Monday, April 13, 2015

Chinese Commandos in Training - Detail from OSS CBI Photobook 16 - Team JACKAL, Black Ducks, Transition to Kaifeng, Part 1


The OSS website "Primer" section has a short introductory page to Detachment 202.  This photo, from that page, shows Chinese commandos at jump training given by OSS Operational Groups instructors, using a crashed C-47 airplane.

Their hats, in particular, interest us today.  Their hats and uniforms are the same as those of the eager young soldier in Photobook Page 16, introduced in previous post.

Major Wu Ping Lin
 
The Americans and their allies taught the Chinese how to jump, how to fight hand-to-hand, how to perform reconnaissance of the sort required, and how to use plastic explosives.  The objectives were to harry the Japanese, impede their transport, keep them on the defensive in China rather than in reinforcement of their other troops defending the islands of the southwest Pacific, and gather information necessary in the event of an Allied land invasion of China to defeat the Japanese.

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