Category: Allies
A Japanese sword took LT George Cairns’ arm on a Burmese hilltop. He seized that same blade, kept fighting, and earned a place among Britain’s most savage Victoria Cross legends.
Mankind has been consumed with war since our very beginnings. Ever since Cain knocked his brother Abel’s brains out with a rock, we have been a species of scrappers. We venerate warriors and celebrate their wars. Along the way, we have somehow lost touch with just how ghastly real war actually is.
Everybody dies. That’s obviously a given. However, that war takes young people in their prime is what makes it so utterly repugnant. Were that not so, I’m sure we would be doing even more of it.
War Never Changes: How George Cairns Reached Burma
The development of weapons brought us such stuff as GPS, microwave ovens, and the Internet. Jet engines, digital cameras, synthetic materials, and EpiPens all had their origins in military technologies as well. However, at the end of the day, whether it is a HIMARS rocket, a ship-mounted laser, or a 16th-century Scottish Claymore broadsword, the ultimate objective is still simply to tear the very life out of our enemies. No matter how much seems to change, the unfortunate end goal nonetheless remains the same.
Modern battlefields are truly horrible things. JDAM smart bombs, shaped charges, thermobaric weapons, and depleted uranium projectiles all conspire to make a proper mess of human flesh. However, war in eras past was hardly all unicorns and butterflies. Hacking some poor schmuck limb from limb was also fairly untidy. It turns out that this propensity toward vivisection extends up into the last century as well.
George Cairns Before the Victoria Cross: Banker, Husband, Soldier
George Albert Cairns was born in December 1913 in London. He attended the Sir Henry Compton School in Fulham from 1923 through 1930. He subsequently took a job in a bank in Kent, where he met his future wife, Ena. The two were married in 1940. The following year, George answered his nation’s call and went off to war.
Cairns was a dedicated natural leader. He earned a commission and was appointed to the Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s). He was subsequently attached to the South Staffordshire Regiment and deployed to Burma. The South Staffordshire was a Chindit battalion subordinate to the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade commanded by the legendary Brigadier Michael Calvert.
By March of 1944, Cairns was 30 years old. That seems pretty young to me. However, in soldier years, he was veritably ancient.
Soldiering is a young man’s game. I look back with fondness on my time in uniform. However, I do recall being tired and sore a lot. Deprivation, hunger, and misery are integral parts of the life of any proper combat soldier in the field. Cairns and his mates found that in abundance in the fetid jungles of Burma.
Pagoda Hill Explodes: The Chindits Meet the Japanese
On 16 March 1944, Cairns and the South Staffords dug in near a place called the White City. The Japanese were rabid to stop the British advance. The Brits, for their part, were disinclined to comply. The end result was a most ferocious fight.
Near the South Staffords’ fighting positions was a pagoda on a prominent hilltop. As near as anyone could tell, neither force had bothered to take that place just yet. Both sides had actually dug formidable fighting positions within earshot of the other, apparently without either unit being the wiser. That all changed when an unsuspecting Japanese patrol wandered across the abandoned pagoda in search of something or other. At around 11 am, everything came unglued.
Brigadier Calvert led the attack himself. He later wrote, “On the top of Pagoda Hill, not much bigger than two tennis courts, an amazing scene developed. The small white Pagoda was in the centre of the hill. Between that and the slopes which came up was a mêlée of South Staffords and Japanese bayonetting, fighting with each other, with some Japanese just throwing grenades from the flanks…There, at the top of the hill, about fifty yards square, an extraordinary mêlée took place, everyone shooting, bayoneting, kicking at everyone else, rather like an officers’ guest night.”
Amidst all of that mayhem, LT Cairns strived mightily to hold the defensive line intact. While coordinating this vigorous defense, Cairns looked up just in time to spot a Japanese officer charging toward him at a dead run, waving a sword. There was no time to react properly. In the face of imminent death, Albert Cairns did what any normal person might do–he reflexively raised his left arm. The maniacal Japanese officer slashed with his weapon and all but took LT Cairns’ left arm off.
One Arm Gone, Sword in Hand: Cairns Refuses to Die Quietly
At this point, LT Cairns had a decision to make. If some screaming nutjob hacked my arm off with a big honking sword, I’m fairly certain I would just take my toys and go home. Not so, LT Cairns. Cairns shot and killed the Japanese officer who had taken his arm before snatching up the dead soldier’s blade and going to town on the rest of his maniacal buddies.
LT Norman Durant was a machine gun platoon leader assigned to the same unit. His vantage with his support weapons afforded him a fairly decent view of the battlefield. This is what he had to say about LT Cairns: “The first thing I saw on reaching the path was a horrible hand-to-hand struggle going on further up the hill. George Cairns and a Jap were struggling and choking on the ground, and as I picked up a Jap rifle and climbed up towards them, I saw George break free and, picking up a rifle bayonet, stab the Jap again and again like a madman. It was only when I got near that I saw he himself had already been bayoneted twice through the side and that his left arm was hanging on by a few strips of muscle. How he had found the strength to fight was a miracle, but the effort had been too much and he died the next morning.”
So, this brass-balled young British infantry officer had been ventilated twice with bayonets before having his left arm quite literally chopped off. Despite these extraordinary wounds, Cairns unleashed his inner monster on the attacking Japanese.
Using the dead Japanese officer’s sword, this one-armed lunatic launched himself into the remaining Japanese troops like a Dervish. When the dust settled, survivors counted 42 Japanese dead in and around the hilltop that housed the pagoda. Nobody knew who got whom. However, Cairns did most of his serious killing with the same sword that had been used to, moments before, lop off his own left arm.
The Victoria Cross Fight That Nearly Vanished With Wingate
Once the dust settled, LT Cairns understandably ran out of gas. His words were, “’Have we won sir? Was it all right? Did we do our stuff? Don’t worry about me.” The following day, this remarkable young man died.
Stripping a sword from an adversary and then using it to obliterate an attacking unit after having your own arm chopped off seemed like Victoria Cross material, no matter how you sliced it. The VC is Great Britain’s highest award for gallantry in action. It is the Limey equivalent of our Medal of Honor.
One of Cairns’ officers duly put in the work, and the award recommendation made its way up to General Orde Wingate, the commanding general of the Chindits. Wingate was a weird duck. A committed Christian Zionist, Wingate cut his teeth fighting the Arabs in British-occupied Palestine. He once attempted suicide by stabbing himself in the neck while under the depressing effects of atabrine for his malaria.
By the time he commanded the Chindits, Wingate was habitually munching on raw onions to help ward off disease and made a habit of greeting visitors in the nude. On 24 March 1944, Wingate climbed aboard an American B25 Mitchell bomber along with two British war correspondents. The pilot objected that the airplane was grossly overloaded, but Wingate insisted. The plane subsequently crashed into the jungle in India, killing all aboard. LT Cairns’ VC recommendation was on Wingate’s person at the time.
George Cairns’ Victoria Cross Citation: Valor Beyond Belief
A 1949 article in The Times revived the process. By then, two of the three required witnesses had been killed in action. Eventually, thanks to the tireless efforts of his widow Ena Cairns, George’s Victoria Cross was approved. This is the citation:
“On 12 March 1944, columns from the South Staffordshire Regiment and 3/6 Gurkha Rifles established a road and rail block across the Japanese lines of communication at Henu Block.
The Japanese counter-attacked this position heavily in the early morning of 13 March 1944, and the South Staffordshire Regiment was ordered to attack a hill-top which formed the basis of the Japanese attack.
During this action, in which Lieutenant CAIRNS took a foremost part, he was attacked by a Japanese officer, who, with his sword, hacked off Lieutenant CAIRNS’s left arm. Lieutenant CAIRNS killed this Officer; picked up the sword and continued to lead his men in the attack, and, slashing left and right with the captured sword, killed and wounded several Japanese before he himself fell to the ground.
Lieutenant CAIRNS subsequently died from his wounds. His action so inspired all his comrades that, later, the Japanese were completely routed, a very rare occurrence at that time.”
