to have done, we had no ear protection, and as a consequence my hearing was damaged such that I have since had deafness of certain frequencies. (Similar damage can occur from many loud noise and heavy concussion sources, such as highly amplified loud music, that of the rap persuasion for instance.)

Scenes From A jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 29 - FOOD AND AIRDROPS

I believe it was Napolean who knowingly stated "An army marches on its stomach." in any event, it requires food, and we along with the Chinese were no different, in fact, we liaison men were so much not different that we had the same rations as the Chinese, and the same two meals a day (not three as is the custom to us in the states, but the Chinese army two meals). Although as stated in the prior chapter, we did forego the python as food, but when one of the cooks acquired some pheasants, we were glad to share that in some scrambled (powdered) eggs that had just air dropped in. That cook also found some wild onion bulbs and hashed those in with the eggs and pheasant. I recall that especially since it was a one time event, and such a relief from the usual.

When we arrived, as there was no road at that time, all supplies came by air drop. The C-47s, weather permitting, would come in over our drop field, buzzing it to let us know to get clear, then make as many passes as needed to unload our supplies. Most passes were made so low that the tail wheel usually dragged folliage off the tops of the trees at the edge of the field. Bags of rice, 50 pounds in a 100 pound sack, were pushed out in free fall. Other bulk type items that could be dropped in similar manner were done so; items such as dehydrated carrots, dry beans, etc. Those

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. spencer things that needed more care, cases of canned goods, cans of ether, etc. were in cartons or baskets that were attached to nylon parachutes. Horses and mules got, as I recall, four parachutes. The rare occurrence of bread involved baskets, and a scramble by us to get to it before the Chinese got it all.

Bread was a special treat, even though we quickly discovered that the black specs were not caraway seeds but well baked weevils that were in the rice flour used to make the bread down in India. At first we tried to pick out the weevils, but that cost most of the bread, so we decided that they would simply suppliment our protein supply and ate the bread ignoring the well baked weevils.

Such treats as the bread were rare, and the majority of our two meals a day were as mentioned previously, a canteen cup of rice with a couple of spoons of canned corned beef or corned mutton on top, plus the occasional cooked up dehydrated vegetable. The Australian canned corned beef was tolerable, the Australian canned corned mutton was horrible greasy stuff that we suspected was a war profiteering result. The meat was heated in a large wok like pan over open fire. The rice was cooked in five gallon cans, as was tea. We could have additional rice, but were rationed to one serving of the meat and vegetable. For the first couple of weeks we felt hungry all the time, but then we adjusted

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- 31 - to it and I maintained a very firm 175 to 180 pounds with plenty of energy to cover 20 to 25 miles of flat ground jungle trail in five to six hours, or less if need be to trot some, and in a zone known to be free of 3aps. Breakfast was usually from 5:30 on to 7:00AM as needed at base camp, and at the front lines, about 8:30 to 9:00am, and dinner 4:30 to 5:00PM in the front lines, and dinner about the same time at base camp.

For the Chinese troops and liaison men at the front, rice was transported in baskets carried on bamboo shoulder poles, and pans with the cooked meat and vegetables were carried on top of the rice. The runners carried it often over a mile to five miles of trail to reach the lines, and could be mortar or artillery victims as they approached the front. I recall passing on the trail about 100 yards behind the front lines, a headless torso, on its knees with the bamboo pole and baskets of food still held on the shoulder, i was told that he had been hit by a flat projectory 88 millimeter shell. That day i didn't eat any dinner; however, the Chinese appetites didn't seem to be bothered by the happening.

Even after the road was opened so trucks could haul in supplies, much still came to our forward positions by air drop which was much faster - about an hour by plane vs two or more days by

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- 32 - truck. Artillery ammunition was dropped by parachute, as were the 75 millimeter artillery pieces, dropped in parts for assembly. Initially, small bulldozers for making air strips for the L-5s, road graders in sections to be welded together, assault boats and outboard motors for use on the rivers, and most anything we needed was air dropped. Actually, in my opinion, it was the air drop techniques and armada of c-47 and C-46 planes that made our entry and sustained thrust back through North Burma practical, contributing significatly to our victory there. To have forced our way back in, and built the road at the same time, without the air drops would have been far more difficult and costly.

A major factor in the Japanese defeat there was supply difficulties, as well as fighting on two fronts (our's and the Arakan) with their very extended supply line, and lacking the vast air supply armada we maintained for hauling supplies over "The Hump" to china, as well as to supply us in Burma.

Recently, as writing this chapter, I met and have been working in a national organization with a former member of colonel Cochran's Air Commando group, the ones that flew the British 36th Division initial entry force into "Broadway" in gliders, and later additional troop fly-ins and supply to the airstrip taken by the initial force along with the Chindits who had been in the area for that purpose.

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- 33 - CHINDIT ASSAULT BY RIVER

One day when my still photographer partner and I were up at the front lines we got a message to high-tail it back to our then ops base camp for another assignment. We were told to get our cameras ready, take a supply of film, our weapons, and be ready to join a British chindit assault group the next morning. That was all we were told, except that we'd join up with them at a river side Kachin village we were familiar with, we would be told about the mission in the morning by the Chindit groups commander.

The next morning we left camp at 0530 for the five mile hike over a familiar trail, and arrived at the Kachin village at the river at about 0645. A string of assault boats arrived at 0700 bearing the chindits, with American sailors driving those boats which had rather powerful Mercury outboard engines on them. The Chindit commander informed us that we would be moving down river, holing up for the night, and taking a strategic village the next day. It was hoped we would be able to avoid the japs' river patrol so as to afford some surprise with the assault. The village was at a strategic location needed as a base for the Chindits to prepare for an upcoming operation. VJe learned later that the follow-on operation was taking and preparing the landing site for Colonel Philip Cochran's Air Commandos ferrying the glider borne troops into what was called "Broadway" (Mawlu) .

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- 34 - My sidekick and I each boarded different boats and became acquainted with the chindits in our respective boats. They were a rather relaxed, very informal, and obviously highly experienced group of long range fighting men. while we were still far from Japanese controlled waters, a couple of the Chindits in my boat entertained themselves in the bouncing boat by shooting at some rather large birds in flight, and shooting down two. Now why I mention this is because they were not using shot guns, but the standard British Enfield, bolt action, 30 calibre rifles. The message I'm conveying here is that those men were exceptionally good shots. Incidently, our training rifle in the states had been Enfields, and the Chinese troops in the 38th Division used a cut- down Enfield (stocks cut down to accomodate their shorter stature and shorter arms).

For the first few miles we ran at fairly high speed with the motors throttled up, then quieted down and moved slower. At midday we pulled into the shore, under some overhanging trees to screen from any nosey Jap plane; though i never saw a Jap plane out in that area during daylight hours, thanks to our fighter pilots. We ate a cold lunch of rice we carried wrapped in a banana leaf, and a couple of hard tack biscuits that the Chindits had a supply of from the British 10-in-l ration. After less than

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- 35 - an hour we proceeded down river running quietly and before 1630 we pulled into a screen of tall reeds under tree overhang and quieted down with no talk, which was a good procedure. Actually, the Chindits had had good intelligence from Kachin scouts as to the Jap habits, and their schedules wherein, as in many things, the Japs tended to be inflexible and therefore predictable. About a half hour later, a Jap river patrol in a launch went by without exploring the tall reed bed we were screened by. we were glad of no confrontation, while we had enough fire power to have wiped out the river patrol, any action would have made our presence known and tipped our hand prematurely, of course there was no question of filming the passing patrol launch, and to be assured of no sound carrying over water, no conversation took place for the next half hour after the jap river patrol passed and returned. we remained for the night in the reed bed, which was about an hour's run from the village. That of course meant we had dinner of cold ration; hardtack biscuits, cheese, and a swallow or two of water (tea) from our canteens. We slept as best we could in a sitting-lounging mode in the boats, but came awake again as the Jap launch made a night run at about 0100 hours. Understand of course that we had no protection from mosquitos or any other flying biting or stinging kind of insect. Also we forewent any

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- 36 - spray or rub-on repelent that might be detectable by odor in the jungle or on the water, we said nothing, made no complaints, nor slapped insects; crush any yes, slap "no", because of sound carrying over water. By this time we were all accustomed to bearing the misery of insect bites and stings as an expected norm. Understand, I didn't say we enjoyed it, but we understood the need for quiet as an element of surprise and mission success. When I recall all the insect exposure and bites/stings, I still marvel that I avoided malaria, typhus, and the variety of other illnesses that dropped so many others.

Just before daybreak we munched a couple of biscuits as the boats left the cover of the reeds and proceeded running quietly toward the target village. About a mile from the village, the river was quite wide, and ran along under rather high banks on the village side of the river. We had been heard because the Japs had some knee mortars and riflemen on the banks. Our boatmen poured on the full power of the big Mercury outboards and we avoided being hit by any of the knee mortar projectiles, our people returned fire to suppress the Jap fire. One of the Chindits caught a rifle bullet graze on the thigh, and had it bandaged by the time we ran into shore and they skirmished into the village which was being held by a small platoon, actually more like two squads. The Chindits had several Bren guns and stens as well as their

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- 37 - Enfields. The scrap was brief and satisfactory. About five or six Japs were killed and only one captured; he had been wounded and answered questions quite readily. The others had faded away into the nearby jungle and probably made their way south. No chindits killed, and two others with minor wounds.

Having filmed what I was able of the skirmishing action, the dead and captured Japs, I turned to filming the return of the local Kachins which followed close on the departure of the Japs. One of the Kachin men returned wiping blood from his dha (a machete like knife common to the Kachins, shans, and Nagas of the region). He indicated that he had dispatched a Jap, possibly a wounded straggler. By 0900 hours all was under chindit control, the wounded went into one of the boats, with our assignment completed, we also boarded that boat for the run back to base. The sailor ran the Merc's at about full power for the run up river and we made it back to the departure landing just before dark The chindits had radioed and we were met by one of the liaison sergeants with a Chinese squad to escort us, and one stretcher with bearers for the Chindit with the leg wound; the others were walking wounded, we were glad to have the Chinese escorts because passing through the check points and guard stations after dark was always dicey due to nervous young Chinese sentries. It's significant to remember that the Chinese soldiers

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- 38 - (bings) ranged in age from 13 years on up, many being teenagers and nervous at night in posts several hundred yards out from any other person.

