This gripping study offers key insights into the tactics, leadership, combat performance and subsequent reputations of six representative Chindit and Japanese infantry units involved in three pivotal actions that hastened Japan's defeat in Burma during World War II.

In order to keep China in the war against the Japanese, the Western Allies knew they had to return to Northern Burma. Colonel Orde Wingate, a military maverick and proponent of guerrilla warfare, believed that a different type of British infantryman was required for this role - the Chindit, indoctrinated with special...

Myitkyina was a vital objective in the Allied re-conquest of Burma in 1943-44 Following the disastrous retreat from Burma in April 1942, China had become isolated from re-supply except for the dangerous air route for US transports over the Himalaya Mountains. The Burma Road, which ran from Lashio (south of Myitkyina) through the mountains to Kunming was closed as a supply route from Rangoon after the Japanese conquest. Without military assistance, China would be forced to surrender and Imperial Japanese Army forces could be diverted to other Pacific war zones.

This is the history of...