“Where have all the Generals gone?” Burma’s By-Gone Days of Historic Military Courage

Sandra Carney

For the past two hundred and thirty years or so, we in the United States have been blessed with great generals. There is no shortage, beginning with the father of Independence, George Washington, to Generals Lee and Grant, Patton, MacArthur and Eisenhower. The history books are still open as other patriotic American generals make their way onto the pages, during the troubled times of Vietnam and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In my continuing series of writing about the land of my childhood, Burma, there has been a revolving door of generals since the coup of 1962, when the late General NeWin began his social program to reform Burma, but only succeeded in bringing the once self sufficient and rich country down on her knees, to be rated as one of the poorest and most neglected nations in all of South East Asia.

The insignificant Generals who succeeded NeWin, each in turn more ruthless than the one before, dashed the hopes and dreams of the Burmese people. As the oppressive left wing regime under the generals continue to dictate, modern Burmese people ask “when will it ever end, when will there be a leader courageous enough to bring these people down?”

Once upon a time, there was a shining star on the Burmese landscape in the form of one of the most important people in Burmese history…Maha Bandula! Bandula was born c.1780 in the Monyua district of Burma. He rose to the position of General, and was instrumental in the expansion of the Burmese Konbaung Dynasty.

King Alaungpaya c.1752-1760 was the founder of the Konbaung (heaven’s platform) dynasty. Alaungpaya, a man of humble origins, but a great leader and his successors, waged wars against the fractured provinces surrounding them, and modern Burma’s borders are a result of that expansion policy of the Konbuang dynasty.

The British and French and other Europeans such as the Dutch and Portuguese had also begun their aggressive pursuit of colonizing India and the Far East. Though the Konbaungs waged defensive wars against the Chinese, the greatest threat to their existence came from the West. Their tactics went from negotiating to cajoling the French and the British, but it ended in three wars, known as “The Anglo-Burmese Wars”, and eventually lost all with the deposing of King Thibaw in 1885, and his banishment to India.

Maha Bandula, a handsome young man by all accounts, first rose to power as Governor of Alon in the district of his birth. He was a member of the court of King Bodawpaya and impatient to be noticed, assaulted a minister, whereupon he caught the king’s attention. The king liked him and considered his attack as an act of bravery, and enrolled him in his army.

Bandula, a silent introspective man, quite resolute in the path to his future, was a puzzlement to others, who saw him as nothing extraordinary, but he had the king’s ear. Keeping in perspective the times in which he lived, Maha Bandula’s tactics were ruthless. He tolerated very little from his officers, and even if a senior officer brought him bad news, he was more likely to be sawed in half than not.

His charismatic appeal grew as he conquered his way knocking down obscure tribes all the way to the Arakan coast, and northwards to Assam and into India. He was an honest, self-sacrificing man and unlike most of the court, he was willing to learn from his mistakes, and more importantly from the mistakes of others. He disregarded the court astrologers, whose forecasts guided other Burmese generals and their armies to defeat.

On the battlefield, when he found wounded enemy, instead of mutilating them as was the universal practice at the time, he ordered his troops to treat their wounds. While his colleagues vented their frustrations on all around them, Bandula realizing there was more to life, became an aggressive but democratic leader, acceding to the people’s will.

The Burmese king in his desire to expand his territory waged war against British provinces in India. It was the year 1823, at the height of the French Revolution. The king insulted that the British were expanding their territory at a faster pace than him, felt badly used by the European Imperialists who among other things, had refused to pay him homage.

Against the advice of his ministers, he ordered General Bandula to invade Calcutta, whose rich loot would compensate the king quite handsomely for all the insults. Amongst the loot the king had his eye on, were the munitions of muskets and cannon, which would come in handsomely in the defeat of Siam (now Thailand), whose kingdom was next in succession for his projected conquest. The loss of personnel, the king rationalized would be replenished with the myriads of Indians, his generals would capture.

All had fallen before General Bandula, the Kachins, the Manipuris, the Assamese and on and on …. Who were the English after all but merchants, with no tactical skills. There was a lot of truth in Bandula’s rational, as the British were scared of him. Rather than waste good Burmese soldiers, General Bandula ordered the Assamese levies to conquer Bengal.

A man of his word, Bandula was proved right, as the British though brave, were no match for his genius stragety. Rather than entrench, they marched about in red coats, announcing their arrival with the beating of drums, only to find their bare exposed bodies blown up to pieces by Maha Bandula’s men.

On March 5th, 1824, the British formally declared war against Burma. “The First Anglo-Burmese War.” Fed-up with the continual intimidation and threats from the Burmese king, on what England now considered to be its sovereign soil, the British in India determined to carry the war right up to the doorstep of the Burmese king.

This opportunity came when Bandula and the other generals did not follow up on their successful invasion of the Chittagong area. All the might and power of the British Empire with its huge arsenal of weapons and Indian Sepoys, under the command of Major General Sir Archibald Campbell marched to the mouth of the Rangoon River and took Rangoon. With gradual increments, the British defeated the surrounding areas and with their superior weaponry, crushed the Burmese army, who in disarray, confusion and demoralized, soon abandoned their position to Campbell’s men.

General Maha Bandula fell to the British sword and died in battle on April 1, 1825.

Little is known of the history of those times, as the Burmese theologians and scholars recorded most of the history on palm leaf manuscripts, which were later destroyed by the British soldiers. However, there are contemporaneous documents, which record the British side of their victory.

“They fought with a bravery and obstinacy that I never witnessed in any troops…. They fought desperately, reserving their fire to the last moment and seldom missing their object….. Little is known of the march of Maha Bandula’s force across the mountains of Arakan to the Irrawaddy; a distance, by the shortest route, of upwards of two hundred miles, at a season of the year when none by Burmans could have kept the field for a week, much less have attempted to pass the insalubrious jungles and pestilential marshes of Arakan, with rivers, arms of the sea and mountain torrents opposing their progress at every step……..The Burmese, with spear or musket couched, and their heads lowered to a butting position, blindly charged upon our bayonets; they neither gave nor expected quarter, but continued fighting with the utmost fury long after all hope of success of escape…..” Report of 22nd and 25th February, 1824 from
Col. Bowen to Brigade Major, Dacca, Wilson “Documents” 23-4.

Such men as General Maha Bandula have not graced Burma’s soil for scores of decades. Brave men who defended their country and fought to the death for the betterment of their fellow citizens.

Following her complete colonization by the British in 1885, and subsequent Independence in 1947, Burma continues to be ravished by the cruel exercise of power of the current Burmese generals. Her subjects are fading away in the burning embers of Socialism, as she has been left to waste by the West. A West, who is blind to her plight and strategic importance, in South East Asia. A plight and strategic importance, that has not escaped the notice of North Korea, as that country’s insane dictator, wraps his squeezing tentacles around Burmese gas, oil, minerals and suffocating populace.

For my father….Colonel Raymond Campagnac, Sithu, August 31st, 1923….November 7th, 1989.