The Burma Campaign

by Frank McLynn

  Chapter Fourteen

  pp. 328–363

  • 1. DIV, p. 254. For a full assessment of Merrill see M. Boatner, Biographical Dictionary of World War Two (Novato, CA, 1996), pp. 361–2. • 2. Charlton Ogburn, The Marauders (1960), pp. 72, 79. For the poor calibre of the Marauders see also MP, iv. pp. 516–17. • 3. For various views of the Marauders’ personalities, all tending in the same direction, see Ogburn, Marauders, op. cit., p. 61; F. Owen, The Campaign in Burma (1946), p. 84; J.B. George, Shots Fired in Anger (Washington, 1981), p. 460. For the Marauders’ view of their own excellence see Ogburn, Marauders, op. cit., p. 285. • 4. N.N. Prefer, Vinegar Joe’s War: Stilwell’s Campaign for Burma (Novato, CA, 2000), pp. 82–3. • 5. Ibid. • 6. J. Girsham & L.J. Thomas, Burma Jack (NY, 1971), pp. 145–6. • 7. Prefer, Vinegar Joe’s War, op. cit., pp. 100–1. • 8. A.D. Baker, Merrill’s Marauders (1972), pp. 74–89; Ogburn, Marauders, op. cit., p. 183. • 9. C.N. Hunter, Galahad (San Antonio, TX, 1963), p. 88. • 10. Prefer, Vinegar Joe’s War, op. cit., pp. 103–8; George, Shots Fired in Anger, op. cit., pp. 524–6. • 11. Prefer, Vinegar Joe’s War, op. cit., pp. 114–22; Baker, Merrill’s Marauders, op. cit., pp. 90–109; C.F. Romanus & R. Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems (Washington, 1956), p. 191 • 12. DIV, pp. 254–5. • 13. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., p. 200. • 14. DIV, p. 256. • 15. Pownall Diaries, pp. 152–3. • 16. F. Eldridge, Wrath in Burma (NY, 1946), p. 216; Time, 21 October 1946. • 17. DIV, pp. 256–7. • 18. Mountbatten Diary, p. 108. • 19. Eldridge, Wrath in Burma, op. cit., p. 229. Mountbatten himself claimed that he was embarrassed and annoyed that the fighters had accompanied him: Mountbatten Diary, p. 77. • 20. DIV, p. 252. Mountbatten was right to be suspicious of the Boatner mission. In February 1944 Boatner told FDR that the British were soft-pedalling on the Burma war and their contribution was negligible: MP, iv, p. 300. This was of course before Kohima-Imphal. • 21. C.F. Romanus & R. Sunderland, Stilwell’s Mission to China (Washington DC, 1953), p. 170. Wedemeyer had full scope for his intrigues, since he went to England to discuss CULVERIN (February 1944), met Eisenhower, Churchill and King George VI, then went on to Washington to brief Roosevelt: Wedemeyer Reports! (NY, 1958), pp. 258–64. • 22. Ralph Arnold, A Very Quiet War (1962), p. 153. • 23. Quoted in Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten (1985), p. 247. • 24. Barbara Tuchman, Sand against the Wind (1971), p. 436. • 25. SP, p. 263; Mountbatten Diary, p. 77. • 26. J.E.T. Hopkins & J.M. Jones, Spearhead: A Complete History of Merrill’s Marauders Rangers (Baltimore, 1999), pp. 113–15, 135–7; L.E. Weston, The Fightin’ Preacher (Cheyenne, 1992), pp. 124–5. • 27. Carton de Wiart, Happy Odyssey (1950), p. 251. • 28. Mountbatten Diary, p. 77. • 29. Ibid., p. 78. • 30. Ibid., p. 79. • 31. Ibid., p. 80. • 32. Ibid. • 33. Eldridge, Wrath in Burma, op. cit., p. 202. • 34. Ziegler, Mountbatten, op. cit., p. 271. • 35. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Mission, op. cit., p. 176. • 36. DIV, p. 271. • 37. SP, p. 266; Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit., p. 441. • 38. SP, pp. 263, 267. • 39. DIV, pp. 271–2. • 40. Ibid., pp. 272–3. • 41. SP, pp. 267–8. Even Derek Tulloch, no great admirer of Slim, says the decision to turn down Stilwell’s offer was ‘one of the most important and far-reaching decisions made by the Army commander during the whole campaign’. Tulloch, Wingate in Peace and War (1972), pp. 242–3. • 42. Pownall Diaries, p. 128. • 43. Ziegler, Mountbatten, op. cit., pp. 278–9. • 44. John Connell, Auchinleck (1959), p. 760. • 45. Arnold, Very Quiet War, op. cit., p. 130. • 46. Alanbrooke Diaries, pp. 715–16. Biting criticisms of Mountbatten are a staple of these diaries. See also pp. 551, 553. • 47. Noel Coward, Future Indefinite (1954), p. 304. • 48. Pendell Moon, ed., The Viceroy’s Journal (1973), p. 304. • 49. SP, p. 270. • 50. Ibid., p. 264. • 51. Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit., p. 435. • 52. SP, p. 272. • 53. Ibid., p. 278. • 54. DIV, pp. 269–70. • 55. Shelford Bidwell, The Chindit War (1979), p. 161; Rhodes-James, Chindit, p. 87; Fergusson, The Trumpet in the Hall, p. 179 • 56. Bidwell, Chindit War, op. cit., pp. 160, 207; Tulloch, Wingate in Peace and War, op. cit., p. 236. Slim is also said to have confided that he had no choice, as Lentaigne was the only Chindit leader who wasn’t mad: Royle, Wingate, op. cit., p. 316. For Lentaigne’s conception of LRP and the Chindits see CAB 106/171. • 57. DIV, p. 269. • 58. Louis Allen, Burma. The Longest War 1941–45 (1984), p. 351. • 59. David Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits (1994), p. 170. • 60. Robert Thompson, Make for the Hills (1989), p. 54. For the most extraordinary no-holds-barred attack on Lentaigne see Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits, op. cit., pp. 131–5. • 61. Tulloch, Wingate in Peace and War, op. cit., p. 239. • 62. S.W. Kirby, ed., The War Against Japan (1961), iii, p. 247; WO 203/5221; CAB 106/203. • 63. Bidwell, Chindit War, op. cit., p. 169. • 64. Mike Calvert, The Chindits (1973), pp. 82–3. • 65. Christopher Sykes, Orde Wingate (1959), p. 536. • 66. Mike Calvert, Fighting Mad (Shrewsbury, 1996), p. 21; Calvert, Chindits, op. cit., p. 99. • 67. Calvert, Fighting Mad, op. cit., pp. 186–7; Calvert, Chindits, op. cit., p. 105. • 68. Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits, op. cit., p. 136. • 69. John Masters, The Road Past Mandalay (1961), p. 219; R. Rhodes-James, Chindits (1980), p. 109. • 70. Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits, op. cit., p. 139. • 71. Rhodes-James, Chindits, op. cit., p. 125. • 72. Masters, Road Past Mandalay, op. cit., p. 259; Bidwell, Chindit War, op. cit., p. 233; Rhodes-James, Chindits, op. cit., pp. 141–5. • 73. Masters, Road Past Mandalay, op. cit., p. 267. • 74. Rhodes-James, Chindits, op. cit., p. 125. • 75. Bidwell, Chindit War, op. cit., p. 208. • 76. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., p. 200. • 77. Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit., pp. 446–7; E.J. King & W.M. Whitehall, Fleet Admiral King (NY, 1952), p. 541. • 78. Larrabee, Commander-in-Chief, op. cit., pp. 342–48. • 79. Ogburn, Marauders, op. cit., pp. 5, 26. • 80. Ibid., p. 207. • 81. Douglas Ford, ‘Strategic Culture, Intelligence Assessment and the Conduct of the Pacific War: the British–Indian and Imperial Japanese Armies in Comparison, 1941–1945’, War in History 14 (2007), pp. 63–95. • 82. Ian Fellowes Gordon, The Battle for Naw Seung’s Kingdom: General Stilwell’s North Burma Campaign and its Aftermath (1971), p. 120; SP, p. 275. • 83. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., p. 230. • 84. Ibid., p. 228–33. • 85. Ibid., p. 233. • 86. Ibid., p. 240. • 87. Ibid., p. 237. • 88. W.S. Churchill, The Second World War (1950), v, p. 569. • 89. Ziegler, Mountbatten, op. cit., p. 275. • 90. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., pp. 228–30. • 91. Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit., p. 431. • 92. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Mission, op. cit., p. 308. • 93. Ibid., p. 310; Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., pp. 310–14, 329, 340–1; see also MP, iv, pp. 417–18. • 94. The offensive by Y-force is covered in detail by Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., pp. 329–60. • 95. F.F. Lin, A Military History of Modern China 1924–1949 (Princeton, 1956), p. 216. • 96. C.T. Liang, General Stilwell in China (NY, 1972), p. 176. • 97. Allen, Burma, op. cit., p. 364. • 98. W.F. Jeffrey, Sunbeams like Swords (1951), pp. 142–5; Bidwell, Chindit War, op. cit., p. 269. • 99. Mike Calvert, Prisoners of Hope (1971), p. 211. • 100. J. Shaw, The March Out (1953), p. 150; B. Towill, A Chindit’s Chronicle (Lincoln, NE, 2000), p. 72; Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits, op. cit., pp. 173–74. • 101. Calvert, Prisoners of Hope, op. cit., pp. 218–23; Calvert, Fighting Mad, op. cit., pp. 197–8; Jeffrey, Sunbeams, op. cit., p. 160. • 102. Bidwell, Chindit War, op. cit., pp. 272–3. • 103. Calvert, Prisoners of Hope, op. cit., pp. 224–36. • 104. Bidwell, Chindit War, op. cit., pp. 273–4. • 105. Calvert, Fighting Mad, op. cit., p. 176. • 106. Allen, Burma, op. cit., p. 374; Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits, op. cit., p. 193. • 107. SP, p. 283. • 108. Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits, op. cit., p. 196. • 109. MP, iv, pp. 436–7; Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., pp. 196–9, 220–1; Tulloch, Wingate in Peace and War, op. cit., p. 250. • 110. Peter O’Brien, Out of the Blue (1
984), pp. 35, 139. • 111. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., pp. 243–4. • 112. Peter Lane, Chinese Chindits, pp. 37–9; Ogburn, Marauders, op. cit., p. 289; Masters, Road Past Mandalay, op. cit., pp. 286–9; Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits, op. cit., p. 150. • 113. O’Brien, Out of the Blue, op. cit., p. 256. • 114. Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit., pp. 449–52. • 115. J.P. Davies, Dragon by the Tail (NY, 1972), pp. 242, 293. • 116. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., p. 242. • 117. Ogburn, Marauders, op. cit., p. 289. They and the Japanese also liked to hurl insults at each other on the front line. Many of these jibes, some infantile, others obscene or scatological, are collected in WO 203/468. • 118. O’Brien, Out of the Blue, op. cit., p. 31; Ogburn, Marauders, op. cit., p. 279. • 119. SP, p. 279. • 120. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., p. 244. • 121. Allen, Burma, op. cit., pp. 381–5. • 122. Ogburn, Marauders, op. cit., p. 277. • 123. Calvert, Prisoners of Hope, op. cit., pp. 249–51. • 124. Ibid., p. 252. • 125. SP, p. 283. • 126. Mountbatten Diary, p. 114. • 127. Ibid., p. 115. • 128. DIV, p. 279. • 129. Ibid. • 130. Ibid. • 131. Allen, Burma, op. cit., pp. 376–7. • 132. J.A.L. Hamilton, War Bush (Norwich, 2001), pp. 301–5. • 133. Romanus & Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems, op. cit., pp. 243–4. • 134. Pownall Diaries, pp. 182–3. • 135. Masters, Road Past Mandalay, op. cit., pp. 278–82. • 136. Bidwell, Chindit War, op. cit., p. 279. • 137. Calvert, Fighting Mad, op. cit., p. 183; M. Hickey, The Unforgettable Army (Tunbridge Wells, 1992), pp. 138–9; WO 203/4610. • 138. Tulloch, Wingate in Peace and War, op. cit., pp. 101–2; Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits, op. cit., p. 212. • 139. Pownall Diaries, p. 32; O’Brien, Out of the Blue, op. cit., p. 217; Lane, Chinese Chindits, op. cit., p. 39; Rooney, Wingate and the Chindits, op. cit., p. 155. • 140. SP, p. 283; Ziegler, Mountbatten, op. cit., p. 274. • 141. Arthur Bryant, Triumph in the West (1959), p. 162; Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit., p. 467. • 142. Alanbrooke Diaries, p. 559. • 143. P. Humphreys, To Stop a Rising Sun (Stroud, 1996), pp. 74–6. Doris and Ethel Waters were the sisters of the actor Jack Warner, famous on British television in the 1950s and 1960s as PC Dixon of Dock Green. • 144. Mountbatten Diary, p. 110. • 145. Ibid., p. 112. • 146. Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit., p. 452. • 147. Sheridan Morley, A Talent to Amuse (1969), p. 250; R. Arnold, A Very Quiet War (1962), pp. 122–3; Coward, Future Indefinite, op. cit., p. 304. • 148. Philip Hoare, Noel Coward (1995), pp. 350–1. • 149. Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit., p. 452.

