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 The Jungle Japanese and the British Commonwealth Armies at War 1941 45 written by Tim Moreman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the British Commonwealth armies in SE Asia and the SW Pacific during the Second World War, which, following the disastrous Malayan and Burma campaigns, had to hurriedly re-train, re-equip and re-organise their demoralised troops to fight a conventional jungle war against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). British, Indian and Australian troops faced formidable problems conducting operations across inaccessible, rugged and jungle-covered mountains on the borders of Burma, in New Guinea and on the islands of the SW Pacific. Yet within a remarkably short time they adapted to the exigencies of conventional jungle warfare and later inflicted shattering defeats on the Japanese. This study will trace how the military effectiveness of the Australian Army and the last great imperial British Army in SE Asia was so dramatically transformed, with particular attention to the two key factors of tactical doctrine and specialised training in jungle warfare. It will closely examine how lessons were learnt and passed on between the British, Indian and Australian armies. The book will also briefly cover the various changes in military organisation, medical support and equipment introduced by the military authorities in SE Asia and Australia, as well as covering the techniques evolved to deliver effective air support to ground troops. To demonstrate the importance of these changes, the battlefield performance of imperial troops in such contrasting operations as the First Arakan Campaign, fighting along the Kokoda Trail and the defeat of the IJA at Imphal and Kohima will be described in detail.
Download or read book The Jungle War Against the Japanese written by Tim Heath and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2021-06-09 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The jungle war against the Japanese was arguably one of the worst terrors that could be inflicted upon a young soldier who had never been away from home before, let alone be faced with a brutal, sadistic and uncompromising enemy in an alien environment. Based on the accounts of three culturally different veterans, Tim Heath investigates the war against the Japanese, primarily in the jungles of Asia during the Second World War. From the first jungle forays, through to the defeats, the victories, the massacre of indigenous populations, the war crimes and the final elements of the war in the jungle which led to ultimate victory over the Japanese, this volume is a unique attempt at telling the story from a fresh perspective. The way in which the individuals who have contributed to this volume speak might imply a sanitized view toward the act of killing in times of war. Yet to truly understand this mind-set one has to relive their experiences of that claustrophobic hell. The book examines the factors which initially made the Japanese such brutally efficient exponents of warfare in jungle terrain, the natural hazards encountered in the jungle environment, the techniques that the British had to master in order to become at least equal to their enemy and what it was like to have to live and fight knowing your enemy was never far away from you. It was a war where methods and tactics had to be developed through hard experience along with strong leadership, which was initially lacking on the part of the British. The rule became a simple one: the jungle is neutral. It favours neither friend nor foe. It favours only he who is prepared to adapt to it the best and utilize it to his best advantage. You cannot fight the jungle itself; if you do you will almost certainly die trying.
Download or read book Shadows in the Jungle written by Larry Alexander and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on personal interviews with and recollections by veterans, the author of Biggest Brother chronicles the exploits of the Alamo Scouts, members of an elite Army reconnaissance unit during World War II, a group that spent weeks behind enemy lines to gather much needed intelligence for Allied forces in the Pacific.
Download or read book MacArthur s Jungle War written by Stephen R. Taaffe and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: His book tells not only how victory was gained through a combination of technology, tactics, and army-navy cooperation but also how the New Guinea campaign exemplified the strategic differences that plagued the Pacific War, since many high-ranking officers considered it a diversionary tactic rather than a key offensive.
Download or read book No Surrender written by Hiroo Onoda and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spring of 1974, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese army made world headlines when he emerged from the Philippine jungle after a thirty-year ordeal. Hunted in turn by American troops, the Philippine police, hostile islanders, and successive Japanese search parties, Onoda had skillfully outmaneuvered all his pursuers, convinced that World War II was still being fought and that one day his fellow soldiers would return victorious. This account of those years is an epic tale of the will to survive that offers a rare glimpse of man's invincible spirit, resourcefulness, and ingenuity. A hero to his people, Onoda wrote down his experiences soon after his return to civilization. This book was translated into English the following year and has enjoyed an approving audience ever since.
Download or read book World War II Jungle Warfare Tactics written by Stephen Bull and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes and illustrates, in fascinating detail, the slow and painful learning curve followed by the Allies in the mid-war years as they attempted to end the Japanese stranglehold on Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Based on the actual wartime training documents and front-line memoirs, it shows how the British, Australian and US armies transformed their tactics, attitudes and equipment to master the art of jungle warfare. In 1944-45 the Allies finally conquered the jungle environment, exploiting their new strengths and their enemy's weaknesses, to win crushing victories in Burma and on the Pacific islands.
