Michael Calvert, 1913-1998, DSO and bar, was a British soldier involved in special operations in World War II. The degree to which he led very risky attacks in person, led to him becoming widely known as "Mad Mike". Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... DSO medal The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other Commonwealth countries, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Early career

He was born James Michael Calvert on March 6, 1913, at Rohtak in India, son of a member of the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Bradfield and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. March 6 is the 65th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (66th in Leap years). ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Indian Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym ICS, was the elite civil service of the Indian Government. ... Bradfield College is a public school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire. ... The Royal Military Academy was founded in 1741 in Woolwich, south-east London. ...

He was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1933, and for a time was the Army's middleweight boxing champion. He read for the Mechanical Engineering Tripos at St. John's College, Cambridge. After graduating in 1936, he was appointed to the Hong Kong Royal Engineers. In this post, he learned Cantonese. He also witnessed the Japanese attack on Shanghai and the Rape of Nanking, which made him one of the few officers who truly appreciated the threat posed by the Japanese. The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Cantonese is a major dialect group or language of the Chinese language, a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Nanking Massacre (Chinese: 南京大屠杀, pinyin: Nánjīng Dàtúshā; Japanese: 南京大虐殺, Nankin Dai Gyaku-satsu), also known as the Rape of Nanking and sometimes in Japan as the Nanking Incident (南京事件, Nankin Jiken), refers...

When the war broke out, he briefly commanded a detachment of Royal Engineers in the campaign in Norway, then trained Commando detachments in demolition techniques in Hong Kong and Australia. In Australia, along with F. Spencer Chapman, he assisted with training Australian commandos who formed the first Australian Army Independent Companies at Wilson's Promontory, Victoria in 1941. He was then appointed to command the Bush Warfare School in Burma, training officers and NCOs to lead guerilla bands in China for operations against the Japanese. In military science, the term commando can refer to an individual, a military unit or a raiding style of military operation. ... Demolition of the Old Myer Building, Perth, Western Australia. ... Promotional artwork for the Commandos series. ... The first Australian commando units were the Independent Companies of the Australian Army, formed from 1941 onwards, during World War II. The companies were based on the British Commandos and they were re-designated Commando Squadrons a few years later. ... Wilsons Promontory, commonly known as Wilsons Prom, is a national park in the Gippsland region of Victoria (Australia), 157 km southeast of Melbourne. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ...

The Japanese invaded Burma in early 1942. Calvert and others from the school raided Henzada by riverboat after the fall of Rangoon as a deception operation to convince the Japanese that Australians reinforcements had reached Burma. Calvert then spent a period of time touring Burma with Orde Wingate. After the Bush Warfare School closed, Calvert was sent with 22 men from the school and a few hundred men separated from their units to guard the Gokteik Viaduct thirty miles east of Maymyo. After retreating from the Viaduct, he participated in a deception operation involving the loss of a set of false papers to the Japanese. Calvert's unit finally retreated to India at the very rear of the army, often behind the Japanese lines. Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Henzada is a city in south western Myanmar (formerly Burma), it is in the Irrawaddy Division (historically in Pegu, before being annexed by Burma in 1753) and is on the Irrawaddy River. ... Yangôn, formerly Rangoon, population 4,504,000 (2001), is the capital of Myanmar. ... Orde Charles Wingate Major General Orde Charles Wingate, DSO (February 26, 1903 – March 24, 1944), was a British major general and creator of two special military units during World War II. // Orde Wingate was born 23 February 1903 in Naini Tal, India to a military family. ... National Botanical Gardens, Pyin U Lwin Pyin U Lwin or Pyin Oo Lwin, formerly Maymyo, is a town in Mandalay Division in Myanmar (Burma), located some 67 kilometers east of Mandalay, and located at an altitude of 1070 meters (3510 feet). ...

Chindit Operations

In India, he reunited with the equally unorthodox Wingate, and the two became firm friends. Calvert led one of the company-sized columns in Operation Longcloth, Wingate's first Chindit operation in 1943. This was a long-range penetration operation behind enemy lines, which put great demands on the endurance of all who took part. Calvert was awarded the DSO for his achievements on the operation. The Chindits (Officially in 1942 77th Indian Infantry Brigade and in 1943 3rd Indian Infantry Division) were a British jungle Special Forces unit that served in Burma from 1943 until 1945 as part of the Fourteenth Army during the Burma Campaign in World War II. They were formed into long...

He commanded 77th Brigade in Operation Thursday, the much larger second Chindit operation. On March 5, 1944, his brigade spearheaded the airborne landings deep in the Japanese rear. They then captured and held a position codenamed White City which blocked Japanese road and rail communications to their northern front, for over two months. March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

Calvert led several counter-attacks against encircling Japanese forces in person. On March 17 he led a bayonet charge which degenerated into a free-for-all, which Calvert later described as "just like an officers' mess guest night". On April 13 he commanded a much larger attack involving most of the brigade. He learned that a friend (Major Ian MacPherson) had been killed and his body left in the Japanese positions, and his Brigade Major had to threaten him with a revolver to prevent him returning alone to retrieve it. March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in leap years). ... April 13 is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ...

The Chindit brigades now moved north. In June 1944, his brigade was ordered by the American General Joseph Stilwell to capture the town of Mogaung. Although his men were greatly weakened by shortage of rations, exhaustion and disease, he succeeded in doing so against desperate Japanese defenders, by the end of the month. His brigade had suffered 800 battle casualties in the siege; half of its strength. Of the remainder, only 300 men were left fit to fight. 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Joseph Warren Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army four-star general best-known for his service in China. ... Mogaung is a town in northeast Kachin State in Myanmar. ...

On receiving orders to move to Myitkyina, where another Japanese garrison was holding out, he closed down his Brigade's radio sets and marched to Stilwell's army's headquarters in Kamaing instead. A court martial was threatened, but after he and Stilwell finally met in person and Stilwell appreciated for the first time the conditions under which the Chindits had operated, 77th brigade was evacuated to India to recover. Calvert was awarded a bar to the DSO for the second Chindit expedition. Myitkyina is a city, and the capital of Kachin State in Myanmar, located 919miles from Yangon, or 487 miles from Mandalay. ...

SAS Operations

Calvert was then evacuated to Britain on medical grounds (ironically following an accidental injury) in September 1944. In March 1945 he was appointed to command the Special Air Service Brigade and held this appointment until the Brigade disbanded in October 1945. 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... The Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) is the principal special forces unit of the British Army, and arguably the most well trained special forces unit in current existence. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

After the war, he attended the Army's Staff College. After passing the course, he was appointed to a staff post as Lieutenant Colonel in the Allied Military Government in Trieste. He was then selected in 1950 to command the Malayan Scouts engaged in operations against Communist insurgents in Malaya. Although he held the local rank of Brigadier, he nevertheless led several patrols and operations in person. However, the Malayan Scouts were not subject to proper selection procedures and never lost an early reputation for poor discipline. Calvert's exertions meant that he was invalided home in 1951. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Trieste (Italian: Trieste; Slovenian and Croatian: Trst; German: Triest; Hungarian: Trieszt; Latin: Tergeste; Serbian: Трст or Trst) is a city and port in northeastern Italy right on the border with Slovenia. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Malayan Emergency was an insurrection and guerrilla war of the Malay Races Liberation Army against the British and Malayan administration from 1948-1960 in what is now Malaysia. ... Brigadier is a rank which is used in different ways by different countries. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...

Later career

Calvert reverted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and was posted to an obscure staff billet in the British Army of the Rhine. While there, he was accused of an act of indecency and court-martialled. Forced to leave the Army under a cloud, he became prone to alcoholism. He several times tried to rebuild a career as an engineer, in Australia and Britain. There have been two formations named British Army on the Rhine (BAOR). ...

Eventually, he was appointed Research Fellow at Manchester University in 1971 to write "The Pattern of Guerrilla Warfare", which was never finished. He died in 1998.

Published works

• Fighting Mad, Pen and Sword Books, paperback, ISBN 1-84415-224-3
• Prisoners of Hope, Pen and Sword Books, 1952, paperback, ISBN 0-85052-492-X
• The Chindits, Ballantine Books, paperback, ISBN 0-345-23502-9

External links

• Royal Engineers Museum Biography of Mike Calvert
• Biography at smallwars.com
• Times obituary

Other Sources

• Mad Mike: A life of Brigadier Michael Calvert, by David Rooney, Pen & Sword Books Ltd. 1997, ISBN 0-85052-543-8
• Jon Latimer, Burma: The Forgotten War, London: John Murray, 2004 ISBN 0-7195-6576-6