Download or read book Burma Memories of WWII written by Sandra Campagnac-Carney and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2014-09-08 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book are the stories of mainly the Anglo-Burmese people and some others caught up in Burma, WWII. Abandoned by the tens of thousands, as the British fled from the oncoming Japanese invasion, many attempted to trek across to India, with some falling by the wayside, while others were left to cope under Japanese rule.

Download or read book Burma Memories WWII written by Sandra Campagnac-Carney and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short stories of Anglo-Burmese and others who bore the brunt of abandonment during WWII, as the British, unprepared for the onslaught of the Japanese abandoned them in WWII Burma. Facing unimaginable hardship, they faced the woes of war, many of them dying without any help.

Download or read book Burma written by Jon Latimer and published by . This book was released on 2018-09-06 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Burma campaign of WW2 - marked by extremes, contradictions and harsh brutality - is fascinatingly brought to life in this comprehensive military history

Download or read book Burma 1942 written by R E S Tanner and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In December 1941, a Japanese battalion of 143rd Regiment of 55th Division crossed the Burma-Siam border and siezed Victoria Point, heralding the invasion of Burma. The first air raids on Rangoon were opposed by only two fighter squadrons - 16 P40s of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) and 16 Buffaloes of the RAF. What followed was a fighting retreat as the British forces struggled to the Indian border, harried by an experienced Japanese force which was supported by at least 200 aircraft against the Allies' meagure fifty. 'Burma 1942' is a unique assessment of this disastrous episode in British military history, taken in part from the diary and maps kept by Ralph Tanner, who served with 2nd Battalion The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry during the retreat, and from the official Battalion war diary by Major Chadwick. It includes background to the mobilisation of the Battalion in 1941, who they were, their equipment and what they were trained for, and considers the series of disasters at Moulmein, Sittang, Toksan and Yenangyaung which left them increasingly unable to fight as a unit. It also addresses the factors which prevented optimum military performance, includes discussions with the author's one-time enemies, and serves as a tribute to the strength of the men of the battalion - most of whom were conscripts - and of whom a fifth were killed and have no grave.

Download or read book The Burma Campaign written by Frank McLynn and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This history reveals the failures and fortunes of leadership during the WWII campaign into Japanese-occupied Burma: “a thoroughly satisfying experience” (Kirkus). Acclaimed historian Frank McLynn tells the story of four larger-than-life Allied commanders whose lives collided in the Burma campaign, one of the most punishing and protracted military adventures of World War II. This vivid account ranges from Britain’s defeat in 1942 through the crucial battles of Imphal and Kohima—known as "the Stalingrad of the East"—and on to ultimate victory in 1945. Frank McLynn narrative focuses on the interactions and antagonisms of its principal players: William Slim, the brilliant general; Orde Wingate, the idiosyncratic commander of a British force of irregulars; Louis Mountbatten, one of Churchill's favorites, overpromoted to the position of Supreme Commander, S.E. Asia; and Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, a hard-line—and openly anlgophobic—U.S. general. With lively portraits of each of these men, McLynn shows how the plans and strategies of generals and politicians were translated into a hideous reality for soldiers on the ground.

Download or read book War in the Wilderness written by Tony Redding and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War in the Wilderness is the most comprehensive account ever published of the human aspects of the Chindit war in Burma. The word ‘Chindit’ will always have a special resonance in military circles. Every Chindit endured what is widely regarded as the toughest sustained Allied combat experience of the Second World War. The Chindit expeditions behind Japanese lines in occupied Burma 1943–1944 transformed the morale of British forces after the crushing defeats of 1942. The Chindits provided the springboard for the Allies’ later offensives. The two expeditions extended the boundaries of human endurance. The Chindits suffered slow starvation and exposure to dysentery, malaria, typhus and a catalogue of other diseases. They endured the intense mental strain of living and fighting under the jungle canopy, with the ever-present threat of ambush or simply ‘bumping’ the enemy. Every Chindit carried his kit and weapons (equivalent to two heavy suitcases) in the tropical heat and humidity. A disabling wound or sickness frequently meant a lonely death. Those who could no longer march were often left behind with virtually no hope of survival. Some severely wounded were shot or given a lethal dose of morphia to ensure they would not be captured alive by the Japanese. Fifty veterans of the Chindit expeditions kindly gave interviews for this book. Many remarked on the self-reliance that sprang from living and fighting as a Chindit. Whatever happened to them after their experiences in Burma, they knew that nothing else would ever be as bad. There are first-hand accounts of the bitter and costly battles and the final, wasteful weeks, when men were forced to continue fighting long after their health and strength had collapsed. War in the Wilderness continues the story as the survivors returned to civilian life. They remained Chindits for the rest of their days, members of a brotherhood forged in extreme adversity.

