An online book review in the BJMH: 'The 1945 Burma Campaign and the Transformation of the British Indian Army' by Raymond A Callahan & Daniel Marston, published in 2020: View of Raymond A Callahan & Daniel Marston, The 1945 Burma Campaign and the Transformation of the British Indian Army It ends with: I've read some of Daniel Marston's work on the Indian Army and other military topics, he is very good. The article is 'Learning to Fail? Wartime Adaptation and Special Force in Burma, 1942–1944' by Brett Van Ess, and the Abstract: Link: Learning to Fail? Wartime Adaptation and Special Force in Burma, 1942–1944 | British Journal for Military History
Overlooked there is a second book review; of Robert Lyman's 'A War of Empires: Japan, India, Burma & Britain 1941-45', publisher Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2021. Here is one passage: Link: View of Robert Lyman, A War of Empires: Japan, India, Burma & Britain 1941-45
The Callahan/Marston book is excellent, and is highly recommended. The authors have set out to make the case that the victory in Burma was largely the victory of the reinvented Indian Army. In this they succeed, though it may be somewhat uncomfortable reading for those of a Churchill & Wingate bent. ‘Learning to Fail’ is also rather interesting, if you can get past the author’s rather clunky style of writing and his overuse of jargon. It is a brief article which sticks to its narrow, but penetrating, point, rather than looking at the wider reasons that made the Chindit campaigns so disastrous. My main criticism would be that he leans too heavily on quotes from McLynn’s awful book to reinforce his points. Definitely worth reading.
