Craft Masonry in Orange and Rockland Counties, New York

press Chiang and the British to take immediate actions to retake Burma, but Chiang demanded impossibly large amounts of
supplies before he would agree to take offensive action, and the British refused to meet their previous pledges to provide naval and
ground troops due to Churchill's "Europe first" strategy. Eventually Stilwell began to complain openly to Roosevelt that Chiang was
hoarding U.S. lend lease supplies because he wanted to keep Chinese Nationalist forces ready to fight the Communists under Mao
Zedong after the end of the war with the Japanese, even though from 1942 to 1944 98 percent of U.S. military aid over the Hump
had gone directly to the 14th Air Force and U.S. military personnel in China.
Stilwell also continually clashed with Field Marshal Archibald Wavell, and apparently came to believe that the British in India were
more concerned with protecting their colonial possessions than helping the Chinese fight the Japanese. In August 1943, as a result
of constant feuding and conflicting objectives of British, American, and Chinese commands, along with the lack of a coherent
strategic vision for the China Burma India (CBI) theater, the Combined Chiefs of Staff split the CBI command into separate Chinese
and Southeast Asia theaters.
Stilwell with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang Kai-shek >
Stilwell was infuriated also by the rampant corruption of the Chiang regime. In
his diary, which he faithfully kept, Stilwell began to note the corruption and the
amount of money ($380,584,000 in 1944 dollars) being wasted upon the
procrastinating Chiang and his government. The Cambridge History of China,
for instance, also estimates that some 60%-70% of Chiang's Kuomintang
conscripts did not make it through their basic training, with some 40%
deserting and the remaining 20% dying of starvation before full induction into
the military. Eventually, Stilwell’s belief that the Generalissimo and his generals
were incompetent and corrupt reached such proportions that Stilwell sought to
cut off Lend-Lease aid to China. Stilwell even ordered Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) officers to draw up contingency plans to assassinate Chiang
Kai-shek after he heard Roosevelt's casual remarks regarding the possible
defeat of Chiang by either internal or external enemies, and if this happened to
replace Chiang with someone else to continue the Chinese resistance against Japan.
Myitkyina Offensive and aftermath
With the establishment of the new South East Asia Command in August 1943, Stilwell was appointed Deputy Supreme Allied
Commander under Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten. Taking command of various Chinese and Allied forces, including a new
U.S. Army special operations formation, the 5307th Composite Unit (provisional) later known as Merrill's Marauders, Stilwell built up
his Chinese forces for an eventual offensive in northern Burma. On December 21, 1943, Stilwell assumed direct control of planning
for the invasion of Northern Burma, culminating with capture of the Japanese-held town of Myitkyina. In the meantime, Stilwell
ordered General Merrill and the Marauders to commence long-range jungle penetration missions behind Japanese lines after the
pattern of the British Chindits. In February 1944, three Marauder battalions marched into Burma. Though Stilwell was at the Ledo
Road front when the Marauders arrived at their jump-off point, the general did not walk out to the road to bid them farewell.
In April 1944, Stilwell launched his final offensive to capture the Burmese city of Myitkyina. In support of this objective, the
Marauders were ordered to undertake a long flanking maneuver towards the town, involving a grueling 65-mile jungle march. Having
been deployed since February in combat operations in the jungles of Burma, the Marauders were seriously depleted and suffering
from both combat losses and disease, and lost additional men while en route to the objective. A particularly devastating scourge
was a severe outbreak of amoebic dysentery, which erupted shortly after the Marauders linked up with X Force. By this time, the
men of the Marauders had openly begun to suspect Stilwell's commitment to their welfare. Despite their sacrifices, Stilwell appeared
unconcerned about their losses, and had rejected repeated requests for medals for individual acts of heroism. Initial promises of a
rest and rotation were ignored; the Marauders were not even air-dropped replacement uniforms or mail until late April.
On May 17, 1,310 remaining Marauders attacked Myitkyina airfield in concert with elements of two Chinese infantry regiments and a
small artillery contingent. The airfield was quickly taken, but the town, which Stilwell's intelligence staff had believed to be lightly
defended, was garrisoned by significant numbers of well-equipped Japanese troops, who were steadily being reinforced. A
preliminary attack on the town by two Chinese regiments was thrown back with heavy losses. The Marauders did not have the
manpower to immediately overwhelm Myitkyina and its defenses; by the time additional Chinese forces arrived and were in a
position to attack, Japanese forces totaled some 4,600 fanatical Japanese defenders.
During the Myitkyina siege, which took place during the height of the monsoon season, Marauders' second-in-command, Col.
Hunter, as well as the unit's regimental and battalion level surgeons, had urgently recommended that the entire 5307th be relieved
of duty and returned to rear areas for rest and recovery. By this time, most of the men had fevers and continual dysentery, forcing
the men to cut the seats out of their uniform trousers in order to fire their weapons and relieve themselves simultaneously. Stilwell
rejected the evacuation recommendation, though he did make a frontline inspection of the Myitkyina lines. Afterwards, he ordered all
medical staff to stop returning combat troops suffering from disease or illness, and instead return them to combat status, using
medications to keep down fevers. The feelings of many Marauders towards General Stilwell at that time were summed up by one
soldier, who stated, "I had him [Stilwell] in my sights. I coulda' squeezed one off and no one woulda' known it wasn't a Jap who got
that son of a bitch."
Stilwell also ordered that all Marauders evacuated from combat due to wounds or fever first submit to a special medical
'examination' by doctors appointed by his headquarters staff. These examinations passed many ailing soldiers as fit for duty;
Stilwell's staff roamed hospital hallways in search of any Marauder with a temperature lower than 103 degrees Fahrenheit. Some of
the men who were passed and sent back into combat were immediately re-evacuated as unfit at the insistence of forward medical
personnel. Later, Stilwell's staff placed blame on Army medical personnel for overzealously interpreting Stilwell's return-to-duty
order.
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