Download or read book Quartered Safe Out Here written by George MacDonald Fraser and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2012-06-28 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘There is no doubt that [Quartered Safe Out Here] is one of the great personal memoirs of the Second World War’ John Keegan

Download or read book The OSS in Burma written by Troy J. Sacquety and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "One could not choose a worse place for fighting the Japanese," said Winston Churchill of North Burma, deeming it "the most forbidding fighting country imaginable." But it was here that the fledgling Office of Strategic Services conducted its most successful combat operations of World War II. Troy Sacquety takes readers into Burma's steaming jungles in the first book to fully cover the exploits and contributions of the OSS's Detachment 101 against the Japanese Imperial Army. Functioning independently of both the U.S. Army and OSS headquarters-and with no operational or organizational model to follow-Detachment 101 was given enormous latitude in terms of developing its mission and methods. It grew from an inexperienced and poorly supported group of 21 agents training on the job in a lethal environment to a powerful force encompassing 10,000 guerrillas (spread across as many as 8 battalions), 60 long-range agents, and 400 short-range agents. By April 1945, it remained the only American ground force in North Burma while simultaneously conducting daring amphibious operations that contributed to the liberation of Rangoon. With unrivaled access to OSS archives, Sacquety vividly recounts the 101's story with a depth of detail that makes the disease-plagued and monsoon-drenched Burmese theater come unnervingly alive. He describes the organizational evolution of Detachment 101 and shows how the unit's flexibility allowed it to evolve to meet the changing battlefield environment. He depicts the Detachment's two sharply contrasting field commanders: headstrong Colonel Carl Eifler, who pushed the unit beyond its capabilities, and the more measured Colonel William Peers, who molded it into a model special operations force. He also highlights the heroic Kachin tribesmen, fierce fighters defending their tribal homeland and instrumental in acclimating the Americans to terrain, weather, and cultures in ways that were vital to the success of the Detachment's operations. While veterans' memoirs have discussed OSS activities in Burma, this is the first book to describe in detail how it achieved its success—portraying an operational unit that can be seen as a prototype for today's Special Forces. Featuring dozens of illustrations, The OSS in Burma rescues from oblivion the daring exploits of a key intelligence and military unit in Japan's defeat in World War II and tells a gripping story that will satisfy scholars and buffs alike.

Download or read book Another Man s War written by Barnaby Phillips and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-09-04 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In December 1941 the Japanese invaded Burma. For the British, the longest land campaign of the Second World War had begun. 100,000 African soldiers were taken from Britain’s colonies to fight the Japanese in the Burmese jungles. They performed heroically in one of the most brutal theatres of war, yet their contribution has been largely ignored. Isaac Fadoyebo was one of those ‘Burma Boys’. At the age of sixteen he ran away from his Nigerian village to join the British Army. Sent to Burma, he was attacked and left for dead in the jungle by the Japanese. Sheltered by courageous local rice farmers, Isaac spent nine months in hiding before his eventual rescue. He returned to Nigeria a hero, but his story was soon forgotten. Barnaby Phillips travelled to Nigeria and Burma in search of Isaac, the family who saved his life, and the legacy of an Empire. Another Man’s War is Isaac’s story.

Download or read book The Wages of Guilt written by Ian Buruma and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this now classic book, internationally famed journalist Ian Buruma examines how Germany and Japan have attempted to come to terms with their conduct during World War II—a war that they aggressively began and humiliatingly lost, and in the course of which they committed monstrous war crimes. As he travels through both countries, to Berlin and Tokyo, Hiroshima and Auschwitz, he encounters people who are remarkably honest in confronting the past and others who astonish by their evasions of responsibility, some who wish to forget the past and others who wish to use it as a warning against the resurgence of militarism. Buruma explores these contrasting responses to the war and the two countries’ very different ways of memorializing its atrocities, as well as the ways in which political movements, government policies, literature, and art have been shaped by its shadow. Today, seventy years after the end of the war, he finds that while the Germans have for the most part coped with the darkest period of their history, the Japanese remain haunted by historical controversies that should have been resolved long ago. Sensitive yet unsparing, complex and unsettling, this is a profound study of how people face up to or deny terrible legacies of guilt and shame.

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 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 World War II Memories of the China Burma India Theater written by Clifton C. Cheesewright and published by . This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Last Man Out written by H. Robert Charles and published by Motorbooks. This book was released on 2006 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From June 1942 to October 1943, more than 100,000 Allied POWs who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese died building the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway, an undertaking immortalized in the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai." One of the few who survived was American Marine H. Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in Last Man Out. The story mixes the unimaginable brutality of the camps with the inspiring courage of the men, including a Dutch Colonial Army doctor whose skill and knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.

Download or read book Long Way Back to the River Kwai written by Loet Velmans and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The astounding memoir of a World War II veteran who spent three and a half years in the slave labor camps made famous by The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Download or read book Long Way Back to the River Kwai written by Loet Velmans and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Loet Velmans was seventeen when the Germans invaded Holland. He and his family fled to London on the Dutch Coast Guard cutter Seaman’s Hope and then sailed to the Dutch East Indies—now Indonesia—where he joined the Dutch army. In March 1942, the Japanese invaded the archipelago and made prisoners of the Dutch soldiers. For the next three and a half years Velmans and his fellow POWs toiled in slave labor camps, building a railroad through the dense jungle on the Burmese-Thailand border so the Japanese could invade India. Some 200,000 POWs and slave laborers died building this Death Railway. Velmans, though suffering from malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, and unspeakable mistreatment, never gave up hope. Fifty-seven years later he returned to revisit the place where he should have died and where he had buried his closest friend. From that emotional visit sprung this stunning memoir. Long Way Back to the River Kwai is a simply told but searing memoir of World War II—a testimonial to one man’s indomitable will to live that will take its place beside the Diary of Ann Frank, Bridge over the River Kwai, and Edith’s Story.

Download or read book Burma s Son written by Lt. Col. Raymond Georges Arno Campagnac and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The narrative within this book is about how the Burma Army was developed after WWII; following Independence from the British Raj on 4th January, 1948.