1943 England: Interview With Field Marshal Wavell Questioning Major Jefferies and S/Ldr. Thompson

Date: 1st January 1943

Location: ENGLAND

Source: Reuters Historical News Collection: BRITISH PARAMOUNT NEWSREEL (REUTERS)

ENGLAND: SV Wavell Greeting Jefferies and Thompson. SCU Wavell greeting Jefferies and Thompson and talking. CU Wavell talking to Jefferies and Thompson (not seen) SCU Thompson answering question. CU Major Jefferies, answering questions.

SOUND EFFECTS. SV Wavell greeting Major Jefferies and S/Ldr Thompson.

Wavell. "Good afternoon Jefferies"

Jefferies: "How do you do sir."

Wavell. "Good afternoon Thompson. Well I am very glad to see you both back, now tell me, last time I saw you I just saw you start off on that first march along the road. What sort of country did you find, once you got over the frontier into Burma?"

Major Jefferies replies: "Over the Chindwin it was very difficult for about the first forty to fifty miles to the other side of the escarpment. Very difficult indeed. After that...

SCU Wavell and Jefferies and Thompson. (retake)

Wavell. "Good afternoon Jefferies."

Jefferies. "Good afternoon sir."

Wavell. "Good afternoon Thompson."

Thompson. "Good afternoon sir."

Wavell. "Well, I am very glad to see you both back, now tell me, last time I saw you, your column was just starting off down the road on its first march into Burma. What sort of country did you find once you got over the frontier into Burma?"

Jefferies. "Over the Chindwin, it was very broken indeed for the first forty or fifty miles, till we got to the other side of the escarpment. After that it was considerably better going."

Wavell. "So you got along all right?"

Jefferies. "Yes, sir."

Wavell to Thompson. "Well now the supply dropping went pretty well on the whole didn't it? Tell me any difficulties you found."

Thompson. "It went very well indeed, sir. As you know we made very elaborate arrangements beforehand, but none of them turned out to be necessary."

Wavell. "I see, it all worked out well."

Thompson. "Yes, sir."

Wavell. "Good." (Turns to Jefferies.) "And now your equipment and kit, I saw you just before you started off and looked all over your kit and equipment, how did that work out, did you find you'd got what you wanted, or too much of anything? Or not enough? It worked out pretty well?"

Jefferies. "We used everything we had, sir. But we had too much of it on mules. The supply dropping was so successful that we need not have taken quite so much. In fact, they could have cut it down very considerably."

Wavell. "Oh good, I thought you had rather a lot of transport."

Jefferies. "Oh definitely too much, sir."

Wavell to Thompson. "When they asked for a particular item of equipment from the base they came along by air pretty well, didn't they?"

Thompson. "Very well indeed, sir. The base administration I think was perfect. They got us anything we wanted, sometimes at very short notice, and the RAF was prepared to fly them out as soon as they were on the planes, any time, day or night."

Wavell. "I see, well right, well then I think the column justified itself and was very successful, don't you think so? And it showed that we can take the Japanese on at that sort of fighting in that sort of country, with considerable success. Don't you agree?"

Jefferies. "Very definitely sir. We had the measure of them on this occasion, I am quite sure that we will again."

Wavell. "Good. And the troops all did very well?"

Jefferies. "They did extremely well, sir."

Wavell. "And the British were up to that sort of fighting weren't they?"

Jefferies. "They were magnificent. They were all town bred from Lancashire, and they were absolutely first class."

Wavell. "Good well you can't beat a Lancashire man, can you?"

Jefferies. "No sir." (Laughter.)

Wavell. (To Thompson) "Well now, then you were thoroughly satisfied with it all from the Air Force point of view?"

Thompson. "Very satisfied, sir. I think it has a lot of possibilities in the f

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