Burma and the Environment 1942-1945

Discussion in 'Burma & India' started by MikeNichols, Feb 18, 2014.

  1. MikeNichols

    MikeNichols New Member

    Hi guys,

    I'm currently a student at the University of Liverpool undertaking research for my dissertation, which at the moment is entitled 'Burma and the Environment 1942-1945.' The main aim of which will be to examine how the environment in the region affected the British Army.

    In particular I'm investigating:

    • How the ordinary soldier perceived the environment, from the beginning of the campaign, to the end
    • How the army was trained, again from the beginning of the campaign to the end.
    • How the environment affected the troops through disease etc.
    • How disease was dealt with and how did it effect the campaign.
    • How the environment affected tactics in the region and how these developed.
    • How the Japanese were perceived, from early thoughts of inferiority, to the view of Japanese invincibility in the jungle and how this changed as the allies began to inflict defeats upon the IJA.

    What I'm currently having a little difficulty with however, is finding primary sources from which to base my research, I've been trying to locate training manuals, pamphlets, tactics and methods of fighting, official military planning, memoirs, diaries, interviews and such but I'm struggling to locate relevant sources from the likes of the National Archive due to its vast collection.

    I'm planning to make a visit to London to visit the IWM, the National Army Museum and the National Archives but I was hoping there would be people on this forum who could point me in the right direction or who knew of some particular sources or other museums that would be relevant for my research.

    Apologies for such a long post but any help will be greatly appreciated!


    I'll also be more than happy to update this thread with anything I find of interest.
     
  2. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Hi Mike,

    Welcome to the forum. That's quite an undertaking for a dissertation. I'm not sure what sort of reading you have done already, but for general books covering your bullet listing, I would suggest:

    'Burma, the Longest War', by Louis Allen.
    'Defeat into Victory' by William Slim. These two might give you an idea about the background to the campaign, plus strategies etc.

    For veteran accounts and experiences: 'Forgotten Voices of Burma' by Julian Thompson.

    A very interesting book about disease, medicine and so on is 'Crisis Fleeting', by J. Stone. It is an American based reference book that shows how basic medical treatments were developed to combat the high rate of disease in the theatre at the outset. It has a lot of good information on a range of issues.

    We have a thread on here devoted to literature on the Burma campaign, it might be of use to you.

    http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/25378-abda-cbi-seac-book-thread/?hl=abda

    In regard to visiting the National Archives etc. If you have specific periods/battles or units in mind, then we can probably point you in the right direction.

    Hope this will be of use to you.

    Steve
     
  3. Our bill

    Our bill Well-Known Member

    Hello and welcome Mike, there is loads on these topics on here,a lot of the old posts going back years have some great info on them. If you are prepared to read through them .There are quiet a few members whose knowledge never fails to amaze me . Give it time they will be on advising you.
    For my history of my dads time in Burma I did a page titled Did You Know- full of little bits of stuff, all given to me by the members on here . And to save me stumbling around kew for years I just got Drew or lee (members on here )to supply the info for a very small fee
    As these two are the Kew of the North . Kind regards Elsie
     
  4. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Mike,

    Hello and welcome to the Forum.

    A big undertaking, but Steve has put you on the right track already.

    Good luck with your Research.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  5. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

  6. Hebridean Chindit

    Hebridean Chindit Lost in review... Patron

    Nothing like a simple task you've chosen...!

    Your first BP is a rare thing to find... something I've been gathering for my work, and the detailing is scant... some of the first-hand accounts have some stuff, but they are mostly officer perspective, so...

    No... stopped dead in my tracks with this as so much of this is what I've been gathering over the last decade and where to start/stop is the issue... I'm niche-market: one specific event and the evac and those files, recently edited, presently sit at 21k of files and many millions of words...

