The 1945 Burma Campaign And The Transformation Of The British Indian Army

Download or read book The 1945 Burma Campaign and the Transformation of the British Indian Army written by Raymond A. Callahan and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1945, the Indian British XIV Army inflicted on the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma the worst defeat in its history. That campaign, the most brilliant and original operational maneuver conducted by any British general in the twentieth century, largely forgotten until now, is a full and fresh account utilizing a full range of materials, from personal accounts to archival holdings—including the bits the official historians left out, such as the attempt by a jealous British Guards officer to have Slim sacked at the conclusion of the campaign. After the retreat from Burma in 1942, Lieutenant General Sir William Slim, commander of the British XIV Army, played a crucial role in the remarkable military renaissance that transformed the Indian Army and then, with that reborn army, won two defensive battles in 1944, and in the 1945 campaign shredded his Japanese opponents. Behind this dramatic story was another: the war marked the effective end of the Raj. This great transformation was, of course, brought about by many factors but not the least of them was the “Indianization” of the Indian Army’s officer corps under the pressure of war. As Slim’s great victory signposted the change from the army Kipling knew to a modern army with a growing number of Indian officers, the praetorian guard of the Raj evaporated. “Every Indian officer worth his salt is a nationalist,” the Indian Army’s commander-in-chief, Claude Auchinleck, said as the XIV Army took Rangoon. The Burma campaign may not have contributed in a major fashion to the final defeat of Japan, but it was of first-rate importance in the transformation of South Asia, as well as underlining the continuing importance of inspired leadership in complex human endeavors.

Download or read book Phoenix from the Ashes written by Daniel Marston and published by . This book was released on with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Fighting the People's War written by Jonathan Fennell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 967 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Fennell captures for the first time the true wartime experience of the ordinary soldiers from across the empire who made up the British and Commonwealth armies. He analyses why the great battles were won and lost and how the men that fought went on to change the world.

Download or read book Soldiers of Empire written by Tarak Barkawi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-08 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barkawi re-imagines the study of war with imperial and multinational armies that fought in Asia in the Second World War.

Download or read book The Indian Army in the Two World Wars written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-10-14 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is no single volume which covers the Indian Army’s experiences during the two World Wars. And this is what the present edited volume attempts to do. This collection of 17 essays analyze the army as an institution and also touch upon the cultural ethos of the army and related social issues. Thus, this edited volume is a cross between ‘traditional military history’ (study of campaigns, tactics, leadership) and ‘new military history’ (impact of warfare on society and culture). While some of the essays take a pan Indian perspective, a few essays also focus on those regions within India (like Punjab) which were intimately related with the army. A few contributors also turn the spotlight on the overseas theatres like Mesopotamia, France and Burma, where the Indian Army played a very important role. Contributors are Alan Jeffreys, Andrew Syk, Daniel Marston, David Kenyon, Dennis Showalter, Gajendra Singh, Gavin Rand, James Kitchen, Nick Lloyd, Nikolas Gardner, Rajit K. Mazumder, Raymond Callahan, Rob Johnson, Ross Anderson, Tarak Barkawi and Tim Moreman.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of World War II written by G. Kurt Piehler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-06 with total page 721 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II left virtually no nation or corner of the world untouched, dramatically transforming human life and society. It prompted the unprecedented mobilization of whole societies and witnessed a scale of state-sanctioned violence that staggers the imagination, with more than 100 million casualties. The war resulted in an almost complete collapse of any norms geared toward avoiding the unnecessary loss of civilian life and shaped the worldview and psyches of generations. The Oxford Handbook of World War II broadens traditional narratives of the war and in the process changes our understanding of this epic conflict. Organized both chronologically and thematically and with particular attention to the pre- and post-war eras, the Handbook revises and extends existing scholarship. With chapters on the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, the land war in Western Europe, the Battle of Britain, the impact of war on the major combatants (Great Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and China), the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the decision to use the atomic bomb in 1945, and the cultural responses to the war, the chapters span much of the twentieth century. They suggest areas of scholarly consensus, identify interpretative clashes, and propose agendas for further scholarly investigation, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary inquiry. For example, the end of the Cold War had a profound impact on the way World War II was understood. Many formerly closed records in the former Soviet Union and China were opened to scholars, facilitating a more complex view of the Soviet war effort and suggesting that Stalin's army did not simply triumph by overwhelming German forces with sheer numbers but mastered the demands of a vast and logistically demanding front. In conceptualizing the volume, editors Kurt Piehler and Jonathan Grant also sought out contributions on lesser known aspects of the war, such as the Bengal famine in India, the treatment of prisoners of war, the role of Middle Eastern nations, and the activities of non-governmental organizations in ameliorating suffering. Spanning the rise and fall of the Versailles system to the postwar reintegration of veterans and the eventual commemoration of the conflict and its victims, The Oxford Handbook of World War II marks a landmark contribution to the historical literature of war.

Download or read book The Indian Army and the End of the Raj written by Daniel Marston and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique examination of the role of the Indian army in post-World War II India in the run-up to Partition. Daniel Marston draws upon extensive archival research and interviews with veterans of the events of 1947 to provide fresh insight into the final days of the British Raj.