Download or read book A Battalion in Burma written by Mark Forsdike and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2024-07-30 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the Second Suffolk, 5th (Indian) Division during World War II's Burma campaign. Between December 1943 and August 1944, Second Suffolk, as part of the 5th (Indian) Division, played a key role opposing the Japanese in Burma and later at the critical battle at Imphal. The odds could not have been higher or the challenges greater. The Japanese had already earned an awesome reputation as a formidable and ruthless enemy who could only be described as fanatical. The rugged jungle terrain, over which the Battalion had to fight, was tough and unforgiving and pushed all ranks to the limits of their physical and mental endurance. Against them too was the harsh tropical climate and the extremes of the monsoon season. The combination of these three factors called for the highest standards of leadership and discipline. Supplies too were often not forthcoming but despite these difficulties and a lack of appreciation of their efforts in the press at home, morale of the stolid regular Suffolk soldier and his newer drafted comrades, always remained high as they learned to fight their enemy in the way that he fought him. For over seventy-five years their story has remained largely forgotten and untold but, now drawing on previously unpublished accounts of those who served there, together with unpublished photographs, this book describes the Battalion’s outstanding service during the Burma Campaign.
Download or read book My Gun was as Tall as Me written by Kevin Heppner and published by Human Rights Watch. This book was released on 2002 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life as a Soldier
Download or read book The Burma Road written by Donovan Webster and published by Farrar Straus Giroux. This book was released on 2003 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the effort by 200,000 Chinese laborers to build a seven-hundred-mile road through the jungle to Rangoon, Burma, in order to keep the Chinese supplied throughout the war with Japan.
Download or read book Burma written by Jon Latimer and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through festering jungle and across burning plains to high mountains and lazy rivers, the Burma campaign of the Second World War involved the longest retreat in British history, and the longest advance; long-range penetration miles behind enemy lines, vicious hand-to-hand fighting, and the horrors of forced labour. Yet this strange war remains utterly fascinating with singular characters like Slim, Mountbatten, Stilwell and Wingate, while dominated by ordinary soldiers that it 'gathered to itself like a whirlpool, men from the ends of the earth': from Britain, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, West, East and South Africa, but overwhelmingly, from India. Dogras, Sikhs, Punjabis, Kumaonis, Madrassis and Nepalese, representing every race and caste on the subcontinent, were all far from home, all fighting for survival against a ruthless enemy prepared to die for his emperor, while the Burmese fought for their independence. Jon Latimer draws these disparate strands together in a gripping narrative, to describe the operations and the politics that shaped them, while illustrating the experiences of thousands of ordinary people whose lives were caught up and transformed by this south-east Asian maelstrom, many of whom feel that like Fourteenth Army they were forgotten. This book ensures that none of them are.
Download or read book Fighting the People s War written by Jonathan Fennell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 967 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Fennell captures for the first time the true wartime experience of the ordinary soldiers from across the empire who made up the British and Commonwealth armies. He analyses why the great battles were won and lost and how the men that fought went on to change the world.
Download or read book Slim Chance The Pivotal Role of Air Mobility in the Burma Campaign written by Derek M. Salmi and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Building the Death Railway written by Robert Sherman La Forte and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1993 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Generosity amid the greatest cruelty, Building the Death Railway gives the American perspective on events that shocked the world.
