Mission 204

The first phase conducted over eight months in 1942 achieved very little in part due to Chinese refusal to use and aid the unit.

E. Dennys from India to the Chinese wartime capital Chongqing, to serve as military attaché to China.

[1] At the end of February, Dennys recommended that a small military mission be set up Burma which would eventually move into neighboring Yunnan when war broke out between Japan and the British Empire.

At the Bush Warfare School in Burma, run by Captain Mike Calvert, the men were trained in demolition, ambush, engineering and reconnaissance during October and November 1941, and were provided with equipment and supplies.

[4] The men departed in February 1942, the first phase consisting of three contingents, two British and one Australian, each of 50 army commandos.

[4] They travelled up the Burma Road in trucks for nearly three weeks before crossing into China, covering more than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi).

From there they travelled another 800 kilometres (500 mi) by train into China, before traversing the mountainous border region to join Lieutenant-Colonel Chen Ling Sun's Chinese 5th Battalion.

The Australian minister in Chongqing, Sir Frederic Eggleston, visited the men in their camp at Kiyang at the end of May, later recommending that the troops remain at their base.

Despite the problems, the men trained the Chinese Surprise troops in using weapons, demolitions and ambush techniques.

Members of the unit in the dark managed to attach limpet mines to a number of Japanese ammunition barges, destroying them and the bridge.

There were a number of issues of concern, firstly and foremost, sickness was rife within the unit; Eggelstone was appalled at their conditions.

British medical and demolition experts were assigned to the Chinese Surprise troops, and this time valid assistance was also given to the guerrillas in various actions against the Japanese.