Air-dropped supplies were a vital part of the Allied campaign in Burma during World War II. The transportation of munitions, food and medical supplies was undertaken in the most difficult situations, both on the land where the air bases were often situated in remote tropical jungle terrain and in the air when hazardous flying conditions were met in the steamy airs above the carpet of forest treetops. This book is based upon the memories of nine veterans of the campaign: John Hart, an air-dispatcher with 194 Squadron; Peter Bray, a Dakota pilot with 31 Squadron; Arthur Watts, a fitter with both 31 and 194 Squadrons; Colin Lynch an Observer on 31 Squadron; Norman Currell, a Dakota pilot with 31 Squadron; George Hufflett, 1st Queen’s Infantry; Ken Brown, Royal Signals; Eric Knowles, the Buffs and Dame Vera Lynn who was with ENSA during the campaign. It describes how they arrived in Burma and their previous wartime experiences and then explains there parts in the famous actions such as The Defence of Arakan, The Sieges of Imphal and Kohima, the Allied Counterattack, the Advance to Mandalay and the Race to Rangoon. The author explains the background to this theater of war and then puts the veterans memories into context as the campaign progresses.

This study applies lessons learned from air mobility’s pivotal role in Field Marshal Sir William Slim’s World War II Burma campaign to contemporary air mobility operations. The author begins by tracing the evolution of air mobility from its pre-World War I roots to the Second World War, noting how its development proceeded despite the lack of coherent, codified doctrine. Next the author assesses Slim’s Burma campaign and how the key elements of organization, training and leadership, apart from air mobility, proved critical to Allied victory. Building upon this, the discussion turns to air mobility’s contributions to Slim’s joint campaign. From this analysis, the author identifies the tenets of air superiority, organization and air mobility normalization as being critical and enduring airpower lessons from the Burma theater. The closing chapters offer a primer on contemporary mobility operations before arguing that modern air mobility practitioners must account for five key essentials: superiority across the air and space domains; proper organization that promotes relationship building at the operational level of war; normalization of the complete air mobility supply chain and its accompanying idea of “air mobility mindedness”; training focused on increased interoperability; and the vital role of leadership.

During the Second World War, the British government established the Special Operations Executive (SOE) for the purpose of coordinating ‘all action, by way of subversion and sabotage, against the enemy overseas’. Although the overseas operations of this branch of the British Secret Services are relatively well known, few studies have explored the ‘backroom sections’ of this organisation. This book draws together the infrastructure developed to support an agent’s ‘journey’ from recruitment to despatch to the field. At the start of the Second World War there were few existing facilities established within the UK to support clandestine operations. As the conflict progressed, in parallel to learning the operational procedures of their trade, SOE also had to rapidly expand their support infrastructure around the world. The organisation could effectively support their agents only by establishing facilities dedicated to training, research and development, supply, transportation, communication, and command and control. By predominately focusing on the organisation’s ‘agent facing’ infrastructure, this book provides a backdrop to the brave men and women who conducted operations abroad. In addition, it gives an overview of the facilities in which SOE’s backroom staff lived and worked. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of archaeology, history and war studies.

After a long series of crushing defeats by the apparently unstoppable Japanese air and ground forces, the eventual fight back and victory in Burma was achieved as a result of the exercise of unprecedented combined services cooperation and operations. Crucial to this was the AlliesÕ supremacy in the air coupled with their ground/air support strategy. Using veteransÕ firsthand accounts, Air Battle For Burma reveals the decisive nature of Allied air power in inflicting the first major defeat on the Japanese Army in the Second World War. Newly equipped Spitfire fighter squadrons made the crucial difference at the turning point battles of the Admin Box, Imphal and Kohima in 1944. Air superiority allowed Allied air forces to deploy and supply Allied ground troops on the front line and raids deep into enemy territory with relative impunity; revolutionary tactics never before attempted on such a scale. By covering both the strategic and tactical angles, through these previously unpublished personal accounts, this fine book is a fitting and overdue tribute to Allied air forcesÕ contribution to victory in Burma.

