Burma: The Forgotten War Kindle Edition

I bought the book in order to learn the story of WWII combat in and over Burma. Being a veteran of fighting in Burma with Merrill's Marauders and the Mars Task Force/ 475th Infantry Regt. I have a natural interest in that region.The author did a great job of describing the fighting by the British ground forces and the combined American and British air forces. He failed to describe the contribution of the American ground forces in opening the road to China, AND, importances of our forces in aiding the Briitish advance, and killing Japanese.rfb

Burma: The Forgotten War is an intriguing, intense look at the battles fought in Burma, in an attempt at maintaining an Allied toehold in the orient. Roosevelt and Churchill formed a China Theatre of War in January of 1942 in order to protect Australia, New Zealand and the balance of the Pacific as the battles for Europe ground on. Jon Latimer brings us a thorough and insightful entry into this little publicised segment of WWII.Though I have read other histories of Burma, The Forgotten War is a marathon of information and insight into the why's and how's of the battles fought by the allies in the northern Pacific Theatre. This is a history I can recommend to history buffs, but also to families of those soldiers and sailors who battled in these little known but massive movements to cement our hold in the Pacific. Without their sacrifice, so much of the world we know would have been lost.This was a book I had to take in smaller doses than usual. About 20 hours of reading time, but another 12 hours of notes, sources and references indicate the intense amount of research involved in bringing this history to life. A reviewer cannot do justice to this work with only five stars to work with. Originally published in 2004 by John Murray Publishers, I am grateful to Thistle Publishing for bringing this back around to the general public. I missed it the first time around.I received a free electronic copy of this history from Netgalley, John Latimer, and Thistle Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me

Title: Burma :The Forgotten WarAuthor: Jon LatimerGenre: Nonfiction: HistoryPages: 661Rating: 4Through festering jungle and across burning plains to high mountains and lazy rivers, the Burma campaign of the Second World War involved the longest retreat in British history, and the longest advance; long-range penetration miles behind enemy lines, vicious hand-to-hand fighting, and the horrors of forced labourThe Figureheads of the campaign were singular characters like Slim, Mountbatten, Stilwell and Wingate; while its ranks were dominated by ordinary soldiers gathered ‘like a whirlpool from the ends of the earth’ - from Britain, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, West, East and South Africa, but overwhelmingly from India.Jon Latimer draws these disparate strands together in a gripping narrative that encompasses everything from the widest political developments to detailed tactical operations. His focus is the experiences of thousands of ordinary people whose lives were transformed by this south-east Asian maelstrom, many of whom feel that they were forgotten. Burma ensures that none of them areMy thoughtsWould I recommend it? yesWould I read more by this author? maybeinteresting and thoroughly researched book that has many references on the fighting in Burma during WWII. It covers the background, the initial defeats, the slow turning of the tide and the final victories as well as the focus that's on the military campaigns especially those of the English and American forces.It brings to live the characters it talks about, and makes you feel the things they went though ,with that said I want to say thank you to NetGalley for letting me read and review it .

Burma: the Forgotten War seems to be an attempt to capture all the nuances of a WWII campaign that is so multifaceted as to almost defy coverage. Latimer has obviously done copious research as there are extensive footnotes accompanying the chapters. In some cases these are actually off-putting as they interrupt the reading. The work seemed to have the style more of an academic treatise and it was actually dull at points. For a scholar highly interested in the Burma theater it would be a great resource. They would enjoy learning more about the various battles from Kohima to Imphal and how commanders on both sides reacted. There were a number of maps showing the war’s progress and battle lines from 1941/42 to 1944/45. How Indian troops as part of the British Empire were involved gives an insight into current Assam province issues. The book is quite long but in the PDF version I was reviewing, I’m not sure of the exact page count –but it seems about three times the length of a typical 300 page novel. The book was not an enjoyable or easy read but it did provide enlightenment on this aspect of World War II. The audience who would enjoy it most would be specialized in battle history of the place or scholar seeking to understand the nuances.

Such an interesting and thoroughly researched book. I have a deep interest in WW2 history but the war in Burma was something I knew little of.It was heavy going at times through no fault of the author. Of necessity, it had to contain so many references to soldiers, regiments, and disparate ethnic groups who fought in this war. In the end, it was worth it.There is also some useful early explanatory material giving a history not only of Burma, but the often war-like relationships between the major powers in the region - China and Japan. That part also serves as a useful introduction to the different political approaches to this region by the British and the United States.Recommended to all history buffs particularly those interested in WW2.I received a free copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a magnificent book. It is, extraordinarily, only the third full-length account of the war in Burma to have appeared. The first, of course, was Field Marshal Slim's magisterial and best-selling account - Defeat into Victory - first published in 1956. The second was Louis Allen's groundbreaking Burma, The Longest War, published in 1984. Slim's account was a view from the top down and Louis Allen allowed us a peek into the Japanese military mind for the first time, an approach taken up subsequently and very well by John Nunneley and Kazuo Tamayama. Now, Jon Latimer has examined the warp and woof of the war from the perspective of those who fought it, using their records and reminiscences as his primary source material. The result is a powerful and absorbing memoir of the war from its start in 1941 to its end in 1945.Latimer has been able to this so superbly because of the existence at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London of the Burma Campaign Memorial Library, a collection brought together over the past half decade at the instigation of Gordon Graham who, as a youthful Cameronian Company Commander, won his first MC at Kohima in 1944 and his second at the Irrawaddy Crossings in early 1945. The vast extent of this material was not available to Louis Allen in 1984, but it is fair to say that it has transformed the historiography of the Burma Campaign. For the first time virtually everything ever published on the subject from around the globe is now safely stored in one location, and is an invaluable source for any serious historian. Latimer has made full use of this, as he records in his foreword, and his book is all the more powerful because of it. On every page one can hear the voices of those who experienced the campaign's long miseries, and enter into this experience, as much as one can at this distance in time. Latimer's superb narrative style is absorbing and deft, and the heaviness of much military history has been successfully avoided.This is not just a book about the 14th Army, but an account of the war through a multitude of eyes, Burmese, Indian, British, American and Chinese. The war in Burma was one of the most comprehensive ever fought in terms of experience, with everything from small sub-tactical encounters on jungle path, forest floor and dusty plain, in searing heat and monsoon rain, to the mass movement of armoured divisions, strategic bombing and the largest sustained airlift of military supplies to an army in the field at any time in history. It contained everything from high political drama and sordid squabbling over the direction and management of the war (on all sides - British, American, Japanese and Chinese) to vicious rifle, grenade and bayonet encounters in the jungle gloom, the awful depredations of the prison camps and the long, bitter and exhausting struggle for mastery on the battlefield by troops a long way from home. Latimer has captured it all and in so doing has contributed significantly to our understanding of the complexity and scale of the war as a whole. He has not neglected the careful marshalling of his sources in extensive endnotes, which adds to the value of the book. His maps, likewise, always a difficult area for an author, are well constructed. This is a book to buy, read, enjoy and go back to time and again. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Brilliant

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very good

Incredibly informative and also painfully real.

I decided to read this as I am about to embark on a module of study on Burma and needed some background information. This book seemed an excellent choice as it was quoted as being comprehensive.It is indeed exhaustive in its detailing of every incident of the Second World War in Burma, and if you are looking for this level of detail you will not be disappointed. If however, you are looking for an overview I suggest you look elsewhere.I must applaud Mr Latimer for his dedication to what is clearly a complex subject, with incoming troops from all quarters of the globe and the many factions within Burma itself, both tribal and political, this was clearly never going to be straightforward.I confess however, that I found it exhausting to read and so complex and with so much detail that I often found myself profoundly confused and having to go back and re-read sections. Coming in at nearly 450 pages, this was a considerable commitment of time.The first hand accounts were the most interesting, but the constant amalgamation of divisions and regiments and their consequent renaming and numbering made it hard to keep track of events. I feel that the book would have been helped enormously by the inclusion of a time line and perhaps an overall picture type chapter which would have been a useful reference point to go back to.