Download or read book A War of Empires written by Robert Lyman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-11 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE RUSI DUKE OF WELLINGTON MEDAL FOR MILITARY HISTORY 2022 'This is a superb book.' - James Holland In 1941 and 1942 the British and Indian Armies were brutally defeated and Japan reigned supreme in its newly conquered territories throughout Asia. But change was coming. New commanders were appointed, significant training together with restructuring took place, and new tactics were developed. A War of Empires by acclaimed historian Robert Lyman expertly records these coordinated efforts and describes how a new volunteer Indian Army, rising from the ashes of defeat, would ferociously fight to turn the tide of war. But victory did not come immediately. It wasn't until March 1944, when the Japanese staged their famed 'March on Delhi', that the years of rebuilding paid off and, after bitter fighting, the Japanese were finally defeated at Kohima and Imphal. This was followed by a series of extraordinary victories culminating in Mandalay in May 1945 and the collapse of all Japanese forces in Burma. Until now, the Indian Army's contribution has been consistently forgotten and ignored by many Western historians but Robert Lyman proves how vital this hard-fought campaign was in securing Allied victory in the east. Detailing the defeat of Japanese militarism, he recounts how the map of the region was ultimately redrawn, guaranteeing the rise of an independent India free from the shackles of empire.
Download or read book Rails of War written by Steven James Hantzis and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a theater of war long forgotten and barely even known at the time, James Harry Hantzis and his fellow soldiers labored at a thankless task under oppressive conditions. Nonetheless, as Rails of War demonstrates, without the men of the 721st Railway Operating Battalion, the Allied forces would have been defeated in the China-Burma-India conflict in World War II. Steven James Hantzis's father served alongside other GI railroaders in overcoming danger, disease, fire, and monsoons to move the weight of war in the China-Burma-India theater. Torn from their predictable working-class lives, the men of the 721st journeyed fifteen thousand miles to Bengal, India, to do the impossible: build, maintain, and manage seven hundred miles of track through the most inhospitable environment imaginable. From the harrowing adventures of the Flying Tigers and Merrill's Marauders to detailed descriptions of grueling jungle operations and the Siege of Myitkyina, this is the remarkable story of the extraordinary men of the 721st, who moved an entire army to win the war.
Download or read book Hell under the Rising Sun written by Kelly E. Crager and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2008-01-22 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Late in 1940, the young men of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment stepped off the trucks at Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas, ready to complete the training they would need for active duty in World War II. Many of them had grown up together in Jacksboro, Texas, and almost all of them were eager to face any challenge. Just over a year later, these carefree young Texans would be confronted by horrors they could never have imagined. The battalion was en route to bolster the Allied defense of the Philippines when they received news of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Soon, they found themselves ashore on Java, with orders to assist the Dutch, British, and Australian defense of the island against imminent Japanese invasion. When war came to Java in March 1942, the Japanese forces overwhelmed the numerically inferior Allied defenders in little more than a week. For more than three years, the Texans, along with the sailors and marines who survived the sinking of the USS Houston, were prisoners of the Imperial Japanese Army. Beginning in late 1942, these prisoners-of-war were shipped to Burma to accelerate completion of the Burma-Thailand railway. These men labored alongside other Allied prisoners and Asian conscript laborers to build more than 260 miles of railroad for their Japanese taskmasters. They suffered abscessed wounds, near-starvation, daily beatings, and debilitating disease, and 89 of the original 534 Texans taken prisoner died in the infested, malarial jungles. The survivors received a hero’s welcome from Gov. Coke Stevenson, who declared October 29, 1945, as “Lost Battalion Day” when they finally returned to Texas. Kelly E. Crager consulted official documentary sources of the National Archives and the U.S. Army and mined the personal memoirs and oral history interviews of the “Lost Battalion” members. He focuses on the treatment the men received in their captivity and surmises that a main factor in the battalion’s comparatively high survival rate (84 percent of the 2nd Battalion) was the comraderie of the Texans and their commitment to care for each other. This narrative is grueling, yet ultimately inspiring. Hell under the Rising Sun will be a valuable addition to the collections of World War II historians and interested general readers alike.
