operation Thursday, Chindits, Broadway air base and Charles Wingate WWII 1944

Operation Thursday: March 5, 1944 The plan was to fly a detachment of American Engineers in gliders 200 hundred miles into enemy occupied territory and land them on jungle strips that they would convert into airfields. Once these airfields were prepared transport planes would fly in a force of Chindits. Shows British Major General Wingate and Colonel Philip Cochrane meeting to finalize plans. Shows tow ropes and gliders. Gliders are loaded with equipment to construct an airfield. Pilots and crews gather to hear final instructions from Colonel Cochrane. Observation plane land with news the primary landing strip was blocked by logs. The alternate landing strip "Broadway" was selected. Transports take off with each plane towing two gliders. Shows crashed gliders that littered the landing field "Broadway". Wounded were tended to and the dead were buried. The remaining engineers went to work preparing a land strip for the transport planes bringing in the Chindits. By evening the landing strip was ready to receive transport planes. Shows RAF Spitfire fighters and American P-51 fighters landing at "Broadway" deep inside Japanese occupied Burma. Japanese Zeros and Japanese troops attacked the airbase "Broadway", but were driven off after a furious battle. Major General Wingate was killed in a plane crash after leaving "Broadway" on one of his many visits.äó