[ Home ] [ Up ]

The Battle for Burma

“The Battle for Burma,  An Illustrated History” by Roy Conyers Nesbit, published by Pen &Sword Military, 2009.

Review by Steve Rothwell

A new book on the war in Burma is always welcome for even today, one of Britain's most accomplished victories in the Second World War is still overlooked.  At the time the British and Allied press neglected operations in Burma to such a degree that the men of the Fourteenth Army came to call themselves the "Forgotten Army".  In time this soubriquet became a badge of honour and a positive aid to morale.  Soon after taking command in August 1943, Lord Louis Mountbatten embarked on a series of visits to the troops. 

"He usually began by saying, 'I understand you believe you're the forgotten army.  That's not true.'  Then, when the men had resigned themselves to the usual pep talk, he continued, 'The truth is nobody's ever bloody well heard of you!'. All the men burst into laughter and he had their eager attention."

Mountbatten would then describe how there would be no more retreats, how air supremacy would allow troops to be supplied by air and how casualties would be cared for in well equipped hospitals.  Above all he began to instil self belief in the men, that the Japanese were not supermen and who could in fact, be defeated easily.  He planned to change how the war in Burma had been fought, most notably by insisting that the battle would continue into and though the monsoon season.  The Japanese would be given no respite.

What followed was not only courage and good generalship, the latter most notably from Slim, but the innovative application of industrial muscle supported not only by the Americans but also by the Indian economy.  At an early stage, air supply by a fleet of American built aircraft came under threat from a shortage of expensive silk until parachutes made from Indian jute were devised.  In addition to air transport, the full panoply of modern equipment was eventually deployed, including trucks and tanks, air ambulances, artillery and ground attack aircraft.  Ordinary troops - not just the Chindits - flew into battle on several notable occasions.  Contrast this with the massive reliance on mule transport, human porters and small river craft, all needed to overcome the difficulties of terrain and climate.  Although forgotten by the press, the men of the Fourteenth Army came to be supported by a scale of equipment that far surpassed anything available to the Japanese in terms of capability and numbers.

Roy Conyers Nesbit's book manages to convey all this in around 250 pages.  The narrative is a masterpiece of précis that captures the essential ebb and flow of the campaign together with all the elements that made it so unique.  The book is a true illustrated history in that the photographs and maps have been selected to reinforce and enhance the narrative.  The photographs are carefully placed within the book not just in keeping with the chronology but to support the key points being made by the author at any given point.  The combination of words and images work together to leave the reader with a strong sense of the essential features of the campaign; the battles, the equipment and the men. 

One minor grumble is the lack of attention given to the Japanese invasion in 1942.  Indeed the first chapter, which sets the scene for what was to come by cataloguing the string of disasters that befell the Allies beforehand, runs to 35 pages of text and photographs compared with only 27 pages for the chapter covering the longest, successful retreat in British military history.  This is perhaps a little harsh considering the book succeeds in given attention, and credit, to all nations involved - not just the British but the Indians and Gurkhas, Africans, Americans and the Chinese - and to all aspects of the fighting, including air and naval.  Indeed, Nesbit avoids one of the common faults of similar histories by not placing overdue emphasis, in terms of number of pages, on the Chindits.  I recommend this book to anyone new to the Burma Campaign who wants to get a sense of the full sweep of events and to anyone else wishing to reacquaint themselves with this "forgotten" war.