Download or read book The Jungle War Against the Japanese written by Tim Heath and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The jungle war against the Japanese was arguably one of the worst terrors that could be inflicted upon a young soldier who had never been away from home before, let alone be faced with a brutal, sadistic and uncompromising enemy in an alien environment. Based on the accounts of three culturally different veterans, Tim Heath investigates the war against the Japanese, primarily in the jungles of Asia during the Second World War. From the first jungle forays, through to the defeats, the victories, the massacre of indigenous populations, the war crimes and the final elements of the war in the jungle which led to ultimate victory over the Japanese, this volume is a unique attempt at telling the story from a fresh perspective. The way in which the individuals who have contributed to this volume speak might imply a sanitized view toward the act of killing in times of war. Yet to truly understand this mind-set one has to relive their experiences of that claustrophobic hell The book examines the factors which initially made the Japanese such brutally efficient exponents of warfare in jungle terrain, the natural hazards encountered in the jungle environment, the techniques that the British had to master in order to become at least equal to their enemy and what it was like to have to live and fight knowing your enemy was never far away from you. It was a war where methods and tactics had to be developed through hard experience along with strong leadership, which was initially lacking on the part of the British. The rule became a simple one: the jungle is neutral. It favors neither friend nor foe. It favors only he who is prepared to adapt to it the best and utilize it to his best advantage. You cannot fight the jungle itself; if you do you will almost certainly die trying.
Download or read book Brutal War written by JAMES JAY. CARAFANO and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-15 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Silent Warriors of World War II written by Lance Q. Zedric and published by Pathfinder Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 1995 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Alamo Scouts, Sixth Army's Special Reconnaissance Unit of World War II, provided intelligence-gathering and tactical reconnaissance in the Pacific Theatre. During the war, they performed over 106 successful missions in the Admiralty Islands, New Guinea and the Philippines, most deep behind enemy lines. The Scouts took part in liberating two POW camps. The Scouts evolved from a simple reconnaissance unit to a sophisticated intelligence unit supplying and coordinating large-scale guerilla operations on Leyte and Luzon. They did this without losing a man, killed or captured. The Scouts are now recognised as forerunners of the modern Special Forces.
Download or read book Island Infernos written by John C. McManus and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Fire and Fortitude—winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History—John C. McManus presented a riveting account of the US Army's fledgling fight in the Pacific following Pearl Harbor. Now, in Island Infernos, he explores the Army’s dogged pursuit of Japanese forces, island by island, throughout 1944, a year that would bring America ever closer to victory or defeat. “A feat of prodigious scholarship.”—The Wall Street Journal • “Wonderful.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch • “Outstanding.”—Publishers Weekly • “Rich and absorbing.”—Richard Overy, author of Blood and Ruins • “A considerable achievement, and one that, importantly, adds much to our understanding of the Pacific War.”—James Holland, author of Normandy ’44 After some two years at war, the Army in the Pacific held ground across nearly a third of the globe, from Alaska’s Aleutians to Burma and New Guinea. The challenges ahead were enormous: supplying a vast number of troops over thousands of miles of ocean; surviving in jungles ripe with dysentery, malaria, and other tropical diseases; fighting an enemy prone to ever-more desperate and dangerous assaults. Yet the Army had proven they could fight. Now, they had to prove they could win a war. Brilliantly researched and written, Island Infernos moves seamlessly from the highest generals to the lowest foot soldiers and in between, capturing the true essence of this horrible conflict. A sprawling yet page-turning narrative, the story spans the battles for Saipan and Guam, the appalling carnage of Peleliu, General MacArthur’s dramatic return to the Philippines, and the grinding jungle combat to capture the island of Leyte. This masterful history is the second volume of John C. McManus’s trilogy on the US Army in the Pacific War, proving McManus to be one of our finest historians of World War II.
Download or read book The GI War Against Japan written by Peter Schrijvers and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2005-03 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Choice Outstanding Academic Title Even in the midst of World War II, Americans could not help thinking of the lands across the Pacific as a continuation of the American Western frontier. But this perception only heightened American soldiers' frustration as the hostile region ferociously resisted their attempts at control. The GI War Against Japan recounts the harrowing experiences of American soldiers in Asia and the Pacific. Based on countless diaries and letters, it sweeps across the battlefields, from the early desperate stand at Guadalcanal to the tragic sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis at war's very end. From the daunting spaces of the China-India theater to the fortress islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Schrijvers brings to life the GIs’ struggle with suffocating wilderness, devastating diseases, and Japanese soldiers who preferred death over life. Amidst the frustration and despair of this war, American soldiers abandoned themselves to an escalating rage that presaged Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The GI’s story is, first and foremost, the story of America's resounding victory over Japan. At the same time, however, the reader will recognize in the extraordinarily high price paid for this victory chilling forebodings of the West’s ultimate defeat in Asia’and America’s in Vietnam.
