The Battle for Burma: Wild Green Earth

The Battle for Burma: Wild Green Earth PDF Author: Bernard Fergusson
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 147387842X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Bernard Fergusson was one of Orde Wingate's Column Commanders in the heroic but battered Chindit expedition behind Japanese lines in Burma in 1943. By 1944 Wingate had persuaded Churchill and Roosevelt that a bigger force, on the same unorthodox lines, could make a strategic difference. Aged 32, Fergusson returned to Burma as part of this, as a Brigadier, leading the only Brigade in the new force which entered Burma on foot. It was one of four Brigades which established well-defended strongholds within Japanese-occupied Burma. Fergusson also reflects candidly, and often humorously, on different aspects of the campaign. These include the ingenuity and sheer courage of the US Army Air Force pilots who flew in supplies and evacuated wounded. One glider pilot whom Fergusson saw making a particularly bad landing turned out to be Jackie Coogan, child star of Chaplin's The Kid, and later known as Uncle Fenster of the Addams Family. In apparently light hearted, but often profound sections, he analyses the management of a large and diverse force, up against physical extremes far from normal amenities and command structures; the importance of maintaining morale and of medical management; and, not least, an immediate portrait of Wingate himself, whose death at a crucial stage of the campaign and the conflicting or at least confusing orders he left behind directly affected Fergusson's men and the fate of the campaign.The Wild Green Earth follows the author's account of the 1943 campaign, Beyond the Chindwin. Both were written with the events, and reactions even the smells fresh in the author's mind, and vividly but sensitively conveyed. The excitement of the narrative remains today. And the reflections are timeless, fascinating for those with an interest in leadership and motivation as much as for readers of military history.

The Battle for Burma: Wild Green Earth

The Battle for Burma: Wild Green Earth PDF Author: Bernard Fergusson
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 147387842X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
Bernard Fergusson was one of Orde Wingate's Column Commanders in the heroic but battered Chindit expedition behind Japanese lines in Burma in 1943. By 1944 Wingate had persuaded Churchill and Roosevelt that a bigger force, on the same unorthodox lines, could make a strategic difference. Aged 32, Fergusson returned to Burma as part of this, as a Brigadier, leading the only Brigade in the new force which entered Burma on foot. It was one of four Brigades which established well-defended strongholds within Japanese-occupied Burma. Fergusson also reflects candidly, and often humorously, on different aspects of the campaign. These include the ingenuity and sheer courage of the US Army Air Force pilots who flew in supplies and evacuated wounded. One glider pilot whom Fergusson saw making a particularly bad landing turned out to be Jackie Coogan, child star of Chaplin's The Kid, and later known as Uncle Fenster of the Addams Family. In apparently light hearted, but often profound sections, he analyses the management of a large and diverse force, up against physical extremes far from normal amenities and command structures; the importance of maintaining morale and of medical management; and, not least, an immediate portrait of Wingate himself, whose death at a crucial stage of the campaign and the conflicting or at least confusing orders he left behind directly affected Fergusson's men and the fate of the campaign.The Wild Green Earth follows the author's account of the 1943 campaign, Beyond the Chindwin. Both were written with the events, and reactions even the smells fresh in the author's mind, and vividly but sensitively conveyed. The excitement of the narrative remains today. And the reflections are timeless, fascinating for those with an interest in leadership and motivation as much as for readers of military history.