LT George Cairns Went Down Fighting and Became a Legend
We have explored a great many remarkable tales of daring and elan in this space in the past. I can’t recall ever writing about some lunatic guy who kept on fighting with the sword his attacker had only recently used to relieve him of his arm. LT George Cairns was indeed a hero of the highest order.
Will is still trying to figure out what he really wants to be when he grows up. However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation.
Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o’clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times…always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains.
Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. Turn-ons include vintage German machineguns, flying his sexy-cool RV6A airplane, Count Chocula cereal and the movie “Aliens.”
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Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney recently defended his government’s gun confiscation and “buyback” program, stating the government “has acted swiftly and decisively to combat gun crime” by removing “prohibited assault-style firearms from communities across Canada through the Assault Style Firearms Compensation Program” (a.k.a. the “buyback”).
“Swiftly” is not the most apt description for a program that has been dragging along since the “assault-style firearms” ban and confiscation law took effect immediately upon being unveiled by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau in May 2020. A new extension of the amnesty period for affected gun owners was announced last week (the fourth such extension so far), this one made necessary because the validity of the 2020 law is expected to be decided by the Supreme Court of Canada sometime next year. “Decisively” is another howling misnomer, given that licensed and police-vetted gun owners – the only ones eligible to participate in the “Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program” – aren’t the individuals responsible for Canada’s criminal violence.
A “report card” on Canada’s criminal justice system, released in March by the nonpartisan Macdonald-Laurier Institute, confirms that the Liberals’ gun bans haven’t reduced crime. “Violent crime, violent crime severity, and property crime have continued to increase in most provinces and territories” over the last decade. Police clearance rates have fallen, the percentage of court decisions resulting in a guilty verdict has dropped over the last five years from 61 to 46 percent, and more offenders are being released on non-custodial sentences. Canadians, understandably, “are increasingly feeling unsafe in their communities and are losing faith in the justice system more broadly.”
Carney’s legislative focus on honest gun owners, coupled with his assertion that “irresponsible American gun laws” enable criminals and illegal gun smuggling into Canada, conveniently divert attention from this dismal state of affairs. “Gun control in Canada,” sums up Dr. Gary Mauser, “is based on lies that the Liberals spread about guns and crime,” and chief among them is that measures like gun bans and buybacks will keep Canadians safe.
Mauser, a Canadian criminologist and emeritus professor at Simon Fraser University, has written and testified extensively on the issue of firearms and crime, and his recent article highlights the compelling differences in crime trends between America, with its “irresponsible” gun laws, and Canada.
“Almost all of the US is safer than Toronto,” he writes. “Canadians may be surprised to learn that murders in the US are concentrated in just a few places. Except for a few localities, half of the counties in the USA have no murders at all; many other counties have very few. There are more murders each year in Toronto than in most places in the US.” The factors contributing to this relatively greater security include the Trump administration’s “tremendous effort” to arrest or deport violent criminals and other offenders, citing 413,991 violent crime arrests and 868,330 property crime arrests.
And, unlike Canadians, Americans enjoy and exercise a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Given the “wide-spread ownership of firearms and civic minded owners willing and able to defend themselves and their communities,” much of the United States “has both very high gun ownership rates and zero murders.”
In contrast, Canada’s laws “make it all but illegal for citizens to use a firearm to protect themselves or their families.” Mauser points out that violent crime in Canada has increased by 34 percent in the last decade; repeat offenders get bail, imprisoned offenders are typically released early, and the federal government has, it seems, no interest in keeping track of how many illegal immigrants are in the country.
In one horrifying crime last year, a father of four was shot dead in front of his children after his door was kicked in during a home invasion in Vaughan, Ontario. News reports indicate several suspects were apprehended, and the 26-year-old charged with first-degree murder was, according to law enforcement, “out on four separate forms of release” at the time. The locality’s police chief commented that the incident “once again highlights how police chiefs across the country, myself included, remain adamant that changes need to be made to the (justice) system” (emphasis added).