All in all, it had been a two day foray, with about one hour of action, actually something of a norm. The norm being periods of relative inactivity and boredom, followed by brief forays of great activity, exertion, and at times stark terror. In this case, the term terror is used to express fear that one can do nothing about such as tree bursts where one has no shelter, or any other artillerey or mortar fire where there is no shelter, and where digging in quickly is impractical (really impossible) because of the extensive root structure immediately below the surface. When someone is shooting at you, you know fear but you usually had the option to return fire and/or take cover behind something for instance; however, when filming action we were usually exposed for extended periods which tended to make one nervous, at least this cameraman knew nervousness on many occasions. It has been this characteristic of the combat movie cameraman's task, to have to remain exposed for greater periods than others, such as riflemen, that deemed the cameramen as "The Crazy ones", it was also this extended exposure requirement that recently prompted the designation of their task by television's "The History Channel" as "Suicide Missions".

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- 39 - ASSIGNMENT TO THE WEST FLANK

Shortly after the run with the Chindits, my still cameraman and I were given another assignment. A regiment of the Chinese 38th Division was moved to the western flank, a location about twenty miles west of our base, about fifteen miles west of the river where we had joined the Chindit flotilla a few days before. The river crossing was near the same Kachin village, and crossing was either by assault boats used for ferrying, or on a raft that was tethered to and pulled across by way of a heavy hawser strung across the river. Ferrying horses and mules across was quite an exercise involving much colorful swearing by the Chinese troopers assigned to that duty. One of the tilings learned by all of us was a variety of colorful Chinese phrases that were definitely not in-church language.

After getting across the river we had another delightful stroll through fifteen miles or so of dense humid jungle, along a typically slippery path that was laced with a variety of protruding roots as trip hazards. At the western flank base we found a liaison officer, a radio operator, some Chinese cooks, and a small open air surgery on a slight rise. The surgery had been set up by Dr. Seagrave and a part of his medical team. So we knew how we could spend any evenings when we were available. Upon

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- 40 - arrival we decided we'd like to get into a nearby pond to bathe off the sweat, and to wash our clothes. However, we were advised to wait about twenty minutes until the japs had completed their usual 1500 hours (three PM) series of two to three 150 shells dropped into the area as a harrassment. For emphasis, we were told that the day before, an Italian contract surgeon (whom we had met once) had ignored the advise, went into the pond and was killed by the first round, which just happened to land in the pond with him. we waited. Sure enough, just after 1500 hours, three shells came whining in at roughly 30 to 40 second intervals. After a delay of about five minutes following the third shell we went in to bathe and do our laundry. That night we held lamps for the surgeons to work, it had been a busy day at the front, which at that time was about three miles away. We knew it had been busy as we had been able to hear much of the firing; the sound carry apparently was aided by the land contour in the area. And the jungle had not smothered it as much as in some areas. At three miles from the lines, we were more alert for possible patrols, and we tended to sleep in a lighter sleep mode; almost one eye open.

The next day we hiked up to the fighting and to our surprise found two of Dr seagrave's Shan nurses less than a hundred yards behind the lines administering plasma to wounded waiting to be

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- 41 - carried back to the surgery. Their explanation for being there, on their time off they said, was that they could save more of the wounded if they got plasma to them sooner, thereby lessening shock, when asked if "papa" (Dr. seagrave) knew they were there, they admitted he didn't. We convinced them that while what they were doing was very commendable, they'd save no one if they got killed, or captured and raped by the 3aps. They did return to the base with the two of us escorting them until they were out of the firing zone. I can still in my mind's eye see those two slight figures in tan GI pants, rolled up at the cuffs, their smallest size tan GI shirts with sleeves rolled up and their pretty dark eyed faces so serious under the green fatigue caps they were wearing (the nurses all had GI helmets but seldom wore them). I had worked evenings in the surgery at the Ninghm base with both of them in prior weeks.

Following that activity we proceeded into the active firing area and began filming the Chinese troops in action, mostly firing back and forth across another stream where both sides were well dug in. one of the machine gunners was one I had seen in action and filmed before he went to the flank. He had learned well from his American instructors at Ramghar; he fired in short bursts to avoid burning his gun's barrel out. Also, he didn't fire indiscriminately, but waited till he saw movement and had

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 42 - reasonable targets. We stayed that night and the next day moved ahead with the regiment as it pushed the Daps in that sector back. By then we were both running low on film and returned to the flank base for the night. The following day I planned to return to Ninghm to have our films curriered out to India, and get more film from a supply that we had been informed by radio had arrived via an air drop, since I was going, Dr. Seagrave asked if I would take a mule with a load of unneeded equipment back to his base surgery. I agreed since then I could add my load to the mule's load and have only my weapons and canteen of tea to carry. After loading the things to be carried onto the pack saddle, I remembered from my years earlier in boy scouting how to lay on a diamond hitch to hold the load on the mule. A very fortunate recall! About five miles down the trail, that mule decided to kick up it's heels. I quickly tied the lead rope to a tree at the trail side and stood back out of the way while that jug head had it's kicks (yeah, very literal kicks in all directions). Just then a Chinese squad came along the trail and proceeded to laugh at the mule's antics and at what I guess was my disgusted look as I stood to a side and smoked a cigarette (if one could call them cigarettes). A comment on the cigarettes that were air dropped to the Chinese and us with the other supplies. The general consensus from the liaison men was that those British "V"s were composed of

Scenes From A jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 43 - horse shit and splinters, and damned few spinters. They didn't turn our fingers and teeth yellow, but instead a rather bilious shade of brown that did not wash away or fade readily.