    Steve and myself are Chindit specialists: Steve being '43 "Longcloth", myself being '44 111th IID and 230 Squadron's rescue flights...
    We can certainly point you in the right direction but yours is a very large overview...
    Steve mentioned Allen's book. I'll point you to Mountbatten's report.
    TNA's files on the 3rd Indian Div (WO172-4261-4277 - covers the '44 Chindits) is several thousand pages and I cherry-picked circa 3k for my work and I'm still studying, amongst the other 18k...
    IWM has dozens of audio files you can listen to online; the ones that became part of the "Forgotten Voices" series...

    Bon Chance...!
     
  7. Shiny 9th

    Shiny 9th Member

    Mike, I can recommend two books written by different people about the role of the 9th Battalion, Royal Sussex Rgt who served in the Burma Campaign. I am the editor of one of the books which is called "Not Forgetting the 9th" and consists of two years worth of personal diaries written by a man-an NCO, who made a daily entry which covered some training in India in 1944 followed by going into action, injuring himself, getting ill, his hospitalisation and convalescence followed by a return to the front line in Burma. The details of this book are below. There is another written by a young officer called The Shiny 9th by Murray Gillings which can only be obtained from the Redoubt Military Museum in Eastbourne. Personal diaries were forbidden for soldiers in Burma for fear of capture. My father served with the 9th Battalion and told me quite a lot about the Campaign. I used much of this information when writing the notes to" Not Forgetting The 9th". There are many others on this website who are already making helpful suggestions so hope you find mine useful as well.
     
  8. 5thindiandivision

    5thindiandivision Indian Division

    Hi,

    A mighty task! I have to say every time I have asked for help on this website the feed back has always been excellent so your in the best place.

    This is a very interesting read and may help you in some way. Have a search in Google for it, I have a PDF if you want it.

    The 14th army in Burma: A case study in delivering fighting power
    N. R. M. Borton British Armya
    a Advanced Command and Staff Course Number 5 (2001-2002), JSCSC, Shrivenham

    Regards

    James
    5thindiandivision
     
  9. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    Oh dear God, you will find a lot of information. Practically every book I've read about the campaign has a good deal about both the environment and the enemy. While some soldiers found some beauty in Burma, as a general rule they hated both the jungle and the Jap. Sometimes the former seemed to be an even worse enemy than the latter.

    I think you need to cut your dissertation down. The troops' attitude towards the Japanese is a very big subject by itself, and a number of books have been written about it. (Dower's War Without Mercy, etc.) I think you should tackle the jungle and stick to that. I don't think it has been as well covered in the historiography, and you certainly won't be short of material. I strongly suggest looking at the official medical history volumes and the war diaries of field ambulances, etc., which really bring home the deadliness of the jungle environment.
     
    RosyRedd likes this.
  10. MikeNichols

    MikeNichols New Member

    Wow, I certainly came to the right place, thanks a lot for all the replies!

    I've added all your suggestions to my ever growing pile of books which is looking a bit overwhelming at the moment but I'm looking forward to getting through them all though.

    I've also only just uncovered a really useful collection from my own university within the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine who carried out studies on returning soldiers, and in particular POWs of whom they interviewed over 60.

    It's a daunting task at the moment is a dissertation, but it's certainly an interesting topic.

    Thanks again for all your help and I'll definitely be back

    Mike
     
  11. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Hi Mike,

    I'm glad there was something for you from the members on WW2Talk. I attended a seminar lecture given by Professor Geoff Gill from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 2009. It was a fascinating study of the POW's and the diseases and ailments they encountered, for some of them for the rest of their lives. Professor Gill is a very generous man and gave us all a wonderful talk that day.

    Good luck and do pop back in if you need more help.

    Steve
     
  12. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    veronicad likes this.
  13. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Another approach would be to start in the middle. The Indian training divisions 14th and 39th were set up to deal with most, if not all, of these issues.

    At risk of implying it's all been done*, I would add:
    Phoenix from the Ashes,
    Approach to Battle, and
    The Jungle, Japanese and the British Commonwealth Armies at War, 1941-45
    to the booklist - solid academic tomes that hopefully you can borrow rather than buy.

    They may even provide a framework for drilling into the British experience rather than starting from scratch.

    * It never will be, of course.
     
  14. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Ah - a 2014 thread - I should've noticed...
     

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