Download or read book The OSS and Ho Chi Minh written by Dixee Bartholomew-Feis and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2006-05-12 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some will be shocked to find out that the United States and Ho Chi Minh, our nemesis for much of the Vietnam War, were once allies. Indeed, during the last year of World War II, American spies in Indochina found themselves working closely with Ho Chi Minh and other anti-colonial factions-compelled by circumstances to fight together against the Japanese. Dixee Bartholomew-Feis reveals how this relationship emerged and operated and how it impacted Vietnam's struggle for independence. The men of General William Donovan's newly-formed Office of Strategic Services closely collaborated with communist groups in both Europe and Asia against the Axis enemies. In Vietnam, this meant that OSS officers worked with Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh, whose ultimate aim was to rid the region of all imperialist powers, not just the Japanese. Ho, for his part, did whatever he could to encourage the OSS's negative view of the French, who were desperate to regain their colony. Revealing details not previously known about their covert operations, Bartholomew-Feis chronicles the exploits of these allies as they developed their network of informants, sabotaged the Japanese occupation's infrastructure, conducted guerrilla operations, and searched for downed American fliers and Allied POWs. Although the OSS did not bring Ho Chi Minh to power, Bartholomew-Feis shows that its apparent support for the Viet Minh played a significant symbolic role in helping them fill the power vacuum left in the wake of Japan's surrender. Her study also hints that, had America continued to champion the anti-colonials and their quest for independence, rather than caving in to the French, we might have been spared our long and very lethal war in Vietnam. Based partly on interviews with surviving OSS agents who served in Vietnam, Bartholomew-Feis's engaging narrative and compelling insights speak to the yearnings of an oppressed people-and remind us that history does indeed make strange bedfellows.
Download or read book Behind Japanese Lines written by Richard Dunlop and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early 1942, with World War II going badly, President Roosevelt turned to General William “Wild Bill” Donovan, now known historically as the “Father of Central Intelligence,” with orders to form a special unit whose primary mission was to prepare for the eventual reopening of the Burma Road linking Burma and China by performing guerilla operations behind the Japanese lines. Thus was born OSS Detachment 101, the first clandestine special force formed by Donovan and one that would play a highly dangerous but vital role in the reconquest of Burma by the Allies. Behind Japanese Lines, originally published in 1979, is the exciting story of the men of Detachment 101, who, with their loyal native allies—the Kachin headhunters—fought a guerilla war for almost three years. It was a war not only against a tough and unyielding enemy, but against the jungle itself, one of the most difficult and dangerous patches of terrain in the world. Exposed to blistering heat and threatened by loathsome tropical diseases, the Western-raised OSS men also found themselves beset by unfriendly tribesmen and surrounded by the jungle’s unique perils—giant leeches, cobras, and rogue tigers. Not merely a war narrative, Behind Japanese Lines is an adventure story, the story of unconventional men with an almost impossible mission fighting an irregular war in supremely hostile territory. Drawing upon the author’s own experiences as a member of Detachment 101, interviews with surviving 101 members, and classified documents, Dunlop’s tale unfolds with cinematic intensity, detailing the danger, tension, and drama of secret warfare. Never before have the activities of the OSS been recorded in such authentic firsthand detail. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
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 Sepoys against the Rising Sun written by Kaushik Roy and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) suffered one of its greatest defeats in Burma. Both in Malaya and Burma, the bulk of the British Commonwealth forces comprised Indian units. Few people know that by 1944, about 70 percent of the Allied ground personnel in Burma was composed of soldiers of the Indian Army. The Indian Army comprised British-led Indian units, British officered units of the Indian princely states and the British units attached to the Government of India. Based on the archival materials collected from India and the United Kingdom, Sepoys against the Rising Sun assesses the combat/military/battlefield effectiveness of the Indian Army against the IJA during World War II. The volume is focussed on the tactical innovations and organizational adaptations which enabled the sepoys to overcome the Japanese in the trying terrain of Burma.
Download or read book Our Jungle Road to Tokyo written by Robert L. Eichelberger and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-11-13 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our Jungle Road to Tokyo is the dazzling account of how US and Allied forces overcame incredible odds to rout invading Japanese from entrenched positions deep in the mountain jungles of Papua New Guinea. Battles take place in swamps, impassable vegetation, coconut plantations with invisible snipers buried in tree roots, hillsides riddled with pill-boxes and maze-like underground bunkers impervious to artillery and mortar. It is a detailed, autobiographical report from a leading architect of the Southwest Pacific Campaign, General Robert Eichelberger, who took his orders directly from Big Chief himself, General Douglas MacArthur. The action begins in earnest with MacArthur's chilling directive to Eichelberger regarding the recapturing of Buna, on Papua's north coast: "Take Buna, Bob, or don't come back alive."
