The Burma Road : The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II

Rating:
Summary: Excellent...
Review: Donovan Webster has written a real page-turner. The Burma Road is as good as anything written by the late, great Stephen Ambrose. Webster tells the often-overlooked story of the China-Burma-India theater of World War II and the efforts of the Allies to keep the Burma Road open and to retake those areas captured by the Japanese. It sure helps that one of the main figures involved in the CBI was General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell. Stilwell is a fascinating character and deserving of much more widespread recognition than he ever achieved, although it is likely he would have despised any media attention. Webster's research is impeccable and his prose is crisp and intelligent. This is truly a top-notch book and will certainly please any history buff, especially those interested in WW II.

Rating:
Summary: Thorough account of oft neglected WWII theater
Review: Finally the definitive book on the China-Indian-Burma Theater. So much has been written about the European campaigns of World War II and the U.S.-Japanese island battles yet so little about such a huge and critical area of the Second World War. Donovan Webster has stepped forward with this indispensable addition to any collection of WWII history.
Hopefully this will blaze the trail for others to write more specific books. Therein is one of my two little quibbles with "Burma Road..." it covers so much the casual reader can get lost trying to absorb it all. Webster focuses heavily on the strategies and tactics of officers. I prefer to dwell in the trenches with GI Joe.
But Webster has provided the primer for future works and an excellent place to start for those of us new to this theater of war. He is obviously a superior researcher and manages to write about the details of military campaigns in an engaging style.

Rating:
Summary: A good read but lacking so much
Review: Having read the other reviews it seems rather churlish to pour a dose of cold water on them. But I feel I must take odds with some of the more gushing phrases ladled out, and whatever else it may be, it is most definitely NOT 'the definitive account from the American and British perspective' as claimed by David Roy above. Certainly Mr Webster's book is very readable and well written, but to say that it is the full story of China-Burma-India is another matter altogether. It completely ignores the dominant Anglo-Indian nature of the the Burma campaign of 1942-45 to concentrate on the 'Ledo' or 'Stilwell Road'. The Burma Road ran from Rangoon to Lashio and was used to send American lend-lease materials through British-run Burma to Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist regime in China in the period 1937-41. When the Japanese invaded Burma in 1942 they cut this important lifeline and General 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell, as commander of American forces in theatre and Chief of Staff to the Chinese Army, persuaded the American government - which was desperate to keep China in the war - to build a road from Ledo in Assam through to link up with the old Burma Road.

Mr Webster completely fails to explain the political background to this decision or the problems it caused. These were threefold. Firstly, British and American strategic objectives diverged entirely: while the Americans were desperate to aid China, the British were reluctant to support a land campaign through Burma since prime minster Winston Churchill's focus was on the seaborne recapture of Singapore, in an effort to restore British imperial prestige. Second, north-east India was hopelessly undeveloped and the logistical task of moving resources even as far as Ledo seemed insuperable to the British High Command in India, which had other priorities and other problems. Finally there was another American force already operating in the form of the airlift over 'the Hump', and subsequently Claire Chennault's Fourteenth Air Force in China itself. Chennault believed air power alone was necessary to support China and defeat the Japanese, and he and Stilwell remained at loggerheads over the relative merits of land and air supply to the end. More fundamental than any of these points, however, is the simple fact that Stilwell was a minor cog in a much, much bigger wheel. American forces in theatre never amounted to more than fifteen per cent and of these, combat forces were less than one per cent.

If this were indeed the story of the China-Burma-India Theater, and not merely the Stilwell Road, Mr Webster would not have reduced the 600,000 men of the Anglo-Indian Fourteenth Army to mere bit-part players in another example of 'how America won the war', while Wingate and the Chindits were nothing like as important strategically as XV Corps and its operations in opening up Arakan to provide air support to Fourteenth Army's reconquest. Nor would Mr Webster have consigned the role of the engineers, signallers, medics and transportation corps troops, which included a majority of African-Americans, to the background - it is their story more than anyone's; and while everyone has heard of Merrill's Marauders, how many people have heard of the 464th Anti-Aircraft Battalion who were, in fact, the first American combat troops to enter Burma? Yet their history is not even in the rather thin bibliography. Thus the dichotomy between the title and the book's contents is very disappointing. Nathan N. Prefer's 'Vinegar Joe's War' is more useful as history, even within the limited terms of the Stilwell Road.

