Overview

A new history of the battles in Burma in 1944, the outcome of which decided World War II in Asia and influenced the next 75 years of Asian history. 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, Mutaguchi Renya, among many others. The impact of the fighting was felt in London, Tokyo and Washington, among 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. The Burma and India battles of 1944 offer dramatic and compelling stories of people fighting in difficult conditions against high odds, with far-reaching results. They also proved important to the postwar future of the participant nations and Asia as a whole, with effects that still reverberate decades after the war. AUTHOR: Christopher L. Kolakowski is a historian in Madison, Wisconsin. He has spent his career interpreting and preserving military history from 1775 to the present and is the author of five books and numerous publications on the American Civil War and World War II. 50 photographs and 12 maps

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9781636240961

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Burma was not 'the forgotten war' as much as 'the underreported war'. It is clear that it did not receive the treatment it deserved in post-war historiography despite its undeniable strategic importance as the fragile bulwark against a Japanese invasion of India. Historian Christopher L. Kolakowski is among a new breed of scholars who are changing this, restoring the epic battles of Imphal and Kohima, to name but a few, to their rightful place in public memory. Deftly weaving together memoirs and unit diaries, he provides a rich and detailed account of the crucial battles in 1943 and 1944 when a multinational force consisting of Commonwealth soldiers, American GIs and Chinese infantrymen rose to the occasion and brought the Japanese dream of victory in mainland Southeast Asia to an end. The veterans and their families can wish for no better tribute to the immense sacrifice of these men, and to the blood and sweat they shed to help found the world we live in today. --Peter Harmsen, Author of Shanghai 1937 and War in the Far East Trilogy

This is a well-written, straightforward synopsis of the 1944 battles. -- Journal of Military History Burma was not 'the forgotten war' as much as 'the underreported war'. It is clear that it did not receive the treatment it deserved in post-war historiography despite its undeniable strategic importance as the fragile bulwark against a Japanese invasion of India. Historian Christopher L. Kolakowski is among a new breed of scholars who are changing this, restoring the epic battles of Imphal and Kohima, to name but a few, to their rightful place in public memory. Deftly weaving together memoirs and unit diaries, he provides a rich and detailed account of the crucial battles in 1943 and 1944 when a multinational force consisting of Commonwealth soldiers, American GIs and Chinese infantrymen rose to the occasion and brought the Japanese dream of victory in mainland Southeast Asia to an end. The veterans and their families can wish for no better tribute to the immense sacrifice of these men, and to the blood and sweat they shed to help found the world we live in today. --Peter Harmsen, Author of Shanghai 1937 and War in the Far East Trilogy

...hits all the right tabletop points. -- Historical Miniatures Gaming Society This is a well-written, straightforward synopsis of the 1944 battles. -- Journal of Military History Burma was not 'the forgotten war' as much as 'the underreported war'. It is clear that it did not receive the treatment it deserved in post-war historiography despite its undeniable strategic importance as the fragile bulwark against a Japanese invasion of India. Historian Christopher L. Kolakowski is among a new breed of scholars who are changing this, restoring the epic battles of Imphal and Kohima, to name but a few, to their rightful place in public memory. Deftly weaving together memoirs and unit diaries, he provides a rich and detailed account of the crucial battles in 1943 and 1944 when a multinational force consisting of Commonwealth soldiers, American GIs and Chinese infantrymen rose to the occasion and brought the Japanese dream of victory in mainland Southeast Asia to an end. The veterans and their families can wish for no better tribute to the immense sacrifice of these men, and to the blood and sweat they shed to help found the world we live in today. --Peter Harmsen, Author of Shanghai 1937 and War in the Far East Trilogy

Author Information

Christopher L. Kolakowski is a historian in Madison, Wisconsin. He has spent his career interpreting and preserving military history from 1775 to the present and is the author of six books and numerous publications on the American Civil War and World War II. He is a scholar with Emerging Civil War, the Consortium of Indo-Pacific Researchers, and the Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs.

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