Drop Zone Burma

Download or read book Drop Zone Burma written by Roger Annett and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2008-10-30 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Air Battle for Burma written by Bryn Evans and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Drop Zone Borneo written by Roger Annett and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2006-09-15 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The OSS in Burma written by Troy J. Sacquety and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.

Download or read book Japan's Last Bid for Victory written by Robert Lyman and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-13 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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.”

Download or read book Spidermen: Nigerian Chindits and Wingate’s Operation Thursday Burma 1943 – 1944 written by John Igbino and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2018-10-06 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1944 twenty thousand Allied Airborne Special Force troops in five Brigades commanded by Major General Orde Wingate landed behind the Japanese lines in Northern Burma. The Operation was Codenamed Operation Thursday. The Special Force troops were nicknamed ‘Chindits’. Four thousand Nigerian troops fought in the Special Force Brigades as Chindits during Operation Thursday. This book is an account of their operations behind Japanese lines between February and August 1944. The Brigade’s Insignia was the Black African Spider advancing on its prey. Thus, the Brigade called itself the ‘Spider Brigade’; its Battalions, namely the 6th, 7th and 12th Nigeria Regiments, ‘Spider Regiments’, and its troops ‘Spidermen’. The book is a well-written account of the Spider Brigade’s battles against the 18th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army. It should force Chindit Historians to confront the anomalies in Contemporary History’s treatment of Nigerian Chindits. The book is a scholarly and dispassionate excursion into the 14th Army’s Campaigns, putting under the microscope the preconceived assumptions of British and Indian Armies’ Officer Corps about the fighting quality of Nigerian Chindits. Thus, the book is an important and long overdue account of Operation Thursday that will become the standard work on Nigeria’s contributions to Allied Airborne Invasion of Burma.

Download or read book U.S.A. Airborne written by Bart Hagerman and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 1990 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: