Burma '44: The Battle That Turned World War II in the East (2024) [+]
Mar 17 2025
Burma '44 by James Holland covers the British perspective in western Burma from October 1943 to late February 1944. It's from the British perspective because that's where most of the historical records and memoirs are in. A bit of the Japanese perspective is also given mostly from their official records.
The first half of the book introduces personalities and what they did as well as British fortunes from the start of World War II until the start of 1944. Much is written about how Lord Mountbatten and General Bill Slim turned around morale and the way of doing things in that theatre to the point that the Allies (mostly British and Indian troops) were ready to go on the offensive again at the start of 1944.
Meanwhile the Japanese were getting ready two offensives: U-GO aimed at Imphal in March and HA-GO to the south in the Arakan Hills to go in February and draw British troops southwards and away from Imphal. The British offensive went off first and did well. Then HA-GO went off and surrounded the British salient.
The second half of the book goes in narrative detail on the battle of the Admin Box. British strategy at this point was to stand and defend in place when attacked by the Japanese. Like how they operated in North Africa, the British would form defensive boxes and let the Japanese exhaust themselves attacking and significantly defending the British supply concentrations so the Japanese could not get them — the Japanese army depended on capturing supplies to keep offensives going.
The Admin Box had the divisional HQ, a brigade HQ, a battalion of regulars, a couple of tank companies, and various other smaller units mostly medical, maintenance and supply. And most of the divisional supplies. Over the course of a couple of weeks they were repeatedly attacked and they repeatedly counter-attacked to maintain their perimeter (bordered by hills which prevented the Japanese from getting artillery observation; though artillery fire was also discriminate because the Japanese didn't want to blow up the supplies).
The air war is included once again mostly from the British side. The Brits started out with obsolete planes that were about evenly matched then started upgrading to Spitfires in late 1943 so by the time of the Admin Box battle they for the most part dominated the skies which also allowed air resupply of the Admin Box and other boxes (each brigade became a defensive box though the bulk of attackers were pitted against the Admin Box).
Lots of personal anecdotes and the narrative focuses on a few people on the British side because they wrote their memoirs or had diaries. Writing is good and moves along. A few maps so you know where the action is happening though I'm still not sure of a couple of places. It's a fairly engrossing read on a battle I've never heard of so just for that I'd recommend reading this book.
The first half of the book introduces personalities and what they did as well as British fortunes from the start of World War II until the start of 1944. Much is written about how Lord Mountbatten and General Bill Slim turned around morale and the way of doing things in that theatre to the point that the Allies (mostly British and Indian troops) were ready to go on the offensive again at the start of 1944.
Meanwhile the Japanese were getting ready two offensives: U-GO aimed at Imphal in March and HA-GO to the south in the Arakan Hills to go in February and draw British troops southwards and away from Imphal. The British offensive went off first and did well. Then HA-GO went off and surrounded the British salient.
The second half of the book goes in narrative detail on the battle of the Admin Box. British strategy at this point was to stand and defend in place when attacked by the Japanese. Like how they operated in North Africa, the British would form defensive boxes and let the Japanese exhaust themselves attacking and significantly defending the British supply concentrations so the Japanese could not get them — the Japanese army depended on capturing supplies to keep offensives going.
The Admin Box had the divisional HQ, a brigade HQ, a battalion of regulars, a couple of tank companies, and various other smaller units mostly medical, maintenance and supply. And most of the divisional supplies. Over the course of a couple of weeks they were repeatedly attacked and they repeatedly counter-attacked to maintain their perimeter (bordered by hills which prevented the Japanese from getting artillery observation; though artillery fire was also discriminate because the Japanese didn't want to blow up the supplies).
The air war is included once again mostly from the British side. The Brits started out with obsolete planes that were about evenly matched then started upgrading to Spitfires in late 1943 so by the time of the Admin Box battle they for the most part dominated the skies which also allowed air resupply of the Admin Box and other boxes (each brigade became a defensive box though the bulk of attackers were pitted against the Admin Box).
Lots of personal anecdotes and the narrative focuses on a few people on the British side because they wrote their memoirs or had diaries. Writing is good and moves along. A few maps so you know where the action is happening though I'm still not sure of a couple of places. It's a fairly engrossing read on a battle I've never heard of so just for that I'd recommend reading this book.