Fortunately the diamond hitch held and after about five or six minutes of strenuous kicking the mule quieted down, and we made the rest of the twenty miles back to Ninghm before dark. I had wondered if the mule would abide the raft across the river, but after a bit of skittishness as the raft rocked at loading, my jug headed friend settled down and took the crossing in good order; i guess one emotional outburst was quota for that mule's day. Back at Ningham one of the nurses saw me coming into camp and sent an orderly to take care of the mule and the returned medical materials. I took off my things and headed for my basha and a bath in the stream. Before I went however, the nurse, with whom I had worked previously in the surgery, asked me to join them in the Burmese mess for some chow (dinner) and I readily accepted. That dinner was spicey (spiiicccey') and delicious compared to our usual fare of rice and canned corned beef or corned mutton. The nurse, who was a Shan princess in her civilian type life, pumped me about her friends on the flank, she chuckled when I told her about the plasma incident and replied to that as being typical of the two dedicated young nurses. As time went on we all moved as the Japs were pushed back, we became good friends and i was happily invited to the surgery's Burmese mess on other occasions.

Scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. spencer

- 44 - The following morning, as I was preparing to return with the fresh supply of film for both the still cameraman and myself, the chief liaison officer called me in and introduced me to a chaplain who had arrived and was to visit Dr seagrave and hold a service for the troops out at the flank position. I was asked to draw a 45 for the chaplain and show him how to use it before we left, then take him with me. At first the chaplain refused to carry or use a firearm until we explained that the doctors wore side arms, that even medics who had been Friends Service (ouaJcer) ambulance drivers now carried Springfield 03's, all because of how the :aps were not respecting the rules of war regards noncombatants, then he finally acquiesced, we also mentioned, no weapon, no go! So I took him a way into the jungle and showed him how to chamber a round, trip the safety and fire. After a couple of trial rounds fired by the chaplain, I advised him to put the safety on, holster the gun, and under no circumstances to take it out unless I said to do so. I didn't want him to shoot himself in the foot, or me anywhere, and that's what I told him.

We left just shortly thereafter and got to the Kachin village by the river before any other problem arose, the chaplain who was very young was a pleasant fellow to talk with. J refer to him as having^ been very young, however, he actually in years was older

scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. spencer

- 45 - than I who was twenty rwo years at the time, ijut in many ways younger as I came to realise. Now at the village as we passed through and I greeted several of the villagers I had seen several times, the chaplain noticed one of the structures in the village, a meeting hall with carved plaques on either end. The -carvings depicted male genitiles on one and female on the other. The chaplain exclaimed about open fornication and started to reach to tear them down and I stopped him, and suggested he not allienate our allies, or start world war three. I explained it was not a house of ill repute, but a hall where they left flower and food offerings to the creator, and those were their symbols of creation in their spirit type of worship which they maintained as a backup, though many were also more or less Christians as a result of Dr. Seagrave's pre war effort. They however, hedged their bets as to worship of the God, and/or Spirits to be sure of not offending any.

So we crossed the river and made the the rest of the twenty mile trek out to the west flank base position. After crossing the river I was advised by a Chinese patrol to move cautiously as there had been a Jap patrol in the area earlier. Happily we had no problem, but I did refrain from smoking, and we moved quietly, avoiding talking or brushing branches and such as we passed. At roughly midday as we walked, we ate some rice that we had carried

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 46 - wrapped in banana palm leaves, and drank tea from our canteens, we arrived at the base camp about 1600 hours and I introduced the chaplain to the liaison officer and Dr. seagrave.

After completing the introductions, i was greeted with the news that we two cameramen were to accompany a party on a foray behind the 3ap lines. The foray was to ambush a 3ap supply column that Kachin scouts informed us would be passing near a village where there would be an open stretch and they would be exposed. The platoon was supplemented with extra armament, bazookas, light machine guns, and a pair of fifty caliber, bipod mount, anti-tank rifles. We left about 1700 hours guided by two Kachin scouts for the sweep up through the hills and around the jap lines. We reached the ambush locale before daybreak and the first order of business was to dispatch the small Jap garrison in the village, the radio man first. That was done, without firing weapons, with the aid of the two Kachin scouts using their dhas and several Chinese with bayonets and knives or machetes, once that was accomplished the party settled in to wait in dense jungle along a stretch of wide, open trail that was bordered by the jungle on our side, and a drop into a small river on the other. No noise, no smoking, no eating, no moving; if bugs bit, they bit and we didn't scratch, slap or brush them. The killing zone was a stretch about a quarter mile long with light machine guns at each

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- 47 - end and at intervals between, and the other weapons interspersed under direction of the liaison sergeant.

About 1000 hours the column appeared and included not only horses, mules and water buffalo, but three elephants as well. The troops running the train were traveling quite bunched up, talking and laughing amongst themselves with little seeming concern about the possibility of patrols in the vacinity. Even the rifle toting guards with the train seemed quite relaxed. The whole pack train was a little less than the quarter mile in length, so nothing was done until they were totally within the ambush zone. At command, the machine guns opened up, then all went to work. The end guns closed off travel forward or back. The fifty calibers dropped two elephants on the spot; a third ran down the bank into the river and though wounded, dashed up stream and out of sight. Several horses and a couple of water buffalos made it into the river before they died as well. None of the men with the pack train survived, and only two of the Chinese were wounded, none severely and all able to walk. A great surprise was that two of the men killed were Germans, a major and a sergeant, whom we assumed were liaison to the Japanese. All papers they carried were extracted to be passed to intelligence. The pack train was carrying a lot of hand grenades and ammunition for small arms. That was all destroyed in a fire before the platoon departed back the way we had come.

