Churchill’s Butchers: Mission 204’s Operations in China, 1942–1945

Mission 204, a mixed British and Australian force, operated in Nationalist China from 1942 to 1945 with the objective of training Nationalist guerrillas. Historians have tended to focus only on the mission’s record in 1942, when British and Australian commandos deployed to eastern Jiangxi Province and suffered from a high incidence of disease. This paper not only reframes the narrative concerning 1942, but also argues that the mission met with success from 1943 to 1945, due to adaptations in the mission’s force structure and an increased willingness to suit Chinese desires.