Meanwhile, 29 American states no longer require law-abiding individuals to have a permit to carry a concealed handgun, and gun owners are increasingly embracing the freedom to carry firearms for defensive use outside the home. A survey of general election voters commissioned by Dr. John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) found that almost 30% of respondents said they carry a firearm, a 5.5% increase since the last such poll in December 2024. Of those, 13.2% said they carry a firearm all or most of the time and 16.6% replied they carry sometimes or rarely. The CPRC makes the especially interesting point that loosening carry permit requirements in six states, as required to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision, not only resulted in an “enormous increase in the number of permits issued” but, contrary to grim predictions by politicians and gun control activists, violent crime in those states actually declined.
Canada’s liberal lawmakers may be surprised to learn that far from fueling a crisis in crime, America’s gun laws, its increase in first-time gun owners and persons lawfully carrying are expected to coincide with a new record low in America’s murder rate. According to the CPRC, the 2025 figure is likely to fall “at least 10% below the previous record low.”
It begs the question – does Canada have a gun problem, or a crime and enforcement problem?
The Great Game and the Strategic Integration of Sikh Forces in British India
1. The Context: The Great Game
The “Great Game” was the 19th-century geopolitical chess match between the British Empire and the Russian Empire, centered on control over Central Asia and the mountain corridors of Afghanistan. Britain viewed Afghanistan as a vital buffer zone to protect its most prized possession, the British Raj in India. In this high-stakes environment, the British military required forces that could navigate difficult mountain terrain, endure harsh climates, and act as reliable extensions of imperial policy.
2. The Role of the Sikh Soldier
Following the British annexation of the Punjab after the Anglo-Sikh Wars, the British administration recognized the exceptional martial prowess of the Sikh population. By incorporating Sikhs into the British Indian Army, the British Empire transformed them into one of the “Martial Races”—a colonial military theory that designated certain groups as inherently more suited for combat.
In the context of the Afghan campaigns (the First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars), the deployment of Sikh regiments provided the British with several strategic advantages:
Mountain Warfare Expertise: Sikh soldiers possessed high endurance and familiarity with the geography of the borderlands, making them effective in the rugged, mountainous terrain of Afghanistan where European troops often struggled.
Operational Discipline: Their strict organizational structure and dedication made them reliable garrisons for remote outposts—most famously illustrated by the Battle of Saragarhi (1897), where 21 Sikh soldiers held a post against thousands of tribal attackers.
Strategic Distancing: By deploying non-Muslim troops from the Punjab in frontier territories, the British military sought to maintain a degree of separation between their forces and the local population, a core component of the “divide and rule” strategy used to mitigate the risk of mass mutinies or local insurgencies.
3. The Network of Trade and Intelligence
While Sikh soldiers fought on the front lines, the Sikh merchant class played a critical, often informal, role in British intelligence-gathering. Because of their long-standing commercial ties across the Khyber Pass and their presence in urban centers like Kabul, Kandahar, and Jalalabad, they were indispensable to the British administration:
The “News-Writer” System: The British relied heavily on local informants, known as news-writers, to report on tribal alliances, the stability of the Afghan throne, and the influence of Russian emissaries. Sikh merchants, being well-integrated into the regional bazaar economy and fluent in local dialects, were uniquely positioned to provide this sensitive intelligence.
Logistical Support: The infrastructure of the Sikh merchant network provided the British Army with essential supplies, horses, and provisions in hostile territory, ensuring that colonial expeditions could sustain their presence far from their primary supply bases in India.
4. Historical Legacy and Perception
The integration of the Sikh community into the machinery of British expansion in Afghanistan left a complex mark on the regional consciousness. The convergence of Sikh presence with the arrival of British colonial forces meant that for many in the local population, the Sikh community became inextricably linked to the interests of the British Empire.
This historical perception transformed the status of the community from purely commercial actors to figures perceived as agents of colonial authority. This dynamic not only shaped the internal social politics of 19th-century Afghanistan but also influenced how the local population viewed the intersection of foreign occupation and ethnic minority groups for generations to come.
This analysis highlights how, during the Great Game, the British Empire successfully utilized both the combat capabilities of the Sikh military and the extensive regional networks of the Sikh merchant class to consolidate their power and influence in the Afghan theater.