JOCKS IN THE JUNGLE: The Second Battalion of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, The Black Watch, and the First Battalion of the 26th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) as Chindits

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These were first-class British infantry, but not the super-selected special forces types that we know today. Nevertheless, it was a special-forces job they were supposed to do and that is what they were called, Special Force.

The challenge in Madhya Pradesh was to turn themselves into jungle fighters as good as the Japanese. They had a few short months to become Chindits.

The two brigades they joined numbered 7,677 officers and men going into the jungle, of whom 531 were killed, captured, or missing, and around 1,600 were wounded. By the end, some 3,800 were too sick to fight. Only 1,754 could be classified as 'effective' when they came out and, in truth, half of those were fit for no more than a hospital bed. It was a miracle anybody survived at all.