ABDA-CBI-SEAC. Book thread.

"The Battle for Burma, 1942–1945", by Philip Jowett, from "Images of War" series. This book is such a disappointment. Good thing is there are some nice photos that I haven't see before, mostly of Japanese and INA troops. I never did any serious research on INA so this is hardly surprising, but those of Japanese are nice. Of the rest, I mostly have seen them before, but some nice new photos here and there. But books as a whole is bad.

1942 section does not have a single image of British, Indian or Burma troops, all of them, except two, are images of Japanese and Chinese troops, and lot of those are from 1944/1945 period which is quite obvious by equipment they are using. Of the two other images, one is for recruitment in India from 1943 and the other as members of 1/11th Sikh in Arakan, during 1943/1944 campaign. Lot of images are put into wrong chapters. You can find images from Second Chindit expedition in the chapter dedicated to the first one. Or image from training in Burma before the war in the 1945 road to Rangoon section. There is a lot of such cases. And the some captions are not much better. Like there

Men of the 7th Indian Division advancing towards Fort White near Tiddim, which fell to them on 7 December 1944. A combined force from the 7th and 17th Divisions took the Japanese stronghold to the south of Imphal as they pursued the retreating Imperial Army.

Which is completely wrong. Or this one

During the Burma campaign the 6th and 7th Gurkha Rifles served along with the 4/1st, 4/4th , 4/5th and 4/8th Battalions.

This is best saying about knowledge of the Indian Army units in Burma. Or showing a image of British Bren Carrier from 2nd Infantry Division on the road to Mandalay, with division sign "Crossed Keys" clearly visible on it, while caption is stating that it is 17th Indian Division advancing to Rangoon. Just too many mistakes. It just showing that author have very limited knowledge of both Burma Campaign or units that fought there. Or even geography of the country. I just could never recommend this book to anyone, only thing unique about it is that there is very few image books about CBI theater, but even then, if someone want to see images from Burma war it would be much better if he just go through IWM online collection than wasting money on this book.

 

You just saved me a disappointment, mate. Very opportune intel!

 

Hey friend what do you think of China in WORLD War II

 

Have you or anybody else read this?

 

In what way? Are you asking me about books about China during ww2 or in general? Considering books about war in China I only read two, "The Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945" by Rana Mitter and "Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze" by Peter Harmsen. Both those were pretty good as I remember as it was a while ago. Beside that, I only read some references about Chinese troops in Burma considering the first Burma campaign in 1942, and operation of Marauders in 1944. But considering war in China, I only have some general knowledge, and considering it is quite extensive topic can you give more precise about your question? Is there some particular area you are interested in?

 

Yes, I have that book and read it twice so far. It is a good book, not the best about first Burma campaign but still pretty good. James Lunt was seconded from 2nd DWR to Burma Army before Japanese invasion and during it, he served in HQ of 2nd Burma Brigade and stayed on that post till brigades retreat to India. So it give a good account of operations of that brigade in general but also whole campaign.

 

"Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City", is another very good work by Harmsen.

 

I have added two book reviews and an article on the Chindits, from the BJMH. See: Two BJHM articles: the war in Burma in 1945 & Special Force / Chindits

Discovered this thread when checking one author's name Robert Lyman, which appears here.