Scenes From A jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 48 - Possibly in part because of the loss of ammunition and supplies, the flank position regiment pushed the 3aps back and a couple of days later we advanced back across the ambush site. All the dead men and animals were still there and stinking to high heaven. Kachins were returning to the village and had some water buffalos which were hired to help pull all the carcasses into piles for burning with the help of flame thrower fluid. We camped the night nearby, up wind along the stream. I was going to get into the river to bathe but noticed an oily film flowing, which upon investigation up stream proved to be a result of the water flowing around the body of the elephant that got away. I got the Chinese cooks to see that also so they would draw the water from up stream of the carcass for cooking and making tea (all boiled water had tea thrown in by the Chinese cooks).

Before long, our base was to move from Ninghm to Taipha Ga and we were coming into the season of the chota monsoon, "chota" being the Indian word for "little", which to us seemed a truely ironic laugh until we experienced the major summer monsoons. In one sense I wondered what difference since i was never totally dry, just varying stages of damp to wet because even in the so called dry season we had rains, even from a seeming clear blue sky. There was just so damn much humidity, and we sweat all the time - -- as I said, we were always wet, or damp at best. scenes From A 3ungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 49 - The chaplain l learned had, ironically, been escorted back to Ninghm by one of the rifle toting medics who was going for supplies. This was one of those medics who had previously been with the Friends Ambulance Service. Later those two medics took their 03 Springfild rifles, went and joint up with the 101 OSS special forces like group. Their conversion you might say was caused by what they had seen of how the Japs performed.

Scenes From A jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 50 - UNIFORM REGULATIONS

An incident happened that at the time was irritating because it was so ridiculous, but which as time passed became amusing. It was a glaring example of being ultra "Gl" with a total lack of knowledge or understanding of the environment and associated conditions, and carried to extremes that really are laughable now at this point in time. This involved an officer that I will simply refer to as Major "T".

After several months of combat and the chota monsoons, my fatigues had become torn and tattered, such that I had chopped the pants off below the pockets, and the sleeves were gone from my fatigue jacket and from all but one of my khaki shirts. Not long before we moved from our base camp at Ninghm, I was returning from the western flank wearing the torn off pants, rope sandles, and no shirt; just mosquito, leech, and tick bites. As I approached the area where we checked for any mail, I was approached by a U.S. Army major wearing creased suntans, unit insignia, and his gold major's leaf insignia. I was amazed at the insignia and obvious officer's wear, but nodded and said "Good afternoon major". The following exchange ensued, one that I recall clearly because it was so ludicrous: "What army are you a part of soldier?" "The United states Army sir".

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 51 - "what's your rank?" " Sergeant Richard H. Spencer, Sir." "since when don't sergeants salute officers?" "since the Japs put a price on your heads, and we were ordered not to salute, si r!" "I've posted uniform regulations, and you're out of uniform sergeant!" (That statement as he pointed to a notice on a nearby tree.) "sir, the only uniforms air dropped are for the Chinese, and there is nothing here that fits me, all i have is what I carried in, and what you see is a part of that. Get uniforms to fit me and I'll be glad to have some other clothing, sir!" "sir, where is the mail basha now? I've been away for several weel

That evening over corned beef and rice, my encounter with Major "T" was the topic of conversation among the liaison noncoms and a couple of the liaison officers as well. After dinner we went to the surgery to help for a time, then to the medics rear quarters to chat with them and some of the nurses. The nurses had a couple of flat irons of the heat over chrcoal variety. One of the young

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- 52 - Chinese labor battalion boys who served as an orderly was there pressing some suntan uniforms, obviously an officer's, our inquiry elicited that they were Major "T"'s. As we watched, the Chinese boy took a mouthful of water from a previously emptied beer can and sprayed the next shirt he was going to iron. At that we just about exploded laughing, thinking about how that ultra fastidious major would have reacted if he could have seen how his uniforms were sprinkled for pressing. I couldn't resist the impulse to say, "I'm familiar with the spit polish for shining shoes, but a spit press for officer's uniforms is new to me.", and there was another explosion of laughter.

The reader will recognize that we were in circumstances where there was little of humor, and anything even slightly humorous received laughter out of proportion to its true level of humor.

Apparently the chief liaison officer thought the major needed a reality check. The last time I saw that major, he had been assigned to run the most forward airdrop field for one of the Chinese divisions. He was wearing sweat stained fatigues. My still cameraman and i stopped in to get some food for a body guard squad of young Chinese troopers and ourselves. That was several months later, and by then I had been back to India, and was wearing green fatigue pants, a khaki shirt, minus sleeves, and paratroop jump boots; the only shoes of any type I'd found

Scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. spencer

- 53 - while in Ledo to fit my size 13 feet, if he remembered me, or our prior encounter, he never let on, and I said nothing, But I did grin to myself as I left the airdrop field. In retrospect I can see that as one of the kind of situations that might give rise to sayings such as "what goes around, comes around".