Download or read book A Connecticut Yankee in the 8th Gurkha Rifles written by Scott Gilmore and published by Potomac Books. This book was released on 1995 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America was still neutral when, in the fall of 1941, a tall, solid thirty-year-old advertising executive from Connecticut volunteered to serve as an American Field Service ambulance driver in the British Army. It was the start of an adventure that took Scott Gilmore to Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, India, and, finally, to the jungles of Burma. After an exciting and dangerous year in North Africa, where he witnessed the fall of Tobruk and the battle of El Alamein, Gilmore was accepted for training as an officer in the elite Indian Army. This was the old Indian Army of the British Raj, a fighting force of unflappable English officers, hardy Indians, and the legendary Gurkhas of Nepal. It was an army at the apogee of its skills and about to inflict on the Japanese their greatest defeat on land. With dry, offbeat humor, Gilmore describes his challenging months at the Officers Training School and with his new unit, the 8th Gurkha Rifles. As he endures the assault courses and marches, confronts the arcane rituals of the officers' mess, and learns the language and customs of his diminutive fellow soldiers, Gilmore's adaptability and good nature is notable, and his American viewpoint on the mix of cultures refreshing. Moreover, like generations of Britons, he learns to love and respect the kukri knife-wielding Gurkha warriors. When Gilmore's 4th Battalion is finally deemed ready to be put to the test as part of General Bill Slim's Fourteenth Army, it plunges into battle in the jungle-covered mountains of the Indo-Burmese border. He and his comrades fight their way across the dry plains of central Burma, execute a dangerous crossing of the mile-wide Irrawaddy River, and press on to Rangoon, enduring ahostile climate and tenacious Japanese opposition. As Gilmore moves up in responsibility to company commander and engages in night reconnaissance patrols and set-piece attacks, his experiences give a forceful picture of the fighting in one of the most difficult and remote theaters of World War II.
Download or read book Memoirs of the Four Foot Colonel written by Smith Dun and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Commander-in-Chief of the Burmese Army, nicknamed the "four-foot Colonel," offers an account of his nation's struggle for independence from a unique perspective. General Dun describes his background, his early life and training (in England and India), and his involvement with the Burmese nationalist movement. He also explains his position in the struggles between the emerging Burmese nation and various minority groups such as the Karens, of which he was a member. This third-person account is filled with humor and insight and allows the reader a rare glimpse into the mind of a powerful personality.
Download or read book The Regimental Warpath 1914 1918 written by Brad Chappell and published by Ravi Rikhye. This book was released on 2008-07 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A listing of every British Army infantry battalion in the Great War with raising date, formation to which attached, campaigns, and service. 440 content pages.
Download or read book Toward Combined Arms Warfare written by Jonathan Mallory House and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1985 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Forgotten Army written by Peter Ward Fay and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first complete history of the Indian National Army and its fight for independence against the British in World War II.
Download or read book Burma 44 written by James Holland and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-04-21 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A first-rate popular history of a fascinating and neglected battle... James Holland is a master of spinning narrative military history from accounts of men and women who were there and BURMA ’44 is a veritable page-turner' - BBC History In February 1944, a rag-tag collection of clerks, drivers, doctors, muleteers, and other base troops, stiffened by a few dogged Yorkshiremen and a handful of tank crews managed to hold out against some of the finest infantry in the Japanese Army, and then defeat them in what was one of the most astonishing battles of the Second World War. What became know as The Defence of the Admin Box, fought amongst the paddy fields and jungle of Northern Arakan over a fifteen-day period, turned the battle for Burma. Not only was it the first decisive victory for British troops against the Japanese, more significantly, it demonstrated how the Japanese could be defeated. The lessons learned in this tiny and otherwise insignificant corner of the Far East, set up the campaign in Burma that would follow, as General Slim’s Fourteenth Army finally turned defeat into victory. Burma '44 is a tale of incredible drama. As gripping as the story of Rorke's drift, as momentous as the battle for the Ardennes, the Admin Box was a triumph of human grit and heroism and remains one of the most significant yet undervalued conflicts of World War Two.
Download or read book The Quarterly Civil List for Burma written by Burma Rights Movement for Action and published by . This book was released on 1934 with total page 1152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
