Philip Stibbe’s moving account of training and fighting beyond the Chindwin in the Burmese jungle behind Japanese lines in 1943 has the strongest claim to be a classic. He describes the first Chindit expedition, led by Orde Wingate, Bernard Fergusson and Mike Calvert, then his capture; every Chindit agreed to be left behind if wounded. He was beaten up and water-tortured, yet Stibbe only gave his brutal captors false information. After being moved around Burma he was jailed in Rangoon. Reported “Missing Presumed Dead”, miraculously he returned in 1945 to the same room at Merton College, Oxford that he had left after Dunkirk. Philip died in 1997 from Parkinson's disease resulting from his prison diet.

This edition is published to mark the eightieth anniversary of the first Chindit expedition.