As for the Stilwell Road itself, within months of its opening it was completely redundant as the original Burma Road was reopened in May 1945 following the Anglo-Indian recapture of Rangoon. The book is only a start point to the subject, certainly not the last word on it.

Rating:
Summary: Burma Road is worthy of a movie!
Review: Snakes made me read Burma Road. A herpetologist friend urged me to visit Burma but he died of a snakebite, in Burma, before I ever made the journey. Since then I have devoured anything Burma in anticipation of a future trip. Hideyuki Takano's "The Shore beyond Good and Evil, a report inside Burma's opium kingdom" and Alan Rabinowitzs' "Beyond the Last Village: a journey of discovery in Asia's forbidden wilderness" have proven to be insightful reads. I heard that Donovan Webster had hiked the entire Burma road twice and was writing a book about it; so I pre-ordered it sight unseen.

"Burma Road", as it turned out had nothing to do with Webster's ramblings but was a world war two documentary instead. I am NOT a war buff and nearly returned the book unread. Luckily I started thumbing the pages and became thoroughly engrossed not only with Webster's wonderful ability to turn a phrase but the incredible story that unfolded before me.

Inch by inch, foot by miserable foot, Allied forces eek a supply road eastward to free a starving China caught in a Japanese stranglehold. Fighting disease, snakes, snipers and the relentless jungle itself these heroic figures resolutely power onward. Meanwhile, equally valiant warriors wing over "the hump" to drop supplies over the Chinese border. During the course of the war over six hundred planes perished in the airlift.

"Burma Road" is a story of tremendous courage, indomitable spirit, and powerful men. At times it is uplifting and at others equally depressing. Humor and good spirits somehow rise to the surface. Webster has given a face to the faceless and a voice to those silenced on the Burma Road. Only someone who actually walked the Burma Road could write in such a convincing style. Tom Clancy buffs will be enthralled by this better than fiction tale.

It was such an entirely wonderful read that I just ordered Webster's first book, "Aftermath". "Burma Road" is a story worth being told and a book worthy of being a movie.

Rating:
Summary: servicable history which is fair to Wingate
Review: The book is a reasonable work, but it really brings little new
to a subject that has had a great deal written about it already.

Some will dislike the treatment of Wingate in the book, but
it is very fair and, in fact, dead on. Wingate is a complicated
person and in history, as in life, he tends to either attract
followers who are blind to his faults or those who go too far
in attacking him. He was a brave man and a natural leader,
but he was also a religious fanatic with very exccentric
personal habits who tended sometimes not to think what he was
doing through. This is a man who insulted everyone around
him, ran his command unclothed and attempted to commit
suicide by cutting his own throat shortly before being offered
a new chance in India. And as a military commander, he allowed
and encouraged flogging of his men contrary to army rules
during the first chindit expedition (see Trevor Royle).

The Wingate missions into Burma, in both cases, were special
operations not done in the context of a achiving a military
objective worth their cost in terms of lives or resources.
And while brave men can do great things in such a situation,
war is not a boys adventure. Real people pay the price for
reckless and ill-considered operations.

Wingate has also attracted a following among the far-right in
certain parts of the world. Particularly among political leaders
who favor military adventures and who long for fanatics to take
the place of cautious military officers who actually care about
the lives of soldiers.

In conclusion, the book is a workable if not terribly original
rehash of well-known events in the Burma campaign. For those
not familiar with the history of the period, its a reasonable
intruction to the subject.

Rating:
Summary: I've got my machete and my gun...
Review: When most people think of World War II, they think of the fight against Nazism in Europe. Even if they do consider the fight against Japan, most think of the US Marines jumping from one bloody island to another on their long march north. Largely forgotten by many, there was a war in Asia as well. Japan invaded China in 1937, starting 8 years of combat ranging from mountains of China to the jungles of Burma and other southeast Asian countries. It wasn't a pretty campaign, but it was very important.

