Colonel Charles Mercer, one of the last of the Chindits who fought the Japanese in Burma
Posted on 10th Mar 2025 by Mark Seymour
Colonel Charles Mercer, who has died aged 105, took part in Operation Thursday, the codename of the second Chindit deep-penetration expedition into enemy-occupied Burma.
In 1943 Mercer, then a second lieutenant, was posted to Nigeria. He joined 7th Battalion, Nigeria Regiment (7 NR), at Kaduna, about 600 miles north-east of Lagos, and commanded a platoon of 30 young Nigerian soldiers.
They were Muslims from the north of the country, and with the tribal markings on their faces, many of them looked very fierce. Within the battalion there were officers who had been District Officers before the war; they were fluent in Hausa and gave regular lessons in the language.
After six months’ training, 7 NR sailed from Lagos to Bombay before moving to Central Provinces in India, where they trained to join Major General Orde Wingate’s Chindit force. They lived in the open in all-weather conditions, practising ambushes, attacks, river crossings and silent movement, while carrying 70lb packs on their backs.
A 1,000-mile train journey to Lalaghat airstrip in Assam, north-east India, followed. 7 NR, part of 3rd (West African) Infantry Brigade, was divided into two columns. On the night of April 6 1944, Mercer’s platoon, part of 35 Column, took off from Lalaghat in a glider towed by a Douglas Dakota. It landed with the main force at Aberdeen, one of several fortified airstrips named after British cities or London streets.
The Chindits were supplied by air and trained to strike Japanese road, rail and river systems deep behind the enemy lines. On April 13, Mercer’s platoon led the Column’s rifle company in an attack on Mawlu, a major rail link in central Burma. They came under small-arms and grenade-discharger fire from the Japanese, who were well dug in. The Nigerians attacked with fixed bayonets, shouting in their native tongues, and the battle continued from 1100 to 1500. “They must have been a terrifying sight for the Japanese,” he remarked afterwards.
On May 1, the Column established a large-scale road block south of Mawlu. This was held for three days and led to the killing of more than 40 of the enemy, the destruction of several lorries and the capture of some prisoners. They marched north and were involved in a series of determined attacks on Japanese garrisons.
With the arrival of the monsoon, streams and ravines turned into torrents. Supplies of anti-malaria tablets sometimes failed and there were bouts of malaria and scrub typhus. Sometimes, those who became ill had to “walk it off” or risk being left behind.
By the time 7NR flew out from Myitkyina, Mercer was a major with four platoons under his command. He was Mentioned in Despatches “in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Burma”. Recalling those years at war, he said: “My most important memory is the wonderful comradeship that I enjoyed with my fellow Europeans, and particularly with the splendid Nigerians.”
Charles Henry Mercer was born in Brighton, Sussex, on November 14 1919. He was educated at Collyer’s School at Horsham in Sussex, and left aged 17 to work in a publishing company.
On the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, he enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment. After attending OCTU at the Royal Military College, near Sandhurst, he received a Regular Army Emergency Commission in March 1943. He was already engaged, and, three months later he married Joan Rice, who was working for Saunders-Roe, the aircraft manufacturers, on the Isle of Wight. He had a 10-day “wartime honeymoon” before he was posted to Nigeria.
On its return to Nigeria, 7NR was disbanded and Mercer decided to go into the Royal Army Service Corps. He served in BAOR, in Cyprus during the EOKA insurgency and on the staff of the MoD. In 1974 he retired from the Army in the rank of colonel, and for the next 10 years he worked for Wandsworth Borough Council as an assistant director. He finally retired to a village in Surrey.
Charles Mercer’s wife, Joan, died in 1998 and he is survived by their son, Michael, who lives in Australia.
Colonel Charles Mercer, born November 14 1919, died February 28 2025