Battle for Burma

Battle for Burma PDF Author: Bernard Fergusson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781473878419
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description


Nations in the Balance

Nations in the Balance PDF Author: Christopher L. Kolakowski
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1636240976
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
An account of the decisive WWII battles that helped shape Asia’s future: “Reminds us of the high stakes at risk for both Allies and Axis powers in Burma.” —Military Review From December 1943 to August 1944, Allied and Japanese forces fought the decisive battles of World War II in Southeast Asia. Fighting centered around North Burma, Imphal, Kohima, and the Arakan, involving troops from all over the world along a battlefront the combined size of Pennsylvania and Ohio. The campaigns brought nations into collision for the highest stakes: British and Indian troops fighting for Empire, the Indo-Japanese forces seeking a prestige victory with an invasion of India and the Americans and Chinese focused on helping China and reopening the Burma Road. Events turned on the decisions of the principal commanders—Admiral Louis Mountbatten and Generals Joseph Stilwell, William Slim, Orde Wingate, and Mutaguchi Renya, among many others. The impact of the fighting was felt in London, Tokyo, Washington, and other places far away from the battlefront, with effects that presaged postwar political relationships. This was also the first U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, and Stilwell’s operations in some ways foreshadowed battles in Vietnam two decades later. Nations in the Balance recounts these battles, offering dramatic and compelling stories of people fighting in difficult conditions against high odds, with far-reaching results. It also shows how they proved important to the postwar future of the participant nations and Asia as a whole, with effects that still reverberate decades after the war.

Germany and the Second World War

Germany and the Second World War PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198228899
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 931

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Book Description
Volume VII of the 'Germany and the Second World War' series looks at Germany and her Japanese ally on the defensive after the tide of war turned in 1943. An exhaustive study of the air war over the Reich and the Luftwaffe's growing impotence is followed by an account of the invasion of occupied France and the Allies' advance to Germany's borders. A final section examines Japan's defeat and capitulation, and the creation of a new order in the Far East.

Britain's Secret War against Japan, 1937-1945

Britain's Secret War against Japan, 1937-1945 PDF Author: Douglas Ford
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134244908
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
A new look at how Britain’s defence establishment learned to engage Japan’s armed forces as the Pacific War progressed. Douglas Ford reveals that, prior to Japan’s invasion of Southeast Asia in December 1941, the British held a contemptuous view of Japanese military prowess. He shows that the situation was not helped by the high level of secrecy which surrounded Japan’s war planning, as well as the absence of prior engagements with the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army. The fall of ‘Fortress Singapore’ in February 1942 dispelled the notion that the Japanese were incapable of challenging the West. British military officials acknowledged how their forces in the Far East were inadequate, and made a concerted effort to improve their strength and efficiency. However, because Britain’s forces were tied down in their operations in Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean, they had to fight the Japanese with limited resources. Drawing upon the lessons obtained through Allied experiences in the Pacific theatres as well as their own encounters in Southeast Asia, the British used the available intelligence on the strategy, tactics and morale of Japan’s armed forces to make the best use of what they had, and by the closing stages of the war in 1944 to 1945, they were able to devise a war plan which paved the way for the successful war effort. This book will be of great interest to all students of the Second World War, intelligence studies, British military history and strategic studies in general.

War in the Wilderness

War in the Wilderness PDF Author: Tony Redding
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750956550
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 681

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Book Description
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.

Crisis Fleeting

Crisis Fleeting PDF Author: James H. Stone
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Medicine, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description


Th Wild Green Earth

Th Wild Green Earth PDF Author: Bernard Fergusson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description


Soldiers of Empire

Soldiers of Empire PDF Author: Tarak Barkawi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107169585
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
Barkawi re-imagines the study of war with imperial and multinational armies that fought in Asia in the Second World War.

Air Commandos Against Japan

Air Commandos Against Japan PDF Author: Carolyn C Y'Blood
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612515797
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
In 1943 the U.S. Army Air Forces created what would become the Air Commandos, a unit that marked a milestone in tactical operations in support of British ground forces invading Burma. William T. Y’Blood tells the story of how these daring American aviators trained and went into combat using unconventional hit-and-run tactics to confuse the enemy and destroy their lines of communication and supply. The force comprised light planes to evacuate wounded, transports to move heavy cargo, fighters, gliders, helicopters, and more than five hundred men. The book describes how this top-secret force successfully attacked the enemy from the air, resupplied British commandos on the ground, and airlifted the wounded out of the battle area—eventually driving the Japanese out of Burma.