Character and Organisation
The division was originally intended to operate on a pack basis, with porters carrying all equipment and supplies. Lieutenant General William Slim, then commanding XV Corps, commented on first inspecting units of the division in late 1943:
Their discipline and smartness were impressive, and they were more obviously at home in the jungle than any troops I had yet seen... I was at once struck by two things. First, by the horde of unarmed porters who were needed to carry supplies, ammunition, baggage and the heavier weapons, and secondly by the large number of white men in a unit, fifty or sixty to a battalion. Accustomed as I was to Indian battalions in the field with usually only seven or eight Europeans, it struck me as an unnecessarily generous supply.
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