Oh, he did try to be difficult since I had no written recquisition for any supplies, However, I simply stated that my Chinese squad and I had run out of food a day previously, and that I had never known General Stilwell or the chief liaison officer to deny their troops food, I assumed we could have enough for a couple of days without it being out of line, we were issued a couple of cans of "c" rations each. For me that was a treat as a change from the corned beef and rice. He also had some boiled water there that we put in our canteens - water without tea.

scenes From A jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 54 - EXECUTIONS

A couple of days after the elephant carcass in the stream episode, as we advanced and came to a road of sorts, probably usable by jeeps if we had some, one of the regimental liaison men spotted me and told me that my still man and I had a radio message to return to Ninghm. That was a long day's trek and we arrived to receive some very unpleasant news with an associated assignment, we were to film and photograph a summary execution of one of the Chinese soldiers who had been a patient in the surgery, it seems that as she was on evening rounds, he had grabbed one of the Burmese nurses and attempted to rape her. The execution was set for the following morning at a clearing about a mile from the base camp.

That morning my side kick and I were at the designated area before 0700 hour, as was the condemned man's platoon and commanding officer, plus the Chinese division commanding general and the American chief liaison officer, and the American liaison officer and sergeants for that platoon's regiment. At 0700 hours the condemned soldier, with hands tied behind him was led into the clearing and the charges of assault on and attempted rape of the nurse were read in Chinese, and translated into English for our benefit. The soldier was commanded to kneel and as he did, he

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- 55 - hung his head forward. His platoon's commanding officer stepped forward with a drawn saber, and with a single stroke severed the soldiers head which rolled away as blood spurted and the body rolled to one side. All that time from him being led forward to the body toppling, I had my camera rolling, and the still cameraman was shooting several photos. we had not been informed as to the method of execution to be employed, as the body toppled i finished filming the scene, shut off the camera, walked a few yards away into the jungle and heaved my guts.

About a week later, i received a radio message to return again and was greeted with the news of a second execution to be carried out for like cause, but a Chinese soldier from another division. Again no word as to the execution method, but it had to be filmed for the record. All of our films were sent to New Delhi for processing and from there to the U.S. War College files] we never saw them before they were shipped to the U.S. , nor I after. The next morning we were again at what I now called the execution clearing before 0700 hours. Again the condemned man's platoon was assembled, he was led out with hands tied, charges read and translated, and he kneeled down. However, this time it was the platoon sergeant who stepped forward with a Thompson 45

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- 56 - submachine gun and fired a burst into the man's back. The platoon commanding officer then came forward and fired the coup de gras into the man's head with his Mauser side arm pistol. Again we filmed and photographed the entire process and returned to base to write captions and send out our films. One difference, that time I did not heave my guts. Unfortunately, or fortunately and I.m not sure which, we learn to cope with such horrors; probably fortunately as long as we don't become so hardened we cease to care or become totally unfeeling.

I counted it fortunate that over the duration of my service I was not called to film another execution, if there were any. There were enough other horrors to contend with. As a result of these experiences, I have never been able to understand how anyone, no matter the cause, would want to watch another person being put to death, being deliberately killed. I understand war and one might say competetive killing in the process, but execution is different as i see it, and prefer not to do so again.

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 57 - THE GERMAN INFLUENCE one day i was sent forward to join with and film a new division just flown in and assigned to a sector of our expanding front with the Japs. This division was attired in the blue quilted uniforms common in China, they had no helmets, just blue caps, and they carried Mauser bolt action rifles. It dawned on me that in years past the Chinese army had German liaison and training officers and non corns. Not only were the rifles German, but the bayonets, machine guns, mortars, etc.

One of the American liaison men spoke some German and found that commands in German were readily understood by the Chinese non coms in that outfit. It turned out to be a gutsy outfit, but they, nor another American trained division from Ramgha equalled the 38th which had been there the longest. It was the 38th division that supported Merrill's Marauders in the taking of Myitkyina.

Another factor of the German element was the nightmare it imposed for ammunition for that division as differing from that for the American and British arms. I heard some liaison men expend some rather colorful language over that factor. :ust another bit of what was experienced out at the end of the war supply line, with the major emphasis being Europe and South Pacific.

Scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. spencer

- 58 - FISHING EXPERIENCES

TWO experiences involved fishing under different circumstances, very different. At one point as we were pushing south toward Walabum we were stalled at a moderately wide river. Elements of the Chinese 22nd Division were dug in on the north bank, and the Japs were dug in on the south side. Both sides were trading sporadic machine gun, mortar and rifle fire, with periodic salvos of artillery. The Japs threw 150s at us every so often, and we answered with our pack 75s, and now since the road had been punched through and could be traversed by jeeps and other four wheel drive vehicles, we also had a battery of 105 mm howitzers. But we still weren't able to force our way across that river, attempts were proving too expensive in casualties.

After being stalled in place for a couple of days, the air force was called on to provide some encouragement to the Japs to get out and continue on south. The air force rapid response was three fighter bombers dropping 500 pound bombs, two each. Some very satisfactorily landed in the Jap lines, with we must assume satisfactory effect from our point of view, one landed in the river. The result was a blanket of dead and stunned fish, belly up floating slowly down stream.

Scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 59 - Rather quickly firing from both sides stopped and a couple of Japs ventured into their side of the river, pulling fish out as fast as they could. Then a couple of Chinese did the same; then more and more from each side. All staying well clear of the center. First I shot a few feet of film of the event, then along with another liaison sergeant I ventured into the river, screened by some bushes as we Americans had heavy prices on our heads by the Japs. That might have been enough to end the truce, to our personal disadvantage. After several minutes of fishing, most of the available fish were extracted and everyone scrambled for cover. At that point return to firing mode commenced.