  Chapter Fifteen

  pp. 364–385

  • 1. DIV, p. 221; Ronald Lewin, Ultra Goes to War (1980), p. 139. • 2. G. Evans & A. Brett-James, Imphal (1962), pp. 76–83. • 3. WO 203/56. • 4. DIV, p. 345; Mountbatten Diary, pp. 119, 128. • 5. DIV, p. 349. • 6. Ronald Lewin, Slim. The Standard Bearer (1976), p. 199; DIV, p. 351. • 7. DIV, p. 351. • 8. Lewin, Slim, op. cit., p. 191. • 9. S.W. Kirby, ed., The War Against Japan (1961), iv, pp. 14–16. • 10. Ibid., v, p. 419. • 11. Lewin, Slim, op. cit., p. 192. • 12. Bernard Fergusson, The Trumpet in the Hall (1970), p. 190; DIV, pp. 373–5. • 13. Pownall Diaries, pp. 176–7. • 14. John Connell, Auchinleck (1959), p. 775; Mountbatten Diary, p. 121. • 15. Alanbrooke Diaries, p. 578. • 16. Ibid. • 17. Anthony Eden, The Reckoning (1965), p. 267. • 18. Alanbrooke Diaries, p. 579. • 19. Ibid., p. 580. • 20. Ibid., p. 581. • 21. Ibid., p. 582. • 22. Pownall Diaries, p. 187. • 23. Alanbrooke Diaries, p. 599; Arthur Bryant, Triumph in the West (1959), p. 300. • 24. Barbara Tuchman, Sand against the Wind (1971), p. 473. It is disappointing that so distinguished a historian as Barbara Tuchman should be guilty of this howler. Alaric, who sacked Rome in 410, was a Goth. The better known Attila the Hun marched on Rome in 452 but turned back before reaching the Eternal City. • 25. SP, p. 289. • 26. Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit., p. 473. • 27. Ibid., pp. 473–4; SP, p. 287. • 28. Tuchman, Sand against the Wind, op. cit. • 29. SP, p. 289. • 30. Ibid., pp. 289–90. • 31. Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten (1985), p. 281. • 32. Mountbatten Diary, pp. 130, 132–3. • 33. Ziegler, Mountbatten, op. cit., pp. 282–3. • 34. Alanbrooke Diary, p. 601. • 35. Mountbatten Diary, p. 141. • 36. Ziegler, Mountbatten, op. cit., pp. 283–4. • 37. Mountbatten Diary, p. 142. • 38. G. Hanley, Monsoon Victory (1958), pp. 20–7. • 39. A. Brett-James, Ball of Fire (Aldershot, 1951), pp. 365–6; Brett-James, Report My Signals (1948), p. 197. • 40. Robert Lyman, Slim, Master of War (2004), p. 238. • 41. Evans & Brett-James, Imphal, op. cit., pp. 76–83; Jon Latimer, Burma. The Forgotten War (2004), pp. 349–50. • 42. J. Nunnelly, Tales from the King’s African Rifles. A Last Flourish of Empire (NY; 1988), pp. 140–89; H. Moyse-Bartlett, King’s African Rifles. A Study of the Military History of East and Central Africa 1890–1945 (Aldershot, 1956), pp. 617–34. • 43. Kirby (ed.), War against Japan, op. cit., iv, pp. 143–5. • 44. DIV, p. 377. • 45. Ibid., p. 361. • 46. Ibid., p. 364. • 47. R. Callahan, Burma 1942–1945. The Politics and Strategy of the Second World War (1978), p. 141. • 48. Lewin, Slim, op. cit., p. 191. • 49. Ibid., pp. 199–200. • 50. Ibid., p. 198. • 