Forgotten Voices of Burma: The Second World War's Forgotten Conflict

Julian Thompson

Sep 2012 · Random House

About this ebook

From the end of 1941 to 1945 a pivotal but often overlooked conflict was being fought in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War 2 - the Burma Campaign.

In 1941 the Allies fought in a disastrous retreat across Burma against the Japanese - an enemy more prepared, better organised and more powerful than anyone had imagined. Yet in 1944, following key battles at Kohima and Imphal, and daring operations behind enemy lines by the Chindits, the Commonwealth army were back, retaking lost ground one bloody battle at a time.

Fighting in dense jungle and open paddy field, this brutal campaign was the longest fought by the British Commonwealth in the Second World War. But the troops taking part were a forgotten army, and the story of their remarkable feats and their courage remains largely untold to this day.

The Fourteenth Army in Burma became one of the largest and most diverse armies of the Second World War. British, West African, Ghurkha and Indian regiments fought alongside one another and became comrades. In Forgotten Voices of Burma - a remarkable new oral history taken from Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive - soldiers from both sides tell their stories of this epic conflict.

Ratings and reviews

Glimpses of terror, triumph and suffering in the Burma jungle through oral histories told by men and women of all ranks. Some of the histories take it in turn to describe different participants' views of the same event, to great effect. It is a pity though that the authors have only given dates at the beginning of each chapter or section, rather than at least roughly dating an individual's story, or a group of stories relating to the same event. Some operations covered a few months, and it is difficult to place an individual in that theatre of war without researching battles to find what happened where and when. This is especially frustrating in the Chindits chapters as their shadowy involvement is still the most complex and least chronologically documented exploits of the Burma Campaign.

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About the author

Julian Thompson served in the Royal Marines for 34 years, retiring as Major General. He commanded 3 Commando Brigade, which carried out the initial landings in the Falklands conflict and fought most of the subsequent land battles. He is now Visiting Professor in the Department of War Studies, King's College, London and is the author of the critically acclaimed The Imperial War Museum Book of the War in Burma 1942-1945.