That evening the firing died down some as bamboo fires were lit and fish were roasted. The fish varieties I recognized were some trout, plenty of bass, some very large, and cat fish, mostly large river cats. Best meal any of us had had for quite a time, however, I found that I did not care for cat fish. For that brief time, the pastime of fishing (regardless of mode), and the preparation and eating of same transcended warfare.

The next day the airforce made several runs with the 500 pounders, with consistently good placement. We crossed the river and pushed rapidly south toward the Walabum valley which we wanted to reach and cross before the summer monsoons set in. We'd

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- 60 - already been through the chota (little) monsoons, wherein at times I had not been able to discern a man ten feet away from me. we were told that the Walabum valley would flood and be impassable unless a causway could be constructed to provide a road above the flood stage, understand, as l have written before, in that region of Burma, the annual rainfall ranged from 300 to

500 inches a year.

The major river down through that region of Burma is the Chindwin, with various channels, and feeder branches and streams. Every so often we would have to have a means of crossing the Chindwin, or one of its major branches as we maintained flanking operations to the west. At one such crossing point i was returning from several days of filming action along a flank operation. At the river were several assault boats with outboard motors and I stepped into one for the trip across. The boat was being operated by a Chinese soldier. As he started the outboard motor it jumped off the boat and dropped into the river; the Chinese soldier hadn't dogged down the retainer clamps, nor did he have a rope that was fastened to the boat hooked onto the motor as it should have been.

The boatman indicated to me that he couldn't swim, so I dropped my pistol belt, took hold of the end of the retainer rope and dove over the side. The river was about six feet deep along the

scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 61 - shore at that point, and the rope was just long enough to reach. I hooked it through the bracket that was on the motor for that purpose. Just then a heavy explosion under water almost knocked me unconcious, but I managed to get to the surface and grab the gunwale. As my head cleared and I looked around, there was a young Chinese soldier on the other bank tossing a grenade into the river by way of fishing (l had fished that way on occasion myself, after first checking to be sure there were no troops in

the river near enough to be affected). A second soldier would scramble out far enough (it was shallower on the other side) to grab stunned fish. I yelled at them and a Chinese lieutenant having seen the whole thing stood the grenade tosser at attention, then proceeded to lash his back with a bamboo swagger stick. The bamboo shattered and lascerated the young fellows back. By then I had gotten into the boat, the motor remounted and we had crossed the river. As the lieutenant stopped the beating, I had cooled down, and was sorry I had unthinkingly yelled. Chances were the young soldier, about fourteen or fifteen, had not seen me go into the river, as he was focused on fishing. I took a sulfa pack out of the first aid kit on my pistol belt and sprinkled in on his back, and told the lieutenant that I was taking him to the medics. The two of us walked about five miles of jungle trail to reach Doc seagrave's surgery where he could be treated.

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 62 - when we arrived, one of the Shan nurses i knew well asked me what had happened, I told her of the motor-fishing affair and how the lieutenent handled it. That very proper mission trained young Shan nurse swore like a trooper in several languages (some of which I had become familiar with), and allowed as how the Chinese officers with their brand of discipline were as deadly as the Japs in putting men out of commission. However, that tirade didn't prevent her from inviting me to the Burmese mess for dinner. Included on the menu was some pheasant that one of the British medics had been able to bag with a shotgun. There were two British medics who had been drivers in the Friends (Quaker) ambulance service. They had walked out with Seagrave and Stilwell, and returned with them. Both now packed rifles, and later joined Detachment 101, an OSS directed, behind the lines deep penetration group, where they were ranked as staff

sergeants.

in any event, the theme of this tale is not Detachment 101 but that fishing in Burma proved for me to be an adventure in itself.

Scenes From A Dungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 63 - SNAKES

Any time people think or talk of jungle one of the things usually mentioned is snakes. They are usually right because snakes and jungle go together, and Burma jungles are no exception. As in jungles most anywhere, there are two general categories of snakes, constrictors and the venomous varieties; and we encountered both. For the constrictor class of snake we had

pythons, the well known Burma pythons, and the Chinese troops considered those to be a delicacy. Every so often I'd see some troops arriving at the cooks areas with a python on their shoulders. It went into the pot so to speak; and rest assured, by request they enjoyed their delicacy themselves, without any sharing with the liaison men.

The venomous varieties were essentially the cobra and the krait. I didn't happen to come across any cobras, but others did, and a few troops, both Chinese and American suffered snake bite, but I don't recall any specific fatalities. Some kraits are small snakes and extremely poisonous. An interesting aspect of those, I had been told, was that they are found in pairs, and are easily mistaken for a twig in the trail. Kraits are listed as color banded, and they are, but in the dimness of the jungle, the colors were not outstanding. On one foray, moving up with a

Scenes From A jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 64 - Chinese regiment, I caught a mere sense of movement on the trail in front of me. The jungle was dense and the light dim, but I stopped and stopped the Chinese squad behind me so I could see the trail ahead. Then there was a trace of movement again and I spotted a krait. To test something I'd been told, I fired at it with my forty five, and sure enough it struck at the bullet and it's head was blown away, we looked carefully but didn't see a second one. However, that they can look like a twig is certainly correct. For many of the Chinese there was danger because the rope sandals they wore left much foot exposed. Fortunately, I had no other direct involvement with snakes in the jungle.

