Opening up the story of the birth and subsequent adventures of the Kachin guerrillas
I am delighted that Andrew Kilsby’s new book on Walter Gamble is being published by Chiselbury. Andrew came across the story of Gamble when he was writing an earlier book, with Daryl Moran, on Australian involvement in the Burma campaign.
Walter Morris Felix Gamble had a remarkable military career – one that crossed continents, frontiers, and jungles, spanning the defining conflicts of his age.
From the Gallipoli Campaign, where Gamble was among the last to evacuate the Peninsula; before serving with distinction on the Western Front in France, where acts of conspicuous gallantry saw him awarded the Military Cross in France. Between the wars, he was drawn toward the wilder edge of British India, serving with the 8th Punjab Regiment and the South Waziristan Scouts on the North-West Frontier.
But it was Burma that shaped him most profoundly. Gamble returned there again and again – in 1918, 1930-34, and finally during the darkest days of 1942 through the end of 1944.
As Japanese forces swept north, the British/Indian Army fell back in wholesale retreat. Yet, alone in northern Burma, Gamble commanded the Northern Kachin Levies – the only British force actively operating against Japan in Burma, at a time when the map of empire itself appeared to be collapsing.
His previously unpublished first-hand account from that campaign forms the unvarnished core of this history. His actions in northern Burma earned him the OBE. He later commanded the Tripura Scouts in 1944 in the Arakan, building highly effective guerrilla operations for which he was Mentioned in Dispatches.
Andrew managed to find the only intact copy of Gamble’s unpublished memoirs, a page of which is shown here.
To give you an inkling of the story, here is Gamble describing the inauspicious beginnings of his guerrilla empire, in 1942:
Early on the morning after my arrival a large scruffy-looking Officer came to my room, and, having given me a very smart but unorthodox salute said, “I`m Leach, Sir, and I`ve come to report for duty.” I bid him good morning, and told him I was delighted and that it was the first I’d heard of it.
“Well Sir,” he said, “actually we reported the Colonel Stephenson and he crashed, I hope we don`t have the same effect on you.” “Don`t worry,” I said,” you won`t. But, are you trying to tell me that I have more than one Officer?” “Oh yes,” he said, “there is the quarter-master, Captain De Silva, and Lieutenants Girsham and Rosner; I am your Adjutant.” “That’s fine,” I said. “now, tell me who you all are.”
“I’m not a soldier,” he assured me. “I was doing a sociological study of the Kachins for the Government of Burma when war broke out. De Silva and Girsham were in the Burma Forests Service and Rosner was a junior Government servant. We have been filling in our time here sorting and folding maps and I have been teaching them map reading. I have done a course of sorts, they haven`t.” “Where is this Army of mine?” I asked. “It`s waiting outside,” he said. “I`ll call it.”
Three Anglo Burmans came in and gave three varieties of salute were common at this time. They were decent-looking fellows, and if they had no military training I soon found out that they were intelligent and game. The rest was up to me. Some attempt had been made to organise a base in Assam and it was intended to establish a “cloak and dagger” training centre there. For weapons we had six .22 automatic rifles for which Manton’s in Calcutta had been asked to design silencers.
“V” Force, a guerilla organisation which was to stay behind in the event of the Army moving out of Assam, had undertaken to hand over to us 1200 shot guns with an appropriate number of cartridges for the breach loaders and powder and shot for the muzzle loaders! There were 60,000 rupees standing to our credit in the local Bank and, to cap it all, De silva produced a string bag containing 250 golden sovereigns!
A rediscovered voice from lost battlefields, A Remarkable Gamble is this story told at last – an unforgettable journey through war on different continents, remote frontiers, and the jungles of Burma where he successfully led guerrilla irregulars against the Japanese. Andrew is to be congratulated for bringing Gamble’s remarkable story, and that of the Kachin irregulars, back to life.
Reviewed for The War room by Dr Robert Lyman MBE
The War Room is a reader-supported publication. Click here for more information
Contact Military History and Heritage Victoria about this article.