Donovan Webster has written a definitive account of this war from an American and British perspective. The Burma Road covers the war from the American entrance into the war until its Japan's final collapse. A large part of the book is focused on General Joseph Stillwell, or "Vinegar Joe" as his men called him, but Webster does cover almost every aspect of it. While the war in China is neglected for a long period of time, The Burma Road effectively shows us the blood, sweat and disease that dominated this campaign. It's a fascinating book.

There is a bit of a framing story around the book, with Webster trying to walk the full length of the Burma Road, a road from Burma to China that was supposed to supply the Chinese and keep them in the war. A large portion of northeast India is still restricted, especially from journalists, and Webster is unsuccessful in the beginning of his journey. He then segues into the beginning of Stillwell's story, giving a brief summary of his career up until he gets assigned to the Southeast Asian sector of the war. Notoriously under-supplied and undermanned, Stillwell is forced to make do with what he can to keep the Japanese out of India at all costs. While Japan successfully invades Thailand and Burma and Stillwell is forced to slog through the jungles to escape, he manages to keep them from their ultimate goal. He is less successful with the Chinese, however, forever clashing with China's leader, Chiang Kai-shek. After three years of fighting both the Japanese and his own allies, Stillwell is finally relieved of command, despite his many successes.

While a large portion of the book is told through Stillwell's point of view, other areas are not neglected. We hear a lot about the British army, especially the Chindit special forces (one whole chapter on their beginning plus numerous chapters when they are fighting alongside Stillwell's men) as well as the beginning of the world-famous "Flying Tigers," a group of American pilots who had resigned their commissions so they could fight for China before the United States entered the war. Their leader, Claire Chennault, later became a real thorn in Stillwell's side, siding with Kai-Shek in all of the battles between the two leaders.

The book follows a semi-chronological format, taking us from the beginning of Stillwell's involvement in the Asian theater of operations to the end of the war, but it does jump around a bit when it moves on to another subject. It gets to a certain point in Stillwell's career and then backtracks to tell the beginning of Chindit operations, for example. It also pauses to give brief biographies of major characters, such as the British General Orde Wingate. This back and forth style does make it confusing at times, and there was one time reference that I swore didn't add up until I realized that Webster was talking about something else. However, it does make the book feel even more comprehensive, as it seems to cover every conceivable angle of the war.

The one aspect of this where The Burma Road fails, however, regards China. The constant lend-lease supply of goods to the Chinese is covered, the Chinese contribution to Stillwell's campaign is documented beautifully, and Chennault's Flying Tigers are represented. On the other hand, other than a brief chapter near the end of the book and a few mentions in between, none of the fighting in China is actually discussed. Webster spends a brief time discussing the decision to finally bring the Chinese Communists into the war, and makes a few small references to their savagery in fighting the Japanese. Given the depth of the rest of the book, however, it feels very small.

That being said, though, The Burma Road is a very valuable resource for anybody wanting a general history of the Asian campaign in World War II. It corrects some myths that have been fostered about the war. One chapter takes special aim at the book and movie The Bridge Over the River Kwai. It calls the book fictional with the movie being even worse. Webster gives the real details behind the building of that bridge, and the railway in general. He tells us how the Japanese mistreated not only the prisoners, but also their own men.

That's where The Burma Road excels: the details. Webster doesn't pull any punches, telling us of the disease, leeches, poisoned water, the condition of the corpses, and other hardships that the valiant men who fought in this theater went through. He even interviewed some of the Japanese soldiers who managed to survive the conflict, showcasing the ordeals they had to go through. They were chronically under-supplied and often subsisted on nothing but small quantities of rice and bad water. Webster gives us so much detail that you may not want to read this book over lunch.

I haven't read a better book on this subject, and I'm very glad I picked this up. I couldn't put it down. If you're a military history fan, I don't think you'll be able to either. It's a book that the men who fought and died in the jungles deserve to have written about them. It especially does old Vinegar Joe justice.

David Roy