In 1963 the Indonesian Army that threatened Borneo numbered 330,000 men, plus three thousand Commandos. Of these, six thousand were within 20 miles of the Borneo frontier. This grew to thirteen thousand in early 1965. From mid-way through 1964, British troops and their allies who were defending the border started to make offensive incursions into Indonesian Borneo—these operations were codenamed "Claret". Taken into account the confrontational nature of the campaign, casualties sustained in Borneo were surprisingly light. That in the whole of the Borneo campaign there were no fatalities among the RAF supply-dropping transports was extraordinary. The border area between the Indonesian and Malaysian parts of Borneo was one of the most inaccessible areas of mountainous jungle anywhere in the world—an entire army was kept supplied in the field for the complete campaign. This is the exciting account from a pilot who flew the dangerous flying missions and relates the tenseness and stresses of Jungle life in those dangerous days.

"One could not choose a worse place for fighting the Japanese," said Winston Churchill of North Burma, deeming it "the most forbidding fighting country imaginable." But it was here that the fledgling Office of Strategic Services conducted its most successful combat operations of World War II. Troy Sacquety takes readers into Burma's steaming jungles in the first book to fully cover the exploits and contributions of the OSS's Detachment 101 against the Japanese Imperial Army. Functioning independently of both the U.S. Army and OSS headquarters-and with no operational or organizational model to follow-Detachment 101 was given enormous latitude in terms of developing its mission and methods. It grew from an inexperienced and poorly supported group of 21 agents training on the job in a lethal environment to a powerful force encompassing 10,000 guerrillas (spread across as many as 8 battalions), 60 long-range agents, and 400 short-range agents. By April 1945, it remained the only American ground force in North Burma while simultaneously conducting daring amphibious operations that contributed to the liberation of Rangoon. With unrivaled access to OSS archives, Sacquety vividly recounts the 101's story with a depth of detail that makes the disease-plagued and monsoon-drenched Burmese theater come unnervingly alive. He describes the organizational evolution of Detachment 101 and shows how the unit's flexibility allowed it to evolve to meet the changing battlefield environment. He depicts the Detachment's two sharply contrasting field commanders: headstrong Colonel Carl Eifler, who pushed the unit beyond its capabilities, and the more measured Colonel William Peers, who molded it into a model special operations force. He also highlights the heroic Kachin tribesmen, fierce fighters defending their tribal homeland and instrumental in acclimating the Americans to terrain, weather, and cultures in ways that were vital to the success of the Detachment's operations. While veterans' memoirs have discussed OSS activities in Burma, this is the first book to describe in detail how it achieved its success—portraying an operational unit that can be seen as a prototype for today's Special Forces. Featuring dozens of illustrations, The OSS in Burma rescues from oblivion the daring exploits of a key intelligence and military unit in Japan's defeat in World War II and tells a gripping story that will satisfy scholars and buffs alike.

“This is an excellent account of a series of very hard fought battles that helped prepare the way for the British re-conquest of Burma.” —History of War Robert Lyman’s deep knowledge and understanding of the war in Burma, and the great battles at Kohima and Imphal in 1944, are well known. In this book he uses original documents, published works and personal accounts to weave together an enthralling narrative of some of the bitterest fighting of WWII. Not only does he use British sources for his research but he has also included material from the Naga tribes of north-east India, on whose land these battles were fought, and from Japanese accounts, including interviews with Japanese veterans of the fighting. Thus he has been able to produce what is arguably the most balanced history of the battles that were pivotal in ending the Japanese empire. Fergal Keane, journalist and author of Road to Bones: The Siege of Kohima 1944 wrote to the author saying “What a triumph! I finished it last night. You have done a wonderful job. I only wish I’d read it before writing my own book!” He goes on to say “Robert Lyman is one of the great writers about men and war and in this book he has succeeded in conveying the courage, genius and folly of an epic struggle. I cannot think of a writer engaged in the subject of the Second World War who can match Lyman for his integrity or the soundness of his judgments.”