Second Lieutenant Maximo Cheng was a Hong Kong-born soldier (1921–2014) who fought behind Japanese lines in Burma as part of the Chindits during World War II. After surviving Japanese imprisonment in Hong Kong, he made a daring escape to China and enlisted in the British Regular Army.
His remarkable wartime journey included:
- Initial Capture: He was serving with the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps No.4 (HKVDC) and was captured when the Japanese occupied Hong Kong.
- Escape: He was held as a prisoner at the Sham Shui Po Camp but escaped in 1942, He successfully traveled to Free China.
- Re-enlistment: He journeyed to India, where he joined the British Regular Army and was attached to the Chindits (officially the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade).
- The Burma Campaign: He endured treacherous, monsoon-flooded jungles and weeks without food behind Japanese enemy lines, eventually earning a commission as a Second Lieutenant.
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2000s
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The treacherous Burmese jungle July 1944
U.S. Army General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell assumed operational control of the Chindits on May 17, 1944, he ordered the Chindits to capture Mogaung to cut the Japanese line of communication to Myitkyina.
Calvert's 77th Brigade began the attack, anticipating that the town would be captured by 5 June. The Japanese garrison actually outnumbered the attackers. The 77th Brigade eventually captured Mogaung after a siege which ended on 27 June, at the cost of 50 percent casualties.
By July of 1944, it had become clear that all the Chindits were exhausted by continuous marching and fighting under heavy monsoon rains, and they were withdrawn.
By the end of the campaign the Chindits had lost 1,396 killed and 2,434 wounded. Over half the remainder had to be hospitalised with a special diet afterwards.
The British 36th Division was transferred from the Arakan to Stilwell's command to replace the Chindits.
Gunner Maximo Cheng said he walked in the treacherous Burmese jungle for days, sometimes without food, and always wary of Japanese ambush.
"It was monsoon you see. It was very difficult to walk and the mud was about this thick. One day we could walk one, two, three miles and stop. We walked for seven days, finished our rations and then, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 days no rations," he said.