AND THE RAINS CAME

I recall a movie titled "The Rains came" starring as I recall Linda Darnell and Tyrone Power; a story layed in India complete with monsoons. There are movie monsoons, and then there are for real monsoons in north Burma. The latter is what we experienced, not once, but several times. The rainfall in the region where we were fighting our war ranged from roughly 300 to 500 inches a year, if the average room in an apartment is eight feet high with two feet between floors, then you can figure that average rainfall there would fill two and a half to four stories of a

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 65 - building. The bulk of the rain occured over two periods of the year. The big monsoon in the summer, May into August, and then the chota (little) monsoon January into March. During the summer monsoons the rain at times fell nonstop for twenty four or more hours, with an intensity such that one couldn't see a person more than six or seven feet from them. Everything mildewed; pipe tobacco and cigarettes had mold on them, but we ignored that and smoked them anyway. Our clothes and any blankets were never dry. We did the best we could wiping surfaces with oil to protect our weapons and cameras. (I wonder as I write this if any of my movie films had oily finger prints on the lead ends?) In between the monsoons were the dry seasons, where dry is a term of relativity, in that showers occurred every so often. After all, the jungle doesn't stay humid the year around by experiencing desert

conditions.

Walking the jungle trails was a slip and slide proposition as we strove, not always successfully, to keep our footing. Bared roots across the trails made treacherous footing, and trip hazards during a blinding downpour, crossing streams was an opportunity to wash mud off the rear side of such pants as we had. Any pants were often torn off below the pockets, and ones legs became dinner time for leeches and ticks, which were especially prolific during the monsoons. At times we had to spend a night during

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- 66 - monsoon operations in the open. Now open is relative in the jungle. By open I mean not in a building or tent, nor even in one of the jungle hammocks that had a roof like top. On those occasions we just hunckered down under a banyan tree for some cover from the main force of the rain, we even learned to sleep some under those conditions. Given sheer exhaustion, we slept under any conditions.

The engineer battalions and individual engineers assigned to other units did truly yeoman work building the Ledo road through the mountains and down across northern Burma, given the weather conditions. One of my photo assignments was the work to put a causway across the Walabum valley. That valley was very large with some high ground of many square miles area within the valley. That valley ran roughly east and west, and was about three miles across. During the monsoon seasons that valley went under water except for the high ground that became an island. The road had to cross the valley, in order to have an all weather road, the engineers had to build a causway from the north side of the valley to the island, and from the island to the south side of the valley. To accomplish that required cutting and pile- driving over a million running feet of teak trees; including making teak planks to form the single lane roadbed on top of the pilings. That feat was accomplished between two periods of

Scenes From A Jungle War Richard H. Spencer

- 67 - monsoons. (Oh and incidently, I have been told that the U.S. paid for every teak tree we cut to build that causway plus for a lot

of other trees as well.)

Part of the engineer battalion was quartered in a tent camp on the island. They found that they shared the island during flood stage with tiger(s) and elephants. Probably because of food shortage during a late monsoon stage, a tiger attacked an engineer sleeping in a tent, but was shot by another engineer and I was told the attacked engineer has a tiger skin in his home. I also heard that an elephant charged into the camp and had to be stopped, which was done, I have been told, with a fifty calibre anti-aircraft machine gun firing armor piercing and

tracer ammunition.

Of course all the rivers became much wider, much deeper, faster flowing, and loaded with all kinds of floating items such as trees, limbs, bodies, mud, and a variety of miscellaneous junk. During the so called dry season we often waded or swam across rivers and streams, not during the monsoons. Boats, teathered rafts, and even rope or bamboo bridges provided a means of crossing in the rear areas.

Scenes From A Jungle war Richard H. Spencer

- 68 - Under fire, advance and many operations slowed significantly during the monsoons. Even the vaunted jap jungle fighters got mired down.

I recall a quip that the Japanese claimed they were superior

jungle fighters, but that the Americans weren't; rather that the

Americans removed the jungle. Well the Japs in Burma learned that

the Americans and the Chinese were both very able jungle fighters without removing the jungle. For the Americans it may well go back to our use of similar tactics to harass the British during

the revolutionary war. In fact some of our 101 people (prior

Kachin rangers penetrated as far as 100 miles behind the Jap lines, saving downed fliers, and other operations people. our people did proceed, and we did continue to push the Japs back, in no little part due to the efforts of the air drop people who flew whenever there was even a slight break in the weather in order to get ammunition, food, and medical supplies to us.

A special problem during the monsoons was moving and relocating the artillery, that is the 105 and 155 millimeter guns. These had to be towed by trucks, one truck per gun. That meant that some semblance of a road had to be made through jungle for those trucks to move the guns and ammunition for them, so there were bulldozers needed for those road/trail making chores (l wonder if that's what the Japs were referring to?). All that while the guns

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- 69 - were striving to keep their location unknown to the Japs until they started firing, and also while striving to learn the 3ap gun positions to enable retaliatory strikes by air and by artillery, while the monsoons made artillery movement a nightmare as to effort, it did provide some screening of movement ... of course for both sides.

My friends here at home in South Florida often hear me refer to our hurricane season rains, which are brisk, as monsoons. However, unless ones been there where the real monsoons occur, they don't have a clue as to what the men and women who served in the Burma jungles mean when they refer to monsoons. If one has been there and done that, then that person knows what I am writing about and has a mental image ingrained of what it means to say "and the rains came"!

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