Being there . . . . for the rarely described and discussed “Forgotten War”, the Burma Campaign,fought between the Allies and the Japanese between 8 December 1941 and 12 August 1945,the longest campaign in which the British engaged in during World War II. Because America’slifelines were so lengthy to Sydney and Melbourne, both Australian metropoles harboring ourmain bases in the South Pacific several thousand miles from San Francisco (7,795 mi.), and,from the Panama Canal, over 8,000, our assiduous War Department had the enormous problemof figuring out how to help the Burmese a hop and a skip away. The Dutch East Indies-Burma-and-French Indochina were prisoners within an arc-line formed by maximum Japaneseexpansion efforts. Burma was extremely important to us because its low jungle and highmountain route was America’s only remaining line of supplies for our cherished ally, China.Militarily, we had little to support ANY of our good friends in that part of the Pacific except awry smile, watery wink, and seven vague words, “Not to worry, we’ll get through this”.TIRELESSLY, AMERICA SOUGHT WAYS AND MEANS OF HELPING THE DEFENDERS OF BURMASTOP THE JAPANESE JUGGERNAUGHT BEFORE IT REACHED INDIA. YES, WE HAD FIGHTINGBASES IN NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA OCCUPIED BY LESS THAN A HUNDRED THOUSANDTOUGH FIGHTING TROOPS AND OFFICERS, BUT THE PACIFIC WAR EXTENDED FROM ALASKAAND THE ALEUTIANS TO THE SOUTH AMERICAN COASTAL SUDMARINE BASES. LITERALLY,EVERY FRIENDLY COUNTRY THROUGHOUT THE LENGTH AND BREADTH OF THAT VAST PACIFICWAS ABSENT OF ANTI-AIRCRAFT DEFENSES, SERIOUS SOLUTIONS TO IMPOSSIBLE PROBLEMSNEEDING IMMEDIATE ADDRESS, THE MOST IMPORTANT BEING THE MEN, WEAPONS, ANDMUNITIONS TO WAGE AN EQUALLY VICIOUS WAR AGAINST “BANZAI”- CHARGING SUICIDE-BENT TROOPS RESOLUTELY SCREAMING FOR VICTORY AT ALL COSTS. A HECTIC, MESSY TIME TOHELP OUR SMALLER, HELPLESS, ALLIES. YET, NATURALLY, WE PROMISED THAT . . . . .Reviewed and highly, highly recommended by Don DeNevi“Burma ’44 – – The Battle that Turned World War II in the East”, by James Holland, author of“Normandy ‘44” and “Brothers in Arms”. Atlantic Monthly Press, HISTORY (World War II), NewYork; first Grove Atlantic hardcover edition, 2024, copyrighted in 2016 by Griffon Merlin Ltd; 6¼” x 9 ¼”, 448 pages, 16-page insert IN 4-colo; $30.00. Visit, groveatlantic.com.In short, this brilliant, totally mesmerizing popular history of a rarely mentioned battle,named of all things, the Administration Box Battle, will surely be acknowledge as one of the topWorld War II books of 2024. Serious buffs have already read it (first edition in 2016), or nowknow about this second edition. For the uninitiated buyer, this story, the core of Holland’s“Burma ‘44”, zeroes in on the Allies second thrust into the Arakan region of Burma whichhappened to bump, by accident, into a Japanese attack-offensive to take all of Assam. On 4through 24 February 1944, the Japanese launched Operation Ha-go in order to decimate India’selite 7 th Indian Division holding out at Sinzweya. It ended when the Japanese lost 60 of theirbest invaders in the two-weeks of close-quarter fighting. Not only was it the first decisivevictory for British troops against the Japanese but, more importantly, the ferocity of the attacksand counterattacks showed the world how the Japanese could be defeated. For certain, bloody
killing lessons were learned in an unrecognized region of the Far East. Everyone on the Allied
side felt better knowing the new Japanese tactics. Next followed the little-known but highlysuccessful campaigns of General William Slim and his Fourteenth Army who turned the tide ofthe Pacific War in the East. The inner book jacket flap written by an editor of Grove Atlantic, or,just recently, by one from the Atlantic Monthly group, describes Jim Holland’s achievementbeautifully: “In ‘Burma ‘44’, acclaimed World War II historian James Holland offers a dramatictale of victory against incredible odds. As momentous as the Battle of the Bulge was ten monthslater, the Admin Box was a triumph of human grit and heroism that remains one of the mostsignificant yet underappreciated conflict of the entire World War II. In Holland’s hands, it isfinally given its proper place in the history of all America’s battles.” This reviewer would add,“nay, in the history of all the world’s military literature.” An absolute best buy for the rest of the
year.