51. B. Prasad, ed., The Arakan Operations 1942–45 (Delhi, 1954), pp. 213–14. • 52. Brett-James, Report My Signals, op. cit., pp. 29–30; G. Evans, Slim as Military Commander (1969), p. 215. • 53. Lewin, Slim, op. cit., pp. 206–7. • 54. Ibid., p. 200. • 55. DIV, p. 376. • 56. Louis Allen, Burma. The Longest War 1941–45 (1984); p. 387. • 57. Ibid., pp. 390–1. • 58. M. Parillo, The Japanese Merchant Marine in World War Two (Annapolis, 1993), pp. 137–43. • 59. D. McIsaac, ed., The United States Bombing Survey (NY, 1976), ix, p. 104. • 60. DIV, p. 383. • 61. Allen, Burma, op. cit., p. 393; H. Probert, The Forgotten Air Force (1995), pp. 232–5. • 62. Probert, Forgotten Air Force, op. cit., pp. 203–9. • 63. See Latimer, Burma, op. cit., pp. 347–8, 522, for massive detail on the war in the air. • 64. Lyman, Slim, op. cit., p. 239. • 65. DIV, pp. 390–2. • 66. Allen, Burma, op. cit., pp. 392–4. • 67. The Americans had always been sceptical. Wags dubbed SEAC ‘Saving England’s Asian Colonies’ or ‘Supreme Example of Allied Confusion’: E.P. MacIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies. The Women of the OSS (Annapolis, 1998), p. 191. • 68. Lewin, Slim, op. cit., p. 203. • 69. Pownall Diaries, pp. 166–7. • 70. Alanbrooke Diary, p. 616. • 71. For a full biography see R. Ryder, Oliver Leese (1987). • 72. Alanbrooke Diaries, p. 727. To blame Mountbatten is one thing; to cut Slim out of the loop and not give him any credit shows how badly informed the CIGS often was. • 73. P. Warner, Auchinleck. The Lonely Soldier (1981), pp. 263–4. • 74. Probert, Forgotten Air Force, op. cit., pp. 223–5. • 75. Mountbatten Diary, p. 151; Richard Humble, Fraser of the North Cape (1983), p. 245. • 76. Ziegler, Mountbatten, op. cit., p. 285. • 77. Mountbatten Diary, p. 167. • 78. Alanbrooke Diaries, pp. 627, 633. For a sketch of Browning see M. Boatner, Biographical Dictionary of World War Two (Novato, CA, 1996), p. 66. Browning was married to the novelist Daphne du Maurier, who famously made a public protest at the portrayal of her late husband by Dirk Bogarde in the 1977 Richard Attenborough film A Bridge Too Far. • 79. Ziegler, Mountbatten, op. cit., pp. 286–7. • 80. Alanbrooke Diaries, pp. 582, 671. • 81. Ryder, Oliver Leese, op. cit., pp. 200–1. • 82. Ibid., p. 203. • 83. DIV, p. 385. • 84. Lyman, Slim, op. cit., pp. 236–7. • 85. Ibid., p. 237. • 86. Mountbatten Diary, p. 145. • 87. Kirby, ed., War against Japan, op. cit., iv, p. 161; Mountbatten Diary, pp. 148–9, 156–7. For Slim looking under par see Lewin, Slim, op. cit., p. 208. For those interested in such things, Slim was awarded the KCB and the others the KBE. • 88. Latimer, Burma, op. cit., pp. 357–8. • 89. J.H. Williams, Elephant Bill (1950), p. 130.