Lions and dragons in the jungle: a short synopsis on the Chindit campaigns of 1943 and 1945 in the context of human factors

Bates, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5440-6039 (2025) Lions and dragons in the jungle: a short synopsis on the Chindit campaigns of 1943 and 1945 in the context of human factors. In: Lancaster Military History Group VJ Day Commemorative Talk, 25 September 2025, Lancaster, UK. (Unpublished)

Preview	PDF (slides) - Presentation Available under License CC BY-NC Download (4MB) | Preview
Preview	Video (MP4) (77th Brigade Burma Battlefield Tour. Director: Major Levison James Wood) - Supplemental Material Available under License CC BY-NC Download (232MB) | Preview

Abstract

Colonel David Bates, ARRC, University of Cumbria senior lecturer in disaster response, presented this updated version of his Lions and Dragons in the Jungle talk to the Lancaster Military History Group (first presented 11 April 2023 at Cumbria's Museum of Military Life).

David showed the attached video as part of his introduction to the talk to demonstrate the importance of attitudes and behaviours in the guise of human factors and how these need to be honed balanced alongside the conceptual and physical components of capability. The film was made in April 2016 by the Media Operations Group in 77th Brigade, the direct descendants of the Second World War 'Chindits' who fought in Burma, to record the battlefield study that they undertook (produced and directed by Major Levison James Wood, a Specialist Reserve Officer at the time). This was David's last unit before leaving the army and this film gives context to the theme that manoeuvre is an attitude and centred on developing the moral component of fighting power. It is also featured in the discussion about the air component (the Air Commando) and the US land contingent 'Merrill's Marauders'; demonstrating cohesion across the coalition and a deep sense of purpose or vision which we sometimes seem to lack in C21st. Even though the contemporary 77th Brigade is not fighting hard physical campaigns like it's predecessors did in 1943 and 1944 they are maintaining and developing the moral component of fighting power through cyber, digital and information operations to maintain the psychological edge, that is the manoeuvrist attitude across all operational domains (maritime, land, air, space, information and cyber).

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture)
Departments:	Institute of Health > Psychology and Psychological Therapies
Additional Information:	Colonel David Bates, Senior Lecturer/Practitioner in Disaster Response, University of Cumbria, UK.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	14 Nov 2025 10:26
Last Modified:	02 Dec 2025 08:00
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/9186

Downloads